[Infowarrior] - Tim Bray on the iPhone

[Richard Forno]

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/03/15/web.pioneer.joins.google.to.prove.apple.wrong/

XML co-creator Tim Bray on Monday said he has joined Google as a  
Developer Advocate, primarily for Android. The former Sun worker made  
the pick both because Android embraces an open-source, web-heavy  
philosophy but also as a direct opposition to Apple's iPhone policies.  
Bray praised Apple's hardware but couldn't abide by the at times  
arbitrary filtering of the App Store, which he likened to censorship.

"The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy,  
sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and  
who can say what," Bray wrote. "It's a sterile Disney-fied walled  
garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the  
apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger."

He added that Apple is self-contradictory and claims to want the  
benefits of the Internet but wants to limit access to hardware and  
software, even limiting what information developers can share. Android  
lets developers access most phone components directly and even modify  
parts of the interface as well as write apps that improve on existing  
features. Apple has historically banned apps that "duplicate" core  
functionality but has been accused of trying to prevent competition.