NYC vs. AT&T
Okay, now I understand the AT&T hate that emanates from iPhone users in ginormous cities like New York and San Francisco. From today’s Gizmodo:
After a few tests, the Apple Genius determined that Manoj’s phone was dropping 22 percent of its calls, which turns out to actually be “excellent” compared to most iPhone users in the New York area, where a dropped call rate of 30 percent is said to be average.
image © Gizmodo
The article goes on to say that an iPhone in the NYC area that drops three out of every ten calls is considered “fully functional,” and that the issue is “consistent with the service provided by AT&T.” My two take-aways:
- AT&T is really turning into a millstone around the neck of the iPhone. The arrangement worked when the iPhone launched and Apple needed someone to heavily subsidize the hardware to promote early adoption and a wide install base. But now they’re stuck with a carrier that couldn’t even get freakin’ picture mail to work until late 2009. And if the network is solely responsible for causing the primary function of the device to fail 30% of the time, that’s going to make it tough for the iPhone to remain competitive against all of the also-rans, which might have inferior hardware, but they’re running on superior networks—networks that don’t soak you for a $30 monthly data plan that doesn’t even include text messaging.
- I assume that the Apple Genius Bar follows some pretty strict protocols about the information that they give out and the way that it’s presented. So if you’ve got Apple’s own Geniuses throwing AT&T under the bus, I have to think that the writing is on the wall. I would not be shocked to see AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity come to an end within the next 12 months, unless something big changes soon.
AT&T Is Really, Really Sorry
AT&T just released a three-minute video apology for the delay in rolling out MMS and data tethering for the iPhone. Rather than comment directly on it myself, I thought I’d just post the video and Gawker’s response to it:
The telecommunications company knows its wireless network is the scourge of iPhone owners, so it’s just posted a YouTube video of an empathetic, long-haired geek named “Seth” to explain how hard it has been for the company to keep up with the torrid growth in smartphone subscriptions. You know what else is hard, “Seth?” Spending $100 per month for crappy service.
AT&T FAIL (Updated!)
Just a quickie today; from the Old Gray Lady:
More than 20 million other smartphone users are on the AT&T network, but other phones do not drain the network the way the nine million iPhones users do. Indeed, that is why the howls of protest are more numerous in the dense urban areas with higher concentrations of iPhone owners.
“It’s almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities,” Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. “When too many users get in the area, the call drops.” The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T’s network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.
image © New York Times
Honestly, since I got my 3GS a couple of months ago (upgrading from a 2G iPhone), I haven’t noticed any decline in data or call quality. If anything, it’s improved across the board, and it’s miles better than the service I had on the Sprint smartphone that predated my iPhone.
Then again, I live and work in the relatively sleepy metropolis of Portland, not the tech Sodom and Gomorrah of NY and San Fran. But since most tech media is centered in one of those two cities, that helps to explain the pervasive anti-AT&T vibe that I’ve never quite understood.
That being said, AT&T promised MMS functionality by “the end of summer” (and yes, it’s completely ridiculous that the world’s awesomest futurephone still doesn’t have native picture mail). By my reckoning, that gives AT&T about 19 more days to get their act together. If I’m not able to text pictures of my drunk friends to their spouses’ phones by then, I’m drinking the AT&T Haterade.
UPDATE: AT&T says that MMS will be enabled on iPhones via a software update on September 25th. That’s four days late, AT&T! Four days late!!
Facebook v. 3.01 App
image © Bryan Stratton
Now that I’ve had a few days to play with version 3.0 of the Facebook iPhone app (which was recently upgraded to 3.01), I can say with confidence that it’s the update I’ve been hoping to see for a long time. In fact, my only criticism is that we didn’t get it months ago, when Facebook went through its last major redesign.
The addition of the menu screen is probably the biggest and best improvement to the app. Navigating the app with nine, Home Screen-like buttons drastically simplifies what was a needlessly overcomplicated UI in the previous version. And being able to add quick links to frequently visited friends’ pages streamlines the browsing experience even more. (In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing something like this on the actual site, especially if it was implemented discreetly, to avoid the MySpace “who’s in my top eight?” drama.) I also like that there’s a Notifications tab at the bottom of the menu screen, and that the number of unread notifications (not just unread emails) appears on the Facebook icon in the Home Screen.
image © Bryan Stratton
Other things I’m digging on include the ability to finally view and create Notes, see all of your upcoming Events (including friends’ birthdays) and enjoy the full filtered or unfiltered News Feed. The redesigned Chat interface is also quite slick and functional, and I’m glad they didn’t muck up the most useful feature in the original app, which was the ability to use your Friends list as a second Contacts list and call them without leaving the app.
