iPhone MMS, a request to O2

Just received another of those awful text messages from O2 because someone has sent me an MMS message. Tried the web link in the SMS from my iPhone and it was a dreadful, dreadful experience.

Questions to O2:

1. Why is this web site not iPhone or even just mobile phone optimised? You are the only carrier who carries the iPhone, with much fanfare, so surely making it work across your web estate, especially in this instance where the first instinct is to pick up the message straight away.
2. You know I have an iPhone so why not convert the MMS to an email and send it to me, missing out the whole sign-in, pin, UI disaster in the first place? You've even got my email address already, I'd just need an SMS to confirm I want this feature enabled and we're away.

Do get in touch if you'd like any help implementing this. Esendex has all the skills and experience required.

Is Genius a shortcut to banality?

Like many others I've been enjoying the Genius playlist feature in iTunes 8. I've been generally pleased with the results until a realisation struck me tonight. It only really plays singles or well known album tracks.

It's like listening to Now That's What I Call Adam's Music.

I can't remember hearing an obscure album track that made me think wow, yuck, mmm or in fact anything. It was all very easy to listen to.

This weekend I spent a good couple of hours putting together a playlist for my son's birthday party. Basically a list of upbeat numbers that he likes from my collection, censored for rude words and inappropriate content.

That said, I couldn't resist Simian - La Breeze which I'm sure is about SBDs (Silent But Deadlies), perfect for his age-group.

I then got the tracks in order merging nicely, taking the tempo up and down and throwing in various timely numbers. I got Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot bang on, just at the point when they decided the winner of pass-the-parcel need a victory circuit of the room on their shoulders.

While I haven't got the time to do that for every playlist, it made for a very different and enjoyable listening experience. AS you can probably tell, I was quite proud of it.

Judging by the privacy warning I had to agree to to start using Genius, I'm guessing that it uses appearances in someone's playlist as a positive indicator that songs should be played together.

If this is the case ,what happens as people save these Genius playlists. The 'greatest hits' content gets fed back to the mother ship, self validating the Genius algorithms.

Systems like this can easily tend to the lowest common denominator, in the case of music this means banality. Commercial radio style scheduling at your fingertips.

I'm sure there are other drivers but playlists are probably high on the list.

So until we can find out otherwise, I urge you all to use Genius sparingly and whatever you do DON'T SAVE.

Incidentally if you have any John Mayer in your collection might be worth checking how often his songs appear in your Genius lists.

What was I saying about needing the new iPhone because of my battery?

Well the new one certainly pulls some juice. I can't get through the day without having to charge it. Not great for a device I want to use as my primary.

There obviously things I can do to help the battery life like How To Maximize Your iPhone 3G's Questionably Adequate Battery Life, but I must admit to thinking why should I.

The whole Apple proposition is producing beautiful, elegant products that work. Basically you pay a premium so you don't have to worry about the detail, you can just enjoy the experience.

Now I'm being told I should turn off 3G or WiFi scanning, doing the device's thinking for it, hardly elegant.

I do love the device and I'm going to get a Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger to keep me alive when I'm travelling but it leaves me feeling like an early adopter again which wasn't the iPhone 3G proposition.

Wasn't this the iPhone we were waiting for? The normobs certainly won't stand for it.

New iPhone not a moment too soon

The battery is really starting to fade on my iPhone, let's hope the next upgrade is in a year as well.

Nokia vs BlackBerry vs iPhone

The web is awash with opinion and comment, so why not add my two-penneth.

I sit here with a Nokia E51, BlackBerry 8707v and an iPhone. When the iPhone morphs into a 3G monster something's got to give and that something is the BlackBerry. Ugly hunk of plastic with terrible browser that it is.

Fantastic email device but that's all it is. It's an awful phone. Exchange access on my iPhone, yes please. I actually like typing on the iPhone's touch screen now more than on the BlackBerry keyboard. Who'd of thought?

I think of all the losers in the wake of the iPhone success, it's BlackBerry that are going to suffer most. They are making a big move into the consumer and SME space. Vodafone here in the UK have most definitely nailed the colours to that particular mast. The problem is the iPhone is just so much better for that market.

