iPhone owners, what operarting systems do you use?
As an iPhone user, what operating systems do you use for personal use?
- Al Degutis
Archive for July, 2008
My 3G iPhone purchasing experience
When Steve Jobs announced the original iPhone in January 2007, I said that it would probably be the first Apple product I’d own. That’s right, I don’t own an iPod even though my wife and kids do. A couple months later I purchased a 24″ iMac. When the iPhone came out, I just couldn’t pay those high prices. I still wasn’t swayed to buy one even after the price reduction two months later in September. Steve Jobs’ spell couldn’t keep me in its grasp. Although my family will point out that I had a difficult time not talking about it. Mostly because my cell phones were frustrating me.
In February of this year I purchased my second Apple product, a 15″ Macbook Pro. At this point I was content to wait for the next generation iPhone. In the months that followed, rumor after rumor surfaced. June approached and I looked forward to Steve Jobs’ keynote at the World Wide Developer’s Conference. I expected, hoped actually, that he’d announce the phone and it would be available within two weeks. Unfortunately, he announced that it would be available on July 11, 2008, one month after the keynote. I was disappointed but I waited 18 months, so what’s one more.
Yesterday (as of this writing) was the big day: July 11th. My co-worker was on vacation this week so waiting in line before the store opened wasn’t an option. My plan was to monitor things via Twitter and the Internet news outlets and try to get one at lunchtime. I knew I’d probably have to take a longer lunch.
Only an hour after the iPhone went on sale in the Chicagoland area, I started to see reports of problems. Initial reports blamed the AT&T servers for activation delays. Reports followed stating that the iTunes activation portion (the unbricking) was failing. Regardless of who was to blame it became pretty obvious that the 10 minute activation process per phone was not a reality. I continued to monitor the online feeds and they were filled with complaints of activation woes. Word started to spread that at some stores people were being sold iPhones and told to take them home and activate them there, completely opposite of the procedure that was put into place by Apple and AT&T. While not a good thing, I saw a potential opportunity: this may speed up the process at the Apple store. I’d be content (not happy) to get the phone on Friday and activate it later, even if it meant a day or two. A trip to and from the Apple store over the weekend would have meant a two hour drive. Plus, I was concerned about supplies running out.
At lunchtime, as planned, I headed over to the Woodfield Apple Store in Schaumburg, IL. I was disappointed to see a long line of people that I estimated to be 400 initially, but realistically was more like 300. The demand coupled with the activation issues created a deep queue of customers. There was no way I was going to wait in line during lunch. So I opted for Plan B: return at 3pm and wait it out.
As the afternoon progressed, I monitored the term “activation” via Summize. About 1:30pm I noticed that more and more tweets (i.e. Twitter updates) about successful activations were coming through. By 2:30pm, the majority of activation tweets were about successful attempts. It appeared that Apple and AT&T finally got things under control. I called the Apple store and asked if they still had phones in stock and how many. I was informed that they had many but “could not comment on quantities.” When 3pm rolled around, I was ready to head over to get my first iPhone.
When I arrived at the Apple store, the line was shorter. There were only about 200 people in line. After 10 minutes the line moved to fill the gap of the ten people at the front that entered the store. They were letting in about 8 to 10 people at a time. The end of the line continued to fill with new people keeping it the same length.
I struck up a conversation with some people in front of and behind me in line. The young man in front of me had a time crunch. He had to catch a plane back to Jersy and had to leave before 5pm. I told him he’d probably get an iPhone if he could stretch it out to 5:30pm.
One woman I spoke with was getting a third iPhone, she bought two in early May having no clue that a new version would be coming out so soon. She was going to keep the new iPhone for herself and give her current one to her son. In fact, she was going to leave on the 7 hour drive to see her son right after she got the phone.Some of the people I spoke with were not very familiar with the new phone’s features so I shared what I knew, as well as filling everyone in on the activation issues being reported online.
