Anyway, pushing my soapbox back under the bed, I have an iPhone and looking back at my activities for the last few weeks, I am struck by how little I’ve created with my new toy – it’s as if someone crammed every form of media into an all powerful demon in my front right pocket (the left pocket just doesn’t feel right after years of carrying my blackberry in my right).  I figure that, rather than fighting these forces, I should embrace them.  In that vein, here are my favorite apps on the iPhone, purposely split into groups, consumption and creation.

Consumption

1. MobileRSS is an application that I started using on my iPod touch. I’m sure that there are updated RSS readers, but this one does everything I want.  I can sync to my google reader feeds, so that I only have to mark something read once.  I can also tweet, save for later with ReadItLater, open in Safari etc.  The real kicker of the app is the design, which is fluid and intuitive: swipe left or right to move between posts, pull the page down or up to load new posts.

There is a free version that is add supported, but if you’re consuming feeds through a firehouse, it’s worth the 3 dollars to have a cleaner experience.

2. ReadItLater is a way of bookmarking things that you want to (duh) read later.  It’s pretty simple and their site walks you through the details of getting the app.  I like the integration with MobileRSS, but I love how ReadItLater content is available via the web too.  I can bookmark something on my computer and read it on my iPhone through the app or I can grab something on my phone (usually large videos) and read/watch from the comfort of my Mac.

There is a free version of this that suits me just fine, as I rarely share via Twitter or other outlets from the app itself.

3. Kindle for iPhone provides a remarkably comfortable reading experience.  If you have a Kindle and have purchased content, you can download one of your books from the digital library and start reading (in seconds).  I’ve forgotten my Kindle while traveling a few times and the iPhone/iPod Touch version allowed me to keep reading.  You can also email passages of text, something that even my real kindle can’t handle.

The Kindle app is free as in beer and speech (but you can only access your paid content as far as I can tell).

4. Games, games, games… I don’t play games for long, but when I’m sitting on a runway, or waiting in line, it’s a great way to pass the time.  I recommend: Collapse, Angry Birds, Ragdoll Blaster 1 & 2, Trenches, Finger Physics free, Unblock Me, Zen Bound 1 & 2, N.O.V.A (this last one is an action packed 1st person shooter, but the rest are simple puzzle games).

These apps may run you from 1 to 3 bucks…

5. Pandora, Last.FM and Grooveshark are all streaming music services that have iPhone apps.  It has to be said: these crush your battery life.  However, in a pinch, it can help relieve the boredom of your overplayed music collection.

Pandora and Last.FM are free.  Grooveshark will require a pro account (worth it at 3 bucks a month) but you can listen to anything in their vast library.

6. This American Life and NPR are streaming radio.  Again, the battery thing is a problem, but it’s sooooo worth it if you’re stuck in an airport and need to drown out the angry people on cell phones…

This American Life is paid but supports NPR.  The NPR news app is free.

Creation

1. Twitter is what it is – love it or hate it, there is an app.  Including Twitter proves that my definition of creation is not terribly strict. I like the official version of the app as it’s free and full-featured, but there are other clients out there that work just fine.

2. Evernote is the app form of the service Evernote.com that I’ve written about before.  Their tagline is “remember everything” and that pretty much describes how I use the app.  I take photos of whiteboards, notes during meetings, voice notes or meeting recordings, and even iPhone screenshots and upload all that to my Evernote account to work on later.  It’s my memory dump for everything that isn’t a task and it’s the starting point for nearly every blog post I write (including this one).

Evernote is free, but you can get a pro account for a few extra features.

3. Remember the Milk, like Evernote, is the app form of a larger service.  Remember the Milk (RTM) allows me to create and save tasks to my master task that I view on my computer, but it also allows me to mark tasks complete, set reminders, etc all from my iPhone.  Like I said before, most of my content goes to Evernote, but if it’s a task (again loooooooose definition of creation) then I use RTM.

RTM requires that you have a Pro account, which runs $20 per year, but you can use the web interface for free.

4. Dragon Dictation is a natural language processing app for your phone that allows you to dictate text and then copy it into emails, text messages or anywhere else that you can hit paste.  I was blown away when I first tried this, as the accuracy is freakishly good. You might be dubious about the benefits of an app for this, but try it out.  It’s fantastic.

Dragon Dictation is free.

5. Sketchbook is for drawing.  I can barely draw a circle, but I love scribbling out rough ideas to return to later.  I can save my images and then suck them up into Evernote for storage (see what I mean? Evernote is awesome).  It’s a one-trick-poney, but then again, how many tricks do you need your ponies to do?

