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Ditching the iPhone? I’ll Bet WinMo Has What You Want

Aviv — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:15:42 +0000

As of late, we have three prominent names publicly ditching the iPhone. Om Malik, from GigaOm, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, and one person who’s inspired me for ages, macintosh developer Steven Frank from Panic, inc. here in Portland, Oregon. While I have no qualms with their decisions to ditch the iPhone, I’m having a tough time understanding what the hell they’re talking about.

The iPhone is a big deal… Period. It radically changed the entire mobile industry. Since its launch in 2007, Apple has clobbered sales records and the iPhone revenue bomb continues to explode. This single piece of technology and the services around it, including the thriving developer community, close the gap even further between human nature and technology. The vision that good technology should be indistinguishable from magic has clearly shown through with the iPhone. In fact, it’s so intuitive, so easy to use, and so powerful, that when people consider leaving the device due to whatever reason(s), they second guess themselves so much, that they ultimately settle on announcing a personal ban against Apple and AT&T. And you know as they hit that “Publish” button, they regretted it.

Why not just jailbreak the device? Does the need for one app make you ignore the years of work that have gone into this thing? Without the iPhone, you wouldn’t even have a second, comparable device to switch over to! So perhaps you’re bored with it? Perhaps the arrangement of icons on the homescreen is driving you nuts? The dropped calls, poor reception, constant ludicrous prices… Perhaps you hate AT&T with a passion! I do too! And still, NONE of these reasons are good enough to even consider ditching the iPhone.

Some of you may swear this off as just another Apple freak gushing about his toy… So if that’s the way you take this, just stop reading. But for those that can actually sit down and relate with what Apple has done time and time again, and what they’ve publicly said (time and time again), you’ll see that these public denouncements of the iPhone, and these “I’ll pay $175 to leave AT&T” are just people with personal gripes, a large audience, and a little too much time on their hands.

When Apple released the iPhone they were all singing a different tune. They were willingly hopping on the Apple train, ditching Verizon, t-mobile and everything in between to snatch up iPhones. Even though everyone knew how incredibly shitty ~~Cingular’s~~ AT&T’s service was before the iPhone was even released. Through a little bit of common sense, anyone would know that the network would only degrade as millions of content heavy devices were sold to everyone you know. And now with the App Store, Apple has said time and time again that it’s their store and they’ll do what they want with it.

The problem with these public outcries, is that maybe the tiniest sliver of people who Apple actually gives a shit about reads these articles. You think the millions of people around the world buying iPhones know who Michael Arrington is? Or Om Malik? I don’t think so. Apple doesn’t care who does and doesn’t use an iPhone. All they care about is the masses seeing Alec Baldwin hold it up in 30Rock. You think Google Voice is such a big deal that you would leave the iPhone for it? I personally know people who use Google Voice, and it’s not a walk in the park. In a nutshell, if you love Linux and searching for the proper drivers for hours, then you’ll love Google Voice! And the explanation Michael Arrington has outlined for porting your phone number, is akin to calling up an outsourced ISP and setting up managed hosting… A fucking nightmare.

There have been no good reasons as of yet to ditch the iPhone… Perhaps if you were on a call with the president, talking about Iran’s nuclear initiatives and the call dropped, that would make sense. But none of these people’s calls are so important that they can’t communicate via SMS. They’re all on twitter, they’re used to it! One app? A few dropped calls? Poor reception? To leave the single greatest technological advancement in our time since the macintosh? What it is… Is sad.

Whether you love or hate Apple or AT&T, the iPhone is absolutely hands down the best mobile device in the world. Yes, it sucks that we have to deal with bullshit surrounding our service, reception and now the app store, but as long as ANY mobile carriers are involved, it will never change.

For fucks sake, if you have such monumental issues with the thing…. jailbreak it… It’s not that hard.

