I feel bad for these guys b/c Apple is screwing w/ them like they are hackers. I'm not sure Apple really wants break iToner, but rather the RIAA is making them. All the record labels are allegedly "scared" of Apple's power in the industry these days but ultimately Apple is still forced to bow to the RIAA. Clearly the RIAA has leverage over Apple that they don't have w/ other phone makers because they don't have music stores. Why else would Apple really care that much about iToner?


[www.tuaw.com]

I don't feel bad for the iToner guys at all.

They know Apple's position. They knew the possiblities.


Why else would Apple really care that much about iToner?

From the interview:

However I do understand Apple's opinion that if they control every aspect of the phone, people won't end up with a lousy user experience.

I have no idea what dance Apple and the RIAA are doing, but I suspect that even without the RIAA, Apple would be acting the exact same way. Stevie's desire to control the "user experience" is no different and no less with the 'Phone than it is with Macs and 'Pods.

Maybe he'll open up the 'Phone for third-party apps when the 'Phone is accepted as a permanent part of the landscape. As the new kid on the block he's got a lot to prove, and until the 'Phone is proven, he's going to be wary of anything that will appear to give substance to the detractors cries of "The iPhone sucks! Told you so!"

The 'Phone is a computer, but Stevie wants us to think of it *not* as a computer but as a dependable appliance, and the best one of its kind.

To me, that would be just as pressing if not more so than any leverage the RIAA could apply.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

I've known Andrew Welch for like 15 years - and if ANYONE can get it working, it's him and his team.

They did all the right things with iToner. Did not hack the phone at all- they followed guildelines set by Apple in the SDK. And got screwed.

I feel really bad for them/him. The upcoming issue of MacLife has a full page iToner ad. That's not cheap.

---

Good Luck!
Jamie Dresser
Other World Computing

I agree with you about the hacks that require a jailbreak. But iToner doesn't. It uses Apple APIs, and the data is placed in the user folder, far, far away from any of iPhone's system folders where it could cause a conflict.

Obviously Apple doesn't want developers to jailbreak the phone b/c that just causes Apple problems they didn't create if the apps go haywire. That is understandable.
iToner worked at surface level though, and just told the iPhone a music file was a ringtone. Apple has already said it wanted ringtones to be free but got static from RIAA. RIAA wanted to get paid and the iPhone needed ringtones one way or another. (I didn't realize this but the artists don't get any $ from ringtone sales). Breaking iToner and the iTunes M4R workaround seems to be part of RIAA ringtone deal.

Bottomline, I think, is, if iToner was Safari based I think Apple would stiil try to break it. Killing iToner isn't about iPhone control as much as it's about not pissing off RIAA too much.

Quote

I feel bad for these guys b/c Apple is screwing w/ them like they are hackers

I don't think so. This article ("State of the iPhone") by Rainer Brockerhoff, author of the excellent file utilitiy Xray, is worth reading:

[brockerhoff.net]

Here's what John Gruber has to say about the issue:

[daringfireball.net]

Quote

Did not hack the phone at all- they followed guildelines set by Apple in the SDK

AFAIK, there is no "iPhone SDK" nor any guidelines for same. At this point, all iPhone application development is based on Web 2.0/browser interfaces:

[www.apple.com]
[developer.apple.com]

There is currently no official way for third parties to install or run stand alone applications on the iPhone.

Is iToner Web 2.0 based?

Great article by Gruber. I like Daring Fireball. Also, Gruber is great on various podcasts I've heard.

That's for the link, AA.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

That was a good interview, thanks for posting it. Agreed, they knew what they were getting into. It is unfortunate, though.