These guys are attempting a live video feed of the WWDC News. Kudos to them and very cool if they are able to pull it off!
It’s WWDC Day
It’s that time of year once again! Today kicks off the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. As usual, it’s anyone’s guess as to what Apple will actually introduce today. Here are the latest rumors and possibilities:
- iPhone 3.0 software update
- New 3rd generation iPhone 3g – hardware (16GB & 32GB models)
- Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
- Cheaper ($99 or $149) iPhones (4GB or 8GB)
- Larger “tablet” sized iPod touch type device
- More powerful MacBook Air (4GB RAM, integrated 3G wireless) to compete with netbooks
- MacBook updates with 3G wireless capabilities
- iPhone Movie/Videos direct downloads
As usual, this is only speculation/wishful thinking and nothing is definite until it actually happens. The keynote kicks off at 1PM ET. Popcorn in hand, let’s see what’s what?
Why the Palm Pre won’t be the next big thing
Being a gadget guy I’m expected to know all about the latest high tech toys. If you’ve followed this blog over the last couple of years, you’ll know that when it comes to a cellphone, the iPhone is my phone of choice. I’ve pretty much ignored everything else that has come out since, because there was nothing compelling enough for me to look at. At least not until today! Today is bitter sweet for me. The reason is that prior to the iPhone I was a Palm guy! My Palm Treo 650 was my trusted device and although Palm came out with newer models, they were based upon the Windows Mobile platform, in which I had no interest. Sure there were newer Palm OS devices, but nothing significant enough for me to upgrade. As a matter of fact, I remember standing in line at the 2008 Macworld Expo Keynote saying that “if the iPhone is not announced today, I’ll be heading over to the store to get a new Palm Treo.” Well they did introduce the iPhone and I haven’t looked back…
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The Palm Pre looks great!
I’m certainly not here to knock the Pre. I have no reason to. From everything I’ve read and seen so far, it looks like a GREAT device. Palm certainly did their homework by looking out at the market leaders and seeing what features they were missing and making sure that their new device had them. There’s no question in my mind that the Pre has the things that the iPhone has been lacking.
Palm looked at the iPhone and said Ah-Ha, the iPhone doesn’t have Cut, Copy & Paste, MMS, multitasking, etc. so let’s make a phone that has all the things that the iPhone doesn’t have and we’ll win people over to our phone. There’s no doubt that people wanted Copy & Paste, MMS, etc. for sure, but they wanted those features on their iPhone. Those features are not new or revolutionary by any means. Even my Palm Treo 650 had them years ago. That’s what Palm and other competitors are clueless about. There are probably very few iPhone users out there, if any just waiting to jump ship when someone else comes out with a touch screen phone that has those missing things. Most iPhone users ARE frustrated by the lack of MMS messaging for sure, but they’re willing to live without it to have all the other benefits that the iPhone offers.
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Competition is GOOD!
One thing that I’m elated about is the fact that the Palm Pre and others have kept Apple on their toes. Many of the advantages that the Pre had over the current iPhone such as Cut, Copy & Paste, MMS, Turn-by-Turn directions, System Wide Search, etc. all go away in about 48 hours with the expected release of the iPhone OS 3.0 update. Let’s face it, many of these features should have been on the iPhone since day one! We may have never seen them if there wasn’t any competition. So I definitely welcome the Pre and any other competitor that’s going to keep Apple and Blackberry on their toes. It makes it good for all of us.
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The iPod factor
Any Palm user or other smart phone user will argue that their phones can play music and video. The new Pre is even said to (unofficially, via a hack) sync with iTunes. However, no matter how slick the built-in player is, it’s not an iPod. While it can play MP3’s and AAC files, it will not have support for your iTunes purchased content that has Fairplay copy protection. While you could argue that most of your music was ripped from your CDs and recent iTunes music purchased (or upgraded to iTunes Plus) is copy protection free, chances are you still have some music and videos/movies that won’t play on the device. So now you’d have to pick and choose what you could take with you and what you couldn’t.
One of the main reasons that the iPhone was so successful was that Apple had already done a fantastic job of getting iPods into just about everyone’s pockets. Therefore, people were already used to the experience and already able to play ALL of their content. So when the iPhone came out, people would finally be able to combine two devices that they were already carrying into one: their cellphone and their iPod. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at this way then: just about every phone sold today can play music, so why do most cellphone owners also have an iPod?
