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Eye-Fi SD Card
One of the first cool products I found on the expo floor is the Eye-Fi. It essentially integrates WiFi onto an SD memory card. With it, you can automatically upload images directly from your camera to your computer, or to Picasa or Flickr- all wirelessly.
It’s really convientient and super easy to use. You pop the card into your digital camera, take some photos, and they wirelessly upload into iPhoto. The 2GB Eye-FI card will cost you $99.99. They have a Mac update that is compatible with existing Eye-Fi cards.
MacBook Air Close Up
After seeing the MacBook Air up close, I have a better appreciation for its industrial design. It’s beveled on the top and bottom, giving it this feeling like it’s floating just off the table.
It’s impossibly light. It almost feels like a toy, though it’s smooth and durable. But there’s no question it’s state-of-the-art. After a few minutes of zooming through all the apps, I was amazed that all this technology was running so fast on something so small.
The camera was esspecially amazing as the screen is wafer thin. I have no idea how they got a camera in there. We did a quick video chat with some neighbors and it looked great.
There’s a new mag-safe power design that I like much better. The wire doesn’t come out and to the left of the computer, but rather goes behind it. Much better.
But the best feature is the new guesture controls on the huge trackpad. It’s a major improvement on how we interface with laptops. I’d like to see this on the whole MacBook lineup with even more guestures added. Of course, building it right into the screen would be nice too.
Keynote Announcements
Steve Jobs hasn’t lost his touch. While this keynote wasn’t as exciting as the iPhone announcment keynote (what is?), it was very good and a lot of fun to attend. Apple already has the keynote available for you to watch for yourself. But if you don’t have the time, I’ll sum it up for you…
Time Capsule
This little wireless wonder is WiFi base station and a 500GB ($299) or 1TB ($499) hard drive that automatically backs up your digital stuff using Time Machine.
iPhone Software Update
This update includes a lot of what users have been asking and wating for, including “find me” mapping, web clips, and home screen customization. I can’t wait to try it all out.
iTouch Update
You iThouch users can now get Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks added with this latest $20 iTouch update Seems like a deal to me.
iTunes Movie Rentals and a redesigned Apple TV
You can now rent movies on iTunes for around 4 bucks. You can keep the file and watch it anytime within 30 days, but once you start watching it, it will expire in 24 hours. I personally don’t think 24 hours is enough time. I think they should extend this to 36 hours, to give people more fexiblility. Either way it’s exciting that every major studio has signed on. So that will offer users a ton of great content.
The new Apple TV will let you rent those movies in HD for around 5 bucks (same rules apply), but no computer is required. You can do it all through Apple TV. My favoirte feature though are all the photo accessibility enhancements. You can now access your .mac and Flickr photos to display in full HD glory.
MacBook Air
Though we kind of knew it was coming, it was still exciting to see the much discussed MacBook Air a reality. This thing is super thin and very light. It starts at $1799 and comes with a 13.3 inch display (LED), a full keyboard, built-in 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, built-in iSight, 80 GB Hard Drive, and 2GB of RAM. Plus, it gives you a lot of the same gesture control you love from your iPhone right on the trackpad.
Nice.
OLED Keyboards From Apple?
The rumor mill can be a creative bunch. The latest gossip is around Apple announcing an OLED keyboard like the concept pictured above.
This keyboard is not from Apple, it’s a concpet called the Optimus Tactus.
“It does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size. Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images”.
I would LOVE to see Apple’s take on a keyboard like this. As a designer this kind of input flexibility would really improve my work experience, using icons for keys could also shorten the learning curve on new software. But, I wouldn’t hold my breath on seeing it this MacWorld.
$100 iPhone Credit
Making good on Steve’s promise, Apple has released directions on how to get your $100 iPhone credit. They handled this in the best possible way…all online.
Simply visit this page, where you enter your phone number and your serial number, then Apple will text you with an access code (your welcome At&t), enter that code into the site and you get your credit in the form of a bar code that you print and take to an Apple store or use online.
I’m thinking of some new headphones…
Apple Special Event Announcements
You can catch the play-by-play of Apple’s Special Event announcements over at Engadget, but here’s the summary:
iPod Shuffle gets new colors
iPod Nano gets new design (I’m not crazy about it) and plays video
iPod Classic gets a storage bump up to 160GB
Introducing iPod Touch- pretty much an iPhone without the phone
Custom ringtones- made from iTunes music, .99 plus the cost of the song
iPhone price drop to $399- where every early adopter and promoter of the iPhone gets screwed out of $200 Apple has made amends (more on that later).
and my favorite announcements…
iTunes WiFi store- where you can buy iTunes music right from your iPod touch or iPhone. And a Starbucks WiFi store (not as exciting but still pretty cool)- where you can buy music you hear in Starbucks stores via iTunes from your iPod Touch or iPhone.
I think the biggest news coming out of today’s event is the iPhone price drop. I understand the business reason… making the 8 gig really attractive for Christmas shoppers. But essentially, everyone who bought early paid an extra $200 ($100/month) just to be among the first. I think that’s really bad P.R. and a terrible way to treat your loyal fans!
So, Apple… I go to MacWorld, tell everyone about the iPhone, blog about it, then wait in line for 9 hours for the chance to buy one, blog about it, and my reward for creating all this buzz for you is a price drop 8 weeks after launch? Come on! I know technology moves fast, and generally speaking you should buy and never look back, but this is just ridiculous!
I want a $200 Starbucks card in my next bill or something…
UPDATE: Our friends at TUAW have a post about getting your $200 back.
UPDATE: Thanks to TUAW’s suggestion about calling American Express, I’m happy to say that they are refunding me the $200. If you were lucky enough to pay with your Amex card let me save you some time on the phone…call 1-800-322-1277 and tell the Rep that you want to use your Purchase Protection benefit for your iPhone. They knew all about the iPhone price drop, and were very helpful. Membership does have it’s privileges.