Palm Pre Overhyped, and Why Roger McNamee Shouldn’t Speak In Public

Aviv — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:52:36 +0000

Currently burning through huge cash infusions from Venture Capital firm Elevation Partners, Palm has moved all their chips, their rolex and mortgage to the center of the table with the Pre.

In a matter of days Palm will be releasing the most overhyped device since the original iPhone. They’re calling it the Pre, which takes its name from the way it supposedly thinks and acts a few steps ahead of its owner. In essence, attempting to help consumers find solutions and information before they know what they need. I’ve got some strong opinions about the Pre, and for the sake of competition in the marketplace, I hope it’s not just hype. But sadly, the closer we get to launch, the more I’m realizing it’s just another plasticky iPhone competitor without a thriving developer community, no App Store and no proprietary competition to iTunes.

The video below is of ex-Apple executive, now Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and Venture Capitalist (Elevation Partners) Roger McNamee hyping up the Pre even more at this week’s All Things Digital conference. You’d think with all the massive media outlets hyping up the Pre so much, Rubinstein and McNamee would try toning it down a bit. But they are definitely not trying to calm things down. Instead, they’re layering the hype with thick coats of redundant points about the mobile space, that Apple CEO Steve Jobs made us aware of two years ago.

Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and Elevation Partners Co-founder Roger McNamee

With every piece of high technology, game-changing hardware or innovative software that’s announced to the masses, several coats of hype are applied before an official release date is even set. For most companies and products, this is what causes their inevitable demise. The inability to live up to the expectations set out by their own people, which in turn leaves consumers disappointed and downright angry.

We can all agree that in the last few years, the iPhone stands out as the only piece of mobile hardware to induce a puddle of drool from everyone who’s ever used one. Those who clamor against the iPhone, for whatever reasons, have already had their mobile fantasies fulfilled (Blackberry owners, email power-users), but for the vast majority of consumers, the iPhone came along and truly delivered the best and most intuitive user experience on the market. In fact, the software (iPhone OS) leaves the hardware lagging behind most of the time. With iPhone 3.0 Apple is hoping to change that, and all the rumors happen to be pointing in the right direction.

At the risk of sounding too negative, my honest opinion is that the Palm Pre will massively disappoint. The lack of dedicated Palm developed desktop software leaves the company open and vulnerable to being shut out by those they depend on to make the device sync with your media. Very early reports play as a constant reminder that a built-in QWERTY keyboard is not so enticing. Additionally, how does Palm expect potential iPhone switchers (which they are counting on) to adjust to the lack of dedicated killer apps that they have grown accustomed to using on a daily basis (twitter clients and Google iPhone offerings mainly). Not to mention the elephant in the room… Gaming.

Palm is facing a steep uphill battle. One that may very well turn out littered with lawsuits and legal troubles stemming not only from Apple, but other patent holders in the mobile industry. Yes, Palm has some very old patents in the books, and in court, some may hold up. But unless Apple’s legal team takes a drastic turn, Palm may not even be able to afford the legal fees associated with taking on a company that has $30 billion (debt free) in the bank.

Some Facts:

• For the 13 weeks ending 2009-02-28, Palm’s net profit was -95 million
• Palm is burning close to $1 million a day
• “Palm shares closed Thursday up 93 cents, or 8.8%, to $11.46 and are unchanged in recent late trading” (WSJ)
• The Pre syncs with iTunes, which leaves it completely vulnerable to being shut-out by Apple
• Apple is closely watching Palm and will aggressively defend its intellectual property through legal outlets
• Palm’s stock is currently surging on rumors that the device is headed to Verizon
• ” Instead of creating an entirely new trunk Palm is branching off of the established phone environments.” (John Biggs over at CrunchGear)

The Palm Pre: Hope or Hype?

Aviv — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:02:32 +0000

Let’s cut around the hype and get to the point. I’m hounding the release of the Palm Pre the same way I hounded the iPhone from January 2007 until that historic day in June. Maybe not with the same passion and intensity, but I’m definitely checking in on a daily basis to see what’s going on in with the Palm Pre. When this product drops, it better be worth the hype.

