TiPb loves answering your questions, 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!). Today’s question comes from Stupendoussteve on Twitter:

ever heard of iPhone finding you at a previous address, states away, where you’ve never even taken the phone (post restore)?

We have! And TiPb answers after the break!

The iPhone uses Location Services to determine where it is. Location Services uses three (3) distinct technologies, and different iPhones (and iPod touches) support different levels.

The most precise, supported only by the iPhone 3G, is aGPS. aGPS uses cell tower-based GPS crunching to give you a fairly tight indication of your current position.

Next is cell tower triangulation, supported by iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G. Google mapped all cell towers in the US (and other countries), recorded their GPS locations, and then tries to determine where you are if it doesn’t have — or can’t get to — an aGPS signal proper.

The last — and the one causing your problem — is WiFi router mapping. Skyhook got into a bunch of vans, drove around the US (and other countries), detected WiFi routers in homes and businesses, and recorded their unique IDs along with their GPS locations.

For iPod touches, and for iPhones that aren’t getting good aGPS locks, Location Services uses WiFi mapping to find out where you are. The problem you’re encountering is likely that Skyhook recorded the location of your WiFi router when you lived in another state, and now when your iPhone is finding it, it still thinks you’re at that old address, across town, or across the country.

Skyhook may eventually drive around and re-map your WiFi router, or you can go to SkyhookWireless.com and manually re-locate your WiFi in their system — though in our experience it can take a long time for them to update either way.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Why Does My iPhone Think it’s in a Different State?

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

Our video preview is done, our final review is posted, but you had Palm Treo Pro questions and so we’ll try to provide some answers… After the break…

deathscaller Says: Does the Pro’s Internet speed compare to the iPhones at all?

3G is 3G, but the cpu speed and software engine can make a difference. Web browsing on the iPhone seemed much faster, which I chalk up to MobileSafari’s WebKit foundation (well known from back in it’s Linux Konquerer days for its sheer speed). Email is much lighter than web rendering, and iPhone does HTML email, where I only saw mobile email from the Treo Pro, so that’s not a fair comparison, but both were snappy (though Gmail IMAP still gives me fits on every platform)

Justin Says: I’m curious to know your thoughts on the email set up. I had a hell of a time when I used the Treo 750, and that was ultimately what drove me away.

I won’t lie: it’s fairly hideous. Then again, Windows makes you set up Exchange in Control Panel rather than Outlook, so my expectations have been trampled. I couldn’t get Exchange to work due to the failure to allow custom certificates to be accepted (on the iPhone, you can just ignore the warning). Gmail set up, but defaulted to POP, not IMAP. It did do a decent job of auto-detecting Gmail’s settings, however.

Mike M Says: How well does it do things the iPhone is lacking? Cut and paste, to dos, mms, etc. And would you even consider switching just to get these features? I know I wouldn’t, but I’m sure there are people out there who are on the fence who would like to know.

I really wanted cut and paste, but on both the Treo and Android I ended up not using it much. It was too annoying. On the iPhone, if I want to send you a webpage I’m looking at (or location, or photo, etc.) I just hit the + button, pick your address, and boom, email is sent and I’m back in on the web. Having to manually fiddle with highlighting tiny, irregular text blobs, going through menu gymnastics, manually switching apps, etc. just slowed me down and made me think it wasn’t worth it.

MMS is useless to me as I don’t have any friends or family using it either, and everyone else I just email the stuff to right off the iPhone. It’s device independent, which I prefer.

If Apple really nailed implementations of these features, I’d certainly be really happy and probably use them when I had to, but if they did it badly (no Storm jokes!) I’d be even more annoyed. So no, I wouldn’t switch.

Anthony Martinez Says: How’s that keyboard. I picked up a Palm in a store once and thought it was way too small. But then the iphone keyboard is small in portrait mode too. What are your thoughts?

Material is better than the 6xx/7xx series, but the narrow width takes that step forward back a notch.

Jeff Says: What have you missed most from the iPhone that the Pro doesn’t offer?

Without a hint of sarcasm: joy. The iPhone is just a pleasure to use. The Treo Pro was powerful but a lot of work. I didn’t enjoy the experience, even when it impressed me. User experience on the iPhone — every little detail from app flow to stretch and bounce animation effects — is just so well polished.

PRIMECHUCK Says: Does the phone stream live events

Qik style? According to WMExperts, yes it does.

