iPhone News Slows Down; Quick Thoughts on Hacking the iPhone

It may be the calm after the storm, but the flurry of iPhone news has become a calm trickle. Most of the news these days is hackers working on opening up the iPhone for third party apps. I wish them luck, if only to see what some independent minds can produce in terms of new functionality and usability for the phone. Some of the most exciting products these days are born from minds who don’t have a mental lawyer interrupting their creativity, extinguishing ideas which may have the slightest potential for copyright infringement or negative revenue impact on a partnered corporation. It seems like an idea can’t even be thought at Microsoft without a lawyer first allowing it to be placed in their employee’s minds. I’m not saying it’s not a similar situation at Apple, but they at least seem to be attempting to use their corporate weight to change other corporations mind for the consumer benefit, like with DRM. I can’t believe that Microsoft, with all it’s billions in cash sitting in the bank, couldn’t do more than Apple to get the music industry to relinquish DRM. In any case, an open source platform for software on the iPhone is a very exciting prospect. And as a general concept (freedom to put open source and closed source software on your mobile device), Google seems to be the only big player trying to make it happen.

Cost of the iPhone Keeps It from Mainstream

There is an interesting perspective on the cost of the iPhone that I've been getting from a lot of non-iPhone owners. They ask me questions like, is there insurance for the phone? Or more generally, are you worried about losing it?

Questions like this are like a bucket of cold water thrown in my face. I think back to all the times I've left my $100 Nokia phone in the back of a cab or at a friends' apartment, and how panicked I felt until I got my phone back.

The iPhone really is too expensive for anyone to lose. And it's likely many people will lose it or break it in their daily adventures. Mobile devices tend to get manhandled. Beer gets spilled on them, they get thrown on the counter with car keys, they get tossed to friends, or dropped on the ground. There was even a study that said 850,000 cell phones in England are dropped in the toilet every year. I remember a lot of people held off on purchasing a Razr phone because insurance wasn't available for it at first.

AT&T should start offering insurance right away. Many people just want that peace of mind. Ultimately, it is the price of the iPhone combined with the dangers of it being a mobile device which will probably keep it from becoming a true mainstream device.

Related link: The Ultimate Apple Web Log has a great post on insurance for the iPhone.

When Will The iPhone Be Updated?

There are some basic stability issues with the iPhone that would seem
to be high priority for a software update. It's curious as to why
Apple has not quickly taken care of these issues.

Is it possible they are putting together one large update instead of
several minor ones? Are they even considering adding a major feature
like iChat and need extra quality testing time?

It's likely that Apple wants to minimize the annoyance of constant
updates, but seeing how most current iPhone users are early adopters,
that would be a nonfactor. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing some of
these issues picked off one by one while my interest in the device is
high. It's almost starting to feel like the phone has been abandoned.

My iPhone at 3 Weeks: Things I Like

It's my third week anniversary with my iPhone.

Things I Like About the iPhone:

The Graphics. I love how BIG and bold and beautiful all the graphics are. When a call comes in, your eye flicks over the screen and all the info you need is easily taken in within a second's time. Whatever you do, whether it's checking your stocks or looking at your photo collection, it's all rendered beautifully on the screen. The accessing and viewing of your content matches the beautiful physical aesthetics of the phone. Oh, and I do love the look of the phone. I stare at it while it's laying turned off on my desk. Even at three weeks, when I notice it, I succumb to the desire to just pick it up. I imagine this is what owning a black Ferrari feels like. You'd want to wake up in the middle of the night, open your garage and just stare at it sitting there. It wouldn't matter if another human being ever saw it because you know that it's art that echoes other beautiful elements of this world.

Being Able to Assign Stars (Ratings) to Songs. I'm not sure, but I think you can't do this with other iPods? In any case, I'm so so so glad I can do it now. I count heavily on my ratings for what I listen to. And there are times I'm in the mood to cull through my vast library and trim away the auditory fat. It's nice to do that on the go. Thank you, Apple!

iPhone-Optimized Websites. Websites designed for the iPhone not only enhance the readability and aesthetics of the content, but also help counteract the EDGE network's slowness. I know Apple said the iPhone's Safari is a full browser. They didn't lie (except for the lack of Flash). But, it doesn't come with a 15-inch screen. Clever people instantly realized the need to enhance their content for the phone. The Google Reader team was one of them. Reader has become my indispensible website. I pull in content from all over the web to one place. And that one place puts it in a format perfect for my iPhone's display. Thank you Google Reader team!

Test post #2 - Picture

Taken with my iPhone and emailed to my Blogger account.

Test email post from my iPhone.

On your Blogger account, go to Settings, then Email, then set up an address and choose Publish for auto-publishing. Send an email to that address and it will be published on your Blogger blog.

Posted from my iPhone's email.

My iPhone Annoyances: Part 2

1. The answer call/pause button on the headphones needs to be placed lower on the cord. Please relocate the button on the headphones' cord that pauses tracks and answers calls. Relocate it so that it is below the point where the cord splits in two. I never know if I put the "left" headphone in my left ear, so I find that I'm always fumbling for the button. Is it on the right cord or the left cord? So help me god, I don't know.

2. The phone's screen gets crazy oily when it presses up against my cheek. If you think finger oil is bad, wait until you press the iPhone's glass against your face. When you are talking on the iPhone, sometimes your face will come in contact with the glass. It's inevitable. No matter how you practice holding the phone, no matter how conscious you are of it, it can't be avoided. Bring a towel along with your iPhone.

3. YouTube is not much fun on the iPhone. It's weird why this is. I mean, the videos actually look better than normal YouTube. I think it's because iPhone's YouTube lacks the novelty of discovery that comes with the normal version. Right now, it's essentially YouTube's Funniest Videos.