Posts Tagged "iPhone"

Rogers … What are you doing?

Posted by ngreene on Oct 24, 2011 in Technology

I am a self-admitted Apple fanboy and an early adopter. Each time the newest iPhone has been released, prior to the 4S, Rogers has made it a no-brainer to do an upgrade and extend my contract. I never minded extending to a full 36 months out each time just so that I could have the latest and greatest hardware.

This time around, they have decided to add in an additional “Early Upgrade” fee for those of us who have loyally upgraded to the newest hardware each time it has been released. For me, as well as all of us who are on the same upgrade schedule, this amounts to an enormous $340 charge over and above the cost of the new iPhone 4S, which is supposedly $209 for the 16GB version with the usual 36 month contract extension.

So now, to upgrade to the 4S, my cost would be $559+HST = $631.67 plus an extension to a 36 month contract. The cost to outright buy an unlocked iPhone 4S from the Apple Store is $649+HST= $733.37. Both of these options are a little too rich for my blood so it looks like I will skip this hardware generation entirely.

This leaves me in a position whereby the next generation iPhone will likely come out right at the end of my current 36 month contract. At that point, there is no longer anything tying me to Rogers and absolutely no reason for me to stay with Rogers for my next contract. This is an obvious short-sighted and short-term cash grab on the part of Rogers. For the first time ever, Rogers has put me in a position where I have a good reason to shop my plan around when the iPhone 5 comes out because I won’t be locked in to a long term contract that has a penalty.

I hope my other early adopter compatriots have the same realization that I have and see the greedy short-term nature of this business decision by Rogers.

EDIT: I BROKE DOWN AND BOUGHT AN UNLOCKED 4S AFTER ALL … SO GLAD THAT I DID … THE CAMERA IS AWESOME AND TOTALLY WORTH IT.

iPad Review

Posted by ngreene on Apr 9, 2010 in Technology

After less than a week with an iPad I have to say I don’t know how I ever lived without one.

I’ve been an Apple convert since I got my first MacBook Pro back in 2003. I know I sounds cliche, but I love that everything “just works”.

I’m on my second MacBook Pro, I’ve had both the iPhone 3G and 3GS, a multitude of various iPods and now an iPad.

Consider this review as definitely biased with a pro-Apple bent as I have had nothing but great experiences with my iDevices.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a few lemon devices and had to visit my local Genius Bar on occasion, but the way that Apple handles issues is far superior to most other companies.

I’m not going to bother giving the specs or other information that you can find in almost every article and blog post about the iPad. Instead, I’m going to answer some of the questions that people keep asking me about why I could possibly need this device considering that I already have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.

Overall, I have no complaints about the device and the few complaints that I’ve had about the iPhone OS are being fixed with the 4.0 software update due later this year. I’m sure that the next hardware update will have a few tweaks that I will appreciate, but I’m glad to be able to have this unit now … I love it and it really works for me right in the gap it was designed for … Right between an iPhone and a laptop.

Stuff that Steve Jobs told me today

Posted by ngreene on Apr 8, 2010 in Technology

I skipped lunch today so that I could watch the Apple launch for iPhone OS 4.0. I actually watched three different feeds to make sure that I got a few different perspectives. Thanks to the folks at GDGT, engadget, and TUAW. Here is what Steve Jobs had to say:

• 300,000 ipads sold on first day 450,000 ipads have been sold as of today
• 600,000 books have been purchased
• 50,000,000 iPhones have been sold to date (85,000,000 devices that use apps if you count iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads all together)
• 1,500 new APIs for developers to integrate with.
• In first 9 months of push notifications, over 10 Billion have been sent out
• Over 50,000 games available

