Opinions

In case you haven’t heard, the BBC just released their popular iPlayer web portal for the iPhone platform. I decided to point my iPhone browser to the iPlayer to check things out. Here are my first impression:

1. It works
Life just keeps getting better and better, guys. We’re happy to report that the iPlayer provides a great portal to access some of the network’s most popular content with an intuitive interface. There really is no comparison for this release.

2. Content is limited
Aye, here’s the rub. Much like what happened with YouTube when the iPhone was first shipped, not all programs are available through iPlayer yet, as they are probably being re-encoded to the Apple codec. BBC says 100% of the content will be available soon. Plus, most programs can only be played in the U.K.

3. The radio (podcast directory) is the best part
Sure, watching videos is great, but we already have that with YouTube! The iPlayer radio opens up a whole new content area to iPhone users. Unfortunately, the iPlayer doesn’t work over EDGE, so you won’t exactly be able to rock out to British podcasts when you’re walking… more...

So Steve Jobs says that Flash is not fast enough for the iPhone. Well that’s just great Steve. Way to make the decision for everyone. Here’s a novel idea: why not let the users decide whether it is “sluggish” or not.

The great thing about Jobs’ statement about Flash in the recent shareholder meeting is it confirms what people have frequently discuss: Steve Jobs is a control freak and he makes products for himself. Most people (present company included) just happen to love those products.

But Jobs has been making these types of decisions for us Apple users for years now. Steve doesn’t think we need an optical drive anymore so he puts out the Mac Book Air sans drive. Steve thinks we should be able to watch movies on a tiny iPod Nano screen. I (like others) have eaten up everything he has told us. Like sheep, we have flocked to MacWorld and have hung on every word. In a way, Apple users have become the lemmings that Apple once made fun of.

Well now with his… more...

The iPhone that we all love has a problem when it comes to true infiltration in the business sector. And it is not what you may think. Sure, it needs built-in Outlook capabilities as well as an easier tethering setup. But there is one change to the UI that would change the way businesspeople think about the iPhone: the home screen.

Currently, the home screen is set up for a vertical orientation of the phone. Yet this seems to be somewhat of a disconnect. You see, despite the fact that it is a phone, most everything that makes the iPhone so revolutionary is un-phonelike. How does Apple pitch the iPhone in commercials? First they talk about surfing the web with Safari. Then they talk about using Google Maps. Then they talk about watching a movie. Oh and by the way…it is all in a phone.

The phone is an after thought to this multimedia, internet-connected, beautiful device. The issue I have is that all of these non-phone features are optimized to be used in a widescreen format. You would want to surf the web in the horizontal. Or would want to watch movies in… more...

I sit in eager wait for whatever Apple plans to throw at us (or toss accommodated by a small wimper) but knowing that their track record for releasing stuff on time hasn’t been so great. Instead they taunt us with a road map (you know an announcement sucks when they are announcing what they’re going to announce at their next announcement….) so I turned to what’s been tried and true: Jailbreaking. Unfortunately for me, most don’t have their s**t together.

I’ll get out the way by saying that some have made some significant improvements to the hacking community such as George Hotz and all the others that managed to Jailbreak each new Firmware update. But after that, it all goes stale no matter how well (or in this case) bad it works. Sure you can Jailbreak 1.1.3/4 easily, it’s a one click solution but the headaches that stem aren’t worth it.

The biggest gripe I and others are having is that YouTube won’t play most videos. The problem lies in how the iPhone and YouTube authenticate with each other. The Jailbreak process breaks this which should be no problem, it’s easy to fix right? Wrong, I’ve tried nearly every… more...

About 6 months ago I wrote a post predicting Apple would pump up iPod storage in direct response to movie rentals on iTunes. Apple was close to confirming my speculative article but the end result is almost the same.

Movie rentals through iTunes despite the aggressive DRM makes it appealing to consumers and is the first of its kind. The 30 day limit is enough time to store a couple of movies at a time coupled with the fact that rentals can only exist in one place at a time, storing them on an iPod is more convnient to free up space on your computer.

But the massive boost in storage puts the iPhone and iPod Touch in the running to take out the iPod.

I’m not one to notice the most minute of details that come packaged in each Firmware upgrade. Rather I’m quick to point out any slow downs or loss in Internet speeds whether they’re self created or actual problems but after reading recent reports of users receiving a signal boost when applying the latest Firmware upgrade I was skeptical.

I relented and finally upgraded to find that everyone wasn’t lying, I was getting more bars in more places. No, I am not being paid by AT&T in any way either, I really am getting more bars. Don’t give me that look.

Apple has already announced a special meeting in which they’ll detail what the SDK will bring and what lies in store for the iPhone. But once the SDK ships, the development community will be in a frenzy to make up for lost time which brings me to my point, just what Apps are craving for? I myself am holding out for a mobile version of MarsEdit. Sound off in the comments.

Having been a previous member of the Palm Family I had owned a Tungsten E. This device was revolutionary at its time. Those of you who know Palm know that they make PDAs with touch-screens. I loved the applications you could put on your PDA, but its touch-screen was lacking. During the pre-multitouch era a stylus was necessary to complete simple task. This was boring and limited. I love my Palm, but it was dull because of the simplicity of the OS. Despite this it would crash more often than the iPhone. Trying to type with the little keyboard was a hassle without predictive typing and using the little writing box was futile (with my bad handwriting).

Then Apple came along and introduced multitouch. With the iPhone my paradigm totally shifted. When someone says touch-screen no longer do I think about a stylus. Apple has made the touchscreen so intuitive and fun I sometimes would rather be on my iPhone than my PC. Scrolling is easy, selecting objects is a snap, and zooming is so fun! I also think Apple did a great job with the keyboard even though some disagree. It is exponentially… more...

Apple has been synonymous with the design community since its inception. For over 2 decades Apple has released technology that make sense to designers. Even during the lowest of marketshare, it was the design community that kept on buying Macs. The trend did not stop with the iPhone. As someone in the “design” field I can say that almost every one of my designer colleagues have iPhones or at least want one. This is by no means an official study but you would be hard-pressed to find a designer who doesn’t want basically everything Apple puts out.

But as much as designers may like the iPhone, I can’t say that the feeling is completely mutual. the reason is simple: there is still no flash capable Safari browser on the iPhone.

Regardless of reasons for why there is still no Flash support there is no confusion to how designers are affected. Take the simple fact of designer portfolios. I would bet that over 75% of graphic designer portfolios, both offline and online, are created in Flash. Personally, I fall in the minority but that is based on the fact that Flash-based sites are not as… more...

As Apple is set to release their SDK later this February, we’ve pondered what distribution system will be used but the popular census has been iTunes. I wrote an article over at Apple Matters highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of using iTunes to distribute 3rd party Apps.