iPhone 4: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful

I was able to pick up my new iPhone 4 on day one! When it comes to gadgets like this, that is how I am. When I got my iPhone 3G, I waited in like at 5:00am at the local AT&T store to get it. Something in me just has to have it when it’s released. That is the geek in me. With the iPhone 4, it was easier. I just pre-ordered it at Best Buy and they made an 8:00am appointment, the day before it was released, for me to come in and pick it up. I got there, stepped in side, sat down, and had my new 32GB iPhone 4 handed to me.

I’ve had it a few days now and have spent a lot of time with it. Just today I put emoji icons in front of my folder names… so I have a football in front of the name for my ‘Sports’ games folder, headphones for my ‘Music’ folder, and a camera on my ‘Photo’ apps folder. With all the good, and bad, news flying around about the new iPhone 4, I thought I would put in my two cents worth. There has been enough in-depth reviews, so I will keep this simple. Just do an iPhone 4 review search in Google to get all the juicy details.

Up Next… The New iPhone

Well, it is almost June 7th. This is the date Steve Jobs steps onto the stage of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and officially announces the new iPhone HD… 4G… or whatever the new name will be. WWDC seems to be the place where Apple makes iPhone hardware announcements. It has been this way since the first iPhone release in 2007. It’s appropriate, since the iPhone (and new iPad) is a great development platform. Most people are waiting for the big iPhone announcement. So what are we hoping to see in the new device?

The New iPhone Discovered

If you haven’t heard, a new 4th Generation (prototype) iPhone was found on the floor of a bar in San Jose. Sounds fishy, right? Engadget posted pictures on its site last week and then a day later said that they were probably pictures of a knock-off iPhone from China. Another day later and they are posting that it is real again. Then I read that Gizmodo actually got the prototype iPhone, for an undisclosed amount of money. They put up pictures and videos of it on their site. They actually got hands on with the new iPhone and even took it apart to verify the Apple design for themselves. Turns out that this is the real thing… and it looks exciting!

iPhone OS 4.0… It’s about time!

Today, Steve Jobs got up on stage and announced iPhone OS 4.0. With 1,500 new developer API’s and 100 new user features, this looks to be the OS that we have been waiting for.  Most of the time was spent going over the main seven “Tentpole” features.  It’s about time Apple! I’m excited all over again for this new OS, due summertime… and a new iPhone too.

The iPad is Helping to Push HTML5

It’s hard to believe, but just today, I saw multiple articles about sites converting to HTML5 for the Apple iPad launch. It’s hard to believe that a device could have such an impact on the Internet. Last week it was the CBS.com announcement that they were testing an iPad version of the site to run their videos in HTML5. This week it looks like The New York Times and Time Inc. are preparing their sites to use HTML5 in preparation for April 3rd’s iPad launch. Rumors have it that NPR and Wall Street Journal iPad sites are also in the works, using HTML5.

“Throw Away” Apps on the iPhone

Apple announced that over 3 billion applications have been downloaded from its App Store. There are over 140,000 apps available to download. That is a lot of apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. There are applications available in just about any category you can think of from education, to business, to news, and even games. There are applications from the low, low price of FREE up to $100 and possibly higher. You will find your average apps linger around $5 to $10, but most are priced from $.99 and $1.99. This is the sweet spot for applications. It is what I consider to be the “Throw Away” app price range.

The Apple WiiPad

The thin, light, and easy to hold iPad.

People were hyped up for the longest time before the release of the Apple iPad. Now it has officially been announced, but not released yet, and many of the same people are now complaining about it. “Why would I want an iPad when I’ve got a laptop?”; “The iPad is just a bigger iPod Touch.”; “The iPad doesn’t do enough to make it worth $500.”

Now I’ve got to remind you that the iPad is not out yet. Why does this matter? Because until it was announced it wasn’t available to application developers either. With Apple not releasing the iPad for 60 days, developers have some time to update their applications or create new applications to take advantage of the iPad’s new features.

New features? Yes, Apple just scratched the surface of what the iPad can do by showing us drop down menus, pop-up selections, and multiple panes in applications. iWorks was shown with new features not available on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Even the iPhone standard applications worked and looked better on the iPad with just an updated iPhone OS.

Computers – “I can remember the day when…”

The first Atari 800 hooked to a 13" color television.

I love computers. I grew up with computers. I feel I was around during the start of the home computers. I’m a big Mac fan at home but have always used PCs at work. There are just some days where we get those water cooler conversations about how much computers have advanced, how they have changed from the old days, or how we can’t even imagine living without them. I may get into some geek techno babble here (you may need a babel fish! ;-p ), but those of you who understand will enjoy it.

The first computer I ever used was an Apple II+. I was in 10th grade at the time and instantly fell in love. It may have only had a black and white display, using characters like $ and @ in place of graphics, but I knew that I wanted to make a living with computers. I thought then that computers were the way of the way of the future. For this article I want to refer to my favorite computer, the Atari 800. You can probably stick your first computer in here too.

I got my Atari 800 back in the days when it first came out. It was a powerhouse at the time with 48K of memory (upgraded from 16K), an 88K disk drive for storage (much-needed after using the cassette tape storage), and it displayed 16 colors at 320×192 pixels on my 13″ TV. I dabbled in some programming on the Atari and also enjoyed some early computer games. Hey, that was about all there was to do on a computer.

MS Office on the Apple iPad

I saw an article today on Engadget about the possibility of Microsoft creating Office for the Apple iPad. We are talking about Microsoft Office here. Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Probably the biggest selling software suite ever on Windows and Mac OS X. What would this mean for prospective iPad users? How would this affect sales of the iPad?

Most people don’t know this, but Microsoft Word and Excel were released on the Apple Macintosh before MS Windows. Microsoft has been supporting the Mac for years and continues this support it with an end of year release of Office 2011 for the Mac. If Microsoft carries over this Office support to the iPad, this could mean even greater sales for Microsoft and a possible push of the iPad into the business and educational market.

iPhone Rumors Galore

I’m an iPhone lover.  I’ve got to admit that right now… actually a Mac fan too. I’m always keeping up on the latest rumors about Apple products I’m interested in. Currently I’m interested in the new iPhone that we should be hearing about in the next couple of months.

I’ve checked out the Motorola Droid and the Google Nexus One. I see features in these devices that I would like to see in the next iPhone. Knowing that Steve Jobs is also keeping track of his competition, I figure he is going to have many features, of these new smart phones, in the next iPhone. You can even look at jail-broken iPhones and see features that should be in the iPhone 4G. Let’s run down some of the things that should be in the next iPhone.