Saturday
Sep292007
What if...
Saturday, September 29, 2007 at 8:06AM
What if you bought a computer that you couldn't install any of your own applications on? (Stupid, I know, but what if?)
What if that computer required you to sign up for two years Internet service with one particular company, and prohibited using any other ISP? (Not that the ISP subsidized the price or anything - the computer wasn't cheap.)
What if some bright guys came along and figured out how to install your own applications on the computer? And then showed you how to choose your own ISP? You'd do it, right? I mean, why not, it's your computer. But wait.
What if the company that made the computer sent down an update that checked to see if you had installed your own applications and deleted them if so?
What if that same update checked to see if you were using the required ISP, and if you weren't turned the computer into a useless, unfixable, piece of glass and plastic?
Would you ever buy a computer from that company again?
Would you ever trust a company like that again?
Addendum: Some Apple and cell phone customers seem to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, so let me put it another way.
Let's say you're selling me a cow. You tell me that that cow is being sold for the express purpose of making milk. I agree, and buy the cow.
Later I decide that I'd prefer to make cheese. You say that's a violation of our agreement and kill my cow.
When I paid for the cow it became my property, to do with as I please. If you don't like how I'm using it you may choose not to do any further business with me but you don't get to kill my cow.
And, by the way, warning me you'd kill my cow if I keep making cheese doesn't make it all right.
The lawyers will point out that contractually I agreed to your terms. True. But I don't think the contract said anything about killing the cow did it?
Apple's sole redress is to halt all support of my phone. If we let Apple destroy our property for not following the rules we're telling the music industry it's ok to destroy a hard drive containing illegal songs, the cable company to fry our TVs for stealing cable. That is vigilante justice and a direct threat to the rule of law.
tagged Apple, Gear, Technology, iPhone in Blog
Apple, Gear, Technology, iPhone in Blog
Reader Comments (193)
This is a tug-o-war that goes on all the time with many other products. This is how products evolve and it's no different with Apple. Everyone that hacked the iPhone knew what to expect from the start and that their actions would not be sanctioned by Apple. Any time you hack something to do something it wasn't designed to do you take the chance of breaking it from the start. They knew there would be backlash and went ahead anyway. Now they want to blame Apple for protecting themselves from the companies they are contracted to. If you don't like the consequences you shouldn't take the risk. I know there are others that look at this as just another bump in the road and will find a new solution to do what they want requardless of the roadblocks. Inovation, Experimentation, Implementation,Evolution. It all leads to bigger and better things. So, don't cry foul, something better is on the horizon.
@JT
@naum
#1 Um, no, that does constitute a "hack" by any reasonable person's definition…
#2 Obviously iPhone supports it as people who paid for iToner can attest, and was deliberately undone by Apple
#3 I for the life of me, cannot fathom how anyone can defend such hostile customer treatment… …basically sanctioning a device manufacturer to say "screw you" to its paying customers… …it might be legal, but it's going to leave a bad taste in the mouth of many, and may harken a swift return to Apple days of the mid 90's, when only the hard core, love Apple no matter what, duped loyalists continue to buy Apple products…
You may scoff at such a notion, but consider that a large portion of Apple resurgence in the 2000's has been precisely because of "Unix on the desktop" and the open source roots of OS X. By moving focus to crippled devices (everyone wants to use their phone/PDA/music player the way they want to, see MS Zune for an example when customers arn't provided such a "luxury"…), Apple is indeed ripe for the plucking by competitors and may find themselves treading dangerously… …not in 2007, mind you, but by 2010-2012, it's certainly not inconceivable if current trends are indicative of their future direction…
::Even a simple hack with a nice GUI is still a hack.
::iTonr is inherently designed to do something with the iphone that the iphone does not support.
The video over on Engadget says it all:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/30/iphone-protest-vid-uses-apples-own-words-to-support-the-crazy/
Apple made a big public relations mistake by making this deal with AT&T. Especially because they have to enforce it at the expense of many long term customers. That video really, really makes them at their words!
"Apple’s sole redress is to halt all support of my phone. If we let Apple destroy our property for not following the rules we’re telling the music industry it’s ok to destroy a hard drive containing illegal songs, the cable company to fry our TVs for stealing cable. That is vigilante justice and a direct threat to the rule of law."