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The App Store is the killer app
Lastly the Apple App Store is the iPhone’s Killer App. Although Palm has enjoyed 3rd party development for years, it hasn’t seen anything close that resembles the run away success of the App Store. In 10 months time the App Store went from 1,000 apps to over 40,000 apps and over one billion downloads. The iPod touch is the secret weapon. There are lots of people out there that for many reasons just won’t buy an iPhone. Mostly I hear it’s the AT&T thing. No arguments there. However, Apple makes another device that gives you the same experience of the iPhone without the phone and it’s called an iPod touch. So this means that developers can write an app and have a much larger market to sell that app to if they make it compatible with the iPod touch and most 3rd party apps are compatible. Developers have a finite set of resources and time. This means that they are going to develop apps for the “platform” that has the most potential users (seats). Today, that’s the iPhone hands down.
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What about price?
Price is certainly important, but price alone is not enough. There have always been cheaper MP3 players than the iPod. There are certainly cheaper phones than the iPhone. When the iPhone first came out, hundreds of thousands of people lined up Friday, June 29th 2007 to pay $499-$599 and sign a 2 year contract with AT&T. They sold out by Monday morning. The first iPod had a 5GB hard drive and was introduced in 2001 at $399. Do I really need to go on? Yes, price matters, but it’s not the only factor and obviously for many it’s not the main factor.
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The Pre is for Business Users and the Productivity Minded
I remember all the press that the iPhone got about how no business user in their right mind would use an iPhone. After all, there’s no physical keyboard. Balmer outright laughed at the iPhone and thought both the touch screen and price were ridiculous. Now EVERY phone manufacture has come out with a touch screen phone and is either in the process of launching an app store or has launched one.
The Palm Pre on the other hand has both a touch screen AND a nifty keyboard that slides out. The Blackberry has maintained models with a physical keyboard too. Blackberry conceded and came out with a touch screen that “clicks”, WOW! That’s innovation! No one would argue that the Pre’s keyboard is a nice implementation and probably faster to type on. However, having an onscreen only keyboard doesn’t seem to be a show stopper for most.
Even with all the naysayers, somehow the millions of individual and business iPhone users (like me) seem to be doing just fine without a physical keyboard. So maybe you can do real work with an iPhone? I seem to see business users using them every time I travel. I do corporate work on my iPhone everyday and my fingers are huge. 🙂
When it comes to productivity it’s about Contacts, Calendaring, Email, Making Calls, Taking Notes, etc. It remains to be seen how well the NEW Palm Pre will do in these areas. Certainly productivity is one of Palm’s strengths. However, it’s also a strength of Blackberry and with the multitude of 3rd party apps on the iPhone, I’m not hearing much complaining in this department. The iPhone’s calendar could definitely use some improvements, but even if the Pre’s calendar is the best calendar on the planet, it won’t be enough. Why? Because the calendars on all the other phones out there are “good enough” for all but the die hard power users. So even if the Pre gets this area PERFECT, it won’t be enough simply because their aren’t enough people that care enough to switch.
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The Bottom Line
Like I said, I have no doubts that the Palm Pre is a great device! I’m sure that Palm spent a lot of time getting this device right. However, Palm missed the opportunity, rested way too long on its laurels and doesn’t have the money to overtake the iPhone or the Blackberry. Palm never made any significant updates to their OS. They never really made a phone hardwarewise that was kick ass! They could be where Blackberry is today, but they fumbled time after time. While the Pre has features that the iPhone doesn’t have (multi-tasking, removable battery, etc.), it’s not just about features! Look at the Zune, any Microsoft user would tell you that it out features the iPod. Yet, I’ve NEVER seen ANYONE using a Zune in person, nor do I know a single person that owns one. This is from a company that has way more money than Apple.
It’s going to take LOTS of money! When you watch TV, not a day goes by that you don’t see an ad for an iPhone, iPod or Blackberry. In order to compete for the mindset of their intended market, it’s going to cost a LOT of money, which Palm just doesn’t have. The biggest and most telling sign for me that the Pre won’t be the next big thing is that I have some pretty techie friends and outside of Larry “The Palm Guy” Becker, not a single person has even mentioned the Pre to me, let alone said they were going to buy one. Then who’s going to buy the Pre? The Pre will definitely sell to existing Palm users! No question about that. It will also appeal to those users who are all about the features and nothing else. Those are typically the ones telling you about how much better their ______ is over what you have, even though what you have is the number one seller. Anti Microsoft and anti Apple folks will be interested too. It should also sell to the people that are moving up from lesser phones and of course Sprint customers that don’t want to move to another carrier. Other than these select groups of people, Palm is going to have a major uphill battle. Luckily for them, it’s either do or die. When you have everything at stake, you usually try really really really hard to succeed or you disappear. There is definitely hope for Palm when you see folks like this woman who was very excited to get one! 🙂
Palm may make it to the number 3 spot, but this is a stretch (and only if they do everything right and have an absolutely KILLER DEVICE). Also Nokia, Apple, RIM, Google, etc. aren’t just going to sit still and wait. However, at the end of the day it always comes down to a two horse race, Coke & Pepsi, McDonalds & Burger King, Hertz & Avis, Nikon & Canon, iPod & er um, Zune???, Mac OS & Windows, and iPhone & Blackberry.
