iPhone 2.1 Thoughts

There have been many days I wanted to trade in my iPhone. Missing features from the phone was not the primary reason. The phone was riddled with bugs from crashing applications all the way to extremely slow keyboard responsiveness. Battery life has also been a real sore spot.
It was with great anticipation that I awaited the 2.1 release of the iPhone operating system. After running the new OS for a week I feel that many of my most frustrating issues have been resolved. Battery life - improved. Keyboard - more responsive at time of unlock and within applications. Application crashes - dramatically down. When Steve Jobs met with CNBC for a short interview after his recent keynote he smiled about the dramatic number of fixed in 2.1. That canny way of expressing the extent of bugs highlights how deep the bug list really was. The release offered very few enhancements. Those provided were very minor. This release was about bugs. Jobs and his team had to get those issues under control before the iPhone's image was tarnished. The phone risked becoming a showpiece with no brain. Now on to the enhancements!

iPhone 2.0.2 software does not solve 3G issue

Apple released iPhone 2.0.2 software this week.  The release is a feature free - bug focused release.  While details of the release were sparse on Apple's web site, an Apple spokesperson acknowledged fixes related to 3G reception.  Don't be fooled by any means that this addresses AT&Ts abysmal 3G coverage.  A class action lawsuit was filed in Alabama against Apple claiming Apple misrepresented the phone's ability to delivery enhanced speeds on the 3G network.  This is unlikely to have any legs.  Consider how many wireless customers sign up for service for a "nation wide network" only to find it doesn't mean the entire nation.  It's all in the small print, friends.  Let's hope AT&T is actively building their 3G network not only in new areas, but filling the holes in existing areas.

Best Buy To Sell iPhones

According to sources, Best Buy is expected to announce they will be selling the iPhone.  The Best Buy channel provides Apple with a nationwide retail outlet for iPhone distribution.  Best Buy and Apple have slowly been building their partnership over the past few years.  Many Best Buy stores feature an Apple section with predominantly displayed iMacs and Mac Books.  This is the first time in the U.S. the iPhone will sit along side phones from other vendors.  

Updated:  The news is now official.

iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 Released

My iPhone experience has thus far left me disappointed.  Multiple application crashes, missing features and "black screens of death" have all contributed.  Tonight, Apple released iPhone Firmware 2.0.1.  While we don't exactly what was fixed there are early reports of improvement.  Users at MacRumors and Applesider are already weighing in.  New features will come in 2.1, but for now I'm hoping 2.0.1 will address some short term frustrations.  Check iTunes for the update.

Jobs to Operations - Stat!

The rollout of the iPhone 3G and MobileMe service will be remembered for one of Apple's worst deployments ever.  I'm not speaking of items like phone availability but basic services and functionality.  MobileMe has suffered a horrendous start.  Some users have been down and without their email for days.  There's now word some users might have lost mail.  While Apple continues to work on the issues causing ongoing outages the damage to Apple's typically untarnished reputation is done.  In the iPhone area, the App Store has been a hit for users but is causing developers a real headache.  Apple is failing to provide developers with information on application sales, timely push updates of software and other issues.  In both cases, Apple is late to the game to provide honest and accurate information to not only the public, but their own support staff.  Steve Jobs needs to take a break from product development and marketing and focus on the operational side of the house.  

Tablet Temptations

During this week's Apple news conference, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer tantilized analyst with talk of upcoming "state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren't going to be able to match". While this certainly could have been talk to reinvigorate a stock that has come off recent highs it's highly unlikely. ABC and other media outlets have speculated a long time coming of the Apple tablet. The tablet format has hardly been successful, but with Apple's multi touch technologies and innovation they could create something so compelling it will redefine the mobile platform and transcend portability beyond phones and laptops. The timing of such a device could happen as soon as August for back to school sales or closer to October for the holiday buying season. While I'm not sure that a tablet will be released I am convinced a new device from Apple is pending.

Fixation on Fixes

Apple blogs and news sites are actively discussing the news of an upcoming iPhone 2.1 SDK as well as a pending iPhone 2.0.1 release. Both the 0.1 and .1 release are welcome news for device lovers who are frustrated with many elements of the iPhone. Application crashes, sluggish response, poor 3G performance (relative to other 3G devices in the same coverage area) and other issues plague the iPhone. Features still "missing" even with the 2.0 software become more and more apparent as use of the updated software progresses. Hopefully we won't have to wait long for each.

Review: iPhone 3G

I’ve had an opportunity to use the iPhone 3G for about a week. While the device is light years ahead of any other mobile device on the market today it is plagued with issues not typical for an Apple product. Apple’s claims that the iPhone is ready for the enterprise are countered by a vast array of missing enterprise like features. As a ten year plus Blackberry user I found many features I became accustom to completely missing. Here’s a quick overview of my experiences with the iPhone 3G.

Keyboard:
The keyboard takes time to learn, but once acquainted with it, it is usable. Even with my early proficiency my keystrokes per minute will never reach what is capable on a tactile keyboard. The biggest limitation to the keyboard is its inability to enter landscape mode with the Mail application. This is possible in Safari so it’s not clear why, on a phone that is over one year old, this is still an outstanding issue. On some occasions I found the keyboard to be unresponsive or delayed.

Exchange Activesync:
Configuring mail accounts is very easy. Overall Activesync works great with Exchange. I have noticed that the Push technology is a real battery killer. Many have suggested turning off Push to Fetch manually to save battery power (but then losing out on the Push feature). There are issues with using Activesync when you can’t connect to Exchange. There’s no “offline” mode so messages you try to move to a different folder result in an error. For some reason I had intermittent issues with Activesync when using Wifi.

Phone Functionality and Voice Mail:
The phone functionality is very good. The numeric keyboard is easy to use. On screen call options are well designed. Visual Voicemail is great! Switching between speaker phone, handset and Bluetooth is a cinch. Call quality is decent. Max volume on headset still seems low to me. External speakers worked well for calls as well as music.

App Store / 3rd Party Applications
The iPhone SDK will produce a vast array of applications. The 500+ applications currently available through the App Store barely scratch the service on what we will see vendors produce over the next year. There’s a tremendous opportunity for developers to produce rich mobile applications.

Enterprise Readiness
The iPhone is not ready for the Enterprise. The device is missing basics that both Blackberry and Windows Mobile have. Consumers will, for the most part, not care about these. Here are a few examples of features found in other mobile business products, but missing from the iPhone:
• Inability to create meeting request from phone
• Inability to view calendar in week view
• Inability to directly view contact info from meeting invitee
• Inability to customize and “profile” alert notifications for email and phone calls
• Inability to view ToDos and Notes,
• Inability to mark all messages as read
• Inability to perform global search on calendar, contacts and mail
• Inability to copy and paste
• Lack of new message indicator on screen when unlocked
• Lack of new message indicator along status bar
• Lack of external message indicator/light
• Lacks the ability to modify “out of office” from the device
• Exchange lookup via Address Book requires extra steps

Battery Life:
Phone users will need to adjust to the reduced battery life of a 3G type phone. The following settings are a must to mange battery life properly:
• Turn off locator service
• Turn off 3G unless needed
• Reduce screen brightness to 20%
• Consider Fetching mail when needed vs Push
• Turn off wireless when not in use
• Turn off Bluetooth when not in use
• Reduce auto lock time
Ultimately, you will need to figure out what services you can live without to prolong the battery life per charge cycle.

Stability:
Like others who are reporting issues via Apple’s Support forums, I am experiencing a wide arrange of stability issues. Safari has quit on me a number of times while browsing. I’ve also had a number of third party applications quit upon start up. I’ve also experienced the now called “black screen of death” where the device completely freezes and requires a hard reset. Apple needs to address these quickly. Mac news sites have reported a 2.0.1 in testing to hopefully address some of those issues.

3G Performance:
The 3G network in Chicago is spotty. AT&T’s coverage web site reflects 3G strength in binary terms – it’s there or not there. This is misleading due to the patchy 3G coverage areas and is different than how they report EDGE coverage. Browsing on 3G is a great experience and really demonstrates the new phone’s value.

GPS:
I’ve used the GPS feature in various Blackberry’s for about two years now. It has been reliable and accurate. I can’t say the same for the GPS in the iPhone. I’m not sure if the issue is with Google Maps or the GPS chip on the device. Google Maps is extremely slow to update the GPS signal on screen. On some occasions, Google Maps floated my GPS position a ¼ of a mile off from my actual location. A manual reset of my position got it back on track. Use with caution.

Multimedia Functionality:
This is the best iPod anyone could ever have. Video, music and pictures are excellent.

Camera:
With proper lighting, the camera takes great shots. Very easy to sync pictures back to your computer or email to someone else.

Overall experience:
iPhone users will enjoy having so many features packed in to one device. As a business user I’m a bit frustrated with missing features found in Windows Mobile or Blackberry. The overall experience, however, is very satisfying. Apple needs to aggressively address bugs and missing features. As 3rd party application development continues the value of the device will rise even further.

