My ApplNion

And I have it on my iPhone.

Apple released it a around 1h00pm eastern time. As soon as I saw it available in iTunes, I started the installation on my iPhone. The total installation time took approximatively 25 minutes, and I had no issue at all. Some people said that in the past they lost their iPhone services for a long time, while Apple servers were processing the reactivation, but in my case, it was automatic. And I did it at that moment on purpose. I did not have any specific need for my iPhone, so even if it was going to be out of service for a few hours, it would not affected me at all. In a way, I tested how Apple improved the reactivation process over the years! And it was great.

Then, what’s new and fun?

Multitasking is certainly the best feature. It took me a few minutes understanding how it works, but that is really wonderful to come back to an application in the state it was before. While this has nothing to do with multitasking, the animation to switch from the menu to an app and so on, makes the experience much more pleasant.

Folder is my next best feature. I had so many apps, that trying to classify them on a per page basis was not doable anymore. Now I can have multiples games folders, instead of pages, classify my games per type (strategy, puzzle, etc.), or by productivity type of apps, and so on. Thanks Apple.

Then, I’d say that the Mail.app is the best “better app” at all. The unified inbox is cool, but imagine the threaded messages. You no longer have to look at multiple messages in your inbox to see all answers you received for a specific message. It feels as good as what you have on your Mac.

What is still wrong?

I must say that on the iPhone itself, it is not too bad. I cannot say that I found something I do not like yet. But the classification of apps on pages and folders is still painful. And iTunes 9.2 is not much better than was the previous version at helping there. Apple could do much more better than that in iTunes.

Ok, now I have to leave it there and continue to explore the new stuff in my hand!

It has been almost a week since Apple launched the iPad. Since, there is huges debates around the device itself. People are talking about the fact that it lacks a front camera for video conferencing, or the lack of multitasking. You can read Rob Griffiths article at Macworld as a reference. It even goes to the question as to why the iPad does run iPhone OS instead of a full Mac OS.

But the largest debate, by far more than any of the other, is the support of Flash on the device. Jason Snell said on Twitter.com that now that iPhone is such a popular device, there is now a debate over the need for Flash on the web. Here is what he said 3 days ago:

The people who try to debate me about Flash are just proving what I’m saying. That there’s a debate. And three years ago there wasn’t one.

I totally agree with that. In the past, who cared about the fact that a site was done using Flash, except the fact that you may be asked to install the plug-in. Today, when surfing from an iPhone, all those sites place a blank space in Safari where there is Flash content. As an iPhone user myself, yes, it is frustrating. Sometimes I have to forward the link to myself so I will be able to look at it later on my Mac.

Personally, I do not think we will see the dismiss of Flash content on the web anytime soon. But there may be place where Flash can be left alone and be given another standard technology such as Apple praised HTML5 standard.

For me, Flash should be used in places where it is really require. For example, what it the purpose of having video embedded in Flash when there is so many standards for playing video. Let’s standardize a way to display video on the web that everyone will use, then we won’t have a need to install multiple plug-ins for this, now, simple task.

Also, I can get very annoyed when simple text, publicity or image slideshows are embedded in something like Flash. This is nothing that needs Flash, really. So why use a complex technology to display simple things when it is not really required?

Flash may have its place for things such as Internet web based games. Facebook is full of such games and I do not care if they don’t display on my iPhone, or even on an iPad. Those are not the thing I expect to do on such device. I’ll use a Mac or a PC for gaming if necessary, that said, I’m not really in this gaming stuff anyway. But when I browse web pages for content, I do not want to be blocked by Flash embedded content to reach the information I want to see or read.

I hope we’ll see that happening in a near future…

In September, I said Apple don’t want my money, not yet!. But they finally got it.

No, I did not buy a new iPod touch, but I bought an 16 Gb iPhone 3GS. I got it last week, on Friday, and even if I have to pay a monthly fee for it, I appreciate it so far. Sometimes to get what you want, you need to get what you want. So that is what happened to me this time.

But, I must say, I do not find the iPhone 100% perfect. For example, the speakers are at the bottom of the iPhone. If I hand the iPhone with my right hand in landscape mode, my hand blocks the speakers, meaning I mute the sound at the same time. So that is one part of my new toy I do not appreciate so much. And if I use my left hand, the sound is send to my right, escaping my ears away.

So I have to push the volume up to hear correctly. I have to do some gymnastics to make sure I do not block the sound out of it, and hear well. So far, the solution is to use the right hand with a curve out of the speakers grid so that the sound is reflected toward me to hear correctly. Still the sound is not really stereo, but coming mostly to my right hear.

On the other side, I like the fact that the headphone jack is on top of the iPhone, instead of the bottom. My first iPod, an iPod photo 40 Gb, had the jack on top as well. When I bought my first generation iPod touch, I really hate the jack at the bottom. I still do after 2 years!

With today’s announcement of new iPods, I must admit I’m really disappointed… I was ready to shout out a few dollars away at Apple to replace my first generation iPod Touch, but the new models does not satisfy me at all.

First, the 8 gig is the exact same model that the one of last year, except for the software version. The 32 and 64 gigs are better, using the same CPU and memory as the new iPhone 3GS, but no camera? No way I’ll buy that!

Not to mention another feature I wanted to have: a GPS. Like I mention previously, many apps now make usage of the core location features in the iPhone, but on the Touch, it is based only on Wifi networks around you. Useless if you’re not in an area with Wifi…

Sorry Apple, but this time is not the time I will upgrade my iPod Touch. I do not feel really bad still using it, after 2 years, just to have a barely more usable iPod. Maybe next time, who knows…