Never before has a more ignorant paragraph been written...I'm sorry your phone doesn't work Leo, but come on let's be reasonable.
Okay, to say it was the most ignorant paragraph was a bit extreme. Okay...it was really extreme and I regret saying it. Still, I do not understand your reasoning because your comparisons are not applicable to this situation and the cow illustration is simply ridiculous. It's not as though Apple destroyed your phone, or even killed it as you imply. You still own it and are free to do whatever you want with it. You simply are no longer allowed to use the software because you blatantly violated a contract that you agreed to abide by. If you don't want to abide by contracts then don't enter into them.
That's the reality of living in a capitalistic society. If you enter into a contract with someone and break your end of the contract, then the contract terminates and you suffer having to deal with the consequences. That's just the way doing business works in capitalistic societies.
And "vigilante" means that a group of individuals are taking the law into their own hands and enforcing it. That's not what Apple is doing. They are ending your ability to use their software because you violated a contract. That's not taking the law into their own hands...that's simply terminating a contract that you entered into.
@naum:
iToner and AppTapp take advantage of software vulnerabilities on the iPhone in order to work. All Apptapp does is automate the jailbreak process so you don't have to spend half an hour doing it your self. That is called a hack. If you do anything to modify something to make it do something it was not intended to do, you are hacking it, even if it does happen to be wrapped in a nice GUI. Also, you seem to be confusing "works on after a hack" with "supports." I got Linux running on my Xbox, but somehow I don't think that Microsoft will be supporting it anytime soon. It was easy to do and it works great, but its still hacked. I don't recall and great backlash over the inability to run Linux on the 360. Leo doesn't whine about it on every radio show and every podcast, but isn't it just as bad?
As for comparing Apple in the 90's to now, you need to read your history. One thing's for sure: Apple wasn't in trouble because it produced many superior products at aggressive prices, but alienated a minority of users who can't be bothered to read the warning dialogue that pops up telling you not to upgrade if you unlocked your phone.
Except for nerds, no one cares about UNIX on the Mac. Most people don't even know the name OS X. People buy Macs because they have a reputation for being solid and reliable machines. Leo recommends them to people every week on his show for that reason. People buy iPods because they're reliable and easy to use. People are buying the iPhone for the same reason. Anyone who spends that kind of scratch to look or feel cool is an idiot in need of serious counseling. Apple knows that and is unwilling to sacrifice quality to protect people who are unwilling or unable to comprehend warnings that updating an unlocked phone will likely brick it.
Again, running the update was 100% voluntary, so if you got burned, it was your fault. No one at Apple promised anyone that the iPhone would immediately be this great mecca for mobile developers, and they have always said that the way to develop for the phone is via the web. Apple has not misled anyone and is under no obligation to support hackers, which again is why the hackers told you not to update. While I have no doubt that there will be an iPhone SDK soon (just look at the HID guidlines that mention that the web is "currently" the only way to develop), but for now, that's the way things are.
The real issue about unlocking, at least here in California, is that carriers are required to provide unlock codes after 90 days, which doesn't seem to be happening. That's what everyone should be complaining about, but I guess people blaming others for their own bad choices is just easier.
@PAUL
"Anyone who spends that kind of scratch to look or feel cool is an idiot in need of serious counseling"
Are you kidding? One of the MAIN reasons people buy Apple products is for the 'looks'.
This is the old 'form vs function' issue. And believe me, I know a LOT of people who are more than willing to put up with reduced, or even crippled functionality, for the sake of form.
You may think they need counselling; they think you have no sense of style.
Am I mistaken in thinking that Jobs offered that creating an app for the new phone was as easy as writing web code (I'm paraphrasing)? Seems to me that during the announcement speech he did say that third party apps would be writtrn that way, implying that they expected that.
