iPhone v2: I Still Don't Buy It

Apple released iPhone v2 at their WWDC yesterday to much fan fair and Internet coverage.

I've probably established my preference for Android fairly well at this point, but with the changes announced in the iPhone's second incarnation I think it's worth pointing out a couple of deficiencies that still exist in His Jobs'ness's most gifted child.

Without true native background services the iPhone remains a shiny toy that offers the same-old mobile applications with a glossier skin. It's an improvement, but it's incremental. The game hasn't changed, it's just being played in a new stadium with nicer uniforms.

Before I go on let me state for the record that I'm a fan of the iPhone. If Apple had been selling them at stores the day it was unveiled I would have gladly ripped off my right arm and used it to beat my way through hoards of Apple fanboys to get one.

Fortunately for my dexterity, by the time iPhones were in stores I'd convinced myself that a total COO of almost £1000 was just too rich for my blood. I bought a new generation Nano instead and called it even.

I mention this because I really do think the iPhone is an impressive piece of kit. It's beautifully engineered and delivers both style and substance. The array of shiny touch screen mobiles now available can probably be credited to the iPhone setting a new standard in phone hardware and UI design.

But I'm still not buying a new iPhone.

Even with the 3G data and significant price drop I'll still be holding off my long overdue phone upgrade for when Android hits the shelves. Why? Because the iPhone is a really nice implementation of just-another-phone. Android promises to be more than that:

1. Background services. The iPhone's push notification service is a 2nd class add-in compared to the fully integrated background Service and Notification models that are central to Android. More than any other factor, Android's native background service model exposes possibilities that just aren't possible on the iPhone.
   
   They are a true game-changer. Android's Alarm mechanism ensures that services don't consume resources if they're not needed, but when they wake up they have full control over when and how they're going to update and how they choose to notify the user. The iPhone generously lets you pick a notification sound. Right. In Android you can write a service that monitors the game and announces the current score using a Morse-code vibration pattern while flash the LEDs in the winning team's colours.
   
   Without the artificial dependency on Apple's 'notification server' your service can update based on anything you like--Internet data, GPS location, device orientation, whatever.
   
   I could go on, but I'll save it for a more appropriate forum.


2. Map-based applications. Still no native support for embedded Google Maps. Not that that's Apple's fault, but it's an undeniable bonus point for Android.


3. Sandboxed distribution. Jailbreaking aside, developers are still locked in to the Apple approved iTunes distribution channel. If they want to charge for their apps, they still have to pay. Fail.

Lets face it, my complaints are fairly developer focused. A lack of background service support isn't likely to slow down the thousands that have been patiently waiting for a 3G iPhone when they rush to queue up at their nearest Apple store on the 11th of next month.

Android's power and flexibility as a developer platform is well established, if it can match the level of iPhone consumer devotion remains to be seen.

Android v iPhone: SDK Showdown

Apple responded to Google’s Android SDK gauntlet in some style last week when they released details on the much anticipated iPhone SDK. Is it a legitimate challenger? Let’s take a look.

Feature	Android	iPhone
SDK Cost	$0	$99 (to allow distribution)
Distribution Cost	$0	30% of the list price
Distribution Channel	Open	iTunes exclusive
Mashable Maps?	Yes	No
Location Services?	Per Hardware	GPS Pending
Accelerometer?	Yes	Yes
Multitouch?	No	Yes
3D Graphics Support	Yes	Advanced
Background Services	Yes	No
Application Interaction	Supported	Disabled
Native P2P Comms	GTalk	No
Actual Phones that Support the SDK	Q4 2008	4 million and counting

Free versus Really Not Free

A 30% cut of the list price? Even my agent would blanch at demanding that sort of cut. The $100 fee is just baffling. Why charge? I’d love to have a play with the SDK but I’m not convinced it’s 10 books worth of entertaining. I’m not writing mobile apps for profit so where is the return on my investment? It’s a system designed to provide a smooth distribution channel for approved 3rd party providers but it’s going to discourage those who are simply ‘iPhone curious’.

Android’s approach charges nothing to experiment and there’s no distribution cost. If one of my experiments turns into something people will pay for I won’t have to hand back a third of the price to Mountain View or Cupertino.

Foreground versus Background

Techcruch pointed out this gem in the iPhone docs. Your iPhone applications can only run in the foreground. If you switch away for any reason it will close. In the process of creating examples for my book on Android development I found that background services are one of the most exciting features of Android, albeit not the flashiest, so it’s very disappointing to see this explicitly disallowed on the iPhone.

Foreground only apps are great if you’re writing games (clearly the big target for Apple) but 90% of the time my mobile lives on my desk or in my pocket until it rings, flashes, or vibrates.

Background services let you create applications that extend this event driven model. Maybe it’s an app that keeps track of the football and vibrates the phone when your team scores, or maybe it changes the LED color when your team's ahead or behind. Maybe you write a service that sends your location to your friends so they always know where you’re at. This is the sort of thing that’ll make my mobile more useful not just more entertaining.

