Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
On Jul 21, 2008, at 5:08 PM, Bhairitu wrote: Vaj wrote: Enjoy your new toy. BTW, who makes Apple's motherboards? ;-) I have no idea, not much into repairing them (I've actually never had to repair any Apple item I owned!). It seems the current philosophy is to be able to get market standard materials. It looks like they're Samsung from a quick gander on the web. ASUS. Not only the motherboard but a contract manufacturer of Apple machines. No wonder my Eee PC resembles a small iBook. ;-) (And maybe why the touch pad has only one button on it?) The new iPhone and Mac OS 10.5 has several problems, which seem to be mostly from spreading their corporate resources too thin. A year later and the new iPhone is still a paltry 16 gig max. flash memory drive; no 32 or 64 gig like I expected, no Firewire synching again and locked into ATT's network unless you pay 600 hundred or more bucks for the phone alone. The good news is the hastily wheeled our Leopard, Mac OS 10.5, will get a further upgrade to 10.6 next year and instead of more eye candy and gadgets in the OS, Apple had decided to dramatically reduce the size of most major Apple applications 25%-75%. This means that people with older Macs will not only see a speed boast, but also iPhone and iPod users. Honestly this should have been done in 10.5 so I don't think it's fair to charge more than 30-50 bucks for such an upgrade. It's not our fault Apple is spreading it's resources too thin after all.
[FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
On Jul 18, 2008, at 7:35 PM, bhairitu wrote: Always one to get new toys to play with, I'm typing this from the latest addition to my computer family: an ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf running Linux. The keyboard is going to take a little getting used to as this unit is small with a 7 screen and small keyboard. It has built-in wifi and will be handy around the house instead of one of my Windows based laptop because this one boots up in about 30 seconds. It will also be great for traveling. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/ I'm a great new toy lover too, but never really particularly liked cell phones or PDA's. Give me desktop rather than some tiny-screened toy. Then I got an iPod Touch for my wife, who wanted something to get on the net for her day-to-day travels. Incredible device, but without a nearby hotspot, not always easy to get high speed access when you want. So, we returned the Touch and after all the brouhaha settled down on iPhone 3g launch day, ordered one from the ATT store late on the 11th. It arrived this weekend. This has to be the most useful PDA/Cell phone device ever created. With the new inclusion of Apple-screened applications, there's simply nothing remotely like it outside of science fiction. Press the button for Maps and the built-in GPS shows your location on satellite. The inclusion of 3rd party apps greatly extends it's usability. Everything from Astronomy applications which tell me a stars name merely by pointing at it in the sky to voice recognition programs that transcribe what I speak and then email me the text. Computer games that rely on the tilt of device rather than having to punch some controls constantly with your thumbs. It remote controls my entire music library with a mere touch and streams it to my home stereo. And on and on. It's the closest thing to Star Trek ever invented. If you don't mind spending 70 bucks a month for cell phone and your data plan, this device rocks. If you don't need the cell coverage and can rely on hotspots or a home wireless network, you can make phone calls with Skype or some similar device and pay $O in cell coverage by purchasing an iPod Touch. Either way both include inexpensive and many free third party applications which provide an amazing amount of extensibility. The only thing missing is the ability to beam oneself into space :-). Highly recommended device if you don't mind spending some money for the cell plan or several hundred for an iPod Touch.
Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
Vaj wrote: This has to be the most useful PDA/Cell phone device ever created. With the new inclusion of Apple-screened applications, there's simply nothing remotely like it outside of science fiction. Press the button for Maps and the built-in GPS shows your location on satellite. The inclusion of 3rd party apps greatly extends it's usability. Everything from Astronomy applications which tell me a stars name merely by pointing at it in the sky to voice recognition programs that transcribe what I speak and then email me the text. Computer games that rely on the tilt of device rather than having to punch some controls constantly with your thumbs. It remote controls my entire music library with a mere touch and streams it to my home stereo. And on and on. It's the closest thing to Star Trek ever invented. If you don't mind spending 70 bucks a month for cell phone and your data plan, this device rocks. If you don't need the cell coverage and can rely on hotspots or a home wireless network, you can make phone calls with Skype or some similar device and pay $O in cell coverage by purchasing an iPod Touch. Either way both include inexpensive and many free third party applications which provide an amazing amount of extensibility. According to a PDA developer's group I hang out on the ones that are offering apps via the iPhone Apple store are running into a snag that show Apple didn't think things out too well. Apple doesn't provide the user list to the developer until they get paid 45 days later in the meantime they don't know whether they support emails they get are really from people who purchased their product or not. Also it is next to impossible for the developers to provide bug fixes on this platform. Of course just like the MP3 player which Apple did not invent neither did it invent pocket computers, those have been around for over a decade so to use such hype in their ads is a little misleading. And by the way how do you type in a URL on the iPhone? Do you get a full keyboard on the screen or the slow way you do it on a phone.
Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
On Jul 21, 2008, at 12:44 PM, Bhairitu wrote: According to a PDA developer's group I hang out on the ones that are offering apps via the iPhone Apple store are running into a snag that show Apple didn't think things out too well. Apple doesn't provide the user list to the developer until they get paid 45 days later in the meantime they don't know whether they support emails they get are really from people who purchased their product or not. Also it is next to impossible for the developers to provide bug fixes on this platform. Of course just like the MP3 player which Apple did not invent neither did it invent pocket computers, those have been around for over a decade so to use such hype in their ads is a little misleading. And by the way how do you type in a URL on the iPhone? Do you get a full keyboard on the screen or the slow way you do it on a phone. You just tap on the address field and a multi-touch keyboard appears on the screen. It actually learns typing errors on the fly and corrects them. After just a couple of weeks, I'm getting pretty good at it. It wouldn't work good for people with long fingernails. I'm pretty happy with the apps I've downloaded. For example one called Shazam, which I'd never heard of this possibility before, will listen to any song playing and identify it for you. So when I hear an odd song on the radio, classical, rock, a song in a movie, it doesn't matter, you just hold up the iPhone to the sound source and it tells you the song, the album it came off of and shows the album art. It also looks up any related videos on YouTube! Like many apps there, it's free. I have yet to try video rentals on the thing, but I do like the idea of renting videos before a vacation and just watching them when you want, where you want on the phone or connected to a TV. It's a brand new platform, so I'm sure there will be a few snags, but so far it's been a great experience as a user. In fact it's one of the most positive user experiences I've had with any product. If there's some things that aren't worked out very well, I have yet to come across them.
Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
Vaj wrote: On Jul 21, 2008, at 12:44 PM, Bhairitu wrote: According to a PDA developer's group I hang out on the ones that are offering apps via the iPhone Apple store are running into a snag that show Apple didn't think things out too well. Apple doesn't provide the user list to the developer until they get paid 45 days later in the meantime they don't know whether they support emails they get are really from people who purchased their product or not. Also it is next to impossible for the developers to provide bug fixes on this platform. Of course just like the MP3 player which Apple did not invent neither did it invent pocket computers, those have been around for over a decade so to use such hype in their ads is a little misleading. And by the way how do you type in a URL on the iPhone? Do you get a full keyboard on the screen or the slow way you do it on a phone. You just tap on the address field and a multi-touch keyboard appears on the screen. It actually learns typing errors on the fly and corrects them. After just a couple of weeks, I'm getting pretty good at it. It wouldn't work good for people with long fingernails. Palm and Pocket PC had pop-up keyboards and character recognition for written text. I'm pretty happy with the apps I've downloaded. For example one called Shazam, which I'd never heard of this possibility before, will listen to any song playing and identify it for you. So when I hear an odd song on the radio, classical, rock, a song in a movie, it doesn't matter, you just hold up the iPhone to the sound source and it tells you the song, the album it came off of and shows the album art. It also looks up any related videos on YouTube! Like many apps there, it's free. I think Shazam has been around for awhile on other platforms. I have yet to try video rentals on the thing, but I do like the idea of renting videos before a vacation and just watching them when you want, where you want on the phone or connected to a TV. I've been doing that for several years on other devices. Nothing new. It's a brand new platform, so I'm sure there will be a few snags, but so far it's been a great experience as a user. In fact it's one of the most positive user experiences I've had with any product. If there's some things that aren't worked out very well, I have yet to come across them. The platform is a year old or more. Apple won't listen to experienced people because they have a not invented here attitude (I used to deal with time in my corporate position). They picked up that both the Palm and Pocket PC phones as well as a few other platform allowed third party developers make products available. Both the Palm and Pocket PC were in a race for early dominance of the market. The Palm was made by a bunch of expat Newton developers which was another device that Apple didn't get right. You can still run Palm apps even old ones on most of their phones and Pocket PC apps run on a lot of phones. There has been this fascist attitude that some corporations like ATT got into that only big companies should be able to make software. That was an ill thought out attitude because big companies are not going to make niche products that sell in small quantities. So I can applaud Apple for opening up the platform but they have a competitor namely Google on an agenda to make a phone safe platform that any developer can create products for. The developer's kit for the iPhone is only $99 (again I applaud) but then you also have to have a Mac running Leopard. For some small developers that's still a bit of an investment and risk. Small niche programs won't get the testing needed and there will need to be updates for bugs. At least they include an iPhone simulator so you don't need an iPhone to develop. My great niece (who is a little overly spoiled like most kids these days) got the new iPhone too and was talking about it last night. Enjoy your new toy. BTW, who makes Apple's motherboards? ;-)
Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
On Jul 21, 2008, at 2:44 PM, Bhairitu wrote: Vaj wrote: On Jul 21, 2008, at 12:44 PM, Bhairitu wrote: According to a PDA developer's group I hang out on the ones that are offering apps via the iPhone Apple store are running into a snag that show Apple didn't think things out too well. Apple doesn't provide the user list to the developer until they get paid 45 days later in the meantime they don't know whether they support emails they get are really from people who purchased their product or not. Also it is next to impossible for the developers to provide bug fixes on this platform. Of course just like the MP3 player which Apple did not invent neither did it invent pocket computers, those have been around for over a decade so to use such hype in their ads is a little misleading. And by the way how do you type in a URL on the iPhone? Do you get a full keyboard on the screen or the slow way you do it on a phone. You just tap on the address field and a multi-touch keyboard appears on the screen. It actually learns typing errors on the fly and corrects them. After just a couple of weeks, I'm getting pretty good at it. It wouldn't work good for people with long fingernails. Palm and Pocket PC had pop-up keyboards and character recognition for written text. Perhaps they have an implementation of it, but I seriously doubt I'd be interested in using it. I didn't realize there were other multi- touch keyboards out there already. As far as I am aware the pioneer in character recognition was the good ole Apple Newton--purchased from Russian developers many years ago. I'm pretty happy with the apps I've downloaded. For example one called Shazam, which I'd never heard of this possibility before, will listen to any song playing and identify it for you. So when I hear an odd song on the radio, classical, rock, a song in a movie, it doesn't matter, you just hold up the iPhone to the sound source and it tells you the song, the album it came off of and shows the album art. It also looks up any related videos on YouTube! Like many apps there, it's free. I think Shazam has been around for awhile on other platforms. I have yet to try video rentals on the thing, but I do like the idea of renting videos before a vacation and just watching them when you want, where you want on the phone or connected to a TV. I've been doing that for several years on other devices. Nothing new. So have I, but from DVD's onto an iPod, but not exactly legal. It's a brand new platform, so I'm sure there will be a few snags, but so far it's been a great experience as a user. In fact it's one of the most positive user experiences I've had with any product. If there's some things that aren't worked out very well, I have yet to come across them. The platform is a year old or more. Apple won't listen to experienced people because they have a not invented here attitude (I used to deal with time in my corporate position). They picked up that both the Palm and Pocket PC phones as well as a few other platform allowed third party developers make products available. Both the Palm and Pocket PC were in a race for early dominance of the market. The Palm was made by a bunch of expat Newton developers which was another device that Apple didn't get right. You can still run Palm apps even old ones on most of their phones and Pocket PC apps run on a lot of phones. The Newton was just too ahead of it's time. Oh, and there's that Sculley guy. :-) The SDK for the iPhone was just released 4 months ago. There has been this fascist attitude that some corporations like ATT got into that only big companies should be able to make software. That was an ill thought out attitude because big companies are not going to make niche products that sell in small quantities. So I can applaud Apple for opening up the platform but they have a competitor namely Google on an agenda to make a phone safe platform that any developer can create products for. The developer's kit for the iPhone is only $99 (again I applaud) but then you also have to have a Mac running Leopard. For some small developers that's still a bit of an investment and risk. Small niche programs won't get the testing needed and there will need to be updates for bugs. At least they include an iPhone simulator so you don't need an iPhone to develop. My great niece (who is a little overly spoiled like most kids these days) got the new iPhone too and was talking about it last night. Enjoy your new toy. BTW, who makes Apple's motherboards? ;-) I have no idea, not much into repairing them (I've actually never had to repair any Apple item I owned!). It seems the current philosophy is to be able to get market standard materials. It looks like they're Samsung from a quick gander on the web.
Re: [FairfieldLife] iPhone 3g, was New Toy
Vaj wrote: Enjoy your new toy. BTW, who makes Apple's motherboards? ;-) I have no idea, not much into repairing them (I've actually never had to repair any Apple item I owned!). It seems the current philosophy is to be able to get market standard materials. It looks like they're Samsung from a quick gander on the web. ASUS. Not only the motherboard but a contract manufacturer of Apple machines. No wonder my Eee PC resembles a small iBook. ;-) (And maybe why the touch pad has only one button on it?)
