3 ms·

It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. As for the

by tga 15y ago

It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. As for the carriers who lock these phones, it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage. All this does is frustrate customers who paid for that device and who are anyway locked into a contract. Pointless anyway, since it was always possible to pay a guy $20 to unlock any available model out there. I'd like to see device manufacturers and carriers focusing on their core business (better hardware/software/service) instead of how to cripple more features to squeeze a few extra dollars today. Even more importantly, I'd like to see people grow a spine and just say no to buying devices if what they intend to do with them is prohibited by the manufacturer. Do that for a while and you'll see them start sweating and advertising their new open product.

simonh 15y ago
> It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. I thought this post was about iOS, not Android. Ba-doom-ting! But seriously, I've unlocked and jailbroke several iOS devices so that relatives could use them in China and it is a pain. The easiest was using the 'slide to unlock' pdf hack via a web site a few years back. I've never done it on a device I intended to use over here (meaning 'the west') because the value to me isn't there compared to regular free and easy OS updates.
Someone 15y ago
"it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage." Well, don't they? My mortgage has a section about needing permission to do renovations. I do not know how things are in the USA, but given that one, in some states, can walk away from a property without repercussion, I would be surprised if things were different. Would be a nice way to increase the price of one's house: buy a house in a different neighborhood, burn it down, turn in the keys. Back to the subject: with iPhones, the argument that locking takes away functionality is less strong than for other phones. You will get updates.
rimantas 15y ago
> Do that for a while and you'll see them start sweating > and advertising their new open product. No, you won't see that. They won't even notice. One of the mobile providers in my country currently runs an ad with a text like "Turns out 60% of smartphones are not so smart after all"—by that they mean, that those who bought smartphones don't even know how to configure them. Provider thus offers to help with setting up email, facebook, etc. My point is: majority of the users are not even going to use everyting that manufacturer intended to be used on the device.

by tga 15y ago

simonh 15y ago

> It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. I thought this post was about iOS, not Android. Ba-doom-ting! But seriously, I've unlocked and jailbroke several iOS devices so that relatives could use them in China and it is a pain. The easiest was using the 'slide to unlock' pdf hack via a web site a few years back. I've never done it on a device I intended to use over here (meaning 'the west') because the value to me isn't there compared to regular free and easy OS updates.

Someone 15y ago

"it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage." Well, don't they? My mortgage has a section about needing permission to do renovations. I do not know how things are in the USA, but given that one, in some states, can walk away from a property without repercussion, I would be surprised if things were different. Would be a nice way to increase the price of one's house: buy a house in a different neighborhood, burn it down, turn in the keys. Back to the subject: with iPhones, the argument that locking takes away functionality is less strong than for other phones. You will get updates.

rimantas 15y ago

> Do that for a while and you'll see them start sweating > and advertising their new open product. No, you won't see that. They won't even notice. One of the mobile providers in my country currently runs an ad with a text like "Turns out 60% of smartphones are not so smart after all"—by that they mean, that those who bought smartphones don't even know how to configure them. Provider thus offers to help with setting up email, facebook, etc. My point is: majority of the users are not even going to use everyting that manufacturer intended to be used on the device.