Apple Mac HQ

Apple’s recent purchase of Lala has many intriguing ramifications for Apple users.

Lala is a music site that lets users stream music.  Lala scans your hard drive to see which music you already own.  If songs match what is in their library, or you upload your tracks, you can listen to that music an unlimited amount through their web site.  If you don’t own the tracks, you can listen to them once.  After that you can buy a web version that can be streamed forever or “upgraded” to a downloadable version.  The streaming component flies in the face of Apple’s “download-and-own-forever” model.  Apple sees that music consumption may evolve and they are preparing for this change.  It is unknown whether Apple will keep Lala’s current model or alter it to a “all-you-can-eat” subscription.

There is no way the Lala iPhone app sees the light of day, presuming that Lala isn’t kept as a separate service that is away from Apple’s ecosystem.  Streaming content could be provided through the music app on the iPhone/iPod touch (and hopefully Apple’s potential tablet) with optional caching for offline playback.  It would be nice to have downloadable music for iPods lacking WI-FI, with music files that time-expire.  Syncing through iTunes could then verify service membership (i.e. once a month).

There have been endless debates on the value proposition of MobileMe, especially in light of alternative free services that can be combined to be similar to what MobileMe offers.  Adding a streaming music service to MobileMe would increase its value significantly.  I would assume that being a subscriber to Apple’s music service would not require being a MobileMe member.

It would be great to have my music stored in the cloud from anywhere with a Internet connection.  Any Lala web site functionality will probably be rebranded as a Apple product and thus become iTunes in a browser.

Apple TV has not sold well.  Coupling this music service with the proposed video subscription deal that could be occurring soon and I would be far more interested in getting an Apple TV.  Content is king, and the variety and amount of music and video available will be key to increasing Apple TV’s popularity.

Many music services I have tried have left me wanting more.  Hopefully Apple’s will have enough content to please me.

Popularity: 2%

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses Apple’s interest in competing with Nintendo in the portable games market.  If I were Nintendo, I would be worried.

Nintendo has been able to beat previous handheld competitors, such as the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx, but Apple is different.  Previous competition was focusing on games only, whereas the iPhone/iPod touch can do so many things very well.  The Sony PSP does do a lot too, but not nearly as much or as well as the iPhone/iPod touch.

iTunes has helped Apple effectively sidestep brick and mortar retailers to provide digital content, which is the future of content distribution.  Nintendo has few digital offerings, but these downloads are limited to the DSi, which makes up a small percentage of Nintendo’s handheld sales.

Developers of all sizes do not have to pay much for development costs and have a far easier time getting on the iPhone/iPod touch platform.  Apple’s review process has been arbitrary and lengthy at times, but less restrictions have been placed for apps compared to DS games.  There is also far more variety in content then the DS provides.

There is already a large library of games for the iPhone/iPod touch.  There are poor titles in iTunes, but there are also many great games.  These games are also priced cheap, which is attractive for consumers.  DS games usually cost upwards of $30.

Apple does face some obstacles.  Like the Wii, many developers have not designed games for the iPhone/iPod touch’s unique controls in mind and have ported games from other platforms that had “regular” controls.  It is a way for large publishers to milk successful franchises.  Publishers have been focusing more and more on popular franchise that do not stray to much from what made them successful, so care is not taken when brining games to the iPhone/iPod touch.  At least for Nintendo they can make good games for the Wii’s controls.  Apple must rely on third-party developers to make games that work well with the touchscreen.

The iPhone/iPod touch does not have as many great games as the DS.  With Nintendo’s franchises on the DS, this is not surprising.  The App Store has not been open for long (since July 2008), and with larger developers making a bigger push to bring popular franchises to Apple’s handheld, the gap will close between Apple’s and Nintendo’s portable game offerings.

It is hard to compete with a device that does many things well, which is why some companies have made devices that do one thing very well (the Kindle for example).  Apple has been able to make a great multi-functional device, while Nintendo has not shown this yet. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo does to maintain dominance in the handheld market to ward off Apple.

Popularity: 2%

After downloading Twitterrific for iPhone, I thought it would be my Twitter app of choice.  The interface is great and the app looks very appealing.  Tweetie 2 has changed all this.

There are many great features within Tweetie 2.  Multiple Twitter accounts can be logged into simultaneously.  Tweets can be viewed offline by caching them or sending them to Instapaper.

Sometimes I want to just put down my thoughts before tweeting them.  Drafts can be done within the app instead of using an app like Birdhouse.  If you use Birdhouse, drafts can be sent from Tweetie 2 to Birdhouse.

My favorite feature is that Tweetie 2 can show nearby tweets on a list or map.  It is great to see exactly where and who is tweeting near you.  Seeing local tweets is more interesting to me.  It feels like I have more a connection with people that live in my area versus them living far away.

There are a few downsides to the newest Tweetie.  There are no push notifications, which mean constantly checking Tweetie 2 to see if new tweets have arrived.  Alternatively, an iPhone app like Notifications (iTunes link) can be used to send push notifications when a new tweet appears for you.  The appearance of Tweetie 2 is rather plain looking.  It is not an eyesore, but more attention could have been made to make it look better.  Also, Tweetie 2 is not available for Mac yet, which is unfortunate because it will be great to see how the Mac and iPhone versions work together.

