Tech journalism is not an oxymoron
MobileMe customers are getting a note from Apple regarding the shaky transition to MobileMe services. As an apology for the transition trouble, the company is extending all MobileMe subscriptions by one month. I love the straightforwardness of this line, the second sentence in the letter: “Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we expected.” The ability to just plain admit there were problems is very refreshing, even from Apple.
Microsoft would never be so direct.
After finally getting my iPhone re-activated (thanks to the free WiFi at the Livingston, NJ public library), I spent much of yesterday examining the new features of iPhone 2.0 and happily downloading apps from the App Store.
The new iPhone OS is impressive, full of wonderfully polished touches and new features. One that I didn’t know was coming was the ability to take a screenshot (hat tip to Jason Snell): just press the Home and Power buttons simultaneously, and an image of the current screen is added to your Photo Roll, ready to email, sync or be sent to a web gallery — or added as wallpaper, if it’s not your phone and you’re in the mood for a prank.
The availability of iPhone applications makes my 1st Gen iPhone feel like a brand new device. I don’t think I was mentally prepared for the difference the additional functionality would make in how I regard the phone. There’s a subtle but profound shift in seeing the iPhone as an essentially closed ecosystem versus the boundless potential it has through third-party apps. The mind can’t help but think of new possibilities that no longer seem remote, but rather inevitable. It brought me back to the early days of the Palm PDA, when you could find an app for almost any function you could imagine. Thank goodness iTunes lets you manage which apps are synced to the phone — app management is sure to be the next “First World Problem” for iPhone owners.
Speaking of apps, the quality of applications available already ranges from incredible to appalling, and for that reason alone, I’m glad third-party apps weren’t available when the iPhone first launched. It was much better to build a baseline for expectations around quality, battery life and stability.
I’m fairly confident that the market will shake a lot of the crappy developers out of the space over the next few months, but right now, there’s a lot of chaff mixed in with the wheat, and a lot of developers who are not familiar enough with the Mac market. Lousy UIs, cheesey implementations and overpriced one-trick ponies abound, but are already getting hammered by bad reviews. Pricing, too, should stabilize, but there’s a lot of naivety on both the developer and user sides. It will be interesting to see what the market settles on as a “fair” price for most iPhone apps.
Some of my favorite apps so far:
My battery life is certainly suffering, but it’s too early to tell if it’s the result of all the new apps, or the increased amount of time I’m using my phone because of them.
Oh, and if someone would create a WordPress admin app along the lines of TypePad, I’d really appreciate it.
I was too busy patting myself on the back for realizing I could update my iPhone’s firmware from my company Mac (rather than my home machine, where the iPhone is “registered,”) that I completely missed the possibility that my corporate firewall might block access to the Apple servers necessary to re-activate the phone. (It did.)
Until I get the situation rectified, I am the proud owner of an emergency-use-only phone that tastefully advertises itself as such in at least five languages.
Notruf, everybody!
It’s starting out as a day of fits and starts for Apple’s new mobile computing-related releases. The company’s Mac.com service went down last night, as scheduled and it’s replacement, MobileMe, has poked its virtual head up a few times, but was not up as of this writing.
In the meantime, a new version of iTunes has been released through Apple’s Software Update mechanism. The update mainly provides access to Apple’s new Apps Store, through which it will sell applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Speaking of which, the iPhone 2.0 firmware update is not yet appearing within iTunes, but an observant MacRumors reader apparently found the software’s URL by scouring XML files. To apply the patch, you must hold down the Option key when pressing the Check for Update button within iTunes. Some readers are reporting what they consider long restore times, but so far the update seems to be working for iPhone users. The update for iPod Touch devices is a paid upgrade and apparently not part of this software.
For those willing to take their chances, the patch can be found at http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/conte
nt.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-4955.20080710.bg
t53/iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw
If your download appends a “.zip” extension to the file, simply remove it — don’t unzip the package.
In a post for TUAW, Erica Sadun focuses mostly on the unlocking prospects of the iPhone 3G, but comes to the same conclusion I did.
“The 3G iPhone that goes on sale Friday, represents nothing more than last year’s iPhone–that finally got delivered a year late.”
Shawn King also nails it in a post on Twitter: “I think 3G is for those who don’t already own one. Next model for those of us who own the original.”
Amen to both.
Spot on analysis by Macworld’s Peter Cohen about what’s likely to happen to iPhone developers who think just putting their software on the iApps store will magically make everyone flock to it.
I wrote an article for The Mac Observer and iPod Observer today that points out that if you don’t live in an area served by AT&T’s 3G network, you’ll wind up paying extra for service you may never enjoy. The bottom line: if you already have an iPhone and you don’t live within a 3G network, you’re probably much better off just hanging on to your current iPhone.
