et tu brute?

Both? Or is that too obvious. Clearly both Apple and AT&T benefit by keeping it locked. The benefits of closing (I really think people enjoy confusing these separate states) the iPhone are less obvious. Personally, I think it's simply a matter of very few developers having the experience necessary to build reliable low-power embedded apps (didn't someone on your podcast mention that his hacked phone burns through the battery faster than he'd like?). Hell, some apps barely run on full computers. That Apple wants to control 3rd party development for the iPhone more closely comes as no surprise to me.

If Macworld would run one story on 1.1.1 features for every three stories it runs on bricking and third-party apps, I'd be one hell of an informed consumer. I'm going elsewhere for my Apple news if this keeps up much longer.

Um, why isn't anyone blaming THEMSELVES for bricking the iPhone? Its not like apple or ATT said, "Go ahead and jail break your unit and add unauthorized modifications to it...we guarantee it'll work." No, instead, apple gave ample warning to the community (for months now!). So what do bad little children do? They don't listen to their parents, and when daddy Steve comes to discipline them for their naughtiness, they cry and throw temper tantrums. Give me a break, grow up, and take some responsibility for your actions.
The software on iPhone is fine just the way it is, given a few months, i think it'll get better too. For those of us willing to wait and not break in and add crappy applications and rainbow colored home screens, we have a perfectly functioning wonder phone.

I have never gotten why so many of you reviewers have had such a problem with the iPhone. Steve Jobs told us all six months in advance what the iPhone was and what it could do. And what do we hear from you? Complaints about EDGE, complaints about third party apps, complaints about Apple wanting to keep control of a product that THEY spent the time and money to develop. Before iPhone, did we ever complain when macs used nubus slots instead of iesa, or scsi instead of whatever it was PC's used. Did we complain that we couldn't run Windows or its apps. No, because we had a better product with our own apps. Even today when we use essentially the same parts, our computers are still better. Why? Because Apple maintains control over their product. They develop the hardware and the operating system it runs. That's why the iPhone is so awesome. It does exactly what Steve Jobs said it would do. And it will do more if you people will just be a little patient. We are only at 1.1.1. What will 1.5 or 2.0 bring? I bought the iPhone based on Steve's original presentation and I love that things have been done the Apple way. Just enjoy your phone and stop trying to make it into something it's not. Average.

Idiots who bricked their own phones have no right to blame either Apple or AT&T. The fault is their own. Both Apple and AT&T have made it abundantly clear--clearer than crystal--that the iPhone is not currently meant to be used with native third-party apps or any other carrier's network. Anyone, from the most average Joe to the most respected pundit, who cries and whines about the 1.1.1 update's effect on their iPhone obviously never read and/or understood the contract to which they agreed when they purchased it. How can they expect AT&T to sit idly by as their rightful profits get siphoned off by unlocked phones? The nerve! Unbelievable.