Satisfying Design, Unsatisfactory Solution

I broke my phone yesterday. The screen I cracked back in July (a few weeks after I got the thing) cracked all the way through the LCD this time.

I AM going to have it fixed. The phone is functional except for the screen and it's $200 to replace that. No sense in NOT fixing a $700 phone.

Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of moving and business travel, and it's going to be a couple weeks to get my old phone fixed. I can't go a couple weeks without a phone.

When I'm working, I can't go two DAYS without a smartphone frankly. It's not only my telephone, it's also my organizer, my email client, my internet connection etc...

So, I had to rush out and get a new one.

Since I've already got multiple android devices (between us, I think Mel and I have seven or eight devices of some type, which run android in some fashion), and my iDevices are all several years old, I decided to grab an iPhone 5s (64gb black ).

Given my job, I need to have a working iDevice around for testing purposes if nothing else. My old iPhones are VERY old at this point. Having been purchased in 2009 makes them dinosaurs, which can't run the latest iOs, and thus no longer useful for testing. I was planning on picking up an iPad mini at some point soon... but what the heck, here's an opportunity to get a new iDevice while filling another need.

Verizon has a pay by installment plan that lets you keep your existing service plan (I'm well beyond my contract period, and have grandfathered unlimited data), so I DIDN'T have to lay out $800 all at once yesterday for a new phone, which is rather useful.

In fact, because I have a discount plan, I ended up getting the phone, and a great accessory bundle worth about $200 (including a mophie Juice pack power station pro ), for a grand total of $200 up front.

Unfortunately, I don't like the phone at all. In fact, I rather hate it both as a phone, and as a computing device.

Oh, it's pretty... it's just stupid and broken, by design.

I just don't care for iDevices. I need to have at least one around for testing purposes, and because there are still an unfortunate number of iDevice exclusive apps; so I don't regret buying it, and I'm not going to take it back...

I just don't like it.

I don't like how limited and simplistic iDevices are, even once jailbroken. I don't like being forced into Steve Jobs and Jony Ive's personal vision of "perfection". I like things the way I want them, not how Apple tells me I should want them.

I WANT options. I WANT complexity, when complexity is appropriate. I want to be able to do with my device what I wish, when I wish, how I wish...

Even jailbroken, iDevices just don't do that.

A perfect example: tethering

Even jailbroken, tethering is pathetic with an iPhone. You can't configure ANY options of any kind other than your WPA password. You can't even configure your SSID, as it's set automatically and unchangeably, to the host name of the phone.

Worse, when you are using the iDevice as a hotspot, it doesn't participate in the hotspot network. It can act as a gateway, but you can't be tethered to it, and communicate with it directly at the same time.

That is... universally, phenomenally, stupid and broken.

... but its "simple" and "elegant"... after all "users shouldn't have to think about those sorts of details and techy stuff, they just want it to work when they hit the button".

Yeah... I want it to work... and I want it to work in situations OTHER than what apple thinks will be common.

So, when I get my android phone fixed, I'm switching back... and I will have a very nice media streaming, game playing, and testing device.

The second biggest irritation about the iPhone...

Ok, so as I've noted before (several times), the iPhone isn't perfect, or anywhere close to it; but it is pretty damn good, even great sometimes.

The biggest irritation with it is the lack of cut and paste. That still irks me constantly; but it doesn't really cause problems for me.

The SECOND biggest irritation I have with the iPhone DOES cause me problems, and it's this:



That's the mute switch, and it's ENTIRELY too easy to accidentally flick on. In fact it will do it all by itself when jostled etc...

Worse, the lock function doesn't prevent the mute from being engaged. There is no way to stop this from happening.

I can't tell you how many calls I've missed because of this. Dozens certainly.

Behold the second coming of the JesusPhone; is it not nifty?

So, I was originally going to post a big iPhone review right at launch; but there were so many problems with the launch, and so many people writing reviews; that I figured maybe I'll hold off, wait for problems to show up and/or be fixed, and just see how we liked the phone, and how we lived with it for a while, before I wrote a real review.

Well, it's now a month to the day since the launch, and Mel and I have been living with our iPhones day in and day out. Time to get down to it.

I guess just to get it out of the way, before we go any deeper what's the three word review?

Fantastic and maddening.

The iPhone 3G is seriously the best smartphone or PDA I've ever had. It's miles beyond any Windows Mobile device, or Blackberry; and I've had several of each, including top of the line import devices that our carriers here in the US think we're too cheap to pay for (and they're right, for the most part we would be).

Unfortunately, that very excellence just makes the disappointments and irritations (and there are a number of them) all the more aggravating.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the beginning, and the buying experience.

Mel and I decided to stay away from the Fanboys at the apple store, and picked out AT&Ts new flagship store for the east valley, at Tempe Marketplace

Coincidentally, this happened to be where AT&Ts Senior Vice President for mobile products for the southwest region was spending his morning, along with two TV stations and the Arizona Republic.

