19/04/2012
An interesting article from Bloomberg has been circling the web the past couple of days. It was written in January 2007 after the original Apple iPhone was announced. Author Matthew Lynn thought Apple’s new phone would never be a concern for Nokia or Motorola and only fanboys would buy the device.
Hindsight is 20/20, but you still read articles that question the new iDevices as they are released. The updates are minor, not worth an upgrade and the same Apple fanboys will run out and buy it. The “fanboy” population has really exploded. Currently one in every three high school students own an iPhone. When I was in high school (15 years ago) no one used a Mac anything. You don’t sell 10s of millions of every version of devices to the “fanboy” crowd. At this point (and I can’t believe it has to be written) but Apple has gone main stream. Most of said articles do cover themselves saying that Apple will sell a “ton” of iPad/iPhone when launched. You don’t have to be on-board the Apple train but at least save yourself the trouble of looking ignorant.
Continue on to read the article in its entirety.
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21/03/2012
When I heard that Sparrow came out with an email client for the iPhone, I downloaded without hesitation. What? $2.99. That is nothing for the products that team has produced. Sparrow for OS X is great. After I downloaded the app I was confused, then sad.
What? No Push notifications? So I only know if I have new mail after I open the app. That is a waste of time. I want to look and see the number in the little red circle on the upper right hand corner of the app logo. If that number is higher, I’m all over it. If not, then I move on. Not having Push at launch is a big miss.
Next up, no POP support. Which means no work email for most of use that don’t use Google Apps for work. This isn’t completely bad (who wants to check work email on the go?) but I don’t want to use two apps for my email.
Sparrow (both PC and mobile) gets rave reviews for the UX. I think there was a miss on the iOS version. Essential there are 3 main screens. The first screen is a list of the mail accounts (much like the native iOS app, top image). The second screen is all the folders and labels for the chosen inbox (bottom image) and the last screen (not shown) is the list of emails. I don’t want to have to go through the middle page of folders and labels to get to my email. After I select an email account I want to see the email. Why the extra swipe?
Overall the app has potential and I assume at some point Sparrow will get Push and POP support, but until then, I’m going to stick with the native iOS mail app.
(Image credit: Sparrow)
28/02/2012
In my last post about eReaders vs paper books I was trying to decide if I wanted to stick with paper books or move to reading books on a device. The decision was to take the jump and get a Kindle Fire. It has now been a month with the Fire, and after hours of reading both blogs and books on the Fire, I can now review my venture into the eReader world.
The “Kindle” experience is much better on the Fire than the Kindle apps available on the iPhone and iPad. After using the Fire I have to believe that Amazon can make the Kindle apps more user friendly and easier on the eyes. But I understand that they don’t want to make the apps awesome, or why would you want to buy a Kindle when you can have a full featured version in an app on your iDevice?
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9/01/2012
When reading there are few things better than holding a physical book. I read the occasional magazine and was never a huge fan of newspapers but a (hardback) book is by far my favorite. Up to this point I have held off the urge to try an e-reader, or specifically a Nook or Kindle. When I travel I default to reading magazines because I don’t want to lug a book in my bag. For example, I am currently reading the Steve Jobs biography and it is over 600 pages. The weight isn’t as much as an issues as is the thickness with all the other crap I have to bring. I also like the idea that when I am reading around the house my children see that I am reading a physical book and not a device. This has has been reinforced as my son (almost 3 years old) will grab one of his books and sit down next to me and “read” as well. I am however starting to get pulled toward the direction of an e-reader because I have really started increasing the amount of time I am reading, the ease of having it when I travel and just out of pure tech curiosity.
If one were to buy an “e-reader”, which is best?
This decision breaks down into two different segments. The first being a classic e-reader with e-ink that is most like a book, or the new tablets that can double as a reader. In this case that would be a Kindle Fire, or Nook Tablet and even an iPad. I already own an iPad 2 but my children have adopted the device and I don’t see it as often. The second decision point is which brand, Kindle or Nook?
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29/11/2011
I bought my first laptop shortly after I graduated from college. The problem was I missed the point of a laptop. My first laptop was what they called a “desktop replacement” which meant it had the power and memory of a desktop and weighed about as much but with a flip up screen. This was at a time when the desktop was the norm and years before tablets.
Realizing the error in my ways, I went the opposite direction, bought another Dell, but this time one with a 12-inch screen. Super mobile and short battery life. There wasn’t really a need for a laptop at this time in my career (as my job provided one), and I always had a desktop around but I liked the idea of a laptop. The mobility was great, but when I got my first job at a startup and my laptop became my main work computer, the 12 inch screen was killing me. A monitor was provided but the software was not super excited with the addition of an external monitor and the system was slow. It was time for a change.
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16/07/2008
With the launch of the new iPhone App Store, a new platform has been created to reach millions of tech savvy users. With new platforms, comes new marketing channels. While the cost of entry is higher to build an app for the iPhone, that also limits the number of competitors.
You have three options when building an iPhone app:
- Build an app that promotes your service (MLB has a paid app for scores and stats)
- Build an app that replicates your service (ebay, facebook, paypal and myspace all do this)
- Build an independent app (an app that is not tied to a current product or service)
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