Sketchbook is $2.99.

So the final score is 6/5 Consumption/Creation.  I probably could have squeezed in another one or two on either side, but to be honest, consumption could have destroyed creation: I didn’t even include the “reference” part of the consumption family.  Apps like Menupages, Google Maps, Yelp, and TripIt are also a huge part of my iPhone usage.  I was nice to creation and drew the line closer to the middle…

What apps do you use to consume/create?  Shout it out in the comments.

~ab

Note: I’ve written about the iPod touch and my apps before, but I think that this post shows off some of the iPhone specific functions (as well as things I’ve learned since my last post).

“More than 30 years ago, RiceSelectâ„¢ introduced Texmati®, the first basmati Rice to be successfully grown in America, and still the most popular because of its unsurpassed flavor and aroma. Today, RiceSelectâ„¢ offers a wide variety of delicious rice and other dishes all grown and packaged in America, all inspired by cuisines from across the world. Requested by name in countless recipes and cookbooks, RiceSelectâ„¢ tastes like no other rice.”(Source)

What they didn’t add, but certainly should have, is the following: “RiceSelect products, like our amazing Sushi Rice, can be used to rebuild shattered hopes and dreams!” By now you’re probably checking the URL to make sure that you didn’t mistype the link, but I promise you that this is a technology story.  It’s just a roundabout way telling it…

Virginia Beach is a great getaway spot for a good time in the summer. The beach is packed but there’s sand enough for everyone.  The collection of bars, restaurants and hotels make it easy to find entertainment.  If, like me, you have an iPhone 4 and decide to visit, I hope you’ll heed to the following advice: keep the darn thing off the table and away from your margaritas.

I had just Googled “dog fighting experience” for my brother-in-law.  He had told me of a childhood love for fighter planes and I figured, why not actually get in one?  That’s the beauty of having a great smartphone, you can look this stuff up!  I had the data and we were chatting about whether the rather hefty price tag was worth it, when I gestured a bit too energetically and tipped over all 16 ounces of sickly sweet lime margarita right on my phone.

Panic.

“GIVE ME A TOWEL!” I screeched, while almost overturning the chair of the small boy sitting behind me, and whipped a damp pool towel into action.  I wiped every surface clean of the mess and powered the phone down. I sat stunned back down in the chair and stared blankly into space while my family members discussed the best next steps.  My only thought was “this is why I can’t have nice things”, over and over again,  while I slipped into a self-hating catatonic state. My brother-in-law gets full marks for taking over the situation. Someone at a nearby table mentioned that rice might help dry out the phone and so he sprinted off to the nearest store to buy some.

I’m not sure how many stores he had to visit in Virginia Beach before he found one that would sell him rice (it’s not that kind of place), but 20 minutes later, he returned with RiceSelect Sushi Rice in a very convenient plastic container with a screw-top lid. We dumped out a small portion and shoved in my phone.  It felt a bit like someone was putting one of my chopped-off appendages on ice, to be reconnected later “if there are no complications”.  I ordered another margarita and tried not to pray out loud.  I rallied through the rest of the evening, but my mind constantly strayed to my severed limb, crammed into sushi mix back at the hotel.

The next morning, the second I woke up, I sprinted to the hotel desk and tried to resist the urge to fling the rice everywhere, as I dug out my iPhone.  It looked a bit gritty, but there was no visible damage.  As slowly as I could, I removed the rice grains from the charging port and the headphone jack.  It was time for the real test – I turned it on, half expecting it to catch fire or sizzle in my hands… The beautiful silvery Apple logo appeared and the phone’s main menu appeared. Ok, I thought, now for test two.  My wife, who somehow still loves me despite my complete obsession with technology, called me from her phone.  She could hear me and I could hear her.  Test two passed.

At this point, I wanted to test the headphones, so I was about to plug in when I noticed a lone grain of rice stuck in the bottom of the headphone jack.  Test three was on pause, as I searched my travel gear for a pin. We had to leave the hotel, so I juggled my iPhone, the pin and the steering wheel as we meandered over to pick up the rest of the family.  Again, my wife is unbelievably supportive, so she only yelled at me a few times to pay attention to the road.  After careful prodding, the grain of rice fell out but the iPhone shut off.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack as I tried in vain to get it to start again.  After a few painfully long seconds it started and … worked perfectly.  Our vacation was over, everyone else was disappointed and dreading the coming work week, but I was smiling ear to ear.

