4 ms·

That's a valid question. I tend to take it as a given, considering that the iPhone is essentially a miniature computer and the past decade or so has thrived on

That's a valid question. I tend to take it as a given, considering that the iPhone is essentially a miniature computer and the past decade or so has thrived on customizable, hackable personal computers. Apple has always wanted to assert extra control on the products they ship. With Mac's, they've controlled the hardware. Now they're trying to control the software. Imagine a version of OS X where every application had to be approved. Does that not strike you as horribly wrong? I wouldn't want to use an operating system with those restrictions, though I imagine the best response to such an OS would be to not purchase it.

jsz0 17y ago
I don't think Apple would agree with you and, since they make the device, they pretty much get the final (official) say on that. They view it as an appliance that happens to combine several different sets of functionality into one physical device. If you break out each component you'll see they're almost always very tightly controlled and otherwise not open to general purpose (unlicensed) access. iPod / PMP (Apple, Microsoft, Creative) Camera (Cannon, Nokia, Sony, etc) GPS unit (Garmin, Tom Tom, etc) Phone (cheap flip phone) Gaming device (PSP, DS) There are exceptions of course -- and workarounds/hacks to circumvent protection (just like Jailbreaking on the iPhone) but more or less these sorts of closed appliance like devices are quite popular on their own. Apple simply combined them into one physical device and kept the same rules. Apple doesn't sell the iPhone as a general purpose computer so any consumer who buys one expecting it to function that way probably bought the wrong product. I can understand why someone might want that option but it doesn't change the fact that Apple does not sell a product that fits those needs and, based on the success of stand alone devices sold in the same fashion, it is almost completely irrelevant in real world sales or usage for most people. There is of course jailbreaking -- there's also Linux on iPhone hardware. I'm not sure how much progress they've made but I seem to recall they at least had a booting kernel a while back.
jstevens85 17y ago
Consider video game consoles like the Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox, Playstation, Wii. All of those appliances are unable to run unapproved code, and sell in huge numbers. A mobile phone is really more like a video game console than a computer. Simple, reliable, easy to use and fast.
joubert 17y ago
I had a Crackberry once. Worst thing ever. Email sucked. Browsing sucked. Mapping sucked. Crappy menu system with the actions I wanted to use most frequently buried in the deep abyss of boring, corporate-inspired menu hierarchies. The thing was as ugly as bat shit. I voted with my feet.
- sfphotoarts 17y ago
  browsing sucks for sure, but email? come on? Thats the whole selling point and they sell very very well with most customers being repeats. Your experience is very atypical.
  - jsz0 17y ago
    I disagree. It was great about 5 years ago but the times have kind of passed it by. Perhaps the situation is better on the Storm or Bold but on my 8330: 1) No native IMAP support 2) No native Exchange support without a BES 3) Horrific attachment viewer. 4) No real-time spellcheck 5) No auto-correction 6) No easy way to sync contacts/calendars over the air 7) No (minimal?) HTML e-mail support (unfortunately sometimes it does help make long e-mail chains more readable) 8) Gotta rely on your carrier for push e-mail -- or in the case of Sprint "Oh yeah we'll send it if we get a chance. Give us like 20 minutes K?" e-mail service. 9) No intuitive way of deleting lots of e-mail messages that don't happen to all be sequential to each other in the list. 10) No folders -- just one big flat mailbox. Hard to save messages on your phone this way. Again, fixed if you have a BES but I don't want my $200 SmartPhone to require $2k-$5k in hardware/software to be functional. It certainly gets the job done for the basics but once you get used to having more options and flexibility it's hard to go back.
  - joubert 17y ago
    Try getting HTML-formatted email. Useless.
jodrellblank 17y ago
I agree, I want to think of it as a miniature computer too. But it's not sold as an open computing platform, it's sold as an Apple approved limited computing platform. That's what you buy and that's what you get, and I don't really see why Apple should not be allowed to make and sell a product like that.
jodrellblank 17y ago
Imagine a version of OS X where every application had to be approved. Does that not strike you as horribly wrong? No. "I don't like it" and "wrong" are not interchangeable.
- sofal 17y ago
  Keep in mind that "wrong" and "should be outlawed" are not interchangeable either. When someone argues that something is wrong, that doesn't always mean they want to strip people or companies of their right to do it anyway. Don't fight the straw men.

