iPhone

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23/sets/72157604712390523/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1032

Well, Apple has finally released their Software Development Kit and It’s gotten over 100,000 downloads in the first week. That represents what is turning out to be pretty darn good access to the device’s functions… which means we’ll get more cool programs.

I’d like to put out my own 2 cents on what would be nice to see… and some ideas as to which developrer should do it…

1) Notes syncing. Hey Bare Bones! Make Yojimbo work on the iPhone please?

2) To-Do lists. Hey Omni! (I know you’re working on it so I won’t push you)

3) Voice-Over IP. AKA Skype…

4) Grand Central visual access. Hey Google! I’m sure you’ve got other plans, but this is a big one for me!

5) FileMaker Pro Mobile. FileMaker is niche but absolutely essential for my workflow.

6) AIM, Gtalk, Yahoo Instant Messaging client. This would be best done by the Adium project but will surely be undertaken by bunches of people, and will be problematic because of a limitation in iPhone programs that doesn’t allow them to run in the background and thus leave a chat program open while you do other things… bummer!

…more on this as I get more ideas!

justin

UPDATE 3/13/08: After writing this column, I just found David Pogue’s similar column of his own where he waxes poetic about the same thing I am. It’s definitely worth a read because he’s a better, more highly paid tech writer than me 🙂

UPDATE: 3/18/08: Get this: 84% of iPhone users use their phone for news and internet… 59% use google on it and 75% of us listen to music with it. Even 31% of us have used it as a mobile TV of sorts. These numbers, especially when compared to other smartphones and run-of-the-mill mobile phones is astounding. Check out the rest of the stats…

If you want to manage your iPhone music with a large iTunes library,
don't try doing it with Smart Playlists yet.

Well, to be fair, SOME smart playlists work. When I specify an artist
or an album to fill a smart playlist, it shows it in iTunes, copies it
to the iPhone and shows it to me the same way there. Great.

But, when I create a "Smart" playlist for my top played songs
(everyone has this playlist in fact. It's called "Top 25 Most Played")
it does not one, but TWO things heinously wrong.

#1 – The iPhone somehow flips the command and gives me the LEAST often
played. huh?

#2 – The iPhone doesn't pull the most often (or even the least often)
played tracks from the iTunes library. No, it pulls that list LIVE
from the list of songs on the iPhone already (at least that's what I
think it is…. though the more I find out the less sense it makes)

So instead of the most played tracks from my entire library, I get the
least often played tracks that HAPPEN to be on my iPhone already.
CRAZY.

Other weird things:
The syncing process does actually put the correct songs on the
iPhone… the ones that are in the correct smart playlist… but
doesn't include those songs in the smart playlist on the phone….

Another playlist does almost exactly the same thing as the Top 40
except instead of EXcluding a specific "Grouping", it INcludes that
grouping. (my way of having top 40 lists for two people with very
different taste). THIS other list seems to work almost perfectly
EXCEPT that the first song (the most often played one) is missing (on
the iPhone, just not in this playlist) and another song fills that
spot at the bottom. What the heck is going on?

Solution:
I did a workaround by which I create another smart playlist that is
created based on the first smart playlist. It must have two criteria:
1) that it includes the songs from the real (correct) smart playlist
and 2) that it reverses the order because the order was reversed in
the first place. This took a bunch of trial and error and probably
would change depending on your original criteria.

Is anyone else having this problem too? Am I just using Smart
Playlists more than everyone else? I found a bit of chatter about this
in discussion rooms, but not much really considering how glaringly
obvious this problem has become for me…

justin

Now that I’ve got your attention, you have to see this chart, which shows that over 2 years, the combined cost of buying and having an iPhone is less than even the inexpensive blackberries and palms. This is, I think, because largely of the great $20 for unlimited data price which is unique to iPhone plans.

I think this is pretty amazing. It really shows that the surface costs are just that, surface. There are many more coming when you own a device like a phone or a computer. Once again, Apple has the long term in mind for its customers, and itself.

justin

PS: this is from a rather bleak prediction of Apple’s market strength, ironically. I’m more optimistic about Apple’s stock than
this guy is:

This is an amazing statistic, and one that apparently even surprised Google themselves:

iPhone users use their web browser to search Google 50 times more than any other phone… including Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile, everything! That’s amazing, and it shows how much easier it is to use the browser (and the google search) on the iPhone than any other device!

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/14/google_iphone_usage_shocks_search_giant.html

justin