patrickWeb

Mobile

Sunday, July 13, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 12

Mobile phone It is now more than 84 hours since I got my hands on the iPhone 3g. The bottom line is that the phone itself is a masterpiece -- really great. As expected, there are many applications available in the "app store" and many thousands more to come. That is the good news. The bad news is that apple.com is failing big time.

The activation and iTunes problems are well documented in the media but I am surprised that there is not more coverage of the MobileMe issues. MobileMe is a key part of Apple's strategy. It is basically a "cloud computing" offering that enables you to put all your email, contacts, calendar items, and data files at me.com which is Apple's name for their cloud. Once in the cloud, you can then synchronize everything with Outlook. If you make a change in Outlook it goes to the cloud and then down to your iPhone. If you make a change on your iPhone it goes up to the cloud and down to Outlook. If you go to a kiosk at the airport or use a computer at a friend's house and make a change, both your iPhone and Outlook are updated automatically.

I took the bait -- hook, line, and sinker. After installing the MobileMe software on both my iPhone and PC, I synchronized with iTunes. This resulted in all my contacts and calendar items being removed from the iPhone -- they would now be replaced by an update from the cloud. One big assumption -- the cloud (Apple servers) has to be working -- and it wasn't. This is the problem I anticipated in the last post. Apple does not have their act together in maintaining their cloud. I called support today and they said "MobileMe is not working -- all the servers are down". Not good. The great thing about clouds is that you do not have to worry about Windows, your varivous PC issues, etc., but the bad news is that you become totally dependent on the cloud provider -- in this case, Apple -- and they are not a proven player. At this point, all my data is in the cloud and none of it is on my iPhone.

This all reminds me of the Fall of 1995 when we were preparing ibm.com to host the Olympic Games of 1996. It turned out to be the largest web site ever built. We had 54 outstanding engineers working on it and it turned out to be successful. Fortunately, we were able to convince the company to make a large investment in the infrastructure. I remember saying that "we don't how many people will come to the web site, we don't know when they will come, nor do we know what they will do when they get there". Dave Grossman, of our team, called it "trial by fire". That was 13 years ago. The lessons learned in 1995 served IBM well and it is now the largest web hosting company in the world. Apple has a lot to learn.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone July 13, 2008 10:58 PM

Friday, July 11, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 11

Mobile phone On July 5 of last year I received the iPhone and wrote ten stories and updates about my experience with it. With today's release of the second mobile wave from Apple, a new set of stories begins. There is no Apple store within one hundred miles of where I am spending the summer but there is an AT&T store twenty-two miles away in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania. I arrived at the store at 6:45 AM to get in line behind 16 people who were already camped out. I brought a beach chair and the Kindle so waiting was not so bad. The painful part was hearing them say that their systems were crashing and it was taking more than a half-hour per customer to get a phone and get it activated. With the original iPhone you could activate it yourself through iTunes but this time AT&T is taking no chances that you might hack the phone and activate it through one of their competitors. So much for the convenience of ordering and activating from home.

The store opened at 8am and people were let in by security five at a time. The manager of the store went down the line outside and asked each person what they wanted, explained their various rules on eligibility, etc. They treat it as quite an honor to be able to get an iPhone -- and they charge accordingly. The manager said it would take 15 minutes per batch of five people. The first person came out at around 9:30! The manager explained that they were having systems problems. That is an understatement. I would not want to be the CIO at Apple or AT&T today. A half-hour later the manager reported that the problem causing the delays was iTunes at Apple. "Everyone is trying to activate phones at the same time". What did they expect?

At 10:30 it was my turn. I asked for the 16GB Black iPhone 3G, the sales associate picked up the phone to ask for it, and seconds later someone put it on the counter. It turned out to be the last one. Lucky me. I handed over my AMEX card and driver license. Then the AT&T system crashed. A half-hour later, after I had signed an agreement and charge, the sales guy said that they had discovered a shortcut that would speed things up -- he could do a partial activation and then I could just sync up with iTunes to complete it. I got to the lake and discovered that the new iPhone did not yet work and the old iPhone did not either. The AT&T store had partly activated the new phone and in the process deactivated the old one. No problem. All I had to do was download the new version of iTunes and connect the new iPhone to the ThinkPad and activate with iTunes. For the next couple of hours I tried repeatedly but iTunes was not responding. The Apple servers were swamped. Bottom line after eight hours I had two iPhones that did not work. The "upgrade" cost $18 plus a new two-year commitment plus an upgrade to the monthly data plan of $15 -- a 75% increase. The data plan upcharge is justified because the 3G network is so much faster than the "Edge" network that has been criticized here many times. The only thing is that the new 3G network is not available in many places.

At the nine-hour mark I was able to connect to the iTunes server, activate the phone, and synchronize all my contacts, calendar, and email. This is Apple's strength -- making things easy by tightly integrating all the pieces. The downside is that you have to get locked into the "new" AT&T. I do think AT&T is improving and putting a lot of emphasis on customer service. The service question at this stage is with Apple. They have proved they are not flawless when it comes to systems management. Seamless integration of devices and software is one thing -- seamless integration of millions of users all trying to connect at the same time and making unpredictable demands of the "cloud" is something much more challenging. They are not off to a good start with iPhone 2.0 after all the hype.

In spite of the challenges, the iPhone 3G gives a great initial impression. There are a number of nice new features and, as predicted, a flood of new applications in the "app store" which is tightly integrated in iTunes. I am quite impressed with the first dozen or so that I have acquired. Some of them are expensive but many are actually free. I expect to see many thousands of highly useful applications that will drive millions of people to get iPhones.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Mobile, iPhone July 11, 2008 06:57 PM

Friday, June 27, 2008

Supernova 2008 - Part 3

Discussion about the mobile Internet is taking an increasing amount of the agenda at technology conferences. The scope is increasing dramatically with not just 3-6 billion mobile phones but with more and more of them having GPS, cameras, accelerometers, and other kinds of sensors to come. Nokia described a research project in which 150 students have been driving around and providing anonymous information about where they are and how fast they are going. The result is a centrally integrated traffic prediction database available to everybody who is driving. Other possibilities include tracking of influenza and hypertension through personal health monitoring and real-time weather monitoring.

Most of us in the U.S. grew up with the PC as our primary way to connect to the Internet. Mobile phones are already the primary networking device for hundreds of millions and soon billions of people. The mobile Internet will be a natural for many of those people and most of them will likely never own a PC. 80% of the world's population now has mobile coverage in 220 countries.