We chose what we thought was a reasonable time to show up, packed up the kids and trundled over there at 6am, to be greeted with a pretty short line:

Apparently the first eight or so folks had been there all night, but most people started showing up just before or just after we got there.

It was raining, and AT&T had thoughtfully setup awnings, and was giving away free chairs with umbrellas, water, donuts and pastries, and coffee. They even had a (lame and cheezy) DJ there.

Really though, it was clear that they took pains to show their appreciation for us, their new or returning customers. They ahd really put some thought into the experience, and into their relationship with the customer; and it was much appreciated.

Here we are, 18th in line, with the kids:

And here's a pair of douchebags who were having WAY too much fun... and if you take a close look at their eyes I think you can see why:


Overall though, it was a decent experience... Until the store actually opened that is.

Unfortunately, we in Arizona have the great misfortune of sharing the latest timezone in the continental US with California; and by that time activations had basically died completely, and AT&Ts internal provisioning systems were not far behind.

We had pre-qualified and it should have been an in and out process; instead it took about an hour from the time we made it through the doors (and we were in the second group through the doors) so it was about 10:30 by the time we headed for home (with me taking a conference call while we were waiting).

So, let's take a look at what you get:




I have to say, Apple never fails to satisfy in their packaging. The iPhone is packaged almost exactly like a fine timepiece. Honestly, I was most reminded of opening one of my Omega chronographs.

So, you get an iPhone, a USB sync cable and a USB charger to plug it into, a little white earbud headset, substantial (but less than useful) documentation, a microfiber polishing cloth, and a "SIM removal tool" (which is basically a prebent paperclip).

It took a few hours before the activation servers were able to process the phones in, and get us activated; but it was a very simple process once they came back up.

From there, it was just a matter of setting up sync (more on that later), syncing up, and we were good to go.

So, what works and what doesn't? What's good and what's bad?

Mostly, as I said, things are good. It's a great phone; but the points where it falls down are significant enough, and irritation enough, that they stand out strongly in comparison.

What works:

• Great phone
• Great voice quality
• Visual voicemail
• Great iPod
• Very good GPS and maps (very accurate)
• Location services in general
• SPECTACULAR interface
• Semi-tabbed browsing
• The App store, and the apps
  

What doesn't:

• The camera is iffy, but honestly, I don't care much about that
• LOTS of bad apps with no demos and no refunds
• No flash, and iffy java support
• Instability issues with non-apple apps
• Ringtones are WAAAAY too quiet
• There are at least six ebook readers, and all of them are bad.

What's there (and good or great):

• SaveBenjis - An excellent price comparison application
  
• Yelp - A local search, review, and social networking app
  
• Movies.app - A movie and showtime search application
  
• Loopt (if they can make it work properly) - another local search and social networking app
  
• Remote - A wifi remote control for iTunes and the AppleTV
  
• Weatherbug - A weather tool, with maps, radar, and local cameras
  
• VNC (and other remote management tools)
  
• PageOnce - A multi site account aggregation application (all your accounts on one page)
  
• Jott - A voice dictation app
  
• A BUNCH of great games
• Good (but not great) browser
• Push for some apps
• NetRadio (lots of apps for it)
  

What's missing:

• MMS - I don't use it, but lots of folks do
  
• Video - This is really only a software question, so I don't know why they didn't include it
  
• Real navigation - The maps and location services work great, but they aren't navigation
  
• File manager for non-macs that doesn't require a jailbreak
• File manager that doesn't suck in general - There are six file managers and they all suck
  
• Universal IM client with push
• Ebook reader that doesn't suck - There are six ebook readers, and they all suck
  
• A way to edit and search documents with file synchronization
• Cut, copy and paste
• Attached disk mode
• Flash
• Background processes
• Push for most apps
• Not being able to save attachments (and having to read documents from attachments)
• VOIP
• Autoswitching between networks
• REAL tabbed browsing, and a way to open links in new tabs
• Bluetooth keyboard
• Bluetooth stereo
• SSH (just came out a couple days ago)
• No syncing of notes, tasks, or to-do lists
• No way to kill processes without rebooting
• Calendar sharing.
• No tethered data
  

What's iffy:

• Battery life
• Compromising functionality for purity of design (cut and paste for example)
• Compromising functionality for battery life without giving the user the option

What's profoundly broken:

• MobileMe

Ok, so that's quite a list; let's talk about it.

Mostly my problems come from deliberate decisions that Apple (and most likely Steve himself) made; either for purity of design, or to improve battery life.

Steve finds copy and paste for touch interfaces inelegant, so he doesn't want to include them.... Ok, yes they are inelegant; however they have been one of the fundamental elements of the GUI interface since it's invention, and the rest of us don't care if they're inelegant, we just want to be able to copy cut and paste.

Clearly, the decision to not allow background processes, expanded push, bluetooth stereo, real navigation etc... were all to preserve battery life. Personally, I'd rather have the option to lose some battery life in exchange for all of the above (and others besides).

And then there is the battery life... which is not nearly as bad as some people have claimed, but it isn't great that's for sure.

