Breaking Rumor: Apple iPhone goes enterprise on Jan. 21

On Sat, 26 Jan 2008, Mitch posted:
> Actually, I think I said you can't rate it's useability and design
> fairly without giving using it a fair trial.

I bricked two iPod Touch devices in one evening by doing nothing other
than going through the initial setup with iTunes on a Macintosh including
agreeing to let iTunes install the latest software.

It was only after the second one (and an unnecessary 50 mile round trip to
the store) that I thought of trying iTunes on a Windows system; and
Windows unbricked it.

Apple, at least, is very interested in following up on my report.
Apple's fanboys just want to silence me.

> I'm not accepting that
> Mark Crispin could ever compare anything without using it; others might
> compare features and compare just those usefully. Mark is too motivated
> to make unfair generalizations, claims, and comparisons.

According to Mitch, it is unfair to point out that:
. iPhone is locked to the worst network in the USA and Apple aggressively
attacks unlocked iPhones.
. iPhone lacks 3G - hence poor sales in Europe and no chance of sales in
Japan.
. iPhone's GSM performance is average; it is not the best-performing GSM
phone on the market.
. iPhone omits most Bluetooth functionality.
. iPhone lacks the ability to tether to a laptop (you are paying HOW MUCH
for a data plan just to do web browsing???).
. iPhone lacks voice dialing - a basic feature on all but the cheapest
phones.
. iPhone is very expensive, not just compared to other phones, but to
Internet tablets (such as Nokia N800) and phones combined.
. iPhone ($400) is expensive compared to iPod Classic ($330) which has
20 times as much storage capacity.
. iPod Touch 16GB ($400) and iPod Touch 8GB ($300) are expensive
compared to iPod Classic ($330) which has 10-20 times as much storage
capacity and is equally good at being an iPod.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are expensive compared to Nokia N800 ($230 on
Amazon) which has 2 SDHC slots (thus expandable to 32GB), has more
than twice the screen resolution, has full Bluetooth capability so
can be tethered to a Bluetooth cellphone on *any* company, and is a
completely open platform.
. iPod Touch is somewhat expensive compared to Sony mylo second
generation ($300), which has more than twice the screen resolution
and has a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot expandable to 32GB.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are expensive compared to Nokia N810 ($230 on
Amazon) which has a miniSD slot expandable to 32GB, has more than
twice the screen resolution, has full Bluetooth capability so can be
tethered to a Bluetooth cellphone on *any* company, has built-in
GPS, has a keyboard, and is a completely open platform.
. iPhone and iPod Touch are closed platforms, precluding third party
software development, and Apple aggressively attacks jailbroken
iPhones and iPod Touches. Apple's promise of an SDK is just that;
a promise, nothing more. Until it is available, and its capabilities
studied and verified to provide an open development environment, the
platform is closed.
. iPhone and iPod Touch can only be managed via iTunes, a consumer-grade
product that is not at all suitable in enterprises.
. iPhone and iPod Touch do not permit direct download from the Internet;
it must go through iTunes.
. iPhone and iPod Touch only permit synchronization with a single
computer. Even ancient Windows CE devices allowed synchronization
with multiple computers!
. iPhone and iPod Touch have only a basic contact management application
with very limited controls. For example, you can set how names are
displayed, but only for all names. If you set "Last Name, First
Name" (as in a phone book, or to display East Asian names correctly),
it screws up on names with middle names: it actually does "Last,
Middle, First" (e.g., "George W. Bush" comes out as "Bush W. George").
. iPhone and iPod Touch lack a task management application.
. iPhone and iPod Touch, by virtue of using capacitance technology,
preclude the use of a stylus for more precise screen operations.
. iPhone and iPod Touch have very low (320x480) screen resolution for an
Internet tablet (Nokia N800/N810 and Sony mylo all have 800x480).
Compared to Internet tablets, web page reading is quite painful due to
the need to zoom in and zoom out.

As part of my testing, I put the iPod Touch and the Nokia N800 side by
side and asked other people which gave a better Internet access
experience. Typical comments about the iPod Touch was "I can't read it",
"photos are washed out and grainy", "too hard to type on it".

The iPhone and iPod Touch are not particularly good Internet tablets; nor
is iPhone a particularly impressive smartphone. They are iPods that stray
into being Internet tablets and phones.

There is no doubt that iPhone and iPod Touch are great at being iPods, and
do a better job at being iPods than their non-Apple competition. However
(and this is a big however!) other Apple iPods (most notably iPod Classic
160GB) do an even better job at being iPods.

