Here’s a happy development to kick off October: Apple, which has come under increasing criticism for the all-encompassing non-disclosure agreement that developers must sign to create iPhone applications, is terminating it. In recent weeks the NDA was in the news for everything from preventing developers of programs that had been rejected from the App Store from discussing why to stifling publication of books about iPhone software development. It also caused some of the respondents to our recent iPhone satisfaction survey to express extreme dissatisfaction with Apple. Basically, it was so comprehensive that in theory, it turned the iPhone software platform into Fight Club: If you were a developer, you didn’t talk about it.
Tag Archives | iPhone
Six Burning Questions About Flash on the iPhone
It may be the single biggest thing on the iPhone to-do list that’s not completely under Apple’s control: getting Adobe’s Flash working on the thing. Yes, there are cynics,lovers of lightweight surfing, and haters of animated intros who will contend that the iPhone is better without Flash. But anyone who’s ever tried to visit a useful site that uses Flash knows that the iPhone’s Internet has been more of an almost-but-not-quite-real Internet than the “real Internet” that Apple touts.
There’s lots of hubbub on the Web today about a Flash conference in the UK where an Adobe executive mentioned that the company is working on Flash for the iPhone. As Silicon Alley Insider notes, this isn’t news–Adobe’s said it’s on it before. But it is an excuse to think about the implications and ask a few questions. Such as:
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The State of iPhone Satisfaction
There’s only way to answer that question–ask a bunch of iPhone owners. Which is what we did from Friday morning through Sunday morning, when we fielded an in-depth survey on life with the iPhone. Over 2150 users of both the iPhone 3G and the original model took the time to participate. And they were a passionate bunch with strong opinions about their phones, both positive and negative. (I published a representative selection of these opinions in “An iPhone Opinion Explosion.”)
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An iPhone Opinion Extravaganza
Late last week, I had a brainstorm: Why not set aside coverage of iPhone-related controversies for moment and ask iPhone users what they think of their phones? I launched a little survey on Friday morning, and would have been pleased if a couple of hundred people responded. Instead, more than 2150 iPhone owners took the time to to participate. And hundreds of them not only answered the multiple-choice questions, but used the open-ended question at the survey’s end to share praise, criticism, and ideas.
I’m finishing up our story reporting on the survey as we speak. [UPDATE: I’m done! Here are the results.] But until it’s up–soon, I promise–I thought you might like to see some of these verbatim comments. You’ll find ’em after the jump–divided into Fan Mail, Complaint Department, Feature Requests, and App Store Analysis.
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A Week Dominated by a Phone That’s Not an iPhone
I still run hot and cold on the prospects for Google’s Android OS. With this week’s launch of the T-Mobile G1, though, I’m feeling fairly upbeat about it. For now, at least… Continue Reading →
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An Unlocked iPhone? I’d Travel Halfway Around the World for One
“iPhone 3G puchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation.”
It’s been slightly melodramatic to say that reading those words left me giddy. I hate phone contracts and phones locked to a particular carrier–hate ’em, hate ’em, hate ’em, on both practical grounds and principle–and would much rather pay full price for a phone then get locked into a contract. If unlocked iPhone 3Gs had been available when I bought mine back on day one, I’d never have committed to a contract to get a price break. (Were I a civilian, I might not have bought an iPhone 3G at all until contract-free ones became available–AT&T is supposedly going to offer them at some point–but it’s impossible to write about personal technology today without one.)
The good news is that the unlocked iPhone is here. The bad news? It’s only really here if “here” is Hong Kong. The text I quoted above comes from the Hong Kong version of Apple’s online store, where locals can now buy the unlocked, contract-free version of the phone.
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Last Call for the iPhone Satisfaction Survey
[UPDATE: The survey is now closed. Thanks to the 2150+ people who participated–here are our results, and here are more comments from respondents.]
I’m pleased to report that nearly 2,000 folks have responded to our iPhone Satisfaction Survey. We’ll close the survey Sunday morning, but as of the time I’m writing this, there’s still time to participate. If you own an iPhone 3G or original iPhone and would like to do so, please head here to take the survey. Thanks! We’ll publish an extensive report on our findings next week.
