iPhone

Siri  →

Here is Apple’s page for Siri, the hallmark feature of the new iPhone. The use cases for Siri look pretty great — who doesn’t want a personal assistant built into your phone like this? Siri is no Jarvis, but it sure is a step in that direction.

Note that the fine print at the bottom of this Siri feature page states that Siri will only be available on iPhone 4S. Is that a sales ploy to entice more folks to upgrade to / buy the 4S, or does Siri need that A5 chip to operate at a quality level which is up to Apple’s standards? Or is there another reason Siri is iPhone 4S only?

Siri

Fantastic 4

My first mobile phone was a Qualcomm something-or-other. Later I had one those dime-a-dozen Nokias, and then another smaller Nokia that had a removable faceplate. (Remember when the cool features of phones included interchangeable faceplates?) Then there was a cool Motorola flip phone or two that I used and liked, and then I had a random Samsung candy bar slider.

Then 2007 came along and I got an iPhone. After that I got the iPhone 3G S (I held on to my original iPhone until 2009 because I thought the iPhone 3G was too ugly to justify upgrading). And then the iPhone 4.

I have now owned my iPhone 4 since the summer of 2010. And it blows all of those past phones out of the water. Sometimes I wonder if I ever even owned a cell phone before I owned an iPhone, and the 4 is the greatest iPhone to date.

Of course, a new iPhone is coming out in a few weeks. And, of course, I’ll be in line to buy it (that’s who I am and what I do). But by no means does that mean I find my iPhone 4 lacking in any way. Quite the contrary actually: the iPhone 4 is quite possibly the most amazing gadget I have ever owned or ever imagined I would own.

  • I carry my iPhone 4 case free — I’ve never used an iPhone case — and it is still scratch, crack, and dent free. I keep it in my front left pocket with the front facing in. I’ve dropped it once and it only suffered a very minor scuff to plastic edging up by the camera lens.

In fact, the back of my iPhone 4 has less scratches than the back of my 4th-generation iPod touch. The touch’s chrome backing practically comes out of the box with scuffs on it.

  • On every other phone I’ve owned the battery life was part of the cost of ownership. But with the iPhone 4, the battery lasts me for 2 days. When I’m on the road at events, I usually need a charge every night because I’m doing a lot of 3G data usage. But in my day-to-day, this-is-how-Shawn-uses-his-iPhone usage, a full charge lasts me 2 days.

On my past iPhones, when the 20% battery warning would appear it meant I needed to go into iPhone survival mode — keeping usage to a minimum to save as much battery juice as possible before I am able to charge it next. But on the 4, a 20% warning simply means charge at my earliest convenience.

  • The camera is just great. In fact, it is the only camera in our house that gets any use. My iPhone is my camera. My iPhone camera roll is my photo library. The photo-editing apps on my iPhone are what I use as post-processing software for the pictures I take.

  • The Retina display. Oh, the Retina display. A year and a half later and this display still doesn’t feel normal to me. It still strikes me how it looks as if the pixels are painted onto the glass and how the images and type are so crisp.

  • Form factor. The original iPhone will always have a soft spot in my heart as being one of the finest looking devices I’ve ever owned. But nostalgia aside, the iPhone 4 truly is a gorgeous device. The black glass and the metal band with matching buttons are a hallmark of industrial design.

The design of the original iPhone was great, except it hindered signal strength. The design of the iPhone 3G /S was a necessary evil to makes sure that signal strength was good enough. The iPhone 4 is finally that balance of form and function.

The iPhone 4 is the completion of what Apple originally set out to build when they launched the iPhone in 2007. This current model is the last page of this chapter, and I believe the next iPhone will be the opening of a new chapter for the iPhone.

It’s hard to imagine what the next iPhone will be. Sure it’ll have a faster processor, and a better camera, and probably a longer battery. But who knows what it will look like? Who knows what other factors — factors which are still unknown to us — that will come into play and will give reason for the next iPhone to be that much more incredible?

We are content with the current iPhone, and yet we suspect the next one will be another hallmark.