One major difference between the U.S. and developing countries is in the use of SMS text messaging. Africa, for example, is way ahead of us. They are using SMS as an integral part of their financial services infrastructure. At the end of the evening with Matimba Mbungela at Moyo's during a recent trip to South Africa, the server came to the table with a wireless credit card reader. After the card was swiped, Matimba's mobile phone received an SMS text message confirming that the charge had been made to his credit card account at the bank. South Africa has embraced mobile as a key part of their banking infrastructure. In fact any debit or credit to your bank account or credit card results in an SMS message. Not everyone in South Africa has an Internet connection but tens of millions have a mobile phone. The security is good because most people don't share their phone. In India, farmers use SMS to determine the market prices of various crops and weather information to assist in planning their activities. SMS has enormous potential for applications of all kinds. The New York Times, Fox News, and others are using SMS for news and election alerts but when it comes to SMS for data oriented applications, other countries are well ahead of the United States.

I envision SMS having broad applicability. There are so many places that people spend time waiting. At the hospital for an x-ray or blood sample, at restaurants, the auto garage, department of motor vehicles, and many others. A simple text messaging system could buzz your phone to let you know it is your turn. You could also be alerted about auctions that have been completed, checks that have cleared, stock prices that hit a target, a family member being discharged from the hospital, an elderly relative needing your assistance, and countless other applications. An SMS message from a service person that you requested to go to your house to fix the furnance could alert you that they have arrived and your reply could unlock the door to your house. SMS messages are "simple". They don't have the "baggage" of emails with all the headers and footers. They can contain text and data in an uncluttered way. There are many ways to send SMS messages from your PC also. I use ipipi.com which is an international Text Messaging Service that lets you send and receive SMS from your desktop.

Other mobile related patrickWeb stories

Conferences, Mobile June 27, 2008 11:32 AM

Monday, June 9, 2008

iPhone - Update 10

There was a lot of news from Apple today about the new iPhone 3G. Bottom line -- it is everything I predicted plus a lot more. Can't wait to get one. There will be plenty to say about the announcements and I will begin sharing thoughts soon.

Mobile, iPhone June 9, 2008 09:23 PM

Monday, May 19, 2008

Microcapital

Africa

The final speaker at IBM's Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles was Nick Donofrio, the company's Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology. Always an emotional, enthusiastic and at times nostalgic speaker, little did the audience know that the next day IBM would announce that Nick will be retiring on October 1 after a fantastic career of forty-four years. I have no doubts that he will end up involved in many activities and will find that he may need to go back to work to regain some spare time.

One of Nick's many leadership roles at IBM has been with the Global Innovation Outlook program. One of the recent GIO events brought together a diverse group of global thought leaders for a series of brainstorming sessions about the future of innovation and economic advancement in Africa. One of the greatest needs identified was to provide access to capital and financing to more of the African population. It was clear that there could be significant growth and transformation if there was a more open, scalable, lower-cost microfinance hub serving the African continent.

IBM and CARE have announced plans to enable microfinance institutions to dramatically lower the costs of providing financial services to large populations in the region who have no access to banks. The goal of the new Africa Financial Grid is to help alleviate poverty and promote economic development in the Sub-Saharan Region. The two organizations plan to establish an Africa Financial Grid built around a shared services and infrastructure model designed to significantly reduce operating costs, streamline lending processes, scale rapidly, and integrate with other resources such as credit bureaus, financial institutions and international payment networks. The Grid will also eventually be able to link with mobile payment providers in Africa to enable customers to repay loans or transfer money via mobile phones. The project will initially target 11 countries with a combined population of more than 400 million people.

There are millions of people with business ideas and aptitudes but with incomes of less than $100 per month, it has been impossible to get financing. A small loan can make a big difference. For example, a loan of $50 enabled a mother of six to purchase fabric and sell embroidered products. Based on her success she was able to get subsequent loans and expand her business. Very small loans can have a big impact but it has been too costly for financial institutions to make the loans practical. The combination of technology and expertise that IBM and CARE bring to the table has the potential to change the model and have a huge impact. One more example of how the Internet continues to empower people.

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, People May 19, 2008 07:41 AM

Thursday, March 6, 2008

South Africa 2008 - Infrastructure

South African Food We met Matimba Mbungela at Moyo's for dinner. It was pleasantly warm at the table outside. It was the first time I had my face painted and the first time I had eaten oxtail. At the end of the evening there was another first. Matimba insisted on picking up the tab. The server came to the table with a wireless credit card reader. After the card was swiped, Matimba's mobile phone received an SMS text message. South Africa has embraced mobile as a key part of their banking infrastructure. After every credit card charge your cell phone receives a message confirming the charge. In fact any debit or credit to your bank account or credit card results in an SMS message. Not everyone in South Africa has an Internet connection but tens of millions have a mobile phone. The security is good because most people don't share their phone. SMS has enormous potential for applications of all kinds. The New York Times, Fox News, and others are using SMS for news and election alerts but when it comes to SMS for data oriented applications, South Africa is well ahead of the United States.

Other aspects of infrastructure in South Africa were a mixed bag. Broadband Internet access was available everywhere we visited including the MalaMala bushveld (via satellite). Even Zimbabwe had dial-up access in an Internet lounge. It was $4 for 15 minutes if you paid cash, or $8 if you put it on your hotel bill. According to the Internet World Stats, just over 10% of the population of South Africa had Internet access as of 2006. I suspect the number is much higher now, especially if you consider Internet Cafes. We saw many of these throughout Soweto. iBurst, one of South Africa's largest wireless broadband providers, is planning to roll out 20 000 Internet cafes by 2010.

Availability of electricity in Africa is a challenge -- even in major cities in South Africa. When we checked into our hotel in Johannesburg, there was a letter under the door from the hotel general manager saying that if elevators stopped working, the emergency power generator should kick in within eight minutes. There are rolling power outages throughout the country. People say it is due to poor planning by the government. Rolling blackouts are annoying but the bigger problem is total lack of electricity in many parts of Africa. Without electricity it is hard to move water. Without water it is hard to build an economy and grow food. The big potential is solar, as Africa is very well positioned geographically. The UN and non-profits such as SELF are trying to break down economic and governmental barriers to exploiting solar's potential.

Finally is mobile communications. I took my iPhone because that is where all my calendar and contact details are, but when it comes to phone calls and the mobile Internet, the Apple - AT&T team does not make it easy. Apple locks the iPhone so you can not put a Vodacom South Africa SIM card in it -- Apple wants to be sure to get their commission from AT&T. In South Africa, AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for inbound or outbound calls, fifty cents for a text message, and $20 per megabyte for data service. (Some modest discounts are available if you sign up for a monthly international plan). Some unwary travelers have forgotten to turn off automatic email retrieval in their iPhone and ended up with thousands of dollars in charges from AT&T.

Maxroam is an innovative VoIP company in Ireland. For a little more than $40 they send you a SIM card which you can put into any unlocked GSM phone -- such as the Treo which I held onto after getting the iPhone for use during international travel. Maxroam gives you a U.S. mobile phone number. If someone calls my iPhone while I am out of the country it will automatically forward to the Treo. If I want to make a call I dial from the Treo using whatever local GSM operator is available. The cost for Maxroam varies by country -- in South Africa it is 39 cents per minute for inbound calls and 49 cents per minute for local or outbound calls. The Maxroam proposition was very appealing but unfortunately it did not work. I called and emailed the company with no response. If not Maxroam, someone will figure out how to use VoIP to get around the outrageous international mobile roaming rates. Fortunately, I was able to get a Vodacom prepaid card for the Treo. It worked very well for local and international calls. Most international calls were made from the hotel room with my ThinkPad using Skype at two cents per minute.

