I ’d been wondering how long it would take for the bricking phenomenon to get to Apple product , and now I know . It really was n’t that much of a mystery to me — I ’ve been playing with aSony PlayStation Portable(PSP ) since the sidereal day they came out in the U.S. , and that phenomenon is older chapeau to us gamers .

Almost as presently as the PSP came out , hacker begin to develop their own homebrew software for the scheme . The PSP , despite its small size of it , is a pretty powerful system , and can play mass of old colonnade game in emulation . In fact , if you ’re well - heeled enough to have a PlayStation 3 , you may bribe some of these games legitimately through the PlayStation Store and download them to your PSP to play , as well .

But for the longest time before the PS3 and the PlayStation Store fare to the bow , the only way of endure game ROMs was by using homebrew hacks .

Sony , much like Apple with the iPhone , disapproved of such measures . And with each sequential firmware upgrade to the PSP , the society did what it could to close up whatever backdoors and trap doors and unavowed entry ways that home brew hacker had found . And “ bricking ” your PSP by put in this unauthorized third - company software is always a possibility , but it has not deterred that vocal minority of exploiter who palpate they should be capable to do whatever they require with the PSP , Sony ’s licensing restrictions for software that can take to the woods on the gadget be curse .

But Sony has also been generous in exposing Modern features and functionality for the PSP . It ’s been enough that many drug user have been more than glad to give homebrew represent functionality for the chance to have memory access to the new capability — everything from RSS newsfeed study on the Internet to the ability to play newfangled type of medium and access to Sony ’s “ LocationFree ” television player products . It ’s ultimately that carrot - and - hold fast doctrine that I think will serve Apple well with succeeding iPhone updates .

Apple has n’t hesitated to incorporate technology into the Mac operating organization that it like , even at the hazard of damage the keep of independent Mac developers . Just askWatsondeveloper Karelia Software , who , in its own words , learned that “ Apple was the steam train that owned the tracks , and Karelia was a handcar ” after it discover that Apple ’s Sherlock 3 was nearly identical to Watson . Or postulate the makers ofKonfabulator , which might have become flat an untimely death at the hand of Tiger ’s similar Dashboard engineering science if Yahoo had n’t come to the rescue .

The peak is that many of the literary hack we ’ve seen give rise for the iPhone are really neat and useful in their own agency . Barring the solution that many mass seem to want — for Apple to disclose an iPhone Software Developer ’s Kit ( SDK ) that third political party developers can use to make truthful iPhone package — it seems coherent that Apple will continue to update and upgrade the iPhone with new features and functionality that once in a while seems eerily reminiscent of some of these third - party try .

What I hope , though , is that Apple does n’t hold back package development on the iPhone for new hardware models only . It would unwrap my warmheartedness to see the caller not incorporate unexampled features into exist iPhones only to press sales of the newfangled machine . But I do n’t suspect we ’ll need to occupy about that quite yet — at least , not until it ’s nigh to when iPhone buyers need to think about regenerate their service plan with AT&T.