Apple has been slipping lately. I bought an iPhone because I am a huge nerd and have a weak spot for gadgets. First off ‒ I love it, I think it’s a great phone / PDA / iPod, and I love discovering new things to do with it. Some of the apps are really useful, like Grocery List, Budget and Unit Converter.
Do I think it’s a perfect? No. The camera is only 2 megapixels, it doesn’t take videos and it is configured for North America and can’t be changed. For example, my plan is tailored to the New Zealand preference for texting. I get 120 calling minutes and 600 texts, which is quite opposite to most of the rest of the world where calling is the main focus rather than texting. So every time I click a number it wants to call it instead of texting, and there is no way to change that.
That isn’t what has me really disappointed though. The iPhone has a new format for ringtones; it isn’t an ordinary MP3 file. iTunes have added a new feature to allow you to create ringtones from music you’ve bought, but it is only available to people in the US. There are several methods for creating a ringtone that doesn’t have Digital Rights Management (DRM), but none for files that do have DRM. Since I buy my music online instead of illegally downloading it, and don’t live in the States, I’m forced to either break the encryption on my songs (which is probably illegal) or use the crappy built-in ringtones.
So why is Apple the new Microsoft? Because everything they make lately seems to be rushed out to the customers before they are really ready (proxy support for MobileMe anyone?). Apple should change their slogan from “It just works” to “It just works, as long as you live in the USA and do things exactly as we expect you to”.
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