iPhone Hackers -- Stop the Whining

I find it interesting that Apple provides a rather impressive update in upgrade 1.1.1 and one group of users want to file a class-action suit against Apple because of what the update did to their hacked phone. Even more surprising, these individuals are upset even though Apple warned them that applying the update had a high probability of 1) wiping out any hacked applications added to the iPhone; and 2) possibly bricking the iPhone if it has been unlocked for use on other phone carriers' networks.

I cannot think of a single product that you can buy where you can make unauthorized alterations and get the product serviced under the company's original warranty. Why the hacker community thinks this should be possible is unreasonable. In similar fashion, I can think of many products where making unauthorized changes may damage the product, cause the product to not operate properly, or cause the product to stop working all together. For example, when you add a non-factory authorized component to an automobile and it damages the car, the user is responsible, not the auto company. If you buy a PC and overclock the CPU and it ends up damaging the chip, the user is responsible, not the manufacturer. If you make unauthorized changes to software and subsequent updates cause the software to not operate properly or become inoperable, it is the user responsible, not the software vendor.

Why then do iPhone hackers think that Apple has an obligation to protect their iPhones when they have made unauthorized changes to them? Using the same logic, you could argue that had your hacking damaged the phone, Apple should be liable in that case too. Using this flawed logic, the guy that was trying to unlock his iPhone and ended up frying the whole device should be able to get a replacement from Apple, no questions asked. What a ridiculous belief.

If you want your iPhone to operate properly, don't hack it. If you do, you do so at your own risk. Quit blaming Apple. If you don't like how Apple is treating you, go to a phone manufacturer that will cover your phone when you make unauthorized changes to it. Good luck finding one.

iPhone: Two-Month Check-up--Part VIII

This post covers my experiences with the the last of the standard applications included on the iPhone over the past two (now going on three) months: the iPod.

iPod: The iPhone was billed as the best iPod ever. In an absolute sense, I would agree. The touch interface, album flow, and controls all make it so. The iPod application is a multi-function multi-media capability that enables the user to listen to music, podcasts, video podcasts, recorded television programming, and movies--all in a small footprint. The iPod application has dedicated icons for artists, albums, audiobooks, compilations, composers, genres, playlists, podcasts, songs, and videos.

The artists, albums, compilations, composers, and songs selection all use the same "flick" and alphabet slider along the right side of the screen to choose a selection. In contrast, the audiobooks, genres, playlists, podcasts, and videos all use a more traditional menu/sub-menu/item selection scheme. However, both the videos also provide graphic images at the highest menu level, but does not really provide any advantages in selecting content.

The portrait mode provides icons for four of the preceding selection approaches at the bottom of the screen, along with a "more" button. A really nice feature is that which four buttons appear is entirely up to the user. The vertical screen provides an edit button that allows the user to drag icons to the bottom bar and to arrange those button as desired. It seems like a simple capability, but when the user rarely uses a selection mode, it is really nice to be able to relegate those modes to the "more" area.

With the exception of the video selection, when the iPhone is rotated to the landscape mode, the menu, regardless of type, transitions to the album flow interface. All album flow is by album cover (or a generic cover if the cover art is not available). Regardless of the content type selection, when rotated to show album flow, only music is shown. When a specific album is visible, tapping the "i" icon in the lower right corner will cause the album cover to "flip" revealing a list of the songs and related track times on that album along with the artist and album names. When rotated back to portrait mode the screen returns to the original menu listing before album flow was initiated.

When a video podcast has been loaded to the iPhone, it is available as both video and audio only. It shows in both menus. This is a nice feature if you want to "listen" to a video while in the car.

When a song or audio podcast is playing, a button for returning to the previous menus appears on the upper left, the current song/podcast and artist appear in a band across the middle top, and a button to flip between the current screen and a listing of songs (if an album is selected) appears on the upper right. The control buttons for starting, stopping, fast-forward, and fast-reverse appear at the bottom of the screen. The buttons are relatively small, but do not represent a problem in "normal" use. However, if you are driving and attempting to use the controls, it is very hit-or-miss. As a result, the button designs often force the user to take eyes off the road to manipulate. With the amount of real estate on the screen, it should be very easy to make the buttons larger to resolve this problem and improve safe operation of a car when attempting to use the buttons. (One could argue that you shouldn't be manipulating buttons when the car is in motion, but realistically, it is going to occur.)

In portrait mode, a tap on the top of the screen will cause a volume slider control, a button for repeating the same song or podcast, and a button to activate song or podcast shuffle to appear. These buttons are even smaller than the ones at the bottom of the screen and could also easily be enlarged for easier use (or improved mobility use).

When a song or audio podcast is playing and the iPhone is in the landscape mode, the screen shows album flow and if a podcast is playing, an image associated with the podcast shows (this podcast image does not show when flipping through songs). In the lower left is a small button to stop or start the audio. Again, for the screen space, the button is far too small. In the bottom right of the screen is the "i" icon that, when tapped, flips the album flow to the list in the same way the portrait mode upper right button operated. Unfortunately, the volume control, repeat, and shuffle buttons are not available in the landscape mode. Instead, when tapped in the middle of the screen, the image flips to the song/podcast list exactly the same as tapping the "i" icon. For whatever reason, Apple violated their own design mantra of consistency from screen-to-screen. the iPod function would be greatly improved if the flip button was kept in the upper right and the tap in the middle of the screen provided the volume, repeat, and shuffle controls. Why it was not designed this way makes no sense.

For videos, once selected, the controls operate in the same way as the YouTube application. Therefore, they will not be discussed further here.

All-in-all, the iPod application provides best-in-class functionality. The only complaint is that with a few adjustments--such as making the buttons larger--the iPod could be so much better.

In my next post, I'll finish up with my thoughts on features in the Set-up along with some summary impressions and a few additional things that I've noticed since I began the two-month review.

iPhone Sync Problems on Windows

Has anyone had the problem of duplicate calendar items when syncing with Windows? In have noticed the problem several times. It is definitely seen when a new version of iTunes is installed. My guess is the preferences get messed-up somehow. However, even when the preferences are reset correctly, the problem persists.

When I sync, I will get an error message that I have conflicting entries and iTunes then wants to take me through a process to resolve the conflicts. However, regardless of whether I have Outlook overlay iPhone or iPhone overlay Outlook, I end up with "phantom" additional entries on the iPhone Calendar application. The usual situation is when I have changed the title of an appointment by adding "DONE" at the front (so I keep a record of meetings I have actually attended), I will end up with a conflict message. When the message is resolved--overlaying either way--I will end up with the original appointment and the "DONE" appointment. If I then delete the incorrect appointment, the next time I sync, I will get the conflict again and the loop repeats.

I have also turned off syncing with Outlook's calendar and this does not seem to have an effect. I still get the conflicts and the duplicate issue.

I mention this because when you only have a few week's information in Calendar, it is no big deal. Having information dating back to July becomes a very big deal and causes a major drop in productivity.

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part VII

The last post started my two month experience with the bottom row of applications--the bread-and-butter functions upon which the iPhone has based its reputation--and I started with the Phone application. This post will focus on the second application, Mail.

Mail: Much hype was placed on the iPhone mail client, touted as the best available on a smartphone. Coming from the Treo world, I can state that the iPhone has raised the bar in many areas, yet in other areas, it has failed to leave the starting blocks. First, the good.

With the iPhone hardware, Mail has a great platform upon which to display rich HTML messages. The text is clear (even when "pinched" to magnify) with a bright contrast. Quite simply, the difference between the Treo 700p and the iPhone is a quantum leap in quality. Indeed, the improvement is such that Outlook on my PC has become a secondary reader and storage device (refer to my critique later in this post). Mail is displayed in full HTML formatting with embedded graphics, something that can't be matched on a Treo. With the large iPhone screen, one feels they are looking at a computer screen, not through a magnifying glass view seen on a Treo or other phone email client. Forward, reply, and reply-to-all is easy and intuitive, with the phone's contact list being artfully integrated. Where text is too small to read, "pinch" magnifying easily enlarges the text so that it can be read.

Other nice features that I have found useful include multiple mailboxes, the ease of creating messages, the specialized keyboard for quickly entering email addresses, the blue dot indicating unread messages, and the cute, animated trash can. Setting up and controlling email accounts is also easy in the Settings application.

Okay, now for the other shoe falling. First, as with virtually every iPhone application I've discussed, Apple needs to provide the landscape view for Mail. This is critical since HTML formatted messages can get very wide which means that the text can get very small when a full message is read into the application. When "pinch" magnified, it is a pain scrolling left-to-right in a long message. While not completely mitigated, providing mail view in the landscape orientation would reduce the hassle. When messages are too large (not sure how this is determined), only part of the message is shown and a button appears at the bottom of the message to download the remainder. Prior to downloading, the part of the message that is available for viewing is too wide for the portrait orientation. Again, enabling the landscape orientation in the Mail application would help eliminate this problem.

