The Iphone Spot

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The iPhone has turned out to be one of, or maybe the most successful touch phone that has ever hit the market. Apple has sold millions of phones, but there is no stopping there. With a new iPhone on the way, many experts believe that Apple will increase sales, even with the recession. But why the iPhone? Why is it so popular. Well it’s a very easy question to answer;  its revolutionary.

Many people think that the iPhone is just a phone, but it’s not. It’s a multi-media device that puts all your “hand helds” into one. Its a phone, an amazing mp3 player, one of the best mobile internet communicators on the market, and above all else; a gaming console.

We all know how the iPhone can do all these things, and that you can easily download third party applications to help with all your needs. But recently, a friend asked “When will Apple release a gaming console?” Well, they already have, and it is one of the most amazing devices yet. You see, for the Xbox, PS3, PSP, and DS, there is little to work with. If your lucky you have four buttons, and two joysticks. But with the iPhone, you have an unlimited amount of controls. I can shake it, turn it, move it, tilt it, touch it with several fingers, or just one. The iPhone has the most amazing user interface, no questions asked.

Also, as we all know, Apple decided to go “old school”. Way back in the day, before DVD’s, CD’s, cartridges or, well basically anything, there was just space in the system. Games would be stored completely on memory. Apple thought “Hmm, we dont have space to put anything in, and wouldn’t it be much more convenient if the games were right there, and you didn’t have to drag around CD’s?” Well, like always, Apple was right. It was much easier to have games right in the memory, like the old days, than to carry it around.

Who would have known that almost 10 months later, ONE BILLION applications would have been downloaded from Apple’s App Store?

via planet-iphones

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Late Friday Greg Joswiak from Apple, Fred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and officials from the US Copyright Office, record labels, movie studios, and the software industry sat down together for a hearing concerning the EFF’s requested DMCA exemption of Jailbreaking. This comes just a few months after the EFF originally filed for an exemption for Jailbreaking to which Apple responded with claims that Jailbreaking is illegal.

Apple is still opposing Jailbreaking and claims that copyright protection is why they have sold 30 million iPhones and 1 billion applications. The EFF’s position continues to be that comsumers should be able to run any application including those that Apple doesn’t approve of.

Apple is afraid of losing their control on the iPhone where they get to choose what applications are allowed to run for whatever reasons they have. If the exemption for Jailbreaking were approved Apple’s Joswiak thinks that “This would severely limit our ability to continue what we are doing as well as innovate for the future.”

Competition breeds innovation. Shouldn’t Apple have a little competition? Wouldn’t that force them to do things better? It isn’t too much of a stretch to think that firmware 3.0 including many basic features that Apple ignored for a couple of years is in response to the Jailbreaking community adding these features to the iPhone themselves.

Apple is concerned with protecting their contracts with carriers. When asked by the one of the Copyright Office’s councils if Apple’s contracts with AT&T “prohibits you from implementing certain applications?” Joswiak responded saying that “We [Apple] don’t allow any bandwidth hogs” (cough where is slingplayer cough).

Apple, The Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording industry Association of America, the Business Software Alliance and more are worried about piracy that could occur if the Jailbreaking exemption is approved. In Apple’s case they are worried that Jailbreaking could cut into their revenue — they currently get 30% from the sales made on the App Store. Steve Metalitz, a representative for the other groups said that “The impact will be to open up fast fields for the manufacturers and purveyors of pirated games.”

In response von Lohmann argued that the exemption which would apply to all mobile phone platforms including Google’s Andriod is warented because by-itself it is a non-infringing activity that the DCMA authorizes. He went further to say that “This is a close ecosystem of a business model,” adding: “I don’t think Congress meant that when they passed the DMCA.”

The decision on whether the Copyright Office will decide to grant this exemption is not expected until later this year. At the hearing on friday the Copyright Office representatives showed no sign of how they feel either way. We’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out. Go Jailbreaking!

[via wired]