iPhone 1.1.1 Aftermath

[sshrivastava]

Why doesn't Apple learn from its mistakes? People like flexibility and enjoy customizing their systems. The Mac was a dismal failure when it was a 100% closed, proprietary system employing non-standard connectors, memory architecture, etc. Only now that the Mac has gone Intel and users can expand and use off-the-shelf peripherals that the Mac base has exploded.

Most iPhone users won't care because they're not hacking their phones. However, Apple is giving its competitors plenty of fuel and is only shooting itself in the foot in terms of negative press. I can't understand why Apple won't allow 3rd party application development that doesn't require a browser interface -- could it be that Apple wants to force everyone onto a cellular network in order to use 3rd party apps? Apple claims security concerns, but I suspect monetary concerns took a priority.

I also wonder how robust the OS is if it's so easy for 3rd party applications to compromise the phone's security.

 

[peharri]

Honestly guys, lets stop for a minute and think how it would appear if Apple--after publicizing this so-called multi-year contract with AT&T--turned a blind eye to unlockers.

It would be ridiculous!

No, it wouldn't. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, RIM, et al, have never felt the need to release an update that "bricks" phones. Indeed, all have gone out of their way to make sure their phones are, ultimately, unlockable via a code.

Apple is the only company that feels that it needs to make GSM phones that are completely, 100%, unlockable, and that it needs to punish any customer that dares challenge this state of affairs.

There is no reason to believe that Apple has something unique about their contract that the above manufacturers do not have. Its offer to AT&T - mostly unsubsidized phones, with Apple doing most of the marketing, and little more than a relatively small kick-back on subscription revenue (small because a $600 phone usually is subsidized by operators to the tune of $2-300), is so unbelievably generous it's hard to understand why Apple ever agreed to these terms.

And the first person to answer "Visual Voicemail" will get a stern withering look from the 99% of the population who rarely have more than one VM message waiting for them at any time.

 

[emotion]

Software-update 1.1.1. will go down in history as Apple worst blunder, ever. It will be truly infamous.

I think you need to stop thinking about this for a day or so. You've clearly lost all sense of perspective.

This is a PR blunder but not of the scale that you speak.

It will be forgotten about this time next month.

 

[Mock Turtleneck]

Hello everyone, long time reader, first time poster...I've always wanted to say that...

Anyhow... I really wish I could have some sympathy for iPhone owners, but try as I may I just can't seem to. It is, and has been for quite some time, common knowledge that the iPhone platform is a closed one, that Apple had announced that it's programming interface would be limited (at least a first) to Web apps.

That being said, yes, Apple blundered by releasing the iPhone Mark I with the ability for the minority of the community to Hack and Crack their way into the OS, to produce unauthorized code that operated in a fashion not intended for the iPhone Mark I. Yes, to the technogeeks out there the programs were great, it was 'cool' to have programs on your iPhone that Apple didn't intend for you to have, however, I think every last person knew that what they were doing was subject to breaking whenever Apple updated...yet those same people went ahead and upgraded their phones. This was after Apple issued a warning, every tech site that is worth it's weight in salt warned them, even the mainstream media warned them yet they still did it, can someone point me to the logic in that?

To those iPhone Mark I users who cracked their phone, you got what you deserved, won't make me popular in the iPhone community but from what I've seen it's not a true community anyhow, just a mob of people who are proving very quickly that they can whine with the best newborns on the planet.

Perhaps next time you buy a closed device you'll leave it alone and use it the way it was intended to be used by the manufacturer, probably not but one can hope.

To those iPhone Mark I users who got iBricked without cracking their phones, admittedly the great minority, good luck in dealing with Apple, I truly hope they will work with you as you were (without a doubt) causalities of friendly fire when Apple attempted to defend it's technology.

I'm truly sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone and how Apple continues to 'blunder' through it's Customer Satisfaction rating, the only mistake Apple has made here was putting out the iPhone in the first place as it's diluted the Apple Community down so far with iPhone WhineBoi(tm) style people that the rest of us are left wondering where the feeling of community went.

Now, back to the important discussions about Leopard.

 

[emotion]

No, it wouldn't. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, RIM, et al, have never felt the need to release an update that "bricks" phones. Indeed, all have gone out of their way to make sure their phones are, ultimately, unlockable via a code.

Apple is the only company that feels that it needs to make GSM phones that are completely, 100%, unlockable, and that it needs to punish any customer that dares challenge this state of affairs.

Apple is currently the only phone manufacturer that is tied to one exclusive network provider. That might explain the difference.

We might have to wait a few months for this to change and for things to settle.

Personally I can wait.

