Mobile archive
Why Apple will gladly relock your iPhone
2007-10-08 12:22
I presume everybody and their godmother have already read Mark Pilgrim’s If wishes were iPhones, then beggars would call. If you haven’t, read it. I happen to entirely agree with Mark on this: Buy it for what it is, or don’t buy it at all, but that’s not my point. Somewhere in the comments, rdas7 asks:
I can’t fathom why they would partner with particular carriers: an iPhone open to any network would surely just cream the market. But they have, for whatever market reasons.
There is a simple answer to this, Apple has a revenue sharing deal with AT&T. The estimates on the value of the deal vary greatly (and noone can know for sure), the result of this is fairly clear: Apple would not be able to get the same deal if they didn’t give any carrier exclusivity. I even doubt they would be getting such a deal at all, if they didn’t opt for allowing companies to monopolize the iPhone.
Incidentally, this also goes a long way to explain Apple’s attitude towards hacking, upgrades and iBricking: They are not getting the revenue which they actually want from you, if you never register with a particular carrier, and so they will gladly relock your phone on upgrade (but, somehow, I doubt they’ll iBrick it intentionally). While the OS on the phone is relatively hackable, with every application running as root, the business model around the iPhone doesn’t allow for the hacking
Further, there is a final part to their nuke-everything-on-update strategy, that includes relocking, and nuking proprietary applications: iTunes and ringtones. Apple are doing their very best to milk the market for ringtones. While, as John Gruber points out, you can get around it:
Just use the trick where you make a copy of an AAC audio file and change its extension to “.m4r”, open it in iTunes, then change the file extension back to “.m4a” and sync your iPhone. Or, far easier, just use Rogue Amoeba’s new freeware MakeiPhoneRingtone utility, which automates the above steps.
Here’s the catch: They also want to reserve the right to take away that ability, and ensure that they have a steady iTunes revenue stream for “selling” the same song more than once, in a multi-billion-dollar market where Apple has had no entry in the past.
So, if you want to, feel free to buy the iPhone, but don’t expect it to be, or remain hackable, and don’t buy it, expecting your iPhone to remain anything other than a fatter iPod Touch or iBrick, should you decide that the carrier you sold your soul to, buying this piece of hardware, isn’t right for you.
(Edit: It was pointed out, privately, to me, that the last paragraph may be somewhat difficult to parse, so allow me to reformulate: If you buy an iPhone, you have to be aware that your device is likely locked in to one contract with one provider only, and you should not expect that you can carry the device over to a new provider. Also be aware that Apple will likely go to great lengths to prevent you from using the phone in any other way than Apple intended you to use it, especially if your use it in a way that conflicts with their business model.)
As an aside, Apple’s locking scheme seems to be a permanent locking scheme, something I have reason to believe would be considered illegal bundling in for instance Norway. I’ll see if I can dig up some references for this.
More iPhone
2007-07-02 17:02
Someone just brought an iPhone into the office, and I got to play around with it for a bit. I recently said something about why you shouldn’t buy one. I’d like to revisit some of my points from that piece.
The virtual keyboard
For me, the virtual keyboard is virtually useless. I have normal sized hands, for someone my size, and using my thumbs to type is out of the question, as the risk of hitting one of the adjacent keys instead of what you wanted to press is, for me, around 50%. Which leaves me with two-handed operation as the only real alternative.
The touch screen
I mentioned the grid overlay, and yes, it does steal light, and the screen is less bright than non-touchscreen displays. Note that it is more than reasonably bright for indoor use. As for how bad the loss of brightness is, compared to other touch screens, I’d say it’s neither among the best or worst of the bunch.
One of the things I had read about, but hadn’t expected to be nearly as bad as it was, was the stains. The device I tried looked like it had had a kid with sticky fingers as the primary user for a couple of weeks. Make sure that you always have something to wipe the screen with available.
The automatically rotating display was really nice, though. The biggest problem with this feature is that it’s only supported in a few applications, like the iPod/iTunes stuff, the photo album and in Safari.
The screen
No, the screen, or the resolution isn’t bad, compared to other offerings. With the prior reservation about brightness and staining, it’s more than comfortable enough for viewing YouTube videos, or read maps on Google Maps. On the other hand, the screen is absolutely not amazing. The screen on my Nokia 6300(!) is both brighter, and sharper. And I still want that 640×480 display from the OpenMoko.
The browser
The browser is Safari, and works reasonably well, but its JavaScript performance is less than stellar - especially considering it seems to have a reeasonably fast CPU under the hood.
The browser seems to be based on an older version of WebKit. The first indicator being the aforementioned JavaScript performance. The second being that it fails rendering Acid2 correctly. More precisely, it fails on two rows
- Row 1: fixed positioning, minimum and maximum heights, and minimum and maximum widths.
