Opinions

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...

Chris Seibold, today’s designated idiot, has a post up at Apple Matters averring that the CEO of Microsoft is trying to spread doubt in the growing mobile market because he fears that Microsoft is falling behind. This time Ballmer isn’t laughing out loud at the iPhone but he is disparaging Google’s revenue model for Android. As Chris points out (blind hog meet acorn) the same tactic was used by Microsoft with Internet Explorer.Chris concludes that the FUD campaign won’t work:

The bright side is that the plan won’t work. People get why giving away something for free can be a great idea. People trust Google much more than Microsoft. Sorry Ballmer, you’ll have to try a little harder next time. People are getting tired of eating FUD.

Read the article over at Apple Matters.

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.

Apple Matters dimmest writer (Chris Seibold) has posted a bit about lessons Apple learned from not turning the original Mac into a dominant computing platform. According to the dullard the original Mac was fantastic, leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, but Apple’s slow response to changes consumers wanted led to the marginalization of the machine. Here’s an example of Chris’ reasoning:

The last thing to note about the original Mac was the failure to be responsive to the market. Macs cost twice as much as a PC but Apple never seemed to notice. When the company should’ve been trying to drive adoption the company chose to focus on driving profits in a big way apparently realizing too late that early adoption could drive later profits. You’ll note the iPhone is very competitively priced.

Okay, so the guy is a little slow. Maybe he can pick it up in the conclusion:

The answer of why Apple is being so flexible with the iPhone when the company hasn’t been flexible before is obvious. Apple learned a lot from the Mac. Apple learned that being way ahead in technology is great but that… more...

Sister site Apple Matters is an equal opportunity employer. Not only do they post gems by thoughtful writers like Chris Howard the site also posts articles by the obviously mentally challenged Chris Seibold. In this weeks article (written with crayon and smiley faces over the i’s I bet) Chris opines that at some point in the future all your data will come over the iPhone. Chris goes on and on, references landlines and such and it might make some sense to someone but not to me. Really, they need to keep that guy away from the chips of lead paint.
Read the article

Chris Howard over at our sister site Apple Matters has published an interesting piece. From the article:

The iPhone is a remarkably good computer. Don’t buy it because it’s a phone, or even a smartphone; buy it because it’s a computer.

Read the whole thing here

It’s called the iPhone right? Tell that to C.K. Sample III who recently had to reboot his iPhone just to make a phone call. It reminds me of a piece I recently wrote for Apple Matters, Is the iPhone the OS 9 of phones?.

Let’s be honest here, how many of you have to to reboot or reset your iPhone just to make a....call. I have a couple of times and it is a frustrating experience. Suddenly all those very cool applications, the iPod, GPS, and all the goodness that makes the iPhone the iPhone doesn’t matter. You just want to make a call!

Which brings me to Part 2 of my What the iPhone Needs, a phone mode only. In this mode all other functions would disappear, Mail, Twitterific, the iPod, everything leaving just the Phone application running. When you have a busy phone day and you need to make sure you can send and receive calls use the Phone mode.

Sure it may piss off some people who want to make out the iPhone is perfect. But… more...

So it’s been two days since 2.0.1 was made available and I would like to know how it’s been running on your iPhone?

Did this update actually fix any bugs, or are we all getting suckered into believing that the update has made things snappier?

For me, things are much snappier thanks to this update and as of today, I cannot report any crashes whatsoever.

Contacts load noticeably quicker, I can drag an app icon across multiple pages in one motion, rather than having to drag it, drop it, pick it up again and drag it over to next page, and repeat. That was annoying.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I have noticed much improved reception on my phone. The screen rotation in Safari appears to be smoother. I haven’t noticed anything else, but I would like to know what you have experienced so far?

The blogosphere was buzzing yesterday as thousands of 3G iPhone owners struggled to activate them in store and at home. As every new iPhone user on the East Coast began activating their phones all at 8:00 AM EST, the AT&T computers started to lag.

I was the 4th person in line at my store and the AT&T employee who helped me out began activating my phone at 8:04 AM. Even then, there was a lag. I can’t even imagine how bad it got a few hours later.

It could be argued that there is no way around this problem. Apple has no choice but to release these phones at the same time everywhere. And AT&T has no choice but to force activation on the spot. And with iPhone releases like this only coming once a year (at best), there is no financial rationale for AT&T to boost infrastructure to their activation network.

But what seems to be the worst part of this process is Apple’s decision to sell and activate these phones in the Apple Store. I went into 2 Apple stores in the area as late at wednesday and every one I spoke… more...

Edge? Cellphone and Wi-Fi positioning? Blah. We want 3G. Faster download times and more accurate positioning are only two of many features consumers hope will be in the next generation iPhone. If my favorite rumor comes true, the new phone should retail for $199 (unlikely).

With a brand new crisp design and the reality distortion field in full effect, will users line up around the corner for the new phone? Is the hype equal to what it was the same time last year? I think not; the 3G iPhone is no revolution as the original iPhone was. I am no analyst, and Apple does have that “Wow” factor. We shall see.

Can you resist the reality distorter that is Apple? Will you be lining up for the new phone?