portability « Crashed Pips

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Bricking unlocked iPhones: something of a moral dilemma

Filed under: Apple, The Law and Technology — Tags: Apple, at&t, cheating, iphone, ipod, money, portability, unblocking — Jonathan Rothwell @ 19:25

According to this Slashdot story, Apple is planning to turn iPhones that have been unlocked from AT&T Wireless into very expensive and elaborate paperweights.

Now, I personally believe this is wrong. A person has the right to use their mobile phone as a client on whichever network they would like.

However, I am finding it difficult to place the blame on anyone in particular.

On the one hand, Apple could be blamed for wanting a commission from each iPhone call, and therefore resorting to locking the iPhone into only one carrier.

Alternatively, AT&T could be blamed for the fact that they’re generally such a rubbish mobile provider, and that they also earn a huge commission off the iPhone (probably bigger than Apple’s, as you’re tied into a rolling contract, feeding AT&T with $59.99 a month).

In the end, I can’t really point the blame at anyone for this situation. However, I do have a suggestion to Apple for the next version of the iPhone.

Instead of tying iPhone users to a single provider, why not program the iPhone to charge x proportion in addition to the call price from either your credit/debit card or SIM card and credit that to Apple? That means that it could be SIM-independent, the iPhone could work with whichever carrier you want, and everyone’s happy. (Except AT&T, but they deserve it.)

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

At long last!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Apple, hooray, portability — Jonathan Rothwell @ 21:38

Apple has finally announced when the iPhone will materialise in the UK, and there are no major surprises - O₂ have won the franchise to be the iPhone’s only carrier. No Pay As You Go plan, which is a mild annoyance, and there’s only one 8gB model, at £269 including VAT. The pay-monthly plans start from £35.

I’m quite looking forward to how this will turn out. Considering that O₂ is the mobile provider I’ve had the best experiences with and the fact that the iPhone is a great piece of kit, I might just (if I can summon up £35 a month) be able to manage to get one.

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Tuesday, September 4, 2007

One computer inside me is quite enough

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: big brother is watching you, hardware, portability — Jonathan Rothwell @ 16:46

…and that’s the pink organic thing occupying my skull.

It has emerged that the state of California, USA, has banned companies from requiring employees to have RFID chips surgically implanted.

Now I’m glad that the decision was made, and I hate to wheel out old clichés here, but it seems like common sense. Why, you may ask?

Well, I can think of many, many reasons why implanted RFID chips are pointless and/or invasive and/or dangerous. I’ll list a few here.

What about when you leave a company? It would have to be surgically removed, or remain as a bit of useless silicon that shouldn’t really be in your body.
What if your immune system rejects the chip? Do you then get fired from your job?
What’s the point? The technology exists to have something as small as a credit card function as a computer/clock-in card/telephone and fit into your top pocket. Set-ups have been demonstrated where this machine will then talk to a tiny projector in someone’s glasses, and project a sort-of head-up display onto the lens. True, it wouldn’t work, say, in the shower or in water, but would you really want it to? Do you want to get an Email from the office asking you to do a quarterly report when you’re swimming on a warm, quiet beach somewhere?

I think I’ve made my point. If anyone can come up with any counter-arguments, I challenge them to put them to me using the comments form below.