The line kept moving forward every 10 minutes or so. After a half an hour, we all expected to be inside the store in another hour. Soon 4pm turned to 4:40 and the line wasn’t progress as quickly any longer. By 4:45pm the young man from Jersey quietly slipped out of line and headed out. By 5pm, we all started to get tired of standing for 2 hours and realized that we were still another 30+ minutes away from getting into the store.
We got closer and closer but it was still very slow going. When we finally reached the point where we’d be the next group to enter the store, things stalled. We stood there for 20 minutes. It was frustrating to be so close and yet be stuck. At this point were were approaching the 3 hour mark. One of the women had been sitting for most of the last hour. Since we were right by the store’s doors, an Apple employee was asking if everyone was okay. I requested that he get the woman some water and she added that she needed something to eat. He returned with a bottle of water and a few slices of pizza for her. Afterwards, she explained that she was hypoglycemic and that the food really helped.
We finally made it into the store only to find ourselves in a smaller line of 10 people. More waiting. It was in here that we finally found out why progressed had slowed from 4pm on.
We were joined in this short internal line by a newcomer. He wasn’t in line outside and he carried the iPhone bag. I asked him if he had just purchased the phone and was waiting for someone that was purchasing theirs. “No” he said and explained that he purchased his iPhone first thing this morning after waiting in line since 4am. Because of the activation problems encountered in the morning, they were told to come back after 4pm, at which time they’d be allowed into the internal line to activate their phones.
After about 20 minutes, I was finally next in line to be helped. I gave up my spot, allowing the woman with hypoglycema and the other with the 7 hour drive to go ahead of me. My turn came 5 minutes later. Rick, the Apple employee helping me, had only been there an hour and was still getting his barrings. The transaction went smoothly and I was out of there in about 15 minutes with my new white 16 GB 3G iPhone.
My total wait time was 3 1/2 hours. I can’t help but wonder if I got there at 2pm or even 1pm, if it would have been quicker.
Opportunities lost
While standing in line for over 3 hours I kept thinking of opportunities that could have been taken advantage of by Apple or any of the retailers in the mall. Here are just a few.
- Apple t-shirts – Apple gives their employees simple, yet cool t-shirts. As I saw people coming out of the store with their iPhone bag, I thought that Apple could have included a commemorative iPhone event t-shirt with each phone purchase. I’d be happy with a simple white t-shirt with a black Apple logo. The challenge here, of course, is the need for different sizes.
- Apple cInema displays outside the store – there were some good spots where the Apple store could have set up some of their 30″ cinema displays and run all of their movie trailers on them. Hell, they could have also been playing the iReady video from AT&T as a number of people in line weren’t familiar with the details. With all of the security guards around I don’t think having the displays outside the store would have been a problem. It would have helped break up the monotony of waiting in line. Plus, throw in an occasional Apple product ad; just don’t run constant ads.
- Food and drink for people in line – They may have been doing this in the morning, but with the lines in the afternoon just as long it would have been nice to provide some basics such as cookies and water. This doesn’t have to fall on the shoulders of Apple. There are a number of coffee shops and snack shops that could have either brought around food and drink, or taken orders for people. In my opinion there was “money left on the table” as the saying goes.
- Al Degutis
Interesting apps from the new iTunes App Store
The new iTunes Apps Store is now available via iTunes v7.7. I briefly browsed through some of the available apps and noticed the following.
- Flashlight – ExactMagic $0.99
Flashlight is a simple tool to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a simple flashlight to help you find your way in a dark room or to see what that thing on the floor of the movie theater is that you keep stepping on.Ummm, I already use my Treo, and various other cell phones, as a flashlight to navigate in the dark “simply” by activating the screen.
- Hold On! – IMAK Creations – Free
Compete to see how long you can hold the button! The timer shows your progress down to the millisecond and stores your personal all-time record. Develop your perseverance and improve your concentration skills to make you more productive!Sounds kinda boring to me. I’d rather participate in this challenge.
