How Apple can mess with your life

I had just been poured a drink at a bar Saturday night, when the man to my left tapped me on the shoulder.

"That's an 8," he said.

Unsure as to what he was evaluating--my beauty out of 100, perhaps?--I turned toward him very slowly.

"Er, excuse me?" I muttered, squinting at the man's long, straggly hair and rather kind-looking face.

"Your drink is an 8. Normally they pour you a 6," he said.

My silence must have appeared somewhat noisy to him, as Oliver (not his real name) picked up his iPhone and began to explain:

"You see, I'm running an app on my iPhone that tells me how much I can drink before I get into my car. And the lady behind the bar has poured you 8 ounces, not 6."

"So you trust your iPhone to tell you precisely when to stop?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. I also run a calorie app," said Oliver, a little too enthusiastically.

"What's a calorie app?" I said, dumbly.

"It's an app that tells me exactly how much I should eat every day," he replied. "But it's a bit of a problem to be honest, because when it tells me I'm 300 calories under my limit, I then order a dessert, even though I don't actually feel like eating a dessert."

"So you let these apps tell you what to do and how to live?" I asked, feeling a weird frown forming above my shades. "Don't you realize that half of this techy stuff was designed by people who barely see the light of day, adore only numbers and secretly want you to be a little more like them?"

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I was one of them for 25 years. In fact, I hadn't been anywhere near a computer for a year until I got this iPhone."

(Credit: CC Yutaka Tsutano/Flickr)

I grabbed at my now 6 ounces of pinot noir a little too hastily as I listened to him explain: "I worked at Apple for 25 years. Huge machines. Back end stuff. Loved working with those machines. Loved being able to tell them what to do."

"So what happened?" I asked, becoming increasingly fascinated by Oliver's openness.

"I just couldn't do it any more. All the things I really wanted to do, I couldn't. Because the machines always took priority. The machines always had to be looked after. Without the back end systems, nothing at Apple could have happened."

"So you were at the mercy of the machines?" I wondered.

"Yeah. I loved them. But I just couldn't take it any more. If I'd stayed another 5 years, I would never have had to work again. But I couldn't do it. So one day I just walked," he said, a curiously guilty joy in his eyes.

"So what are you doing now?" I asked.

"I'm trying to find a life beyond the one I used to have," said Oliver. "I'm traveling, seeing things, having new experiences, learning to play the guitar. I've got a great new business idea, too."

Oliver said he was heading up north because he'd never really been there.

As we said our good-byes I asked Oliver again whether he really needed those iPhone apps to tell him how much to eat and drink.

Still sober, at least according to his iPhone app, he said: "Information is fun, isn't it? But I guess I'm traveling to see what else is fun in this world."

As he thought about it, he told me that he had gone to a music school which, at the end of the course, gets its students to form a band and gets them to play live at a San Francisco venue.

"I love metal," he said. "And so for my song, I chose Sabbath's 'War Pigs'."

"How did it go?" I asked, three ounces in my hand.

"The best feeling I've ever had in my life," he said.

[myles taylor]

Oh come on....the title is bait and switch. It should be "How Technology Can Mess with your Life". I love CNet, but you guys have to stop doing this thing where you put the iPhone or Apple in articles just to get clicks. <br /><br />As for it messing with your life, that's only if you let it. If you let it do that, then you are the problem, not the app or the device. Personally, I need to eat more calories and so if my phone tells me that I haven't eaten enough (I don't have the app yet although now I'm considering it) I probably should find something else to eat.

[sanjayb]

I agree with Myles. The title is just to suck you in. If u really wanted a good title then u could have said, "When technology takes over your life!" Really no need to throw Apple in the title to generate page views.

[SeizeCTRL]

another useless story to glorify the iPhone?<br /><br />does Apple pay c|net for this level of dribble?

[slickuser]

the problem is no other phone has the app he has mentioned...