You can check out the Palm Pre here. It goes for $199 (you pay $299 and get a $100 rebate) and is initially only available on Sprint. Verizon users, screwed again 🙂
Here’s a nice video walkthrough
Also check out Larry’s blog as I’m sure he will cover the Pre in great detail.
I have an idea for an iPhone app
OK, you guys are always so good at recommending really cool things back to me. Well here’s your chance. I’m not sure if it exists, but if it does you guys will probably find it and if not, then I want someone to write it!
The “Meet Me Halfway” iPhone app
There are times when you’re meeting someone to complete an eBay/online transaction, or you’re meeting a friend or a colleague and you simply want to pick a place that is half way between your location and theirs. So it would really be cool if there was an iPhone app that would allow you to use your current location and an address that you enter (or one picked from your Contacts) and then show you the halfway point on the map. Once it found the halfway point, it could then tell you the public places in that area (restaurants, coffee shops, gas station, mall, bars, parks, etc.) – like the AroundMe and iWant apps do. You would then pick a place and email or SMS that location to the other person so they would have the directions on how to get there from their location. Of course the place you picked should also be routable for you via the Maps app as well.
It doesn’t sound like it should be all that hard to have an app that does this, yet I’ve only been able to find one app so far called “InBetween” and I just don’t like the way it works. First off it requires that both parties have an iPhone and the InBetween app and an account on their website. Need I go further? It’s just way too much to go through for this relatively simple task.
As a matter of fact, here’s a cool website that finds the midpoint between two places today. So give me this with things in the area of the midpoint as an iPhone app and we’re there!
So that’s what I want! If it exists, let us know in the comments below. If there are any iPhone app developers out there reading this, how about it? This would be an App that I’d pay for.
Enjoy my iPhone Book on your iPhone
A few weeks back I reviewed the Kindle App for iPhone. One of the books that seemed like a natural in this format was my iPhone Book second edition. Well now you can actually buy the Kindle version of the iPhone Book and enjoy it right on your iPhone or Kindle device. If you need to look up how to do something on your iPhone, you’ll now have “the book” right on your iPhone.
The Kindle version is $9.99. The Kindle App for iPhone is a Free Download from the App Store.
The hard copy version is $13.59.
iPhone App of the Week – Zillow
Have you ever said, “gee, I wonder how much the houses cost in this area?” Well if you have, you will LOVE this app. Zillow is a real estate data app that simply blew me away. It’s location based, so you don’t have to enter addresses. Simply fire it up, wait a few seconds for it to acquire your location and you will start to see the houses in your immediate vicinity appear on the map with little price tags above them. Now of course this data is only as good as the real estate databases out there and don’t take into account for any recent modifications, renovations or disasters. However, it will definitely give you a feel for whether or not the houses you’re eying are in your price range or not.
WARNING: Depression Alert!
I live in Michigan, which has one of if not the worst economies in the country. So I don’t recommend running this app on your own house/neighborhood if you live in this area (or a similar area) or you just may wind up on the floor in the fetal position or reaching for your gun. Houses all around me are going for a fraction of what they cost a year or two ago. It’s definitely a buyers market. Sigh…
How well does it work?
Since I’m on an iPhone 3G with an actually GPS in it, my location was very accurate. In most cases it put me on the map exactly where I was in my car. I drove to a relatively new development (built in the last 4 years) and I was really curious to see what those homes were now going for. Again, not pretty, but good info.
The Zillow app has both standard Map and Hybrid (satellite) views. There’s also a handy List view for viewing the properties by address. As you might expect the app will also tell you if a house is for sale or not (aren’t just about all houses for sale if you offer enough money?). Once you find a house that you want to drill down on you simply tap right on it and you’ll see the address and basic specs like number of bedrooms and baths as well as the estimated value. Tap again and you’ll get a more detailed listing including charts and price range that that house has fluctuated in. You can also see when the house was built, square footage of the lot and the house, and the property taxes. I was also impressed by how the map scrolled as I drove and the GPS updated my position. Pretty neat.
