John Lamansky

Yes, they did it. Many of us figured this was coming. And wow, is it amazing.

The thing that blew me away the most is that the “iPod touch” has Wi-Fi web browsing using the same Safari browser found in the iPhone. And it has other iPhone features like the touch interface, the YouTube browser, and Cover Flow (the last of which has also been ported to the “iPod classic,” as it’s now called, and the iPod nano).

It has just about everything the iPhone has except the phone functionality. Which would work for me, since I already have an existing cellphone and cellular plan. However, public Wi-Fi is pretty scarce where I live, and of course I wouldn’t be able to browse the Internet with AT&T’s EDGE network.

One more gripe about the iPod touch: its maximum storage space of 16 GB looks wimpy compared to the cheaper iPod classic’s 160 GB. I know, I know, it’s because it has flash memory, but would it really be worth it to get an iPod that’s more expensive and has one tenth the storage space of another iPod? I guess those iPod touch features come at a high premium.

But still, if I were to get a new iPod, it would probably, just barely, be the iPod touch. 16 gigs would be a tight fit for my music, photos, videos, and podcasts, but it sure would be nice to be able to browse the web, assuming I could find a hotspot.

And plus, the iPod touch is just cool.

According to a “Today @ PC World” blog post:

In an article published in today’s New York Times researchers using WiFi connection say they can gain access to an iPhone ceding control of the device. Researchers also say the hack can be achieved by tricking iPhone users into visiting a Web site with malicious code. The hack, ISE researchers say, can give intruders access to “any file” on the iPhone and allow a remote user to “make calls… or even turning it into a portable bugging device.”

A bugging device! Yikes!

I guess this is what happens when any technology product becomes popular, be it the Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows.

I wonder if this is due to a flaw in the iPhone’s Mac OS X version, the Safari browser, or some iPhone-specific hardware or software issue.

Why? Why has the iPhone been so successful? Why has an overpriced, under-featured gadget generated such excitement across the country, with people spending days waiting in line for a chance to spend $500-$600 for it?

After all, the iPhone does have a lot of limitations. As Wikipedia puts it:

iPhone lacks a number of common handheld features, including voice dialing, voice recording, instant messaging, memory card slot, MMS, A2DP (stereo bluetooth), common Bluetooth file transfer, GPS capability, text copy and paste, native games, and support for MP3 files as ringtones.

So what’s the reason?

Although the iPhone lacks much functionality, what the iPhone does do it does really, really well. The iPhone lacks many features common to other phones, but its feature set is sufficient for most people, and most importantly, it implements those features in a superior fashion.

Every product or feature has two conceptual components: the idea, and the implementation of the idea. Other phones may already have the same ideas, but with the iPhone Apple has really nailed the implementation.

And of course, Apple has done a fantastic job marketing this thing. They actually haven’t done a lot of marketing. Instead, they’ve used the consumer base to market the product for them. Everyone was talking about the iPhone. The media. Blogs. Podcasts. The iPhone was the coolest thing ever before it was even released. And as the release date approached, Apple leaked out additional details to keep the excitement going.

The whole campaign was very well done. The campaign was so successful, however, that in my opinion it does raise some concerns about society’s inordinate excitement about “stuff.”

But from a marketing standpoint, Apple has done a great job with the iPhone, even though the product itself isn’t the greatest. Though when a product has as many positive aspects as the iPhone, one is more likely to forgive or overlook the negative aspects.

What would be interesting to see is a technology product that is as close to perfect as possible in both the idea and the implementation, with a great feature set, great implementation of that feature set, and great marketing of that feature set. Who knows? Maybe in the future it’ll be something even more trivial than a cellphone.

I checked out Apple’s website recently and have noticed that they’ve replaced their generic anti-PC content with specifically anti-Vista propaganda. And I think there are a few things that need to be cleared up.

They say that Mac OS X is still the best OS, and then proceed to say why.

While Vista does its best to copy some features that have been in Mac OS X for years, Mac OS X offers an experience that is simply years ahead.

So what do they do after saying that? They go on to list features that Mac OS X has (all of which Vista has too) or will have in Leopard (all of which appeared in Vista first). Sounds a little turned-around to me.

Spotlight, for example, is always there to help you find that elusive file hiding somewhere in your computer. It shows search results literally as you type, in emails, contacts, PDFs, images, contacts, calendars, and applications.

Dashboard Widgets are small, focused applications for accomplishing discrete tasks (like tracking deliveries, checking the weather, playing Soduku, printing envelopes, reviewing your stock portfolio, etc.).

Based on what they said above, it’s clear that they’re trying to imply that Vista doesn’t have these features, which, of course, is totally false.

Unlike Vista, which comes in four distinct flavors at four distinct prices, each with its own distinct set of features (and each in 32- and 64-bit dialects), there’s only one Mac OS X. It runs on every Mac. With a full set of features.