@paul
Doubt it, "nerds" are the market that is buying up Macs right now. Go to any conference and see the laptops -- at "geek" conferences (counting multimedia producers and designers) along with "web workers" have macs… …business users and most all home users are windows, and do not shell out extra money for a mac, instead opting for cheaper windows machines even if they desire a mac (and even if they do, their local "tech" authority, maybe a family member instructs them elsewhere… …Leo is an exception, any other MSM media tech disdains Apple except for iPods…)
Yes, Mac is better in the home, but Apple desktop model hasn't been updated in nearly 15 months… …the iMac just doesn't suit those windows users either…
::Except for nerds, no one cares about UNIX on the Mac. Most people don’t even know the name OS X. People buy Macs because they have a reputation for being solid and reliable machines…
[...] This Week in Tech and on his blog, Leo Laporte insisted that this analogy is very similar to what Apple is doing with the iPhone: Let’s say [...]
[...] write up at Engadget, and quite a bit more balanced than Laporte’s obviously frustrated rant. I like the idea of 3rd party apps, and living in Canada where we’re criminally overcharged [...]
Leo, although I find myself often agreeing with you and also find myself on the side of hackers and the open-source movement, I must respectfully disagree with your stance on this subject.
I believe that Apple's practices are quite common with product warranties, albeit not usually with software. Let's take cars for example. If you roll your Lexus down to a performance-enhancement specialist, and they add a performance exhaust, a new chip for the engine-management computer (or flash the existing one) and new suspension springs, for instance. If your Lexus develops a problem with the catalytic, and the engine light comes on telling you to take it in, the dealer will immediately blame the after-market exhaust and will not warranty the item. If the wheel bearings start to make a noise, the dealer (and Lexus) will blame the suspension and charge you for it. Oh and if ANYTHING is wrong with the way the car runs, Lexus will most definitely blame the new, or re-flashed, chip and void your entire engine warranty--even if the problem is mechanical and has absolutely nothing to do with the engine management system.
Apple has every right to void warranties if someone begins to mess around under the hood. They never promised hackers an open system that would not be affected by future services and updates. Maybe Apple targeted hackers, but I don't think so--they have better things to do than worry about a small group of people unlocking their product. I believe there are technical reasons that these updates have affected the unlocked product. The company even warned that theses practices could damage the software in the phone.
Just like over-clocking, you run the risk of frying your product if you mod it or mess with it. And, the manufacturer has every right to not cover the product under warranty.
Conversely, Apple should offer some sort of "re-format" program for users of bricked phones. For $100 or something, you bring your iPhone in and they re-flash it or exchange it for a new one. A one-time courtesy, perhaps, but for a fee.
Apple is trying to build a solid, reliable product for people that bought a phone...not a hackable computing platform. I believe any phone company would follow the same tact. What would BlackBerry do if you modded one of their phones and your phone bricked? Probably say, "too bad" and ask you to buy a new one.
look, it's a cellphone, it isn't a computer, it's a phone, it's more of a smartphone i suppose, but with other smartphones, you have to use whatever ISP, and you sign a contract saying you will for the next 2 years, or you get charged some large cancellation fee, why is this any different with an iphone, it's the same idea.
(yeah, that was all one sentence i believe)
I'll start this by saying that I am not an Apple fanboy and the only Apple product I own is a 4th gen iPod. That being said, I have a different point of view.
What if this whole notion of locking down the iPhone after its open is to challenge the whole idea of locked phones in the first place? I think this is Apple challenging that notion head on. This move causes people to think about the idea of their phones being locked to one network. Once people start thinking about it with the iPhone, you start thinking about your other phones. Should they be locked to one network? If you don’t think so, then where do people go? To the FCC, to question them on why phones are locked and, at total extreme, to push them to unlocking the whole market.
Apple knows there is a huge barrier in garnering market share by being locked to AT&T. So how do you get out of the contract without expressly getting out of the contract? You push the idea of being locked into the one network, which is fragile to begin with, until it cracks and shatters on the whole. It's been mentioned that Jobs is a master chess player when it comes to human emotion. So maybe this whole reaction is planned in his, and our, favor?
Apple's locking of the phone was dumb but understandable, from the start. People bought the locked up phone, which might not have been the smartest thing in the world, but that's free will for you...
The hacks, which people have every right to install, were unsupported, and unlike the apple tv, apple broke the hacks on an update, which I think all the hacks should have been vary clear was a distinct possibility. You, leo said these things a few weeks ago when the hacks came out.
