Magnificent Obsessions

Flash!

Well, Adobe (Macromedia) Flash to be exact.

Flash is ubiquitous on the web, and if Apple REALLY wants to surf the REAL web, then Flash needs to be available.

Adobe certainly supports it’s use on the iPhone.

What about you, Apple?

Continuing on with the features I’d like to see on the iPhone.

3G network.

Let’s face it, using AT&T’s Edge network to surf the web just sucks. Not unlike going to the bad old days of the modem (vs. today’s broadband). AT&T already offers 3G access, so availability is not an issue.

This gets a little tricky, though. Current 3G chips suck a lot of power - the iPhone’s battery life is already a weak point. Burdening it with 3G would make battery life completely unacceptable.

The good news is that new 3G chips are much less power hungry - in addition, one can assume that battery technology and battery life will improve over time.

Rumors also seem to indicate that a 3G-ready iPhone will come sometime this year.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Having owned and used my iPhone for over 6 months now, I do have some features I’d like to see on future versions.

- Longer Battery Life
- Replaceable Battery

There, was that so hard?

My previous phone was a Samsung clamshell model, and it could go several days before needing a recharge.  I can go 3-4 days with the iPhone, but ONLY if I don’t use it.  If I make more than a few phone calls and use some of the other features, then I need to charge this puppy every day.

If viewing videos, whether they be movies, tv shows, or video podcasts, forget it - the iPhone gets its batteries sucked down in a few hours.

Now I understand partly why 3G was not included in this phone…….3G, with current chipset technologies, is a powerhog.

Now, this could all be easily solved, had Apple offered removable batteries!  Why, oh why, aren’t these available?  Is Apple really that fearful of losing control of batteries to 3rd party vendors?  Or would adding removable batteries add more width and heft to the slim phone?

Whatever the case, it’s a hassle for owners to have to send the phone in to Apple or drop them off at the Apple Store and wait for a replacement………..during which time you’re without a phone!  It’s also got to be a monumental hassle for Apple as well, to have to deal with battery replacement issues……..shouldn’t your techs be more focused on more serious customer issues?

Ok, even with these issues, I still love my iPhone.  Hopefully version 2.0 will address the battery issues.

Other issues?  More of those in future posts…………..

Well, I’ve been a happy owner of the iPhone for about 6 months now.

When I first got the phone, I was worried that web surfing under the Edge Network would be horrible. Well, yes. The Edge is slow, and if I were using the iPhone as a web-surfing appliance then I’d be very disappointed. I mainly use web-surfing as a last resort - for example, when I’m in a store and trying to comparison shop prices of a certain product.

Then again, if I’m in an office environment, or a multitude of Coffee Shops, then odds are high that I can get speedy Wi-Fi reception, and web surfing speed wouldn’t be an issue.

Would I like to surf with the speedier 3G network when I can’t get wi-fi? Sure.

But I’d much rather have other features FIRST, over 3G………and we’ll talk about those in another post.

As much as I’d like to own the new iPhone, I managed to fight off the urge to stand in an excruciating line for hours or days on end.

It was interesting that review units of the iPhone were only given to 4 members of the media.  I read all 4 reviews, from the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and the Wall St. Journal.  All the reviews were generally positive.

However the most entertaining review came in video form, from David Pogue of the New York Times.  I found it funny and pretty insightful - given the mountains of hype surrounding this entire launch, the review was oddly on target.

The iPhone dance at Apple just keeps growing!

Take a look at this 20-minute guided tour of the iPhone that Apple is teasing us with……..

Apple also announced a deal that will allow YouTube videos to easily play on the iPhone.  Not too surprising, as Google now owns YouTube, and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt sits on the board of Apple.

Needless to say, there are a lot of smart moves going on here……lets just hope that the hardware lives up to the hype.  I’ll be watching for battery life, typing ease, speed of the AT&T Internet connection, and of course transition time while moving from mode to mode within the iPhone itself.

Watching and waiting.

How interesting.  Today Apple announced that the Safari Web Browser (previously only available on the Macintosh) would be made available for the PC.  No charge.

Apple claims that the Safari browser is twice as fast as other browsers.  Currently, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominates the browser scene with a 78% share, with Mozilla’s Firefox coming in second at about 15%.

What makes this particularly interesting is that Apple’s upcoming iPhone (released June 29) features the Safari browser.  This has been an ongoing trend at Apple, making its services and software available for PC users, beginning with the iPod and iTunes music store.

A cunning strategic move to attract users to the Macintosh?  Only time will tell.

Apple has posted its ongoing list of iPhone commercials on their website.

Boy, this just adds to the feeding frenzy, doesn’t it?

Obsessions are magnificent things, aren’t they?

I’m trying to be strong……hoping that the bigger memory and 3G versions come sooner, rather than later.  But I’m growing weak…..

It sure is seductive, isn’t it?

Small, thin, sleek……..the Apple iPhone is all of those things and more.  The trick screen that automatically converts to portrait view when you turn the phone on its side, the colorful icons that can be scrolled through via fingertip touch?

Its a magnificent obsession of mine, that’s for sure….my rational side tells me to wait until the bugs are worked out, until a version with more memory is available, until it has better battery power.

But like any obsession, this thing is calling out to me.

Do you feel the same way?