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Altered iPhones freeze up
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Should owners of unlocked iPhone have known better than to install the latest updates? Those who did are cursing their $500 bricks.
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Mr Jobs, you're making the life of Nokia SO much easier that it's embarassing, and if you forgetting your loyal fans & developers, Nokia will happily welcome then in open arms (and SDK).
I assume that within few days/weeks, someone will "unlock" the frozen iphones and people would unlock their iphones again, leaving them with a sour taste in their mouth. First you dropped $200 price and cheating your loyal customers, and now you "brick" their phone in the phase.
As Bill Gates said once to you: "You just don't get it". Please don't make the same mistake 3rd time by treating your customers as retards.
Thanks,
Hetz
If you like they way your iPhone works with the modifications
you've made to it, then its simple, dont use the software update.
You just have to deal with the consequences of not having the
extra functionality that it brings.
If you had update it, and its a brick! Well tough luck you voided
your warranty. That was the choice you made, deal with it!
Apple had announced that their in partnership with AT&T for five
years and they have to honour it! Whoever doesn't know this
shouldn't buy an iPhone.
Apple's partnership with AT&T to me, makes sense from an
engineering point of view, if you want to make a better phone
you need to create a long term partnerships with a company who
can provide you with the knowledge you need to create a better
user experience. It just makes sense from a business point of
view, that TRUST works in a business relationship.
Really, it just doesn't make sense for Apple to spread themselves
out thin with other providers. I mean you dont' exactly see them
sneaking around in bed with AMD behind INTEL's back, and yet
they are creating the best computers with Intel right now
because of that partnership. So case in point, having to many
providers would justs dilute the experience Apple wants to
create for future iPhones.
So either your onboard or you buy another phone. Motorola,
Nokia and Blackberry aren't no spring chickens either.
Choice is yours.
no one can use other carriers or software. Imagine if Microsoft did
that to computers. You can't use anyone else's software or
hardware. What missing here ? Why is Apple so unfriendly to
competition ? From all this imagine if Nokia or Motola came out
with a superior phone to Iphone. Just as cool, but even better. Then
they sold those phones at open market. No contracts, no fuzz.. You
buy and use with whoever you want as a carrier. Would love to see
Apple's face if that happens.
However, I would like the ability to legitly install 3rd party apps. Games would be really nice. Tetris, bejeweled, tic-tac-toe, blackjack, pong... A voice recorder would be nice as well. A video recorder too. All of these programs are filling a need with this device that Apple, so far, has simply not addressed.
I do think it would have been respectful of them to simply reset the sim card and relock the phone, avoiding bricking it. I would imagine there's a way to reset the phone somehow. I'm sure they're not completely broken.
If I had paid $600 for something, only to have the company ruin it with an update a month later, I would be very frustrated and angry as well. Even though I plan not to alter my phone, I can understand their perspective entirely. Apple's greatest strength and weakness is the way they try to lock their systems together. It truly does preserve the user experience and make it nice and smooth, but it's also entirely limiting and in some cases down right annoying and irrational.
Nevertheless, they make the best products on the market, and I prefer their iMacs, iPhone, and their software over that of Dells, Nokia, or M$'s any day.
little except make the lawyers very wealthy, the customer at best
ends up with little more than token compensation, eg, the
infamous $5 gift card.
However, in this case, I'd be 100% behind such an action.
Apple has behaved atrociously and should be reprimanded
serverely. If a class action suit resulting in financial penalty is
the only way to achieve that, then so be it. I wasn't afftcted by
the update - my iPhone is just fine thank you - but I'd happily
contribute a token fee, say $50, to prosecuting the case.
The reasons I'm so angry at a company I was formerly very loyal
to:
1. Apple appears to be playing very freely with the Magnuson-
Moss Warranty Act, and is using the press to propagate the line
that 3rd party apps cause damage to the equipment and that the
company is therefore not required to honor the warranty. This
is extremely disingenuous.
In actual fact, it was Apple's software update (note: SOFT) which
rendered the phones unusable. There is evidence such damage
can be reversed ("reflashing the baseband") but that Apple is
refusing to do it because the warranty was violated according to
their terms.
2. It is highly suspicious that the phones were damaged in a
way that fitted so precisely with Apple's contractual obligations
to AT&T to lock the iPhone to its network. The vast majority of
"bricked" iPhones are that way because they were unlocked from
the AT&T network.
However, it is not illegal to unlock a phone - there is a provision
in the DMCA to allow that. Apple is claiming the iPhone was
damaged by an otherwise legal process which they, seemingly
out of a ruthless corporate form of spite, wish to punish.
3. A thriving, enthusistic and extremely creative community had
built up creating 3rd party applications for the iPhone, just as it
has for every other phone platform.
In acting in such a draconian way to destroy the ability of iPhone
users to make use of these applications, Apple forfeits any right
to the passionate loyalty of its fans.
Now the iPhone is indeed an extremly pleasing, well engineered
device. I like mine very much, and will continue to keep using it
as long as I can. However, the iPhone's popularity appears to
have made its creators both arrogant and abusive of customers'
rights and expectations.
