It’s been awhile since we talked about Google’s forthcoming Android OS for mobile phones—well, to be honest, it’s been a while since we heard anything about Android. But the big G recently showed off their latest version of the phone’s system and it looks pretty darn slick—and more than a little iPhone like. Vincent over at Android Community has a gallery full of screenshots and a handful of videos of the latest version of the OS.
Despite the superficial resemblance to APple’s handset, the Google phone does have some unique features—for example, a built-in version of Google’s Street View, complete with a compass that actually rotates the street view as you turn. Damn, that’s cool. And potentially a little creepy. Great for stalking, though. Er. Finding things. Like stores. Yeah.
The screen unlock feature can work a lot like the iPhone’s, but Google’s actually customized it to let you draw any sort of shape that you want—you could even play Tic-Tac-Toe. Well, maybe not. And I do like the idea of creating shortcuts on the desktop, though I wonder if that’s a metaphor that’ll work well on mobile phones.
If nothing else, I look forward to Android pushing Apple to add more features to the iPhone when the first handsets start getting released this year. What about you, readers? Anything shown off in this presentation that you want on Apple’s handset?
I've got a story over at the Mothership about Google's iPhone plans, in which Vic Gundotra, the company's vice president of engineering, talks about Google's commitment to producing native apps for the iPhone. (It's part of a larger profile of Google's Mac development efforts that I wrote, just in case that sort of thing interests you.)
Anyway, there's an anecdote Gundotra related to me that I couldn't fit into the article but that I think is amusing enough to repeat here.
He told me that he and his family were having lunch a few weeks back with another family -- adults clustered at one end of the table, kids at the other. And at one point in the conversation, Gundotra's friend asks a question that Gundotra doesn't know the answer to. He says, "I don't know," which is when his four-year-old -- previously indifferent to the adults' conversation -- chimes in: "Daddy," she asks, "where's your phone?"
"What happened was, she heard me tell my friend 'I don't know,'" Gundotra told me. "And when she hears me say, 'I don't know,' she expects me to pick up my iPhone and get an answer. That's the world a four-year-old is growing up in."
I've had similar experiences with other technology. For example, sometimes when I'm in a movie theater and I miss a portion of the dialogue, I'll instinctively make a motion with my hand like I'm pressing the Rewind button on a TiVo remote -- I'll even mimic the little be-boop noise the TiVo makes when it rewinds, if I'm being especially mindless. And I always feel just a trifle disappointed when the movie doesn't rewind on my command.
But that's just me. How about you? Got any stories about how the iPhone -- or some similar electronic doodad has changed the way you interact with the world around you?
The folks over at LifeClever have gone where I have not dared to tread. Last August, in a post about the iPone commercials’ soundtrack, I pointed out that the ringtone showcased in the ads is actually—horrors—not available on the iPhone. I went on to muse:
I guess if you really wanted it you could record it, convert it to MP3, and use iFuntastic to make it your ringtone. But that would be silly…right?
Silly for the likes of me perhaps, but those LifeClever people apparently don’t have the same reservations that a puny mortal like me might have. They’ve done it hunted down the file, which is a GarageBand sound effect, and made the result (download link) available for download.
Just double click the file and it’ll be added to your Ringtones tab in iTunes. Voilà—problem solved. Clever indeed.
Update: To clarify, as reader Branden reminds me, they took a more clever approach than what I suggested; presuming you’ve got GarageBand handy, you could do the same thing pretty easily. Still, I appreciate it when other people do the work, so I don’t have to.
Seems like every other day there’s some sort of rumor about the next-generation iPhone. This time around it comes from no less of a source than Fortune, which alleges that AT&T will actually subsidize the next model to the tune of around $200. Given the predicted prices of $399 and $499 (Apple does like to stay at roughly the same price points when it introduces new models), that would drop the prices to around $199 and $299 respectively.
While it’s true that carriers do subsidize the cost of most of their handsets, figuring they’ll make the money back with service charges over the life of a contract, they’ve never gone this route with the iPhone. Not to say that they couldn’t—perhaps AT&T wasn’t sure when they first signed up that the whole iPhone thing would pan out. But it would be interesting for them to change their mind about this, especially when Apple is getting a cut of AT&T’s revenue already.
Furthermore, the piece’s author, Scott Moritz, has been known to make predictions in the past that haven’t held water, such as a 13” laptop released at the same time as Leopard and somewhat questionable figures for Apple’s sales expectations for the iPhone launch.
Moritz’s background information for the piece isn’t exactly watertight, either. For example, he writes:
The average iPhone user however, runs up a $100 tab each month due to the higher priced data and calling plan. This would give AT&T an even quicker payback on its $200 outlay.
I don’t know about my fellow iPhone users, but my monthly iPhone bill is usually about $65-$66. I’m not sure why he’d suggest you can “run up a tab” on the data plan; we’re talking $20/month for unlimited data on the iPhone plan.
