TamsIJungle

So far, the iTunes App Store has been more of a mad house than a real ESD. However, Cupertinians apparently do have some understanding of software sales after all – AppleInsider reports the following changes:

Reviews now require product ownership
So far, posting reviews about applications didn’t require you to own the product. This has led to an inflation of bogus reviews from application developers – think increasing their own and lowering their competitor’s ratings.

Now, people wishing to post a review must own the product: while this will not distract anybody from spending 50$ on “marketing”, it makes the whole thing a lot easier to track down as Apple demands a credit card for every iTunes account.

Applications now sorted by v1 release date
Developers have abused the “updated programs” list of ESDs for ages (TamsPalm report here). Apple has now taken a draconian approach to limit this, and has decided that all applications will be sorted by their initial release date from now onwards.

I am not sure if this was a wise choice, as it discourages developers from updating their apps. Limiting the maximum update frequency would probably have worked better here…

The changes above show that Apple does want to help its developers out – the problem is that ESD business isn’t child’s play. Other platforms have established ESD houses which have years and years of experience and still manage to bork up…the Cupertinians unfortunately still need quite a bit of trial-and-error games…

I have been pleasantly surprised by the Safari browser on my iPod touch – coming from a Palm Treo 680 with Blazer, the browser was like a revelation for me.

Unfortunately, Googling stuff has been unnecessarily difficult – you have to click the address bar before you can enter a search term:

This will now change according to iPhoneAtlas – the screenshot below shows Safari in iPhone OS 2.2. Obviously, the search field can now be accessed without clicking the address bar:

As of now, nobody knows when this will become available to end users. Stay tuned for further info as we get it!

The last weeks were full of reports detailing how Apple mistreats individual developers – while most developers seem to have no issues, some especially innovative folks manage to yank Apple’s chains in an almost daily fashion.

Engadget has made a nice (but long) write-up detailing where Apple’s “mistakes” are to be found: due to the huge readership of the site (at least 20x the readership the whole Tamoggemon Content network has), it is very likely that a response from Cupertino will follow.

Further information can be found here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/25/engadget-cares-save-us-from-apples-groundbreaking-developer-s/

Asian readers feeling an urge to think about the iPhone 3G can (and should) look at the news below:

iPhone 3G hits Hong Kong
Inhabitants of Hong-Kong can now purchase the iPhone 3G in an unlocked state right off the Apple Store:

The prices correspond to 487,619395Euros/695USD for the 8GB and 559Euros/799 USD for the 16GB version. Shipping is restricted to Hong Kong – people living in the rest of China seem to be second-class citizens from Apple’s point of view.

iPhone 3G may hit China Mobile without WiFi and 3G
Getting the iPhone 3G onto China Mobile’s network has proven to be a Herculean task for Apple: the carrier’s demands have been more than outrageous in some extents.

The latest bit of insanity involves them disabling 3G and WiFi (!!!) on devices shipped to CM customers. This is said to have political reasons according to MocoNews:

ne reason it may not want 3G as part of the phone is because the carrier is widely expected to build out its eventual 3G network using the Chinese developed TD-SCDMA format, and by disabling the 3G functionality the iPhone would less appealing to users who might buy the handset and unlock it to be used on the expected W-CDMA network from China Telecom.

So far, getting your hands onto an iPhone 3G involved running into a few stores hoping that one of them would have the elusive box in stock. This seems to have changed now – Apple has started taking “preorders” on-line:

Unfortunately, the Cupertinians didn’t figure out how to mail the boxes out, as customers using the wizard have to waddle into an Apple store and pick up their device on-site.

I personally don’t see the point here. If anyone of you understands what all of this is about, please enlighten us!

Further information can be found here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/buy/

So far, no mobile computing platform has been able to host a full flight simulator. However, this has now changed – Laminar Research has just ported its Mac OS flight simulator X-Plane:

Unfortunately, no screenshots are available for this 8$ app. The App store contains the small image below – we are currently pursuing a full versions:

Stay tuned for further info!

Apple now has a huge issue making its fight against jailbreakers extra difficult: an inofficial app store has just launched. A web site called Apptism has been launched. Currently, the site offers little except a more accessible way to access AppStore applications – but it looks like a distribution channel will follow shortly:

…
In any case, iPhone and iPod touch owners looking for those apps have to get them from the developer directly, or the developer has to invest in Apple’s “Ad-Hoc” distribution method. If you just want quality apps for your device and can’t find what you need on the app store, try Apptism. The bulk of the store’s applications are hosted at the app store, but the service is looking for developers with their own apps to highlight and feature.
…
-via Yahoo News

Apple has recently refused to list a few applications which are capable to reach a significant market – forget Pull my Finger, we are talking OTA podcast downloading/data modem features. I predict that literally thousands of users will want these features, and will be more than willing to accept an extra web account in order to get their cookie.

