Tim Haines popped me a good link on MSN...

http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2007/01/iphone-love-and-hate/

In summary

1. iPhone will be carrier locked to Cingular- by the sounds of things not just a simple SIM lock either. No surprises there, but it means Rod probably can't have one even if he wants one.... Apple says it's to do with the additional GSM extensions required... I'm inclined to say its a marketing thing. Those features could surely be disabled.

2. No 3rd party support. Apple are quite clear that they will not allow third party code to run on these devices. Thus, it's another closed game for Apple. While we see all these great web 2.0 platforms with APIs that let you mash them up etc... Apple builds a non extensible iPhone. Apple LOSES! I defn. don't want one now. What a piece of shit. This sort of 'closed shop' behaviour is what everyone accuses MSFT of being. What a load of shit. I think Zune is the only REALLY closed platform MSFT has done in the last 5 years that I can think of off the top of my head.

Also links to some more posts from

Dave Winer

“This is what I was trying to say yesterday. Carrying Apple's product announcements as if they were news is probably not good for reporters and bloggers, ethically. We're making a big mistake if we accept the news about iPhone, for example, only from Apple. There are other companies already in this market. How about taking a close look at their products when Apple asks us to look at the category? When Apple boasts of patents, as if that were a feature for users (imho it's a feature that's actually against them), this begs for a closer look as well.“

and Matt Ingram which is really SCATHING

Well, a number of people have blogged about the iPhone over the past few days... I've not had a bundle of time but here are some of my thoughts.

1. They are going to have to do a REALLY kick ass job with Touchscreen for me to like it. I've tried phones withiout buttons plenty of times both MSFT and other devices. I hate them with a vengence.

2. Only EDGE!?! Bleh! THis rules out streaming video to take advantage of the screen and over the air music purchases too. I GUARANTEE this will change prior to launch.

3. As to be expected from Apple the UI looks sexy as sin!

4. The webbrowsing looks evolutionary rather than revolutionary. We'll see just what sort of a job they end up doing.

5. The google maps doesn't look as good as the new MSN Mobile Live Search IMHO/

6. The user interaction design. Is, as per usual up to Apples high standard... let's just see if they can pull off a good touch screen.

7. God damn it's expensive!

THose are my thoughts... as I said... gonna be hard to get me off my candy bar smartphone... but we'll see.

Thought I might just a address a few of Rods points while I am at it.

“The Microsoft Mobile team must be performing hari-kiri. They have had 5+ years and did not make it about the software. They wasted Microsoft’s key advantage. They could have easily done a soft keyboard but did not innovate. The mobile software was just a scaled down PC interface that doesn’t really work. Compare Pocket Outlook to the Blackberry Message Stream interface. Microsoft squandered the opportunity to make it about Software. Heads will roll. BillG must be pissed.“

Urm... Windows Mobile has always been about the platform. It is a generic platform that supports a huge array of devices. The range of different form factors trumps even Symbian. More importantly the platform is all about enabling developers. The reason that enterprise developers especially prefer Windows Mobile over Palm/Symbian etc... is that it is a doddle to develop software for. The platform is VERY welll supported across the whole gamut of tools, from core driver level stuff (allowing easy addition of peripherals at the OS level- Symbol, HHP, Navman) through to simple developer tools (eVB, .NET Compact Framework). It is trivial for someone to pick up the Windows Mobile platform and tailor it to their needs be they a multinational hardware vendor or a small ISV.

“OSX as a multitasking Interface should suit mobile networks as it allows background downloading.“

This is a complete marketechture red herring. People have been doing multitasking for ages. I can happily surf the web on my Windows Mobile device while mail is downloading. Same with Palm.

"They have eliminated a device. The iPhone really is an iPod + Phone. With the iTunes infrastructure there are many opportunities for monetizing over the air downloads. This will guarantee carrier support.“

Urm... I use Plays for Sure support on my windows mobile phone. It syncs really nicely with my Media Center PC pulling down not only audio but also video. And... the fact that it's build on a broad and simple to develop for platform means that I can have rich additional content such as DRM'd eBooks and Audio books supported in unique ways as well. iPhone only eliminates the iPod in so far as one might insist on having an iPod.

“The iPhone is a compelling wireless Internet device. The inclusion of Safari is compelling.“

No it's not. Unless they add decent WWAN support (at least UMTS) it's a MOST uncompelling wireless internet device. The inclusion of Safari has great potential... but again... hamstrung by bandwidth.

