Without fail, the moment Apple launches a great product or new revision, within moments talk quickly shifts back to “what’s next?!” Last month it was the iPod and iTunes. This month it’s the MacBook. But with Macworld slowly ramping up, and competitors slowly turning iClones into specced out SuperClones, the blogsphere spotlight will inevitably turn back to the iPhone, and just what device they’ll dent our universe with next.
TiPb’s prediction? The iPhone HD.
We’ll tell you why after the break!
TiPb loves answering your emails, but we also love sharing our answers with the community in hopes that more people will benefit, and even better answers will present themselves (hey, that’s why we have them forums!). For today’s debut TiPb Answers, reader Michael asks:
I can’t believe that my pet iPhone omission wasn’t a choice in the poll of what we’d like to see in iPhone 2.2. Flash support! Maybe a system update isn’t necessary to roll out Flash, but that has been my only gripe with my iPhone (other than having to deal with AT&T during purchase and setup). I can’t watch Hulu, or other Flash based video on my phone without it. I’ve wondered if this isn’t exactly Apple’s intent - why permit Hulu to compete with the iTunes store? What do you think?
TiPb answers, after the jump!
If you didn’t know, Google and T-Mobile held a small event that introduced the world to Android and the first Android device, the T-Mobile G1. And though Android impressed many (TiPb included), a lot of people scratched their heads when it came to the T-Mobile G1. Sure it packed a lot of features, controls, layouts, etc in one device but looks-wise it just didn’t blow anybody away. Is this really the device that Google is going to use to introduce the world to Android?
So we decided to take a closer look at the hardware and see how it compares to the iPhone 3G!
Read on to see how the iPhone 3G compares to the T-Mobile G1 Read the rest of this entry »
Sure, on the surface Google’s Android seems more like a shot through the heart of Windows Mobile — or the head of Palm’s Linux-based OS 2.0 aspirations — but while those platforms enjoy their own historical and market share, it’s Apple’s iPhone that has all the mind share of late. That means, despite Google’s CEO being on the Apple Board of Directors, Google’s Maps, Search, and other services having a prominent place on both devices, and — let’s face it — Google’s full on tech-crush for the iPhone — no one is going to hesitate to pit the two systems head-to-head. Including us!
So, what advantages does each one have? What drawbacks? Here they are, in our opinion: the top five iPhone vs. Android Wins and Losses… after the break!
Today is “A Day”, the day T-Mobile announces Google’s Android mobile platform (see our brand new little sibling site, AndroidCentral, for all the details and coverage) to an anxiously anticipating world. Well… mostly anxiously anticipating.
Turns out some people aren’t as interested. Is it because Google’s latest forays into content, including YouTube and Wikipedia rival Knol, and platforms, including Android and Firefox rival Chrome (and gLinux OS on the horizon?), make them think “don’t be evil” is just a sinister plan to catch the world — and our privacy — off guard and unaware? Nope. We tend to like and trust Google. What then?
Same reason some people are less than thrilled with Windows Mobile. See, while supporting multiple hardware and handsets is “choice” for the consumer, that translates into “headache” for the developer. Make a game for the iPhone, and it plays the same on every iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPhone Touch on the planet. Make a game for a multi-device OS, and suddenly you have to worry: some don’t have keyboards, some have full Querty, some have T9, some don’t have touchscreens, some don’t have d-pads, some have 320×240, some have 480×800. Infinite combinations leads to infinite complication, and that’s before you even worry about bug fixing. And for some developers, including Steve Demeter who just cleared $250K from the iTunes App Store for his game, Trism, that’s a deal breaker:
“Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making it compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?”
Sure, some developers won’t care. Freedom alone will make the effort worthwhile to them. But these are the developers already coding for Windows Mobile (or LinMo). But for others? The App Store, with all its problems (and they’re still many), maintains a value prop that’s going to be incredibly tough to beat.
Big Media, which pretty much makes the loons in Big Music seem reasonable, witnessed NBC have the distributive equivalent of a hissy fit last year when they pulled their content from iTunes. At issue? They wanted more control over pricing. They said they wanted lower prices. Anyone ever seen media lower prices on anything established? No. Us neither.
