Apple app store sucks (bis)

Russell Beattie: The iPhone Crapp Store?

From the descriptions of most of them [read: applications], I’d say there’s a ton of unmitigated crud flowing into the App Store right now. You don’t read about it because the iPhone is all shiny and new, but with all those apps arriving daily the quality has to be really varied. Really, really varied. And with a few of the App developers making BANK to the tun of a quarter million in like two months, it’s just going to get worse. The sort of press those successes generate may not be good for Apple at all in the long run, as it appears the land-rush is on, and the scammers, spammers and other dregs of online society are closing in fast and I have serious doubts if the iTunes Store is really made to keep up.

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Indoor positioning

Nokia creates Indoor Positioning:

Nokia’s keeping mum about exactly how the technology works, for now, but has said it’s based on wireless networks. The firm’s also said that the technology still needs a scalable solution to make it work and admitted that mapping the guts of each building “is quite a challenge”.

Based on wireless networks ? so you mean something like the Cisco Location Appliance but integrated on the device ? I would be curious to see how it works but it probably makes intensive used of the wireless network infrastructure…

Wikio sur iPhone

Pierre Chappaz demande sur Twitter ce qu’on pense d’une version beta de Wikio sur iPhone: http://wikio.alterclickr.com/m/

L’interface de Wikio sur iPhone est plutôt sympa, mais le problème rencontré par Wikio est le même que celui rencontré par tous les agrégateurs de contenu lorsqu’il s’agit de développer pour les mobiles (iPhone y compris), à savoir qu’ils ne peuvent contrôler que la source vers laquelle ils renvoient est adaptée à la navigation mobile. Ceci peut avoir un effet désagréable pour l’utilisateur (sur son portemonnaie et/ou son expérience utilisateur).
Une solution consisterait peut-être à insérer une page intermédiaire qui permettrait d’avertir l’utilisateur qu’il se dirige vers un site potentiellement non adapté à la navigation mobile et/ou proposer l’utilisation d’un transcodeur pour mobile (comme Mowser, Skweezer,…).

The dark side of Apple’s app store

The news is making some noise (PC World):

A new Podcasting application has been refused entry into the App Store because it “duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes,” […] The new application called Podcaster would allow users to download podcasts on their iPhone and listen to them at their leisure. The app also streams podcasts so you could listen to your favorite show anywhere you have an Internet or data connection.

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iPhone screenshot

I wanted to add a screenshot of my iPhone to my previous post. I thought I could find an app that would do the job for me, but it turns out that the solution is even easier as it is a built-in feature (from firmware 2.0 appartently):

All you have to do to take a screenshot is hold the home button and the power button at the same time, you can find the screenshot placed under your Photos application.

Via

iPhone feedbacks (cont’d)

So I finally had to use it because of a problem with my N95. I will fix it that but in the meantime I started using the iPhone as a phone… here are some feedbacks (pros and cons):

  • Synchronisation is not automatic and it needs cable. Once I overcame my problem with iTunes not recognizing my iPhone on my laptop I needed to set up the synchronisation between the device and my agenda/contact (hosted on Outlook). It worked but unfortunately it requires me to plug the device on my laptop and launch the synch manually. The setup with my N95 was just perfect, the synchronisation was done over Bluetooth and scheduled every hour. No need to think about and this how it should be imho.
  • SMS, it still takes me more time to write SMS than on my N95 but I love the way SMS are displayed, as a discussion (some application from Nokia Labs, “Conversation”, allowed me to do that but it was installed by default)
  • Browsing the web… is awesome! It definitively validates the use of web tablet. iPhone’s browser can handle any webpage but it is much more user friendly to use iPhone (or more generally mobile) adapted website!
  • Always connected device. Everything is done to use a maximum of datas online, no wonder the operators like the iPhone. The mapping application for instance will not let me download a set of them locally on my phone as far as I know. Meaning that when travelling abroad I will be forced to use datas network! Nokia Maps lets me upload the datas from my computer.
  • The app store is neat,… but I have not found one killing application… too much buzz there!

More later…

First weeks with an iPhone

I did it. Few weeks back I bought the iPhone 3G… I had to find out what this is all about and I have to admit that this is quite a nice device (and it comes from a Nokia fan :-).

I am still using my Nokia N95 as my main phone for three main reasons:

  • I have not yet found the time to synch my agenda/contacts with Outlook (for some reason my iPhone is not recognised by iTunes on my laptop)
  • Lack of connectivity while traveling. I use my laptop in the train to work and I like to be connected at the same time (through Bluetooth with my N95 as a 3G modem). I am not quite sure but my understanding is that I will not be able to do that with the iPhone.
  • Battery life sucks… we have heard lot of complaints about Nokia’s battery, but the iPhone one is worse than any other one

There are more and more iPhone/mobile dedicated website which makes the browsing experience on a mobile device really pleasant. Being able to browse normal website is nice (especially with the zoom in-out feature) but not perfect.

To complete the iPhone experience I should try to use it as my main phone and actually use all the phone features… will come back once this is done :-)

Related: What I’ve Missed About the S60 Experience

Location-Based vs. Context-Aware

(note to self)

Mobhappy: Location-Based vs. Context-Aware

Location is just a part of the context of each individual user

In some cases, such as mapping, there isn’t a great need for context-awareness instead of location, but in many LBS instances, being sensitive to context is much more important than simply location

Musings of a mobile marketer: Location Based Services – are they all missing the point?

I can’t help thinking that many of the LBS initiatives are missing the point

Twitter has no location API, yet it’s actually very effective for letting me connect with people who are local to me (and to organise meeting up via tweet-outs such as ‘I’m in Soho this afternoon, anyone want to hook up for coffee) as well as helping me have relationships with friends and colleagues further away. There are no maps involved. No location look-ups.