One of my team posted in the comments... I'll reply to some of his posts.

> What do you think GOOGLE maps is, 1st party software?

No. Software provided by a multibillion dollar 3rd party developer with a seat on the Apple board. Not exactly a shining example of a rich and diverse ISV ecosystem.

The closed platform might mean that they are controlling what does go on so that the brand always has good reputation and consistency. The current state of the device suggests that 3rd party software will appear there. They've also previously shown that a closed platform works for them (although apparently gen 5 iPods have Apple sanctioned 3rd party games on them).

Yup. Don't deny their justifications. Just don't agree with them.

3G support? You've got to be kidding. Considering the availability and pricing of such networks, surely this is something that Apple would put in if it actually becomes viable.

Most US carriers have flat rate all you can eat 3G plans. At a very good price. As I said in original post this WILL change efore release.

They're also allowing the phone to preferentially transfer onto Wi-Fi networks - something which may be worth having for a business customer who spends the majority of their time in an area with such a network.

The irony here is that the Telcos and other device vendors are all saying no need to bother with WiFi as WWAN on flat rate is just as good. e.g. SPJam has no WiFi any more.

EDGE also seems to go a couple of hundred K - that is plenty for music and web-browsing.
Are there actually mobile carriers who have significant uptake on the streaming video thing? EDGE would be fine for youtube too.

There are lies, damn lies, statistics and then there are theoretical traffic speeds. As someone who has used EDGE (on my SP5 though only overseas) I can assure you it's not really up to much.

Maybe it's not the best for the technical elite, but I develop apps for WM and will be getting an iPhone ASAP because I've never come up with an app I want to develop aside from a usable replacement for mobile outlook and messaging - which I hope iPhone will deliver.

Urm... you will not be able to run it in NZ by the sounds of things.

The key feature for me will be whether I can choose the length of time to snooze a reminder for!! That's a big fuck you to the WM fellas by the way - that really pisses me off because I generally like to be reminded multiple times and determine subsequent reminders by snoozing from the first.

Windows Mobile 5 supports this.

Oh, and I don't expect to have to restart my iPhone on a regular basis because the drivers developed on the open platform for the vendor's technology are shit either!

Granted.

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