American Express good. Apple bad.
UPDATE: Ok. I love Apple again. In an effort to make things right, his Stevieness has issued a $100 store credit to us early iPhone adopters. Way to go Steve… there’s the Apple I know and love.
Video Chat With iPhone
At the risk of reaching iPhone overload…
My biggest feature request for the iPhone is iChat, and with it the ability to video chat. Maybe it was all the Dick Tracy and Batman shows growing up, but I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
It’s not likely to show up as a software update since the camera is in the back of the iPhone, so I’ll have to wait for an upgrade (maybe at Macworld in January *fingers crossed*).
But thanks to these creative hackers, with some serious hacking and a little device they’ve created (I’ll call it the “Reflectomatic 2007″), I can video chat from my local Starbucks today… we’ll if I was willing to hack my iPhone and set up a server to transmit the images I could.
Nice work guys.
Using My iPhone
Let me start by saying that the iPhone is not perfect. There are a few things I’d like to see added in the very near future (I’ll get to those). But, that being said this thing is AMAZING.
Honestly this is the coolest gadget I’ve ever seen, and for those of you that know me, that’s saying something. I keep waiting for it to become self-aware and enslave us all.
I’m very happy to report that the commercials did not oversell how simple it is to use, or how fast things work. Everything seems to work as shown, or in some cases, even better.
I’ll just run through the apps really fast…
1. SMS
Love it. It looks and feels like iChat, keeping your text conversations in nice neat threads.
2. Calendar
This works like you’d expect. Nothing too exciting here.
3. Photo’s
This is one of my favorite apps. It gets plenty of oohs and ahhs when I show it off. After a little pinching and flicking you’ll be sold.
4. Camera
This takes pretty good looking pics in ideal lighting conditions. But lower the lights and the photos get a bit noisy. Overall this works great for as often as I use my phones camera feature.
5. YouTube
This is a very cool app, adding lots of great content without taking up the drive space on your iPhone. I was really surprised at how fast video’s load and play over ATT’s Edge network. Really, my longest buffer has been about 30-40 seconds. Though the videos seem to look better over WiFi.
6. Stocks, Weather and Clock
These all work just the way you’d expect and all those video’s show. But it’s handy having them with you all the time.
7. Maps
Fantastic! Really this feature works better than the video’s showcased. Love it.
8. Notes
This seems to work like you’d expect, except for some reason the notes use this terrible comic sans font instead of sticking with Helvetica like the rest of the iPod apps. What’s up with that Apple?
9. Phone
This is the “killer app”. Making calls is a breeze and the sound quality has been great, with volume control on the side of the iPod. I’m actually surprised at how well the mic in the standard earbuds works. It’s worked well even in louder places.
10. Mail
It’s real email in your pocket. Emails render just as they do in your computer’s inbox. You can zoom to read sections just by double-tapping. And tapping links opens Safari, working just like you’d want. Composing an email is simple, which leads me to the virtual keyboard. I had read a lot about getting used to it, but I haven’t had any problems. I just plow away and it corrects my mistakes with very good accuracy. Though, I’m still using the one finger typing approach.
11. Safari
The iPhone needs a Flash plug-in. But aside from that, this is clearly the best web experience on a mobile device. Even over the Edge network I was pleased with the page load speed.
12. iPod
Oh that’s right, it’s an iPod too! Cover flow looks great, so do videos. Have I mentioned how long I’ve been wanting a wide-screen video iPod. I LOVE IT!
Now for my wish list. Are you listening Apple? First, “Copy and Paste” is missing, and there have been a couple of instances where it would have been really handy.
I think you’re already all over this one, but you’ve got to get Flash, as so many websites are built with it.
Shopping for songs/movies right from the phone would be great- even if you have to restrict it to WiFi only, to speed things up.
That’s it for now… overall (in case you can’t tell) I’m really pleased.
Unboxing The iPhone And Waiting
I imagined writing a much happier post today, but my iexcitement turned to idisappointment really fast.
It all started out nice. I rushed home and unboxed my iPhone. I immediately docked it and began the activation process in iTunes, it seemed simple enough, but… that was roughly 7:30pm EST last night. It’s now 9:00pm on Saturday, and my iPhone STILL ISN’T ACTIVATED! My iPhone still displays the above image, and my iTunes is sitting on a very unhelpful screen that says “Your activation requires additional time to complete”.
I can’t even begin to express my frustration and disappointment. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning to the present you’ve been dreaming of for years, and “Santa” forgot the batteries.
I’ve made 4 calls to ATT today and spoke with the nicest people you could wish for, none of which had any clue, nor could they offer up how long completing my activation would take. They just rattled off some spiel about the iPhone sales being “unexpected and unprecedented”. Duh! Honestly were you planning on it tanking?
I hear lots of people are having similar experiences. To those of you already flicking and pinching, you have no idea how lucky you are.
UPDATE: It’s Sunday afternoon and my iPhone still sits lifeless connected to iTunes awaiting some magic activation from ATT. That’s right, we’re fast approaching 48 hours since I started the activation process. ATT has a lot of ground to make up after a horrible first impression like this. They’ve managed to suck all the joy out of this whole experience for me. If you’re reading this ATT… ACTIVATE MY PHONE!
UPDATE: At 6:15pm, after 4 calls with ATT today my iPhone is finally activated! Stay tuned for thoughts and a mini review…
iPhone Guided Tour
Planning on picking up an iPhone? Then get a jump on your friends on how to use it with Apple’s guided tour. They just added this 20 minute walk through of the iPhone features to their site.
If you know someone who doesn’t want an iPhone, forward them this overview. That should change their minds.
