a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Seems like a nice update if you cross platform your mac and want to use your iPhone in Windows…
“Virtualization company Parallels launched a new public beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac on Thursday. Among other features, Parallels public beta will support the iPhone in Windows XP and Vista while running on your Mac.” [Macworld: News]
Technorati Tags:
Apple, iPhone, Virtualization
Seems today’s meme is iPhone vs. Blackberry.
Dave Winer looks at ease of use for things we all consider on a daily basis – advantage BlackBerry.
For example, I brought only the iPhone with me to a meeting in Palo Alto last week. As I was driving to the meeting I could see that I would be a few minutes late, so I wanted to call the person I was meeting and alert them. With the Blackberry I would have been able to do this while stopped at a red light. Just search for the person’s name in my inbox, open the first message, highlight the phone number, click the scroll wheel twice (once to dial the number, the second time to confirm that I want to do it).
In comparison, the iPhone only keeps the most recent 25 messages in memory, and this person’s email was not in that group. No search command. And it doesn’t have a scroll wheel or a clipboard. The light turned green long before I found the email that contained the phone number. [Dave Winer]
Mark Hendrickson at Techcrunch compares mainly email – and it’s only due to Exchange sync that the Blackberry wins. With better email / PIM sync the iPhone would have come out on top.
Despite all of these criticisms of the iPhone, our venture capitalist admits that he would switch over to the iPhone if only it supported push email, calendar and contacts synchronization, and GPS. For him, the prospect of ridding his pockets of a separate device for music (an iPod nano), as well as enjoying all of the iPhone’s slick features (such as full-featured web browsing, stocks and weather apps, and its YouTube program), makes the iPhone very tempting. However, until Apple resolves these shortcomings (and perhaps Google makes its applications, especially Gmail, work as seamlessly with the iPhone as Microsoft makes Exchange work with the BlackBerry), others are going to have to pry his BlackBerry from his cold, dead hands (his words, mind you, not ours). [Techcrunch]
In my own usage, I am finding the email experience to be more than a bit anemic. The Gmail integration (or lack thereof) is horrendous. Gmail uses it’s own system which completely messes up the way you’d normally do POP mail – something I really don’t like to begin with… While the 15 min sync interval is fine for most people, in my experience it seems the iPhone is constantly in a state of connection – trying but not downloading messages. When viewing my FastMail IMAP account or Yahoo IMAP account things are more efficient and seem to connect properly and as expected.
I’ve been working with Gmail for quite a while now and while I was accustomed to some limitations on Nokia devices (not respecting my preferred email identity and no sending of attachments) things are amplified on the iPhone. As Dave mentioned, there’s no search, but there’s also no ability to view by tag / folder. Another critical ommision is there’s only one setting for checking mail on all accounts. I’ve been leaving three accounts active, but essentially live in Gmail. As a result I get multiple notifications for all my mail – first in FastMail which then forwards to Gmail. I need Fastmail on the iPhone for when I don’t want to send as Gmail, but Gmail is my main inbox where I want to get quite a bit of other stuff.
As much as I enjoy using the iPhone for all that it does – particularly the web and iPod functions, email is seriously annoying me. We need a dedicated app to manage Gmail – not POP and that will certainly require some changes (an actual application) on the iPhone. I don’t in anyway miss using a blackberry, but thinking about how nice the J2ME Gmail is on my Nokia N-Series devices does give me some pause over which device has my long term usage in its future. Why make compromises when there a choices of devices that can do it all?
Technorati Tags:
Apple, Browser, Gmail, Google, iPhone, N95, Nokia, Safari, Blackberry
I use profiles frequently on my Nokia devices and really miss that option on the iPhone.
When I’m in the car using the iPod, I want to turn mail notifications off and while I can do it manually, I’d prefer to set the phone into car mode. Lying in bed, I’d like system sounds on, but don’t want to hear the ringer in the middle of the night or hear my email coming in…
There’s a hardware switch which you can use to change things to silent, but you have to also choose to turn vibration off manually in settings in order to make the phone actually quiet which is handy if you charge on your bedside table as I do.
