Apple bans screen shields and cases with sheilds from their stores.

[photon]

Because Mac laptops are awesome!

ETA: I went to a Java conference and it was almost the same thing, almost everyone (and certainly all the presenters) had Macs.

[Russic]

The closed system can be frustrating, but sometimes you have to remember that it's for a reason. I jailbroke my phone and using the cydia store is just horrific. Everything is cluttered and the wrong combination of apps seems to molest your iphone. After two days I had a battery that would last 2.5 hours and my wifi just outright stopped working.

While Apple can be a total hassle with their closed system, there is something to be said for apps that you can download without concern and an environment where everything is familiar and intuitive. It isn't until you go without these things that you realize why Apple is as insane as they are. Not everybody's cup of tea, but that's why we all have options.

Not buying another apple product because Apple stores won't carry screen protectors is hilarious. My thinking is that you already made that decision and are just using this to reinforce your point.

[Azure]

It doesn't really matter if the Cydia store is screwed up. I initially did a jailbreak on my iPod, then restored it to the original database because I didn't really see any point in not being able to install Apple updates.

But that is MY choice. I bought the product, so I can do with it whatever I want.

Of course that means warranty is nullified, but nobody is going to argue with that.

I'm not buying another Apple product because of their stance on the App Store, the jailbreaking.....and some other policy practices.

It has nothing really to do with not being able to buy screen protectors.

If you guys don't think there is a problem, maybe you should ask the used to be lead guy on the Facebook for iPhone app.

Oh right, he quit because Apple pissed him off.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by Russic

The closed system can be frustrating, but sometimes you have to remember that it's for a reason. I jailbroke my phone and using the cydia store is just horrific. Everything is cluttered and the wrong combination of apps seems to molest your iphone. After two days I had a battery that would last 2.5 hours and my wifi just outright stopped working.

While Apple can be a total hassle with their closed system, there is something to be said for apps that you can download without concern and an environment where everything is familiar and intuitive. It isn't until you go without these things that you realize why Apple is as insane as they are. Not everybody's cup of tea, but that's why we all have options.

Not buying another apple product because Apple stores won't carry screen protectors is hilarious. My thinking is that you already made that decision and are just using this to reinforce your point.

wTF are you using Cydia for? You should only use it once. Then its all installous!

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Azure

I'm not buying another Apple product because of their stance on the App Store, the jailbreaking.....and some other policy practices.

If you guys don't think there is a problem, maybe you should ask the used to be lead guy on the Facebook for iPhone app.

Oh right, he quit because Apple pissed him off.

That's interesting. Here's what your "Facebook Guy" had to say about the iPhone OS when the iPad was announced (long after his post about Apple taking too long to approve a patch for his Facebook App):

The one thing that makes an iPhone/iPad app "closed" is that it lives in a sandbox, which means it can't just read and write willy-nilly to the file system, access hardware, or interfere with other apps. In my mind, this is one of the best features of the OS. It makes native apps more like web apps, which are similarly sandboxed, and therefore much more secure. On Macs and PCs, you have to re-install the OS every couple years or so just to undo the damage done by apps, but iPhone OS is completely immune to this.

As a developer, it's a bit sad losing the ability to come up with crazy plugins and daemons and system-level utilities, but I believe it's a tradeoff worth making. What people are overlooking is that the Internet is an integral part of the iPhone OS, and it is the part of the OS you can tinker with to your heart's delight. If you want to invent a new scripting language or background service or something, you're still totally free to do that, but you're going to have to run it on a web server. If you want total freedom on the client side, then write a web app. You're simply no longer going to be able to tempt users into installing software that corrupts their computer.

So, in the end, what it comes down to is that iPad offers new metaphors that will let users engage with their computers with dramatically less friction. That gives me, as a developer, a sense of power and potency and creativity like no other. It makes the software market feel wide open again, like no one's hegemony is safe. How anyone can feel underwhelmed by that is beyond me.

Something tells me he doesn't share your same support for jailbreaking the phone.

http://joehewitt.com/post/ipad/

[Azure]

And here is what he had to say when he quit.

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.
The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.”

http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/joe...s-the-project/

Honestly, Apple has a great product. Their Mp3 players are IMO unrivaled by any other brand, and I've had Sony, Creative and played around with Sandisk in the past.

That being said, when I was looking at getting a new phone I went over the iPhone and compared it to the Droid and the selling point was the openness of the Android system.

I'm the consumer. I have the right to buy whatever I want for whatever reason I want. I also have the right to refuse buying certain products. Well, I'm refusing to buy another Apple product based on their policies. When the Android operating system is available for the PC and allows me to do the same work I do now with Windows I will be switching over.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Azure

And here is what he had to say when he quit.

Right, I referenced that in my post.

However, the quote I posted was from 6 months after the quote you posted. He had a rough time getting a patch approved, and spoke out about it. He did not quit developing for the platform, though, and still to this day speaks about how he's in full support of closed apps on the iPhone (he just doesn't like the approval process).

The really interesting thing is that the Google OS is a "wide-open" system, yet there are 150,000 apps (and counting) available for the "closed-system" iPhone. I mean, the whole "I like the freedom of installing any app I want" argument would only really count if there weren't 17 times more apps on the iPhone than on the Android.

