Dave Caolo

Today’s WWDC announcements were a whirlwind for me, as I was focused on getting the facts up on TUAW as quickly as possible. Here are my initial thoughts on the iPhone 4. More thoughtful posts are forthcoming.

The body

The prototype Gizmodo had was very close to the final product. I still think the band of metal that surrounds the edges, protruding buttons and visible screws are atypical of Apple. But I’m thrilled with Apple’s decision to use glass on the back. I’ve owned two iPhones now, an original model and a 3GS. While the backs got scratched, the unprotected displays remained scratch-free and beautiful.

It’s quite thin at 0.37 inch and I’m curious to see what the flat back panel feels like. That’s the clincher, really. I’ve got to hold one.

Gyroscope

I didn’t expect this. The gyroscope and accelerometer give iPhone 4 six-axis motion sensing. Can you imagine games like Zen Bound with this? I’m eager to see what developers do with it.

Retina Display

I assumed the iPhone’s display would be improved, and boy was it ever. At 960 x 640 — 326 pixels per inch — it’s impressive to say the least. Check this out: Apple actually developed a new pixel for the iPhone 4. One so small — 78 micrometers across — that the human eye can’t distinguish between them. That means that the edges of text will have edges as clearly defined as they do in print. No more anti-aliasing. But it’s not just text; photos, webpages and videos will look just tremendous on this display.

FaceTime

This will be a tremendous hit and iPhone 4′s most talked-about feature. Of course, you need 2 iPhones to make it work. Good job, Apple.

But seriously, the obvious use case is with kids (I’m sure more time will let me come up with more). Mine will be elated to talk to me, their grandparents and their aunties with something small enough that they can carry around. The option to switch between the front and rear camera mid-call, moving from “look at me” to “look at what I’m seeing” was inspired. No one else does this, and it’s going to be absolutely huge.

The new camera

Five megapixels, an LED flash, HD video (720p) and upload-from-where-you-stand convenience make my Flip camera nervous. A real shocker was the announcement of iMovie for iPhone. I simply cannot imagine editing video on something that small, let alone with my fingers in the way, but I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve used it.

With this update, the iPhone maintains its reputation as a lust-worthy gadget. I cannot wait to get my hands on one.

Matt Warman, the Consumer Technology Editor at Telegraph, has published his 10 reasons not to buy the next generation iPhone. Forget that he’s advising his readers to avoid a product he has not seen or used. Many of his arguments are flat-out wrong to begin with. Here’s an examination of where Warman went astray.

1. It’s anti-technology. Warman argues “…as other manufacturers announce, for instance, that you can use their phones as shareable wifi hot spots, Apple says no.” That’s incorrect. AT&T has announced that iPhone tethering, which allows customers to use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot, will be available with version 4.0 of the iPhone OS.

AT&T’s data plans that include tethering go into effect on Monday.

Warman continues on this point. “When will [Apple] learn that it’s customers – supply and demand – that should dictate feature availability?” If Matt were familiar with Apple he’d realize that its refusal to add features simply because users want them is one of its greatest strengths. You can be sure that Apple’s designers know full well that customers want iPhone tethering, an iPad with a camera and a myriad of other things. Yet they withhold these features until A.) They’ve devised the perfect implementation B.) technology catches up with their vision for the best implementation C.) other limiting factors are dealt with. Pushing a feature to market simply because some of your customers want it, and not because it’s a true benefit, is a mistake every time.

If anything, the tethering delay is probably attributable to AT&T, not Apple.

2. No Flash. “The iPhone, the phone that promised to put the web into everybody’s pockets, can’t even show you most of it, because it can’t handle Flash graphics. Google Android can, in the latest version (OS 2.2), and it’s going to be available free on a lot of budget tariffs.” I can count on 1 hand the number of times I’ve wished my iPhone could run Flash, and I use a lot of data. Here’s a partial list of the growing number of major sites that work beautifully on the iPhone (and iPad) thanks to HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript:

• CNN
• Reuters
• The New York Times
• Vimeo
• YouTube
• Time
• ESPN
• Major League Baseball
• Netflix
• NPR
• National Hockey League
• The White House
• Flickr
• Virgin America
• TED
• CBS
• CNN Money
• MSNBC
• Fox News
• CNET
• The Wall Street Journal
• ABC

