AT&T Gets You Ready for the iPhone 3G
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
AT&T is getting ready for the iPhone 3G rush, in part, by posting a series of videos walking customers through the process of activating their new phones. The series called iReady, includes clips for new and existing iPhone owners.
posted by Russell @ 2:10 PM,
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NBC Streams Video to iPhones
Friday, May 09, 2008
The last time I tried, I thought it wasn't possible to stream video to iPhones. Maybe I was doing it wrong, or maybe they have since enabled it. Either way, NBC is doing it. Browse over to NBC.com on your iPhone, click on the 'video' tab, and check out the 'full episodes' to watch 30 Rock or The Office. Its not commercial free, it pretty much requires WiFi for smooth streaming, and the aspect ratio is a little off... but it does work.
posted by Russell @ 6:08 AM,
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Flash for the iPhone
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
According to Engadget, Adobe has announced that they will develop a version of Flash for the iPhone using Apple's recently released iPhone SDK. According to rumors, iPhone apps will be available only through iTunes. So the question is, will Flash for the iPhone be free or will Apple be getting a little extra bite from each iPhone owner?
Labels: adobe, apple, iphone, itunes
posted by Russell @ 5:52 AM,
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iPhone: the Invention of the Year?
Friday, November 02, 2007
Really? The best invention this year is the iPhone? Its a good improvement on existing concepts of cell phones and handheld computers, but invention... seems a little loose to me. But then again, Time has in the past named such earth-shattering inventions as iTunes (2003), and YouTube (2006) as the best in those years.Personally I would have chosen something like Sandia's Electro Needle above any cell phone this year; being able to detect viruses, toxins, and take other blood readings with a sensor rather than by taking a blood sample kind of trumps downloading music at Starbucks in my mind. But that's just me.
Time does have some very good reasons for choosing the iPhone over all other inventions this year:
1. "It's Pretty" - oh, well... there you go. that should be #1 on the list. I mean, c'mon. let's face it. Gutenberg's doohickey was one butt-ugly contraption. beauty should always be the first thing on the check-list.
2. "It's touchy-feely" - hmmm. well, it wasn't the first touch screen nor was it the first multi-touch screen. did the guy that invented the touch screen in the first place make Time's list that year? oh well, Apple used a touch screen...that's innovative.
3. "It will make other phones better" - its probably more accurate to say that it will make other phones more like the iPhone. if that's better, I'm unconvinced but I'll give this one a pass as a statement on its own but not as a reason for it being the best invention of the year.
4. "It's not a phone, it's a platform" - they are certainly right about he phone part. and yes, it is a platform. but having a mobile platform isn't new. and there is no way to judge if this is the best platform ever until Apple lets people start developing on it. so Apple invented yet another mobile platform which we can't really judge right now, but its the best.
and lastly
5. "It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come" - ahh. so okay. it might really suck right now. and no, you can't always make calls from this phone. and the network is really really slow. and if you try to develop anything for it right now we're going to ruin your device. but the next one... now that's really going to kick ass.
Labels: apple, invention, iphone, time magazine
posted by Russell @ 11:56 AM,
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No Cash for iPhones
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I understand the "2 per customer" rule, but why wouldn't Apple accept cash from customers buying iPhones?
posted by Russell @ 6:32 PM,
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In Other Words
Monday, October 01, 2007
fixyourthinking.com points out that if you are an iPhone user you can still send and receive MMS messages... using your computer... and you should be fine with that... because nothing important should be sent via MMS anyways...
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 5:06 PM,
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Did Anyone Notice?
