The iPod Virus: Apple Arrogance
Recently, there was an outbreak of E. Coli in the United States- bags of spinach across the country were recalled and the questionable spinach was traced to a region in California. How would you have felt if you had E. Coli poisoning- or worse, died- and all the farmer responsible said, “There is E. Coli in our spinach and we are really upset that human bodies are not more strong and healthy to protect against these things.”
That’s what Apple just did.
Historically, Apple has been an arrogant company and its user community has at times been snarky. We are an elitist minority and usually, we like it that way. We claim that Macs are better and safer and so much cooler, so we are not being arrogant. We’re just giving you the truth.
Apple users can do what they like, but this is my message to the Apple corporation: Stop it. You have gone too far.
In September, an undisclosed number of Video iPods were sold with a Windows virus called RavMon.exe on them. This is a serious issue and one that should be dealt with swiftly and effectively. These things happen and the way to separate the great companies from the bad ones is to see how they respond.
Apple’s response was terrible. They said:
As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses
I’m sorry we broke in to your house, they say. You should have stronger locks.
There isn’t a hint of an apology on their page disclosing the issue, only an aloof sense surprise that people actually use Windows.
Wake up, Apple- your biggest cash cow is the iPod and most of them are used by Windows users. Insult them all you like in the Mac ads, but your iPod users are Windows users. And you just sold them a virus for $400.
Now that I got that out of the way, let us try to deal with the issue of the virus. If you bought a Video iPod after the 12th of September this year, you may have been sold a virus. I would recommend this free trial of McAfee anti virus which should deal with it. Make sure you run it with the iPod attached and scan any attached external drives. Then restore your iPod from iTunes (how to restore).
Apple has not yet disclosed a method of detecting whether your iPod is one of the problem iPods and I doubt they will, unless they smell a lawsuit. Public apologies, meaningful freebies and not being called a weakling is the least an infected paying customer should expect from a company like Apple. Right now, I feel embarrassed for being an Apple user and insulted for being an occasional Windows user.
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that you find the way Apple has handled this affair appropriate? -Ben
One thing, Apple’s PR release might be considered a smithereen of an apology, when read between the lines. They are cocky, for sure, for bad-mouthing Windows structural failures (where none of which are Apple’s faults). Do you get apologies from MS high ranks from those ineptitudes? Nada. Like Apple, they are too proud to beg.
Arrogance, as some would cynically pen, is in Apple’s blood (and they should be very proud for what they have accomplished since 1997) for as long as The Steve is the honcho there.
No amount of criticism for miswriting a PR release (surely, it was reviewed prior to release) is going to change anything. It is just good babble on blog and rumour sites. I haven’t smelled a PR carcass being circled by voltures on mass media outlets as like CNN or BusinessWeek. These smart journalists just know of a good criticism when they see one. This one is just a minor flak that our good friend Devanshu is trying to elevate to a personal vendetta.
Sure, bad-mouthing Windows rotten innards was perhaps unnecessary but it is not a direct assault of the majority of their customers (most of whom are the intelligent types for selecting an Apple branded player). I doubt this minor err on their part will have any effect on the switcher momentum that is now rapidly gaining.
In fact, it may help. Why? Their PR release may not have been that glamorously written (they should hire a new PR guy) but it does point out the glaring weakness of ALL windows OSs to date, and will include Vista - too much baggage in one monolithic crap!
As for The Odious One, if he can write with more poise than seething, personal stabs at posters He doesn’t like one bit, then it would be a more **~~~product-iiive~~~** debate. Again, his style is his own and no Mac-tard can change that. I was merely advising ones when getting into a duel of extremisms with the Beeble for that’s his specialty.
Sorry, I should have checked the thread with another tab before I re-submit. Pls, disregard my last.
Macster2 wrote:
If I hit another car, yes.. it’s my fault. I wasn’t paying attention. But if the other drivers airbag doesn’t go off and they get hurt, then it’s the car companies fault for not having the airbag properly installed.
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So to say it like Apple did, you’d go over to their car and say:
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As you’d expect, I’m really upset with your car manufacturer for not installing better airbag systems, and that I hit you.
