Monday News: Apple’s storage space problem, Sci-Fi Romance, “nerd entitlement,” and notable pop culture moments of 2014

JanetPublishing NewsApple / cloud storage / Ethics / gender / iPad / iPhone / lawsuit / power / Romance / Science Fiction / Science-Fiction-Romance / sexuality / social equality / storage space / Violence5 Comments

Apple sued for shrinking storage space on 16GB devices thanks to iOS 8 – Two Florida residents have filed suit in California against Apple, alleging that they have misrepresented the amount of storage space available on their 16GB iPhones and iPads, which is further limited in the upgrade from iOS7 to iOS8. Although the suit acknowledges that Apple has been upfront about the effect of formatting on the size of a gigabyte, the plaintiffs contend that the Apple software itself intrudes upon the available storage space, making if even smaller than represented. Then there’s the cloud service Apple provides for a fee:

The complaint, which seeks class action status for others who purchased 16GB devices, further accuses Apple pushing users to its paid iCloud storage plans to store things like photos when they run out of room on the device. It also accuses Apple of not working with third-party storage vendors and desktop file transfer utilities for customers to be able to offload their files.

“Using these sharp business tactics, [Apple] gives less storage capacity than advertised, only to offer to sell that capacity in a desperate moment, e.g., when a consumer is trying to record or take photos at a child or grandchild’s recital, basketball game or wedding,” it says. “To put this in context, each gigabyte of storage Apple shortchanges its customers amounts to approximately 400-500 high resolution photographs.” –The Verge

The Intersection of Love & Technology, Part 1 – A short but interesting piece from Heather Massey on the way SF Romance should focus not just on technological changes, but on how technology has affected (and been affected by) other societal changes. She notes that there is a perception that evolution equals progress, and that when SFR presents what we might see as a more old-fashioned perspective on sexuality and gender, how it can create a sense of dissonance for the reader — or it might be the author’s way of exploring different social values and relationships. Interesting as a companion piece to Cora Buhlert’s blog posts on SF and Romance I posted a couple of weeks ago.

If an SFR doesn’t take into account the possibility of technology-influenced societal and cultural change in some way, then readers may have difficulty suspending disbelief. It’s a complex creative issue, and some stories seem to struggle with how to depict said changes, especially those related to female sexuality and gender roles. For example, a far future hero may say he prefers sexually experienced partners, but the story communicates a different value when it pairs him with a virgin heroine.

Some SFR stories function to project an author’s worldview, either consciously or unconsciously. Or the stories are processing contemporary issues such as gender role imbalances. A few authors may be purposefully writing allegorical stories—all valid. –Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

On Nerd Entitlement – A thoughtful post from Laurie Penny on the social fiction that geekdom for straight white men is the equivalent of race or sexual identity or other social positions that result in marginalization and structural oppression. Her sympathy with the position of these men, from her own self-identified geek status, is clear, but so is her understanding that social privilege still applies. Also, I think her post highlight something important, namely that although we often get caught up in focusing on specific people (i.e. who’s speaking), we really need to focus more on perspectives and roles and social positions, because individual privilege scores can vary widely.

What can I say? This is a strange and difficult age, one of fast-paced change and misunderstandings. Nerd culture is changing, technology is changing, and our frameworks for gender and power are changing – for the better. And the backlash to that change is painful as good, smart people try to rationalise their own failure to be better, to be cleverer, to see the other side for the human beings they are. Finding out that you’re not the Rebel Alliance, you’re actually part of the Empire and have been all along, is painful. Believe me, I know. (Although I always saw myself as an Ewok). We bring our broken hearts and blue balls to the table when we talk gender politics, especially if we are straight folks. Consent and the boundaries of consent – desire and what we’re allowed to speak of desire – we’re going to have to get better, braver and more honest, we’re going to have to undo decades of toxic socialisation and learn to speak to each other as human beings in double quick time.

And most of all, we’re going to have to make like Princess Elsa and let it go – all that resentment. All that rage and entitlement and hurt. Socialisation makes that process harder still for men. The road ahead will be long. I believe in you. I believe in all of us. Nerds are brilliant. We are great at learning stuff. We can do anything we put our minds to, although I suspect this thing, this refusing to let the trauma of nerdolescence create more violence, this will be hardest of all. –New Statesman

The 18 Moments In Pop Culture That Got Us Thinking This Year – Although you may not agree with every item on the list or with Think Progress’ commentary, this is still a pretty good place to start in looking at how last year was marked by issues that demonstrate several consistent themes, from gender and sexuality to ethics and privacy, to power and violence. Here’s #18 on the list, to give you a sense of how it’s constructed (and I love that the New York Times takes up one whole item).

18. #GamerGate got a second wind
It started in 2012 when Anita Sarkeesian spoke out about the presence and portrayal of women in videogames, after which she was brutally attacked online. Some even went so far as to create a game that allows players to beat her up. Two years later, the death threats against her continue. But a similar case of misogyny and online harassment happened in August, when an ex-boyfriend alleged that Zoe Quinn, a videogame developer, slept with a Nathan Grayson, a game reviewer for Kotaku, to get a positive review of Depression Quest. Since then, Quinn’s been the victim of online attacks and rape and death threats. And women who’ve spoken out in support of people like Quinn and Sarkeesian have been attacked ruthlessly. Many people cited ethics in journalism as the real problem at hand, but that’s a secondary issue at best. Let’s just hope that GamerGate — the name for the online assault of female game critics, developers, and bloggers — dies in 2015. And in case you were wondering, there’s still no proof that Grayson ever reviewed Depression Quest. –Think Progress

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

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