Who is Farhan Lalji?

I’m pretty sure at some point in time I’ll switch to an iPhone, whether it happens in November – when the first ones come to this side of the Atlantic – or next year, or the year after remains to be seen.

In February of this year Steve Jobs wrote a pretty scathing commentary on DRM (Digital Rights Management, as defined by Wikipedia “Technologies intended to give content providers control over redistribution and access to material.”) on music. He basically said if people pay for the music it should be there’s to do with as they please.

This week, Apple has said that if you have an unlocked phone, the next release of iTunes, will make your phone inoperable. Plus they’re going to void warrantees on phones that have been modified (read: unlocked). I don’t know how the lock will work here in the UK, as I think it might be illegal to do this on this side of the pond – if anyone knows more about the legality of locked/unlocked phones in the UK, please let me know how this might work here!

Jeff Nolan over at Venture Chronicles says that Apple will be launching unlocked iPhones here in the UK – which, if true, means I can buy one and then use it on my existing networks - but I’m not sure how this will work with the newest software releases of iTunes.

Nolan also says that the DRM issue and the phone issues have Apple playing double standards. It’s not okay for the music industry to lock down users, but its okay for Apple to do so. Or at least that’s what Apple would have us believe. He doesn’t go as far as calling Jobbo a hypocrite – but I will. DRM sucks. Locked phones suck. And as long as Jobs is peddling/pimping DRM and locked phones in my books he’s a hypocrite.

I won’t pretend to know more then Steve Jobs, the guy is a genius, but I do believe the user is always right. So if people are unlocking phones – release unlocked phones. If people are downloading DRM free materials, release DRM free materials. And don’t give me this trash about the music labels wanting DRM, twist their arms and they’ll do it.

I’d be surprised if the bottom line suffered as a result of these actions. My hunch is it would look a lot better.

I loved the Arsenio Hall show back in the day, as an homage to the show I’m going to start a regular weekly feature on this blog that was first launched on the show “things that make me go hmmm….”

1 – Why aren’t people making a bigger deal of the Wifi deal on the iPhone, the cloud has a ton of Wifi posts all around London, if that means I spend more time on the Wifi network and less on the edge that’s a winner – plus with the possibility to get skype or other IM on the thing, why make calls?  Just skype.  Unlocked iPhone here I come!

2 – If someone described a movie as a mix between “Lord of the Rings” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” but in Chinese, would that make you want to go?

3 – If 30 is the new 20, does that make 20 the new 10?

So even before the iPhone has left the US shores there’s been a price cut and Apple have released the iPod Touch, which has a safari browser, is wifi enabled and is much cheaper then the iPhone.  I don’t know who would be more pissed off AT&T or the collective geekdom that purchased the iPhone the first couple of months it was out – the peeps who waited till the last 14 days will at least get a bit of their money back.

Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) has a great couple of posts about this.  And Business 2.0 has a great article on the potential reasons for the price cut on the iPhone.

I wonder what the entry price will be for both the iPod Touch and the iPhone here in the UK… hmmmm.  I bet they don’t even release the current model and just launch a 3G model here.

The big question that the iPod Touch put in my head is whether this is the first step to making “traditional” mobile phones obsolete?  Think about it, if you can get Skype on your iPhone – albeit with some hacking, if you can get Skype on an iPod touch, who needs a phone?

I can’t see the mobile going anywhere soon, but heck if we have wireless internet devices, wifi, and messaging clients that are voice enabled who needs a mobile phone?  How great would it be to just have to give out email addresses or messaging client id names instead of mobile numbers?  I wonder if Apple has some kind of agreement with AT&T not to put the iChat on it’s iPhone, wonder if it has the same kind of agreement prohibiting them from doing this on the iPod?!

Miss N and I went to hear a debate featuring Andrew Keen, author of the “Cult of the Amateur” at the RSA. Keen is a critic of Web 2.0, claiming that its radical democratization is undermining real quality.

He was joined by Tim Montgomerie of the Conservative Home website, a pro web 2.0 guy.

The debate was lively with Keen using Huxley’s infinite monkey’s theorem as a parallel to what’s happening online today. He went on to bash You Tube (paraphrasing: where is our culture, what about the professionals) and Wikipedia (paraphrasing: no editors, just a bunch of good for nothings with time on their hands) He also talked about the suffering of mainstream media, and the lack of a gatekeeper and blah blah blah.

Montgomerie and Matthew Taylor of the RSA did a good job of rebutting Keen, Taylor particularly was a great moderator. Their points about the relative youth of the medium and the fact checking phenomenon the web has fostered, not to mention the empowerment of the masses, were all excellent points. And it was clear the majority of people were behind this side of the debate, mind you there was a clear age difference in the way people tended to feel about the internet.

One of the highlights for me was when the MD of Encyclopedia Britannica – a self proclaimed silver surfer himself and sitting a row behind me and Miss N – took Montgomery’s side and said that Wikipedia had actually helped Britannica up it’s game, and that competition was a good thing.

Miss N made a great point about the fact that this debate is not new and that it happens with every technical innovation (dating back to the move from hand written manuscripts to print in the 15 century). I’m sure she’ll make the point and have a great review when she get’s around to blogging about it – but she’s got a job now so her blogging has to wait

My opinion is that Keen is a bit of a sensationalist, doesn’t really believe the excrement he’s pedaling, and is just looking to make a quick buck or two off of book sales. The fact that he himself blogs confirms it in my opinion!

Nevertheless, I think the debate is important, I just think Keen is the wrong person to make it. The wife did a much better job when I got home; her point was that it’s difficult for the misinformed and the young to distinguish between the valid, true and right content and the crap that’s out there. That there’s so much information now, how do you ensure that people are going to the right sources.

I still believe that the community acts as a gatekeeper and that if a blog post or a video or whatever doesn’t have anyone reading it or anyone linking to it or engaging with the content then it doesn’t really exist – kind of like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one around.

The one point that Keen made that I did see some validity in was that we’re all spending too much time talking and not doing enough listening. But with me and Miss N having a good 500 news feeds between us, I’d say there are some of us who are listening more then talking… hmmm guess I didn’t agree with him on that point either.

UPDATE : the RSA has the mp3 from last nights session on it’s audio page now.

With the RMT going on strike and most of the tube not running (lucky for me the Jubilee line and the national rail is unaffected), once again I’m wondering why people strike in the first place.

I went on strike, once, for one day. It was when I was in the Public Sector, and my job was Internet Manager. The site I was responsible for stayed up, people connected, read information and no one was really inconvenienced or injured. I didn’t get the point of going on strike then, and I don’t get the point of going on strike now. But I was under worked and underpaid (relative to the people around me) and could use a day off, so I took it.

I get the point that sometimes a work force has a problem with management and how management’s running things. But surely there has to be a better way to solve an issue then to flex your muscles and hurt a bunch of people who have nothing to do with the disagreement. No one wins in an action like this, and the costumer, tax payer or whoever is dependent on whatever service loses, and loses big.

I think the final step in a failed negotiation between a work force and management should be independent arbitration rather then workplace action. This should be the case specifically and especially in areas where so many people depend on services running well – like healthcare, education, safety and transport