jmoiron.net

I finally buckled down and got an iPhone recently. I had a lot of reasons for getting a phone I can't readily write applications for (without jailbreaking); among them: I need my phone outside of apps, so I can't have something that I am breaking constantly; I want a GSM carrier w/ 3g coverage; the iPhone is the only touch-screen next gen smart phone that has had a few hardware revisions under its belt.

I knew sync would be an absolute pain in Linux, but I wasn't prepared for how much of a pain it is outside Linux. iTunes' sync seems a lot slower than my geek-instinct definition of sync would necessitate (even syncing everything about the phone), and the process is far more controlled and locked down than I'm used to. This is not without it's positive effects (coverflow is well-seeded and gorgeous), but the inability to just grab a song from any machine I might be at is very unsettling.

Since I have this linux + VirtualBox + winXP (which might account for the slowness above) system set up, CC asked me to sync & charge her iPod Touch. I obliged, saying I'd probably just give it a big set of the same music I put on my phone. I plugged in the Touch and got an attractive screen asking me if I wanted to upgrade to the new firmware; "Oh, very nice!" I said. Some horizontal scrolling later, I realized it was $9.95. Oh...! There's a reason they have $28bn in the bank

Now; I don't want something for nothing, and I don't really mind that apple charges for firmware upgrades that generally come with lots of usability and OS improvements. But it was a culture shock; one I think a lot of normal people might not understand. Finally, when I tried to back up her music to my iTunes library (so we wouldn't lose it, as her computer is in a state of flux and she lost her library) it doesn't copy. Nothing on her iPod has any DRM on it at all, but in order to prevent piracy the only conduit of songs -> iPod is iTunes sync, and you can only sync to one library at a time.

That's just an incredible set of limitations for someone used to sliding out a little sd-like card (an m2 for my sony phone), mounting as a usb drive, loading it up with songs, and then pulling it out and going off to do my business. Of course, there are rules, and there are rules, but I'm still kind of reeling from the understanding that everyone out there not only thinks this kind of thing is normal, but they think Apple is a do-no-evil company that would never(!) do anything against the best wishes of their customers.