Free is good. Profit is evil

Free Software Foundation’s ‘5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G.’ A lengthy, uninformed, unbalanced, and self-righteous treatise on why a profit motivation is bad for consumers, and why open source software is better for the world than anything the obviously corrupt and evil Steve Jobs and Apple and Company will do for you.

Apple, through its marketing and visual design techniques, is manufacturing an illusion that merely buying an Apple makes you part of an alternative community. But the technology they use is explicitly chosen to divide people into separate digital cells, and to position Apple as sole warden. When your business depends on people paying for the privilege of being locked up, the prison better look and feel luxurious, and the bars better not be too visible.

John Gruber’s take: “They’re accusing Apple of concocting the whole thing as some sort of profit-making scheme.”

Shame on Apple. Not.

When open source comes up with software as cool as Apple’s, for free, I’ll pay more attention. For now, it’s not much of a contest.

3G, GPS are fine, but…

Mac users rejoice, that new mini Mac in your pocket is faster, cooler, and more expensive. 3G, GPS are fine, but Andy Ihnatko says the “App Store is feature that puts iPhone above all others.”

Well, overall the App Store is a win for the user. The entire universe of iPhone software is in one central location, accessible via either iTunes or the iPhone itself. Prices start at “free” and most apps cost less than an album. Buying and installing an app is dead simple and reliable…never more so than when you do it directly via your iPhone.

I’m up to my fourth page of applications on my iPhone. Some are very good, some are crappy. How many do you have on your iPhone?

An honest look at Apple’s MobileMe

The award for best summary of Apple’s new MobileMe service comes from David Pogue of the New York Times, who admits that .Mac was a “motley, unfocused service.”

MobileMe, however, has a much clearer mission that solves a much clearer problem. It’s meant to keep the e-mail, calendars, address books and Web bookmarks on all of your computers — Macs, Windows PCs, iPhones and iPod Touches — synchronized in real time.

Almost. There’s that 15 minute lag on your Mac or PC. Alright, so .Mac is history, MobileMe’s hiccups are diminished. David asks, “How is MobileMe now?”

Once everything’s ready, the magic is impressive. Make a change on your Mac, watch it appear on your iPhone and your PC. Add a new friend to the address book in Outlook Express on your Windows XP machine, and watch it appear in Windows Contacts on your Vista PC. Change an appointment in iCal on the kitchen Mac, and know that it will wirelessly sprout onto your traveling spouse’s iPhone four states away. And your Web bookmarks are the same everywhere.

Mostly.

Even your Mac can’t keep you healthy

Remarkably, germs don’t seem to care that Mac users are special. Windows users get worms and viruses and the occasional Trojan horse. Mac users get the true joy of computing, which doesn’t mean much when germs attack.

The evolution of Apple’s quiet revolutions

To say that Apple is doing well these days is to state the obvious. What is there about Apple, Inc. that is not going well? Mac sales are up. Market share is up. The iPod rules portable music. iTunes Store rules online music, TV shows, movies. iPhone is changing the cell phone business. Still, the Apple revolution has become more of an evolution.

The Steve Jobs Death Watch

I’m not the only Mac user and Apple follower to notice that Steve Jobs did not look healthy during his keynote presentation at WWDC ‘08. Jobs appeared gaunt, tired, listless, thin, and positively unhealthy; almost the opposite of the vibrant, self-assured chief executive of Silicon Valley’s hottest major tech company.