As for Flash running on Android OS 2.2, here’s a hands-on review from WIRED:

“I hopped on to the Sony Pictures web site to check out the trailer for Karate Kid, a re-make starring Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith. I could watch the trailers, pinch-to-enlarge it and check out some of the trivia on the site. But Flash stumbled here, forcing me to reload the site about three times when the trailer didn’t pop up on the screen the way it was supposed to … Chanel’s site has a video that shows its Cruise 2010 collection. Five seconds into the video, it failed to play and the spinning circle took over the site, forcing me to close it down.

Flash-based games sites … were accessible to the FroYo phone, in stark contrast to the iPhone (and previous versions of Android). But that’s where the fun ended. Loading the content is a frustratingly long process, and the Club Penguin site seemed to challenge the processing power of the phone, so my penguin on the phone couldn’t do much.”

From Engadget:

“The latest version of Android will, upon updating, guide you to visit a selection of Flash-enabled websites … Ironically, a sizable number of the sites on the list are “mobile optimized,” meaning you won’t be hitting their full desktop versions (which doesn’t quite mesh with the idea of “the full web experience”).”

Sounds great.

3. No multitasking. “Tried instant messaging on an iPhone? Oh yes, you have to open the app to see if you’ve got a message. Genius.” Nope, that’s wrong. With push notifications, you can see the entire body of an incoming text message no matter what other application you happen to be running.

Warman then says, “If Apple announces multitasking next it will be an improvement.” I’ll admit I had to double-check the date of his article when I read this (it was published today), because Apple did announce multitasking 9 weeks ago. But it gets better. In another article that posted to Telegraph today, “10 things we can expect from the new Apple iPhone,” item number 4 is “multitasking.” I guess Matt doesn’t read his own website.

This notion that the iPhone OS is incapable of multitasking is a common misconception. In fact, it’s fully capable of multitasking right now. For example, you can listen to music on the iPod app while checking Twitter. You can download an app from the App Store while browsing the web, and so on.

What Warman means, I believe, is that 3rd-party multitasking is prohibited (for example, you can’t run a Twitter app and Mail at the same time). As I said, that will change in less than a week. In fact, here’s a video of how it works.

4. Its battery life is terrible. I use my iPhone fairly constantly between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM every day, and usually hit the 20% warning around 8:00 PM. Sure, processor-intensive tasks like listing to audio books for hours on end, watching movies or refreshing Twitter like a madman will take a toll on the battery, but I’ve never been stranded with a dead phone.

5. It’s not very well designed. Warman writes, “Use the iPhone as a phone and it’s not got great reception, nor is it particularly comfortable to use for long periods. It’s a computer that happens to have a phone bolted on – jack of two trades, but master of neither.”

The poor reception is in AT&T’s lap. I can’t say that placing or receiving calls on the iPhone is a pleasure; it often isn’t. But that’s not a fault of the hardware. Comfort is a matter of opinion, so I can’t argue with it. By the same token, Matt can’t carry it as a mark against the iPhone.

As for it being poorly designed, well, that’s just silly.

• On July 18, 2007, Jon Ive received the 2007 National Design Award in the product design category for his work on the iPhone.
• In July 2008, Ive was awarded the MDA Personal Achievement award for the design of the iPhone.

What a piece of junk.

Sigh.

Website iPhone Portugal further ruins the fun of June 7th.

John Biggs takes an illogical leap at Crunch Gear, claiming that a wholly unsubstantiated rumor “…very nearly confirms a Verizon launch of the iPhone at the end of the summer.”

No, it doesn’t.

In a clip from The Daily Show, Jon Stewart takes Steve Jobs and Apple to task for invading Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home. You’ll remember that Jason has found himself in hot water after he appeared in a video with a prototype of the unreleased 4th generation iPhone.

Jon glosses over much of the story, like how the phone came into Gizmodo’s possession and whether or not Gawker Media realized it was Apple’s property when they bought it. Not to mention that only the DA, not Apple, could order a search. But hey, it’s a comedy show, right?

