macademic

After diligently searching the internet and doing everything I could think of, the problem has been solved.

After having used the ringtones hack for loading non iTunes bought ringtones onto my iPhone, I was happy to see that iTunes was supposed to add a Ringtones item under my library in version 7.4.1.  Well, despite the fact that I have iTunes 7.4.1, I do not have the option to see my ringtones.  It simply isn’t there.  While many of you might suggest that I go and turn on that item in the preferences, I’d like to reiterate:  The ringtones option is simply not there.  It works just fine on my wife’s machine, but even after deleting my previous 7.4.1 installation and reinstalling it, nada.  I haven’t read any other instances of this phenomenon.

Weird.  Why is it that my machine simply will not show me my ringtones?

When we’re talking about consumer electronics, a ubiquitous term which might accompany a particular product is known as the killer app; an application which makes that device a must have for its type. With the iPhone it could successfully be argued that the killer app is the UI itself. That it is so radically superior to not only the look, but also the ease of use and accessibility of the iPhone’s functions when compared to other cell phone interfaces (smart phone or standard cell), that makes the phone a superior product. The interface simply makes it a better choice. However, I’m talking about the “other stuff.” Functionality, third party or not, which is external to the UI itself which allows for a unique and useful extension to what the iPhone is currently capable of.

Unlike the vast majority of cell phones which never get an upgrade (software or firmware), Apple has in place, via iTunes, the infrastructure to keep the majority of phones up to date, which gives them the ability to add, edit, or enhance the funtionality of the iPhone in ways that other cell carriers or manufacturers have never imagined. This provides them with a unique advantage by enhancing the operation of the phone, sometimes significantly, at intervals, set or not, and to fix any bugs or otherwise shady design decisions (like the insistence on the iPhone making a user press the Home key twice before being able to see the Home screen when waking the phone from sleep), allowing users to stay current via software (or firmware) rather than having to upgrade hardware, as has always been the case with cell phones. Although future revisions of the iPhone will certainly have more hardware features like GPS than the current iteration, it can still be upgraded significantly with more or better functioning software allowing the phone, even “old” ones to stay competitive in the market.

Since the underlying OS of the iPhone is OS X, the possibilities for software expansion are as endless as what I might be able to do on my Mac (well, almost). So with that in mind, what is the iPhone’s killer app? Some would point out obvious oversights, such as not being able to use music as a ringtone, but those kind of enhancements are both obvious and not really killer apps.

The killer app is something that would make the phone do something (else) that no other phone could do: stream music wirelessly over a LAN via AirTunes. Using the iPhone as both a jukebox and remote control all-in-one would really be the hit of a party. No more going back to your Mac or your CD player just to change the album or track while in the midst of a conversation with friends. Simply get your phone out of your pocket and go to the next track while the music comes out of one, or more, stereos via an Airport Express. Not only will you not miss a beat in the conversation, but you’ll also wow the hell out of anyone there (as if the iPhone can’t do that already).

Now although wireless streaming may be a battery hog (I don’t really know, but I’m assumming that constant traffic the size of music files being uploaded from the iPhone would take a lot of energy), I would bet that Apple, given time and more efficient, longer lasting batteries, would be able to pull this off. And I can see multiple uses for it.

In my classes, I regularly play music (as well as other sound files) for my students so that we might discuss them. Having to make “mix” CDs is a pain (not to mention that they get lost from one semester to the next), and I have to cognitively leave the conversation to go and change the music. With the iPhone with AirTunes, it would be as simple as getting my phone and going to the next track in a playlist. It’s useful, simple, elegant, and super cool.
If you have any ideas for an iPhone killer app, leave them in the comments. I look forward to reading what you all think the iPhone is capable of.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Apple

