Ranting to /dev/null

Great, right when I'm trying to build up the nerve to spend a chunk of cash on a TV. Thanks for the encouragement.

Alright Ryan, tell me how the iPhone is defective by design?

Two reasons:

1) DRM. Still uses the same DRM as the iPod. I'm going to include iTunes in general, as it locks you in to one program to access the device and generally prevents the full-range of services that any portable hard-drive has unless you deliberately break 'em.

2) Service provider lock-in. You have to use Cingular. There is no technical reason for this, and it interferes with consumers' ability to use the device as we see fit, not as manufacturers and utilities dictate. In essence, Cingular was the only company desperate enough to concede to Apple's restrictive demands, i.e. no discounting the phone for buying a service plan.

Apple wants me to pay $600 for a device that doesn't work as well as it ought to and can work and only lets me use their software to interface with the device and Cingular to interface with the digital network. This required a deliberate attempt to limit the functionality of the device.

Defective by design.

(1) Steve Jobs has made it clear that as soon as the big music companies realize the error of their ways and DRM goes bye-bye, a simple firmware update to the iPhone will have it doing all those fun things you wish it could do. DRM is not Apple's fault. And what's wrong with only one program for accessing the device? How many programs do you use for accessing your Archos (not how many can you use, how many do you use)?

(2) So? Verizon and T-Mobile don't want the iPhone, and you're faulting Apple and/or their mobile device for that? You're counting that as a short-coming? I mean, I understand reservations about pricing and Apple's unwillingness to compromise on the price with 2-year contracts, but still. I'm pretty sure Cingular isn't "desperate" for anything with AT&T and BellSouth being in the same camp.

As a mobile celular device, how is it defective by design?

Of course, I fully endorse spending the dough you save by not getting one on beer...

Jobs did recently make an anti-DRM plea, but it sounds pretty disingenuous. Apple is currently sitting on top of the mp3-device heap in no small part because of DRM, and Apple has utterly refused to stop using the stuff, even under the threat of legal action. I'm willing to believe he's sincere, but I'm suspicious.

How many programs do I use to access my Archos? None. Well, technically one, but as it's Windows Explorer, it hardly counts. There is no unique interface for the thing, you just plug it in with USB 2 and it shows up as a hard drive: drag-n-drop files like you would for any other device. This is how it ought to work; don't make me ditz around with weird proprietary GUIs. I already know how to move data, and OS already does that just fine, thanks. Additionally, the thing doesn't care what you're putting on there. I've moved isos, documents, pictures, etc. and the device never once asked me what I was doing or gave me trouble about getting to my stuff. Getting music off an iPod is a huge pain in the ass, or at least it was when I had one.

Verizon and other utilities certainly want the iPhone. What makes you think they don't? The reason they turned it down is that Apple is demanding things no cell phone manufacturer has ever demanded before, e.g. no discounts on the phones to entice people to sign up for yearly plans, and a cut of the monthly service fee.

As a cell phone, I'm sure it works just fine, or at least it isn't any more broken than any of the other phones out there (which are also objectionable for similar locked-in reasons, e.g. disabling Bluetooth for file transfer). But the thing costs $600, and for that price it should not only have six times as many features as my cell phone, but it should also make my coffee and brush my teeth. It doesn't.

In re firmware upgrades: I'm all in favor, and yeah, it probably wouldn't take much. But as running unauthorized firmware is likely to brick your device, it's not exactly a viable option unless the manufacturer releases an official patch. But it shouldn't be a patch; it should come working right out of the box.

Fair enough.

I checked out the Archos website, looks they have some pretty slick gadgetry; which one are you rolling with? Also, I can't tell if I would be able to play my iTunes files with any of the models. I could probably find out what I want to know by rummaging through some forums, but since you own one I figured I'd ask.

Ryan, you can think Job's was being disingenuous, but you're hardly operating from fact when you ignore Job's claims to the contrary and assume that Apple loves DRM as the foundation for the iPhone being defective by design.

Further, show me some evidence that DRM has played any sort of major role in the success of the iPod. We both know you aren't swayed by "the cool", but 99.9% of the rest of the world is. If Jobs is good at anything, it's taking the consumer right up to the limit of their threshold for DRM pain, and he found the sweet spot of what a vast majority of the market will bear for a slickly designed "cool" product. You want to do a ton more with your media player, but you represent a tiny segment of the marketplace. Until I've got reason to think otherwise (and right now all indications are that it IS the case) I rest the blame for DRM on big Media's shoulders.

Further, the price of $600 may be distasteful to you. But baby, it's all about what the market can handle.

Jared: I've got the Gmini 402 20GB camcorder. Video and audio input/output, $250. It won't play any AAC files, DRMed or not, but as nothing but the iPod will, that's nothing unique. You'll have to convert them somehow, preferably by using a software decoder, though there's always the burn/rip option. My only real complaint is that it doesn't play ogg, but as I don't have any ogg files, this doesn't bother me overly much.

Josiah: I'm not attempting to knock the industrial design of the iPod. I wish my player looked and felt that good. And you're right, if Apple hadn't found a balance of utility/restriction that people were willing to settle for, they wouldn't be selling iPods. As far as DRM playing a critical role in the success of the iPod, I'd only make the argument that the draw of iTMS is far out of proportion to its sales. When people go out to buy an mp3 player, one of the things they think about is whether they can get music for it online. Everyone knows about iTMS, and so people will tend to buy an iPod so they can use iTMS even if they never actually do. But even if they only buy two or three songs from the store, they're permanently locked in to buying iPods, as no other player will play them.

Finally, you know as well as anyone that I firmly believe that the value of a good is exactly what the market is willing to bear, but I suggest that the reason the market is willing to bear $600 for such a device has less to do with the merits of the device and more to do with Apple fanboyism. Sure, it's cool, but it's not that cool. But again, the things I spend money on because they're cool tend not to be electronics: I spend money on electronics because I use them a lot, and I want to maximize my utility while minimizing my expense. And the iPod and iPhone do not represent a maximization of utility for my purposes.

I suppose in general this is why I'm not a Mac user. Yes, the OS is superior in many respects, but not only does the software I want to use not work on it, they cost 50% more. And a really cool laptop case and shiny icons are not something I'm willing to spend an extra 50% on, not when I can get a lot sweeter hardware for the same money. I'll see your semi-translucent hard-plastic case and raise you one 500GB RAID-5 array!