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I sent the following open letter to Steve Jobs:

Message-ID: <8fbe874a0709290204q6fc6d7e0l7fe2983b73971f22@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:04:30 -0400
To: steve@mac.com
Subject: Mr. Jobs, Knock Down that Firewall

Steve,

I love my iPhone, and I've kept it pristeen, completely free of the wealth of software that used to be available for it, until you slammed the door in our faces with the 1.1.1 update. I thought I had purchased my very own iPhone. Turns out I'm just renting the use of your hardware. I'm not allowed to modify it myself. I can't make it mine with my own software.

I thought I was an adult. I thought I could be responsible for customizing my possessions as I see fit, fully knowing that certain modifications would void my warranty. But you've chosen to engage in an arms race. You've gone to war with your most faithful customers, independent software developers. Shame.

Do the right thing, Steve. Ship a Software Development Kit for the iPhone. Ship an emulator that makes debugging new applications ultra-easy. Let us make our iPhones our own. Certify custom applications as "iPhone Friendly" (TM). Warn us that breakage caused by non-certified applications is not covered by your warranty. But let us run them if we're willing to take that chance.

You've given us a glorious new platform on which to make magic. Don't break our wands.

-Bill St. Clair
billstclair at gmail dot com
http://imacpr0n.com/

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