Fantastic 4

Sweet App: Goodfoot for iPhone

Goodfoot is an iPhone app that helps you find cool, nearby places. And it does so by using the Gowalla API in one of the most clever ways I’ve seen.

Goodfoot iPhone app

I came across this app while doing research and preparation for our Creatiplicty episode with Trent Walton.

Goodfoot works by taking the most popular spots on Gowalla and then sorting them by distance (walking, biking, or driving distance) from where you currently are. Then it removes all the non-interesting spots from the list (such as big-brand locations, doctors offices, grocery stores, etc.) and does a pretty good job at only showing you worthwhile locations.

As you’re looking at each location Goodfoot has its own built-in Awesometer®. Goodfoot’s Awesometrics System rates the likelihood of that location being awesome by looking at how many total check-ins the location has compared to how many of those check-ins are unique. So, for example, a place with 100 check-ins from 100 unique people is probably a tourist hotspot and thus not that awesome (unless you think gift shops are awesome). A place with 100 check-ins from 20 people is clearly a local favorite and thus more likely to be awesome.

Once you find a spot that you want to go to, you can view that site in Gowalla or use Google Maps to get the exact location and directions.

Goodfoot is just a buck in the App Store and works wherever Gowalla users have been.

Sweet App: Goodfoot for iPhone

Apple’s Four-Year Product Rollout

Apple has but one product: Their products. Their product lineup is, in a sense, one single product. The “walled garden” is the whole point.

It hasn’t always been like this. Their products used to be silos — they were individual pieces of hardware that ran independently of one another. You could buy a desktop or a laptop and the files you kept on those computers stayed on those computers unless you intentionally and manually did something about it.

In 2001 the iPod was introduced, and with it you could take the music that was on your computer and put it onto a portable device. And that music could still exist on your computer at the same time it was on your iPod. In 2004 your iPod could also hold photos; in 2005, video.

For those with one or more laptops or desktops then there was probably a frustrating attempt to keep them somewhat in sync. Apple offered .Mac as a subscription service which in part allowed users to keep more than one computer in sync, but it was mostly just the smaller details and data of your computer that were synced. Things like passwords, contacts, and email rules. The big items, which comprise the actual work and play we do on our computers, were not synced.

It wasn’t until 2007, with the advent of the iPhone, that it became clear Apple was trying to incorporate everything together and to build a single product.

I think that Apple is just now finishing the first step of what it began in 2007.

Up until recently, they have been selling tangible products: devices with software. Soon, Apple will be selling universal, ubiquitous access. Or: all your stuff on all your devices in any place.

The future of technology is extreme usability coupled with extreme simplicity. Up until now we have only ever known that as product silos. Look how great this divide is or that app. But the GSMA is predicting 7 internet-connected devices per person in the next 15 years. My home already has 10. And so the future of simple and usable technology will require devices that are connected. And the more simple and usable that interconnectedness is, the better.

Through this lens we can see that the past four and half years have been one single, epic product rollout for Apple:

2007: iPhone (noteworthy refresh in 2010)
2007: Apple TV (noteworthy refresh in 2010)
2008: MacBook Air (noteworthy refresh in 2011)
2008: MobileMe (noteworthy refresh (iCloud) coming)
2008: App Store
2010: iPad (noteworthy refresh coming)
2011: Mac App Store
2011: OS X Lion

The iPhone, iCloud, iPad, iTunes, OS X Lion, iOS, Apple TV, the MacBook Air, and the iMac are all Apple products. But they are more than that. In aggregate they are one single product. Apple’s product lineup is, in and of itself, a single product.

These are devices which are built to be connected. They are built to work with one another. They are built for the purpose of having all your digital media accessible on any (Apple) device at any time.

The chapter that was opened with the iPhone in 2007 is coming to a close this fall with the advent of iCloud. Mobile computing, cloud computing, simpler computing… it is all phase one of the future. And it is now upon us.

The hardware are vessels for accessing your music, movies, apps, websites, documents, and more. Pick the device you want to use at the moment. The rest is just details.

Product Development

Each of the above products didn’t start out perfect. There has been significant improvement and iteration upon the original versions, but I think that in the next few months we will see the attainment of the original goals of each of the hardware and software products that have shipped over the past four years.

