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5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

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Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#61

Post by jws »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #30
axod wrote: post #26

This is really a ridiculous article if you can call it that. "iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora." Why do I care that a few cents of the price of my iPhone went in licensing the mp3 format from "Thomson Multimedia and Fraunhofer IIS-A". As a user, it plays mp3 files. Which is all anyone cares about. If it only played DRM files I'd have a problem with it and wouldn't buy it. Look…

I have quite a few ogg files. Converting to mp3 before using on an mp3 player is very annoying. Plus, libogg is BSD licensed, so why not include it?

ogg has not been legally tested. The developers read through what they believe to be the relevant patents and declared themselves clean, but no one knows what those patent holders think and what patents may have been missed. Only when a company with deep pockets releases ogg vorbis in a high volume device will we see who is waiting to come out of the woodwork and start a patent suit.

For the tiny and shrinking set of people that want ogg vorbis, it isn't worth the legal risk.

(Sidebar: I don't mean to imply that vorbis is vanishing now, but as storage gets cheaper I expect mp3, aac, and vorbis to drift away in favor of lossless formats which are not subject to the body of psychoacoustical patents. I rip at 192kbps AAC or 256kbps mp3. Lossless encoders end up around 750kbps. I never fill my 8G iPhone. Using lossless on a 32G device would be a no brainer decision.)

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#62

Post by hugh »

raganwald wrote: post #57
dejb wrote: post #4

Thank god for some sanity. I cannot for the life of me understand why otherwise intelligent geeks fawn over locked Apple products and the iPhone in particular.

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice. Instead of trying to figure out why otherwise intelligent people like something you do not care for, why not just sit back and accept the idea that we all have different likes, dislikes, and preferences, and that we need not justify our particular differences to you before go…

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice.

Oh, I don't know about that. I am completely incapable of empathizing with the human being who chooses to beat his daughter to death for dating a boy from another religion. Or the human being who chooses to torture an animal for fun. Or the human being who... well actually I can't think of a third example which is significantly different from the first two.

But as far as purchases of consumer electronics goes... sure, do whatever you like! I really don't give a damn one way or the other.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#63

Post by SwellJoe »

tlrobinson wrote: post #55
cosmok wrote: post #9

'iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones.' I dislike the fact that Apple has considerable (compltete?) control over the distribution of an iPhone app and even charges the developer for doing so.Frigging unbelivable!

There's nothing stopping you from distributing your software for free (no "tax" paid to Apple if it's free) or distributing your source code. Other developers can modify, compile, run your source code on their own iPhones, and redistribute it on the App Store if they are approved. As Apple ramps up I believe they will approve more and more developers, and eventually get to the point where anyone can distribute an app…

And when the day comes that I can install an application on an iPhone without the permission of Apple, including those I develop myself, I will buy an iPhone. I've made the mistake of buying one device (Sidekick II) that doesn't allow arbitrary applications, and I won't do it again...and I certainly won't pay $80/month for the privilege of only using the products Apple permits me to use.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#64

Post by pcc »

jodrellblank wrote: post #46
rit wrote: post #7

I'll really try to take that whole rant with a grain of salt. Yes, I realize I'm locked into "apple's DRM" - if I buy from the iTunes store. I buy from Amazon MP3, or I rip CDs (those are the 3 ways to get music on my iPhone, right? ;)) to MP3. No DRM lockin there... Yes, it doesn't happen to play FLAC/OGG but I can easily transcode FLAC to Apple Lossless if I want - and back again - and I have yet to hear anyone exp…

> and I have yet to hear anyone explain to me what OGG gives me that mp3 doesn't The right to use - or as a developer, create - a program that can play/record music in that format without permission from, or payment to, the people who developed and patented said format. The right to read the file format specification and change it to suit your own use without consulting or paying anyone or breaking the law. You are e…

>> and I have yet to hear anyone explain to me what OGG gives me that mp3 doesn't

> The right to use - or as a developer, create - a program that can play/record music in that format without permission from, or payment to, the people who developed and patented said format.

And the right as a customer to choose to avoid paying indirectly for a technology license (mp3) by choosing to use another technology (ogg vorbis).

Its a bit like the argument of the people who want to buy just a PC (say for a freebsd server); and implicitly must also pay for the included Windows they're forced to take, even though they never want to use it (is this not now illegal in some states)?