Index of stories and pictures from South Africa 2008

Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels, iPhone March 6, 2008 10:22 AM

Monday, March 3, 2008

Luggage Back Too

Luggage There is much to write about Africa and Internet technology, but I can not resist sharing about our luggage. We waited in line along with many others to provide information about the size and color of the missing bags. The agent entered the information and gave us a printout that was clearly from a decades-old system. We were told to give a call after twenty-four hours. I called after 26 hours and was told there was no update and that it could take up to five days. The reasoning was that there may not be room in the next few flights for "extra" baggage -- the classic case of taking care of the new customers rather than upset them by helping customers who have already been disappointed. After continuing to get "there is no new information" I thought to myself that tracking luggage would be a great application for the web. I wondered if the airline had thought about it.

I visited South African Airways (flysaa.com) and at the bottom of the "After your trip" page was a link for "Lost/damaged luggage". Could it be? II entered the file reference number from the printout and voila! Information about each of the four bags was displayed along with the status. As the day went on the status changed from "No information available" to "Arrived at airport" to "Delivery process underway". It took thirty-six hours to get the luggage but I was impressed with how South African Airways had integrated a very old application with a user-friendly web front end. Apparently the people at the airport are not aware of it. The airline could certainly take some anxiety away and offload an extremely busy call center by informing their customers about the web application and including the url on the printout. The ideal solution would be to have the application automatically generate an SMS text message to your mobile phone every hour with the status.

The pictures are uploaded to the gallery and the stories will start soon.

Index of stories and pictures from South Africa 2008

Internet Technology, Mobile, On Demand, Travels March 3, 2008 04:58 PM

Friday, February 15, 2008

Long Distance

Telephone There are quite a few stories here in the blog about "Long Distance". What is long distance? When the grandkids come from the Philadelphia area to Connecticut to visit, they consider that a long distance. When visiting Singapore or New Zealand or other parts of Southeastern Asia, you know you are a long way from New York -- like 10,000 miles or so. When we head to Johannesburg, South Africa from JFK tomorrow, that will be a long distance (approximately 8,000 miles).

When it comes to a "telephone" conversation, the words "long distance" don't really mean anything. Many of us remember the phone ringing decades ago at grandma's house at holiday time and the room immediately being urged to "shhhhhh" because the call was "long distance". Hurry, we would say as we waited our turn for a few seconds to say hello to the caller. Long distance was considered a luxury then but now is becoming a merely historical term.

Many of us who have been involved with the Internet have known for a long time that voice over IP, or Internet Telephony, would become ubiquitous. It is just so natural to utilize the global infrastructure of the Internet to send information between any two points. The world is actually a small place when you consider the speed of today's networks. I recall being at an Internet Society meeting in Honolulu in 1994 participating on a panel about the future of the Internet. A fellow panelist, Geoff Huston from Telstra, made a simple but, at the time, very controversial point. Geoff said that "voice" is "just another kind of data". What he meant, of course, was that once you speak into a handset or headset and your voice is converted to a stream of ones and zeroes, the "bits" traveling over the Internet look just like any other bits -- like from web pages, emails, efaxes, audio, video, etc.

How will I stay in touch while in South Africa? I will be taking my iPhone because that is where all my calendar and contact details are, but when it comes to phone calls and the mobile Internet, the Apple - AT&T team does not make it easy. Apple locks the iPhone so you can not put a Vodacom South Africa SIM card in it -- Apple wants to be sure to get their commission from AT&T. In South Africa, AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for inbound or outbound calls, fifty cents for a text message, and $20 per megabyte for data service. (Some modest discounts are available if you sign up for a monthly international plan). Some unwarry travelers have forgetten to turn off automatic email retrieval in their iPhone and ended up with thousands of dollars in charges from AT&T.

Where does all this lead? If innovation and competition continue -- and I believe they will -- then we will have choices. One choice will be to have a WiFi mobile phone with Skype on it. If Apple continues to thwart that option on the iPhone, others will provide it. If governments and operators cling to the old models, it will take a while but there is no doubt in my mind that we will soon have a wide range of choices of service available on the Internet -- wherever we are and with whatever devices we have.

Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels, WiFi, iPhone February 15, 2008 05:20 PM

Monday, January 21, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 10

Mobile phone According to some people, the most important question about the iPhone is "does it blend?". Although quite amusing, the more important question to me is whether Apple is listening to the feedback of customers. In prior stories I have expressed confidence that there would be continuous improvement in the functionality of the iPhone. For the first six months I would give them a B+. The two big issues remain to be the applications and the network.

On the network side, I am still not very happy with AT&T primarily because of poor local coverage. However, I have learned about a new tower about two miles from my house that is scheduled to be turned on in late February. That could potentially make a dramatic difference for many people in my neck of the woods. In a few weeks I'll be in South Africa and will get a chance to see how the International aspects of the AT&T service work. Stay tuned on that.

The bigger question for most people is about applications. The "standalone" applications such as the calculator, calendar, photo gallery, clock, and offline email have not changed. There is still no "notes" application that syncs with anything and allows cut/copy/paste. The "networked" applications, such as stocks, weather, over the air email, and YouTube have not changed. iTunes has been improved and "maps" has had a huge improvement with the addition of a location function that uses radio signals to estimate your current location. Not as accurate as GPS but pretty good. I used it at the Albany airport this past weekend and it provided very good directions to where I was headed. The "Web 2.0" applications, through the Safari browser, are still a disappointment but I am sure there will be many useful webapps soon.

Webapps are most useful when they are connected to the network, preferably a fast one. The presumption with webapps is that the data -- travel itineraries, frequent flier numbers, healthcare information, personal financial information, etc. -- is on the server. That model only works if you can get to the server. With 16 GB likely on the way for new iPhones, there will be plenty of room for pictures and music and have space for local data. Local data will allow a lot of useful applications even when there is no available network connection.

The other limitation of webapps is the interface. In theory you can do anything in a web browser but the human interface is not always ideal. That is why millions of people use Quicken instead of quicken.com. This will change over time as web standards evolve but in the short term I believe there is a rational need for local applications. There are many applications that could be local applications with local storage on the iPhone. Both the app and data could be synchronized (backed up) through iTunes. What we are all anxiously waiting for are "third party local applications" on the iPhone as a supplement to Apple's apps and webapps. Apple announced that that they will have a development kit available in the first quarter and many are waiting to see what the SDK will allow and what "approvals" will be necessary and whether AT&T will have any say in "certifying" applications. The clock is ticking and I can hardly wait. Following the political scene is exciting but third party apps for the iPhone will be more exciting.