Back in January, when Palm first revealed the Pre to the masses, I said that Apple should take notice of the device, especially since the entire project was being spearheaded by ex-Apple handyman Jon Rubinstein.

Let’s face it, this is Palm’s last chance. The company is pretty much dead in the water and if the Pre doesn’t live up to all the hype surrounding webOS, it will be a major disappointment. Not only for Palm’s wacky investors, but for consumers and the mobile industry in general. At the moment, Apple’s iPhone has absolutely no competition, and with the Pre, Palm is hoping that will change, and so am I.

When patent lawsuit rumors were getting heated between Apple and Palm, I wrote the following, “Instead of lawsuits, we’d like to see this settled with the separation of proprietary technology. But for that to happen, Palm needs to reveal how its multi-touch interface and operating system function. If that technology impedes on Apple’s patents, Palm might need a plan B.” This coupled with the rest of the obstacles standing squarely in Palm’s way don’t make for a very positive outlook.

If the mobile industry keeps chugging along without any real competition, Apple will be able to take its sweet time releasing software and hardware upgrades, not to mention giving the users core features like copy-and-paste, which is coming in iPhone OS 3.0… finally. But even if Palm has enough mojo to make Apple reconsider, or rethink their software/hardware releases, there’s one thing Palm simply won’t be able to compete with. A little neighborhood shop they call the App Store, which just demolished the 1 billion downloads milestone.

The Palm Pre has an incredibly steep hill to climb. And along the way things will only get worse for both Palm, and Sprint. Which is sad considering the extremely poor state both companies are currently in. Palm’s investors simply won’t be able to keep floating the company hundreds of millions of dollars. And when getting into complex mobile innovation, we’re talking about billions spent in research and development, emulating network environments and stress testing against millions of users. There’s just no way for them to compete against Apple, who at this point has around $30 billion debt free and growing.

Assuming people actually buy the Palm Pre, begin loving it, developers leave the iPhone platform and flock to Palm’s Mojo SDK framework, and Palm gets through the undeniable bugs, mobile carrier pitfalls, and gross outcry from consumers about whatever issues the masses choose, they still have to compete with Apple. Who, as CEO Steve Jobs put it, “is at least 5 years ahead of the curve.” However, when compared to Palm, Apple seems more like 10 or 15 years ahead of the curve. And putting Apple in an even better situation, the Palm Pre is the iPhone’s only real competition for the foreseeable future.

Amazon Releases Kindle For iPhone Application

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:24:13 +0000

Following on the heels of the Kindle 2’s recent debut, Amazon has released a free Kindle application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will give users access to their vast e-book library.

Dubbed “Kindle For iPhone,” the application will allow consumers to purchase and read Kindle books through an interface that the company describes as simple and easy-to-use. Amazon notes that there are “hundreds of thousands” of e-books that can be wirelessly transferred to the device of your choosing. Unfortunately magazines and Newspapers are not currently supported.

Primary features of the application include:

• Buy a Kindle book from your Mac, PC, or iPhone using a Web browser and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone
• Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
• Download the Kindle books you already own for free — they are automatically backed up on Amazon.com
• Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device

The application also comes coupled with Whispersync, allowing users the ability to seamlessly revert back and forth between your Kindle and Apple handheld, while maintaining bookmarks and reading locations synched between the two devices.

Because purchased items will be linked through an Amazon account, those using the iPhone app will need to make new purchases through the browser or a Kindle itself, which can then be pulled into the application the next time that it is launched. The application can be found here (iTunes link).

Apple Sr. Product Manager Talks About iPhone Gaming and App Store

Aviv — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:20:50 +0000

PocketGamer.biz has posted an interesting interview with Eric Jue, Apple’s senior product manager for iPhone worldwide product marketing. The interview touches upon Apple’s intentions with gaming and the possibility of an Xbox-live style games community.

