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…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?

…and it was in my pocket. RedEye for iPhone is a new product that combines a free iPhone app with a Physical IR transmitter that allows you to control just about anything that came with a remote. The app connects from your iPod Touch or iPhone to the RedEye IR transmitter via Wifi and immediately sends commands to your equipment, including TVs, DVRs, stereo systems, etc… It appears to be quite nice to use, and the potential for this product is huge.

I’ve been mulling over universal remotes for a long time now, and have never found one that really excited me. Until now. The economy of using a touch screen device that you already own to replace cluttered remote controls is stunning. Check out some of the videos:

For some time now I’ve experienced oddities with the call waiting beeps on the iPhone. When I first noticed it, it was on a call between myself (iPhone 1st Gen) and a friend (iPhone 1st Gen). I could hear the call waiting tones when he had a second call coming in, and he could hear my call waiting beeps when I had a call coming in. It was kind of a nuisance, but I never tried to troubleshoot it.

Now that I’ve upgraded to the 3GS, the problem is much worse. So bad that frequently, the party I’m talking to thinks that it’s their own call waiting beep, but then they see that no call is coming in. It’s not a huge problem, but I decided to try to fix it.

I called Apple and spoke to a level 2 Product Specialist. She was both amazed by the problem and very interested. She got ATT tier 2 on the call and I demonstrated the problem to them repeatedly by calling my iPhone from my work phone. Conveniently, it’s one of the easiest problems to demonstrate to a tech over the phone. The ATT tech did a bunch of stuff to my account, but had no impact. They could still hear loud and clear whenever I had an incoming call.

After we let ATT go from the call, we wised up and I popped my SIM into a 3G phone made by LG. Voila. Problem gone. This confirmed that the problem was indeed local to the iPhone and not network based. Next we tried with the iphone sans wired headset. Problem gone. Just like the LG. Next I tried Bluetooth. Worked perfect. We both agreed that it must be the wired headset. I set a Genius Bar appointment and hung up.

Before I left for the store, I realized that I had a brand new wired Apple headset that I had never used. I plugged those in and to my amazement, the problem was back! At this point, it seemed that the iPhone itself was at fault, and was causing the problem by the way that it handled ANY wired headset.

At the Apple Store, they were also amazed and claimed to have never seen this problem before. This led me to believe that I just may have a defective phone. They pulled a brand new 32GB 3GS off the shelf and swapped it out with no hesitation. I didn’t bother testing at the store, because if this didn’t fix it, there could be no resolution without involving engineering.

I must say, however, I was a little surprised when I made a test call on the drive home and the problem was not resolved. Exactly the same problem. It’s interesting to me that no one is complaining about this, considering I just went through two pairs of Apple wired headsets, and two iPhones with no change in the problem. It must be happening to nearly everyone with a 32GB 3GS, and possibly more.

The circumstances are:

Using an Apple wired headset on an iPhone 3GS

Active call with party A

Incoming call from party B

Party A hears the beep from the incoming call loud and clear

One entertaining side affect is that I got to try the “Remote Wipe” function of the new iPhone OS 3.0. I used it on the outgoing 3GS and it took about 5 seconds, after which, the screen went black and it rebooted, then asked to be activated.

It may only be a 3 megapixel, but the focus control really hits it outta the park. Make sure to click the image, and then click again to enlarge it (if your browser resizes images to fit the screen)…

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!

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…

This new version of Safari is very fast, with quite a few new features also…

I’ve been using it for a day now and can fully recommend it. It seems very stable, passes the Acid 3 test like no other browser, and the “Top Sites” feature is really nice. I use Top Sites as my start page now because it loads so damn quick.

Download link: Safari Beta 4

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!

Entering geek zone:

Looks like ATT is gonna release their femtocell (3g Microcell) soon, but as of now we have no idea of pricing.

Femtocells are small wireless cell “towers” that you can install at your home or business, letting you create your own pocket of “5 bar” service. They require a connection to the internet, and can support up to 4 cell phones. All of the phones must be 3G, like the current iPhone, in order to use the femtocell.

The most interesting part I found, was that AT&T’s 3G Microcell has a built in GPS receiver to determine if you are currently in a ATT covered area. Obviously, this means that there’s potential to “trick” it, and receive great coverage (without roaming) wherever you have a broadband connection! I need more details, but the possibilities are amazing!

ATT 3G MicroCell