back to article Selfie sticks BANNED by Apple: No hipster tools' tools allowed at WWDC

Apple is selling tickets to this year's Worldwide Developers Conference – though if you get hold of one, leave your selfie stick in the hotel room. Those wishing to attend have until Friday to register for Cupertino's lottery system. The confab will be held between June 8 and 12 in San Francisco's Moscone West conference …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Apple bans IT posers

    It's going to be a very quiet forum...

    1. thomas k.

      Re: Apple bans IT posers

      No, they only banned the narcissis-sticks, not the narcissists.

  2. Dan Paul

    Why have age limits at all?

    So Apple does not want any scholarship awards to go to anyone younger than 13?

    THAT is strictly ageism! I believe it is against both California and Federal law. They can require supervision but not an age limit.

    Scholarship awards should be available to anyone who can provide a qualifying app that they created, regardless of age.

    They need to be more considerate as I know of a young man that was in SUNY Buffalo and doing differential calculus at the age of ten. People like him need to be given every advantage or it's a particularly pernicious form of discrimination. His own high school was bad enough as they would not originally believe he was smart enough to take math classes in University.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why have age limits at all?

      IANAL, but my understanding is that Federal law prohibits collection of data on under-13s. The same data that would be required to participate in this type of contest. Furthermore, discrimination based on being a minor is not only considered legal and ethical, but established law in many cases.

      1. Chris King

        Re: Why have age limits at all?

        That'll be COPPA:

        http://www.coppa.org/comply.htm

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why have age limits at all?

      Dude it's Apple. They don't think about things like that, they just want people who are old enough to act stupid and be flashy. Kids, especially smart kids, don't behave that way at all.

      Apple is the image of being nothing more than image. Anyone who attended an Apple conference pre-iPod era always felt that shadow, didn't talk about it, but felt it (I haven't been back since those days...*shudder*) It's similar to how you feel like a cash dispenser at Windows conferences...don't talk about it, but feel it down your back. If you want an event that is non-biased, open to expression, and will let you bring your children, then you better head over the Comic-Con or something similar, because I.T. shows are all dried up.

      "Federal law prohibits collection of data on under-13s. The same data that would be required to participate in this type of contest. "

      Uh, 2 things. 1. When you pay 1600usd, you're in no contest. 2. If attending an I.T. event requires you to hand over data...hmm, let us know how it went! (sucker)

      1. Tim Almond

        Re: Why have age limits at all?

        Conferences are weird to me. They're streamed on the web, but people go to them. I've done a couple because they were cheap and came with perks that paid for them, but $1600?

    3. Amorous Cowherder

      Re: Why have age limits at all?

      Surely it's their shindig and they can invite whomever they wish? I've no interest in the Apple "ecosphere" but same would apply if you held a development conference in your local church hall, it's your do, your rules.

  3. Nelbert Noggins

    I suspect you find Apple, like everyone else, are not allowed to collect data from minors and data protection puts that age at 13. For the same reasons Adobe would skip all registration on their flash/shockwave installer when you tick the I am under 13 box.

    I expect as the applications are online and they'd get into much more trouble collecting data from minors. Yes there are ways to deal with it, such a require someone over 13 register and then create an application on behalf of the minor and giving consent as an appropriate adult for Apple to collect the data required about an under 13.

    For 350 awards it's probably not worth the effort.

    We've face similar issues over the past 10+ years when I've worked for companies selling online educational systems and user registration for products used by the under 13 age group. It becomes even trickier providing redemption codes/vouchers in print products for them to download additional resources and not being able to let them register in the online systems used for online sales

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I prefer

    "The (tax-dodging) Cupertino idiot-tax corporation...."

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Since when have Selfie sticks had anything to do with hipsters?

    Asian and European tourists are hardly hipsters.

    The word hipster appears to have evolved to mean anyone / anything you don't like. To the point where actual hipsters will refer to other people as hipsters.

  6. Alister
    Thumb Up

    "Narcissis-sticks"

    Ha, love it!

    1. Spud
      Joke

      I'm going to buy one just so I can stick it to the man.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Can someone sum up the article for me...

    ..I keep getting to

    ""The App Store ignited an app ecosystem that is simply amazing, forever changing the lives of customers and creating millions of jobs worldwide,""

    I then have to run to the toilet and vomit.

    1. BongoJoe

      Re: Can someone sum up the article for me...

      I keep getting confused at the 'ecosystem' part; I then start to think of what's in my garden pond.

      1. Chris King

        Re: Can someone sum up the article for me...

        You know, that "ecosystem" could include the scum and algae floating on the top...

    2. Chozo
      Coat

      Re: Can someone sum up the article for me...

      In the beginning there was Apple and they said

      Let there be white!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yeah, ban them!

    imagine the horror, when at the launch of the latest, greatest, world-changing Apple products, the audience admire themselves (on a stick), instead of a life-changer...

  9. D@v3

    could this be a clue as to the next apple harware release?

    The iStick?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Humankind has come full circle

    Pre-historic Man starts using tools by picking up a stick and admiring his ability to wield it...

  11. Dan Wilkie

    100MB zipped?

    Surely that would have to be more comments than code.

    Or endless if then else statements. Over and Over. For eternity.

    Or does Objective C / Swift just make really big code?

    1. RobTub

      Re: 100MB zipped?

      I don't think the 100MB is for the code only. It is for an application showcasing their strengths and eligibility, possibly with animation and whatever else they could muster.

  12. Gordon 10
    WTF?

    Am I the only one?

    Who had to google Selfie Stick and now has lost something useful from long term memory?

    1. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: Am I the only one?

      In a sense, no. The only reason I haven't had to look them up is because I came across the thrice-bedamned things for the first time on a long weekend break in Barcelona earlier this year. It slowly broke through my general sense of well-being (Barcelona does that to me) that there were lots of people looking the wrong way wrt the lovely sights of the city whilst wafting around what appeared to be broken umbrellas with expensive phones on the end. Somehow my wife - not gifted with any interest in technology at all - knew what these things were called, and said that she had been waiting for me to note them and had tried to guess what strength of vitriol I would generate. Apparently, I was over the expected pH until it came to the utter cunt in front of the old cathedral who spent over twenty minutes trying to capture the zenith of gurning perfection whilst his (assumed) girlfriend looked on. I still don't know why he just didn't ask her to take the photo in the first place ...

      Since then, I have seen one person holding the phone end of a narcissis-stick (I love that term!) whilst the other took the photo - again, why?

    2. Nelbert Noggins

      Re: Am I the only one?

      No, I was surprised to find out it was a real item and not a derogatory term relating to selfie takers.

      I'm still not sure how having an expensive phone, waving around on a stick, whatever distance it is from you, with no real idea of what it's going to capture is very useful. It wouldn't seem to make it any safer than asking a stranger to take a photo, after all it can't be that hard to grab the phone end of a stick and walk off with it.

      It started to think it'd be useful in combination with the adjustable LCD screen viewfinder on my S9500, but the centre of gravity with the weight of the camera would make it an expensive club rather than a useful camera aid...

  13. John Browne 1
    Stop

    Last Christmas...

    I considered getting a selfie stick for my nephew.

    Got him a Nerf gun with laser sights instead - more socially acceptable 8-)

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