Posts Filed Under ‘iPhone’
BillShrink hits it out of the park with a handy infographic which compares the cost and features of the current generation of smartphones: the Nexus One, the Palm Pre, the Motorola Droid, and the iPhone 3GS.
Looking at this you realize 1.) there's no clear winner in the bunch feature-wise and 2.) we all spend a ridiculous amount of money on mobile phones and service. My only nitpick with this chart is that the T-Mobile/Nexus One "Average Usage" plan should be listed at $79.99 a month, not $89.99 (unless they're counting taxes and fees). Update: BillShrink has updated this graphic to correct prices. Head inside and click to enlarge the big picture to check it out.
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VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin--you know, the guy who invented the spreadsheet--has delved into mobile development and released his first iPhone/iPod touch application, Note Taker. Rather than use keyboard, in Note Taker you jot notes using the tip of your finger on your touchscreen as if it were a pen on an index card. (See my bad handwriting in Note Taker in the screenshot here.) Note Taker looks and sounds more awkward than it actually is: the application employs some nifty interface mechanisms that make it easy to write long sentences across your screen. For example, it scrolls right while you jot without requiring swiping, and it shrinks your words to a legible version for reading while you write. Note Taker doesn't do text recognition, but you can transcribe jotted notes using the keyboard. (Update: You could also just email your Note Taker image to Evernote to do the recognition for you.) This app isn't for folks who are comfortable typing on the iPhone keyboard and have terrible handwriting, but it is for folks who like to sketch, mind-map, or list without fat-fingering small keys. You just write the way you normally would on a notepad.
My favorite part about this app is the fact that it comes from a giant in personal computing, who, after 30+ years in the business, is still motivated enough to pick up a book, learn a new platform, and release software. Bricklin explains:
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Import Facebook Phone Numbers into Your Google Contacts · Android users with Facebook friends who list their phone number in their profiles will love this: Brad Fitzpatrick offers a Greasemonkey script that exports those phone numbers to AddressBookr and offers to add/merge them into your Google Contacts. Even though this was posted last November, I just gave it a test run and it worked like a charm. Thanks, Nick! · August 23rd, 2009, 3 comments
One Way Android Can Become Viable · Apple guy John Gruber knocks it out of the park with this thoughtful piece on what he calls "the Android opportunity": his take on what Android can to do in order to become a viable alternative to the iPhone for technologists. Two points I couldn't agree with more: Android has to run on decent hardware (preferably a handset Google designs) and better exploit its advantages over the iPhone (like over-the-air Google apps sync, which beats MobileMe any day and is one of the main reasons I use Android). Yes, yes, and yes. Like Gruber, I really hope Google makes this play, because competition is good. Also, people will stop saying to me, "so you really like Android more than the iPhone? Really?" · August 19th, 2009, 8 comments
Apple Blocks Official Google Voice App, Pulls GV Mobile from App Store · TechCrunch got this headline just right: Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store. The second half was originally "and It's Likely AT&T's Fault." Apple's withheld approval of the official Google Voice application and pulled the unofficial GV Mobile app on the grounds that they "duplicate iPhone functionality." If TechCrunch is right, once the AT&T exclusive deal is done, this will likely change. Until then, as more Google Voice invites go out, Android, BlackBerry, and even Palm and Windows Mobile are looking like much more useful (read: open) mobile platforms. · July 27th, 2009, 7 comments
Asked my Twitter peeps whether or not they were buying the just-released iPhone 3GS, and 175 replies later, the response is a pretty solid NO.
Almost 80% of respondents are passing on the 3GS mainly because they don't think the upgrade is worth the money, they're not eligible for the upgrade pricing, they think AT&T blows, they're waiting for next year's model, or they're simply happy with their current phone. The other 20% were thrilled about getting their paws on the 3GS' speed and video camera. Yes-folks said the 3GS finally feels "feature-complete," that the device replaces their GPS, point and shoot camera, and in some cases, their laptop, and others said it was the perfect reason to ditch their current crappy phone.
Out of 175 responses, 138 said they were not getting the 3GS, and 37 said they were. (Since I'm an Android user, I attract non-iPhone types, so these results are skewed by who follows me.) Here are the best replies I got, with the cleverest quips and insights highlighted.