Summary:  My unscientific, one data point study brought me to the conclusion that sushi rice saved my phone.  The technique worked for me and I haven’t seen any side effects from the event.  Could I have tried to reboot right after the spill?  Probably.  Would it have fried my little phone?  I have no idea.  All I know is that leaving it overnight in sushi rice worked. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I hope you get as lucky as I did.

On the other hand, you would probably have more sense than I did and avoid the spill in the first place…

~ab

In truth, I get it. The idea is so simple: click a button, pay $100 for a year and receive your push mail, contacts, calendar, storage for your photos and files, plus a “find my iphone” application all in one handy interface to your computer. However, it forever irks me when I’m told about these services as if they are the only game in town. I mentioned my doubt to the Mac Store genius a few days ago and was told “yes but MobileMe is seemless and far less complicated”…

That sounded like a challenge to me, so I wrote out my alternative to MobileMe system.  I thought it would take longer, but it’s actually quite simple.  Here are my choices:

Push Gmail, Calendar, Contacts

Comes straight from Google for free (Mail was included back in September 2009) and here are the steps to set it up.  When you make a change to your email, calendar of contacts, the change appears almost instantly on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Photos

If you’re using Gmail, you have a Google Account. This means you have a Picasa account, even if you haven’t activated it. Just head over to picasaweb.google.com. Your storage is shared with your email (most people have about 7GB). If you need more space, it’s available for a reasonable rate (see my picasa post for more details).

Storage (iDisk)

Dropbox is a service I’ve talked about before.  It’s easy to use and it integrates with both Windows and Mac.

See the little icon with the box and the check?  i got that to replace the default MobileMe icon on my Mac with several hours of coding…  HA! Just kidding.  It was as simple as dragging the old icon off the tool bar and installing Dropbox (10 seconds).  I would love a free Mac product to store my stuff, but using Dropbox is a breeze and it’s free.

Find My iPhone

Finally a service that doesn’t have a free alternative.  You setup your MobileMe on your iPhone and the service will help you find it if you misplace it or someone steals it.  I won’t downplay how great this service is, but if it’s the only part of the MobileMe family that you can’t get for free… is it worth paying $100?  There is a similar product on the app store right now (who knows for how long) that’s called “Find my phone” which does exactly the same thing (as far as I can tell) for only $0.99.

The moral of the story

I’m not trying to be a jerk.  My new Mac has made me very, very happy.  Moreover, I’m perpetually enthused about Apple products.  My only complaint is that MobileMe is $100.  It should be free or at the very least, uber-cheap.  If that were the case, I’d convert over from my google alternatives in a heartbeat.

In short, don’t believe all the hype quite yet.  If someone is asking you to pay $100, it should probably be for something entirely unique.

Enjoy!

~ab

Why?  Well I’m learning!  Apple is not my strong suit and everything is new.  That said, every feature pleasantly surprises me.  Each time I think “there must be a way to…”, I stumble upon what I’m looking for, amazed that it’s there, without code or effort.  What had worried me about the transition was this: I’m a pretty geeky dude.  Won’t it be hard to transition the hard stuff from Windows to Mac?  The answer?  Not even a little bit.

Google Calendar and Gmail were both quick to setup (a Google search put me on the right path).  Microsoft Office was a simple install.  My programming environment in Windows (Komodo Edit) is available for Mac, so no transition there.   Skype and Dropbox were the same story.  To be honest, if we discount the time for my downloads, I’ve probably set the entire machine up, super-user environment and all in less than 3 hours.  That even includes the time I’ve spent playing with it… Pretty amazing.

Given the fun I’m having, I’ve decided that just an asterisk is going to follow me on my new adventure into Mac land, writing about the land of the apple from the big apple.  That said, my day job still requires a PC and I’m sitting on a ton of windows hardware, so JAA will have to be about more than just the domain of Steve Jobs.  We’ll see where the balance lies after a few months…

I guess this is really a post about posts that I’ll write in the future.  Keep an eye out for a Mac post soon and feel free to send questions to ab@justanasterisk.com.  I’d love to have ideas of what to try next.  We’ll explore this lovely transition together.

Best,

~ab

If you’re trying to decide between the hot new Nexus One vs. the iPhone 3Gs, here’s the skinny on what sets them apart. Both phones sport the aesthetic appeal of that sleek “wow” factor sheen, but there are a few differences you should know about which may make one a better fit for your needs than the other.

