June 2007: Monthly Archive

Om Malik outlines five points about the iPhone that could have a dramatic impact on the wireless business.

• A true web applications platform for the mobile
• Break the Wireless Walled Gardens
• Shift of control to the customers
• Slow demise of subsidized, boring phones filled with bloat ware
• Keep it simple or else

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Uncle Walt has an iPhone and is eagerly showing it to anyone he can impress. His impression so far is mixed, with the onscreen keyboard being the crux of his unease.

“I don’t know whether I’ll give it a good review or not,” he said, noting that he will use the phone for the next couple of weeks before writing his review. “I can already see some things I don’t like about it. I see some other things that I do like a lot about it.”

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We’re rolling out a new template for the site to better customize the look and feel to appear less generic. New feature sections will also be added as well to include support, tips&tricks, where to buy accessories, etc. This is still a work in progress so bear with us for now.

Hope you all enjoy it.

Fresh from AT&T, the company is sending out notification emails to anyone who subscribed to its iPhone news list, further confirming what we already knew. iPhone will be available starting 6:00pm June 29. What the email doesn’t disclose is how or where to get one!!!

The full contents of the email are enclosed below. Read the rest of this entry »

Gah. I’m not thrilled with the news of web apps being the application delivery method, but I don’t think that web 2.0 is Apple’s permanent answer to an SDK.

Web app functionality is something you talk about if either

1. you’re not ready to talk about the external SDK. We already knew it would do web apps — reference the “kinda sorta internet” commercial. We knew it would do the full internet, javascript, the whole shebang — last January.
2. There is no SDK, Web 2.0 / AJAX all the way.

Of course, both are a possibility. It’s a possibility than an SDK was given the kibosh; it’s an equal possibility that Jobs decided the market pressure dictate that he announce something at WWDC for the developers so they’re not left out on launch day. It’s, of course, always a possibility that the SDK is still being worked on. Jobs stated earlier that he intends to report the accounting revenue over two years so they can improve the iPhone on a regular basis over its product lifetime.

• Jobs said at D5 that if folks are willing to hold on for a while, he’ll have an answer for that. I have said that I didn’t think we’d have an SDK at launch, and it looks like at least that much is true. I still think we’ll get one later.
• though I’m not excited about Web applications, they are powerful. Case in point: Google Documents. There’s an interesting wee tidbit from that website: “Safari support for Google Docs is coming soon!” I don’t see Opera, Minimo or Pocket IE on their list of compatible browsers.
• Web 2.0 / AJAX devleopment is going to be a boon for web developers, and it’s simultaneously a shot in the arm for Safari. It’s quite possible that Safari as a targeted web platform is more important to Jobs right now than an SDK (it does burn me to say that). Conversely, web apps significantly lower the bar of entry for application development, and opens up subscription and service-based application licensing models.
• I’m still convinced the market potential is large for iTunes as a signed app delivery vehicle. I think I’ll stick to my guns on this one; we’ll see what other announcements Jobs makes in the next year or so, maybe as early as January at MWSF.

That said, there are still some vexing questions:

• Whither YouTube?
• is Adobe’s flash supported? If so, expect it to basically become the default application language. This would be a huge boon for Flash Lite apps.
• Can you store web apps on the iPhone directly, i.e., run them from flash storage? If you can run apps without incurring bandwidth, that’s great. If not, this could be a huge issue.

It’s very clear to me that we still don’t have all of the SDK answers yet; I don’t think this issue will be resolved yet on launch day.

“Fallacy” being the important word there; it’s a fancy word for “wrong.” Not ten minutes after the end of the WWDC, the first “iPhone not a smartphone” article is up. This type of logical fallacy is called “the Real Scotsman fallacy.”

According to the coverage of WWDC at Engadget, the iPhone will go on sale at 6PM on June 29th.

From the live coverage at MacRumors.com, Jobs confirmed that the SDK will use Web 2.0 applications — AJAX, if you prefer. Download the beta of the Windows Development kit today.

I’ll admit, I was hoping for a full-blown SDK; I had surmised a widget-based application stack earlier but foolishly abandoned it in the hopes of a full-blown SDK, if not just for the sake of games. More after the end of WWDC to follow!

There have been recent rumors that indicated that a SIM tray would not be present in the iPhone. I thankfully had the good sense to omit reporting … oh wait, I didn’t. In any event, that rumor was incorrect; a SIM tray has been confirmed as part of the official specs. I trust Macrumors implicitly in this; if I had to choose a website with whom to wage war in a foxhole, it would be them.

Keynote Bingo.
Would you like to play it?