I am a Linux guy. I have a computer that works well. I tweak it and
customize it easily. I look under the hood and change things. I can
understand how it works. If I need more functionality, I get new
software for free, or write my own. Hell, I can even give it back to
the community. Like the beater car that greasy-jeaned high-school
student is always working on, my computing solution is always a work
in progress.
But now I’ve been given an in with the cool kids. Two weeks ago, Knox
gave me an iPhone. It is sleek and
elegant; the UI is a marvel (go Apple!). Now I, too, can carry this
latest status symbol and oh-so-nonchalantly check the Internet on the
bus. Now I, too, can pass for the sexy
hipster in the Mac
commercials.
I feel out of my element.
I don’t like ostentation and, frankly, I’m often not an early
adopter: I just don’t have time to mess around with everything so
that it works to my satisfaction. My Linux setup is enough; everything
else, I’ll use once other people figure out how to make it work.
The phone itself will be useful, of course. You can use it as a phone
or a music player, you can track your location in real time and get
directions, check the weather or the stocks, email chat take pictures
write notes—many things you could do on a real computer though not
quite as well but that is alright because you’re on the go and that’s
the price you pay for portability, right?
Sure… but what if you’re not productive or hip enough because your
phone doesn’t do x, y, or z? Like the rich kids at school, you just
throw Daddy’s money at the problem. You can buy and download
“Apps” for iPhone right from
the device, most for well under $10 (and, in fairness, many of them
are free). That in itself is just so weird to me, that the basic
software you need to be productive would be proprietary.
Peeking under the hood? Forget about it. You can’t mount the iPhone
under Linux; you need to be running iTunes or some other Apple
software in order for your computer to recognize the device and access
the filesystem. In fact, that is the only way to change the iTunes
account the iPhone uses to buy apps. It is also the only way to sync
your music or contacts. Hello, Apple? I feel like a second-rate member
of your clique.
Making your own software? Just let the mechanics handle that: while
the SDK is available for
free,
developers must pony up $99 to join the Developer
Program where they can
actually access documentation and be permitted to upload applications
to a real iPhone, and then apply to be permitted to sell the apps in
the country club App Store. Sure, $99 may not be a
lot to someone with the means to get an iPhone in the first place, but
it’s an additional disincentive to make the device
“yours”, as is the mere
existence of an approval
process (to say nothing of
the
backlog)
that prevents
you
from sharing your apps with others as you see fit. For goodness sake,
tinkering and sharing were crucial in reaching our technological state!
There is a future for smart phones like the iPhone, no question about
it. I’ll spend some time making this my own (do I need to
jailbreak
it? ugh), and I am excited that this is moving me even more into the
Cloud. (I’ve been
resisting the Cloud because it wasn’t quite ready for my needs, but
it’s getting there.) I can’t wait for the
Android phones,
though, which will be open source. When they’re ripe, my Mac hubby can
get the iPhone and I’ll go back among the nerds where I belong.