Despite its light weight compared to the iPhone 3Gs, the Nexus One picks up where the iPhone left off in the bench-press department. Its faster processor and more efficient Organic LED screen will keep your video sizzling sharp and your images pinpoint crisp while making the overall screen color reproduction more accurate (though strangely enough the orange colors on some of the YouTube videos I streamed to the Nexus One appeared a little too red for my liking).

The built in camera flash on the Nexus One is a very useful feature in low-lighting. It’s also a feature that the iPhone currently lacks, though rumor has it that Apple already put in a big order for flash devices for its next generation of iPhones. No doubt Apple will also be ramping up its camera resolution which is currently only 3-megapixels on the iPhone compared to the whopping 5-megapixel deliciousness of the Nexus One camera.

Unlike the iPhone, the Nexus One sports a full hands-free driving GPS navigation system with turn-by-turn directions functionality included right out of the box. On the iPhone, you only get the standard Google maps directions right now which is basically a little dot moving around on a 2D map…not very impressive unless you are willing to shell over the cash for a third party navigation application such as the $70 Navigon or the $80 iGo My Way.

Aside from these extra perks included with the Nexus One, the main point of difference I encountered between the two phones was their dependence upon wireless connectivity. iPhone applications run as smoothly when you are out of wireless range as they do when you are in range because your data is largely saved to the phone and is re-synched when your phone reception returns. This approach keeps your most of your data on your physical phone device, at risk of being lost along with the device if that data has not been synchronized and backed up first.  The Nexus One takes the opposite approach. It seems geared toward storing as much of your personal data as possible on Google’s computer clouds rather than on your phone’s memory. Unfortunately, while it does mean that your data is theoretically safer, it also means that you have to have a strong wireless connection for many of your applications to be useful. This is particularly true if you’re looking to leverage some of the coolest features Google provides such as voice recognition (see below).

The included Android Calendar application is a perfect example of why storing data on the cloud isn’t always the best solution. The included Calendar application is barely functional without a direct link to the internet, and it will not operate unless you have first assigned it to a preexisting Google Calendar account. While these limitations may not be an issue for someone who already uses Google Calendar and who has frequent internet access, I found it an unnecessary burden, and wasn’t thrilled about being forced to use a the Google Calendar which was only recently endowed with integrated Task features.

There are a few other ‘gotchas’ you should be aware of before you buy, such as the not-so-multi-touch feature of the Nexus One’s touch screen. The iPhone’s multi-touch feature is more than just fancy hand-waving; it allows you to use more than one finger at a time to interact with your mobile phone screen. This makes the phone easier to operate and cuts down on the number of buttons that would otherwise clutter its interface. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Nexus One. Though the Android interface itself has been given an appealing facelift, (with live animated backgrounds and the like), it is currently limited to single touch functionality. [Note: You can enable multi-touch yourself if you are brave enough to attempt a ROM hack on your Nexus One].

Another iPhone feature I missed in the Nexus One was a simple notepad. You may be able to download one from the Android Market, but not having one pre-installed is inconvenient, and it makes taking notes or jotting down ideas difficult when no pen and paper are handy. If you’re creative, you could record videos of yourself talking and then sync them with Evernote, but if you’re looking for more direct digital copies of you paper masterpieces, check out the Scan2PDF Mobile application which instantly converts phone photos of your notes into fully searchable PDFs.

As any personal trainer will tell you, you won’t see your best results until you’ve put in the necessary hard work and preparation. In the same way, the Nexus One really starts to shine brightest once you start using one of its most underappreciated yet most awesome features, its voice recognition technology. Leveraging the technology it has long been toiling over for its Google Voice telephone service, Google’s Nexus One makes searching as easy as pressing a button and telling your phone what you want it to find. Seriously, it’s that simple! After a few tries, the phone will train itself to recognize your voice patterns and will identify pretty much any word you throw at it. And since every search you do is logged with Google, I’m guessing that your subsequent search patterns will be used to teach the software so that it continually gets better at recognizing which of your verbal commands it interpreted successfully.

Even more useful, and novel by comparison to what the iPhone offers, is the voice-to-text feature which magically transcribes whatever you say to your phone into an email or text message. This voice recognition feature, in particular, turned out to be a big time saver for me, just like using voice recognition in the built-in GPS navigation made hands-free navigation that much easier and safer while driving.

