Comments on: Mozilla, Skype support EFF’s case for iPhone jailbreaking

By: Thomas Menguy

Thomas Menguy — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:32:21 +0000

@KA
video player: format are just too limited, I can’t download a video and play it nor put a well formatted divX…
Podcast: I like itunes … on the PC, why their is a limit to 10Megs on my 3G connection?? sorry there is not good excuse to that
For firefox, I agree, the integration of webkit with the rest of the system is awsome.
Don’t get me wrong I’m a fan of my Itunes/iPhone combo, but the closed minded and the “we now better than you what is good for you” from apple is sometimes a little bit irritating :-)
I would really like to see from Daniel a little bit more criticisms (constructive) toward Apple than always defending the Apple choices…being balanced is not so easy…

By: Pony99CA

Pony99CA — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:46:27 +0000

Jailbreaking seems wrong, but Apple needs to loosen up on the control issues.

Steve

By: KA

KA — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:59:09 +0000

@Thomas Menguy,

What is your definition of a “good video player”? I am happy with the built-in one, where do you see the problem?

And for podcasts – again, what’s wrong with iTunes? Evidently something, as somebody went to the trouble of making RSS Player.

I don’t really see a case for Firefox on iPhone. Firefox’s two selling points are security and extensibility. I see very little market for extensions on the iPhone, and Firefox doesn’t offer a great deal of security over Safari.

By: hmciv

hmciv — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:10:35 +0000

@slappy joe

I suspect Apple is afraid someone will write an app that (intentionally or otherwise) takes out other iphones, takes out AT&T or exploits people’s personal data. I’ll be interested to see if Mozilla or Opera attempt to write a browser for the iPhone.

By: slappy joe

slappy joe — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:47:15 +0000

Dan! I’m *truly* honored to hear from you (not being sarcastic- i read you’re blog daily)
Apple can, itself, define its own product however they like. But didn’t I “take ownership of Apple’s software” when i purchased my phone? What if I personally (for some random and odd reason) believe my own engineering of its OS adds value in my particular use of the hardware? If the resulting damage to Apple’s reputation is the concern, then that is a valid cause for degradation of the brand – I mean, they are selling products that can be reverse engineered by teenagers in 15 minutes.

By: slappy joe

slappy joe — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:34:58 +0000

so, Apple entered the phone market with a computer, right? And while enjoying lucrative benefits of leveraging a real OS into the cell phone market they want to somehow redefine what a consumer can do with it?

[Yes, how dare Apple define its own product (?), particularly if it ends up more successful with engineered focus rather than as a speculative catchall crapshoot. It's time for the proletariat to rise up and take ownership of Apple's software. Strip the private sector of property and give it to the people! And administer this new freedom through an unworkable bureaucracy! Sounds like a great plan. - Dan ]

By: PPie

PPie — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:01:23 +0000

If Mozilla and Adobe are so strong about supporting jailbreaking and Flash on the iPhone, they should partner and provide a Mozilla based browser that includes Flash support. That would show that they support their claims of open & flash on the iPhone.
If a lot of people are so in need of flash, as is always posted on the tech weblogs, they would immediately start using this browser+flash combo. That would give a signal to Apple…
On the other hand, it seems the boast of Adobe that Flash would run well on the iPhone is empty, as after all this time, still no demo has been given.

BTW: Why has nobody created an iPhone version of one of the open source Flash clones? It would seem that for jailbroken iPhones a large flash-plugin market would exist.

(For the record, I am very happy flash-less using MobileSafari on my iPhone)

By: Thomas Menguy

Thomas Menguy — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:25:47 +0000

As it is today iPhone AppStore is for sure slowing innovation: Apple is intentionally limiting what kind of application you can do and run on your phone.
If the Apple review process were only based on quality/security checking there would be no need for jailbreak (ok apart from piracy, but I assume it is not the EFF point).
Sorry but I miss good video players, turn by turn GPS, MMS, not limited podcast manager etc. All apps refused by Apple, based on their own secret agenda.
What would you say if MS were limiting the kind (not the quality/security) of applications you want to run on you windows PC?…same for apple on your Mac. Not sure you would blindly follow :-)
I think this is precisely the point of EFF.

By: hmciv

hmciv — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:44:39 +0000

I’m having trouble seeing how supporting the EFF on this case benefits Mozilla and Skype. Considering the ratio of jailbroken to unbroken iPhones and the threat an Apple Software Update may brick jailbroken phones I wonder if their interest is purely philosophical/publicity related.