July 16, 08 by Craig
I find it extremely amusing that Microsoft and Apple are in many senses the very same company, at least in their actions, yet people feel very different about the two. For the average person they aren’t really a fan of Microsoft, and many love Apple. While I’m not really suggesting anyone should love Microsoft, why are people such Apple fanboys. Apple makes the same bad moves as Microsoft, they control their software and limit functionality in order to drive sales in the future.
For example with the iPhone, by disabling video streaming they are simply leaving something to be supported for next year. There’s now doubt that the phone is fully capable, especially with 3g, as qik is already supporting it. However they are having to jump through hoops to do it, when Apple could have simply enabled it in the SDK, and yet they didn’t. It’s unfortunate for AT&T in the process as well, because as people are die hard Apple fans, they feel Apple can do no wrong. This wasn’t quite the case in recent days, first with the launch of the iPhone 3g, there were many many bricked iPhones for that morning. Almost every complaint I saw on twitter drawed attention to AT&T screwing it up. However, from a source very close to the issue, the problem was entirely on Apple’s end, as they had tested for only a fraction of the traffic they got that day, and were not able to scale up new machines nearly fast enough.
Now Apple woes seem to continue as with MobileMe. For all the fan boys out there, and while I agree they make a good product, they should still be help to the same regard of anyone else that makes a product, and be complained to when they screw up. Apple has indeed done a great job with marketing and a reasonable job with products, however they keep a strong reign on applications, which is why I like the applications that are on OSX, but hate that its sucha smaller number.
I’m not saying love Microsoft, or even hate Apple. But people judge them on their actions, and while they drive the boundaries, theres still no hard in calling them out when they hold back just for more revenue.
June 11, 08 by Craig
So this week they announced what many expected was coming the iPhone 3g. However off the shelf it’s still not web 2.0, while a great device its not a web 2.0 device yet. Apple without a doubt understands user experience, but they do not fully grasp web 2.0 yet. Microsoft seems to even have a better understanding with the products they are looking to role out with Mesh and their enterprise social/collaboration tools. Lot’s of great applications were highlighted at the keynote, but only one of those talking about publishing content (with the exception of mobileme, which is a paid service). While there’s no doubt I will be getting the new iPhone when it is released in July, I will not talk about how it is a great web 2.0 device.
If the application store is as open as Apple alludes to it being, then I can see how it will quickly become a web 2.0 device. Loopt is likely the strongest contender for helping to build a location based social network, and when they release for the iPhone can turn it into a web 2.0 device. I’ll be most anxious to see how the push based services they announced will help to allow developers to turn it into a web 2.0 device as well. If I had to have my application constantly up it just doesn’t work out as a full enabler for web 2.0. BUT if you allow notifications to be regularly pushed it just simplifies and increases the regularity of community and people staying in touch.
The tipping point though for me at least will be if or when Apple finally allows video on the video. No, not playing video, but recording and streaming video. The kind of abilities available on a nokia n95, or available in my apple computer through iChat. When I can pull my phone out of my pocket and display to the world what I’m doing or where I’m at, you will have a device that allows you to communicate and most of all collaborate like any other before. It doesnt require more power than is already there, in fact I can record video on my jailbroken phone right now. The nokia n95 does a great job of streaming live video to qik, which is how I watched much of the Apple Keynote, it simply takes Apple finally understanding web 2.0 and embracing it.