Jailbreakers also need an application store – while Cydia is nice, it completely lacks OTA purchasing capabilities, forcing developers to handle their DRM like they do on other platforms.

As more and more developers start to peddle their wares to unlocked devices, the amount of money and manpower available to jailbreakers increases significantly. So far, jailbreakers were a bunch of bored teenagers doing this as a hobby: now that there is money involved, the game becomes more risky.

Unfortunately, Apple can’t do much. Allowing every application onto the App store seems to be impossible for legal reasons. Opening/supporting a competitive store will break the user experience for users who don’t care about advanced features.

Stopping the fight against jailbreaking also isn’t an option. Apple needs to make labels and software developers feel that the iPhone is a safe platform for their content: as soon as Apple stops the fight, various other issues will crop up in Cupertino.

Their only resort would be creating unbreakable devices, which I consider practically impossible. Stay tuned for cool ideas from this direction…

Folks – I am fully aware that this article is targeted at Windows Mobile mainly. However, the conclusions can IMHO help us all understand Apple a little better – in case the article bores you, please forgive the crosspost…

Let’s face it: the native UI of Windows Mobile 5/6.x can not compete with the UI found on other platforms like S60 and especially the iPhone. In case you don’t trust me – please look at the two screenshots below:

Yes, folks, I am aware that the iPhone’s colors are not ideal for reflective screens. But today’s market isn’t about us power users anymore…the reason why the iPhone grows so fast is that it recruits its owners from the plethora of non-smartphone users around the world.

Manuifacturers like HTC have reacted to the Cupertinian threat by sprucing up their Windows Mobile devices with proprietary UI systems like TouchFLO 3D. While this definitely helps them compete against the Apple boxen, the long-term effects of these UI systems are what makes me feel bad about them (and makes me understand why Apple prohibits programs that duplicate internal functions).

People expect phones based on one platform to behave similar. As most folks are lazy when it comes to adjusting to new technology, the availability of inferior device with a “similar UI” is enough to prevent many of them from upgrading to a device with a “different UI”. This concept is what builds brand or platform loyalty.

Tools like TouchFLO break this tradition. A user coming from a HP ipaq will be shocked to see the new “artsy-fartsy crap”, whereas people switching from a HTC Touch to an ipaq 914 will miss the “smooth transitions”. The end effect is the same – the customer feels unhappy as he has to relearn.

Custom user interface replacements are similar – believe it or not, but many users eventually forget which feature is OS native and which one not if only they are similar enough. Thus, users switching to an iPhone 3G without their favourite apps could very well end up disappointed: my new iPhone’s music app can no longer do xyz…

So far, so good – but who’s the one to blame for the situation? IMHO, the majority responsibility lays on OS manufacturers. If customers demand features which are not in their OS’s, OS vendors should IMHO try and step up to generate an unified experience (think Palm OS and media players – Palm eventually bundled PocketTunes with almost every handheld it shipped). Microsoft should have overhauled its UI constantly (and Apple should stop making features desktop-exclusive)…if that would happen, many problems would be solved…

What do you think?

So far, most multimedia devices with integrated memory chips have stayed below the 32GB barrier – people needing capacities above 16GB have had to resort to CF or SD cards.

Rumors claim that this will change soon, as Apple is said to be planning an updated version of the iPhone 3G with 32GB of internal memory (via AppleInsider).

I personally consider this highly likely (almost 100% sure), as Apple has proven itself capable to manage 32GB of internal flash memory in the past (think iPod touch). The iPhone is intended to be the high-end offering…so having “low-end” products with more memory doesn’t make much sense from a lineup perspective.

IMHO, the real question is release date and prices: customers planning to purchase an iPhone 3G now must keep in mind that a capacity upgrade could be coming soon…

Usually, night shot modes found in camcorders are intended for – well – making videos in badly-lit situations. Everybody who buys a camcorder tries it out at least once (it’s the same thing like the completely useless high-ISO modes found in compact cameras), and usually ends up disappointed.

However, an Austrialian whirlpool forum member dubbed fsjk85 had a different experience. He tried it out on his iPhone 3G – and found the data matrix code pictured below:

As of now, nobody really knows what the code contains. Even though it’s possible that this is an embedded version of the IMEI/serial number, I think that this is rather unlikely as nobody has known about it so far (and as it can’t be read easily).

Serial numbers have turned out to be very helpful at times: in Austria, police authorities use them to match recovered mobile phones to their legitimate owners (which is difficult as the iPhone 3G doesn’t have the serial number on the case). The barcode doesn’t really help anyone then – AFAIK, the average cop hasn’t got a 2D barcode reader in his brains…

A much more likely explanation is that this code contains some sort of information relevant to the manufacturer’s processes. For example, an identifier containing info on when and where the part was produced (in case a batch fails) – this kind of data never has to be read by anyone except Apple’s engineers…

What do you think?