A Bit Eclectic

Except they tend to converge on a few similar points.

I have a love hate relationship with the Apple rumor mill, and the past couple weeks have been as good/bad as any.  We hear all this talk about the Apple tablet, but if you look close all the talk is the same.  It starts off with a few pieces of, typically false, information that then gets repeated over and over.  Sometimes a twist is added/made up, but for the most part it is the same.  Look around at the tablet rumors, I bet most of them claim it will have a 10″ screen.  This may or may not be false, but as a community (yes I am referring to the Apple community) we have very little information or imagination. Yet everyone want’s to regurgitate the same hardware specs and not so innovative UIs.  The hardware means very little.

I don’t care how big the screen is or how many ports it has. Features don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things (I had a Verizon phone that surfed the web and played music). I care about how I will interact with the device and what hole it will fill in my digital life.

Think back to the pre-iPhone rumors, most of them were guessing that it would have a click wheel slapped onto a regular old phone.  Those rumors were regurgitated so many times it began to feel real.  In the end, the actual iPhone is so far away from the rumors that we should be happy those people aren’t employed by Apple.  Granted, hindsight is a little misleading.  If these rumors had been spot on and predicted everything, nobody would believe they were true.

This article really hits the nail on the head and sums up a lot of my feelings.  What I want to know can’t be made up by the kind folks on the internet; Apple (and other companies) needs to be the one that opens my eyes and shows me what I’m missing. (Neven’s post also parallels my feelings)

I’ve been working for 13 hours so this post might not make much sense. Good night all and enjoy the festivities tomorrow.

It frustrates me when people complain about Apple’s stance on Flash support and the iPhone.  Overall, I agree with Apple and think it would be a terrible idea.  The iPhone is very powerful but we must remember that it isn’t a desktop or notebook computer.

The fact that many websites still use and rely on Flash is not a reason that the iPhone should support it.  You can argue that it makes a great UI, but it won’t likely transfer over to the mobile world.  The iPhone is navigated with touch alone and this can introduce problems.  Some sites that use flash require you to hover over items to see all the options.  With the iPhone there is no ability to hover over.  There are probably many other elements that wouldn’t transfer over to the iPhones method of input.  How do you reconcile these differences for the end-user?

The advocates of Flash point to flash games as a reason for the iPhone to support Flash.  This creates the same problem with controls.  How do you perform a right-click if a game requires it? What about keyboard controls.  There isn’t enough room on the screen for the game and the onscreen keyboard.  These flash games also have their own aspect ratios and dimensions, some of which may not fit nicely on the iPhone screen.  This will create more headaches than if Flash remains disabled.  Although it isn’t an ideal solution, these game developers can create native games running on the iPhone (see Canabalt for example).

The biggest issue is with battery life.  Reviews already point to the battery as one of the iPhone’s weaknesses.  With Flash running, we will only see a hit in performance.  Think of the web sites you visit and the number of flash ads they display.  These flash ads will come at the cost of battery life.  Each page will use up more processing power just to run these ads.  I would rather have a longer battery life than gain any type of Flash support.

I can’t remember any time that I’ve been inconvenienced by the lack of Flash support on the iPhone in the past two years that I’ve owned one.  I’m not saying that it never happens, but that it wasn’t a big deal or a game changer.

(via DestroyToday)

Jason Calacanis wrote an article, titled The Case Against Apple, where he argues against Apple’s current product line and general business practices.  I think his heart is in the right place and that he wants Apple to change and improve.  I feel that what came out was a bit off the mark with the valid points buried beneath fluff.  Marco Arment does a great job covering most of my complaints in his article, Planet Calacanis. There are a few points I would like to touch on.

There is no technical reason why the iTunes ecosystem shouldn’t allow the ability to sync with any MP3 player (in fact, iTunes did support other players once upon a time), save furthering Apple’s dominance with their own over-priced players.  Quickly answer the following question: who are the number two and three MP3 players in the market? Exactly. Most folks can’t name one, let alone two, brands of MP3 players.

Apple eventually brought iTunes over to Windows so that the iPod could be used with a seamless experience.  Using Jason’s logic, Apple should never have gained the dominant market share because the iPod doesn’t use Windows Media Player.  Other companies can develop their own media players to sync with the MP3 players they bring to market.  There is no reason that they would have to go through iTunes to make it big.  The iPod has succeeded because it works great, not because it launches through the iTunes gateway.  Users can use software like DoubleTwist to take advantage of their non-iPod MP3 players.

