"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A5BA6173EE55noonehomecom@208.49.80.253...
>> And I
>> have no problem with commercial software as long as the price is
>> realistic.
>>
>
> Come on. You don't really like Jobs and Apple controlling and censoring
> what you can get and what you can't. It's like Honda making a car you
> MUST take back to the dealer to get the oil changed because HE is the
> ONLY one with a "key" to drain and refill the engine. It's crazy! It's
> stupid!
Nobody changed the rules mid-game- you liken the iPhone to WebTV, I liken it
to a Nintendo or a Playstation- 3rd party hardware and software only through
"official" channels. There are plenty of other products to buy if you don't
like Apple's way- and you and I have some of them. I look at it like an
experiment- I've seen what "open" gives you- lots of mediocre options that
frankly give the OS a bad rep. Everyone loves knocking WinMo because it's
"flakey" and "unstable." Guess what- if you never add any apps and stick to
what it comes with out of the box, WinMo is neither flakey nor unstable.
It's the 3rd-party apps from the school of "anyone with a pulse can code for
WinMo" that leads to instability, lockups and crashes. While _I_ don't
mind- I prefer the flexibility it gives me, and gladly trade a little
stability for it, I understand the other side- "typical" users don't want to
deal with crashes, lockups, etc. Apple's system- while not one I'd choose
to use myself- is a perfectly legitimate one. If you don't like it, says
Apple, don't buy an iPhone.
> Some ATT bureaucrat says, "We think that app will use too much data from
> our low speed system". It never shows up on App Store. This is about
> CONTENT CONTROL and PROFITS.
So? Do you think your setup is different? Sure, your tablet is
""uncrippled," but what happens on the day when Alltel decides $25 is too
cheap to allow tethered devices because of some "abusers" like yourself, and
goes to a Sprint/Verizon like pricing structure and starts whacking
customers $25 extra for tethering? The "openness" of the device becomes
immaterial at that point- the "network" still makes the rules.
> Freeware my ass....not with Apple getting 30% of revenues....
Well, 30% of zero is zero, isn't it? In reality, I suspect that perhaps
even freeware might carry an inconsequential "convenience fee" for
downloading, if only to cover the cost of Apple's "approval" process,
whatever it may be.
> I watched the video. I didn't see anyone offering freeware with the
> money boys like Electronic Arts. Noone said, "There's going to be lots
> of free software on App Store, neat stuff to make your iPhone really
> cool."
Apple gave the SDK early to it's leading commercial software partners for
them to show off their wares- not to guys working out of their basements.
> Let's get the boys to port Abiword http://www.abisource.com/ to iPhone
> for free under GNU and get it put in the App Store. Jobs wants to
> attract business. Abiword is a full-featured word processor that does
> amazing things on my little tablet and the WinXP, Mac and Linux boxes.
Or, considering the device's foray into business, perhaps commercial
projects like MS Office Mobile or DataViz' Docs-to-Go might be more
appropriate. The business world isn't running open source as a rule- they
want/need someone to yell at when things don't work.
> Download Abiword for Windows or Mac and give it a freeware spin. Hell,
> it's a better, faster, lots less bloatware WP than anything in Office
> from either company!
I use Office. Thanks, anyway. I like my bugs documented! ;-)
> But, what terrifies me is we are testing the waters, yet again, where
> hardware and software corporations CONTROL what you can do on YOUR
> computer....this time without a hardware dongle....or remotely-stored
> JAVA app. We want you to buy it so we can rent it to you....
Except the iPhone isn't a computer. It's a "Smartphone for Dummies" (don't
take that the wrong way- Oxford! I mean a Smartphone ostensibly designed to
be as easy to setup, use, and update as an iPod.) Again, it's not my cup of
tea, but all things aren't for all people. Despite your glowing reviews of
the N800, for example, it sounds like a lot of work- and I say that as a
WinMo guy! We supposedly spend as much time tweaking as we do working! (In
reality it's more like 10/90 than 50/50!) ;-)
So, why not a closed system? Let the market try it for a year or two and
see what happens to market share between "closed" and "open."