UStream’s iPhone App for Inauguration
Yes, I’ve given up on my iPhone for now (that’s another, longer story) but for those of you still clinging to yours in locales better served by AT&T, check this out. UStream is planning a special iPhone application that will enable you to watch the Inauguration of Barack Obama live on your iPhone on Tuesday.
Might as well go ahead and download it, if only because you can.
Apple Posts Huge Numbers
On Wednesday, Apple reported one of its best quarters in its history, including the incredibly revelation that they’d sold more iPhone 3Gs in one quarter than they’d sold iPhones since their introduction.
Apple posted revenue of $7.9 billion and a profit of $1.14 billion, compared to $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million in the year ago quarter.
Sales of Mac units reached a record high, up 21 percent over a year ago (2.611 million units; which also compares favorably to the 2.45 million in previous quarter) and iPod sales were up 8 percent (that’s 11 million iPods, about the same last quarter).
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Five More Gripes About My iPhone
In the past week I’ve found myself spending a little too much time after work on my AT&T customer page (now that I’m, regrettably, an AT&T customer) wondering if there’s a handset I’d like more than my iPhone — even if I have to pay to upgrade. (Or, once selected, I might surf to eBay for a new solution…perhaps a Palm Centro?) Not that I actively dislike the iPhone — there’s a lot to like, such as Safari, SMS, iCal integration and visual voicemail — but there’s still some stuff that keeps iPhone from being the killer deal that it really should be.
It’s almost bad enough that it might be worth parting with if something better comes along.
Of course, I probably wouldn’t gripe as much if AT&T’s network didn’t suck so bad in my neighborhood. The fact that 50-75% of the time I can’t use my phone as a phone probably makes me more willing to criticize other features that I could live without. (But, frankly, even when the AT&T signal is good, I still seem to get a lot of drop-out from the iPhone>)
Still, beyond signal and service there are some flaws Apple needs to address. Arguing from the specific to the theoretical, those include:
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iPhone: Not a Great Phone
Yes, it took me forever to finally make the leap to an iPhone but, now that I’ve been up and running with my iPhone for a few weeks, and I’ve got to say that I’m a little underwhelmed. Switching from a Blackberry has been interesting on two fronts.
First, I can totally see why Apple has announced a push strategy that goes along with the Me.com announcement — having to wait for your e-mail to download very much blows when you’re used to just looking down and seeing e-mail on your Blackberry instantly. I’m excited about the Me.com upgrade, since I already pay an arm-and-a-leg for my less-than-useful Mac.com account, but ONLY if the service will transparently allow me to send e-mail from my other accounts — I need it to work like Gmail in the respect that it seems that e-mail is coming from my jacksonfreepress.com account even if I’m using Apple Mail. If not, then it’s straight-up no dice on Me.com, because I can’t answer my work mail using an @me.com address.
Second, my main complaint about the iPhone might just be the carrier — AT&T is simply not as good as Alltel, my previous carrier, in this area. I’ve gone back to the days of hunting around in the room for a signal — something that I haven’t had to think about for years using my Alltel phones, whether regular clamshells or Blackberrys. Ms. D’s Treo is the same way — signal problems are very rare.
Since I’ve gone to the slick, swanky iPhone, I’ve had a LOT of trouble making actual phone calls. In my house, the signal only works well closer to a front window; in our office suite, I’ve found a better signal in the sales cubicles than in my own office. That just ain’t right.
Solution? I’m concerned that I’ll need to quickly make the decision to move to something else — back to Alltel, ideally, with, perhaps a Treo 755p. That’s not my greatest desire, since I like synching contacts and addresses with my iPhone — as a diehard Mac user, even in business, the iPhone excels on that front. Or, I could sit around and wait for AT&T to improve in my area, or I can hold on and hope that the 3G iPhone is better on actually being a phone.
We shall see!
Great Piece on ‘iPhone 2.0′ Dominance
I just stumbled on CounterNotions, where the author has a compelling piece on iPhone 2.0 and whether or not there’s another player in the market that can take it on.
I, personally, am watching this whole iPhone thing closely…although I swore months ago I wouldn’t go in for an iPhone, I ended up buying one one eBay somewhat accidentally (long story, but a I got a great price), but I haven’t yet activated it. Not sure what I was waiting for…but I’m getting closer.
Word of native iChat clients is helping me make that decision; I’m not a huge iChat user, but being able to bring up folks back in the office using iChat has proven very handy when I’ve had the capability in the past. (It was a feature that I found compelling about the T-Mobile SideKick, for instance.) I may be an iPhone user yet…
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