Time for a Branch?

So Apple’s update is in the wild, and its become clear that they’re forcing a choice — at least for the time being. Either you run the latest and greatest, but disappointingly useless Apple firmware v.1.1.1, or you use what the community has to offer based on 1.0.2. Here’s a nice chart that might make the decision easier…
wired-iphone-diagram.jpg
On the “Official” side, you can add a few new shortcuts, and the ability to disable GPRS.
On the “Hacked” side, you can add Assisted GPS, a customizable Home Screen, remote access to your iPhone, and hundreds of games through emulation.
In my opinion, not a tough choice. If Apple so badly wants to eliminate the 3rd party development market, maybe they should give us some decent software for our very expensive phones. I frankly consider their new firmware to be a downgrade.
I think it’s time to spin off a new branch. Apple can do their thing, and continue to release boring, pointless updates that do nothing but offer us a new way to spend money on their DRM-laden music store. The community can continue to develop the software people actually want. Maybe someday they can merge the branch back with Apple’s trunk, but for the foreseeable future, I can find no reason to let iTunes helpfully “update” my phone.

One thought on “Time for a Branch?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *