Friday, October 26, 2007

10/26/2007 - Bricked but Useful

Apple is getting so big right now, that they don't seem like the underdog anymore. Their stock is at an all time high and today marked the launch of their newest operating system, Leopard. There may have been lines for Windows Vista, but I doubt that they had such enthusiasm and hipness as the lines for Leopard.

With the explosive growth of Apple, though, have come some growing pains. I mean, you know you're huge when you get monopoly lawsuits left and right. This was something that Microsoft faced all the time a few years ago, and now it's hitting Apple. The thing is, some of these complaints actually have a bit of merit. Apple's iPod has such a stranglehold on the market, that Apple can really get away with charging a premium on them. Just research what their profit margin is on each iPod, and you'll see what I mean.

What's really bad, though, is that Apple has begun to act like Microsoft too. For example, take the new iPod Touch... at first blush, it does seem to be the product for those who wanted an iPhone without the phone. Unfortunately, they got rid of so many of the software applications from the iPhone that you could not use it as a PDA. What's frustrating about this is that some of these apps that were taken out had nothing to do with the phone or camera hardware of the iPhone. Apple just took them out so that they'd have an incentive for people to buy the iPhone instead of the Touch. This is exactly what Microsoft did with their gazillion versions of Vista!

Also, what disappointed a lot of people recently is their recent firmware upgrade with the iPhone. If you made certain changes to your iPhone such as adding applications or unlocking it for other cellphone carriers, the firmware upgrade would "brick" the iPhone (disable its functionality altogether, making as useful as a brick). Now, Apple probably reserved the right to do this in their EULA, but I think I would be pretty mad if I spent all that money on a device that didn't work anymore because of a firmware modification.

Well, the guy in this next video didn't just get mad. He made a video parody of the situation:

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