> (And now
> namecalling, apparently, is his way to convince you he's more fair.)

I namecall mindless fanboys like you who deny the truth when it fails to
jive with your beliefs.

It is UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE that a new-in-box device bricks for no reason
other than installing the recommended software update as part of a
perfectly ordinary setup process.

>> However, a simple Google search, which apparently is beyond the capability
>> of fanboy Mitch in Hawaii, shows that people have been having this problem
>> with iPhone too.
> I didn't claim that no one was having the problem, or that it was with
> just one version of the devices. I suggested it wasn't usual.

Here's a hint to you and all other fanboys: a proper product test includes
letting your most hostile critics at it. If they can break it, doing
something perfectly ordinary, then the product needs to be fixed.

In this case, I didn't get a chance to test it at all before it bricked as
part of following the setup process. Note well that I did not do anything
other than the first-time setup and agree to its suggestion to upgrade the
software.

>> And I have a reproducable script to make any
>> other new-in-box iPod Touch useless using a Macintosh.
> That part is too funny -- as though it would be hard to make almost any
> device (especially those running Windows!) useless with a script.

Yes, it's funny.

It's really funny since the script consists of doing a perfectly ordinary
setup and installation.

Usually, Microsoft gets that right, even though they have trouble doing
such things as complying with published Internet standards.

> Hah! Has Mark decided that Windows isn't the cause of the horrendous
> Windows problems permeating all of business world?

It's better than the horrendous Macintosh problems that existed 20 years
ago. Or perhaps you are too young to remember that there was a time when
Macintosh was far ahead of Windows. There's a reason why it lost that
position, and that reason is far more based upon what Apple did than what
Microsoft did.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

Mark Crispin wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jan 2008, Mitch posted:
>> Actually, I think I said you can't rate it's useability and design
>> fairly without giving using it a fair trial.
>
> I bricked two iPod Touch devices in one evening by doing nothing other
> than going through the initial setup with iTunes on a Macintosh
> including agreeing to let iTunes install the latest software.
>
> It was only after the second one (and an unnecessary 50 mile round trip
> to the store) that I thought of trying iTunes on a Windows system; and
> Windows unbricked it.
>
> Apple, at least, is very interested in following up on my report.
> Apple's fanboys just want to silence me.
>
>> I'm not accepting that
>> Mark Crispin could ever compare anything without using it; others might
>> compare features and compare just those usefully. Mark is too motivated
>> to make unfair generalizations, claims, and comparisons.
>
> According to Mitch, it is unfair to point out that:

I'll point out that they have sold millions of these things, and
overall the reaction has been extremely positive.

Steve

Mark Crispin <mrc@Washington.EDU> wrote in
news:alpine.OSX.1.00.0801262303290.21314@pangtzu.p anda.com:

> I bricked two iPod Touch devices in one evening by doing nothing other
> than going through the initial setup with iTunes on a Macintosh
> including agreeing to let iTunes install the latest software.
>
> It was only after the second one (and an unnecessary 50 mile round
> trip to the store) that I thought of trying iTunes on a Windows
> system; and Windows unbricked it.
>
>

Probably the best review on the net. Thanks, Mark. I didn't know about
the capacitive screen, but wondered why they didn't include a stylus like
the N800. This post was very educational. I've stolen it...(c;

Sorry you wasted so much money chasing bricked Apple products.

I bricked my N800 three times playing as root. Fortunately, Nokia figured
I was going to trash it so created the boot loader for Windoze to easily
restore it from scratch. Bricking it isn't dangerous in an open
environment.

Great post.

Steve de Mena <steve@stevedemena.com> wrote in
news:3vmdnUwFnJqlwgHanZ2dnUVZ_tvinZ2d@giganews.com :

> I'll point out that they have sold millions of these things, and
> overall the reaction has been extremely positive.
>
> Steve
>

iPhone buyers are appliance operators buying a WebTV appliance that's
totally restricted and easy-to-use. They outnumber computer geeks by
10,000,000:1 and are very susceptable to the massive iPxxx advertising
empire that made very mediocre, closed system, box office music boxes into
the most popular music sales machine in history. It's a tribute to the
power of propaganda and marketing, not of technology.

iPxxxx, any of them, shows what good propaganda can do and, I'm sure, is
very carefully watched by government propagandists worldwide.

