Not Dead Yet

People seem to have misinterpreted my "dead cow" analogy and are assuming that I bricked my iPhone. Nope. I have both the original iPhone, upgraded to 1.1.1, and the unlocked iPhone still and forever at 1.0.2. I'm donating the latter to The Lab for further experimentation. I'll keep the locked phone around so I can continue to cover the platform, which was the reason I bought it in the first place. It's not for myself that I am whining, or even others I know whose phone were bricked. My point is that it's punitive for Apple to intentionally damage unlocked iPhones, and I believe that's wrong. To those who say we can't know Apple's intention, I'd respond that it would have been a simple bit of coding to checksum the modem firmware and refuse to update if it had been modified. In fact, that would have been a prudent precaution no matter what. By choosing not to do so Apple is making its intent clear, and absent any statement to the contrary from Cupertino I'm going to continue to think Apple wishes unlockers ill, no matter what Fake Steve Jobs says. To prove I still have a working iPhone, here are two pictures from my hotel window in Vancouver. One with the iPhone and one with the Nokia N95. You tell me which you prefer.

Nokia

Apple

Oh, and incidentally on the Nokia and the unlocked iPhone uploading these images in full quality to Flickr takes one click using third party apps (ShoZu on the N95 and Send Picture on the iPhone). On the locked iPhone I had to dock to my Mac, import the photo into iPhoto, export it, and then upload to Flickr. That's one of the reasons I want to be able add third-party apps to my mobile phones. Now I'm going to run to the Fatburger next door and have a veggie burger. No more dead cows for me. Good night.

What if...

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.

Scott Triumphant

Bourne Again via sfgate.com

iPhone Day

I thought I'd just stop by the AT&T store at noon just to see if there was a line. There was, and fearing I wouldn't get a phone in time to review it for Saturday's radio show I got out my folding chair and joined the line as number 13. Six hours later I got my iPhone. This is the last video from my poor old Nokia N95.

A Reviewer From The Future