Ok, if you leave brightness high, set your email to check every 15 minutes, leave wi-fi on and searching for networks, leave push on, and turn autolock off, you are going to deplete your battery from full charge to criticial (10%) in about 8 hours.

On the other hand, if you shut wifi and 3g off, put autolock on 1 minute, set your brightness to below half (which is still perfectly readable by the way), and set your fetch to 30 minutes; you'll get three good days of standby out of the thing without hitting critical. Shut push off, and set your email fetch to manual, you get an extra day.

Talk time on 2g is pretty good, at 10 hour; and on 3g it's very good in comparison to other 3g phones at nearly 6 hours. The real killer is using the 3D video capabilities; they eat the battery like you wouldnt believe. 4 hours of 3d videogaming and you're done.

In normal usage, with wifi turned on but not searching for networks, 3g on, and everything else as I described above; I can go through a normal work day, which usually involved 30-60 minutes on my cell phone (I mostly work from my landline when I'm in my home office), and not be below 50% at the end of the day.

So, for my usage, it's just fine. If I was a full time traveller (as I once was) it would probably be a problem, but they sell charging widgets, reserve batteries, and other similar gadgets to recharge the thing on the go if necessary; never mind charging it in your car, at your desk, or from your laptop (all of which of course you can easily do). I have one on order in fact, in case I'm away from charging facilities for more than 8 hours, or I get stuck on a long call when I'm away from charging facilities.

One thing that REALLY irritates me, is that Apple has disabled the ability to use the iPhone as a 3G modem for your laptop. This one really IS a big deal for me, because half the reason I have a 3G phone is to use it for network access when I'm away from a Wi-Fi hotspot etc... The reason why they did this is very clear, it's the carriers.

In fact, an app is available to let you use the iPhone as a proxy and network connection for any computer with wi-fi; but at AT&Ts request, apple has removed it from the U.S. app store (it's still available in some other countries).

This of course is also why there is no real VOIP provider available... and is a good segway to the app store.

Ok, first off, the appstore is GREAT. It's completely easy to find, and download apps; and oh man there are a lot of great apps.

Of course, there are a lot of crappy apps too; and there are no demos, no trial periods, and no refunds. Apple is making pretensions as to providing some kind of quality assurance for the app store... in fact it's their primary jsutification for not allowing applications outside the app store... but they allow literally hundreds of garbage applications, that are crashing the phone left and right.

I'd wager that most of the complaints about the iPhone crashing are from these poor third quality apps.

The fact is though, is that the phone IS somewhat less stable, even without the third party apps. It's a lot better than windows mobile (which I would have to restart several times a day even under the best circumstances), but I have had to restart a couple times a week, and have had to make one hard reset.

Mel on the other hand hasn't had a single problem. In fact she only had to restart for the first time a few days ago, and had to ask me how. Of course I have installed, uninstalled, reinstalled etc... about 60 apps, and she's done like 15.


My two biggest application related irritations are the lack of a useful file manager, and the lack of a good ebook reader.

So far, there have been a number of both types of applications, and they're all horrible.

Again, Steve didn't include a file manager because he thinks they are inelegant; but they are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to any kind of serious use of the phone as a computing device rather than just as a phone. Related to that, there is no inbuilt way to transfer files to the phone, except by emailing them to yourself or uploading to a web page.

You can't even attach via USB and transfer files, as you can do with iPods, and with every other smartphone.

There are workarounds in the app store, but again, they're all crap; and they cost money.

Speaking of all crap costing money, E-books are the most important thing I do with my smartphones other than basic PDA tasks, and email. There are LOTS of ways to read ebooks on the iPhone, but all of them are ugly, unreliable, slow, clunky, and jsut not worth the trouble to work with... oh and they're all expensive as well from $5 to $20; whereas windows mobile ebook readers are almost all free.

Another important task for smartphones is web browsing, and here I have to say the iPhone is by far the best mobile web browsing platform I've ever used. Mobile safari is excellent, it's rendering is basically perfect, its java support is Ok (better than any other mobile browser), and though it doesnt support actual tabbed browsing, it does have the ability to support multiple browser windows, which is ALMOST as good.

Where it falls down is in dynamic content. Though Java is good, web 2.0 AJAX apps can be iffy, and there is no flash; which is a major deficiency, given the popularity of flash on commercial web sites).

Oh and there is no way to manually open a link in a new window; though if the link targets a new windo it will do it. That may not sound like much, but it seriously reduces the usefulness of the multiple window functionality.... of course if they supported copy and paste maybe...

Now those of you "in the know" know that a lot of these deficiencies can be compensated for, or entirely eliminated, with a jailbreak; which allows you to use the iPhone as a little UNIX box... which is exactly what it is by the way.

Well, yes, that's true; but most people don't want to bother jailbreaking; and at least for now it is a time consuming PITA to do it. So, I'm not going to cover it here... though I will do so in a later post.

Now, to the biggest problem...

