Paranoid Apple, Flash wars and 'freedom from porn'

A lot has been said about Apple and its secret carry-ons. Apple is known for it's in-out bag-scanning and inventory checks at some plants - and that's just at affiliates like the branch of TBWA/Whybin, Apple's advertising agency, closest to the Apple HQ in Cupertino.

Despite all the paranoia and security, designed to protect Apple's intellectual property and to let it stage-manage product releases, information does get out.

The recent case of the iPhone 4 prototype highlights the lengths Apple will go to. Mostly to little avail in this instance - a poor unfortunate left an iPhone prototype in a bar, it was discovered by one Brian Hogan, who realised the import of what he had found.

Hogan then opportunistically began offering it to news outlets in exchange for money, despite having identified the rightful owner from a Facebook page visible on the iPhone's display when he found it.

"Sucks for him," Hogan allegedly told his roommate. "He lost his phone. Shouldn't have lost his phone."

She, however, had a few more scruples. Katherine Martinson called Rick Orloff, director of information security at Apple, and told him Hogan had found the phone and had been offering it to news outlets in exchange for a payment.

Scruples? Perhaps not - perhaps it was self interest. Hogan had plugged the phone into her laptop in an attempt to get it working again after Apple remotely disabled it. Martinson was worried Apple would be able to trace her internet IP address as a result.

"Therefore she contacted Apple in order to absolve herself of criminal responsibility," according to the detective who wrote the affidavit. Either way, it was a sensible move for her.

This led to a detailed search that included finding the serial number sticker from the iPhone prototype in a petrol station's parking lot - the full details of all this have been posted by Wired.

This all came out after a San Mateo judge unsealed documents that provide a detailed glimpse into an April 20 meeting between Apple lawyers and executives, and law enforcement.

In this meeting, Apple attorney George Riley told detectives that the publication of evidence of the device by Gizmodo - part of Gawker Media - was immensely damaging.

But even Steve Jobs weighed in. The Apple CEO personally contacted Gizmodo editor Brian Lam to request the prototype's return the day the story was published on April 19, but Lam refused to do so, unless the company provided "confirmation that it is real, from Apple, officially," according to an email message also made public.

Now that Steve Jobs is apparently healthy again (he certainly looks better) he has been sending more and more email messages out. These used to be famously terse, but recent events - which have included a second series of revelations from another potential (and more advanced) iPhone prototype showing up in Vietnam, of all places - seem to have spurred him to a lot more finger-tapping.

A blogger working for Gawker Media, Ryan Tate, blatted off an angry email to Jobs about the iPad not representing 'freedom' after viewing an iPad ad on TV (this may have been the What is iPad? ad.


Jobs sent back an uncharacteristically wordy response telling Tate iPad represented "freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times they are a changin', and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is."

This statement speaks volumes about Jobs' and Apple's ethos: it points the finger at PC viruses and malware, and at Google in the first sentence, then at Adobe and Flash in the second.

The third statement about porn reflects back on criticism that Apple has 'unfairly' stopped risqué iPhone/iPad apps from being approved for sale through the App Store.

Then he quotes Bob Dylan and, to me, the last statement indicates the feeling that many PC users are used to getting everything for nothing using bit torrent, hacks and cracks and resent Apple's stand against it.

But more remarkably, when Tate fired back defending Flash and access to porn, Jobs responded again, telling him that Wired is building a Cocoa (Apple's development platform) app for iPad.

And so the exchange carried on. It really is quite remarkable - especially considering that when even a Jobs three-word email to a member of the public gets widely reported, Jobs must have known this one would get out, too.

Apple's new iAd platform promises to add another closed profit-circuit to the modern computing milieu. Is this good? It's another closed ecosystem, so it's only good if you're part of it.

But for consumers, it will regulate ad delivery, which may be a good thing. Apple managed to get money going back to recording artists with the iTunes Store; most of the criticism came from those who were used to getting music 100 per cent free, denying musicians the profits of their work. I was a musician once and I can only applaud this. Apple's percentages to artists are generous compared to many other models, just as they are with the App Store.

Anthony Doesburg, here on the Herald, has also reported on the above debates.

In my opinion, Apple has every right to protect its property. Unscrupulous people will try to steal everything, and to profit from Apple's work. They always have. I have often witnessed criticism at Apple inventions, but before this even dies away, it's copied.

It happened with the mouse, and the trackpad and there are many other examples. (Apple did not invent the mouse, but it refined it and made it mass producible. Apple did invent the trackpad.)

However, the more Apple fights for its privacy and control, the juicier a target it looks.

But I'm really glad Steve Jobs looks well and has come out fighting. That's very good news, as far as I'm concerned.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com