Mobile – Page 8 – ɔimoɈɒ

The First Five

Today I installed 5 iPhone apps on top of iPhone OS 2.0 which was made available early through an Apple ‘phobos’ link. There’s a good chance it’s final but it’s refreshing to have something new to play with. Alas, it actually makes me want an iPhone 3G even more. Remote: Use your iPhone as a … Continue reading “The First Five”

Remote: Use your iPhone as a remote for your iTunes. You need to be on the same WiFi network as your iTunes-bearing Mac or PC but it allows you to select song or playlist, select multiple speakers (on AirTunes) and play or pause or whatever. It’s free. So why the hell not (and it means that during a party you can leave your precious Mac hidden away so you can control what plays from your phone and prevent guests from futzing with it. Perfick!)

AIM: it’s AOL Instant Messenger. On your iPhone. And I’m uninstalling it. It’s buggy as hell. Please. Someone. Make. A. Good. Instant. Messenger. Application.

Exposure: if you use Flickr, it’s going to be hard to justify not using Flickr Premium, the Â£5.99 version of this free app. But for me this is going to be uninstalled. I don’t use Flickr. And the ‘photos near me’ thing is, frankly, creeping me out. Brrr. It’s amazing what ConnectedFlow has done and again, Fraser Speirs proves that he’s a master of providing what’s interesting to photographers. He’s now a master of social photography. But this ain’t for me.

Super Monkey Ball: More than anything else, this is the best technology demo I’ve seen for the iPhone. I’m not fussed on Super Monkey Ball as a game in itself but this is a thing of beauty. I think the kids will love it. The thing that surprised me more than the amazing visuals was the speed of it. The graphics scroll really smoothly and when it gets up to speed, it’s simply breathtaking. It’s a steal at Â£5.99.

Twitterific: It’s beautiful. The scrolling is slow and jerky but other than that, this is even better than the desktop version in my opinion. Craig, if you read this, I love it. Now, fix the scrolling.

So, those were my first five. I was expecting some other apps to be up there and it’s a shame they’re missing. I reckon as the weeks go by we’re probably going to see heaps more.

Ones I’m considering?

South Park ImaginationLand?

EverNote?

Any you think are fabulous?

Can you feel it?

Click ‘Register your interest’ and … I know. I’m such a fanboi I can’t contain my excitement! Related posts: The State of the Union Computer Programming for Everybody On The Box This echoes how I feel about programming

Click ‘Register your interest’ and …

I know. I’m such a fanboi I can’t contain my excitement!

iPhone 3G is almost here

Just arrived by Text from O2 UK. “As promised we are writing to you to keep you updated on the next steps to getting iPhone 3G. iPhone 3G goes on sale on the High street on 11th July 2008. We will be writing to you again before the 11th with details about how you could … Continue reading “iPhone 3G is almost here”

Just arrived by Text from O2 UK.

“As promised we are writing to you to keep you updated on the next steps to getting iPhone 3G.

iPhone 3G goes on sale on the High street on 11th July 2008.

We will be writing to you again before the 11th with details about how you could place your order. We do, however, expect demand for iPhone 3G to be very high so orders will be processed on a first come, first served basis so that we can be fair to all our customers. Orders will be limited to one iPhone 3G per customer.”

Interesting…

Ngmoco to target iPhone

From Gamasutra, Neil Young, former head of Electronic Arts (EA) Blueprint and Electronic Arts LA has jacked in the high profile job at EA in order to produce iPhone games at his new studio ‘Ngmoco‘. In the interview he describes the iPhone and App Store as a disruptive element in the ecosystem (my words) which … Continue reading “Ngmoco to target iPhone”

In the interview he describes the iPhone and App Store as a disruptive element in the ecosystem (my words) which involves several fundamental shifts from the way things have been done in the past.

…more than half the time the average iPhone is in use, it’s being used for something other than making a telephone call. If you think about that concept, that is a fundamental shift.

…from a performance standpoint, is pretty close to a PSP, but unlike the PSP, it’s got a touchscreen, accelerometers, a camera, it’s location-aware, it’s got all of your media on it, it’s awake with you, it’s always on, and it’s always connected to the network. So if you think about the types of games and entertainment experiences that you can build on a platform like that, it’s got to get pretty exciting pretty quickly.

