Recently in iPhone Category

Image Credit: The New York Times
The Gray Lady's Brad Stone has a 3 pager in today's paper on everyone's favorite new holy war: RIM versus Apple. It comes complete with a cute historical reference to RIM's headquarters:

STEVE JOBS, Apple's chief executive and field general, has Napoleonic dreams of global conquest for his 10-month-old wonder gadget, the iPhone. So it may be fitting that he's encountering his most serious resistance in a city called Waterloo.  That is where, 70 miles west of Toronto in Ontario, 19 nondescript, low-rise office buildings comprise the headquarters of Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry.

Well, I, for one, have welcomed our Canadian overlords, having ditched my iPhone for a BlackBerry after 3 and a half months of swerving, sweating, and getting annoyed at the coolness of Apple's $400 screen.

In March, Mr. Jobs announced that Apple would take the rare step of licensingMicrosoft's corporate e-mail technology, to allow iPhones to connect directly to business computers -- a dagger aimed at the heart of R.I.M.'s strength in the corporate market. In Apple's quarterly conference call last week, Apple executives said that one-third of Fortune 500 companies were interested in giving iPhones to their employees.

I'll go out on a limb here and actually praise Microsoft for delivering a great product, Exchange, and RIM for leveraging it for the on the go email user (sadly, most of my mobile use is email, Instant Message or an even cooler feature, RIM's peer-to-peer BlackBerry Messenger follow, but I use email more than anything). Also, the calendar. Ah, the calendar. I can add an appointment and invite a friend and it hits their calendar and mine, I can edit it on my Mac and it hits the phone in the same way. Yes, ActiveSync does that but at what cost?

It may seem shocking to some people, but TMZ had an awesome post with a pseudo-conspiracy theory about Research in Motion (the folks who make the BlackBerry), Will.i.am and Barack Obama.

 

Here's a snippet

 

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Barack gets the Black vote -- BlackBerry that is!

Research in Motion -- the maker of BlackBerry -- is teaming up with Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am's website, Dipdive.com.

While the folks at RIM haven't officially endorsed Barack, Will.i.am is a fierce supporter of Obama. The Dipdive website has so much Obama content, it might as well be run by his camp!

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I like the thinking - BlackBerry doesn't want to explicitly endorse anyone, so they partner with one of the most vocal Barack Obama supporters there is - I mean we've all seen the "Yes, We Can" video, right?  It's a great double-whammy for RiM, at the same time offering a backdoor endorsement for the younger, hipper Democratic hopeful and making another move into the "fun" territory that is controlled by the Sidekick and the interloping iPhone.

 

Well-played, RiM.

In the "ok, ok, we admit we should have done this last year" department, Apple announced that not only will they release the SDK, but that they've licensed Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for iPhone. Interestingly enough, Steve, who just over a year ago announced that there would be no SDK and that the only push option for iPhone would be Yahoo!, passed the buck to Phil Schiller to make this announcement.

I was going to do this myself, but mocoNews.net did it first and better.  Here is their totally awesome comparison of the new $99 unlimited plans from the Big 4.

 

-- Sprint Nextel: Perhaps the biggest example of this, the Overland Park company launched today an unlimited pricing plan that includes unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TV, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect for $99.99 a month. For $89.99 a month, there will be an unlimited voice, push-to-talk and text option. On financial impact, Hesse said they are balancing fiscal responsibility and growing the wireless data market.

-- T-Mobile USA: Announced on Feb. 19 that it will offer a plan that includes unlimited voice, and unlimited text, picture and IM messaging for $99.99 a month.

-- AT&T: Announced an unlimited voice plan for $99.99 a month on Feb. 19. Separately, AT&T customers can sign up for data plans such as $5 for 200 text, picture, video and instant messages or $35 for unlimited messaging and MEdia Net access. AT&T said it still expects 2008 revenue growth in the mid-single digit percentage range despite offering the unlimited calling plan, and said a very small percentage of its customers spend more than $100 a month.

-- Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless: Announced an unlimited voice plan for $99.99 a month. An unlimited plan including messaging is $120 a month, and a plan including messaging, VCAST, VZNavigator and Mobile Email is $140 a month. Verizon said currently about 305,000 customers, or 0.5 percent of its subscriber base, have monthly plans above $99. Those customers have an average monthly bill between $125 and $135 a month. Over time, the reduced revenues from higher value customers moving down to the unlimited plan should be offset by increased revenues as a result of customers moving to unlimited plans, Verizon said.

 

The story goes on to metion the unlimited offerings from some of the smaller carriers and MVNOs (companies who offer mobile phone service but lease space on another company's network).

Do any of you have service from a carrier that wasn't mentioned?  Know of an awesome unlimited plan that got overlooked?  Let us know!

 

A little behind schedule, Apple is ready to release its SDK (Software Developer Kit) for the iPhone.

 

Here are the details, from Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it will reveal its software plans for its iPhone device on March 6, including tools for outside developers and features aimed at businesses.

"Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features," Apple said in an invitation sent to reporters.

(Reporting by Scott Hillis)

 

So the iPhone will finally be able to use a few gigs of its memory for on-board application as opposed to the entirely web-based shenanigans that are currently offered.  On-board applications make a lot of sense because they are so much faster.  Even though some of them access the web in order to perform searches or update information a lot of time is saved when as much as possible id done by or on the phone.  Take TwitterBerry, for example.  Even though you access the web to see friends' updates or to submit your own, you type in your text directly on the handset.  You don't have to wait for the page to load just to enter your text and then wait again to submit it.  Also, there are plenty of apps that don't require any web interaction at all.  There are applications that will let you scour your handset for information.  I think that the usefulness of an application like that would be nullified if you had to wait around for the internet everytime you tried to search your handset for something.  And let's not forget that the internet on the iPhone isn't all that fast.  It's decent, but when it's being relied upon so heavily any inadequacies will get exposed over and over again.

 

While I think it's great that Apple is opening up the iPhone I have to wonder why they waited.  If they were worried about third-party applications drawing people away from Apple software, why release it at all?  If I had to guess, I'd say that they wanted to get people to try the preloaded Apple offerings and decided to gurantee that they would by not allowing effective access to any alternatives. 

 

Who knows.  If enough applications become available and the enterprise solutions are truly "exciting" Andrew may have to take the iPhone out of mothballs.

 

I'm not holding my breath.

...by announcing upgrades just over a month after the holiday shopping season ended.

Courtesy of the AP:

CUPERTINO, Calif. ? Apple Inc. updated its iPhone and iPod Touch lineup Tuesday, doubling the memory and setting a new premium price for its high-end models. The latest iPhone features 16 gigabytes of memory and retails for $499. The previously released 8 GB version of the hybrid cell phone, multimedia player and wireless Internet device costs $399. The new iPod Touch comes with 32 GB of memory and retails for $499. The older 16 GB and 8 GB versions of the combination multimedia player wireless Internet gadget cost $399 and $299, respectively. The new devices are available through Apple's online and retail stores. The updated iPhone is also available through AT&T Inc.'s online and retail stores. Apple said that all iPhone and iPod Touch models come with updated software that the company announced in January. It includes a new maps application and the ability to watch movies from the iTunes movie rental service. Apple shares fell 34 cents to $130.31 in pre-market trading.

I understand products get upgraded and updated as time goes on. What I cannot fathom, however, is what kind of idiot releases upgraded versions of one of their company's most distinctive, sought after and well-marketed products (did anyone notice the past two episodes of House, in which we see Wilson with an iPhone and both House and Wilson using their MacBook Pros to diagnose a patient stuck at the South Pole?) only weeks after many people (first time buyers?) spent their holiday bonuses on what was then the latest and greatest? What better way to piss off your new customers than to piss on them by making their new products obsolete-ish. I understand it's been over six months since iPhone's release, and only a bit less for iPod Touch. But seriously, Apple! Every time you do this you make people who buy your products, and subsequently fall in love with them, really, really mad. You also have not delivered on that SDK you promised. No third party apps? Bye-bye power users. At least RIM's upgrade cycle is predictable and they're not afraid to let people expand their product's functionality. My iPhone is going on Craigslist soon, and I couldn't care less.

