July/August 2008 Issue

Consumer Retorts: Apple Computer

Why is it easier to watch Netflix movies on a PC than a Mac?

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CONSUMER RETORTS

Consumer Retorts

APPLE COMPUTER

so you’re about to use Netflix’s “instant watching” feature on your MacBook, when suddenly an error message pops up: “Sorry, blame Steve Jobs.” Huh? Wasn’t the whole point of getting a Mac to escape Microsoft’s monopolistic tentacles and have the freedom to do stuff like stream movies? The problem is that Apple won’t license its copyright-protection software to third parties like Netflix. Predictably, Apple wouldn’t emerge from behind its titanium curtain to answer our questions about why it won’t let consumers use whatever video service they choose. John Sullivan of the Free Software Foundation suspects that Apple wants you to buy movies only from iTunes. That may keep Steve Jobs in black turtlenecks, but it ticks off dedicated Mac users, many of whom have no doubt noticed that Netflix movies play perfectly fine on a stodgy PC.

Have a problem? Oh yes, you do. Go to motherjones.com/consumer-retorts to vent about annoying products and corporate policies. Selected entries will get MoJo swag.

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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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