Come Wait in Line for an iPhone With Me!

Waiting in line for an iPhone is a wonderful experience. You get to be one of the first people on the planet to own a hot new toy. You meet your fellow gadget enthusiasts. Apple has been known to dole out free Starbucks and bottled water, and even the occasional T-shirt. Did I mention the fresh air and opportunity to see the sun rise?

Of course there are some downsides: You may need to wake up before some people go to bed. Sitting on the pavement isn’t exactly comfy. Random strangers may mock you. And it’s hard to do anything else while you’re in line (including visiting the restroom).

All of which is by way of inviting you to join me tomorrow morning as I wait in line at my local Apple Store to buy an iPhone 3G S in what I’ve come to think of as the iLine. I’ll do the standing around, and will report on anything interesting that happens; you can read about it and look at any photos I take from the comfort of your own home.

The Apple Store opens at 7am PT. It’s hard to say just how crazy the lines will be–in theory, they may not be that bad for a third-generation phone, but I plan to err on the side of expecting the worst. So I’ll show up at the store at 3am or thereabouts just to see what’s going on. (It’s five minutes from here, so I can always go home and catch some additional ZZZs if there’s nobody there.)

If by chance you plan to be in line at your local Apple Store or AT&T shop, lemme know–I’d love to hear reports from around the country.

(Update: Here’s my first report.)

Mama Apple, Please Don’t Take My iPhone Away

AT&T is trying to make the case for exclusive deals for phones, saying they “stimulate” innovation. Yes, you heard that right: by sticking it to the consumer and forcing them to a certain carrier, we’re enjoying innovative products. I’m not exactly following this, and neither is Capitol Hill either.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing on Thursday in which AT&T made this exact case in front of bewildered Senators. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was one of them, saying that why he understood the economic benefits, he wasn’t seeing a benefit otherwise.

Kerry said that he failed to see why a manufacturer would develop innovative products for a single outlet rather than build it for the biggest market possible, to paraphrase his statements.

AT&T retail sales chief Paul Roth responded that often, carriers and manufacturers will work together closely in order to bring phones to the market. However, it’s pretty likely given the way Apple operates that this wasn’t the case with the iPhone.

Opposition just wasn’t a Democratic thing — even Republican senators like Mississippi’s Roger Wicker expressed displeasure, saying the deal could harm rural residents right to choice.

In addition the AT&T/iPhone deal opened a new chapter in the debate over exclusivity contracts. Rather than the typical several-month period, the iPhone deal gave AT&T several years. This concerns regional carriers most as they typically can not compete for these exclusivity deals.

It’s high time the government got involved in this debate. There really is no benefit to allowing carriers to shut out others when offering mobile devices. Yes, I understand the iPhone does require some network changes in order for it to work to its fullest extent, however to me consumer choice trumps all others.

A lot of folks on AT&T right now sure as heck wouldn’t be there if the carrier didn’t have a stranglehold on the device here in the US. Count me as one of them — I’d rather be back with T-Mobile.

(Hat tip: PC World)

Sirius XM on the iPhone: Siriusly Disappointing

There was a time when I was a raving satellite radio fan. I still own an XM receiver and enjoy some of its stations. But let’s just say it: It’s not going to be that long until satellite radio is a largely obsolete technology (I suspect truckers will be the last holdouts). And unfortunately, the merged Sirius XM isn’t doing much to keep its service relevant and appealing in the iPhone age. Actually, it seems to be driving a meaningful percentage of its customers crazy with price hikes, channel changes, and the like.

Even so, I’ve been looking forward to the Sirius XM iPhone app, which launched in the iPhone App Store today. But my experience with it so far has fallen way, way short of the simple pleasure provided by other iPhone radio apps such as Pandora, Slacker, and Tuner. After the jump, I’ll explain why.

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Windows XP to Live On Through 2011

XP is like that houseguest you can never get to leave.  Microsoft is now giving computer manufacturers up to 18 months — or until April 2011 — to offer “downgrade” options from Windows 7 for customers. The concession by Redmond is a victory for companies who had been pushing for the extension to minimize the pain of upgrading to the newest operating system.

Many of these companies are not expected to be ready to make the upgrade until 2010 or even 2011. Thus, any computers bought during this period would still need XP installed.  Microsoft had said it would only give a six month grace period before, but this was criticized as too short.

