iPhone
Apple TV: Why I believe in It
I’ve had an Apple TV for about 3 or 4 years now. The old one that is, and have been very happy with my purchase. I know it wouldn’t have had a major impact being it costs about $300 and to be useful, requires the end user to be pretty saavy with the setup. I think the new Apple TV is enough of a departure to possibly be a BIG thing.
Web development with the iPhone and iPad in Mind
In the very near future, I will be posting a series of posts on what you should/shouldn’t be doing to develop a website where the iPhone and iPad are a target demographic. jQuery will figure prominently in the series, as I’ve seen almost all websites now require work with jQuery (or anther AJAX platform).
Let me know if you have any specific questions / concerns, and I’ll be glad to answer them.
Some interesting things to think about:
- How are mouse clicks triggered? (It’s not as straightforward as you’d think)
- How are hover states triggered? (Hint: the iPad has a hover state, but it’s not what you think — remember you only have a single touch, no arrow following your finger)
- What types of gestures can we use?
- What special considerations must we make for CSS?
- What are the ideal screen dimensions? (this is easy, but remember we have multiple devices, and multiple orientations)
- What types of video can we play? (iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G and the original iPhone all have different specifications, it’s not that easy)
Wired: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown (attfail)
This weekend in between the many activities I got a chance to sit down with my Wired magazine and read an article that has just been posted online, Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown.
An excerpt from the article:
For iPhone fans, it really was too good to be true. A pair of Apple executives had just described the latest model of the iPhone — the 3GS — onstage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009. The audience loved it. The 3GS was twice as fast as its predecessor, it included a camera that shot video, and the updated iPhone operating system enabled multimedia messaging and tethering — the ability to use the phone as a modem. Just one problem: While many customers in Europe and Asia could enjoy all those features, AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier, wouldn’t allow video messaging or tethering at launch. In other words, the most advanced features wouldn’t be available to AT&T customers. What’s more, some current iPhone users who wanted to upgrade wouldn’t get the subsidies that new customers enjoyed. Incensed iPhone fanatics vented their fury on Twitter. “AT&T has been one disappointment after another.” “Is AT&T trying to squeeze more money from us poor suckers?” And they punctuated their complaints with a hashtag — the Twitter convention for grouping conversations — that became an eight-character protest slogan: #attfail.
Overall a recommended read, the article is well written and thorough in analyzing the relationship since inception.
iPhone 4 Fix may have been revealed?
According to an article on TheStreet, Apple iPhone 4 Fix Revealed:
NEW YORK (TheStreet) – Apple(AAPL) has a “fix” for the iPhone 4 antenna problem after all. Now the problem becomes how the company will handle the replacement or repairs of the 3 million phones already sold.
Instead of defending its “there’s no problem” stanceanticipated at a special press conference Friday, Apple is likely to announce that it has a solution.
Apple has created “a design fix for the iPhone 4 that more adequately insulates the transceiver,” said Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, who spoke to the company’s manufacturing partners.
This would be great news, and make sense. As the article mentions, unfulfilled orders › Continue reading
iPhone 4: Signal Frustrations
I don’t have an iPhone 4 yet.
That says a lot for me. For the past 3 years, I have lined up at Apple stores as soon as I could to buy the product. Most of the time I was there the morning of the launch before the new toy launched.
I am the target demographic. At least for launch, I am. Every year I shell out about $400 for a new iPhone. I renew my AT&T contract annually (for 2 years), and will purchase tons of apps (I had 8 screens before folders). I am an early adopter, and have seen the iPhone sold for fractions of the initial price only months after launch.
I still don’t have an iPhone 4
What’s the big reason this year? Well there are a few reasons:
- It really is expensive to buy a new iPhone every year, and it’s taking longer to rationalize the irrational purchase.
- What if the iPhone actually ends up on Verizon? I don’t want to pay an additional $375 to leave AT&T (when my monthly contract is already $190 a month)
- Signal issues — my current iPhone 3GS requires that I turn off 3G service in order to use it during the day (and not drop a call). I shouldn’t have to do that
- More signal issues — after hearing about signal issues, I am happy I have not jumped on the bandwagon yet. If every time I touched that corner of the phone I spend the whole day on and off of — it disconnected, I would be VERY unhappy.
- Apps need to change — the biggest upgrades of the new iOS 4 require apps to change more than the phone
- Where’s my 4G? If download speeds were faster, I’d have jumped on — but upload speeds are just faster, and even that is proving tough.
- Micro SIM – Yes, this is a big issue for me. I love the new Micro SIM, but it means I can’t just pop the SIM card and put it in an old iPhone. I’d be losing all my old phones that I test apps and websites out on (yes, they all behave different, and I prefer it to an emulator sometimes)
- Facetime? – It’s cool, but only on WiFi, and the other user has to be an iPhone 4 user
iPhone on Verizon: AT&T is dreaming, and some advice
An article on Bloomberg Businessweek quoted an analyst, Timothy Horan:
“We are very confident about our position with exclusivity or without,” Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, said in an interview. “We’re not dependent on a single smartphone to be competitive, we offer a lot of great devices.”
About 70 percent of AT&T’s customer base is in a Family Talk plan, which has a high rate of retention, Ralph de la Vega, the carrier’s head of wireless, said in May.
“For Verizon, it will largely be selling the iPhone to existing customers,’”
That’s nice. Glad you just got a nice big check from AT&T, enjoy the July 4th weekend spending it.
iPhone on Verizon!
I wish I could play music on this blog. You’d hear “Hallelujah” loud and clear.
According to Bloomberg (heard this on the radio last night, and read it today) — Verizon Wireless will start selling the iPhone next year (supposedly January). I wish it would be sooner, but at least we have something to look forward to.
I am Happy.
Flash and HTML5 Video: YouTube’s perspective on the video tag
In conversations with designers and developers we have been discussing the pro and cons of using HTML5 video instead of Flash. Sites that support iPad / iPhone need HTML5 as an option, and recently has been driving project’s to require non Flash video.
YouTube’s API Blog published an article yesterday, Flash and the HTML5 <video> tag, which goes over the major points of the argument from one of the most influential players in the Flash vs. HTML5 market. It’s important to keep in mind while reading, that YouTube is owned by Google, and is positioned opposite Apple on many issues (this is far from impartial, but the points are applicable anyway).
Apple iOS 4: My Review
Everyone has an iOS 4 review, or an iPhone 4 review, why shouldn’t I?
Apple iOS 4: iPhone 3G and the missing Wallpaper
I saw on Engadget, Why Your iPhone 3G Didn’t Get Backgrounds with iOS 4 — and wanted to comment.
The problem is people are unhappy their iPhone 3G (and older models) doesn’t have the ability for custom backgrounds.
From the article, a letter written to Steve Jobs and the response:
Hey Steve! I just upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS 4 and was really looking forward to setting a background on my home screen. Guess that’s not happening, but I’d like to know why.
See, I get why you don’t include multitasking. My iPhone gets pretty hot when certain apps run, couldn’t imagine how multitasking would fry my phone.
But the background thing, I don’t see how that would be memory intensive and/or battery draining. It doesn’t seem like that feature needs to be exclusive to the 3GS and 4G.
I hope this email finds you in good health.
Erica
.. and the reply by Steve Jobs …
The icon animation with backgrounds didn’t perform well enough.
Yes, it sucks that users don’t get new features (I did like the tone Erica used in her email, it wasn’t annoying or accusatory, just curious). I’ve seen around the internet various receptions of this “lack” of new functionality.
Poor Steve Jobs.
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