Backbytes: Apple offers one-click U2 removal after Bono backlash

Apple CEO Tim Cook is clearly the last U2 fan on Earth

When Paul David Hewson, aka Bono (a nickname apparently nicked from a Dublin hearing aid shop), and his fellow be-shaded members of U2 appeared on stage at the launch of the Apple iPhone 6 last week, it was a real "what the heck?" moment.

Just because Tim Cook is a fan of his fellow multi-millionaires, doesn't mean that anyone else is any more. Quite the opposite, it seems.

But what propelled many Apple users into rare paroxysms of rage in their otherwise perfectly designed world was when U2's latest album automatically downloaded via iTunes onto their otherwise perfect devices.

The horror. Imagine selecting "shuffle" and having a track from wrinkly rockers U2 unaccountably blast into your ears on the journey to work in the morning? It could ruin the whole day.

Hence, after an outcry, that nice Mr Cook has kindly relented and ordered Apple to produce a nice, simple well-designed one-click U2 removal tool. Quite right, too.

What the association between U2 - who are not just uncool, but widely regarded as a bunch of Kuwaiti tankers - and Apple does for the company's brand is open to question. However, if Apple can survive that branding debacle, it can survive anything.