I’ve been pretty harsh on Apple and their software in recent months. Getting an iPhone was never really an option. It costs like a small computer while not, actually, being one.

So when the time came to get a new phone, I found something else: the Nokia n900. The fact that it’s using Linux and is completely open was the major selling point. It’s got GPS, camera, all that jazz – but to me, the main thing was its openness. It’s got Python, for god’s sake… I once read in a review that this was a phone not for professionals nor for the hip young crowd who wanted gadgets and glitter – this was a phone for engineers and programmers who were bitter because the iPhone was such a closed platform. It’s also been described as being more of a palmtop computer with phone capabilities than a phone with computer capabilities. In other words, it’s perfect for me – a match made in heaven.

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My iPod Touch has dust under its glass. Yup. It sure has. How did it get there? Well, I imagine it was somewhere where there might be dust – such as a pocket. I imagine that I am not alone in placing my Touch in a pocket.

Also, I guess, the touch has at least one hole, somewhere, where dust can get in. Perhaps it’s that glaringly open USB port? perhaps it is.

Is it possible to remove the dust? Probably not. At least not for me, the consumer. As someone who has purchased an Apple product, I’ve already waved all my rights as a consumer. The iPod can only be “repaired” by Apple.

Only by Apple? Yes. And if there’s no warranty? If I bought the item on E-bay and the seller didn’t include the reciept, despite promising to do so? Well, then you’re fucked. You may spend the same amount a new iPod Touch would cost, and they’ll give you a new one. Yes, this is the same as just buying a Goddamn new one. This is not “service”.

You can attempt to remove the dust yourself. You will probably fail. Apple has decided that you don’t ever need to replace the glass or even open the device. Therefore, they’ve made it nigh-f**ing-impossible to do so. Especially without proper tools. You’ll probably break the glass.

And then you’re fucked.

Do I like this?

No, I don’t.

Will I buy anything from Apple again?

Probably not.

Apple are doing a lot of great things. I doubt there would be such a push for touchscreen phones if it weren’t for the iPhone, and if OSX hadn’t shown the world that OS’s don’t need to look clunky there would be no sleek Ubuntu or W7; it’d still look like windows 95. I have no doubt that the iPad will work as such a forerunner for tablet PC’s.

The trouble is, Apple’s own devices are just so incredibly locked. They don’t trust the user – they want to protect the user from him – och herself. To me, that’s kind of condescending. I got nothing against simplicity, especially in interfaces – but to jump from there to “All Powerusers Are Bad People” is quite a leap. But OK, their target audience doesn’t include people who like computers, that’s OK… almost.

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I’ve been thinking about getting a new phone once my current one’s been paid off… I’m on a Telia 18-month plan and it ends in about a month. I’m probably going to stay with Telia; I like their coverage… I was thinking of getting an iPhone, but like you’ve probably noticed, I’m not too happy with the Apple way of doing things. And they’re not very happy with me, either – they’re doing their absolute best to keep me using their hardware, while at the same time telling me, over and over again, that I can’t do the things I want to do. I’m a “power user”, and I’m tired of their condescending crap.

My solution: Looks like I’ll be getting a Nokia N900.

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People who’ve read my list of annoyances regarding iTunes and the iPod Touch may be wondering why the hell I still own a Touch – if I dislike it so much, why not get something else?

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#13: No way of checking how much space the apps take. Sure, I can check how much the apps themselves use – but not, of course, sort them by size or anything like that – in iTunes, but I can’t see, for instance, how much space my offline Spotify songs take, or if I should begin trimming my comicbook collection.

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#12: No power profiles. This is a small one, but annoying. When my iPod Touch is connected, as in recieving power from somewhere, I’d like it to stay on and un-autolocked. When it’s not, I’d like the autolock to kick in after about a minute. Laptops and netbooks usually have “power management profiles” of some sort. Why not the Touch?

Told you it was a small one.

#10. No shared file area, no file system access. Seriously, Apple, wtf? I know you want us to believe noone needs to access or use the computer’s actual file system anymore, instead you want us to rely on indexing and tagging, and flat motherfucking file structures. Like your hog, Itunes.

Anyways, I’m not ready to go back to your “golden days” of the Macintosh File System. Just so you get what I’m trying to say here, the MFS was Apple’s first file system, used in early Mac OS. It was non-hierarchal, or rather, it supported exactly one level of folders. This is how they want us to treat our computers in 2009: By crippling them, going back to 1984 – which, you know, is kind of fitting given that year’s political connotations. Combined with #5 (No Multitasking), which of course was a stand-out feature of good old Windows 1, 2 and 3.x… Well, it seems Apple are tryint to drag us into the future facing ass-backwards. Seriously, you fucks!

So… Why is the lack of common file area and file system access a bad thing? Well… Let’s say I find a PDF on the web. I can view it kind of OK in Safari – but I can’t save it. If I’m offline, I can’t access the file. Can I download it? Nope. Why? Because I have no file system access. Can I view the same PDF with another PDF viewer, one with a bit more bells and whistles? Nope. I can’t access the files created or used by one app in another app. If I’ve loaded a PDF into the iPod Touch by using Folders, I can’t access that file from PDF Expert. There’s no shared file area. Each piece of software has access to its own little private area, and that’s it.

And sorry, Apple, but that just fucking sucks. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it sucks wet, hairy donkeyballs.

But of course, as we all know, freedom is slavery.

#11. Bluetooth limited. OK, when 3.0 came out, people discovered the iPod Touch has bluetooth. Big whoop, since you can’t do much with it. It has A2DP support (audio sending, for instance sending music to bluetooth enabled speakers), AVRC (for using it as a remote), and PAN (Personal Area Networking). No support for wireless headets, no support for stuff like keyboards etc. Once again, Apple limits the appeal of their product by forcing all users to accept arbitrary limits.

What Apple have here, is possibly the greatest, sweetest machine I’ve come across – aside from battery life and temperature resistance, obviously – and they’ve ruined 90% of its potential by making up bullshit limitations that just makes the machine fail to live up to its full potential. The iPod Touch is a cripple, pure and simple – and the problem is APple’s software, not the hardware.