c. scott andreas

Earlier today, Apple issued a press release - not via their web site, but through an outside PR firm. Here’s an excerpt:

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

This press release suggests that, one way or another, unlocked iPhones ’round the world may magically do something quite unmagical: brick themselves. The question “why” - malice, brand arrogance, or pressure from the Death Star remains.[1]

The move should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Apple’s long history of toeing the line between a benevolent dictatorship and, well, the other kind. Though many of Apple’s products (both hardware and software) can be taught new tricks once off the shelf, modding has always been discouraged. Instances such as this highlight the distinction between ninth-grade charicatures of the personal autonomy afforded by modern liberalism (do as you please, but do no harm) versus that of a totalitarian sociey in which the prole is “free” so long as s/he doesn’t wake the angry dragon. This dragon’s waking up, and a little smoke is seeping through the nostrils.

I love my PowerBook G4, Apple Keyboard, 5G iPod, and yes, my liberated iPhone. But if things keep going as they are, I might be shopping around.

More Woz, less Steve.

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[1] Confused? Check out the AT&T logo.