Breaking Down the iPhone 3G Hype

The main stream media is once again failing to cover the difference between the 3G iPhone and the original iPhone. They connect features such as the App Store and Exchange connectivity as 3G iPhone features Let's break down the new phone. 1) 3G and 2) GPS. That's what you need to know. A 3G phone does not guarantee 3G speeds. Be sure to check AT&T coverage in your area to find out how well you're covered for 3G connectivity.

Blackberry to iPhone Potential Regrets

If you're a Blackberry user moving to a iPhone I have a few thoughts on what you're likely to miss.

-integrated voice dialing
-visual message indicator
-vibrate and ring profiles (level 1 messages, vibrate and ring combinations, etc...)
-speed of navigation
-week view
-speed of text entry from manual keyboard
-camera flash and zoom

Can you think of more? Email me with your thoughts.

A Little Communication Please

Since Apple opened the download floodgates for the 2.0 Touch software I've tried to connect and download the upgrade. Despite a number of attempts I've been unsuccessful. The overloaded Apple servers are well known by now. What frustrates me is the lack of communication from Apple. Instead of iTunes telling me the store is down, it would be much nicer to let me know that they're experiencing issues. Yes, that is one in the same, but I shouldn't have to guess about why I can't connect. Perhaps the server meltdown was so dramatic Apple was unable to provide that type of communication. I can't find anything on Apple's web site that makes reference to the issue. Poor communication leads to frustrated and unhappy users. Apple, where is the customer service you're known for?

WWDC Post Conference Thoughts

As everyone predicted the iPhone was the major focus of this year’s WWDC keynote. My prediction of Apple spending a great deal of time on 3rd party developers was true as well. It is crystal clear at this point that the iPhone/Touch is truly a platform. Its future is greater than any other smartphone on the market today. Really in a league of its own. The iPhone focus was so intense, Apple’s new OS announcements were pushed out of the spotlight to an afternoon session. Clearly, Apple is throwing a tremendous amount of resources at the iPhone platform. The keynote was all about creating the most compelling case possible regarding 1) iPhone Enterprise capability 2) iPhone SDK components and 3) End user features. Never before have I seen such an overt attempt by Apple to reach out to the Enterprise and Development communities individually or at the same time.

Additional observations:

The stand out feature with long term potential is Apple’s Core Location. Core Location allows applications to take advantage of an iPhone users whereabouts. With the new iPhone, location content will be determined by wifi, cell or GPS. The potential of leveraging a user’s location is unlimited. Examples include applications that can deliver new content based on where you’re located and social networking applications.

Sega’s gaming demonstration was fascinating. The iPhone IS a game console. It won’t replace the Gameboy anytime soon, but mobile gaming on a phone has been reinvented.

I appreciate Apple’s attempt to minimize power and processor consumption by disabling applications running in the background. The big unanswered question, until the keynote was, how does an application in the background alert the user if it is disabled. Apple’s answer is a background service that provides a push notification service that sends all application messages through Apple and then to the device. This feature won’t be available until September and there are lots of unanswered questions related to how it will work, but we now have more clarity on how developers should plan on alerting users of application events when they are in the background. Got that all you Instant Messenger developers?

I was disappointed by the uninspiring end user features. End user features were barely covered and not demoed. The end user features are hardly the focus of the development team at this point as Apple has bigger fish to fry in terms of adoption. The features announced are welcome, but hardly inspiring. Perhaps seeing the enhancements will help create more enthusiasm. Not much to speak of with the limited coverage at the event. I want my copy and paste functionality!

The keynote covered more details on the App Store. Of note, businesses will have the ability to push applications to business owned iPhones. This was yet another example of Apple bending over backwards for the enterprise environment.

Apple’s new MobileMe is a very attractive service It replaces the aging Dot Mac service with a new set of features and experiences (more remains the same than changes). The last time Dot Mac was upgraded, the results were hardly impressive and failed to keep up with other mail vendors such as Google. If Apple’s implementation is as good as the demo, Apple will finally position itself with a strong web platform for email, calendar and contacts. It will also provide non enterprise Blackberry users with a justification for leaving Blackberry.