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It’s iPhone 3GS Release Day · Jason Chen's excellent review of the iPhone 3GS banished any doubt from my mind that Apple wasn't kidding about that S: it does stand for capital-S Speed. (Just watch those side-by-side video clips.) But, for a whole lot of folks, the S does NOT stand for savings. As for me, I'm sticking with my HTC G1 running Android. It still has a better native Gmail client than iPhone 3.0. (But I'm not bitter about all that speed or anything.) · June 19th, 2009, 4 comments
iPhone and Mac Talk on Copper Robot · Had a blast last night on Mitch Wagner's Second Life interview series, Copper Robot, where TUAW's Mike Rose, ArminasX Saiman, Mitch and I got to chat about Apple's new iPhone and Snow Leopard announcements last week. Thanks to Mitch and my co-panelists for having me; if you missed the event in-world, you can watch and listen to the video here. I also posted a couple of screenshots from the event on Flickr. · June 15th, 2009
Tech Goodies on Their Way · From Google Wave to Windows 7 and this week's Apple announcements, there are some really cool future-ready consumer products right on the horizon. Over at Lifehacker this morning, I gushed about what it all is, why it matters, and when we'll have it in my feature article, Upcoming Tech That Will Rock Your World. · June 10th, 2009
Artist Jorge Colombo drew the image that graces the June 1st cover of The New Yorker magazine with Brushes, a $4.99 iPhone app. Virtually "finger-painting" an image like this onto a tiny iPhone touchscreen seems insane and inconvenient, but Colombo has good reasons. The New Yorker reports:
He discovered an advantage of digital drawing on a nighttime drive to Vermont. “Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner’s hat, I could not draw in the dark.” (When the sun is up, it’s a bit harder, “because of the glare on the phone,” he says.)
Drawing on the iPhone also offers the artist anonymity. Colombo stood in Times Square for an hour drawing this image on his iPhone and no one gave him a second look. Unlike if he had been painting with an easel, passersby just assumed he was checking his email.
Surely sales of the Brushes app will go through the roof this week as aspiring artists scramble to replicate Colombo's work. Of course, Ken Rockwell was right when he asserted that it's an artist's eye, patience, and skill that makes a good image, not the tools he or she uses. See a video of this drawing come to life below.
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Best Ways to Get Gmail on Your Phone · Yesterday Google rolled out some impressive changes to the Gmail mobile webapp that makes checking your email in your phone's web browser an actually-attractive option. No small feat. So this morning over at Lifehacker I broke down what Gmail features you get in a mail client versus the webapp on your iPhone or Android handset. · April 8th, 2009, 1 comment
Apple made some exciting announcements about what's coming down the pipe for the iPhone this summer, so over at Lifehacker this morning I took at look at seeing how it all stacks up against Google's Android.
Overall I'm still a happy Android user, but I'll give it to Apple: the application potential and accessory control is looking really good. If they nail push notifications, iPhone 3.0 will be a really big deal. Check out the full article: Android Versus iPhone 3.0: The Showdown.
iPhone 3.0 Gets Copy and Paste and Then Some · Apple's finally caving and adding basics like copy and paste and proper MMS support to the iPhone operating system's third iteration, they announced today, plus a few other interesting goodies which catch it up to Android and then some. The iPhone still won't run background processes like Android can, but if they implement push notifications well maybe they won't have to. Yay for innovation and competition that leads to better products. · March 17th, 2009, 6 comments
Last October I was lucky enough to get my paws on the first-ever Android smartphone, the HTC G1, and review it for Lifehacker the day it was released to the public. I'd had the phone for only a week to do my review, but in the process I fell in love with Android and its available applications, even at that early stage.
Still, with 14 months left on my iPhone's two-year contract with AT&T, I didn't want to pay a termination fee to switch to a new phone on a different carrier. But my Android lust grew deeper, so I took the plunge and tried unlocking a G1 to work with my iPhone's AT&T SIM card. I got a G1 from a friend for a decent price, paid 25 bucks for an unlock code, and it worked! No need to leave AT&T, but I still get Android goodness. If you're interested in doing the same, here's how I did it.
Several people have asked why I switched from the iPhone to a G1 running Android. My reasons are both practical and philosophical.
The practical ones:
- I'm a heavy Gmail user, and Android offers up-to-the-second push Gmail, and a Gmail interface that far surpasses Mail on the iPhone. Reading, searching, labeling, and otherwise processing my email is the most important thing I need to do on my smartphone besides make calls, and it's simply easier in Android.
- Android lets me manage my contacts in one place: Gmail, and syncs them automatically to my phone. No more local address book!
- Android is better than the iPhone software in a few ways: it's way more customizable, it offers copy and paste, the pull-down "window shade" is a better notification mechanism, and in general it gives you that feeling that you're in control of every setting.
- Android doesn't run Safari, but it will likely run Chrome someday.
- I love the trackball on the G1 for scrolling and clicking. From an economy-of-motion standpoint, it's a way more efficient way to interact with the device than swiping and tapping the screen. The snap-out keyboard is sweet, too.
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