The interview takes place in London, and among some of the most interesting responses given by Jue are in direct comparison to the way Microsoft (among others) is handling their business model. When asked whether Apple was planning Xbox Live, Jue responded.

“I don’t think we look at it in quite the same way [as Microsoft],” says Jue. “Xbox is a system that they’re creating certain capabilities with, but we have a very open platform, with technologies built into it that are free to developers through the SDK and the APIs.

“So if somebody wanted to develop that then they certainly could, but… we’re not championing that type of experience per se. It’s open to the developer community and wherever they want to take the platform.”

“You could take that the next step further and combine it with Facebook or MySpace and a gaming experience, but I haven’t seen anyone pull those things together yet. There’s been a lot of talk about it though.”

Additionally, PocketGamer explains that Jue “seems enthusiastic” about connected gaming on the iPhone, and the potential that this brings. “…whether local – he says his team has “killed hours in the office” with wi-fi multiplayer on ngmoco’s upcoming WordFu – or online.” Delving into the social aspect of connected games, he sees significant potential here as well. “There’s a whole lot of activity around the social networking side, including location-based social networking applications like Loopt and Whrrl,” he says.

App Store

When asked what Apple is doing in regards to making the App Store a better experience for everyone involved, developers and end users alike, Jue explains that everyone (including Apple), is learning together as the app store grow. “We’re hearing the same thing,” says Jue. “We’re all learning as we march down this road together, but you’re right: with 15,000 apps out there, it is a little bit harder to find applications.”

Jue explains that Apple is employing two particular ways in reducing the burden of developers and making it easier to “cut through the noise” of seemingly third-rate applications. “He cites two ways Apple is trying to combat the problem. There’s the editorial content within the App Store itself – the featured applications – which he says are being changed daily to ensure users always see fresh apps when they return to the store,” Stuart Dredge explains for PocketGamer. “Then there’s the iPhone Your Life section of the Apple website, which Jue says is an example of the company ‘being much more pro-active about highlighting certain applications’.”

Jue explains, “There’s a lot of websites like yourselves doing reviews and top ten lists and trying to get a bit more visibility for some of the better apps.” – “It’s all starting to happen, but we’re looking at more ways too. It’s going to be an evolving story.”

When asked whether Apple would utilize the same technology that drives its iTunes Recommendation Genius feature, only for apps in the app store, Jue replied, “Certainly it’s possible, yeah,” – “I can’t comment on anything that we may or may not be doing in the future, but it’s a good idea. We already do it for music, so it’s certainly possible to do.”

Pricing iPhone Games and Location

Jue continues to show how confident he is with Apple’s success and the business model they’ve deployed around the iPhone’s app store. Being a game changer is an understatement for the app store, especially given that nearly all of Apple’s main competition is now directly copying the idea.

When asked about the rumored $19.99+ premium game category in the app store, Jue responds, “Are we creating a new category? People can charge those prices now – they can charge whatever they want to charge. We haven’t publicly talked about any new format to the store or creating a new category though.” – “We’re much more open – we didn’t really have a pre-defined idea for how iPhone would play in the games space,” he says, stressing that the platform is powerful for a lot of things besides gaming.

“Medicine is coming on board, business too. Lots of other people are exploring the power and utilisation of technologies in the iPhone. So where it goes with developers and the gaming world is fine by us, but we’re not trying to steer it down one particular path.”

Rounding out the interview, Jue touches upon his excitement for the iPhone’s potential with GPS functions. “Gaming is going to be one of the areas that takes advantage of location,” he says. –
“You can do virtual scavenger hunt type experiences, and you’ve got the camera and networking in there besides GPS. You could do a Dungeons & Dragons type thing on the city streets… There are so many cool things. It’s just a matter of time before these games get developed.”

“Better graphics, better levels and worlds, better interaction, better sound… Everything is marching down the path where we’re getting more innovative stuff, more creative stuff and more sophisticated stuff. And then we have multiplayer coming in, so we have a lot going on.”

