Clear to Partly Cloudy over Appledom
11 July 2008 12:53 EST
Kenn Marks
With the introduction of the iPhone 3G, firmware 2.0, the App Store, and MobileMe everyone is a twitter with pent up excitement. But, the weather over Appledom is clear, in the fact that all stores had a good stock of iPhones and some are already sold out by 10am EDT.
The App Store is up and serving up great apps, while iTunes updates are a little sluggish people are patiently updating. The Cloud in the otherwise clear skies or lack thereof is the much touted MobileMe, "Exchange for the rest of us". It appears that the MobileMe Cloud is coming through as partly cloudy at best.
Its taken this writer over five hours to get my first working PUSH event. The first four hours were spent just trying to keep or even connect to Me.com. The last hour was spent making sure all preferences were correct and all the syncing went without loosing any data. Once I achieved a stable connection I tried making changes on my desktop, iPhone, and lastly at MobileMe and PUSH worked albeit rather slowly, not the quick response of Steve's demo at WWDC.
This could be indicative of the immense network load with activations, firmware upgrades, and App Store downloads. We all have to understand that the Internet in not an infinite pipe, it's a packet network with lots of nodes, just like the freeways of California no matter how many lanes or limited access it still becomes a parking lot at rush hour. So when the dust settles and hopefully rises to make a stable Cloud all the new features of the iPhone 3G, Firmware 2.0, and MobileMe can be realized to it's fullest.
Post Script - Observations from below the Cloud
Some of the oops items that have been encountered are my number one pet peeve, holding the the delete key for an extended period causes key to go into repeat mode, even if you remove your finger, quickly erasing all you just typed, until you can type another key to stop it. I searched the preferences for a delay to repeat entry, but could not find one. My next upset deals with the content of a previous article where AT&T 3G is not where they say it is. Here it is 5 hours into iPhone 3G and still no 3G within 5 miles of my center of operation. The final straw was when I went to Starbucks for a Grande Cappuccino only to find that I could not log into the AT&T Wi-Fi page and connect with my iPhone, so my leisure day as a road warrior was cut short.
Let us know what you think over in the comments and forums.
Digg This |
Post to del.icio.us |
Post to Furl
Category: Environment/MobileMe/Opinion/User Interface/iPhone
Buy from: Apple
...............................................................................................
iPhone Not for People in Their Right Mind...
14 October 2007 01:19 EST
Kenn Marks
We know that left-handed people have their motor skills predominantly controlled by the right hemisphere of their brain, thus the title. It has become quite obvious that the iPhone user interface is right handed, as is most of the rest of the world. I couldn't figure why I kept dialing phone numbers accidently while scrolling my contact list and I originally attributed it to the fact that Apple did not use the standard Macintosh GUI of double clicking to activate an action.
Click the jump for the full story...
Digg This |
Post to del.icio.us |
Post to Furl
Category: User Interface/iPhone
Buy from: Apple
...............................................................................................
Apple Files Ambient Noise Recording Patent for Handheld Devices
10 August 2007 09:19 EST
Chris Barylick
The iPhone and iPod can already do a fair amount, but tend to lead to an insular experience (the conventional logic being that if I'm rocking out to Air Supply on my iPod, then so is the rest of the world. The same goes for the iPhone.)
This may change soon, as Apple has recently filed a patent that with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that posits the idea of passing external/ambient noise through a device's headphones as opposed to strictly audio from the device.
According to MacNN, the patent describes a situation in which the user could flick a switch that would shut down audio from the device and instead pick up sounds such as voices or the sounds of nearby traffic. The patent, entitled "Presentation of audible media in accommodation with external sound", lays out a situation in which the user can flip back and forth between their music and outside sounds, the technology perhaps even enhancing outside sounds, picking up ambient noise through a microphone and amplifying it through the headphones.
The headphones would be able to simultaneously record ambient noise, allowing for both live music playback from the device as well as recording of external noises or conversations.
Not a bad idea if it works out. Still, the technology is already here in the form of knowing when to put the headphones away and listen to friends, co-workers, employers, significant others and oncoming traffic.
Your two cents, as always, are more than appreciated in the comments and forums.
Digg This |
Post to del.icio.us |
Post to Furl
Category: User Interface
Buy from: Apple
...............................................................................................
Transparent Desktops - All the Rage
30 March 2005 01:39 EST
Check out these pictures from people who use desktop pictures of what is behind their monitor. It's a really neat effect.
PowerPage west coast correspondent Jason Kaplan also notes that MacBidouille has a great image gallery of transparent desktops.
If you'd like to submit your PowerBook's "transparent desktop" for an upcoming feature. Please use the "Contact Us" link at the top of every PowerPage -Ed
Digg This |
Post to del.icio.us |
Post to Furl
Category: User Interface
Buy from: Apple
...............................................................................................
Transparent Desktops - All the Rage
30 March 2005 01:39 EST
Check out these pictures from people who use desktop pictures of what is behind their monitor. It's a really neat effect.
PowerPage west coast correspondent Jason Kaplan also notes that MacBidouille has a great image gallery of transparent desktops.
If you'd like to submit your PowerBook's "transparent desktop" for an upcoming feature. Please use the "Contact Us" link at the top of every PowerPage -Ed
Digg This |
Post to del.icio.us |
Post to Furl
Category: User Interface
Buy from: Apple
...............................................................................................
Copyright © 1995-2008 Bolt, LLC. All rights reserved.