Well this certainly takes anti-Apple sentiment to the next level. While some folks have self-righteously chosen to protest Apple’s app store policies by abandoning their iPhones, one disgruntled iPhone user went to the extreme (a’la Harold and Kumar) and decided to put a few bullets into a new 16GB iPhone 3GS, before dousing it with lighter fluid and setting it aflame in what can perhaps be considered the lamest and dumbest “political statement” in history. Put simply, choosing tech products as a function of ill-placed moral concerns is ridiculous.
We have to admit though, we’re digging the soundtrack (My Body Is A Cage by Arcade Fire) and there’s almost a classic film noir vibe to the whole thing. Check out the video below.
On his YouTube page, the shooter describes what factors drove him towards destruction:
I have bought all three generations of iPhones on launch day, but I cannot take it any longer.
In the end, it was rejection of Google Voice from the App Store that drove me to this point, but that was just the tip of the spear. Whether it is their refusal to let other gadgets such as the Palm Pre interface with iTunes, or their Draconian App Store procedures…I simply cannot support them with a clear conscience, which is why I chose to end the life of my iPhone in this manner instead of selling it–after all, who would want to pass on a cancer to another person?
Apple may have fooled the world with their witty commercials and bright t-shirts, but they will no longer fool me. Their approach has helped them gain a sizable chunk of the PC market, but as their popularity grows, people will begin to see them for what they really are–a corporation far more “evil” than Microsoft would ever dream to be.
Apple is turning consumerism into communism. Any entity that enforces such anti-competitive practices and dictates what their paying population can and cannot have without any explanation, consistency, or reason is communistic. It’s wrong and I will no longer support it.
Nothing like some “bright t-shirts” to fool the masses.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Was it Jason Calacanis (Apple’s Master Plan (even fanboys should be scared)) that helped push this guy over the edge?
August 14th, 2009 at 10:20 am
(sigh) “communistic?” As in communism? It’s sad and pathetic that he’d take such an expensive action to make such a stupid statement. I’m sure he meant “authoritarian,” like Stalinism, but doesn’t know any better. It’s just sad, and indicates other deeply misinformed beliefs. I mean, from that statement, one wouldn’t be surprised if he was a “birther.”
I happen to share his distaste and disgust with Apple’s app-store practices, but this video merely makes me want to suppress those feelings in order to disassociate myself from people like him.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Another American Idiot brings fresh meaning to the term, “Moron.”
August 14th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Love how he didn’t shoot a working iPhone, it’s probably a clone he got off ebay for $49.99.
Apple is no dictatorship, it’s just highly “vertically integrated”, so if you don’t like that approach to capitalism, then find another vendor that appeals to your needs.
Yep, a Moron that doesn’t understand how business works.
August 14th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
It’s a weird video. I think it’s not a new phone.
August 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Yeah, how is making shitloads of money communistic?
August 14th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
That is one well made phone!
Thanks, now I know that my iPhone can save me from a bullet.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Score 1 for the NRA. They have been arguing all along that handguns have other uses besides killing people. Not sure that this qualifies as “redeeming social value”. Not even sure that this creates a “reasonable doubt” about “redeeming social value”. One thing for sure, it clearly shows that all Apple lovers aren’t tree hugging liberals. Maybe I should say, “former” Apple lovers? Guess that would depend on the timing of his gun purchase, although this doesn’t look like the first time he has used it.
Probably not the last time, either.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Idiot. Obviously has too much money if he can afford to do this. I sympathise with his annoyance, but why not e.g. give it to some kid who couldn’t afford it and would *love* to have it?
December 11th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Because all iPhone users themselves are morons and he came to the realization of that fact and he didn’t want to spread the disease to someone else…