…if you think about what Apple’s doing with the App Store, they’re really turning mobile on its ear. They allow you to control the pricing yourself. They’re taking a distribution fee for distributing your software, but they’re really allowing users to choose what to put on their phone and how they want to enhance their device. And that is a fundamental shift.

The company has three roles:

So commissioning, financing, and producing titles ourselves, that’s the first party. Then there’s the second party, which is looking to the independent developer community and asking ourselves, “What great ideas are out there that need to be funded and financed?”
And lastly, it’s a third party for people who don’t necessarily need our producing experience or our financing, but the opportunity to work with us within an ecosystem

As Ngmoco will be a publisher more than a developer, it allows them to spot interesting games that might want to move to other mobile platforms as they become available – migrating the software to Android or the new ‘open’ Symbian operating system when it appears. It’s all about spotting the intellectual property and getting it licensed and published in order to maximise return and providing their previous expertise in order to make the most of it. Potentially very profitable if iPhone sales estimates are to be believed (6 million iPhone 1.0 sold already, 14 million iPhone 3G predicted in latter half of 2008 and 24 million iPhone 3G predicted for 2009)

From what I can see, Ngmoco’s job will be mostly to introduce new developers to the cut-throat gaming market.

Mixed messages from O2

Two reports from two unconnected O2 stores agree that they will not be dealing with existing iPhone customers looking to upgrade to iPhone 3G for an estimated two weeks. The stores will only be dealing with new signups. Both of them said (separately) that existing iPhone customers who expressed interest would be posted a new … Continue reading “Mixed messages from O2”

Two reports from two unconnected O2 stores agree that they will not be dealing with existing iPhone customers looking to upgrade to iPhone 3G for an estimated two weeks. The stores will only be dealing with new signups. Both of them said (separately) that existing iPhone customers who expressed interest would be posted a new iPhone after being called in early July and agreeing to a new 18 month contract. This means that existing iPhone customers would be very unlikely to receive the iPhone on day one.

Both of these stores were likely O2 franchises and not necessarily O2 corporate or O2 retail. So I rang O2’s specialist iPhone support line.
I was told:

I would have to wait til the end of my existing contract (October) to get an iPhone 3G. She was quite pushy and talked over me as I tried to explain that she was contradicting the web site.
When I’d endured a couple of minutes on hold while she read the web site, she confirmed that O2 would ‘give me a bell’ sometime in late July and tell me what the process would be.
She then suggested I call 2302 from my handset to get more information. I explained quietly that I’d called 2302 and had been directed to her. I just gave up then. Said goodbye in a nice way.
When she said goodbye she was late in putting the phone down where I heard someone say “Are they going to call them?” to which she says “Says so on the web site.”

Overwhelmed I am not. It’s evident that the people on the front lines don’t have a clue – they’ve been kept completely in the dark. This is something that annoys me about big companies. After 12 years of doing tech support, I think it’s absolutely vital to inform the people on the helpdesks of the situation as soon as you know. It stops them from getting frustrated and then in turn, frustrating your customers. Remember that for any company, your customers are your most important asset. (Apple, of course, breaks the mould here because their customers enjoy speculating about new Apple products more than they actually like buying them.)

I understand it’s two weeks now until the iPhone release and if rumours on the Internet are to believed, the new firmware for the iPhone may have just hit final release which means Apple will be working hard to get it in place for download to phones by the 11th July.

O2 will be doing well out of me. We have two iPhones in this household and both will be upgrading to iPhone 3G and handing the old phones to family members to use – effectively doubling O2’s penetration. This is not to be ignored. The early adopters will also be the most effective marketing platform for O2.

I’m left a little frustrated about being an early adopter and not having any answers. About being told the opposite of what I’d read on the web site. About the company’s apparent interest in new customers rather than existing customers.

When marketing a new product

Telling everyone how good you are compared to a competitor is not a good way to start. This is why Venture Capitalists roll their eyes when people claim their new project is going to be “[FaceBook|Google|Office] but better!” The Samsung Instinct adverts are all about “Instinct versus iPhone”. This tells you two things: The Samsung … Continue reading “When marketing a new product”

Telling everyone how good you are compared to a competitor is not a good way to start.

