iPhone Usage Stats
May 13, 2008
I was checking out my iPhone usage stats today and found that I did more than 1GB of data transfer on the iPhone just on the EDGE Network…excluding WiFi. This is freakishly high compared to my data transfer rates on my previous Blackberry Pearl.
The Data Received itself crossed 1GB and the data sent is around 200MB.
As I mentioned earlier, iPhone as an internet communicator impressed me more than other cool stuff. I can clearly see the change in my usage pattern and am sure I am not alone.
How does your usage stats look?
Sync between iTunes?
March 18, 2008
I am trying to find a simple Sync utility that synchronizes all my music, podcasts (atleast the configuration of podcasts), videos etc across multiple iTunes instances running in different machines. Do you know if there is any? If so, please let me know. I have been looking for something like this for a while.
Interestingly, Apple’s Sync functionality, that comes as part of the .Mac subscription, works for most of the other applications except iTunes. While it could be because of copyrighted content Apple doesn’t want to enable sync for iTunes, Apple certainly allows us to share/copy music manually between multiple instances (3 instances) of iTunes. May be they don’t want to make it easier to sync the copyrighted content?
I am essentially looking for a simple Sync tool that keeps my music etc synced between my iMac, MacBook Pro and Windows PC. Do let me know if you have any ideas.
If we look at this broadly, the Sync issues exist only when the apps/data reside on the desktops. If everything is on the cloud, we certainly can overcome these issues. Can we expect a weB-based iTunes? May be it is too much to ask from Apple….atleast for now.
Android vs iPhone: Who Will Win?
March 15, 2008
There has been some interesting predictions on Android outselling iPhone. While this is interesting, it is too early to call.
The openness and free nature of Android will certainly make it very popular choice for most of the device manufacturers and carriers. But then, openness and flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean winning consumers.
I can’t help but compare Android to Linux. Both are open and gives the flexibility to the user/manufacturers/carriers. Like Linux, I expect Android to gain huge traction and gain decent market share. But then on the negative side, like Linux, we probably will see several versions of Android floating around going forward with a layer of carrier/device specific versions confusing the end user.
Linux has gained good market share on the server side but failed to gain a decent share on the desktop. One of the key issue, according to me is the User Interface. A good user interface makes a HUGE difference in consumer apps. I think Linux lacks that. There are some versions better than other (Ubuntu?), but then, we cannot compare most of these with Mac or Windows.
I expect the same issue with Android. Unless there is a company who can focus on bringing innovation on the UI side for Android, I expect it to have the same fate as Linux on the desktop. Don’t get me wrong, I love linux, but to get mass adoption, it needs to get a new face, kind of like the Mac which is actually built on BSD. Google is a great company on the server side, but unlike Apple, their expertise is on the server side which doesn’t help Android much.
If there is good focus by vendors/manufacturers/carriers etc on the UI, Android can outsell iPhone. On the other hand, if iPhone opens up their platform (which is unlikely knowing Apple), it is going to be a totally different ball game. Even then iPhone will still have lots of other advantages with its integration with iTunes etc.
Android and iPhone are taking two different approaches in the mobile market. iPhone started as a consumer product and is now becoming a platform with the recent SDK release. Android is taking the opposite approach where it started as an open platform and is moving towards end user products. Who will win? My vote is on iPhone. What do you think?
My Take on Apple’s Announcements
January 16, 2008
Now that the much awaited MacWorld is here and the announcements have been made, here is my take…
MacBook Air
There is no doubt that this is a stunning piece of innovation. I’d buy one if only the price is a bit lower. Will there be a price cut in few months like we saw with iPhone? Possible, but don’t count on it. All the specs look excellent. I don’t know the maximum screen resolution on this one though. I wish they included an EVDO. For guys on the road, this is a great laptop.
iTunes Rental
As expected, this is a good move. One thing I didn’t expect though is a free upgrade to existing AppleTV customers. This comes as a surprise and I have no complains here. I am looking forward to playing with it. But frankly, I don’t care about movie rentals. I use AppleTV primarily for Video Podcasts. Its an awesome box for podcasts.
iPhone Update
The iPhone update is another expected one which is good. The best feature according to me is shortcuts (or web clipping as they call it). Now I have shortcuts to all the websites I visit regularly on my iPhone. I can’t wait for custom apps in Feb. The extra price tag for iPod Touch is a bummer though.
Time Capsule
I have been using Time Machine on my iMac successfully and I was hoping for this feature for a while. This is a good move for Apple. What is unclear is support for existing Airport Extreme customers like me. I hope it’ll work when I plug-in a hard drive to my existing Airport Extreme through USB. If not, it’ll be a bummer for existing customers. Interestingly, Steve Jobs didn’t talk about environmental friendliness of this product while he said he’d do so for all new releases. Is it because this is not built with Aluminum (like the other products?). Overall, this is a very good move.