Whether or not Apple crack the big enterprise market, or even if the really want to, the Exchange support added to IMAP and POP3 means if you want mobile email as personal or SME user, the iPhone is the one to choose because it's also an iPod and an amazing mobile Internet experience.

So why am I keeping the Nokia? They operate in a very different space and I'll be keeping my E51 because of it. Apple's closed app distribution model will prevent true innovation when it comes to mobile apps. if you want to do things like Qik or Shozu, they're going to come first to Nokia because it is the most feature rich and that is what all the mobile geeks use. That unpaid QA department in the cloud that are happy to work through the foibles of the platform because they desperately want the new stuff to work.

Yes the Nokia OS is a pain to use but the hardware is the business and features allow developers and entrepreneurs to flex their technical creativity.

So bye-bye BlackBerry, all being well you won't be missed.

O2 and the new iPhone, perhaps I might be stuck

Next week it seems we'll find out about the 3G iPhone, and hopefully O2 will put me out of my misery about whether they'll let me upgrade (Will O2 penalise me for being an early-adopter?).

In the shower this morning, location of most of thinking, it occurred to me that if they did let me upgrade, I'd be left with a 'useless' iPhone, at least in the eyes of Apple and O2. My purchase agreement prohibits me from jailbreaking it so as soon as my number is ported over to the new device and the SIM deactivated it's officially a brick.

Apple are very public about their dislike of jail-breaking  but I'm sure the networks will be equally keen to upgrade people and extend their contracts. All those early adopters with a 'spare' iPhone will head straight to eBay via an unlocking service to recoup some of their outlay.

In many ways this is the most environmentally conscious approach. Make sure the device, that is still in excellent working order, can still be used by someone. Rather than ending up in a landfill somewhere,  leaching it's delectable cocktail of heavy metals and other substances in to the surrounding ecosystem.

An alternative is for Apple + operator to provide a return scheme, probably with a cash back or new contract penalty if the original phone isn't returned when it's deactivated. If this is the case, it will be very interesting to watch the prices on eBay to see whether money's to be made.

This would be expensive for Apple as they still have to do something with the phones when the receive them. If it happens it will have probably come down to a battle between the Apple Cool Police and the money men over how much control freakery really costs.

Unfortunately this is all personal conjecture as there is a still a significantly less appealing alternative, no upgrades. But that doesn't bear thinking about...

The great British iPhone mystery | The Register

This popped up on The Register today, well worth a read.

The great British iPhone mystery | The Register

I've currently got a Nokia E51 so I can do some R&D as well as trying out some of the new mobile apps which all seem to be for Symbian S60. It's a great bit of hardware but the OS is a real pain to use, Nokia really need to pull their fingers out if their to remain at the top of the smartphone market.

Will O2 penalise me for being an early-adopter?

The 3G iPhone is imminent, I'm about 7 months into my existing contract (11 months to go), will O2 let me upgrade?

I sincerely hope they do and I don't think I'm necessarily being unreasonable.

The handset was unsubsidised so that's not part of my monthly charge. If O2 offered me the an upgrade but required me to extend my contract by another 18 months I'd probably go for it. They keep me as a customer for an extra 7 months and I get the shiny new iPhone.

Love the existing version as I do, and I really do, the data speeds are something that I put up with.

If they don't I'm going to decidedly annoyed. Hopefully I'll find out in a few weeks time.

"We even hired an expert"

This tickled me. You may be aware that Sprint are launching an iPhone competitor in partnership with Samsung, the Samsung Instinct. It's a big deal for Sprint and interesting one for the rest of the industry to monitor up take by subscribers.

"This is certainly the biggest device that we will launch this year," David Owens, director of product commercialization at Sprint said. "We built it through a partnership with Samsung and even hired an expert to help us with UI design."

Wow they hired an expert. Does that mean the rest of the phone was designed and built by amateurs? There are so many ways to read that last sentence.

iPhone goes for the enterprise, BlackBerry fight back

It's an iPhone with a QWERTY keyboard!

BlackBerry 9000 in the wild

OK so no touch screen interface but this promises to be a serious bit of kit that will cement BlackBerries in the enterprise. Must check out the BlackBerry development kit so how that stacks up against the iPhone SDK that Jonathan is wrestling with at the moment.

Are Symbian and J2ME dead?

The launch of the iPhone and Android SDKs represent a huge leap forward in the opportunities for mobile device application development. The question for me is how do the current incumbents, Symbian and J2ME, react.

I've talked before about my continued disappointment with mobile applications (Mobile Phone Applications, when will they ever take off?). These experiences have been very much routed in the pre iPhone/Android era.

In the Symbian/J2ME world, applications are poorly integrated with the phone, hidden by layers of menus and generally underwhelming. The world according to iPhone/Android has the opportunity for the application to be front and centre, and in Android's case, closely integrated with the phone functions.

The second half of 2008 promises to be a fantastically exciting time for mobile device users. The iPhone has redefined the mobile device and the version 2.0 firmware with its enterprise features will deliver a device that kicks some serious Windows Mobile butt. Can't believe they're on version 6 and it's still an overweight, clunky to use, buggy monstrosity.

Now apps for the iPhone are not going to be without issues. The big one for me is the inability/refusal to allow background processes to run. It stops all sorts of useful features like background data updates and push facilities that would really make it a BlackBerry killer. That said, it's an amazing user interface experience, and as it continues to demonstrate, even without 3G data transfer speeds, iPhones are blazing a trail in mobile web usage. Though I do suspect most of this is on home WiFi networks.

The killer feature for me is the remote update capabilities that are built into the OS. The link to iTunes is critical to the devices operation and this allows Apple to push new updates, including strategy changes, at will. I can't remember the last time I updated the firmware on a Symbian phone.

Android is taking a very different line, an almost completely open platform. Full access to all the device's functions. Now this is really a desktop-like development experience. No-holds barred, access to everything, only constrained by your imagination type environment. Only one thing is missing, handsets. It seems Samsung and HTC are in a race to deliver the first but apparently this won't be until the end of this year! So develop what you like, it 'aint going to be on a device until 2009.

There seems to be a huge opportunity for Nokia to leverage their number 1, by a long way, position in the world handset market and bring something truly powerful and pervasive to the market. Unfortunately it seemed their response was to make it even harder to get Symbian apps on phones. Why Symbian Signed must die gives a good account.

Symbian can push out news stories about how many handsets ship with Symbian, 77.3m Symbian smartphones shipped in 2007 but for me that's 77m handsets that aren't going to run Symbian apps, it's just too difficult for people, especially enterprises.

Apple are treading a very delicate path with the iPhone, keep it exclusive but get it adopted by enterprises. Historically their products haven't been adopted by this segment. If their aspirations are to get the iPhone into the hands of key personnel and in turn those personnel buy a Mac for home instead of a Windows PC then that's probably a huge result.

I'm pretty neutral on Android. Yes it's flexible, yes it's open, but it's a while before before people can actually use it and who knows what will happen then. I do wonder whether there is a bigger play here involving GrandCentral a mobile device, closely integrated with that service could be very disruptive indeed.

Symbian, IMHO, have lost the plot already. They have huge penetration but low usage and no established update process. It's going to take something dramatic from them to enable them to maintain their dominance of the high-end mobile device market.

iPhone is a bit player

Very good article by Ewan at SMSTextNews on why he thinks the iPhone is revolutionary but it hasn't really changed anything and won't do until there's a strategy change from Jobs & Co.

The Apple iPhone will only ever be a bit player. What’s next?

I'm inclined to agree with him. I love the phone, but I'm definitely in the ultra-geek category. 3G support and a lower price point should see them fly of the shelves though.

Still loving my iPhone

I'm pretty notorious for having a very short attention span. I'll jump passionately in to a new service or toy with both feet, love it for a couple of weeks until something else takes my fancy. Julian, as you can see from his derisory comments on : iPhone - Smartphone for the Normob?, has been of the opinion that my iPhone purchase would go the same way.

Well I'm still loving it and the latest updates announced at a MacWorld have made it better. It really is a device that fits into my personal life.

Yes the camera's not great and the data coverage can be irritating but it's so well thought out and put together that I still keep coming back for more. I've even got used to the keyboard.

This year will see a slew of copies from Nokia, LG, Samsung, et al and it'll be really interesting to see how these manifest themselves. I think the challenge for them will be to not try make it backwardly compatible, interface wise, with the rest of their estate.

