There has been a lot of talk–a lot–about the Great Apple Mute Switch Conspiracy of 2012 since a conductor halted the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 in media res in response to someone’s iPhone alarm went off and kept going off.
John Gruber (who approves of Apple’s implementation) and Andy Ihnatko (who doesn’t) led the discussion that rapidly splintered off into hundreds of conversations like some fungus spreading across the Internet.
So, here is my input.
Step 1. Learn how your new phone works before you go to the symphony.
That is all.
Feel free to continue to grumble amongst yourselves. Please be sure to emphasize how right/wrong Apple is about this and how great/terrible the iPhone is when compared to other smart phones.
N.B.: Don’t fool yourself into saying it’s a Mute button. It’s a switch.