Mike M Says: How close do you think palm and the iPhone are from being incomparable devices? Palm doesn’t seem to be much of a contender anymore, how long before they drop out of the competition?

I hope never. While Apple is amazing at competing with themselves (see the iPod space), everyone does better with strong alternatives pushing innovation.

Jason Says: Is the touchscreen very important to navigation/data entry/etc? Most other phones are either all keys or all touchscreens…

I’m used to using touch screen on Palm devices (insert stylus humor here), so for me it was very easy to default back to. Crackberry Kevin, by contrast, likely never went near it.

Rey Says: What’s the best and worst thing about it?

Best is that it’s a really great WinMo device with excellent hardware. Worst is that it wasn’t a Palm Treo.

Touch Me Says: The tiny 320 x 320 screen on the Treo looks like a big disadvantage compared to the iPhone’s 480 x 320. How does that affect its use? Or does not needing screen real estate for a virtual keyboard and menus make it a wash?

It felt cramped, which is amazing since the previous gen WinMo Palm had 240×240. And when the default soft keyboard popped up, not only was it tiny and stylus-compelling, it usually covered the field you were supposed to type into.

BLUELINE Says: What is of like haveing a phone with both touch and physical buttons for the ui. Do you think it is better or worse then a all touch or no touch phone?

I like having the choice, though I won’t know for sure until I’ve used a completely non-touch device like the BlackBerry Bold. However, I’m increasingly coming to believe that hard keyboards — for some types of users like myself — are a thing of the past.

Jason Says: Has palm changed anything about the Windows Mobile OS to make it their own? Sort of like the panels on the SE Xperia or the Fuze…

Not this time around, far as I could tell, though that keeps WinMo smoking fast (if heinously ugly).

Jeff Says: what was the learning curve like on the keyboard going from the iphone to the pro?

I used to have a 680, so not too bad. I did find it annoying that the hard keyboard wouldn’t change to reflect state. With the iPhone, I’ve gotten used to pressing “shift” and seeing upper case, pressing 123 and seeing numbers, etc. Especially in password fields, I was never sure what I was typing (even with the little icons on screen).

Jason Says: With the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, would you use the Treo Pro (or AT&T Fuze and T-Mobile G1) as much for music/videos?….I can’t imagine using the connectors

Treo Pro has the 3.5mm headphone jack, it’s the Android G1 and HTC FUZE that don’t have them, and yes it’s even more egregious than the original iPhone 2G’s wonky 3.5mm (because it needs an even more annoying adapter).

Jeff Says: How about battery life?

It was great! It lasted more than a day, however because I couldn’t get everything working, I did far, far, far less with it than I typically do with an iPhone.

KLutes Says: I am curious as to how robust the device feels as a whole in comparison. More solid less solid or about the same build quality. I see lots of cracked glass iphones on my college campus and I am curious as to how bang up prone this little gem is.

Both the iPhone 3G and the Treo Pro have had reported problems with micro-cracks in the plastic casing, but Dieter’s Treo Pro is still pristine! Build quality is superb, with a ton of fit and finish. However, it’s plastic, not glass, and was a little creaky around the battery cover. The iPhone has no removable battery, so it’s as close to a solid slab as you can get.

Bela says: Do you feel that this phone compares to the Android ?

Android is still very much a beta/technology preview, while WinMo in its current incarnation is a relic, so as the former rises and the latter falls, they could be comparable during this brief slice of time. What Android 2.0 and WinMo 7 look like is a far more important, and difficult question.

Thanks everyone for sending in your questions!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Round Robin: TiPb vs. Palm Treo Pro Q&A!

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

You had Google Android G1 questions, we’ll try to provide answers. Unfortunately, we already shipped the Android G1 off to TreoCentral’s Jennifer and we’re moving on to the Palm Treo Pro, so we won’t be able to answer anything we didn’t already find out last week, but for the most part, we’ll try our best to give you an iPhone look at Google handset.

See our answers, after the jump!

Jason asks: in what user-friendly ways does the G1 shine? I know the open OS is a big deal for developers, but what about the average user?

If you’re in a Google world, with Gmail and gCal, then the G1 is awesome with it’s login/activation setting up Google push at the same time. I still maintained Google Contacts is an embarrassment, however, and needs work pronto. I’m not sure how well Google Docs work, if at all, as I didn’t test those.

For users, the open OS means the potential for a wider range of more innovative software, but it will depending on developers being interested and able enough to produce it, of course.

