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Toyota Yields To Apple Over Jailbroken Phones
zakkie writes "Toyota has caved to pressure from Apple and pulled custom themes for jailbroken iPhones. According to ModMyi.com founder Kyle Matthews, a representative of Toyota's ad agency said that Toyota gave in to Apple's request in order to 'maintain their good relationship with Apple', and amounted to a direct attack by Apple on jailbroken iPhones."
Manager B: And why do we make this custom theme for a jailbroken iPhone?
Manager A: To promote our Scion line of cars which embrace the idea of user customization.
Manager B: And what did it cost us to make it?
Manager A: Less than producing a single magazine ad.
Manager B: And how exactly do we benefit from this?
Manager A: Market research has shown that the demographic who is interested in jailbreaking their iPhone are prime advertising targets for the Scion as they share similar interests.
Manager B: So what I want to know is: Who signed off on this nonsense and how can we stop it right now?
Manager A: You did. You're call on whether it's worth fighting with Apple over.
While it IS an interesting point that Jobs & Wozniak got their start making/using blueboxes (which was sort of similar to jailbreaking Ma Bell - except it really WAS out-and-out theft), it's a step too far to say that Apple is trying to jail (or even more ludicrously, torture) people trying to jailbreak their phones. Suffice it to say that the Apple walled garden has concertina wire on top (which we all knew already) and leave it at that.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Apple on their way to making Jobs rich: took blueboxing mainstream, promoting easy theft of services.
Apple now that Jobs is fabulously wealthy: stealing right of first sale from their own customers and discouraging customers from taking back functionality of their legally-owned product.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Let us not forget that Toyota has become pretty hostile to real hot rodders and today's TRD products are a complete joke. Gone are the days of actively supporting the hot rodding and motorcrossing community with real performance parts for hot cars like the MR-2 (mechanicallt supercharged and later turbocharged) and Supra (Sequential twin turbocharged) sportscars.
Their idea of modding today is to sell body cladding and spoilers, and TRD decals. They have wholly embraced the ricer market segment, and actively discourage people from making real performance improvements. Should it really surprise anyone that Toyota would respect Apple's egomaniacal control over already-purchased iPhones?
I own my iPhones. Even if I dump AT&T today, I will maintain ownership of my iPhones. I am not renting nor leasing them, nor are they a work for hire under contract. They are commodity goods sold off the shelf, so therefore the first sale doctrine applies - along with bypassing DRM for the purpose of interoperability. Courts have upheld jailbreaking as a legal activity so why is Apple still fighting it? I am a jailbreaker, and yet I still buy apps from the app store, and even occasionally buy tracks through iTunes rather than dig out certain CDs to re-rip them.
Why do I jailbreak? So I can tweak the GUI. So I can run SBSettings, and so I can ssh to my iPhone and custom-build nagios so I can control servers from anywhere - and ssh into a box on the road when absolutely required. I don't use it for anything nefarious like "stealing"[sic] software or anything like that. So I can tweak settings a lot more than the default settings applet allows. So I can turn off phone or data separately with ease, and so I can have individual apps override screen brightness for individual apps rather than a single global setting Apple seems to think should apply to everyone for all situations - oh, and so I can disable rotation support quickly (for TomTom GPS for example - legally purchased through the app store well after I jailbroke my phone, by the way!) rather than distracting myself drilling down through a bunch of menus to disable it while driving.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Yet another example of how the idea of a 'free' market is an illusion with the way things currently work. I wonder how far a suit for tortious interference by all the users of jail-broken iPhones would get? Probably not very far, or perhaps they would get coupons to the Apple App store.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
It was the Equire article that took blueboxing mainstream, I remember reading it when it came out, and there had been no public hint of the blueboxing underground before that. Made Captain Crunch a cult hero overnight.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
You have to jailbreak an iPhone to put a custom theme on it? That seems pretty restrictive. Seems like a basic customization that you should be able to do on any smartphone.
Read, at the EFF site, all the docs about Apple trying to get the Library of Congress to not allow jailbreaking. They wanted the full force of law brought down on those who jail broke. That includes prison time.
I'm beginning to lose faith and have actually started considering an Android phone ( but to find something that is comparable that isn't locked down as bad by the carrier. )
I still have every aple device i ever owned, from my first apple ][, and I'm really getting tired of this. Its my "box", let me use it as i want. If you don't want to support/warrant me, fine..
I'm also worried about the long term future of the computer side of things, if it will end up in a similar locked down state.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
>> Why do I jailbreak?
I don't have to justify it. It's simple. Because I refuse to be anybody's bitch. I own the fucking device. Steve Jobs, Apple, appholes can go fuck themselves.
As someone who has worked on the digital end of a tremendous number of campaigns for some very (very) large clients, please understand that oftentimes the larger company is not aware of what is going on. Campaigns are pulled quite often for even smaller, sillier, brand infringments. The only reason anyone cares about this one is that Apple's walled garden is a hot button topic.
The Scion theme not only changes colors and wallpaper, but also has different icons. User-created themes could potentially extend their changes to a very different UI experience. This could complicate customer support for Apple 'geniuses' and phone support, as customers can no longer be walked through a consistent menu chain.
The other explanation is that nothing goes on an iPhone without Apple getting a cut of the profits. This would challenge the business model of a future iTunes theme store (remember, Apple is the company that would sell music you already purchased back to you as a ring tone)