A penalty should reflect that.
Whether or not a lawsuit gets anywhere is probably going to be
determined by how cleverly Apple's legal team has steered its
masters through the murky waters of warranty terms.
But there is one thing they have already lost: the loyalty of a
disgusted fan.
I have for those hackers that destroy people's programs. While the
Phone hackers can do what they want to to their phones, they have
no right to complain. Now would you really expect Mercedes to
warrant your car after you tinker with it and screw it up? Of course
not. As for the slime who hack people's computers with viruses,
they should be immediately jailed and fined and made to do
without a computer for 10 years or more. Bassboat
Apple made the rules, you bought their device [wonderful that it is!]...and now your feelings are hurt?
Gee whiz!
I like the idea of the iphone (the UI) but I never,ever buy locked phones. I'll wait and see what the competition brings to the market.
update. I wonder however what would consumer reaction be if our
automobiles were rendered inoperative by the use of gasoline, oil
or air filters not sanctioned by the manufacturer?
It is time for greater control by government (heaven forbid) of the
computer AND music industry?
Hell, at least if MSFT is going to block your pirated copy of XP, you can still install critical updates.
Then again, there's no patch for human stupidity.
I do consider Apple at much at fault here as the consumer as Apple intentionally bricked the unlocked iPhones. Why does Apple care what carrier you use your iPhone on? You've already paid Apple the price of the iPhone... the monthly contract goes to AT&T. So it leads to reason that AT&T divies up the profits of iPhone service with Apple.
a) Nobody forced you to buy the iPhone, so understand that YOU are responsible for it.
b) You willingly signed an agreement understanding that you must use AT&T as your carrier and that any 3rd party applications or hacks to the phone voids your warranty.
c) There are plenty of other choices available if you are unhappy with the iPhone.
It just seems to me that there are about a million other real-world problems (that are actual problems) that I would rather hear about than listening to people that violate the terms of an agreement that they signed only to complain about issues when they knew the risks that they were taking to begin with. There are plenty of manufacturers that do these same types of activities to begin with, so Apple isn?t the first (nor last) to be doing this. Nobody forced you to do any of this, including the update. If it bothers you so badly, get a Nokia, Samsung, Sony/Ericsson, or Motorola, etc. Nobody ?complains? about the $175 fee for leaving a carrier when in the middle of a cell-phone agreement?
You can't cry foul over this - Apple laid the rules out very explicitly. They warned you before, during, and after. If you *still* clicked "Yes, I agree" - who's to blame?
I am sorry, but if you buy a Ford truck, you should be able to purchase gas wherever you like, and if you put on an after market muffler, your truck should not stop working as a direct result of Ford installing an "update" which renders your truck un-drivable because of said muffler.
Buying something you know won't let you do what you want without hacking and then complaining like 2 years when the makers fixes the hole that allowed your to hack it is just stupid.
Consumers are lemmings!
Robert
First of all, the iPhone was announced in January. For over six months or so, EVERYONE and their grandmother knew that the iPhone was going to be a closed system. Just look at the 5-year old iPod - I haven't seen anyone trying to hack it with their custom apps and hacks. I knew that the iPhone would be as closed of a system as the iPod.
Also, the iPhone is a telephone! It is NOT a computer. A manufacturer has every right to lock down their telephones. It is legal to unlock a phone, but it isn't the responsibility of the software manufacturer to make sure the unlock stays intact. Again, we're talking about an non-computer appliance here. And as such, comparisons to Microsoft patches not affecting a PC's stability does not apply. Once hacks are applied to any appliance, it is impossible for the manufacturer to maintain the device through updates.
And last, let's look at the definition of a monopoly. We're talking about a telephone that represents less than one-percent of the cell phone market. I would NOT call that a monopoly. Also, a monopoly is when you're hooked into a device or service because there is no alternative for you to choose. The only way the iPhone would be a monopoly is if it occupied 95-percent of the marketplace, and you couldn't call 98-percent of Earth's population unless you owned an iPhone. Even the iPod isn't a monopoly!
In summary:
1. You should have a known that the iPhone was a closed system. If you bought the phone knowing this, and yet you continue to complain about it not being open, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred! BRAAAAAAK!"
2. It is not the responsibility of the manufacturer to maintain functionality of hacks and unlocks. The iPhone is not a computer.
3. Apple is not a monopoly. When your computers and appliances represent less than 5-percent of the marketplace, there's no way in hell you could be a monopoly.
- LOL to all you complainers...err..early adopters.
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by ncftech
October 1, 2007 10:14 PM PDT
- Personal Responsibility. You were warned and still you decided to do it. Bottom line, its a freakin cell phone people. Cant you just be happy using it as such, with the tools it came with? Of course not, you need that stupid popcorn popper right? Did I miss a memo somewhere or did the world just go nuts? Take responsibility for your actions.
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See all 61 Comments >>The only thing Apple is guilty of, is making a stupid agreement with ATT to exclusively use their slow network. Locking you into one choice, is not good for the customer. Isn't that what they used to accuse M$ of?
LAME LAME LAME