Turn-by-Turn iPhone GPS Gets Demoed (w/Screenshots)

Dave — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:10:38 +0000

Turn-by-turn GPS functionality has been an exceedingly sought after feature since the launch of the iPhone 3G itself. It now appears that the Slovakian company, Sygic has developed a native iPhone application that does just that.

Images courtesy of The iPhone Blog

Making its debut at this year’s Mobile World Congress, this turn-by-turn GPS application comes complete with voice prompts, points of interest, support for multiple countries, and memory stored maps. The iPhone Blog notes that the the Sygic application uses TeleAtlas maps as a base and appears to function with relative ease and speed.

Sygic claims that they are planning to submit the application to Apple’s App Store, as they do not intend to release it solely as only a jailbreak app. Yet we may have to cross our fingers and hope that it gets accepted as Apple’s SDK prohibits such useful functionality. As we’ve previously reported, Apple’s iPhone SDK terms have strictly blocked turn-by-turn GPS. “While Apple may be developing their own solution, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak described voice-based, turn-by-turn navigation apps as “complicated.” – Although he did explain that the hardware inside the device was “very capable.”

Apple Says ‘Over 15,000′ Apps in the App Store

Christina — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:53:02 +0000

Exactly one week ago, stories broke that Apple’s App Store had passed the 20,000 application mark. Yet Apple has just sent out an email claiming “over 15,000″ apps, not 20,000.

Recent reports claimed there were over 20,000+ apps, but Apple highlights 15,000

When word first broke about the app count, it was based on apptism.com’s app tracker. Contradicting reports from AppShopper explained that at the time of reports, the app store count hadn’t reached 20,000 quite yet because of apps that had been rejected. A few days later AppShopper’s app counter rolled through 20,000.

But now this email from Apple, where they claim “Over 15,000 apps. One amazing iPhone.” Why wouldn’t they take advantage of a big number like 20,000? Are they saving it for another email, perhaps a front page spot on Apple.com? It would’ve only taken a few minutes to graphically change that 15,000 to read 20,000 and update the email system, so what gives? Does anybody really have an accurate count of the apps in Apple’s app store? Well, besides Apple?

App Store Wars: Taking the Fun Out of Flatulence [U]

Aviv — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:04:33 +0000

After we ran a story about two competing applications, NJection Mobile and Trapster, another iPhone developer has stepped up to expose what he sees as unethical and immoral tactics being used by his competition.

Air-o-matic makes Pull My Finger (iTunes link), which sells for $0.99. Competing developers InfoMedia Inc, make iFart Mobile (iTunes link), which also sells for $0.99. In a nuthsell, Air-o-matic is accusing InfoMedia of unethical tactics used to gain traction in the app store, which they are in turn profiting from.

Adversely, as VentureBeat has pointed out, Infomedia has now asked a federal judge in Colorado to determine that “pull my finger” as a phrase, does not fall under common trademark laws. Infomedia’s Joel Comm attempts to explain the situation on his personal blog, and has made the legal papers publicly available (PDF). Keep in mind this is from one side of the argument.

What Apple can do about situations like this remains unknown. After all, business is business and reviews can’t necessarily be moderated by humans unless they are proven to be fake. Directly slanderous motives such as writing negative reviews on what is seemingly a third party site (when it’s not), should definitely be punishable. Since Apple has chosen to run the App Store like a high scale application boutique with which they choose what happens, they should be able to intervene when spamming, and unethical behavior is accused, not after it has already been proven.

Air-o-matic’s legal team has sent letters to both Apple and InfoMedia in the hopes that this gets sorted out. We don’t mean to open Pandora’s box with these reports, however, unethical and slanderous behavior in the App Store should be brought to light, especially when people are profiting from it.

~~The video below explains everything from Air-o-matic’s point of view. They are speaking in the video (turn up speakers) as they explain the alleged unethical tactics used by InfoMedia.~~ The video has been pulled due to the ongoing legal tussle.