One of the key reasons the iPhone is such a success is that Apple have taken decisions about how you want to use the device on your behalf. Their team of UI designers have worked out the best way for it to work so you don't have to.

The temptation when developing software is to give user full control, lots of features that they can take advantage of. You never can tell what a user might want to do so make sure you've got your bases covered. The danger with this approach is that you end up with a sea of options that confuse the user rather than empower them.

I liken this to the multiple camera options you get (at least I assume you still do) with Sky Sports coverage. So you can watch Wayne Rooney scratch is rear or John Terry yelling at his team mates while the rest of the game is going on.

This kind of service doesn't appeal to me at all. Why should I make decisions about the best angle when a highly paid (assumption) highly experienced sports TV producer is there to make the decisions for me and make sure I don't miss the best bits.

The iPhone has been a liberating experience for me. Usually with a new device I'm desperate to dive in and configure, load things, try things out and I just end up getting frustrated and ultimately fall out of love with it. Apple's designers have prevented me from doing that while making some great decisions about how the iPhone should be used.

This time I'm using the device in the way it was designed and our relationship is stronger than ever.

iPhone - Smartphone for the Normob?

I've had plenty of people wanting to have a look and a play and everyone has been

1. amazed at it's beauty
2. able to use just about anything on the phone without much guidance
3. grinning from ear to ear while they've had it in their hands

Which makes me wonder if perhaps the iPhone is actually the perfect phone for the Normob. Obviously I'm ignoring the hefty price tag and big old data plan.

A friend of mine who has a phone for calls and texts and that's it, and like any true Normob has no idea what model of phone she has, took one look at the iPhone and declared her immediate desire for one.

Because it was so intuitive, she could actually see herself using most of it's features. Photo's of her children, emails as she moves about, a bit of web browsing if she needed to check something out and of course all with a phone attached, perfect.

I reckon I must use 80% of the features of the iPhone, I probably used about 20% of my N95. I've passed it on to Kate in the office, who was very excited and has spent lots of time fiddling around, loading music and getting it just so. She was however a little daunted by the encyclopedia, masquerading as an user manual that I passed to her shortly afterwards.

Julian has been quite dismissive of my purchase. He believes (correct me if I'm misrepresenting you Julian) that Apple have missed a trick by not making the iPhone exclusive enough. He feels it is too easily attainable and therefore will lose it's caché. I'm not so sure.

Apple revolutionised the MP3 market with the iPod by giving people music on the move rather than just a feature rich MP3 player. They've sold and continue to sell bucket loads of devices that are still the most desirable on the market.

I believe that the iPhone could have the same revolutionary impact in bring the mobile Internet to the masses. The feature laden, geek friendly smartphone alternatives are very similar to the original MP3 players. Ghastly user experience, tricky to setup, awkward to use, tiny screens. Enter the iPhone and you just touch and stroke a few times and you have access to the Internet wherever you are.

I really want the iPhone to succeed and by success I don't necessarily mean commercially for Apple. It's more that I hope that it's a catalyst for a revolution in mobile Internet devices. I hope that other device manufacturers step up to the plate, competition like this breeds innovation and BiP (Before iPhone) things were starting to look a little bleak IMHO.

If the net result is Normobs wanting to and being able to use the Internet on the move then that can only benefit us all.

Sarin to Jobs: your sneakers stink and your GUI sucks | The Register

Saw this on The Register today.

Sarin to Jobs: your sneakers stink and your GUI sucks | The Register

Very funny, with some interesting thoughts about inebriated Europeans being unable use the touch screen during the Christmas Season.

Given that when one is inebriated a phone can very easily transform from a device for communication to a method of menace, this probably isn't such a bad thing.

It's what computers have become

I seem to remember this being the slogan for the N95 when it first came out. It was perhaps stretching the capabilities a little but it really has an impressive set of features.

I posted last month in To iPhone or Not To iPhone about how I was besotted with having a 5MP camera sitting on the platform of a 'proper' phone. Seems I was a little hasty.

If the N95 truly is what PCs have become then it's lineage should be traced back through the Wintel family. Features are king, the more the better, cram them in, it's what sells.

