tech ronin

Upcoming Mini iPhone + iPod touch option

One of the more credible iPhone rumors of late is that of a smaller, thinner plastic-covered iPhone with a 2.8" screen. I don't pretend to fore-knowledge about Apple's plans, but if this smaller iPhone happens, I would welcome it.

I plan to continue my combo iPhone + iPod touch approach. Here's why. I use my iPod touch about 80% and my iPhone 25%. The extra 5% is the overlap when I want to keep my place on one device while looking something up on the other.

iPod touch. I'm in a wi-fi hotspot about 90% of the time. Since the iPod touch surfs as well as the iPhone when wi-fi is available (and is thinner and lighter), I use it. I spare my iPhone battery and avoid missing calls which get routed directly to voicemail when I'm accessing the web from my iPhone.

iPhone. I use my iPhone for EDGE-based net access when wi-fi isn't available. I use it to take casual photos. I use it as a phone. And I use it to listen to podcasts while walking alone.  I also prefer it for listening to podcasts or music in my car because it switches so seamlessly between hands-free calls and content.

In this 2-device division of labor, I could see myself using a smaller, more elegant iPhone with 2.8" screen. The iPod touch needs as much screen as it can get. I will find a way to carry a larger iPod touch or iPod tablet if one becomes available since the screen real estate is so valuable.

Apple wants us to carry 2 Apple handhelds. My experience of using the iPhone and iPod touch together makes me look forward to fitting enthusiastically into their plans.

Weak enonomy will slow iPhone vs BlackBerry

Enterprises married to the BlackBerry won't switch any time soon. But any with an eye to the future are likely to invest in trial programs with iPhones. Someone in IT is going to see to it that some experimentation is done with the new SDK for enterprise-critical apps.

Meanwhile, forward-looking firms that may still be using Treos would be first candidates to switch to iPhone.

Companies have been putting the brakes on IT spending since last August's market scare. IT cuts won't help Apple make a big splash this Summer, but early adopters in enterprise IT should start spending enough to help Apple hit their 10,000,000 iPhone target by year end.

Expect vertical corporate software like Salesforce.com's iPhone app to proliferate quickly.

It will be hard to wait till July. But I expect to be seeing an ongoing series of Youtube videos showing off alpha and beta software to keep us going in the mean time.

Realistically, RIM can't compete with Cocoa touch as a development tool. Here's where the vaunted "desktop class" mobile software Steve talked about at the iPhone keynote in January '07 comes into play.

This is the joker in the deck. RIM talked about how playing media on a phone isn't that hard to compete with. Perhaps, but couple that with mobile Safari, core animation, OSX and a killer SDK and RIM, Microsoft and Nokia have something to worry about.

Recession is Apple Talent-grab Opportunity

You know that $18 billion in cash Apple has lying around gathering dust? What say Apple starts staffing up for the coming era of iPhone / iPod touch platform domination? You can buy both companies and talent on the cheap in a recession. Steve is Scotch as I recall.

Combine a crappy economy, an awesome new iPhone SDK, a frictionless wireless App store and a $100 million iFund and what do you get? The best and brightest global entrepreneurial software talent are going to swarm this. Look what jailbreaking wrought and multiply by 10 for a start.

Update Mar 9: Upon further reflection, it strikes me that Apple may well scoop up the a few of the most promising iPhone SDK developer companies themselves. I'm convinced Apple needs to staff up.

I noticed that last year their R&D spending was less than 4% which is pretty low for such an innovative company as Apple. But then maybe some of their recent spending hasn't been expensed yet due to the 2-year window within which they can recognize expenses for the iPhone.

Attentive Mac fans have noticed the fairly high number of missed deadlines. Most recently Leopard was late and a bit buggy when finally released and now the SDK is just in Beta rather than done by February. Apple needs talent - the best available. I almost think they've been too busy building stuff to go out and find some more good people. But that only works so long.

I liked seeing Steve including two of his most able executives in important parts of the Roadmap presentation. They were looking good, actually. Steve casts a long shadow, but he needs plenty of help at the size Apple has grown to be.

iPhone/iPod touch: THE platform of the next decade?

Apple today introduced a glimpse of iPhone 2.0 to be shipping in late June. They showed lots of enterprise features. They are going for the enterprise which is appropriate to compete with the BlackBerry and because the US consumer market is going to be slower than molasses for a while.

Apple showed vertical market software with early non-shipping versions of SalesForce.com and Epocrates. Both looked sensational. I am counting on my md to be sporting an iPhone when I have my checkup in August.

And the fun part, of course, is iPhone games. Glimpses of Super Monkey Ball, Spore and other fun titles look fantastic. Fun but more waiting.

Steve's perfectionism was in evidence. This is an incredibly complete and well-thought-out SDK effort. Steve mentioned we might be living with it for 20 years. But that perfectionism will cost us a few more months of waiting.

It is clear that Apple is making a play for what they feel is the next computing platform of note. The mobile computer.

I was pleased hear reference to wi-fi as being a part of 2.0 because if they introduce 3G around this same time, we get wi-fi AND 3G, not 3G OR wi-fi. I'm ready to pony up for such a combo device.

Also, questions about VOIP were raised and Steve said Apple is OK with VOIP over wi-fi but not over the cellular network. I can live with that for now.

I'm Using MegaPhone to edit iPod touch and iPhone Notes on my Mac

MegaPhone used to be iPhoneDrive. MegaPhone 1.5, from Ecamm Network, finally lets you edit notes. There is a large caveat which is that it seems to need to reboot your iPhone or touch every time you edit an individual note. That's pretty inconvenient should you need to edit lots of notes. Each time you edit a note, prepare to wait 30 seconds or so while your device reboots.

Editing notes and pasting content from your Mac does work and that's the main thing for now. One interesting little extra. As soon as you are done editing notes or adding them by dragging or by using the copy to iPod (or iPhone) command, you can eject your iPhone or touch and you've got your new and newly edited notes with you.

The content you paste in will retain its font, color and style information. This means you can see color and different fonts and such in your iPhone or iPod touch notes.

You can copy PDF, RTF, RTFD and Word documents in as individual notes. Graphics will not make it over, RTFD and PDFs convert to RTF minus any graphics. I'm good with that. Graphics would be nice but that's not essential.

Thanks Ecamm!

AT&T's free wi-fi at Starbucks is a Game Changer

Wow, this is huge and especially benefits Apple with its lead in the wi-fi-based mobile space. Steve got AT&T to support free wi-fi. How great. AT&T DSL customers get unlimited free wi-fi at Starbucks.

If you have a Starbucks debit card, you get 2 free hours a day. No more having to pay $20 or more a month to get free wi-fi at Starbucks. Keep in mind that Starbucks is the king of coffee. If they give out free wi-fi, doesn't that mean that all the other coffee places will need to provide free wi-fi to compete? The answer is yes.

If everyone was paying Verizon for 3G access (which is slower than wi-fi by the way), no one would need free wi-fi unless they were carrying a laptop which most people don't do.

This totally supports the iPod touch and significantly increases the value of its free wi-fi access. Remember that Apple kept mentioning the iPod touch as a wi-fi mobile device at their quarterly finance conference. Now we know why.

I've been saying all along that we need more free wi-fi. This is the best news ever on that front. The enemy of wi-fi is the cellular carrier. To get the biggest US cell carrier to give away wi-fi is huge.

This move also really helps the current iPhone which has wi-fi but not 3G. I've always wondered why people were so much in a big hurry about 3G on the iPhone because (1) I thought AT&T would charge more than $20/month for a 3G data plan - try $30 or $40 and (2) there is a good chance Apple would drop wi-fi capability once the iPhone is 3G.

Wi-fi is the populous choice. It allows the technology makers like Apple, cell phone makers like Nokia and little-guy-makers to freely create what they want and helps their strength vis-a-vis the carrier. All mobile phone makers get leverage with the carrier to the extent they can use wi-fi in place of cellular.

All along the carriers have been restricting trade in a monopolistic fashion (2-year contracts for example) and have been suppressing the expression of the mobile phone makers. Here's Steve rescuing the industry again if they could only admit it. He deserves some kudos.

Among others, Matt Hamblen at Computerworld has the full story.

Sunset iPhone/iPod touch RPG rocks

Wow! Those of you who have been waiting for an RPG shooter rejoice. This is a free, fun little web-base demonstration that will tide me over for a bit. Navigate to the Sunset game with your iPhone or iPod touch to play it. Made by Donald Hays.

On level 2. Took me a couple minutes to figure game play. Go to the site and start. Remember to save.

Can Twitter Replace IM on the iPod touch?

Ever since I got my iPod touch during the holidays, I've been websurfing and tweetsurfing to learn about it. By the way, tweetsurfing is done by using Terraminds' free twitter search engine. At least, that's what I have been using quite happily.

One common complaint about the stock iPod touch is that it doesn't have an IM client built in. The iPhone also doesn't have an IM client but at least it has SMS as a substitute.

I have an iPhone and an iPod touch and I carry both around with me whenever I leave the house and most times in the house. So, I always have the SMS client of the iPhone. But, I also have twitter which I check regularly.

Maybe twitter can serve as a more generic, web-based way to stay in touch (no pun intended). I do think if you have an iPod touch, some kind of web-based IM or Twitter client would be essential. Of course, since everyone has a cell phone and a lot of people use SMS on whatever cell phone they have, I guess my iPod touch pals are covered there.

Now that you can make a webclip button for your favorite twitter client, you are set there.

One last issue is connectivity. Unfortunately the touch doesn't have Bluetooth so you can't get connectivity from your cell phone. That sucks and of course is almost certainly due to the demands of AT&T to keep the that sort of functionality for the iPhone only. Of course, too the iPhone's Bluetooth is crippled.

All this leads me to mention my hopes that somehow we can (1) be freed from the cellular provider obstruction of free wireless access or (2) we can get a lot more wi-fi hotspots out there. I have to believe the cell providers have killed the wi-fi proliferation that we used to see.

Finally, I can't get a decent AT&T signal in my new condo in Tiburon. Why oh why can't I talk on the phone using wi-fi in my house? I am very encouraged to see that T-Mobile is offering just that now with some phones like the BlackBerry Curve.

Update Jan 31: I am using wi-fi to make any calls outside my local calling area when I can with Skype. To clarify, I want the wi-fi in my iPhone to be able to use wi-fi to fill in when my EDGE voice quality drops. I believe that is what T-Mobile is starting to offer.

iPhone Update Jan 17 '08

Firmware 1.1.3 has made the iPhone and iPod touch more useful and fun than ever and...

Wishlist:
Here are a few things I really want to see on the iPhone and iPod touch now that I'm back to the straight and narrow:

1. Notes syncing both ways. I need to be able to store information for reference on my iPhone or iPod touch without a hassle or hack. I wanted to put As We May Think by Vannevar Bush on their, for example.

2. A wireless keyboard. I want to be able to do what Palm users and I as one of those Palm users have done. Bring one of those little foldup keyboards with you with an iPhone and be able to type long communications not just little stuff - a paragraph or two on the onscreen keyboard.

3. Cut, Copy and Paste. Please.

Firmware 1.1.3:
1. Lyrics. Ooh. Had fun tonight grabbing tons of lyrics quickly with the aid or donationware: GimmeSomeTune. You can get fancy and use Automator to go through your music collection but for now I just installed this little program and it went and got album cover art and lyrics for most songs in my collection one at a time. It will keep searching if it can't find something right away and fill it in when it finds it. Very cool.

2. Webclips. Yeah that's fun. Especially since you can fill up to 9 home pages with buttons now and rearrange according to your own preferences.

3. Upgraded Google Maps. The locate me function isn't working very accurately, I can drop pins for now which is easier than typing in address info as your starting place.

Conclusion:
Apple really must be pushed to not have gotten more upgrades out for the iPhone by now. They do have a ton of plates in the air. In an interview in June, Steve said you can't just hire more people to get more done in response to questions about the delay of Leopard. I wonder if their past performance and stock price drives them. Actually I think it is the opportunity to change the world that can't be refused.

No waiting for laundry or coffee any more

Laundry machines can text you when available or done with a cycle. It now seems obvious that this will be the norm. We predicted and have imagined smart appliances for a very long time. The refrigerator door needs an LCD for one.

University of Kentucky has the laundry going. It will either text or email you notifications when there's a machine available and when your clothes are done. Small thing by itself, but it improves usage of the facilities and saves a lot of time waiting. I've spent my fair share of time sitting at laundramats. Relaxing, but a huge timesink. [via NPR]

Apple has applied for patents to allow you to put in your coffee order and get notified when your order is ready to pick up at the counter without waiting in line. Once everyone has a connected device, which is already true for the most part with cell phones. They have just been underutilized to date. We haven't adjusted to the possibilities just yet. But it is coming. [via Forbes.com]