7 Tentpole Features

1. Multi-tasking! (Background Audio streaming / VOIP (e.g. Receive a skype call when phone is locked, check out restaurant at same time) / Background Location for GPS or Social Media with enhanced privacy / Push Notifications / Local Notifications / Task Completion / Fast App Switching)
2. Folders (Organize your apps in sub-folders instead of switching between screens / even put a folder on the dock / as easy as dragging and dropping one app onto another)
3. Enhanced Mail (unified inbox / more than one exchange account / open attachments with apps downloaded from the app store / organize mail by thread)
4. iBooks (not just for iPads anymore / buy once, read anywhere / sync pages an bookmarks)
5. Enterprise Features (better mail encryption / mobile device management / wireless app distribution / SSL VPN / exchange server 2010 support)
6. Game Centre (Social Gaming Network / Invite Friends to play / matchmaking / achievements)
7. Mobile Advertising (allow developers to use location based ads in apps so that apps can be free / iAd keeps you in your app / deliver interaction and emotion / interactive and video content within the ap because the ad delivery system is part of the OS / Apple sells, hosts and delivers the ads / developers get 60% of the revenues / all done with HTML5 / over 1 Billion Ad opportunities per day)

A whole lot of other stuff that developers will be able to do:

– rotate photos
- calendar integration
- Bluetooth keyboard
- web search suggestions
- loads of mail stuff
- search SMS / MMS
- 5x digital zoom
- persistent wifi
- places in photos
- tap to focus video
- upload workouts to nike+
- nested playlists
- recent web searches
- wake on wireless
- gift apps
- lots more

This OS update will be available this summer for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (Some features won’t work for 3G, 2G, or 2nd Gen Touch), but not until the fall for the iPad.

One Thousand Pages Viewed

Posted by ngreene on Apr 7, 2010 in Projects

This site has been running for just over a month and this week marks the one thousandth page viewed!

In the grand scheme of things that number is really nothing, but it’s the first milestone and I am pretty excited about it.

A few stats from my first thousand page views:

- Most visitors to this site are visiting on apple products
- The most popular post to date was about how Lindsay Lohan is NOT the Etrade Baby
- 2/3 of visitors have come back more than once
- Only 10% of visitors are using any version of Internet Explorer
- The top referring sites for links coming into this site are: 1) Facebook, 2) Google, and 3) Twitter
- This is the 29th post, not including the static site pages

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how things are going so far.

I’m really looking forward to the next release of WordPress (3.0), which will include a feature that allows users to manage multiple blogs with one installation.

I would like to have a little more focus. When I think about blogs that I really like, the one thing that they have in common is some central theme that defines a reason for people to visit. I realize that this blog is really more of an assortment of my thoughts and random musings.

The problem is that my attention wanders too much to maintain a single point of interest for more than a few posts. I love having the ability to add tags to posts because, after just 29 posts, I can start to see the topics that I like to write about the most.

So far, according to my tag cloud, my favorite topics are Advertising, Google, and the iPhone.

Advertising is an obvious area of interest for me, given that I’m in the business. The iPhone is a tool that I never leave home without so it’s got to come up pretty frequently. The surprise for me is how often I write about Google.

Going forward, I can definitely see the iPad popping up in popularity of my tags. I’ve had one for two days and I am absolutely loving it. I will write a proper review shortly, but I want enough man hours on it to be able to have a valid opinion to share.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to settle on a single theme for a blog so, until I do, I will continue with what I’ve been doing for another month and see how things progress.

In any case, thanks for reading and, for most of you, thanks for coming back after having read the first time!

N

No iPhone optimized site, Are you kidding me?

Posted by ngreene on Apr 4, 2010 in Rants

If you’ve tried browsing the internet from an iPhone, iPod Touch or, for those lucky early adopters who got their hands on one, an iPad, you’ve come across scenarios where you are faced with the blue Lego block from hell.

For those who haven’t seen this little bugger, this little symbol represents web content that has been developed in flash.

Here is an article that I just read this morning:

And this is what it was supposed to look like on a regular browser:

As you can see, I miss out on the video on this page using an iPhone, but I have no idea that this is what is missing unless I go back to the site using a different browser.

This got me wondering about how many people are having this issue so I checked the stats for this site. Looking only at visitors to this site who are using an iPhone or iPod Touch (It’s a little early to hope for iPad visitors!), I can say that, for sure, 18% of my traffic cannot see flash.