Fassy asks: What are the major differences between Android’s WebKit browser and Mobile Safari? Do sites render differently, and, if so, how? Can/does the G1 use iphone-optimized versions of sites? Is the G1’s browser any more (or less) stable than Mobile Safari?

The major difference between MobileSafari and “Chrome-lite” (is that what the cool kids are calling it?) is that Chrome lacks multi-touch, which was a huge negative coming from the iPhone mindset. Multi-touch just kills on moving around the space.

Sites rendered similarly, since the engine is the same, but Chrome didn’t resize pages and text flow the way Safari does, so it required extra zoom-out steps all the time. I didn’t see any iPhone-optimized pages pop up on the G1 either, though I did notice when I tried to login to the MobileMe website, it told me to use the built in iPhone apps instead, so Apple was obviously miss-identifying Chrome as Safari.

Chrome was much more stable than MobileSafari 2.1. It didn’t crash once the whole week. So far, MobileSafari 2.2 hasn’t crashed on me either, so maybe things would be more even now.

cherryhead25 asks: Obviously their apps are tied into Google but have you found the phone productive at all? I mean is there a document/spreadsheet editor, or alarms for tasks? What are the calendar views like compared to the iPhones PIM? What about foreign language support like the iPhone has built in, specifically Asian languages. These are deal breakers for me so please elaborate on the productivity side of things.

The learning curve definitely impacted my productivity, especially the dismal contacts. I didn’t try docs, but I didn’t see any way to view or edit them built in. Calendar had a week view, which is lacking on the iPhone. Didn’t see foreign languages, but remember this is a localized to T-Mobile in the US phone. I’d bet when it goes international, like the iPhone 3G did, we’ll see that. I think Android Market will need to enable paid apps before we see the big productivity tools show up as well.

It’s still very much early day with this phone. Just imagine the omni-pesent Google “beta” tag being on the phone.

Dimietriev asks: How easy is it to buy and download apps from the android store. With the iphone, you can do it fairly quickly, especially from the phone.

Very easy! I was very impressed with the download and install on Android Market, and the notification of what services each and every app would use (i.e. GPS, network, etc.) Update notices also popped up right when I launched an app, so no having to rely on an App Store-like badge.

Dimietriev asks: Also, how do you think the swinging hinge will hold over time(long term)? You refer to the word ‘creaky’.

In my experience, each added level of complexity and mechanics is an increase in the chance (read: certainty) of breakdown. Whether it lasts as long as you plan to keep the phone, however, is a question. I’m guessing many people would upgrade handsets before wear-and-tear sets in. But, yeah, definitely “creaky” and not my preference.

Leanna asks: Is the touch screen just as nice and responsive? Or do you need to push harder or hold your finger down for longer?

It’s good, being capacitive like the iPhone, but not quite as buttery smooth (but what is?). Also, not being a glass screen, it didn’t “feel” as nice. Also, having to switch input methods ruined the sheer joy of the experience. I like touch screen. I don’t want to have to change to keyboard and back, track-ball and back. When the virtual keyboard launches, I’m hoping this goes away.

Keil Miller asks: Will android be on other phones and allow for less confusing methods of input?

My guess is yes, there may well be all keyboard, all touch, etc. versions of Android, similar to what we see with WinMo and BlackBerry now. However, on the flip side this will make development as difficult as those platforms since lack of unified hardware means never knowing what input end users will have available. Every iPhone/iPod Touch works the same, which is a huge plus for developers.

Dimietriev asks: Also, what are the options, if any, if you want to back-up the device?

Didn’t see any. iPhone backs up via iTunes when you tether it, and the G1 you really don’t have to tether, which I love. I’m guessing there’s some sort of backup in place, but I didn’t stumble across it. If the iPhone goes completely tether-less eventually as well, I wonder if we’ll see a Time Machine-like option?

Lead asks: Is there a software keyboard?

Not yet, but I understand it’s coming. In my opinion, it would greatly enhance usability in portrait mode especially

James asks: is there any way for you to type up messages an emails while still in portrait mode?

Not yet! See above!

jhunt4231 asks: Does the G1 run flash?

Also not yet, but also coming if we’re to believe the demo at the recent Adobe MAX conference.

Deathscaller asks: Whats the internet speed like compared to the Iphone and(if it has WiFi) how does that compare.