It also would increase upgrade costs. After the deadline, companies would have to buy a new PC with Vista Business or Ultimate, and then downgrade to XP (these two versions have downgrade rights). From there, it would have to purchase Windows 7 to upgrade, and it would end up paying twice over for this process.

This seems like a fair method to handle any possible upgrading issues. After all, XP is now eight years old – so it’s time for companies to start thinking about upgrading. At the same time, there’s a lot of mission critical programs that need to be updated themselves to handle Windows 7, so it gives those developers some extra time to work.

5Words for Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Half about iPhones…half not!

Details on tomorrow’s iPhone launch.

Tethering hack for iPhone 3.0.

Another iPhone 4.0 wish list.

Will Apple sell 500,000 iPhones?

New version of iPhone Evernote.

Google reminds people of features.

XP’s life extended. Yes, again.

President Obama uses a…BlockBerry?

Lessons from Iran and Twitter.

Microsoft’s tacky Internet Explorer stunt.

Find My iPhone: Cool Idea, Some Quirks

I’ve never lost an iPhone, but I still wince when I think of the StarTac phone that disappeared on me at Spring COMDEX (back when there was such as thing as COMDEX) and the Palm Tungsten PDA that was stolen from my car about a week after I’d bought it. And I do misplace my iPhone around the house all the time. So  I was immediately intrigued by Find My iPhone, one of iPhone 3.0′s 100 new features. Part of Apple’s $99 MobileMe service, FMI lets you locate your iPhone on a map, send it messages (in hopes they’ll be read by some honest soul who found your phone), play a tone (even if the phone is in vibrate mode), and–if all else fails–remotely wipe the phone of all its data.

With today’s release of the iPhone 3.0 update, I’ve been playing with Find My iPhone–and it’s been a somewhat confusing experience. For one thing, Apple buried the setting that lets you turn Find My iPhone on in an un-Apple-ish way: It’s in the Mail, Calendar, Contacts section of Settings (even though it has nothing to do with mail, calendars, or contacts) under the settings in Accounts for your MobileMe account (which, in my case, only remind me that they’re for MobileMe when I click all the way through).

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5Words for June 17th, 2009

All iPhone all the time!

Walt Mossberg’s 3G S review.

Josh Topolsky’s review at Engadget.

Gizmodo’s Jason Chen is enthusiastic.

David Pogue chimes in here.

Here’s USA Today’s Ed Baig.

Gizmodo reviews iPhone OS 3.0.

So does Macworld’s Dan Moren.

Leander Kahney (Cult of Mac).

Nice walkthrough by Rene Ritchie.

Apple Stores open at 7.

iPhone 3G S: Here! Not!

Trouble with iPhone/Touch activations?

The Pre runs iPhone 3.0!

PS3 Gets a Joost Player, With Crippled Content Of Course

I’m getting used to the idea that when an online video portal creates a TV-optimized viewing experience, it won’t let people watch any of the content they actually care about.

Such is the case with Joost’s new video player, designed with the Playstation 3′s Web browser in mind. While it’s good for watching music videos and promotional television clips, Destructoid says Viacom, Warner Bros. and CBS content isn’t available (so, no Ren & Stimpy). CBS imposes similar limitations on YouTube XL, a viewer optimized for television.

The optimized Joost viewer, accessible through labs.joost.com/tv, arranges navigation in a manner similar to YouTube XL. It even turns the PS3 controller into a remote by mapping useful functions to the buttons. Destructoid tried it out and said the video quality looks “just below standard definition” on a 720p monitor. Too bad there’s no television to watch.

Like Hulu, it’s been possible to access Joost through the PS3′s browser since October, when the console updated to include Flash 9. Still, there’s no easy way to go full screen. You can zoom in the browser to fit the video frame, but that compromises video quality. And of course, mapping playback to the PS3 controller is out of the question.

Joost’s full content library, I assume, is still available through the PS3 in non-optimized form, making it just a little more inconvenient to watch. If anyone’s got a PS3 and wants to give the old way a try, I’d be interested to hear the results. But I can’t be responsible for any effects Ren & Stimpy might have on your sanity.

AT&T Gives Some iPhone 3G Owners a Break

Finally, news involving AT&T and iPhones that won’t cause anyone to become violently angry! Faced with widespread grumbling by iPhone 3G owners who thought that they deserved to be able to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S for the same price as new customers, the company has rethought its pricing plan. Some customers–ones who spend more on service plans, apparently–will qualify to get the 3G S for the new-customer two-year-contract prices ($199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB). That’s $200 less than the price AT&T had planned to charge, and $400 less than the unsubsidized, no-contract price.

