October 14, 2012

Hating on Software Companies

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This is from an LA Times article titled “Top 10 features in Apple iOS 6”:

By far the coolest new feature in iOS 6 is the ability to set your alarm clock to play any of the songs in your music library.

Seriously? That’s the best feature in the new operating system? And you still expect me to bother reading about features 2-10?

Speaking of which, here’s a question for all of you who aren’t hopeless Apple fanboys: are there any large-ish software companies you like? I hate Microsoft, of course. I hate Adobe. I hate Symantec. I hate Intuit. I don’t even remember why anymore. It’s all buried so deep in my psyche that it’s like asking why the Hatfields hated the McCoys. And now that I’ve been using Apple products for a while, I’ve developed an almost unreasoning hatred of Apple. Microsoft always just seemed big and clumsy and power hungry to me: I hated them, but mostly the way I hate earthquakes and hurricanes and bad drivers. Apple, on the other hand, has a corporate attitude carefully and cunningly designed to be as arrogant, unhelpful, and control freakish as it’s possible for a corporation to be, all wrapped up in a marketing persona that’s almost Orwellian in its winsomeness. It drives me crazy. One result of this newfound enmity has been an improbable infatuation with the current series of Galaxy S III ads, especially the one I’ve embedded on the right. I suppose I’ll get over it soon. After all, I don’t own any Samsung products and don’t plan to.

On the other hand, I am thinking about getting an Android tablet. If I do, will I soon come to hate Google?

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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