The G1 has WiFi and while I didn’t run any speed tests (d’oh!) I found them both to be snappy.

Luis asks: is there anyway to change the icons on the G1? how customizable is the whole android os?

In theory, it’s ultimately customizable by carriers, manufacturers, and users. According to Ryan Block of GDGT, while there’s no skinning process yet in place, all the UI files are standard image and XML, so anyone could either replace or rewrite them, or create a framework to more easily do so.

Firas asks: but I wonder if my 3 year old nephew would enjoy using it as much as my iPhone.

At the age of 2 1/2, my godson could use the iPhone. By 3 he could use it well. He can unlock it, return the home screen, switch home screens, find the apps he likes, launch them, quit them, play games, look at the photos, etc.

About the only thing he could do with the G1 was launch in at my head and demand the iPhone back. (I joke only slightly).

Alex Radu asks: How’s the camera on the G1? Both in terms of quality and features and options…

I’d say better than the iPhone but when really discussing mobile cameras, we’re discussing the difference between horrible and terrible. It’s not as bad as an iPhone, but not as good as an N95. The iPhone’s camera is greatly restricted by the thinness of the device. It lacks the space for mechanisms. The G1, however, is much thicker, even if part of that is taken up by slider action. Everything is compromise.

royk asks: what’s one thing the g1 does better than the iphone? what’s one thing the g1 could learn from the iphone?

Aside from the more open SDK, Gmail is much better. User experience could learn tons from the iPhone.

Eric asks: Do you like the physical keyboard better than the iPhones virtual one?

Not for me, but then I’ve never liked physical keyboards on small devices. Going back to the Palm 600, I’ve found them hard to use. I vastly prefer the iPhone-style keyboard. I’d recommend asking Crackberry Kevin or Dieter this question, as they live with hard keyboards while I — frankly — have freed myself from the tic tac-tiles

Thanks everyone for sending in your questions!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Round Robin: TiPb vs. Google Android G1 Q&A!

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!). Today’s question comes from Chris:

“Why doesn’t the iPhone have real GPS?! Even the [redacted] Samsung Instinct has turn by turn! Why does Apple add [redacted] like street view [but] not the things users really want?”

TiPb answers after the break!

We’ve covered iPhone GPS and turn-by-turn navigation quite a bit here at TiPb, especially Dieter who lives out in the middle of somewhere and claims he needs it quite a bit. Why wouldn’t Apple add it indeed? Should be a no-brainer, right?

Well, here’s a few things:

1. Apple doesn’t really supply the GPS middlewhere on the iPhone. They have the chip, of course, and they made the UI (Steve’s even boasted about it on stage!), but the App itself is “powered” by Google Maps. So, the functionality of the App is in some ways limited to the functionality provided by Google. For example, we’re seeing street-view, transit, and walking directions in iPhone 2.2 Beta 2. Why? Because Google has been rolling that out across smartphone platforms, starting with Android. Do any devices have Google-powered tun-by-turn yet? Not to our knowledge. And there may be a reason for that…
2. Licensing conflicts. Google doesn’t own the maps they serve. They license them from Tele Atlas and Navteq. Dieter pointed out a while back that Google’s “API only provides Tele Atlas data, it appears that it’s prohibited from serving Navteq data. As early as ‘05 there has been speculation that there was some sort of license fight between Google and Navteq and both sides decided to take their ball and go home.” This looks like a pretty complicated and potentially deal-breaking deadlock (read the whole article for more). And it’s not the only legal problem…
3. Apple’s iPhone SDK agreement currently prohibits 3rd party turn-by-turn Apps. This could be to avoid the licensing issues mentioned previously, to leave the door open for an “officially licensed” version if Apple and Google can come to an agreement with the licensors (who may not want to see a competitive convergent device like the iPhone get that functionality), or because Apple feels they’ll be sued by the first brainiac who tries to switch between turn-by-turn and SMS and back while driving into a lake.
4. Why can’t TomTom or another dedicated GPS manufacturer release an iPhone App directly, using their own Apps? After all, TomTom has already said they’ve made their system run on the iPhone. The App Store has a reported 2GB size limit, so there’s likely space enough for a robust install. Despite the SDK licensing restrictions, however, would a company like TomTom feel iPhone App sales would make up for the loss of dedicated hardware unit sales they’d face? There have been stories about the dedicated GPS players fearing the iPhone (and other convergence devices) would put them out of business. Let’s remember when Popular Mechanics asked the president of a GPS navigation system manufacturer how he felt about the prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone, the president said he was: “Scared [expletive]-less“.
5. Could all of the above issues be at play? Apple’s head of iPhone Marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, previously said: “there are some murky “complicated issues” preventing driving directions apps at the moment. ‘It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us.’ “

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Why is There No Turn-by-Turn Navigation on the iPhone?

