The Problem with Making Apps for a closed market.

Take a look at any Facebook Profile or iPhone Home Screen and you can see how lucrative the closed market is. But with one click your benovolent provider can remove the need for your application by implementing the same application as a native feature. That is to say Apple denying applications to the app store because they are developing the same feature or adding a feature which negates a £4.99 app.

Facebook has done the dirty on the Birthday Reminders Applications, by implementing birthday notifcation into Facebook by default.

Continue reading “The Problem with Making Apps for a closed market.”

The Problem with Open – Android vs iPhone.

There has been lots of talk about Apple is doomed to fail with the iPhone as a software Platform and the Android platform is going to be so much better, simple because its open.

Firstly, take a look at the iPhone. Its a fantastically designed device, and the attention to detail is insane – that’s not to say the Android platform isn’t. But it is a sensible justification that the platform needs to slightly closed to allow a continuity of quality to be maintained. Secondly, the iTunes to iPhone facility has yet to face any real competition, its far from perfect but there is a seamless connection from buying to using. You click buy and the app or music is downloaded and synced to your phone, without having to drag and drop, move or do anything manually. However there is growing concern that the closed nature of the platform will be its undoing see Pull My Finger [1] Continue reading “The Problem with Open – Android vs iPhone.”

WWDC Roundup – iPhone 3G & Mobile Me

WWDC was a bit of a let down, iphone alleys’ coverage by ustream however was fantastic. I was expecting more information and more products, not a grueling 45mins of demo’s of apps we cant use for a month, not quite the usual Apple finesse we have come to appreciate.

One important thing to note was Steve Job’s committed to pricing the new 8gb iPhone at no more that $199US in all 70 countries the iPhone 3g will be sold in by the end of the year. I hope this is the signal of a much bigger push by Apple to price equivalently in all countries. That said they create products people will gladly pay for in some cases even twice such as myself who will be upgrading come July 11th once again.

Surprisingly the announcement of OS X 10.6 dubbed Snow Leopard was pushed from the forefront of the announcement, giving credence to the fact it will not be a stability release just a fit and polish release to keep ahead of the competition. Also .mac will be no longer and be replaced by mobile me, which has to be an improvement of the aging .mac name and technology.

It was a bit of a let down in the fact that Steve had very little stage time, some reported as usually steve looked ill.

Shock Horror – There was no one more thing.

WWDC 08 Predictions – One More Thing?

Ok So heres my predications:

  • iPhone 2, 
  • iPhone App Store
  • New Firmware for existing iPhones
  • New Version of OS X 10.6 – Snow Leopard – Nice and shiny none feature release
  • New Cinema Displays
  • Updated Macbook Pro’s 
  • Twitter will die – Twitter Blog
  • Lets not forget the one more thing that no one guesses, my money is on a Yellow Submarine iPhone and all the Beetles back catalogue on iTunes

O2: $15 per MB outside the UK

Well I was expecting the no easy way to upgrade to the 16gb iPhone from my 8gb. What I was not expecting is that you aren’t able to add the International Data Plan, to any iPhone tariff. So it costs a whopping £7.50 per mb thats a couple of cents shy of $15, whenever your outside the UK. The best they could come up with is leave your iPhone in Airplane mode for the duration of your trip.

Get a grip O2, even AT&T can offer Data plans for outside the US to iPhone customers.

My New iPhone Tariff

O2 LogoO2 obviously isn’t making enough money or selling enough iPhone’s to make it worth there while and they have completed re-structured there tariff plans, basically more for less. I don’t make enough calls to make it any cheaper for me anyway :-(More Details here

iPhone – A couple of days in.

iPhoneSo I have a nice new unhacked iPhone. My first impressions are all somewhat good, so I though’t I would run done some of the things the press have been knocking the ye olde iPhone down with.

EDGE

Whoa! The iPhone is only 2.5G phone, run! Well in all honesty the EDGE coverage is poor although I can get it most places where I go, it ain’t to slow and even out of EDGE areas webpages load pretty damn fast. Its not youtube fast but it gets the job done.

Camera

2 Megapixels is that all? Well this is something that has bothered me, but not for the reason you may be thinking of. I have yet to use a camera on any phone, if I want to take a picture I have a dedicated camera for it. Though ‘cameraphones’ are getting much better there are still no match to a good quality dedicated camera

Price

This point I actually agree with and I think like our American cousins, we will get shafted for at least £100 come January, but do you know what I don’t really care. It would be nice if there was a Pay-As-You-Go option but then I can’t see anyway for o2 to make money.

The rest of the package is spot on, iPod and Phone work perfectly (not that I call many people) I am looking forward to the SDK, but may hack apptap on there before too long.

A day on Safari, looking for Leopards

Apple LogoIts almost a day since the WWDC bomb dropped, and everybody has stood back to see what a lack of real good announcements. What I mean is what we all really wanted to hear (even if impossible)

  •  UK Shipping Date for iPhone and Network
  • Proper SDK for iPhone, or just we are working on one. Not just make a website
  • Leopard Shipping by the end of this week
  • A killer feature of Leopard, not just the evolutionary stuff. Something we can all taunt the windows users with
  • More use of Steveisms “boom” “Glass of ice water in hell” etc

What we have got though is a solid Safari update that works 10times better than the old version, another tool to get people to switch (Safari on Windows ofcourse) Clear detail on leopard, and just how much more polished than Tiger it is.  As for my experience with safari, I have had Safari 3 open all day, Google Reader hasn’t frozen up. All my plugins work even Inquisitor (http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/)

Search within pages works just like Firefox with abit more fancy pants animation and highlighting. Now the only thing that Safari for Windows needs is a GPO template for Windows Server, then the holy grail has been cracked. This is the only thing stopping me from deploying Safari or Firefox on the networks I admin.

Whilst the Announcements may not have been a giant leap. They certainly were a jump in the right direction. 

Apple Computer Inc. Now Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. iPhoneIt certainly has been a big afternoon/morning (depending on where you live) for Apple. Finally the iPhone sees the light of day and my god was it worth the weight, more information on the Apple TV (iTV) and all the usual fanfare.

I wasn’t expecting the keynote to end without the usual iLife and iWork Updates (though it does save my wallet) I was already and prepared to shell out for it. I can only imagine that some sort of update will be coming with Leopard to entice me, not that I Really need that much enticing.

Apple Inc. Well done, you still manage to prove the rumors right about something but wrong about the actual hardware itself and also have put to bed the most recurring rumor ever.