Overall, a great start for the year. I can’t wait for more updates. I guess the wall street is expecting Steve to exceed his previous performance (MacWorld 2007 where he introduced iPhone).
Apple Going Rotten?
November 17, 2007
Lately, my experience with Apple is not very convincing. A series of incidents keep bringing down my expectations on quality from Apple. I agree with Scoble on the brand promise, which simply is not there lately. I don’t see the same customer friendly staff in Apple’s store as I used to see an year ago. I don’t see the same quality in products lately….
I thought I’d never see a blue screen on a Mac….and I didn’t, except that it comes in black. I was working on some important stuff and when I launch a program, it came up with this black screen of death on my MacBook Pro.
Sorry for the poor photo quality….but then, my iPhone cannot take better photos in low light. BTW, iPhone also has a Black Screen of Death.
There are more issues on software. I upgraded to iLife 08 and it completely made my iDVD unworkable. If I need to fix it, I have to take it to the Apple Store (I like Dell better in this case as they service it at your home/office).
Its not just the software issues I had. I had some hardware issue too….right from the day one. First, the CD Drive sounds scary. If you have your laptop on your lap and try inserting a CD, you’ll almost notice a hit on your lap. Another common annoyance is a whining sound you hear at times near the power.
If you bought an iPod Touch, you’ll notice that the accessories it comes with are very minimal. You don’t even get a dock for your touch after spending $400.
These are just some of the annoyances and my rant can go on and on….one thing for sure. I am not such a happy customer I though I’d be with Apple. I am starting to see this Apple going rotten….and of course, I sold my AAPL stock.
Web Apps: Another helping hand for Apple?
September 10, 2007
Lately, Apple is on a roll. iPod brought Apple back as an ‘active’ player and now they found their rhythm. When you are in rhythm, everything will automatically fall into place.
I think there is one unexpected factor playing a big role in apple’s latest success – The move of applications to the web. As more and more applications move to the web, the OS becomes irrelevant as all we need is a browser. When all you need is a browser, then why not go with a ‘pretty’ OS? MS also seem to be doing its part by screwing up its latest supposedly ‘pretty’ OS.
I recently gave up Windows and moved over to Apple just because the underlying OS simply didn’t matter as all the apps I use are online. I thought I’d miss Maxthon, but they made it easier for me by screwing up their latest version.
All these trends seem to be working well for Apple. I have no complains currently….except, I’d like Apple to be more open (frankly, I don’t think they will).
Windows (Dell) to Mac: Thats a smooth ride
August 20, 2007
Two weeks back I was helping my cousin restore his Windows system corrupted while upgrading from IE6 to IE7 on his Dell laptop. I was able to help him out with this as there are hundreds of people with the same problem on the internet.
Two hours later, my Dell laptop reminded me that it needs some work too….my mouse stopped working. I managed by connecting an external mouse, but then an hour later, my keyboard stopped working. So I reluctantly called Dell and was pleasantly surprised when someone answered my call in less than 10 minutes. This is a great improvement from Dell. The Dell rep asked me to do several tests for about an hour and while doing this, my hard drive crashed. When asked Dell about this, they said they’ll send me a replacement and they cant do anything about the data. WTF? I lost all my data while doing the tests they asked me to do and they cant do anything about it?
I asked BestBuy if they can do something about it. They said YES with $1679.00…thats to restore the data. Luckily, most of my data is online….but to restore some of the videos and other image data, spending almost $1700 was too much.
When Dell shipped the replacement, I spent almost 2 days installing the OS and the software only to realize the blue screen of death to appear again and that was the trigger point for me to get rid of Dell and Windows. Instead of spending $1700 to restore the data and wasting my time on this crap, I decided to go with a MacBook Pro.
With Apple, I didn’t have any problem opening any boxes…..I just spent couple of hours installing the apps I need and I am all set. I couldn’t think of anything else. For just in case scenarios, unlike Zoli, I bought Windows XP license and installed it on Parallels…and it is all working like a charm now. At this point, I am glad I moved out of windows and I wish I never have to go back to that deadly Dell/Windows combination. With an iMac, MacBook Pro, AppleTV, Airport Extreme and an iPhone, I guess I am too much tied into Apple now.
Apple’s Next Product: iTv?
July 13, 2007
No, I am not refering to Apple TV. I am speculating about a possible upcoming product. Looking at the trends, I cant help but speculate on this. You’ll find details on why I think it makes sence for Apple to do a TV.
In a recent (I actually wrote this prior to iPhone release) Q&A Session, Steve Jobs said the following.
Q: So many analysts have suggested that with the expected success of the iPhone, Apple is about to be transformed into a different kind of company. What’s your take?
Jobs: I hope it doesn’t change Apple too much, we like it the way it is. We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today — we have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music, our iPod and iTunes business, which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.
We know that iPhone (and its successors) have the potential of being a third leg to apple adding another $10Billion.
