Given the financial incentives involved here (for example, the guy who gave up an almost certain $15,000 because he reported a bug to Google rather than keep it under wraps until he could clean up at Pwn2Own, how many bugs on all of the major platforms are kept "secret" to be used in contests like this?
I understand the nature of the event is to demonstrate the issues of security and code vulnerability, but sitting on exploits is surely counterproductive here?
I just use a seconds pendulum in the lab... measured to a metre using a plastic ruler.
My error bars are... slight.;)
(although, hilariously, right now in the physical chem lab I use the temp is being measured with a freebie LCD promotional alarm clock/calendar/thermometer thing from Fisher Scientific - one of those things they give away when they are trying to flog you glassware and HPLC machines. The properly accurate thermometer is broken right now).
Perhaps, but his income depends on readers - if he sells twice as many, even if he doesn't make quite as much raw profit per sale, he'll have more eyes on his books and likely attract more repeat readers. For a little less profit in the sort term, he could be ensuring his future earnings.
I've only seen a video of the Xoom in use, and based it on that and specs, and also previous experience using a couple of different Android handsets belonging to friends (I have an iPhone 3G and access to a family member's iPad 1 for comparison on that side), so I extrapolated.
I was going to say that software support will be the make or break - ie, android market/content availability etc.
I can buy a 6 foot long piece of timber for less than a 12 foot long piece. I'm sure the people selling 12 foot long pieces of wood are quaking.
Of the 10" tablets, only the Archos 101 is anywhere under the iPad price (and still not much for comparable models - the non-3G iPad is $499, the 10.1 inch Archos is $350.
No, they don;t have to be as feature-full as the iPad to sell well. If sub-$100 tablets have a market, then more power to them.
My point was that people on slashdot have been saying since before the iPad came out that there would be cheaper, better specced Android tablets, pretty much every month they were "just around the corner". Then it was "just wait for Honeycomb!". We're still waiting. I think the hardware vendors, and the tech community in general really *were* astounded that the iPad is selling so well (one of the best tech product launches ever) , and they were expecting better specced tablets to come along at a lower price... and it just hasn't happened. Either the price is the same or more than the iPad, or it's compromised considerably to get the cost down.
I think the fundamental issue seems to be that they just can't make them much cheaper than the iPad already is, with the same featureset, without it being uneconomical to do, otherwise we would have seen it already - Honeycomb or no Honeycomb.
Ah yes, $350 for a 10" with 16GB, no access to the Android Market, no 3G, coming to market for "fall 2010". I can see why they just flew off the shelves.
Seriously, it does look capable (especially with SD card slot - iPad 2 needed those)... except for that "crushing iPad" part - which went on to sell 15 million units.
Why's that? Because the iPad succeeded at near that price and then some?
They sold (into customer hands, not shipped to store inventory) 15 million iPads that went for between $499 and $800 and they couldn't build them fast enough.
There's no reason that the Xoom shouldn't sell just as well as the iPad, if it can stand toe to toe with it - since it is pretty much exactly the same price (for the 3G model, a $70 difference in favour of the iPad). If they have to slash the price significantly to get it to sell, then perhaps it wasn't comparable really?
In my personal opinion, it is as good as the iPad 2, so there's no reason to need to deep discount it, is there?
The most popular ones, based on my visits to an Apple reseller here in the UK are the WiFi only ones, not the maxed out ones. You could buy a maxed out one any time, but there was always a wait list for the WiFi only models.
Expect to see 10" Android tablets for $300 or less by the end of the year.
I hate to bring it up, but that's what everyone said *last year* when the iPad 1 launched (at several hundred dollars under the estimates that people were quoting), and that "cheaper, better" Android tablets would waltz in and crush the iPad. Any day now, just you wait... etc etc for 9 months.
As yet, it has still not happened for tablets of the same spec as the iPad - the Xoom is as close as anyone has come and it is still more/about the same give or take.
I'd assume that because I have seen it used as an ebook reader for lovely colour content like textbooks and it works very well.
