Cult of iPhone

You can’t mention “Flash” and “iPhone” in the same breath without people getting a little huffy. It is honestly surprising how passionate people can be about not having Flash on the iPhone. Passion aside people have a lot of reasons not to have Flash on the iPhone.

While Flash would be nice on my iPhone, I’ll be damned if I want Safari crashing every time it comes to a Flash-based web site because of the poorly developed plugin software.
D9

That is a moderate approach to the issue. D9 is willing to trade stability for the lack of Flash. Other points revolve around how slow Flash is on OS X. Some people maintain that it will max out a Quad core Mac Pro (when I experimented with various Flash intesive sites my machines experienced only a moderate bump in CPU usage. I tried it on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac 3.0, and PowerMac G5 with similar results for each machine. I know, I know I own too many Macs). Then there is the issue of how it would run on the iPhone. The iPhone’s processor… more...

Apple Matter’s very own Chris Howard has an article up wondering if the iPhone’s momentum can be stopped (answer=yes but it won’t btw). Chris has a huge list of recent positive iPhone head lines and then gives specific examples of where the iPhone’s popularity is really helping to drive the iPhone ahead of the competition. As Chris aptly puts it:

Because in Q4, when folks are buying a new phone, they’ll feel the weight of that momentum pushing, pushing them to buy the most popular phone, the one that “everybody” has. And then they buy it, tell their friemds, get added to that quarter’s statistics, and the momentum builds more

The iPhone has, in a sense, created its own halo effect. The more it sells, the more it sells.

Read the whole article, it is worth your time.

Just noticed that the fifth installment of iLounge’s iPhone+iPod buying guide is out. These are usually well done and the price (free) can’t be beat. What does the buying guide cover? From iLounge:

Packed with the latest and greatest new products, the 150-page 2009 iPod + iPhone Buyers’ Guide features more than a dozen new sections. Here’s what’s inside:

100 Best iPhone and iPod touch Apps and Games: With more than 5,500 applications currently available on the App Store, it’s hard to know which apps are right for you. We’ve done the leg work for you in our dedicated roundup of the 100 Best Apps and Games, which highlights the best apps we’ve seen for Apple’s new mobile platform, from racing games and RSS readers to puzzlers and photography apps. A listing of Ten App Developers to watch is inside, as well.
Top Accessories for iPod + iPhone: With ratings for well over 2,000 accessories inside, the Guide offers a model-by-model breakdown of the best accessories for each iPod and iPhone, including speakers, earphones, cases, and more.
Best of the Year and Readers’ Choice Awards: From thousands of recent releases, iLounge’s editors… more...

In today’s contest for ”Worst analysis in the world” we turn to a spec sheet battle by shinyshiny.tv

Here’s the contestants: The Nokia 5800, the iPhone and the G1. Where does the iPhone place in this contest? A close second? No, a disappointing third. Let’s run through why and why the analysis is horrible:

Round 1: Weight
Lighter is better. The F800 wins this because it is the lightest (109g).
Hey, great in theory, X number is better than Y number and all. But everyone who has every received a present knows that socks weigh less than a really great set of Legos so light weight is not indicative of quality. Plus socks don’t rattle. Anyway, the weight thing is completely ridiculous. What people are really looking for is “as long as it isn’t too heavy” kind of deal. No one wants to carry a slab of chengdeite around in their pocket but people also don’t want to carry something that feels cheap. The point is that there is some weird tipping point between… more...

You’re a hardcore iPhone person, eh? You feel naked when you leave the thing at home. You shed a little tear when the battery runs dry. You take your iPhone out and pretend to use it even when you don’t need to just so people know you own an iPhone. You people make me…

Never mind that. What you need is more iPhone in your life. Just the phone isn’t enough, you need to mix in some more stuff to let the world know that, were it possible, you’d marry your iPhone all over again. Step one: Get some iPhone cupcakes. They look delicious and very iPhoney. You can probably make your own but, even better, just make one big iPhone cake. mmmm, glossy black icing. For showing your iPhone devotion in a calorie neutral way try iPhone coasters. And for that old school feel, try a knitted iPhone.

Tech Radar has a list up of features the iPhone needs to beat Android. We’ll skip over the fact that you can’t buy an Android based phone yet. We’ll also gloss over the fact that the thing is pretty ugly (and the iPhone doesn’t exactly look super cool) and that Adroid, so far, doesn’t support multi touch. Then you read the list and it isn’t comprised of any Android specific items rather it is a list of things they’d like to see on the iPhone. Catchy title anyway. Read the list: 10 features the iPhone needs to beat Android

Still, it is obvious Android is getting some traction as the anti-iPhone if nothing else. Which is good, there is room in consumers minds for two players in any market (that was the philosophy behind Apple’s famous Welcome IBM ad). If need a dose of Android sucks check out this Gizmodo post: How Many Google Phone Engineers Does It Take to Tell the Time?

Why muddle through an entire review wwhen you can get it all in one line?

The Bottom Line? Battery issues hinder an otherwise stellar mobile computer.

There ya go, now you know all you need to about Steven Levy’s feeling about the iPhone 3G. A more important question is why would you care what Steven Levy thinks about the iPhone? The answer: because Steven Levy writes books and anyone writes a book is some kind of super genius. Well, maybe that’s not true. But he is highly regarded in the tech world and more importantly Steven Levy is the guy who rediscovered Einstein’s brain. Bonus points: he didn’t try to use to create Einstein zombies or anything.

Read the whole review at Wired.

If you’ve got an iPhone you’ve got a computer. How else could you suffer through those unbearable syncs and questionable iPhone updates?* Even though you’ve got a computer you might have wondered if your iPhone can take the place of a computer. If you’re the cooking geek du jour Alton Brown the answer is “Yes.” Turns out that Alton isn’t just an iPhone user (and presumably a big fan) he also eschewed a laptop computer completely and relied solely on his iPhone when shooting Feasting on Waves.

In a interview with Gizmodo Alton reveals that he went on that shoot sans laptop:

”

I did not even take a computer with me on that trip. I decided I just didn’t want to see a computer for a while. And at the time, I figured you know, computers, boats, water, scuba diving. I thought about taking the ToughBook along, and then I thought about taking the Asus because that’s a great little box. Then I thought, the hell with it. I took a few pads of paper,… more...

Everyone knows iPhone users demand the best, hey they’re using an iPhone after all. But might they be the neediest users around? You surely remember when they howled about the iPhone price drop and now iPhone users are up in arms over the outage that left iPhone users without service in the Northeast recently.

According to Fortune the only people who really seemed miffed about the outage were iPhone users. From the article:

“But by all accounts, it was mostly iPhone users who complained — vociferously — in e-mail messages, in Twitter postings, on Apple and AT&T forums.”

via Fortune

According to analyst Tavis McCourt who works for Morgan Keegan the iPhone is leaving other smartphones feeling unloved. In a note to investors McCourt maintains that not only is the iPhone the top seller in most AT&T stores the iPhone’s success is behind the recent price drop ($149 to $99) of the Blackberry Curve. The breakdown of sales, according to McCourt, at AT&T is as follows:
iPhone
BlackBerry Curve
Samsung Blackjack 2
Palm Centro (who knew?)
Blackberry Pearl

At Verizon stores the leader is the Blackberry Curve. But everyone buying one is secretly wishing they were getting an iPhone.
via CNN