From C|Net’s Ross Catanzariti comes an article with the headline:
“The Palm Pre Will Be an iPhone Killer”
OK. So you would assume that Mr. Catanzariti has used the device and can speak to how it compares to the iPhone. You would assume wrong. Third paragraph in:
“Although we haven’t yet had a chance to get our hands on this hot new smartphone, the reports coming out of the US have been largely positive so far. In particular, the webOS operating system is reportedly intuitive, easy to use and visually appealing, and looks like the closest competitor to the iPhone yet.”
Look, the Pre might be an iPhone killer. I certainly hope it does well, as competition can only push Apple to make the iPhone better. But if there’s one thing the Blackberry Storm has taught us, it’s that stock photos and hitting key “features” is not enough to make a phone that will dethrone the iPhone. Before proclaiming a certain product a “killer” you may want to have at least used it first and formed an opinion based on usage, not on a press release.
Category: Opinion
Leslie Cauley, writing for USAToday:
Apple’s (AAPL) unique treatment of the new Skype Internet calling feature on the iPhone — the free app works only on Wi-Fi, not the cellular or 3G network — is raising concern among public-policymakers and consumer advocates.
They say it’s a clear example of AT&T (T), the sole carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., trying to handicap a direct competitor.
First of all, AT&T is a wireless provider. Skype is a (psuedo) wireless provider. Why should AT&T be required to allow access to Skype over it’s 3G network? AT&T has every right to deny Apple and Skype the ability to route VoIP calls over it’s 3G network.
Leslie’s article quotes acting FCC Chairman Michael Cops:
“In the fast-changing world of technology, you have to constantly revisit the rules and regulations to make sure they’re in accord with the real world.”
The one thing missing from the article – which qualifies it for idiocy – is that there is no mention of the iPod Touch.
You see, you can completely bypass AT&T by using a 2nd generation iPod Touch with Skype. Of course, you are still required to make your calls over WiFi, but you also don’t get locked in to a long term AT&T contract.
Of course, citing that fact would have made all of the whining in the article seem childish, so I can fully understand Ms. Cauley not bringing that fact up.
Category: News
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled iPhone OS 3.0. Coming this summer, iPhone OS 3.0 offers approximately 100 new features for end users, and over 1000 new features for developers. If you follow these types of things, you’ve already read much about what to expect. Here’s a few of my thoughts and perceptions.
First off – iPhone OS 3.0 delivers just about everything I was looking for in the next release. The one omission is video recording. We know that the iPhone is capable of such a feature because there is already an application that does this for jailbroken iPhones. The only reason I can think of that Apple didn’t include this feature is that they are holding it back to accompany a hardware update at some point in the future. Or, that the feature is in development but just isn’t fully baked yet. Either way, the very fact that this is one of the last features Apple has yet to implement on the iPhone is a good sign that they have delivered just about everything users were asking for. Being all things to all people isn’t easy, but Apple is doing a great of just of being just that.
One feature that (some) developers were hoping for but didn’t get is background processing. Apple made a point of demonstrating how background processing goes through battery life like the Octomom goes through diapers. Apple’s solution is the long delayed push notification API. This API, which was originally promised for iPhone 2.0 is now slated for 3.0. Apple demoed it with AIM, and it seems to do the trick. As a user, I’d like background processing, but not at the expense of having a fully drained device inside of an hour. Since the iPhone is – you guessed it – a phone, this is obviously an inexcusable side effect.
Other random thoughts:
Opening up the app store to GPS apps that offer turn by turn directions is huge. The iPhone is on the verge of becoming a fully usable GPS device. The only question remaining is how much the developers of said apps will charge. Both Garmin and Tom Tom have stated they are working on such apps. But both companies will be very careful how they price their app. Price it too low and they risk cannabalizing GPS unit sales. Price it too high and they risk being beaten in this market by the lower priced player. Turn by turn directions is probably the feature I am most looking forward to.
The Peer to Peer functioanlity is huge. It adds yet another tool for game developers to create rich gaming experiences.
