When Apple starts peddling ring tones as something other than simply an mp3 that you can use to alert you of an incoming call, locking down iPods so that they only work with iTunes, and making horrendous UI decisions such as the new Dock, you know it’s time to look elsewhere for computing and gadgetry needs.

Over the last few years, I’ve been having an inner conflict between, on one hand, the years of happy memories of using Apple products, the quality of their product design and the ease of use of OS X, and on the other, their slipshod attidude to peoples’ freedoms, the brushed metal effect, and their amazing short-sightedness as to not open the iPhone as a platform for developers.

The iPhone is released in the UK on November 9th, and the