Competing with the $499 iPad

Ars Technica has an interesting piece about potential iPad competitors and Apple’s $499 price point. Potential competitors were banking on beating Apple’s price with their competing Android devices. Now they are scratching their heads. With Apple controlling the chip, the hardware, and software, I think it will be sometime before anyone can compete anywhere near Apple’s price.

Home Screens – Dave Hamilton

Dave Hamilton(twitter) is one of my very favorite self proclaimed nerds. When not playing his drums (he is awesome), Dave, along with John Braun, host the Mac Geek Gab, which is by far the best Mac troubleshooting podcast. Dave also is one of the principals of the outstanding Mac news site, Mac Observer. So today we get to find what is on Dave’s home screen.

What is interesting on your home screen?

Camera Genius (CodeGoo) – For all those “I just want to take a picture now” opportunities. The thing I love the most about it is its “Anti Shake” feature. In a nutshell, it waits until your phone is stable before snapping the picture, so I just click the shutter button, take aim, and as soon as it’s happy it snaps the shot. Love it!

Twittelator Pro (Stone Design) – Andrew Stone did a fantastic job taking this app and completely reworking it last year, bringing it into the forefront of Twitter apps in both design aesthetics and functionality. Unfortunately, the default “Gray” theme is kind of wonky visually so I think many people are still initially turned off. But setting it to “Dove” (white background) or my favorite, “Raven” (black background), really makes the app pop. It does some great things in terms of managing multiple accounts, conversations, retweets, lists and more. And it also lets you customize your favorites bar any way you wish, making it truly personalizable (is that a word? ;-).

Todo (Appigo) – Listen, there’s nothing perfect about managing To Dos on the iPhone, but Appigo’s Todo syncs (over WiFi) with SyncServices on my Mac, allowing me to get close to what I’d want (which is live OTA sync). And it’s got a decent interface for managing/adding To Dos that I then see in BusyCal on my Mac (when SyncServices decides to play nice, which is most of the time).

What is your favorite app?

I’m not sure I have a favorite, per se. In general I spend most of my iPhone time in either Mail or Twittelator Pro.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

See answers to #2 above. šŸ™‚ I can get addicted to information flow pretty quickly, so having email and Twitter access in my pocket is simultaneously fantastic and terrible.

How many screens full of apps do you have?

I have 11 screens and all but one are at least more than half full. Most of the apps, of course, I don’t use often, at all, but there’s no reason to delete them if I only use them just once in a while. Beats re-downloading something if I realize I need an old app for some reason or another.

What is the app you are still missing?

A real calendar app. The lack of To Do support is astounding to me, but that’s not the half of it. The UI for the Calendar app is just terrible. I mean, why bother to have that craptastic monthly view take over my entire screen only so I can’t see more than one line of events at the bottom. I’m beside myself wondering why Apple hasn’t put a side-by-side week (or “multi-day”) view in, either. This app has probably the worst UI that Apple has designed in recent history. It, like iCal, makes me think that no one at Apple actually uses their own products for calendaring.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPod touch?

Depends on the day. Some days none, some days more than I care to count.

What is your favorite feature on the iPhone?

How well it fits in my pocket and is basically unnoticeable to me while it’s there. That affords me the ability to simply have the phone with me everywhere, and I think that’s easy to take for granted with a device that has so much power.

If you were Steve Jobs, what would you add to the iPhone?

A frickin’ calendar app!

Anything else you’d like to share?

Did I mention the iPhone sucks at managing calendars and To Dos? Oh, I did? Then I guess we’re done. Thanks!

Thanks Dave!

How We Blew it with the iPad Predictions

I was looking at the final details of the iPad and comparing it to all the speculation beforehand. It seems the biggest mistake with all of the predictions was in focus. Everyone was looking for revolutionary features and ignoring what Apple does best, sweat the details. There were so many wheels spinning about exotic features, very few people thought about the simple things that need to be done right.

The iPad isn’t revolutionary in its feature set. It doesn’t look at my face to figure out who is driving it or incorporate expensive OLED screens. The iPad is revolutionary in execution. It takes the tablet features that never worked before and makes them work. It’s obvious now.

Bodega Software Shop

There is an interesting Mac application that acts as a storefront for Mac software called Bodega. It operates a lot like the App Store does for iPhone apps except without so much gnashing of teeth. I have yet to purchase anything from the Bodega application but I do like the way it organizes available software.

iPhone VIP Security App

I’ve started using the free Verisign VIP security token application on my iPhone and I’m impressed. Once set up, your online retail accounts (including eBay and Paypal) will send a token number to your iPhone or iPod touch. This becomes an additional gate to the transaction and changes within minutes. It adds an extra step, but if someone gets your Paypal ID and password they are out of luck.