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That should make them feel better… right? Again, it’s about humility. That kind of statement doesn’t sound very “sorry”.
It’s as if to say, I wouldn’t be sorry if your airbag worked but because it didn’t I guess I have to be sorry.
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If I wanted to play Devil’s Advocate I ‘d say Apple meant they were sorry that their copies of Windows were not hardier against such attacks, meaning they’ll install and updtate their Anti Virus… but “me thinks” maybe even the Devil wouldn’t try to convince you of that one.
Wm
And beeblebrox, surely you can see that if you just made your points in a more polite manner not only would nobody accuse you of this, but nobody could.
I appreciate your comment, Ben, but let’s face it. My tone makes no difference. Hadley was called an idiot and accused of writing the worst article ever written on this site. Why? Because he said that even Mac users would prefer a PC over a Mac if the PC had internet.
I sympathize with you that the negative tone all around is unhelpful, but I’m not about to put on kid gloves for a bunch of brainless Mac-tard zealots who serve little more use than regurgitating Steve Jobs press releases.
Underneath my negative tone, I make reasoned and balanced points. I like both systems and I own more Macs than PCs. Underneath their negative tone, they mindlessly defend and apologize Apple no matter what.
I’d rather be rude and right than rude and wrong.
As you’d expect, I’m really upset with your car manufacturer for not installing better airbag systems, and that I hit you.
Heh, agreed. Not only is that NOT an apology in any way shape or form, it’s insulting and smug. I don’t think anyone here is arguing that Windows is NOT vulnerable. That’s not the point.
This guy HIT YOU, and the first thing he does is blame your car manufacturer for faulty airbags? You’d call that guy what he is. An asshole.
let’s face it. My tone makes no difference.
If it makes no difference, then why not be more positive? As you say, wouldn’t you rather be polite and right than rude and right?
Possibly if you were “polite and right”, some people would still attack you because they are “Mac-tard zealots”. But I feel that some people would take your points seriously, who have been prevented from doing so up until now. And that would be a good thing.
As I see it, the problem with crying “Mac-tard” as a reason to be negative is that the negativity does, occasionally, tend to provoke reactions that are or seem Mac-tarded. And from people who with a reasonable-sounding tone that does justice to your often very well-reasoned points, could take up some of your ideas.
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Hadley was called an idiot and accused of writing the worst article ever written on this site. Why? Because he said that even Mac users would prefer a PC over a Mac if the PC had internet.
I’d just like to say clearly and hopefully for the last time:
I believe the reason why the article was so denounced was because it was simply very poor. That is the reason I denounced it. I can’t really speak for others but to my mind, lots of the comments show this reaction more than outrage at having hypothetically to choose a PC. It is certainly one of the poorest articles about computers I have ever read.
Actually the accident with faulty airbags doesn’t work either. It would be more like blaming the car manufacturer for not building superior handling and accident avoidance capabilities into the car.
Or, if you prefer, it would be an ok analogy if Apple were blaming Norton Antivirus.
The thing is, it’s not the analogy here that is improper (read the whole thing before you criticize this time, Beeb). It’s using the analogy to state that Apple’s response is comparable to a situation in which a person’s life was at risk.
Devanshu states, “How would you have felt if you had E. Coli poisoning- or worse, died- and all the farmer responsible said, ‘There is E. Coli in our spinach and we are really upset that human bodies are not more strong and healthy to protect against these things.’”
Well, you cannot compare the two and then say that the response for one is the same as the other.
That’s what I was talking about when I said the analogy doesn’t work and said the analogy itself is ok.
Sounds like Gabe’s got an issue with Analogies in general. They’re never perfect, they will at best, highlight a perticular angle of an issue.
The idea is to come up with a way to say the same thing a completely different way so that it’s clear what you’re thinking about.
Analogies that don’t seem to “fit” often help too because they highlight what the author of the analogy missed in the article so we can help him or her. The most comon way to help is to rewrite the analogy to add the important missing points, even though the analogy probably still doesn’t exactly fit. It’s just meant to highlight certain aspects of the issue.