[Econniff]

It does smack of brand interest, but at the same time, what other mobile device could he possibly be referring to? The Blackberry? :p<br /><br />It's true that the concern being brought up anecdotally here is a general technology one, yet Apple pretty much dominates this realm. They've become to mobile devices what the Microsoft is to home computers. ie: the only product in that field relevant to the average consumer.

[tazphil]

"They've become to mobile devices what the Microsoft is to home computers. ie: the only product in that field relevant to the average consumer.".....<br /><br />How did you come by this interesting fact, cos I find that Apple only has about 10% of the global market share...so that is an interested analogy but next time do some research.<br />No doubt the iPhone is a popular subject but that dont mean everyone owns one or wants to own one

[ckurowic]

I agree with Econniff.....they didn't get the term "Crackberry" for no reason.

[Dalmatian28]

Chris Matyszczyk is just another Apple fanboy that uses "tech version of s*x" to get people to read his article! One word: "cheep"!!! <br />I also have similar story to his: I was in my bathroom and I run out of the toilet paper....thankfully there was my iPhone so I went online and I bought app for "that", I used the "app for that" and now my life is so much better! The only problem is my iPhone stinks now! upsss Got the picture?????

[A2Panther]

What is also missing, is that Apple is NOT the only company on the planet that has to have backend machines looked after 24/7. They are one of a mirage of companies that have these needs and the list is so long, its frustrating the author didn't make this statement in his article.<br />How many applications are built in with overnight processing? Can you say, "Batch Jobs" that run in the early wee morning hours to have data cleared so new events can happen on a second's notice? What about the stockmarket? Those backend systems need to be up and running 24/7, as with bank's and major conglomerates...<br />As for the "Applications running our lives," Yep, you can be 'dependent' or 'independent' its up to you and how you choose your freedom from "Tools" created to help you make better choices with your life. ie: 300+ needed calories? <br />I'm guessing the only fault there, is that the application didn't offer pictures of the food groups to choose from to choose your Next 300 Calorie expenditure.

[monkeyfun14]

"It's true that the concern being brought up anecdotally here is a general technology one, yet Apple pretty much dominates this realm. They've become to mobile devices what the Microsoft is to home computers. ie: the only product in that field relevant to the average consumer." <br /> <br /> <br />iPhone is more of a toy than anything I can't keep a straight face calling it a business phone. I think WinMo Blackberry and Android have that market. <br /> <br />And from what I see around here people are getting bored of the design.

[markosph]

Monkey... I have a ipod touch... from Windows CE... to Windows Mobile 6 I used a Compaq Ipaq one variety of it or another. I actually was one of those who suffered through back orders of the original iPaq from Compaq. Saying that... in the 6 months I have had an Ipod (yes I replaced Compaq/HP dedicated PDA with a music player) as my PDA... its not a toy for me, do I have games on it... yes, but I use it mostly for QuickOffice, Email, Calendar and Task and Todo list... it is also a photography buddy... I am able to take notes without pulling out a stylus ( and I lost many of those) I guess it depends on who is using it, I jailbroke mine so I could make it look like my own and not be like everyone else, cause one thing I hate about Apple is everything is the same, and that irritates me. But I do like my Ipod Touch, in the short time I have had it, I rarely open MS Outlook on my desktop or notebook cause I have gotten so used to typing email on it. PS... I have a self made deskop PC (cant do that with mac) and a HP notebook... I love my PC's<br /><br />I own one of the nutrition apps above, I don't use it to watch calories, I use it mostly for fat and protein content of foods, mostly as a look-up tool. If I did use it to keep track of what I eat and I was short calories but fll or its to late to eat 300 calories, I wouldn't follow what it said. I do however use a program like cychosis (a cycling journal) and ifitness but last time I checked they dont tell me what to do.