This is why Venture Capitalists roll their eyes when people claim their new project is going to be “[FaceBook|Google|Office] but better!”

The Samsung Instinct adverts are all about “Instinct versus iPhone”. This tells you two things:

The Samsung Instinct team are more worried about iPhone than any other phone. Even phones which already have 3G and GPS. That tells us they think other smartphones running Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian are irrelevant. And did you notice the wait in this video while they wait for the Instinct to catch up with the Maps application on iPhone? That delay is going to be part of your day, every day, every minute you use that phone. There’s probably a reason why they don’t show the web browser launching in this Internet speed test video
The Samsung Instinct team are not very clever. Apple has added these touted features. It’s great to have the technical superiority for a few weeks while you launch a new phone but seriously – iPhone has been out for a year and this is the best you can do? I am actually looking forward to seeing an Samsung Instinct in the ‘plastic’.

I jumped on this train because frankly, AndroidGuys jumped on it first. It’s not an Android phone but that doesn’t matter. Come on guys! What’s te point in telling us all about closed has-been platforms where the only thing innovative is the advert????

What else do you need to know about the Instinct?

It has a 2 GB MicroSD memory card included. You can upgrade this to 8 GB for more money and there’s only one memory slot so you have to juggle your media. I love doing that. (the iPhone starts at 8 GB built-in and goes to 16GB, all built in).
Screen resolution is 240×432 pixels. It’ll be great for the movies and TV you can get on it. (iPhone is 480Ã—320. That’s a big difference.)
It has the same 2 Megapixel camera as the iPhone (which means you’ll need to carry another phone unless just snapping drunken pictures of mates.)
There is no information on the OS powering it or the availability of third party apps. (Even Bushmen of the Kalahari know about the iPhone and the App Store).

There you go. It beats the iPhone (June 2007) in the two areas that the iPhone (July 2008) will just fix. That’s fabulous. Well done to Samsung for pulling this out of a hat.

Apple really has gotten the mobile phone manufacturers in a tizzy. You have to laugh.

Android Fans think Android FTW! Obviously.

One of the AndroidGuys speculates on whether Apple rushed out the iPhone 3G in an attempt to pre-empt Android: “Iâ€™m going to make a prediction; Apple will find themselves in the unenviable position of fighting for market share. Yes, I know that everyone compares phones to the iPhone and its touch screen interface. A year … Continue reading “Android Fans think Android FTW! Obviously.”

One of the AndroidGuys speculates on whether Apple rushed out the iPhone 3G in an attempt to pre-empt Android:

“Iâ€™m going to make a prediction; Apple will find themselves in the unenviable position of fighting for market share. Yes, I know that everyone compares phones to the iPhone and its touch screen interface. A year from now, there will be touch versions of Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. Apple will be handcuffed by the fact that they only offer one model and one aesthetic. Android and the other players will be available in many shapes and sizes.”

The rest of the discussion turns into the ‘things which are missing that Android phones will likely be built with’.

The article reads like the AndroidGuys are actually watching their chosen platform spin down the plughole.

It. Is. Not. About. The. Features. Dummy.

Apple has already been fighting for market share against SonyEricsson, Motorola (maybe not so hard a fight), Nokia, RIM, LG and every other maker of every other handset. If a phone does email and internet, then it’s competing. And Apple has the advantage of 6 million handsets out there currently and likely another 10 million by year end. I don’t think that’s an unlikely prediction. It’s now available in 70 countries, nearly everyone who had an iPhone will be getting a cheap upgrade (or free in my case).

AndroidGuys continue:

I hate to break it to the Apple fanboys, but there will be more powerful Android devices coming and likely in the same price point, if not lower.

Spoken like a true fanboi.

The problem with a platform that hasn’t released any hardware to the public is that hardware specifications will always be changing and every new innovation that comes from companies who actually innovate in this space is going to be copied for use in Android (or at least it will be added in a bullet point marketing exercise). So there’s a feature creep, a slide where the hardware gets improved more and more and expectations change constantly. Not all features will be supported by all phones.

