MobileViews Blog

Category: iPod

Apple iPod products

  • Apple iPod touch 1.1.2 157.9MB Update

    I finally got around to downloading the Apple iPod touch 1.1.12 firmware upgrade (157.9MB large). I couldn’t find an official Apple page describing the changes in 1.1.12. However, I did find a discussion thread in their support area created by users describing the changes. You can find it at…

    Apple Support Discussions Forums User Generated 1.1.12 Changelog

    The most noticeable change is that calendar events can now be directly added on the touch itself (in addition to iCal on the Mac). Looking forward to playing with the upgraded touch a bit to see what else has changed.

  • Apple iPod touch 1.1.2 Adds Calendar Event Creation: Watch Out Windows Mobile!

    According to MacRumors.com, the Apple iPod touch 1.1.2 firmware upgrade adds the ability to add calendar events on the iPod touch (the iPhone already has this feature). My iPod touch is still at 1.1.1 and is apparently not on the schedule for upgrading today. So, I can’t confirm this first hand. But, I’m looking forward to getting the update sometime in the next couple of days.

    Combine this news with the commentary over on PocketPCThoughts.com about well-known techie Chris Pirillo’s conversion from Windows Mobile to the iPhone (see Chris Pirillo on the iPhone vs. Windows Mobile for Business Use) and the many concurring comments on PocketPCThoughts’ forums. Now, things are getting interesting. The big problem with the iPhone is that many of us in the US are unwilling to switch from our current mobile phone service provider to AT&T Wireless. The iPod touch, however, doesn’t require anyone to make any kind of change to use it.

    Since the calendar sync will probably be flawless like the contacts sync, iPod touch owners are not going to have the kind of love-hate relationship with ActiveSync and WMDC that Pocket PC and Smartphone owners have. In fact, iPod touch owners simply won’t even think about syncing much. It will just work.

    The iPod touch’s Safari browser is already the gold standard for mobile browsing. The touch is a great music, video, and photo player. It lets you enter contacts and soon (if not now) lets you enter calendar events. Most people don’t add applications to their Pocket PC or Smartphone from what I’ve seen over the years. But, application development is underway via Jailbreak and iPod touch and iPhone development will be legitimized by Apple early in 2008. Add the perceived coolness factor that all iPods (and the iPhone) have and you have a killer mobile product.

    While I doubt that anyone from the Microsoft Windows Mobile team reads this blog, I’ll add a note for them here anyway… Earth to Windows Mobile Team: Geeks like me (and probably the two or three people who read this blog now and then) will continue to buy and use Windows Mobile devices because we need/want apps like Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, eWallet, Newsbreak, SoundExplorer, and HanDBase. But, the vast majority of non-enterprise non-geeks (99.999+% of the world) just need contacts, calendar, and media playback (mobile browsing is not high on the list of non-geeks). And, since syncing an iPod with a Mac or PC is natural and easy for iPod users, syncing contacts and calendar will be just another automatic action that they don’t worry about.

    I’ve already watched one of my favorite mobile tools, the good ol’ Windows CE Handheld PC, go the way of the dinosaur and disappear. The Pocket PC (Classic Edition – no phone radio) is probably not far behind. And, the Pocket PC Phone Edition (Professional Edition) and Smartphone (Standard Edition) may become niche enterprise tools. The iPhone and iPod touch are here now. The Google phones are on their way in 2008 (or more likely 2009 IMHO). If Windows Mobile doesn’t fix its broken basics such as the awful sync experience and awful Internet Explorer web browsing experience, it will not be a viable platform except in vertical markets by 2010.

  • iPhone Yahoo Pipes

    I’m constantly amazed by how enthusiastically websites are adapting to the relatively new iPhone browser. The latest one that caught my attention is the iPhone tuned site for Yahoo! Pipes.

    iphone.pipes.yahoo.com: Access your mashup while mobile

    As the announcement’s title says, you can find it at…

    iphone.pipes.yahoo.com

    I just tried it using my iPod touch and it worked fine on that too (as expected). The one tiny gotcha is that the login screen is the conventional non-iPhone formatted web page. Fortunately, the Safari browser deals with it just fine. You are thrown back to an iPhone/touch friendly view after the login process is complete.

