When online sites including (reputable?) ones such as Cnet, Reuters and Wired, use terms like ‘Apple Fanboys,’ and ‘Jesus Phone’, when referring to products and consumers, what are they talking about? Is ‘Giz’ or Engaget, for that matter reputable? Now we’re relaying those rants as though they are somewhat relevant to a purchase decision?

It’s obvious that some people’s passions are a bit out of whack. Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple products as much as the next guy, but calling some personally motivated blog rant an ‘article’ just proves that most of the things written online are as note-worthy as a grocery store tabloids.

I mean really, geeks own this sub-blogsphere, they say whatever they want, they even set up web sites that make it seem like they know what they’re talking about. But it’s starting to get pretty pathetic how they’re using the sensationalism soapbox to berate ‘A’ company because they don’t get the products and features that they demand…

I TOTALLY agree and am a casual modder, not unlocker, because Apple forgot some basic things such as IM, screengrab, file suitcase, personalizing (wallpaper, my ringtones, icons and icon order, web links on desktop…), games…not to mention cut and paste (a TOTALLY lame failure, no matter how hard it was to do right). I find that Apple often gets the fit and finish and basics right, but misses nuances that matter. Such as deciding to shuffle a playlist or album on an iPod without diving deep in the menus (finally fixed in iPhone). The “hackers” are doing them a favor. BTW, I call them “application developers”. If they did this for a PC or Mac or other computer, that’s what they would be called. It just turns out that Apple forgot (chose not) to invite them to the party this time.

I love the iPhone as it ships, but I love it much more as I’ve made it with these great people’s help. It was easy to do after their hard work. The mods make me happy when I use the phone and make life easier. My iPhone rarely crashes (same frequency as before modding). I’ll take the modders’ updates over Apple’s for now. Which, ultimately, is a loss of power for Apple unless they get even more anal-retentive and sneak a blind update on me (no updates to either iTunes or iPhone).

This 4 year Palm Treo veteran will stick with iPhone. There’s no going back. But, I’m watching the competition. The message is now out and this type of phone is going mainstream. We’ll have options moving forward. Hopefully Apple can play the game and give us the options we want.

In the end, I think Apple should allow for 3rd-party development – per Apple’s standards. But if what was available from the “homebrew” community was any indication, I don’t blame them for wanting to force people into having unhacked phones. The iPhone deserves better.

Still, though, I wish Apple would issue a statement explaining why the 3rd party apps are so bad. I completely understand why they don’t want people unlocking the SIM to other carriers and concur with their right (which they are probably contractually obligated to exercise) to block the SIM unlocking.

But why would they not want 3rd party apps available? Can you imagine how quickly Palm would have died if they allowed no addon applications?

I just don’t get it.