On 2009-07-01, nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> other devices can certainly access the music but apple could make it
> very difficult to access the itunes library which contains playlists,
> song ratings, etc.

They could, but they don't - it seems to be a simple XML file
"iTunes Music Library.xml". In fact, not only do they not try and
hide this information - they deliberately make it easy to get at!
According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660 :

"The purpose of the iTunes Music Library.xml file is to make your
music and playlists available to other applications on your
computer."

>> Ah, OK, I haven't tried jailbreaking my phone. I just haven't heard of
>> any complaints from jailbreak users due to Apple going out of their
>> way to stop them. At the very least, for example, when updating the
>> iPhone OS iTunes could detect the jailbreak and refuse to update
>> ("phone in non-standard state, warranty voided, cannot upgrade").
>
> but you could put the device into recovery mode and install a stock
> firmware, so it's not worth bothering to do that.

Only because Apple let you. They could have made it so that the
"recovery mode" could be disabled, if they'd wanted to.

>> With other phones, unlocking them was always a rather nervous affair
>> as there was the possibility of bricking the phone or causing some
>> other hard-to-undo problem, but with the iPhone as far as I'm aware it
>> doesn't matter what you do, you can always just reset and restore from
>> backup. It practically encourages hacking! ;-)
>
> early unlock attempts did sometimes brick the phones,

Do you mean "brick" as in it simply made the phone not work anymore
until you wiped it and restored it, or do you really mean the proper
meaning of the word, i.e. it became permanently unusable unless
returned to the manufacturer (or similar)?