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I’ve just finished watching today’s Apple press conference about the iPhone 4, and I can’t help but being totally surprised about the mess we created about this antenna issue.
After watching the cellphone videos Apple posted on the antenna page, I think we should all shut up for a second and think about the material we post on our blogs.
Two days ago I tried to use my girlfriend’s iPhone 3GS running iPhone OS 3.1.3 and I couldn’t believe it was the same device - running the same operating system - I had two weeks ago. iOS 4 is a huge step forward for Apple (iAds), developers (new APIs) and users (multitasking, folders). Now that we have iOS 4, it’s hard to look back and be unbiased about iPhone OS 3.
There’s something that deeply concerns me though, and it’s about the way people think about folders.
I’m reading many comments these days of people frustrated because Apple hasn’t announced further plans for iOS 4 on the iPad. We know it’s going to ship this fall, but we don’t know anything more than that. So people seem to think that Apple doesn’t care about the iPad, now that the iPhone 4 is available and they’re having some hard times convincing customers that it works just fine and all the issues will be fixed with a software update.
I’ll tell you what, you’re wrong.
I bought a French iPhone 4 on eBay, 16GB model. I paid a lot for it, but I’m not complaining - I needed one. Waiting for Italian providers to comfortably announce their plans wasn’t a viable option. I’ve received the device on Wednesday and had some problems cutting my SIM to fit the new Mini-SIM tray; my first day with the iPhone 4 felt pretty much like using a Retina iPod Touch. Yesterday I managed to buy another SIM, make it mini and finally start using the iPhone 4 - well - as an iPhone.
A few days ago an Italian blog posted leaked screenshots of internal slides Microsoft used in April to define their future strategy for Windows 8 and mobile products. The slides clearly show that the guys over at Redmond have been keeping an eye on Apple, especially in regards to the user interface, interactions in the operating system and - yes - the App Store.
iOS 4 brought multitasking, folders, unified inbox, threaded email conversations and note syncing to the iPhone. For these reasons, some people think that jailbreaking a device running iOS 4 is now pointless, considering that two of the biggest features of jailbreak (multitasking and folders) are now developed by Apple itself.
Did I jailbreak my iOS 4 iPhone 3GS? Yes. Do I think is still worth it? Yes.
Writing about Tweetie for Mac updates has become some sort of a joke to me. “Tweetie for Mac has been updated? Yeah, sure.” That’s why many people last night didn’t initially believe Twitter actually pushed an update with OAuth support, and once they realized it was real, they just didn’t update. Why? Because they’re not trusting Loren Brichter anymore. And considering what happened to Tweetie for Mac last night, go prove them wrong.
Apple has released the new Mac mini which features improved graphics and faster performances, amongst many other new features such as the long-awaited unibody enclosure. Not to mention the HDMI port on the back, which makes the Mac mini “come to the big screen”. As I saw this new iteration of Apple’s little big desktop computer, I couldn’t help but thinking about the direction Apple is going with gaming on Mac OS X.
Apple has rolled out Safari 5 and I have to say, it feels faster indeed. A lot of work has been put into making Javascript faster, and you can see the difference from Safari 4. Loading a rich web application such as Zootool takes a few seconds less than before, which is a great thing.
I haven’t noticed that 3% difference from Google Chrome, but thing is - Safari feels snappier overall, it’s not just about the Javascript engine. And it’s native. Tabs behave just like you’re used to, close buttons are there in the right place, inline dictionary is what is meant to be. If Chrome could have convinced many users like me to switch because of extensions (I did), I am proud to come back to Safari now that it’s got extensions as well. And they’re based on web standards, which once again proves how much Apple cares about promoting them, and not just about building a “walled garden”.