Overall, I think that the app presents a very clean and efficient version of Facebook‘s core features, one that is almost preferable to the main site, especially if you’re the sort of person who can’t stand seeing a feed that’s choked with quizzes and app postings. I’ll be interested to see how long it takes Facebook app designers to start taking advantage of the iPhone app’s potential and whether or not it’s possible to do so without sacrificing the iPhone app’s streamlined design.
9/9/09 Apple Event
Apple just announced a rock and roll-themed event in San Francisco on September 9th, 2009. This is the same 9/9/09 that sees the release of The Beatles: Rock Band and the remastered stereo and mono Beatles discography boxed sets. Is there anyone out there who will bet against the Beatles’ music finally turning up on iTunes?
image © Engadget/Apple
Other things I expect to see at the event:
- new iPod Touch with camera, microphone, increased storage and lower price
- new iTunes with social networking features, Blu-Ray support and—please god—iPhone app organization
- enhanced digital album art (“Cocktail“)
- Steve Jobs
I will bet against seeing the Mac tablet/”iPad” a week from Wednesday. Anyone want to take my money?
Augmenting Reality
The newest version of the Yelp app for the iPhone (released yesterday) has a nifty Easter Egg that we weren’t supposed to get until the iPhone 3.1 OS upgrade. From the Yelp home screen, shake the phone three times to enable a feature called “Monocle,” which triggers an augmented reality feature, overlaying the iPhone’s camera view with a real-time HUD indicating businesses that are reviewed on Yelp.
image © Bryan Stratton
I tried it this morning while walking to the Little Red Bike Cafe in North Portland. At a distance, it worked pretty well, but as I got closer to my destination, the accuracy decreased. In the screenshot above, Darcy’s actually is pretty much right across the street from me, but Taco Bell is behind me, and the Little Red Bike Cafe is to my left.
I’m sure that’s just an issue with the calibration and the fact that the iPhone 3.0 OS isn’t fully equipped to handle augmented reality apps at this point. But for a secret feature that’s still in beta, it’s frickin’ cool, and it’s definitely got me looking forward to seeing what creative uses app developers come up with for the finished API.
iPhone Face Collection
Just a quickie update today, as I delve deep into the guts of my latest book. Today’s Gizmodo has reposted all of the iPhone “face” wallpapers for your downloading pleasure. There’s also a nifty accompanying article recounting the origin of iPhone smiley face dude. Nineteen classic little bits of clever techie art, and free to anyone who wants ‘em. Can’t say fairer than that.
image © Gizmodo
Sony Courts iPhone Devs
Some notes about the approval process for PSP Mini games, from Pocket Gamer:
There is “no requirement for content approval” apparently.
Games will however go through a shortened quality assurance process to make sure they work properly on the various PSP hardware.
Significantly, this process is labelled as being “transparent, trackable and predictable”, with developers setting their own release dates.
This suggests Sony has learnt from Apple’s approval process for the App Store, which is regarded as being neither transparent, trackable or predictable.
image © casualgaming.biz
I find the “no requirement for content approval” extremely dubious. Is Sony really going to let Mini developers churn out porn apps for its handheld console and sell them through the PlayStation Store?
Also, isn’t this the same company that routinely releases new PSP firmware to shut down the homebrew community and has devised some of the most destructive copy protection malware in history? Are we really supposed to believe that they’re suddenly a friend of the little developer?
Plus, the install bases for the PSP and the iPhone/iPod Touch are just about dead even, despite the fact that the iPhone has been on the market for a significantly smaller time frame. If Sony really wants to start poaching disgruntled iPhone app developers, they’d better hope that the imminent release of the PSP Go exceeds all expectations, and that recent accounts of Apple reforming its approval process are bunk.
Oh Snap!
Just read this post on Gizmodo, which links to an LA Times article that talks about how the iPhone has become the most popular camera for photo uploads on Flickr; it’s also the only cellphone camera to crack the top five spots.