The most subtle change in the latest iPhone update last week was the ability to move the home screen icons around, and to create up to nine pages on which you can place icons or web address links. The iPhone comes with just seventeen icons. The home row plus nine screens of sixteen each will allow 148 applications. One that I am hoping for is Opera Mini.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Gadgets, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone January 21, 2008 02:54 PM

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Innovations That Will Change Our Lives

The annual "IBM Next Five in Five" is a list of predicted innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that could make these innovations possible. Following is a sampling of the five areas.

The press is covered with stories about all things "green". IBM believes the technology is actually going to make it easy to be green and save money in the process. A range of "smart energy" technologies will enable us to manage our personal "carbon footprint". As data begins to run through our home electrical system, appliances, air conditioners, lights, and computers, we will become connected to a "smart" electrical grid, making it possible to turn our appliances on and off using a web browser from a PC or cell phone. In addition to alerting you about leaving appliances on when they could be off, we will be able to establish rules to be followed to automatically conserve energy. Reports will show us electrical usage just like we track our cell phone minutes. Intelligent energy grids will also enable utilities to provide you with the option to use only green energy sources such as solar and wind.

The way we drive will be changing dramatically. In the next five years, IBM says our cars will connected to the roads we drive on and thereby we will be safer and remain out of traffic jams. The technology will keep traffic flowing smoothly, cut pollution, curb accidents, and make it easier and less stressful for us to get where we are going. Intelligent traffic systems will make real-time adjustments to traffic lights and divert traffic to alternate routes while our cars will communicate with each other and with sensors along the road -- allowing them to behave as if they have 'reflexes' so they can take preventive actions under dangerous conditions. When traffic is jammed up alternative routes will be activated.

Since we are what we eat, we should know what we eat. With foods being sourced across international borders, the need to know exactly what we eat has never been more important. According to IBM, in the next five years, new advancements in software and wireless radio sensor technologies will enable us to know the exact source and make-up of the food we buy -- the climate and soil the food was grown in, the pesticides and pollution it was exposed to, the energy consumed to create the product, and the temperature and air quality of the shipping containers it traveled in on the way to our dinner table.

In the next five years, IBM says our cell phones will become our wallets, ticket brokers, concierge, bank, shopping buddy, and tour guide. New technology will allow us to snap a picture of someone wearing an outfit we want and will automatically search the web to find the designer and the nearest shop that has the outfit in stock. We will then see what that outfit would look like on our personal avatar – a 3-D representation of our self on our phone, and ask our friends to check it out online and give their opinion. When we turn on our phone in a city we are visiting, it will automatically provide us with local entertainment options, activities, and dining options that match our preferences -- and then make reservations and purchase tickets for us.

Perhaps the most important area where IBM sees major advances is healthcare. Doctors will get enhanced “super-senses” to better diagnose and treat us. In the next five years, our doctor will be able to see, hear and understand our medical records in entirely new ways. In effect, doctor’s will gain superpowers – technologies will allow them to gain x-ray like vision to view medical images and super sensitive hearing to find the tiniest audio clue in our heart beat. Our avatar will allow doctors to click on a part of our body and then visualize the relevant information for that part of us. The hospital system will then be able to compare those visual and audio clues to thousands of other anonymous patient records and be able to be much more precise in diagnosing us and providing us with a personalized treatment plan.

Some of the innovations IBM is predicting may seem like a stretch but the basics of all of them are already in place. If we were to step back five years it is likely most of us would not have foreseen how we would be doing on the Internet today.

Other IBM annoncements made in December

Gadgets, Healthcare, Home Automation, IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile January 6, 2008 12:04 PM

Sunday, November 25, 2007

One Laptop Per Child

There will be millions of iPhones, Casio cameras, and other electronic gifts given this holiday season. If you want to give the gift of a lifetime and get satisfaction that you are helping improve the world, then consider buying a Laptop XO. For the price of an Amazon Kindle, you can be part of a really big idea. Originated at MIT, One Laptop Per Child, aims to put computers in the hands of millions of children in developing countries. "One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time".

The OLPC laptop has been in development for years but is now becoming a reality. Manufacturing has started and orders are being taken online between now and yearend. For $399, get a laptop for yourself -- or a lucky child you may know -- and one will also be given to a less fortunate child in Cambodia, Greece, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uruguay, or other participating countries. (The countries themselves are buying XO's -- Nigeria ordered one million of them). The two-for-one deal includes a full year of T-Mobile Hotspot WiFi service.

The XO has quite an impressive set of features and functions. The design optimizes power usage. The Internet connectivity is by WiFi but it also uses wireless mesh networking. This means that each XO acts as a wireless access point in a peer-to-peer fashion sharing connectivity with a nearby XO. The software is all open source and free including Linux, a web browser, word processor, email, audio and video player, and a very clever graphical user interface.

I hope large numbers of people, companies, and foundations participate in the limited time offer and that many millions of children will benefit. As an individual, the T-Mobile WiFi subscription for a year plus the $200 tax deduction for the donated laptop, it is hard to go wrong. Visit LaptopGiving.org during the holidays and you can make a difference.

Internet Technology, Media, Mobile, People, Personal Computing, Public Policy, WiFi November 25, 2007 10:56 AM

Friday, October 19, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 9

Mobile phone The most encouraging thing about the iPhone is that Apple seems to be listening to the feedback of customers. The price cut rebate was handled well -- and expeditiously -- but compared to the other issues it was an easy fix. Other than various functionality, which I am sure will be continuously improved, the two big issues remain the applications and the network.

There are four kinds of applications. First are the "standalone" applications such as the calculator, calendar, photo gallery, clock, and offline email. No network required. A second type could be classified as "networked" applications. Examples would be stocks, weather, over the air email, and YouTube. Each of these is a combination of a standalone application plus a network connection -- either via AT&T's network or from a WiFi hotspot. A third type of application is a networked application which works only with WiFi. Example being iTunes. The fourth type is the "webapp" or as described by Steve Jobs "Web 2.0" applications. The webapps work through the Safari browser. There will surely be many useful webapps but there are two important limitations.

First is that webapps are most useful when they are connected to the network, preferably a fast one. The presumption with webapps is that the data -- travel itineraries, frequent flier numbers, healthcare information, personal financial information, etc. -- is on the server. That model only works if you can get to the server. Some people 8 gigabytes is not enough to have local data in addition to music and pictures. I think many people would happily make the tradeoff to have a bit fewer songs and have some accessible local data. the 8 gig limitation is only temporary as we will have a terabyte of local storage before long.

