Recent Comments:
WowWee's Rovio gets reviewed: it's one awesome robotic sentry {Engadget}
Oct 5th 2008 7:25PM It needs frickin' laser beams on it's head!
First Looks: BeeJive for iPhone {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 30th 2008 10:11PM Unfortunately the iPhone is attracting people for whom even 99c apps seem to constitute a financial hardship despite being able to apparently afford the phone (and monthly service) to begin with.
Go figure.
With the typical Blackberry owner being the more mature/business crowd, actually paying a few dollars for an application isn't the end of the world.
First Looks: BeeJive for iPhone {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 30th 2008 10:09PM Push simply provides the application developers the ability to alert you on your phone (directly via the application, not via the SMS or email alert band-aids currently in place) that the application wants your attention. In the case of IM applications, that alert would indicate you've received a message. Currently there's no way to accomplish this untill Apple opens up the push service, hence the SMS or email band-aid alert situation in the meantime.
As for always on, it's pretty simple, yet people are apparently still failing to comprehend it. Yeah, there's free and cheaper IM alternatives on the iPhone but virtually NONE of them (short of MobileChat) have the potential to keep your IM accounts online indefinitely, and to do so they need back-end architecture (servers) to accomplish it - it has absolutely nothing to do with Push or anything Apple will offer.
$16 is expensive but it's the price one pays for what could effectively be considered a lifetime "subscription" to use their servers to maintain 24/7 IM client connectivity. Needless to say the free clients don't offer this, simply disconnecting your IM account when you quiet the program , or shortly thereafter.
Servers and back-end architecture don't come free, so nobody should ever expect to see always-on IM clients appear for free either. If all you want is intermittent IM connectivity, then use one of the multitude of regular (free) IM clients out there, but if actually staying connected all the time even when the app isn't open, then you need a solution like Beejive or Mobilechat, and should be prepared to pay for it.
"Official" geocaching app coming soon {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 30th 2008 9:30PM Damn, now my sole justification for not needing to update to a 3G iPhone just went out the window. ;)
And I'd like to echo Jeff's comments above, as well.
BeeJive Instant Messenger app now available for hefty price {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 29th 2008 11:58AM Do those who are suggesting there are other IM apps that "do the same thing" not comprehend the whole "always on" thing?
IM clients that disconnect as soon as (or shortly after) you close them are of little use to many people - when someone wants to get ahold of me via IM I need to be actually online!
So far MobileChat and Beejive are the only apps offering this, with Palringo testing the waters but still only maintaining a connection for a short period.
People need to understand what they're talking about before making silly comments.
App Store quietly changes review policy {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 27th 2008 6:44PM If some of the more questionably clueless reviews on the Appstore are *not* posted by children (given the maturity level of the comments, the grammar, and the overall tone) then I'd have to suggest that there's some very maturity challenged adult iPhone owners out there.
More likely there *are* more kids that own iPhones then you might think, and even more kids who have access to mommy and daddy's iPhones (and iTunes/Appstore) at home.
There's lots of very mature adults who also own iPhones, but I'd suspect lots of them aren't bothering to write quality reviews of their Appstore purchases, whereas the maturity-challenged crowd posts plenty of "this app is a ripoff should be free!!!11!" type comments which offer zero to the community.
Restricting reviews to purchased items only is a great start. Deleting all offending reviews from people who never bought an app, as well as providing some sort of method to prevent/delete functionally useless reviews should be the next step.
It'd be pretty easy using the currently in place "x number of users found this review usefull" - if a review gets a >75% negative "helpfull" response (for example) then the system should flag it for review or deletion by someone at Apple.
App Store quietly changes review policy {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 27th 2008 3:57PM Finally, it's about time. I only wish they'd go back through and delete all offending comments posted by people who never bought the app.
A few niche apps that I've been keeping an eye on for a while have had their star ratings decimated by a few clueless children who have posted 1-star reviews because they simply don't comprehend what the app is all about to begin with. The people that actually understand the app, actually purchased it, and actually used it have all posted 4 and 5 star reviews, but when an app only has 15 or 20 reviews and you get a few 1-stars, it drags down the bell curve in a big hurry.
I'd also like to know why the review process states that inappropriate reviews might not be published, yet every 12 year old Appstore user who posts "this app is teh dumz" seems to have no problem getting the review posted.
Microsoft reaffirms that it's steering clear of handset manufacturing {Engadget Mobile}
Sep 26th 2008 7:26PM They already did, in 1998:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1998/11-4msphone.mspx
Apple and the App Store: meme of the moment {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 26th 2008 6:52PM The mobilechat devs are surely pulling their hair out in reality (I can feel their pain in some regards), but putting on a brave face to the public because of the NDA and the fact that, in the end, they're still running a business and simply flipping out about things wouldn't come across very professional.
I read the Macworld article and I'd have to say that I'm 100% agree with it - the Appstore is currently something with massive potential for success, but is being steered down a path to potential disaster instead.
Vertu's Signature S Design is real, hits FCC {Engadget Mobile}
Sep 13th 2008 11:19PM So from a technology standpoint it's more or less (sans the OLED, perhaps) just like any other phone on the market, but in a strange styled case, and sold at a stupidly high price?
Pass.
