On 2009-06-29, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@aNOoSPAMl.com> wrote:
> Apps can dress up the native functions in eye-catching new ways, but
> since, for example, the iPod APIs only support playback of format X
> and Y, your app simply ain't gonna playback format Z, no way, no
> how.

Not inside the iPod app, no, but inside your own app you presumably
can since you *can* get streaming radio apps etc.

> John Dvorak joked in a recent column, that if Microsoft had produced the
> iPhone instead of Apple, with the same restrictions, someone would've
> started a class-action lawsuit already.

Microsoft are a monopolist with convictions for abusing that monopoly
(albeit not in the mobile marketplace). That makes a difference.

> I'm not as funny as Dvorak, so I typically just ask aloud that if the next
> line of Macs and MacBooks had the same restrictions as the iPhone - a
> centralized app distribution system preventing apps to be sourced anywhere
> else, no user-accessible file system, with files only available to the app
> that created them, media files not transferable to other computers (because
> only pirates do THAT!), and the next Mac OS preventing more than one third-
> party app from running at a time, would the Mac users all agree this was
> beneficial to the user experience as the iPhone users seem to believe?

Do you have some reason to believe that that will happen, or is that
whole paragraph just a huge pile of FUD?

> Apple's start-from-scratch mobile UI was a much better idea. Where Apple
> has failed completely, however, is by showing an utter lack of faith in
> developers to improve the product. (Or it just might be hubris that the
> product is nearly perfect as is.)

No, I think it's because they're targetting a different market.
Which they have every right to do, and by the looks of it, was
a very good decision!

> Apple on the other hand, treats the iPhone developers like children-
> Apple's laid out their toys neatly in the sandbox. If they're naughty,
> they can't go to the app store. If they want more toys, they're told Santa
> might bring them next firmware release day. The jailbreaker underground
> is doing their best, but rather than nudge-nudge-wink-winking them, Apple
> is fighting and threatening them,

Are they? I got the impression it was much more along the "nudge nudge
wink wink" lines, with Apple doing the minimum necessary to keep the
carriers happy. They rattle the sabre as required every now and again,
but the OS upgrades have repeatedly *failed* to screw over the
jailbreak people when they easily could have.

> Upstanding iPhone partners don't soil themselves by associating with
> the jailbreakers, or Apple won't let them play in the app store either.

Do you have a reference for that?