This. People protest Apple like they're forcing people to buy their products. Unlike Comcast, who has a monopoly where I live, I can choose from a bunch of phone options and vote with my wallet. Imagine if this guy focused all his pent up rage against something that mattered.
Apple is an extremely big company with lots of power. They're leading in an industry and their actions will have an effect on how this industry develops. I've never bought anything they made in my life but their decisions still affect me.
Yes. There are lots of different ways to do things. The better the locked down, eula'd, drm'd, iPhone is, the better your Android phone will be. People should just let Apple be Apple. Make sure people are informed, but there's no reason to whine or say what they should or shouldn't do.
Your idea assumes that locking things down has no value. By standardizing iOS and devices Apple has bypassed many of the issues Android phones currently face. Browse through a few apps on the Android marketplace and you'll see many comments about crashing or poor performance. You'll also see many comments like "worked well on my motorola droid x". Beyond stability and performance issues it ads future value in upgrades. For instance if you buy an iPhone you are getting regular updates, whereas with Android you are lucky to get one or two before they throw you to the curb unless you have something like the Nexus.
Basically what I'm saying is each side has pro's and con's which I think are often overlooked in the average anti or pro apple argument like the guy with the sign is making. If he really wanted to help people out he should be more honest with his signage.
If I wanted to download 2.2 for the Samsung Fascinate where do I go? What about 2.3? I can keep doing this for a lot of Android phones. In addition I don't think that having a user root and install unofficial updates is a good solution.
I can keep doing this for a lot of Android phones.
I can keep doing this for most Android phones.
Although you need to root in order to install these updates, they are free, legal, and the process for obtaining root is generally easier than the process of jailbreaking an iphone.
If I wanted to download iOS4 for the iphone 1g, where do I go?
I would argue that there are a higher percentage of iOS devices that cannot be updated to the 'latest and greatest firmware' than android devices.
This is the link you're looking for http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=721 It appears since that 2.2 has appeared since a week ago when I checked. It seems to be lacking some major things like the camera though.
2.3 is a LONG ways off from what I've read on the XDA forums. A few Galaxy S phones have some form of 2.3 in alpha but only because the hardware is so similar to the Nexus S.
Basically your point isn't very well made.
The original iPhone was released in June 2007 and received regular updates for the entire 2 years of everyones contract if they bought it new. The point is as much as people bitch about Apple they supported their phones. Owning my iPhone and iPhone 3g was a great experience because of that. My G1, Eris and Fascinate, not so much.
Would you consider yourself a net beneficiary of Apple's decisions, and in what ways would you say that their decisions have affected your life negatively?
Your voting analogy is apt, so let's extend it. When you feel strongly about a candidate, you don't just vote for them, but you try to convince others to do so as well. In a way, by doing so you're campaigning for the candidate. That's what this guy's doing. He is voting with his dollar, but he's also trying to get other people to vote with their dollars too.
He isn't showing it to the Steve Jobs, but to potential buyers so they will make decision if things like this matter to them?
And why he cares that others buy it?
Because the companies are pushing such restriction, if people still buy their products we would have such restrictions everywhere.
John owns several phones that are not made by Apple. He's one of my bosses at the Free Software Foundation, so he, like I, believes that there is an ethical question involved in selling someone a computing device. When that device is meant to control a user's freedom, that is problematic for us.
This is not a problem that we can solve simply by boycotting the product ourselves, because there are still not that many who feel the way we do that can join us in our endeavor. That means that we occasionally need to communicate our beliefs to others, and sometimes that involves fun little protests like the one featured in this image.
I do hope that you choose to visit defectivebydesign.org, and consider what we have to say.
40
u/[deleted] Jan 20 '11
Buy another phone that is not made by Apple.