The other limitation of webapps is the interface. In theory you can do anything in a web browser but the human interface is not always ideal. That is why millions of people use Quicken instead of quicken.com. This will change over time as web standards evolve but in the short term I believe there is a rational need for local applications. A perfect example is Navizon which is a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from WiFi access points and cellular towers which pinpoints your location and then launches a Google Map to show you where you are. (This is one of the third party applications that Apple erased with their recent firmware update). There are many applications that could be local applications with local storage on the iPhone. Both the app and data could be synchronized (backed up) through iTunes.

There is no doubt in my mind that enabling third party local applications on the iPhone as a supplement to webapps would be a great thing for Apple. I also have no doubt that Steve Jobs thinks so too. Apple announced this week that they will have a development kit available in the first quarter. This will spawn a flood of new iPhone applications. If anything, I believe Apple underestimated how many developers, in addition to the high-end personal digital assistant users, would take quickly to the iPhone and start building third party applications. Mr. Jobs says they need the time to make sure there are tools to enable the local applications to be built in a way that protects against viruses and other malware. The hubris of wiping out the third party applications was not a good move, but as I started this story I do believe Apple is listening and I am optimistic that in a matter of months we will see a lot of very useful and exciting applications emerge for the iPhone.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, WiFi, iPhone October 19, 2007 05:16 PM

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 8

Mobile phone The price cut is understandable. It is not unprecedented by any means and the rebate was handled well by Apple. Nobody was forced to be an early adopter. People were forced to sign up for AT&T but it was no secret. It was announced that way, promoted that way, and is somewhat understandable even though I don't personally like it because of poor network coverage where I live and poor network performance when there is coverage. I can also understand why a warranty would be voided if people physically break in to the iPhone and modify it. That is a standard warranty provision with cars and most everything. A software modification is a different issue from my point of view.

I need to clarify my comment that I got "bricked" last week. Walt Mossberg properly corrected me that getting bricked means that your iPhone is not functioning at all -- it is like a brick. That is not what happened to me. I believe in most all cases where someone got bricked it was because they had tampered with the iPhone or somehow bypassed AT&T and enabled the phone to work with T-Mobile or someone else. I can understand why Apple would not like that because of their deal with AT&T and the fact that it has always been marketed as an Apple - AT&T exclusive arrangement. In my case, I made no attempt to change out AT&T. I just added the "installer" from AppTapp from Nullriver. This enabled me to add a bunch of third party applications that added a great deal of missing functions and new capabilities. I was really happy with the new applications.

I can understand that neither Apple nor AT&T would offer technical support for third party applications that they have not certified. I could even understand that they may require them to be uninstalled if suspected of causing a problem with the iPhone or the AT&T service for which I requested assistance. The issue I made in my last update was not of that nature. The issue was that Apple unilaterally *deleted* all the third party applications, including any data that may have been created by the apps, and also deleted the launcher and installer. An industry colleague described this unprecedented move by Apple as "hostile". I have to agree. Another colleague called it hubris. Some might describe it as arrogance.

I remember in the 1970's when IBM was accused of such an attitude. If a customer had a mainframe maintenance problem and they also had "third party" memory or peripheral devices attached to the mainframe, IBM would refuse to work on the mainframe or even diagnose the problem. Later they loosened up and agreed to "take a look" at the problem but only if someone was present from the maintenance department of the "other" company. IBM had a significant comeuppance as a result of the unwarranted attitude. Eventually -- in the late 1980's -- IBM saw a services opportunity in working on *all* of the customer's equipment, no matter who manufactured it.

A similar situation may be at hand for Apple. What could be better than having thousands of developers around the world creating useful applications for the iPhone? That is how Palm got established. Apple is now gaining on Palm but if they don't watch their hubris they may have a comeuppance.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone October 2, 2007 05:26 PM

Monday, October 1, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 7

Mobile phone The $100 rebate was a good move by Apple. I was impressed that within a couple of weeks they had a rock solid online application to actually get the rebate coupon. Considering the testing needed to put out a public web application it was very timely. Big companies often take months to do something like this. I took the coupon into the local Apple store and bought a VModa Vibe Duo noise-isolating hi-definition headset for the iPhone. The sleek “hands-free” microphone and amazing high-definition sound are quite impressive. The discrete microphone blends seamlessly with the black fabric cable. It comes with a black leather pouch and is remarkably lightweight. The store rep offered to send my purchase receipt via email. I was impressed.

From a business point of view the rebate not only took the sting out of the big price cut impacting the early adopters but will ultimately be the sleeves out of Apple's vest. One of the financial analysts said the cost of the rebate to Apple would be $100 million. I don't believe that for a second. First of all, some percentage of those who are eligible will never bother to pursue the rebate. Others will follow the (simple) online procedure and print out the coupon and leave it on their desk to get lost. Some of those who do take the initiative to use the rebate will go to an Apple store and see a host of goodies for sale which will leave an impression with them. When it comes to spending the $100, I suspect most will spend more than $100 rather than leave money on the table. Some may buy a Mac Mini or a big monitor or some software. Whatever they walk out with it will add to the amount of Apple computing and accessories that are in people's hands and will lead to more purchases in the future and continued increases in market share for Apple.

That's the good news. Now the bad news. Like many others, I got bricked on Thursday night -- the Net is buzzing with commentary about it. As previously reported, one of the two major shortcomings of the iPhone is the availability of applications (the other being the AT&T network). Skeptics were pessimistic about the speed of introduction of improvements and believed that Apple and AT&T would operate an approval and collection gate for anything new. I was more optimistic. I turned out to be wrong -- so far. When Steve Jobs said the iPhone would be open to Web applications he meant applications that worked through the Apple Safari browser, not applications that worked natively as part of the iPhone menu. Then along came AppTapp from a company called Nullriver in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Someone at Demo showed me a link where you can download an "installer" that puts a new icon on the iPhone. When you click the icon the iPhone shows a list of dozens (maybe hundreds) of third party applications that work on the iPhone. These are not web apps but native iPhone apps. Apps that do not require being connected to the AT&T network. These are apps that have nothing to do with who the network provider is and do not involved cracking open the case and using a soldering iron. They are just apps that use the iPhone as a platform to run. The first app I installed was a launcher. This icon displays a menu of the iPhone third party apps that you have installed. I installed a dozen or so very useful new things.

The first app I chose was Navizon, a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from WiFi access points and cell towers and then displays a Google Map of where you are. You can then click "Directions to here" or "Directions from here". By using the incredible squeeze magnification feature of the iPhone you can zoom in on either the map or satellite images of where you are. This is a really great value-added application for the iPhone. I also installed an instant messaging program that let me IM through AOL IM and pedometer app that uses the iPhone accelerometer to measure how far you have walked.. Other applications include dictionaries of various kinds, games, and programs that allow you to see all the files on your iPhone and more importantly allow you to create files and exchange them with your PC. This could solve my problem of not being able to display my frequent flier and hotel account numbers like I could on the Treo. In summary I found the initial set of third party applications empowering and exciting. That was until I got home late Thursday night and put the iPhone in the dock and got the latest iPhone "update" from Apple. The update added iTunes to the iPhone, a very nice addition indeed, but it also *deleted* all the third party applications including the launcher and installer. An industry colleague described this unprecedented move by Apple as "hostile".