You can also simply enter an address in the search field. I’m surprised that there is no tie to the Contacts app for a quick look up of your friend’s…….never mind.
The Bottom Line
This is simply a cool app! Even if you’re not in the market for a house (I’m not), it’s still fun to play with. Who knows, if the right deal were to come along it may change your mind about staying where you are? Although this app works both on the iPhone and the iPod touch, I can’t see it being as useful on the touch in situations when you wouldn’t have a wi-fi connection to look up the data.
You can download Zillow for FREE from the App Store here.
I have to give credit to my Twitter follower @TareqAlrashid for turning me on to this app. Follow me on Twitter and tell me which Apps you love!
iPhone App of the Week – Mobile Fotos
If you use Flickr.com and you have an iPhone/iPod touch, then you’re going to want this app! It is by far the best app I’ve seen to date to browse and upload to Flickr.
Not only does it let you bowse your own photos, it can use your current location to show you photos that were taken nearby by others.
I’ve used other apps that let me upload to various services. However, this one is great in that it lets you properly tag the photo and pick the photo set you want it uploaded to before you actually upload it. You can also use Mobile Fotos to view videos on Flickr. I haven’t played with this as I don’t have any videos on Flickr yet, nor do any of my friends. Currently videos are limited to 90 seconds and 500MB on Flickr. So for now I’ll stick with YouTube.
Uploading
One of the main reasons I use Mobile Fotos is to upload snapshots I’ve taken with my iPhone. The upload feature is the most full featured uploader I’ve ever seen in any iPhone app. It let’s you use every option available for Flickr just as if you were uploading from your computer. You can choose a Title Description, Tags, Set (including creating a new Set on the fly), Group, Location, Privacy settings, Safety Level, Content Type, whether or not the photos hould be Hidden and Resolution. Yep, it’s full featured and this should be the model for all apps that let you upload to a photo service. Even Apple’s built-in upload to MobileMe could learn a few tricks here and seems anemic by comparison.
It Geotags too
One of my favorite features of Flickr is that it automatically adds your photos to the Yahoo map if they contain location information (longitude & latitude). Of course when you take a picture with your iPhone’s camera you have the option of including location information. Mobile Fotos uses that location information and includes it in the upload.
Not always about you
You can also tap the Contacts icon to see the latest and greatest shots of your Flickr Friends. This really allows you to not only share your photos quickly and easily as they happen, but also to see what’s going on with your friends and family that also use Flickr. You also browse your Flickr groups!
The Bottom Line
There’s not much else I can say! This app totally rocks and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s easy to use, full featured and works great. If you use Flickr, this is your app! Mobile Fotos is $2.99 and available at the App Store here.
AT&T FamilyMap lets you get all big brotherish with family members
Click map for a larger view
Sure there have been those times when I’ve walked in the house and wondered, “where is everybody?” Well now I could just go to my computer and find out. AT&T recently launched a new service called “FamilyMap”. If you have an AT&T Wireless Family Plan, then you can sign up for the service and track any of the phones on that plan.
The way it works
Just like we see on modern day TV shows and Movies, your cell phone is constantly broadcasting your whereabouts via the cell towers (that must be why I see perfectly good cellphones lying by the side of the road). There have been apps like Loopt that allowed you to find friends (for free). Seems like AT&T wants to monetize this by offering it as a paid service (big surprise right?). Right now I’m doing the free 30 day trial. Not sure if I’ll continue it or not. We’ll see. Back to the way it works. You log onto the familymap.wireless.att.com site and once you’ve set up your account you can simply click the Locate button and within 2 minutes that person (actually their cellphone) will be pinpointed on the map.
You can name and save the locations so that they will show up with more meaningful names like “school”, “work”, “the gym”, etc. The accuracy of the location will also be displayed. I imagine phones with GPS’s in them might be a little more accurate, but not necessary if AT&T is only relying on the cell towers. The service works as advertised and it’s been fun to play with. I have a couple of teenagers and well, you know.
There’s also a mobile version of the site for your mobile phone’s web browser (http://attfamilymap.com/m). Looks great on the iPhone/iPod touch.