Interprocess Communication

The iPhone explicitly disallows communication between processes, to the extent that each application and all its data are completely sandboxed. There’re a lot of good security reasons to do this but Android manages to handle it without the sky falling. Then again, if your application is only allowed to operate in the foreground there’s not much point trying to communicate between two apps.

Native Map Support

Since the iPhone release Google Maps has been its most popular application. In Android I can write on-phone mashups, on the iPhone I can’t.

Bottom Line?

The iPhone SDK is a way for game and mobile developers to write the same sorts of programs as they always have but on the shiniest new device on the block. That’s great if you want a 3D, accelerometer controlled version of breakout, or to play Spore on your mobile, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the party. Well, apart from an extortionate 30% licensing fee.

Three of the four iPhone apps demoed at the release were games. The iPhone looks like a great platform for mobile gaming. It’s about the size of a PSP or DS and the interface has some great possibilities. While it’s an excellent portable platform for running software the SDK restrictions make sure that no one is ever going to download an iPhone application that fundamentally changes the way they use their phone. An iPhone will always look, feel, and work the way Apple designed it.

Android lets you write applications that do more than just run on a portable device. It has the potential to create software that extends the functionality of the phone itself, to change how and why you use your mobile phone completely. More on that later.

The Google Phone

Last week His Jobsness announced the US release date for the iPhone (June 29 @ 6pm if you're interested) along with its revolutionary 3rd party API in the form of... a web browser.

As much as I'd love to be a part of the fanboi love-in, there's just no way I can justify the price (let alone the 2year contract lock in) -- shiny hunk of goodness that it is. Damn it to hell, but my 3yo SE 910i is more than adequate for making calls, checking email, and browsing the web.

My soul consuming desire appreciation of the iPhone is deferred by the phone I really want -- a gPhone, connected to all the Google goodness I use every day. Lucky for me, my Sony Ericsson also provides a developer API just like the iPhone(!) and Google has written a bunch of applications that support it!

Watch and marvel as I turn my Sony Ericsson P910i into a gPhone...

For easy phone reference, here's a link to a phone-friendly list without the commentary at: http://www.radioactiveyak.com/mobile.html

Note: If you've got a Java enabled phone, I'm going to recommend you use Opera Mini. I can confirm that it displays all the Google Mobile sites properly (colours and layouts are correct).

1. Google Homepage (iGoogle)

· Website (www.google.com/ig/mobile) -- 'iGoogle'

An excellent place to start your online mobile adventures. You can select which modules you'd like in your mobile homepage based on your desktop homepage here: http://www.google.com/ig/cp

I have mine setup to include news, reader, and mail feeds so my iGoogle Mobile page effectively provides shortcuts to the other mobile sites I use.

2. Blogger

· 3rd part product (http://www.shozu.com/)

· MMS (US Only)

In the US you get the simplest option using Google Mobile Blogging. Outside the US (and Americans with unsupported providers) it's just as easy using Shozu. Download and install the Shozu client and add 'Blogger' as a new destination.

IMPORTANT: There are two versions of Blogger available on the Shozu site -- one specifically mentions it is not compatible with the new Blogger. Keep looking! There's a new one that does.

Once you've installed the phone client and added Blogger as a destination you can send any picture as a new blog entry on Blogger. When you send, Shozu will let you set a post title and add some blog text. Your formatting options are limited, but it's a perfect way to blog on the road.

This is what a blog post from my phone using Shozu looks like. No post-editing was done.

If it's a text post your after, just enable the send-to address in you Blogger settings and add the email address from there to your gMail contacts.

3. Google Maps (and local search)
· Java Midlet (www.google.com/gmm)

Java client that shows map or satellite view of most of the world using Google Maps. Includes local search, driving directions, and for select cities even traffic info. Confirmed to work in US, UK, Europe, and Australia -- but it should work for any location that Google Maps supports.

Lets you save favorite places for easy reference on the go. If your phone is GPS enabled it'll put a blue marker on your current position.

On my SE the 5 function scroll wheel lets me move the map up (scroll up), down (scroll down), left (scroll wheel back), right (scroll wheel forward), zoom (scroll wheel push).

4. Google Calendar

· Website (www.google.com/calendar/m) -- '(Google) Calendar'

· 3rd Party Site (www.goosync.com)

The Google mobile calendar site will let you view your Google calendars in agenda mode.

It lets you select which calendars you want to include as well as specific event details and adding new events but lacks the ability to modify or delete events.

Alternatively if you're lucky enough to have a compatible phone, GooSync will synchronise your Google Calendar with your phone's native calendar for the low-low price of nothing. It supports updates, alarms, and two-way syncing. For a small subscription they support syncing to multiple calendars.

5. Picasaweb
· Upload: 3rd Party Client (www.shozu.com)
· Viewing: Google Reader for Mobile (www.google.com/reader/m/) -- '(Google) Picasaweb'

Uploading Images
ShoZu provide an excellent free Java applet that's available for most Java enabled phones. You'll need to download their client and configure your account on their web site, as simple as adding 'Picasaweb' as a destination. Logging in to your Google account is handled the new safe Google authentication way.