It's happened. Which sucks royally, but that's not the issue to complain about it.
It's the first point, that they made a crippled phone, not that they broke people's hacks...
[...] should be able to do what he wants with it, right? On his blog, LOL: The Life of Leo, he wrote a very critical analogy of this situation: …When I paid for the cow [reference to iPhone] it became my property, to [...]
Leo, it's their hardware, it's their software. They have goals with the device that we are not privy to yet. If they open the iphone up, then apple's dreams and ideas are gone. Plus security is an issue too. There is a lot of personal information in an iphone. Look at it this way, one could think they are installing an application that does one thing, but it could also do something else "aka spyware, viruses". It is what microsoft's products are plagued with. I like the iphone for what it can do out of the box and what the future holds for it. I'm also interested to see how Apple handles the whole Meizu device when it hit's the market next year. We'll probably see more applications from apple to compete with what the Meizu can do out of the box. Intentionally Apple does not currently have any direct competition with the iPhone. Quicker they can sell a ton of 2 year at&t contracts, the more people will be "locked in" to using just apple's device before any other similar form factor devices come out. All in all, it will be interesting to watch what happens. Going back to my anivirus statement, wouldn't stink having to install a firewall and anti virus software on a 8gb iphone?
I could not agree more. I love Apple, ever since the first Steve Jobs, but I think this marks a dark time in Apple. And will be viewed in the future as the beginning of when Apple lost it's core user group and became just another company. I am reminded of a Steve quote and will reword it here..
You think selling iPods to kids is success, and it going to change the world?
Long live Apple Computer.
Two points:
1) Everyone seems to be assuming that apple intentionally bricked the phones. I dont know exactly how these unlocks work, but it seems like it they reach in pretty deep. Deeper than the iTunes restore functionality reaches. It seems reasonable to believe (especially since Apple said as much) that there could be a conflict between Apple's firmware updates and the unlock code.
2) Your analogies are overly contrived, I think. Instead of imaging a cow, or a computer.. why not just imagine a cell phone. Cell phone carrier exclusive lock-ins are not unusual. In fact-- quite the opposite- non-locked-in phones are unusual. Fortunately for us all, we dont all have to buy an iPhone. If it doesn't do what you want it to do, or if you dont like the restricitons, by all means.. buy a different phone.
You wanna put diesel in your Mustang? Go ahead — just don’t expect Ford to honor the warranty.
Hacking the iPhone adversely affects the potential market for ATT and Apple and is a violation of the user agreement — it’s illegal and fair use does not constitute a valid/legal argument to support the activity.
The people who somehow justify it’s OK are the same ones whose PC's are loaded with music from Napster and Limewire.
This reminds me of cigarette smokers blaiming the cigarette companies. Aren’t people accountable for what they do?
So about this whole iPhone fiasco. The reason Apple doesn't support third party apps and such is because of support. The genius bar is already packed and the last thing that is needed is why isn't my installer.app working and what is ssh and blah blah blah. As far as locking the sim back up.... it's called contracts. there was fair warning so people should stop being cry babies. about locking up the third party apps.... different story. everyone loves the apps that have come out.... but there were new features that wanted to be rolled out and some of those required a lot of tinkering to the firmware. sorry they didn't take the man hours to keep open third party apps i'm sure there will be a fix to installer.app in a couple weeks so no worries. You say what about the customer and how does this help the consumer. Well it frees up a spot at the genius bar. Instead of having to see some dummy who can't get something working on their unlocked phone, they can help real problems like me who had directory damage a week before finals. I'll sacrafice my iVibe app on my phone to have my computer fixed so I can graduate college.
[...] Leo Laporte over de iPhone [...]
[...] This Week in Tech and on his blog, Leo Laporte insisted that this analogy is very similar to what Apple is doing with the [...]
[...] This Week in Tech and on his blog, Leo Laporte insisted that this analogy is very similar to what Apple is doing with the [...]
[...] effectively bricks those devices which have been hacked to allow extra options. Many people are not happy about Apple’s disregard for the rights of the consumer. Some reviewers who originally love the iPhone are now going so far as to inform their readers to [...]