Yesterday saw the launch of the first phone based on Google’s Android platform - the HTC manufactured Dream G1 with T-Mobile as the carrier.
Like the first version of the iPhone there have been some strange decisions: Carrier-locked, non-standard headphone jack, poor Bluetooth implementation, no tethering, voice dialling, video capture (or playback outside YouTube on the G1), VoIP or Exchange support. Unlike the first generation iPhone there is no desktop synching or multi-touch (John Gruber makes an incisive-as-ever comment on this) but on the plus side there is 3G, a slide-out physical keyboard, MMS and cut-and-paste.
Apple will carry on improving the iPhone. In a couple of years I’m expecting perhaps a graphene-based ultracapacitor instead of a battery or fuel cell (try getting one of those on a plane), an OLED screen with tactile keyboard and integrated camera.
Alongside these patents that have yet to come to market, there are around 200 others on the iPhone and a lot of them are related to the all-important interface. A friend was struggling to find the silent mode due to the lack of the traditional:
Menu → Options → Sounds → Ringer → Silent → On
The moment I flicked the switch at the side of the iPhone to turn the ringer off, a look of burgeoning appreciation of the way Apple does things spread across her face. An annoyance I do have with this is not having an dedicated icon on the screen to indicate that the ringer is off but - like the lack of MMS, A2DP, video capture or SMS forwarding - this is easily solved with a software update.
The new functionality that is included in the version 2.0 software release fixes a couple of the few things that annoyed me with the iPhone. I installed it last night after people with too much time on their hands found the software on Apple’s servers thanks to examining a bunch of XML files. I was in two minds as to whether or not to go ahead or wait for the official release from Apple but I was starting to adjust my body clock and needed something to do. I did have problems and was kicking myself for being impatient but after a few restarts of software and reboots of hardware I managed to restore my iPhone and update the software successfully.
Continue reading ‘iPhone software 2.0′
Is it really though? Those of you who know me well enough would probably be expecting me to rush out and buy the iPhone 3G as soon as I set foot back on British soil. There’s no denying that I’m an Apple fan boy but I’m also not stupid. The next generation of the iPhone doesn’t represent enough of a change over the original version that I already own. Sure it has GPS navigational capabilities but I tend to know where I am most of the time anyway. The obvious upgrade is the 3G bit - it’s obviously a big enough revelation to even be included in the product name instead of it being simply iPhone v2 or something.
I have never found the EDGE (2G) speeds to be all that crippling to be honest. Besides, like most people with an iPhone, I use the wifi connection a lot. I’m usually at home, in the office or within range of a wifi hotspot from The Cloud or the newly announced partnership with BT Openzone.
That’s the new stuff on the hardware front far as I can tell apart from a crappier back to allow the GPS signal to be of any use. No new camera (optic or sensor), speaker, microphone or chipset. There will need to be something pretty awesome to make me upgrade to the next version too - whenever that may come be pass.
When the University of California at Irvine built their campus, they just planted grass. Then they waited a year and paved over where people had made paths in the grass. I first heard this in an interview with Larry Wall about 10 years ago but it may well be apocryphal.
I’m seeing parallels with what could be going on with Apple’s iPhone development plans. Release a basic device and wait for the crowds to clamour for what they feel is missing from the device. Pay attention to those that shout the loudest (case in point: the recent enterprise features) but make sure that you set some of the most popular requests to one side for introduction in the release of your second generation model.
Compare and contrast to the usual practice of bundling a metric ass-load of rarely-used crapware that serves mainly to clog up the menus on other phones. Video editing and ringtone composition on a mobile phone have been nothing more than gimmicks.
At least it does for web pages.
“Try holding your breath for as long as it takes your home page to load. If you are now dead, it took too long.”
- Art and the Zen of web sites
A decade ago, in the age of dial-up connections, page weight was everything. Images were compressed to within an inch of their lives and Netscape (R.I.P.) even had a special attribute for a lower resolution image to use as a placeholder while the proper image loaded. Then along came broadband and web developers got lazy.
Continue reading ‘Size matters’
This has been an annoyance for a while now but I’ve finally snapped after seeing the iPhone posters in the window of the O2 shop on Princes Street.
I was a little confused at the timing of the launch (6:02pm) and put it down to either some arcane regulation about opening times or allowing Apple to get the jump on their own carrier for some egotistical reason or other.
Then TUAW pointed it out to me (while also delivering the brilliant news that “unlimited” does now in fact mean unlimited — well done for listening to the furore). 6:02pm. O2. Frickin lame.
“Zero” is not and never has been pronounced the same as “Oh” but most people (including the nice 1471 lady) will persist in using the latter when reading out a phone number. Even James bloody Bond says “double oh seven” and as far as I can recall only Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice calls him zero zero.
In a word: Wow!
The Steve unleashed Apples long-awaited iPhone this afternoon in his keynote at MWSF and it blew me away. So much so in fact that I’ve only just realised that there was no mention of OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or even iLife ‘07.
This story is currently both the most read and the most emailed on the BBC News website. It’s only going to get more exposure (hopefully good) as people start to actually get their hands on them in the Summer.
The knocking of Apple for just releasing another MP3 player in 2001 and the now infamous Macrumors thread #500 looks silly today – but I guess hindsight is always 20/20. I hope this has the same effect on everyone who questioned the wisdom of Apples foray into the mobile phone market.
They say that they’re aiming for a 1% market share, or about 10 million unit sales. Shouldn’t be too tricky. It could also prove to be the catalyst for Nokia et al to start to bring some fresh new ideas to the table.
Man, do I wish I bought a metric ass-load of Apple stock seven years ago!
