Notes
Your Cell Phone Telephone
I have no idea how to refer to telephonic devices that utilise Windows Phone 7. “Windows Phone 7 phone” is awkward to say (I thought it was a joke the first time I heard it, namely because of the Futurama line). “Windows 7 phone” is misleading (“it’s a phone with Windows 7 on it?”). “Phone that runs Windows Phone 7” takes too long to say.
Surely they do tests for this kind of thing. Surely they have a department that works on names of things. Surely at some point in the (years-long?) development process of Windows Phone 7, someone at Microsoft talked to someone else at Microsoft about their new mobile operating system. Surely someone at some point called a meeting about it and had to, you know, say the name out loud. Surely someone stumbled a bit when they were talking about how the carriers would be “selling Windows Phone 7 phones.” Surely someone thought “hey, the name we chose actually makes talking about these products kinda awkward. Maybe we should rethink our choice.” Surely.
I think I have the solution.
Apple is known for its secrecy, from the black cloth to the planted information. For example, the iPad was referred to as “the tablet” internally before it launched. What if Microsoft adopted that strategy for Windows Phone 7 and made sure that literally no-one in the company ever said the name of the product out loud?
My first instinct was to end this post with “But there’s hope. Luckily for Microsoft, no-one’s in any danger of talking about Windows Phone 7 any time soon,” but I held back because it was mean. There are some things in WP7 that look cool — Xbox Live integration looks kickass (I don’t have a 360, though), and it’s certainly the first thing in a few years that isn’t ruthlessly aping the iPhone. However, since the launch lineup in Australia looks about as dismal as its Canadian counterpart, my kneejerk snark might not be far off.
Notes
4.
People much smarter than me have reviewed this thing, so I’ll just say this: yes, I can do the grip/reception thing a little bit, and no, it’s not a big deal. I can only do it in my room, where I have shitty reception, and even then it only goes down one or two bars. In addition, I’ve always held my phone up to my right ear, which is why the real news to come out of Antennagate for me was that people use their phone with their left hand. I think it’s because the toilets flush the other way in the US.
Update: After a few more hours with this thing, I can report that I’m getting reception in places I wasn’t with my 3GS. So who knows. Maybe the 3G chip in there is better.
Notes
What you can see here is that, for this theme, the geolocation data has actually been put on a pin on a map …
This part of the WWDC keynote didn’t get enough attention. At first, I thought it was just an iPhone 4 feature. Then I tried it on my 3GS. Sure enough, after I recorded a video the little location indicator appeared up on the right-hand side of the status bar.
In iOS 4, videos have geolocation data.
It’s not Exif metadata, but still. I can see on a map the exact stretch of beach where I took that great video of me and my friends throwing the frisbee around on our weekend trip, and we can find our way back there again some time. Or whatever. Cue Scott Forstall crazy eyes.
Notes
Some Quick Thoughts RE: iPhone OS 4
As of June/July, jailbreaking is exclusively for thieves and hackers.
When Stevesy got fired up about iAds (“Have you ever seen an ad like this? Anything even close?”), I got the feeling we were seeing a little bit of what it must be like to work with the guy.
I think letting people have their own wallpapers could end badly. As soon as I saw that iPhone with the bubble-y wallpaper, I was instantly reminded of some of those godawful jailbroken themes. I think you’re going to see some butt-ugly iPhone home screens in the near future.
Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to flag messages in Mail and have those messages become starred in Gmail.
No word yet on one feature I was really hoping for — custom sounds for things other than the phone ringing. Have you ever been in a room with a few iPhone users when someone gets an email? It’s a nightmare — everyone thinks it’s them. It’s not as bad with text messages (since there are a few tones to choose from), but it’s still not great. (UPDATE: Lucas confirmed that this feature isn’t in 4.0. So that’s lame.)
Notes
Movies
I’m back.
OK, so I didn’t get as much time to myself this weekend as I hoped I would. I did manage to make something, though.
Movies is a little iPhone web app for making a list of movies you want to see. You can add movies to your list and tick a checkbox next to a movie’s title to remove it from your list. It’s not much, but in making it, I got to learn about dealing with client-side databases in JavaScript and storing those databases and other files locally with that fancy-schmancy HTML5 offline caching business. If you add it to your homescreen (which was how it was meant to be used), Movies will work offline.
The weekend was a bit of a disappointment, but don’t worry, I have some ideas in the pipeline.
Notes
Apple, Others To Have Standard Phone Charger
Ten top mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, have agreed to adopt the Micro-USB connector standard for smartphone chargers in the European Union. The shift, planned to begin next year, will allow smartphones from the companies, which control 90% of the market, to use the same charging cables.
I don’t know how Apple is going to make this happen. At first, I just thought “oh, well you’ll just have a 30-pin to Micro-USB power cable”, but then I remembered - wait, it has to be Micro-USB at the iPhone end. Apple’s not going to abandon the 30-pin dock because of the wealth of accessories that are made for it, but they have to put this Micro-USB port somewhere on the iPhone itself. They could always put both on the phone, but [a] that doesn’t sound very Apple-y (not enough DRM), and [b] Apple would then have to make two different phones (one for the EU, and one for the rest of the world).
Wait, here’s a solution: force everyone else to adopt the 30-pin dock connector. That sounds a bit more like Apple’s style. Burn.
But seriously, that could definitely work. And I think that the Dock is the best phone connector out there - extra pins for video output, audio input and playback control. Suck it, Micro-USB.
UPDATE - From Apple:
As we’ve said in the past, we are committed to the Apple dock connector and this initiative will not require us to change it. Today’s memorandum gives manufacturers the option to provide an adapter that connects with the universal charger.
Yes! Go adapters! F yeah!
