Tell them, my song.

Like thousands of other Apple customers, I’ve tried for the last 24 hours to purchase, download and install the new iPod Touch 2.0 Software Update - so far without any success. I either get the ridiculous error message that the ‘iTunes store is currently unavailable’ - which it isn’t, because they are able to sell me the new iPod Touch/iPhone apps through their new AppStore - or the links from the Apple website to the 2.0 Software Update in the iTunes store lead nowhere. It feels like it’s January 2008 again, where we experienced the same disaster with the January 2008 Software Upgrade and the 1.1.4 firmware.

I bought my iPod Touch in the first week of January, only a few days before Apple released the January 2008 Software Upgrade, but I still had to pay the 20 dollars upgrade fee when it was released. That really pissed me off. And as an extra bonus, the only way to install the feature upgrade was to ‘restore’ my iPod Touch, which in translation meant nothing else than wiping out everything that was on it and installing the new firmware from scratch. That was very customer friendly, wasn’t it? Especially when you keep in mind that purchasing and downloading the software didn’t work for hours in January and that the only working procedure to install the new firmware was not even documented by Apple; I had to read it up on Macrumors.com.

Now don’t get me started on Apple’s rip-off policy that we had to pay 19.95 bucks for the January 2008 Software Upgrade while iPhone customers got the same upgrade free of charge - as they do now again. But with the 2.0 Software Update, Apple punishes their loyal customers even more: The 2.0 Software Update sells for 9.95 bucks, and it includes the January 2008 Software Upgrade. Customers who have bought the Software Upgrade in January for 19.95 bucks still have to pay the 9.95 Dollars for the 2.0 Software Update, while customers who never upgraded get both updates for only 9.95 Dollars, instead of the 29.90 Dollars sum the loyal old customers have to pay in total. Nice, isn’t it?

And in the end, you will still have a locked-down, DRM-infested device that is still completely under the control of Apple - unless you jailbreak it, of course. The exclusivity of the AppStore wouldn’t really be a problem for me, if it was open for all sorts of applications. But it is not open, and what’s a problem for me now is that Apple does not allow me to install software on my device that would be useful for me. For example, I cannot legally install a Python interpreter on my iPod Touch, because Apple’s paranoid licensing terms do not allow that (you’re not allowed to write and deploy software interpreters for OS X iPhone). I could install Python on a hacked iPod Touch, but I don’t want to hack my own device. But hell, because of those unacceptable license terms, Sun Microsystems are not even allowed to port Java to the iPod Touch and iPhone and to deploy the runtime of the world’s most popular programming language.

Another thing that ticks me off is the iTunes music player itself. You cannot copy back self-ripped music or video files from your iPod to your computer; this only works for files that you have purchased from the iTunes store. Naturally, I have not bought anything from the iTunes store, so ’synchronizing’ my iPod against my iTunes Library means deleting everything that is on my iPod. This again is just nice, isn’t it?

Also, I cannot just connect my iPod Touch to any Mac and play the music or videos that are on it. I first have to ’synchronize’ the iPod with that computer, which, naturally, deletes everything on my iPod. It really makes me wonder in what dictionary the Apple engineers have looked up the word ’synchronize’.

Unlike the old iPods, I cannot use my iPod Touch as a USB hard disk, which further reduces the iPod Touch’s usability and also denies me the option of using third party software to synchronize it with my computers.

In summary, Apple’s most expensive iPod is also the most crippled one, and it imposes unacceptable restrictions on its user and legal owner. If I had known this to the full extent when I bought it, I would not have spent my money on it. There are cheaper and better ways to get pain, if that’s what you want.

But for all that I don’t get real Schadenfreude from the fact that Apple once again is not getting a product launch right, and that they obviously do not have their own servers and distribution platform under control. It’s also not really making me smile that the 2.0 Software Upgrade has already been hacked and jail broken; it only proves that DRM is broken by design and will never work, and the only people who suffer from the restrictions DRM imposes on them are the customers who want to stay legal and who want to pay for a product. DRM is only hostile to legal customers - illegal users do not suffer from it.

I like Apple’s products, I like their software, I like their design. But the company’s attitude and behavior make me want to vomit.

Apple has turned out to be one of the most customer hostile corporations, and once again it’s only my pretty large investment in their platform that keeps me staying with them. Going back to a Microsoft-dominated software world is no alternative, and for most of the applications that I use no usable alternatives in the Open Source world exist. Hell, for some there are not even alternatives in the Windows world.

So I will stay with Apple, because I am trapped in a classical vendor-lock in, but also because ultimately they still sell the better products for me and my needs. But don’t expect me to be quiet when something sucks or that when something is great I will behave like one of those brainless fanboys who always sit in the first row of a Steve Jobs keynote and who buy everything the company throws on the market. You can rather expect me to be fair and - when necessary - loud.

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