OK, I do admit, Vista’s editions can be a bit confusing. However, it does ensure that you’re not paying extra for features you don’t really need.

But even as Vista falls short in features that have long been part of Mac OS X, it’s about to lag even farther behind. Because Mac OS X Leopard is right around the corner. And with it will come an even richer set of features to make using your Mac easier and more amazing.

This is where I start laughing, because all of these features have been in Windows for years.

With the new Time Machine, built into Mac OS X Leopard, you’ll be able to peer into any folder on your Mac and travel back in time to retrieve an earlier version of a document. It’s an all-new (and fantastically cool) take on data backup.

This four-year-old (at least) Windows feature has been around in Windows Server 2003 (and quite possibly earlier versions, though I don’t know for sure), and is now entering the consumer editions of Windows.

The Spaces feature allows you to create multiple desktops so that you can organize your workspace differently for different tasks. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Excuse me? This feature is a free Microsoft add-on to Windows XP … that’s right, it’s a five-year-old feature. Sure, so it’s not integrated in the OS, but this still sounds like a rip-off of Microsoft innovation.

The choice today is between an OS trying its best to catch up— or Mac OS X, which continues to lead the way.

Pah! I do respect the Mac OS X, but this “marketing” just seems to be deceitful propaganda designed to take advantage of people who don’t know the full feature set of Windows Vista and earlier versions.

Apple feels threatened. I can tell.

I’ve been considering an iPod purchase recently, and I noticed that Amazon has cut prices on the 5.5 generation iPods by about $13 for the 30GB version and $18 for the 80GB.

So yes, this is only a 5% discount, but I thought this was of note because I’ve rarely seen iPods below the standard retail price. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the iPhone announcement had something to do with it, considering the recent buzz about how it might impact iPod sales.

You heard it here first: have a listen to TechNews Podcast episode 3 for more info.

(And just so I don’t have an angry mob of disappointed Apple fans after me, this is not real. It’s still pretty funny though. Though to tell you the truth I wouldn’t be too surprised if Apple really did get into automobiles and developed an Internet-connected car. That would be pretty cool.)

Here’s the scoop from a PCWorld article:

Cisco Systems sued Apple today [January 10, 2007] to prevent it from using the name iPhone for the new smart phone that it introduced yesterday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
[…]
The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco. Linksys picked up the iPhone name when it bought a company called Infogear Technology in 2000. Cisco’s iPhones are telephone handsets designed for use on a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) network.
[…]
Apple and Cisco have been in negotiations for about two years over Apple’s desire to license the iPhone trademark, according to Cisco spokesman John Noh. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld, Cisco had not yet received a signed trademark licensing agreement from Apple, though the two companies had been negotiating terms as recently as last Monday night.
[…]
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod marketing, pointed out that Cisco’s iPhone brand applies to a line of voice-over-IP products, whereas Apple’s iPhone is a cell phone. “They’re different products,” Joswiak said.

“Yeah, but they’re both phones,” is what I have to say to that. Cisco seems to agree:

“Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone, and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand,” Chandler [senior vice president and general counsel for Cisco] said.

Cisco seems to be pretty upset, but I’m sure they’re loving this publicity for their product!

Apple announced yesterday the Apple TV, the new name for what was previously codenamed “iTV.”

Apple TV has found a web home under the “iPod + iTunes” category of the Apple website. From the Apple TV homepage:

Say you’ve just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. […] Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library to any Mac or PC in the house.

I think this is a really cool thing, even more so because it works with PCs, meaning us Windows users aren’t left out. I think this will also be really neat for podcasters in particular, as Apple TV users will be able to watch video podcasts from their televisions. Now how cool will that be?

The much-anticipated iPhone was released yesterday. From a CNET News.com article:

The Mac OS X-based iPhone is most akin to an iPod in design, but allows users to listen to music, make phone calls, send text messages and e-mail, surf the Web, and take and upload photos, all using a wide touch screen and a single button. Apple plans to make the device available in the United States in June, with a 4GB model going for $499 with a two-year service contract, and an 8GB model with the same contract for $599.

My thoughts:

For one, it seems very expensive (as seems to be typical with quite a few Apple products). Though I’m guessing the price will likely decrease as time goes on.

Second, I’m not sure if dropping the keyboard is such a good idea. I understand there’s some sort of touch-screen equivalent, but I’m not clear on how that’ll work.

The iPhone does have a lot of the “cool factor” though: for example, it has a sensor that detects when you hold the iPhone up to your ear and turns off the touch screen, turns off any music, and switches the iPhone to calling mode.

Very cool, but I have a few questions: How does that work anyway? Is it simply a proximity sensor? Does this sensor use radiation that might revive the cellphone radiation concerns? And what do you call this feature anyway? I vote for “sonear” (that is, “sonar” with an “e” in just the right spot).

So in summary, the iPhone is cool … but it’s way beyond my budget.

I see a clever pun developing in this shot from the upcoming VeggieTales video Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple: