OPINION
28
Steve Jobs Is a Controlling Jerk
Mahalo's founder explains how he fell out of love with Apple
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Aug 10, 09 2:06 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Jason Calacanis, a man who owns $20,000 worth of Apple products, has had it with Apple. In a lengthy blog post, the Mahalo founder says Apple’s become an anti-competitive bully. Steve Jobs, once “our LSD-taking, radical free-thinking and fight the power hero,” has become “the oppressive man on the jumbotron” from Apple’s 1984 ad. He’s devolving into “a sad old hypocrite and control freak—a sellout of epic proportions.”
Apple’s crimes, as Calacanis sees them, include:
- Making the iPod the only MP3 player compatible with iTunes. We’d never let Microsoft get away with this, but “Steve Jobs gets a pass because we are all enabling him to be a jerk.”
- Making the iPhone an AT&T exclusive. Didn’t we kill Ma Bell once?
- Playing the "thought police" by deciding which apps are available on the iPhone.
- Banning other browsers on the iPhone.
- Blocking Google Voice on the iPhone. "Stop being jerks and let the free market decide how to use the data services they’ve BOUGHT AND PAID FOR."