Those lucky customers are the ones who AT&T has been telling would qualify for the cheaper upgrade at any point prior to September 30th of this year. My eligibility date is July 12th; the AT&T site is still telling me I’ll have to pay $499 for a 32GB phone, but I’m assuming I’m good. I’m also assuming that I’ll get the lower price even though I plan to buy my 3G S at an Apple Store, not an AT&T shop. (I guess I’ll find out bright and early on Friday.)

No word yet on what AT&T will do for anyone who pre-ordered and paid for a phone already, but one hopes that they’ll simply rebate the $200 without having to be asked.

I’ve written that I didn’t think AT&T was obligated to offer the steepest discount to people who had already gotten a subsidized price on an iPhone 3G and were still under contract. But it’s a classy move on its part to do so–and a smart one. After a week and a half of some of the most intense negative coverage I can remember for a tech company, it just did something that will tickle some of its most loyal customers. Especially those who’d already decided to pay the higher price and will now end up with $200 back in their pockets.

I said that this news wouldn’t upset anyone, but I could be wrong–does anyone want to contend that every iPhone 3G owner should qualify for the full price break? (I’m glad that my upgrade qualification date wasn’t October 1st…)

iPhone 3.0: It’s Here!

As promised, Apple has released iPhone OS 3.0. I’ve been using the gold master version for a week, and it’s been a joy so far.

Apple’s approach to the the iPhone’s development still makes me think of Benjamin Button: The OS was dazzling from the start, but only Apple intentionally put off implementing some of the mundane, basic stuff that you would have assumed every phone OS would have. With 3.0, it’s mostly there. (Which hasn’t stopped me from starting to compile a wish list of new features.)

iPhone 2.0 was about one sea change of a new feature: third-party apps. 3.0, by contrast, sports no one signature improvement. It really is about improvement everywhere. (Here’s an excellent point-by-point account of the hundred new features.)

For me, the single most meaningful new feature so far, by far, is search–especially within e-mail, where it’s beautifully done and makes the e-mail app far more useful. (I had stopped using the iPhone Mail in favor of Gmail; now I’ve switched back.) The far more widespread support for landscape-mode use of applications is a close second. Apple also says that Safari is faster, and while I haven’t done any benchmarks, the browser does indeed feel much snappier.

It’s also fun to burrow around the OS and encounter minor-but-welcome tweaks all over the place, like the way the camera app now shows a thumbnail link to the last photo you snapped. And if AT&T ever permits tethering–and offers a network that doesn’t lapse into EDGE at the worst moments–I’ll be thrilled.

Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard, iPhones now let you cut, copy, and paste. I wasn’t irate when the OS didn’t have this feature, and haven’t needed it so far. But it’s there, and it works well.

Much of what’s interesting about OS 3.0 will only reveal itself as new third-party applications come out: notifications, in-store purchasing, peer-to-peer connectivity, http video streaming, better GPS and map support, peripheral connectivity through the dock connector, and more. They’ll only live up to their potential if they’re widely embraced by developers. But everything we know about the iPhone as an app platform suggests that there’s every reason to be optimistic.

When Apple released iPhone 2.0 last July, there was widespread griping that it was buggy and unstable. Two months late, Apple polished the OS up with the much smoother OS 2.1. I can only speak about m y own personal experience with iPhone OS 3.0 to date, and sample sizes of one aren’t statistically significant. But it hasn’t crashed on me, and has actually made my iPhone more reliable: Until now, my phone’s Internet connection has had a nasty habit of stalling until I did a reboot, and–as far as I can tell–OS 3.0 has eliminated this major headache.

On Friday, some owners of iPhone 3Gs will spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade to the not-radically-different iPhone 3G S–in some cases grumbling as they do so. iPhone 3.0 brings most of what’s cool about the 3G S to any iPhone–for free. (For iPod Touch owners, it costs $10, and is merely a steal.) To riff on an old Apple OS X upgrade slogan, it’s like a new iPhone for your iPhone.

Once you’ve checked it out, let us know what you think.

