First off, to clarify: I don’t think Apple is going downhill as a company. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. However, they’ve certainly fallen from their place as a “Do No Evil” company. I was all in favour of Apple’s iTunes Plus store, which offered DRM-free downloads. And their iPods have been superior to every other player I’ve ever had a chance to use.

However, recently Apple has made what can at best be described as questionable decisions. First was the new encryption on the new line of iPods. This was placed in order to prevent users from loading their iPod with music except via iTunes. While iTunes is a great media management program, there is no Linux version available. However, many popular Linux programs, such as GTKPod, Rhythmbox, and Banshee, all offered the ability to add music to an iPod device.

Secondly is the new iPod’s supposed lock-out of alternative firmwares. I’ve been running Rockbox on my iPod Photo for a while now, and I really like it. However, from what I’ve heard, this won’t be possible with the new generation of iPods, as only Apple-approved firmware will be able to run on the device. This means no iPodLinux, either.

After Apple announced that the iPhone would run on AT&T’s network only, some enterprising hackers created a utility that would unlock the iPhone and allow it to run on other networks as well. Now, limiting your customer base by only supporting one network is stupid to begin with, but it’s nothing compared to what they did next. A few days ago, Apple mentioned that a new firmware update would brick any unlocked iPhones. So, after shelling out $600 for a new gadget, several customers are going to be screwed out of their phones just because they don’t want to use AT&T.

Apple used to be a great company, creating hardware and software that just worked, and was pretty darn stable on top of that. However, after some of their actions lately, I just can’t support them any more. I would have loved to buy a new iPod once my current one dies, but not any more: I’ll be going off-brand. Apple seems poised to become the next Microsoft, interested in only making money, and forgetting their customers.

It seems again that I’ve declared my iPod dead prematurely.  It just decided to boot up again for the first time since my last post.  As you can imagine, I’m very happy to have my little music player back, as the walk to school has been incredibly dull these last few days.

Well, my iPod has kicked the bucket, and this time, I think it’s beyond my repair.  I had loaded Rockbox on it, and it wasn’t charging.  After it ran all the way down and powered off, it still wouldn’t charge, and now I can’t get it to turn back on.  I don’t know if the issue is related to Rockbox, or if the battery just went bad.  I suspect the battery, as I’ve used Rockbox before, and iPod batteries are known to sometimes give out after a few years.  At first, I was thinking about buying one of the new iPods, but as Apple is going even more out of their way to prevent Linux users from using their players, and also to prevent third-party firmwares, I probably won’t bother giving them any more of my money.  Instead, I’m looking for a good drag and drop media player that I can simply put media files on by mounting it as a removable disk.  Shame, because the iPod touch looked really nice.