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RSSThe move is aimed especially at users who have gotten around the built-in restrictions that limit iPhone users to AT&T for telephone service. Apple's initial decision to require iPhone users to sign two-year contracts with AT&T angered some users, but hackers quickly figured out ways owners could overcome that restriction.
Apple's recent security update, however, turns phones that have been unlocked from AT&T into iBricks.
Of course, as could have been predicted, hackers have already found a way to get around Apple's attempt to strike back at consumers who have modified their iPhones. This week, programs surfaced online that will restore the iPhone to settings in place before users downloaded the update.
Apple's heavy-handed move with the security fixes came only weeks after Apple's Sept. 5 announcement that it was slashing the price of the iPhone by $200, angering hordes of early adopters who paid a hefty premium to obtain the gadget this summer.
A Queens resident, Dongmei Li, sued Apple last week for the price cut, alleging that the company wrongly discriminated in pricing between the first purchasers who bought the phone between its June 29th release date and those who purchased it after Sept. 5.
Meantime, Apple is facing competition on more fronts. Verizon Wireless today said it will soon start selling a phone that can browse the Web and also play music. Also, Microsoft late last night unveiled an upgrade to the Zune.
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It wasn’t until the Marines and other allied forces prevailed in the war and liberated your country in 1944 that you began to rebuild, but not until 25,000 Jews had perished in your own country and Lord knows how many in places like Auschwitz. So don't you dare tell me to “revisit� my history books, young man. As an Officer in the “Best Damned Service in America�, war and the study of it’s history was mandatory.
Media Post was started as a place for relative professionals with specific knowledge and something of value to say to come together to discuss issues but sadly has turned into a place where people can hide behind the fact that they are physically untouchable relative to the personal opinions they print here. It has become a place where they can voice their opinions with no fear of real reprisal and it’s too bad. My comments were meant as a valid comparison; lighter-hearted albeit but valid nonetheless and you tell me to “revisit� my history books? The fact of the matter is, as anyone and I mean anyone whose studied what was supposed to be the “War to End All Wars� will attest, that Hitler was surrounded with brilliant, military thinkers and thank God his arrogance prevented him from taking their advice because if he had, this world would be a much different place than it is today…and I guarantee you wouldn’t like it very much. As an associate of Ogilvy, I’m truly surprised you have no idea of the parallels that could be drawn. Ogilvy has, or apparently had, a history of hiring bright, educated, well-read individuals whose responsibility it is to check facts, assure that correct grammar is used and treat others in this forum with decorum before they do things like challenge people they don’t even know to “revisit� [their] History books� . Why? Because what they say and write, prescriptively, becomes associated with Ogilvy and if you’re the best they can do, well, they need to revisit their hiring standards.
My grandfather and father fought in WW II. My great-Grandfather died in the “ovens� of WWII and we all were a part, in one way or another, of writing the history books you, with an air of arrogance, are directing me to “revisit�. Young man, I don’t need to check them. I and other proud American’s who served in the armed forces wrote them and it’s only because of the efforts of the Americans’ armed services that you’re not speaking German right now but have a choice between English and French, a nationality which also depends on America to come to their rescue.
I don’t have a history of attacking people in any forum preferring rather to contribute what knowledge I have on pertinent subject matter to the group. That being said, in this instance, I’ll not let a foreigner whose ancestors’ only contribution to history’s largest war was to be occupied giving up themselves and their people plus hundreds of thousand of defenseless Jews in the process while waiting for this country and its allies to liberate them tell me to “revisit� my history books. Apple is an American company. American. These are a people who answered the call and spilled their own blood to provide the ink that was used to write the very books you’re asking me to “revisit�; a country whose efforts enable people like you to voice your opinions in this and other forums. It may be difficult for you to understand but it’s the very study of the history of war, be it physical, economic, social or otherwise, that allows us to continue to be the world’s leader irrespective of what people individually think of our current leadership. And speaking of leadership, history is replete with leaders whose abject refusal to listen to their advisors, people who possess minds far brighter than theirs, has led to their own personal and their country’s downfall. Revisit my history books? Sir, I have spent more time reading and, in my younger years, writing by my service to this country the very books you so arrogantly direct me to revisit. The fact of the matter is that the decisions leaders make when they refuse to listen to their advisors is usually wrong. It was wrong, again, thank God, in Hitler’s case. It was wrong in Steve Jobs’ case and it has been, many, many times, wrong in our own President’s case. The order of magnitude is, of course, wholly imbalanced but the fact of the matter is that Mr. Jobs has a chance to rectify the situation. The others don’t. Oh, and the fact that real lives are lost when world leaders make poor decisions and it’s only money in a corporate world.
So, Beano, let me, respectfully, provide you with a piece of advice. It is ill-advised to arrogantly challenge an individual with whom you are unacquainted, even within the protective environment of the Internet. It evidences not only your ignorance but your cowardice as well. And to do so publicly aligning yourself with such a venerable institution such as Ogilvy used to be professional suicide. I don’t know how it will sit with them today but I can tell you that, when I’m cut off on the freeway by a truck that says, for example, “Home Dept� on the side, the actions of that single driver leaves a very bad corporate impression in my mind and I’ll probably be headed to Lowes next time I need a tool.
First of all, Apple had a contract with AT&T. We can argue all day about whether or not that was wise -- and you and I might even agree on that point -- but that's the fact. AT&T has been around a long time, they have really good lawyers, and they're very good at enforcing exclusivity. To characterize Apple's actions to enforce their contract with AT&T as an attack on their fans is downright ludicrous. Apple made their agreement with AT&T long before they even marketed the iPhone, and they made it clear to their prospective customers from the first day they marketed it. Are you seriously siding with hackers? What kind of professional position is this?
I gave you the benefit of the doubt after last week's screed, but your vitriol this week did me the favor of removing doubt.
Let's tick off the overstatements and factual errors this week: 1) What is your evidence of "angry hordes"? Everyone I know who bought an iPhone at full price was thrilled to get the $100 store credit. Early adopters always pay more for technology. It's their hobby and they know it. When has any other tech company given a store credit to anyone when they cut prices? I'll save you some time: Never.
2) How is their security fix "heavy-handed"? Every service agreement spells out the terms for following it and violating it. Every piece of equipment ever invented carries warnings not to hack into it. Why don't you call Microsoft "heavy-handed" for security updates that keep your beloved hackers from shutting down their substandard products?
3) Your note about Verizon's phone makes no sense. There are dozens of phones on the market that can play music and surf the Internet. The iPhone never claimed to be the first. Why did you mention this? Is Verizon paying you to drop their name in, too?
4) You still haven't answered my question from last week about the Zune: How much is Microsoft paying you to mention it? They've only sold 1 million units. Their market share isn't even a blip on the radar screen of mp3 players. Please explain why you keep propping them up or quit mentioning them.
I used to like this column. It's a shame it has become a forum for nonsense.
It's morons like this -- looking for some way, any way at all to avoid making an honest living -- that clog up the court system and preclude the real issues from being debated in the courts.