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!). Today’s question comes from Brenden:

quick question – are you still hearing about widespread reception issues with the iPhone 3G? I bought one and took it back because of poor reception, but i’m considering getting one again if the reception issues are fixed ..

TiPb Answers, after the jump!

There hasn’t been nearly the outcry about reception problems, or network connectivity problems since Apple released firmware 2.1. Your carrier and the region you’re in, however, could play a roll in the ultimate equation.

Anyone else having reception problems under 2.1? If so, what carrier and area are you in? Please let us, and Brenden, know!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: iPhone 3G Still Having Reception Problems?

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!). Today’s question comes from Jozsoo:

Is there an iPhone-friendly version of the web apps section of Apple’s site? Seems odd to me that the iPhone maker has no such tailor-made service on its site. Or am I missing something? Maybe you could cover this on your blog for others, too, to know.

TiPb answers, after the jump!

To the best of our knowledge, there is no iPhone optimized version of the Apple WebApps page for MobileSafari. Curious that. On first blush, it may seem that Apple is merely doing what they promised: providing a real web page for a the first mobile device capable of displaying “just the internet”.

Is this strange, however, in the face of promoting other sites like Facebook and Amazon that do provide iPhone optimized WebApps? (We’re not talking games here that require more complex AJAX-based interactivity — though Facebook can be buggy enough to crash MobileSafari almost regularly…)

It seems like Apple could show a little leadership here and create that very MobileSafari optimized version of that page. Call it WebApp Central (because “Store” would be inappropriate), and make it the drop dead easy (and gorgeous) way to add browser links and WebClips to our Home screens for every great WebApp out there (because there are still many).

Anyone know of a great 3rd party WebApp for WebApp sites that Jozsoo and the rest of us might like?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Why No WebApp for Apple’s WebApp Site?

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!). Today’s question comes from Joephoto5:

My Bookmarks are listed in the order that I created them… Is there a way to resort them??? Is there a way to “group” them … (ala: sites dedicated to “news”, or sites dedicated to the “iPhone”, or sites dedicated to “aviation” etc.) ???

TiPb answers after the jump!

On the iPhone, you can hit the “Edit” button in the bottom left corner to delete (red circles on the left) and re-order (stacked lines on the right) your bookmarks in Mobile Safari. Once in Edit mode, you can also create new folders. However, I don’t believe you can move items into or out of folders on the iPhone itself.

Update: twokidtech in the comments below points out that, if you tap a link, it will open up a properties inspector which, aside from letting you change the display name and other attributes, will let you re-file your bookmarks. Thanks twokidtech!

However, if you sync your bookmarks with Safari (Mac/Windows) or IE (Windows), you can organize your bookmarks on the desktop however you want, and your next Sync should update your iPhone to reflect this. (MobileMe users can also have this happen automagically through over-the-air “push” sync).

Anyone have any bookmark organization tips for Joephoto5? Let us know!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: How Do You Manage Mobile Safari Bookmarks on the iPhone?

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!). Today’s question comes from Brandon:

I think it was universally acknowledged that September was when Apple promised is background notifications for the iPhone 2.x. September has come and gone and I don’t know about you guys but I still don’t have background notifications on my iPhone. Would be nice if you guys posted something busting apple’s 3@!!$ for missing the date and hoping we wouldn’t notice. I think alot of people like myself bought iPhones with the promise of these notifications in mind.

TiPb answers, after the jump!

We posted about the lack of push-notification when it disappeared from 2.1 Beta 4, and again when it didn’t show up in 2.2.

However, our take is that 2.0.x was so beset with bugs, that Apple had to focus on stability first, and then worry about new features later.

We think Apple was humbled on July 11th, and they’ve chosen to take some extra time with Push Notification and get things right, rather than rush out new, likely buggy features just to make self-imposed deadlines. (Do we really want a Push Notification Service as broken as MobileMe was at launch? Hopefully not!)

Of course, TiPb would love us some working Notifications, so we really do hope we get them — stable and properly polished — in 2.2.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Should Apple Have Released Push Notification Services with iPhone 2.1?

