Sometimes the simple response is n’t the right one , but it for sure is quicker than having to think ! Why would Apple announce Mountain Lion now ? Must be fuss ! Does boycott Apple over Chinese working conditions make sensory faculty ? No , but at least we ’d sense like we ’re doing something ! And Amazon released a $ 199 tab ? Well , then , Apple should , too !
A sure sign of weakness
Some are apparently see Apple ’s surprise announcement of Mountain Lion last week as if it were that needle of Apple weakness they always knew was there , but just could n’t find in the rick of cash .
Some guy at some site with a truly fearsome picture wonders“Is Microsoft piss Google and Apple Nervous with Windows 8 ? ”
A .Net developer that BetaNews determine was the perfect person to become to in this situation says“Steve Jobs is gone , Windows 8 is come and Apple panics . ”Seriously , you could almost replace BetaNews with a television of clown honk saddle horn and spraying each other in the face with sparkling water bottles and no one would hump the difference . ( scan this week ’s Saturday Special below to see why the Macalope is forced to say “ almost . ” )
Into this august society fly Robert X. Cringely who thinks“OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is damage control . ”
Which leads the Macalope to enquire : What , on the dot , is this “ damage ” of which Cringely speak ? It must be lie down under all that tremendous profit portion and those phenomenal quarterly result .
Cringely and some others funnily seem to believe that the announcement of Moutain Lion now means it ’s going to be the foundation for the mythical Apple telly everyone seems to have decide is already name iTV .
It ’s my belief OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion does n’t stand for an Apple triumph but is more damage control and train us for iTV .
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Certainly Apple will be rolling into Mountain Lion all the coolheaded touchscreen , digital medium management , and dispersion features along with hardware musical accompaniment for iTV and other new ironware platforms . This virtually guarantees , I guess , that the tv set is on its way for Christmas 2012 .
Is it just the Macalope or is technology reporting really unearthly ? None of these masses should ever be allowed to disparage astrologist .
Read more …
The Macalope suppose it ’s possible Apple would use Mountain Lion in a television , but after it went to the trouble to switch the Apple TV ’s operating system of rules from OS X to iOS , he does n’t see why a television set would require OS X.
Cringely survive on to disparage Lion which he says “ still feel like beta software , ” a charge he levies without supporting grounds .
Further , I ’ve heard that customers have complain about iOS feature they do n’t see in Lion and like were there .
What , Siri ? Slide to unlock ? A headphone ? mass want all variety of things — it does n’t mean that they ’re sane .
While these pundits seem to see the Mountain Lion announcement as far-right , the Macalope thinks it and the move to a yearly update agenda is just good business enterprise . Ever since shipping Windows XP , Microsoft seems to keep find itself playing catch - up . Apple ’s force Redmond on price and now on timing . Get a Mac and you ’ll get your new O sack faster and garish .
That certain people still view things from a lens of “ Microsoft always having the upper paw ” belike should n’t be surprising . It does make you enquire what battle they ’re watching , though .
Easy answers
Boy , it for certain would be nice if we had a silver heater that would magically improve working conditions at Formosan factories .
Well , undecomposed news , everybody ! InfoWorld ’s Bill Snyder ’s got one !
Boycott Apple until it fixes its China labour problem
In the space of a few months , Apple has gone from being the recipient role of cloying , over - the - top adulation when co - founder Steve Jobs died to being the victim of raging attacks for its trade union movement practices in China .
OK , we ’re one sentence in and you ’re already faulty . Apple ’s been criticized for month , if not years , about cultivate condition at its Chinese suppliers , and Apple did n’t receive the supposedly “ cloying ” adulation , Steve Jobs did .
I ’m neither a fanboy …
BZZZT .
… nor an Apple basher …
Oh ? Really . You just writenegative reviews of products Apple has n’t even foretell yet . That ’s a rather interesting and self - serving distinction you ’re drawing there , Bill .
The China issue rise again on Tuesday when ABC ’s “ Nightline ” air a 17 - minute segment based on a visit to the Foxconn manufacturing plant in Shenzen , China , where many Apple products are made and where workers have been known to spring off the roof in desperation . ( For the track record , the Foxconn factories in China are owned by Taiwan ’s Hon Hai . Taiwan does n’t tolerate such work conditions in its own factories . )
For the phonograph recording , the suicide rate at Foxconn is down than the home average in China .
