SiteCrafting Blah Blah Blog
Jul. 19, 2007 at 12:03pm
One iPhone = Web Apps to Go!
Feeding the Hype
OK, so I promised myself that I would wait until the second generation iPhone so I could let them work out the bugs and lower the price. Then I played with one and realized I had to retire my RAZR for one of these. Aesthetically, it is a knock out, but I can assure you it's beauty is way more than skin deep.
I have a hectic life, kids, business, and homebrew. All add up to a lot of demands and juggling. I've tried organizational tricks, Palm Pilot, Windows CE, Blackberry, and nothing, I mean nothing is even close to this. I'll stop gushing so that I can give you some practical examples.
1. No third party syncing applications - it just works!
It's Apple so it does "just work". When I delete email or file it on my PC my iPhone knows it and keeps old mail from getting in the way. This sounds like a small thing, but my Palm T|X could not seem to get this. Calendars and tasks simply work.
2. Google Maps
Yesterday we had a presentation and we all had different ideas of where the meeting was. I simply let Google Maps on iPhone solve it for us in 5 seconds. It even displayed current traffic volume. We were 10 minutes early. Type in "Pizza 98402" and get a bunch of pins locating pizza joints. "Web Design Tacoma" and there's SiteCrafting.
3. Web Applications
There are several third party websites with iPhone Applications. I've sampled a few and while many are very basic, some are very promising. From Shopping Lists like OneTrip to Tip Calculators and more a full version of Safari makes for great browsing and Beer recipe formulation. (See I brought it in) Google Maps, YouTube, Yahoo Stocks and Weather are built in.
4. The Little Things
The phone is polite. It nudges you when you are receiving a call and working on something else, once the call is complete you go back to what you were doing. Apple does a great job of building in ah-ha moments like page zoom, screen rotation, browsing through screens by simply swiping your finger from left to right or vice-versa, and a host of other yet to be discovered finds.
I do have some criticisms, including speed of AT&T's EDGE network and some wish it could do this or that a bit differently, but overall it is a fantastic product. It will push other companies to build in thoughtful features and better Web browsing capabilities for Web applications which of course makes me happy, since someone is going to have to build them. :)
P.S. - One more thing of note, I did not even mention synching of photos and music, both of which are flawless and result in great sound and beautiful slideshows. I don't even see it as an iPod...strange.
Posted in Testimonials by Brian Forth
Comments (5)
The iPhone is like crack. I had a chance to play with one for a while and now am struggling with convincing myself not to drop $500 on one. I'm not a big cell phone fan but all the other features seriously have me jonesing. Unless I'm actually writing code or demoing for a client I wouldn't need to drag around my iBook 90% of the time that I currently do with this...
1 | Left by Scott Correy | Jul. 24, 2007 at 10:52am
Scott, this is not going to help you decide not to buy one, but the long and the short of it is it's worth every penny. Here's a great Information Week article that came out a few days ago...very thorough.
Cheers.
Brian
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201200060
2 | Left by Brian Forth | Jul. 24, 2007 at 12:51pm
What excites me most about the iPhone is the fact that it has raised the bar for Apple's competitors. Consumers will now compare any new similar device to the iPhone, which means there's motivation to meet or surpass the iPhone in quality and features. It should be interesting to see what others release in the coming years. Ah competition at its best!
And Brian, I think you may have convinced me to cave in and buy one of these. If I do it will be a sad day for my wallet, but a happy one for the geek in me ;-)
3 | Left by Nick Williams | Aug. 29, 2007 at 6:00pm
I do not work in an industry that wants to adapt to apple products, let alone belong to the cult of Mac. However this badboy has me thinking twice. I did drop the scratch and didn't regret it for a second...that is until yesterday.
Price reductions were expected, but this dramatic and this quickly. C'mon. From what I know of Jobs and the Apple culture, this is a misstep. A lot of early adopters and newcomers are pissed off at this kick in the pants (wallet or elsewhere, you decide).
That's my 2 cents of my 49,990.
4 | Left by JR Johnson | Sep. 7, 2007 at 10:54am
I know, it hurt. At least they are trying to make it right http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/ for the early adopters. I for one will be using my $100 credit for a new 160GB iPod to replace my 20GB one.
I can say though that my iPhone has already saved me at least $200 in headaches since I've had it, so in a way I guess I am ahead.
Brian
5 | Left by Brian | Sep. 7, 2007 at 4:27pm