Teens say they're not bad apples

To four Palo Alto teenagers raised in the heart of Silicon Valley, the penalty came as a crushing blow - banishment from all Apple stores worldwide, for life.

[Aaron Daniels]

"I'm not really sure what's going on."

...exactly.

The boys make it sound like they did nothing and made Apple look like a impatient father with roidrage.

[Bad Apple]

Sounds to me like the store manager was guilty of kidnapping--he ordered the boys back into the store against their will. If he suspected them of theft--he should have said so. You cannot just detain people against their will. Clearly no crime occurred since the police did nothing.
Way to drive off young customers, Apple staff.

[Arrogant kids]

The story does not say they are banned. Just that the staff should keep an eye on them.
Big difference.
The boys are a little arrogant; they did something that was not allowed. Now they are making innocent faces, like, who me?

[Bad Apple]

If I were these kid's parents I would lodge a kidnapping complaint against the Apple store manager

[Pauldy]

Bad Apple wrote:

If I were these kid's parents I would lodge a kidnapping complaint against the Apple store manager

What a litigious loon. First there is no sign that they were forcibly taken to the store, he simply told them to. Second the kids committed a computer crime and given current laws this could have turned out much differently if the store manager had been trying to do anything but send a message to the boys. I find it quite disturbing people are trying to paint them as victims when taking out all the he said she said they committed a crime because as anyone who knows more than they read here the iphone doesn't just let you install software you have to circumvent security measures meant to keep unauthorized software from running on the phone.

[Bad Apple]

If there was a crime why did the police not arrest them?
The crime was committed by the manager under color of authority. Did he tell the kids they could just walk away? No--he forced them back into the store.
Kidnapping--manager should be sued

[What in the]

How is this even news??? Who cares??? Pathetic.

[Apple Bites]

The Silicon Valley outlet is the one place Apple should NOT have managers with the PR sensitivity of prison guards. Textbook lesson in consumer relations for retailers of emerging technologies!

[Ricky]

So they can't go into an Apple store. So what. These kids should be glad they have been freed from corporate serfdom.

[Roccondil]

Has the company actually said the kids are banned? Or have the store employees merely been told to keep an eye out for them to make sure they don't hack company equipment again? That's how I would interpret it.

[Jimmy]

These kids and their parents would be crazy NOT to sue for unlawful imprisonment.

[Mark]

This is really no big deal, it's certainly not news worthy. That aside, is this anecdotal proof that Americans really will sue over anything? I think so.

[Sean]

I am severely disappointed that this article was ever printed. An entire article dedicated to conjecture, which completely ignores the relevant fact that Apple itself confirmed these kids are not banned. The best part is, you put this fact in the article and conveniently decided to ignore it. Not cool.

[Wsymonds]

Pauldy wrote:

<quoted text>
What a litigious loon. First there is no sign that they were forcibly taken to the store, he simply told them to. Second the kids committed a computer crime and given current laws this could have turned out much differently if the store manager had been trying to do anything but send a message to the boys. I find it quite disturbing people are trying to paint them as victims when taking out all the he said she said they committed a crime because as anyone who knows more than they read here the iphone doesn't just let you install software you have to circumvent security measures meant to keep unauthorized software from running on the phone.

No law was broken here. jail breaking is completely legal.

[zinks]

Great----- smart kids. No harm done to anyone.
Give them a job at Apple at the Genius Bar.

[Brian]

What joke. These are Apple's best customers, these students are it's future. If anything Steve Jobs should be offer them each a job.

[andrew]

if anything, these kids made the iphone look more cool than it actually is to any iphone browsing customer in the store. its not like they were engaging in illegal file sharing. the store employees need to download the latest attitude adjustment update to their brains. it fixes reported bugs such as "i'm superior to you because i work in the apple store" and other consumer-employee incompatibilities.

[adam]

banned from the apple store? consider yourself lucky! now you can learn how to shop at places that dont jack up the price by 3000%

[Hayk]

How did they Jailbreak the phones to begin with?

[Nick]

They aren't allowed to detain you, even if they have just cause. I would have also told them that they were not allowed to photograph me.