"As Is" Apple TV Destined to Fail

Apple TV has been out for more than x. Its success is a question. It suffers from the lack of integration with existing DVR products whether it be Cable or Dish. It’s a device that sits on the side playing second. Consumers want integration. On my Tivo, Amazon movies are integrated with my TV based content. Pictures and music from my PC are also accessible on my Tivo using the same Tivo driven menu platform. I’m a tech guy and I don’t have much tolerance for remembering that I use one device for TV viewing and another device for pictures, downloads and music. There’s long been talk about maturing Apple TV as a DVR product, but that’s no easy task. Apple would need to rely on Cable Cards technology within the cable industry and as Tivo (and its customer base) knows that’s not been easy. Unless the Apple TV has a path to become a DVR or some kind of couch web surfing device (at a minimum) it is destined to become a relic.

Pre WWDC Thoughts

Here are a few quick thoughts related to what we might hear and see on Monday.

Focus areas will clearly be: Leopard install base, kudos to developers for creating Leopard apps, iPhone.

While I'm eager to see if the new iPhone has a front side camera, GPS and improved battery life, I'm much more excited about the new line of applications from both Apple and 3rd parties. Apple will certainly add more software functionality. There are many opportunities to improve the experience and from early SDK hints we know these are coming. Search and other features are logical features over time for Apple to provide. The 3rd party market will show the real gems. Apple will do everything in its power to highlight the amazing work 3rd parties have already done to leverage the platform. Breaking out of the web application space to local and more power applications will take the device in all new directions. I would really like to see the iPhone, and touch for that matter, extend the desktop even more. Examples include streaming music and video to the device from my central iTunes library and accessing documents remotely from my Mac desktop.

Working Parental Controls Must Be Priority

My son is old enough to navigate the web on his own. He's has his own environment with a customized desktop image (his pick, of course) and custom links (that I've approved). Perfect for him and a great use of parental controls. Until recently he's never wanted to spend so much time on the computer where I needed to control is usage in a day. Leopard provides a way to lock down the hours of usage as well as the duration of time during the usage period. Sound great so far, right? After creating those settings, I started noticing that my son was on for more that the designated amount of time. I noticed he could login during hours he shouldn't be able to. Leopard was telling him he could next login at 12:00 AM when the time should have been 8 AM. Apparently these were known issues that have been corrected with 10.5.3. Apple should realize that Parental Controls working correctly are essential. I trust Apple to be a secure and reliable product when it come to security, but even more important to know that it's secure for my children. Parental Control fixes must be a priority that are rolled out as soon as they are available. Safety of children on the Internet should not be based on a release cycle.

O Flash, Where Art Thou

My browsing experience on the iPhone/touch continues to be a fantastic experience. The browsing buzz kill remains the lack of Adobe Flash. A minority of sites rely on Flash for their home page or more sophisticated browsing. These sites leave the iPhone/touch user without navigational capabilities. Hopefully this issue will be resolved in 2008 by Adobe who recently announced they will begin work on developing a media player for the iPhone/touch. This issue is another reminder that all web sites need to consider their approach towards the mobile browsing experience regardless of the device.

iPod touch - Not Your Last Generation iPod

The use of technology can elicit different feelings. The most exhilarating of those feelings is when you're trying something totally new or finding a new and improved way of doing the same thing. The iPod touch is both of those things. Sure the touch can play music and videos like any other modern day iPod, but its Wifi abilities combined with an incredible browsing experience transcend the iPod product line to new levels. The quality of browsing is so good in terms of speed, performance and usability it can easily replace the usage of a desktop PC for basic web content viewing and email. The touch is a device you can carry around in your home and have with you to quickly access mail. True, other portable devices out there have similar functionality, but the touch isn't heavy like the Nokia N800 and is much more enjoyable to use compared to a Windows or Blackberry mobile device. The touch has become my mobile computing device (limited to wifi access, of course) much more than a music or video player.

MacBook Air Reaches High Altitudes

Part of the Apple magic is the initial experience with Apple products. The MacBook Air has that type of appeal. Apple's marketing campaign which shows the Air removed from an interoffice envelope charges the anticipation of touching a new Apple masterpiece. Apple is the master at minimization and the MacBook Air secures their place as a leader in consumer product innovation. This is not an average person's computer. This laptop was designed for a segment of the market willing to pay a premium for form and style. The Air specs are nothing special compared to its close peers and actually quite limiting. There's plenty to be critical of with the Air. The laptop is limited to 2 GB of memory, lacks a removable/replaceable battery and includes a slow PATA drive. It lacks many external ports that a typical laptop user would expect to see. That's exactly why this isn't the average user's laptop. The Air is an incredible lightweight laptop with a beautiful screen that absolutely has a place in the Apple laptop line up. Regardless of any of its shortcomings, anyone who drags around a laptop will appreciate what Apple has brought to market. The question is if you're willing to spend $1,799 for the trade offs you will need to make.