Check out the updated Prags magazine rack for issue 2, with an overview of iPhone SDK development from yours truly.
A new article in Ad Age looks at How Cellphone Makers Let Their Market Slip Away.
The iPhone, which hardly needs an introduction, made a big splash with its 2007 launch, but the seeds were sown for the demise of the big phone brands several years before that. Had they been listening to consumer chatter online, they might have seen it coming.
The article looks at online chatter and use of the word “cool” in relation to phones. Some number of years ago, the semantics in this context changed from physical appearance (small, sleek, colorful, etc.) to functionality and ease-of-use.
that is why when Apple tore down the boundaries and redrew them, it focused as much on the software as the hardware, turning communication devices into computers.
True enough, but I think in terms of functionality, the iPhone goes further than that. It’s not just that the software is easy-to-use, but it also gives you a real browser that can hit real web pages. On my old phones, the first thing I downloaded was Opera Mini, and I only stopped using it when T-Mobile changed their $6/mo. internet plan from “enjoy the whole internet” to “enjoy paying more for our walled garden of utter crap”. I could have upgraded to full internet for $25/mo, but it wasn’t worth it to surf with Opera Mini.
So it’s not just the cellphone makers that didn’t see it coming, it’s also the carriers with their stupid walled gardens of crap content. “Get Verizon and enjoy American Idol clips!”… even if I liked American Idol, this wouldn’t be interesting, and certainly not enough to change carriers for. Users were used to real Internet from their computers and wanted it on their phones, and carriers were determined not to give it to them.
Unconnected bits and pieces from San Francisco, in advance of JavaOne 2008:
- Another session got cancelled on me, the BoF for Soy Latte, Landon Fuller’s open-source BSD Java port for Mac OS X. The announcement recommended switching to a BoF on the OpenJDK Porters project BoF, but that’s at the same time as the Java Posse. Still, I reserved like maybe five sessions the whole week and three have been cancelled.
- Annual pilgramage to Rasputin Records, between Union Square and the cable car turnaround, was great, but I ended up only getting four CDs: Bowie’s Heathen (used), Rush’s 2112 (for $7, new!), Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation ($8, new), and Born Ruffians’ self-titled EP, whose single inspired the title of this blog. Saw a couple of things I put back because I knew I could get them cheaper on iTunes or Amazon… sign of the times, I guess.
- Saw Mike & Molly out in El Cerrito, and have now been tasked with getting Mike’s first adventure game, LSJUMBLE II off of 800K Mac floppies and into disk images so the game won’t be lost to the ages. Apparently, Mike has a classic Mac emulator for the PC, and it isn’t Sheep Saver. Still, I’ll have to get a USB floppy drive, since my last floppy-equipped Macs went to electronics recycling a year ago. 800K? Dude, I don’t think twice about allocating buffers that large nowadays.
- I’ve been working on networking stuff with the device whose SDK is NDA’ed, but since it uses Cocoa, we’ll just assume we’re talking about Mac development . The Cocoa stream classes are pleasant enough, but it’s surprising that for HTTP-based communication, you’re probably better off using the C-based Core Foundation CFNetwork APIs. To wit, if you want to do a
POST, you’re probably going to need to use CF. - I’ve been working with faceless APIs like CFNetwork and Audio Toolbox for a while, and finally got caught up with using Interface Builder for the widely-available device with the public SDK that yet must not be discussed. Despite a few gaps (easily worked around), it’s really nice to work with.
- My iPhone itself is a little wedged… somehow a bungled sync has turned all 5.5 GB of songs, podcasts, and video into inaccessible “other” data. I have a date at the Genius Bar at 4PM for a WTF moment with Steve’s finest.
- Metreon sucks just a little more every year. Walk the extra block to the Westfield, seriously.
