apple.ism

“My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies.” – Joe Hewitt

The one person behind one of Apple's top apps ever, has decided to quit the project.

TechCrunch managed to get a hold of Hewitt about his decision, and it is because of Apple's tyrannical App Store approval policies that caused him to leave.

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.

The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.”

Will having such a prominent developer leaving Apple's mobile platform impact Apple at all? Highly unlikely, but who knows. If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's probably Apple's ridiculous App Store review process, which Hewitt has once said that "should be gotten rid of entirely."

Thoughts?

So I love browsing the home screens of famous techies on First 20. It's amazing to find out what some of these people use on their iPhones first screen, the home screen.

So I wanted to share mine with you guys.

The first row is entirely Apple default apps. I use Clock quite often for the alarm clock, and I'm sure that most people do too. I use Calendar quite often, using Google ActiveSync to keep my Google Calendar in sync with my iPhone. I used MobileMe but had issues with it so decided to give it up entirely. Contacts is also frequently used, and also synced with Google ActiveSync. Having everything synced with Google makes life easy. I don't use Safari much, but when I do, it's ready to access at the end of the top row.

The second row involves stuff I use on a daily basis, at one point or another. I replaced the default Camera app with Camera Genius, because it's like the default Camera but with a plethora of options. Don't worry, I have my double-tap of the Home button to bring up the default Camera, in case I need even quicker access or video recording on my 3GS. Then I have Photos, easily accessible next to Camera Genius, when I need to copy images to send to Posterous or Twitter and the like, as well as changing my wallpaper frequently. I need to know what the weather will be like for the day, so I have AccuWeather. The detailed image depicting the current weather conditions is nice to have too. And then Google Maps, how did I ever live without this thing?

The third row holds the iTunes Store and App Store, when I need to shop around for more digital goodness or apps. Settings is there for my constant turning of Wi-Fi on and off, turning vibrate off from silent mode [for class], and other little things I need to fiddle with for specific situations. I have qStatus for those times I need to send a quick little update to Twitter and Facebook at the same time.

The last row has Facebook - who isn't using this app? It's definitely the nicest Facebook app out for any mobile platform. Then Dropbox for quick access to documents that I've synced between multiple devices. I use this to view class syllabi and schedules, as well as uploading photos for blog posts, and many other uses. GeeTasks is the easiest way to keep track of tasks and daily to-dos, since it integrates with a Gmail (or Google) account. SimpleNote is the best basic note-taking app there is, hands down.  

The Dock has Phone, since I miraculously still need to make calls. Email is important and I definitely need a super quick way to reach it. I send texts/MMS (finally, AT&T) constantly so I need Messages in my dock. And then Tweetie - simply just the best iPhone Twitter client ever, IMHO.

What is your First 20, and why?

Apple posts their response to the FCC questions regarding the Google Voice fiasco last month, directly on their website. You can view the statement for yourself here.

This video was made by @alchemistmuffin on twitter, and he claims to have a friend that works at Apple HQ so he gets the inside information on a lot of stuff that the public most likely won't. I trust his opinion, and I also read the statement and could only think of "BS" as I read their answers.

I clearly believe that AT&T did in fact pay Apple big money to keep them quiet about AT&T's involvement with the Google Voice fiasco. Google themselves are also in trouble with the FCC due to crippling down VOIP on Android OS, specifically a watered-down version of Skype.

The saga continues...what will happen next?

June 19th goes down as a memorable day because it's the launch day of the third iteration of the iPhone, Apple's ultra-portable, innovative brainchild. While many 3G users may not be upgrading to the 3G S quite so soon due to upgrade pricing issues, or they may not see the 3G S as enough of an upgrade to the previous generation, there are some people out there that do believe this is a worthy upgrade [for now].

There are no cosmetic changes that set the 3G and 3G S apart. No one will be able to tell that you are holding the latest and greatest, because all the changes are internal. The 3G had a processor of 412mHz and 128mb of RAM. With the 3G S, there is now a 600mHz processor and 256mb of RAM. An improved graphics core generously helps the rendering of 3D graphics from such apps like games.