A few more things to think about while we're pondering the earth-shattering consequences of a MSFT-YHOO shotgun wedding...

• The consent decree that was extended for two (of the requested five) extra years by U.S. District Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly (who, interestingly enough has served as chief judge of the FISA Court, the secret tribunal that approves special warrants to spy on suspected spies) only addresses how Microsoft's operating system software interacts with its' competitors application products, and how much documentation of things like APIs and file formats Microsoft is required to publicly disclose. It doesn't cover anything like search engines, advertising, web applications, or anything that has become important since 2001. In fact, one could probably (successfully) argue that Microsoft's inability to expand successfully after winning the browser war is because in a world where the browser and open standards are king, they haven't been able to leverage their desktop market share anymore. Even their browser has been to some extent rendered an avoidable annoyance by a Mozilla Firefox, ironically the descendant of Microsoft's most famous victim, and the reason for the whole antitrust suit in the first place...Netscape Navigator. 
• When Microsoft won the browser war, they shoved ActiveX down our collective throats. Not only did it turn out to be a non-starter for what could arguably be called the first generation (the beta?) of Web 2.0 (albeit a proprietary, slow version), but it turned the browser (and Word, and Outlook, and the entire Windows platform) into a security nightmare. ActiveX is the DNA of most modern worms, spiders, viruses and other things with names that evoke yucky creatures you'd rather not have on you.  Of course, since ActiveX sucked so badly, a whole host of companies were able to capitalize on the relative security and openness of AJAX, Flash and what have become the various browser-independent building blocks of Web 2.0. Google has been able to capitalize on this by building good Web applications that happen to feature tiny little contextual, even helpful ads. Not by being flashy and putting their name everywhere on your mailbox, messages or applications unless you paid up (like a few of their competitors do with their respective email services), but by trying to be useful, giving you a product and letting them make a buck. 
• I'll spell it out for you. Google Mail (Gmail) users don't have advertisements appended to their outgoing messages, but Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail users who don't pay a fee do.Speaking of Yahoo! mail...remember that this is an unsolicited bid. Also remember just over a year ago when Apple's iPhone was announced, the exclusive partner for iPhone's (relatively weak) push email service (which is far from BlackBerry quality, but I've said that before) was, and still is...Yahoo! 
• So, does anyone think Apple is going to keep going steady with Yahoo! when they're being acquired by Microsoft, when Microsoft, after years of sad efforts to make inroads in the handheld/smartphone/music player market just to  see Apple dazzle the world with iPod and iPhone would like nothing more than to throw a wrench into the works? All that talk about Apple and Google being the new rivals (thanks to Google's Android project) is over and done with. Apple will keep selling iPhone, but I'll bet that all those future iPhone (and current, since iPhone updates are made available to all) owners will soon be able to get some new functionality with Google apps pretty soon, especially with Apple releasing the iPhone SDK in the coming weeks.

Think about it: Microsoft and Yahoo versus Apple and Google. Anyone taking wagers?