  • I think the iPhone 4 is the attainment of the goal that was set forth with the original iPhone.
  • The iPad 3 will be the attainment of the goal that was set forth with the original iPad.
  • iCloud is the attainment of the goal that was set forth with MobileMe (yea .Mac; yea iTools).
  • The 2011 MacBook Air is the attainment of the goal that was set forth with the first Air.
  • The current Apple TV and its upcoming software updates are the attainment of the goal that was set forth with the first iTV.

Or, put more simply: this next season of Apple product releases will mean the drying of the cement that is the foundation for where Apple is headed. The first “phase” is now complete.

Of course there will still be growth and innovation in the days to come, but Apple’s original vision for their product lineup is now nearly realized. They began simple, and they have slowly built upon each product to bring them to where they are today.

The Apple Ante

A common argument against Apple and their walled garden is that their products are too expensive. Those of you reading this likely already know the truth that that claim never actually held up. Just because Apple never sold a $250 laptop doesn’t mean their products were not fairly priced for the quality and value of the product.

But now, that argument has even less ground. Consider this excerpt from John Gruber’s review of the iPhone 3G:

“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.” — ANDY WARHOL

So too with the iPhone. A billionaire can buy homes, cars, clothes that the rest of us cannot afford. But he cannot buy a better phone, at any price, than the iPhone that you can have in your pocket today.

It is not just for the iPhone. It goes for virtually Apple’s entire product lineup (software included).

  • For $29 you can’t buy a better operating system than OS X Lion.
  • For $0.99 there’s not an easier way to buy a song — regardless of where you are — than on iTunes.
  • For $199 you can’t buy a better phone than the iPhone.
  • For $999 you can’t buy a better laptop than the 11-inch MacBook Air.
  • For $499 you can’t buy a better tablet than the iPad.

Suppose you buy the cheaper variants: some $250 Windows netbook, a $99 HP TouchPad (if you can find one), and a free Android phone of the month. Those products are silos. You’ll be able to sync your email and calendars over the air but that’s about it. You’ll have to sync them all independently of one another to have your media, and documents available on each one.

The future of simplicity and usability in technology means connectedness. It means hardware devices that don’t operate as silos independent of our documents and media and communication channels. But that future is now upon us. Apple’s version has always been the most delightful, but now it is one of the more affordable offerings as well.

Apple’s Four-Year Product Rollout

Leapfrogs

Here’s a thought: the iPhone and iPad are testing grounds for each other.

Steve Jobs said that Apple began building a touch device by first working on the iPad. But they set it aside to build the iPhone first instead. The iPad was the first idea, the iPhone was the first product shipped. The technology and operating system of the iPhone was then used as the foundation to build and ship the iPad.

The iPad was the first device with the A4 chip. Now the iPhone has it as well. The iPad now has the A5, and that is likely coming to the next iPhone.

The iPhone was the first with a front-facing camera and a Retina Display. The iPad has the former and it will soon have the latter.

The iPad has 3G data connectivity without a carrier contract. The iPhone doesn’t (yet).

The two devices keep leapfrogging each other. They swerve in and out of each other’s development cycles. Each one gets its own and different type of technology and then passes it on to the other. Sometimes the iPhone gets it before the iPad, and sometimes the iPad gets it before the iPhone.

Leapfrogs

Latest But Not Greatest  →

Dan Frommer on the report that the iPhone 4 and 3G S were the two best-selling smartphones in the 2nd quarter of 2011. Or, put another way, a phone that came out in the summer of 2009 sold better than every single phone that came out in the spring of 2011.

The proof is in the pudding: to succeed in this market you don’t have to be first to do something, nor do you have to unveil the newest technology, you simply have to be the best.

As I’ve said before, good marketing may get people in the door the first time, but it takes a good product to get them in the door the second time, the third time, and so on.

Latest But Not Greatest

Terminology for iPad and iPhone  →

Terminology is a dictionary and thesaurus app on steroids, and I’m thankful to Agile Tortoise for sponsoring the RSS feed this week in order to promote Terminilogy and its Back to School Sale.

