Conscious, minimalist, neo-luddite perspectives on nonprofit technology.
30th September 2007

Has Apple become evil? No, but they are getting stupid.

posted in Technology Zen |

I had decided, a while back, not to buy an iPhone. Too expensive, for one thing. I like my 60G iPod that I’ve had for a while, and although I tire of lugging around three electronic devices (cell phone, Palm, iPod), and that my current phone is about to fall apart, the cost and the fact that it was so new made me decide not to go for it, even though AT&T is my carrier.

But then,  Apple dropped the price $200, and it made me ponder. But nope. No iPhone for me. Why?

This is why.

I will not be buying an iPhone until they sell an unlocked version that doesn’t need to be hacked to use third party applications. The move of Apple to use software update to break hacked and unlocked phones is somewhat ironic, given the attitude of Jobs toward DRM, and the open source basis for OS X. Jobs understands that DRM doesn’t work, and doesn’t help sell music. He should understand that the same thing is true for iPhones.

The good news is that eventually, hackers always win. A few years down the road, when successive updates of the iPhone get hacked, they will give up, and open it up. And, maybe they’ll even figure out that open will likely make them more money than closed. But for all of Steve Jobs smarts, sometimes he can be pretty dumb.

So what am I going to replace my current phone with? I don’t know yet, but whatever it is, it will be unlocked.

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There are currently 3 responses to “Has Apple become evil? No, but they are getting stupid.”

I'd love your comments on my post!

  1. 1 On October 3rd, 2007, PW said:

    Why stop at the iPod and iPhones. If Apple were subjected to the ruling the Europeans just issued Microsoft, they would be hurting.

    From a developers prospective, Vista is much better than OS 10 - Microsoft even gives away basic development tools like asp.net and visual studio on their website.

    The iPod is a rip off. There are better sites for music and there are adequate players for 1/5th the price.

    What Apple did do correctly is allow users to submit their own podcast and homemade music on the itunes website. Because of this ‘open’ philosophy on podcasting, Apple has seen some spill over to their computers and phone. And they, somewhat ironically, are often seen as the company who cares about users while Microsoft is seen as an evil giant.

    Once the shine is off this recent Apple love affair with consumers, people will see them for what they are - profit driven dictators who charge too much for products IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Palm, Nokia, Toshiba, and Sony have been making well and more reasonably priced for years.

    The main draw to Apple for consumers will always be industrial design - A pocket PC does more than an iPhone, it just doesn’t look as good doing it. Choosing Apple will always be like choosing ask.com over google because ask.com has a ‘prettier’ interface.

    And Bill Gates (resignedly dorky and gauche though he may be) is 1000 times more of a responsible citizen than the always narcissistic, profit-driven and unlikable Steve Jobs.

  2. 2 On October 10th, 2007, DeathMonkey said:

    I like you PW. You have voiced what I have been thinking for a long time now :]

  3. 3 On August 12th, 2008, My iPhone 3G » Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology said:

    [...] once joined the “iPhone non-buyers” group on Facebook. I swore up and down I wouldn’t get one. I said: I will not be buying an iPhone until they sell an unlocked [...]

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