Second, it appears that even with the application downloading a full message, there are times when the message must be downloaded a second time (or third, or fourth) when attempting to subsequently view the message. I could find no clear pattern to when it must be subsequently downloaded, but it reduces the response time performance, increases load on the already marginal EDGE network, and causes problems when it is desired to keep a message on the phone after downloading it to a PC. (Since the message is no longer on the server, if the iPhone Mail application must re-download the message, the message can't be found. Since there are only infrequent messages that are desired to be kept, it is inefficient to keep all messages on the server.) The easiest solution would be for Apple's Mail application to download the message and keep it in memory until the user deletes it. The phone has the storage space. Use it to make the device more practical, save user wait time, save bandwidth, and save battery life.

Third, since getting the iPhone, I can go days without needing to use a PC (most desktop application work is done on my employer's PC). The ability to save documents for future reference would be a plus. This is a limitation that Web 2.0 applications cannot resolve for the iPhone. For example, if I get on a plane, it is the perfect time to review Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and issue discussed later), PDF, or pictures. If the documents are in an email message and they must be re-downloaded (as stated, it's a crap-shoot that they will be available), then they are of no use, otherwise productive time is lost, or the need to carry a laptop defeats the purpose of having a highly portable viewing device (such as the iPhone). In addition, there are times when a series of photos may be emailed and it would be desirable to save them in the Photos application. This would allow reviewing the emailed photos as a slide show or by "flicking" through the series. The current email limitation makes this impossible.

Fourth, develop a PowerPoint viewer. The Treo had one and the screen was not suitable for viewing slides. In contrast, the iPhone with its landscape orientation capability and "pinch" magnifying, is directly suitable for such viewing--but it is not available.

Fifth, there are numerous times when I receive emails with phone numbers and Web addresses. Sometimes they are hypertext and touching the link activates the phone or the Safari browser. That's great. However, sometimes those numbers and links do not show as hyperlinks. This is a perfect example of where a copy-and-paste capability would be advantageous. Alternatively, it would be desired to place the phone number and/or Web link into the phone contacts. Again, copy-and-paste would enable this.

But perhaps the biggest complaint that I have is the inability to "bulk" delete emails. While most of the time this is annoying, I had a spam attack a couple of weeks back where I received 50 to 120 emails at a time (as in every hour) over a period of two days. I don't care how easy the "swipe" and delete feature is or the edit, touch, and delete feature is, I want the ability to select a group of messages and delete them all at once. Come on Apple, even crude non-smartphone email clients have this capability.

While this is a rather long and extensive list of suggestions for improvement (or complaints depending upon how annoying they are), the base Mail application is a good start. It could just be so much better with just a few modifications.

In my next post, I will review the Safari browser application and my experience with it over the last two months. In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part VI

In the last post, I finished off the row three applications (with the exception of Settings to be covered at a later date). This post will look at the Phone application--theoretically the main reason for getting an iPhone in the first place.

Phone: First, let me state that historically, I have been a heavy cell phone user. However, as I have progressed through the Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700p, and now the iPhone, I find myself actually using the phone less and the email and browser functions more.

With that said, let me state that I have not seen the issues mentioned in the blogosphere and the press regarding shortcomings in the iPhone's phone application. Therefore, let me address the most frequent complaints. First, the earpiece in the iPhone provides clarity and volume comparable to most cell phones I've owned (the iPhone is my 11th across two carriers) and superior to some. At my age, I'm becoming a little hard of hearing and I still have no complaints.

Second, the speakerphone works adequately for most discussions as long as the ambient noise is not too great. Volume can be adjusted as needed with no complaints. In a car, with the phone on the seat and in speakerphone mode the speaker is adequate, if a little low. Based on people I've called, the microphone sound and volume allow the caller to be easily heard. However, my car has an auxiliary input for an iPod- type device and when this is connected, my caller's voice is routed through the car's speakers! With my volume controls on the steering wheel, I can adjust as needed, making this set-up superior to a headset for hands-free use. Kudos Apple. However, speaker volume cannot be too loud or it creates an echo for the called party.

