Apple Stores Block MySpace

Apple is too cool for self-obsessed bad HTML coders.  Too many idiots were coming into the Apple Stores and monopolizing the Macs on display to update and browse MySpace.

From the Crave CNET blog here:

In New York City, you can go to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in midtown 24 hours a day, seven days a week and browse the Web from the Macs on display. But due to a new Apple regulation, you can no longer access MySpace.com.

A statement from Apple Friday confirmed this. “Nearly 2 million people visit Apple stores every week,” the statement read. “We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores.” MySpace is the only site that has been blocked.

An Apple Store employee confirmed to CNET News.com that this has been an ongoing problem. “MySpace is a big issue for the Apple stores because people come in, Photobooth themselves (using Macs’ built-in webcams), then stick their picture up on their MySpace account and loiter at machines for hours,” the source said in an e-mail. “It is especially troublesome at the flagships and high-volume stores, and for a while there was no official word on how to deal with it.”

Another way to solve the problem is to make the machines coin operated.  Or better yet, have a script that pops up insulting the user every 60 seconds if they linger on MySpace. 

The popups would say:

• I really don’t think you are cool enough to have a Mac.
• You know, Tom is not really your friend.  He is sleeping with your girlfriend.
• Red text on blue backgrounds really makes your MySpace page stand out the best.
• Why don’t you set all of your videos to auto-play?
• That hot chick trying to be your friend won’t spam your comment list.  Promise.