I’ve been one of the lucky ones. I’ve had pratically no problems with the 3G iPhone and only minor issues with a couple of apps since Day 1. Then I installed the iTunes 7.7.1 update when it came out. That’s when the troubles started. Luckily, the iPhone itself hasn’t been affected but the iPhone with iTunes experience has degraded.
It started with a constant and reproducible crash of the MDCrashReportTool. The following sequence causes the crash:
One of the great features of Twitter is that you can access and post it in various ways: from the website, from a dedicated client on Mac or PC, from a cell phone via SMS or mobile app, etc. Maybe someday we’ll see digital cameras with built-in Twitter access. With all of these different access methods, which is the best? Below is my limited evaluation of a few of the apps I’ve used.
But first, I want to mention a feature that no app appears to provide, but I’d really like to see. When a tweet (i.e. a Twitter update or message) is directed to another person using the @reply (where reply is the user’s twitter account name) at the beginning of the message, that message is only displayed to the person it was directed and not display to others, even if you follow the sender. For example, if you follow me (frumpa) and I send a message to @ev none of the applications below will show you that message. The only way you’ll be able to see those messages is if you go the that person’s Twitter page via a browser (e.g. twitter.com/ev). This only occurs if the message starts with @reply. If the @reply is somewhere else in the message everyone sees it. Maybe I’m the minority here but if I’m following someone I want to see all of their messages. Why? Sometimes a message directed to someone else may also be of interest to me, or others.
Okay, now that I got that out of the way…
With Twitter continuing to be so unreliable, I think third party applications such as Twhirl, TweetDeck, Twitterrific and possibly FriendFeed(?), just to name a few, need to add the option to keep a local copy of messages and your Following and Followers list. TweetDeck is already ahead of the game as it keep messages in a local database. But, with Twitter’s latest screw up, in which they inadvertently removed people from following others, the ability to have a backup, export or offline copy of your Following list is very important.
Who is up for the challenge?
-Al Degutis
I started using Twinkle, an iPhone app, on Thursday night (July 17th) and wrote this post about it. Here are my impressions and what I’ve learned about it after using it for few days.
Twinkle has it’s own network which it uses for its Nearby service. The Nearby service, also a section in the app, manages messages sent through the service. When you send a message from Twinkle, which they call “pings”, it goes to the Twinkle network (i.e. Tapulous servers) where they are stored and then forwarded to Twitter. This requires you to configure Twinkle with a Tapulous user account and, optionally, a Twitter account. You could easily just use the Tapulous account, but not just a Twitter account at this time. This has caused some confusion for people as to where messages are going and why messages are not showing up on Twitter. Although in some cases people didn’t add their Twitter account or don’t have one. In fact, it can cause more confusion if a person has a Twitter account but creates a Tapulous account with a different user name. Confusion in the sense that you can’t follow the user via the Twitter website, or traditional Twitter client since you don’t know their Twitter account name.
When I was getting my haircut I overheard the discussion in the chair next to me. The person was lamenting about a night out with some friends. She and three of her friends went out for drinks and appetizers. The bill ended up being $200 because the Long Island Ice Tea they were drinking were $10 a piece.
This got me to thinking about a few other expensive things in small quantities.
The obvious example is a small, expensive bottle of perfume such as Chanel No. 5. But there are a few less obvious items that are sold in small quantities at prices higher than we’d imagine.
I had seen a few stories about how expensive printer ink is when you measure it by the gallon, including this one by David Pogue of the NY Times and this one by the Nashua Telegraph, which put it somewhere between $3,000 and $4,300 per gallon.
Then there’s the recent story about how expensive text messaging is (using AT&T’s rates for the iPhone) when you convert those tiny little messages (160 characters) to megabytes: $1,300 per megabyte. If we had to pay for email by the megabyte, we’d be paying tens of thousands of dollars a month.
It has become obvious to me that THE money is in selling things in small quantities. So, starting tomorrow I will have for sale a window cleaning solutions that is so special, rare and effective that it will available at the introductory cost of $49.95 per, ummm, I’m not exactly sure of the actual quantity per container until I get back from the store, but we’re talking only ounces here. Get those credit cards ready.
- Al Degutis
Over the last couple of days I’ve seen stories online about the “Stone Nudes.“ The story in the link states:
It is a breathtaking – and death-defying feat – which redefines the term extreme sport.
Battling both gravity and the elements, the climber claws her way up a granite boulder by just her fingertips.
For most, the lack of ropes and safety equipment would be a perilous step too far.
But this woman has gone even further and abandoned her clothes to take part in the new sport of naked rock climbing
Looking at the pictures, my gut instinct is that these women (or it is just one woman?) are not doing this for sport but as a modeling job. These are the thoughts that come to mind to justify my gut feeling:
I searched for Dean Feldman via Google and l found he’s selling a book called “Stone Nudes.” Maybe he got the idea for the book after capturing these women doing what they love, rock climbing, or maybe it was the other way around.
I think the news outlets are taking advantage of the nudity and the sensationalism of the danger, while Mr. Fidelman reaps the rewards. By no means I am accusing Mr. Feldman of any wrongdoing. I’m just saying “I don’t buy it.”
What do you think? Post your comments below.
- Al Degutis
Like my previous post on this topic, here’s another batch of apps that caught my eye, but this time only focusing on free apps. (Note – links below are iTunes links, not web browser links)
Probably not, especially if you’re not a tech-head or willing to bounce around to difference screens to enable and/or disable difference services (e.g. 3G, GPS, WiFi, etc) to manage the battery life on a regular basis.
Who is the iPhone for?
Answer the following questions:
If you answered “yes” to at least half of the above questions then the iPhone, either the original iPhone, the 3G version (again be aware of its hungry power consumption) or the iPod Touch are devices you should consider. The original (non-3G) iPhone is would the bes choice for the average consumer.
The iPhone is not just a phone, or just a smartphone. As ReadWriteWeb explains, it’s The New Personal Computer.
-Al Degutis
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.
- Al Degutis