Viewing Albums
In Google Reader (desktop version) subscribe to each album you want viewable on your phone. Tag all the albums 'Picasaweb'. The RSS feed for each album is constructed like this:

http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/username/album/albumname?kind=photo
(For example: http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/liz.jones/album/Diary?kind=photo)

Then navigate to Google Reader (mobile) on your phone. Choose 'Filter by Tag' and select 'Picasaweb'. Then just bookmark the result -- '(Google) Picasaweb'.

Reader will show a list of photo names, clicking on an item will show a thumbnail of the image, but won't mark it as 'read' -- so the whole album will stay available.

6. GMail
· Java Applet (www.google.com/mobile/gmail/)
· Website (gmail.google.com) -- '(Google) Mail'
· POP3 (setttings)

What's a smart phone without email?

The Java client is excellent -- very fast and supports most GMail functions. The web interface is good but lacks the bells, whistles, and speed of the Java client. The POP3 settings lose all your GMail features (like tags, stars) but work natively with your phone's email program. No push support though.

7. Google Reader (RSS Feed Reader)

· Website (www.google.com/reader/m) -- '(Google) Feed Reader'

Optimised mobile UI for Google Reader.

You have to set up your feeds in the desktop version, but then you can read and filter (by star, tag, or feed).

I read through the headlines and feed content, starring items I want to follow up when I'm properly online.

8. Google News

· Website (mobile.google.com/news) -- '(Google) News'

Shows Google News formatted for your phone. Lets you customize which news sections are visible, then you can expand or collapse whole sections at a time.

9. Google Search

· Website (m.google.com/m?uipref=3) -- '(Google) Mobile Search'

Newly updated, provides comprehensive mobile search that remembers your location to provide intelligent results for local businesses, movies, and weather.

10. Services Still Required

GMail Contacts
Take a leaf out of Yahoo's book and provide a GMail API. At the very least provide API access to contacts so someone clever can sync my Gmail contact list with my phone.

GoogleTalk (with Voice)
I want my voice enabled GTalk client straight from Google. Bandwidth be damned!

Google Docs & Spreadsheets
My phone has a built in Excel, Word, and PDF viewer -- I'd love it if I could view and edit my Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Maybe someone out there can write a service to sync my phone's Todo list with a Google spreadsheet?

Google Groups
I love Google Groups, please Google, give me a way to access them on my phone. Please?


So -- what else is missing? What do you want on your phone before your iPhone envy is quenched?

5 Reasons Why the iPhone Will Fail / Dominate

It's time for the obligatory iPhone post. A lot has been said already, so I'll keep it brief.


5 Reasons iPhone Trumps Sliced Bread

1. OMFG! Have you seen this thing? Aesthetically it's a wonder to behold; thin, light, and the UI is sublime. I've read people describe disturbingly carnal reactions to seeing the iPhone, say what you will but she's pretty.
2. iPr0n. (shown above) Well du'h, in the right wrong hands this turns into the handheld porn repository to end all porn stashes. That's 8Gb of full motion video, photos, and websites. Brings a whole new perspective to the multi touch interface.
3. One word. Usability. Nokia? Eriksson? Are you listening? The iPhone is an object lesson in usability design -- the learning curve on this thing looks horizontal. It's easy enough for my mother to use. The iPhone defines how a smartphone is supposed to work.
4. OSX powered. If Apple take the high road 3rd party developers will be able to leverage the iPhone as a new application platform. If you think web service fed applications are hot now, wait until you can get desktop quality front-ends on a portable device. And with OSX running under the hood we should expect to see iChat powered VOIP. IM, and video chat before long (please!)
5. Apple fanbois. It's Apple, so people will love it, and people will buy it. No matter the cost. QED.

5 Reasons iPhone is Dead in the Water

1. Closed system. Indications are that no SDK or development kit will be available to 3rd parties, and you're locked in to a questionable mobile carrier. Oh, and you can't upgrade the 4/8Gb storage. Without the cool 3rd party apps to personalise my iPhone isn't a smart phone. It's a video Nano that I can make calls with. For $600.
2. Did I mention it costs US$599! I'm a working tech professional and I'll struggle (but manage) to justify 600 clams plus a contract. I don't see uncles and grandparents giving them away as Christmas presents.
3. No hard keys == beautiful == hard to type. A lot of people dial and text without looking at keys, and softkeys tend to be too small and clumsy for business use. There's a reason new smartphones have keyboards.
4. US release in June, Europe at Christmas, 2008 for Asia. That's a lot of time for us to think better of selling children / body parts for this thing. And it gives exisitng phone makers a year to catch up. Sony Eriksson, Motorolla, and Nokia, aren't giving up just yet.
5. It's slow. If web access has been described as 'slow' in WiFi mode, GSM / Edge Internet is going to be painful.

Version 1.0 will be a tough sell, but early adoptors will be all over it, $600 be damned. By mid 2008 we'll start seeing 3rd party applications and version 2 with 20Gb of flash storage and no carrier lock-in.

The iPhone will almost certainly be a success, but whether it eventually holds the 5% market share of its Mac brethren, or the 70% share of its iPod kin remains to be seen. Early indications are that price won't be the clincher, it'll be how open the system is.