It’s an app for iPad or iPhone and is the most feature-rich, thought-through, well-built dictionary and thesaurus app I have used. The iPad app I keep on my Home screen.

I have used other dictionary apps and Terminology is one of the best. Primarily thanks to the information it draws and the way that information is displayed. Once you’ve used Terminology for a little while you’ll instantly realize what a great tool it is — especially for writers.

In fact, this is precisely how Terminology bills itself: “The perfect tool for anyone interested in honing their language. From writers working on the next great novel, to marketers craving the perfect tagline.”

You see, in addition to being shown the definition of the word, you’re also given synonyms, antonyms, and similar suggestions for other words. The raw information found in Terminology is not new, but the way that information is presented is done so in an extremely helpful manner which is a big part of what makes this app so fine.

Moreover, Terminology hooks in with certain apps you may already own, such as Articles, Twitter, and Instapaper. You can add one-tap access to additional online resources such as Google, Wikipedia, and Urban Dictionary. Marco Arment even likes Terminology so much that he added support for it right in to Instapaper. If you have the former installed then the latter will use it when you look up the definition of a word.

Terminology is like a friend who is incredibly well versed in the English language — not just knowing definitions and meanings, but also educated in usage and suggestions as well. Using Terminology is like having that friend’s undivided attention as they help you find just the right word or turn of phrase that you’re looking for.

If you’re going to snag a copy, you should do so soon because Terminology is currently on sale, but only until Sunday.

Terminology for iPad and iPhone

AT&T’s New Text Messaging Pricing  →

Starting Sunday, all new customers to AT&T will have a new pricing structure for their text-messaging plans: unlimited or pay-per-text.

Starting August 21, we’re streamlining our text messaging plans for new customers and will offer an unlimited plan for individuals for $20 per month and an unlimited plan for families of up to five lines for $30 per month. The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers. Existing customers don’t have to change any messaging plan they have today, even when changing handsets.

The cost will still be $20 for the unlimited plan (and $30 for family) just like it is but that’s the only text messaging plan that will be available. If you don’t go with a plan then you’ll pay $0.20/SMS and $0.30/MMS.

This is a smart move by AT&T. If you send more than 3 text messages a day then it’s cheaper to get the unlimited plan. The vast majority of new customers will go with the unlimited plan. Especially any and all new customers who may be switching to AT&T later this fall due to a certain new phone and a certain new OS.

With the previous plan option of $10/1,000 you could send 32 text messages a day before the unlimited plan became cheaper. And with iMessage rolling out this fall it means new (and current customers) on iPhones who likely would have gone with the $10/1,000 plan will instead go for the $20 unlimited plan.

But I think it’s silly to say that this move is solely in response to iMessage. AT&T has nearly 100 million wireless subscribers. And the total install base of American smartphone users are still outnumbered by non-smartphone users 2 to 1. Put another way: there are a lot of AT&T customers who don’t use an iPhone.

On a personal note, Anna and I will be sticking with our unlimited family messaging plan. At $0.20 per text we could only send 150 text messages per month before the $30 plan got cheaper. We each send close to 150 texts in just one week. And, except for one cousin on my mom’s side, not a single person our entire family owns an iPhone. Thus, iMessage won’t be incredibly helpful to us.

AT&T’s New Text Messaging Pricing

Thoughts on the iPhone 5 Mockups

I rarely link to rumors or leaks because:

  • Who knows if they’re ever true (many rumors are simply sensationalized posts pulled out of thin air in hopes to lure in some page views).

  • New rumors sprout up every day, and I have no interest in playing that game and giving momentum to the rumor mill.

  • Rumors have no effect on what the real product will be, when it will be released, or if it will even exist.

  • Reading rumors is like shaking your Christmas present boxes and trying to guess what’s inside. Sure, there is an element of fun and mystery that comes along with trying to guess what’s inside. But if you do guess then it ruins the surprise. I much prefer surprises.

However, today there is so much flying around about the potential design of the iPhone 5 that I thought it was worth highlighting and sharing a few of my initial impressions.