There are currently no settings for what uses vibration or options (like silent) for sounds per app. Right now it’s as Apple decided. A simple profiles setting (like what’s in all my Nokia’s) or a 3rd party app when the day comes we can install something would be much appreciated.
Zach from Symbian in Motion tagged me in the latest meme, “What’s on a Blogger’s Phone?” Zach is curious as to how I am adjusting (and perhaps compensating) for the iPhone’s lack of true applications based on what I run on the N95.My standard set of apps on S60 has not changed in quite a while…
That’s pretty much my standard set of apps to install. I use the Camera a lot to take video and still shots, review in Gallery and also find myself using the Calendar, Browser and Nokia Maps a fair bit though all of these are standard on the device. The iPhone is a new beast. No way to install anything and only Safari as a path to run something more robust. So far this has not really been that much of an issue for me, though I’d really like to get at least a chat client going. The mobile web apps I’ve been trying work nicely but have no notification sounds, so you have to constantly check to see if something is new.
On all my devices I tend to spend a good amount of time on Google Reader mobile and have bookmarks for certain tag folders so I can quickly drill down on topics of interest. I’d like to hear what Bryan Sawler is up to on his mobiles… He’s a mobile developer and I know has both an iPhone and a Nokia or two handy.
Technorati Tags:Apple, Beejive, Gizmo Project, Google Maps, GPS, IM, iPhone, Jaiku, mobile, N95, Navigation, Nokia, podcast, Safari, Social Networking, TruPhone, VOIP, What’s on a blogger’s phone?, Gmail, Photos, Flickr, Widgets
As good as it is to have all your bookmarks with you on the iPhone I wish Safari had some of the other features you have on the desktop.
I’d really like to have some form management so it was easier to save logins and I’d like to see my keychain sync – or parts of it anyway that were relative to the browser. I suppose if we get an OTA sync and share function with Leopard as has been rumored we may be able to save logins to servers and other systems if that’s a device capability. For now, stronger management of my personal data would be most excellent.
I took a look at the browsing experience on the iPhone and compared it to the Nokia N95 as well as the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. In general, the iPhone and N800 are much closer experiences, though having used both I’m leaning towards the iPhone. The N800 is definitely still robust for handling your browsing needs – especially with the addition of Flash 9 support, but my preference is for how Safari handles things over Opera.
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iPhone, Nokia, Internet Tablet, N800, N-Series, N95, Flash, Safari, Opera, Yahoo, womworld, Jaiku
Roland Tanglao has an interest post about a few ways Nokia could start thinking about competing with the iPhone:
Plan A:
- Make the existing phones work right. e.g. fix the memory problems with ShoZu and the N95 even if this requires throwing hardware at it e.g. by doubling the RAM.
- Bundle N95s with ShoZu (a version that allows unlimited size video uploads to YouTube, or blip.tv, the present 4MB limit is silly) and a flickr membership and market the N95 for the groundbreaking and cool device that it is (well that I think it is; I don’t have an N95 but other than the usual memory problems and the GPS antenna not being sensitive enough it looks like an awesome device)
Plan B:
- recast S60 around an open source core to make it more reliable and robust
- add touch and create a new user interface from the ground up to make the S60 user experience competitive with iPhone.
Hard to argue with Plan A, though I would add offering an upgrade / update to existing owners to fix the memory issues that plague us on the N95. The phone is $750, which as you know is MORE than the iPhone which according to the iPhone haters out there means you should be getting more for your money. I like the notion of a special version of Shozu. Assuming it actually works on your device – something that is a crap shoot apparently – it would be nice to actually be able to get media from the device up to your online service of choice. This only enhances the value of the device to the people most likely to be attracted to purchase.
Shozu should probably not be where things end either. Since there’s a bevy of applications available for the S60 platform, why not parter with the software companies for some bundling. Take better advantage of the Downloads service and offer more than people want and how they can get the most from their purchase. The devices are being sold unlocked — use that to your advantage as well… they can work out of the box anywhere you want on any carrier with little exception).
Nokia’s real issue though is marketing. They’ve had a massive head start in the market and have a few devices (UI aside) with much greater capabilities. The phones are more complex to use and have a definite learning curve if you are new to S60 which hurts adoption. That said, there’s an appeal with power users that needs to be properly exploited.
The Blogger Relations program of which I am a part helps – as illustrated by my readership as well as the reader of other participants, but Nokia needs to do more to SHOW what the devices are about, how they work and most importantly WHY you want one. I would suggest embracing the users more and sharing a deeper view from the base in a broader context — not just what readers see on the blogs, but in actual ads and a campaign site – make it mass! The iPhone broke through all the barriers and has become a pop culture icon in consumer electronics… use that momentum now that the people have awakened but steer them down your path. Apple’s excellent marketing simplicity has opened the door for opportunity.
BTW — my guess on the initial response to the iPhone in the US is that rumored 8GB N95 though I have a feeling we’ll see it working on US 3G bands.
Technorati Tags:
AT&T, Apple, unlocked, mobile, marketing, WiFi, bluetooth, N-Series, N95, GPS, Navigation, Shozu, Google Maps, 3G
After the initial walkthrough, I thought it would be interesting to compare specific features and applications between my iPhone and the N95 and N800… We’ll start with Google Maps.
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iPhone, Nokia, Google, N-Series, N95, GPS, Navigation, Google Maps
I shot some video today of the iPhone and wanted to begin to compare things to the Nokia’s I’ve got as well. This is mainly the iPhone with a few phyiscal comparisons to the N95 and the N800. I’ll dive deeper into specific features and applications in future pieces.
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, AT&T, Nokia, Internet Tablet, Apple, N800, N-Series, N95
This morning I decided to check out some apps for the iPhone… Things seem to work great actually and I’ve set up dynamic dns services to enable access from EDGE when away from my systems.
BeeJive is a Multi-IM web service that can connect you to AIM / iChat, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and Jabber / GoogleTalk nicely in the browser. Seems to be smart enough to manage the network switching between EDGE and WiFi. I’m hoping for some buddy management as they update things… it’s currently in a public alpha.
If you enjoy staying in touch via IRC, Colloquy has enabled a web server plugin which lets you connect through your Mac. I found it really works well and while I don’t do IRC every day it’s nice to know I can easily connect here.
As you may have heard there is currently no ToDo app on the iPhone for some reason even though it exists in iCal today and in Mail in the upcoming Leopard release of OSX. Omni Group has heeded the call by enabling their pending GTD app OmniFocus serve itself up through the browser. Seems to work very well – though I noticed it takes a few moments to update back on the desktop. Regardless, this is a great solution if you’ve already organized yourself or are planning to use Omnifocus.
PocketTweets is a beautiful way to stay connected with Twitter … while I’ve been using the m.jaiku.com site for about a week for my Jaiku fix, I’d love to see something similar developed to take specific advantage of the iPhone browser UI.
I’m also dabbling with iPhone Remote which lets you do some interesting things in a remote way with any Mac you install it on. You can run apple scripts, use the webcam, remote control iTunes, browse and send links to files (though they don’t work as attachments yet) and a few other tricks. This is one to watch I think as it really has the potential to extend your desktop into your mobile experience.
I’m still hoping there will be a way to get widgets if not full local apps on the iPhone though I don’t think that will happen until at least after the dust settles on the launch.
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, Apple, wireless, mobile, WiFi, Beejive, Colloquy, IRC, IM, OmniFocus, GTD, iPhone Remote
Using the iPhone with a few email accounts over the past few days has given me some insight into the nature of how things are getting done between Apple and Google and Yahoo. While Google has a lock on the maps, YouTube and as the initial search partner for Safari, Yahoo scored two widget home screen placements with Stocks and Weather and is also the only way to get a push mail experience.
POP Mail is horrible. I was an IMAP user for years and only switched to GMail fulltime (my domain’s IMAP forwards into Gmail) when I realized I could get a similar experience across my mobile phones and the Nokia Internet Tablet (full web Gmail). Now on the iPhone things are a different story. For starters, there’s no Gmail application. I guess I could use the web browser, but I’ve been spoiled by the speed of the application Google released and would either like that as my main option or even better an iPhone integrated Gmail mail service. This full integration is actually exactly what Yahoo has scored with their IMAP support. For starters – it’s instant! Exactly what you would have come to expect if you’ve used a blackberry or a Treo with Chattermail. The shortest interval you can get mail to check on the iPhone is 15 minutes – unless it’s a Yahoo Account and then it’s real-time.