Apple has now created the iBrick -- an iPhone that doesn't do nearly what it can do. Ironically, third party apps are the heart and soul of the Mac. Microsoft and Apple both have their office suites and various applications but without third party applications we would not have a fraction of what we have as users. Apple has basically said that the iPhone is theirPhone. You can install only the applications that they (and AT&T) decide are good for you and for which they will decide how much you will pay. Imagine turning on your computer one day and seeing a message saying that Windows (or Mac OS X) has "been updated" and then you find that Quicken, Dreamweaver, OpenOffice, Adobe Photoshop, Google Desktop, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, and dozens of other things you are dependent on have been *deleted* and a modification was installed that will prevent any further additions of third party software on your computer. That is what we have here.

The important letter in PC is the P, for personal. I think of my PC as *my* PC. Millions of people use only what Microsoft or Apple provide and don't take the risk of downloading and installing third party software. They may consider it rogue software, be concerned about the possibility of the software containing a virus or crashing the computer -- all of which are risks. Millions of others, like me, accept some risk and like to experiment with new software and capitalize on the infinite creativity of software developers. I have a ThinkPad that came with Windows XP on it. I erased that and put Ubuntu Linux and VMWare on it. Millions of people use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, partly because OO is free and partly because they just choose to. That is the great thing about the Internet and PC's -- they give us choice.

What is next? I am sure people are hard at work to figure out how to make third party software work on iPhone again. Many iPhone users are going to Hackintosh for instructions on how to downgrade their iPhone to the prior version of firmware so they can reinstall the third party software. What is the prognosis? I am not politically liberal but when it comes to the Internet and personal computers I guess I would be called a libertarian. The question to me is whether mobile computing is going to be a locked-down proprietary world controlled by Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm, and a few others or whether it is going to be an open highly creative and collaborative world like the Internet and PC's have been. I would never bet against the grass roots.

Apple did listen when the mass market said it wanted downloadable ringtones for the iPhone but their implementation is not as brilliant as other aspects of the iPhone. Apple is charging 99 cents to make a song you already paid 99 cents for into a ringtone. I purchased an album called "Crazy Ringtone #2". It contains some really good tracks. When I tried to add the ringtones to my iPhone I got an error message saying that these particular ringtones do not qualify to be iPhone ringtones, even though I had purchased them through iTunes. Meanwhile we are stuck with the sparse and weak AT&T network. The iPhone is an ingenious and elegant piece of hardware -- it is a very powerful and well designed mobile computer. The iBricking of the iPhone has really soured me on Apple. I haven't given up but now that I see how powerful iPhone applications can be I will be more impatient to see the platform open up more.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone October 1, 2007 04:00 PM

Friday, September 7, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 6

Mobile phone The news of a $200 price cut on the iPhone made a lot of people quite upset, although the announced $100 rebate took out some of the sting. I think of the $200 as an early adopter tax. Everyone has the choice to wait until the bugs get worked out and the pricing stabilizes. Although the cut came quickly and was significant, such actions are not unprecedented in high-tech, especially in the mobile space. The price cut will surely accelerate demand and more users means more interest from more software developers resulting in more useful applications for all users. After two months of using the iPhone, I remain captivated with the brilliant user interface. I have also been using the iPod feature of the iPhone a lot more and find it to be superb, as iPods have always been. If a phone call comes in you just say hello, have your conversation, say good bye, and the music returns. Seamless.

The lack of an iPhone copy and paste capability remains a major shortcoming for me. Back from the lake and taking the train to New York for a board meeting quickly reminded me of how dependent I have been on the Palm Treo 700P which contained train schedules. I copied the schedules from the MTA web site, pasted them into an Outlook note and then synched the notes with the Treo. The iPhone has notes also but you can't paste anything into them and they don't sync with anything, making them basically useless. I am sure everyone has their iPhone wish list -- for me it is copy/paste. There have been two updates to the iPhone software so far -- one per month is not bad -- but neither of them added any new functions. The other annoying shortcoming is that weather locations, stocks, and favorite phone numbers are not sorted alphabetically. I remain confident that Apple will step up to the shortcomings and continue to delight customers. The really big issues with the iPhone are two -- the Network and the availability of applications.

AT&T, without a doubt, is the weakest part of the product. Apple touts the iPhone as the “Internet in your pocket”. This is only true if you sign-up for two years with AT&T, and if AT&T happens to have an adequate signal where you happen to be. I travel a lot on Interstate 84 between Danbury, Connecticut and Scranton, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Coverage is very spotty throughout. In the Connecticut town of 25,000 where I live, there is almost no coverage. AT&T calls their network "Allover". Right. When you do have an AT&T connection to their "Edge" network, it is extremely slow. Fortunately, the WiFi support in the iPhone is very good, but WiFi is not everywhere just yet (more on that in an upcoming posting). The iPhone is truly a network device and without a good network even a great device can't do much. On the positive side, you can tell that AT&T is trying really hard to offer good customer service. Their people are courteous and responsive, in spite of the ancient backend systems and processes that support them. They call themselves "the new AT&T", but when the first charge showed up on my American Express bill it was labeled "CING*517655729 Snerocky Hill". I am guessing this meant Cingular, an account number, and Southern New England Rocky Hill (a town in Connecticut). Between that and the forty-four page bill replete with errors in the account plans I had chosen, I get the feeling the "new AT&T" is actually a collection of old companies and systems that AT&T hopes to weave into a new enterprise. Their pricing models are also antiquated. A call to Norway on the iPhone is $1.49 per minute. If you sign up for an international calling at $3.99 per month, the same call to Norway is sixteen cents per minute. International calling is surely the highest profit margin part of their business. When someone comes up with a way to enable Skype on the iPhone the obscene international rates will drop. If you work for a large company that gets a discount from AT&T you will find out that those discounts do not apply if you have an iPhone. Bottom line, the exclusive deal between AT&T and Apple may be a good deal for them but for the customer it is yet another example of reducing choice for consumers, just the opposite of what they want. A web site called Free The iPhone is pushing for what they call Wireless Freedom -- "the freedom to use all Internet devices on any wireless network in a market that offers true high-speed Internet and real consumer choice". Some people look to government to solve this problem and others look to hackers. I would prefer competition as the solution and the iPhone is the beginning, not the end, of the race.

