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yet another Microsoft blogger

# Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Thoughts on the 3G iPhone

I’ve made it very clear to everyone I know that I’m getting an iPhone v2. Now that the iPhone has Exchange support, there is no reason for me NOT to get one. I’ve been using Windows Mobile since my Motorola MPX-200 (Windows Mobile 2002 I think) and it’s time for a change. I want, no I NEED an iPhone :-).

Personally, the most exciting things about the iPhone are:

  • The long tail of applications that will exist. It’s clear that the iPhone is going to get the lion’s share of attention and everyone will be popping out iPhone apps.
  • Safari for browsing the web (and great optimized web apps)
  • Touch
  • the features of an iPod

To be honest, I have an iPod Touch right now and I actually consider that the music playing experience sucks pretty bad when compared to a Zune or an old skool iPod. There is simply no replacement for having hard buttons to control audio and the whole screen flip thing is annoying.

And while I am at it, iTunes has turned into a slow bloated buggy application that I can’t stand to use any more… and the new Zune Player kicks its butt. Apple needs to throw away the Windows code base and start over with something that is actually a Windows App and not as terrible as QuickTime on Windows.

But anyway, it won’t change the fact that I have $400 earmarked for my iPhone v2.

As I watched the WWDC keynote on Monday I could not help but notice a few things.

  1. Apple is an incredibly childish company. Apple always used to take pot shots at Microsoft (even though the Mac would have died a slow death a few years back w/o Mac Office) but I find it amazing that they still say things like “ActiveStink” even though they also need “ActiveStink” to be relevant to any enterprise or edu. I find that the Apple commercials are funny and generally in good taste, but not these kinds of comments. I’ve always believed this comes from their resentment of having to rely on Microsoft for anything.
  2. They always talk about how this version kicks the pants off the last version. They do this with a straight face even though the joke is on you because last year they were selling you the same crap telling you how you don’t need 3G or Video or Intel Processors and how RISC is going to take over the world and put Intel out of business. You know what I mean, all that baloney about how PhotoShop is 100x faster on a PowerPC than an Intel chip and at the end of the day, guess what’s powering a Mac now.
  3. Then there is stuff like “look, this company wrote this crazy cool application in 2 minutes! Our dev tools are so easy, you can lean Objective C and crank out an iPhone app and port your application in a few days”. This reminds me of when Apple had Adobe on stage and convinced the world that recompiling PhotoShop for Mac OS X took them only 2 weeks. It took them 2 years I think to actually ship.

But nevertheless, it doesn’t matter. People in the audience and most folks can’t help but be fanboys. I mean the Cult of Macintosh/Apple/iPhone is a powerful thing, and if Apple has shown anything over the years it’s that they are only increasing the number of folks who fall in line and eat this stuff up. Who can blame them? Apple makes me excited about hardware and technology. I almost always walk into an Apple store when I am near one just because.

In my mind there is nothing more exciting to a geek than sitting at a keynote and watching the grand master walk you through each and every new feature you are going to get your grubby hands on in a few short weeks. If I could get this for every product I cared, or loved I’d be so happy… especially if they could do it like Steve Jobs! Tell me what other product out there gets such a careful and anticipated unveiling than every single thing Apple makes?

I know you got excited that the new headphone jack now allows for normal headphones w/o an adapter even though this is a bug and never should have been that way in the first place, but you don’t even think about that because you’ve already forgiven Apple! When Apple got rid of SCSI and nuBus and moved to USB we all said “thank you Apple, now I can purchase all new peripherals!”.

See how it works?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to my 3G iPhone.

I’m NOT looking forward to the big ass disaster it’s going to be purchasing one on July 11th. AT&T is going to screw this up, in my case I bet they will tell me I’m not eligible for an upgrade since I got a phone less than 2 years ago. So I really have no idea what’ it’s going to cost me and more than likely they will completely bullocks up my account adding the right data plan and all that nonsense. I do know I’ll probably spend a few hours in an AT&T store and some amount of time arguing with them.

BTW, the new iPhone isn’t cheaper and if you think so then you can’t do the math.

 

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:59:23 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
It was posted on one of the bigger/mainstream blog sites, but AT&T specifically said that if you already have a contract, you have to re-commit to another two years to get an iPhone v2.

I just bought an iPhone like 3 months ago, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade. They just didn't change enough stuff. And surprisingly, the built in cell-tower "GPS" is fine for almost every location-based app I've ever run on the iPhone.

And I couldn't agree with you more on the whole assholery that Apple pulls on PC/Microsoft users. It's getting really tiring. I was in an office on a job call the other day, and a woman said "Well, we're going to get rid of our PC at home, because all those Apple commercials have us convinced." Huh? What? You don't realize those are ADVERTISEMENTS? *sigh*
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:47:06 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I think the ActiveStink thing was a mistake. He looked really embarrassed after he said it and begged the audience not to applaud for it. About other potshots: I think we can all admit that the task manager on Windows Mobile deserves it.
Eric
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:51:39 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I was at the keynote and think that it was a mistake too. If he meant it then it wouldn't have been edited out of the official video release of the keynote.
Graham
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:40:54 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I loved your post. I share the 100% of your thoughts. Including the soon to come arguing with AT/T reps.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:10:34 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
This is the main reason I unsubscribed from your blog. All you know is how to whine. Mate - look back on all your recent posts, do you do anything but whine or find faults with everything?

Now only other popular sites stop linking you so that we can get rid of your negativity all around.
SuperSecretIdentity
Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:52:48 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I'm going to let you go through the "iPhone Experience" with the AT&T folks before I even attempt it.

I don't know if I'm willing to pay the cost (the real cost) of an iPhone compared to the discounts we get. Plus with phones like the HTC Diamond coming out, I will have hope for WM.
Samuel
Sunday, June 15, 2008 7:33:29 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
<< I have an iPod Touch right now and I actually consider that the music playing experience sucks pretty bad when compared to a Zune or an old skool iPod. There is simply no replacement for having hard buttons to control audio and the whole screen flip thing is annoying. >>

I completely agree. I think that a virtual clickwheel on the Touch/iPhone would partially address this http://kriegster.com/2008/04/28/ipod-touch-click-wheel-best-usability/.

Also I blogged about usability issues with the iPod Touch as a music player http://kriegster.com/2008/01/23/ipod-touch-annoyances/.
Sunday, June 15, 2008 9:37:15 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Hi Omar,

How do you plan on checking your hotmail from your iphone when hotmail doesnt have pop3 support ? Using the browser is not an ideal solution, dont you think?
Craig
Sunday, June 15, 2008 5:10:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Craig, Hotmail does have POP support, but only for premium users right now... emphasis on right now.
Thursday, June 19, 2008 5:41:49 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Omar,

POP3 is great and all, and I greatly appreciate it being added to hotmail (again). Any chance on getting IMAP support; keeping things synced between devices is a pain with POP. Exchange support would also be acceptable, so i could use the iphone and mail.app. (sorry, i like it better than Entourage).

Levi Durham
Levi Durham
Monday, July 07, 2008 8:16:25 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Even Better yet, maybe someone at microsoft can use the hotmail delta-sync to make a client for the iphone. Then the iphone with hotmail can have true push mail like the Windows Live mobile client has.

Craig
Comments are closed.