Steve Jobs: "Want freedom? Buy Android"

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs people who want porn or political satire should choose an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Because Apple has a "moral responsibility". You know, just like those Iranian priests have a "moral responsibility" to ban anything they find morally offensive (which is basically everything). In addition Jobs bans applications that are too similar to functionality already found in the iPhone, or applications that could perhaps in some way maybe be used to perform copyright infringement. Or applications he just doesn't like.

So I couldn't agree more with Jobs, if you want freedom on your phone instead of a "moral police" filtering out applications that they deem "inappropriate" for whatever reason, go buy an Android phone. I did.

Photo: barockschloss

Taliban loves iPhone

The Taliban apparently loves Apple's iPhone. Perhaps they feel Apple's ideology goes well with their own? You know, a totalitarian view of the world where one strong and unquestionable leader tells you exactly what to think, what to do (and most importantly in Apple's case, what NOT to do) and exactly how to do it in the most limiting and narrow-minded way?

Something tells me the Taliban are not huge fans of the more democratic approaches of open standards, interoperability and compatibility.

The basic functionality of a modern cell phone

ZoomMediaPlus have released a card reader, ZoomIt, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, making it possible to view files from a memory card, and interact with them, directly on the iPhone/iPod. I can't that it should take a 3rd party vendor to see this ridiculous design flaw or limitation in the product and come up with this functionality on their own. After all, it's pretty much standard in most other phones these days.

Except in most phones you don't have to have an extra gadget plugged in on the side of it for this to work. It's called a memory card slot, and you just insert your memory card into it, and voila, all the files you've transferred from your computer and onto the card are there. Usually these phones also let you copy or save files onto the memory card so you can easily transfer all music, photos and other stuff onto your computer.

But no, that would be giving the customers way to much freedom and ease of use, if you ask Apple.

Photo: ZoomIt website

Steve Jobs is a gnome

So Apple launches the iPad, a new e-book reader and more. Big deal. Please let me be wrong, but I suspect it will be hopelessly locked to the shockingly bad iTunes software which will be needed to do more or less anything with the device. I also suspect you will have to buy e-books in a proprietary format - from iTunes. In other words just as uninteresting as the Amazon Kindle and other proprietary systems.

What I find a bit amusing though is the picture of Steve Jobs holding the iPad. Doesn't he look like a cute, little gnome holding a huge iPhone in his hand?

Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Doubletwist brings you choice

Brilliant commercial...

Why exactly should I buy this crap?

I read a comparison of various cell phones in today's DN, and not surprisingly the hysterically over-hyped Iphone 3GS won the competition, together with the far superior, yet cheaper, Samsung Omnia HD.

Let's have a look at Iphone 3GS's selling points, according to the article:

• It can send and receive MMS.
• It's got bluetooth.
• It's fitted with a 3 megapixel camera, without flash.
• It's got a compass.
• You can copy and paste text from for example an e-mail.
• It's got support for the Swedish special characters ÅÄÖ (although the keyboard is "still hard to use").

All these new "features" are really the bare minimum you would expect from even the cheapest cell phone sold in the last 2-3 years, possibly with the exception of a compass. On the other hand, when have you ever been in a situation where you thought "damn, I really wish my phone had a compass"?

Why on earth should I literally pay through my nose for yesterday's news, when I could get a state of the art phone for almost half the price, and at the same time avoid the infamous Apple lock-in effect and the AppStore censorship madness?

Mac vs PC - the battle continues

Microsoft takes another sting at Apple with a new Laptop Hunters commercial, bashing the Macbooks for being to expensive and not having a large enough screen. I have to say I completely agree with Microsoft on that one. However, the solution, if you want cheap, safe and fully functional, is hardly a PC laptop with Microsoft Windows installed.

Instead, surf to ubuntu.com and download the latest version of this Linux based OS (there's even a Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix available for those low-spec'd netbooks). The Ubuntu packages is exceptionally easy to install, and it includes the Mozilla Firefox browser, a mail- and calendar client, OpenOffice (as opposed to paying 995 SEK for the Microsoft Office 2007 home and student version, that does absolutely nothing more...), and Gimp for retouching those digital photos (instead of buying Adobe Photoshop Elements, which will set you back another 1095 SEK). The package also includes various media players and other stuff. Plus, you won't have to worry about computer viruses, trojans and other malware anymore.

It's all there, ready to use out of the box - no annoying activation and registration process, and it's for free.

Linux FTW!


P.S. There's even a Ubuntu version for Mac, so if you do go ahead and buy that overpriced piece of white plastic anyway, you can still keep your software costs down...

iPod versus Zune

It costs 30.000 dollars to fill an Apple iPod with music. It costs 14 dollars a month to fill a Microsoft Zune mp3-player (with what is presumably DRM-infested sh*t that is lost forever once your Zune calls it a night).

Obviously ripping your own cd's, copying from friends or family, or even downloading here and there, aren't options Microsoft have considered possible...

Bad apples, part 2

As I've said before, I'm not (to say the least) a huge fan of Apple and their over-priced range of proprietary technology gadgets with a lock-in effect that should make Microsoft cry their eyes out. Today's example is just another one of why I would never dream of buying anything with the stupid apple logo on it: Being the control freaks they are, they have banned an actually useful utility, one of the very few I've ever heard of, from the AppStore (you know, the online store that let's you download applications that enable you to tickle your stupid iPhone, pop virtual bubble wrap and mimic the sound of a light sabre...), a remote control for a BitTorrent client, with the motivation that "this kind of software is often use to perform copyright infringements". Say what???

The BitTorrent technology is not only perfectly legal, it's a brilliant way of distributing all kinds of files. Furthermore, this remote control app doesn't actually download one single byte of "potentially illegal" material, it merely controls a BitTorrent client you've set up at home.

So, Apple, I'm assuming computers in general should be banned then, because they're "often used to perform copyright infringements". Particularily the DVD-burner, that's got to be banned. Burn it, I say! Oh, and the Internet, of course, we all know that a huge amount of the traffic on the Internet, both HTTP, FTP and not to mention those dreaded newsgroups, is piracy, so let's just close down the whole thing, shall we*?


*) Incidentally this is just what French president and crazy frog extraordinaire, Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to accomplish. Perhaps they should join forces, dumb bastards.

Bad apples

I've never been a big fan of Apple. I think their products are ridiculously over-priced, and I don't care much for the lock-in effect you get when you buy Apple. For instance, why do Apple insist that you use iTunes to manage your iPod? Why do they struggle so hard, constantly making undocumented changes to the iPod firmware, to keep the far superior Winamp or Media Jukebox from working together with their products? And why the heck is it impossible to move music from the iPod and on to the computer? Oh, and why are Apple so cheap that they don't even include a battery charger with the iPod - you actually have to go and buy one yourself!

Anyway, Apple's last scheme to make more money is to put a hardware authentication chip in the headphone jack of the new iPod Shuffle. Any headphones that are to be used with this iPod need to be certified by Apple, meaning a manufacturer who wants to make iPod-compatible headphones will have to pay a licence fee to Apple... When will the insanity end? When will people stop bying over-priced products with poor functionality just because they look cool?