As you *should* know.... it is important to be careful with threads when programming a WinForms UI... specifically accessing controls should be done on the single UI thread.

This post gives a load of great detail.

http://weblogs.asp.net/justin_rogers/articles/126345.aspx

Windows Live Search

http://wls.live.com/

Available in both a J2ME and native Windows Mobile version.

Gizmodo says that it 0wns the Google variant.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/smartphones/windows-live-search-for-mobile-vs-google-maps-mobile-218467.php

Check out this documentary about a Childrens Bible Camp in the US

Full thing on bit torrent @ www.mininova.org

and quite a good spoof trailer on YouTube too.

http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/software.htm Great that it's released now rather than further towards launch. My Zune should be at the office waiting for me to collect... I shall blog my experiences later.

So I am running Vista Ultimate at home with Dual Tuners and all that Jazz.

I was recently asked to post a bit about how I feed my PC with TV Shows.

I use Azureus to download shows via BitTorrent.

In order to queue up the shows I use an RSS Feed scanner

I have tried a few but my fave is http://azureus.sourceforge.net/plugin_details.php?plugin=scanerss

Then for the feeds I prefer to use the prefiltered feeds.

I just have a single feed setup.... from here: http://www.tvrss.net/feeds/
I just use the unique feed.

Then I setup filters inside ScaneRSS. This simply watches for shows I like (Boston Lega, Prison Break etc....) and adds them to my queue when they appear in the feed.

 http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/

October 2 to 5 2007 in sunny Los Angeles.....

Set to be a pretty big PDC.... I'm picking more of an 03 (really early look at stuff) than an 05 PDC...

Should be a hoot... my red shoes and I shall be there... not staying in little Guatamala this time though!

Penn and Teller do the bible...

http://richarddawkins.net/article,240,Penn-Jillette-Interviews-Richard-Dawkins,Penn-Radio

Hiya Guys,

Recently the feedback board featured an interesting ‘suggestion’ around the new jukebox. Specifically:

‘A lot of the music on the new Jukebox is dance music and not really suited to working out.’

To which the Bodyworks team replied, in part:

‘The developer is increasing the number of songs and the ‘house’ music is being removed.’

Frankly I wasn’t too happy to read this. Music is a matter of taste, yet, where your correspondent sets out as an objective fact that ‘dance music [is] not really suited to working out’ your team seem to be in total agreement. Would a better reply not have been something like:

‘At Bodyworks our membership comprises a broad cross section of the community, we try to provide a broad cross section of music to suit all tastes. We’re adding songs regularly so keep checking back for new tracks.’

Your explicit agreement makes a mockery of your whole feedback system.  The customer is *not* always right- in this case the point is at the very least moot.

But, let’s take for a moment their statement that ‘dance music [is] not really suited to working out’ objectively and look towards some evidence.

Maybe we could start by consulting the various group training instructors at Bodyworks, experts surely in workout music selection. Based on my regular visits to the gym I would say that ‘dance’ music is a very popular format for their choreographies- disproportionately so if you compared their track listings against say the popular music charts. We’re not merely talking about more recent ‘house/trance/techno/…’ music. These guys use dance music from right through the past 20 odd years- remember the 80’s? Jazzercise? 80’s dance music?

But really I don’t even think that the argument as to what is good and what is not should really raise its head here.  Everybody is going to have different tastes- the whole purpose of the jukebox is to, as best one can, attempt to cater to all of those disparate tastes.

Maybe your correspondent was referring more generally to modern dance music, the electronic varieties (Trance, House, Breakbeat, Electro, Techno, Drum and Bass). Maybe they don’t like it? It’s certainly not to everybody’s taste. Maybe your team don’t like it? Ditto.  But, your capitulation really does make a mockery of the whole feedback system. Not all feedback is going to be right. On receipt and analysis you should be considering the, quite obvious, thoughts and opinions of other members. In this case you quite clearly haven’t.

If you must have your ‘perfect’ workout music then you should take an MP3 player with a decent pair of in-ear (noise blocking headphones). If you choose not to and instead rely on the jukebox then you should be prepared to compromise and show a degree of communal tolerance- others may have a different idea as to just what really suits their workout.

Anyway. Rant over. I do love my gym a whole heap. As someone who travels overseas a lot (the IHRSA membership is a real bonus) I still love coming back to my own gym and still sits at the top of my favourites list if only because of the whole sense of community. Let’s not spoil that community with this sort of feedback and response.

Regards

Chris