- Rows 4-5: paint order and fixed backgrounds. More specifically,the background behind the eyes is orange, which, IIRC, indicates problems with handling
<object>correctly.
So, what’s using the browser like? In landscape mode, most text is readable when zoomed in, even on this site. In portrait mode, whether the text is at all readable is more a matter of luck, as the browser does not seem to do any sort of dynamic text-wrapping or other adjustments to ensure that you get both a minimum font-size when you’re zoomed in without having to scroll both horizontally and vertically. In this respect, the current beta of Opera Mini 4 works much better, as you rarely, if ever, have to choose between horizontal scrolling and readable text.
Scrolling quickly in Safari also seems to reveal a bit about how the iPhone renders graphics:
- When you zoom in, you first get a blurred, low-detail zoomed in version of the page, that changes to a more detailed view. This is much the same you see with interlaced PNG images on the web: First the low-detail version, then the proper one.
- When you scroll quickly around, the iPhone will only render the new part of the page after some time, indicating that the iPhone is always just rendering to a texture barely bigger than the screen. The upside to this is that scrolling feels reasonably snappy, but at the same time, the downside is that it that it, at the same time, feels slow, because you’ll end up staring at a grey screen for 0.1-0.3 seconds before actually being able to read.
Stuff I missed
When I last wrote about this, I missed the following — The iPod has absolutely no clipboard. You can’t select text. This is unforgivable. For instance, you can forget about using the phone to input data into the social web
Why you shouldn't buy an iPhone
2007-06-27 12:04
Since everybody is obsessed with the iPhone, I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t buy one.
The touch screen
First off, this is not the first phone with a touch screen. It is however one of the first you’re not using a stylus on, and that you’re not using handwriting recognition on. You’re instead locked to a virtual keyboard, and a dictionary.
This is bad. First of all, there’s no tactile feedback, so you can’t actually know that you’ve pressed any key, but you have to look, or bet that you did.
Second of all, it makes you rely on a built-in dictionary. This will most definitely be more awkward than similar typing systems. On a regular mobile with a keyboard, you know which key you pressed, without looking, and you can rely on muscle memory to bring up the right word in the dictionary. This is also different from the Wii, where you do get tactile feedback when you type on the virtual keyboard.
Third: Humans have a few thousand years of experience with writing systems. Ink and Quill, later pen and paper came about for a reason. It’s more convenient. It’s easier. It’s more natural. And it works on phones, so shiningly demonstrated by the M600i, P800, P900 and P990 from Sony Ericsson. It’s reusing a mechanical skill every literate person already has. If you feel like combining this with an autocompletion feature, it’s quick. Much quicker than virtual keyboards.
Fourth: In order to be touch-sensitive, LCDs overlay a grid, presumably measuring capacitance to determine the position of the finger. Most of these steal light. Which doesn’t matter when you’re indoors, but go outside on a sunny day, and you’ll discover that screens that aren’t touch-sensitive are a lot easier to read.
The browser
Seriously. Apple aren’t the first to make a mobile web browser. The company I work for has been in the business for years, doing just that. And (internal builds, mind you) pass ACID 2.
And then there’s Opera Mini, in particular the Opera Mini 4 beta - which also quite nearly passes ACID2. If you’re not on an unlimited data plan, it’s also going to be a lot cheaper, and quite likely faster (See point 6).
Did I mention that Opera MIni runs on any device
No Java
Seriously. Are they joking? There is a huge market of J2ME applications, in particular games. Games you won’t see for the iPhone. Chat applications. All of the stuff Apple doesn’t allow you to extend the phone with.
Granted, widgets will fill some of this aftermarket, but killing J2ME is about four year premature.
No MMS
Again, are Apple joking? What’s the use of having a camera in the phone, if you can’t send your images to your friends. And what’s the use of dropping a no-cost feature from said camera, namely video recording.
No 3G
I’ve been online from a phone for years now. If you want to give people the “full web”, you really shouldn’t offer anything but 3G, when you have the opportunity. Apple’s offering is very much back to the 33.2kbps modem (The transfer speeds are faster for edge, but it’s mostly cancelled out by increased latency).
Battery life
The Wall Street Journal lists some data for the phone, including battery life: 8 hours talk time, 250 hours standby, 6 hours Internet use, 7 hours video playback, and 24 hours audio playback. Expect to charge your phone twice a day. Expect to run out of battery at some critical moment (Note that battery life on a lot of other devices is equally lacklustre, but said devices don’t try to be an all-compassing always-in-use device).
Oh, and in case you actually really need to be available to make or recieve phone calls, which is the primary function of a phone, there’s no way for you to carry a spare battery. Because it’s not replacable.
The screen.
320×480. Come on. The OpenMoko” Neo1973 device will have a screen with a whopping 640×480 display on a 2.8” LCD. That’s 282 DPI!
The lock-in
This device is locked in in so many ways:
- You’ll be forced to, for two years to be an AT&T customer.
