Freyburg

Apple updated the iPhone system software to 2.2 late this week, and so far I’m impressed. New features include street views (for some cities) in Google Maps, a redesigned Safari, and the absolutely welcomed ability to download podcasts directly into the iPhone from the iTunes store. Never mind that the process is a little clunky, just the fact that I can do it is pretty impressive. Equally cool, bit not as glitzy, is the fact that you can now hit “update all” to update your apps, and they’ll update all at once. More importantly, the icons now stay just where you left them, rather than you having to move them around every time a feature gets changed. Other than that…it’s the same iPhone as always. Apparently Apple has added a bunch of “emoji” icons, which is important to the Japanese market, but doesn’t do much for me.

Just doing a test of blogging from my Iphone. Which, until Apple allows me to cut and paste and include links, is of limited use.

Yep, the other side of the coin has dropped and I’ve got another article up about Flash on the iPhone up at Mac | Life, this time accentuating the positives of Adobe’s graphical powerhouse on Apple’s iconic mobile device.

That’s the contention of Daniel Lyons, the ex “Fake Steve Jobs” and current columnist for Newsweek. Lyons claims that Apple has gone from being a niche player in the PC business to a monopoly force for content distribution…and he’s got a point. Macs are selling better than ever before (and I’ll never, EVER switch back to PC) but the real money and influence is in the iPhones, iPods, and other content-centric devices Apple continues to sell like mad. But at the same time, Apple controls essentially every point of entry for that content, much like Microsoft did (and got slammed for, hard) with Internet Explorer.

But where Apple differs from Microsoft is execution. They’ve put us all in a gilded cage but damn, those are some shiny bars, and it’s really comfortable inside this cage, and…well, you get the idea. It comes down to convenience versus principle, and I have to admit that for me, the ability to tote everything around on my iPhone trumps ethical qualms I have about Apple’s choke hold on how we access our movies and music. Which sort of makes me Apple’s bitch, though I’m not alone.

This one’s about the iPhone Underground.

So A couple of my iPhone articles are online on the newly revamped Mac | Life, including how to work around using SMS and how to revirginize your phone. I’ve also been informed that my article about iPhone hackers and the App Store is out in the print edition. W00t!

This one is about the Canadian reaction to the Rogers data rates for the iPhone. And next month, I’ll hopefully have an honest-to-goodness-in-the-paper-magazine article in Mac | Life.

Rogers has announced their data plans for the iPhone. It’s all there in their chart…no unlimited plan, 2 gigs of data for $115, and a lot of even worse plans with less data. I didn’t have time to write about this wrinkle when it came out, but others have covered it in my stead quite nicely. They’ve mounted a pretty weak defense for this push for the status quo, and given they announced the plans today it’s pretty sad that they’re already on the defensive. All I can say is there is NO way I’ll be getting a new iPhone with these rates in place. I’ll stick with my first gen iPhone, which has served me well using only wifi for my data.

Ok, so maybe it’s not THAT exciting. But according to a post on Howard Forums, the esteemed cell phone scuttlebutt site, Rogers will offer a $30 unlimited data plan ($45 for enterprise users) on the iPhone when it hits Canada on July 11th. Frankly, that sounds too good to be true, but I’d be more than happy to pay that fee (and not a cent more) for always-on, unlimited high speed data access from my phone. You hear me, Rogers?

The Canadian DMCA has just been tabled by the House of Commons, and from what I can tell (gleaned from Michael Geist’s excellent blog post) it’s a complete and total ruinous mess for the future of electronic media in Canada. Let’s, just for a second, get past the spectre of evil pirates stealing content from hard-working, impoverished studios and record companies. This bill makes it illegal for anyone to transfer music they bought off a CD and onto their own iPod. It also makes it illegal to unlock an iPhone or other locked digital devices, to the tune of a $20,000 fine. So the fact that I’ve been carting around said iPhone for the last six months is apparently more important than the fact that our representatives in Parliament consort with gangster molls or that the Alberta tar sands are an ecological disaster area. No, people downloading the latest Coldplay album is what our law enforcement services should concern themselves with.

The real irony here is that the studios are the authors of their own destruction. If these laws are actually enforceable, all that will happen is that people won’t bother to watch copyrighted material anymore. The means of production are cheaper than ever, and more and more people are watching amateur video, citizen journalism and other user generated content. The drive for self-preservation will actually accelerate the decline and fall of big media, by its own hand.

And the potential damage from this bill doesn’t just affect individuals. Companies in the business of moving and storing content, like Domain7, have already expressed concerns (check their news section for their take on the bill).

What can you do to voice your concerns about this bill? Email your member of Parliament (I just did, for the very first time), join online groups like the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook, and join the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, and other groups advocating for digital rights.