(note: I'm posting this story here because I'm annoyed by all the happiness over yesterday's new iPhone "features" delivered by Steve.) Last January, I sat in a classroom at American University and ignored some boring speaker on lobbying in the EU while Steve Jobs held up the handheld device that would deliver us from evil, save the whales, end global warming, play music, read email, and iron my shirt. I immediately reached for my BlackBerry (then an 8700c) and thought "so what? No keyboard, no real email, could I ever use the damn thing and get work done?" I immediately was struck by how dumb Apple looked by partnering with Yahoo! (Yahoo???) to deliver "push" email capabilities "just like BlackBerry." Yeah, right. Ok, so fast forward to iDay. I had mothballed my 8700 for a work-issued Treo with GoodLink, letting me have real-time access to my office's exchange server, calendar, etc. For those of you who've never experienced real-time push and sync, it is the information equivilant of crack. I shit you not. In comparison to iPhone's email client, you simply cannot put the two side-by-side and expect to be satisfied unless you are willing to give up a whole featureset. Another series of events led me to switch to a different Treo, this one running Windows Mobile. Initially, I didn't hate it nearly as much as I thought I always would. The email client was good, it sync'd up with my exchange server, it didn't suck that bad at all. I spoke too soon. Never before had a phone turned me into a worse driver. Suddenly I was almost killing myself on a regular basis trying to answer calls. Not good, right? Back to the AT&T store I go. Ok, I gave up. I traded my Treo for a newly-reduced-in-price iPhone. I was actually excited. I even transfered all my music to it and stopped carrying my iPod. This was in September. Ok, so I hacked the shit out of the thing. Then the new firmware came. I held off until I could re-jailbreak it and upgraded, and hacked it again. But somewhere along the line, I realized I had the following problems with it, and hacking more just wouldn't solve them:

1. SMS has a really, really lame feature. No matter where you are, in a call, writing an email, etc, *BOOM* there it is. You can't escape it. You can't even end a call properly if you get an SMS in the middle of it. You have to hit "ignore" and then "end." It doesn't just go away.
2. The email blows. I mean really. Let's forget, for a moment, how I loathe HTML email for a second, and just look at the client itself. a) the formatting is all weird, with no way to tell how your mail will look on a normal screen. b) no push: this turned out to be a dealbreaker, people. Yahoo! just doesn't cut it, since honestly, 95% of people using Yahoo! mail are complete tools. Unprofessional to a T.
3. No GPS. Google maps is great, and driving directions are nice, but that doesn't do a damn thing for me when I don't know where I am. Yes, yes, I know there is a new location feature in the new firmware, but I had that as a hack from Navizon 4 months ago. It. Doesn't. Count.
4. No AIM. Why Apple dropped the ball on this I have no idea. Again, I had to install a jailbreak-hack to get this functionality. Why do I need to hack my phone to get a feature that every other phone I've ever owned has had? Come on, Steve.
5. I know this is stupid, but it's IMPOSSIBLE to use while driving. Yeah, I know how bad that is to complain about, but seriously folks, the less time I look away from the road, the better.
6. Battery life. I didn't think this would be an issue, but when I found myself needing the charge the phone before going to bed, I knew I was going to have problems. In contrast, my BlackBerry can go days without seeing an outlet.
7. The email really does blow. I'm one of those people who lives and dies my connectivity, and the bottom line is, iPhone 1.x doesn't make me feel connected to the world around me when I travel. It doesn't combine all my email into one inbox. It's too bad, really. I want to be in touch, not just have a cool web browser. I don't want to have to plug it into my laptop to sync the calendars. When I go away for a day or two, I want to leave my laptop at home. With the BlackBerry, I can do that. With iPhone, I felt like I had to take my laptop with me, just in case I needed to get something done.
8. Applications! Right now I have two web browsers, an AIM client, a Twitter client, Google Maps, TeleNav (awesome navigation software, talks to me like in-car navigation except I can take it with me), Google Sync (keeps my Google Calendar up to date with the BlackBerry, take THAT iCal), and a whole host of others. Apple hasn't released an SDK, and is only doing so grudgingly. I doubt they'll really embrace third-party apps like RIM has.

So, right now my iPhone is in mothballs, aka back in the box, awaiting the day when Apple offers me a software update that will let me do more than play with the damn thing. I'm sad. I like the concept, I just wish they had waited until they had a full featureset. I'm waiting for 2.0 now.