thomas fitzgerald.net

Despite all the hype surrounding apples recent iPhone 3g announcement many are still confused by the lack of some of the basic features still not included in apples handset. Certainly the iPhone 2.0 software offers some great new features and with third party apps soon to be available, the iPhone will be even greater placed to revolutionise the mobile phone market. Needless to say some analysts still aren’t happy. The iPhone still appears to be missing features that almost all modern handsets feature, and while at the end of the day its not that big a deal, it is strange that after a year of development apple hasn’t implemented them.

What I’m referring to of course is the lack of ability to send and receive MMS messages and the lack of video recording. There are other things too that don’t seem to be in the 2.0 update too such as Bluetooth support for anything other than headsets, the seeming inability to send contacts to another phone and the inability to use your iPhone as a modem. To me personally none of these things are a big issue but for some people they are. Not only that but many normal non technical people just assume that these features are in the iPhone and can’t understand why they’re no when they can’t find them. The default apple fanboy response is “if you don’t like it don’t buy it” which I suppose is fair enough but it is strange that at least some of these didn’t make it to iPhone 2.0

When the phone first shipped it was assumed that what many would consider pretty standard features were just left out because of time constraints, but since then you would have imagined at least some would make it into the next version. Take MMS for example. There is the argument is that email is a better way to send pictures anyway, which is all well and good, but many phones don’t have email and many people still send pictures straight from their phone which the iPhone can’t receive leading you to have to go through a complicated retrieval process on your carriers website. The jailbreak hacking community managed to create an MMS application fairly early in the iPhones life so why can’t Apple? The question is has the company simply not gotten around to it yet or are they making a point? Either way it’s strange.

Of course the final version of the iPhone 2.0 software won’t be known until it hits the streets as it were, so it’s possible some of these things might still make it into the final release. It’s also possible that third parties may be able to address some of these things but it would be nice if they were part of the phone as standard. Of course criticizing Apple decisions on the web is a risky proposition at the best of times but before you get your virtual pitchforks out I’m not complaining, I’m just curious to know what their reasoning is for leaving out features that would seem, given the numerous demos of how quick it is to write software for the iPhone, to be easy enough to implement.

Incidentally I wrote this while post on my iPhone in the notes app.

From Zap2it.com:

Film legend Stan Winston, who created visual effects and contributed to some of the silver screen’s most iconic creatures and characters, has died. He was 62.

The four-time Oscar winner passed away late Sunday night (June 15) at his home in Los Angeles after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to the Los Angeles Times.

[Read Creature Creator Stan Winston Dies at 62 - Filmmaker worked on ‘Aliens,’ ‘Terminator’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ franchises - Zap2it]

One of the casualties of Apple’s recent decision to rebrand .mac as MobileMe was their venerable iCard service. Apple’s iCards was a strange addition to .mac and a hold over from the iTools days. It was listed as part of .mac and yet it didn’t require the sender to be a .mac subscriber. In recent years it had become a forgotten link on the .mac website, a distant stepchild of a changing Apple. Even the design of the iCards site seems dated. I suspect many new .mac users don’t even know it is there. Yet despite its relative obscurity it’s the .mac feature I will miss the most. In fact it’s probably the only .mac feature I’ll miss. Why, you ask, in a crowded e-card market would a fairly obscure offering from Apple be missed? Because, like everything Apple does, it is a simple, minimalist and elegant offering in a world of clutter and feature bloat.

Most e-card sites and services offer either advertising riddled flash cards or ridiculous website hoop jumping for the recipient to receive their card. Many offer poor quality animation and annoying sound in something that looks more like spam than a greeting card. Apple’s solution on the other hand was incredibly simple. They licensed some high quality artwork and photography and made it super simple to both send and receive. For the sender, you simply select an image, add your message, select the recipient and click send. On the receiver’s end they simply got an email with a jpeg of the card and message attached to the email. No jumping through hoops, no clicking through websites, no barrage of advertising. Simple, effective, elegant, and unfortunately, soon to be gone.

Of course, I don’t think for a second that Apple is somehow screwing users or doing anything wrong by ditching iCards. I am not giving out. If I was in charge of .mac or MobileMe, I would probably ditch it too. It simply does not fit with the new service. It would be great if they kept it on or just left it running but I understand why they won’t. It’s a shame but also an opportunity for some other company to take up the mantle of de-gimmicking electronic greeting cards and offering something as simple and effective as Apple’s service. In the mean time, I suggest anyone who has never tried iCards pay it a visit before its demise in a few weeks time. To Apple I say thank you for providing such a great service for all these years. Farewell old friend, you will be missed.

Congratulations to Craig Hockenberry and the folks at the iconfactory for what I’m sure is a well deserved award (seen as the public hasn’t actually seen the application yet). The desktop version is an excellent application and I’m sure the iPhone version will be even better. Well done!

I was just watching the podcast of the keynote, and having read all the comments about how “gaunt” and “thin” Steve looked, I couldn’t help but believe the same. However, as the previous keynotes were in the same podcast feed, I had a quick skim through the last one and he looked no different. So all those with ghoulish tendencies who are pouring over each frame looking for evidence that Steve’s cancer might have returned, you need to calm down a bit. I suspect his usual choice of wardrobe combined with the lighting and large environment of the stage in San-Francisco simply were not flattering to his already slim physique.

[UPDATE] Apple has commented, and apparently he was a bit ill, but thankfully nothing serious.

Here’s a thought, what will happen to all those with web pages hosted on dotmac and what will happen to iCards now that Apple has decided to kill dotmac and replace it with mobile me ?

[UPDATE] Never mind, Apple has set our minds at ease….

I was scrolling through various news feeds on my RSS reader this morning and reading lots of speculation about Mondays WWDC keynote when I realized something about how I regard my own iPhone. I no longer see it as a phone. In fact, It’s hard to pin down what exactly it is, but from a purely emotional point of view, I no longer see it as a phone, or an ipod but as something else…I suppose as an iPhone. And in part I suspect that’s why it has been so successful, because it has moved past existing paradigms and created it’s own unique category for itself.

People will argue that it’s just another smart phone, but I’ve had smart phones before, and all of them frustrated me to the point that I wanted to throw them off the balcony. Their “smart” features weren’t that smart and the phone side of them are in general pretty atrocious. But with the iPhone, I don’t feel like I’m using a phone at all. Instead I have this device that gives me a permanent connection to the larger world. It’s a small black and silver slab that connects me to cyberspace wherever I am and I am always linked to the immediacy of breaking news, information I need, train times, current weather or whatever else is happening around the globe. It’s a powerful feeling that becomes part of everyday life because unlike other smart phones which also have internet access, it’s so easy to use, you just use it without thinking about it. We’ve always read in science fiction about the connected world, about how everyone will be part of a great network, but with the iPhone Apple made it happen, and in such a seamless way, that most people don’t realize the future is already here.

Adobe’s John Nack shows off some welcome changes to the UI in the next version of Photoshop and tries to offset some potential criticism from diehard apple fans. I don’t think they’ve anything to worry about, most of the changes seem logical and if anything long overdue. It’s good to see Adobe moving away from the “paletosis” that previous versions in the past have suffered from.

This is curious.

(Analysis and ridiculously long blog posting forming in brain….)

There is a great article from Bruce Schneier from the Guardian on the apparent “War on Photography”:

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

It’s a cause worth fighting for and the article is well worth a read. Someone needs to do a Michael Moore type documentary on this. [Read Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat? | Technology | The Guardian]

Adobe’s John Nack on the recent Photoshop file saving issue:

The short story is that we’ve been working closely with Apple to troubleshoot the issue and have identified the cause. Apple is working on a fix, and we expect they’ll release it in the next System Update.

The slightly longer story is that saving directly to a network is a generally bad idea.

[Read File-saving issues on Mac OS 10.5.3]

From TUAW:

Apple may be working to seed developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at this year’s WWDC. 10.6 will not include any new significant features from 10.5; instead, Apple is focusing solely on “stability and security.”

It’s possible I suppose, but I’m not sure how likely. Then agin, it would make sense with the whole two bridges thing (from the WWDC invite). Anyway, not long to go now!
[Read Rumor: Mac OS X 10.6 to debut at WWDC 08? - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

This should get an award for the “most helpful but really should have been the default” tip ever.

From iTWire:

“Mac OS X update could deliver fatal blow to Photoshop CS3″

Oh come on, give me a break. In a rare set of circumstances the update can cause problems writing files over a network, a problem which Photoshop has had on and off for some time. Hardly a “fatal blow”. I wouldn’t mind but the article itself even says as much:

“This could be the latest phase of a long standing issue involving Photoshop and file servers.”

Oh well, hype is hype i suppose.