Except in this case, you are paying a portion of the cost of the phone, a portion of the cost of Windows (or Mac OS), and a portion of the cost of tune downloads, as a license fee for mp3 (well the vendor is paying the license fee, but guess where its coming from).

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#65

Post by SwellJoe »

matthewking wrote: post #17

Anyone else think the FreeRunner looks like crap? Aside from the hardware, the UI looks like Windows Mobile on the top, and iphone on the bottom..

I don't think it looks all that bad. But, I couldn't figure out how to buy and use one. There seems to be no actual way to purchase one, or any way to activate it with any carriers. I'm sure it's possible...but it's not obvious to me how to do it.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#66

Post by cstef »

pavelludiq wrote: post #19
jotto wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people so upset about this? They provide a great shopping experience for their customers, and a great distribution channel for your apps. This is a service worth paying for.

The problem is that this channel is THE ONLY ONE.

Well, maybe not the only one... http://www.ziphoneunlock.com/?id=yuga

Just sayin'

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#67

Post by raganwald »

hugh wrote: post #62
raganwald wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice. Instead of trying to figure out why otherwise intelligent people like something you do not care for, why not just sit back and accept the idea that we all have different likes, dislikes, and preferences, and that we need not justify our particular differences to you before go…

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice. Oh, I don't know about that. I am completely incapable of empathizing with the human being who chooses to beat his daughter to death for dating a boy from another religion. Or the human being who chooses to torture an animal for fun. Or the human being who... well actually I…

While your examples are extreme, we are only talking about degrees of difference. For example, I empathize with people who send their country's youth off to a foreign land to fight and kill for oil even if I don't agree with their choice.

Empathizing is not the same thing as agreeing with or countenancing.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#68

Post by aggieben »

hugh wrote: post #62
raganwald wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice. Instead of trying to figure out why otherwise intelligent people like something you do not care for, why not just sit back and accept the idea that we all have different likes, dislikes, and preferences, and that we need not justify our particular differences to you before go…

I am really disturbed whenever I read about one human being saying he is completely incapable of empathizing with another human being's choice. Oh, I don't know about that. I am completely incapable of empathizing with the human being who chooses to beat his daughter to death for dating a boy from another religion. Or the human being who chooses to torture an animal for fun. Or the human being who... well actually I…

Oh, I don't know about that. I am completely incapable of empathizing with the human being who chooses to beat his daughter to death for dating a boy from another religion.

Amen to that.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#69

Post by KirinDave »

mdasen wrote: post #5
swombat wrote: post #2

Blah blah blah... Can anyone say "broken record"? FSF claims to be about choice. Well, I exercise my choice by choosing to buy the phone that I prefer.

The FSF can be like that, but they also have a good point. Only Apple could get away with creating a smartphone where they hold all the cards - deciding what and who can and can't develop for it. If Microsoft tried to pull something like that, we'd all cry foul. /yeah, I'm still getting an iPhone today. //hoping that in two years there will be other competitors who are more open and match the iPhone's quality

I think the reason that they can get away with this is this motto of excellence. Yes, the iPhone is perilously deficient in ways we traditionally identify quality with smartphones.

But everything it does do, it does so damn well that it's hard to argue with it. Apple is really good at honing down to a core feature set and making that perfect to the deliberate exclusion of everything else. People recognize this and it's a somewhat unusual feeling.

It's kind of like hacker-driven code shops. Someone may run off and ignore your in-shop standards and make something using weird tech or using a different protocol, but if it works like a well-oiled–perhaps magical–machine, then its likelihood of getting adopted is surprisingly high.

Re: 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

#70

Post by apgwoz »

evgen wrote: post #41
apgwoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The iPhone does not completely block free software. Last time I checked, there was free software available in the App Store. Developers are welcome to release their code I presume. Yes, there is software in the AppStore that is gratis, and developers can of course share their code. However, I can't recompile it and run it on my iPhone right away without it being distributed through the AppStore. Will Apple reject a…

Actaully, you can recompile it and run it on your iphone by getting the SDK and dev tools. How do you think that developers test their programs? I tell xcode to compile the app and if my phone is plugged in it automatically uploads it. The AdHoc distribution model (still be be enabled or explained in much detail) also suggests that you will be able to distribute your app to up to 100 other users.

Oh. That's cool. Obviously the SDK has the emulator. I didn't realize you could compile and install yourself on the actual phone.
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