Sync is Sunk

Alright, technically, MobilMe isn't part of the iPhone. You dont need the iPhone to use MobileMe, and you don't need MobilMe to use the iPhone; but a heck of a lot of the compelling position for the iPhone, was the push sync with MobileMe; and of course apple sold it as such.

Flat out, MobileMe doesn't work at all. In fact, it breaks other things. You can read all the horror stories online, but I can tell you that MobileMe has spontaneously deleted my contacts and calendars several times (I back everything up).

Worse, it didnt just kill the sync data in MobileME, it also deleted it from my iPhone, AND worst of all, deleted it from Outlook.

Thankfully as I said, I back up my outlook PST daily, so I have been able to recover; but obviously I've disabled MobilMe sync from my primary Outlook installation. Every few days however, I've completely uninstalled, cleaned up a system, reinstalled with current software, and tried syncing MobileMe with Outlook again, on a test box. No joy, and it's still deleting things.

Finally, after nearly a full month, I called Apple friday. I had emailed them before with no response; unfortunately email is the only way to get MobileMe support.

Then, about a week ago, the support email disappeared. You would click on the support page, which sent you through a troubleshooting form that was supposed to give you a support email if it didn't work; only it didn't. It gave you another form that was also supposed to give you an email.. but didnt.

At that point, there was literally no way to get support from apple for a product I paid $150 for (family account).

Well, when I finally got fed up with not recieving any help, I called apple on a number I got from Gethuman, and explained to first an OS support person, then a "customer support escalation manager", then a "product escalation specialist" what was going on. I then said that I needed help, or I needed my $150 back. It had been a month and I was still unable to sue the service.

After two hours on the phone with Apple, they said they would have to further escalate my case, and that I would be contacted within 24 hours.

That was Friday.

It's Monday.

I haven't been contacted.

At this point, even Steve jobs has acknowledged in an email widely distributed within apple (and soon thereafter on the internet) that they screwed up on MobileMe.

Now, let me jsut say, if the service worked, it would be fantastic. The design is great, the functionality is great... it just doesnt work at all.

I should also note that syncing directly with oulook and iTunes works just fine. I've never had a single problem with it; excepting that the machine with my primary outlook on it isn't the machine I sync my iPhone with, so I have to sync those two machiens somehow; and there is no good way to sync two machines outlook that I know of (there are lots of ways, and I think I've tried them all. None of them are any good).

So, what do I think?

I still think it's the best smartphone ever. I still think it's great. I still think it's worth every dollar. Unless you have a specific software need for windows mobile software; or you can only get email through a blackberry (as many corporations have decreed and configured); the iPhone is the best phone of any kind to buy, never mind just a smartphone.

Just try it, trust me.

The Mac I want

I want a Mac.

Not for any particular reason, I just want one, because I want one.

Of course I do have other reasons:

• I want one, because I pride myself in being proficient and current in most common operating systems, and I have barely used OSX at all.
  
  
• I want one because I want to play with various other Apple technologies (like the iPhone SDK, which might actually get me interested in writing code again for the first time in years), and in many ways a Mac is the best way to do that (or in some cases, the only way).
  
  
• I want one, because they are very well designed, and have excellent support.
  
  
• I want one, so I can teach the kids Mac, Linux, and Windows; so they know all the major computing platforms (if you learn Linux, the other UNIXen are an easy pickup).
  
  
• I want one so that if I have Mac people over to the house, they'll have a comfortable environment to work and play on.
  
  
• I want one for photo, video, and sound editing.
  
  Although Windows and Linux do a good job with it (now), Macs are still the standard platform for most professionals, and it's always useful to be able to do work on the same platform as the guy sending you files to review.
  
  Oh and I'd really like to be able to do BluRay authoring on it.
  
  
• I want to be able to do recovery, analysis, forensics, and security work on Macs.
  
  Though I have Windows, Linux, BSD, and Solaris to do it with (and I do, mostly on Linux), I don't have any Macs to do that sort of work with. There's a lot you can (and should) do on a platform other than the one where the drive came from; but for some things, you really need to do the work on the native platform.

But mostly, I want one just because I want one.

The problem is though, Apple doesn't make the Mac I want; and I think there's a LOT of folks out there who could say the same.

For years, Apple followed the strategy of having three desktop Mac model lines; a low end home/kid/housewife/grandma model, a midrange model, and a high end model for power users and professionals.

When the iMac came out, Steve Jobs switched them over to a "Four Corners" model, where they had a low and high end lines for desktops and laptops. These positions were covered by the iMac and the PowerMac (now MacPro) on the desktop side; and the iBook (now MacBook), and PowerBook (now MacBook pro) on the laptop side.

At the same time, Apple experimented with bridging the gap with various products; but they did it kind of half heartedly.

First they put out the PowerMac cube, which although gorgeous, was mis-marketed and had heat problems. Those issues were solvable however, if Apple had been serious about it; or is Steve Jobs could ever once accept that he screwed up in product conception.

They weren't, and he wasn't.

The real problem with the cube, was that it was neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red meat. It mid-range computing power, but almost no expansion; and yet it was priced as an upper midrange machine (where people expect higher power, and expansion capabilities).

