“Open-source campaigners are planning a flood campaign against Apple retail they believe will pressure the iPhone-maker to open up its device,” Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.
“In a symbolic gesture, the Free Software Foundation plans a new campaign, nicknamed the Apple Challenge, that it thinks will pressure Apple into opening its software code,” Malley reports.
“The organization is asking supporters to book a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple retail store on Friday or Saturday and ask the technicians questions about the company’s broader corporate policy regarding iPhone 3G and its software under the belief that any copy-protected hardware or software is ‘defective,'” Malley reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sir Gill Bates” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Free Software Foundation’s defective questions (with our answers) include:
1. Why do all developers have to submit their applications to Apple before they can be loaded onto an iPhone?
A: So they don’t suck. So they don’t crash everyone’s iPhones. So Apple can offer the best end-user experience with a single, unified, easy-to-use App Store.
2. Why does iTunes still contain so much DRM-laden music?
A: Because the music labels are desperately trying (and failing) to prop up iTunes Store’s “competitors” by colluding to offer them DRM-free music while withholding it from Apple.
3. The iPhone 3G has GPS support. How can users be sure that the GPS cannot be used to track their position, without their permission?
A: Oh, for cripes’ sake. Put on your tinfoil hats, the black helicopters will land any second.
4. If Steve really wants to see free and open formats, why doesn’t the iPhone play Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora video and FLAC?
A: MP3 and, its successor, unprotected AAC aren’t open enough? What about Fred’s Audio Codec? Is Apple supposed to support every esoteric audio codec on earth? And, why ask Apple retail store employees a question for Steve Jobs, anyway? Do you really think they’re authorized to speak for the CEO?
5. Why can the iPhone 3G only be activated by Apple and AT&T? In the United States, the Register of Copyrights has ruled that consumers have the right to unlock their phones and switch to a different carrier. How does Apple plan to remedy this discrepancy?
A: In the future, AT&T will offer a no-contract-required option for US$599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB).
If confronted, Apple Store employees should ask the “protestor” a question of their own: “When are you going to get a life?”