Much has been made over the pricing of Tweetie 2.  It costs $2.99 whether or not the previous version was purchased.  What is controversial is that some people feel there should be free upgrades if the original Tweetie was bought.  This view is rather troubling.  Tons of hard work goes into developing apps and developers should be rewarded with pay if they want to charge for their software.  Certain things probably should not be charged for, such as bug patches.  Overall though, if there are feature upgrades that are worthy of payment, by all means consumer should pay for them if they want the features instead of feeling entitled to free upgrades for life.

The price of Tweetie 2 is not high.  The developer, Loren Britcher of Atebits, is not forcing users to upgrade from the original Tweetie.  Britcher was on a Macworld podcast talking about this issue and will be providing support for the first Tweetie “for the foreseeable future.”

Tweetie 2 is compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 and above is available now (iTunes link).

Popularity: 2%

Browsing through my inbox today, I found a link I emailed myself quite some time ago. The gist of the video linked below is how the iPhone interacts at a “cell phone reunion”. The video might not be new, but it’s definitely funny. As info, the video is definitely NSFW.

The animated video can be seen here on CollegeHumor. Enjoy!

Popularity: 2%

Finally, after months of waiting, Dropbox has officially released an iPhone app.  The wait was worth it.

For those who are unaware, Dropbox is the wildly popular software that lets you sync, store, and share files online, between computers, and mobile phones.  Previously, the only way to access Dropbox on the iPhone was via a mobile website.

Dropbox is not slow like iDisk.  Deleting files off the free Dropbox iPhone App (iTunes link) instantaneously removed them from my MacBook.  It was unbelievable how fast it occurred.  Adding or deleting files from my MacBook did not change any files in the Dropbox app unless I closed the app and opened it again or switched between windows within the app.  Again, the changes happened very fast.

Any files marked as “Favorite” in the app are downloaded for offline viewing.  This is great because my carrier coverage can sometimes be spotty and I may need my critical files at anytime.

Pictures can be shot from within the app or selected from your iPhone Photo library and uploaded to Dropbox.  These photos will be put into a folder if you are in the “Pictures” folder when uploading the picture.  It would have been nice to have any photos automatically put into the “Pictures” folder.

There are a few downsides to the Dropbox iPhone app.  Folders cannot be added to organize files unless you are on your computer.  Also, files cannot be reordered unless they are in the “Favorites” window.  This is a 1.0 release, so presumably these shortcomings will be fixed.

Dropbox is a great iPhone app and has set a high bar for competing syncing software to measure up to.  The iPhone app and the Dropbox service itself are both free.  The free Dropbox account includes 2GB of storage.  For $9.99 or $19.99 USD  a month, you can upgrade to get 50GB or 100GB of Dropbox storage.

Popularity: 2%

One of my biggest gripes with the iPhone is rearranging apps. It is such a hassle to drag apps in a different order or on different pages. iTunes 9 has made things far easier.

App rearrangement is a simple process. First, upgrade to iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1. Connect your iPhone OS device to the computer and select it in iTunes. Choose the “Applications” tab and iTunes now displays your app pages as they appear on your iPhone or iPod touch. Apps can be moved around or deleted however you please. Pages can also be rearranged. Sync when you are happy with the order.

The “Applications” tab also lists apps by category and entrance into the App Store. Originally, it was sorted by name only. They will not automatically sync in this order though.

There are a few other limitations. Web apps or apps that came with your device cannot be deleted. Web apps must still be deleted on the device. Both these types of apps can still be moved around within iTunes.

Though far from perfect, being able to rearrange icons in iTunes 9 is a great feature and makes my life easier.

Popularity: 3%

The process to enable MMS is simple. Make sure iTunes is version 7.7 or later and that the iPhone is 3G or 3GS with iPhone OS 2.0 or later. Connect your iPhone to your computer and you will be prompted to update your carrier settings. If you are not prompted, choose your iPhone in iTunes, hit the “Summary” tab, and hit the “Check for Update” button. The update is quick and you will have to restart the iPhone.

After the update is installed, a camera icon will appear next to the text field in the Messages app.

iPhone users can send an MMS to any phones that have MMS enabled. MMS messages count against iPhone texting plans, so there will not be another fee to use this feature.

MMS sending has improved for me since launch day. Previously sending an MMS would stall and it would have to be resent a few times. I was not able to test a video MMS because I own a iPhone 3G.

The big reason why AT&T delayed the iPhone MMS launch is concerns about how their network would hold up. With the popularity of the iPhone, AT&T was concerned these users would bog things down. Other phones on the AT&T network have had MMS enabled for a long time, but iPhone users will theoretically be using MMS far more. iPhone users on other networks have been able to use MMS since day one.

Building a network is costly, but iPhone customers should not be treated like second-class citizens when they are trying to use their “unlimited data” plans. iPhone customers are paying high monthly bills and should not have to deal with this.

One more thing AT&T: where is tethering?

Popularity: 2%