After criticizing “Apple’s police” for not using an app to bash down Jason’s door and complimenting them on their cool tazers (“they only run on Apple’s electricity”), Jon makes a plea.

“Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one. But now you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes.”

Well played, Jon.

Robert Powell:

The bottom line is the guy (who found Apple engineer Gray Powell’s iPhone 4G and sold it to Gizmodo) stole the phone. The guy’s a thief.

CAL. CIV. CODE § 2080.1 : California Code – Section 2080.1 — The phone was not turned over to the cops. That’s a civil liability.

CAL. CIV. CODE § 2080 : California Code – Section 2080 — The parties did not act in good faith or a depositary (taking the phone apart).

CAL. PEN. CODE § 485 : California Code – Section 485 — The question is what constitutes a “reasonable and just” effort to track down the owner. It seems plain that the participants knew without question that the device was an Apple prototype, and they already knew the guy’s name. Guilty of theft.

CAL. PEN. CODE § 496 : California Code – Section 496 — The property was obtained in a manner constituting theft, as above. The phone was both concealed and sold. Every person who either bought it or sold it knowing what it was is potentially facing one year in jail.

Now consider what I called Gizmodo’s “…flippant and disrespectful … handling of the entire ordeal,” and you see why so many people are turned off.

John Gruber:

“…publishing the name, photographs, and personal information of the Apple engineer who lost the phone is irrelevant to the story. It was the dick move to end all dick moves … There is no interest served by outing him other than taking sociopathic glee in making a public spectacle of someone who made a very serious but honest mistake.”

Nearly correct. Giz salted the wound John describes by pointing out that Powell lost the iPhone on his birthday. THAT was the dick move to end all dick moves.

Shawn Blanc imagines that the experience of using a social app like Gowalla improves as more people you know become users:

Perhaps part of Gowalla’s usefulness being lost on me has to do with the fact that I only have a handful of friends with iPhones, and of them, only a couple were nerdy enough to sign up for it.

I can confirm that he’s right from first-hand experience. I live in a town of 4,000 people. Some of them use iPhones, and even fewer use apps like Gowalla. In fact, I’ve never met most of the Gowalla users I follow and they all live hundreds of miles away.

However, when I was in San Francisco for Macworld Expo, the experience was entirely different. Gowalla became a useful way to find the people I intended to meet up with. If I hadn’t had that experience, I wouldn’t see it as anything other than a fun but ultimately useless toy.

I’ve never gotten much use out of notes on the iPhone because I dislike typing more than a few words on it. I’m slower with it than I am with a full-sized keyboard which is frustrating. Plus, the bundled Notes app syncs with Mail, which makes no sense at all.

Now that I’m using the combination of Notational Velocity, SimpleText and WriteRoom, my iPhone is full of easily-accessed, useful notes that I wrote on my Mac and transferred with no effort. Here’s how it works.

Notational Velocity is designed to create, store and retrieve notes. Its marquee feature is modeless operation. There’s no difference between searching for a note, browsing a note or creating one. It’s extremely fast and efficient.

WriterRoom is a full-screen text editor for the Mac and iPhone/iPod touch. It works well, but I’m really using it just to display notes.

SimpleText brings the two together. It’s a sync service originally created to let Taskpaper and WriteRoom users sync documents. Fortunately, it works with Notational Velocity, too.

Here’s how to set it up.

1. Open Notational Velocity Preferences
2. Open “Notes” preference pane
3. Select SimpleText’s folder for “Read notes from folder”
4. Under storage, select ”Storage and read notes on disk as Plain Text Files”

That’s it. Now every note created in Notational Velocity is instantly synced with WriteRoom and vice versa. It’s simple, it costs all of $4.99 to set up (the price of WriteRoom) and it “just works.”

The fun of toy cameras is in the light leaks, deceptive viewfinder, over saturated (or muted) colors and the whole unpredictability of it all. I’ve got a Holga and a few throw-aways that I enjoy using, but they aren’t always with me. My iPhone is, however. If only it could mimic those cameras.

Hipstamatic comes very close. I spent this morning shooting with it, playing with the included lenses, films and flashes, with pleasing results. Check out the photos below for a sample.

A full review is coming next week.