TwitterDear Apple: You’re ruining the iPhone
September 27th, 2007
I’ve been a user of Apple products since grade school where I fell in love with them. When I was 13 my parents gave me an Apple II+. 20 years later I still use Apple products on a daily basis.
The recent release on the iPhone was an exciting day for me. I’ve used previous smartphone products before the last being the Samsung Blackjack. That particular phone got so much wrong I returned it the next week. During my return I told the Cingular rep that if Apple were to ever make a phone product I’d buy it on the spot.
Here we are 3 months and 3 software updates later. While I’m very happy to see software updates for a phone, I’m disappointed in your lack of willingness to supply end users with DRM free ringtones, flash drive support and UI customizations.
At this point I have a virgin iPhone running 1.0.2. I have no intent of upgrading until one of the following two things occur.
#1) Apple stops pandering to the music industry in regards to ringtones. I have custom ringtones on my iPhone now from songs I own legally. I refuse to pay Apple one cent more for the priviledge of having a ringtone. That is just absurd. There is absolutely no technical reason why iPhone users can’t use any AAC/MP3 file for a ringtone. You’re forcing users down this rabbit hole for the music industry and your own profits. Stop the madness, your ringtone solution sucks.
#2) The user community comes up with a solution to allow custom ringtones as they work today on firmware 1.0.2. I have tremendous faith that the user community will shine again and hack your “secured” firmware. Just like other companies who have failed in their attempts to stop their respective user communities (Microsoft and Sony) you will fail as well.
While we’re on the topic of customizations let me discuss some features I’d like to see in the iPhone. I’d like my custom wallpaper to be displayed on the springboard and not just when the phone is in a call or locked. What UI designer came up with that stupid idea? Scary.
How about showing a little more feedback about calendar events. This is a smartphone after all, so let’s have it act a little more intelligently regarding events. Show a visible number indicator on the calendar icon for the number of events currently listed for that day. When alerted about an event, allow me to snooze the event for additional time. It should function just like Outlook in this regard.
Allow customization for the order of springboard icons and allow customization of which icons reside in the dock. Again, how could your UI designers miss this? Why would that be locked down?
I’m glad to hear that your allowing rotation of email attachments in 1.1.1 firmware but why stop there. Allow for the rotation of all applications like Mail itself, Google Maps, and Notes. The ability to rotate really improves the keyboard not just the screen width.
I personally could care less about iPhone games or iPhone hacking, but I do want simple yet meaningful features that are in almost every other smart phone. Apple, stop the madness. Stop catering to the music industry and refocus your attention on the true fans of your products. We buy your PowerPC Macs, then switch to IntelMac’s. We buy your iPod’s and iPhone’s yet this is how you repay us? By forcing silly restrictions on content we’ve already purchased.
I’ve already started using Amazon’s new MP3 service. I bought a DRM free album today in fact that you also carry. I paid a dollar less on Amazon and I got DRM free and account free music. It’s time to stop sleep walking Apple and to start paying attention to your paying customers. Stop ruining the iPhone.
Entry Filed under: mac, technology
9 Comments Add your own
1. B Hartman | September 28th, 2007 at 5:11 am
I have a similar story and here’s the letter I sent to Apple…
Mr Jobs
I’ve been an Apple “fan boy” since 1978 when I first bought an Apple ][ and have been recommending Apple products for 30 years and this is the first time I’ve been really pissed off at Apple.
I bought an iPhone but AT&T service in my area was spotty at best and I was forced to cancel the contract for the phone. AT&T allowed me to keep the phone which I’ve been able to enjoy as a laptop replacement using wi-fi in my home.
You have developed the most important and potentially useful device in decades with the iPhone. However, the lack of software and developer tools as forced me (and thousands of others) to look elsewhere for useful software. I didn’t want to “hack” my phone to install 3rd party software but the availability of useful software made it necessary to install the Installer.app on my phone and the usefulness of the phone was dramatically increased. I didn’t install the SIM or Ringtone hacks (which I do think you should stop, you have contractual obligations).