- SeattleBus – Deallus Software – $14.99
SeattleBuss provides real-time arrival and departure times for bus stops across the greater Seattle Metro area. In short, SeattleBus is intended to answer the question: “Where is the *!&^!*# bus?”Is the Seattle transit system so bad that I need to spend $15 for realtime info?
- Alarm Free – Masayuki Akamatsu – Free
Alarm is a self-defense/emergency alarm with a freefall detector.How is this used for self-defense? Again, just like Flashlight my Treo could be used for self-defense (do not try this with an iPhone, just keep an old Treo or Windows Mobile phone handy) - CowToss – Digital Thought Software – $0.99
Cow Tossing. Pull the cow down, release, and watch it fly!This would never get old. Right.
- Morse-It – Francis Bonnin – $0.99
Morse-It is an easy to use application that allows {you} to translate and interpret Morse code. Type some text and it will be automatically translated into some fullscreen flashing effect of the associated Morse code. Some sound will also play accordingly. Your “SOS” message will be seen quite far away!Not sure what to think about this one. It could come in handy if you’re shipwrecked, otherwise you better hope other people have this app so they can consult its “full Morse alphabet.” - Zen Garden – Peerium, Inc. – $0.99
Take a few moments and relax with your pocket Zen garden. Draw designs in the sand with a single finger. Or, use multiple fingers for a nice rake design. Shake your garden to smooth out the sand and start anew.I’ve never gotten into the whole Zen garden thing. It did make me wonder if there were any Feng Shui apps, so I searched but there are none yet.
- iAstronomica – Astistic Techworks – $19.99
iAstronomica is an astronomy program that generates sky charts at any time, from anywhere on Earth. The planetarium shows all the planets and stars visible to the naked eye, as well as meteor showers, the Milky Way, the ecliptic and the current moon phase.
What can I say? I had to include this one since I’m an amateur astronomer.
While I poke fun at many of the apps above, I have to give the developers credit. I couldn’t write an iPhone app… or could i?
- Al Degutis
“I’m not here to make friends.” Phrase of the year?
What does this say about the people who participate in reality TV shows?
By the way, Gordon Ramsey rocks!
- Al Degutis
Drobo customer service could use an upgrade
Yesterday Drobo released a new model of their “robotic storage” which provides Firewire 800 connectivity, in addition to the USB ports of the original model.
I purchased the USB-based Drobo 12 days prior to the announcement of the new version. Had the Firewire version been available, I would have purchased it. I went to the Drobostore.com site and could not find a written policy for exchanges or returns. In fact, even the privacy policy comes up “not found.” So, they don’t have a return policy? I called customer service. The woman on the phone confirmed that they do not have any policies in place, took my information and said she would have to talk to someone and they’d get back to me. I followed up with an e-mail via their support form to make sure my request didn’t get lost. A little more digging around their website turned up a warranty policy that only covered non-functioning hardware.
I found out this morning, via email, that they will not exchange it.
Most retailers have either a 14-day or 30-day return/exchange policy. I find this to be poor customer service. Especially since they don’t have a written return policy online. What if Best Buy, Dell, Apple and others didn’t have a return policy? Not acceptable.
-Al Degutis
Twitter growth due to spammers?
I don’t generally block people that follow me on Twitter, as long as they are individuals and not accounts set up for social causes (I’ll choose my causes, thank you). For the last week, I’ve been blocking between 1-3 followers per day, all spammers. Having just read the VentureBeat post ‘Twitter gets its sexy back. And by “sexy” I mean users.’ which talks about Twitter’s growth in June, I have to wonder if a good percentage of that is due to spammers. I’m followed by 70-some people and have been seeing these spammer accounts daily. I can personally block the spam accounts, but that doesn’t stop those accounts from following others. I’m sure most people are not aware that they can report spam accounts via twitter.com/help. I wasn’t. Reporting potential spammers is not simple, just like blocking multiple followers (a chore because you are taken back to your Twitter home page after each block). How many people are going to note the spammer’s account name, then go to the help page to report it? I think that Twitter needs to add a Potential Spammer button next to the account in the Followers list (and please, please, please don’t have that button take me back to the home page afterwards).
