Rupert Jones, for The Guardian:

A pricey but stylish MacBook laptop, a variety of iPods and now a wallet-busting iPhone 4 … I’ve bought them all. So why is Apple now penalising me and thousands of other loyal customers by effectively declaring that our computers are obsolete?

Sorry, did I miss a press release from Apple? It’s made MacBooks obsolete, you say?

If you go out and buy an iPhone 4 or the latest iPod shuffle, iPod nano or iPod touch, you won’t be able to use it unless you have the latest version of iTunes (iTunes 10) on your computer. No problem, you think – it’s simply a case of downloading it from Apple’s website. But I’ve just made a rather unpleasant discovery: “older” Mac computers are unable to run the latest version of iTunes.

Hang on, are these machines actually older, or just ‘older’? One means aged and the other means you’re being sarcastic.

Yet my MacBook isn’t ancient: it’s only about four years old.

Ah, right. So what model is it?

And it’s not as if I’m trying to hook up one of the latest devices to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. What adds insult to injury is that if I had a 10-year-old Windows PC, I wouldn’t be experiencing these problems. I’d be able to happily download the new iTunes. But my four-year-old Mac? ‘Fraid not.

OK, the MacBook ‘four year old’ edition. Got it.

You’d think there would be a simple and free solution to this, bearing in mind this is a free download we are talking about and that we are Apple customers who have just shelled out on the latest Apple products – but no.

You just shelled out for your MacBook? No, hang on, that’s four years old. Still, I’m with you on this one. Apple are bastards for not providing information relating to what operating systems are required for their hardware. [SPOILER: You might be shocked, later on in this article, to discover that Apple does, in fact, display operating system requirements for hardware.]

It seems we have been left with gadgets we can’t use, unless we pay more money for a software update.

See: Apple, since the start of Apple. This is nothing new. Also: Snow Leopard costs £26, which isn’t exactly breaking the bank if you want to run your shiny new iPhone. Should Apple continue to support newer hardware with older versions of iTunes? Yes, I think it probably should, but it doesn’t. Stop buying Apple products if you don’t like how Apple’s always done things.

To make matters worse, I and many others have been told we must track down and buy the update, called Leopard, which is not only hard to get hold of (Apple’s UK retail stores no longer stock it) but expensive (£120 new on Amazon). I suspect what Apple wants us to do is throw our hands in the air and go out and buy a new computer (one of its own, of course).

Or, er, to go and buy Leopard. If you’d not noticed, Leopard—even today—is a bit cheaper than a new computer. Still, if you’ve got a MacBook, that’ll be an Intel Mac, and any Intel Mac runs Snow Leopard. 26 quid.

We first noticed something was amiss about a fortnight ago when my nine-year-old daughter, Flora, bought a new £39 iPod shuffle with her pocket money, and I treated myself to an iPhone 4. I connected the shuffle to our computer, but a message came up saying the iPod “cannot be used because it requires iTunes version 10.0 or later”. So I downloaded iTunes 10, but then another message popped up: “Open Failed … This package type requires Mac OS X 10.5.” It was the same story with the iPhone 4. Flora is pretty cheesed off about not being able to listen to the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna on her new gizmo.

I wonder how cheesed off she is that her dad won’t upgrade his Mac for 26 quid, which would enable her to play Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna on her new gizmo.

I thought it was just us, but when I went online I found web forums packed with unhappy Apple owners complaining they have been abandoned, and that this is all about “forcing” us to buy new computers.

Man, those Apple sales staff are bastards, aren’t they? Oh, hang on, you’re using scare-quotes again. Do carry on.

Confused and bemused, I booked an appointment to see one of Apple’s in-house “geniuses” at its store on London’s Regent Street. She examined my laptop and told me I could solve this by buying Leopard (not its successor Snow Leopard, she said)

SYMPATHY-FOR-JOURNO-MOANING-ABOUT-TECH ALERT!

but that before running it, I would need to “back up manually all the data – put it on to an external hard drive”.

SYMPATHY-FOR-JOURNO-MOANING-ABOUT-TECH ALERT!