PalmGear.com claims to have 29,000 applications. The iPhone has just a handful -- the basics -- so far. I thought we would see some new apps by now but am still confident there will be many of them soon. The new applications will become available through iTunes, just like music except that the applications will likely have to be approved by AT&T, the exclusive provider of network support to the iPhone. This is analogous to finding an Internet application for your PC but not being able to download and install it unless your Internet Service Provider approves. Not good. The good news is that the iPhone will support any Web 2.0 application from the Safari browser. One application called AppMarks provides an iPhone-like menu in a web page thus avoiding the need to go through iTunes and AT&T. In other words AppMarks is providing a separate menu with an icon for each iPhone web application. The icons look just like the icons that are on the iPhone home page and you can add, delete or edit them. The larger overall question is whether the predominant application environment for the iPhone will be a locked down proprietary thing controlled by Apple and AT&T or whether it will be more like an open web environment. I expect to see a lot more clues on this in the weeks and months ahead and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone September 7, 2007 03:38 PM

Friday, August 3, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 5

Mobile phone After another couple of weeks using the iPhone, I remain captivated, especially with the brilliant user interface. I also continue to discover some shortcomings. One glaring example is the lack of copy and paste, something I took for granted with the Palm Treo 700P which I sold last week on eBay for $320). There have been many occasions when I wanted to copy something from an email or SMS text message and paste it into a "Note" which I could then sync with Outlook and subsequently paste into a new web page or email or whatever. Copy/paste is the duck tape of a computer but the iPhone does not have it. This is a non-trivial limitation.

The big issue -- and possible solution to the lack of copy/paste -- is applications. The Palm has thousands; the iPhone has just the basics -- so far. If you watch the video interview on Podtech of some of the 300 who turned out for the iPhone developer's conference you could get very optimistic. Developers are building applications that follow Web standards and which can utilize the unique user interface of the iPhone and work with the Safari browser. I took a look at one of the applications already available called AppMarks. I was quite impressed. It allows you to create icons on a web page -- in other words it gives you a web page with an icon for each iPhone web application. The icons look just like the icons that are on the iPhone home page and you can add, delete or edit them..

If nothing else, the iPhone is calling more attention to the fact that most people will be using web applications from a handheld device. The leader at this so far appears to be Opera Software of Norway with it's new Opera mini browser which works on nearly any mobile phone. A very positive story about surfing on your phone appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I recommend reading it. The point of the story was that people using a handheld device will expect to be able to have full access to the web, not just the content and applications that Verizon or AT&T or Sprint have "approved". The operators argue it is "for your own protection" and there is an argument there but somehow we have thrived with full access to the web with our PC without getting approval from our Internet Service Provider when we want to add something new. That is how it has to be for handhelds.

Apple has taken a good step in the right direction but by not opening up the phone to developers like Palm and Microsoft have done, the iPhone is totally dependent on web applications. In addition the iPhone has no local storage which means your data has to be on a server somewhere. It is very much like the "thin client" model that Oracle, IBM and others tried some years ago. It was not successful because the network was not as reliable, ubiquitous, and fast as assumed. Now with the iPhone we have AT&T -- without a doubt the weakest part of the product. It will be a horse race to see if AT&T can improve it's slow and spotty network and if WiFi can continue toward ubiquity in time to make the iPhone a superior choice to Palm, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, et al who have handhelds with local storage, multiple networks to choose from, and an application interface to allow building local applications.

I already miss the Treo where I had quite a few applications. For example, an application called Worldmate acted as my travel assistant -- it converted currencies, times, and all units of measure, kept track of weather and flight itineraries, and provided many other useful tools. Another application called Healthfile allowed me to store all my medications, doctor visits, blood pressure, blood chemistry, tests, etc. Both of these appllications stored data on the storage card on the Treo and allowed me to synchronize the data with my ThinkPad. The applications are available on more than a dozen different phone brands. The iPhone does not have them. Could it have them as web apps with the data stored on a server somewhere? Yes, definitely, but only if WiFi or AT&T are available. In the long run I am optimistic. In the next year or two I am not so sure. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone August 3, 2007 05:05 PM

Friday, July 13, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 4

Mobile phone After a week of using the iPhone, I remain captivated, but less so. As I gain more experience with the elegantly designed jewel, I am more impressed but also begin to see some shortcomings. My primary and secondary email accounts work fine with the iPhone but it requires having two mailboxes instead of consolidating into one like other email clients. When deleting things in a list -- such as old emails -- you have to do it one at a time. When scrolling through the contact list you can't key bsm and get Bill Smith. You have to scroll through all the s's. Synchronizing photos with Adobe Photoshop Elements and grabbing new photos from the iPhone are both mysteries to me at this point. I know they can be done and am confident I will figure it out but these things are not as intuitive as the rest of the iPhone. As for shortcomings generally, I am confident that there will be updates via iTunes that will render the iPhone better and better over the months ahead. Remember, iTunes is on release 7.3. Continuous improvement seems to be a mantra for all things iApple.

The most significant shortcoming of the iPhone is definitely AT&T. My greatest fear came true when I got back to Connecticut after having taken initial delivery of the iPhone in Pennsylvania. There is no usable AT&T signal at my house. If I get in the car and drive a short distance things are fine. It also worked well in Stamford, CT and Washington, DC where I had meetings this week. I am sure it will work fine in all major cities. I do have a landline but at times it is nice to be able to make and receive mobile calls at home. I am no fan of Verizon but they do have better coverage in many areas. Also, when connected to the AT&T network the performance is not good. AT&T claims to be adding towers and fine tuning their network. I hope so.

The good news is the WiFi feature of the iPhone. Whether it is my home wireless or one at a hotel or airport, the iPhone connects very smoothly and remembers how to connect automatically the next time. The use of email, weather and stock updates and of course the web are all automatically handled by WiFi if it is available. JiWire is now listing 150,958 free and paid WiFi hotspots in 136 countries. Stay tuned for an update on other developments in WiFi.

Internet Technology, Mobile, WiFi, iPhone July 13, 2007 12:05 PM

Monday, July 9, 2007

iPhone - continued

Cell phone A number of people commented about the mini review of the iPhone from yesterday. Early experience from others mostly matches mine but some have pointed out things I missed -- both positive and negative. After another day of use I am also learning new things that you can or can't do. One thing I don't like is the way SMS works. A list of your prior messages is available but I have not been able to figure out how to send another message to someone in the list without having to key in their name again. With regard to Safari it was pointed out to me that you can zoom the screen. You can either double-tap on the screen or use two fingers to touch and either pinch or reverse- pinch. If you want to see a "pinch" in action take a look here. The zoom is a very nice feature but I still find the browser to be quirky. I suspect it will be compared to the new Opera mini version 4 which is now in beta. All things considered after the first few days, I am still captivated by the iPhone. I am sure many more things will be learned in the days ahead. I especially look forward to seeing some new applications become available. One thing I suspect many people would like to see is a chat client. Meebo works through the browser but it is not really designed for mobile.

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone July 9, 2007 05:37 PM

Sunday, July 8, 2007

iPhone Out of the Bottle

Back in January I said I couldn't wait to get an iPhone. Of course, I did wait, but not in line. The order was placed online the evening of June 29th and the confirming email said shipping would be within 2-4 weeks. Much to my surprise the iPhone left Shenzhen, China six days later and after Fedex stops in Anchorage, Indianapolis, Allentown, and Pittston the amazing logistics system dropped off the iPhone at the lakehouse the next day, Friday. From late that morning through the afternoon I was captivated.