Here’s a link to the story: leave some nice feedback if you feel so inclined.
In his “iPhone, Therefore I Blog,” er…blog, The Chicago Tribune’s Scott (hmm, his last name doesn’t seem to appear on his own blog post) reports the earth-shattering, riot-inciting news that AT&T will require current iPhone owners to hand over their old phones in order to get a 3G version.
Naturally, Scott (and his commenters) are up in arms. “To be told that I need to turn it in to qualify for my next iPhone,” writes Scott, “is a slap in the face that hurts more than a strong San Francisco wind on the Golden Gate Bridge.” (I’ve never been slapped by Golden Gate wind, but from Scott’s description, I infer that it hurts quite a bit. Wait, maybe not, since Scott also describes the situation as “almost hurtful,” so perhaps the wind on the bridge isn’t so strong after all. I’ll admit to being a little confused on this point.)
Luckily, it is clear that Scott is a journalist so, as he is quick to assure us, “I definitely didn’t misunderstand in this case.” OK, that makes it seem like he has a history of misunderstanding in other cases, but let’s forge on. He “finished an exchange with an AT&T spokesperson,” he tells us. See? As a professional journalist, Scott waited until the exchange was finished before reporting on it. I suppose he could have checked with a second AT&T spokesperson (we could call that something like “verifying through multiple sources” if we were so inclined), but he was probably coming up on deadline or something. And I’m sure this spokesperson was emailing Scott through his official att.com corporate account, so why assume his or her story needed checking, right?
Anyway, Scott (and his commenters) are righteously indignant about the sleazy underhanded tactics AT&T is using to steal our full-priced, un-subsidized iPhones from us. Scott bravely advises all his readers to make sure to let “anyone who doesn’t read this blog” to know about this “breaking news story,” regardless of the hoardes of page views it may inflict on his blog (and its advertisers). Now that’s selflessness.
Oops. In navigating my way to the blog’s home page in search of Scott’s last name (Kleinberg, it turns out), I discovered that Scott has exhibited another mark of the true journalist: follow through. In his third posting on the topic (the second having been posted on the bus on the way to work — what a trouper, that Scott!) he explains that “whew!!” (both friendly lowercase and two exclamation points — Scott knows how to connect with his readers!) “False alarm.”
It seems that Scott’s trusted (but solitary) source was wrong after all, in spite of Scott having both “checked and rechecked.”
It’s only folks who buy their iPhone after May 27th who have to turn in their iPhones, and that because AT&T will give them a brand new iPhone 3G. Wow, we can all share a good laugh at that one!
Naturally, Scott doesn’t included the update in his original post where it might disrupt the flow of his prose (or educate his readers). He writes a new post where far fewer people are likely to be bothered by having to read a correction (journalists hate those.) Unfortunately for Scott, it looks like some cranky editor (journalists hate them, too) has made him add the update to the original post. Sorry, Scott.
And finally, in what appears to be his very own catch-phrase signoff (another sign of a professional journalist), Scott tells us all: “Thanks for calling.”
No, Scott — thank you!
Maybe the application demos dragged on a little longer than they could have, but there was a lot to like about yesterday’s WWDC Keynote: the iPhone 2.0 software looks great, from third-party apps to MobileMe support to improvements in iCal; and the new iPhone 3G is impressive, too. As Apple says (and this is the talking point from the keynote): the new iPhone offers twice the speed at half the price. Now priced lower than many other smartphones, I think this will open the floodgates: the iPhone is about to become a mass consumer device.
What I liked best about the announcements, though, is that I walked away from the keynote still loving my iPhone 1.0. Unlike the updates that came shortly after I bought my first iPod, I will get all the benefits and new features of the new operating system, third-party apps and all. My iPhone won’t get 3G, but I’m really fine with EDGE–and I’m not entirely sure I’d be willing to pay $30 a month to get 3G anyway. And while I still think it’s a typo, Apple’s webpage explaining the 2.0 software upgrade to existing Mac users seems to indicate that we’ll get true GPS, too. Is there a hidden GPS chip already in older iPhones just waiting for a firmware update to wake it up? I doubt it, but either way it’s alright with me. While it would be nice to have real GPS, Apple’s location system using cell towers and WiFi routers works really well in my experience.
So Apple has (finally) managed to introduce a really impressive upgrade that doesn’t leave existing customers–the early adapters–behind. We can cheer right along with those who haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet. Our iPhones may not be the latest and greatest anymore, but they’re still far from obsolete, and the iPhone platform still doesn’t discriminate.
Apple has posted a FAQs page on its transition from .Mac to the new MobileMe service it announced at WWDC. I’ll just cover a few of the more burning questions I’ve seen.