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!

Our understanding is a little different than the above, Michael, so please bear with us as we go back a bit and get into Flash a little more deeply.

First, video is only one of the things Flash does (and some would argue while Flash does make video ubiquitous, it wasn’t until they jumped to the H.264 codec — same as Apple uses in iTunes — that they made it actually watchable!), it’s not the only thing or even the main (technologically speaking) thing. What Flash does, in broad stroke, is make interactive animation on the internet, and this interactivity has grown over the years into a fairly sophisticated scripting language in its own right. Yet, despite what UK courts might think, it remains a proprietary third party add on, and regardless of its popularity, is not really part of the core internet (read: web, including HTML, CSS, and Javascript).

Currently, the major uses of Flash on the internet consist of:

1. Video wrappers, like YouTube and similar sites.
2. Multi-media websites, like movie studies often employ to present more dynamic, more *protected* content.
3. Rich internet applications, such as Adobe’s Photoshop express, which seeks to make Flash a/the standard for WebApps.
4. Hyper-annoying “punch the monkey”-style adverts that enable user-tracking more secretly and robustly than regular web snooping.

While you asked about #1, we have to understand that a FULL Flash deployment on the iPhone would also bring the others as well, along with the historically bloated, buggy implementations Adobe has never seen fit to address on the desktop OS X, and the various security and privacy issues that go along with it. Bottom-line, full-on-Flash is basically a code interpreter like Java, which adds a far greater burden to resources while making the device far more vulnerable to hackers, and lets advertisers annoy and invade us to deal-breaking degree. Bottom-line? We’ll probably not see desktop-class Flash support in near to far future, and while Flash-centric developers should lament that, users should probably be ecstatically happy about that.

Want to make your rich internet WebApp for the iPhone? Use AJAX. Want to make a Batman site that take 10 minutes to load, won’t scale to the iPhone screen size and protects your valuable Hollywood content from — gasp — a fan downloading an image? Stick to HTML. Want to clutter out MobileSafari with Flash monkey nonsense while slipping insidious cookies onto our system? Don’t let the lack of support hit you on the apps on the way out…

As to Flash-video in the specific — this is far more likely. While politics between Apple and Adobe may be playing a part, it’s not impossible to imagine either a simple Flash video plugin that passes the video off into an intermediary player similar to the existing Quicktime plugin.

For us, this would be the best solution as it would give the most popular aspect of Flash (ZOMG! Vidz!) to the masses, while sandboxing the security and privacy issues, and hopefully forcing Adobe to create a better, and more optimized OS X application (similar to how Apple streamlined Quicktime X for the iPhone).

With regards to Hulu, please first remember it’s a US-only site, which while a huge percentage of the iPhone user-base, is basically dead to the 69+ other countries that will get the iPhone in 2008. However, before NBC patched things up with iTunes, they did flirt with providing a similar service directly to iPhone users anyway. So we imagine that Hulu could fairly easily add iPhone support if they wanted to, not to mention give a little love to those of us outside the US (understanding the complex rights messes they’ve gotten themselves into over the years…)

Anyone have anything to add for Michael?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Answers: Why No Flash Video on the iPhone?

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 Ryan asks:

I’ve installed some apps on my phone from itunes, one being facebook mobile. What concerns me is that once i’ve entered my user/pw the first time it is never required again and anyone who simply “slides” the phone unlocked will have full access. I assume this is true for email as well (although I haven’t set that up yet.)

My question is, is there any way to passcode a particular icon on the iphone? Or put a security lock on it?

TiPB answers, after the jump…

Unfortunately, Ryan, there doesn’t seem to be any facility to lock or password protect individual Apps on the iPhone (unless the individual App in question provides that on their own, like 1Password for example). Two options you may want to consider are:

1. Enable the Passcode on the iPhone (Settings – General – Passcode Lock), so you have to input a 4 digit Pin in order to unlock the iPhone, and therefore launch any App or access your data.
2. Use WebApps (website based applications) instead, which you log into via MobileSafari on your iPhone and typically won’t store your credentials unless you check a box (and even then you can clear cookies to remove the login info). In some cases, like Facebook, the WebApp is arguably even better than the native App as well.

Security and convenience are eternal enemies. The iPhone currently defaults more towards convenience.

Anyone have any other options for Ryan?

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TiPb Answers: Secure Individual Apps on the iPhone?