Considering an iPhone 3GS but interested in other options? Already an iPhone owner but curious about the alternatives? There’s an increasing amount of competition in the smartphone space — more great devices on more networks — but how do they stack up? Which one’s really for you?
Check out the links below for TiPb’s (and Smartphone Experts’) take:
Trying to decide between an Apple iPhone and a Palm Pre? TiPb’s got you covered. Check out the links below for our comprehensive reviews and ongoing coverage of the Palm Pre and how it compares and contrasts with the iPhone.
Verizon and Motorola’s upcoming Droid handset is getting a lot of press, here, there, everywhere, and one of the negative points that’s come up — in relation to the iPhone — is the Droid’s lack of multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom. (TiPb mentioned it a couple days ago as well).
Some might complain about Verizon nickel-and-diming users by charging an extra $15/month for Exchange support, or that given Verizon’s CDMA technology the Droid can’t multitask a phone call and a data connection (so if, for example, you’re using the new Google Maps Navigator and a need to talk on the phone at the same time, you’re only as good as your last cache). Others are honing in on the Android app space limitations, or just the limited apps (NSFW). But what makes multi-touch so intriguing is that it’s a bit of a mystery as to why the Droid doesn’t support it. Of course, the G1 didn’t support it either, but Android 2.0 is supposed to contain the API’s to do it, and the non-Verizon (GSM, for sale outside the US) version — called the Motorola Milestone seems to do it, if not smoothly (yet?).
Apple’s massive multi-touch patent portfolio is cited as a reason, both now for the Droid and then for the T-Mobile G1. Either Google, while CEO Eric Schmidt was still on the board, agreed not to violate them, or fears litigating them. So, they build in the functionality and let 3rd parties take advantage — and the risk that goes with it — if they so choose.
But why then does the Palm Pre have multi-touch gesture support on Sprint in the US? Wouldn’t the same patents apply? Sure. However, patents are like nukes. They can be deadly unless the guy you’re pointing yours at is pointing equally deadly ones back at you. As both TiPb and PreCentral.net have posted for a while — and Palm has explicitly stated — Palm has a heckuva mobile patent arsenal.
Blustering about lawsuits aside, Apple suing Palm (or vice versa) brings mutually assured patent destruction down on the both of them. While Apple is arguably filthy rich and Palm pauper poor, they might not want the expense or the hassle given Palm’s current market position. Verizon and Google, however, is another matter, especially since Google has been in the mobile space nowhere near as long as Palm, and likely doesn’t have the same type of core mobile patent portfolio in their pocket to assure the same type of stalemate.
At the end of the day, only the top executives (and their lawyers) at Apple, Google, and Palm know for sure, but that’s our guess.
It’s a shame, of course, because the iPhone’s multi-touch gestures are natural to the point where they should arguably be considered default for all capacitive touch screen devices. Apple settled “look and feel” lawsuits with Microsoft over the windows/mouse/pointer interface over a decade ago. They likely consider multi-touch a similar competitive advantages, however, and Steve Jobs said as much at Macworld 2007 when he introduced Apple’s implementation of it:
“And boy, have we patented it.”
Apple this afternoon released a point update to iTunes, bringing the latest version to 9.0.2.
iTunes 9.0.2 adds support for Apple TV software version 3.0, adds an option for a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.
Needless to say, according to our friends at PreCentral.net, it also kills Palm Pre webOS sync dead. Again.
Check Apple’s Software Update to get your copy, and let us know if you find any other goodies!
As part of the commentary on Jamie Zawinski leaving the Palm Pre for the iPhone (linked in the previous post), Daring Fireball adds:
Apple had a similar idea to WebOS for the iPhone, where certain apps would run as Dashboard-style widgets, written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Apple abandoned the idea in the six months between the iPhone’s January 2007 announcement and when it went on sale at the end of June, concluding that performance for such apps was unacceptable and that they should go native Cocoa across the board. And Apple was only going to do it for small apps, like Weather, Stocks, and Calculator, not the flagship apps like Calendar and Mail.
Of course, web technologies have improved since 2007, especially JavaScript rendering. Usability and performance complaints aside, Palm embracing web developers in order to incentivize adoption of their platform was a smart strategy. Still, it’s interesting to see Apple’s reaction to it back then, and their decision to go 100% native. (Especially considering they’re now being criticized for not having widgets).
Did Apple make the right choice, do we still want widgets on the iPhone, or is HTML5 and SQLite in Safari making them redundant?
Tim Cook (in)famously said other platforms and devices are still struggling to catch up with the original 2007 iPhone 2G, and while TiPb wouldn’t go that far (the App Store didn’t show up until the iPhone 3G in 2008), strictly in terms of user experience and functionality, he may have had a point.
