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Google, Apple Joust Over Rejected Voice App
ZipK writes with an update to last month's FCC inquiry that landed Apple and AT&T in hot water over the apparent rejection of a Google Voice app for the iPhone. All three companies submitted statements to the FCC — Apple claimed the app hadn't been rejected at all, that they were simply "studying" it further. The public version of Google's statement contained a redacted section, which they politely referred to as "sensitive," but after seeing Apple's comments, they decided to reveal the entire document. Google's FCC filing directly contradicts what Apple said: "Apple's representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone. The Apple representatives indicated that the company did not want applications that could potentially replace such functionality." (PDF, page 4.) Apple quickly released a statement reiterating that they did not reject the app.
How is this Score 5, Insightful? At best this is flamebait. Nothing you have said couldn't be applied to any phone marketed in the last decade. About the only difference between the iPhone and the past, is that A, the iphone costs more, and B, it's Apple, which despite your obvious hatred, DOES have a product that people seem to want. Fanboy or no, it's selling. Whether or not it's worth the money can NOT be answered by looking at it's engineering. You could ask the same question of a Corvette. If it's hot, it's hot. Most drivers (or iPhone owners) don't care about the engineering or infrastructure, they only want to know that their girlfriend looks hot laying on the hood (or holding it to their head).
Because they don't provide a commercial environment for software developers to flourish in, no one is going to learn to develop for their platforms anymore and then after that no one is going to buy them. This will happen about the same times Jobs dies due to remission of pancreatic cancer. It'll all happen within the next 10 years or so. Why? Because Krishna is offended by Apple's faggotry.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods
How about a better example that has existed for much longer than an iPod - American cars. Cars used to be built to last. Most owners could conceivably own a vehicle until _they_ decided to replace it. Now, north American cars have a built in expiration date - pretty much as soon as the warranty runs out, the vehicle begins to systematically fall apart, thereby forcing the owner to buy a new vehicle.
I know it's fun to hate on Apple and all but, let's be real, north American auto makers have been working with planned obsolescence for a long time now.
Not to mention that Apple hardware lasts a HELL of a lot longer than a vast majority of comparable products from other companies. There are exceptions that prove the rule and anecdotal evidence that people can raise to the contrary but, on average, Apple's products last a respectably long time.
You know, iPhones are known for exploding, flying away and stuff, so a mere battery dying out is nothing!
Write boring code, not shiny code!
It is no the same thing, not even in the same ballpark, not even the same game. You are bringing a cricket bat to a boxing match.
There is nothing to stop Walmart from not selling A the Sony Vaio WGA3. There is no laws to stop Walmart from not selling any Sony product at all. Are you demented?
Really?
I don't recall much in the way of lock in for the Apple-I or Apple-II.
Perhaps you could give a bit more detail, or are you just trolling?
Analogy fail!
Would it not follow that FreeBSD should tell Apple that their OSx has "duplicated functionality" to gnome/KDE and ask them to remove it from the BSD OS they so graciously borrowed?
The good people at BSD wanted this sort of thing, and chose a licence that allows it.
It's not borrowing, it's exactly what should happen.
Or perhaps the PC industry can politely ask Apple to quit putting their off white boxes around their damn hardware and slapping Apple stickers on them, because they are just "duplicated functionality" of a PC.
This one's harder to understand, given that there is no central body in the "PC industry," Apple design their own hardware within the specs (ie they're not just reference boards from Intel) and Apple predated just about everyone else in the personal computing world, reversing your point.
Yes, it'd be nice if Apple played well with Google but since they don't, potential customers can just get another competing phone that does.
I can't see that this is a big issue. It's just a company deciding what apps run on their closed platform. People who care about such things can make informed choices. Everyone else just gets on with life.
As for "lunatic fanatics" I see quite a few on Slashdot are taking the fanatical anti-Apple position lately. Perhaps they've crossed the line beyond which they lose a handful of FOSS users while gaining a few million 'normal' people.