Like it said, my copy of Warren (the big, standard organic chem text) is gigantic, but excellent, and yet is crippled by a poor index and large mass (it's 1500 pages). An electronic version on tablet (it need not necessarily be an iPad, but it does need to be a better screen than a Kindle) just reprinted as it is would be wonderful. It would be even better if it could take advantage of the other features of the medium (animations) and the ability to annotate the pages as you wanted, and things like in-page calculations or varying of reaction conditions/other calculations, and that's just one of my textbooks that I use almost daily, but only at my desk because it weighs several pounds. Add the other three or so books I use on a regular basis and it's starting to look like an awesome little powerhouse to carry around with me for reference wherever I fancy sitting down to do some work. A laptop would be terrible replacement for a textbook (also, do you not think that it would have already taken off with abandon in the previous decade of laptops if they made excellent textbook replacements?) This is a trial designed to see if the iPad (or other tablet) works in this context. It might be next to hopeless, or it might be useful but not worth the cost (but hey, at least they didn;t have to fork out for Xooms), or it might work really well. That's the point. To dismiss it as a gimmick is very shortsighted. Apple's discount for education purchases is between 8 and 15% depending on the product you buy.
No one on slashdot would be complaining if this was announced with free Xooms - it would be lauded as forward thinking and the benefits an interactive medium could bring to a normally static medium as technology improves. But no, because the iPad is mentioned, it must somehow be twisted into something "evil" or "gimmicky". Just leaf back through any "$some-organisation uses $some-technology to do $something" stories. Where it's Linux, or open source it's "a good idea" - where it's Apple, or Microsoft or anyone else it's "a gimmick and clearly some evil scheme to force people to buy iPods/Office/iPads".
Can you really not see the benefit of an electronic version of a textbook on a tablet with an excellent screen and the ability to display video, animations and do maths? Just for a second put down the Apple hate, or assume other tablets might be used (the iPad is the cheapest and most well supported option at the moment) and consider that there just might be a reason why this scheme is being piloted.
Who says the school has to use the app store? They would just get a corporate licence and roll their own apps/policies. No need for the app store (although that of course could also be present on the devices - best of both worlds).
Plus the iPad's (or any other tablet) screen is better for textbooks than a Kindle. I imagine the reason for going iPad rather than Android is cost for features (so far, iPad wins this, despite those cheap Droid tablets), and current content provision. I don't see why it has to be iPad exclusively - but right now, it is an excellent option.
A very small amount I would wager, since they have sold (not shipped, actually sold and in end user hands) 15 million of them in 9 months. If a large proportion of them were "give aways" from companies and universities we'd have heard a lot more about it - 15 million is a very large number in such a short lifespan.
The iPad's screen is excellent. The Kindle screen is nice, but it is more like a paperback book - which is not a bad thing, if that is what you're reading.
My textbooks would be terrible in that form factor - there's a reason textbooks look totally different. Also you can make diagrams and equations interactive or into video/animation very easily on a screen and device designed for that. I have animations of pi backbonding and sigma-like bonding in transition metal complexes that explain and demonstrate a concept in seconds, and make the diagrams literally come to life - having those right in the textbook if you tap on the static diagrams would really enhance it, and that's just one example.
The Kindle is a great book substitute, but a less optimum textbook substitute compared to the iPad (or an equivalent tablet like the Xoom).
It gives you plenty of control if you go corporate - which is presumably one way a school/university/company could go. You can put anything you want on it then, and bypass the app store entirely.
In its consumer guise though, it is well understood what the iOS ecosystem offers, and it includes a very wide range of software. If you can't find what you need within the ecosystem then find someone to write something and submit it to the store (if you're not going the corporate route) and get it approved. Otherwise, there are other options out there.
And a 5 hour battery life in a tablet? What's it got in there? A single AA? I have one or two days where I have 3 lectures back to back, followed by tutorials and/or labs and then want to do some study. I guess I could charge it while I study in the library but that limits where I can sit - since most of the plugs are taken by people with laptops. Perhaps a niche case, but a short battery life *is* a negative in a device designed to be extremely portable.
I'm not saying that an iPad has to be the only option for this sort of thing, but right now there isn't much else that can do the task as well as an iPad can. I'm sure the Xoom could, assuming it had the software support (textbooks etc). As a hardware device it is more than capable, but it;s also more than the same iPad ($70) and a lot more if you only go for iPads with no 3G (my university is blanketed with the a wireless network reserved for student/staff use).
I want viable tablet alternatives as much as the next person - it will drive innovation for *everyone* but right now, the iPad is king. It is the cheapest and best in class, and has exceptional developer and content support.
Ooh, someone doesn't like their Apple hating brethren being called on their trolling!
Someone sure rubbed your neckbeard the wrong way this morning!
