Thoughts on iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 and Apple.

Apple released their Update to the iPhone to 1.1.1. This has had several impacts on many users. The 1.1.1 'update' has broken ALL 3rd Party Applications, Ringtones, and Sim Card Unlock programs. This has 'broken' many iPhones to the point where they no longer work.

I myself have 'upgraded' my phone to 1.0.2, put my ringtones back, added 3rd party apps. Most of the time I have no problem just using what's given to me, but I refuse to do so in this case. I used the directions from IphoneAtlas.com The baseband (modem) firmware wasn't changed, but I was able to get 3rd party applications on my iPhone.

As I stated in the TWIT.TV Forums in Regards to the Engadget Open Letter to Apple & iPhone Customers

"My take on the entire situation is that I'd like to see Apple allow 3rd party apps, easily (ala SDK), or provide an iPhone Hacker Edition, which they will only support the hardware, yet allow 3rd party applications. Provide the base OS, nothing more. They could even charge a bit more, not much, like $25 or even $50. Almost make it an open-source type phone (Unlocked Of Course). Make it GSM to allow the biggest customer base of consumers.."

I think this would work on several levels, They could write the code once for the 'hacker edition' and then never submit another update, or just send an update that wouldn't touch any 3rd party apps, just fix any bugs that were within the OS code. This would allow those who don't want to mess with their phone, to purchase a 'locked' iPhone, and those who want to mess with the software to do so.

You'll hear more about the "bricked" iphones, than the non-bricked ones, because the community of iPhone users is very vocal, not much unlike the macintosh community.

IF apple instituted a subscription model for Applicatoins, I'd gladly pay $10 / month for plenty of good, useful applications and games. Items like a mobile chat client (ichat or adium), Customization options like changing the background, the icons for the different applications. and the look of the "dock".

I think that Apple will face severe backlash for the things that they have done to 'break' 3rd party applications. They do not have a unified message across all of their devices. They don't have a 'hacking' stance on the Apple TV. They do not say anything about those who 'hack' their Macs to do things they are not designed to do, so why would you have a 'hammer-lock' stance on a device that could potentially change an entire industry? It doesn't make sense. I myself am not happy with Apple and their stance on the iPhone. If they continue down this path of locking out users, they will find themselves not selling very many iPhones. This would be both a bad business move, and bad for the community for both Apple and AT&T.

I do not anticipate that the pending release of the next version of the Apple's Mac OS X, version 10.5 (Leopard), will be any less difficult to modify than Mac OS X, 10.4 (Tiger) currently is; but with the given trend, I can't say for certain. We'll all just have to wait until it is released sometime this month. I will be installing this update, Sans Boot-camp, once it's released, onto an External Hard drive, just to see what it's like, before committing to it. If I really wanted to, I could always put a new hard drive into my mac, and then replace the one in there, but using the one I have now is a better idea. I'll post my thoughts and comments on Leopard once it's out.