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Re: Woz calls for a more open apple

On Wed, 16 May 2012, Helpful Harry wrote:


In article
<14142011.282.1337113411075.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@yngp11>,
magnusfalkirk <dean.phares@gmail.com> wrote:

On Monday, May 14, 2012 10:54:50 AM UTC-5, BLuRry wrote:

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/300704,wozniak-calls-for-open-apple.aspx

Quoting the article:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has voiced a renewed desire to
see the consumer electronics giant open its architecture to
the masses, allowing savvy users to expand and add to their
products at will.


<snip>


Good for him! Of course we know Apple will ignore him because of
the influence of Saint Steve.


The Mac is already "open" in the sense of what Woz seems to be complaining
about. People can already add extra abilities via USB, Thunderbolt,
Firewire, and on the Mac Pro there are PCI slots, extra drive bays, etc.
Companies already make and sell a huge range of add-ons.

What he probably really wants is the ability for hobbyists to tinker
around inside the case and custom-build as can be done in the PC world
(buy an empty case, buy a stock motherboard, chuck in a CPU of your
choice, add extra fans, etc. This will certainly never happen at Apple and
only a miniscule number of people would be interested in doing so. (They
partially tried it with the clone makers, and it was a failure.)
It comes and goes. The original Mac was very closed, later were open, then I'd assume more recent ones are more closed. The thing is, it's way more ocmplicated than the Apple II, not only could you know everything in the APple II, but the manual could document it all.
But, Apple isn't just a computer company. Cellphones, tablets, MP3 players, all that. And they are closed. Just something simple like the lack of a card slot, so you either have to overbuy the size of storage, or buy a new unit later. I know I bought a Sansa Fuze when I wanted an MP3 player because it had a card slot, so that 8gig MP3 player is now a 24gig player, and now I could upgrade it further by spending about the same money as I spent on the 16gig microSD card. The Fuze also did .ogg, not that I've used it for so, but better to have open standards available than not.
I had been tempted by an iPod touch when they came out, as a sort of PDA. But then lost interest with the lack of a card slot, and the fact that the hardware seemed closed up.
A lot of the electronic equipment is now closed. All those tablets, you have a lot less control than on a computer. It is a weird world, those small electronic devices. 

  Michael