It’s great to have Yahoo mail updating in real-time, but there’s no way to change how you appear in sent mail and Yahoo is not my preferred domain. Additionally it’s more than likely that any reply to a mailing list will be blocked as it’s not the address you’ve subscribed with. Push is not enough for me to switch to Yahoo, but I definitely want it when I can tap in from another email account. For now without a way to change my identity I’m still sticking it out with GMail. POP annoyances aside…
It will be interested to see how long this lock lasts for Yahoo as well as everything else. I can’t see Google allowing Yahoo’s exclusive on premium access to mail lasting longer than the terms of the initial deal.
I’m sure there will be a lot to say about this new device over time but I’ve got to say it’s a VERY cool device. Considering what it does and does well and even the things it does not do, I’m extremely pleased with how it all comes together.
I’ve been using Nokia N-Series mobile devices for a few years now and have enjoyed the progression of functionality and features from the N90 to the N95 as well as in the two Nokia Internet Tablets. The iPhone combines everything I know I want to have and ties it all together in a beautiful package.
The hardware is stunning. When you hold it in your hand, you know it’s a solid piece. It’s heavier than my N95 but it’s metal, not plastic and the iPhone is also very smooth. The front as you’ve certainly seen by now is almost all screen and the display is the best I’ve seen – super bright and easy to read indoors and amazingly very easy to read in outdoor environments as well. I’ve been using it at the beach the past few days and have had no problem reading the screen in bright sun – even with polarizing sunglasses.
Calling the iPhone a phone would be a disservice.
It’s far more computer that makes phone calls than it is phone, though compared to any mobile computer I’ve used. The battery has enough in it to go a full day with everything on. I’ve been getting up around 6 and find that the battery can go until close to 5pm before I get the warning at 20%. This is with email (3 accounts) checking every 15 minutes, wifi and bluetooth on and clicking through to the web frequently from email as well as general browsing to sites like Google Reader or Jaiku. I’ve listened to a few podcasts while doing all of this and in general things flow very smoothly. Using the included earphones (not my usual choice) works great and with the single button controller I can start and stop the audio playing or take and kill calls.
There are a few times I’ve found that either the browser or email quits, which I honestly (and unfortunately) have come to expect on every device I’ve used. When this happens, it does so with grace and it’s easy to largely resume where yo left off in either app – though you will have to open your web pages again. The last one opened in the first tab pops back when you re-open safari…
It’s hard if not impossible to gauge how the iPhone uses memory. I can’t figure out when I am pushing it too far, though a few clues keep popping up. At times, when tapping a reply into a form in Jaiku, I’ve seen substantial delays in text entry. The only fix that works for me is to kill that tab and try again which is easy enough as I’ve clicked a link from email to get there anyway. I’ve had 5 windows going in the browser while email runs and I view pictures with my family. Initially I though that the browser was not loading windows unless they were upfront, but I Think actually that the iPhone is in fact a multi-threaded device thanks to OSX and having that much going at once just taxes the system to slow things down. Additional delays in both mail and web have been when I’ve walked to the maximum range of the wifi here at our beach house. While the iPhone beautifully reconnects to wifi when I enter the house, it’s slow to drop the connection to EDGE if it can detect WiFi on any level. If I know I’m going to be sitting in a tough connection place, I just manually switch the WiFi off and have had no issues working with EDGE.
The camera is adequate. If there’s good light and your subject is still, you can snap some very nice pictures. The shutter lag seems perfectly manageable – actually it’s pretty quick for a phone camera in my experience. I really like the integration of the images with Aperture and the Photos application is amazing – kills the Gallery app from my N-Series experience. The main drag here is that the only way to get images off is to either sync or email and you can’t save an image to the iPhone if you receive one via mail. That all happens on the desktop since Apple has rudely blocked access to the file system. This also means that your not able to upload to flickr for example while on the go. I did email a pic last night and it worked fine, though as has been reported elsewhere the iPhone strips the EXIF data when you do this for some reason along with resizing things down.