MLB to Stream Live Games on iPhone

The 3.0 software will bring an exciting new feature to those iPhone and iPod touch users who have forked $9.99 over for the MLB application: live games. The first games would be streamed Thursday at 2:20pm (Chicago Cubs-White Sox) and 8:15pm (Detroit Tigers-St. Louis Cardinals). While initially only two games a day would be streamed, MLB hopes to expand it to the entire slate.

It should be noted that live video would be limited to out-of-market games. That means for me here in Reading, PA, I wouldn’t be able to watch Phillies games (after last night’s 8-3 embarrassment against the Blue Jays, I don’t know if I care, heh). However, its a giant step forward for streaming video on the iPhone.

The service will work whether the user is on 3G or Wi-Fi: the MLB servers will adjust the speed accordingly to ensure proper playback. Its going to be interesting to see whether 3G streaming works well at all considering AT&T’s increasing network problems.

TweetDeck Comes to the iPhone: Impressive, Unstable

I think of TweetDeck as the SUV of Twitter clients–it’s really powerful, but also resource-hungry, and it takes up a lot of (screen) space. Squeezing it down to fit on an iPhone kind of sounded like putting Guernica on a postage stamp. But the iPhone version of the app, which arrived in the iTunes App Store late on Tuesday, retains the desktop version’s personality, and a surprising percentage of its power. It also seems to be unstable–or at least it’s stalled on me, and Twitter is rife with reports of other crashy behavior. I can’t give it an enthusiastic and unqualified thumbs up until until it seems to be running reliably for most folks, but I’m basically impressed with the approach the TweetDeck folks took in bringing their free application to the iPhone.

On the desktop, TweetDeck’s signature features are the way it lets you create groups of tweeters, and the columns that show incoming tweets, direct messages @mentions, search results, and more. They’re both there in the iPhone edition, and while you can only see one column at a time, it’s a cinch to slip-slide between all the ones you’ve created. The cool thing about group support is that a new version of the TweetDeck desktop client, also just released, enables seamless syncing of your groups among all your computers and your iPhone. (The new desktop client offers a bunch of other new features, including support for multiple accounts.) When I’m king, every desktop app will sync every setting between every copy you use–but for some reason almost none do it just yet. (One that comes to mind that does: Opera, with its Opera Link feature.) I confess to not using TweetDeck much on my Mac and Windows machines, but group syncing among multiple clients has me enthusiastic about giving it a try again.

The iPhone client sports most of the obligatory features you expect in an iPhone Twitter client: built-in URL shortening, GPS and maps, photos, and a bunch of ways to surf between tweets and tweeters and see what’s up. Like its desktop big brother, it also pops up little status messages notifying you about incoming tweets, @mentions, and direct messages. They appear only within TweetDeck itself–in theory, I guess the new iPhone 3.0 Notifications feature could be used to display them when you’re in other applications, but they’d probably drive you crazy pretty instantly. But if the day comes when Apple will let apps run in the background, TweetDeck would be an excellent candidate–it would feel even more like the desktop version if it could sit there and pull in tweets, letting you quickly check them whenever you have a spare moment.

iPhone users have an embarassment of Twitter riches to choose from: Tweetie, TwitterFon, Twitterific, Twinkle, and more. A TweetDeck that didn’t crash would be a formidable competitor, especially since it’s both free and ad-free. Let’s hope an update comes along shortly. After the jump, some images of this good-looking, potent piece of software.

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25 Features iPhone OS Still Needs

I’m not sure how operating-system version numbers translate into human years, but this I know: 3.0 is still well short of adulthood. Windows 3.0 was the first version that was recognizable as Windows at all; Mac OS 3.0 came along so long ago that I don’t remember anything about it.

So it’s no knock on version 3.0 of the iPhone software to say that even though it contains 100 new features–some of which are a big deal–there are plenty more it could benefit from. What follows is a highly personal list of stuff I think this OS needs–and as far as I know, none of it is in OS 3.0. If we see some of it in OS 3.1, and more in 4.0, and a sizable chunk by 5.0, I’ll be a contented man.

I said the list is personal, but I tried to be realistic. It contains nothing that I can’t see Apple enabling, or which would require new hardware. I also didn’t include multitasking or Flash support on this list. They’ve been covered to death, and my gut tells me neither is coming to the iPhone soon. Consider them features #26 and #27 if you like, though–and I do suggest some things that might lessen the need for them.

