On Sat, 26 Jan 2008, Mitch posted:
> Actually, I think I said you can't rate it's useability and design
> fairly without giving using it a fair trial.
I bricked two iPod Touch devices in one evening by doing nothing other
than going through the initial setup with iTunes on a Macintosh including
agreeing to let iTunes install the latest software.
It was only after the second one (and an unnecessary 50 mile round trip to
the store) that I thought of trying iTunes on a Windows system; and
Windows unbricked it.
Apple, at least, is very interested in following up on my report.
Apple's fanboys just want to silence me.
> I'm not accepting that
> Mark Crispin could ever compare anything without using it; others might
> compare features and compare just those usefully. Mark is too motivated
> to make unfair generalizations, claims, and comparisons.
According to Mitch, it is unfair to point out that:
. iPhone is locked to the worst network in the USA and Apple aggressively
attacks unlocked iPhones.
. iPhone lacks 3G - hence poor sales in Europe and no chance of sales in
Japan.
. iPhone's GSM performance is average; it is not the best-performing GSM
phone on the market.
. iPhone omits most Bluetooth functionality.
. iPhone lacks the ability to tether to a laptop (you are paying HOW MUCH
for a data plan just to do web browsing???).
. iPhone lacks voice dialing - a basic feature on all but the cheapest
phones.
. iPhone is very expensive, not just compared to other phones, but to
Internet tablets (such as Nokia N800) and phones combined.
. iPhone ($400) is expensive compared to iPod Classic ($330) which has
20 times as much storage capacity.
. iPod Touch 16GB ($400) and iPod Touch 8GB ($300) are expensive
compared to iPod Classic ($330) which has 10-20 times as much storage
capacity and is equally good at being an iPod.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are expensive compared to Nokia N800 ($230 on
Amazon) which has 2 SDHC slots (thus expandable to 32G
, has more
than twice the screen resolution, has full Bluetooth capability so
can be tethered to a Bluetooth cellphone on *any* company, and is a
completely open platform.
. iPod Touch is somewhat expensive compared to Sony mylo second
generation ($300), which has more than twice the screen resolution
and has a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot expandable to 32GB.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are expensive compared to Nokia N810 ($230 on
Amazon) which has a miniSD slot expandable to 32GB, has more than
twice the screen resolution, has full Bluetooth capability so can be
tethered to a Bluetooth cellphone on *any* company, has built-in
GPS, has a keyboard, and is a completely open platform.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are closed platforms, precluding third party
software development, and Apple aggressively attacks jailbroken
iPhones and iPod Touches. Apple's promise of an SDK is just that;
a promise, nothing more. Until it is available, and its capabilities
studied and verified to provide an open development environment, the
platform is closed.
. iPhone and iPod Touch can only be managed via iTunes, a consumer-grade
product that is not at all suitable in enterprises.
. iPhone and iPod Touch do not permit direct download from the Internet;
it must go through iTunes.
. iPhone and iPod Touch only permit synchronization with a single
computer. Even ancient Windows CE devices allowed synchronization
with multiple computers!
. iPhone and iPod Touch have only a basic contact management application
with very limited controls. For example, you can set how names are
displayed, but only for all names. If you set "Last Name, First
Name" (as in a phone book, or to display East Asian names correctly),
it screws up on names with middle names: it actually does "Last,
Middle, First" (e.g., "George W. Bush" comes out as "Bush W. George").
. iPhone and iPod Touch lack a task management application.
. iPhone and iPod Touch, by virtue of using capacitance technology,
preclude the use of a stylus for more precise screen operations.
. iPhone and iPod Touch have very low (320x480) screen resolution for an
Internet tablet (Nokia N800/N810 and Sony mylo all have 800x480).
Compared to Internet tablets, web page reading is quite painful due to
the need to zoom in and zoom out.
As part of my testing, I put the iPod Touch and the Nokia N800 side by
side and asked other people which gave a better Internet access
experience. Typical comments about the iPod Touch was "I can't read it",
"photos are washed out and grainy", "too hard to type on it".
The iPhone and iPod Touch are not particularly good Internet tablets; nor
is iPhone a particularly impressive smartphone. They are iPods that stray
into being Internet tablets and phones.
There is no doubt that iPhone and iPod Touch are great at being iPods, and
do a better job at being iPods than their non-Apple competition. However
(and this is a big however!) other Apple iPods (most notably iPod Classic
160G
do an even better job at being iPods.
> (And now
> namecalling, apparently, is his way to convince you he's more fair.)
I namecall mindless fanboys like you who deny the truth when it fails to
jive with your beliefs.
It is UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE that a new-in-box device bricks for no reason
other than installing the recommended software update as part of a
perfectly ordinary setup process.
>> However, a simple Google search, which apparently is beyond the capability
>> of fanboy Mitch in Hawaii, shows that people have been having this problem
>> with iPhone too.
> I didn't claim that no one was having the problem, or that it was with
> just one version of the devices. I suggested it wasn't usual.
Here's a hint to you and all other fanboys: a proper product test includes
letting your most hostile critics at it. If they can break it, doing
something perfectly ordinary, then the product needs to be fixed.
In this case, I didn't get a chance to test it at all before it bricked as
part of following the setup process. Note well that I did not do anything
other than the first-time setup and agree to its suggestion to upgrade the
software.
>> And I have a reproducable script to make any
>> other new-in-box iPod Touch useless using a Macintosh.
> That part is too funny -- as though it would be hard to make almost any
> device (especially those running Windows!) useless with a script.
Yes, it's funny.
It's really funny since the script consists of doing a perfectly ordinary
setup and installation.
Usually, Microsoft gets that right, even though they have trouble doing
such things as complying with published Internet standards.
> Hah! Has Mark decided that Windows isn't the cause of the horrendous
> Windows problems permeating all of business world?
It's better than the horrendous Macintosh problems that existed 20 years
ago. Or perhaps you are too young to remember that there was a time when
Macintosh was far ahead of Windows. There's a reason why it lost that
position, and that reason is far more based upon what Apple did than what
Microsoft did.
-- Mark --
http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
Breaking Rumor: Apple iPhone goes enterprise on Jan. 21 
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