Apple Updates Apple Store App…Lets Store Customers Check-In
This new update allows Apple Store customers the ability to check in for reservations and request help within stores.
Link to Apple Store app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id375380948?mt=8
Hiring an iPhone Developer? Read This First.
The Business Insider has posted an article titled How To Hire A Great iPhone Developer and it features a few quotes from our creative director, Ryan Unger. It’s a good read with some valuable insight, so feel free to give it a look.
Get Well Soon, iPhone 3G Network!
When I first got my iPhone some two years ago, I rarely experienced connectivity issues. In fact, I was pretty proud of the fact that my phone and data service were so consistent. Flash forward to today, and I’ve moved from Cleveland (population: 500,000) to Chicago (population: 2.9 million), and the number of iPhone users has increased many, many times over.
Increasingly, I can’t hold on to a call. No joke—I drop calls every single day. And 3G data service? At this point, I feel like I’ve won the lottery when I see that beautiful little 3G icon instead of the letter “E” at the top of my screen. The other day, a friend of mine received nine visual voicemails all at once…and they had been left by recipients four days prior!
Make no mistake. Despite these issues, I absolutely love my iPhone. And thankfully, a recent article over at the NY Times has shed some light on why these issues are occurring.
You can read the article here.
Clearly, no one could have predicted the success of the iPhone. With a little patience, it looks like all of these issues will be ultimately resolved.
Apple Leads Cell Phone Industry with 32% of the Total Industry Profit
Question: How does a newcomer introduce just one cell phone, and absolutely obliterate their competition with respect to profit?
Answer: They build an iPhone.
Top Cell Phone Manufacturers' Estimated Revenues Compared to Apple's
In the cell phone game, the Apple iPhone only accounts for 8% of the total industry revenue, but 32% of the total industry profit. How they managed this feat is quite simple. They pull in a 40% operating margin, in an industry that averages only 7.5%. The next most profitable company in the industry, RIM, only takes in 20.7% operating margin.
[ iSmashPhone.com ]
3 Rules for Keeping My iPhone Applications Organized
I can still remember the good ol’ days, when the iPhone had no downloadable content. You had one home screen with all of your Apple-bestowed icons in a single place–no organization skills required.
Those days are long gone, and with a slew of amazing iPhone apps comes a puzzling question: How does one best organize the plethora of applications downloaded to an iPhone? In the past, I’ve tried sorting my apps in a million different (and often bizarre) ways, and frequently found myself looking at friends’ phones, trying to figure out the logic they’d applied to their own apps.
After some careful consideration, I’ve finally settled on my favorite way to sort iPhone app icons. Of course, these methods are purely based on my personal taste and strange sense of “logic,” so take this post with a grain of salt. That said, without further delay, my 3 Rules for Keeping My iPhone Applications Organized:
My iPhone's Home Screen
1. I am an Apple purist at heart, and in a nod to the 1st gen iPhone, I keep the original twelve iPhone icons on my home screen (note: these are in addition to the four app icons found on the dock at the bottom of the screen). These icons are: Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Notes, Clock, Calculator, and Settings. The reason for doing this is two-fold. First, I find that through years of using my iPhone, I’ve genuinely memorized the location of these twelve apps. Clicking on them is second nature to me. The second reason I like this organization scheme is that having twelve home screen icons on your phone leaves a nice empty row between the upper twelve app icons and the home row. I find this aesthetically pleasing–to me, it beats having a home screen crammed to the brim with icons.
2. Apple has provided us with five more application icons since the first gen iPhone. These icons are: App Store, Compass, Contacts, iTunes, and Voice Memos. Based on my logic in Rule #1, one could reasonably argue that these Apple-given icons should be on the home screen of the phone (they are Apple-bestowed, of course). This would be a fair argument, except that there’s no way to fit them all on the home screen. For this reason, I opt to treat these five application icons the same as I do any other downloaded iPhone apps. Doing this still supports Rule #1, which aims to keep my iPhone home screen organized and uncluttered as it was in its first release.
3. Finally, the piece de resistance. For ALL application icons not located on the initial home screen of my iPhone, I simply arrange them alphabetically on secondary home screen pages. This way, I don’t have to wonder where an app should be located and any hesitation I have to download millions of apps is squashed. I’ve tried all sorts of ways to sort my downloaded apps, but nothing is as fool-proof and easy to remember as this method. My experiments with attempting to sort apps based on categories like “utility” or “games” have always ended up failing. Alphabetizing is simple through and through.
…Phew. I hope this makes some semblance of sense! Do you have a better method of organizing your iPhone icons? If you do, feel free to share with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts as I continue in my quest to find true iPhone nirvana.
A Secondary Screen on My iPhone
Punchkick Interactive has officially been approved by Apple to become part of the Apple iPhone Developer Program, and we are curious as to the number of other developers who were also approved—so, we decided to start a tally.
If you have been approved by Apple to participate in the iPhone Developer Program, then leave a comment. We will update the tally here daily.
1 developer has been approved.
As a bit of background, U.S. applicants rejected received an e-mail stating: “Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying.”
Applicants outside the United States received an e-mail stating: “Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying.”
Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.
Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, said Tuesday that Adobe has officially started development of a Flash player suitable for use on Apple’s iPhone and hopes to finish development by June.
