Ted Landau offers an article from a US perspective on what it was like before there were Apple Stores:

[Y]our first problem would be finding a retail store that sold Macs. Apple’s fortunes had fallen so low that most people assumed the company would be bankrupt before the millennium arrived. Even the arrival of the iMac in 1998 did not do much to reverse that belief. As such, many retail chains treated Apple products as if the sales staff could get leprosy by touching them.

I can recall my own dismal experience. I walked into the store and was immediately greeted by a dizzying array of computers and peripherals. Only one problem. Everything was Windows-related. Not one Mac or any other Apple product was visible. When I asked a salesperson about Macs, I was directed to the rear corner of the store — back near where they kept empty cartons and other related trash. Here I found a few Macs (never the complete line of products) sitting around in a disordered and unappealing display.

As for the […] salespeople, they varied from Mac-ignorant to Mac-hostile, often both. On several occasions, when I asked a question, the salesperson pretended to know what he was talking about and confidently gave me the entirely wrong answer. Not surprisingly, these same sleazeballs typically tried to steer me away from Macs altogether, suggesting that Apple was only for losers. “If I went with Windows, I could get a better machine, with more third-party software, for less money.”

All this was true in the UK, too, only here you’d pay roughly twice what Americans got charged for the same hardware. I remember the odd PC World selling Macs, but they were inevitably turned off, and customers were hurried away from them by sales staff who said you “can’t run Word on a Mac” and that “Macs might well come to life at night and eat your first-born,” or some other bollocks.

Today, things are much brighter, and I put much of Apple’s resurgence down to these stores. It’s one thing to think you might like a product, but I’ll bet Apple today sells far more kit through people experiencing it first-hand—even if only for a few minutes in one of its stores—than it would if it had it remained an online-only operation. Additionally, it’s clear Apple’s high-street success has increased support elsewhere, too. In the UK, there are more resellers of Macs than I’ve ever known, even including the likes of Argos.

I’ll also add one further comment: on experiencing Apple Stores of all sizes, from the gargantuan and beautiful Covent Garden store, to smaller efforts in the likes of Southampton and Tampa, one thought often crosses my mind: why aren’t more stores this well designed, laid out and accessible?

A great piece from Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman on openness advocates Google now blocking rooted Android devices from its new movie-rental service. You know, those devices people rooted to remove all the crap carriers bundle, to ‘add value’, which is a benefit of Android being ‘open’?

But it serves as yet another example that Android’s openness only extends as far as it benefits Google.

I’m wondering when people will get the hint about this. Everyone whinges about Apple’s walled garden, but it’s pretty clear Google just has a different kind of wall, and one it’s sneakily putting up a brick at a time, hoping no-one’s watching. There is one big difference with Apple, though, as Harry Marks says:

Where’s the outrage? Where are the riots? Where’s the media sensationalisation?

Where indeed? I guess, for some reason that isn’t entirely clear to me, while Apple blocking jailbroken iOS devices from iBooks is evil, Google blocking rooted Android devices from movie rentals is a-OK.

It seems Apple has come to the aid of developers after all regarding the threats from Lodsys that Lodsys later attempted to defend (my rebuttal rapidly becoming the most-read thing Revert to Saved has ever run). A number of developers have now received documentation from Apple, including a letter to Mark Small, CEO of Lodsys. The short of it is summed up in the opening paragraph:

There is no basis for Lodsys’ infringement allegations against Apple’s App Makers. Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.

Game, set and match, surely.

Actually, it’s a bit less tennis and rather more like a boxing match. The letter reads like Apple legal striding into the ring, landing hooks, uppercuts and other assorted punches squarely on Small’s face, until all that remains is a sad figure on the mat, wondering why he’d earlier tried picking on the little guys.

Apple believes Lodsys is talking crap in general, stating that it believes the Lodsys letters are

based on a fundamental misapprehension regarding Apple’s license and the way Apple’s products work

adding that the information provided should be

sufficient for [Lodsys] to withdraw [its] outstanding threats to the App Makers and cease and desist from any further threats to Apple’s customers and partners.

This information includes the key argument that under its license for the patents in the Lodsys portfolio, Apple is

entitled to offer these licensed products and services to its customers and business partners, who, in turn, have the right to use them. […]

Thus, the technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple’s App Makers. These licensed products and services enable Apple’s App Makers to communicate with end users through use of Apple’s own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple’s App Store. Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claim by Lodsys.

So, again, as with Apple’s Q&A on location data, Apple didn’t immediately calm fears, but it’s done the right thing after properly considering its position. Apple believes the law is on its side, is now clearly defending its developers, and the curt language of its communication is very much in the ‘don’t mess with us’ space; here’s hoping this keeps other trolls from peering out from under their bridges.

Update: Macworld now has the full text of the letter up, because their staff writer can type faster than I can, and it’s earlier in the day on the west coast of the US, so they’re probably all full of coffee, sunshine and bagels.

Macworld, along with a billion other outlets, are today pointing to a Digitimes report that claims the iPhone 5 will have a curved screen.This follows rumours—neatly summed up by Nowhere Else—that the iPhone 5 will have a bigger display, a 3D display, better resolution, the same design, a different design, a physical keyboard, no storage, more storage, free unicorns, expensive unicorns, a better battery, a battery made from love and puppies, NFC, LTE, HDMI, LOL, iOS 5, iTunes cloud music, voice controls, no controls, a glass back, a metal back, a flat back, a higher price tag, a lower price tag, and an ability to usher in myriad stupid rumours about the iPhone 6.

So, the curved glass thing. Maybe. It’s all a bit Samsung, though, isn’t it, and the last time Apple did curved glass (with one of the many iPod nano iterations) everyone bloody hated it. Plus, consider this:

• iPod touch: thin, flat, metal-back, flat screen.
• iPad 2: thin, flat, metal-back, flat screen.

I’d come to some sort of conclusion about the iPhone 5’s form factor based on the above points if I wasn’t drunk on gin* to TAKE AWAY THE PAIN of all the sodding iPhone rumours.

* OK, water **.

** And I’m not drunk, but I almost wish I was, having read those rumours.

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!