Yesterday at MacWorld Apple released a firmware update for the iPhone which fixed two of the three key missing features (see my previous post) I was missing on my iPhone. I can now send text messages to multiple recipients and view my song lyrics. Thanks Apple! All that’s left missing now is MMS support. Almost there…

I usually try not to rehash mac news that are more than well covered on the many popular mac news sites, however this one I wanted to comment on. Wired Magazine has an excellent article detailing how the iPhone came to be from it’s point of conception to the worldwide phenomenon it has become today. I always find these types of literature absolutely fascinating. It allows one to get a glimpse of the mindset of the people who are responsible for the products and services we use on a daily basis today. What’s most fascinating about this article though is how the struggle of getting the iPhone to be what we know it as today has not only raised the bar for what a mobile device can be, but how it has inadvertently changed the mobile industry as a whole.  The author, Fred Vigelstein, sums this up quite nicely towards the end. Even if you don’t own an iPhone you can appreciate what possibilities it has opened up for future developments in the industry.

Every so often I’ll come across an article claiming the failure of the Apple TV. They site poor expected sales and it’s lack of features as determining factors of it’s apparent demise.  While I’m not going to argue on the sales numbers of the device, I must clarify what exactly the Apple TV is in my eyes.

Quite simply, the Apple TV is the perfect intermediary between my Mac and my TV.  My Mac is a fantastic platform to obtain, organize and create media of all types. I subscribe to a few podcasts (mostly video) and years worth of pictures are filed away within iPhoto.  I download all my music from iTunes and even purchase a movie from the iTunes store on occasion.  Additionally I have a small collection of videos obtained online from various sources that I’ve converted over and imported into iTunes. My Mac makes all of the above very easy to obtain, modify and organize.

Now what use is all this great content with no other way to present and enjoy it besides it being locked away on my PC?  Enter the Apple TV. As easily as I can on my Mac, I can browse and present all my content for myself and others in the comfort of my living room.  It quite nicely takes advantage of my large screen TV and decent sound system to enjoy all this content even more than I already could on my PC.  I watch my podcasts, listen to my music and share all my pictures and videos with my friends and family from the comfort of my couch.

This is precisely what the Apple TV was designed for. Nothing more.  It’s not a DVD player and it’s not a DVR. There are plenty of other devices that provide that functionality quite nicely.

The Apple TV does what it does quite well and was never intended to be an all in one type device.  Apple has left plenty of room for additional features and functionality for the Apple TV and I truly hope that “poor sales figures” does not deter them from continuing to improve it. 

So I’ve had my iPhone for about six weeks now. For a revision A product coming from a company that has never mass produced a mobile phone the result is beyond outstanding. You’ll hear many complain about it’s supposed drawbacks such as lack of 3G, it doesn’t work on my provider of choice, I can’t use it with my companies mail server, it doesn’t take video clips, its storage capacity is lacking, it doesn’t support native third party applications, blah blah, etc. This is Apple people. You can’t introduce a product and expect it to have all the feature set you’d like right from the get go. Apple is extremely intelligent in its approach. Make a fantastic product for a large enough group to get an idea of it’s success before going all out. Case in point: the iTunes Music Store. When it was introduced it had a mediocre music library. As time progressed and it matured, it’s catalog increased exponentially. Similarly the iPhone will mature steadily as well. I have no doubts that future carriers will start to carry the iPhone eventually. Once exclusivity agreements end, and back-end infrastructure changes are made, it will happen. Don’t forget the uniqueness of the iPhones online activation and visual voice mail feature. Carriers need to change their inner workings to support this. Having said all this, there are I believe, three core features that are gaping wide holes in what should have been included in the iPhone on its day one release.

1. Multiple SMS recipients. Are you serious? Most any modern phone has the ability to send an SMS message to more than one person. This among the three is by far the most obvious missing feature.
2. MMS Messaging. If you are selling a phone with a built in camera, it should most definitely allow you to send picture messages. This I can understand perhaps posing some technical requirements that just weren’t ready from launch day but should have most definitely been supported after the first firmware update.
3. Song lyrics. Apple claims the iPhone is also the best iPod they’ve ever made. I would tend to agree. But how can you make that statement yet miss features that the iPod has had for some time now? There is absolutely no technical reason whatsoever that I shouldn’t be able to read the lyrics I’ve embedded in my music library.

