Hey Apple, why be such a hater?
I’ve been writing some custom WebDAV/CardDAV code for a project I’m working on, and wanted to test it against some CardDAV servers, other than the SabreDAV server I use myself and use for testing. Google’s new CardDAV service works fine, and seems to follow industry standards. This is a new service for Google since they are killing off the Microsoft Exchange service at the end of this month, most likely just to spite Microsoft. But that’s another story.
When I tested my CardDAV code against Apple’s iCloud CardDAV service, I’ve been having nothing but problems. As is typical with Apple, it’s difficult to find info on their standards and protocols, since everything Apple is generally a walled garden. They don’t play well with others.
On my Windows 7 desktop, I can easily log into iCloud with FireFox 17.0.1. But if I use FireFox on my Android tablet, I get a message that says, “Screw you Android, no love for you here!”. Oh wait, it was more like “This browser does not support iCloud.” I get the same results with Android Chrome and the original Android browser.
So why would that have to be the case? My top of the line Android tablet is fast, supports things like Flash and scripting, I can’t think of a single technical reason why it couldn’t work if it can run on a Windows browser. iCloud is not complaining about Javascript or the version of browser, or giving any technical reason, like say a broken Flash icon on an iPad browser for example.
The iCloud service isn’t even a completely “free” service, it’s optionally a paid service, so why not be willing to take money from Android customers like me? Could it be that Apple has lots of cash in the bank, and can afford to do petty things like hate Android users and try to force them to buy iPads instead? Kind of like Google has lots of money in the bank so they can afford to cancel Microsoft services if they feel like it for no good reason.
I guess if Apple owned and operated a public transit system, Android users would be forced to sit in the back of the bus as well.
