"Irony Alert," Indeed

Paul Thurrott keeps bringing the stupid today:

This is what happens when a significant chunk of the population is unemployed and has nothing to do: They pretend to care where, and in what conditions, in which their expensive digital baubles are made. It’s cute, and it’s silly, but yes, Apple really is the biggest offender here, by far, since its products are incredibly successful. And Apple, unlike its competitors, goes way out of its way to claim they’re ethically made when in fact they’re not, which should be a warning sign.

When did Apple claim all of its products are made ethically? I was reading the Supplier Responsibility Code of Conduct and didn’t see one sentence to the effect of “our products are made ethically.”

Rather, what it said was:

We expect our suppliers to maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct. Our Supplier Code of Conduct clearly states a range of practices we consider essential to running an ethical business.

We expect our suppliers to do the right thing and here’s what we’ve put in place to help enforce that. If they don’t adhere to the policies, there will be audits and consequences.

He’s right about one thing, though: Apple goes out of its way to tell people what it’s doing to fix things. Has anyone heard from Microsoft yet? Didn’t think so.

Thurrott, though, truly takes the cake at the end of his little rant with this:

But don’t pretend Apple is doing anything differently than other companies or that you actually care about people in China.

Thurrott didn’t mention Microsoft once and when he did discuss Foxconn suicides, he conveniently didn’t bring up the threats of such actions from the Chinese workers on the Xbox team. Also, because we’re Apple users, we’re not allowed to care about people in China. I didn’t know this was a thing, but it is - he’s Paul “the iPad is dooooooooomed” Thurrott and what he says is gospel. Didn’t you know?

And for crying out loud, don’t upgrade your unnecessary consumer electronic devices every single year as if on cue. Again, the problem isn’t Apple. It’s you, the Apple customer. Think globally, please. But act locally. Stop buying crap you do not need.

He’s right - don’t upgrade every year. Do it every three years so you can buy his new book when it comes out. You know, the one that will be advertised on every page of his site.

And don’t forget Windows Phone 8 Secrets, which I’m sure will come out later this year around the time Windows Phone 8 is released - two years after Windows Phone 7 (and his corresponding book) came out.

So, two years. Two years is a good upgrade schedule, but not one.