Update: Air-o-matic got in touch to share their side of their story too. Good timing, the video below was made prior to the story going public, we saw it… But it was then pulled due to confusion and guidance from lawyers. Air-o-matic in general didn’t want to risk both apps getting banned and this hindering their business further. However, after recent allegations from both sides, they’ve gone ahead and made the video available to view. Here’s a direct link to “their side of the story.”

iPhone Developer Makes $600,000 From Clever Artillery iPhone Game

Aviv — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:39:01 +0000

Apple’s App Store can indeed be a strange place to do business. Even though the store has become a behemoth with over 20,000 apps available and 500 million apps downloaded, the success stories are few and far between when compared to how many developers are grinding away.

The latest comes from an iPhone developer named Ethan Nicholas. A while back news broke that Nicholas’ application, iShoot (iTunes link), was becoming far too lucrative to go unnoticed.

Coupled with the release of a “lite” version of iShoot, and the lucky benefits of hitting the Top Paid App spot in iTunes, Nicholas experienced just how much of a lottery the app store can truly be. The lite version went live on January 3rd, 2009, and less than ten days later, the full version of iShoot skyrocketed into the number one spot on iTunes with nearly 17,000 downloads. In other words, Nicholas was netting around $21,000 a day for the $2.99 application after Apple’s 30% slice was taken out. At the time Nicholas was working at Sun Microsystems, and had developed iShoot in his spare time, although he was planning on quitting. “I’m still in shock,” Nicholas said, “I’ve given my two week notice at Sun Microsystems. I’m gonna do this full time now.”

Ray over at the iPhone Savior helpfully got in touch with Nicholas to check in and see how he was doing, both with the application and reeling from the success he’s recently been blessed with.

I contacted Ethan to track his progress since quitting his full time employment with Sun Microsystems after iShoot reached number one. To date, his tank artillery game has sold 320,000 units, netting Nicholas well over 600K dollars, while his free version of iShoot Lite has been downloaded in excess of 2.4 million times since it went live on January 3rd. Of that number about 13% decided to pay $2.99 for the iShoot app, averaging $23,000 a day in profit after Apple takes their 30% cut. An impressive pull with the App Store hosting over 20K titles to date.

Nicholas goes on to explain that he hasn’t changed his life much since this all happened. “I haven’t changed my lifestyle at all. I’m living as modestly as I was before iShoot took off,” Nicholas told iPhone Savior by phone. “My car is a 15 year old piece of crap with 140K miles on it and I’m gonna drive it until it falls apart.”

When asked if he was working on any new games, Nicholas was nice enough to share that his upcoming titles would be mostly 3D and were “already fairly well mapped out.” Additionally, he explains that iShoot version 2.0 should be released in a few weeks. “My goal with my new games is to reach number one by creating incredibly awesome games. I’m not going to produce shovelware,” Ethan said.

App Store Count: 20,000 Applications and Growing [U]

Aviv — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:27:02 +0000

Apple’s App Store has recently passed the 20,000 application mark. While Apple recently showcased that half a billion apps have been downloaded since the App Store’s launch, the ratio compared to how many applications are actually available is quite interesting.

The application count tracker at apptism.com (hat tip TUAW), recently surpassed the 20,000 mark. When compared to the 500 million apps downloaded, the 20,000 number is important, yet we’re quite surprised it took so long to reach this mark. Especially given the abundance of fart apps, flashlights and to-do lists in the App Store.

Apple’s App Store has a been a source of heated debate since it was first unveiled. While issues get incredibly heated, Apple remains silent for the most part. Still, there’s no shortage of opinions or developer suggestions when it comes to how Apple should run the App Store, but whether Apple is listening or not remains relatively vague. Either way, 20,000+ applications in the App Store and 500 million+ apps downloaded are staggering numbers.

Update: AppShopper.com explains that their app count is at 19,457 when factoring in applications that have been removed from the app store. While their overall count may be 500 apps shy of 20,000, it shouldn’t take too long for that number to rollover to 20,000+ “approved” applications.