While most probably won't notice the difference in speed if they are new iPhone users, there are videos out there that demonstrate how fast the 3G S is compared to the 3G. Apple has made claims that it's 2x faster than it's predecessor, and from the looks of the videos on tech blogs, this claim seems to be holding true.

It would take at least a second or two to register the action after tapping various buttons in apps on the 3G. With the 3G S, there is little to no delay in getting the phone to what you want. Everything seems to move quicker and more fluidly, and games get a major boost from the faster processors by loading and looking better than they ever did on the 3G. The 3.0 software feels even snappier than it is on the 3G. Even booting up and shutting down has gotten a speed bump.

The camera is, to me at least, a big improvement over the previous 2 megapixel cameras. It's now 3 megapixel (not a major difference) but also has autofocus and automatic macro mode (~10 cm). On the previous two versions, you could never take a good pic up close and resulted in a blurry image that doesn't help anyone.

Autofocus will focus on the center point of the image. But if there's a part of the photo that you would rather have as the focus point, tapping on it will make it focus on that part instead. And when the camera is about 10 cm from an object, it will go into an "auto macro" mode - but let's be honest, it's not exactly the best macro you'll ever encounter, but that's a given. For what it's worth, the camera has been improved much over the previous versions, definitely.

The 3G S also adds video recording to the mini-computer, and it does it very well. You toggle video camera by the button in the lower right when in the Camera app, and then you can do video in either portrait or landscape mode, though portrait videos are sideways when uploaded on a computer. Video taken on the 3G S look fairly decent for VGA quality and may be comparable to Flip Ultra series cams, but there is no HD quality yet for iPhone.

Editing is simply cutting scenes out of the video that you don't want and keeping the ones you do want in. You select from scenes at the top, and once you select a highlighted segment, hitting the Trim button will throw out everything else. The only drawback of this is that it's not really like iMovie software, where you can cut out multiple scenes and do transitions and all that fancy video editing. This is very basic "keep only this, throw the rest out" editing.

There's now one-click publishing to MobileMe or YouTube (beware of the compression of YouTube). You just add a title, description, tags, and category for YouTube, and it will then be compressed and uploaded directly to your YouTube account. Once it's published, it will give you options to share the link by email or to view it, or do nothing. Publishing to MobileMe is similar - add a title, description, and pick an album to put it in. Once it's compressed and uploaded, you can view the link or share by email, or nothing.

Video quality is good enough. It's not outstanding like an HD camcorder, but it doesn't completely suck either. If you search for videos recorded on an iPhone 3G S, you may actually find some comments that say they would have never thought it was recorded with an iPhone!

Voice Control is another 3G S specific feature. You can use it to call someone, or start playing music from the iPod. It doesn't work that well in a noisy environment (but really, what phone does?), but in a quiet place, it works rather well. It has picked up on my voice commands pretty well, from calls to playing specific artists from the iPod app. While the iPod is playing, you can bring up voice control again and say a command like

"What song is playing?" to get the voiceover feature (like on the iPod Shuffle) to talk to you. You can even say "Play more songs like this" and it will activate the Genius feature with the current song.

The Compass feature works fairly well, showing you which way is North. Since the feature just came out with the new phone, there isn't that much of use for it yet. But once turn-by-turn GPS apps such as the TomTom become available, I'm sure the integrated Compass feature will become much more useful.

The battery life on the 3G S seems slightly better than that of the 3G. I've used it extensively since I got it and it takes a while for the battery to fully drain out, even with gaming during the day. Another feature that

the 3G S has over the previous two is that you can also turn on an option to display the remaining battery percentage remaining next to the icon. I find this way better than just having the icon, as I can precisely see how much life remains for the phone.

The screen has gotten a much needed oleophobic coating that makes it more resistant to fingerprints and smudges, and can be cleaned easier than before. I've noticed this - just a swipe on my shirt will clear the screen to be crystal clear. Use the phone all day and drag your fingers all over the screen - you'll see much less smudging and fingerprints than with the 1st gen and 3G. The oleophobic coating is only on the screen though, the rest of the phone doesn't seem to have it.