Twitter team, please get a handle on this now.
Otherwise, the problem won’t be the Scoble’s of the world clogging the tubes. It’ll be the spammers.
-Al Degutis
TweetDeck – A Twitter Client with Promise
Shortly after I started using Twitter via the web site, I started looking for a desktop client application to use to read and send updates. I came across Spaz, an Adobe Air based application. Adobe Air apps can run on Windows and Mac OS X which appealed to me since I use both. Spaz was decent, but not great. I started using Twitterrific on the Mac, a Twitter client that appeared to be the favorite of many Mac users. Shortly after I started using Twitterrific, and paid for a license to lose the random ads, I came across Twhirl. I was still looking for a better Windows client and Twhirl was another Adobe Air app. Twhirl has really taken off, both in popularity and features.
I’ve been using Twhirl for a few months now and haven’t even looked at other Twitter clients. Why should I? I’ve been very satisfied. Over the July 4th holiday weekend, I saw some tweets (i.e. Twitter updates) about TweetDeck, a new client app built in Adobe Air. I decided to give it a try and it has a lot of promise. Surprisingly, it’s only at v0.15.x. I say surprisingly because it seems that the trend is to start the public beta releases of apps at v0.8x. Using such a low version number sets some realistic expectations, illustrating that this app is just getting started. After using it for a few days, it’s really growing on me.
What I really like about TweetDeck (just a few of the key features):
- You can create custom Groups. Groups are a manually defined set of people you follow, whose tweets appear in their own column. If you only follow a handful of people, groups won’t have much appeal to you. I follow 70+ Twitter accounts, some are friends and family while others are journalists and technology experts. Often, family and friend tweets get lost amongst the “noise” of all the other tweets.
- It stores tweets in a local database. TweetDeck starts with my stored data and adds the latest updates to it. Plus, TweetDeck can work offline and send/receive tweets when it’s back online. When I launch Twhirl it only pulls a limited number of updates from Twitter, approximately one web page worth, and sometimes I get blank screens.
- Summize integrated searches that auto-update. You can search the local database or have TweetDeck use Summize to search for tweets. The results of the Summize search displays in their own column and they continually update, automatically. This would be great for following live events, breaking news, etc. Twhirl integrates Summize searching but it does not automatically update the results.
- Allows you to filter the display within a 1 hour to 48 hour timeframe.
- Profile Info Panel. This gets display, along with recent tweets, when you click on the user.
- Displays a Twitter Status. Not sure how it determines the status, but right now it states “Pretty much ok.“
- Ability to switch between Single column and multi-column views.
What I think TweetDeck needs to succeed:
- Adjust the refresh rate to the ever adjusting levels set by Twitter
- Ability to change the font size and color scheme
- Notifications, both pop-up and audible
- Twitpic integration (already in Twhirl; I haven’t used it yet myself but very popular).
What I’d personally like to see:
- Slide out/in drawers instead of, or in addition to, the columns which can quickly take up real estate
- Multiple account access (I have a personal account, Frumpa, and a business account, AstroPhoto (already in Twhirl)
- Ability to read/write and comment on my FriendFeed account (already in Twhirl)
Obviously, others would have a different set of requirements/requests and no program can ever meet everyone’s expectations.
TweetDeck is off to a good start. I doubt I’ll stop using Twhirl just yet, but I will alternate between it and TweetDeck and see how the latter develops.
- Al Degutis
3G iPhone Activation – Cooley calls Jobs
One of the best video podcasts, by best I mean entertaining, online is CNET’s Buzz Report with Molly Wood. Each report features a segment with Brian Cooley, aptly named What the Hell? With the 3G iPhone right around the corner, I wanted to share this clip from the June 12, 2008 Buzz Report
-Al
picnik editor loading (video)
picnik is the photo editing tool utilized by Flickr. If you have broadband you won’t see the creative messages that come up while loading because it will load too fast. This video, compliments of our slow iDSL, exposes them.
Originally uploaded by al_judy
-Al
