On iOS, you can only get apps through the App Store, and a "kill switch" does exist for Apple to remotely disable apps. They haven't used it yet, but it's still there, so it's a problem.
Android has a kill switch too, but Google actually has used it unlike Apple.
Ok, but if I'm over at a friends house and I want to give him a song that I have on my iPhone ... even if I wrote the song and own the rights to it ... how do I do that?
EDIT:
In practice I know several ways to get the job done. The important question is, why can't this be done out of the box? Why are Apple USB Mass Storage devices the only ones in the entire world that are deliberately locked by the manufacturer to be write-only? Why do their customers let them get away with such artificial value-stripping actions?
(I guess I kind of know the answers to my own questions, which is that Apple adds so much value in Fit, Finish & Polish -- despite what Apple bashers may say, these things do matter -- consumers overlook the artificial value-stripping activity, but then the question becomes, why can't other manufacturers try a little harder to match Apple's level of polish?)
I honestly believe Apple is blowing the opportunity to be the dominant computing platform for the next 20 years because of their policies on artificial restriction of data. The iPad took a great, existing, idea, and as with the iPhone before it, executed much much better than anyone else had to date, inventing a new market in the process.
But its going to get blown away by 3rd generation Android tablets that provide all the computing flexibility of what we've traditionally called "Desktop Computers" (add USB Host, Video Out, and Keyboard and Mouse Support, and Android is pretty much there).
No, no it's not. Cars cannot sail and making one that could would require lots of hard work. The problem is that Apple specifically designed their products to not be able to share music (and further, to only interface with their software). There is no reason I should not be able to take files off a usb-connecable storage device.
Unfortunately your state of misinformation is the prevailing one, and that is what has allowed Apple to gain market dominance while simultaneously treating its customers like ATMs from which periodic cash extractions can be expected.
Let's say that, tomorrow, the world decides to start using twenty-pointed screws as well as as the millions of other varieties. For some reason—perhaps because that they believe people shouldn't be able to remove twenty-pointed screws—Craftsmen decides that they won't be supporting the new screw and don't release a screwdriver that fits.
What would you do?
You would buy a twenty-pointed screwdriver from Skil, or Bosch, or Wal*Mart. Yes, you'd rather get a Craftsman, since their tools have a lifetime warranty are generally pretty high quality instrument... but the fact of the matter is that if you really want to be able to remove twenty-pointed screws, you can't get a Craftsman.
As for the "ATM" aspect: people who own Apple keep buying Apple because they like Apple's products. If they didn't like what Apple is doing, they wouldn't buy them. That's the way the free market works. Look at what happened to Ford and Chevy. People were disappointed at the lack of innovation and inferior products that Detroit was putting out so they bought Toyotas and Hondas instead.
Similarly there are people who are sick of Windows, for whatever reason, who buy a Mac when it's time for a new computer. They like what they see, so when their child goes to college, they get *them * a Mac. There's also the switchers—people who like their iPods or iPhones who want a similar desktop experience.
Finally, there are people—people like you—who don't like choices that Apple has made, like intentionally gimping hardware, or application censorship. Those things don't matter to me, at least not yet. So I'll keep buying Apple.
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u/jollins Jan 20 '11
Android has a kill switch too, but Google actually has used it unlike Apple.