In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:56:25 +0000
<4040957.kxeTThHUnY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The 5 real reasons to avoid iPhone 3G:
> |
> | * iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to
> | Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on
> | everyone's phones.
Pedant point: everyone's *iPhone*s. There are other phones out there;
Samsung Instinct for one, though the Neo FreeRunner is probably a
better example. (In fact the article points this out below.)
> | * iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
> | technology.
Aye.
> | * iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track
> | you without your knowledge.
As does every other phone out there, to a point; the cells have
to track one to ring the phone, after all. Presumably the article
means "track more accurately". There are also faintly disturbing
hints that GPS will be used to more accurately target advertising
to one's mobile device; one might consider this the equivalent of
seeing a placard next to a business, but others might be far more
interested in one's whereabouts...others that are not soliciting
one's business.
> | * iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and
> | Theora.
Apple has that right (absent more info), though one might
ask some very pointed questions.
> | * iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the
> | horizon that respect your freedom, don't spy on you, play free media
> | formats, and let you use free software -- like the FreeRunner.
The FreeRunner's apparently already out for sale. I'm not sure it's
the sexiest phone out there, and it's heftier than the iPhone, but
the FOSS aspect, assuming they've not gunked it up totally (Google's
Android has some issues in that area but then Google's not quite
finished yet apparently), is attractive to certain technophiles.
> `----
>
> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g
>
>
> Recent:
>
> Action alert: Don't let the EU sanction DRM
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Yesterday, Viviane Reding, European Union commissioner for information
> | society and media, issued a report sanctioning a "transparent" DRM framework
> | for the EU. This irresponsible and senseless report comes just a day before
> | Sony BMG announced that they would join Warner Music Group, EMI, and
> | Vivendi's Universal Music Group in selling DRM-free music downloads in the
> | United States.
> `----
>
> http://www.defectivebydesign.org/Do_Not_Sanction_DRM
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Useless C/C++ Programming Idea #40490127:
for(;;) ;
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