Comments on: 5 reasons to steer clear of the iPhone

By: Sam I Am, Sham You Are

Sam I Am, Sham You Are — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:12:37 +0000

For someone who’s apparently read the article and shared his two cents, it seems to have escaped him that Jon didn’t write any of the quoted words above. Or maybe it doesn’t matter to him that he can’t tell between Jon and the FSF.

Oh, wait. It doesn’t matter.

By: Sam I Am

Sam I Am — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:58:29 +0000

Oh for Godâs sake Jon, âsnake oil salesman?â, âan attackâ?, âa prisonâ? Itâs a sleek handheld gizmo, a fancy, pricey GADGET that nobody needs if they donât want it. And the best part is: NOBODY has to buy it. NObody, not you, or me or anyone else.

Whatâs all this about? A-run-of-the-mill household AIR conditioner—for crying out loud– has more rights management on it than the iPHONE.

Itâs branded by a single manufacturer and the front plastic bezel fits only on that one model. You have to use their proprietary filters because the others wonât fit. A GEâs condenser coil wonât install or work in a Freidrich or a Panasonic, either. You canât even turn it up any higher that they allow you to: itâs all preset with limits at the factory. The power cord is the length that they dictate and thatâs that. It comes in ONE color. You take it (or not) with the features they offer. Period. And horrors, you MUST use an âauthorizedâ repair technician, in fact you CANNOT open it or even repair it yourself, and you must pay for and use only authorized parts from the manufacturers factory at whatever price they specify or you void your own warranty and then they can walk away from you and never look back. And itâs a freakinâ AC, Jon, an AIR CONDITIONER.

And you know what? You run your very good website on YOUR terms, donât you?

They have every right to design, market and sell the products they wish to sell, and offer them and warranty them precisely as they wish, with features and under terms they specify and enforce exactly as they see fit.

And you can buy it as it is, or buy a different air conditioner……or you can buy none at all or even build your own from scratch.
All perfectly legal, all your freedom of choice.

Geeze, Jon. Donât buy the iPHONE either.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:15:18 +0000

DRM is in all Apple products, including Touch. Otherwise, Touch would not be able to play Apple’s C.R.A.P. from iTunes store.

By: Mentok

Mentok — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:05:05 +0000

Even better just say NO to the iphone, and jailbreak an iPod Touch. You won’t have to worry about DRM or GPS tracking with a touch.

I’ve enjoyed the benefits of MORE innovation than Apple’s idiotic ‘appstore’ for the past *2 years*. Why would I want to move to Apple’s *inferior* platform??

If you run Apple kit, then control it. Yourself.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:59:39 +0000

I don’t see how making a link available to Freerunner as an alternative is a positive thing. It looks like something from 1973 and it is in NO way in the same league as the multi touch compatible itouch/phone. In all honestly its their platform, they have invested millions of dollars on it, they are trying to control it as they see fit. We will most likely see hacks on it just like on previous generation touches/phones. I don’t think there is a need to despair.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:40:56 +0000

Well, I know that if my iMac and Macbook prevented me from doing any of the things that the iPhone doesn’t want me to, they would be kicked to the kerb in a day.
I would say that over 95% of my day with my iMac is spent using software that hasn’t been authorised by Apple and doesn’t need to be either.

Keeping the iPhone a closed platform is simply too much control.

I control my Macs and I’m very happy about it.