Moritz also flails in the dark with some of his other details.
Apple has a revenue-sharing arrangement that requires telcos like AT&T to pay somewhere between 9% and 25% of the money collected each month from iPhone users.
9%-25% is a pretty big margin there: you might as well just say you don’t know, honestly. Moritz goes on to say that Apple plans on clearing out inventory before the launch of the next model—that seems like a bit of a duh to me—and also claims that the new iPhone will be 2.5mm thinner and sport GPS. How they’re going to shave off 20% of the thickness, fit a GPS chip, and a 3G radio, I have no idea, but if there’s anybody who can do it, I guess it’s Apple.
Given Moritz’s history with predictions, however, I wouldn’t be too surprised if this whole shebang falls flat. I guess we’ll know sometime this summer.
Remember all that fuss about iPhone shortages? The ones that had people convinced—convinced—that a 3G iPhone was all but imminent? Well, the shortages are certainly real, as Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook acknowledged in yesterday’s financial results conference call, though only in the US. The European markets are still seeing balanced levels of supply and demand.
But if you thought not having enough iPhone for the unwashed masses was a bad thing, then you clearly haven’t met Apple. Here’s what chief operating officer Tim Cook had to say on yesterday’s call:
In terms of shortages; we expected [iPhone demand] to decline more on sequential basis than it did; it beat our expectations, so we started to decline in supply.
It’s just because the iPhone is more popular than even Apple expected, see?
Every time the conversation drifted in that direction Cook would firmly reiterate that the only reason Apple had a shortage was because they ended up selling more iPhones in the last quarter than they’d expected to. That’s what we call Teflon, baby.
A number of analysts also tried to trick Cook’s into admitting that a 3G iPhone was forthcoming—like they were dealing with Mr. Mxyzptlk or something.
The much-coveted iPhone Central award still goes to Sharon Cross of Cross Research, who asked if there were any plans to continue selling the current 2.5G model when the 3G model was released—oh how crafty! She must have spent hours figuring out the exact phrasing of that question, only to have it shot down by Cook’s boilerplate “We don’t comment on new products.” Kudos, Ms. Cross. Perhaps next quarter.
The Times of London has seen the future, and it may not include a touchscreen.
In the midst of an article on how Apple's European partners overestimated the demand for first-generation iPhones and will likely take a bath on clearing out inventory for the rumored 3G iPhone that's in the works, the Times' Jonathan Richards reports on what form that future iPhone might take.
Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a "radically different" appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5 inch screen and slick, aluminium backing. Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular qwerty keyboard -- as opposed to a touchscreen one.
In fact, the Times goes on to say, we may wind up with multiple iPhone models -- one that looks like the current version for users who basically want an iPod with a phone attached, one with a keyboard for people who want a communication tool, and a third model with a larger screen for people who demand a laptop replacement. Which raises the question as to whether we're even talking about an iPhone anymore or some new, still-theoretical mobile device from Cupertino.
The Dallas Morning News -- from which I snagged the Times link -- thinks this is a bad idea. Victor Godinez writes in the paper's Technology Blog:
The reason the iPhone has become such an iconic device -- at least to us naive hicks in the U.S. -- is that it dumped all the clunky, conventional cell phone features.
Unfounded speculation or keen insight into the iPhone's future? We'll find out for certain later this year, I guess, when the 3G iPhone will reportedly debut.
I find mapping one of the iPhone’s most indispensable features, if for no other reason than I rarely have any idea exactly where I am at any given time. While Google’s Maps application is the most prominent way to get that information, it’s not the only one. Microsoft’s newest version of Live Maps is finally Safari-compatible on both the Mac and the iPhone.
I’ve been a diehard Google Maps user for some time, but I decided to give Live Maps a quick try just to see what I’d been missing out on. On the Mac side, I admit it’s got some nice features (I dig the Bird’s Eye view), and even though it told me that I actually lived in the house next door (I never knew!), it’s mapping features seem pretty good. The much-touted 3D view does not currently work on Safari, though.
On the iPhone, it’s a different matter. This isn’t entirely Microsoft’s fault: it’s hard to compete with the native implementation of Google’s maps. But we know it’s possible to have a good web app experience on the iPhone, and Microsoft doesn’t really seem interested in doing that at all.
Take, for example, the zooming controls, which are on the left side of the map. Like most maps, when you hit the “Zoom In” control, it zooms on the center. The problem is that the map isn’t sized for the iPhone’s screen, and it’s only really usable in landscape orientation. Even then, you need to get the map to a size where it’s both a) easily visible and b) the controls are large enough that you can tap them precisely. That’s already asking me to do a lot more finagling than I should have to.
And with no pinch-zooming and swiping to move the map around, it’s impossible for MS to compete with the simplicity of Google’s Maps application. Perhaps when App Store opens, Microsoft will be able to build a better Map widget, as it were, but until then, things are looking in Google’s direction.
[via Infinite Loop]