People can’t name the number two and three MP3 players in the market because they are happy with the iPod.  I don’t think it’s because they don’t sync through iTunes.  iTunes has much that needs to be improved.  Apple should focus on this instead of adding support for hundreds of media players that I will never use.

Think for a moment about what your reaction would be if Microsoft made the Zune the only MP3 player compatible with Windows. There would be 4chan riots, denial of service attacks and Digg’s front page would be plastered with pundit editorials claiming Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were Borg.

It is one thing to lock something out of software (like iTunes) and another to block it out from an entire OS.  DoubleTwist, that was mentioned above, has a Mac client.  MP3 players are not locked out at the OS level.

Apple’s iPhone is a revolutionary product that has devolved almost all of the progress made in cracking–wait for it–AT&T’s monoply in the ’70s and ’80s.

The current agreement is a long way from the AT&T monopoly of the ’70s and ’80s.  The old AT&T used to be your only choice for phone service.  This allowed them to charge whatever they wanted and you just had to deal with it.  I would bet if AT&T tripled the price of service for the iPhone, users would switch away to other carriers.  This would illustrate that they don’t have a monopoly.  There are other choices in the market.  AT&T being the  only choice for an iPhone is different then having a market monopoly.  It may be frustrating that you can’t get an iPhone on Verizon, but at least we still have choices.

Simple solution and opportunity: Not only let the iPhone work on any carrier, but put *two* SIM card slots on the iPhone and let users set which applications use which services. (Your phone could be Verizon and your browser Sprint!)

This idea was really out there.  Most people don’t want to deal with one carrier, let alone two.  Read Marco’s article as he voices everything I thought.

Jason’s last three points can be summed up in one statement; the app store is terribly broken and create an anticompetitive environment for both consumers and developers.  I 100% agree with Jason on this.  I have posted about the problems in the past and voiced that I feel it needs to be changed.  Apple is going down a slippery slope and it would be a shame to see such a beautiful thing turn into a wasteland that lacks innovation.

I feel that Jason’s point could have been stronger if he combined and focused on the last three parts.  The first two points degraded his credibility and ruined the tone for the rest of the piece.  Like me, Jason is a geek at heart.  I know his head is in the right place, I just wish his article focused more on the valid points.

TechCrunch also has a great piece covering Jason’s article.

You don’t have a case on your iPhone!

I get this comment all the time. People act like I just committed a terrible crime against a defenseless child. I had broken an unspoken rule. iPhones aren’t cheap and apparently they needs to be protected.

I haven’t always been this way, I used to be paranoid about scratches on my iPods.  I would leave a new iPod in the box until I got a case to protect it. I would search the Internet for weeks looking for the best case available. No price was too high to protect my “investment.”

I would rationalize that the shiny back looked better without any scratches on it.  What ridiculous and backwards thinking since I will never see the back if it is always covered.  People say the iPod looks great then slap on a bulky and ugly case.

Those clear plastic cases always make me chuckle. You can still see the iPod so you can still bask in it’s beauty, sort of. The clear hard plastic cases are even worse than the rubber cases. They are tacky and destroy the sleek image of the iPod/Phone.

The sleeve type cases aren’t as bad as the others.  These will protect the device and still allow you to see it’s original beauty on a regular basis.  However, they add bulk to the device and make it take up more pocket space.

The sticker type screen protectors avoid the bulk problem, but still aren’t a good solution. Most of them just add a foggy layer. They have a textured surface and dull down the image. I haven’t used Invisible Shield so it may be the exception.

A case doesn’t offer much protection if the device is dropped or subjected to other physical harm. It mostly protects against scratches, which I have stopped obsessing over. I would rather use my iPhone than handle it like a delicate luxury good. It sits in it’s own pocket so there is less of a chance of scratches, but that is about it. The screen is made out of optical glass that is pretty scratch resistant and I am not too concerned about the back. So far it still looks great.

Stop babying your device and start using it. The first minor scratch will be the hardest, but afterwards you will be able to take a deep breath and suck it up. There is no point of using a case to protect the exterior if you never see it.

Mobile Computer did a comparison of the browsing speed on the Blackberry and the iPhone over wifi.  Check out the video at the bottom to see the painful results.

[via Daring Fireball]

Twistori is doing something special today for Apple’s WWDC Keynote. They have launched a special page that replaces the original words (love, wish, hate, etc.) with WWDC related words like wwdc, apple, iphone, steve, and keynote.

Twistori has one of the best implementations of the Twitter API and it is neat to see them extend it for events like this.