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iMetro

iPhenomenally ignorant.

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Metro is a free newspaper, a series of websites, and above all a concept by Jan Stenbeck of Sweden. The paper edition was first, distributed in big bins in the Stockholm tunnelbana. Commuters were encouraged to return their papers when read to nearby bins for reuse. The paper was financed by advertising alone.

Metro was of course a huge success and is now found worldwide.

But there's a curious thing about Swedish journalism even today, even with the advantages of the world wide web and the increased knowledge of how things really are in the world around. No one is 100% sure but the best guess is it has something to do with Microsoft Word and its autocorrect spelling function.

Bill Gates likes to help people with their spelling, their grammar, and even their word usage, telling users for example when their sentences are too long and complex for him to understand. And one thing Bill Gates will never understand is the kind of lower case/upper case combination Apple use so often in their product line today.

Products such as iPod, iPhone, and iPad really throw him for a loop. Words can't begin with a lower case character and then follow with an upper case character! It's not permitted! It's grammatically anti-Microsoft!

Of course the Swedes could turn autocorrect off. Or teach Bill to 'learn' the words iPod, iPhone, and iPad. But why bother?

The world isn't perfect and it takes a long time for the eejits to catch up. This is the way it has always been. Lusers in lots of countries use Microsoft Word. Lusers in other Scandinavian countries use it too. But no matter the reason: use Google to check for yourself. Use Google to see how Scandinavian newspapers spell iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Start with Denmark. You'll see nary an error.

Proceed with Norway. Same thing. (They also ran their own IE6 boycott campaign. Check out their anti-IE6 wiki.)

Now take Sweden's finest.

And not to forget Metro.

Metro:
http://www.google.com/search?q=iPad+site:metro.se
http://www.google.com/search?q=iPod+site:metro.se
http://www.google.com/search?q=iPhone+site:metro.se

No news site in the world consistently screws up iPod, iPhone, and iPad outside Sweden. iPhenomenally ignorant.

But Metro in Sweden may have set a new world record today with three mentions of Apple iProducts on their home page.

Behold. Be puzzled.

Postscript: 'One Too Many'

Several years ago a consultant from this site was at a programming training company in Stockholm to discuss creating a curriculum for the country's defence systems programmers. There was a copy of the company's course catalogue lying on a table.

A quick browse of the catalogue showed that it was Microsoft, Microsoft, and Microsoft. And yet stuck somewhere in there towards the middle were two Unix courses back to back. Whoa.

'You've got two Unix courses in here - isn't that one too many?'

The sarcasm went right over the company rep's head.

'You're right. They're very similar actually. Perhaps we should remove one for the next printing?'