jsz0 17y ago

I don't think Apple would agree with you and, since they make the device, they pretty much get the final (official) say on that. They view it as an appliance that happens to combine several different sets of functionality into one physical device. If you break out each component you'll see they're almost always very tightly controlled and otherwise not open to general purpose (unlicensed) access. iPod / PMP (Apple, Microsoft, Creative) Camera (Cannon, Nokia, Sony, etc) GPS unit (Garmin, Tom Tom, etc) Phone (cheap flip phone) Gaming device (PSP, DS) There are exceptions of course -- and workarounds/hacks to circumvent protection (just like Jailbreaking on the iPhone) but more or less these sorts of closed appliance like devices are quite popular on their own. Apple simply combined them into one physical device and kept the same rules. Apple doesn't sell the iPhone as a general purpose computer so any consumer who buys one expecting it to function that way probably bought the wrong product. I can understand why someone might want that option but it doesn't change the fact that Apple does not sell a product that fits those needs and, based on the success of stand alone devices sold in the same fashion, it is almost completely irrelevant in real world sales or usage for most people. There is of course jailbreaking -- there's also Linux on iPhone hardware. I'm not sure how much progress they've made but I seem to recall they at least had a booting kernel a while back.

jstevens85 17y ago

Consider video game consoles like the Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox, Playstation, Wii. All of those appliances are unable to run unapproved code, and sell in huge numbers. A mobile phone is really more like a video game console than a computer. Simple, reliable, easy to use and fast.

joubert 17y ago

I had a Crackberry once. Worst thing ever. Email sucked. Browsing sucked. Mapping sucked. Crappy menu system with the actions I wanted to use most frequently buried in the deep abyss of boring, corporate-inspired menu hierarchies. The thing was as ugly as bat shit. I voted with my feet.

sfphotoarts 17y ago
browsing sucks for sure, but email? come on? Thats the whole selling point and they sell very very well with most customers being repeats. Your experience is very atypical.
- jsz0 17y ago
  I disagree. It was great about 5 years ago but the times have kind of passed it by. Perhaps the situation is better on the Storm or Bold but on my 8330: 1) No native IMAP support 2) No native Exchange support without a BES 3) Horrific attachment viewer. 4) No real-time spellcheck 5) No auto-correction 6) No easy way to sync contacts/calendars over the air 7) No (minimal?) HTML e-mail support (unfortunately sometimes it does help make long e-mail chains more readable) 8) Gotta rely on your carrier for push e-mail -- or in the case of Sprint "Oh yeah we'll send it if we get a chance. Give us like 20 minutes K?" e-mail service. 9) No intuitive way of deleting lots of e-mail messages that don't happen to all be sequential to each other in the list. 10) No folders -- just one big flat mailbox. Hard to save messages on your phone this way. Again, fixed if you have a BES but I don't want my $200 SmartPhone to require $2k-$5k in hardware/software to be functional. It certainly gets the job done for the basics but once you get used to having more options and flexibility it's hard to go back.
- joubert 17y ago
  Try getting HTML-formatted email. Useless.

jodrellblank 17y ago

I agree, I want to think of it as a miniature computer too. But it's not sold as an open computing platform, it's sold as an Apple approved limited computing platform. That's what you buy and that's what you get, and I don't really see why Apple should not be allowed to make and sell a product like that.

jodrellblank 17y ago

Imagine a version of OS X where every application had to be approved. Does that not strike you as horribly wrong? No. "I don't like it" and "wrong" are not interchangeable.

sofal 17y ago
Keep in mind that "wrong" and "should be outlawed" are not interchangeable either. When someone argues that something is wrong, that doesn't always mean they want to strip people or companies of their right to do it anyway. Don't fight the straw men.