If you currently have an iPhone and are looking for those extra features that will squirt a few more ounces of productivity into your life, you may want to wait until the next iPhone iteration comes out. The additional benefits the Nexus One offers are mostly under the hood, and while they do add up, the margin of difference they make depends upon how ambitious you are about tackling the learning curve burn cycle, especially if you’re already acclimated to the iPhone interface. On the other hand, if you aren’t in love with the iPhone or if you are upgrading from a previous non-iPhone model and are looking for a top of the line phone with tremendous long-term potential, the Nexus One is probably your best bet.

And in case you’re still deliberating over the technical details behind the gloss, I recommend checking out Gizmodo’s definitive smartphone comparison chart for a great side-by-side comparison of these top two contenders.

~jp

Justin Palmen is a recovering technoholic with a passion for everything fast, mobile, and cloud enabled.  When not working in cyberspace, he enjoys traveling to exotic locations and would love to travel in real space some day.  He’d also love to receive your questions or comments at jp@justanasterisk.com

It has barely been a week and the hubbub online about the hardware, software, features, design, upgrades, and potential yadda yadda is (almost) enough to make me revert to paper news.  The use of the phrase paradigm shift has hit an all time high… (sigh)

However, a friend asked me when I was going to write about the iPressrelease and casually added “isn’t it about exactly what you preach to your readers?  The ultimate goal isn’t the technology?”

Damn.  Touché.

Moreover, it hurts to admit that there is another layer to the shame – this is just the beginning.  Just an asterisk will probably become a thing of the past.  Sure the new iPad may not be perfect at first.  Heck, the entire line of iPads may not amount to anything (unlikely).  However, what really matters here is that someone has finally admitted that the computer, as we now know and love (hate), may not be for everyone.   In fact, in a statistical sense, it may be for no one.  I mean, how many geeks are there really?  I bet if we took the percentage of geeks in the general population, we’d end up with 0.0.  Why has the computer industry marketed to us for so long???

Think of it in terms of the car.  My father once told me that everyone should rebuild a car engine.  Why didn’t I ever need to learn this?  Maybe it was crap (sorry dad), cooked up by the automotive industry to sell cars, in an age before soccer moms and mini-vans.  I bet you can’t tell me the horsepower of a minivan… The car industry figured it out first – the majority of buyers don’t care.  They just want it simple, reliable and efficient.  Are you going to race in the Indy 500? Drive across the Sahara? Go off-roading in the mountains?

Preeeeeetty unlikely…

Are you going to become a programmer?  Render Pixar’s next movie?  Create computational models?

Again, probably not.

Apple has figured you out and my blog will one day go the way of the dodo…

Awesome.

~ab

If it doesn’t start there automatically, my favorite line from the 1989 Batman is “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” (at 1:17 into this trailer).  It’s just such a perfect description of how I find geek tools to be both empowering and entertaining.

A friend recently asked if I had any links to share and I thought I’d start the new year with a list of some of the blogs that I read.  My hope is this provides that answer to your question about my toys (yes in this fantasy, I am Batman).

Mental Floss – Some blogs are on my reading list just for me.  I almost never plan on sharing anything I find on Mental Floss (it’s my guilty pleasure) but often the factoids and trivia I pickup here filter their way into my conversations.  I feel like I owe them a permanent footnote after my banter but as I’m not going to end each sentence with “fact provided by Mental Floss”, this shoutout is going to have to do.  My favorite fact to date?

In Dom Perignon’s day, bubbles were considered a serious wine flaw, and the good monk actually went to considerable lengths to eliminate them during his 47 years as cellar-master.

“Bubble Trouble: The Not-So-Sweet History of Champagne“

Check it out and enjoy.

Flowing Data – The lovely graphs and well… data make this site a truly fascinating read.  I’m certainly not a visualization fanatic, but I adore the beauty of this rapidly growing field.  Maybe the blog’s author won’t appreciate it, but it appeals to the same parts of me that enjoy shopping at Muji or the Apple store.

