Apple getting a seedy image

How tragic. What was once thought of as America's sweetheart of the cell-phone industry, a fresh, charming piece of technology with a bright and exciting future, is starting to become more famous for making headline-grabbing stumbles and sprawls.

Horrifyingly, iPhone has become the Lindsay Lohan of technology.

I blame the parents, of course.

And the latest flap has been the worst one of them all. Apple released a major update to the iPhone's firmware last week.

Firmware 1.1.1 adds an iTunes Store application as well as some security fixes and minor user-interface tweaks.

And if you've used a tool to unlock your iPhone so you could access T-Mobile and other outside phone networks, it will probably render the phone inoperable and maybe even unrecoverable.

Yes, it's that last thing that's grabbing the headlines. And not just in the nerd press, either.

"Apple disables users' iPhones," I heard on the local nightly newscast, "and the company says they won't fix them!"

As for the nerd press, online commentators are reacting the way a cat does when it's taken a nap in your clean laundry and suddenly finds itself tumbling around in the dryer. They are not calm and measured. Well, that's just rubbish. I'm almost willing to dismiss it purely on a humanist level.

In addition to my basic faith in humanity, there's the fact that unlike other phones, SIM-unlocking an iPhone is a very messy trick. The tools used are hacks, not consumer solutions, and the risks are severe and unavoidable.

It's not like riding in an airplane. It's like jumping out of one.

Apple couldn't have protected these phones without a great deal of time and effort that was better spent improving the iPhone itself.

Apple did warn the iPhone community about the dangers of SIM-unlocking. Apple issued its warning when these tools first became available, and it even inserted a big warning -- in capital letters, no less -- in the firmware installer itself.

What we have here isn't a case of Apple being evil. It's a demonstration of what can happen when hacker tools are sold as consumer solutions.

Folks still have a right to be very upset at Apple, though. The update trashed some phones that hadn't been modified at all, its users claim. Worse, it removes all unauthorized third-party applications and makes it impossible for them to ever run again.

This hits me where it hurts. I count on my iPhone eBook reader to keep info and documents from my desktop at hand. Plus, I've finally gotten to the point in "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" text adventure where I need to get the Babel Fish.

It's amazing that the iPhone developer community has come so far without any help whatsoever from Apple. The company released no sample code, no tech docs, no software development kit. But the iPhone is based on a popular OS, and Unix programmers took the ball and ran with it.

By September, there was a friendly, consumer-level app that downloaded, installed and ran commercial-quality software.

So the iPhone was gaining new and wonderful features every week.

These apps technically broke the rules of Apple's user agreement, but unlike the SIM hack, it broke nothing on the device itself.

With the new firmware installed, all software must be "signed" by Apple or else it's a no-go. So if I upgrade my iPhone's firmware from 1.02 to 1.1.1, I'll gain an app that enables me to buy music directly from the iTunes store, but I'll lose all the other apps I've installed over the past month.

It's a bad trade. I ain't updating.

Back to poor Lindsay iPhone. The reputations of the iPhone -- and Apple -- have taken a real hit, even though these issues don't affect the average iPhone consumer. As with the real Lindsay, it can all be fixed if Apple just learns how to communicate better.

There are reasons why the firmware update created so much havoc for so many phones, and it mostly isn't the company's fault.

Why isn't Apple explaining this clearly? And while ideally, I want to have full control of my hardware, all I truly need are beautiful, reliable tools that help me get through the day. If the best apps are only available signed, sealed, and delivered from the iTunes Store, fine. But when, kind sirs, will that be happening?

So here's the state that Apple has created via its silence: The iPhone is a $399 phone that can be crippled via a software update, and in some cases, if you take it in for warranty service, Apple won't fix it.

This expensive device can't run any "real" apps that didn't come pre-installed, and Apple has announced no plans to give the iPhone the same ability found in every Treo, Blackberry and Nokia that costs half as much.

Please, Apple. Fix this before the court orders the iPhone to be fitted with an ankle bracelet.

Andy Ihnatko writes on technical and computer issues for the Sun-Times.

BUSY SIGNAL | The iPhone started out with all the good will in the world, but missteps peeling away company's image

ANDY IHNATKO

Caption helper: The iPhone's big library of useful (and Apple-

unapproved) third-party software disappears with the latest Apple

firmware update.