What AndroidGuy misses is that Apple is very comfortable with being both the underdog and the 800lb gorilla in a market. They’re doing okay with that ‘Mac thing’ with only a 8% market share (or whatever it is these days) and they’re also doing fine with that ‘iPod thing’ which gives them a 72% market share in that market. What percentage of the phone market do you think Apple is aiming for?

And considering the recent price drops for the iPhone and the consideration that everyone and his cousin will be buying one, why would anyone buy an Android phone until there’s a considerable market for them? Case in point:

I’m getting a free iPhone 3G when the darned thing is released. My existing iPhone will be converted to Pay As You Go and probably given to a family member. Apple will have doubled their market share in my household and this is something that is being repeated multiple times in my circle of friends and colleagues. The exception being the people who are keeping their iPhones as development devices which is already a tiny percentage of the overall market (registered developers are in the hundreds of thousands as opposed to the millions of iPhone users out there).

When Android hits the market, it will be faced with Windows Mobile 7, RIM’s new Blackberry devices and Apple’s iPhone/iPod juggernaut. And maybe something new from Palm. Or not. Their developers will be fighting a marketing battle against all of these new innovative handsets and with very little to differentiate them (oh, it’s free? Yeah, big deal).

I do hope they love a challenge.

Linux for iPhone. Nahhhh

Brandon Watts writes for OSWeekly: Since cell phones canâ€™t just run a traditional desktop operating system, all options had to be explored while developing the iPhone, and I was interested in the fact that Appleâ€™s engineers seriously looked at Linux since versions had already been developed that could run on a cell phone. Despite the … Continue reading “Linux for iPhone. Nahhhh”

Brandon Watts writes for OSWeekly:

Since cell phones canâ€™t just run a traditional desktop operating system, all options had to be explored while developing the iPhone, and I was interested in the fact that Appleâ€™s engineers seriously looked at Linux since versions had already been developed that could run on a cell phone. Despite the attention that Linux was given by the engineering team, Steve Jobs made it clear that he was not about to use another operating system aside from OS X.

Brandon. Apple didn’t ‘seriously’ look at Linux the way you think they looked at Linux. I have no doubt that, when developing the iPhone OSX distribution, they looked at embedded Linux distros to see how they worked, what compromises they made – but you can’t in any conscience think that Apple seriously considered using Linux for the iPhone – and that’s exactly what the Wired article says.

“Since 2002, when the idea for an Apple phone was first hatched, mobile chips had grown more capable and could theoretically now support some version of the famous Macintosh OS. But it would need to be radically stripped down and rewritten; an iPhone OS should be only a few hundred megabytes, roughly a 10th the size of OS X.
Before they could start designing the iPhone, Jobs and his top executives had to decide how to solve this problem. Engineers looked carefully at Linux, which had already been rewritten for use on mobile phones, but Jobs refused to use someone else’s software.”

Only a fantasist would think that Apple seriously considered as the base OS for the iPhone. For one thing, the whole thing is GNU-encumbered. Secondly, they had an operating system that had everything they needed including a kick-ass API. Thirdly, did I mention the GNU thing?

Developing for iPhone?

Staying Connected is Michael Connick’s blog. As Mike Cane puts it: For all iPhone users, I heartily recommend Michael Connickâ€™s Staying Connected blog. He has an uncanny knack of finding sites that have been optimized for the iPhone. I learn something new with each of his posts. I’ve held back on getting too much into … Continue reading “Developing for iPhone?”

Staying Connected is Michael Connick’s blog. As Mike Cane puts it:

For all iPhone users, I heartily recommend Michael Connickâ€™s Staying Connected blog. He has an uncanny knack of finding sites that have been optimized for the iPhone. I learn something new with each of his posts.

I’ve held back on getting too much into iPhone/iPod touch web apps since they were announced as the SDK at WWDC2007. Reason being: I knew it was a lie.

I knew we’d just have to wait for the proper SDK and I knew I’d have to wait for an app to arrive. What is for sure is that I don’t want to have to rely on spotty coverage with EDGE or 3G in order to use the apps I need every day (and there are certain parts of my workplace where there is no EDGE or 3G signal at all). In truth, it’s quite hard to ‘stay connected’ in Northern Ireland.

