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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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

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