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Does anyone care?
posted by Russell @ 6:52 PM,
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Listen to the audio of video programs on your iPhone
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Being a fan of Top Chef, its one of the subscriptions I've purchased from iTunes this season. It's one of those shows that can be followed without actually watching and often that's what I do at my desk. By accident tonight, I figured out how to do this on my iPhone, so I could safely slip the phone in my pocket and listen to the show as I washed some dishes. Its very simple:
- with the iPhone's ear buds connected, start the video
- hit the power button once, putting it into sleep mode
- hit the power button again to display the "slide to unlock" message
- click the button on the in-line mic on the ear buds once
Labels: iphone, iphone tip
posted by Russell @ 8:54 PM,
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Get Your $100 from Apple
Friday, September 14, 2007
It's very easy:
- Go to their site
- Fill in your phone number and the iPhone's serial number
- Wait for the SMS message from Apple
- Fill in the code that you just received
- Print out your $100 coupon
posted by Russell @ 8:44 PM,
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Don't Get Me Wrong
Friday, September 07, 2007
As the founder of a company that is in the media delivery business I am all for a cheaper iPhone. Just as Microsoft did when they started shipping Windows on CD only, Apple's move of making the iPhone more affordable will hopefully drive providers to support the technology, in this case WiFi. At the same time it should make other device manufacturers seriously consider incorporating WiFi (and the support thereof) into their product lines. Putting more WiFi enabled iPhones and iPod Touch's out there will only help my industry as a whole... eventually.My only gripe here is that it seems Apple took advantage of the loyalty of their avid fan base by making it so expensive in the beginning and then rapidly dropping the price 33% as soon as the initial sales were made. Yes, they've since come back and offered those fans $100 gift cards (which seems to have quieted the complaints) but as Andre pointed out in his comment Apple has received some value for that $100, only some of which will actually be claimed and spent in Apple stores anyway.
Had they launched the iPhone at $399 in the beginning - now that would have been huge. The standard follow-up for Apple would have been to release a 16gig model for $399 in time for Christmas. Either way they will drive great sales this Q4, and hopefully really drive connectivity.
posted by Russell @ 11:24 AM,
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You paid what for that paper? ... chump.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Dwight has a rather disdainful post about how those that paid $599 for their iPhones before then recent price drop are chumps. Actually, he uses the term 'iChump' which made me think it was going to be more 'tongue and cheek' that it turns out to be (because you know, adding an 'i' to a word makes it creative and cute).I don't have much sympathy for those who just couldn't wait to get their hands on the iPhone just so they could be one of the cool kids, only to be stung by The Object of Your Desire's $200 price drop. I have a name for them: iChumps. For these folks, hype breeds irrational desire based on impulse, and those with poor impulse control pay the price.I could wait. I waited over 50 days to buy one. I bought mine for business reasons. There was nothing impulsive or irrational about my decision. Its not like I knew there was going to be an Apple announcement when I bought my iPhone. If anyone pretends to have known that Apple was going to do something so historical - slash the price of their new product by 33% within the first 70 days of launch - they are lying.
My father-in-law
...no reason. Anyone can get the discount if they just know to ask.If paying $200 more 20 days ago is a "Cool Tax" what do you call the extra amount the majority (I'm guessing) of your readers pay because they don't "know to ask?"
We can all guess why Apple would make such a drastic cut in their pricing, and guess why the Chronicle
Labels: houston chronicle, iphone
posted by Russell @ 10:38 PM,
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New iPhone Owners: Get Your $200 Back
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
If you bought an iPhone in the two weeks leading up to today's announcement you may feel pretty dumb right about now. But don't fret, GigaOM points to Apple's terms that indicate a 14-day price protection on their products. I would assume that this extends to the iPhone, at least if they were purchased at an Apple store.
posted by Russell @ 4:05 PM,
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Apple's new Ipods
There's is a complete rundown of the Apple presentation over at Ars Technica. I'm not terribly impressed so far - nothing really innovative going on it seems.The biggest "news" is that the iPod "Touch" will hit the stores soon sporting WiFi enabling it to surf the web and preview/purchase songs though iTunes. Except for the iTunes part, this is not new.
It may seem like a big deal that all iPod Touches will have free access to the music store at Starbucks... but thats just to the music store, not he internet at large... now that would be cool. (Although I do live in the one spot in the US where there is no Starbucks.) Also, you'll be able to buy whatever song is playing in Starbucks at the moment with a single, login-free touch. (btw, none of this is in place yet, so don't get too crazy.)