I don't claim to a product reviewer but this posting will be my attempt to share reactions and opinions about the iPhone. The bottom line is a big "thumbs up" -- my expectations have been exceeded, especially with regard to the sleek look and feel and the ease of entering text on the flat screen.

The Phone. Activation of cell phones has generally gotten much easier than it used to be but for the iPhone with AT&T it was truly simple. I had already upgraded iTunes to the latest version which supports the iPhone. I placed the iPhone in the cradle and plugged the USB cable into the ThinkPad and followed the directions on the neatly laid out pages in iTunes. Within minutes I had a new mobile phone number and my contacts, emails accounts, and calendar had all been synchronized. My mother received the first call and the quality was crystal clear. One thing I don't like about the iPhone is the exclusive arrangement with AT&T. The iPhone has a SIM (Subscriber Identify Module) card but you can't take it out. Customers should have a choice to change from AT&T to T-Mobile or other GSM operators around the world and I hope
Apple decides to open the iPhone to more operators over time. In spite of the AT&T lock-in and their slow network, I am pleasantly surprised by the coverage for both voice and data. (The Palm Treo 700P with Verizon gets no data coverage at places where I spend a lot of time. The phone features are a joy -- favorites list, call list, easily searchable contacts, large keypad, and simple voicemail setup and use. The speakerphone is very high quality. I have to say that so far I find it a really great phone and much easier to use than the Palm Treo, which had been my favorite of many phones I have tried over the years. The Palm has deeper functions, like details on each call in the call list showing date and length of call. Nice but can't say I have used that feature more than once or twice. The iPhone has the things you really need and the functionality is intuitive and easy to use.

WiFi. Over time the best feature of all may be the iPhone WiFi support. I have been writing here for years about the ubiquity of WiFi and it is truly happening -- JiWire is now listing 150,195 WiFi hotspots in 135 countries. The iPhone is not the first mobile device to offer WiFi but, once again, the simplicity of the implementation is simple to exploit. I keep my WAP SSID (the wireless access point service set ID)is private by turning off the broadcast "feature", so the signal was not visible. After turning WiFi "on" and entering the SSID and they WEP key, I pressed "Join" and in seconds I was connected. The iPhone automatically switches between the AT&T network and WiFi, if a signal is available. The iPhone remembers the WiFi connections you have made and automatically connects using your authentication data. With more and more WAPs out there WiFi will be used more and more with the obvious benefit of significantly faster speed.

SMS and email. SMS is very easy to use. It is integrated with your contact list. Just browsing through your contacts and a press on the mobile phone number and you are ready to send your text message. A favorites list is maintained for those with whom you message a lot. The email support is so simple that I wasn't sure it was working. Using the AT&T network or WiFi if available, email from all your accounts are retrieved every fifteen minutes. You can have the latest 25 or up to 200 at your fingertips. Scrolling through them is a breeze and you can set a large font to make them really easy to read. Some people prefer the Blackberry service but I have favored Palm for years -- until the iPhone. It is significantly easier to use. One drawback is that Thunderbird is not supported.

Browser. The Safari web browser is probably the weakest feature of the iPhone. The nice part is that if you just turn the iPhone sideways it changes the display to the wider view. Scrolling is a breeze and the .com button speeds up entering URLs. Bookmarks are synchronized through iTunes to the desktop version of Safari. You can choose to sync with Internet Explorer instead -- can not imagine why anyone would want to do that -- but there is no choice of syncing with Opera or Firefox. I found the adjustment of font size to be erratic -- sometimes works and sometimes not -- and most of the web sites I have visited on the iPhone are unreadable, including some sites that claim to be "m dot" mobile web sites. Maybe I will master how to do this. Safari, at this stage, is not nearly as good as Opera on mobile or desktop nor Firefox on the desktop. On the many mobile phones where it is available the Opera mobile browser is far better than Safari and Opera Mini works well on nearly any phone -- and "mini" does not require a $500 high-end phone. Most people don't spend a lot of time surfing the web with their phone but that is changing. When it comes to web browsing, the iPhone is a great step but it has a lot of catching up to do.

Entering text. A lot of the pre-launch speculation suggested that entering text without a keyboard would be very difficult. I have not found that to be the case. To the contrary, once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite easy. There are a lot of smarts built in that guess at what you trying to enter and if it gets it right you just tap the space bar and continue on. There are a number of shortcuts that speed things along. A picture is worth a thousand words so if you have doubts watch the video.

Video and Maps. Speaking of video, the iPhone has YouTube built in and if you are in range of a WiFi signal then watching movie clips (in the widescreen mode) is enjoyable. Google maps is also built in and just tapping the screen zooms in to what you want.

Photos. Most mobile phones can take pictures and display albums but, once again, the iPhone has made it really simple. Scrolling through your pictures with your finger is fun and turning the phone sideways gives you the widescreen view. Maybe the novelty will wear off but I am quite impressed. The camera doesn't have any options, like zooming, that I have found. Push one button to take a picture and one to see the pictures you have already taken. An animated shutter opens and closes. The pictures are 1,200 x 1,600. There is no flash, so low light situations will not produce good photos.

iPod. In some ways the iPod feature of the iPhone is better than the iPod itself. You can sync selected playlists and listen to music while you are surfing or checking email. The built in speaker phone is better than expected fidelity. It is amazing how people are complaining that the storage is "only" 8 gigabytes. Obviously the capacity will grow to 16, 32 and at some point a terabyte. I started out with 1,200 songs, a hundred pictures, 1,500 contacts, my calendar and email. 1,200 songs is plenty enough for me when I am mobile. I may end up reducing the number of songs and add more pictures. At home or traveling with the ThinkPad I can listen to the full library and albums. The limited storage and no removable storage card will be an issue for some but not for most.

Stocks and weather. In partnership with Yahoo! there are built-in stock and weather applications. You can easily add as many stocks and locations as you want and then scroll through them with a glide of your finger. You can select the time period for graphs of stock prices. If you click for more weather or stock information the browser opens and takes you directly to the right page at Yahoo! Stocks and weather are available on many mobile phones but the integration and simplicity on the iPhone is impressive.

Security. Even with "just" 8 gigabytes of information, there is always the worry of losing your mobile phone. The iPhone -- as an option -- lets you turn on a passcode feature and after a minute of idle time goes by you have to enter the 4 digit code to unlock the phone.

Applications. The strength of the Palm has always been the availability of a very large number of applications. the iPhone, at this stage, only has the ones that most people need, but it is clear that there will be many. By supporting mobile web standards in the desktop version of Safari, developers will be able to create applications which look and behave just like the applications built into the iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone’s services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps. I wou