Apple Set to Disable iPhone Apps — Again

Who said buying anything by Apple is the cheapest – Apple is a premium product. Like a Mercedes. And they don't want any applications that they don't provide mucking up their phones. You don't buy a Mac because it is cheap. You buy it because you can afford the best. The Mac has never marketed itself as the cheapest – only the easiest to use and the best. So if you can afford an i-phone you can afford a few extra dollars to buy a ring tone.

Then fine, Tony. Modify your iPhone to your heart's delight. Why not remove ALL of Apple's software and create your own. It's your iPhone, so have at it. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you STILL want to be able to use Apple software/UI, right?

Why not expend all of your efforts and load your iPhone with Windows Mobile Media? It should be a thing of beauty. You sound like a PC kind of guy. You and Steve Ballmer deserve one another.

Windows users keep crowing about Marketshare as if it is the greatest thing of all.

1)Ford Excels have greater markert share than Lamborghinis. I'll rather have a lamborghini.

2) The only reason Windows has greater market share is that it ran on cheap clones. But because of this Windows has all kinds of horrible compatibility issues. Today windows price advantage is shrinking because apple with intel is competitive on pricing.

3) Because Apple has smaller market share it can grow faster now. Apple can Double, can Windows?

Apple one year return 138%.

Microsoft 39%

As an investor you would have made a lot more money on Apple.

Microsoft market share 344 Billion. OS Market share 90%.

Apple market share 163 Billion. OS Market share 8%. Who is the genius now?

Apple is opening themselves to another suit in the UK. I'm not sure what the UK laws are, but in the US it is illegal for a manufacturer to disable a product that no longer belongs to them to block different 3rd parties. It would be like HP and Microsoft deciding to disable my computer if I decide to partiton my hard drive and put Linux on it. My warrantee would be void, but I would sue if my $1000 computer was rendered inoperable for doing it.

Europe tends to be more finicky about antitrust laws than the US. They're going to get burned over this within the next year. Sooner or later, they'll learn from this. Apple is too good of a company to allow things like this to tarnish their image.

Right now, they're in a perfect position to put their MAC OSx on the open market. If they do, they would probably take 10-20% market share away from MS win a year. Microsoft will always have the edge in the commercial market, but Apple could easily own the consumer and multimedia market.

If Apple wants to keep bugs out of their products, the most ethical thing to do is to make and enforce high standards from software and hardware vendors. When you exploit your smart consumers for the "greater good," you only lose your smart consumers.

Way back when, Apple closed its OS, Microsoft opened its OS and the result was a 90% market share for Windows and a paltry 8% market share for Apple. So what did Jobs learn from this experience? Apparently, absolutely nothing. Instead of opening up and allowing 3rd party development to flourish, thereby making IPhone the defacto standard, Jobs repeats his past mistakes and and closes down again. Why is it that a regular guy like me sees this and a genius like Jobs does not?

so much apple defense. what a pity.

i see more childish, if not drone quality retorts from the people defending apple and at&t then the people crticizing.

let's start with the tiff exploit: updating and fixing this exploit would have absolutely no impact on third party applications (who the hell uses tiff anymore, aside screenprinters? i'm a graphic designer, i see maybe half a dozen tiff images a year, and they come from clients with equipment that's about 10 years outdated) so, really, let's stop blinding ourselves so willingly as to why and what.

the update, whether the tiff is a subversion, a ruse, or just an also-ran meant to validate this 'update' (microsoft's done similar stunts on patch tuesdays) also.. is shifty. no one does a point release for one single fix. no one. this update better be loaded for there to be a point release justification.

someone already covered it. follow the money. at&t has contracts with apple that include plans for profiting off 3rd party applications, not letting people develop and install them of their own accord. (comparative common application: mozilla firefox, with its freely developed and dispersed extensions.)

expect to pay money for your 3rd party applications, becuase really folks.. steve jobs is just out to job you

When you break the "seal" on any product it voids the warranty. When you sign an agreement and break it. That says a lot about you as a person, namely that you have poor character and bad judgement. Hackers hack because they have ego and self-esteem issues. Also because they have no life. Get a life for crying out loud.

This is pretty pathetic. Nobody is forcing you to upgrade to newer firmware. If you want to keep your third party apps, don't upgrade to 1.1.2 when it becomes available. Why in the world would Apple expend engineering resources trying to test whether random third party hacks are going to be affected by a software upgrade?

The WORST thing about the iPhone, is that you CAN NOT put it under a business account. Even though the retail guy told me I could. So if you already have a "personal" cell, and you wanted one for business….nope. Just got off the phone with AT&T about that.

Tony, Apple is not telling you that you can't do anything you want to. That is your right. However it is alsoTHEIR RIGHT to define their conditions for providing continued service and support. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. You have a severe case of cerebral rectal inversion and need help badly.Get it and grow up into real world.

I started using Apple products because I WANTED the additional security and lack of exposure to viruses. If you are getting on board with Apple, then you are going to have to change your perception of what to expect from a BETTER product. Get over yourselves and enjoy!