Apple’s announcement that there are 30 million iPhone OS devices is game changing. They’ve built this market in less than 2 years. It’s not unrealistic to expect this market to grow by 20 million units in 2009. I haven’t seen recent figures on the number of Macs running OS X in the wild, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has more devices running iPhone OS than Mac OS X at this point. If not, iPhone OS devices will probably outnumber OS X devices by the end of the year.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Apple will continue to move more and more in the direction of producing iPhone OS devices. Apple has already shown a lack of interest in desktop Macs. I’m not saying that Apple will be getting out of the Mac market, but clearly you devote resources to the line of business that is making you more money. And the iPhone OS line, with sheer numbers of units sold, revenue sharing from carriers, and 30% of all apps sold offers the biggest revenue driver for the company. Apple would be crazy not to prioritize it.
And finally, this little thought: Snow Leopard is supposed to be released this summer. Yet the last look the public got at it was at WWDC 2007. Apple has already demonstrated iPhone OS to the world, and given developers access to the SDK and OS firmware update. How come OS X developers aren’t getting the same courtesy? As a developer, I’d like a little heads up as to when Snow Leopard is shipping.
Category: News
Paul Thurrott, on his bullshit laden “SuperSite for Windows” espouses:
“Microsoft today will announce its plans for the various Windows 7 product editions it will sell when that OS is released to the public sometime this year. And I am thrilled to reveal that it’s good news for a change. Here’s what’s happening.”
For those who haven’t heard, Microsoft is simplifying things by going from 6 versions of Vista, to 5 versions of Windows 7. This. Is. Progress? According to Thurrot, yes.
“Unlike with Vista, where Microsoft crowded the market with too many mainstream product editions, Windows 7 will ship in just a handful of common-sense product editions. And also unlike with Vista, these product editions are all true supersets of each other, so there are no overlapping feature sets (which is good) and upgrades will be much simpler (which is even better).”
I’ll give Microsoft credit for removing the overlapping feature sets, but come on. 5 editions of a product (not counting the inevitable Server edition, which brings us back up to 6) is not how you simplify things. You simplify things by going to one version.
Of course, Thurrott is a Microsoft shill, so his cheerleading on this unimpressive “change” is not surprising.
Category: Opinion
During the 1990′s, Steve Jobs was interviewed for a PBS special entitled “The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires”. During his interview with Robert Cringely, Jobs’ made this statement:
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
I can think of no better example than this.
Sure, it’s the ad that’s cheesy. I haven’t used the software itself, so I can’t comment on its quality. But it speaks to the lack of control Microsoft has of its own image. Nothing even remotely this bad would ever come out of Cupertino under Jobs leadership. And if something this heinous was able to slip out of Apple, you can bet that whomever was responsible would be fired.
Category: News
Macworld 2009 Predictions
With Macworld 2009 about a week away, it’s time for me time throw my predictions in the ring. I won’t be attending this Macworld Expo (my last Macworld was 2000, when Mac OS X was introduced and shown for the first time), as I’m more of a WWDC guy. Still, like everybody else, I follow the day’s announcements with great interest.
Obviously, Macworld 2009 looks to be a scaled back affair. First, we have Phil Schiller delivering the keynote instead of Steve Jobs. You can draw whatever conclusions you want about that, but the one conclusion I think you have to reach is that there won’t be any “major” new products announced. By major, I mean something that isn’t an iteration of a previous product. So what does that leave? Well, here’s my predictions.
Mac mini
Seems pretty obvious. The mini is in desperate need of a refresh, internally and externally. There are rumors of the Mac mini
getting an option to lose the optical drive and add a second hard drive. It could happen. I think the most likely improvement we will see is the ability to add ram and access the hard drive, like in the Macbooks/Macbook Pros. This upgrade alone would make the mini much more appealing to those who feel the need to “hotrod” their mini the moment it leaves the box.
iMac
The iMac is also due for a refresh. I think the case and form factor will remain the same. However, with quad core chips now readily available from Intel, it seems quite likely we will see the iMac go quad. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the iMac adopt the same chipset that the Macbook Pro gained back in October either. A quad core 3ghz iMac with an Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT would be one screamer of a machine.
