[SATLUG] [OT]Sony personal communicator

[Brad Knowles]

On 10/29/07, Charles Hogan wrote:

>  What??? Am I the only person left in the world that thinks a phone
>  should be good at being a phone, and to hell with all the rest of
>  the fluff and clutter?

Actually, Steve Jobs and I both agree with you on this.  It's been 
the overwhelming array of third-party software that has made other 
platforms inherently unreliable and less than useless when considered 
as a phone.  This was the problem I had with my Treo, and this is the 
problem I've seen with every single Windows Mobile device I've ever 
seen.

The Apple approach is that they won't officially allow anything onto 
the iPhone unless it's absolutely rock-solid and doesn't compromise 
the operation of the device as a phone first.


In fact, that approach also been the problem with the iPhone -- 
because Apple has locked it down so tightly, lots of third-party apps 
that could have been created have instead been left unwritten, or at 
least haven't been written nearly as quickly and easily as they could 
have been.


I think that Apple does need to open the iPhone up somewhat, but they 
do need to keep extremely strict quality control over what is 
officially available.

If someone wants to unlock their iPhone and run helter-skelter down 
the hall with broken glass in one hand and rusty scissors in the 
other, then that's a risk that I don't think Apple would be wise to 
condone.

However, that doesn't mean that people shouldn't be allowed to unlock 
their iPhone, if they choose to do so.  It should just mean the end 
of Apple support.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>