iOS 4

Updating my iPhone 3gs to iOS4. The jailbreak crashed weeks ago after updating Stanza. The phone died totally. I restore the iPhone to official os. With the multitasking and folders of iOS 4, less need to jailbreak. Will jailbreak if I am going abroad. Before that, I will stick with the official OS for a while. 

Pre-order Iphone 4? Good luck!

It is a mess. After the pre-order going alive, ATT server seems unable to handle it, and gave various error messages. Later, to make matter worse, an alleged privacy breach followed by server shutdown. It is up now, but still unable order the much anticipated iPhone 4.

Is this bad for Apple, or it does not matter?

Gizmodo used words like  a total disaster, well, they have reasons to be angry. 

Iphone Killer! Again?

Droid from Moto might be latest potential iphone killer. MG Siegler at TechCrunch thinks otherwise.

Android is trying to kill Windows Mobile, not the iPhone.

I like the analogy between IPhone vs. Android and  Mac vs. PC. It makes sense. I won't be surprised to see an Android boom, and won't be bothered by the failure of windows mobile.

Google voice on iphone

Google Voice provides a lot attractive service, and it is expanding its users though more extensive "invitation".

But, the iphone apps are blocked, both google official app and the third party GV Mobile. A lot of noises were generated during last days. It seems ATT denied the resposibility for this. Well, Apple does not any incentive to do this other than to please the carrier, ATT. The rhetorics from ATT might be a sign, we might be able to see it in apple store some time. If it does not happen, I will simply jailbreak the iphone.

The 2-year contracts with ATT sucks, but I can live with it. It is another thing if ATT/Apple continue to block good apps, and jailbreak is just one click button away anyway.

iphone app (again)

Happy with my iphone so far. Apps store provides plenty of free apps. Actually, the price is not bad, say, Sims 3 for 10. So far, I limit myself to free apps only.

Nimbuzz has push as an IM client.
Fstream provides online radio
Stanza has some Chinese catalog. It kills a lot of my time.
WebMD is nice to have.
Lyrical displays lyric while playing with iPod.
Textplus+ sends free text sms.

My iphone apps

• Tweetdeck
• LinkedIn
• IM+ (not able to work background)
• Zillow
• Yelp
• Pandora
• Stanza
• WebMD
• Starry Night (web application)
• Zoho
  
• TED (broken in OS 3.0)

Wanted List:

• Podcast client
• Painter (finger drawing)

Not Available yet

• Fidelity client apps
  

iphone 3gs

Just pre-ordered iphone 3gs from ATT.com with 35% bing cashback. It is a nice deal. But remember to disable the adblock if you are using firefox.

Just "bing" att wireless, and the att store will show up as a sponsor link with 35% bing cashback.

Unfortunately, upgrade not eligible for bing cashback, and only one iphone per address from online. The phone will be shipped after 6/19.

The App Store Hype Gets A Dose Of Reality

Getting rich fast and with no pain! It takes many forms with the exactly same message. Now, it is getting rich through iPhone apps. Sorry, reality check. The top 100 apps may have only tens of download a day, the revenue can hardly get you rich.

The App Store Hype Gets A Dose Of Reality

software entrepreneurs frequently use the “huge successes” of a market to gauge its potential, rather than looking at the average outcome. I think this may be true for some of them, just as some would-be actors venture to Hollywood with the expectation of simply jumping into the spotlight only to find themselves waiting tables at a diner. But I think that most developers understand the risks involved, and how unlikely it is that their app will hit the big time. The same can be said for most of the web entrepreneurs I meet. They may invest many months or years into their work, but they know that the vast majority of new online ventures are bound to fail.

So for all of you iPhone developers who are new to these somewhat discouraging facts of life, I’m sorry if I (and the media as a whole) have failed to underscore the low probability of striking it rich on the App Store. To those of you who keep building things anyway: rock on.

New Yorker Cover Art Is Painted With An Iphone

Via NYT:

Some people send text with their iPhones, and some play games. The artist Jorge Colombo created this week’s cover for The New Yorker with his.

RIP! OQO

It is a cool device,



but it just cannot survive, even when netbook is the new fad.



AppleInsider | Former Apple engineers at OQO call it quits

Jory Bell and Nick Merz left Apple in 2000 to form OQO after a struggle within Apple to develop prototype designs for a new micro-sized laptop that resembled a miniaturized Titanium PowerBook. By 2004, OQO had produced a tiny Windows XP device using the Transmeta Crusoe processor.

Since then, the company has shipped machines based on Microsoft's UMPC reference designs, which have found a small but ecstatic fan base. The company's sales have been unable to keep the operation afloat however, underlining Jobs' instincts that the market wouldn't support a tiny mobile handheld laptop even if it were a cool bit of engineering.

...
Apple has expressed no interest in developing a conventional netbook or UMPC-like device, but has signaled intentions to both deliver lower cost, WWAN enabled MacBooks later this year and to deliver a wider array of iPhone and iPod touch models, including a new tablet device many observers expect to see next year. The company is also actively hiring engineers.

Interesting observation from the above piece. The device did not win blessing from Steve Jobs and Apple is rumored/believed to deliver a 7-10" ipod touch later this year. Also, it seems they left for OQO before the iphone or itouch.

OQO is a PC with all the features I would like, but I don't want to buy one.
Iphone is a smart phone which lacks a lot of important features, but I want one.