Dave is still having his trademarked difficulty learning how to use simple devices.
“It has DRM support, if you insist on using one of the fascist services, but you can ignore it.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a device that didn’t allow you to play non-DRMed files… and fascist? Honestly? Maybe someone needs to explain to him the irony of calling a kind of technology “fascist”. Of course, Dave needs a lot of things explained to him.
Also, the wheel should be used to scroll through individual songs or podcasts. What a missed opportunity. Instead, you have to hold down the ultra tiny fast forward button for what seems an eternity. Don’t these guys look at the competition? Or do patents prevent them from using these ideas? Either way, the user loses.
This ignores, of course, the tremendous amount that users would never have if it weren’t for patents. Dave “innovates” to innovate. He does it for its own sake or, more likely, for his ego. So of course he doesn’t understand why there would need to be financial motive to invest time and money into developing something that a competitor could simply appropriate.
It’s important to look at patents generally. Even if we grant that apple might not have spent much at all to research and develop the click-wheel (although given how key it is to the design and UI, I have a hard time believing it was just an arbitrary decision) the fact remains that they did develop it. And if we don’t protect their investment and innovation, how can we protect someone else’s?
But, then, capitalism is the cause of most of the world’s ills, isn’t it, Dave?