You seriously complain about his tone and reply with "Apple isn't being singled out here, precious little macboi."
I can only shake my head and laugh in that way that says "I would facepalm, but I'm holding an iPad and don't want to put a forehead mark on the screen". With your reply you just made his point for him.
What next? You tell him he's gay because he combs his hair a certain way? This isn't high school, but you wouldn't know it by some anti apple trolls here. You're out of arguments, so you go for the tired old "fanboi" meme.
Yes, it goes into banks... in countries known as "tax havens".
There's a reason the wealth gap is increasing steadily, and it is due to the way wealth is being concentrated at the top and effectively removed from the economy.
Trickle down absolutely *does not* work as it is intended to.
Are you kidding? I would have said yes even if I had to pay a subsidised cost for it, assuming textbooks are available on it - which I have to assume is the primary reason they are giving them to science students.
My copy of Warren is well over a thousand pages and is a pain in the arse to carry around with me, and the index is pretty poor for a texbook (1%, and poorly written) - having an electronic version of it, along with electronic versions of Atkins, and a couple of other inorganic texts I use all the time would be totally worth it for me for the size and weight issues as well as being able to quickly search through it.
This would be a totally different story if this was about giving out free Xooms or Nooks running Android, and you know it. But because it;s Apple, suddenly it's a bad thing. Consider for one second that *just maybe* there are benefits for university students in having a bunch of textbooks with negligable mass that are easier to search through than their paper equivalents.
Perhaps for balance they should offer Xooms alongside iPads, and just have the students pay the increased cost, just so this sits better with slashdot.
The equivalent Xoom is $70 more than the equivalent iPad, which is what I was talking about, but in one of the rare cases where Apple has more options, you can go both up and down - the bigger iPad is more expensive than the Xoom, and then there are 4 other cheaper versions below the equivalent one, that are less well specced (no 3G is the biggest jump, along with storage).
On a pure cost basis, taking out any contracts, the Xoom is more by $70, which is a direct reversal of the mantra on slashdot during the entire life of the iPad 1 (and in the hype running up to the launch of it when they were overestimating the price by a lot) that it would be crushed by "cheaper, better" Android tablets. So far the only one that is even close is the Xoom, and it is not really cheaper - it is pretty much the same cost, and while better than the iPad 1, it came out shortly before the iPad 2, which matches it for hardware specs give or take a little.
I'm not going to make any facetious comparisons on price here - I always thought those were silly on both sides (and people are still doing it to this day, cherry picking models on both sides to accentuate the gap), but with the iPad 2 you get a choice of models, 5 of which cost less than the Xoom with the equivalent one being $70 less, and the non-3G ones being *much* less if you don;t want the 3G, which is no option on the Xoom (although apparently is on the way).
And if you believe that commercials alone keep a product selling well enough to make it to the top and stay there, then I have a bridge to sell you, via a commercial.
It's certainly part of the reason - you can have the best product in the world, but no marketing and what's the point?
Can you take your email with you? - Yes, it is stored in.mbox format. Can you take your music with you? Yes, it is stored as.aac, so anything that plays that format will play it (I use my iTunes music just fine in Ubuntu, for example) Can you take your contact details with you? Yes, the address book server is open source and the data format is open. Can you take your calendar data? Yes, see "contact data" Can you take your iWork/iLife data with you? Yes, the iWork data formats are documented and consist of zipped folders with the resources in them (including pdf versions of pages etc) Can you take your iTunes videos with you? Sort of, only to Windows onto iTunes there due to DRM. Can you take your software with you? No, but then how is this different to any other OS when you change to a different one? Unless you emulate. Can I take my Mac or iPhone with me? Sure. You can put several other OSes on your Mac with no issue - I run Ubuntu on my old powerbook, for example. You are a little more constrained with the iPhone, but after jailbreaking you can put Android on there if you like.
Other than movies and TV shows from the iTunes store there's no more barrier to exit than any other OS (and it's one of the reasons why I do buy iTunes music but not movies or TV - I don't want the DRM). I'm not seeing what the issue is here?
Slashdot Mirror
Given the financial incentives involved here (for example, the guy who gave up an almost certain $15,000 because he reported a bug to Google rather than keep it under wraps until he could clean up at Pwn2Own, how many bugs on all of the major platforms are kept "secret" to be used in contests like this?
