Comments

• mcinsand

  2013-01-14 16:26:38

  I think it's part of a broader fear that both Microsoft and apple share; what if consumers' rights make a comeback? What if customers once more actually own what they buy? Tablets and cellphones are just as much in the category of computing hardware as desktops, and a robust OS, especially with freedom and choice, will (and is) having little trouble steamrolling over the toy, straitjacketed offerings from Applesoft...unless they can continue with their anticompetitive shenanigans. With current court scrutiny, even proxy strategies aren't looking so good.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2013-01-14 16:31:16

  Phones have always been rather closed, even in AT&T/Bell days. In recent years, with MeeGo, Android and freer platforms like OpenMoko, this has changed somewhat. Tablets are usually oversized phones, whereas sub-notebooks (netbooks) are shrunk-down laptops that are a dying breed.

• mcinsand

  2013-01-14 17:43:37

  The time to open those historically-closed systems is now; they never should have been closed. SCOTUS' ruling that users have the right to jailbreak their phones was at least a good step in the right direction. I'm thankful for the hackers that give us tools to jailbreak, to restore choice that groups like Applesoft actively fight to exterminate.