Yes, style sells computers, but it doesn't sell mid-range computers unless there is a fair bit of substance behind them. Basically, the people who wanted midrange machines, also wanted expansion. They wanted to be able to tinker, and they wanted to be able to extend the life of their machines with upgrades.

After the cube, Apple decided they'd figured out where they went wrong. Unfortunately, they were wrong there again.

By this time, iMac sales had slowed dramatically. In fact, with the "sunflower" iMacs (the iMac with the LCD on an upside down flowerpot base), they had started moving the features out of the low end, and the price had climbed to match. This basically took the bottom out of iMac sales entirely; because once again, you were buying a mid range priced machine, with just barely midrange specs, and no expandability.

Given this market situation, Apple did something which puzzles me to this day. Rather than refocus the iMac back to its low end roots, they they moved the iMac upmarket, turning it into a true midrange machine (at mid range prices) and a "lifestyle accessory".

To make up for the low end, they introduced the eMac (supposedly for educational sales, but they mostly went to former iMac buyers), which was basically an updated version of the 1998 iMac. This left Apple without a REAL system for the low end market position; because the eMac was never really a serious product, more of a placeholder.

Finally, in '06 Apple introduced the MacMini, with roughly similar specs to where the iMac would have been before the change to mid-range had it been release that year; except of course without a display, keyboard, mouse, or speakers. Most importantly though, they did it at the lowest price ever for a mac, at $499.

The only problem with that is, they went TOO low end. Not that the price wasn't great, but they shot very low on the specs; and they had spent the previous two years marketing Macs as midrange lifestyle accessories, and high end "supercomputers".

Honestly though Apple wasn't really interested in selling the MacMini. They barely marketed it at all, and when they did, they didn't know how to sell it. They didn't want to compete with the supercheap walmart PCs, though with their pricing and support and upsell opportunities, this would be ideal position to be in; "Look, you can buy that cheap piece of crap, or you can spend $100 more and get this beautiful tiny little box that's better, and has real support". They didn't want to try and sell it upmarket any either though, because that might hurt iMac sales.

The reason for targeting the mini this way puzzles me, because they don't want to sell to the super-low end; but yet they STILL don't have a real midrange machine, that has any expansion or tinkering capabilities.

If you're going to do a desktop Mac, why not just make the Mini 3 or 4 times the height (it would still be smaller and prettier than anything that sold with Windows on it), use cheaper but faster desktop components rather than the slower and more expensive laptop components, leave room for a PCIe slot or two, and an extra hard drive bay. It would actually cost LESS to make than the mini does currently, and you cuold sell it for more.

Or hell, if you're really committed to the mini, sell both; and rename them the Mini (for the medium sized one), and the Nano (for the current mini).

Even better, if you're REALLY committed to the Mini, put a faster processor and a bit more RAM in there, the biggest laptop hard drive they make, make the onboard sound decent (with an optical output), replace the cheezy integrated video with something that will do on board video compression and decompression, and add HDMI video input and output. You'd sell one to every home theater enthusiast in the world, and to half the videographers, SFX people, multimedia show presneters etc... (as a portable video workstation).

...Oh wait a sec, they already did half that with the Apple TV; why not just go all the way with the Mini and sell it as the natural big brother?

Seriously, once they've captured all the "lifestyle accessory" sales they're going to get for the iMac; they're still selling a midrange priced and powered machine, without the features that a midrange buyer wants (unless they specifically want an all in one machine). For the MacMini, they've pretty much marketed themselves out of the supposedly intended market position by making people think of the Mac as either a lifestyle thing, or a supercomputer.

So who bought the mini? Mostly PC users who wanted to mess around with Macs, and Mac laptop owners who wanted a desktop too.

So as far as I'm concerned, right now Apple is aiming too low with the Mini, too high with the iMac, and WAY too high with the MacPro.

As of right now, there are three basic Mac models in the product line:

• The Mac Mini, with up to a 2ghz dual core processor (1.8 base), a max of 2 gb RAM (1gb base), integrated video, integrated DVD burner, and a max of 120gb hard drive. The only upgradeable or changeable component (in theory) is the memory; though people not concerned with Apple warranties have put in larger hard drives, and faster processors. Base price is $599, fully optioned up, it's about $950.
  
  
• The iMac, with up to a 3ghz dual core processor (2.4 base), up to 4gb ram (1gb base), up to a 1tb hard drive, integrated DVD burner, decent discrete video; and of course a 20" or 24" LCD. Again, theoretically the only thing upgradeable is the ram, but actually you can upgrade everything but the video card pretty easily. Base price is $1199, fully optioned up, it's about $2700.
  
  
• The Mac Pro, with up to 2, 3.2ghz quad core processors (yes, 8 cores. A single quad core 2.8 is base), up to 32gb of ram (2gb is base), up to 4, 1tb hard drives (a single 320gb is base), and a decent industry standard PCIe video card (or as many as 4). Expansion is virtually unlimited. Base price is $2299, up to about $20,000 fully optioned up ($9,100 of that is ram, and $2100 of that is to go to dual 3.2ghz processors).
  