 

[stoneii]

look into my eyes

clear your mind and listen to the rich melodic sounds in my voice and then repeat after me:

I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs
I want to be just like Steve Jobs

then go out and buy a black turtle neck and stand on the corner condemning those that look different then you....you can even throw bricks if you feel the urge

and do not forget to sign your communist party card so that you can support the consistent and ensured future that Steve has provided for you

repeat after me:
I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer
I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer
I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer

 

[emotion]

clear your mind and listen to the rich melodic sounds in my voice and then repeat after me:

I want to be just like Steve Jobs
.....
I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer

Look, kid, you've been around here a day or so to troll around. We've all seen this a million times before.

 

[stoneii]

MS question

I think it is safe to say that MS is a reasonably evil company but I could not help but wonder how many Zunes they have bricked?...I think is something like zero....in fact they hardly ever feel the urge to brick pirated copies of windows...so what the heck is Apple doing going around kicking teeth in?? Is Apple the new school bully??

 

[kamiboy]

The way I see it Apple has two very good reasons for locking the iPhone down for all time and enforce that policy with an iron fist.

The first and most obvious is their contractual obligations to AT&T and the implications of not following up on them.

The second is that unlike OSX that has not been able to translate its apparent and overwhelming superiority over its competitors into a bigger market share the iPhone is showing every sign of actually being able to do that very same thing.

The iPhone is looking to become a commodity item, just like the iPod and not a niche item like macs and OSX, at least that is what Steve and co. hope for. That combined with the fact that the iPhone is designed to be an always connected device with heavy focus on internet capabilities means that security is a much, much, much bigger concern for Apple on the iPhone than it ever was on any mac.

Worst case scenario is that Apple is looking at a device that will become as popular with malicious hackers and virus/malware/spyware writers as windows is. An iPhone with as many security concerns and pitfalls as a the average windows machine must be the ultimate nightmare scenario for Apple.

A very easy way of preventing this from coming true is simply to lock down the platform out from easy access to programmers with bad intent, while unfortunately also locking it down from developers with good intent.

I understand Apple's stance on this and feel it might be more of a case of a few rotten apples having spoiled things for everyone than Apple simply being evil or idiots. I take no offence of the no third party programs policy, I see the iPhone more as simply a really cool phone than a small computer, there for I have no desire to install any other programs on it than what it shipped with. Since the ones iPhone comes with allows me to use it as a phone and an iPod I am happy, and I imagine outside of a few very vocal disgruntled iPhone users the vast majority of normal phone users feel the same.

 

[stoneii]

Look, kid, you've been around here a day or so to troll around. We've all seen this a million times before.

You have seen this a million times before but you still do not have a worthwhile rebuttal...go figure

@Kamiboy: I see were you are coming from and can not argue the need for security however I will not accept the argument as a justification for the intentional and malicious way in which Apple conducted itself....I expect more from Apple..maybe I am wrong on this.

never justify intentional malicious acts no matter what ..

 

[khunsanook]

wow. amazing. I've been reading these responses and have only big ????'s

The terms of the iPhone from the start were crazy and way too locked into Apple's demands IMHO. I'm totally confused why people who knew the terms before buying are complaining now that these same horrible terms have reared their truthful and completely non-misleading head to counter the imagined fantasies of what "could have been the iPhone". Let's face it. The iPhone is not and never was the open, unlocked phone you all seem to want. Apple has not lied. Apple has not cheated. Apple has only lived up to the horrible iPhone deal they announced from the start.

 

[Jarcrew]

I think it is safe to say that MS is a reasonably evil company but I could not help but wonder how many Zunes they have bricked?...I think is something like zero....in fact they hardly ever feel the urge to brick pirated copies of windows...so what the heck is Apple doing going around kicking teeth in?? Is Apple the new school bully??

Who's even trying to hack the Zune?

Oh, and I wasn't aware that getting the reasons behind a closed system went hand-in-hand with being a communist and trying to ape Steve Jobs move for move. What?

 

[Mock Turtleneck]

The iPhone is not and never was the open, unlocked phone you all seem to want. Apple has not lied. Apple has not cheated. Apple has only lived up to the horrible iPhone deal they announced from the start.

Too bad the WhineBoi(tm)s' refuse to accept this...

 

[Selenolycus]

I have in the past three years purchased three iPods, and iBook, and a MacBook, but as of today I am boycotting Apple products until Apple Inc. takes better care of their iPhone users. The way in which Apple has handled taking-care of their customers with iPhones broken by Apple's software update is detestable. I am not an iPhone owner myself, but I know that if Apple released a software update that rendered my MacBook entirely non-functioning, and Apple refused to fix it under my current warranty because I was running third-party software, I would be extremely angry.

