As it happens, I couldn’t agree more. I’m happy however that the world is stepping up and is providing unlocking hacks and ways to install software on the iPhone, and look forward to the day when carrier locked phones are a relic of the past.

To that effect, I’m glad the iPhone exists - it certainly raises awareness of the whole carrier-lock issue that a large number of cell phone users are in the dark about. I am content with seeing everything thats wrong with cell phones solved one nuisance at a time, and in that respect, iPhone is on the whole a welcome change.

I understand that you’ve been messing with Openmoko - how is it?

The iPhone is a tremendous disappointment to me in how locked-down it is. Officially, they do not want users to add software to their iPhones that would make the phones more useful to the people using them. What kind of pre-personal-computer mindset runs the show in Cupertino?

I also believe that the path the iPhone leads us into - a computer world where for new features or fixes, you must rely on updates from a central authority - is bad news. I don’t know how anyone who has seen a general purpose computer would not feel slimy buying into portable lock-in.

The fact that you have to ask permission from Mr. Jobs to get copy-paste back, but you aren’t astonished that you have to ask at all, really confuses me.