Paul Graham in his essay "Apple's Mistake" (http://www.paulgraham.com/ apple.html) about Apple's app store approval process wrote: "When you look at the famous 1984 ad now, it's easier to imagine Apple as the dictator on the screen than the woman with the hammer. In fact, if you read the dictator's speech it sounds uncannily like a prophecy of the App Store. We have triumphed over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths."
Paul Graham is worried that the future of of handheld devices will be locked down by Apple: "It's a worrying prospect. It would be a bummer to have another grim monoculture like we had in the 1990s. In 1995, writing software for end users was effectively identical with writing Windows applications. Our horror at that prospect was the single biggest thing that drove us to start building web apps." Others are also worried about the Apple's influence on innovation: "Apple iPad will choke innovation, say open internet advocates - The Apple iPad's closed, iPhone-like environment could shut out the next computing revolution, say industry veterans" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/01/apple-ipad-choke-innovation And the FSF had this to say: "iPad is iBad for freedom" - http://www.fsf.org/news/ibad_launch On Feb 1, 7:05 pm, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> wrote: > Since we've argued about the extensive meanings of "dictatorship", let's > put the things together. Let's talk, for example, about China. > > Apple's AppStore is subjected to state censorship in China, and as a > result, again for instance, a few applications about Dalai Lama and > Buddhism are not available in that country. Now, this is for sure a > bigger problem involving the freedom of Internet in that country, and > people can't ever access free information about those topics surfing the > web. > > But let's compare what happens if I'm chinese and buy an iPhone, or any > other phone which accepts any application on it. WIth other phones, I > can manage in getting the missing bits in some ways - underground or > perhaps travelling in foreign countries. When I return in the homeland, > I for sure risk to be inspected and the police might find that I carry > illegal software on my apps. But the fact of carrying illegal document > is a common and old problem in any dictatorship, nothing new, and > there's courageous people willing to risk for it. This underground > circulation of prohibited information is something part of a process > that in the end is able to bring the dictatorship down. > > With the iPhone? First, I can't install the bits that I could get in the > underground market (sure, there's jailbreak, but this is not usable by > most non-technical-savvy people). For sure I can travel abroad and > install those apps, but when I return home? Isn't there that blacklist > application killer that allows Apple to remove unapproved applications > on every gear? Isn't that killer working by talking to some Apple > server? Isn't the local government filtering and monitoring all internet > communications in the country, so I could be as well tracked and > arrested by police (not of course because I generically installed an > application not allowed by Apple, but because of that Dalai Lama stuff). > > Isn't this just _outrageous_? > > I'd also would like to point out that Microsoft has been severely fined > by the EU because of that Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player > being the default installation on Windows. Note, note the only allowed > application, just the _default_ one - a sign that the measure was > directed to protect end customers, not professional ones that take five > minutes in downloading and install FIrefox. And everybody of us was just > applauding to that EU decision. Now, how comes that on the iPhone, > another thing targeted at customers, we're not even talking of > _defaults_ that can be overridden, but an _explicit_ Apple's policy that > forbids any "duplicate" of Apple features? Think of Google Voicemail, > that was banned. Isn't this much worse than Microsoft attitude, and most > of us say now that it's "normal"? Of course, to me doesn't matter that > for Microsoft we were talking of computers and now it's a matter of > smartphones, because of that convergence of computational appliances. > > -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager > Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere." > java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici -www.tidalwave.it/people > [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
