I contracted on-site in Cupertino for a year. They have 35,000 employees, so if you're looking to join a tiny start-up where everyone is 23 years old and best friends, you're not going to find that at Apple. Actually, I used the large crowds of employees to my advantage and basically "snuck" into the offices every day for the last few months I worked there when my security badge stopped working (long/uninteresting story.)
I've never worked for a big corporation, but working for Apple is probably like working for any other company with that size of a workforce. Some people love their job, some people are bored and a lot of it depends on which group/department you're in. I was a little turned off by the cubicle/office farms in some of the buildings, which are probably setup like that due to security.
I saw Steve Jobs a few times at the cafeteria. But he did not yell at me. Or anyone else.
Did you see the headings on those pages? "Ah, paperwork."
"Ready, Set, Go." Details like that fascinate me. It suggests that even when making a document that very few people see, Apple sweats the small details.
Also, it's not branded paperwork. It's well-designed paperwork. There's a difference, though I suppose if you're the sort of person who still thinks a Mac is just a "branded computer" we'll have to disagree here.
Also also, I'm going to rant a second at you, because Apple is not brand-centric. I've got a Samsung phone that uses AT&T. The word Samsung appears three times on the phone's hardware, the word AT&T twice. When I open the phone, the AT&T logo is on the front screen and the back screen, and then it remains in the top bar no matter what I do. THAT'S branding for you. It's desperate, ugly branding. Meanwhile, if I total up ALL the Apple products I have with me, and that's a power cord, a laptop, an iPod touch, and an iPod cord, the Apple logo appears a total of three times, once a product; the name Apple appears a total of three times, once a product; I see the Apple logo briefly when I start up my Macbook Pro, but not when I open my iPod touch.
Mac products are very not branded, compared to their competitors' products. The thing is, Apple's brand has a reputation, unlike Samsung/Motorola/Nokia or Dell/HP, and so when you see an Apple logo it means something. When you see a Windows logo plastered on the front of your laptop you don't call it "brand-centric" because nobody cares about the Windows brand. So when people complain about Apple's logo being ubiquitous on their product, I scoff, because the complaint's really that Apple made stuff good enough that people recognize the name Apple over their competitors.
And yet us iPhone developers get the shaft. I can't help but think whatever part of the corporate culture that breeds this kind of stuff got cut off near the iTunes Connect department.
Okay. Tim. I understand why you're mad about the iPhone development situation. I would like to offer you, however, the following points to give you a teensy bit of perspective:
* 99.9% of all applications submitted are approved without controversy.
* The App Store is still new. It's slightly more than a year old. Therefore, it's still got glitches in its processes, very obviously.
* For something so young, it's exploded in use. Two billion app downloads in just over a year? That's insane. That's so insane I doubt anybody can quite process it mentally.
* Therefore, every small error in Apple's process has been magnified to the point it looks like a gaping wound.
* Apple is certainly working on this, and putting a lot of effort into it.
* Apple won't TELL you they're working on this until they've already come up with what they believe is an iron solution, because Apple doesn't like admitting their ideas don't spring fully-grown from the head of Zeus.
* Apple's got an amazing track record, and so it's logical to think that within a year or two they will figure out how to suck a lot less. That's a reasonable amount of time to give them.
* No excuse about "I can't make a living reliably until they fix this", because anybody insane enough to try and make a living from a brand-new piece of software ought to at least know the risks they made.
[+] [-] johnnybgoode|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrisrhee|16 years ago|reply
I've never worked for a big corporation, but working for Apple is probably like working for any other company with that size of a workforce. Some people love their job, some people are bored and a lot of it depends on which group/department you're in. I was a little turned off by the cubicle/office farms in some of the buildings, which are probably setup like that due to security.
I saw Steve Jobs a few times at the cafeteria. But he did not yell at me. Or anyone else.
[+] [-] chrischen|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] costan|16 years ago|reply
And they've been doing the iOffers for a long time now. I was an intern in 2006, and they looked just like that back then.
[+] [-] aw3c2|16 years ago|reply
Steve Jobs is the messiah and Apple his gospel.
[+] [-] rayboyd|16 years ago|reply
It must be a slow news day.
[+] [-] unalone|16 years ago|reply
Also, it's not branded paperwork. It's well-designed paperwork. There's a difference, though I suppose if you're the sort of person who still thinks a Mac is just a "branded computer" we'll have to disagree here.
Also also, I'm going to rant a second at you, because Apple is not brand-centric. I've got a Samsung phone that uses AT&T. The word Samsung appears three times on the phone's hardware, the word AT&T twice. When I open the phone, the AT&T logo is on the front screen and the back screen, and then it remains in the top bar no matter what I do. THAT'S branding for you. It's desperate, ugly branding. Meanwhile, if I total up ALL the Apple products I have with me, and that's a power cord, a laptop, an iPod touch, and an iPod cord, the Apple logo appears a total of three times, once a product; the name Apple appears a total of three times, once a product; I see the Apple logo briefly when I start up my Macbook Pro, but not when I open my iPod touch.
Mac products are very not branded, compared to their competitors' products. The thing is, Apple's brand has a reputation, unlike Samsung/Motorola/Nokia or Dell/HP, and so when you see an Apple logo it means something. When you see a Windows logo plastered on the front of your laptop you don't call it "brand-centric" because nobody cares about the Windows brand. So when people complain about Apple's logo being ubiquitous on their product, I scoff, because the complaint's really that Apple made stuff good enough that people recognize the name Apple over their competitors.
[+] [-] known|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joezydeco|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daniel-cussen|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timdorr|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unalone|16 years ago|reply
* 99.9% of all applications submitted are approved without controversy.
* The App Store is still new. It's slightly more than a year old. Therefore, it's still got glitches in its processes, very obviously.
* For something so young, it's exploded in use. Two billion app downloads in just over a year? That's insane. That's so insane I doubt anybody can quite process it mentally.
* Therefore, every small error in Apple's process has been magnified to the point it looks like a gaping wound.
* Apple is certainly working on this, and putting a lot of effort into it.
* Apple won't TELL you they're working on this until they've already come up with what they believe is an iron solution, because Apple doesn't like admitting their ideas don't spring fully-grown from the head of Zeus.
* Apple's got an amazing track record, and so it's logical to think that within a year or two they will figure out how to suck a lot less. That's a reasonable amount of time to give them.
* No excuse about "I can't make a living reliably until they fix this", because anybody insane enough to try and make a living from a brand-new piece of software ought to at least know the risks they made.
[+] [-] borism|16 years ago|reply
I also wonder whether Sun Danyong was treated as nicely?
[+] [-] cubicle67|16 years ago|reply