I am trying to understand what is gained by not allowing software development. There is no way that Apple can create all the software that people want to
use on a pocket device and you’ve got a LOT of excited people wanting to develop for this product. This is not the time to think small. You need to open the iPhone for development or you are going to lose your lead to other platforms that do allow development for their pocket devices.
But that’s not what I’m pissed off about…
It’s this Apple USB cable that I got with my G5 Mac PowerTower, it’s a cable extender for the keyboard. The iPhone’s USB cable is a bit short for my needs so I wanted to use the cable extender to give me some extra length and guess what… the female end of the cable has a small “v” that prevents the cable from being plugged into a standard USB cable, not even an Apple USB cable.
I realized, that in a nutshell, this represented the reason that Apple has so many detractors and why Windows (a pile of sh*t) was able to beat out a clearly superior computing experience, it’s that you go out of your way to make things that would be useful and make them incompatible with standards. The cable extender not only doesn’t work with a standard USB cable the production cost of this cable had to be more than a generic one.
You are currently riding a high, creating some great products, but just like in the 80’s you’re going to piss off enough customers that they won’t buy Apple products, no matter how good, just because it came from Apple.
Bill
2. Tim | September 28th, 2007 at 8:00 am
“I’ve been a user of Apple products since grade school where I feel in love with them.” I think that is fell in love with them. I couldn’t help it, I’m an editor.
3. Jeffrey | September 28th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Thanks Tim =) I typed this on my iPhone so I expect some word funk.
4. Jeffrey | September 28th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Bill, it’s the little things that Apple does which increase frustration dramatically. I never did install any hacks like AppTapp, but I was very interested in doing so. I think ringtones need to be unlocked, I have a Sony phone sitting next to me that supports any MP3 file as a ringtone. Apple just won’t do it because of their lack of muscle. As more and more companies leave Apple’s world of iTunes they will lose any and all ability to call the shots.
The thing that really ticks me off most though is Apple’s active attempts at stopping the user community. This is what Sony and Microsoft do daily.
5. Oz | September 28th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
You people are a bunch of ridiculous whiners. If you didn’t like how the iPhone was set up, you shouldn’t have bought it in the first place. It’s ridiculous to blame Apple for your own stupidity.
6. Jeffrey | September 28th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Thanks for your intelligent comment Oz… may I ask why you even bothered?
Apparently you didn’t read my post. Please try again.
7. Constable Odo | September 29th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I insist you do not buy an iPhone if you don’t like it. You think Apple is smart for designing it and stupid for not allowing you to do whatever you please with it.
Yes, you can accuse Apple of ruining it’s own products. The company has done many seemingly stupid things with it’s products. Not licensiing it’s OS, not allowing clones to continue to be built. Not allowing Windows to run on their hardware. Maybe these things kept the company from being a giant.
But if you are unhappy about it, then stay away from their products. How could you not know that it was going to be tied to a particular carrier before you bought it? I’m a long term Apple investor and I’m mostly pleased with what Apple is doing. If I wasn’t, I’d invest elsewhere. I have more at stake than a single iPhone.
I just wish you people would sell or trade your iPhones and get a nice unlocked Nokia or BlackBerry or HTC. Then you can do whatever you want and skip the whining, griping and badmouthing of Apple. Just remember that no company is perfect and sometimes things get better if you’re patient enough.
8. Jeffrey | October 9th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Thanks for stopping by to voice your opinions and to complain about “complainers”.
As a shareholder in AAPL, I have every right to dislike their business decisions and practices. Just because you enjoy getting screwed over by Apple doesn’t mean I do.
Again, thanks for stopping by.
9. Tim Bobo | February 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 am
I was originally hacked at Apple too for some of this stuff, but now I am not, at least for most of it. When I read the recent WIRED article about the behind the scenes craziness it took to try to get this product ready. Apple barely got it done. O think they are just catching there breath and making this incerdible hack into a stable device that van handle 3rd party development in a stable way.
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