For model , the Times wrote about an explosion at another Foxconn plant in Chengdu , China , do when a cloud of Al dust ignited , drink down four worker . You simply ca n’t see life-threatening conditions like that during an escorted turn .
Right . Because they schedule all the accidental aluminum dust fires for when they ’re not lead tours .
We already knew that conditions at the Foxconn manufacturing plant in Shenzen , China , are dehumanizing , to say the least .
tidings flash to Bill Snyder : Conditions inChinaare dehumanizing , to say the least .
We also knew that for many Chinese doer , the manufactory — as rugged as it is — offers a big step up from grinding rural poverty ; in fact , Foxconn pays its workers 20 percent more than the national average in China . But that ’s a low bar .
This is the madden part of this unbelievably unwitting dialog . Whatisthe bar here ? First it ’s crop experimental condition and now it ’s also earnings ? Is Apple supposed to require western standards for Chinese workers across the board ?
What also gives me break is the fact that the FLA calls the Foxconn works that Apple uses “ first class . ” If so , I shiver to think what a second - class plant in China — the kind of facility where much of our consumer electronics are made — is like .
But instead of finding out which companies are sourcing thing from second - class flora and preach a boycott oftheirproducts , Snyder find it soft to hit the extensive side of the barn that has a unspoiled paint job .
The issue stay : Is Apple any sorry than its challenger , such as Dell and Hewlett - Packard , that also use Foxconn as its contract manufacturing business ? I doubt it .
Actually , there ’s a caboodle of evidence that Apple isbetterthan its challenger . Some of which Snyder himself note ! Yet , we ’re still supposed to boycott Apple because it ’s purportedly the only thespian that can do anything about Formosan labour circumstance .
Could a boycott work ? It could . American consumer helped put an end to Nike ’s consumption of youngster labor in Southeast Asia .
And put an end to child labour in Southeast Asiaforever .
What ? Oh , it did n’t ?
Well , whatever , let ’s just go on treating symptoms like the short - attention - couple sufferers we ’re always accused of being aspect A SQUIRREL !
Until Apple win over me it is doing everything it can to markedly ameliorate those condition , I wo n’t buy either [ a new iPhone or a new iPad ] , at any price . How about you ?
So , is Snyder going to buy a competitor ’s intersection instead ? One sold by a company with a bad platter on squeeze its Formosan suppliers ? Does that make any sense ? If he ’s just pop off to take up Luddism , though , more power to him . Or , well , less , as the case may be .
Apple is already doing more than other company , and has promised to do even more . What is it , exactly , that Snyder want ? He does n’t really say . More than more . From this one caller and no one else . This plainly is n’t a serious proposition , it ’s just throwing spitball .
Not that it ’s any different than his iPad reappraisal .
Saturday Special: Strange bedfellows
How big have thing develop when the Macalope is forced to harmonize with Joe Wilcox ? Pretty sorry .
Yet such is the state of affairs at eWeek , which continues to foist these mindless “ top - ten ” tilt on us , attempting to pass them off as depth psychology while seemingly blind to our continued mockery . But , God as his witness , the Macalope will one daytime shame these lists from his sight !
Hey , he was implemental in gettingKatherine Noyesto block talking about Apple , was n’t he ? We ’re making progress , people !
Now , in addition to his brainpower - sucking top - ten list — likethis week ’s , which says Apple should ship a $ 199 iPad — we can add “ pressure the Macalope to agree with Joe Wilcox ” to Don Reisinger ’s list of crimes . This may be the bass cut yet .
Take it out , Joe .
I do n’t often go for another newsman ’s jugular , but Reisinger is the Rex of top-10 lists and this is among his regretful .
It ’s admittedly hard to tell , give the trunk of his “ study . ”
Top-10s are the horizon of pagevew whores . … I ’m not a traffic slut ; I just have a bad reputation .
You got that right .
Wilcox does n’t necessarily deconstruct Reisinger the way the Macalope would have , but he does it capably enough . Not that it ’s really that heavily . The salient full stop Wilcox hits is one that does n’t seem to move into Reisinger ’s header no matter how many times we wad it up and throw it at him .
Apple ’s business model is very muchnot what everyone else is doing .
Well say , Joe .
Blech .
You know , even though the Macalope ’s an hoofed mammal it does n’t mean that helikesthrowing up into his mouth .
