To be honest, I’m struggling to fall in love with it. I have an iPhone since Xmas 2008 and I love it to bits. I’ve since bought my first MacBook Pro and the love affair in terms of design and user experience continues to grow.
This however, I find difficult to get my head around. Maybe it will change when I eventually see one ‘in the flesh’ but from pictures and videos it looks a bit awkward and as someone said on Morning Ireland today like you had taken a rolling pin to an iPhone.
Aside from the lack of love at first sight, I am excited by the way it will probably change how we interact with the web and with each other. No, scratch that, it will change all that.
Here’s what I think…
It’s going to affect many industries and what they offer:
Telecoms: optional 3G but no voice support means new opportunities for mobile operators and good times for Skype
Web design and development: another new set of screen dimensions with full multi-touch and still no Flash support means HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript will be doing the tricks for now
Gaming: a large portable screen with compass and GPS – delicious opportunities for interactive immersive gaming
Advertising: no Flash support so traditional interactive banner ads won’t be appearing on an iPad near you – time to cook up the alternatives and embrace the new format
TV: if you haven’t been doing so already you’re going to need to start outputting your video clips using H.264 compression
Publishing: iBookstore is to books as iTunes is to songs – e-books are on the up
Those who decided to learn Objective C and got into iPhone/iPod app development will be delighted and continue to be hot property
It’s another foot in the grave for bulky sluggish netbooks
According to Mike Walsh’s Futuretainment, the original Sony Walkman was designed to have 2 headphone jacks. This makes me feel a little less guilty and shy about owning one of these.
Sharing is often a good experience. Sharing your tunes with someone can be heaps of fun. Take a magical mystery tour through someone’s iPod on shuffle and revel in the tales of why and when you both bought that same obscure album. Brilliant fun.
3.5mm splitter in Maplins: less than a fiver. Exposing a closet Gareth Brooks fan: priceless.
The Qik newsletter dropped into my inbox this morning with news of the release of the long-awaited Qik Videocamera iPhone app which brings video recording functionality to the iPhone 2G and 3G handsets.
Future improvements promised by Qik include video uploading and sharing from the app but for now it’s just simple recording video files transferable via your iPhone cable.
Here’s my first test from this morning, something funky seems to have happened during upload to Vimeo…
Couldn’t resist posting this booboo that’s currently sailing on www.o2.ie. Just another blip in one of THE most blip-riddled sites in the world. Ever. I’m surprised there wasn’t another Javascript-tastic window overlay piece of nuisance to greet me when I hit the site this morning trumpeting how I won’t be able to get my mits on an iPhone 3GS as an existing customer for another age. </minirant>
This evening while pottering around my apartment I stopped to take in a rather beautiful sunset. As I often do at this point, I thought about home on the west coast in Clare where I’ve seen some of the most breathtaking sunsets over distant Connemara & the Atlantic. Just as I was daydreaming my phone beeped. A message from my dad – no words, just that photo. I smiled & shed a little tear.
This kind of thing happens me quite a bit & I love it. Seeing a poster for a band & next thing you know they pop up on a random shuffle playlist on your iPod. Walking down a street thinking about someone & you suddenly bump into them.
I’m convinced it’s the universe putting things together, somehow linking up & sorting through the thoughts & energies, ebbs & flows of life. I love it. And I love my dad. Long may it continue
