iPhone users

[violachic]

Don't try to unlock your phone or it will never work again


I can understand Apple and ATT&T being upset if people unlock their phones to put another sim card in it, but I'm shocked that they would think its okay to permanently disable the device- especially one that people have sunk hundreds of dollars into.

Comments

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

First of all, there are several different things going on, and they're getting confused.

1] People are unlocking their phones from AT&T's network. No phone is becoming bricked because of this, however, you do have to put your AT&T SIM card back in the phone to re-activate it after the update, then re-unlock the phone.

2] People are cracking into the firmware of the phone to add third-party applications. Some of these people are discovering that the process of updating to the new firmware is turning their phone into a brick.

As an embedded software engineer, I actually think I know what's going on here.

Apple is not deliberately trying to disable the device. However, they're also doing absolutely nothing to try to work around whatever third-party apps might be trying to do on the phone. They don't support third-party development, don't want it, don't welcome it. There's a limit to what they can do to stop it, practically or legally, but they don't have to do anything at all to encourage it if they really don't want it.

[I happen to think this attitude is wrong-headed, but it's their right to be wrong-headed, and I understand their reasons, about which, more below. It also didn't stop me from buying one, but then, I have no intention of hacking it, because I want a phone that works. On the other hand, one of the reasons I never would have bought one at $499 or $599 is that, for that much money, I want a computer, not an appliance].

Whenever you replace the firmware on any computer--including your desktop computer's BIOS, OpenBoot or EFI firmware--there is a measurable period of time during which, if something unexpected happens, the machine becomes a brick, because the old firmware, which would among other things include the instructions for how to boot the device, has been erased, but the new firmware has not yet been completely written. Apple is basically warning people that could happen here, and it's not their fault if it does, because they told you not to do that.

---

The bigger issue here is a long-standing tension in the technology world.

On the one hand, you have device makers, like Apple, who want to ensure that their device works the way they intended it. They know that it's capable of doing more, and they might even have plans of their own to include that, but they want to make sure it works. You know, the way Microsoft Vista kind-of doesn't.

On the other hand, you have the geeks who make up a vocal minority of the audience for such a device, who want to use everything in their possession to and often beyond its intended potential. It's not enough that, say, the iPhone is a telephone, a PIM, an e-mail client, a web browser, and an iPod. They want to be able to program it to do other things, to let their imaginations and their coding fingers run wild.

Apple has drawn a line and said that the iPhone is not a computer. It's an appliance. Period. They've made no secret of this. They've told the whole world, "When you buy this device, you're buying an appliance, that does what we intended it to do. If you like what we intended it to do, and like the way we did it, buy it. If you don't, don't. If you buy it anyway and then try to make it do things we don't intend it to do, that's 100% entirely your look-out. We won't help you, and we won't support you, and you void your warranty the same way you would if you opened up your toaster yourself. No user-serviceable parts inside.

"Don't like it? Buy a computer."

[violachic.livejournal.com]

So basically, that was a really bad piece of journalism.

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

Technology journalism, especially in general media outlets (like the BBC), exceeds Sturgeon's Law. 99.9995% of all technology journalism is crap. Either:

1] The journalist doesn't really know anything about how things really work, but thinks they do, or else thinks they can write like they do.

or

2] The journalist knows about technology, but doesn't know how to explain what's really going on to people who don't, and therefore oversimplifies to the point of sometimes extreme inaccuracy.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

There goes the theory that I can learn shit by reading the news.... although I suppose that theory has already been shot to hell and I just keep forgetting...

[ironheadjane.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the both of you fe this conversation. It's kind of like how all media has some slant to it. It's like we all have to use our filters all the time to get a hint of what's up.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I was somehow under the impression that I could expect better from the BBC, but I suppose they're not gods, either.

[ironheadjane.livejournal.com]

It's disappointing, yeah. I would expect more, but then I remember that not all journalists know about what they have to write about.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I just want someone to actually tell me the fucking TRUTH for once, ya know? :-)