Why is the iPhone any different? I can understand why installing Linux on an iPod would void the warranty. However, Apple touts that the iPhone "runs OS X," something it didn't do with the iPod. Of course, OS X runs a lot more than the nine applications or so present on the iPhone. Apple made no clear public indication that the usage of third-party applications voided the iPhone's warranty. Instead, Apple had given users a false representation of the iPhone's capabilities; they made the exact capabilities and terms a murky subject by screaming-out hype and muttering of its limitations.

Don't let Apple do this to their customers. Boycott their products until they repair or replace the iPhones that they bricked.

 

[RRK]

I think you need to stop thinking about this for a day or so. You've clearly lost all sense of perspective.

This is a PR blunder but not of the scale that you speak.

It will be forgotten about this time next month.

LOL, this is my general opinion as well. People must really love their iPhones to be so emotional about the product working exactly the way they said it would.

IMO, if you compare this situation to pretty much any other hardware that actually receives significant software updates, the response is unprecedented. Could it be that the group of users affected by this situation coincides with some other emotionally categorized group. For example, those classified as "early adopters" also tend to belong to a group that could be labeled "unrealistic expectations."

 

[jabu31]

clear your mind and listen to the rich melodic sounds in my voice and then repeat after me:

I want to be just like Steve Jobs

repeat after me:

I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer

Oh, Theres no place more like home than Cupertino! Oh, Theres no place more like home than Cupertino!

LOOOK WOZO!!!!

We're Home! We're Home!

Gosh that surely was a frightful storm. But now we are back home in sunny Cupertino! Well isn't that just great Wozo!!!! No more angry witch of the west...[woof]....Oh yes I dar say that Wicked witch of the west "Gatesarina" was truly a monster!!!!

(falls asleep saying) Theres no place more like home than Cupertino!!!

 

[elcid]

First of all, let me say that you all seem to be treating the iPhone like it is something really special. And when you apply the same thinking most of you have to any other object, the results are completly different.

Example: You mod your X-Box. Your X-Box breaks. You take it in and obviously the warranty is void. You have changed the unit outside the specs of what the company supporting it allowed.

None of you were forced to update. Really I am surprised any phones were really bricked. If you were smart enough to mod it then you should be smart enough to wait for some other penguin to be pushed into the ocean to see the result.

So, you all knowingly modded your phones, knowing full well it could brick the phone, and now that it happened you are upset. If Apple fixes your phone then congrats, Apple is dumb for doing so.

I want to be just like Steve Jobs
.....
I will obey Steve..I will be a good consumer

I agree with the one guy, if you dont have anything productive to say, dont say anything at all. Really.

I could not help but wonder how many Zunes they have bricked?...

Apples and Oranges. iPod = Zune, Zune != iPhone

Software-update 1.1.1. will go down in history as Apple worst blunder, ever. It will be truly infamous.

Its not a worst blunder. Maybe it will go down as the biggest over-reaction for a group that doesnt have a case. Maybe that was taken by the price cut folks.

In the end, do you really suggest that Apple is going to test their firmware updates on anything but an updated iPhone? Do you expect them to mod their phones and test that too so that they support what they do not?

And one last thing. These are Firmware updates, not just Software. Firmware. Have you ever tried flashing your BIOS for a firmware update? Its easy to brick a mobo, I'd imagine if it isnt what Apple thinks it to be it would easy for them to brick it and not know it.

Enjoy your paper weights, don't mod version 1.0 of something in the future.

 

[Mike Teezie]

So, you DO in fact expect Steve to save you....

So, you don't know much about this, do you? You just have faith, that Apple is NEVER at fault....

Get my point now?

Hey, I'm not the one who needs Steve to save me. Apparently you are.

You are all getting so worked up over the fact you can't have a phone work exactly like you believe it should. I'm not so much of an Apple "fanboy" that even though it didn't fulfill my desires as a phone, I had to have an iPhone so badly that I would hack it - especially after being warned of the consequences.

If you weren't so obsessed with Apple and/or the iPhone, you could have gotten a Blackberry, or Q, or Treo, or whatever other phones let you install 3rd party apps, and loaded it up to your hearts content. Everyone knows there are phones that support 3rd party apps, and everyone knows Apple's current stance on 3rd party apps. I'm going to make a fairly safe assumption that you and all the other whiners knew Apple's stance when you bought the thing.

So don't worry about me. I'm certainly not considering Apple, or its CEO when I'm using my iPhone. It's just a phone.

 

[emotion]

I have in the past three years purchased three iPods, and iBook, and a MacBook, but as of today I am boycotting Apple products until Apple Inc. takes better care of their iPhone users. The way in which Apple has handled taking-care of their customers with iPhones broken by Apple's software update is detestable.

Forget the unlocking but in terms of jailbeaking and the closing down of that Apple have acted extremely responsibly on this matter. All 3rd party apps on the jailboke iphones were running as 'root'. This is a massive security hole (like I need to say this, or maybe I do - some of you aren't that compter savvy, looking at the comments).

I suspect, or at least hope, that when apple's solution to putting apps on the iphone appears there won't be this gaping security hole.

None of us want the iPhone to become the security joke that windows was all these years do we?

 

[Selenolycus]

First of all, let me say that you all seem to be treating the iPhone like it is something really special.

"iPhone uses OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Which means you have access to the best-ever software on a handheld device"

From http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#macosx

Now, if Apple weren't trying to be misleading, this really would be something very special. Imagine, a pocket-size device that runs OS X! In truth, though, it runs the Mach Kernel and a few applications resembling those used in OS X. Note, Apple doesn't say it uses a light version of OS X or a stripped down version of OS X. It says "OS X, the world's most advanced operating system."

What sort of message does this send to the consumer? It is misleading hype that confuses people who wanted the functionality of "the world's most advanced operating system," something Apple said this product had.

 

[RRK]

...and everyone knows Apple's current stance on 3rd party apps.

Yeh, did everyone miss the third party app discussion that started last January.

 

[elcid]

This will cost Apple dearly:
- There will likely be far fewer sales going into the holiday season
- They can more or less forget about selling them in Europe. It's not like the iPhone was/is perfect, but up to now the coolness easily outweighed any drawback, but this is a game-changer
- Apple will not be able to sell anywhere near ten million units thru 2008
- Serious questions will be raised about the business-model for the iPhone (ground zero)
- AAPL is heading for a downgrade
- RDF is dying

This is rather entertaining. First off, http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:AAPL up half a point when I checked. Secondly, the iPhone was never really marketed as a Business phone. It is no Blackberry. It has no exchange support. And really I dont think that this is going to affect sales at all. It is still great at what it does, and people should always buy a product for what it does now, not for what their nerdy neighbor can get it to do by modding it. I doubt any of your points are true, only time will tell.

 

[Selenolycus]

Forget the unlocking but in terms of jailbeaking and the closing down of that Apple have acted extremely responsibly on this matter. All 3rd party apps on the jailboke iphones were running as 'root'. This is a massive security hole (like I need to say this, or maybe I do - some of you aren't that compter savvy, looking at the comments).

I suspect, or at least hope, that when apple's solution to putting apps on the iphone appears there won't be this gaping security hole.

None of us want the iPhone to become the security joke that windows was all these years do we?

If Apple had been honest about the software their iPhones run then the situation would be different. Endusers want things to Just Work™. Apple has been seen for nearly three decades as a company whose technology products are simple for everyone to use.

They don't understand the security risk of running everything as root, and they didn't understand that OS X on the iPhone, though said to be the most advanced OS in the world by Apple themselves, was not capable of an eighth of the real OS X's functionality.

Apple could've released an SDK, but they didn't - and that's ok. Apple should've been more honest with their customers, but they weren't - and that is not ok.

 

[3282872]

Ugh. This is gotten beyond done. The horse has been beaten.

I will state this once again, and leave it at this. I have read all the comments, I have made several excellent points (that few seem to have read), that I will not rehash. Both sides have solid arguments. I believe the issue resides not in that Apple has closed the iPhone, but whether they should have closed it. Remember, Apple prides itself on being different, but in the same vein wishes everyone to be different with the same thing. I posted a YouTube video on this thread that someone recently made in which they take the 1997 sound from an Apple commercial about being different and juxtaposed it against a list of all the third party app's Apple has essentially crushed from ever being on the iPhone. It was very poignant.

Lastly, doesn't any one really understand what is going on here? It's about money. Just like the third party app's you can buy for the Mac OS X platform (such as iLife, Office, etc.), Apple will eventually be selling those applications on iTunes just as they sell games and ringtones. Opening up the iPhone with a light ver. of OS X takes away Apple's ability to control and sell those applications. Don't think for a second that they haven't planned this, by releasing "updates" that enable features such as TV Out that could have been put on the iPhone when it was released (afterall the 5G Video iPod has had TV Out since 2005), Apple can address keeping the phone closed by tethering features owners may want, kind of like dangling that carrot in front of you. Sure, it's legal, but is it right? (and no, I'm not crying, I'm happy that I have an iPhone and yes, I did hack it to modify its icons and such, but I can live without it).

I just feel as though Apple is being ironic in trying to be different by making all of its items the same.

 

[RRK]

"iPhone uses OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Which means you have access to the best-ever software on a handheld device"

From http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#macosx

Now, if Apple weren't trying to be misleading, this really would be something very special.

This has also been discussed before. It does not run Tiger (which a version of OS X). It runs OS X, which now comes in a lot of different versions. There is the iPhone version, the iPod touch version, the Apple TV version, then there is all the server versions and the PPC and Intel versions of the "PC" version...etc.