Narayen made the comments during a conference call with investors, explaining that Apple’s recent release of an iPhone software developers kit (SDK) has afforded his company the necessary tools to finally begin work an iPhone version of Flash Player.
“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone,” he said. “We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”
Adobe hopes to deliver their missing product via Apple’s new App Store, set to open in June alongside the release of iPhone software version 2.0.
So much for Jobs’ comments about the iPhone not being able to support Flash because of a limitation with the Flash player. It seems ridiculous that Apple’s position is a limitation in the Flash Player given that the Flash Player works perfectly on the Nokia 810, countless other portable devices, the Skyfire browser, Pocket IE, and Opera Mobile 9.5. I am very happy to hear about Adobe’s new position on the issue.
Source: Apple Insider, Wall Street Journal
Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot
Every once in a while—perhaps as often as the solar equinox or emergence of the breeding cicadas—I open my mouth and say something I later regret. And when I do so, I feel it is my duty to own up to my mistake. So, with my sneaker on my plate, I apologize to all of you about my July 5th rant, Why a True Apple Fan Would Never Buy an iPhone.
Why, you ask? Allow me to explain.
I decided that I needed a smart phone with true email capabilities about two months ago. Looking around at the options out there, I wasn’t particularly blown away by any of the smart phones I played around with at the Verizon store. On second look, the iPhone started to seem like a phone I could (*ahem) learn to live with.
Fast forward two months.
My iPhone and I are best friends, and in some countries, possibly married. I absolutely cannot live without it. The email software is incredible and syncs perfectly with my .Mac account and IMAP business account. The camera is beautiful and I find myself constantly taking pictures with my phone—something I’ve never done in the 11+ years I’ve been a cell phone user. I use the iPhone religiously for iPod purposes, and my video podcasts have never looked better. And the Safari browser has proven to be a mid-argument-dispute-resolution miracle on more than one occasion.
Sure, the iPhone has some problems. Edge isn’t too quick, and 8 gigs just isn’t enough memory. But the goods FAR outweigh the bad. Software updates have even fixed a number of the issues I once complained about. Reading through my previous post, I’ve had to ask myself: Am I so jaded that a technical marvel like the iPhone can elicit a complaint from me?
Mr. Jobs, if you’re reading this, please accept my apology. Please continue to deliver me gadgets like the iPhone. And please forgive us tech-geeks when we are overly critical. We don’t mean it.
*Sometimes.
Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.
PC World Reports That MS Windows Vista Runs fastest on a Mac Laptop
Interesting story for all you Apple lovers out there. PC World reports that MS Windows Vista runs faster on a Mac laptop than any other laptop period.
“The fastest Windows Vista notebook we’ve tested this year—or for that matter, ever—is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware”
Why a True Apple Fan Would Never Buy an iPhone
It’s been called the Second Coming—a gadget so revolutionary that people literally fall to their knees in praise of its magnificence. And why shouldn’t they? It’s from Apple, the same company that heroically unshackled us from the misery that is Windows. Apple opened our eyes to a whole new world of computing, one where fantastic design and seamless integration rule above all else. Macs taught us how easy managing a digital photo album could be, and were the de facto force behind our extensive (and legal) digital music libraries.
So why am I, a die-hard-Mac-fanatic, not purchasing Jobs’ brand new marvel? For a number of reasons, all of which are tied to one unfortunate reality: The iPhone is many, many things, but it sure ain’t no Apple.
Let me explain:
- Got a .Mac account? I do. And I couldn’t imagine life any other way. Syncing my emails between different computers is no longer an option for me—it’s a requirement, and I have only Apple to blame for my expectations. The iPhone? It won’t be doing that.
- Speaking of email, how could Apple drop the ball on such an important feature of the iPhone? Noticeable delays between the reading and deleting of emails? Manual deletion of emails one at a time with no option to delete a selected grouping? No BCC option? Yikes.
- On my Mac, Safari is the most dependable browser I’ve ever used. Not on the iPhone. Call me crazy, but surfing the internet sans Flash and Java just doesn’t feel like a true Web experience to me.
- The Edge Network. Can this actually be faster than dial up?
- 8 gigs is just too meager for the iPhone. One of my favorite things about using a Mac and iPod together is the ease with which I download music and sync them. The iPhone’s memory limitations require users to manually manage music and photos—something Apple liberated us from, a loooong time ago. Looks like you’ll have to carry around your iPod and a bigger phone in your pockets now.
- In case I haven’t already made it abundantly clear, syncing is vital to a true Mac user. So why does the iPhone’s Calendar app have so many problems syncing events with a desktop?
Look, I know there are a ton of other problems ($85.95 for a new battery after 300–400 charges?!) with the iPhone. I also know that in many ways, the iPhone rocks. But when Apple creates something unique, and invites me to make it a part of my life, I expect that device to bring it. Maybe my expectations are too high, but Jobs and Co. has taught me to expect only the best out of my gadgets. Ultimately, the iPhone is a jack of many trades, but a master of none. It delivers the internet, serves as an iPod, and provides portable access to iCal and iPhoto—but requests that you enjoy them in an undeniably diminished way.
For a true Apple fan, this is just simply too much to ask.
Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.
