[Cialug] OT: Apple iPhone and digital media

[Nathan Stien]

> >So I saw the Keynote Steve Jobs gave and I have to say I'm pretty
> > blown away by the iPhone.
> >Anybody else have a reaction to it?

I have had more than one reaction.

Initial reaction: abject drool.  It's so, so very shiny and purty.
The picture where it shows a virtual thumb slider "slide to unlock"...
 Oh dear, gives me the vapors.

Then reality set in.  The phone is a locked platform.  No third party
software.  Only Apple-approved third party hardware accessories, like
the iPods.  You're carrier-locked to Cingular.  It's not just a GSM
phone, it's a Cingular phone.  Unfortunate timing, as the Cingular
brand is slated for demolition.  Chock full of DRM terribleness.  This
and much more terrible news at this boingboing post:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/14/iphone_the_roach_mot.html

I want a phone I can hack.  There are Nokias that run Python [1] and
all manner of Asian and European phones that run hackable Linux
kernels.  Mildly famous kernel hacker Harald Welte [2] is working on a
very sweet platform for Linux phones called OpenMoko [3].  Perhaps the
very best part of these phones is that they are Debian-derived and
therefore have apt-get (no doubt with a shiny GUI on top).  Mind you,
the first phone for this platform is a lime green monstrosity, but the
key here is the _platform_, and there will soon be other, better
hardware that uses it, perhaps hardware that takes cues from the
iPhone (minus the shackles and DRM).

[1] http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/pythonfors60/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Welte
[3] http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35590

So I guess my position is, don't be fooled by teh shiny.  The iPhone
is locked-down poison dressed in a sexy (and way overpriced) outfit.
I fell for the iPod, but at least I could liberate it with Rockbox.
The iPhone no doubt has hardware to perform signature checks on its
firmware before booting.  It's a trap.

As for Apple TV, I think mythtv is working out fine for me so I'm just
not very interested in it.

-nps

-- 
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying
to find easier ways to do something." - Robert A. Heinlein