The mobile phone according to Apple however is a wholly different story. The interface truly is exceptional. There is something about touching and stroking the glorious screen that has engaged me with it like no other before it.

The camera, despite being 2MP is good and is a damn sight quicker to use than the Nokia. I've been using it to photograph slides in presentations and am forever missing them while the camera application starts up. That said, without a flash it's pants for indoor shots.

The iPod functionality is great, the mail application is really easy to use and the visual voice mail is excellent. Who needs SpinVox when you've got that application shipping for free.

The web browsing experience, when you have data coverage, is truly awesome. It's replaced my laptop for a lot of my casual browsing, blog reading, research etc. Sat in the lounge at home, in a hotel bar, etc it's far less cumbersome. Starts up a lot quicker and I can read the content just as well.

So that just leaves the infamous touchscreen keyboard. It's...well...it's OK. It's pretty accurate, you do get better at it and the intelligent correction is pretty accurate. It is a bit irritating to use, but I find typing on a standard numeric keyboard irritating as well.

This also means when I'm browsing I tend to browse and read rather than use forms or other mechanics that require text entry. I think I'm slightly more prepared to do it knowing there's a Qwerty there should I need it. Though that could also be the novelty factor.

There is one problem and I have to admit it has irritated me no end. It's probably out of all proportion, and it's probably because the other aspects set the usability bar so high, but I hate it.

It's that awful, recessed headphone socket. It's either downright ignorant or downright arrogant. Why on earth force people to use the headphones that ship with the device? I personally have two problems with this

1. I must have funny shaped/small ears. I can't get most ear phones to stay in if I'm in any way energetic when I'm using them. How people run with them in I will never know.
2. I do a fair bit of flying and have bought myself some rather lovely Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones (birthday present to myself when I lost the actual day in the air to Australia, thank goodness for the electrical shops in Singapore airport). I can't plug them in!

So my iPhone now has a tail in the shape of a Griffin headphone adaptor.

Defaced but compatible.

So in conclusion, a truly wonderful device with a revolutionary new interface that sets a new standard for personal communication devices. Yes the data coverage is a bit of a pain but most of the time I can get WiFi of EDGE so it's pretty much fit for purpose. And when the 3G version comes to the UK, whenever that might be, and if they can keep the battery going long enough, it could just be perfect.

Mmmmmmm

It's a joy to use, so intiutive. Could this mean goodbye N95?

Everything is OK

Just as I hit publish on the last post Kirsty from iPhone/O2 support called.

Gave her some more details,driving licence, etc, and apparently I'll be activated in an hour.

Nice

Well I bought one

Waiting for it to be activated, seems O2 do not want to welcome me with open arms.

The signup process really is alien to a simple European like me. I'm used to waiting a couple of hours and it just working. Not quite sure why Carphone Warehouse couldn't activate it for me while I was instore. Surely I could enter my iTunes details at the counter rather than waiting until I get home and then spend the evening frustrated.

To iPhone or Not To iPhone

The launch date and network have been announced but the real question is should I get one?

I like my iPod and I like what I'm hearing about the iPhone user interface, except the virtual keyboard. Perfect you'd think.

For all their user interface foibles, Nokia know how to make mobile phones. Ewan at SMSTextNews has posted at length about the end of his love-affair with Nokia: Help I'm Shunning Nokia. In many ways I'm inclined to agree with him.

The N95 is a gratuitous phone that offers a fantastic range of features but with total disregard for battery consumption. But it does make and receive calls and I bet typing text messages is easier than the iPhone.

I find the music features a bit limiting. Why oh why are album tracks played alphabetically rather than in album order. But I can't fit many albums on my 512MB card so I use it on random and change the tracks relatively frequently.

The killer feature for me is the camera. The 5MP one sported by the N95 is fantastic and overshadows the paltry 2MP in the iPhone. I've got so used to having a decent camera with me wherever I am I'm not ready to give it up.

My ideal scenario, iTunes for Nokia to replace the truly terrible Nokia Music Manager and allow me to play tracks in their destined order.

With Nokia's reinvention as a mobile services and content provider I suspect this is probably not on the cards. But I'll certainly be checking out their music offerings.