[p1j2h9]

?????? <br />I'm sorry but the whole time I was reading this my reaction was "Who cares?" <br /> <br />If you can't turn off the iphone, computer or anything else it is your problem [who cares?]. It is rather boring. If you can, it is still rather boring [who cares?]. Almost as boring as people who think every little detail needs to be posted on boring websites about their boring little lives. [Really who cares?] <br /> <br />NEXT.

[bigpicture]

Maybe that is the BIG problem that causes all of the others??? NOBODY CARES?? Because in the end everything is reciprocal, you reap what you sow.

[JacobPritchett]

At least he's using his brain to write something thoughtful, not posting a comment with unreasonable, unintelligent, and recycled insults.<br /><br />P.S. Learn how to punctuate correctly.

[spalla2]

What a cheap trick to get clicks... i was really curious as to how apple can ruin my life but it turns out that you ruined the past 1 minute of my life with this trash article.

[weedmonk]

He loves his shiny plastic toys from his oh so precious corporation.

[ckh1272]

@weedmonk--Actually it's a great way to bait silly people like yourself into leaving more pointless comments. Now your day is complete.

[fortyonejb]

@ckh1272<br /><br />irony is delicious isn't it? you silly person you.

[ckh1272]

"by fortyonejb August 2, 2009 1:04 PM PDT<br />@ckh1272<br /><br />irony is delicious isn't it? you silly person you."<br /><br />@fortyonejb--Look up "sarcasm".

[Nevermark]

This was an article whose only joy in life was the hope that it would never be written. Dragging it kicking and screaming out into the daylight was cruel to both the article and its hapless readers fooled by the title into expecting something interesting, relevant or thought provoking.

[Steve802]

... as ksfr used to say, "so very san francisco"

[lynnlw]

Steve802: San Francisco and Cupertino are two very different cultures.

[Hokulea]

Gollum wants his precious. Needs his precious. Can't live without precious!

[deftdrummer]

I agree with everyone else about the headline. On the other hand, the story wouldn't have been so boring if you actually knew how to retell a story with a little bit of literary swagger. The guy's story wasn't all that interesting, so many people take this approach to life. <br /><br />Instead, it may have been a better idea to get his contact information, dig deeper into where he had been and where he was going. You know....conduct an interview when you're not drunk. How journalists used to conduct business.

[JacobPritchett]

What are you talking about? I thought journalists were always drunk! At any rate, most of them knew how to use conjunctions and complete sentences. :P

[tenelkin]

this reminds me of the movie Wall-e.

[JacobPritchett]

If I had a drink, it might be on the keyboard.

[ikramerica--2008]

A glass of wine is 5.5 oz, not 6. Or 8.<br /><br />Wait, wasn't that what the article was about? Because I'm pretty sure Apple didn't write either application this guy was using to ruin his life...

[SlimGem]

"A glass of wine is 5.5 oz, not 6. Or 8."<br /><br />Who needs a glass when you can just drink out of the bottle?

[kelmon]

Given that the alcohol content varies between different wines, can you really measure how much you can drink based on the size of the glass? Further, the idea that you can measure how much you can drink based on units is a nonsense since how intoxicated you are depends on many other factors, not the least of which is your own body size. My father, for example, was a captain in the merchant navy and was therefore required to carry a Breathalyzer in order to perform spot checks on crew but he used to do it on himself as well and found that he was able to consume much more than was "recommended" before reaching the limit recorded by the device.<br /><br />Counting glasses only gives you a ballpark estimate. You need to know how alcohol effects you and make a sensible decision accordingly.

[zachdsteele]

Interesting, thanks for the read Chris

[ikghassassin]

cnet sometimes has good articles, and then there is misleading junk like this...

[Mr. Dee]

Thanks for boring me.

[Seaspray0]

My biggest impression was that the story was a 0.

[Fatesrider]

I agree that this article's life would best have been shortened under a stout pillow than being allowed to see the light of day. It's not news. It's not relevant (Except, perhaps, to "Oliver") and the title "Some folks shouldn't have Smartphones" would have been more accurate.<br /><br />Until there are a host of mindless, Smartphone-controlled Zombies (Call them Phombies) staggering around (or jumping, running, stretching or whatever other action their omnipotent Smartphone is telling them they must do at that moment), such instances of techno-addiction are little more than a harmless curiosity: an insignificant eddy in the flow of daily life.<br /><br />Call this a fluff piece (and in my opinion, unworthy of publication) and move on.

[liquidmetalband]

Oh, man! I can imagine it now. You have a bunch of yuppies sitting around in a bar, using their iPhones to tell them how much alcohol they can consume.<br /><br />Part of me wants to say this story is made up, but another part actually thinks this is real and happens in some people's lives. Wow.

[kelmon]

People still use the term "yuppies"? I thought that went out of use along with Gordon Gekko's braces...

[calculatorwatch]

first off, sorry to join everyone else in leaving a bad comment, but the fact is you were close but you just weren't there<br />this article has the air of a really touching interesting story about someones decisions and transformation through the medium of an interesting conversation, and you certainly did all you could to make the article into just that. But when you get right down to it, theres just nothing there. We never got a real explanation of why he hadn't touched a computer for a year, or more importantly how he justified letting a computer (iphone) run/ruin his whole life after having the epiphany that that's exactly what was happening before and what he made a big decision to change. So there's really just no real point<br />and on top of that most of the conversation doesn't follow itself (typical with alcohol) and the whole thing feels kinda dry<br />and I also agree that that title was ********

[Splashes]

Absolutely, totally, and in all other ways LAME.

[trs80model4]

I actually liked the article. It was a double take on Apple messing with your life. Both the lesson learned by Oliver regarding his life at Apple and his new found fixation with his iPhone. Has he escaped? Maybe. The iPhone allows the freedom he never would have been able to have experienced with back office machine development and support. Having been in IT for twenty some years, I know my life has changed drastically with the advent of portable computing. <br /><br />Thanks Chris. Good perspective check.

[lizardluv]

Well, we all might have our minor grumbles about Apple, but, hey, at least it WORKS!

[1730dtla]

I enjoyed the article. <br /> <br />I'm almost done with personal computing myself. I expect to be done well before America goes SAAS. <br /> <br />American culture is beginning to atrophe. Every movie's a remake, music's in similar shape and personalities are really starting to suck. (Run down the violent responses to this short blog post =\) <br /> <br />I'm thinking seriously about getting rid of my mobile. My mom used to remember all her friend's phone numbers. PSSSHHH. I won't even finish that thought. Besides, when I'm not home, I'm not home because, presumably, I'm out doing something. I'm --&gt; busy &lt;--. I don't think I want to be so accessible that I can be reached anywhere at any time. I don't need to be able to take stupid, low-res pics everywhere I go and I don't need to play games everytime I stand still. <br /> <br />The iphone app angle was thought provoking because it seemed like "Oliver" needed the app to be able to open a dialogue with another person. An addictive personality. Addicted to computer technology. <br /> <br />But he may have the right idea. I think I'm going to buy a mtn bike.

[monkeyfun14]

"American culture is beginning to atrophe. Every movie's a remake, music's in similar shape and personalities are really starting to suck. (Run down the violent responses to this short blog post =\)" <br /> <br /> <br />Eventually it comes to a point when completely unique ideas run out.

[danielj1987]

you know, maybe he just wanted to write a fluff piece as someone called it. i think this is more along the lines of sharing thoughts more than being a full fledge news story. this article is to get you to think, to get you to read it and say "hmmm". it isn't to be a ground breaking discovery, it's to think. and honestly, those of you saying it's smartphones in general, not just iphones. think for a second, are there any app stores nearly big enough to DENT apple's app store? you say palm pre, some will know, you say iphone, only third world's won't know. think for a minute. iphone is where the app market is, and that is what most are using, hence the name.