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Back in April, sister site Crackberry.com posted a hypejacking article detailing their “Top 10 Reasons the iPhone was NO Blackberry“. Rather than a purely facetious “And thank Jobs for that!”, TiPb kept tongue firmly in cheek but responded with the “Top 10 Reasons the iPhone is Incomparable” and a more considered (meaning they didn’t let me write it!) 10 Reasons to Ditch Your Blackberry for the iPhone. (Though in my defense, I did think there was something the iPhone could learn from its Blackberry competitor…)
Now, however, as the iPhone 3G and its 2.0 software are poised to take on the enterprise market, where RIM is still clearly the sales (if no longer the mind) share leader, perhaps it is time. So, as Crackberry.com pushes their “Top 10 Reasons the iPhone is STILL NO BlackBerry“, let’s just strap our business plans on and see if there really is any way the Blackberry can compare to the iPhone 3G.
Read on to find out!
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If Fake Steve weren’t taking some “vacation” time to allow his alter-ego’s to move from Forbes to take over Steve Levy’s job at Newsweek, he’d no doubt be all over this.
Seems Woz, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in a garage during the age of aquarius (or something), in between Segway Polo matches and paying for hamburgers with uncut sheets of $100 bills, found some alone time with his honey, celebrity funny woman Kathy Griffn, in the back of a limo.
What to do, what to do…
Why, live-vidblog (or whatever the big media equivalent of that is) the jailbreaking of her iPhone! What else?
A combination of Woz’s massive watch and Griffin’s neon-orange case may blind you for life, but if you just gotta see the geekbait, check the video over at Engadget.
O.P. Original Pirate, y’all! JAR!
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Not evil twin to theiPhoneBlog.com Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!
In this week’s edition: RIM Flips, Windows Mobile is why Ballmer should quit, and Palm’s Centro is a… hit?!
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Paul Kafasis, who along with his fellow Rogue Amoeba’s raised some early concerns over the iPhone SDK, is back with a post WWDC status report, and his current opinion? Brokended.
After a month of waiting, with no contact from Apple save form letters that went out to all developers, we’d grown quite frustrated. We don’t know if we should invest our time in a platform for which we may not even be allowed to release software. Finally on April 8th, one of our developers decided to apply to the program as an individual, to see what would happen. Shockingly, in under 24 hours he had a certificate which enabled him to work on actual hardware.
Kafasis thinks that Apple is handling individual applications separately from — and for some reason much faster than — company applications, which he finds confusing given the possible impact of large development houses and the only real (and critical) differentiator of the $99 program acceptance being the ability to tether and test actual hardware (rather than simulators) and, of course, the ability to sell through the App Store. Ultimately, he believes the problem lies in Apple’s communications — not only its lack of clarity, but its complete lacking (almost a trademark of the tight lipped company).
iPhone dev expert extraordinaire Erica Sadun follows up with some analysis of her own:
25000 applied; 4000 admitted. By any stretch of the calculator, thats only about a 16% acceptance rate. It’s one that has left many independent OS X developers behind.
Was Apple overwhelmed by the sheer volume of applications? Have they botched the program from the get go? And what could they do now to help get developers (and their developments) back on track?
Could these be T-Mobile’s iPhone 3G rate plans? I couldn’t find them posted yet on T-Mobile’s site (and my German is nicht gooden anyway), but reader Germany iPhone User sent us a tip on the image below, so if this is them, then this is them!
Update: Turns out not so much (see comments below).
According to the image, plans come in small, medium, large, and extra large (XL) sizes, from €29 through €89, with 50 to 1000 minutes, free weekends, 0 to 500 SMS, with 500mb of data on the lowest plans, and unlimited on all the rest.
Likewise das cheapen plan will get you an iPhone 3G 8GB for €169 (or 16GB for €249) while einen XL will get you the 8GB free! (16GB for €99)
Ever since a young Steve Jobs audited a calligraphy class and sparked the taste that has driven modern consumer computing, Apple had prided itself on pixel-perfect design. And this year, for the first time, iPhone Web Apps and (beta) App Store apps were eligible for Apple’s WWDC-delivered Design Awards. (Which makes sense, given the iPhone was released less than a year ago…)
According to Apple’s Developer Connection, the awards:
Recognize technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in software development. With new categories for iPhone development, this year’s Apple Design Awards [were] more exciting than ever.
And this year, the Jobsy’s went to:
- Best iPhone Game: Enigmo 1.0, Pangea Software
- Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness Application: MIM 1.0 (alpha), MIMVista, Corp.
- Best iPhone Social Networking Application: Twitterrific 1.0 (beta), The Iconfactory
- Best iPhone Entertainment Application: AOL Radio 1.0, AOL LLC
- Best iPhone Productivity Application: OmniFocus 1.0 (pre-release), The Omni Group
- Best iPhone Web Application, Winner: Remember The Milk for iPhone & iPod touch 1.0, Remember The Milk
- Best iPhone Web Application, Runner-Up: AP Mobile News Network 1.0, The Associated Press
Be sure to check out
Apple’s gallery for screen shots of all the winners!
