iPhone Update 7

As far as my own iPhone goes I have to say that this does nothing but make me smile as I have no option other than to stay on the original firmware, so I get to test out all these third party apps if I want to!

And another thing ……… did you see the amount of idiots that ignored all the advice and went ahead and upgraded anyway!!! On the basis that a number of regular phones have had issues with the upgrade it just proves once again that you are better off waiting!

It doesn’t look that promising though that the current firmware will be hacked in the near future:

As for when we’ll have full use of the iPhone again is unclear, but TUAW’s Erica Sadun says “don’t expect a jailbreak anytime soon,” which doesn’t seem promising. Apparently the security is going to be a whole lot harder to crack this time around.

I have to thank Gizmodo for this updates content as they have produced a really good article (full copy at the end of this post). I have just submitted a post to Gadgetell on this that I will copy below at the risk of upsetting them no doubt!

My Gizmodo Post

While the Apple firmware 1.1.1 was met by the usual fanfare of undiluted praise from the fanboys, it looks like the more impartial users are less than satisfied with the recent upgrade. The report over on Gizmodo makes great reading, and comes to the conclusion that the iPhone now isn’t worth buying!

The core of their arguement is that now they can’t access the third party apps that they think makes the iPhone so useful. I think they sum it up very well when they say:

It’s understandable for Apple to wage a war on unlocking the iPhone, since the company shares revenue from fees with AT&T. But the truth is, if cellphone service was awesome, like it is on iTunes, there wouldn’t be a need to unlock the iPhone. Secondly, bricking these things is totally uncool, and apparently, malicious—according to some early code investigations by the independent iPhone Dev Team, Apple could have avoided this entirely.

Perhaps the most compelling arguement can be found in the statement, “Programs like the faux-GPS, IM clients, Flickr Upload, and NES emulator—what did they ever do but make the iPhone far better than the stock original? They made it far more competitive with open-platform superphones like the Nokia N95, to which I will now be switching.”

Apple will ignore this as they always do. They have such a huge following of addicted fanboys who are brain dead to anything other than “Apple is great because it is Apple” that they will continue to go from strength to strength, and they deserve to for their design and creativity alone. It would be nice though if they actually listened and took on board some genuinly good advice from time to time.

Full Gizmodo Article

It’s about 3 months after the iPhone launch, and happy with the improvements, I was planning to change our “Wait” verdict to a full-on and rabid “Buy”. That wasn’t because of Apple, but because of the cool apps being offered by independent developers. All that came to an end yesterday after the new Apple firmware 1.1.1 neutered the handset. Sure, unlocked iPhones were broken. But more importantly, Apple wiped away the powerful programs that helped push the iPhone to greatness. With this, I’m going to have to move our recommendation from “Wait” to “Don’t hold your breath.” I’m done with this handset until third-party apps come back.

It’s understandable for Apple to wage a war on unlocking the iPhone, since the company shares revenue from fees with AT&T. But the truth is, if cellphone service was awesome, like it is on iTunes, there wouldn’t be a need to unlock the iPhone. Secondly, bricking these things is totally uncool, and apparently, malicious—according to some early code investigations by the independent iPhone Dev Team, Apple could have avoided this entirely.

I get that Apple might not have wanted to wage a long back-and-forth war with hackers, as the PSP developers are. And this kind of big blow is going to be a devastating and effective scare tactic, even if a fix comes a few days later. Unlike a Sony PSP, people can’t go a few days without their phones, without social or work hiccups. This is why I never unlocked my main iPhone, only testing these hacks on a spare 4GB test dummy. But I don’t want to be held hostage like this. Did I buy this phone or am I just renting it?

Screw the unlock for a second. Let’s talk about the those third-party apps. Programs like the faux-GPS, IM clients, Flickr Upload, and NES emulator—what did they ever do but make the iPhone far better than the stock original? They made it far more competitive with open-platform superphones like the Nokia N95, to which I will now be switching.

I look at my iPhone with version 1.1.1 software on it compared to the old hacked one. I’m happy for the iTunes Store, which we’ve been waiting for. But it’s not more important than fixing things, and adding capabilities such as copy/paste and email search. And it’s certainly not better than all those programs I can’t use anymore. Here’s the comparo chart, from Rob Beschizza at Wired based on a chart from 9to5:

At Mossberg’s All Things D conference, Jobs mentioned that the thing Apple wasn’t good at, compared to MSFT, was the ability to work with partners. Some believe that’s a big part of why Apple lost the Big OS War back when GI Joe was a Saturday morning cartoon. So why make the same mistake twice?

There’s a question here, of if we liked the stock iPhone before, why not now? First off, the verdict was based on the future value of the iPhone once Apple had fixed a lot of the quirks that resulted our “wait” verdict. Right now, it seems like Apple isn’t going to innovate that much, since much of our list of what needed to be patched is still unfulfilled. And even worse, they’re not allowing others to help.

Come on, Apple, make things right. I’m not so deluded that I think this little rant of mine will stop you from selling millions of these phones to the mainstream. But I’m pretty sure this is what other geeks are thinking. Even if you have to fight the unlocks, the apps deserve to live.

Update

As per Dunks shout below, this is why I think that the upgrade is optional. That plus everyone is advising people to wait. I guess I will find out soon.

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