On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 7:24 PM, Soh Kam Yung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > (http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g) > > One more reason (for me): I refuse to buy a 'free' phone that charges > an arm and a leg via subscription charges (as Singtel plans for the 3G > iPhone).
Don't we always? Those stupid 2 years plan is a pain in the ass sometime (like now, when I can't suspend my plan while I'm overseas), but it's a good deal most of the time. (: > > Note: 'free' below means 'free speech', not 'free beer'. Apparently, > you cannot write a GPL'd application for the iPhone (rumour?). > ===== > 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G > Submitted by johns. on 2008-07-10 09:26 PM. Community > > The 5 real reasons to avoid iPhone 3G: > > * iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a > tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't > be on everyone's phones. Probably true. Though a compelling counterargument is that Apple wants to maintain the standards of iPhone at a high level, thus having such rights allow Apple to eliminate trash application. I'm not sure about all these 'tax' thing, what I know is that the level of penetration of iPhone 3G is gonna be pretty high soon enough that many companies would start writing software for iPhone 3G. > * iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management > (DRM) technology. Don't buy music! Download pirated, DRM-free for free (kidding!). AFAIK, Apple Music Store is moving away from DRM. You can take it this way, you can't play any DRM-ed songs at non-DRM-compatible music player (e.g. FreeRunner), but with iPhone, you could play both. It's now up to you (as in 'free speech') to decide what type of music do you buy. > * iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to > track you without your knowledge. Hmm, I can see why people are concerned about this. (: I've no specifics, so I'll assume the worst for this one. > * iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and > Theora. Gosh. Ogg Vorbis, it has been ages since I heard of that format. It begs the questions: does it affect you? After all, iPhone is not a swiss army knife. (: > * iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on > the horizon that respect your freedom, don't spy on you, play free > media formats, and let you use free software -- like the FreeRunner. Yeah, that's definitely true. But I'm still gonna get an iPhone 3G when I'm back in Singapore. It's a good piece of hardware with well-tailored OS and UI. (: Plus I'm an Apple whore anyway. It has the closest OS to UNIX I could get that also has amazingly good UI. It also has some of the best hardware and customer support around. Cheers, -- Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Slugnet mailing list [email protected] http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet
