To me, it just shows how arrogant Apple has become. For over a decade now, thousands of people in the mobile business have been putting out hundreds of variations on the mobile phone that were dependable for being mediocre, baffling to use, and ultimately unsatisfying for the customer.
For every new innovation we got in a mobile phone, we usually got two steps back. Blackberry finally makes a decent email experience, then they (or the carriers who approve their designs) refuse to support IMAP. We finally get phones that can play music, and they lock us down with restrictions on what music and where we can download it. We finally get a nice thin phone in the RAZR, and it still has the same OS that was on your Motorola three years before, that can't have two phone numbers for one person. We finally get WiFi, but they decide to leave out a camera or music player (some of you N Series phones, we're talking about you). And so on, so we end up buying a phone, rapidly getting sick of what it can't do, and counting the days til we can get a new one, which for most people actually means years. But then Apple comes in and thinks they can wipe the slate clean and make a phone that looks beautiful, is also an iPod and camera and a fully functional internet-ready computer, and has a brand new user interface that emphasizes how people really want to use a phone. And they don't even have the courtesy to do it with RIM or Nokia or Motorola or some other company that really knows how to make unsatisfying phones and keep us buying them with tiny little improvements from year to year to year. They do the whole thing in secret with their in-house teams, the same people who make MacBooks and iPods. Seriously, who do the people at Apple think they are? And what are they trying to do, make us never want to buy another kind of phone again? On 1/9/07, Mike Meiser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ha, I'm here. > > I just have so much to say I don't even know where to begin. > > Mostly I'm excited because this is a HUGE leap forward for not just > the mobile web... the extension of network neutrality principles to > the mobile web. > > But also because it illustrates apple REALLY, REALLY get's mobile computing. > > Specifically mobile computing is ALL about communications. > > This device is heavily hevily focused on personal / inter-personal > communications. > > voice, IM, SMS, picture sharing and so much more > > it also supports audio and video podcasting but apple hasn't yet cut > the sync cable. > > This is to say... it makes no sense... that you should be walking > around or sitting at your desk at work with this marelous piece of > tech with wifi and GSM in your pocket or sitting on your desktop with > the same old podcasts and videos from when you left home in the > morning. Why should it be teathered to one desktop computer with a > sync cable. > > Why should such a marvelous piece of tech NOT aggregate your latest > audio or video podcasts directly from the web so that anytime you pick > it up it has "new stuff". > > And for that matter why when you buy anything from the itunes store > why should it not be automatically delivered to the device. > > Why should you have to carry it home each night to sync it? And what > if you go out of town for a few days... why should you not have access > to your latest podcasts, videos and media wherever you are? > > These are the same questions people have asked of email and I expect > they will come to the same conclusions... building both webservices > for audio and video podcast management... and building support onto > hardware devices much like the blackberry. > > In fact, I dare say, that much like mobile email. Mobile podcast > aggregation will one day be a killer app on the mobile computing > platform. > > At this point... do to the questions the new iPhone asks... though the > answers have not yet been given.... this vision that media should flow > directly from the web to your device is pretty much inevitable. It is > inevitable because it is where the questions lead, and have been > leading since Microsoft put wifi in the Zune, though they did nothing > with it. Indeed, the editors of the Chicago suntimes, the Wall Street > Journal, and the NYTimes even asked such questions. Why should I have > to sync the such a device when it has wifi built in? The answer is > you shouldn't. The answer is... there's no reason why you such a > device should ever be teathered to a single desktop computer again. > > That said, direct to device aggregation of podcasts and purchases > probably wasn't an extremely high priority with apple given the > tremendous amount of features in this new iPhone device... but I > suspect that one way or another aggregation will be coming to this > device soon. Especially since it appears to be running some basic > version of Mac OSX. I would hope in fact that Fireant or Democracy > will be ported to it soon. I think i'll be a SUPERB platform for > Democracy in particular. The Democracy interface was made to run on > the iPhone over wifi. > > One last thing... people keep bitching about cellular data and > aggregation. They keep saying... cellular networks aren't fast > enough... even if they were they'd never allow it... Well screw the > cellular networks... if they're not fast enough or too closed who > cares. Podcasting and videoblogging does NOT require always on > connectivity... all it requires is that when you go to pick up your > iphone there's something new. > > One final thing. One reason I'm so obsessed with bringing audio and > video podcasting to the mobile web is because moving them beyond the > desktop will not only enhance the power and ubiquity of open access > media... think digital divide... think one laptop per child.... think > limited portable computing droping in price and becoming ubiquitous > all aroudn the world... but also they will enhance video > podcasting, video sharing, and audio podcasting's value as means of > inter-personal communications in much the same way the blackberry and > so called "mobile email" enhances the communications value of email. > > Ubiquity, ease of use, and in the future a constant drop in the price > of hardware and connectivity are the key. > > Oh, and speaking of connectivity, apple talked about a new focus on > wimax with some partnership. If wimax ever pans out we'll be talking > about a ubiquitous broadband network that's easier and cheaper to > install and maintain than todays cellular networks... which is pretty > interestng because cellular networks have already penetrated some of > the farthest corners of the planet. > > It all ads up to a completely new and very distruptive communications > paradigm. > > Peace, > > -Mike > mmeiser.com/blog > mefeedia.com > intermediated.com > evilvlog.com > > On 1/9/07, Nathan Freitas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > sull wrote: > > > > > > do you think osx is open to users or confined to approved applications? > > > > > I feel like they will push widgets as the primary application model for > > developers. Just my guy instinct based on issues around deployment, > > updating, and a networked application model. > > > > +n > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > -- --------------------------------------- Tim Shey http://nextnewnetworks.com/ http://shey.net/