The touch-screen is killer. I’ve had to issues with entering text and have found it easy to pick up, which puts me in the minority I suppose, but I sorta already knew that’s where I was with how many of these toys I played with. 😉 Like everyone else I’d like to see landscape mode work in more than pictures, movies and safari. Especially given that the iPhone does HTML email by default. The zoom features with a double-tap are pretty sweet though and amazing when you realize it “knows” what part of the page to zoom on.
In general my gripes are things that can very easily be fixed with software updates. I’ll be doing some video soon and will compare more directly with my Nokia’s…
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, AT&T, Nokia, Apple, mobile, WiFi, bluetooth
Not really my first day with the iPhone, but certainly the first day I can use it for the whole day. I’ve had it going since about 6am and got a 20% battery warning at around 12:40. All in all not a bad run.
I’ve had wifi and bluetooth on, email auto-checking every 15 minutes and used the web extensively. I’ve only made one call and that lasted about 15 minutes.
In my previous usage with WiFi enabled handsets, this is by far the best.
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, AT&T, Apple, wireless, mobile, WiFi, bluetooth
I feel like I’ve spent more time (43 hours waiting on activation!) on this than most people so here’s some info for anyone having issues.
It’s DEFINITELY an ATT issue with porting of numbers. Porting unfortunately also includes Cingular. Thanks to the magic of corporate synergy (sarcasm), Cingular seems to have only changed in name and until you move into an iPhone or new locked ATT device (more on this in a moment), you are still clearly in the OLD system.
Yesterday Apple told me to speak to ATT about getting a new SIM, which ATT told me (at the store) was impossible. Today Apple told me (at the store) they had no SIMs to offer (I should speak to ATT!) and that they would NOT give me a new iPhone. Their POV was that the iPhone was fine and that it was just a matter of time… Around midnight I spoke to someone who was able to manually remove and re-add my iPhone to the plan and try an OTA activation … That was done again today and failed.
It was not until a call later today I learned there’s some magical bit that has to get associated with your account that until it does will leave you in limbo. My limbo lasted 43 hours… The magic bit is something called “Apple Tracking.” Until this is associated with your account, you will continue to see that you need more time for activation to occur.
During my dad’s activation this afternoon (after mine went through!) he encountered one hitch which is that he uses PayTrust to manage bills and that address (South Dakota) did not match where he was planning to use as his main address (outside Philadelphia). Amazingly ATT called within minutes of his second attempt to process and walked us through a walk-around. The suggestion was to set up a matching address with billing and usage and change once it’s activated. Once this was done, my dad’s iPhone activated a moment later. Knowing my issues well enough I suggested that instead of porting his number from Verizon, he go with a new ATT number and just port it later once everything was running.
The process is getting smoother but I am not sure that’s really because anything has been fixed, and more because enough time has passed for the customer reps to have a pooled an amount of learning and are actively sharing. Over the course of my conversations, the people seemed to have
In speaking with ATT tonight I learned that my account was not configured correctly and now it is apparently. I still had a MediaMax (Cingular) data plan attached even though I had selected the iPhone data package as well as 1500 text messages. Neither were there. Interestingly that’s actually the same thing as what I already had – but not named iPhone.
Anyway.
The iPhone was removed and then added back manually by the customer service representative who tried several times to get an OTA activation going, but we were greeted by the standard “your activation requires more time.”
Information seems to be flowing in real-time with ATT and Apple… from the conversations I could hear between reps they are getting on-the-fly advice to try things in the system. Nothing seems to be working consistently. The only standard advice seems to be leave the iPhone connected to your system so as Apple batch processes things it will go through.
So … I think it’s actually on Apple’s end. Afterall my SIM works in my Nokia, but my iPhone sees NO bars and cannot complete it’s process.