First up, Jamie Zawinski (jwz) has abandoned the Palm Pre and gone all in on iPhone, despite Apple being worse than Palm when it comes to developer relations and closed ecosystems. Why? “Because it just [redacted] works.” He highlights Mac sync, but especially performance as key. Long delays in being able to use the Pre calendar, phone, and camera apps are especially irksome.
I don’t expect the performance of this phone to be even remotely suitable for every day use for at least a year. I figure it’s going to either take a substantial amount of work on the lower levels of the OS, or they’re going to have to throw Moore’s law and new hardware at it…
Next up, Steven Frank, who abandoned the iPhone after the Google Voice incident, and returned to it when he couldn’t find happiness with another device, nails why that’s still the case some 2 years later:
It’s not just that the iPhone has fancy woo-woo transitions and purty graphics; it runs all the way down the software stack. For example, when I tap on something, I don’t have to hover for five seconds wondering “now did it get that tap, or do I have to do it again?” This is something other platforms are still struggling with. When we say you have a bad experience, this is the sort of thing we mean. It has little to do with features, and everything to do with core functionality.
Lastly, Daniel Pasco offers a theory as to why — Apple spent years and a fortune figuring out the iPhone:
Because of that effort, since the iPhone was released, everyone else has been struggling to play catch up, and no one has really come close. Apple raised the bar higher than anyone else had before, and by the time the competition realized how much of an effort would be required to seriously compete, the public had already turned to them to see how they would meet Apple’s threat.
Spending 2.5 years in secret, and who knowns how many of those billions, and then unleashing the iPhone 2G multi-touch user interface changed the game in 2007, and more — it forced competitors to play catchup in public. Sure, many have the iPhone now to copy, but Apple has the momentum to keep innovating.
The question is, can incredibly rich companies like Microsoft, and amazingly innovative ones like Palm — or Google which is both — bridge that gap at the core functionality and user experience level?
[via Daring Fireball]
Acceleroto, makers of the iPhone apps Air Hockey [$0.99 - iTunes link] and Air Hockey Free [Free - iTunes link] have written an interesting post on the differences between developing their app for the iPhone App Store vs. the Palm Pre App Catalog. Some take away:
So, as we’ve heard before, development for non-intensive apps is likely quicker and easier for the Palm Pre, but more intensive apps, like games, are still a challenge. Doubtless Apple will continue to work on making casual apps easier to deploy, and Palm on making deeper apps run better.
The full post also includes the backstory of how and why Air Hockey was ported to webOS, and shown off as part of the Palm Pixi introduction. Give it a read, and then let us know what you think.
[Acceleroto via PreCentral.net]
This one will be painful to watch for the good folks over at Precentral.net. Heck, even we feel a bit bad about this one but It seems as if the owner of this particular Pre had some major screen issues that he couldn’t live with any longer – 3 cracked screens in the span of 3 months.
Rest be assured, this device will be replaced with a new iPhone 3GS. At least that’s what his friends told him…
[Via Gizmodo]
UPDATE 2: Apple comments to Digital Daily:
“As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.”
UPDATE 1: PreCentral.net is back with the low-down on how Palm re-enabled iTunes sync in webOS 1.2.1:
by setting its Manufacturer to Apple and also perhaps by changing the USB Product ID to the iPod Video’s (they even changing the serial number that appears when you plug it in with Media Sync).
ORIGINAL: Palm has just updated their software to webOS 1.2.1, and according to PreCentral.net, the changelog reads “Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (9.0.1)”
Congrats Palm, just after we went and praised you for finally putting users ahead of your own ego, for spending your limited resources on solidifying your own software rather than hacking someone elses, after the USB-IF slapped the hand you yourself raised, you went ahead and showed your desire for blog press and whatever “daddy issues” exist between you and Apple, Rubinstein and Jobs, are what’s most important to you. Kudos. Golf clap.
Bored now.
Pop-quiz: You’re O2 and you just lost iPhone exclusivity in the UK, and now have to compete with both Orange and Vodafone for users’ iPounds. What do you do? Why, tell them you still have the iPhone… and are getting the Palm Pre?!
We’re proud that we’ve been able to offer an exclusive iPhone deal to our 20 million customers for the last two years. We always knew that iPhone exclusivity was for a limited period of time, but our relationship with Apple continues and will be an ongoing success. We have over 1 million iPhone customers and they remain very important to us.
We aim to offer our customers the best devices on the market, including becoming the home of Smartphones and we are really pleased to now add another device in the Palm Pre. We also offer award-winning customer service and benefits, which is why more people choose O2 than any other network in the UK.
What say you UK readers, if you’re thinking of taking your iPhone to another network, will offering you the Palm Pre change your mind?
[via Engadget Mobile]
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