Apple said NBC wanted to be able to charge up to $4.99 per episode of TV, much of which was 22 min. long and had already aired “for free”, and that they wanted to be able to bundle content together so, for example, if you wanted Hot Show X, you had to take Dud Show Y as well. Anyone ever seen media overcharge, re-release “Special Editions” to double dip, and raise the prices of movie downloads to DVD levels (when it costs them nothing to distribute and includes none of the bonuses typically packaged with a DVD)? Yeah. All the time.
Still want to give NBC the benefit of the doubt? Remember, one of their demands for coming back was that Apple block non-commercial content from iPods and iPhones. I.e., if you can’t prove you bought your show specifically for the iPhone (no content swapping from your PVR! And no home movies!), you’re a de facto pirate.
After trying all sorts of disruptive alternate markets, including giving their content (”their” in that they own it, but typically did not create, direct, produce, star, or otherwise do anything but cull and cancel it), away for free on Hulu (to people in the US, at least) along with a back-door onto the iPhone, and through other online distribution models, at Apple’s September “Let’s Rock” event, it was announced NBC was coming back to iTunes.
The results? Check them out after the break…
Seems it wasn’t a hair that broke the blogerati’s back, it was an App. Or more precisely, it was Apple’s denial of the Podcaster App that let loose the floodgates of negative internet reaction. Or even more precisely, it is the continued lack of certainty among developers as to what can and will be denied by Apple, leading many to reconsider the return on investment of hours upon hours of coding with 11th hour rejection hanging perpetually over their heads, like a virtual Sword of Damocles.
According to Read Write Web, Podcaster will be turning to Ad Hoc to distribute their App for nowwhile everyone from Daring Fireball to Roughly Drafted cover (and in some cases, recover from) the various comments and implications flinging back and forth across the blogsphere, the New York Times has decided to escalate the attention level:
I can’t see how distributing the program will hurt Apple. If anything it will make the iPhone a tad more valuable. On the other hand, treating developers capriciously is most certainly going to discourage them from spending nights and weekends working on new and useful applications that may give more people reasons to buy an iPhone.
Sure, the App Store is growing twice as fast as iTunes Music (though starting from zero is an easy way to generate an opening curve), and may well hit a billion units moved by 2009, but with Android’s open marketplace on the horizon, and Microsoft me-too’ing their way in with Skymarket, there could be alternatives. If Apple doesn’t take a page from their MobileMe fiasco playbook and rapidly standardize and clarify the rules of the game, they could lose their early lead. And that could cost them the Mobile Internet Platform dominance they so currently crave.
Don’t get us wrong. It’s Apple’s platform and they, like a Nintendo with the Wii, have the absolute right to approve or deny anything developed for their platform. But developers have the same right to stop developing for a platform they don’t think serves their best interests. And consumers have the same right to stop buying it for the same reason. As with the Blacklist push-back, that will be the ultimate officiator of this debate.
And a terse one-line email from Steve may not fix things if Apple waits too long…
When Steve Jobs uttered the statement that “Now you can make a pretty good argument that the [iPod Touch/iPhone] is the best portable device for playing games on”, did you nod your head in unison? I have my money on you saying no—the iPhone is a great device, to be sure, but a gaming device? Leave that to Nintendo you probably thought.
Why? Because the Nintendo DS has sold close to 80 million units since its inception. The numbers speak for themselves, the Nintendo DS is the king of portable gaming. So what would it take for the iPhone to knock the DS off of its throne? Well, that’s what we are here to tell you.
Read on to see how the iPhone can take on the Nintendo DS!
Read the rest of this entry »
With the Apple’s release today of the iPhone 2.1 firmware update, that’s the exact question many people will be asking. Hey, we at TiPb asked it ourselves — for all of about 0.1 seconds before diving headlong into iTunes, for the good of our readers, of course.
So what’s new in iPhone 2.1, is it compelling enough for you to update, and who should avoid it at all costs?
Answers after the jump!
Welcome to iPhone Analysts vs. the Magic 8-Ball, where we take the often outlandish, sometime surreal predictions of iPhone analysts and pundits, blogeratti and the ‘net elite, and compare them to the potentially equally precise prognostications of a… magic 8-ball (running on an iPhone, of course!)
This edition rounds up some of the mountain of rumors piling up in advance of Tuesday’s “Let’s Rock” event. Let’s get it on!
And for those still keeping score on the last round, the current standings are after the jump!
  
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The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