I understand the nature of the event is to demonstrate the issues of security and code vulnerability, but sitting on exploits is surely counterproductive here?
Not any more I don;t think - I thought the newest bunch of sats that went up were lacking that feature, essentially making it useless.
I just use a seconds pendulum in the lab... measured to a metre using a plastic ruler.
My error bars are... slight. ;)
(although, hilariously, right now in the physical chem lab I use the temp is being measured with a freebie LCD promotional alarm clock/calendar/thermometer thing from Fisher Scientific - one of those things they give away when they are trying to flog you glassware and HPLC machines. The properly accurate thermometer is broken right now).
Perhaps, but his income depends on readers - if he sells twice as many, even if he doesn't make quite as much raw profit per sale, he'll have more eyes on his books and likely attract more repeat readers. For a little less profit in the sort term, he could be ensuring his future earnings.
I've only seen a video of the Xoom in use, and based it on that and specs, and also previous experience using a couple of different Android handsets belonging to friends (I have an iPhone 3G and access to a family member's iPad 1 for comparison on that side), so I extrapolated.
I was going to say that software support will be the make or break - ie, android market/content availability etc.
A 7" screen is not a 10" screen.
I can buy a 6 foot long piece of timber for less than a 12 foot long piece. I'm sure the people selling 12 foot long pieces of wood are quaking.
Of the 10" tablets, only the Archos 101 is anywhere under the iPad price (and still not much for comparable models - the non-3G iPad is $499, the 10.1 inch Archos is $350.
No, they don;t have to be as feature-full as the iPad to sell well. If sub-$100 tablets have a market, then more power to them.
My point was that people on slashdot have been saying since before the iPad came out that there would be cheaper, better specced Android tablets, pretty much every month they were "just around the corner". Then it was "just wait for Honeycomb!". We're still waiting. I think the hardware vendors, and the tech community in general really *were* astounded that the iPad is selling so well (one of the best tech product launches ever) , and they were expecting better specced tablets to come along at a lower price... and it just hasn't happened. Either the price is the same or more than the iPad, or it's compromised considerably to get the cost down.
I think the fundamental issue seems to be that they just can't make them much cheaper than the iPad already is, with the same featureset, without it being uneconomical to do, otherwise we would have seen it already - Honeycomb or no Honeycomb.
Ah yes, $350 for a 10" with 16GB, no access to the Android Market, no 3G, coming to market for "fall 2010". I can see why they just flew off the shelves.
Seriously, it does look capable (especially with SD card slot - iPad 2 needed those) ... except for that "crushing iPad" part - which went on to sell 15 million units.
Why's that? Because the iPad succeeded at near that price and then some?
They sold (into customer hands, not shipped to store inventory) 15 million iPads that went for between $499 and $800 and they couldn't build them fast enough.
There's no reason that the Xoom shouldn't sell just as well as the iPad, if it can stand toe to toe with it - since it is pretty much exactly the same price (for the 3G model, a $70 difference in favour of the iPad). If they have to slash the price significantly to get it to sell, then perhaps it wasn't comparable really?
In my personal opinion, it is as good as the iPad 2, so there's no reason to need to deep discount it, is there?
The most popular ones, based on my visits to an Apple reseller here in the UK are the WiFi only ones, not the maxed out ones. You could buy a maxed out one any time, but there was always a wait list for the WiFi only models.
Expect to see 10" Android tablets for $300 or less by the end of the year.
I hate to bring it up, but that's what everyone said *last year* when the iPad 1 launched (at several hundred dollars under the estimates that people were quoting), and that "cheaper, better" Android tablets would waltz in and crush the iPad. Any day now, just you wait... etc etc for 9 months.
As yet, it has still not happened for tablets of the same spec as the iPad - the Xoom is as close as anyone has come and it is still more/about the same give or take.
I'd assume that because I have seen it used as an ebook reader for lovely colour content like textbooks and it works very well.