But can anyone honestly say that they’re surprised to hear that? Not only does the iPhone install base number in the tens of millions by now, it’s a device that has made sharing media over the internet easier than ever. Not only that, it’s the kind of gadget that you want to find excuses to play with—as my girlfriend will attest with a sigh of frustration (though I’m hoping that, once she starts using my old hand-me-down 2G iPhone, she’ll become One Of Us as well).
And with all due respect to the DSLR crowd, I think most of us think of picture-taking as a point-and-shoot affair. In my younger days, I shot roll after roll of film on a bargain basement 35mm camera. And to this day, I still treasure the hundreds of photos I have from that era, and I don’t lament the fact that I wasn’t able to white-balance them properly. Ironically, despite Apple’s elitist reputation, the iPhone is the perfect device for snapping and sharing pics without any fuss.
Why I Don’t Regret Buying My iPhone When I Did
I’ve received no fewer than three taunting messages from “friends” in the 48 hours since Apple announced that the new 3G iPhone would be released on July 11th. “Don’t you wish you’d waited?” they asked. “The new one’s going to have so many more features, and it’s $200 cheaper!”
My short answer: No, I don’t regret buying my iPhone in February at all.
My long answer: No, I don’t regret buying my iPhone in February at all, you covetous jackals. You don’t even have iPhones, which means you barely qualify as human in my book. Which, by the way, is an audiobook that I can listen to on my iPhone while I’m browsing lolcats, checking Red Sox scores, and downloading music. The future called, but your caveman phone just sent it straight to its primitive, non-visual voicemail. Press “1″ with your unopposable thumb to listen to it!
And if having a five-month head start on being unendurably smug isn’t enough of a reason for not regretting my purchase, here are five more:
1) Size Matters: My music collection clocks in at about 130 GB. When I bought my iPhone, the largest storage capacity was 16 GB. After formatting, that left me with only enough room for about 10% of my music. The 3G iPhones, spiffy as they are, don’t have any increased storage, which will be my primary reason for upgrading when I finally get around to it.
2) I’ll Be 2.0 Too: Most of the really nifty 3G iPhone stuff that was demoed at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference were third-party apps that will be available to all iPhone owners when the iPhone 2.0 OS is made available as a free download in a few weeks. That’s the truly great thing about the iPhone – the software is upgraded regularly, which adds additional functionality over the life of the device. You don’t have to buy a new one every year to get all the good stuff.
3) You Get What You Pay For: I paid $500 for my 16 GB iPhone when I bought it. The new 16 GB 3G iPhone is going to retail for $300. It’s also not going to come with the $50 dock that was included with mine, nor will it have the fancy-pants multi-head power adapter that mine did. That’s not $200 worth of goodies, but it softens that $200 early-adopter penalty somewhat.
4) 24 Easy Payments of $15 More: Unless you’re willing to unlock your iPhone from the AT&T network with some shady software (which might not even be possible with the 3G iPhones), you have to sign up for a two-year commitment to AT&T, and they’ve goosed up the rates for the 3G iPhones. The data plan is now $30 a month instead of the $20 for the original iPhone, and instead of getting 200 free text messages, they charge you $5 for them. Over 24 months, 3G iPhone’s service plan will cost $360 more than the original plan, which eats up that $200 price drop and then some.
5) I Love My Effing iPhone: Did you see the piece of crap “smartphone” I was stuck with for two years? Thick as a brick and nearly as functional. I could never get the wifi to work reliably, and the novelty of having Word and Excel on your phone wears off as soon as you try to use them on a 3.5-inch screen. To add insult to injury, it cost as much as the iPhone when I bought it, and that was back when the dollar was actually worth something. The iPhone does lots of things well, and it’s learning new tricks every day. It gets more delicate caresses from me than my girlfriend does, and don’t think that that hasn’t led to a few arguments. I listen to it as I fall asleep and check email on it as soon as I wake up (because my office is at least 10 feet from my bed, and that’s way too far to go to see if I actually need to get up yet or not).
A buddy of mine who works for Microsoft and hates all things Apple didn’t hesitate to praise the iPhone as one of the most amazing gadgets ever developed. And he’s absolutely right. It’s impossible to overstate how truly remarkable this thing is, and now that it’s reached a very competitive price point, there’s no reason for any of you to not experience the magic for yourself.
Go ahead. Do it. Join us.
Join us.
Join us.
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