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Apple: Big Brother?

N

Newman1

Lurker
I'm sure my viewpoints biased being an Android user and all, but I feel like Apple has gotten themselves into an ironic situation. Remember their most popular ad which parodied "1984", where an Apple user was throwing a sledgehammer through the "Big Brother" that the drone users of IBM followed? I feel like Apple has gotten to this point now. Think of the countless iWhatever users that swear by any product Apple related. Now think of the way Apple products are utilized. It's Apple software in an Apple phone, Apple software in an Apple computer, etc. Compare this to Windows or Android in which you might have a Dell or HP, or HTC or Samsung, etc. Granted this is part of what makes Apple products good and efficient. However, it seems that in this way they control their users, in a sense, becoming "Big Brother" themselves.

Does anybody follow me on this? Or am I completely crazy? I'm interested to hear what you all think.
 
I think the cult of apple is just geeky fanboys drinking too much kool-aid. Ir's annoying.

But I don't see how that makes Apple big brother. It's not like they are spying on you and recording all of your data. Your phone company already does that.
 
The way I understand Big Brother is that it's more than just spying on people and knowing what they're doing at all times. I'm sure Apple collects plenty of users data on its own as well (Something about location data at one time, if I remember correctly). However, what I see in addition to that, in the broader generalization of what Big Brother may mean, is a group of people that mindlessly follow what they are being told to follow. I know there are people that are the annoying geeky fanboys, but I personally know plenty of people that would not fall into that category, yet swear by Apple as being the greatest thing to grace the earth.
 
Newman1 said:
... is a group of people that mindlessly follow what they are being told to follow...
Click to expand...

True, That describes a lot of groups though... most fashion victims...

but seriously, I think that Apple definitely has those aspirations, thank god we still have choices. What bothers me more is that these people think that they are "thinking different". I think that's far more insidious.
 
It is a mindset. When I took Graphic Arts, all the rest of the students had bought in. Epson printers were also de rigueur. They were shocked at the results I got by using a PC, cross-platformed, and a Canon printer in Photoshop, Pagemaker, and Freehand.
They never saw that it was the software, and not the OS.
I can imagine how someone using Linux and Gimp getting the same results would blow the mindsets totally.
 
This thread is very much correct actually.

It is something I am amazed Apple pulls off even today.

Even I remember just a few years ago the "think different" slogan. Which is hilarious because, now they are mainstream and foaming at the mouth at any "upstarts" who "dare to be different" and sue the crap out of them.

Apple is the literal embodiment of the thing they use to advertise and take the moral high ground against.

Hipsters use to taut how they were "pulling for the little guy" and now that M$ is the "littler guy" apparently being the "little guy" isn't cool anymore.
 
I think it would be interesting to see Google air a similar commercial today. I think it could be really powerful. Everybody sitting in chairs on their iPhones and iMacs watching an AppleTV, Andy walks in and throws a sledgehammer at the TV with the message Free Yourself...or something like that.

And the whole suing thing is way out of hand. Imagine if Henry Ford patented the assembly line and didn't let anybody else use it. Where would we be today?
 
OP: I can follow you on that point. But I don't feel that Apple is totally 'big brother', yet. The excessive amount of control they hold over their products is sickening, but not completely totalitarian. You can still connect an Android device to an iMac or whatever they have now and the Mac won't try to eat your phone, yet.
 
Oh there is no doubt that there are many die hard Apple cultists and fanbois around, but on the other hand I'm sure there are many more ordinary people who buy Apple products and think nothing of it.

I bought a MacBook Pro four years ago because I didn't really want to be dealing with Windows Vista on a new computer. I bought another computer earlier this which is Windows 7. However I still use the MBP as well.
 
Newman1 said:
I think it would be interesting to see Google air a similar commercial today. I think it could be really powerful. Everybody sitting in chairs on their iPhones and iMacs watching an AppleTV, Andy walks in and throws a sledgehammer at the TV with the message Free Yourself...or something like that.

And the whole suing thing is way out of hand. Imagine if Henry Ford patented the assembly line and didn't let anybody else use it. Where would we be today?
Click to expand...

Wasn't there a commercial for a tablet or something that did parody the 1984 commercial? I thought it was for the Xoom, but I can't recall clearly.
 
Newman1 said:
I think it would be interesting to see Google air a similar commercial today. I think it could be really powerful. Everybody sitting in chairs on their iPhones and iMacs watching an AppleTV, Andy walks in and throws a sledgehammer at the TV with the message Free Yourself...or something like that.

And the whole suing thing is way out of hand. Imagine if Henry Ford patented the assembly line and didn't let anybody else use it. Where would we be today?
Click to expand...

with more people employed doing manual labor for minimum wage, and a much lower quality of life?

Either way, I'd rather not see a parody.. I would worry it is too much like foreshadowing.

Either way, apple now defines what they once stood against..
 
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