iPhone buyers MUST have iTunes
p2pnet.net news:- The iPhone is nigh, slated to hit on- and offline stores on June 29.
But guess what?
With the suggestion that non-Mac iPhone users may need Safari under Windows to get some synchronization features in the background, in one of the most blatant examples of corporate hard-sell ever seen, Apple insists anyone buying an iPhone will also be compelled to open an iTunes account.
Whether they want one or not.
Says the Apple site, innocently:
To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don’t have an account, you should set one up now to save time later. To set up an account, launch iTunes, select the iTunes Store, and click the Sign In button in the upper right corner of iTunes. Sign in and you’re ready to go.
That’s no lever. That’s a crowbar.
Also See:
synchronization features – Windows as iPhone booster?”, June 13, 2007
killed four students – German school killer sites vanish, November 23, 2006
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 14th, 2007 at 10:02 am
What is the beef here? Millions of PC users have iTunes accounts to go with their iPods. How would you expect to receive software updates for your new iPhone without a program like iTunes? Use some logic, people!
June 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Mandatory connection of a handheld device to a PC + mandatory installment of software on the PC = Mandatory steer-clear of product.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am
“What is the beef here? Millions of PC users have Itunes accounts to go with their iPods.“
I have an iPod, my wife has one. iTunes is not installed on our computer.
“How would you expect to receive software updates for your new iPhone without a program like iTunes? Use some logic, people!”
I have used thousands of pieces of software were thee have been updates WITHOUT TRYING TO TRACK ME VIA AN ACCOUNT. You could get updates via the phone, via a web browser, through a CD, hell they could mail them to you on a sheet of paper and you type them in for Christ’s sake. I can think of no reasonable reason for this requirement. I can think of a few unreasonable ones, and for some strange reason they all involve marketing people. Let’s go with the obvious one.
Tracking where your customers are at all times tells you what stores your customers shop at. Hmmm have we seen this anywhere before? Oh yeah, the internet! And what do people call these programs and what do they do with them? Ah yes spyware and delete them.
Now since you also have iTunes installed on your computer and it feels compelled to run all the time. I can just see the $$ in the marketers eyes ‘ if we can connect their offline life with their online life we could sell more information and in the end sell more stuff’. Sure cell phone companies could track your locations and sell that information, but I don’t think they are allowed to… what’s stopping a company that has you sign an agreement that probably says they are allowed to ‘share’ that information with associated companies to ‘improve your experience’. And if it does not say that yet, oh well, you already agreed that Apple can change the agreement anytime they want (which I believe is illegal but that’s a different subject).
June 14th, 2007 at 11:38 am
“I have used thousands of pieces of software were thee have been updates WITHOUT TRYING TO TRACK ME VIA AN ACCOUNT….”
Well said, it’s not the Itunes SOFTWARE we have a problem with, it’s the music store ACCOUNT we DO NOT NEED!
June 14th, 2007 at 11:47 am
and you know what the really sick thing about this is? they’ll get away with it.
June 14th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
The thing to remember is sheeple oops people buying one of the MOST expensive mobile phones eat + drink apple so In ITMS account is NOT an issue fore them, that is HOW apple WILL get away WITHOUT real issues
June 16th, 2007 at 6:50 am
a itunes account is really a apple account and for most features of the phone need different parts of the info stored in this account.
i agree you should not be forced to open a account but what unique features of this phone could you use without one.
ipod function (needs account for existing DRM)
adress book (needs unike identifier in account)
etc…..
if you dont agree with the requirements dont get one
no one biched that you needed a free itunes account to use a ipod.
June 18th, 2007 at 4:26 am
I have 2 smartphones that run Windows CE 5.0. They both work fine, and they play MP3’s just fine from a SD memory card. I don’t see what all the hoopla over the iPhone really is though….A cell phone merged with an iPod with a touch screen interface? Bid deal….
Sorry, I do not eat and drink apple. I do not worship Steve Jobs as a god. I do not buy apple products. The only thing that I have on my machine that is apple is quicktime. It’s your choice as to where you spend your money, so spend it wisely.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
[...] won’t be able to use unless they first sign up with iTunes, whether or not they have any use for [...]