Before the talk of the Touch, Jobs introduced the new iPod Nano, previously dubbed the fatty. Its a video-capable Nano (with new dimensions). Again, certainly nothing new or innovative here accept that it works with iTunes.
Personally, I think the biggest news to come from all of this is the fact that Apple is dropping the 4gig iPhone, and reducing the price of the 8gig from $599 to $399. Its interesting to me because Jobs is once again giving the finger to all those schlubs that waited in line at his stores. These same people will no doubt sing his praises this afternoon and continue to name their children (if they were getting any) after Steve. In the end, only iTunes comes out ahead here.
That's about all I walked away with from the live coverage. Their official write up can be found here.
posted by Russell @ 12:59 PM,
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The iPhone and "push" email
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
According to Wikipedia "Apple's iPhone features push e-mail using a proprietary protocol when used with the Yahoo! mail service." I've configured mine and it does in fact work. Even though I hate Yahoo's mail, this is a feature that I've really missed since I quit using ChatterEmail on my Treo. ChatterEmail uses IMAP IDLE which essentially keeps the connection to my IMAP server open and thus delivers the email in a "push" fashion as it arrives.
The great thing about ChatterEmail is that it worked with most of the ISP accounts out there, including my personal account - meaning that I didn't have to change a thing to use my email account on my Treo: no forwarding, no new return addresses, nothing. And because it used IMAP, and changes I made on the Treo (deleting, moving messages to folders, etc) were reflected in my Outlook and vice versa.
From what I can tell though, the iPhone implementation of "push" email when used in conjunction with Yahoo mail is not proprietary at all, but rather uses this same IMAP IDLE configuration. So why doesn't a regular IMAP account support push email when configured on an iPhone?
Because Apple simply doesn't want it to.
Labels: email, IMAP, iphone, yahoo mail
posted by Russell @ 4:17 PM,
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Refurb iPhones for Sale
It looks like there have been enough iPhones returned and repaired already to populate the inventory on Apple's refurb site. That didn't take long.Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 9:09 AM,
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My Kingdom for a Phone Call
Friday, August 17, 2007
So I've been playing with the iPhone for the last day or to, and I have to admit it's pretty cool. It does have one major downfall, and I'm not talking about the slow EDGE network or AT&T's inability to provide reliable service in the fourth (soon to be third) largest city in the country.The iPhone's biggest issue is the 'phone' part.
The user interface is nice (I don't think its revolutionary or anything) but there is just no quick way to find and dial a contact. I literally have to scroll through my entire address book to find a name. This is at the least annoying when in the office and quite impossible while driving a car.
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 10:36 AM,
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Yahoo Mail: Is This For Real?
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I was playing with an iPhone tonight and read that the only way to get "push" email is to use a Yahoo email account. So I resurrected an old account I had and set it up on the phone. To test the email, I sent myself messages from Yahoo.
Every time I did though, it gave me one of those really annoying verification tests. Does Yahoo make all their users do this every time they send a message? It did for me all three times I sent an email... so I quit.
Labels: iphone, yahoo mail
posted by Russell @ 11:15 PM,
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A Free Market is a Happy Market
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
If this is true, the iPhone just became a lot less appealing thanks to AT&T. The #1 most coolest multi-media phone is connected to a network that doesn't permit data transfers or WiFi connections beyond a certain point. According to their breakdown of AT&T's terms for service, you can't use it for
uploading, downloading or streaming of video content (e.g. movies, tv), music or games.And for those that said they would take WiFi+EDGE over EVDO any day, how about this golden nugget:
To ensure that the Wi-Fi Service is not being used fraudulently, AT&T limits your usage of the Wi-Fi Service to 150 uses per monthJust during my normal work week I will connect to at least three networks every day. That seems to mean that after 10 days my WiFi won't work anymore...
But wait, there is more:
If you have a service and you happen to call other 'offnet' services, including wireline phones, or non-AT&T subscribers, you have to 'limit' your use, be charged or be terminated.What?!?! So you mean that if I have an iPhone and I make too many calls to landlines or my friends on other cell networks I can have my account shut down? I use my cell phone as my primary (only) phone - I'd be canceled in a week. (On the brighter side, at least my WiFi would not have been cut off yet).
