Archive for October, 2007

Are these people serious? Give me a frickin’ break.

Everyone and their brother knows that Apple is not working hard to lock out legitimate customers who haven’t tried to “unlock” the phone so it will work with carriers other than AT&T.

Those people who did “unlock” their phones have issues. Boo frickin’ hoo.

Apple Inc.’s decision last week to bundle an iPhone-crippling firmware upgrade with 10 security patches for the device was a mistake, analysts said Monday.

Thursday’s iPhone Update 1.1.1 included not only new features and functionality– including access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store– but plugged holes in the device’s built-in Safari browser, e-mail software and Bluetooth implementation.

But it was the news that the update “bricked,” or disabled, iPhones modified to work with networks other than AT&T that caught the attention of security analysts like Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc.

“With the iPhone update, Apple is now producing a fear of taking their patches,” Storms said. “If they release a functionality update and security fixes at the same time in the future, some users will think twice about applying it. They’ll ask themselves ‘What will it break this time?’ and ‘Will it backfire on me?’

Let’s not forget the fact that when you bought the iPhone you agreed to use AT&T as your carrier, and you agreed to the terms of service that went along with the iPhone. Heck, I don’t even own an iPhone and I know how it works.

So, once you bought it, you decided you wanted to hack the device so it would work on other networks. Too bad Apple found the hole that was allowing this, and per the terms of service, they patched it. They fixed a FLAW in the phone. And you’re bitching about it?

Oh shut up about the phone being yours to do what you please with. You did it. Apple didn’t stop you. You did what you pleased. Apple simply sent out a patch to fix the problem that allowed you to pull your shit in the first place.

If Apple failed to fix the flaws and someone other than Apple had managed to exploit it, in a negative way, you can bet your dollar that you and everyone else would be crying a lot louder than you’re crying now.

Give me a break. Get over it. No one stopped you from doing what you wanted, they simply stopped you from violating the terms of service you agreed to in the first place.

Enjoy your brick. I hope it lays as the cornerstone to the foundation of your new found enlightenment.

[Cross posted at Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff]

So, is Adobe making an online document services play?

Is Adobe sneaking up on Google’s turf with new moves Monday into online document services? An Adobe executive would not characterize the announcements this way, but the similarities seem obvious.

Adobe has signed an agreement to acquire Virtual Ubiquity and its online word processor, Buzzword, which enables collaboration on documents. Adobe also plans to unveil a file-sharing service codenamed “Share” intended to make it easier to publish and share documents online. The announcements will be made Monday at the Adobe Max 2007 conference in Chicago.

It sounds to me like Adobe is going after Microsoft more than Google. Although their online document service would directly compete with Google, I think the company that would get hit the hardest is Microsoft.

So many people I know are trying to free themselves from the hold Microsoft has on them with their Office products. This news from Adobe is nothing but good news as far as I am concerned.

You can read more about the whole thing at Scoble’s blog, or at TechCrunch.