books. apps. it's not rocket science… wait, yes it is!
News and information related to Apple’s iPhone.
Briefly, I’ve decided to NOT try to predict what Apple is going to announce later today for iPhone OS 3.0. I felt that there would not be much point to speculating so close to the event. And I don’t want to contribute to the raising of unrealistic expectations.
I had been planning to post something yesterday, but I was too busy trying to actually write an iPhone app. For now, I hope for cool new things but refuse to expect too much.
And we’ll all know more at 10:00 am PDT (1:00 pm EDT).
Well, Apple’s last keynote appearance at MacWorld in January of 2009 has passed. No new Macs… unless you count the refresh of the 17-inch MacBook Pro to the new unibody aluminum stylings of its 15-inch and 13-inch siblings.
Then at the beginning of March, Apple somewhat surprised the Apple-watching world with updates to the iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini. While the fact that they were updating these systems was not surprising at all – both the mini and Mac Pro had not seen notable upgrades in well over a year – the timing was surprising. Thanks to some rumors in February, the consensus was that Apple would announce these hardware updates on or about March 24th. As for the updates, the Mac Pro got welcome updates to the new Intel Nehalem architecture and a new high-end graphics option in ATI’s Radeon HD 4870. The iMac saw the least notable spec upgrades with slight proessor bumps and a switch to Nvidia’s newly rebadged GT 120, GT 130, and ATI’s HD 4850 (as a BTO option). No quad core Core 2 processors nor Core i7 (however, in fairness, we must remember that there isn’t a quad core mobile i7 available yet). The entire desktop line added Mini DisplayPort and phased out Firewire 400 in favor of Firewire 800.
The Mac mini (the subject of my personal Mac lust) saw the most notable upgrades, finally bringing it useable graphics in the form of Nvidia’s 9400M chipset, just like the MacBook. The only problem many critics have had with the mini updates is that there was no improvement in price. At least the iMac saw effective price reduction by moving the price of the entry-level 24-inch model down to $1499. The entry mini remains at $599. Granted you are getting notably better graphics performance (from woeful Intel GMA950 to Nvida 9400M), slightly improved CPU capability (bumped from 1.86Ghz to 2.0Ghz the bus going from 800Mhz to 1066Mhz), and slightly increased hard drive size (80GB to 120GB). But given the passing of time from the last update a little more hard drive space at least would have been nice. Worse, the higher end model shares the same 2.0GHz CPU, an extra 1GB or RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. Nice, but somewhat overpriced at a whole $200 step up. If Apple had given that model, oh, say an included 2.26 GHz CPU that is otherwise available as a BTO option, then the $799 model would be a decent value.
That all being said, I do believe that the new entry level Mac mini is a good system and worth the price, especially considering that you can perform your own RAM and hard drive upgrades if you wish or need to. If I had the extra $600 laying around, I’d snap one right up yesterday.
And, actually, by NOT dropping the price on the mini too much, Apple has left themselves room to do so if they see the economy and demand wane further as the year progresses. Given that recent articles have implied that demand for the new desktops is unexpectedly high, I don’t expect any such price adjustments any time soon.
So what is Apple up to for its rumored March 24th event? Probably nothing, because they have just announced an invitation-only press event for March 17th. The topic… much like last March, a new iPhone OS! More on that in part 2.
In a post on my earlier blogger blog, I mentioned a couple of my wishes for apps for the iPhone. These included app categories I used a lot on my Palm LifeDrive until just a few weeks ago, like e-book readers, password database utilities, and to-do list apps. Now these categories have all blossomed on the iPhone App Store and I am just about able to put my Palm device away.
In the e-book reading category, perhaps the current leader is eReader, formerly the Palm Reader, formerly Peanut Reader, one of the major e-book formats originated on the Palm OS. Now on the iPhone (iTunes App Store Link), eReader is associated closely with the eReader.com and Fictionwise e-book bookstores, amongst others.
There are other e-book readers available for the iPhone, including Stanza (iTunes App Store Link) and Bookshelf (iTunes App Store Link), but eReader leads the way in polish and connection to major established stores. Of course, Stanza and Bookshelf are ahead of eReader in the area of accessing your own personal non-DRMed content (and Bookshelf’s adoption by one of my favorite publishers, Baen, is a feather in its cap). So, for now, more than one reader is the way to go on the iPhone.
More on other apps of note in the near future….
Palm yesterday officially announced its new Treo, the Treo Pro. Gizmodo has a quick hands-on, and various sites are making the inevitable comparison with the new trend setter in smartphones. In this case the comparison to the well-hyped iPhone may be a fair one given that Palm now has Jon Rubinstein, formerly one of the wizzes behind Apple’s iPod line, as its new chief of product development. Based on the pictures released of it, the Treo Pro does appear to draw some inspiration in its design from the iPhone, whether that was intended or not. It is thinner and glossier on its face than previous Treos.
Interestingly enough, some of the criticism the Treo Pro is drawing is based on its still very old-Treo-like 320×320 screen in comparisons to the iPhone’s fairly generous 480×320. The irony here is that Palm has had devices with 480×320 resolution screens for almost 5 years starting with the Tungsten T3, circa 2003. Treos, due to their need for space to accommodate a mini-keyboard, have stuck to no more than 320×320. Heck, I owned one of those 480×320 devices, the much-maligned (but in my experience very capable) LifeDrive, circa 2005.
In hindsight, if Palm had found a way to merge some of the capabilities of the LifeDrive (large storage of 4GB or more, 480×320 wide screen, WiFi) with the smartphone features of the Treo line, it could have had a winner that might have kept it going stronger into the storm that has been the iPhone and the other smartphones from HTC and RIM that have eclipsed Palm’s Treos in the past few years. Old OS or no, Palm’s devices maintained a lot of usefulness and ease-of-use for quite some time, even still today in many cases. Windows Mobile, besides being shinier and having more in the way of “modern” features now than Palm OS Garnet, is really no better in usability. It wasn’t really until the iPhone showed a new way to do things that Palm OS (and Windows Mobile, for that matter) began to look truly outdated.
But that’s just my opinion. Maybe Palm’s rumored new “Nova” devices will make good on some of what Palm has been sitting on these past few years.
srhawk.com 