Today Mac Rumors posted some 3D renderings of what the iPhone 5 might look like. They commissioned CiccareseDesign to do the renderings based on recent leaks of an iPhone case.

Also, a couple days ago this video was posted which claims to demo the leaked iPhone 5 website right on Apple.com.

As cool and polished as the video of the leaked website is, it is a fake. The Mac Rumors 3D rendering doesn’t claim to be a leak at all. In fact, I think what they did is very clever and their renderings look great.

The design of the iPhone 5 seen in the fake video is very similar to the 3D renderings that Mac Rumors commissioned. They are both, more or less, branched off of the original iPhone 5 mockup posted by This is My Next back in April.

In short, the general idea with all these various rumors and mockups is that the next iPhone will: (1) be thinner; (2) have a teardrop-shape making the top-end of the phone thicker than the bottom; and (3) implement new technology and functionality on the front where the Home Screen Button is.

What I like about the rumors of the next iPhone:

  • The idea of a curved back. I think the iPhone 3G and 3G S were much more comfortable to hold than the iPhone 4 is. Though I am significantly more fond of the iPhone 4’s design — it is very classy and sturdy; the iPhone 3G S felt much cheaper.

  • A thinner design. Who doesn’t want thinner and lighter mobile hardware? Though I have a hard time imagining the next iPhone to be as thin as the current iPod touch.

I have an iPod touch and it is thin. In fact, I’d say it’s almost too thin to be a phone. A phone needs to be extremely grip-able because it’s something you are constantly putting in and out of your pocket, waving around, texting with while walking, and more. To me, the iPod touch is not as easy to hold on to as the iPhone 4.

  • The matte black aluminum back. It would be so sweet looking. (But, as you’ll read in a minute, I don’t think it’ll happen.)

  • A more useful and functional home button. I think we’re all agreed that the home button functionality is getting broken and that there could be a better way to quickly switch between apps, especially when there are two or three apps you are using simultaneously.

What I don’t expect to see in the next iPhone:

  • Extreme thinness. The iPod touch is significantly thinner than the iPhone 4, but it comes with tradeoffs such as a lower-quality camera. Combined with the current state of battery technology, the need for a CDMA or GSM chip, and the other bits that the iPhone 4 which the iPod touch does not, and I have a hard time believing the next iPhone will be as thin as an iPod touch.

  • An Aluminum back. As cool as I think it would be, the reason Apple moved away from the aluminum back in 2008 was for the sake of needing better cellular connectivity. Do you really think Steve Jobs wanted a plastic iPhone? No way. But they needed to use plastic on the the 3G and 3G S for the sake of functionality and improving cellular connectivity.

  • A 4-inch screen. With a screen that big, it would no longer be a “retina” display. A 4-inch screen with resolution of 640×960 would have a pixel density of 288 PPI. The current pixel density of the iPhone 4 is 330 PPI. That would mean a 4-inch screen would suffer a 13% loss in pixel density — the same loss that’s found between the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. And if you’e ever set those two laptops side by side the difference is instantly obvious. (I even said in my MacBook Air review that the 15-inch MacBook Pro now looks comically large.)

According to Apple, the whole idea of the Retina Display is that after 300 PPI our eye can’t tell the difference. So, according to that theory, they are technically safe to drop the pixel density just so long as they keep it above 300. If they were going enlarge the screen it would have to be no bigger than 3.8 inches.

If they did go to a 4-inch screen, in order to keep it a Retina Display they would need to increase the pixel resolution to something other than 960×640, and there is no way that’s going to happen.

Thoughts on the iPhone 5 Mockups

The Difference Between iOS and Android  →

Ryan Heise switched from an iPhone to a Nexus S about 6 weeks ago and has been documenting the experience. After a month with Android he wrote his initial thoughts, including what he sees as the main differences between iOS and Android:

It is the difference between Apple and Google. It is the stark contrast of a polished, holistic, curated computing experience and a mess of ideas, some implemented well, some implemented poorly, some not making any sense whatsoever. It is the difference in the feel between a finished product and a beta.

The Difference Between iOS and Android