Archive for July, 2008
Trip to the Apple Store…
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I had a chance to go to the Apple Store at the Mall of America today (thanks again Jen for loaning me your car, it was a blast). Tony and I got to the store and found a parking space right at the front entrance by the store. This alone is a minor miracle for a Saturday morning at the MOA. We stroll into the store and find a guard at the entrance of the store mirrored to a happy faced Apple employee and what appears to be about half the city of Bloomington – the store was packed! We wandered around a little bit and finally managed to get our hands on an actual 3G iPhone.
First impressions are that the revision is a nice change, but again, not enough for me to get one. However, I would suggest this this version to anyone who does not currently have an iPhone and is looking to get one. The unit felt nice in your hand (as good as a demo unit tethered to the desk can) and actually felt a little lighter than my current iPhone. The most notable difference was the number of bars my phone had compared to the 3G iPhone (3 on mine/5 on 3G).
The next thing Tony and I noticed was just about everyone in the store was there only for an iPhone. I bet I saw one computer being sold for every 10-12 iPhones. The line for activation was 4 rows wide and about 10-12 deep in the store. This didn’t count for the 30+ people we saw waiting outside the store as an overflow. Apple may have struggled again with the roll out, but they still hit a grand slam when it comes to actually getting gadgets out the door and into the consumers hands.
UPDATE: The pic above shows the availability of 3G iPhones for the state of MN. It sure looks like Minnesota loves the iPhone.
GTD + iPhone
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the things I’m most excited about with the new iPhone is the apps that can be used with the phone now. I’ve mentioned before about steps and methods I’m trying to use to keep myself more organized at work and new ideas I’m testing at home. The biggest break through will now be a new application available for the iPhone called Omnifocus. Think of it as a way to digitally collect your post-it notes and to-do lists in one place. I’ve started to play with the app a little today and I’ll post some screen shots off my iPhone over the weekend (screen shots off the phone is a new 2.0 feature).
Not quite MobileMe…
Posted by: | CommentsWell after a couple of hours of sleep (which I’m sure involved some snoring) I tried to get onto Apple’s MobileMe service. Well… it’s not up yet again. The service is getting email through but the web app service just didn’t take off like everyone had expected. Even if the 3rd part of Apple’s massive roll out didn’t work as expected the hype for the 3G iPhone is almost as big as the original roll out. Reports from Europe indicate a near sell out and lines in the US stores are forming.
Update: If you want to see the iPhone hype live, check out http://twit.tv. Leo is going with 24 hour coverage of the 3G release.
Update 2: MobileMe is up and I’m logging in for the first time. I’ll post pics later tonight.
It’s 2am and I’m still drooling…
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I’ve finally got back from the lake cruise and chaperon duties for a post celebration. While on the outing, it was discovered that Apple had unofficially released the iPhone software update for original iPhone owners. I have now spent the last 1-1/2 playing with the new software and I LOVE IT! Thankfully the boss gave us a little reprieve by allowing everyone to come in around 9am. I’ll post more tomorrow after being able to play with the update for a while.
MobileMe rolls out…
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I’m jumping the gun a little bit, but Apple plans to release the first of three major updates to Mac/iPhone users over the next few days. The other two updates are the iPhone 2.0 update and opening the iPhone App Store. MobileMe is set to be opened for public use later tonight. Similar to what RIM does for Blackberry, Apple will introduce a ‘push’ technology for a person’s core data (calendar, contacts, and of course email) for users on Mac’s, PC’s, and of course iPhone’s. So when I update a friend’s contact information on my iPhone, this change is automatically pushed to any other device I have connected/setup with the service – i.e. my laptop. So when I get to my laptop later that night, the contact information is already up to date.
This is the biggest competition RIM/Blackberry has seen to date. It will be interesting to see the adoption rate of the iPhone for business users over the next 6-9 months and what impact it has on RIM’s stranglehold on smart/PDA phones.
iPhone 3G this Friday, but will it sell…
Posted by: | CommentsApple is releasing their next version of the iPhone this Friday at 8am. At the same time, Apple’s partners will open their doors to sell the same device. But if the feedback from loyal iPhone users and new users yearning for the faster iPhone hold true, those stores may be a little empty. In fact if things stay on course from now until Friday, Apple may have a reckoning with Wall Street to deal with. And the biggest kicker is Apple will be punished not because the iPhone isn’t going to meet the expectations of it’s Apple fan boy base, but who they partnered with to deliver the cellular service.
See Apple is only half the equation in getting those sparky little gadgets into hands of consumers like me. The other half is the actual cell phone company like AT&T (USA), Rodgers (Canada), Vodafone(NZ) and other cell phone providers. Apple has relinquished some control over how the rates for iPhone are set with the 3G release, so the cell phone companies are able to set prices as they see fit… and they’ve seen fit to shoot themselves in the foot. For example, Netcom in Norway has a basic plan of ~$80USD/month for 100 minutes, 100 SMS messages, and 100MB of data. Which is on top of the $280USD Norwegians will have to pay to buy just the phone itself. Compare this to my current rate of $120/month for TWO iPhones with 700 shared minutes (which is useless since calling my wife on her iPhone with my iPhone uses zero minutes), 400 SMS messages and unlimited data.
Thanks, but no thanks AT&T, I’ll just let Apple give me everything I need with their iPhone 2.0 software update due out Friday too. I’ll get 90% of the features at 0% the cost!
A random thought…
Posted by: | CommentsGeico cavemen need to be banished from TV.
A random observation…
Posted by: | CommentsI sadly have to report that the world has officially gotten more rude than it was a year ago. I now get maybe 1 out 5 people acknowledging a hello when I’m riding. I used to get 4 out 5 easily.
Having fun on the 4th…
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