- iTunes. Sigh. I really hate iTunes
- No third-party software
- A two year contract. You’ve got to be kidding me. Phones barely last two years.
The price
No. The price is not $499 or $599. The price is $3000! Because of that two-year lock-in to AT&T. And you’ve lost all freedom in those two years to use another phone than the Apple one, should you be dissatisfied with the device. Because, if OpenMoko, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola or someone else comes up with a device you’re drooling over, you’ll still be paying for your iPhone. Until your ears bleed. And then some
Update: Gizmodo has an article with other stuff the iPhone is missing — no songs as ringtones? WTF??!?
Opera Mini 4 beta out
2007-06-19 10:16
Well, wouldn’t you know it, the Opera Mini 4 beta is out. This is, no doubt, the single most exciting thing to happen in the J2ME space ever.
Why? Because it brings full web page layouts to any phone capable of running it. Yes. The full shebang. Your nicely laid out CSS pages. All while still saving your bandwith (and hence, costs) by translating and compressing the pages.
Just how good is the Opera 4 Mini beta? Well. Repeating a cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words, or more. A screnshot of the Acid 2 test is quite telling:
(If you want to check for yourself, the Simulator is now live)
So, how does browsing with the new layout work? You get a virtual mouse pointer, and can move around a zoomed-out overview mode, which neatly zooms in to allow you to read when you click a button. The cursor works one of two ways, either as a regular cursor, using the joystick, or if you use 2,4,6,8 on the keypad, some Magic™ is applied, and it moves from block to block, neatly aligning on them so you zoom in on what most likely is where you wanted to be.
To download it to your phone, just go to operamini.com/beta with your phone.
More reading and stuff you probably want to check out:
Mobile Opera Bits
2006-11-28 15:34
Ok, two pieces of news for you today.
Opera Mini 3.0
Opera Mini 3.0 is out. Go get it. Opera Mini is a truly fantastic piece of software, and the 3.0 version features some real improvements:
- Feed Reader: I’ve let this replace the native feed reader I have on my phone. The UI is better than what the Sony Ericsson M600i offers, and it actually supports a multitude of formats, including Atom 1.0
- Photo upload. My phone has no camera, but here it is, direct photo upload from within Opera Mini.
- Support for secure connections: You can finally use secure services and stay safe all the way.
- Since most web authors have no regard for mobile usability (and no, dotmobi won’t help), Opera Mini 3.0 has content folding, where long navigation lists and other filler fluff is collapsed so you don’t have to scroll past 323 pages to get to your actual content.
If you want to give Opera Mini a try before you download, check out the Opera Mini Simulator
The Ajax Phone
Over at Jan’s blog I found a video of Aida:
Would you like to get personalized and always updated newsfeed directly on the idle-screen of your mobile phone? How about location based traffic information or a map service similar to Google Maps? This is what Opera, Telenor and FAST set out to test in a R&D study named ‘Aida’ earlier this year. The solution was tested on a large number of end users over many months and was very well received among the testers.
Aida is a terrific project that shows what Ajax applications on the phone really are capable of. I just wish every phone had this;
- Newsfeeds.
- Real-time location-based traffic information — buses, trams and subways. What are the nearest stops, and when does your transportation leave.
- Map services and location-aware search.
- Device integration. Search phone directories and add the contacts directly to your device contact list.
There’s more. Spend a few minutes watching the video. This is the future of Ajax:
There should be one Internet
2006-11-10 15:58 – One comment
A truly open Linux phone with GPS debuts
2006-11-08 12:09 – Leave a comment
Mobile surfing using your local network
2006-04-04 14:09 – Leave a comment
Debitel chooses Opera to drive Mobile Web in Europe
2006-03-14 13:40 – Leave a comment
Opera Mini mind tricks
2006-01-24 19:25 – One comment
This is how I use Opera Mini.
Opera Mini goes Worldwide
2006-01-24 12:07 – Seven comments
Opera Mini is now available worldwide. Download it. Use it. Love it.
AJAX for Mobile Devices Will Be the Hallmark of "Mobile Web 2.0"
2006-01-03 10:57 – Leave a comment
Opera Platform SDK - Not your momma's Ajax
2005-11-15 09:00 – Seven comments
It's time to introduce to the world what I, and the team I'm working with are doing at Opera: The Opera Platform SDK, an advanced web application framework for mobile devices.
Abusing TrackBack for fun: Mobile blogging
2003-05-26 18:56 – Four comments
Instructions on using TrackBacks to blog from any WAP-enabled phone, including a sample template
Born-again phone
2003-03-01 18:22 – Leave a comment
The Ericsson phone that unexpectedly rose from the dead
Opera on MS Smartphone? Never!
2003-02-25 11:24 – Leave a comment
Opera for mobile platforms, but not for Windows CE