And that 18% is not counting visitors using software like Click to Flash on a Mac, intended only to view flash when it is needed rather than letting it eat up your battery power and CPU usage while slowing your web browsing experience.

My point is this: If any publisher knows that up to 18% of their users will have a crappy experience every time they see the blue Lego block from hell, why not put steps in place to ensure that there is an alternative?

The advertising community has come up with a brilliant solution to this problem. You will notice in both of the above sceenshots that the advertising banner and box ads show just fine. This is not rocket science, this is a policy put in place by an advocacy group (e.g. in Canada the IAB) that insists that all campaigns running flash provide a backup gif or jpg image that can be served in it’s place for users that do not have the flash plugin.

How hard is that? If a publisher absolutely has to have their precious flash, why not put some kind of backup to ensure that those of us who have chosen incompatible devices are able to either see what we are missing out on or, even better, offer us an alternate experience.

I think that this whole argument will be moot in a few years. I’m in the camp that wants to see the use of flash for published content go the way of the Dodo.

I know that sounds somewhat hypocritical given the sexy flash Tag Cloud you see to the right if you are not visiting on an iDevice, but you should be aware that the folks visiting us from an iDevice see a normal Tag Cloud that gives credit to the developers of the sexy flash Tag Cloud if they are using this full site. Alternatively, I have provided iDevice users the option of an iDevice optimized site that delivers only HTML content to ensure super quick load times.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that flash has it’s uses. I love flash for advertising purposes because it allows a single file to be served quite simply and, with the backup strategy already in place, quite effectively to all kinds of devices and browsers. I just think that publishers need to be cognizant of the fact that they are alienating a portion of their visitors by providing crappy user experiences.

I know that I am, and will continue to be, more loyal to sites that are aware of me and that cater to me as a visitor.

The Future of Marketing

Posted by ngreene on Mar 24, 2010 in Media

Advertising is a constantly changing world. There’s always something new and exciting right around the corner.

Today, over and above what is considered “traditional” media, advertisers have a plethora of options in the digital space at home, in the office, or on the go. Advertisers can connect with people in real life with experiential marketing and good old word of mouth advertising is making a big come back with the increased use of social networking.

The changes seem unending and sometimes a little overwhelming, but I have to admit that, as a consumer, I am starting to look forward to some of the new technologies that have to be getting very close.

For example, I carry an iPhone. This handy device, and most of the smartphones on the market today, have built in GPS capabilities, internet access, and an ability to be constantly connected. Today, almost nobody is taking advantage of the fact that I am carrying around a device that could be providing me with location based opportunities.

I think the game Foursquare is just the beginning of location-based marketing. I think in a few short years the company who figures out the best way to get users to announce their presence and request opportunities to receive location-based advertising will be the next big player.

For those who are not familiar with Foursquare, it is a very simple game: you “check-in” whenever you go somewhere, and you earn “points” and “badges” for every activity that you complete. You get a few points for doing the same things every day and you get bonus points for going to new places, adding in locations to the Foursquare database, or for random fun stuff such as the Bender badge for going out to bars four nights in a row.

Where it gets interesting is when you start to add a few “friends”. Once you have a network, you start to get their locations pushed to your device when they check in. And when you go to a location that a friend has been, you can receive “tips” about that location as you arrive. Sometimes the tip is a point of interest, but sometimes the tip is a recommendation that might even be relevent to you, such as “try the chicken wings, best in the city”.

Now imagine that businesses can tap into users as they volunteer to announce that they are arriving with some sort of beacon. I would love to “check in” at a restaurant and be sent a message telling me what the specials are for the evening. Or walk into a movie theatre and be sent a message of how many open seats are availabe in each theatre when I am choosing which movie to watch.

All of a sudden opportunites are tailored to me at a time and place where I can take advantage of them.

Now let’s take it a step further. I imagine Google coming up with the next part simply because they are the only company that I trust enough to be able to pull it off. Imagine being able to cut out some of the advertising noise that we are bombarded with every day. Depending on which source you choose to believe, North Americans are exposed to 3,000 to 5,000 ad impressions per day across all media that we are exposed to as we live our lives.

I would love to be able to give information about myself to a company like Google and have them truly tailor my digital and mobile experience to my interests. This would inherently need to be a multi pronged approach:

1) Let me tell advertisers who I am (age, sex, life stage, job function, demography, etc), what I am interested in, what types of decisions I make, and what my attitudes are towards a useful set of parameters.

2) Let me choose to share my location when I am willing

3) Track my search behaviour to predict changes to my status (e.g. If I search for baby strollers, I’m either about to have a baby or want to be able to be a resource to someone else who needs that information)

4) Serve me up with ads that are extremely relevant, wherever I am and from whatever device I choose to consume media.

5) Allow me to override any information that I do not find useful and refine the relevance of what is being served to me as frequently as I wish. Ideally, the more feedback I give, the more relevant the advertising to me could be.

6) Keep my information, both shared and derived, private so that no individual, corporation, or government can possibly access that information.

The privacy piece is the biggest concern with this coming to fruition, but I feel confident that Canada is on the forefront when it comes to privacy issues and that the right company (ahem… Google) could actually pull something like this off.

I predict that the combination of voluntary user participation in the consumption of advertising, combined with an increased prominence of location-based marketing will be absolutely huge once someone figures out how to do it properly.

WordPress Challenges

Posted by ngreene on Mar 18, 2010 in Projects

Setting up a blog and getting started was a really fun process. There were a lot of steps and some challenges along the way, but getting set up has been really quite enjoyable.

I’m left today with a few challenges that I am not sure how to overcome.

1) Sometimes, but not always, my social media buttons do not work the way I expect the to … Actually, facebook always works fine but sometimes Twitter and Digg give me an error implying that my website is “redirecting too much for their liking”.

And

2) Connecting to WordPress using my iPhone is sometimes, but not always, a challenge.

It seems to me that there is a connection because when the iPhone works perfectly the social media buttons do not and vice versa.

I’m not sure what this means. In fact, I spent 30 mins on the phone the other night with GoDaddy hosting tech support and the guy had no idea about my problem. He suggested that it was probably a WordPress issue an that I check in on the WordPress forums.

I guess that’s my next step.

What does it take to make my front page?

Posted by ngreene on Mar 11, 2010 in Technology

Everyone that has an iPhone eventually needs to figure out how to organize their applications. I struggle with this on a daily basis and am constantly making tweaks based on making my own user experience as awesome as possible.

I have finally reached a point where my tweaking has brought me to a place that I am very happy. Above is a screengrab of my home page. These are the apps that I either use the most or need access to quickly when I’m on the go. I’m sure that’s what pretty much everyone does with their home page.

I should admit as early as possible that I am an app whore. I have at least 200 apps downloaded, many of which I would never use again, but had to try to see which were best for me.

I have 6 pages of apps that I keep on the iPhone, including my home page. Here is my system:

1) Home Page
2) Social Media and Quick Reference
3) Games
4) Geo Utilities
5) Non-Geo Utilities
6) Native Apps that I can’t delete

I have had more pages and more categories, buy I found that I would get confused by which apps fell in which categories and I would argue with myself over which category something really belonged to in the first place.

Why I thought this might make an interesting post is the fact that I recently found two apps that immediately made my front page on downloading: Stanza, and Sleep Cycle.

Stanza, which could easily be classed as a non-geo utility has immediately proven to be one of my favourite apps. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would ever read a whole novel on an iPhone I would have laughed in your fave. After experiencing how easy it is to download new books and read in any amount of light with this app I am amazed. I have read two books in the last 2 weeks.

Sleep Cycle, which is an app that tracks your quality of sleep and also wakes you when your body is more prepared to be woken, is another fast favourite. I need to have this on front page because when I am tired enough to fall asleep I don’t want to have to search for the app to launch it. I may only be able to use it once each day, but the data that comes from it is insightful and interesting so it is definitely worthwhile.

Now my front page is full and for anything to break into that top position I would have to bump one of my favourites. I can’t imagine something new impressing me that much.

What will it take to make my front page going forward?