Another nice touch can be found with an incoming call while using the iPod function: The iPod's volume fades while the phone's ring tone increases in volume. When answered, the caller's voice is routed through the speakerphone, earphones, or the car's auxiliary input. When the call is released, the iPod's volume fades back in, continuing at the point where it faded out. Very well done.

Now a quick evaluation of the other phone features. The dial pad is great and I have yet to screw up a dialed number. Perhaps heavy use of the virtual QWERTY keyboard's smaller keys makes it easier to hit the big keys on the dial pad. The Favorites are loaded with my most used numbers, making look-ups in the Contacts list rare. (Indeed, I use the Contacts for email addresses more often than phone numbers.) Once again, Favorites has an edit function that allows the user to reorder the list by tapping and dragging an entry. As stated in previous posts, the ability to order entries is great and is a feature that should be provided in all applications that have list information.

The Recent function is comparable to other phones. However, I like the function's ability to provide a location when you have been called from an unknown number. Again, nice touch Apple. My suggestions for improvement in this feature would be to 1) place some kind of notation on calls to indicate incoming or outgoing; and 2) indicate the length of the individual calls. As currently configured, call information is grouped by phone number giving date(s) and time(s) of call(s), but no call length information.

The Contacts feature is very well done with the ability to "flick," tap a specific starting letter, or scroll through the alphabet using the letters on the right of the screen. All are very easy to use. If I had one complaint on this feature, it would be the tendency to accidentally hit the alpha list because I drag or fail to lift my finger completely, causing the feature to jump to a letter I did not want.

Although I do not use Visual Voicemail that much, its design and ease of use is far superior to any other wireless phone I have seen. I am always getting the first numbers of a phone number and then having to rewind--most often to the beginning--on competitive phones. Not so with the iPhone. I can stop the message, make notes, continue the message, or rewind a little or a lot. It is without a doubt the easiest to use voice messaging system I have seen. However, I did notice that messages kept for long periods of time are automatically deleted. I suspect this is an AT&T feature as most phone companies delete messages that are two weeks old (or some pre-set length of time). It would be preferable that the user have complete control of deleting. Another nice touch would be the ability to sync Visual Voicemail in iTunes which would allow a message to be converted to an audio file. Doing so would allow the message to be deleted from the phone, but allow it to be saved and played on the computer (or even loaded back to the iPhone as a podcast).

I will summarize by stating that other features such as conferencing, moving to another application and back during a phone call, call hold, and phone muting all worked as advertised and I think they have all been well implemented. Apple's first foray into the cell phone business has been an outstanding job.

In my next post, I will review my experience with the iPhone Mail application. In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.

Walter W. Casey, Ph.D.
Sent from my iPhone

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part V

In my last post, I finished up the second row applications by giving my impressions of the Maps and Weather capabilities. This post will be concerned with the applications on the third row: Clock, Calculator, and Notes (the Settings will be covered in a separate post).

Clock: The clock application does a good job for which it is intended. I found it easy to add cities as long as the city is one listed in the built-in list. However, a nice to have would be the ability to look up virtually any city (or town) in the world using the Internet (or Maps) and be able to set up a clock for it. That said, there is a robust choice of locations to choose from that are built-in.

Adding a clock is easy. When there are multiple clocks, the user can use the edit button to rearrange the order of cities. Rearranging the order is easy. In the edit mode, simple tap with the finger, drag,and place in the order you want. Apple, why don't you make this capability available in all of your applications? It just doesn't make sense.

The format of the clocks are easy to read with analog on the left and digital on the right. All-in-all a good application. A few tweaks and it could be a great application.

Calculator: There is not a lot to say about this application. It's your basic calculator with a memory function. Since I often have the need to calculate in the billions, it has limited use for me. To make this a must have application, I would like to see a larger display register (say 100 billion?), and at a minimum basic financial functions. To be an appealing application for students, a square root function is a must. If Apple really wants to make this a differentiator, supply a menu where you can choose the type of calculator: basic, financial, scientific, trig, electronics, hex/octal, time, and conversions. Apple, make us want to use it.

With that said, the buttons are large enough and are easy to manipulate. It just doesn't do enough.

Notes: As you will see, I tend to be a little demanding of the Notes application simply because there are no alternatives on the device (I suppose you could use email, but as you will see in a future post, it shares most of the same shortcomings). For capturing brief thoughts, snippets of information, lists, and similar items, Notes is more than adequate. The auto-correction feature improves typing speed and output quality. However, it doesn't catch everything and a separate spell-check function would be a great plus. Similarly, typing with the device vertical almost forces the user to one finger entry as the keyboard is small. Two fingers are possible if you position the iPhone horizontally, but that capability is not available in the Notes application. Apple, enable landscape mode for this application so the user has access to a larger keyboard suitable for true two-finger manipulation.

My list of notes is getting quite large. It would be nice to have some type of organization capability such as folders to categorize, store, and retrieve notes. As the title is too long and the first words are the same (as in the title of these posts), it is difficult to differentiate among Notes without opening them. Again, if the application worked in the horizontal or landscape mode, longer titles would show in the index list.

Hopefully, at some point Apple will provide a simple word processor for the iPhone. Until then, the ability to upload a note to an application such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets or Zoho and then be able to manipulate the document in those Web-based applications would be a giant plus. The problem with Web-based applications is that disconnected from the Internet (such as on an airline flight), the applications do not work. If Notes were beefed-up with basic formatting and spell-check, it could serve as a good draft application if enabled to easily interface with a Web-based application. However, even if Notes had this capability, there is an issue that would still have to be addressed in the Safari browser. That will be discussed in a future post.

In my upcoming posts, I'll start tackling the bottom row applications-- Phone, Mail, Safari, & iPod. In the meantime, if you have additional comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.

Walter W. Casey, Ph.D.
Sent from my iPhone

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part IV

This is a continuing series of posts covering my two-month usage and impressions of the iPhone. My last review covered the YouTube and Stocks applications. This installment will review the last two applications on the second row, the Maps and Weather applications.

Maps: All-in-all, Google and Apple have done a great job collaborating on the Maps application. In a short summary, Maps is easy to use and is very good at getting the information you want back to the user in a form that can be useful. That is, enter a name, a city, and a state, and Maps will place a pin at every location that meets the criteria. Does it make mistakes? Yes, on occasion it will get confused. But for the most part, the information is reliable.

Maps will pull up countries, cities, states, roads, addresses, and business names in a general area. For frequent repeat searches, you can bookmark the information. This is useful when there are locations that you frequently use as starting or ending point on a trip.

Particularly nice touches are the routing button and the traffic button. The button in the bottom left of the screen expands the search area allowing the user to use the previous search result as a starting point or a destination (the button to the left of the search entry allows you to switch destination and start--another nice touch). Add to this feature the fact that you can "bookmark" frequently used locations which makes entry much faster. For example, I have bookmarked both my home address and my business address because these are frequent starting points. If I am generating directions and want the reverse route, I can press the button to the left of the entry area again and the application will reverse the start and end locations and the associated turn-by-turn directions. This is stuff I actually use!

The traffic button in the bottom right of the screen toggles an overlay of traffic conditions onto the displayed map. Outside of large metropolitan areas, this information can be sparse, but where it is available, it has proven to be a great help.

The map can be shown in three different views: Maps showing street maps of locations requested; satellite views which honestly I use primarily to impress my friends (but very useful when hiking); and the list view which is great when you need to follow turn-by-turn directions.

Maps is lightening fast using WiFi and provides decent response on EDGE. Again, as mentioned in previous application reviews, Apple needs to enable the ability to rotate the screen for viewing in landscape mode.

Weather: The weather application is a nice, east-to-set up, and easy-to-use feature. By entering a zip code or a city and state, the application will return a 7-day forecast giving general weather conditions (via weather icons such a sunny, partly cloudy, rain, etc.), high and low temperature, and the current temperature. The application allows tracking of multiple locations (how many, I'm not sure, but I currently track six locations.

Once again, my critique is with Yahoo! Not the application. If you would like more weather information, you can touch the "Y!" button in the bottom left corner. The problem is when the Web screen displays, it is once again the crappy mobile Yahoo! site used for the stocks application. The weather information on this site is actually less than that contained in the iPhone application! The remainder of information on the site is location-based, not weather-based. My recommendation to Apple and Yahoo! is to provide detailed weather information when "Y!" is touched. The most obvious missing element is radar. As a result, I have had to search the Internet for weather radar sites and bookmark them in Safari. They are more difficult to get to, but they are much more informative. As a result, I find little use for the "Y!" button.

I will be publishing my thoughts on the third row applications in the near future. In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.