Letters to the Editor
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This Update is a Trojan Horse
It sounds like Apple is delivering Trojan horses to their customers. After all, knowingly placing software on a system with the intent of damaging or disabling it is illegal in this country. I don't see why the FBI shouldn't get involved here. I'm quite serious. All it should take is for a victim to file a complaint. (I can't -- I don't have an iPhone.)
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Not that foul
If you don't want your hacked iPhone to be broken, don't take the update. Once you've left the reservation, don't be surprised when you can't come back.
There are good technical reasons why a firmware update might interact badly with unofficial mods. I don't know if Apple had such reasons, but there's really no way to know if their position was due to technical limitations or malice. But should we expect Apple to bend over backwards to support any random hack one might choose to do to their firmware?
If you want to be outraged, be outraged that they didn't allow other carriers in the first place.
Me, I just choose not to buy one.
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I am torn
On the one hand, I think Apple is correct in {announcing | warning} us that software updates expect an iPhone that is within specifications in order to work, and if the iPhone has been modified then it is no longer in spec. How many times has an OS upgrade (Apple or Microsoft) suddenly rendered software or hardware inoperable.
On the other hand, deliberately breaking modified hardware is just mean and devious. The only example I know of is when DirecTV set up a "sting" to break receivers using pirated decoder cards. It was especially {devious | brilliant} in that their software engineers actually sent out pieces of code over a period of time. Legit cards would be updated properly but hacked cards would not. (It is explained in more detail here [ http://slashdot.org/articles/01/01/25/1343218_F.shtml ] and here [ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/01/25/directv_attacks_hacked_smart_cards/ ]
Ultimately, I would want a software modified device that was reset to factory spec (reload the original iPhone software) should update just fine and not break the hardware. In the mean time, I'm not going to apply the update and see how things shake up.... Unless Apple decides to deactivate iPhones that don't get the software update--then Steve is just being a bastard. :-P
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Only Logical...
Apple adopted a draconian policy against people who dared to do something perfectly legal with their iPhones, and thus came out in support of the wireless industry -- and against its own customers' rights.
... if they plan on becoming a wireless carrier themselves. Like Democratic indifference to the excesses of Bush's Unitary Executive, they will not condemn the practices of an institution that they plan on having a future stake in.
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Oh, Please
I agree, the iPhone should be playable on each of the two networks -- two -- that support the world standard 3G. More importantly, we need a change in governmental policy in the cell arena. Phones that are subsidized and therefore restricted by all the networks -- all of them -- should be outlawed. All networks should be standardized, as they are in the saner parts of the globe that do not want to allow corporations to make users their vassals. No charges should be allowed for "roaming." Etc.
However, the iPhone just dramatizes the need for change. It is not, itself, change, despite the masterful ads that make us expect this from Apple. Apple's forte is design and marketing. They have made their bed with AT&T in the U.S. It gives them coverage and a partner with deep pockets. The rumor is that the iPhone was offered to Verizon, but they weren't interested. They'd rather use crippled Razrs and LG phones that use their higher-speed networking to sell you overpriced ringtones and overpriced music. But Apple, thanks to its marketing, is on the side of the angels, right? Well, yes, sort of. But they also have a stock price and capital reserves and stockholders. They can't run a martyrdom company. They must run on the network we have.
Name another company that sells unlocked smartphones in the U.S. market. (crickets). Oh, there are some available. Put an AT&T SIM card in a phone you bought in Europe, and you have to pay someone to get it back to your carrier. This is not allowed in Europe. It should not be allowed here.
You know, if you hack, you've opted to live in the wild. Good luck in proving that the software update deliberately bricked the iPhone. One of the features that the update installs is the iTunes Wireless store. This new update depends on the firmware that existed on the factory iPhone, and that makes sense, right? The hackers tell me there's command line altering of the "modem" calls. Well, that's not going to work with the new features. And then, the contract that Apple signed most likely requires them to not be passive in the face of hacking. Good luck on getting the software engineers on the stand to talk about their "intent."
They warned people it might break their phones. It does, at least temporarily. You were expecting seamless ease of use from hackers?
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Call the Waaaambulance
Apple customers are once again complaining and demanding special treatment.
Do you have any idea how much the iPhone cost to develop and deploy? Subsidy unlock codes are designed so a network and device developer can recoup their costs - after all you're not paying the actual cost of an iPhone, barely a fraction of the actual cost.
Yet as usual Apple customers are having a fit, and are muttering about their "special" relationship with Apple and how it should take precedence over Apple's right to recoup its investment in the device, just as they did when Apple cut the cost of the iPhone last month.
What a bunch of crybabies. The iPhone is a phone and Apple is a corporation, not a family.
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You are free to use AN unlocked phone not THIS unlocked phone
Big big difference, hippies. Clearly a sealed box is not meant for you to dink with. That's kind of the point. But when you do, just like if you tore out the onboard computer for you car and swapped in a high performance one and it blew your engine, well sux to be you today. I have less than zero pity for people who do this. It was their risk to take on and it's FOR EXPERTS ONLY. And if you're not clear on the long run effect of doing this then you shouldn't be doing it. And doubly sure you shouldn't take on a vendor's firmware update blind AFTER you dink with the hardware. That clearly shows you don't know WTF you are doing. Anyway if you're so bold then why don't you have a good EEPROM backup-burner-eraser utility? That way you could backup and backout your changes.
Yeah, you thought hacking hardware was easy. Bwahahahahaha.
I have a Modchip Xbox360 boat anchor that was given to me by a guy who chipped it and now it's garbage. You want it?