A while ago I wrote
a post in defense of Apple's TPM. I defined the bright line between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" as the difference between "optional DRM" and "compulsory DRM". (Some disagreed, and I respect your arguments.) In an optional-DRM system you can use your device however you want. Your can play DRM'ed media if you have a good reason,
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There are significant rumours that the N800 successor (or a variant) will have a WiMax modem. The platform already supports not just VOIP, but video calling due to a built-in camera. With a device like this, I will be quite content, I think.
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On the larger point, Wil Shipley had an interesting take on the iPhone recently - very much echoing your thoughts: Contain or Disengage? You might particularly enjoy it for its analogies to Cold War-era realpolitik responses to communism.
I share your view; I was getting very close to buying an iPhone on the promise of what else I could do with it.
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Apple could have left the X11 server out of OSX and counted on third-party developers to write something, but then there would be even more confusion over how to install X11, which distribution to use, etc. And of course Apple could have gone a bit further and put a bunch of DRM into OSX to prevent any legitimate user from installing their own X11 software or compiling X11-friendly applications, but that would be stupid.
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I'm not disagreeing with your general claims, just trying to correct the record on the details of history for X11 on OS X. I hope it's interesting or at least informative. :-)
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Regardless of how X11.app started what I think is important is where it ended up: as a standardized, sanctioned, cross platform compatible part of the system that everyone could install, and it had a lot to do with one particular circle of my friends ditching Windows and Linux for OSX. A circle of friends which has developed a lot of really interesting software (and value) as a result of Apple going in that direction.
X11.app is, in my opinion, crappy enough to use that it does far less to open up OS X to third party development than giving developer tools away for free.
True, but it wasn't an either-or decision for Apple. They bundled an X server into OSX *and* they gave away X11-friendly developer tools for free, making both gestures stronger. It was part of a whole strategy that seems not just absent but antithetical to the direction they're taking the iPhone.
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Data point: the midget and I have been looking into Helio, a company that doesn't even try to disguise this. I asked them "How much for a non-subsidized phone?" and they don't even recognize the concept. They don't sell one, nor do they say their phones are subsidized, nor do they offer anything other than a two year contract. You want to do any sort of business with them? Two years. I'm less annoyed at Helio than at an industry that's so unpleasant to deal with as a whole that this can be considered a reasonable offer.
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I think that Apple is locking down this iteration of the iPhone to discourage investment in this architecture. They plan on switching to a pure x86 stack across their platforms ASAP. Intel is lining an x86 iPhone up for Apple as we speak ( ... )
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