Just a reminder for newbies: Don’t upgrade your iPhone firmware to 1.1.1 if you want to use the Books.App program to read e-books via your phone.
Meanwhile here’s the word directly from Zach Brewster-Geisz, to whom iPhoners should be grateful for his work on the program. “As the author of the main book-reading software for the iPhone,” he tells us, “I’m more than a little teed off. But I’ll say this: I’m not upgrading, and I’m still working on the software.”
“I’m sure the iPhone Dev Team is working on figuring out how to get into the 1.1.1 firmware–but for now, it doesn’t look good,” says his Google Code iPhone page. “I’m waiting just like everyone else–my skillz are limited to programming, not the serious hackery that those guys are all about.” I hope Zach will keep us posted.
If you’re upgrade-minded and would rather relock your phone: Here are tips from Russell Shaw via ZDNet. My hunch is that, as a sophisticated bunch, most TeleBlog readers will just ignore the upgrade and not fret over relocking for now—having decided to use Zach’s program and other Third Party ones.
A lesson for e-publishers: Yes, I know: Many would love for there to be an iPod of e-books from Apple, and they may also look askance at buyers’ attempts to circumvent Apple’s software restrictions. But this is another example of Apple’s control-miinded nature. Don’t think that Apple, given the chance, will avoid using the same hardball tactics against content-providers—just as it has in the case of iTunes.
Related: iPhone Users Talking Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Locking in the Information Weekly Weblog and Serious Geeks Sour on Apple iPhone in Yahoo Tech. In a small, unscientific TeleBlog poll, more than half the respondents were planning to buy iPhones. In the wake of Apple’s arrogant lockout, however, I doubt the percentage will remain quite so high.