Snow Leopard
I believe we will get a brief mention of Snow Leopard, though I’m not sure we will see a demonstration. After all, most of Snow Leopard’s appeal is in the under-the-hood improvements, and those aren’t the kind of things that tend to wow people during keynotes. I don’t think we’ll get a release date, apart from a “spring” or “summer” release.
iLife
It’s been a good while since iLife ’08 appeared, so this seems like a given. Macworld and iLife releases we synonymous for years until 2007/2008. The last iLife upgrade was nearly 18 months ago, so there’s been a longer than normal upgrade cycle for the developers to polish the product. Apart from upgrades to the individual apps, I have no clue what might be added to the iLife suite. But I can say with certainty that iMovie needs some serious improvements over the ’08 version.
iWork
The iWork ’08 trio of prosumer business apps should probably see a upgrade at or around Macworld. Apart from upgrades to Pages, Keynote and Numbers, I’m hoping we will see a fourth app added to the mix. Something for composition/layout, along the lines of MacDraw, or a simple version of Photoshop. Treading in this app space is dangerous for Apple, as it risks the Adobe/Apple relationship, so I don’t expect it to happen. But I’d love to be wrong.
Mac Pro
Desperately in need of an upgrade. The Mac Pro seems to be the product that Apple is least interested in at the moment. With it’s entry level price at $2799, the Mac Pro is positioned solely for those who need power and have money to burn. In today’s economy, those people might be fewer and further between. My bet is many of them would turn to a quad core iMac if it existed. Some of them might be inclined to jump to Wintel, with Wintel systems comparable to the Mac Pro running nearly 1/3 to 1/2 the price.
Either way, the Mac Pro really needs to be reevaluated by Apple. There was once a time when Apple’s pro offerings started at $1499. Apple would be wise to tune the Mac Pro lineup to allow for a sub $2000 offering in today’s economy. Then again, Apple might be neglecting the Mac Pro because it feels the tower form factor is obsolete and not worthy of further investment. Bottom line, the Mac Pro needs an upgrade, but I doubt it will see one at Macworld, since the product seems less positioned to consumers than in years past.
MobileMe
As a MobileMe subscriber, I’m hoping for some serious upgrades. The last couple of OS upgrades have fixed many of the MobileMe syncing issues, thankfully. Feature wise, MobileMe is still having to compete with a raft of free services that are superior. The best exmaple is DropBox. DropBox is so much more elegant than MobileMe’s iDisk. It’s fast, simple, and just works. iDisk, on the other hand, is slow, a pain to setup, and a pain to use. If I were Apple, I’d just buy Dropbox and make it the new iDisk. The Dropbox people really seem to know what they are doing, where the iDisk people do not.
Large iPod Touch/Mac Tablet
I doubt this will come to fruition. And, if it does, I don’t think it will be Phil Schiller who introduces it. Apple looks like they had some serious iPod Touch sales this holiday season. With a $399 32GB iPod touch, and a Mac mini at $599, there is a very small window for a product that sits between the iPod Touch 32GB and the mini. Once the prices for the iPod Touch drop a bit to the $199/$249/$299 mark, there might be room for a $399 iPod Tablet. But I doubt that will happen before fall 2009. Write this rumor off as premature.
iPhone nano
I just don’t see this happening. By shrinking the iPhone form factor, you ruin the experience. You could argue that the iPhone nano might not use the same iPhone OS we currently know, but I think that’s just silly. The iPhone’s biggest appeal now is the ecosystem that has been erected around it. Changing the form factor and removing that ecosystem just seems dumb.
When you are talking about a touch device, smaller isn’t necessarily better.
As for the $99 price point of the rumored iPhone nano. Apple seems to be in pretty good shape with iPhone component costs that if it wanted to release a $99 iPhone, it could probably figure out how to do it. Right now, they don’t see the need to do this. But come fall 2009, when the effects of a troubled economy might be weighing down iPhone sales, it might make sense. Therefore, I don’t see the iPhone dropping to $99 before the next version is released, which would probably been July-September 2009.
Category: Apple,Rumor
One of the issues I routinely encounter when updating many of my WordPress site’s is Transmit’s failure to delete .pureftpd-upload files. These are zero byte, hidden files with permissions that prevent you from deleting them via your FTP client. The consensus seems to be that these files are left when an FTP client gets interrupted during upload. Since I use Transmit exclusively, my first assumption was these files were Transmit specific. Upon further investigation, it appears many other FTP clients suffer from creating these little monsters as well.
