I’ve just completed ‘my’ first Podcast. Before I say more about that, allow me a moment to rail against the word “Podcast.” In doing so, I open a can of worms (nearly a pun, in this context). After all, language isn’t as logical as many would like to believe, being the most human of practices. I know: A crow can describe the type of gun a hunter carries. Still, a million monkeys would not come up with “Podcast.” (God bless them.)

Some will see in my resentment of “Podcast” roots in my OS orientation. Indeed, a problem with Podcast is that it stems from iPods, the viral product that revivified Apple, which used to be a computer company. My hat is off to iPple for making the recording and distribution of audio and video accessible to the masses. While Podcasts are to blogs what TV is to literature, it is all part of liberating and empowering us to reach each other.

But “Podcast”? pLease! My recent experience didn’t involve an iPod at any stage — how is it a Podcast? Talk about branding. If only Apple could get us to write it as “Pod©cast,” or some such variant.^* It’s as if we all started calling handkerchiefs “Kleenex.” Good for a corporation; bad for a culture.

Understand, the main reason Apple has such a small niche of the computer market is that Apple products are expensive. They remain expensive because Apple has an iron grip on its products. Every CEO and petty dictator wishes for Steve Jobs’ power, especially over the masses. Whereas Microsoft is largely a software company that also sells hardware, Apple is a hardware company that also sells software. iPhone and iTouch are simply the latest examples.

I get the pun: broadcast –> Podcast. He-he. I have no problem with awkward language, like the word awkward itself or “blogosphere.” But “blog” is not a product like “Pod.” That capital “P” represents what disappoints me most about consumers. We are sheep. We are dim-witted animals slopping at the corporate troughs, squealing our delight at any swill thrown our way. Don’t like my analogy? Corporations clearly see us that way — just examine advertising.

It is the most Orwellian development that Apple, the subversive company bringing power to the people in the face of the Evil Empire (Microsoft), is really just Sharper Image. Mind you, I don’t object to the mass-production of expensive toys for the rich and wannabee rich. But people shopping at Sharper Image don’t think it brings “power to the people!” Apple customers have morphed from “cool” to “tool” without even noticing. Moreover, by convincing people that consistently buying one brand sets them apart — that Apple is cool, not corporate — puts Apple right there with Starbucks, Nike and the Republican Party. Now, go put on your iBlinders and jack back into the Matrix — Apple needs you. mjh

PS: Peace and love to all my Mac friends. I know you’re cool with a little bear-baiting. You joined the revolution in the garage days. (Apple II, anyone?) Only the newbies are tatooing corporate logos on their souls, right? It’s our corporate overlords I’d like to irritate. Don’t be their shills in the comments section.

PPS: Oh, yeah, that ‘Internet-based audio interview’ was with Benson Hendrix at UNM. The 37 minute file can be found at https://www4.unm.edu/unmlive/?p=34. There is hardly any corporation- or consumer-bashing in it (dude, I’ve got books to sell) and we didn’t have time to discuss Geek Culture.

^*My buddy, cko sent me this link to a letter in which an Apple attorney renounces any claim on “podcast” and uses the lowercase form. OK — I retract the assertion that Apples wants podcast capitalized. Then why would anyone capitalize it? Respect? Deference? Slavish devotion? I don’t know. I dislike the word “podcast” almost as much as “Podcast,” but maybe I’ve been unfair to Apple. (Aw, look at that cute little corporation!) Perhaps iPple does “Think Different.” (That error is another entry.)