When you purchase an iPhone, you agreed to things you may not do … ever. You don't want to follow the rules, fine, go by a Motorola phone and shut up. Jobs does not want nor care for your business. Get lost, he says.

Honestly the comments I've read here ares some of the most idiotic in a long time. The idea that closing a TIFF exploit is Apple being a control freaky is so utterly ridiculous. This is a VECTOR for malware!!! Apple would be completely negligent (actually has been) to leave this open.

It's your phone and you don't have to update it and you can crack its security to your heart's content. But users are certainly served by having security exploits closed and a real SDK. (And, feel free not to buy one–doh!)

But words like "disreputable" for closing down security exploits. That's just beyond the pale stupidity… sorry to revert to name calling, but puh-lease! It is against my better judgement that I even bother…

@JamesK… look up on CNET for the faster laptop they've tested running Windows Vista!

Steve Jobs, You are a genious!!! Tell people they can't do something and young guys will step up to the plate to say "Says who?" This has been some of the greatest free publicity I've ever seen someone get for their product. You are a genious. Bill Gates, same to you. You have got a whole fleet of hackers out there on the Internet giving you some of the greatest vulnerability testing for free. Thats right for free!!! We all know that at the end of the day we will still use their products with or without vulnerabilities. I gotta hand it to you. For every guy out there trying to break your products for free you get to pocket those dollars saved on another employee. Heeehhh…. I Love It. Great for the stock shareholder!!!

These third party app developers know that their software will become useless or full of bugs when any iphone update is done, this is not Apple's fault. The proper way to develop is to wait for the developer kit. Developers will then receive a pre release of the update to assure their application will run smoothly. This is the OS X works on the Mac.

Here we go again. The reason that Apple is against the ulocking and hacking of the iPhone is because of their huge contracts with the service providers. If apple were to simply allow their product to be used on other networks, AT&T would sue them for allowing it to happen because they paid for "exclusive" rights. This isn't that difficult when you follow the money trail. Get over it hackers.

I do not know what you people are arguing over, nor do I care, I sense that you have some holes in your life that you are patching with a phone, I suggest a gallon of paint and a disrepaired fence will work wonders.

You people are missing the point. This is bona fide HACKING. These hackers are using a TIFF exploit that, if left unfixed by Apple, could eventually be used to make an iPhone virus. So it's not the massive SJ conspiracy that everyone makes it out to be.

Posted By Tony

>When I purchase a phone it becomes my property to do >with as I please. Apple has no right to prevent me >modifying my property. I would never buy an iPhone >from such a disreputable company.

I agree perhaps Apple can make you sign an agreement of forfait of customer service so when your iphone has so many buggy apps installed that it doesn't work they won't be blamed.. yeah that should work LOL

as much as these kind of decisions might look bad or anti-consumer

the fact is the Mac os has become so stable and secure because Jobs always kept control of the hardware and software with the iPhone is no different if Apple where to open this to all to develop crappy apps then we will soon have the issues plaguing the windows world and mac users don't want that to happen, although it opens apple up to criticism from new users or anti apple zealots it is good to keep control on what gets installed on your hardware , then of course if you have a more "it's mine and I do what I want" attitude you can pass on the iphone and get something else .. noone is forcing consumers to buy the iphone or any other Apple product

For the record, I posted a comment about how CNN/Money only posts negative Apple stories. Of course the comment was immediately removed.

Gimme a break.

You may own the phone, but Apple owns the software on it – they have only given you a license to use it. I think it's dumb, but they have the right to modify the software any way they choose.

I don't understand…all parties acknowledge that the TIFF exploit is possible because of a bug. Fixing bugs is a good thing. I might like 3rd party apps, but I can wait until they're properly deployed. When did we start criticizing vendors for fixing their bugs?

Tony, it always depends upon the licensing conditions that you agree to when you purchase property.

why do people like you, tony, even bother to leave comments? you can deface your phone, or void your warranty, as you like. and when you ruin your phone, don't forget to laugh.

Typical Steve Jobs control freak efforts. You wonder why Apple computers lag the market? Because Jobs is a selfish child who never grew up. (I want it my way, or no way!) This will happen to these newer technology items too. Mac was first, but PC ran far ahead because of proprietary systems. Nothing's changed.

This comment doesn't make sense.

The TIFF exploit is a bug that affects security. Apple has to fix this!

If third party hacks use such an exploit, than this is their fault. Nobody in their right mind should want apple not to fix a bug and possible security exploit just to let those party hacks keep working.

Let apple fix the bug, and let the hackers find a new way to break in, without making absurd statements about this!

I work in the software industry and though it may seem that Apple is trying to limit users I might suggest they are simply trying to insure all apps work together without issues. Often times OS software and drivers get out of synch and then the problems start. Having and using a deveopers kit limits future problems.

When I purchase a phone it becomes my property to do with as I please. Apple has no right to prevent me modifying my property. I would never buy an iPhone from such a disreputable company.