Alright all you Apple fanboys (and girls), listen up because I’m about to let you in on a little secret: The company that makes that flashy, overpriced iPod and iPhone you carry around isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it’s fighting innovation.

Now, this may come as a shock to your “fight the man” hipster individualist lifestyle, so please, take the seat nearest you, remove those little ear buds, put down that $5 Venti… thing, tighten those skinny jeans and listen to some real music.

Take the iPod, an industry-defining product, and realize that Apple blocks iPod owners from using digital music services besides its own iTunes program. It disputes other music providers, such as Rhapsody, which went out of its way to let users sync their iPods. I guess it just sucks that 75 percent of people who own media players can’t choose where to buy music online. Apple maintains an ironclad grip on all of its products, frequently updating device firmware to reject non-Apple services and products.

The iPhone, a credit to the company’s vision and creativity, is yet another example of how it smothers user freedom. The iPhone touts numerous Apps, whose possible functions vary from games to exercise schedules to medical tools. Possible, that is, if they are cleared by Apple’s App Store, an approval system that has finally drawn the attention and criticism from intelligent people and Mac-fanboys alike, including the FCC. While Apple’s filtration and control has been of some use – the baby-shaker app was in poor taste, even I’ll admit that – it has blocked Apps which compete with their own.

Over the summer, the App Store rejected Google Voice, which revolutionizes phones by giving users a universal number for multiple lines and an easy platform to manage calls, voicemail and texts. It does what the iPhone does, only better, prompting Apple to state that the Google App “changes the user experience.” That’s actually B.S. for “we don’t want our rival to take our business.”

Now, you may be asking yourself, “So what? I’m happy inside of my Apple-filled utopia being the individual they tell me to be, why should this matter to me?” Well, innovation and creativity have been the keystone of life as we know it, since the first little monkey decided to pick up a stick and beat his friend with it to the creation of the printing press and personal computer. And, in order for creative juices to really flow, a person needs to be open and receptive to every culture, way of thought, piece of information, process, fun fact… everything.

Apple, despite what Justin Long may say in commercials, seems to be doing its best to stifle creativity by controlling what you see and what you use, limiting competition and restricting user freedom. Is this really a company you want to support the next time you hitch a ride to Best Buy or hop on Amazon.com?

Weinberg senior Kenny Levin can be reached at [email protected].