I think that’s why I’m so excited about this push update service which is being provided by Apple, apparently free of charge. But this also tells me why there seems to be a developer acceptance rate of just 16%. (based on 25 000 applications and 4000 acceptances).

One comment from Kirk:

I have been developing iPhone apps full time since the SDK was announced and applied for the developer program on day 1. However, it is now less than 1 month until the App Store opens and I wonder if I have wasted all this time developing apps that I won’t be able to market. I am beginning to think I should cut my losses and switch to the Android platform. Very frustrating.

And this worries me as well. I’m motivated enough to really give Cocoa a good try this time around but not being able to deploy my poorly thought-out apps is something that gives me pause. And this is going to be the case – Apple has a team of QA people deciding which apps will make it into the store and which won’t. In the interim, I can’t even test my apps on my own iPhone. So what’s worse – developing for a platform where you may never get to ship or developing for a platform that doesn’t exist and will take a long time to get the same penetration (and be inundated with hardware-variation-related support requests)?

However, allegedly Steve said:

Only a limited number of developers will get certificates now (we just can’t support all of the requests we’ve received). Almost every developer will get a certificate when we ship in June.

which does make me feel a lot better about the whole thing. I’m a true believer, me. I trust Steve Jobs to not lie to me.

Apple does need to address the ‘community’ aspect of Developer Relations. Having the iPhone SDK in closed beta and NDA’ed out the wazoo only hurt the good guys who silently struggled with bugs and couldn’t talk to anyone about them. It wouldn’t hard for them to put a discussion forum behind the ADC portal.

Apps are coming to the iPhone. Proper apps. You won’t have to put up with the crappy EDGE connection when trying to fit in a quick game of Bejeweled while in the lunch queue or being faced with 25 minutes of boredom because you have to wait somewhere and all of your media is longer than that and you don’t want to split it.

I think there’s a very real opportunity for some individuals and small businesses out there to really shine. The App Store provides a great leveller so that someone coming along with great ideas, great code and great marketing could just rise to the top of the lists. It’s a new platform, folks. How often do they come along?

iPhone woe

I had a problem with my iPhone last night. The 123, space bar and Return key were not working on the software keyboard – they just didn’t respond. There was nothing physically wrong with the device because if you opened Safari, the bottom bar worked fine – so the hardware was functioning. This problem meant … Continue reading “iPhone woe”

I had a problem with my iPhone last night.

The 123, space bar and Return key were not working on the software keyboard – they just didn’t respond. There was nothing physically wrong with the device because if you opened Safari, the bottom bar worked fine – so the hardware was functioning. This problem meant I couldn’t use spaces, returns, numbers or punctuation in SMS texts, emails or entering web addresses. That turned the iPhone into a ‘phone’.

So, I backed up, restored the firmware. No go. I reasoned there must be something wrong with my software configuration – maybe a corrupt preference file or something. I even tried changing my default keyboard to “UK” to see if that made a difference.

Restored to a factory default version of the software. No go. This was getting curious. I was getting curious. I couldn’t understand why the bottom row area would work in some applications but not in others and why it only seemed to affect the keyboard.

Repeated this twice more. No go. I’m beyond curious now and just frustrated.

I phoned Apple. They tell me they will ship out a replacement iPhone for me to borrow for the princely sum of Â£20. And take the imprint of my credit card number just in case. The girl estimates the repair to take 5-7 days. She said I could get it quicker if I went to an Apple Store (we won’t have one of those in Belfast til late summer. Or an O2 store. Where they will take the phone and post it off, handing me back a naked SIM card. For a Â£25 deposit, I can borrow one of their loaner handsets – which I’ll get back when my iPhone comes back.

As I need a phone and don’t have an unlocked handset around (or another O2 locked handset), I went for the O2 option. Note I had to go to O2 in Bangor (unhelpful), ring O2 in Bloomfield (unhelpful) and then drive over to Newtownards to the O2 store where Colin and Christina were very helpful and got me sorted out with an outgoing repair to Apple and a spare handset.

So, here it is.

Sleek curves. Massive screen. No Bluetooth. But it has a camera and can do MMS.

Brilliant.