These are the major changes that differentiate the 3G S from the 3G. Overall better performance, much improved camera, convenient video and editing, useful digital compass, voice control, better battery life, and cleaner screen! Hard to not want these features, right? I personally feel that the hardware upgrades are worth upgrading to if you can get subsidized or early upgrade pricing.

I'm glad I'm ditching the 3G for the 3G S, and you should too.

So, Apple has announced the new iteration of the iPhone hardware, the 3G S. It's going to be faster, have better graphics, be able to record video and edit them, have digital compass and voice control, and capable of faster Internet speeds (although AT&T is not holding up on this part).

Now, while this new iPhone is surely impressive, there has been more outpour over the price of upgrading from a 3G to a 3G S. The $199/$299 pricing is only for new customers or those that are eligible for upgrade, while the 3G users that want it will either have to pay $399/$499 on 'early upgrade' or $599/$699 for non-contract pricing. While I did complain about this for the first few days, I finally decided that I really wanted the upgrade and got rid of my shiny Palm Pre to use the money for an 32GB iPhone 3G S.

Why do I think it's worth upgrading from a 3G? Well, a few reasons.

1. Faster processor and RAM. Need I really say more? The current 3G only has a 412mhz processor and 128 MB of RAM. The 3G S has 600 mhz processor and 256MB RAM. That's double the speed. Have you played the Tap Tap Revenge series of games? You probably would have noticed that at some point, you know you hit the notes perfectly, but the phone lags a bit and you don't get those notes. That's because of the current processor speed and RAM - it's not as fast as it can be. Sure, the 3.0 software improves the speed of the iPhone a bit, but that does not change the fact that the hardware is still not up to speed, at least with the 3G S. So the faster processor and more RAM will indeed make a difference. It's like getting a new computer - the new computer will surely run faster than your old one. Same thing for the iPhone 3G S.
2. 3.0MP camera/video recording/editing. This has been missing from the first two generations, and now it's finally here. Though the 3G could have been capable of video recording, I think the faster hardware was a decision to just keep it with the 3G S. The autofocus and macro mode of the new 3.0 MP camera is a big factor in helping me decide to upgrade alone. Maybe because I take so many photos, and the Griffin Clarifi case I use just doesn't cut it sometimes. And video recording and editing will make capturing moments as they happen so much easier. As well as the ease of publishing the video online to MobileMe or Youtube.
3. Digital compass. May not be a that big of a deal, but have you ever tried to use your iPhone to navigate around a new place? I did while in San Francisco, and boy, I kept getting confused in which direction to go. So with the digital compass, maybe it will help get rid of the confusing when trying to navigate around somewhere new.
4. Voice Control. It makes life simple, okay? What more do you want?

Now, about the pricing. If you're a 3G user, just shut up now. The more I think about it, there's nothing wrong with what AT&T is doing - this is just standard cell phone company policy. You signed a contract when you got the 3G, right? You're not done with that contract, so you're not eligible for the new customer/upgrade pricing. If you're lucky enough to get it for the $399/$499 'early upgrade' price like I did, then TAKE IT. Unless you want to wait it out. But just be aware that developers are not going to wait for you - waiting to take advantage of the 3G S features will only allow the competition (Android, BlackBerry, Palm, [dare I say] WinMo) to catch up.

If you have the $599/$699 pricing, well, just wait it out, or sell your 3G to help cover the costs. There's an answer for whichever predicament you're in.

Contract. This is what the cell phone industry is all about. Now I'm not sure what you're all bitching about, this is just a standard practice. The iPhone is still a cell phone - you are not different from any other cell phone user. The truth hurts, doesn't it?

Yes, I bitched at first, but I've already sucked it up and paid $499 for my white 32GB iPhone 3G S. So I suggest you shut up and do the same or just keep your mouth shut.

Update on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 5:44PM by Christine Chan

Also, the 3G S already has split the iPhone platform - some devs won't be straggling with outdated technology. The capabilities of the 3G S should not be ignored to cater to the universal platform. Yeah, this is going to cause an outrage, but catch up!

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/06/11/iphone-3g-developers-splitting-platform/