Somebody has created an application for Google’s Android OS that scans barcodes, searches for a corresponding torrent on bittorrent search sites, and automatically downloads the content: Torrent Droid.
This is why Android will kill the iPhone. Porn and warez and shady applications.
Apple is repeating the same damn mistake they made in the 80s with the Apple II series and the original Mac. They’re pushing yet another closed platform. Android is going to clean up in the marketplace in the next few years, just like IBM PC clones did back then.
Yeah, I know: user experience, design, blah blah blah. It doesn’t matter. The incredibly varied marketplace that open development for the Android opens up will completely change the mobile software ecosystem. Oh, there will be crap. There will be an unbelievable amount of crap out there for it. But Sturgeon’s law and all that. ANYBODY with access to a relatively decent PC can develop for Android. I need to pay around $1k just to get the hardware to develop for an iPhone. Some crazy bastard is going to develop the Android’s VisiCalc, and then: Boom!