I disagree. Samsung is being very sympathetic with hackers tinkering with their devices. They never locked the bootloader like HTC and Motorola did, and they are always in touch with relevant members of the android community, like cyanogen and supercurio. If you are not even willing to root a samsung device, that is a dead simple thing to do, you are not really into tinkering for the device. Is unrealistic to expect that anyone will give rooted devices to every single user, a "regular" non-geek user can destroy the device in minutes granting root access to the wrong apps or deleting system resources.
He has a point. Jailbreaking an iOS device is also a dead simple process, and they too are wonderfully hackable machines, arguably more-so than Android, once you have root access. But I'm not sure that means Apple's iDevices are great machines for hackers.
Jailbreaking an iOS device is not a dead simple process. First, you need to worry about versions. Did you get your phone when the latest version was not yet cracked? Do you have to worry about the irreversible change of flashing ipad firmware onto your iphone? What about tethered jailbreaks? What is that even?
Then are the updates. You can't just update to the next version of iOS when it comes out. You often need to wait many many months for newer versions to be jailbroken. There is always the threat that you will never be able to break the next version due to the security race between hackers and Apple.
The end result of all this, and I've seen this with every single jailbroken phone user, is that users who jailbreak don't often update, if they ever do. This is not a very ideal situation for something that should be available officially and by default.
And finally, you won't often find reputable software developers distributing applications that require jailbreaking. On Android, a good example of this is Skype. It's available through the market, but easy to install outside the market. It's also a top notch company and product.
Being a profitable product does not excuse it from criticism, nor is it proof of quality or utility (although iOS is certain high quality!) Being profitable is only an indication that people will buy it and that it has well balance profit margins.
There are plenty of other very profitable products that have less than stellar properties. For rather extreme examples: fast food, kitchy tourist items, low quality low cost furniture, and scams like power balance bracelets. There is a place for these products, no doubt, but nobody would argue that McDonalds is a great find dining restaurant. Ultimately profitability is quite orthogonal to the topic we are discussing.
Regarding your other comments, giving one example of one Apple device that is currently easy to jailbreak does not address my comments at all. As for this remote hd product you mention (it would be a good idea to give links for things like this in the future), if it does exist, it is certainly a mighty risky business. For one, Apple could pull their app store app at any time. They've done it before. Second, basing your product on a requirement to break the security of a device is not a wise move. Not only is jailbreaking unsupported, Apple actively tries to prevent it. They even tried to have it ruled illegal.
The example I gave for Android is quite different. This functionality is expressly allowed and supported by Google. I'm not sure if some carriers lock it out, but there are enough hand sets that are officially supported that it can make sense. Further, rather than working against the companies producing handsets and the operating system, Swype works with them and has been integrated into the base system of at least some Samsung products. There is no question that Android is more open in these regards and also more flexible.
Wether it matters to the majority of consumers is another discussion. According to this article, Wozniak thinks that it might not.
Jailbreaking an iOS device is often not a dead simple process, unless you can show me how to to jailbreak my 4S. I've been waiting for a jailbreak there for quite a while....
Not entirely true. You can jailbreak the iPad 2 using http://jailbreak.me/if you're running iOS 4.3.3. iOS 5 is still unavailable, and I wouldn't expect it to be available until the corresponding iPhone 4S jailbreak is out.
Let's define what root access means. It's not a fancy "feature" that only "advanced" users will know how to use. You don't really "own" a device unless you have root access. The way I see it, "non-root" users are the feature preventing harm, not the other way around.
How would you feel if Toshiba didn't grant you root access on your laptop/mac/machine? It is as destructive, isn't it?
I see your point, but I think the post that you are responding to is clear that the Samsung bootloader is unlocked. If the bootloader is unlocked, you can do anything that you want with the device (including installing the tools to use root access).
i simply would not buy them, not where i need a general purpose computer. but when i bought my ipad, iphon, etc, i was fully aware of what i was getting for my money, so i cant whine about it.
i am no fan of lockdown, but im also capable of making decisions about how i spend my money. i bought the gizmos because i like how they work. if someone wants something not on the market ..... gobuild it and sell it,right?
i certainly own my iphone. i paid full price for it. if i want to open it up and screw with it, i am free to try whatever i want. im also clearly responsible fr the consequences if i do so. thats why i bought a factory unlocked iphone, and dont mess with it, but dont mind hacking away on a much cheaper appletv. if i brick the atv, no biggie, but id rather not be out a grand for the phone.
