Comments on: iPhone "kill switch" exists; may be tempest in teacup

By: franko

franko — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:08 +0000

amen, chris.

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:33:10 +0000

Then you shouldn’t buy one. You’re not its target audience anyway. It’s not meant for people who want to be able to fiddle around under the hood. It’s meant for people who want something simple that just works without them having to fiddle around under the hood. Apple isn’t selling this as a PDA for you to do what you want with. They’re selling it as a fancy phone (or mp3 player) that Just Works, because they’re doing all that stuff under the hood for you.

That’s what Apple does. That’s why the iPod blew every other mp3 player right out of the water, including everything that even Sony—the people who originated pocket form factor music playing—could throw at it. That’s why the iTunes Music Store has become the biggest retailer of music in the nation, despite the fact that they sell (mostly) less-than-CD-quality stuff with DRM on it. It All Just Works.

Again, the iPhone is not meant to be a PDA, for all that it looks like one. It’s a cellphone (or MP3 player, in the case of the iTouch) with some PDA-like functions slapped on, and unlike PDAs, most cellphones aren’t all that “open” anyway. If you try to make it out to be a crippled PDA that you want instead of the fancy phone or MP3 player that it’s meant to be, you’re conflating oranges, and, well, Apple.

By: Brian Carnell

Brian Carnell — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:28:52 +0000

“The panickers seem upset about the app-killing capability existing at all. Writes iTWire’s Alex Zaharov-Reutt,”

Um, yeah, that’s exactly the problem and why I’d never buy an iPhone. It’s not your phone. It’s Apple’s.

Apple’s terms make typical DRM schemes look like a walk in the park.

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:41:46 +0000

It’s a good thing nobody is being forced to buy iPhones, then.

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:11:24 +0000

>>>It is doubtful that Apple would want the negative publicity that would come with using the “kill switch” for anything short of a full-blown malware panic.

Until, as a condition of a Chinese App Store, Apple is told to ban any ebooks by or about Tibet or the Dalai Lama.

Rupert Murdoch was quick to throw the BBC off his satellite TV system to please the Chinese.

Never underestimate the power of an untapped billion people market.

And the inevitable One More Thing …

AT&T itself has its own mud to deal with, permitting the NSA to install Internet spy machines in its offices.

We are all made complicit in evil.