The Universe as We Know It

Lifehacker – The brain child of Gina Trapani, Lifehacker has developed into one of the most vast compilations of useful information on the web.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve searched (on Google) with the terms “Lifehacker” and my query (like best chat client).  It’s just a fantastic way to get at the old stuff.  Moreover, what makes me really jealous is that the new stuff is good too…  These little nuggets will sit in your brain until needed.  Here’s a recent article that I thought exemplified the best of the blog:

Top 10 Mind Hacks for Making Your Resolutions Stick

Weburbanist – Although this is the noisiest site I’ve ever seen, the RSS feed is bearable and worth a read.  The point seems to be featuring gorgeous photography and design and the blog succeeds most of the time.  Sometimes it’s not my cup of tea but it’s often at least entertaining.  Here’s a taste:

Mind-Bending Digital Photo Manipulation by Erik Johansson

Gizmodo – You cannot love gadgets and not be drawn to Gizmodo.  The site really doesn’t need much of a description – they review the coolest, newest stuff and tell us all the gory rumors.  Interested in hearing about the much hyped mac tablet?  Check Gizmodo.  Want someone simply to tell you which gadgets are hot?  Read this article:

The Best Gadgets

That’s probably enough for now.  Remember to use Google Reader to maximize your blog reading experience!

Enjoy

~ab

Apart from this “call” functionality, this object is nothing more than a paper weight – or something for braining your next burglar.  My point, that is perilously close to drowning in my sarcasm, is that the object has one function.  It’s a telephone.  That’s what it does and even in 1896, it did it pretty well (although Rikstelefon is no longer in business in Sweden).

A few days ago, a friend of mine was complaining that his GPS running application on his Iphone didn’t work perfectly – he wasn’t getting absolutely accurate readings while jogging… (cough) His phone was not giving him accurate GPS readings while jogging? This wasn’t even a complaint about the GPS while calling.

The Iphone is a very, very impressive device.  In a way, even calling it a phone first is misleading.  For example, here is an outdated list of 100 things that an Iphone can do.  The applications make the possibilities limitless and we find ourselves wondering “well if it can do that, then why can’t it do this?”  What is even more amazing is that often someone figures out how to do that (“that” being whatever you wanted to do with the Iphone in the first place).

I do have a teeeeeeeeeny little gripe with this idea of packing devices until they are feature heavy (which technology readers know as “bloat”), to the point that the fundamental use of the product is compromised.

In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence – The Peter Principle

My friend Michael gets full credit for this analogy, but it’s so delicious that I had to write it out.  The Peter Principle above is used in management – an employee who is promoted each time they perform well at their own level, will continue to be promoted until they achieve a level where they fail.  Your best employee might not be cutout to be your best manager.

Now back to the Iphone.

The GPS receiver in the Iphone is miniscule compared to that in your new car.  One review from Autoblog.com said:

Compared to a dedicated navigation unit, the iPhone just can’t compete with systems offering turn-by-turn directions and on-the-fly re-routing. However, its small size and ease of use would make it a competent companion for navigating through a city on foot. So aside from a few intermittent errors on both the phone’s part and our own, it’s safe to say that the 3G works as advertised: under-promising and only slightly delivering.

In a way, this is what we would expect right?  The Iphone is a phone, not an IGPS.  That said, to be able to use GPS on your phone, even crappy GPS, is great.  Shouldn’t we just be happy that it’s even possible?

The same could be argued for the Iphone’s digital camera.  Another review from a photography blog:

From a photographers perspective the iPhone 3G S is everything I wanted the iPhone to be when I first stood in line to buy one in 2006 2007… The iPhone is undeniably a great mobile phone and I can now say, finally, that the camera lives up to the rest of the phone.

Sounds positive right?  In the end, the reviewer is saying that he’s thankful the camera caught up to the quality of the phone.

Here is my theory in two parts:

1.  We want the camera and GPS receivers to stink when a cell phone is first released.  We want the company to have poured their development budget into the reason we’re buying a new phone – which I’m hoping everyone is thinking is to make phone calls.  Once the product is a great phone then we can think about upgrading the camera, as Apple seems to have done.  GPS is new, it’s going to take a while to siphon off enough budget to make it awesome.  Until then, chill out my friends.

2. We should want our good devices to stop adding features.  Does the Iphone need a missile guidance system?  My thinking is that although it would be really cool, I wouldn’t want it to take money from improving the call quality of the phone or improving the email functions or upgrading the GPS or upgrading the camera again or…  Adding missile guidance might just Peter Principle our phone, as we’d expect it to perform well…

In the end, I think my love of technology also causes some angst – I’m so excited to watch the world march forward that I despair when we waste momentum by proceeding in the wrong direction.  Feature bloat = wrong direction.

Not sent from an Iphone

~ab

UPDATE: I can’t even make this stuff up – Your Iphone can now be a stethoscope too!

It’s just another way for us to show you how much we love you. See the glorious pictures below.

Thanks for reading!

~ab