Here’s a Christmas fable for you: you’re walking into your nearest Apple store and you spot a homeless man outside on the streets. Suffused with seasonal good cheer, you decide you will purchase something for this unfortunate citizen inside Steve’s temple of beautifully designed tech. What should you pick?
Picture by Yagan Kiely
BUDGET CHOICE
iTunes Card
Cost: $20-$100
Where to get it: Apple Store
Why it’s a good choice: Because the homeless dude can use the machines in the store to sell it as a free local pickup listing on eBay.
QUALITY CHOICE
16GB iPad
Cost: $799
Where to get it: Apple Store
Why it’s a good choice: Because homeless people like iPads way more than you might think.
LUXURY CHOICE
MacBook Air
Cost: $1599 (13 inch model)
Where to get it: Apple Store
Why it’s a good choice: Because it’s portable, not likely to crash and (again) easy to resell.
Wilson
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 1:35 PMIs this a joke or something? Ha ha ha. Real poor taste.
Joseph
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 1:43 PMC’mon, guys. Is this a joke?
This is demeaning the plight of less fortunate people and does not really address their problem (mental illness, welfare red tape, etc).
Did you just need to fill up your post quota for the day?
Gwen
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:38 PMI’m with Joseph; poor taste guys.
Andreas Koepke
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 1:49 PMI think the homeless guy would appreciate the cash instead of the iTunes card.
An iPad or laptop would be a bit of a waste as they would either sell them and get only a fraction of their value back in cash or end up having them stolen as they don’t have anywhere safe to store it.
Captain Calories
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 2:18 PMThis post is bad taste why would you post soemthing like this?
Angus you need to pull your head in and go buy a homeless person a sandwich you should feel ashamed of yourself for demonstrating how out of touch with the real world you are.
Cameron Chamberlain
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 2:44 PMAgreed. Bad Taste. Bad Ideas. If you are having trouble coming up with topics, ask your audience for them, surely they/we could come up with something better than apple store products for homeless people.
Jon
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 2:51 PMThis is in VERY poor taste…
Ben2
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 2:51 PMI would buy him a copy of iLife.
Anon
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 2:57 PMVery poor taste…especially at Christmas
trk
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:21 PMLifehacker has REALLY gone down hill over 2010.
What happened?
Paul
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:30 PMI agree with the previous comments.
However some people call themselves homeless when the are travelling for a great length of time and dont sustain a permanent adress. Its mearly a play on words for somepeople so that others will sypathise with them and give free room and board.
Although I did see one face book goon like this article, so there is sometime no acounting for good taste.
simo
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:30 PMTo the posters above -> Yes it’s a joke!
Yep I also understand homelessness is not a good thing, but neither is standing on a political correctness soap-box all day, spouting to people that they should all be fixing the world’s problems.
Have a laugh – that also helps.
Clive
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 9:33 PMI didn’t think it was in poor taste, till I saw the comments: I thought it was a great thought provoking ironic stab at the self-indulgence of those who think that apple solves all: they’re only products people; the homeless guy was there to represent life; life beats gadgets anytime.
Eds-keep up the great irony!
Alvaro Ojeda
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:47 PMSeems typical of Mactard/Apple Fanboi douchebaggery.
T
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 3:56 PMIf -I- find this offensive, something has gone drastically wrong.
Neil
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:00 PMDo you mean homeless, as in “does not have access to electrical sockets” homeless?
Anthony Garreffa
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:01 PMHow would the homeless guy use his iTunes card, iPad or MB? When he has no home to plug it in, no other computer to use iTunes (for the card or iPad to activate it).
This is around 101% fail right here.
:P
David Gray
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:12 PMActivate in-store and go to a cafe when you want to charge the batteries. C’est simple!
Ash
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:05 PMAnd Gizmodo gets removed from my bookmarks list for being crap these days.
Goodbye Gizmodo
Ash
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:05 PMErr I ment lifehacker.
David Gray
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:16 PMIf I were homeless, I know I’d want people to buy me an iPad (if I didn’t already have one). Why? Google.
As the homeless guy in the Giz article linked above said, he makes a living out of AdSense, writing books and such.
The iPad can either be used for good things (such as learning, finding places, communicating with others etc.) or it can be sold to rent a place for a few weeks or stock up on food and clothing.
‘sides, if I had the choice of giving money or an Apple product to a homeless guy, I’d pick Apple. Who knows what this guy could be spending that cash on?
hnhu
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:41 PMid give him steve jobs home address
Scrooge
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 5:14 PMI’d pay the store security guy to make sure the homeless person is no longer outside once I finish shopping Mac products.
Then I’d go home and read Lifehacker on my brand new iPad.
James McKennay
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 6:14 PMHe’s not homeless, he is No 1 in queue for the iPad 2!
Sam Brady
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 8:12 PM..what?
Obscurity Knocks
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 9:39 PMYep, you screwed up. A small donation to a homeless charity and apology would be appropriate. No harm no foul and everyone gets to move on.
I’m certainly not going to continue subscribing if you can’t fix this.
jellymelly
Friday, December 10, 2010 at 10:36 PMare you serious lifehacker? macbook air for a homeless? they don’t even have internet
Anthony
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 1:39 PMThere are plenty of free wifi hotspots around…
Anon
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:38 AMGet over it. I would’ve thought the readers on here would be smart enough to realise the whole story was tongue in cheek. If your really concerned with the suffering of homeless people then how about you all go hand them $50
Scott
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 2:48 PMI am smart enough to realise that it is in tongue in cheek. I still find it appalling.
I am concerned about homeless people as I work with them on a daily basis, i also do donate money to the homeless (do you?). I also understand that the homeless also need more assistance than money.
It is still in poor taste, not funny, witty or clever in any way shape or form. To use those less fortunate than yourself to get a cheap laugh is atrocious.
SHAME LIFEHACKER SHAME!