Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JimH]

This is important, in my opinion:

Apple Inc.'s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.

The Library of Congress, which helps oversee copyright law, removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple.

Full article at the Wall Street Journal

[JimH]

A few other changes here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/201933/what_new_dmca_copyright_loopholes_mean_to_you.html?tk=hp_new

[MrC]

Agreed, this is huge.

[dumay]

i think that only means apple cant sue cydia or the end user if they jailbreak their iphone, however apple can still void the warranty if you break their EULA, and they will continue to put up updates that will nullify a jailbreak

[gappie]

i think that only means apple cant sue cydia or the end user if they jailbreak their iphone, however apple can still void the warranty if you break their EULA, and they will continue to put up updates that will nullify a jailbreak

i really dont think that. i think they will and need to consider the users jailbreaking much more then they did. its easy to put some 'criminals' aside, but kicking some law respecting customers out everytime will be a much higher price.

lets see how it will develop

 
gab

[Magic_Randy]

Time will tell how this plays out, but it shows promise

What I would like to see is the ability to have an iPhone app that did not come from Apple - without the need to jailbreak the phone. Then developers will step up and do great things. If you have to jailbreak the phone, too many iPhone owners will not do it - so the market shrinks and developers may not take the risk.

[Matt]

Apple has made it clear they want a locked ecosystem (filing lawsuits, adding cryptographic locks to prevent others from supporting their hardware, rejecting applications, etc.).  I don't think this will change.

This approach bothers me, but I'm not sure most people care.  Apple is valued at $240B.

[raldo]

This approach bothers me, but I'm not sure most people care.  Apple is valued at $240B.

I agree. Apple's original "lock down strategy" has finally paid off for them. This is the only strategy/business model that works for "ordinary people". With the IPhone, the software "simply works" and the UI is conform across applications.

I've tried several other smart phone solutions, my latest a Windows Mobile phone (HTC) which was ... crap.

And since this strategy has proven to work, Apple has become a technology driver which sets baselines for their competitors.

Just look at Android, it's lightyears ahead of WinMo. It'll be interesting to see what MS' Win7embedded will look like.

And then back to the original postin this thread. The decision is interesting, yes, but I don't think there will be much of an impact. The IPhone is good because of Apples business model. Hardware is nada, infrastructure is everything.

Btw, I don't own any apple products, I am a MS SW developer. I recently went to a MS developers conference and guess which phone dominated the conference?