It’s officially been 24 hours…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen those words in the past 24 hours, but it’s far more than I would like to admit. If you’ve followed my Jaiku or Twitters over the past day+, you know I still do not have an activated iPhone. This has been bothering me to such an extent that it actually disrupted sleep last night and gave mea headache for most of the day. To say I’ve been in a bad mood would be an understatement.
In case you’d like the short version… went through initial setup within minutes. (Actually was filming that for an unboxing video that will be far from relevant by the time I’m live with this thing.) Got to the more time needed BS message and sat looking dumfounded for a moment. About a minute or two later I got an email from the iTunes store stating the same thing and that I’d be notified by ATT when it was ready. About 15 hours later I got an email from ATT inviting me to the website to manage my account and all that usual getting started BS – which is extra BS for me as I am already a customer and have an account! Just shy of 18 hours later I got an email from ATT with a confirmation number confirming my processing – not activation of course, but that it was in progress. Nothing since …
My old phone SIM was killed by the activation process so there’s no going back to my prior devices. The iPhone SIM while reported to not work in anything else does in fact work in my Nokia phones (just tested this) and just confirms how messed up ATT is. If I can use the SIM, that means it’s been activated in the system and they have some very special extra lame system handling JUST iPhones which is the problem. It is “just” a phone anyway… regardless of how cool it might be.
I was told by Apple today that I could try a few things. First press the home and power buttons for a few seconds at startup until the logo screen appears… try it outside. Nothing. Apple also suggested I go to AT&T and get a new SIM which I did and was told a)they were not allowed to do that for iPhones and b) that would disrupt the process of activation since the SIM and IMEI are linked. This led me to try taking the SIM out and re-seating it. Nothing. BTW – the SIM is a 3G SIM and says so on both sides…. interesting.
I’m left with a few choices. 1 – Continue to suck it up and hope I magically activate soon. 2 – Kill this process with AT&T over the phone, go back to my other SIM once it activates (assuming it does) and then try again later with the iPhone. For now I’m sticking it out. Like some sick personal challenge, I can’t get beaten here.
I freaked on the ATT staff who shook their heads and hands and called (the same number!) customer support I’ve been dealing with but I somehow got to someone who seemed at least remotely in the loop – perhaps enough time had passed for training to occur. Anyway I pushed quite hard and was able to get a free month of voice service from the call – even though I am still without any service. I guess that and my hat will get me a free bowl of soup!
I’m out of thoughts here other than to try and chill. This is way beyond my control clearly and well beyond the control of anyone I’ve spoken to. It’s broken and will be until it’s fixed. It sucks, but that’s the way it is.
PS – Apple’s phone system said (and I heard this countless times in the hour I waited) hold time is estimated at 5 minutes or longer. My wait was 1 hour and 15 minutes and I suggested they update the time expectation.
10 hours after attempting to activate later…. I have no phone. My iPhone is waiting and my previous SIM is dead. The iPhone is useless without activation – no iPod, or any other features period.
I was in the middle of shooting an uboxing video but that clearly is far from time relevant now given the delay. At this point I’d simply like to have some form of phone service via an active SIM.
While we were led to believe otherwise this Brinks Security truck really did deliver the iPhones today.
I arrived at the Brewster, NY AT&T store around noon and found myself number 9 in line. I quickly moved to 8, when one potential customer discovered he was not eligible based on something (I honestly was not paying attention).
The day was painless. People were very friendly and generally just psyched to be there. The crowd was a total cross-section. We had geeks, nerds, jocks Moms, and Dads with kids. There was a good mix of women even, which was surprising, but clearly the iPhone crosses over every personality type.
6 hours later – the doors opened and we went inside to find the AT&T systems completely overrun with traffic. The 5 employes at the store were very friendly and doing what they could but it was just too much traffic at once apparently. After about 45 minutes I was able to leave with my 8GB (one per customer) iPhone in hand!
My iPhone is still sitting in it’s box and wrapped! I’m sitting in an almost dark room while my daughter falls asleep and then I’ll unbox properly! I did get a chance to play with a unit in the store and the hardware feels amazing in your hand. It’s quite solid and surprisingly smaller than anticipated which is great. Much more to follow…