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Own an iPhone? Please Take Our Survey
[UPDATE: The survey is now closed. Thanks to the 2150+ people who participated–here are the results and here are more comments from respondents.]
Since the original iPhone was released fifteen months ago, it’s been– by almost any measure–the single tech product that’s generated more news and controversy than any other. And things have only heated up with the debut of the second-generation model, the iPhone 3G.
As with any tech product, the ultimate bottom line on the iPhone is whether the folks who have plunked down money for one are happy with their purchase. Enter Technologizer’s iPhone Satisfaction Survey. We’re going to collect data from a bunch of iPhone users (both the original model and the 3G) on what they like, what they don’t like, what they’re doing with the phone, and what they’d like to see future iPhones do. We have no idea what the data will reveal, but we know it’ll be really, really interesting. And once we’ve crunched the results, we’ll report back in an article.
If you’ve got an iPhone, please help by participating in the survey–it should take about fifteen minutes of your time. Please let other iPhone users know about it, too; the more responses the better.
[UPDATE: I’m closing the survey Sunday morning–if you’re thinking about taking it, please do so now. And thanks!]
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Apple Adds an Asterisk to iPhone Ad
Back on August 11th, I wrote about Apple’s slogan for the iPhone 3G–“Twice as fast. Half the price.”–and said that “Twice as fast sometimes, but don’t count on it” might be a more accurate slogan. Looks like Apple has come as close as it ever will to conceding the point.
I was just just browsing around Apple.com for a post I’m working on, and noticed that the iPhone section still has the “Twice as fast. Half the price.” tagline. But at some point after my earlier post, Apple appended an asterisk:
The asterisk points to some fine print (really fine, at least on the HP Mini-Note I’m using at the moment), which was there before in some form, but unasterisked:
* Comparisons between iPhone 3G (8GB) and first-generation iPhone (8GB) running on EDGE. Actual speeds vary by site conditions. Requires new two-year AT&T rate plan, sold separately to qualified customers. Visit www.wireless.att.com for eligibility information.
Apple isn’t much on asterisks–actually, I can’t think of a case where it’s used one before. (When it built a “Get a Mac” TV spot around a PC World reference, we had to approve the usage of its mention of our story, and Apple really didn’t want to insert any on-screen disclaimers.) For better or worse, it likes to keep its marketing materials like the bottom of a MacBook or the backside of an iPhone: as clean as possible. And even if you never read the fine print, the asterisk tells you that “Twice as fast. Half the price.” isn’t true in all instances, which makes the slogan way less compelling and therefore less Apple-ish.
But bold claims on behalf of the iPhone without any clarifying footnotes got Apple into trouble in the UK recently, and perhaps it’s decided to be more cautious from now on. I hope so–footnotes may be ugly, but they provide an important consumer service when they’re affixed to words that need additional explanation. Which “Twice as fast. Half the price” certainly does…
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Google, Apple, and the War for Developers
On Tuesday morning, months of anticipation, speculation, software controversy, and hardware rumors came to a head as T-Mobile executives and Google’s top brass unveiled the G1, the first “Googlephone.” As reporters and bloggers got their hands on the detailed specifications about the device, the software, and the terms of service, hundreds of inevitable comparisons were drawn between the iPhone and this fledgling product. But the differences between the two platforms go far beyond simple differences in specs.
Google is pursuing a decidedly different market strategy with Android. The brilliance of Apple’s iPhone strategy–besides the fact that the phone itself is so compelling–was in the sequence of announcements. You can bet your last share of Lehman stock that Steve Jobs had the App Store and iPhone SDK planned from the start, but did not release them initially on purpose. Apple first announced the iPhone in January of 2007, wowed the tech community, built up six months of hot anticipation, and released it in June of the same year. Its market share immediately exploded, well beyond initial predictions, grabbing percentage points in the double digits within months.