Many of the 500 iPhone-owing geeks are members of these newsgroups. I can
tell that because they know usenet exists, putting them in the top 0.2
percentile of internet users. Most internet users have no idea usenet even
exists.

The effectiveness of the propagandists working for Apple is very apparent,
even to the most naive persons, in the absolute brand loyalty that is seen
here, to the point of being comical....or pathetic, I'm not sure which. If
Apple came out with a laptop that had a keyboard and screen that lit up to
an Apple logo and did nothing else, the loyalists would defend it to their
deaths as the finest computer equipment every created.

Apple doesn't even have to waste money putting in a consumer swappable
battery in its equipment any more. The loyalists think that's a "feature".

In article <Xns9A3264DA02D3Fnoonehomecom@208.49.80.253>,
larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> iPhone buyers are appliance operators buying a WebTV appliance that's
> totally restricted and easy-to-use.

Ah, so you're admitting--finally--that your sainted Nokia N800 is NOT
easy to use.

Thanks for clarifying that. The N800 and its ilk is for people who like
to geek around for the sake of geeking around, as opposed to people who
just want the information so they can go on with their lives.

You talk as if having an appliance is a bad thing--why is that? I can
only imagine your venom if you had to geek with your refrigerator even
1/8 as much as you geek with your N800.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in news:elmop-
769E3A.11080027012008@nntp1.usenetserver.com:

> Ah, so you're admitting--finally--that your sainted Nokia N800 is NOT
> easy to use.
>
>

While not a net appliance, like a mac or windoze, it's easier to use than
WinXP. For instance, updating all the installed software, all at once,
is a matter of booting Application Manager, then clicking the Check for
Updates button. The Linux hackers didn't like updating all the
improvements, one at a time, so they developed a .sys file that stay in
the update page. It automates the process even further, just updata the
..sys file and it scripts the update....one click.

Try updating all the software installed in your Win XP box and see what
hell you go through...not just the OS, but all the software installed.

N800 is MUCH easier to use than Win XP. Of course, like a real computer,
one must have certain basic skills of installing (another one button
operation from maemo.org's download database for user programs). If you
take the time to look at maemo.org's download section of freeware, notice
the green down arrow, which sends a .install file the tablet recognizes.
Application Manager boots, downloads the appropriate file catalog from
the authoring website, then downloads the latest software and installs
it, only asking you if you want to do it and warning you it's not Nokia's
fault if it doesn't work because Nokia had nothing to do with it...

In article <Xns9A3298875C66Bnoonehomecom@208.49.80.253>,
larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> > Ah, so you're admitting--finally--that your sainted Nokia N800 is NOT
> > easy to use.
> >
> >
>
> While not a net appliance, like a mac or windoze, it's easier to use than
> WinXP. For instance, updating all the installed software, all at once,
> is a matter of booting Application Manager, then clicking the Check for
> Updates button. The Linux hackers didn't like updating all the
> improvements, one at a time, so they developed a .sys file that stay in
> the update page. It automates the process even further, just updata the
> .sys file and it scripts the update....one click.

OK...so what did it take you to get to that point?

Much geeking around, no doubt.

People don't want their refrigerators to require constant attention or
extensive, careful setup.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in news:elmop-
2BE93F.15050227012008@nntp1.usenetserver.com:

> OK...so what did it take you to get to that point?
>
>

Enough of your trolling. I read the manual....

Mark Crispin wrote:

> . iPhone and iPod Touch are expensive compared to Nokia N810 ($230 on
> Amazon) which has a miniSD slot expandable to 32GB, has more than
> twice the screen resolution, has full Bluetooth capability so can be
> tethered to a Bluetooth cellphone on *any* company, has built-in
> GPS, has a keyboard, and is a completely open platform.

Where did you see the N810 on Amazon for $230?

In article <Xns9A329A9C07AF6noonehomecom@208.49.80.253>,
larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> > OK...so what did it take you to get to that point?
> >
> >
>
> Enough of your trolling. I read the manual....

Trolling?

How thick is the manual? How many days did it take you to get your
tablet to where it is now? How many false starts did it take? How many
times did you screw it up and have to scrape load it?

This isn't 1975 anymore. People are willing to buy an appliance where
all that crap has been engineered out and useful stuff has been
engineered in.

There you are, using your SELLphone to browse the web on your N800 while
you sit at the Awful House, eyeballing the one waitress in the place who
has more than two teeth (I gather, anyway, because you referred to her
as "cute")...