The only solution I have found to remove them is to use CPanel’s File Manager to navigate to where these files reside, and delete them. This can become quite the pain in the ass if you have several of these buggers floating about in your site.
Category: Web Development
Contrary to popular belief, Mac users and tech enthusiasts are not all Democrats. Most reputable tech news outlets understand this, and as such, don’t use their platform to launch political hack attacks against those who don’t share their politcal beliefs.
Enter John Gruber, who has risen to the top of the Mac punditry with his “Daring Fireball” site. An unashamed leftist, it’s no secret who Gruber is pulling for in the election. That Gruber is an Obama supporter (after switching allegiance from Hillary) wasn’t the least bit surprising.
However, today, when the non-story broke about Governor Palin’s 17 year old daughter’s unplanned pregnancy, I was a little surprised to read this on his site:
Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. McCain campaign claims he was aware of this before selecting Palin as his VP, despite evidence and rampant speculation that Palin was not seriously vetted. Governor Palin is a strong supporter of abstinence-only sex education.
Tom Eagleton lasted 18 days before withdrawing from the McGovern ticket in 1972. My money says Palin doesn’t last that long.
Governor Palin is also a pro-life candidate, and put her money where her mouth is. Apparently the fact that her values transferred over to her daughter seem to cause shock for some liberals.
Whatever happened to the rule that children of the candidates were off limits? Of course, that rule must only apply to Republicans, as this is the second time a Republican candidate for Vice President has had their children’s private life dragged through the press. I will give Obama credit though, as today he stayed out of this story. We’ll see if that holds. My guess is that Biden, the “attack dog” will bring it up before the campaign is over.
As to Gruber’s psuedo “bet” that Palin doesn’t last 18 days before she withdraws from the Vice President nomination: I’ll take that bet. Name your terms, John. Gruber obviously doesn’t understand conservatives. And he seems to understand “Barracuda” Palin even less. We were jazzed about the pick of Palin on Friday, and everybody I know is even more jazzed about her today. I was lukewarm about McCain, but have now backed the ticket with my time, energy, and more importantly money. That her 17 year old daughter is pregnant has in no way diminished my enthusiasm for a Palin Vice Presidency. Actually, the media and leftist attack on her has had the opposite effect.
Gruber should stick to writing what he knows about – the Mac, technology, and Stanley Kubrick. Whenever he ventures in to the field of politics, he not only shows how inept he is at the topic, but he also alienates his conservative readers.
Count me as one of those alienated.
Category: Jackassery
When Nullriver introduced NetShare, the iPhone app that allows you to tethter your laptop to it for internet access, appeared on the App Store, many were surprised. Then, without any explanation, it vanished.
On Friday it returned. Those who were smart downloaded it and were able to put it to use. By Saturday, the app had disappeared. Again. With no explanation at all.
While Apple’s control of the App Store can be viewed as a mostly positive thing, the NetShare debacle highlights what most of us suspected: When Apple holds all the cards, people tend to get steamrolled. In this case, the people are the developers at Nullriver. Most of what I’ve read seems to indicate that NetShare doesn’t vioalte the terms of the App Store in any way. So why ban it? And then why reinstate it for 24 hours, only to ban it again?
What’s going to happen to the users who have bought the app already? How are they going to get updates? Will they get refunds if updates aren’t provided?
Apple’s really been stepping in it lately, and unfortunately, this is just the latest example.
Category: Opinion,iPhone
The WWDC 2008 keynote has come and gone, and much like the Macworld Keynote of 2007, it was all about the iPhone. “Snow Leopard” was referenced, but not discussed in the keynote, instead being covered in the NDA bound Mac OS X State of the Union later in the day.
By now you’ve read the coverage of the iPhone 3G, Mobile Me, and iPhone 2.0 Firmware. Here’s my thoughts on the news.
