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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Addressing The Proverbial "Elephant in the Room": The New Apple App "Where is Robert? - A Robert Pattinson Fan App" A Twitter/FaceBook/Internet Debate
Posted by kotang at 12:15 AMThis blog is dedicated to Rob and his career. RobertPattinson U.S. refuses to post gossip, tabloid fodder, paparazzi pictures or videos. It is this way of thinking that brought us here to create the blog in the first place so that like-minded fans have a place to go for all the information they need and know they wont have to weed thru the bullshit to get it. Having said that, I wouldn't normally be writing this as the subject matter does fall into the "gossip" category. In this case I felt it was really important to address it as the resulting backlash from everywhere is causing more harm that good.
The other day I saw the uproar on Twitter that Apple, in their infinite wisdom, was releasing an App for
IPhone/ITouch/IPad entitled "Where is Robert? - A Robert Pattinson Fan App" As a result a resounding "NOOOOOO" could be heard across the internet. Twitter was inundated with extremely upset fans and immediately Facebook pages sprang up dedicated to stopping it. I immediately started asking what this was about and even went as far as to (prematurely) join one of the Facebook pages people I know were also joining. The responses I got were confused and heartfelt: Apple was releasing an App that stalked Robert Pattinson's whereabouts. Most of my friends. along with myself, HATE the paparazzi, the tabloids and anyone that refuses to respect Rob's or any celebrity's privacy. I have always, although I am very immersed in Twitter and Rob's career, been one to ask before I act and although I was hearing the news from so many sources, I thought the responsible thing to do would be to research the issue. That is exactly what I did and what I found out scares me more than the people freaking out about it in the first place. This is NOT a stalker App. PERIOD! I live in California and we have some of the most groundbreaking Anti-Stalking laws in the country and although we just added new laws (effective January 1, 2010) that solely address the actions of the paparazzi, it is enough to keep what everyone on Twitter and Facebook was saying it was from ever being released. If indeed that is what it was.
I decided to use my very gracious 12 year old to assist me in an experiment. Her being 12 was going to come in handy if I found out in the end I was wrong! I wasn't and it’s a really good thing for Rob but unfortunately we have another case of people jumping the gun & making bad info go viral. I do not own any of the Apple devices that support this App, but my 12 year old does. We downloaded it to her ITouch IPod and I was very happy to see that everyone's worries were for nothing. An App that posts locations he will be/was at that are "Officially Scheduled Appearances" i.e. MTV Awards, The Tonight Show, presenting at the Oscars, etc. is NOT stalking. Nor is one that posts his locations "After the Fact" i.e. where he ate dinner the night before or that he was spotted at LAX earlier in the day. This is information that is already known, sometimes weeks in advance! Finding out it was all harmless made me very happy but it saddened me even more that inaccurate information once again was made viral over the internet. I am just as sick as everyone else I know is of people refusing to respect his privacy. I LOVE the guy and I hate seeing how so many intrude on his personal life but campaigning against Apple, and personally attacking it's founder, Steve Jobs; and bothering Rob's Management/Agents with misinformation is wrong. Continuing to spread inaccurate info about this makes us no better than the ones that are continually invading his privacy.
Fortunately I didn't need to call ITunes and get my .99 cent refund by saying a minor used my account. But I will say this. As harmless as it is, I don't see any real benefit from it either. The trivia isn't anything my 12 year old didn't already know and it isn't really clear how you are to "get points" for answering the questions correctly. There are, at this time, over 500 pictures of Rob on another page of the App, but all images are added by fans so they are nothing we have not seen before and because they are fan added, most of them are very low quality, highly pixelated and there are many duplicates.
There is one portion of the App that I know people will still try and argue, although I think it would be pointless: when you are on the home screen that shows "Robert Pattinson is in....." (see pic) Supposedly you can use the touch-screen and hit the MOVED key to enter his location if you just spotted him at the local 7-11. Now here is the catch to that: when you click on MOVED you are taken to Google and they make you do a search for any News Story stating he was at said 7-11, and then you have to copy and paste the URL from that Google search and it will purportedly update where he is. Well, for those of you that are not as well versed in Google or news posts in general, the fact that you just saw him at the 7-11 on Santa Monica Blvd & Hayworth in West Hollywood, CA will NOT BE IN ANY SEARCH, GOOGLE OR OTHERWISE! I think this feature in the App is just to get people to use Google! The developer of the App has several others available in the ITunes Store based on other celebrities and some of these Apps have been around for some time. If this new App was anything other than what I have shared here, they would not exist either. I really hope that enough of you will read this and share it with others. I also hope this is a lesson learned, this time for good. We have all seen the power of Twitter and the internet over-all and it can be used as a tool to spread good but unfortunately, more times than not, it ends up being used by those that spread lies and gossip. I hate to see so many of Rob's fans upset by this so it would be really great if people would just stop, take a deep breath, and calmly research an issue they think is a problem instead of the knee jerk reaction to simply believe it on blind faith and run with it. Believe me, after my little experiment, if this App was what everyone initially told me it was, I would probably still be writing this but with very different, "colourful" words and would probably be forced to add the Age Verification Disclaimer on the blog!
If you choose to, you can go Here to the ITunes page for more info.
*Please Note* This Blog post is in no way intended to promote or dissuade anyone from purchasing the above App. I leave that up to the individual. My purpose here was to simply clarify the misunderstandings surrounding the App itself - RPUS
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