This thread had 18 responses when you posted. Is it too much to ask to read all of 18 posts before responding?
Right and when this bricks my phone, do you think Apple will replace it? Jailbreak isnt a solution, its a hack. Thats like breaking into a liquor store because theyre closed on Sunday. Thats no “solution.” End users shouldnt have to do this. End users should demand a more open platform!
I can stream with a blackberry but not with an iphone of 3G ATT. I suspect the real culprit is Apple unveiling an AppleTV app or slingbox clone in the near future and not wanting competition. The end user shouldnt have to investigate corporate hierarchies and back room deals. His phone should just work!
Again, I can get low quality photos via email with the correct orientation or high quality with broken orientation.
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The google search app does and so did the voice app as submitted. This was a threat to Apple’s offerings and was cut.
And I have a Windows Mobile phone. I can do all the things you listed, more or less. My phone is not open source.
I didn’t ask why Android is better than iPhone. I already KNOW that answer, which is why I own WM and will probably buy a Droid soon. 
I was asking what benefits the “open source” aspect actually grants the end user, since the marketplace and the hardware are still closed-down and controlled by corporate entities.
A lot of Macheads say “jailbreak” any time you bring up something the iPhone can’t do. 95% of users are not going to risk screwing up their phone by doing that.
Apple is all about control (for example no Mac clones) so it’s not surprising they must approve all iPhone apps. BTW, putting the Mac OS on a PC is not a Mac clone.
Open source benefits the end user by making more apps available for him to use. And it’s easier to write the apps. It also means there are more phones to choose from.
>My phone is not open source.
Im not advocating open source, just a more open platform. That is to say just like Palm, WM, BB, etc. No censorship, locks, and corporate thuggery that is standard practice at Apple. My iphone is just a placeholder while the market matures and I think Android 2.1 has achieved this. I’ll probably pick up a Nexus soon and put my iphone on ebay.
There are apps that email full resolution photos. There are a variety of 3rd party email programs. I can’t imagine any phone comes with a free ssh client from the factory but there are a number of ssh clients in the app store. TouchTerm used to be free.
I’m of mixed opinion on censorship. I agree that adults should be able to get anything they want, but I have a hard time believing any company would allow real sexual content to be sold through their store for their phone. I mean, no one will stop you from going to a porn site with their browser, but who would sell a porn program in their store? Any company is going to censor the content they sell.
I do agree Apple is a control freak. I love my iPhone, but only because it’s jailbroken. I couldn’t use it otherwise. I’ve always jailbroken mine and only recently found out that non-jailbroken iPhones can’t even change the wallpaper. Seriously, Apple? Unfortunately, a jailbroken iPhone is right up my alley with a fairly complete unix environment, a bash shell, all the scripting languages and even the gcc compiler. Until another phone can compete with that, I have to stick with the iPhone.
Actually, that “virus” only affects ssh. It simply connects to ssh with the default apple passwords. If you have ssh set up yo only use keys, keep it turned off, or don’t have ssh, it won’t affect you, and you can change the passwords without ssh.
I thought it can only be used with carriers that use SIMs. That would be only AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. Or am I mistaken? edit: Or is it the GSM technology that I’m thinking of?
Telling most people to jailbreak a phone is like telling them to replace the pistons in their car to get more horsepower. They just aren’t going to mess with something they know nothing about.
GSM is the wireless protocol which uses SIM cards. ATT & T-Mobile are, of the major wireless carriers, the only ones which use GSM
Google is coming out with a CDMA version for Verizon in the near future, though. CDMA does not utilize SIM cards.
Right, but my question was posed to another poster who was specifically saying that being Open Source was a big deal. I’m curious why they think so.