First, the iPhone 3G is going to become the new gold standard for mobile devices. About the only thing missing from the new iPhone that I was hoping for is a better camera. I guess they needed to save something for the next iteration. With a speedy network to ride on, the best mobile browsing experience just got better. The new additions to the iPhone 2.0 firmware look great. Of course, as always, there’s things to nitpick over. So here’s the nitpick list.
Although you get Exchange support in iPhone 2.0 if you subscribe to a business plan, which (you guessed it) will cost you $45/month for unlimited data (versus $30 for the new unlimited 3G data plan, a $10 increase over the 2G price). While I’d like to fault AT&T for this one, I suspect the extra $15 also helps Apple defer the cost of the Exchange license they pay Microsoft.
Next (and more distressing) is the requirement that all iPhones must be activated in store. This one is a bit more murky, as AT&T says in their press release that iTunes activation for the iPhone 3G is not possible. However, in another release, it is stated that you will be able to activate your phone when you get home if you like through iTunes if you buy from the Apple Store. This was one of the most pleasant aspects of purchasing an iPhone. I bought my iPhone on the day it debuted, and I literally walked in to an Apple Store at 11:30PM, and walked out with my iPhone at 11:34. The transaction took less than 4 minutes, and I was extremely pleased. I’m hoping I’ll still have the option of at home activation, because the last thing I want to do is hang out longer in the Apple Store twiddling my thumbs while my phone is activated. While I can fully appreciate the fact that there are some people who are just too stupid technologically challenged to handle at-home activation, I believe the ability was pulled due to iPhone hacking and not in an attempt to “simplify” the experience. Oh well. A subsidized iPhone purchase means that AT&T gets more of a say in how the device is setup.
One of the biggest things I was happy about was that the iPhone 3G has GPS. I was in the market for an in-car GPS device. I can now bypass that purchase and put that money towards the iPhone 3G. The bad news is that while the GPS technology is in the phone, you don’t gain turn-by-turn directions in iPhone 2.0 firmware. Google Maps becomes more accurate, and you can use their turn by turn directions, but you don’t get voice prompts or the 3D street view. Enter Tom Tom. They have already stated they will have a GPS app avaialble for the iPhone after the AppStore launches. What remains to be seen is how much it will cost. Anything above $20 will probably not seem worth it, since Google Maps handles about 60% of what I’d need from a GPS device.
MobileMe
A little background: I had been a .Mac subscriber since it’s inception as iTools. I dropped .Mac back in October of last year. I could no longer justify $99/year (well, actually about $75/year, the average price for renewal through Amazon) for email, iDisk and synching. With free alternatives like Gmail, DropBox, Box.net and a little Automator magic, I’ve been content since I left .Mac behind. The one feature I missed above all others though, was syncing. When I dropped .Mac, I lameneted that the one feature that could have brought me back was push email/calenders/contacts. Well, essentially that is what MobileMe is: Push email/calendars/contacts married with .Mac, and a new web based interface for all of the services features. I’m not sure if the general public will see this as enough to erase the bad memory of .Mac, but in my eyes it was. I purchased a .Mac family pack yesterday ($129 at Amazon) and look forward to it’s conversion to MobileMe in early July.
Third Party Apps
The third party apps demo ran for nearly half the entire keynote yesterday. Personally, I would have rather Apple debuted some new hardware, but it’s a testament to Apple’s belief in their developers (and this is a developers conference, right?) that they gave them nearly 60 minutes of keynote time to showcase their wares. It’s amazing to see what the developers have cooked up with just 3 months of time. The young Brit who demoed his app “Band” is about to become a millionaire. If he doesn’t walk away from WWDC with iFund money, I’d be shocked.
I believe in 6 months time the developer community will have cemented the iPhone as the third largest computing platform, right behind Windows and the Mac. I believe in 18 months time you will see the iPhone pass the Mac for a larger installed base, and essentially become the first new successful computing platform of the 21st century.
Back in 1996, before he rejoined Apple, Steve Jobs was asked if he were running Apple, what would he do to fix it. His answer: milk the Mac for all it’s worth, and get busy on the next big thing. Clearly, the iPhone as a computing platform is the next big thing. I don’t think the Mac is going away any time soon, but it’s pretty clear to see that the iPhone is Apple’s current darling.
Category: Apple,iPhone