Wm
@Robotech Infidel said :“I haven’t smelled a PR carcass being circled by voltures on mass media outlets as like CNN or BusinessWeek. These smart journalists just know of a good criticism when they see one. This one is just a minor flak that our good friend Devanshu is trying to elevate to a personal vendetta.”
This is an Apple web site; CNN and Businessweek are not. We talk about Apple in 3 articles a day here, but it seems we don’t have any smart journalists here.
Personal vendetta? Robotech, people bought a $400 virus/worm and are being told it is their fault. Even if it is a harmless one, the PR is indefensible.
We’re sorry Windows isn’t more hardy against viruses. As you know we aren’t the only ones having a hard time keeping our Windows computers virus free. In fact, we’re among the best in the industry. But still, we’re sorry that our problem has become a problem for some of you. Please contact any one of these Windows Anti-Virus companies and hopefully their solution will actually work for you.
Call that paragraph an experiment. I wanted to see if I could write something better than Apple, but this just doesn’t sound like Apple. Anyone else care to try?
Wm
How about:
Apple has learned that a small minority of its iPod portable music players shipped since [date] contained a Windows virus, ravmonBwhatever++.exe. This has so far affected only a very small number of users, and does not pose a threat to users of Apple Macintosh computers.
We are extremely upset at ourselves and our manufacturers that this should have been allowed to happen. Apple is taking proactive steps to ensure that such incidents do not repeat themselves.
In the meantime, we recommend that concerned users use the software shipped with iPods to perform a full Restore, which will eradicate the virus. Those with further concerns, or who suspect they may have purchased an infected iPod, should call this number/email here/contact Applecare/blah.
This is an Apple web site; CNN and Businessweek are not. We talk about Apple in 3 articles a day here, but it seems we don’t have any smart journalists here. -Dev
I am not arguing that A.M. does not have smart journalists. I have described you guys as “geniuses” actually.
What I mean by that is this PR flak is such a minor thing in the world of Windows viruses and other malware that nobody paid attention. Without your personal attacks on your old buddy Apple, I would never have guessed the level of criticisms is this extreme.
I did see a Digg front page, an Ars article, and so on but all these are not considered mass journalism. They are blogs and rumour sites. They all have smart writers on their credits but not yet considered, hard-baked journalists.
...people bought a $400 virus/worm and are being told it is their fault. Even if it is a harmless one, the PR is indefensible. -Dev
They being told it is their fault? From reading the PR again and again. I did not see anything blaming the customer for buying the iPod. You are reading between two invisible lines again, Devanshu.
Yes, those customers were inadvertently given a loaded iPod but of those thousands, maybe tens of thousands, unfortunate enough to be the lucky ones, only 29 complained??? Those 29 folks can go back to where they got it and get them inoculated for free or receive a new one. I’m sure Apple won’t complain.
As for the others, they are perhaps intelligent enough to scan their iPods and clean this benign malware, once and for all.
Wow… All this because Apple took the opportunity to point out that it was a WINDOWS virus, installed on the iPod hard drive by a WINDOWS machine using the iPod as a WINDOWS hard drive!
The response froom Apple was exactly right. It included an admission that they should have been more alert to the possibility of the iPod being hijacked by a virus-infected Windows machine, and it also included a reminder that virus-infection is (at least currently) a Windows-only problem.
Sure, the Apple response a bit “in your face” but is a more appropriate response than a grovelling apology would have been. Viruses have been distributed by all sorts of organisations in the past, on floppy disks, in emails, or in software. Being an unwitting vector is no reason to be pilloried.
Had Apple NOT made the strong point that this is a Windows problem, many people may have believed that this was an iPod virus. It is not, of course. It is a Windows virus.
Apple could have made a stronger point. Perhaps they should have announced that Windows machines are no longer permitted in their production process because of the risk that they may have been compromised.
As for caveat emptor… Is there anyone on the planet who does not know that a Windows machine is vulnerable to viruses, trojans and so on? If you are a Windows user, and you don’t run an up to date antivirus application, then you are guilty of “contributory negligence” if your Windows machine is infected by an external device connected as a hard drive.
Ben, you’re hired!