Let’s review a recent addition to the app store: Cannabis.  The app allows you to find the nearest dispensary in locations where marijuana has been decriminalized.  Currently, Apple has rated this program 12+ for “infrequent/mild” drug use or references.  Personally, I think that telling a 13 year old where to find marijuana, even if he/she cannot purchase it, is probably not a fantastic idea.  Here’s the screenshot if you’re still not sure:

Let’s compare this rating to another app on the App Store: Eucalyptus.  This app, because you are able to access “obscene” texts from Project Gutenberg, has a rating of 17+.  Essentially, even if you’re a minor and reading a PHYSICAL book that Apple considers to be a 17+ bit of content, you have to get parental permission first before running this app on your iPod or iPhone. Even if the kid already has the printed version in his or her hands.  Here’s the screenshot:

Just thought I’d throw some more fuel on the fire that is raging about how apps are rated by Apple and why developers are pulling their goddamn hair out trying to find any sort of logic or consistency.  I don’t envy them at all.  Not one bit.

So why is everyone complaining about their favorite (or not) company charging so much for the iPod Shuffle?  If Apple doesn’t present the world with cupcakes and fucking sunshine every quarter, the stock tanks to shit and everyone is discussing how Apple is going to lose its place in the world’s music market.  How does Apple get to the top of profit margins in the industry? Gouging the hell out of you while making you enjoy the gouging every step of the way.  And I’m all for it.

Sure, the Shuffle takes a little bit of cash to build.  But do you enjoy it?  Did you think it was worth every penny you spent on it before you realized it was $22 in bits of Chinese garbage thrown together in a pretty machined aluminum case?  Of course you did. Only now that your wallet feels betrayed by the marketing machine of Cupertino will you feign dismay at their overcharging you for the music player you use at the gym to flash at someone, hoping to get their attention.

To anyone who is complaining: shut your mouth and build one yourself.  Asustek, or their spinoff company Pegatron, is making a killing assembling these things for Apple faster and better than any douche in the USA could do it for.  And if they could, would you really want to pay $275 for a union-built, certified by Al Gore zero-emission iPod Shuffle?  Not me.

(PS: I’m basing my Asustek assertion on the serial numbers I’ve seen of the new Shuffle.  Foxconn may be building them, too, but as far as I know, the “4H” serial prefix was designated to Asustek.)

Plus, iTunes 8.0 has per-podcast, individual download settings.  iTunes 8.0 almost FTW, if I didn’t have to hack the preferences plist to turn off genre in browsing mode.  Why the fuck did they make genre a “requirement”?

Sign my useless petition to show Apple people want a huge-capacity media player with style, but not necessarily with a touch screen and other whiz-bang features:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ipod240g/