The MacPro is a tremendous beast of a machine. With a 64 bit (mostly) UNIX based operating system behind it, the serious horsepower of the hardware, and the excellent expansion capabilities; it's a spectacular machine for any purpose you would want to put a Mac to... Of course it's also spectacularly expensive. The base price is $1000 more than the base price of the iMac (and that's without a display. Add one, and you're talking about another $600) and we won't even talk about the optioned up price.

Frankly, the MacPro is overkill. It's far more than anyone but the most hardcore users would need; and costs far more than anyone but a complete mac fanatic, or a professional working in sound, video, or graphics production could justify. They don't call it the "Mac Pro" for nothing.

The MacMini has been a market failure; but I think it's a good little box, and for an Apple, it's at a good price. It is a reasonably capable machine for what it is, which is basically a low-midrange laptop, crammed into a very tiny little case. It's gorgeous, and tiny; but it's only got a small hard drive, limited RAM capacity (the motherboard and processor could support 4gb but Apple deliberately limts it to 2), integrated video, and nothing can be upgraded. Your sum total expansion possibilites consist of 4 usb and a single firewire port.

At $499 and $599 for the two models, the Mini would still be a great deal actually, but at $599 base, and $950 optioned up, with no expansion or upgrade capability... and like the cube, it's neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red meat.

Clearly, the iMac is a midrange machine in terms of equipment specification; and it is an excellent system (though I think overpriced), but it's all integrated everything, including the display. No expansion, no upgrade, you get what you get.

This is a machine for people who want a sleek, and compact form factor (it's essentially a flat panel LCD with a thick case); and don't care about expansion. That makes it great for moms, and office workers, and students in non science/engineering fields etc... but once again, where's the true midrange offering.

Do you see the holes in market position?

Why can't Apple?

I go back to my previous statement; the people who want and need midrange machine also need expansion and upgrade capabilities; and they want to tinker.

Look back to what I want to use my Mac for and think about what I want and need.

• A fast processor, but not high end server class, that I can upgrade
  
• A fair bit of memory, that I can upgrade
  
• A lot of storage, thats reasonable fast
• Great video
• Great audio
• The ability to add and change hard drives
• The ability to add and change optical drives
• The ability to add and change primary video cards
  
• The ability to add and change other PCI cards, like video capture cards, and HDTV tuners
  

Now, I can do all of that in the MacPro, but at a base price of $2300, it's just not worth it; especially given that all but the lowest end Wintel PCs let me do all of that.

Very specifically, here's what I want in my Mac:

• 1x processor socket, with support for up to Core 2 Quad, and several processor options
  
• 4x RAM slots, with support for 2gb dimms, and maximum of 8gb ram
  
• 2x PCIe x16 slots, for hardcore video if I want it
  
• 1x PCIe x8 or x4 slot for other PCIe cards
• 2x PCI slots (because most IO cards are still PCI)
• 2x 3.5" hard drive bays
  
• 2x 5" external bays for optical drives
• A good looking (or concealed) media card reader,; and front panel audio, USB, and firewire
  
• Either the cheapest possible PCIe card, or cheap onboard video
• Onboard surround sound, with analog and digital inputs and outputs
  
• I'd love a BluRay option, but a DVD burner standard is a minimum
• I'd love an HDTV tuner and video in/DVR option; and an HDMI output
  
• Integrated bluetooth
  
• Integrated 802.11n wireless
• Integrated Gigabit ethernet
• A really nice toolless case, with good cooling, and excellent sound insulation
  

You might note something with those specs... They're exactly what every other mid/high end PC on the market has. In fact, they're basically the same specs as my main desktop, and my wifes main desktop (we both have BluRay, but neither has wireless N, or Bluetooth built in)

Why isn't Apple doing this? It wouldn't cost them anything, except maybe a bit of pride.

Given the marketing position it wouldn't hurt MacMini sales, and I doubt it would cannibalize the bottom end of MacPro sales. You could sell them for $1000 to $2000, capture a huge market segment, and not lose a dime off the iMac or MacPro

Seriously, if Apple offered something like that, I'd buy it up in a heartbeat. In fact, as of today, I can buy a generic PC configured as above; and presuming I choose the right components (for driver support) put OSX Leopard on it with the help of the hackintosh community. I can even pay a company called Psystar to do it for me at a base price of $1000, and fully optioned up price with a quad core, and 8 gigs of RAM, at about $1500 (they also offer low end models starting at $399).

The only reason I don't do this, is because at any moment, Apple could decide to change their software to completely break all of these unsupported hacks, and then I'd be up the creek (of course I could still use the hardware for windows or Linux, I'd only be out the cash I ponied up for Mac software).

... Well, not quite the only reason. I also want a REAL MAC. I want the excellent support, and I want the well designed case, and I want the "EVERYTHING JUST WORKS" factor going for me.