The Bottom Line
AT&T is offering FamilyMap for $9.99/month to locate up to two family members and $14.99/month to locate up to 5 family members. Like I said, you can try it for free for 30 days and see if it’s worth it to you. Not all phones work with FamilyMap such as the Pay as you Go ones. Sadly it doesn’t help you find a lost phone that’s in your house (still looking for one here). However, it will help you locate a lost or stolen phone that is elsewhere. If you’re interested in AT&T’s Family Map. Check out the website here.
Charge your iPod or iPhone with a couple of AA’s
If you’re an iPhone user you can probably always use some more juice. Especially if you’re a traveler. Although I have a fantastic iPhone backup battery, the one I have requires charging. If I forget to charge it or if it runs out of power then I have to find a plug to plug it in and wait a couple of hours for it charge up.
You can find AA batteries just about anywhere
That brings me to the Energizer Energi To Go portable power for iPod. This was the Woot special of the day a couple weeks back and I ordered a few of them to try and give out to friends and family. Of course since it doesn’t say that it works with the iPhone or the iPhone 3G, I really wanted to give it a try and see how it would work. The iPhone 3G and all current model dockable iPods get their power over the USB pins. So only the most recent chargers tend to work with them.
The Energi To Go is a simple device that you pop 2 AA batteries (included) into it and flip out the 30 pin dock connector and sit your iPod or iPhone on it to begin charging. You should be able to get at least 1-2 full charges from an almost dead iPhone battery out of AA’s.
The Bottom Line
My FastMac charger is definitely more feature rich and is designed specifically for the iPhone. However, it’s also 3 times the price of the Energi To Go. The Energi To Go has a cheap feel to it. It feels as if it would break easily. However, as long as you don’t abuse it, it should last. Although I have not had any problems with it on my iPhone 3G, it does NOT specifically state that it is iPhone compatible. I also like the way it docks behind the iPod/iPhone instead of on the bottom like some other batteries. The 30 pin dock connector is also adjustable for the thickness of your iPod or iPhone for a good fit. The Energi To Go is $29.99 at Amazon.com.
iPhone App of the Week – TripIt
I got hooked on TripIt.com when I first checked out another iPhone app called FlightTrack Pro (see my review here). FlightTrack Pro is strickly for checking your flight status, gates, departure, arrival times, etc. Although you can use the app in a standalone fashion, it really sings when you link it to your FREE TripIt account.
The TripIt service works great for me. I love it mostly because it requires very little effort on my part. I simply forward my email itinerary that received from my travel agent or airlines to plans@tripit.com and like magic my account populates with all the details of my trip. The flight portion of the trip is picked up by FlightTrack Pro.
Although TripIt does have an iPhone/iPod touch friendly version of their site (http://mobile.tripit.com), I was thinking how much I would love to have a dedicated app. FlightTrack Pro is cool for the flight info, but I want all the details of my itinerary at my finger tips. Nothing beats standing at a hotel reception desk and being able to go right to my confirmation number.
My wish was granted
TripIt sent me an email this week letting me know that they had released their iPhone app and I clicked the link immediately to download it. Once I had the app on my iPhone I put in my TripIt account login info and as expected my upcoming trips were on screen. As a matter of fact I was already on one of those trips at the time. Everything was there just like the website. Confirmation numbers, check in/out times, phone numbers (which are clickable to dial), all the details of my trip were right there.
Room for improvement
The TripIt app works exactly as advertised! Although I’m happy with it in its current form, there are some things that would make it even better. The first improvemet is actually a biggy! The app only works when you have an internet connection. There’s no logical reason for this. The app should be able to DOWNLOAD your itineraries to your device and then only use the internet for updates. That’s the whole advantage of having a native app! Otherwise you might as well just use the website.
The next one is that revolves around social networking. I’ve started linking up with friends, colleagues and family on TripIt so that we can kinda know where each other is. The app doesn’t give you any access to your TripIt Network. Again, this should be an easy add since the info is already there in the database that the app is pulling from.
Lastly, the app doesn’t have any editing capabilites. Earlier this week I checked out of one hotel a day early and booked another one that was closer to the airport. I forwarded the confirmation for the new hotel to the plans@tripit.com address and it showed up properly, but there was no way to change the fact that I was checking out of the first hotel without going to the website to do it. So if your plans change or you have a new trip, you’ll have to make those changes via the website and email.
The Bottom Line
I love TripIt.com! It’s FREE! It just rocks! The TripIt app for iPhone/iPod touch is a great first start, but there is so much more potential for an even better app. If you have a TripIt account (and there’s no reason not to), then you should download the TripIt app from the App Store.