  • The Have and Have Nots: Windows Mobile vs. iPhone Sites

    Weather.com Mobile

    The screen shot on the left is of the Weather.com site on a Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PC (Professional Edition). The screen shot on the left is the same site tweaked for the iPhone on an iPod touch. Although it takes a lot longer to load on the iPod touch (both devices were on the same WiFi network although the Pocket PC was limited to 802.11b vs. the 802.11g for the iPod touch), the iPhone version sure looks a lot nicer and provides a lot of functionality without scrolling up and down.

    Microsoft has a lot of work to do to bring the Windows Mobile Internet Explorer browser into the 21st century. The iPhone has clearly inspired a lot of firms and their web designers to maximize web-impact for the iPhone’s Safari browser in a way that we have not seen previously for other web-enabled mobile devices.

    Microsoft’s announcements of more enterprise mobile-enabling products for 2008 is good for the enterprise. But, again, that is clearly not where most of us are these days even if we work for a large organization. Microsoft really needs to focus on the basics and fix the broken stories at that level: Internet Explorer, ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center, and alarms are just a few of the basics that need fixing.

  • Google Docs for Mobile Devices

    Google Docs Mobile

    Google announced that a mobile-friendly read-only (ack!) Google Docs web access.

    Docs on the go

    Head over to https://docs.google.com/m to view (but not edit) documents and spreadsheets on an iPhone (iPod touch), Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device. iPhone users can also view presentations (slide decks).

    I recorded a quick and dirty 2 minute video demo and placed it on YouTube: Google Docs for Mobile Devices on an iPod touch.

  • Video Viewing Experience on Windows Mobile, Zune, and iPods

    Viewings videos on ultra portable devices is nothing new. However, perhaps surprisingly, the oldest of the device families, Windows Mobile, falls far short of a good end-user experience. This is especially true for the under-powered (processor-wise) Smartphone (Standard Edition) where viewing anything except a video specially prepared for it results in a disappointing experience. For example try viewing a video podcast NOT specially prepared for a Smartphone. You will probably see what amounts to still images with a sound track.

    The Pocket PC (Professional Edition) video experience is a bit better but still not good. Since Windows Mobile is not designed as a media device, you will find it does things like dim or blank the screen after a timeout period. Normally, this is fine since it is a battery saving feature. However, it is annoying to have to remember to change this setting everytime you watch a video and then set it back when you are done. On the other hand, the faster processors on the Pocket PC (compared to the Smartphones) lets you watch a wider variety of video files (including video podcasts). And, it is not often that you see someone showing a video on an external device connected to a Smartphone or Pocket PC. Despite what Microsoft might claim, these are not real media devices (see any WM5 or WM6 Playlists for example?).
    The Zune does a better job since it is designed as media device. However, its non-intuitive user interface (navigation pad) makes something as simple as scrolling and selecting from a list tedious. Once a video gets rolling, it is a pretty good experience though and optional docks make it easy to connect to an external display.

    The iPod touch has the best video and user interface I’ve seen so far. Its one drawback is that Apple decided that all 6th generation iPods require docks with a special chip for video playback on external devices. So, previous video docking solutions do not work with the latest iPod models.

    The 5th (previous) generation iPods only had one model that provided video playback. But, it has a huge existing accessory infrastructure that lets you easily and relatively cheaply purchase devices to provide a larger video screen. For example, there are several portable DVD players with integrated LCD screens that also have iPod docs built-in. This lets you use the player to show and listen to videos on a larger screen.

    For the moment, it is a toss-up between the 5th and 6th generation iPods. As soon as the 3rd party accessory market catches up (probably this holiday season or early 2008), the 6th generation will be the device of choice. It will be interesting to see what the Zune 2.0 delivers. And, unfortunately, my favorite overall mobile device family (Windows Mobile) is down for the count when it comes to Media playback.