1. Five Years

    Beside my desk, there’s a drawer. In it are some gadgets: three Palm Pre devices, two iPods, an iPhone 3G and most treasured of all, my original iPhone. From time to time, I’ll take it out. Remind myself of its cold aluminium shell. The plastic antenna cover, the light far-less dense body compared with its seemingly-vacuum-packed 4S-branded successor. The screen that’s just a shade beneath the glass. The square switches in iOS that already feel so alien, the metal dock. The Voice Memos icon.1 The fact that the device doesn’t do folders for apps, and that for a while it didn’t even do apps.

    It’s five years to the day2 since the iPhone was first announced. Half a decade. All things considered, it’s truly amazing that for a piece of kit so seemingly old in its industry, the original iPhone still fascinates me. Over the last few weeks I’ve been wondering what it was that captivated me, when later in 2007 I was finally able to get my hands on one. All I can say is that, for a device that had so many spec-sheet shortcomings, the iPhone felt considered. It was the first mobile phone I owned that I actually loved to use. The compromise and expense of the iPhone made sense when you used it. All the small details, the finish, the joy at how it worked. How great it was to use a phone that had been tested, considered and used by the people who built it.

    In the months after its launch, I got to know my iPhone pretty well. I commuted 2 hours each way by train to the office, cursing the lack of 3G in the device on a rail route that to this day still doesn’t have 3G.

    The original iPhone was built on a different set of compromises to the competition - how it worked was (at least to begin with) more important than everything that it did. Say what you will about the empirically-lacking feature set: it all seems to have turned out pretty well.

    1. The screenshot is circa iPhone OS 2.0 alongside iOS 5.0.1 - as far back as my LittleSnapper library goes, alas. Thankfully, Florian has a grab of Apple.com back in January 2007 ↩

    2. You can grab the Macworld 2007 keynote from Apple’s Keynote feed ↩

    Monday January 9th, 2012

  2. ➶ How does the iPhone 4S measure-up in low light shooting?

    In short: it’s a massive improvement. Some great example images too. With my iPhone 4 contract coming to an end later this month, I’m considering selling the 4 and getting a 4S just for the camera.

    Friday November 11th, 2011

  3. ➶ Why is there no iPhone 5?

    Read this. Now. Terrifically smart piece from Horace Dediu.

    Wednesday October 5th, 2011

  4. Something I Wasn’t Sure I’d Say About Android

    For the first time since I picked up my iPad 2, I’ve started leaving it at home occasionally. It’s not because I dislike the device - far from it, it’s a terrific couch-top device that allows Steph and I to do almost everything we want without a laptop. It’s simply that it’s not a part of my daily schedule.

    Part of my schedule though, are Apps. When we’re not building them, we’re talking about them. Rarely a day goes by where we don’t discuss a new app that we’ve heard about or used, and as you’d expect I’ll fire up iTunes on my laptop to check out any iPad apps. From time to time I’ll pick up an app on the assumption of ‘oh, I’ll put it on the iPad when I get home’. But the problem is, that unlike my iPhone which docks and syncs on a daily basis, the iPad will typically go 2 or three days between sync (thank you iPad 2 battery) and in that time I’ll nearly always forget I even bought the app - at least until the iTunes Receipt comes through.

    A similar annoyance goes for iBooks, which tempts me with headers in the iTunes Store for deals on eBooks - only for me to be kicked off to the browser. At that point, my entire desire to pick up the book starts to be questioned: do I want the book enough to enter the PIN code on my phone, find (or install) iBooks on the phone, and type in the name of the book and finally, finally pick it up.1

    In the run up to Google I/O this year, I took some time to look at what was announced last year. The real kicker for me? Intents and the Google Marketplace. The Google Marketplace basically offers a feature Kindle users will be familiar with: you buy the app online, in the browser, and can install it directly to your phone.

    And you know what, by god I want that for the iPad that’s sat at home and the iPhone in my pocket. Honestly, for all this talk of Apple’s cloud stuff (and, guys, don’t get too far ahead of yourselves - I know it’s brilliant link-bait to talk up what Apple’s going to do but stay sane) I can honestly say for the first time: I wish Apple would implement something found in Android.

    1. Yes, a first world dilemma. ↩

    Thursday May 19th, 2011

  5. ➶ Privacy and incentives

    Smart piece from Marco Arment on the iPhone Location Log brouhaha.

    Monday April 25th, 2011

  6. ➶ How Color Already Blew It

    Spot-on analysis from Mike Rundle. There’s a tonne of smart stuff going on in Color, but like Path before it, the first run basically consists of a blank canvas. In a service that’s so smart yet hard to grok, that’s a deal-breaker.

    Thursday March 24th, 2011

  7. ➶ iOS Recipes - The Pragmatic Bookshelf

    If you’re looking for a handy iOS recipes book for your iPad and iPhone apps, this beta book (written by Matt Drance and Paul Warren) looks to be the ticket. I’ve picked up the eBook.

    Thursday March 10th, 2011

  8. ➶ "Verizon Deal May Expose iPhone Flaws"

    There’s a line-up of 2007-vintage broken record quips in this piece: the iPhone’s battery life is terrible, the keyboard terrible for email1 to name two. But Nocera falls into the trap of being surprised that Android has overtaken iOS marketshare:

    According to Gartner, in the second quarter of 2009, Android sales constituted 1.8 percent of all smartphones sold, compared with Apple’s 13 percent. By the second quarter of 2010 — just a year later — Android was actually outselling Apple, 17.2 percent to 14.2 percent. This must have been a shock to the system at Apple — it was being outdone by an uncool competitor.

    Given that Android is shipping on nearly all non-iOS smartphones out there from a plethora of manufacturers, and at every price point from free to iPhone-pricing, how is it surprising that the Android market share is increasing?

    As I’ve said before: comparing Android to iPhone sales is akin to comparing Ford to Ferrari sales.

    1. The biggest issue people seem to have with the iPhone keyboard is that they’re unwilling to place their trust in the auto-complete system to guess what they’re trying to say. ↩

    Saturday January 15th, 2011

  9. ➶ From iPhone to Windows Phone 7

    Justin Williams writes up a week with a new Samsung Focus, and the associated apps, Developer IDE and more.

    Sunday January 2nd, 2011

  10. ➶ This Race Is Far From Over

    A terrific look at the Palm Pre 2, iPhone 4 and Nexus S by Taylor Carrigan

    Thursday December 30th, 2010