Apple, you sorely need to remedy the above three points, as it’s starting to get quite embarrassing when people learn that my fancy new iPhone can’t perform the same basic functionality that the phone they got for free, can.

So I finally got around to upgrading to Leopard on my first gen black MacBook.  Now that I’ve played around with it for a few days I can safely say: It’s good.  To be honest, for me, nothing too much has changed. Don’t get me wrong though, I am quite aware of the over 300 changes made to the operating system. And I know just how much the back-end kernel space has changed. But for the most part, my day to day usage hasn’t changed that drastically. Spaces has replaced VirtueDesktops for virtual desktop functionality. The new Safari is lightning quick compared to the beta I had on the old system. I love the uniformity of the window appearance (though iTunes still has a different scroll bar… ). The new Mail and iCal are nice. I’m fine with the new dock and even moved it from it’s auto hidden state on the left side of my screen to a permanent display back in it’s default location at the bottom. Stacks are nice, Quick Look is sweet and wireless printing is much more refined. There are a few quirks though:

• My office webmail (Outlook) refuses to authenticate in the new Safari. Worked just fine in the betas and Firefox.
• Every so often I’ll have to manually connect to my wireless network when coming out of standby
• Graphic animation seems a bit sluggish, for example bringing up dashboard or Expose, minimizing windows and switching spaces

I know the big thing with Leopard has been Time Machine.  You would think this would be the first thing I would take for a spin, but to be honest… I can’t see myself using it seriously until Apple adds the wireless backup functionality that was rumored to have been a feature at release time. Once that is supported I’ll be the first one to go grab an AirPort and set it up. All in all though a very solid update and definitely recommended for any Mac owner.

I hadn’t been in an Apple store in quite some time. The iPod Touch had just come out. Those shiny new iMac’s had been out for some time now, and I had yet to check out those cool stubby iPod nano’s. So the other day I just happen to be in the vicinity of my local Apple store so I thought I’d pop in.  I had actually been thinking about getting an iPod touch since they were released.  I travel quite a bit so I was in the market for an internet tablet type device which would allow me to do some simple web browsing without the need to lug around my MacBook. I had looked at the Nokia N800 internet tablet in the past as a possible solution. So when the iPod touch came out I thought it would be perfect.  Not only did it have web browsing capabilities but it would double as my iPod. One less device to carry around. The fact that it was limited to 16 GB of storage was not really an issue since I usually listen to a small percentage of my music library while on the road anyway.  So I popped in and headed over to the iPod touches and picked one up.  Wow this is slick. So thin.  So intuitive. It can play my movies and video podcasts for those long plane or train rides.  It displays my photos as well. Hey it even has a calendar and can sync all my contacts. I was pretty much sold at this point. I rarely impulse buy, but this I could really see utilizing quite a bit. I decided to take a peek at the new iMac’s and see what else was new before I made my purchase.  Turning away from the iPod touches I was immediately greeted with the iPhone display.  I had seen one in person before and used it briefly.  It was a great device but I was happy with my T-Mobile plan and the fact that it was tied to AT&T was a big stumbling block for me.  I had heard the Edge network was quite slow and the fact that I couldn’t easily take this overseas and pop in a prepaid SIM card made that stumbling block a full on barrier.

Then I picked one up.

It was slightly more beefier than the iPod touch but just as slick.  It had all the functionality of the touch but with the obvious added benefit of a phone and e-mail access. Then I started thinking. For the same price as a 16GB iPod touch I could consolidate not only my desire for an internet tablet and iPod but my phone as well? One device.  Phone, e-mail, PDA, internet, iPod, video, photos. Heck it even has Google maps.  One device. One! The tide was turning.  I picked up the rate plan card and took a peek.  As much as I loved T-Mobile I had to have this. I had to have this now. I just couldn’t justify spending the same amount of money without the phone functionality.  Granted, it had half the storage capacity and my cell phone bill would go up a bit, it was  all just too convenient. It made so much sense! About 4 hours later I was an AT&T subscriber with my old cell number transfered over and everything.  Regrets? Not one.  Even with the extra monthly cost, the slow Edge network, and the quirky limitations of the phone (more on this later), it is by far the best “cell phone” I’ve ever owned.  And it also just happens to be the best iPod, PDA and internet tablet as well.