A fiesty Steve Jobs offers the world 'freedom from porn' STEPHEN HUTCHEON May 17, 2010 - 1:10PM Comments 15
Apple CEO Steve Jobs tells it like it is in an email exchange. The normally taciturn Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs has let fly at a blogger who dared to question the iPad's revolutionary credentials in a lively volley of late night email. Jobs appears to be enjoying a new lease of life since a liver transplant last year and in the past few months has been unusually active on the email front, replying to a number of inquiries from Apple users. These replies have been brief and civil if slightly abrupt. This time, however, it was keyboards at 40 paces. "If [Bob] Dylan was 20 today, how would he feel about your company? Would he think the iPad had the faintest thing to do with 'revolution'? Revolutions are about freedom," Ryan Tate emailed at 9.43pm on Friday night after watching an iPad commercial and objecting to the use of the R word. Tate is the editor of Valleywag, a technology industry gossip blog that is part of Gawker Media. Gawker also owns Gizmodo, a technology news website that is embroiled in a dispute with Apple over the purchase of a prototype iPhone. Jobs clearly took umbrage at Tate's email, which invoked the name of Dylan, one of Jobs's heroes. "Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom," the Apple co-founder wrote. "The times they are a changin', and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is." When Jobs unveiled the iPad in January - to the sound of Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone playing in the auditorium during the pre-launch - he described it as "magical and revolutionary". It's a line that Apple has since been using with its iPad promotions. But critics have panned the new tablet computer for locking users into a "walled garden", in which much of the content is delivered only after being vetted by Apple. Apple recently removed many sex-themed apps for the iPhone from its App Store. This month, the magazine Dazed & Confused, which specialises in racy photo shoots, reportedly toned down its iPad version for fear of being rejected by the Apple censors. Magazine insiders reportedly christened the iPad version the Iran edition, and the incident has spawned much talk about Apple's so-called "no nipple" policy. The conversation continued back-and-forth with three more emails from Tate and two replies from Jobs. The last Jobs email, sent at 2.20am on Saturday, concluded with a defence of Apple's policies and then a big put down. "As for us, we're just doing what we can to try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure," Jobs wrote. "By the way, what have you done that's so great? Do you create anything, or just criticise others' work and belittle their motivations?" Comments 15 comments so far http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/tablets/a-fiesty-steve-jobs-offers-the-world-freedom-from-porn-20100517-v7wl.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:318670 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
