Soapbox is a new regular feature where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. Apple gets another beat down this week…

AppleTV is first up on the chopping block. Personally I love how Steve Jobs said at Macworld 2008 that AppleTV 1.0 was more about sharing music and pictures. If that was really the case then why was it called AppleTV? It is funny that a device with TV in the name has hardly any TV content. Especially since the departure of NBC from iTunes. AppleTV “Take Two” is about movies; it won’t be until AppleTV “Third Time’s the Charm” that you’ll get the TV part. Yet another reason why people should hold off on the AppleTV.

It is apparent that Apple is deliberately trying to avoid any sort DVR functionality too. I think Apple does not want to have to compete head-to-head with Microsoft’s Media Center offering. If you haven’t seen what Vista Media Center is like (which is included with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) you owe it to yourself to check it out; especially if you have an Xbox 360 and could leverage the extender functionality. I think it is the best DVR UI I have ever used (better than Tivo even).

It would probably be easier for Apple to get more TV content if Steve didn’t develop such a bad rap with what he did to the companies in the music cartel industry. Everyone else saw that you need to be careful when you partner with Apple. Steve seems fairly Machiavellian in is his business relationships. I wouldn’t want my company to partner with Apple. It is like partnering with Walmart; a very one-way relationship.

One more thing that just kills me. What is with Apple and blaming GAAP and SarbOx for charging customers for new features? In case you haven’t heard about this, I’ll give you the gist of it. Apple has started charging users for various updates that would usually be free, but they have officially stated that it is because of accounting regulations. If they add significant new features without charging for them they’d be breaking the law, and/or they would have to restate earnings for previous years.

First it started with nickel-and-diming selling MacBook Pro users an updated driver (a new driver!) to enable the Wireless-N functionality that was already built into the laptop they had purchased. Yeah, they were charging people for software to use hardware they already paid for! Then they started charging $20 to iPod Touch users for software that is included with the iPhone. Now, accounting is the “reason” for why movie rentals won’t come to pre-generation six iPods. It isn’t that they just want you to upgrade to a new iPod, they swear. No seriously. Honestly. They would if they could, but they can’t. No other company could concoct a story like that for their customers and get away with it.

The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 have both had significant new features added. Microsoft made the Zune 1.0 upgradable to the Zune 2.0 firmware. My Treo cellphone has had a number of updates that added significant features (instant messaging, SDHC memory card support, push-to-talk support, MP3 ringtones). Or how about my Linksys WRT54G that I’ve been running forever, I don’t even know how few features the 1.0 firmware had compared to what comes on it now. Basically anything with firmware can get significant new features. So apparently every other tech company on the planet just figured out how to screw over the U.S. government whereas poor old Apple suspiciously has to appeal to the good nature of its core consumers?

Although even the iPhone and AppleTV have had significant new features added which Apple didn’t charge for. Apple, if you want to gouge charge your customers, get a spine and just say you are going to charge them for new features. Don’t hide behind what looks like an outright lie that you can’t make the features available for free. Between my undergrad and graduate accounting courses I know enough to know that isn’t true.

Note: I promise I won’t even mention Apple in my next soapbox. :)