Apple says, “Brick THIS!”
“May the bricking begin!” Yes, that’s right. To you morons (including me) who first paid full price ($599) and told everybody you knew to buy one, telling everyone that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, more ground breaking than the spoon (the eating utensil not the cuddle), more groundbreaking than [enter YOUR FAVORITE THING here], further spreading the iPhone virus around the world, making Apple untold millions of dollars…
To you idiots who then had the price reduced by $200 (because it makes good sense for Apple to reward those who have yet to buy in favor of those stupid enough to stand in line to buy), but still held your head up high, customizing your iPhone and, yes, still telling everyone you know to pony up for the greatest tech gadget on God’s green earth…
to you, oh Mac Geek, oh tech god and early adopter, Apple says, “[enter favorite explitive]”
As many of you already know, the most recent firmware update that Apple has produced for the iPhone will, if you have dared to place any third-party applications on your device, “brick” your phone. In the words of Monty Python, your iPhone will be “dead,” “bereft of life,” it will “cease to be.”
This blog is not aimed at those who unlocked their iPhones so that they could use another wireless carrier. A good deal of Apple’s profits are from the sharing of the monthly service fees with AT&T. Not that I am in agreement with Apple on this point, but they are not the target of this blog. The more remarkable thing is that Apple, by targeting those who will ad third-party apps., is actually taking aim on those who are most passionate about the iPhone (and their entire product line).
It is the geeks, the technophiles, that spread the word and blog about the product. These are the same people that Apple should be courting and trying to please so that they can continue to share the gospel of Mac and its products. By offending them, Apple is instead mobilizing a powerful force against them. And now it is only a matter of time before the mainstream media begin to give them a louder microphone.
Brandon Weber's Marginalia 
You do realize, by admission of the people who WROTE the anySIM baseband update, Apple didn’t brick any phones right? It was the baseband firmware itself that was bad.
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-elite/wiki/iPhoneBrick
Upon reading this, I realize how ANGRY I sound. I am not. I think I am just more surprised by and disappointed in a company a company I generally believe in. Even great companies get stupid at times.
infreq,
Thanks for the insight. It seems to me that Apple could have made their product open to third-party applications to begin with. That way those of us who wanted to use the product fully (I am not talking about switching carriers), could. =)