I know that there are those (Chris) that support locked cell phones and to a certain extent I don't disagree with the idea of exclusivity. But if the cell phone industry in this country was more like those in every other country, the customer would be free to choose their phone and their carrier. A free market is pro-business - it's just not pro-AT&T.
Labels: att, cellular service, iphone
posted by Russell @ 9:56 PM,
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AT&T's iPhone Exclusivity Checked by Congress
Interesting post on Tech.Blorge claiming that congress is soon going to hold hearings on wireless communications that will consider "the unbundling of cellphones from their carriers." Although this won't do much for me currently as a Sprint user, it could certainly shake things up a bit for the industry.We need to unbundle phones," according to Committee Chairman Ed Markey. He told The Street that "The consumer should be king and should be able to take their device with them, to whichever network provider is offering them a better deal… "If this were in effect now, AT&T would actually have to compete for my business on merit (a fight which up until now they have lost miserably) rather than rely on the attraction of the iPhone alone to win me over.
Labels: cellular plans, cellular service, congress, iphone
posted by Russell @ 3:11 PM,
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When Worlds Collide
Saturday, June 30, 2007
On the one hand you've got AT&T whose name conjures up images of blue suits, IBM, and my dad. "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM" was the old phrase, and it was just as true for AT&T. They are big, powerful, and I can tell you from personal experience do not rate the individual high on their list of priorities.
On the other hand you have Apple, almost the "anti-corp" in a lot of ways. Until recently not accepted in many business circles beyond graphic design, music, etc... very "artsy" and hip.
So now they are working together and the differences are glaring. Obviously a lot of time and effort went into the launch of the iPhone. It was determined (by Apple I am assuming) that things would go more smoothly if activation was handled through iTunes at home instead of in line at the store. It saved the need to train Apple Store people on activations, and it kept customers from having to wait inside AT&T stores for very long after buying their phone.But then the activations failed. No doubt this is because of the shear numbers of customers trying to activate the phones at once. Since there's probably been nothing like this before, its understandable too. But I'm sure that its hard for Apple to swallow. I can almost picture the conversation in the meeting: AT&T trying to tell Steve that this is the way the real world works... you can't please all of the people all of the time, while Steve sits there and insists that they do. After all, Apple has gained so much market share in recent years by paying attention to every aspect of the user experience (something that easy to do when your user base is small) while AT&T immediately calculates what percentage of failures they will have and moves on.
To the Apple users this can be very frustrating. Dubbed the iBrick by some attempting to create a controversy, the experience thus far hasn't been horrible, its just "not Apple".
Cali Lewis (an obvious fangirl if you watch her show) went so far as to take back her two new iPhones not because of the gadgets, but because of the AT&T double-speak regarding the pricing. I'm sure that she will change her mind soon and go get an iPhone; perhaps she's like me and just waiting for version 2 ('cause you know if Apple stays true to form that will be out sometime before Christmas).
So will Apple end up changing the business inside the behemoth that is AT&T, will it be the other way around, or will the whole thing just end like other similar partnerships Apple has forged in the past?
Labels: apple, att, cali lewis, iphone
posted by Russell @ 10:30 AM,
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Audible is Ready for the iPhone
Thursday, June 28, 2007
posted by Russell @ 4:08 PM,
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iPhone Rate Plans Announced
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The new rates for the iPhone service through AT&T have been published. They are not the best plans I've seen, but they are not the worst. (Kind of goes along with AT&T whole wireless business model)
And according to Steve (by way of Podcasting News) new iPhone owners will be able to take their new phones home and activate them through iTunes themselves. The only question I have is "does the phone have to be activated before you can sync anything onto it?" Not that it really matters I suppose (who would buy the phone and not activate it?) but it just struck me as odd: Once the iPhone is activated, users can then easily sync all of their phone numbers and other contact information, calendars, email accounts, web browser bookmarks, music, photos, podcasts, TV shows and movies just like they do when they sync their iPods with iTunes.Does that mean it reverts to a useless brick if your phone gets deactivated?
posted by Russell @ 12:34 PM,
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IT Departments Say "No" to iPhone
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Gadget Lab has a post today about IT departments and their reluctance to do anything to prepare for the upcoming iPhone launch. Citing a Wall Street Journal Article, David Becker writes:
Despite scads of requests from employees who want to access work e-mail on their new wonderbrick, most network guys say there's no way they're going to go through the hassle and security risk of rejiggering their servers to support iPhone access. Main workaround seems to be funneling work e-mail through a third-party conduit such as Yahoo Mail.It's been a long time since I worked in a corporate IT department, but when I did it was against policy to auto-forward one's email to any place. The thought being that you weren't there to screen the email for confidential material and therefore you could inadvertently distribute that information to outside sources. And yes, I did know one person that got fired for doing that very thing.
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 4:21 PM,
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Apple iPhone coming June 29th
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Engadget's reporting that the iPhone release date is official: June 29. I guess we will know soon enough if its a hit or a bust.
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 6:49 PM,
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2007 Should be a great year for Cingular/AT&T
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
According to an article in The Australian there are already 1 million names on the "please call me when its available" list for the iPhone. Of course, that's no real surprise.They also mention the official launch of Video Share that would enable video conferencing between phones. That's kind of cool, but who really wants to video conference?
Lastly, they've cut a deal with Napster to give Cingular customers free access to theirsubscription service for a year. Now that to me is interesting. I'd been using several subscription services over the past several months including Yahoo's (which is affiliated with AT&T) and Napster. I think the concept is great, but the process fails too many times for me. Perhaps this is what its going to take to get them to fix it once and for all.
Labels: att, cellular service, cingular, iphone, napster, yahoo music
posted by Russell @ 12:05 PM,
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Analysts
Friday, January 12, 2007
Analysts have been getting a bad rap lately when it comes to podcasting - their estimates of how many people are listening are all over the map. So, based on what I have seen so far, it's going to be interesting to see how they analyze the iPhone.
I spoke with a reporter from SFGate.com yesterday about the iPhone. As expected, she wanted to talk about Apple's use of Cisco's trademark rather than my thoughts as a long-time user of such devices. That's cool. She got my quotes right and the spelling of my name :) so no complaints here.
But it was the end of the news story that struck me weird:
Munster, the analyst with Piper Jaffray, offered 50-50 odds for a name change before the phone is released in June. "Whether you call it an iPhone or something else, it's still the best mobile phone in the world," he said.
"In the world."
This is a market analyst talking. These guys can make or break a company if they are not careful, and this guy is calling a non-existent, unreleased piece of hardware the best in the world.
Does it work with Microsoft Exchange? Word? Excel? How long is the battery life... really? How powerful is the radio? Can it catch a virus designed for the Mac? Will it be open to third-party development? Has Apple figured out how to make a glass surface function as a keyboard without sucking?
I know, these issues do not define what is the best cell phone in the world. But guess what: neither does a phone ability to work with iTunes, play movies, use Wifi (presumably without the ability to access VoIP), or the mere fact that it's made by Apple.
Yet, these are what this analyst has decided do matter - in a product that isn't even going to be out for six months.
Face it, the iPod in terms of sound quality and formats is arguably not the best MP3 player in the world, but it is the most successful. So by those standards, I would think that these guys would think twice before saying something like this about a product that isn't even out yet from a company that has a not-so-good track record in this market.
(and yes, I'll probably end up getting one as soon as they are out) :)
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 9:39 AM,
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Did Apple Jump the Shark?
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Did Apple jump the shark with the iPhone? It's not my question, it's CNBC's. I just watched it. Interestingly enough, as much as the press and the investors think that Apple can build no wrong, this marks the company's intent to diverge from the wildly succesful entertainment ("toy") industry and try to make it in the "real world." CNBC was quick to point out that Apple has already had scaling issues with recent growth, and seriously questions their ability to deliver a business product that can meet the demands of "that PC guy."
Labels: iphone
posted by Russell @ 1:21 PM,
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