Gah. Apple geniuses aren’t—at least not much of the time. Snow Leopard will work, and Apple should have told you that. And this one clearly didn’t know much about upgrades and back-ups, although I would always strongly recommend you clone your computer before updating the operating system, in case of BAD THINGS.

Man, Apple made me align myself with someone bleating hysterically about Apple. SHOCK TWIST. I now hate Apple.

I rang Apple’s UK 0800 number and asked how I could obtain Leopard. The friendly chap told me he should be able to get it for me, though it would cost £87. I said I’d think about it.

Think about getting Snow Leopard for 26 quid instead, then upgrading your Mac, then phoning Apple and saying: “I didn’t buy Leopard, so screw you guys!” Do it a lot—at least until you get arrested. Which you can also blame on Apple and therefore get a second story.

It just doesn’t make sense to me that Apple supports Windows XP, made by a rival company, but won’t support a slightly older version of its own operating system,

SYMPATHY-FOR-JOURNO-MOANING-ABOUT-TECH ALERT!

This is insane, although Apple would argue that most of its users upgrade rapidly, compared to those using Windows, who rarely upgrade. The proportion of Windows users running XP is vastly larger than the number of Mac users running Tiger or earlier. It’s therefore viable for Apple to support XP and not its own systems of a similar age, as irritating as that is.

and won’t offer some kind of free solution to those people who are continuing to swell Steve Jobs’s coffers by buying his new products.

TROLL COMMENT AWOOGA! Phew! Had to get a dig in, didn’t you, Mr. Jones? Man, The Guardian, who made me align myself with someone bleating hysterically about Apple, has now made me unalign myself with someone, due to them bleating hysterically about Apple. SHOCK DOUBLE TWIST. I now hate everyone.

With the prices Apple charges for its computers, I don’t buy the “disposable” argument. And my MacBook is hardly a pensioner of the computer world. I thought one of Apple’s selling points was that its products don’t require much technical know-how to set up or use. Why should I have assumed Apple was going to cut me off from iTunes if I got one of the newer devices? My fifth generation iPod classic works perfectly with my Mac, and my iTunes library has all the bells and whistles I could ever need.

I’d sympathise with you or Apple now, if I didn’t hate you, Apple and everyone. You make a good point, Mr Jones.

Apple’s media people didn’t want to say much. They told me: “If you are a Mac user both iPhone 4 and the latest iPod shuffle require Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later. This is clearly labelled on the back of the iPhone 4 box … it is also clearly labelled on the back of the iPod shuffle box … if you decide not to upgrade to Snow Leopard [eh?], then you have 14 days from date of purchase of your devices to claim your refund.”

The ol’ check-before-you-buy argument. Tsk. Those Apple scallywags. Still, you do have that option of a refund, at least.

When I pressed them, Apple’s people suggested yet another possible solution to my woes: the “Mac Box Set”, which costs £122. I was told Apple’s operating system has simply had more revisions over the past four years than Windows.

The Mac Box Set’s actually pretty spiffy if you’ve an old Mac: Snow Leopard, new iLife, new iWork…

I seem to have been told lots of contradictory things, and it all adds up to extra expense and a whole load of hassle.

And I’ve in return written a contradictory article. It all adds up to Saturday confusion and a whole load of hassle.

I see from the Apple website that Snow Leopard will be succeeded by a new operating system, “Mac OS X Lion” (version 10.7), this summer. Does that mean more of us are going to be relegated to the scrapheap?

Yes.

‘It’s vendor lock-in, plain and simple’

Apart from you being able to use a PC, or upgrade your Mac, obviously.

So, what have we learned?

• Apple are bastards.
• Guardian journos whine a lot and have daughters who like Rihanna, but, annoyingly, make some good points.
• Apple needs to stop with the Tiger > Leopard > Snow Leopard bullshit. Just let Leopard go, Apple. Tiger > Snow Leopard works fine on Intel, and you should tell people this. 26 quid won’t piss people off that much. Hell, you might even get a few extra Snow Leopard sales in before Lion shows up.
• I probably shouldn’t write on a Saturday when I’m grumpy and tired, listening to a next-door neighbour who just won’t stop mowing. RRRRRRRRR! RRRRRRRRRRRR!