Apple Products in Business

This week the Macalope dishes out a beating to the PC World weenies for their article about how the Apple tablet is bad for business even though nobody knows what it does, how it works, or whether it even exists. (The best word in the entire post, “Nostradumbass”.) I, frankly, am fine with this anti-Apple bias in the business place. The more people continue to ignore Apple technology, the more I will kick their teeth in with it at the courthouse.

Home Screens – Chuck Joiner

Chuck Joiner is one of the most insightful and well respected commentators in the Mac community. Chuck produces several podcasts but his flagship podcast is “Mac Voices” where he interviews distinguished Mac developers and writers. I always enjoy Chuck’s podcasts and couldn’t wait to find out what is on his home screen. I am, however, going to need to talk to Chuck about that inbox.

So Chuck, what is on your home screen?

I’m still carrying quite a few of the iPhone’s default apps because I really do use them, though a few slots have been taken over by things I find more useful or better.

Tripod – There are plenty of great camera apps out there, but Tripod solves a problem for me. I never seem to hold the camera still when I shoot. Using the iPhone’s accelerometer, Tripod waits until the camera is still (after the shutter has been tapped) and then takes the photo.

If you’re trying to catch something fast, it isn’t the best option, but if you’re doing pictures of people or more static shots, this will all but guarantee you a sharp photo. You’ll also find out just how steady your hand is by watching the real-time equalizer.

WeatherBug Elite is the best weather app I’ve found, mainly because of the animated radar maps that are of a reasonable scale right at launch.

Google Reader – Yeah, I know, very old school. I’ve played with plenty of newsreaders, and while NetNewsWire lives on the second screen, I still find just using Google Reader’s web site convenient and easy. Who says iPhone-specific web sites are a bad thing?

Favorater – A speed-dial app that provides one-touch dialing via photos. Assign a button a contact from your Address Book; it will put the photo on a button and allow you to designate up to three numbers for the button. Just single, double or triple tap to dial the indicated number. Great for frequently called phone numbers, and easier to read than the
native iPhone app.

Pandora Radio – Who doesn’t have Pandora on their home screen? One-touch access to music you like from your Pandora account. As close to instant music gratification as you can get.

AT&T Mark The Spot – This has been on my iPhone since it came out, since I was experiencing an alarming number of dropped calls. Some feel this was a useless app, others thought it was a reasonable attempt by AT&T to gather information on their service challenges. Either way, it made me feel better to use it whenever I had a problem. And use it I did. There were days I hopped up and down on it like a jackrabbit. In the last couple weeks, I’ve hardly had to invoke it at all. Whether it made a difference or not, at least it made me feel better punching the “Dropped Call” button. Consider it a therapy app at the very least.

Dragon Dictation – One of those apps that you use to show off the capabilities of your iPhone, Dragon Dictation lets you dictate a short note, and then email, text or copy it to the clipboard. It works amazingly well, and even handles proper names, though the controversy continues to rage over the app’s uploading of your contact list to help accomplish the latter. Why type when you can talk?

WSJ (The Wall Street Journal) – Even if newspapers are on the down slope, The Wall Street Journal is still a must-read for anyone in business. This app gives you free access to much of the content (including the Op/Ed pieces) for free, although the in-app ads are a bit overdone.

Tweetie 2 – The space for a Twitter client on my home screen keeps changing, but is currently occupied by Tweetie 2. A nice, full-featured app that lets me get to what I want on Twitter, though I really like the sync options of TweetDeck with its desktop sister app.

What is your favorite app?

The one that solves whatever problem/need/desire I have at the moment.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I’d have to say the iPod video functionality is as close as I get to a guilty pleasure, since I usually have a favorite movie or TV show tucked in there somewhere in case all else fails and I have some extra time on my hands. Right now, that’s the Good Eats 10th Anniversary show, converted over from my TiVo.

How many screens full of apps do you have?

Nine…and I’m trying to cut down.

What is the app you are still missing?

A pay-as-you-go tethering app. Is that really too much to ask for?

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPod touch?

I couldn’t even count. Even if I’m in the office, it is on the desk beside my MacBook Pro.

  • What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPod touch?*

The ability to have access to information anywhere, anytime. It magnifies your ability to be productive to an amazing degree. When the rumors started circulating that Apple was working on a phone, none of us had any idea just how much this device would affect us.

If you were Steve Jobs, what would you add to the iPhone?

The option to control apps running in the background. I understand the reasons this hasn’t happened, but would like to have the option to run some things simultaneously, even at the cost of battery life.

Thanks Chuck!