Feature: The iConstitution: how to protect user freedom in an app store world
Interesting comparison of App stores to other options along with a proposal for how to do it right.
When the iPad was unveiled in early 2010, it received almost universal acclaim in the mainstream press. But in the technology blogosphere, the response was more mixed. Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow quipped that the devices "feels like the second coming of the CD-ROM 'revolution.'" Princeton computer scientist Ed Felten compared the iPad to Disneyland. "I like to visit Disneyland," he wrote at the time, "but I wouldn't want to live there." And your humble correspondent said that the iPad's locked-down architecture "feels like using a pair of safety scissors." And no, that wasn't a compliment.
What really drew our ire was the extension of the iPhone's locked-down app store model to tablet computers. Locked-down app stores might be OK for tiny, underpowered mobile devices, we thought, but the owners of full-sized computing devices deserved the freedom to install whatever software they wanted. The iPad took that freedom away, limiting us to running the apps that make it through Apple's app review process.
