iphone Archive

The big news in the Apple blog crowd this week was the Steve Jobs announcement that current customers will receive a free bumper guard for their iPhone 4 devices. I like Om’s take on the press briefing – a look at lessons from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

But what if the press briefing didn’t go so well? Guhmshoo takes a look at the setup Apple staffers created for Jobs just in case panic and mayhem were to break out at Apple’s HQ.

As you are no doubt aware, a major update for the iPhone/iPod Touch operating system was released by Apple last week. The first day it was released, I downloaded the large update file (almost 300 megabytes) and attempted to install it overnight on my iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, when I woke up in the morning, I was confronted with an iTunes error indicating that the backup was not completed successfully.

Later that evening, I tried again. I started trying to update around 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening, and finally cancelled the process around 11 p.m., having made very little progress in the backup process.

I tried a few more times over the next few days, and kept experiencing a similar problem. At one point, Windows decided to restart itself in the middle of the backup process because Windows updates had been installed.

Finally, overnight last night, I modified my Windows power settings, making sure that my computer would not go to sleep for at least four hours (just in case that was the issue) and attempted the update one more time.This time, the backup process completed successfully, and the software update was successful, but the process of restoring my applications and files failed. This morning, when I woke up, I told it to try restoring my files again. It took a little over two hours (causing me to be an hour late to work this morning), but that process finally completed, too.
Continue reading “Upgrading My iPhone 3G to iOS4” »

Apparently there are lots of issues with cell phone reception with the new iPhone 4. Interestingly I’ve never had any reception issues with my Samsung Ace winmo phone from the mid-2000′s. I know one reporter based in San Francisco noted last night that he wasn’t able to Tweet nearly all day on his new iPhone 4 – I hope he made it through the day ok!

If you are one of the people that are having cell phone reception issues with the new iPhone 4, there’s a brand new product that just hit the market that will solve the issues for good. It’s stylish, comes in 5 colors and is available in two sizes. And the best part is that it can be used by righties and lefties! It’s the iSpoon!

The iSpoon was developed by German entrepreneur PinkBlob. As you can see in the product example photos below, the iSpoon’s most popular color is the company’s signature pink. The design was crafted to be ergonomic to allow for multiple hours of iPhone 4 enjoyment. The concave design at the connection point offers maximum airflow to make sure you can use the device until the battery runs out. And it’s perfect for the new video service that’s built into the iPhone 4.

So what are you waiting for? Order an iSpoon in your favorite color and size today!

This week cartoon artist Guhmshoo took a look at two popular trends: Twitter’s new downtime due to soccer/football and the apparent issue with pre-ordering an iPhone4. I like the sarcasm noted in both cartoons displayed below.

Continue reading “Guhmshoo Looks At Twitter Downtime and iPhone 4 Pre-Ordering” »

Editor’s note: there has been a good discussion this afternoon about the new iPhone 4 and how it compares to Android and other mobile devices on the NY Tech Meetup mailing list. Jonathan Hirschman put together the below list of game changers coming out of the Jobs keynote today announcing the iPhone 4. Jonathan does note that he is currently an Android fanboy.

So many game changers with today’s iPhone 4 announcement. Here’s my list of game changers:

* Almost every other upcoming or current phone is now a generation behind.

* The traditional computer/OS combo has become, again, a bit less relevant. Also interesting is that this eroded relevancy is not because of anything happening in the cloud.

* 300 DPI resolution is now the new standard for many display devices, just like Apple set it for print devices with the original LaserWriter. Notebooks, desktop monitors, phones – it’ll be demanded by consumers in short order.

* Apple now has erected toll-booths on all digital consumables across the board – apps, books, music, movies, TV, ads. They’re feature complete in this regard. And then they’ll bring out an iOS based streaming TV box, too… holy crap.

Apple is now truly the Apple Broadcast Network (I saw this moniker for the first time here)

Simply put: anyone else selling digital consumables should be very nervous about now. They are going to see much of their revenue siphoned off quite shortly. Some familiar brands are going to be roadkill. Having a client on the Apple device will not help, not if the prices are the same.

Continue reading “10 Apple iPhone 4 Game Changers” »

Shortly after the first iPhone hit the market, I purchased one and returned it just 20 days later. The device was lovely except that in my Manhattan apartment I had no phone coverage. I decided to switch to Sprint and frankly I can’t remember the last time I had a dropped call or poor coverage. I’ve used my phone with Sprint across the U.S. and the coverage has been great – even at SXSW where there have always been fears about poor AT&T coverage (apparently this year provided better coverage).

One of the reasons I am fearful of switching carriers to get an Android device is because of the coverage issues. I have no idea how strong T-Mobile or Verizon is in the area I live and the locations I visit.

The Wall Street Journal has a very interesting set of diagrams which plot good and bad cell reception around the NYC metro area. The Wall Street Journal created the diagrams from data on dropped and unsuccessful calls compiled by the Nielsen Co., which sends out equipment-filled vans to make 140,000 test calls a year across the five boroughs, Long Island, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut.

Apparently the NYC metro region has a success rate of 97% which is lower than other major cities. “Typically, they’ve (the carriers) overinvested in New York,” says Nielsen analyst Roger Entner. “It’s the media and investment banks they want to keep happy.”

Unfortunately the Nielsen report doesn’t break the data out by carrier. I guess cell service today is similar to the early days of cable/dsl – too many people wanting to share the pipe and the service providers weren’t adding more pipes quick enough. Now we are all pushing mobile usage to the highest levels ever recorded and carriers are working to keep up with customer demand – both in quantity of devices and usage from each device.

You can find all of the WSJ diagrams here.

This morning I attended the Yahoo and Nokia press conference at the Nasdaq Marketsite in Times Square. I don’t attend many press conferences but I have to say this one was a snoozefest. I went in with my developer hat on since I am working on mobile strategies now for my startup. I thought I might hear something about how Nokia/Yahoo would be pulling in developers - but except for a couple times Carol mentioned the word developer, my theory was not valid.

I really want to be excited for both Nokia and Yahoo – but not sure this deal will really bring in any new share for either company. If you don’t use Yahoo Maps today, you won’t when there is a badge for Nokia on it. And I doubt anyone will buy a Nokia handset when they see the Yahoo Mail/Chat logos on the box.

Here are my notes plus a photo of both Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

• The financial terms were not disclosed
• Nokia will power Yahoo Maps and Navigation under their Ovi brand
• Yahoo will power email and chat on Nokia mobile devices
• The partnership will begin to be seen in production in the second-half of 2010
• Carol Bartz on Yahoo Maps, “we haven’t been focused on our maps platform” and “we lost focus on maps about 2 years ago” – I can’t believe Yahoo is going to try to focus on Maps now when they are the #4 player? I haven’t heard one developer (including myself) ever talk about using Yahoo Maps for development
• Bartz – “we will partners with others to leverage their strengths”
• there was a lot of talk about developing markets and countries – Kallasvuo noted that Nokia is #1 worldwide and wants to be #1 in US market as well.
• the deal isn’t exlusive and Yahoo will continue to push their services on other devices including iPhone and Android
• Bartz said that in a couple of weeks we will be WOWd by the new social features and integration that Yahoo will be launching around Yahoo Mail

I will post my thoughts on this deal in relation to the other players that appear to be dominating the US market (Android, iPhone, HTC) later this week.