Voice Activated

iBeer app for iPhone

Finally a real use for the accelerometer in the iPhone...

Qik for iPhone

Now this looks really promising. You know how one of the complaints some have about the iPhone is that there is no video camera. Well, aparently, the Qik app fixes that in a way.

If you have used the iPhone camera, you know that before you take a picture, you can move the screen around to get the shot you want. It looks like Qik captures that and turns it into a youtube type video, and posts it on their site. Its too late at night for me to mess with it right now, but Ill look into it tomorrow. Their site it Qik.com. Here is a demo video from the company

News about iPhone competitors

This morning, I decided to see what was up in the rest of the cell phone marketplace. What I found was very interesting. Instead of telling you what I found, I'll show you.

Go to Google and click on the 'News" tab. This will search google news. Now in the search box, type any word that has to do with a competing phone. Type "Blackberry," "Verizon," "Nokia," whatever you want. And you know what you will see in the search results? You guessed it...the iPhone.

Its amazing, anyone with a product in the mobile phone market must be compared to the iPhone. You are forced to compare your product to the iPhone. Do I think this is some kind of conspiracy by Apple's marketing machine? Naaaah. Its just that the iPhone has rapidly become the standard for mobile communication. If you want to play in this market, you must jump this hurdle.

iPhone 3G launch coverage - day 2

As documented earlier on this blog, I went out to go get a delicious breakfast sandwich at around 8:30 this morning. By coincedence, I happened by the Norwalk At&T store and guess what....another line up!! There were about a dozen or so people in line one hour before the store opens.

I have read that yesterday, At&T reps were telling customers who were too late to get their iPhone to come back tomorrow. I have also read that the tone in the reps' voices were not very assuring. AT&T has been taking pre-orders and have said the next shipment of iPhones should arrive in the stores in three to five days. The way it works is that you must pay for the phone at the time of pre-order, then return to the store to take delivery and go through activation. Not really convenient, but if you don't live near an Apple store, this sounds like the best way to get your hands on one quickly. The alternative would be to just wait a couple weeks and you should be able to walk right in and pick one up.

The miracle of typepad for iPhone 2.0

 

Just testing this out, really. Documenting my trip to The Sandwich Shoppe to get a bacon egg and cheese on a roll with coffee for $3.50.

I beleive this app similtaneouly blogs and twitters this post. Don't know.

edit: Wow..actually in the iPhone, TypePad will update the blog and simultaneously post only the headline on Twitter along with a link to the specific blog entry...super cool

iPhone 3G day one coverage part 4 - The Ride Home

I walk out of the mall. By the way, the whole thing took less than two hours. I go to the app store and download the Twitter client for iPhone 3G. As a big time Twitterer, this is the app, I was most excited about. Its about 500, so I am stuck in traffic on i-95 going back to Norwalk. I decide to do what they tell you never to do while driving...that is screw around with your phone. While crawling around, I set up my Twitter app and I notice that there is a feature that directly posts photos taken with your iPhone. I couldn't resist and did my first Twitter post while driving...photo attached as proof haha

You can see this if you follow me on Twitter ..my username is jwillis

iPhone 3G day one coverage part 3

I "work" through lunch, mostly talking iPhone and playing with one that a colleague of mine managed to get earlier that day. By the way, it was very nice and very fast. At about 2:30, my boss comes in my office  and says "Hey man, Im going to the Apple Store in Stamford to see if I can get me one of them iPhones, ya wanna come?" Well of course hehehe!.

So on the way, I explained all the problems involved in getting a phone on launch day. We pass an AT&T store. I run in and the rep tells me that there are "no more iPhones in Fairfield County." I asked about the Apple Store and she blankly told me "I don't know." I don't think that this was competitive jealousy, but more about the fact that Apple doesn't want anyone talking about their business.