Until Steve sees the light and gives me what I need though, at best I'm going to use a hackintosh to play with, or maybe ebay a cheap MacMini.

They're Dragging Me in Deeper

The Apple Cult that is...

And this time they've got my wife too.

With the announcement of the new iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software, and mobile.me; the announcement of 3G networking and GPS; and the price cut down to $199 for 8gb and $299 for 16gb models; Mel and I will both be getting iPhones, and signing up for mobile.me.

Right now, we both carry around a smartphone, and a separate MP3 player (yes, our smartphones CAN be mp3 players, but they don't work well in that role); and there's a complex dance of multiple synchronizations required to get our media, contacts, calendars, and files all synced... and even then there's lots of issues with duplicated or out of date items; and there's no push, pull, or over the air sync for anything except hotmail and pop-email. It's even more difficult for us when we try and coordinate schedules and the like between us.

With the iPhone and mobile.me, everything just works. You can automatically sync over the air, with outlook, get push mail and two way sync from exchange, sync your outlook into mobile.me and have two way push to and from the iPhone, as well as to other computers (both Mac and PC).

The damn thing even has native Cisco VPN client, for connecting to my work network; and my company is one of the participants in the iPhone enterprise beta program, so we'll be supporting all the exchange integration features etc...

They've even fixed full iWork, and MS Office file access, natively. Theres already a native suite of connectivity tools, including remote desktop, ssh, FTP and SFTP, and other basic UNIX tools, announced for later this year.

Combine that, with some of the other apps already announced with the full SDK, and the iPhone really has no equal as a smartphone; unless you absolutely need to have a hard keyboard. Now that it's got 3G and GPS, there's really nothing keeping me on the windows mobile platform, and LOTS of reasons to leave.

If it comes down to it, I won't need my laptop with me for most essential computing tasks.
I can only think of two apps or services that I won't have with the iPhone (neither of them necessary for work), that I might miss from Windows Mobile: Napster to Go, and Mobipocket.

I would guess that Mobi is already working on MobiPocket reader for the iPhone; and it's been bandied about that The Steve has considered offering a subscription based music service (though I doubt it's going to happen).

A few months ago I said that if Apple got the SDK right, added 3G and GPS to the hardware, opened up the development program, and rolled out wide to many countries and providers they would become the standard mobile platform for the world.

Guess what?

They did it.

I bet Ballmer is throwing chairs all over the place right now.

Ahhhh, I've become one of the pod people

I've been trying to use my smartphone as my MP3 player for a while now; but honestly, every media player I've tried for windows mobile has sucked.

I love the idea of only carrying around one device (I have enough of a batbelt without any more electronics on it); but this phone just isn't working for it.

Sooo.... I decided to grab a standalone mp3 player. I wasn't planning on an iPod, but refurb nanos were on sale for 30% off, and...

If your screen happens to be 14.1" at 1280x1024, that pic is actual size by the way. This thing is tiny; 2" by 2-3/4" in fact.

...Which is kinda the point.

Actually, the whole thing is smaller than the LCD on my phone, and only about 1/4" thick. So, it won't be part of the bat belt. IN fact the thing should fit in the zippo pocket of my jeans (if I grab a ard case for it anyway... not sure I'd trust it in there bare).

Now this is by no means my first mp3 player. In fact, my first was the weird amoeba shaped Rio from like 1998; and I've had an mp3 player of some kind ever since. It is however my first iPod.

So, Apple cultists, what are the "must have" accessories? And since my primary laptop is a linux machine, what's the best sync solution for iPods on linux?

Also, I already listen to (and sometimes watch) a bunch of podcasts; but I'm always looking for more.

Oh, and is it worth messing with any of the hacks for the nano?

Apple Officially Jumps the Shark

Steve Jobs dropped all pretense yesterday and said to his legions of adoring fans, "Ok guys, now just bend over and spread'em wide; don't even pretend you aren't begging for it" :

From Fox News:

To further compound the chagrin for early adopters of the iPhone, the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone was cut from $599 to $399 — and the 4-gigabyte one, which had been priced at $499, was eliminated altogether.

"We want to put the iPhone in a lot of stockings this holiday season," said Jobs.

Analysts, however, were scratching their heads about the drastic iPhone price cut, which took place less than 10 weeks after the much-ballyhooed device hit stores to great fanfare — and great sales.

"People who bought the iPhone weeks or months ago must really be annoyed, and with good reason," Tim Beyers, an analyst at The Motley Fool research and investment group, told the Associated Press. "They might think twice about being the first to buy future Apple products. This smacks a little of desperation, and it's very unlike Apple."

...snip...

In keeping with the slightly bohemian light-pop theme, Jobs announced an interesting new music partnership with Starbucks coffee shops.

Beginning next month, whenever an iPod Touch gets near a Starbucks with a Wi-Fi router, a dedicated Starbucks icon will light up.

