All That I Know (About Technology)

Late last week, I caught up with our CEO who was telling me just how much he loved his iPhone 4S. He was most impressed with Siri, the new personal assistant powered by advanced artificial intelligence. He explained how he was running late to a client meeting because of a car accident and that he was able to look up the mobile number of the client and send them a text message without typing a single character. While I’ve been unimpressed with Android in the past, I’ve recently written about how amazing is Android on the Samsung Galaxy S II so it got me thinking as to why people refuse to switch.
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The iPhone developers were walking around the office yesterday with smiles on their faces. Not only was it Friday but news spread that the iOS terms of service drama was over. In case you missed it, Apple reversed course on the decision to force developers into using Xcode/Objective-C. They issued a press release that outlined new terms that allow developers to:

• Use third party development platforms, such as MonoTouch and Appcelerator, to create iPhone applications. In a blog post on the decision, Jeff Haynie signaled that Appcelerator was in the clear and thanked developers for their continued support.
• Use mobile advertising platforms other than iAds/Quattro. Google was also gushing about the new terms of service and how the mobile community will benefit by having multiple platforms in the mix.
• Use third party mobile analytics platforms, such as flurry, motally (now owned by Nokia) and Distimo.

On the third point however, the new terms reinforced the need for developers to respect user privacy. Read more…

I recently upgraded my iPhone 3GS to the new iOS4. And after using it for the past 24 hours, I’ve found that it changed only a few things. Sorry Steve Jobs — it isn’t revolutionary! The primary change that I immediately liked is the folders or application organization capability but even that is limiting. The 5 screens of apps on my iPhone have been reduced down to only three. Unfortunately, folders can hold up to 12 applications at a time. With this design, a user doesn’t have to scroll to access more apps but it also means that the 16+ games that my boys play couldn’t fit nicely into their own little container. Granted, I have quite a bit more room to spare at the bottom of each application screen but things aren’t as tight as I wish that they could be.

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