On the other hand, anyone who have used Apple TV can easily say that it doesnt have the capability to be another leg (I mean another $10Billion business). I see Apple TV as an experiment to test the waters for a possible TV product from Apple. Having released excellent 30” displays and products like Apple TV, I dont see Apple far from doing an iTV.
…and BTW, if you remember, Apple initially named its current Apple TV as iTV initially. If iTV is supposed to be the third leg, it suites its current naming convention. But why did it change the name, well, I can guess there is another product named ‘iTV’ that is on the way. Apple is just testing the waters with its AppleTV.
When this happens, assume that iTunes playing a more central role. It is the only application that’ll connect the four legs of Apple – The Macs, iPods, iPhone and ofcourse iTV. Now with a Computer, Phone, Music, Movies and a TV, Apple will completely control your living room. I am not going to say no as I love their products.
The next questions is, how can iTV be better than current TVs? Well, there are lots of things you can expect. Here are a few quick ones.
- Current Apple TV will be part of iTV (streaming photos, movies, audios, movie trailers, YouTube etc)
- TV will have a web cam embedded for virtual family gatherings
- Wont you love it if your TV has WiFi (to Sync photos, music, movies from iTunes)
- Tivo like functionality to record your TV
- Your iPhone or your Touch Screen iPod becomes the remote for your TV (or even the keyboard for your TV)
- If you get a call on your iPhone while watching TV, it’ll show up right on your TV
- With Steve Jobs on Disney’s board and with iTunes succesful, it sure can get all the content
Anyway, this is all speculation. But if I were to bet on Apple’s next category, it would be this one.
No wonder Apple dropped ‘Computers’ from its name.
iPhone Experience: 5 Days Later
July 4, 2007
I want to jot down some of my experiences with iPhone in the last 5 days. First of all, I should say, I LOVE it. I cant imagine myself switching to any other phone now. If you are a gadget freak like me, I recommend getting it. But if you are not, I’d say WAIT. It is soooo 1.0 product.
Why do I say it is 1.0 product? Well, it crashes. It crashes so often, it gets frustrating at times. In the last 5 days, I have seen applications crash tens of times. Just today I was using Safari and it crashed….it crashed 8 times in an hour. I see this as the biggest issue. I really hope Apple will fix this issue soon.
I really like the way music fades out when a call comes in and when the call is done, it simple fades back in. This is awesome. But I really wish they use this concept for others too – Like Music-Safari especially if both these apps cannot work together. If I play Music and then open Safari, guess what happens – CRASH – both safari and iPod. I have seen many other scenarios like this which will crash different iPhone apps. I have also seen YouTube and Mail apps crash several times.
Another key issue with the iPhone is, it is VERY hard to operate it with a single hand. You’ll need both the hands to make any decent entries/changes. The interface is designed for two hands. You sure can operate it with one hand, but you’ll drop it one day. Ofcourse, the iPhone can withstand a drop, but not a flat-drop if you are unlucky.
Many people say they use their mobile for their email. My question is, how is it possible especially when these email apps have no filters. Am I missing something here? Currently, I get about 250-300 emails a day. Not all are addressed to me. There is no way to filter and fetch emails addressed directly to me. I hoped that the email in iPhone will have filters. But it doesn’t. So I cant iPhone for my work email. This is sad. But I love the email app, it does work well for my personal email.
Overall, I love my iPhone, but I do hope that the issues will be sorted out soon. The good news is, everything is software in iPhone. A simple update one day could fix most of the issues. Its like SaaS in that sense.
iPhone is locked at SIM Level too
June 29, 2007
I got my iPhone today. So I tried different stuff. First, I could’nt use my phone number that belonged to a business account. It asked me to contact customer care and they had no clue on what the error is and I wasted about 30 mins on that. When I asked the AT&T rep on how to activate my number from a biz account, she said it cannot be done and she suggested me to return my iPhone for my account to work. Are they kidding? Anyway, after putting me on hold for several times, she gave me some contact info of National Biz Ordering center and they are open during weekdays only.
I later went ahead and signed up a new account.
After the activation is complete, I thought my other AT&T SIM Card would work, but iPhone throws a SIM Card Error and it asked me to reactivate the phone. Well, I did try few things, but no luck. I cant believe this….it is not just locked at the carrier, but also at the SIM Card level too.
Update: I was able to get this working. If you want to use your Biz Phone Number with the iPhone, follow this procedure.
- Activate your iPhone signing up for a new account. You’ll get a new phone number
- After the activation is completed, insert your other SIM card. It’ll throw a SIM Card Error. It’ll ask you to activate again.
- Activate again with your existing SIM Card in, but provide the details of the number you previously got
- AT&T will say that it’ll activate it after verification. Give it few hours time. You’ll get a confirmation from AT&T to your email address once activated
- Once activated, your new SIM should work fine
- Now, you can cancel your new phone number saying that you dont have service at your house (I need to try this yet). Will do next week