Also... I know a few people who jailbreak their phones, and I can tell you right now that 95% of the apps they run are app-store approved apps they just download for free (illegally) on their jailbroken iPhone. So, you know... let's cut to the chase and start talking about what we're (probably) really talking about: not wanting to pay for software.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Apple ...

Your sig is hilarious in the context of this thread..."Own this World" Now at the APP store.

funny

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Azure

Honestly, Apple has a great product. Their Mp3 players are IMO unrivaled by any other brand, and I've had Sony, Creative and played around with Sandisk in the past.

I think the Zune is a superior product to equivalent iPods.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

I think the Zune is a superior product to equivalent iPods.

[photon]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

The really interesting thing is that the Google OS is a "wide-open" system, yet there are 150,000 apps (and counting) available for the "closed-system" iPhone. I mean, the whole "I like the freedom of installing any app I want" argument would only really count if there weren't 17 times more apps on the iPhone than on the Android.

The # of apps available isn't a function of being open or closed, it's a function of market and tools and facilitation. The iPhone market is huge, its core base are consumers (as opposed to Blackberry business for example) and they've made entry into the system easy.

Well until you find out about all the gotchas and hoops and stuff, people who have had their apps yanked and put back up and yanked again, denied for unknown reasons, or selfish reasons, or whatever. Really operating a business writing iPhone apps must be like building on quicksand, who knows when your business will basically be shut down because Apple decided to change their rules arbitrarily mid-stream.

Anyway, the user experience and ease of everything make the App Store what it is, but there are still whole classes and types of applications that are impossible or disallowed on the iPhone because of the way Apple wants to set it up.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I wondering if they are doing this because they dont want to have to be responsible for any defects etc or people who buy these thinking its a license to do anything and then there becomes a scratch and they complain to apple.

You are close. They are not selling them anymore for two reasons - first, some screen protectors require the use of water to apply them, and this has a habit of triggering the (admittedly oversensitive) water exposure sensors on the phone.

The second reason is that many brands are notoriously hard to put on straight, with no dust underneath, and with no bubbles. Apple doesn't want to handle returns for "defective" products that consumers botch applying after purchasing at their retail outlets.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

The really interesting thing is that the Google OS is a "wide-open" system, yet there are 150,000 apps (and counting) available for the "closed-system" iPhone. I mean, the whole "I like the freedom of installing any app I want" argument would only really count if there weren't 17 times more apps on the iPhone than on the Android.

Apple's store had a bit of a head start, and I believe Android is adding apps faster than Apple at this point. Also, from what I've seen about 50,000 of the iPhone's 150,000 are fart apps...

When it comes down to it, regardless of the number of apps, you'll have trouble listing things that the iPhone can do that the Droid or Nexus One cannot. Look at the difference between the original iPhone and the 3GS. Not a whole lot, because Apple has been coasting, and now its coming back to bite them. Fortunately, they'll just sue everyone instead. The RIAA business plan.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Posted like a true fanboi.

[thesmugger]

Originally Posted by Russic

The closed system can be frustrating, but sometimes you have to remember that it's for a reason. I jailbroke my phone and using the cydia store is just horrific. Everything is cluttered and the wrong combination of apps seems to molest your iphone. After two days I had a battery that would last 2.5 hours and my wifi just outright stopped working.

LOL. I've had my phone jailbroken for a few months now. Don't understand the "Cluttered" problem with Cydia. It's only needs be used a few times to download the main programs that hold the iPhone back. It's simpe to use, simply type in the program you need, it pops up and you install it. No such thing as "Wrong como of apps" That's just a joke. Wifi just outright stopped working? yeah ok

Battery life is the exact same. No need to pay for apps, and it just opens the phone up so much. Never again do I have to close a game to reply to a text message. Pay for apps, or have that pathetic default theme.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by thesmugger

LOL. I've had my phone jailbroken for a few months now. Don't understand the "Cluttered" problem with Cydia. It's only needs be used a few times to download the main programs that hold the iPhone back. It's simpe to use, simply type in the program you need, it pops up and you install it. No such thing as "Wrong como of apps" That's just a joke. Wifi just outright stopped working? yeah ok

Battery life is the exact same. No need to pay for apps, and it just opens the phone up so much. Never again do I have to close a game to reply to a text message. Pay for apps, or have that pathetic default theme.

God forbid that you have to pay for something.

[FanIn80]

My point wasn't that the iPhone has more apps than Google. My point was that people decry the "closed" Apple App Store, yet iPhone users have more apps available to them than any other smartphone user.

For the vast majority of people who jailbreak their iPhones, it's not about wanting to install unapproved apps, it's about wanting to install approved apps without paying for them. I'm just trying to cut through the fog and get to the reality of the discussion.

[thesmugger]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

God forbid that you have to pay for something.

Why would I? I've got the ability not to. u mad?

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by thesmugger

Why would I? I've got the ability not to. u mad?

It's one thing to download a copy of M$ Office that would normally cost $500 to buy, and is something you use maybe 6 times a year... but it's quite another to skimp out of paying $3 for an iPhone app you use 6 times a day.

In spite of what popular culture may tell you, there's nothing awesome about ripping a guy off.

[QuadCityImages]

Agreed. As corporate as it sounds, if everyone stops paying for apps, there won't be as many good apps anymore, because pros will stop making them.

I think that the "Lite" versions of apps are really the right way to go. It lets people try things out for free, either with fewer features, or ad-supported, and then if they want the full features or no ads, they can upgrade to paid.