The iPhone is a technological marvel. It has enabled me to do things that I have never done on a cell phone before. Things like checking and writing email on my Razr were foriegn to me because of the hoops one has to jump through in order to get it working. The internet was a joke, and even something as prevalent as SMS text messaging was only used in extreme emergencies (I’ll be the first to admit that emergencies are relative) because of my complete unwillingness to type “222-2-555-555-_-6-33-_-555-2-8-33-777″ so that I can have a means of communicating without my head wanting to explode. However, despite the glorious technological feat that is the iPhone, as was written by David Pogue in his initial review (registration required) of the iPhone, “It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.” And he’s right. Many of the things that the iPhone doesn’t do are being exacerbated with people yelling at the top of their lungs “but my Treo 65gh83l1-x does that now”, and for the most part, I laugh. These people are expecting something that the iPhone doesn’t seem to be striving for, actively comparing it to so-called smart phones and making feature for feature comparisons. Before I got my hands on an iPhone, I might have fallen into the same trap (one should definitely note that 99.9999% of the people yelling about its lack of features haven’t actually seen one in the wild, much less used one). But after actively using my iPhone for a few days (I actually caught myself using the iPhone to browse the net when I had my MacBook Pro C2D sitting not 12 inches from me, and as good as the net experience is with the iPhone, it cannot compare to a fully fledged computer and browser), I can safely say that, despite its smart phone trappings like email and the internet, the purpose of this phone isn’t to necessarily replace smart phones in the market, but to offer a very well thought out alternative to those who would never have even considered a smart phone. I’m one of those people.

Engadget, during their review of the iPhone, lambasted the iPhone as having substandard mobile emailing capabilities. Although from Block’s perspective, he may be correct, I submit that his perspective isn’t necessarily the best angle from which to view the iPhone’s abilities. In his review Block writes:

There’s no other way than to come out and say it: we are extremely disappointed in the iPhone’s email app. So much so, in fact, that despite the keyboard and the rest of the things the iPhone lacks in the features department, its mail support may be the largest factor in killing its status as a productivity device.

His perspective is from those who have grown accustomed to smart phone capabilities which have been in development for years with those who need constant access to email while on the go in mind. The iPhone needs to be looked at from the casual user’s perspective, and although he does note that it is “just fine” for casual emailers, he so analyzes Mail from the point of view of a long-time mobile handheld power user as to make Mail sound somehow crippled or unuseable for anyone.
Our real lives are becoming more intertwined with our digital lives every day. As a university instructor and blogger, I receive my fair share of emails daily. Oftentimes it’s difficult to have access to email when on the road via wi-fi (as in there are tons of wi-fi networks, but few of them are free), and having access to email is paramount. For lack of a better phrase, the iPhone is built “for the rest of us,” making it easy for everyday people to have anywhere access to their digital communication network. What I have on my couch, I can now have anywhere. And, I would submit, it is users like me for whom Apple has designed the iPhone. You know, the kind who want the convenience of being able to easily send and receive email on the road. Most of us don’t have an intricate email workflow at home (or work) on our main computers, much less what we might need on our cell phone. Apple, I think, understands that. And for us, the iPhone is the perfect solution; email is easy to setup and use, and most of us can access it in a straightforward manner without having to use the horrendous UIs which are available on all other cell phones. As is with most of the iPhone, it’s not what the phone can do in comparison to other phones, it’s how it, and hence its users, does the things that it can do. And with the iPhone, email is cake. No, Mail isn’t perfect (why can I not delete the entire trash can manually rather than having to go message by message?), but for the vast majority of those who might be interested in an iPhone, it does a great job, and fills a need that no other phone has, giving millions (well, as of now it’s but hundreds of thousands, but the point remains the same) of people something we have never had: straightforward and reliable email on the road. I’ve already used Mail more in the last week on my phone than I have on a phone ever. Not because it’s a uber-robust and fully feature-packed implementation, but because I can, something no other phone has done for me.

Engadget describes the phone as a potential productivity device, and reviews it from that point of view, yet Engadget has very narrowly defined “productivity” as a largely exclusive activity rather than an inclusive one, as if being productive only meant sifting through dozens of emails an hour, excluding the vast majority of those who use email. I am plenty productive with my iPhone. In fact, the single largest deficiency of the iPhone according to Engadget, Mail, has enabled me to be more productive, replying to important email when, just 7 days ago (despite buying my iPhone on iDay, I wasn’t able to get it activated until 43 hours and 15 minutes after I plugged it in to iTunes), I would have had to wait hours in order to respond to time sensitive email. If that isn’t a huge boost in productivity, nothing is. No, I’m not sifting through mountains of email on a daily basis, as a traveling businessman might, but that doesn’t mean that the iPhone has not enabled me to be more productive than ever in regards to using email. The current implementation of Mail is not necessarily for people who need email on their cell phone, but for those who want it (although I’m sure that many who need email will do just fine with the iPhone as well), and don’t want to fuss about.

No, the iPhone isn’t perfect. I would very much like to have an option to set music as a ringtone (even if it’s only to shut anti-fanboys up), and I would certainly like to be able to manage my phone’s media content manually rather than being compelled to sync with a playlist. But despite its deficiencies, the iPhone has stepped up and filled a void for consumers who want an easy way to carry their digital lives around, whether it be music, movies, email, or YouTube. My Razr couldn’t do that, it was just a phone to me despite having some of those capabilities. The iPhone isn’t merely a “productivity” device, it has invented a whole new category of cell phone that offers advanced functionality (even if some of that functionality is “limited” according to some) to those who want such functionaility, but areen’t willing to go down the Windows Mobile (read: complicated) road, or suffer with existing cell phone UI designs (even more complicated, and if you want to talk about limited abilities, have you ever tried browsing the web from a Razr?). Apple, with the iPhone, has invented a new category of cell phone consumers and filled needs and wants we didn’t even know we had until the iPhone came along, and that’s a good product.
Technorati Tags: iPhone, Mail

This phone is absolutely a marvel of technology. It’s beautiful, sleek, and easy as all get out to use.  The phone and contacts functionality is far beyond anything else that I have ever used.  I found myself using email today while out and about, something I’ve never done with my RAZR, despite it having email functionality, simply because it was so darn easy.  The software is truly awesome, and the user experience is amazing. 

That said, there are two things which really bother me about the iPhone.  One was a design decision which may or may not be fixed, and involves the phone, when woken from sleep and is unlocked, automatically returns to whatever a user was doing last before putting the phone to sleep.  For instance, if a user was drilled deep in the settings reading the legal page, and puts the phone to sleep, when we return to the phone, it will immediately take us back to that legal page, rather than to the home screen so that I can choose what I would like to do from there.  Now although there is certainly merit to this type of functionality, I (and apparently John Gruber in his post “Steven Johnson:  How to Make the iPhone More of a Phone”) would prefer to have the phone, when woken up, to bring me to the home screen.  I find it quite annoying when I want to make a call, to have to first see my email or Safari (or whatever I was doing last), tap the home button, and then navigate to the phone functionality.  This seems like at least 50 or more extra (unnecessary) taps per day, which is kind of a drag.  Even if Apple doesn’t change this feature as the default, it should at least be a customizable option, perhaps allowing users to select their own starting point (even if it’s not the home screen).

The second major flaw I have seen seems to be simply stupid decision making on Apple’s part:  the lack of manual management of videos/ music/ photos with the iPhone.  I have never liked the idea of syncing with iTunes, and with the iPhone I’m forced to sync.  It simply will not allow manual drag and drop additions to my iPhone, a function that I have always used with my iPod since I first got one.  Now although dragging content to a particular playlist is no more difficult than dragging said content to the phone itself, there are some major drawbacks to having to use playlists.  Firstly, many people keep their content scattered about on various computers.  Some people use their iPods at home and at work, or with a laptop and desktop.  Syncing-only loading of iPhones means that users must have all of their content on both computers or iTunes will simply delete content on the phone.  For instance, if I have some music that is on a work computer or laptop that is not on my home computer, when I sync my iPhone to my home computer, all of the music which is on my work computer will be deleted from the phone and vice versa.  In a world where many of us use multiple different computers, this is simply bad decision making.  Perhaps it was in an effort to help curb piracy, but even so, this inconveniences multiple users who simply want to load legally attained music that is stored on more than one computer.  Secondly, not all of us use compressed formats in iTunes.  Most of my music is in Apple Lossless format (whether they be ripped CDs or albums downloaded in FLAC from MP3Sparks.com and converted to Apple Lossless with the very excellent Max), and with the iPhone having a paltry 8GB of storage, Apple Lossless is definitely NOT the way to go.  In order to compensate for the phone’s lack of storage, I have to compress these files to a more space efficient format (I use AAC @ 256).  With my iPod, I would make the conversion, drag those files to my iPod, delete them from iTunes and have only the Apple Lossless tracks in iTunes saving valuable room on my Macbook Pro.  Syncing, however, demands that I keep those files in iTunes along with my already large Apple Lossless files, lest they be deleted from the iPhone upon the next sync.  So now, much of my library is made up of redundant tracks, wasting about 7 GB on my hard disk, and really screwing up my album listening experience when using iTunes.  Now rather than simply choosing an album and playing it, I have to set up a playlist, move only the Apple Lossless files to that playlist (or set up a smart playlist which would achieve the same thing) just to play an album without hearing each song twice.  Not cool.  Manual management of media as an option needs to be reinstated, period.  Perhaps there is a work around in the form of a hacked playlist file (making the sync process think that particular files are still present in iTunes even though they have been deleted), but Apple shouldn’t necessitate hacks just to have basic functionality that is available in every iPod, and has been for quite some time.

As I use the iPhone, I’ll definitely be posting more thoughts, both good and bad (and definitely as in for sure, not as in I will definitely post a review of Flock).

From the point of view of having waited 43.25 hours for my iPhone activation, I definitely understand the frustration about the iPhone activation delays.  It’s completely unacceptable, and should not have happened.  All I can say is hang in there.  The iPhone is truly an amazing gadget, and when you’re finally playing with it (whenever that may be), you will quickly forget about the seemingly endless nightmare that is activation.

After 43+ hours, my iPhone is finally up and running. What really made my day was when I activated my wife’s phone, it took less than 1 minute. Now that’s the Apple experience I expect.

For your information, I’m typing thos entry from my iPhone. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it sure beats the hell out of trying to type messages from a numbered keypad.

How are others doing with their activation nightmares?

After a short 43 and 15 minute wait, my iPhone is live.  And I have 1 initial complaint:  why the fuck do I have to sync my music?  Why can I not manually drag music like I can on an iPod?  That is a MAJOR flaw in my book.

Whose fucking fault is this?  AT&T says that everything is set up on their end, and that Apple is at fault.  AT&T says that everything is set up and ready to go on their end, and that I’ve been activated.  That nothing on my account is preventing my phone from working.  In fact, I’m being charged already in their system.  Apple says that this is an AT&T problem, and that activation is taking a long time and that there is nothing on their end that can be done.  So the story that I’m getting is that no one can do anything, and that all I can do is wait.  I’m so fucking fed up that if I wouldn’t be yet further screwed in the form of a 10% restocking fee (or $59.99) by returning my phone, I would do it.  But I’m not going to pay $60 for having my time (3 hours in line, and nearly 2 full days just waiting to use the fucking thing) wasted.  Fuck that.

I just want to know where the problem lies, so that I can call and cuss out the right people.  I’m generally a pretty laid back guy, but this is fucking ridiculous, and there is no end to my waiting in sight.  In fact, the Apple rep that I most recently spoke with suspects that many of us are going to have to wait far longer than the quoted 48 hours for our phones to work.  I haven’t even received a confirmation number so that I can talk to an activation specialist. And AT&T reps won’t transfer me to an activation specialist because they say that one MUST have a confirmation number in order to get anywhere in that department.  And, unfortunately, no one will tell me how to cancel the activation so that I can try anew.

I’m simply fed up, and want some fucking recourse.  Unfortunately, each party is passing the blame onto the other, and getting any real straight answers is fucking impossible.

All I know is that the iPhone better be one amazing fucking telephone, because all of this waiting and frustration is a major buzz-kill.  I’m no longer excited to use it, I just want to make a fucking telephone call. 

As much as I love Apple, I’m very hesitant to absolve them of blame for the current iPhone activation nightmare that many of us are experiencing.  Were there a real problem on AT&T’s end, nothing should work.  What I mean is, I switched the SIM card from my patiently waiting iPhone into my wife’s phone, and voila I had a working phone which registered as mine, complete with number, awaiting text messages, etc.  It’s the phone, not the service, and I can’t imagine that Apple, as controlling as they are with their hardware, would leave it up to AT&T to make their wonder device work, especially the non-cell phone related parts such as wi-fi and the iPod.   

In all honesty, I don’t really care where the problem is anymore.  All I want is for my phone to work so that I can, hopefully, activate my wife’s phone much quicker than mine has taken.  I’m tired of calling customer support (despite their general cheeriness), I’m tired of being asked the same questions (which are prescribed from upon high I’m sure), and I’m tired of hearing that there is nothing that can be done.  But, even if it’s only to make sure that the process is indeed still moving, I’ll keep calling.