So we go to the Apple store. Huge line. I didn't count, but it was big. It was broken into three sections and there were cops everywhere. We get in line. There were Apple reps giving people bottled water and Starbucks Frappaccinos. I thought this was a nice touch. They were extremely knowleagable and friendly. When asked if there were enough phones to go around for those in line, the rep said relax, don't worry, we have a ton of them, we'll be able to help out everyone. They had a couple other reps helping people who were switching cell phone vendors.

The mood was very posisitve. I have never been to an Apple product lauch before , but its just like you read about. Everybody shares stories about their Macs and iPods. I spent most of the time talking to a doctor, comparing the features of the iPhone with the Blackberry. Very interesting. By the way, as far as pricing goes, iPhone wins by a mile!

So after about an hour and a half, we get in the store. When you are first in line, and Apple rep comes up and chit chats with you and gets you reved up to buy your phone. He talked about his day, asked me about waiting in line, iPhone, earlier problems, etc.  Then another rep with a handheld computer comes up and asks what you want. He calls on his headset for another guy to bring out your phone while he gets your info for the purchase and for AT&T. This was shockingly easy and he did it all on his handheld, even the user agreement, credit check and everything. Amazing.

So you get your phone, pay right there on the guys handheld. He leads you over to the activation rep, introduces you and is off to help the next customer. The activation rep asks you to open your box. He plugs it in his Macbook Pro and before you know it, he hands it back to you and says "welcome to the family." Then you're done.

If you like, you can follow the play by play by adding me on Twitter....username jwillis

iPhone 3G day one coverage part 2

So all the stories build day by day until the eve of launch day. This is the way it always goes with Apple. Honestly, I wasn't too concerned about launch day this time. Afterall, this wasn't a new product, this was just a new version, so what's the big deal? Well, I knew this was going to be a big deal, but I didn't realize the magnatude until I saw the crest of the wave the night before launch. Many journalist have written that the demand for this iPhone would be high, but not earthshattering.

For some reason, I started to think that the interest in this phone would be earthshattering about 10:00 on the 10th. Some hard resluts started rolling out. First the new version of iTunes became available along with the App store. Now that something tangible had happened, the buzz on the net started going nuts. People started posting their plans to upgrade their phones....a lot of people. So I became intrugued and started to look into it.

On my way to work on Launch day, I decided to swing by the AT&T store in Norwalk. Norwalk is a far flung NYC suburb in Fairfield county Connecticut. A nice, fairly populated place, but the epicenter of tech savy it is not. I was shocked to see a line around the block. I spoke with the rep at the door and he said there were about 300 people in line and would not comment on the number of phones available. This was shocking to me to see so many people waiting for a simple product upgrade in a semi-podunk town.

When I got to the office, no topic other than the iPhone was discussed all morning. From the executives to the admins, everyone was focused on the iPhone. By about 10:00 I started hearing stories about th ephone being sold out in Greenwich and Stamford. A rash of hysterical news reports of massive iPhone shortages started occurring.

In the UK, five hours ahead of us, there were reports of shortages, activation problems, general chaos. The activation problems were a big deal in the US and Canada too. But honestly, there will never be a busier time for iPhone activation, so what do you expect!!??

iPhone 3G day one coverage part 1

I am a huge Apple fan and longtime user. I have Macs, have owned several iPods, got the first gen iPhone. I love it all, well mostly. I have been incredibly happy with my iPhone and have been avidly following the release of the 3G. Yeah, its a lot of hype, but to me, its fun to sift through.

The reviews of the first gen model have been overwhelmingly positive. There is a lot of pressure to make this new one right. Because of the iPhone hype we have been dealing with for over a year now, there has been a ton of skepticism in the tech and mainstream media about the new model. Fair enough. Still the review are good.

There are a lot of questions out there that will only be answered once these things spend the time in the hot little hands of real users. Particularly, is $75 bucks a month worth it? What the hell is the 3G network and does it really work as promised? What is this App store and what can it do for me? Mobileme? GPS? etc. etc.

Starting about 10pm on July 10th, I started diving into the hype. I have posted a play by play on Twitter (my username is jwillis, if you are interested in seeing this), and I will try to give a general overview of what I saw and expereinced here.