Now I should note, this is actually great news for the non-fanboys among us; who kinda like the iPhone, but knew that $600 was an insane price to pay for what is really a midrange smart phone. Going down to $399 put the iPhone into the same price range as other phones in its class; though they are usually subsidized by the carriers down to $100 or $200 to induce new service contract signups.

Make no mistake though, this was always the plan; in fact Steve hinted at it even before the first iPhone hit the shelves; saying they were going to get very aggressive to put iPhones in peoples hands by Christmas. Well, this is certainly an aggressive move. They milked the cash out of basically everyone who was willing to part with $600 to get one; and then their sales went to zero. Now they are adjusting their price to try and get the rest of us interested. Bravo Apple for using the fundamental precepts of the market economy to the best of your abilities...

That sound you hear though? It's millions of apple fanboys begging for lube and a bottle of wine first.

iDon't think so

Ahhh the iProduct of the month, the iPhone.

It's pretty.

Now, I absolutely run my life on my smart phone. I have so many meetings in different places, time zones, conference bridges etc… and so much email, that if I didn’t have it I couldn't do my job.

I also keep all my reference docs on there, all my policies and procedures, hundreds of manuals for every circumstance, contacts from everywhere, and hundreds of “recreational reading” type ebooks. I’ve been stranded in the middle of nowhere for a couple weeks; where I had power but no transpo; I’ve learned the value of ebooks the hard way.

The great thing is that I can do my job from anywhere. I was being paid to work (and working from the road) while driving to and from Texas for example (the rest of the crew were doing the driving, I was on the phone and laptop half the day each way).

The bad thing is, I can work anywhere. The only way I can get away from work is to go where there is no cell signal.

So obviously I'm a big fan of smart phones, I'm a heavy user, and I'm an early adopter of tech.
Given all this, I'm the ideal customer for an iPhone...

... but iDon't want one.

The problem is, it's not a particularly good phone, or pda, or portable computer, or anything really other than a personal media player (music and video for those non gadget freaks out there) ...

It's on a crappy network, it costs $499 or $599 for 4gb or 8gb of storage, its only got EDGE data and WiFi (my two year old MDA has both as well) no keyboard, no pushmail, no additional applications... It's crippled.

Overall it's got all the tech of a three or four year old device, excepting the nifty big and bright LCD, which admittedly is kinda nice.

Here's the real problem though; it's hard locked to the network (it will take a firmware update to unlock it, which will void your warranty), and the penalty for cancellation of your contract is the full two year value of the contract, even though you're paying full retail price for the phone. Not just some $175 early cancellation fee, the full value of the contract.

And just what is that full cost?

The absolute minimum price of the phone and the contract over two years, without taxes, is $1900. Add in the taxes, fees, and activation, and you are talking about another $350 or so (depending on your state and city. In NYC it’s more like $450). If you get the 8gb model with the 1350 minute unlimited data plan then the total is more like $3500 over 2 years. If you want text messaging you can either pay $0.10 a piece, or pay $10 a month extra for 1500 or $20 for unlimited.

If you want the AT&T unlimited hot spots plan it's an additional $30 a month, but I won't include that here since it is optional functionality (the data plan most definitely is not optional if you mean to sue the damn thing for what its intended).

My T-mobile MDA, which is more than two years old at this point, is significantly more capable than the iPhone. It's got GPRS, EDGE, WiFi, Pushmail, an actual full qwerty keyboard; everything but the huge LCD (my LCD is plenty big enough thanks), and the pretty UI.

Importantly though, I'm not locked in to Apples restricted platform, I can use any windows mobile software out there. Not that I care for Windows Mobile all that much, but there are literally millions or applications available for it; the iPhone has about a dozen.

Oh and I’ve only got 4gb of storage, but it’s in changeable cards and I can use as many as I want. The iPhone doesn't take any external storage at all. Not only that, but using SDIO, I can add peripherals through that storage slot, like GPS systems for example. Or I can add them with bluetooth.

Not only does the iPhone not have any expansion slot, but it's bluetooth is limited only to headsets... because Apple doesn't want you syncing your iPhone over bluetooth, or WIFI or EDGE for that matter. See, because it's also an iPod, and to ward off those evil pirates,Apple has completely locked out any filesystem access, or sync access through anything other than the USB port and iTunes.

This also means no Linux, and no 64 bit windows for your iPhone by the way.

But really, I could live with msot of that, if it weren't for the price.

The MDA cost me $299 not including the rebate (which was $100). My 1000 minute a month service with unlimited data, 1000 text messages, and unlimited t-mobile hot spots, including all taxes etc… is $90 a month. Oh and I can upgrade to 1500 minutes for $10 more.

My two year costs, including the phone, taxes, and fees are $2450, minus the $100 rebate, plus $240 to bring the minutes up to 1500; for a grand total of $2590. To match just what the MDA can do, the iPhones costs over two years would be $4300 ($600 phone, $2400 in basic services, $240 in sms, $720 in hot spot fees, $350 in taxes and fees).

Give it 3G, an expansion card slot, and a choice of networks, and I'll be all over it. Until then... $1700 to look “cool"…

iDon't think so