Like it said, my copy of Warren (the big, standard organic chem text) is gigantic, but excellent, and yet is crippled by a poor index and large mass (it's 1500 pages). An electronic version on tablet (it need not necessarily be an iPad, but it does need to be a better screen than a Kindle) just reprinted as it is would be wonderful. It would be even better if it could take advantage of the other features of the medium (animations) and the ability to annotate the pages as you wanted, and things like in-page calculations or varying of reaction conditions/other calculations, and that's just one of my textbooks that I use almost daily, but only at my desk because it weighs several pounds. Add the other three or so books I use on a regular basis and it's starting to look like an awesome little powerhouse to carry around with me for reference wherever I fancy sitting down to do some work. A laptop would be terrible replacement for a textbook (also, do you not think that it would have already taken off with abandon in the previous decade of laptops if they made excellent textbook replacements?) This is a trial designed to see if the iPad (or other tablet) works in this context. It might be next to hopeless, or it might be useful but not worth the cost (but hey, at least they didn;t have to fork out for Xooms), or it might work really well. That's the point. To dismiss it as a gimmick is very shortsighted. Apple's discount for education purchases is between 8 and 15% depending on the product you buy.
No one on slashdot would be complaining if this was announced with free Xooms - it would be lauded as forward thinking and the benefits an interactive medium could bring to a normally static medium as technology improves. But no, because the iPad is mentioned, it must somehow be twisted into something "evil" or "gimmicky". Just leaf back through any "$some-organisation uses $some-technology to do $something" stories. Where it's Linux, or open source it's "a good idea" - where it's Apple, or Microsoft or anyone else it's "a gimmick and clearly some evil scheme to force people to buy iPods/Office/iPads".
Can you really not see the benefit of an electronic version of a textbook on a tablet with an excellent screen and the ability to display video, animations and do maths? Just for a second put down the Apple hate, or assume other tablets might be used (the iPad is the cheapest and most well supported option at the moment) and consider that there just might be a reason why this scheme is being piloted.
Who says the school has to use the app store? They would just get a corporate licence and roll their own apps/policies. No need for the app store (although that of course could also be present on the devices - best of both worlds).
Plus the iPad's (or any other tablet) screen is better for textbooks than a Kindle. I imagine the reason for going iPad rather than Android is cost for features (so far, iPad wins this, despite those cheap Droid tablets), and current content provision. I don't see why it has to be iPad exclusively - but right now, it is an excellent option.
A Nook or Kindle would make a lousy textbook page. They are great paperback replacements, but not textbook pages.
The better Kindle is closer to the iPad cost, but still lacks the extra function.
Note that this is also a pilot program, and if it became successful the cost of the device would likely be through the student.
A very small amount I would wager, since they have sold (not shipped, actually sold and in end user hands) 15 million of them in 9 months. If a large proportion of them were "give aways" from companies and universities we'd have heard a lot more about it - 15 million is a very large number in such a short lifespan.
The iPad's screen is excellent. The Kindle screen is nice, but it is more like a paperback book - which is not a bad thing, if that is what you're reading.
My textbooks would be terrible in that form factor - there's a reason textbooks look totally different. Also you can make diagrams and equations interactive or into video/animation very easily on a screen and device designed for that. I have animations of pi backbonding and sigma-like bonding in transition metal complexes that explain and demonstrate a concept in seconds, and make the diagrams literally come to life - having those right in the textbook if you tap on the static diagrams would really enhance it, and that's just one example.
The Kindle is a great book substitute, but a less optimum textbook substitute compared to the iPad (or an equivalent tablet like the Xoom).
It gives you plenty of control if you go corporate - which is presumably one way a school/university/company could go. You can put anything you want on it then, and bypass the app store entirely.
In its consumer guise though, it is well understood what the iOS ecosystem offers, and it includes a very wide range of software. If you can't find what you need within the ecosystem then find someone to write something and submit it to the store (if you're not going the corporate route) and get it approved. Otherwise, there are other options out there.
And a 5 hour battery life in a tablet? What's it got in there? A single AA? I have one or two days where I have 3 lectures back to back, followed by tutorials and/or labs and then want to do some study. I guess I could charge it while I study in the library but that limits where I can sit - since most of the plugs are taken by people with laptops. Perhaps a niche case, but a short battery life *is* a negative in a device designed to be extremely portable.
I'm not saying that an iPad has to be the only option for this sort of thing, but right now there isn't much else that can do the task as well as an iPad can. I'm sure the Xoom could, assuming it had the software support (textbooks etc). As a hardware device it is more than capable, but it;s also more than the same iPad ($70) and a lot more if you only go for iPads with no 3G (my university is blanketed with the a wireless network reserved for student/staff use).
I want viable tablet alternatives as much as the next person - it will drive innovation for *everyone* but right now, the iPad is king. It is the cheapest and best in class, and has exceptional developer and content support.
Ooh, someone doesn't like their Apple hating brethren being called on their trolling!
Someone sure rubbed your neckbeard the wrong way this morning!
You seriously complain about his tone and reply with "Apple isn't being singled out here, precious little macboi."
I can only shake my head and laugh in that way that says "I would facepalm, but I'm holding an iPad and don't want to put a forehead mark on the screen". With your reply you just made his point for him.
What next? You tell him he's gay because he combs his hair a certain way? This isn't high school, but you wouldn't know it by some anti apple trolls here. You're out of arguments, so you go for the tired old "fanboi" meme.
Yeah, all those colour illustrations in my organic chem / inorganic chem textbooks would be so much better in black and white.
Trinity is private. No tax money from the government is used.
Yes, it goes into banks... in countries known as "tax havens".
There's a reason the wealth gap is increasing steadily, and it is due to the way wealth is being concentrated at the top and effectively removed from the economy.
Trickle down absolutely *does not* work as it is intended to.
Are you kidding? I would have said yes even if I had to pay a subsidised cost for it, assuming textbooks are available on it - which I have to assume is the primary reason they are giving them to science students.
My copy of Warren is well over a thousand pages and is a pain in the arse to carry around with me, and the index is pretty poor for a texbook (1%, and poorly written) - having an electronic version of it, along with electronic versions of Atkins, and a couple of other inorganic texts I use all the time would be totally worth it for me for the size and weight issues as well as being able to quickly search through it.
This would be a totally different story if this was about giving out free Xooms or Nooks running Android, and you know it. But because it;s Apple, suddenly it's a bad thing. Consider for one second that *just maybe* there are benefits for university students in having a bunch of textbooks with negligable mass that are easier to search through than their paper equivalents.
Perhaps for balance they should offer Xooms alongside iPads, and just have the students pay the increased cost, just so this sits better with slashdot.
The equivalent Xoom is $70 more than the equivalent iPad, which is what I was talking about, but in one of the rare cases where Apple has more options, you can go both up and down - the bigger iPad is more expensive than the Xoom, and then there are 4 other cheaper versions below the equivalent one, that are less well specced (no 3G is the biggest jump, along with storage).
On a pure cost basis, taking out any contracts, the Xoom is more by $70, which is a direct reversal of the mantra on slashdot during the entire life of the iPad 1 (and in the hype running up to the launch of it when they were overestimating the price by a lot) that it would be crushed by "cheaper, better" Android tablets. So far the only one that is even close is the Xoom, and it is not really cheaper - it is pretty much the same cost, and while better than the iPad 1, it came out shortly before the iPad 2, which matches it for hardware specs give or take a little.
I'm not going to make any facetious comparisons on price here - I always thought those were silly on both sides (and people are still doing it to this day, cherry picking models on both sides to accentuate the gap), but with the iPad 2 you get a choice of models, 5 of which cost less than the Xoom with the equivalent one being $70 less, and the non-3G ones being *much* less if you don;t want the 3G, which is no option on the Xoom (although apparently is on the way).
And if you believe that commercials alone keep a product selling well enough to make it to the top and stay there, then I have a bridge to sell you, via a commercial.
It's certainly part of the reason - you can have the best product in the world, but no marketing and what's the point?
How are they stopping you?
You want to leave iOS/OS X:
Can you take your email with you? - Yes, it is stored in .mbox format. .aac, so anything that plays that format will play it (I use my iTunes music just fine in Ubuntu, for example)
Can you take your music with you? Yes, it is stored as
Can you take your contact details with you? Yes, the address book server is open source and the data format is open.
Can you take your calendar data? Yes, see "contact data"
Can you take your iWork/iLife data with you? Yes, the iWork data formats are documented and consist of zipped folders with the resources in them (including pdf versions of pages etc)
Can you take your iTunes videos with you? Sort of, only to Windows onto iTunes there due to DRM.
Can you take your software with you? No, but then how is this different to any other OS when you change to a different one? Unless you emulate.
Can I take my Mac or iPhone with me? Sure. You can put several other OSes on your Mac with no issue - I run Ubuntu on my old powerbook, for example. You are a little more constrained with the iPhone, but after jailbreaking you can put Android on there if you like.
Other than movies and TV shows from the iTunes store there's no more barrier to exit than any other OS (and it's one of the reasons why I do buy iTunes music but not movies or TV - I don't want the DRM). I'm not seeing what the issue is here?