And a hearty congratulations (and thanks!) from TiPb to all the winners, and to everyone who showed up to develop! We look forward to enjoying the fruits of your labors :)
It’s official, folks, the iPhone 3G is replacing the original iPhone, aka the “iPhone 2G” (which makes the iPhone 1G the… Newton?). Company-owned AT&T store managers received the word today:
Stop selling and Pull all 2G 8GB (sku:69001) and 16GB (sku 69010) iPhones from the shelves and immediately return to AT&T Returns Facility in Fort Worth Texas
Have devices ready for pick up June 13th or Monday June 16th.
…Which means this past week wasn’t just a crazy dream after all, the iPhone 3G is really coming. What’s more interesting: we’re going to have a full month of NO iPhone sales. What’s most interesting: What do you suppose AT&T and Apple are going to do with these returned 1st-gen iPhones?
Heck - let’s have some fun. This is a Wait-a-Thon post. Any comment here gets you entered to win that $100 iTunes gift card. Here’s our guess: those long-lost, landfilled “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” Atari Games create a sort of blackhole of bad user experiences. Throwing a bunch of iPhones in there would sort of balance that out, no?
What do you think they should do with them?
Thanks to Bla1ze for the tip!
There’s been some chatter here, and in the blogsphere in general, that the iPhone 3G isn’t a compelling enough upgrade for current iPhone users. 3G speed is nice, but not everyone has it in their area. GPS rocks, but Google cell and Skyhook WiFi triangulation is good enough for a lot of location services. And the flush headset jack? Already bought an adapter. So aside from some internals, like rejiggered sensor arrays, better speaker quality, and more radio-friendly plastic back, some just don’t feel like the iPhone 3G brought enough new stuff!
But what if it had? What if it had brought the mother of all firmware updates?
Steve Jobs takes back the stage at WWDC 2008, thanks Scott Forstall and everyone, says how wonderful the SDK looks, goes over all the new features coming to the platform with 2.0, and then reaches into his pocket and says: “But there’s one more thing…” And pulls out something just a little sleeker and blacker backed. “All those 2.0 features, all the enterprise and SDK goodness…” He holds it up and the light flashes against its more tapered sliver bezel. “Are coming EXCLUSIVELY to the new iPhone 3G!”
Boom.
Crazy? Sure. It probably would have broken the internet in half and set off a mountain of protests that would have made the $200 price drop nonsense seem like a molehill. Arguments and counter-arguments would have raged, Apple fanboys would have been split, Apple-haters would have pounced…
But it would have made the iPhone 3G a much more compelling upgrade, wouldn’t it?
Sure, maybe the iPhone 3G we got was somewhere between tweak and evolution on the typical Apple product roadmap, but –
“iPhone 2.0, Available Exclusively on 3G…”
– Would anyone seriously have preferred that?
In an article over at Brighthand, Antoine Wright raised an interesting and thought-provoking point, that Apple should have ignored developer’s wishes and maintain their web app platform. He believes that Safari, one of the most capable mobile browsers available, could have paved the way for an even better web experience by offering very polished web apps. He lists examples such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and banking sites as those who have created great web apps.
Apple, with its own browser, Safari, and a fresh mobile platform, had the opportunity to really change the game when it came to making web applications. These could have become a standard type of software platform model for mobile devices. The company chose instead to listen to developers.
His main problem with native applications is that it doesn’t port as easily to different phone platforms and devices. Native applications have to be re-packaged and even re-built from the start to fit a specific device. He cites Google Gears as an example of great web applications, and wishes that the iPhone could create a similar experience.
Though we at TiPb would have loved to see Apple make some headway in Web Apps and do see a future in it, we just don’t think straying away from Native Apps would have been the answer. Native Apps provide a distinct advantage, they work without an internet connection and offer a more immersive experience. Native Apps aren’t trapped to the confines of Safari and theoretically, offer limitless potential. TiPb’s vote goes to Native Apps FTW.
What do you guys think? Web Apps all the way? Or did Apple make the smart decision in admitting an error and allowing 3rd party native apps?
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Ouch. Seems Samsung and Sprint tried to bring an Instinct to an iPhone fight. At least that’s how venerable Wall Street Journal columnist and “D” All Things Digital tech yoda Walt Mossberg made it sound in his iClonic “review” (to be fair, the still unreleased iPhone 3G gets more attention — and love — than the unfortunately release-timed Instinct).
How does Mossberg sum up his feelings, some several paragraphs and umpteen iPhone mentions, references, and comparisons down?
If you’re a devoted Sprint customer, or want to avoid AT&T, the Instinct is an OK choice. But it’s no iPhone.
Watch the video accompanying video after the break!
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