Posts Tagged: iphone

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20
Jan 10

Dragon Dictation

An amazing app for your iPhone: Dragon Dictation. Go check it out. It does just what you think it does: listen to you talk, and translate that to type. Click a button and you can send it as an email. As Daring Fireball notes: “it’s both faster and more accurate than I imagined possible.”

I’m an Apple fanboy to be sure, but what exactly can’t the iPhone do?

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16
Jan 10

Google Nexus One

There have been plenty of articles written about Google’s Nexus One. This offhanded comment from the Macalope pretty much sums up my feelings:

“The Nexus One seems like a nice enough phone, but it’s nothing revolutionary (it’s got a trackball, for God’s sake). Everyone is still operating inside the same box that Apple defined three years ago.”

On one hand, I’m glad to see some competition for Apple. But I don’t know that most consumers can see what’s happening: Google is playing the Microsoft game. Copy Apple as closely as possible and as quickly as possible. Android will always be a second-rate smartphone (or super-smartphone).

Google’s Android phone operating system will rearrange the icons, change the colors, and maybe even do a couple unexpected things. But the genius at Apple is already working on the next big thing – not trying to copy their competitors.

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4
Sep 09

Check Deposit, a Modern Approach

IMG_0401With USAA, you can now deposit checks via an iPhone.

Using the built-in camera, just snap a picture of the front and back side of the check, enter the check amount, and click submit. The deposit will clear overnight.

No trips to the bank, no trips to an ATM, and no PayPal fees.

What an amazingly good idea.

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10
Aug 09

In Favor of Simplicity

Daring Fireball on Mobile Phone Keyboards:

“That the iPhone — or specifically its software touchscreen keyboard — does not appeal to everyone is not a problem. Nothing appeals to everyone. Even if you try to make something that appeals to everyone by adding every single clamored-for feature, you wind up with something like Windows that does not appeal to people with a taste for the elegant and refined.”

Well said.

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8
Jun 09

iPhone 3GS Keynote

My stream of thoughts on the announcements from Apple’s keynote today:

  • I like the complete upgrade to their laptop line. The specs on the screens sound impressive.
  • Glad that the new OS is only a $29 upgrade, though no single feature is that compelling.
  • Safari 4 is awsome. I’ve been using the beta for a while now.
  • Looking forward to the iPhone 3.0 free upgrade.
  • Absolutely appalled at AT&T for not allowing tethering.
  • I could care less about the copy & paste thing, and have yet to understand why people consider this such a “must have” feature.
  • Like the idea of a video camera on the go. Impressed that you can do video editing on the new iPhone, and upload straight to youtube. (This will have very interesting side affects that I don’t think we fully appreciate yet.)
  • I would quite like the 2-3x performance of the new iPhone too – little things like going to the home screen and popping up the keyboard seem to have a slight lag on my older iphone.
  • The digital compass nicely rounds out the GPS capabilities of last year, but I wish the turn-by-turn navigation had been built in.
  • The voice control looks nice – especially the “play more songs like this one” bit.
  • The lower $99 price is also a good thing for last years model, though I wonder who will be buying that considering the voice+data plan will set you back at least $60 a month anyway (I tend to ignore most of the upfront costs and focus more on the monthly part). Seems like if you are spending $60/month already, a $100 is relatively unimportant – if you can’t afford the new one, you can’t really afford the old one either.

Will I upgrade?

All told, I’ll probably pay for the new OS when it comes out in September, but will hold off on the new iPhone till the one I have becomes unusable.

I’m still on the 1st generation 2g dataplan, and when I upgrade, the 3g dataplan will bump my bill up an extra $10/month. Had the tethering not been blocked by AT&T, it might have been worth it. I love the idea of internet anywhere on my laptop. But for now, I’m looking for ways to reduce, not increase, my internet & phone bills.

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