Skip to main content

All Things iPhone

After a week "off" (read: no blog) I feel a bit better. When I reviewed my last two weeks' worth of tweets I found a lot of stuff relating to the iPhone, so I thought I'd share my thoughts about what's happening. After all, the iPhone continues to dominate everyone's thoughts - it is my duty to provide alternate viewpoints or news on alternatives in order for you to be able to make informed decisions...right?

Right. You'd still buy an iPhone, wouldn't you?

Maybe not. According to a recent article in InfoWorld, the quality (or lack thereof) of AT&T's network is starting to have an impact on iPhone sales. Of course, the article goes on to describe the underlying survey's implication for Verizon since, of course, everyone assumes that the elimination of the exclusivity contract would mean that Verizon would be the first carrier to...uh...carry it. The article does note that the survey respondents probably didn't consider that current users would have to buy a new phone if they wanted to switch from AT&T since they are a GSM provider while Verizon is CDMA.

I still claim that Apple's contract with AT&T is going to run its course fully before any switch occurs. This is counter to all 5 million articles that have been written that swear up and down that an iPhone running on Verizon's network is due out "any day now." (One of these articles may be found in PC World, but it's funny that the second word in the article is "mythical.")

In the meantime, if you really want an iPhone on a network other than AT&T, you can try this nifty gadget. It is a "docking station" for your iTouch that turns it into a phone. All you need is a SIM card (which means you're stuck on GSM so Verizon is still out of luck since CDMA doesn't use SIM cards). More details on this device may be found on CNN. (Note that my tweet on this device incorrectly noted that you'd be able to use your iTouch on Verizon.)

The only thing I don't like about this: I didn't think of it first. Where was that lightbulb when I needed it? If this isn't a money press then I don't know what is. In fact, since Apple is so hung up on sticking with AT&T, then this gadget may be the only thing that truly stops (at least in the short- to mid-term) the onslaught of Android phones. Don't believe me when I say that Android is worth a look? Watch this video on the Motorola Droid 2 (with Android 2.2 pre-installed) to see what I mean.

In the "I like Mobile Phone Applications" department, it was ironic how Apple is constantly berated for refusing to allow certain applications (formal guidelines yet to be determined since Apple isn't providing any specifics on what they will allow and won't) yet the head of their App Store himself has several applications for sale - written after he joined Apple - that have the same "features" of other applications that have been rejected. How's that for hypocrisy? (Worse, the applications are still for sale after that article busted him on it, but he tried to hide his affiliation with Apple. Ah, the inability for one to escape their past on the Internet is such a good thing no?)

If you do have an iPhone or iTouch you've probably played Angry Birds. It's a fun game - not terribly difficult - but now it wants to be the next Buzz Lightyear. Personally, I'm ambivalent about the concept, but from a practicality standpoint I don't think anyone can unseat Woody et al from the store shelves.

Popular posts from this blog

"Ni jiang yi yang de hua ma?"

Last week, I wrote about the necessity of having a clear message . Because this topic is so important I decided to follow-up with another entry on this general subject. This week we will approach it from another angle. (For the curious, the title says " Do you speak the same language? " in pinyin, which is a transliterated Mandarin Chinese.) Recently, a good friend of mine (who is Chinese, ironically) and I were playing pool. He had to bank the 8-ball in the pocket to win the game, and since it was an informal game and bank shots are my area of expertise, he asked me for advice. I told him, "you just need to strike the cue ball with medium speed so that it hits the 8-ball right in the middle." He didn't believe me so we marked the positions of the balls, and then he took his shot only to watch the 8-ball sail past the pocket. "A-ha!" he exclaimed. "I told you it wasn't that easy." But when we reset the positions and I made an attemp

It's Easier to Fail at DevOps than it is to Succeed

Slippery when wet Since the term DevOps was coined in Belgium back in 2009, it is impossible to avoid the term whether in discussions with colleagues or in professional trade magazines.  And during the years while this movement has gained momentum, many things have been written to describe what elements of a DevOps strategy are required for it to be successful. Yet in spite of this, there is an interesting data point worth noting: not many organizations feel there is a need for DevOps.  In a Gartner report entitled DevOps Adoption Survey Results (published in September 2015),  40%  of respondents said they had no plans to implement DevOps and 31% of respondents said they hadn't implemented it but planned to start in the 12 months after the survey was conducted. That left only 29% who had implemented DevOps in a pilot project or in production systems, which isn't a lot. "Maybe it's because there truly isn't a need for DevOps," you say.  While that

Is No/Low-Code the Key to IT Nirvana?

 Unless you've had your head in the sand for the past year or so, you've seen the phrases low-code  and no-code  bandied about quite frequently everywhere you look.  You've probably wondered if this is something new that's here to stay or just a "flash in the pan."  Although the terms have been in the fore of the IT trade publications recently, Low Code Development Platforms (LCDP) (and the corresponding No Code Development Platforms) have been in existence since 2011.  Their roots can be traced to the 90's with 4th generation programming languages and GUI-assisted programming paradigms, e.g. IBM VisualAge for Basic, which was discontinued in 1998. For those of you who aren't familiar with either, the premise is that these platforms allow someone to quickly build applications using a WYSIWYG interface and a "click and configure" paradigm to Isn't this the source code to Roblox? rapidly build full applications with little or no coding requ