Ready to celebrate the release of OS 3.0 (which is due later today) by being dissatisfied, nitpicky, and generally unreasonable? Here we go.

Continue reading this story…

Bye Bye, Palm Pre Media Sync

Sometimes threats are angry, blustery, and public. Sometimes they come in the form of…mundane product support notes. Let’s call this one Warning Shot HT3642.

Last month, Palm announced that its Pre phone would sync directly with Apple’s iTunes software on PCs and Macs. It does, rather well, by pretending to be an iPod. It seemed unlikely that Apple would be thrilled with that scenario.

Now Apple has published a support note concerning iTunes that says that it’s aware that some “unsupported third-party media players” (read: the Palm Pre) “claim” to sync with iTunes, but that Apple can’t support or test such compatibility. And “because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”

It’s conceivable that it’s just sayin’ that you never know what might happen, but virtually everybody is going to assume that the message here is that an iTunes update (possibly the next one) will kill Palm’s Media Sync feature real soon now.

I still feel like we don’t know what’s going on here. If someone sticks his head into a lion’s mouth, he’s either really, really smart or really, really dumb. Offering iTunes syncing through a clever hack is the equivalent of sticking your head into a lion’s mouth. But I don’t think anyone involved with the decision at Palm is dumb.

The thing is, Palm could implement perfectly satisfactory–if slightly less seamless–iTunes syncing by supplying its own utility that talks to an iTunes library and the music and video files on the hard drive. I wonder if it’s already done so, just in case? And if there are already lawyers somewhere drawing up suits claiming that people bought Pres because Palm told them that they’d sync beautifully with iTunes?

Twitter Proves Its Worth

A 140 character message lacks the iconography of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin speaking from atop a tank during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, but Iranian twitters are nonetheless staging courageous acts. The clandestine tweets have inspired sympathizers from around the world to act in solitary by changing their location to Tehran to mask protesters’ identities.

The circumstances were very different in 1991, but cable news and radio played an important role in thwarting a coup by soviet hardliners. Cable news was the new media of the day, and coup planners were either unwilling or unwilling to stop domestic and international broadcasts that may have contributed to the plot’s failure.

Today, Twitter is being leveraged to baffle the old guard. The Iranian government shut down Facebook, but Twitter has remained in operation, and protesters have used the hashtag “#IranElection” to organize. People are attempting to overwhelm Iranian censors by changing their locations, so that the tweets (and Tweeters) will not be silenced (or harmed).

The U.S. State Department did its part by asking Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance that would shut down the service during crucial daylight hours in Iran.

If there was ever a justification for Twitter’s existence,  this is it. Tweets can be as banal as someone saying what they had for breakfast, or they can be a means for people to stand up for their beliefs.

Video Game Costs May Rise Exponentially, Again

The days of cheap console game development are obviously long gone, but a CNBC interview with Ubisoft Chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot puts it all in perspective.

He says the production costs of a game, which range from $20 million to $30 million for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, could average $60 million for top-tier games in the next console generation, whenever that may be.

If Guillemot’s prediction proves right, the cost of making video games will have risen exponentially again, as it has for generations now. Consider that in 1982, Pac-Man cost $100,000 to make. Since then, development spending has ramped smoothly upward, as seen in a graph by now-defunct developer Factor 5.

Exponential growth being what it is, each leap in costs brings ramifications. It could mean higher price tags for games, the CNBC article says, or a lower return on investment.

Not mentioned, however, is the possibility of less risk-taking by publishers because the stakes are so high. This is a tired argument in the games industry; I’ve heard ominous warnings about a future without innovation for years now, and so far it hasn’t panned out. For every half-baked Harry Potter tie-in, there’s original IP such as Bioshock or Brutal Legend. Even the sequels on which the games industry hinges contain flashes of innovation.

But at this year’s E3, it seemed like the industry was either starved for new ideas or lacking the desire to come up with them. There’s a reason why Scribblenauts, an obscure Nintendo DS game with a brilliant concept, was named Best of Show by three major game publications (plus me): Almost every Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 game on the floor, even the new franchises, seemed so familiar. You can only slap so many roman numerals or subtitles on a franchise before the concept gets stale.

It’s too early to tell how the proliferation of motion controls will disrupt the need for smoother and shinier games, but I hope they do more than just prolong the next true console generation. If the games industry remains fixated on more expensive graphics processors, I can only imagine how homogeneous gaming will become.