Advanced Dynamic Ramblings

…I don’t have one yet. I was at the U. Village Apple store on Saturday morning to check out the craziness and spend a little one on one time with an iPad. The interface is beautiful, and the hardware makes it quite responsive. Standard iPhone/iPod Touch apps are a joke, and look comical on the iPad’s larger screen, but apps designed for the iPad are amazing.

I’m not going to give a comprehensive review and rehash all the same stuff that all the other blogs and media outlets are covering. I’m going to comment on one, singular omission that tops the list of reasons that the iPad is not really ready yet.

User accounts.

Computers have user accounts, iPhones don’t. The iPad falls somewhere in between, so it’s arguable that it should remain simple and user account free. I beg to differ.

When I’m carrying my iPhone and someone asks me to see it or play with it for a bit, I usually hand it over and look over their shoulder. I’ll give them a minute or two, and then time is up. I’ve got a fair amount of personal information loaded into my iPhone. Email, saved passwords in Safari, and browser history are just a few to mention.

An iPad is not a “personal” device that you would pocket and carry with you around town, so the likelihood that you get hit up for some demo time is low, but it IS a coffee table computer. It’s something that you should feel comfortable to leave in the living room and allow guests to use for web surfing, iTunes music requests, etc…

Without the ability to log out, I would not be comfortable loading my personal credentials into the iPad lest I look like an asshole when a guest asks to use the thing and I say… “meh… I don’t think so, it’s my computer and I can’t log out…”

Apple? Is this on your list?

While ATT has given iPhone users free access to Wifi at most Starbucks (and 4,000 other locations), it’s always been a slightly cumbersome process. With the new iPhone OS 3.0, that is no longer the case.

Carry your iPhone w/ OS 3.0 into an ATT Wifi hotspot and it will automatically authenticate, not requiring the iPhone user to take any action to connect to the Wifi hotspot. This is very nice, and serves both the customer and ATT…

Since it’s almost unavoidable to use the hotspot when in range, ATT is effectively offloading some percentage of their data traffic from the 3G network to the local broadband provider. Yay!

SO MANY ANNOUNCEMENTS, I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN!

All new laptops, SD card slots on 13 and 15 inch models. FireWire back on 13 inch model. All aluminum models are now called MacBook Pro.

iPhone OS 3.0 with a TRUCKLOAD of new features…

“Find my Phone” lets you locate your iPhone from your MobileMe account. Tethering lets you connect your laptop to the internet through your iPhone (When ATT gets their act together)

Snow Leopard!!! It will only cost $29 for Leopard users. Built in Exchange support! Fast!

iPhone 3GS announced! Much faster, 7.2 Mb HSPA, built in compass, video recording, MMS (When ATT gets their act together), longer battery life, voice control, SpotLight search for iPhone…

For a play by play review of the event, see gdgt

I’ve worked with Qwest many times, and have generally been pleased with their support. This most recent debacle, however, had my blood boiling.

Set up:

One of my clients was unable to send or receive emails on Friday, just before Memorial Day weekend. He called his email provider, Qwest, before he called me, and during the call, the Qwest rep decided that the appropriate solution was to completely remove his account from Qwest.net and set up a new MSN account at q.com. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough information to put the brakes on this “solution”. Don’t even ask me how MSN relates to q.com… It’s beyond me, I don’t care to peel back the layers to figure it out, and I shall remain intentionally ignorant on this topic.

With the Qwest.net account deleted, and a new q.com account in it’s place, all incoming emails to the qwest.net addresses were bouncing back to their sender.

Tue after Memorial Day Weekend:

I send an email to said client (unaware of the specific problem) and it bounces immediately. I realize that the problem is with Qwest, and not a particular setting in his email program. I call Qwest and begin the process of trying to reactivate the Qwest.net account that died on Friday. After 3 seperate calls totalling approximately 3 hours, Qwest is unable to achieve this trivial task. We shift gears and set up free Gmail accounts. My client says that he can manage updating all of his contacts with his new email address. Later that day however, he realizes that one of the qwest.net email addresses was used for making upcoming travel arrangements. Many emails had been sent out, and there was pretty much no way to reach out and reliably update all those contacts with the new Gmail address. I agree to do battle with Qwest.

This is the recording of that call:

I’ve edited out the hold times, but it’s still quite long…

Audio of call

Apple gained traction early on with the iPhone utilizing ATT’s distribution network and brand awareness in the carrier vertical. I argued that Apple’s retail network was plenty to get the iPhone moving, but obviously Apple didn’t think so. As a result, the iPhone that everyone knows, is one that ATT has signed off on, one that ATT has subsidized, and one that doesn’t do ANYTHING on the cell network that ATT doesn’t approve of.

The fact that Skype for iPhone only works on Wifi is no accident. It’s also not an engineering problem. It is simply NOT in the interest of ATTs current revenue model, as Skype over an unlimited data connection would net the user unlimited calls for $35/month.

With the market penetration for the iPhone where it is, I don’t think that the iPhone can really benefit any more from carrier (ATT) availability. Of course, the downside, is that Apple would need to price the iPhone so as to generate appropriate (Apple) margins, as there would be no subsidy.

The upside would be an explosion of potential functionality for the iPhone, as Apple would not be constantly seeking ATTs approval for every feature. Apple would be free to build the phone that they want to build, but also responsible for creating a value proposition for the customer.

ATT should focus on infrastructure, which is their core business. Apple can focus on hardware. The same goes for any other handset manufacturer out there, but the iPhone has an advantage now, with two years of rapid, subsidized growth under it’s belt. If ATT wants to sell a locked, subsidized version of the iPhone (probably with custom firmware), then they can work that out with Apple and see how well it sells.

I dream…

A settlement was reached in California over a lawsuit alleging that iPod nanos are too easily scratched. The result is a $22.5M fund for distribution to certain iPod nano owners.

Here’s the deets: http://www.ipodnanosettlement.com/index.html

Apple’s page for identifying iPod models: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1353#ipodnano

Looks like the House defeated the bill that would delay the digital TV transition. The Democrat controlled House was unable to get the 2/3 majority needed to pass the stupid thing. The bill just passed in the Senate, and I wrote a brief post to show my disapproval.

Back on track!

You shouldn’t be…

What I mean is that Apple claims that the service is up and running 100%. If you are still having problem using your MobileMe email with your Mac or iPhone, seek support.

For long wait times and adequate support, click this link.

For friendly and effective help available from 7a to 7p PST, 7 days a week, hit up Orchard Remote.

Next up is “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” by Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy…

From Wikipedia:

An 18-year-old British student, Nick Haley, used the song in a homemade 30-second commercial for the iPod touch that he created and then posted on the video sharing site YouTube on September 11, 2007.[2] Creative executives from Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, saw Haley’s creation, contacted him, and enlisted him to remake it as a broadcast version.[3] The spot began airing in the U.S. on October 28, 2007

Interestingly, the song was first used in a Zune ad a year earlier. Who knew? Also, I think this is the song that generated the unbelievably high hit count on YouTube, so high that the integrity of the hit counter was questioned and the video ultimately pulled.

iPod Touch ad:

Music Video:

The commercial music post of the day…

“The Way I Am” was featured in an Old Navy advertising campaign in the Fall of 2007. The artist is Ingrid Michaelson. Their seems to be a theme with this indie, pop, soft female vocals across many artists gaining popularity today…

Old Navy ad:

Music Video: