Here are some quick bits from the past week, just in case you missed them.

Palm CEO: I’ve ‘Never Even Used’ An iPhone – I understand hating the competition but how do you know what your competition is when you have never tried the competition?

Exclusive: Qualcomm to Power iPhone – it has never been a matter of if the iPhone will land on the Verizon network, just a matter of when.  Sounds like that will be this summer.

iPhone wins touchscreen quality test – this is probably one of the things that I will always evaluate as new phones come out as I think the touchscreen and gestures are really important on smartphones these days.

Facebook’s iPhone App Gets New Push and Sync Features – this is the first time I have used the push notifications on my iPhone and love the contact sync.  The contact sync is a small feature, but its just nice to have the pictures automatically pulled into your contacts for you.

iPhone Runs Toy Helicopter Taking Off at CES 2010 – while the iPhone still has a little bit of a wow factor when you show off some of the funny/cool apps that you can run, this would definitely make jaws drop.  Especially the live camera feed while flying the helicopter.

Apple: Three billion downloads from iPhone App Store – the App store still gives the iPhone an edge, but the playing field will be leveled as the Android Marketplace gains momentum.  At that point, I think it will come down to the software on the phone.

So what better way to start off 2010 other than a post that lists my top predictions for the iPhone in 2010.

1. The iPhone will land on Verizon.  This is just a matter of time and if the rumors are right the exclusive contract is up this year and some version of the iPhone will land on the Verizon network.
2. Android momentum won’t catch the iPhone.  Right now, Android looks sweet and is driving competition against the iPhone.  The main reason it has a lot of momentum is because Verizon users don’t have any other device that can compete with it.  Once the iPhone hits Verizon I think people will take the iPhone over a Droid phone.
3. Multi-tasking, Voice Commands, 5mp camera, LED flash will come to the next version of the iPhone.  You can thank competition from the Droid and Pre lines for this one.  I may even go to say that there will be a front facing camera with some sort of live conferencing capability.  The voice commands are something that is built into the Android platform and is pretty slick, the iPhone will need to catch up to that.
4. Storage is the next thing to increase but they still won’t support external storage cards.  Do they really need external storage if you have 64GB of space?
5. The App store will hit 350,000 apps by the end of the year and there will be an option for developers to expedite their approval process by paying extra.
6. Subscription services will come to the iPhone and iTunes.
7. Flash won’t come to the iPhone in 2010.  I know Adobe has the mobile version but I just don’t see Apple letting that run on the iPhone and take away from their game market.
8. The overall form factor of the device won’t change much but the screen and internal CPU compoents will get get an upgrade.  The screen should get an HD upgrade, while the processor will go dual core which will allow them to open up multitasking.
9. Major enhancements to the default maps application, even a move away from using Google.  Integrated Traffic and weather?  Better GPS?
10. Continue to dominate sales and be the best phone out there.

What are your predictions?

Today was the start of Adobe’s Max Developer Conference and the big announcement from the conference so far is an enhancement to their Adobe Flash Platform that will allow their player to work on smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PC’s and other Internet connected devices. You can see the official press release from Adobe here. A public beta will be available later this year and will be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, and all the major desktop OS’s with Android, Symbian, and RIM are all expected to be available at a later date as well.

As you can tell the list of vendors jumping on board to support the initiative is pretty broad, but Apple is no where to be found, which is perfectly fine by me but more on that in a minute. I think we need to look at why Apple is so hesitant to allow Flash on to the iPhone. Once they allow Flash on the iPhone Apple would be giving developers a way around their AppStore Cash Cow. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal for utility type applications because the user experience would not be the same (Flash apps would probably not be allowed to have an icon on the main menu system), this could be a big blow to Apple since they are marketing the iPhone as a gaming platform. If the iPhone had Flash that can take advantage of the accelerated graphics and video, why would developers create a game that is specific just for the iPhone and go through the Apple approval process?

On the other side I think more and more iPhone users are starting to get used to life without Flash, which makes you wonder how necessary it really is. Based on my usage, I really don’t see a need for Flash anymore and I hope it never comes to the iPhone. I visit more and more sites each day that just created a mobile or iPhone version of their site that works great without Flash. I find that most sites that I visit use Flash for either navigation or ads which can easily be replaced with a non-flash version of the site that performs better and does not eat up system resources. The only real use I could see for Flash would be for streaming such as video from Hulu, but I would rather see that implemented as a native app that is feature rich and not in the browser.

So where do you stand when it comes to Flash support on the iPhone?

Leave your comment below.

During Apples 2Q earnings call, Apple’s COO acknowledged that Apple is considering changes to the App Store so that they help level the playing field when it comes to 99 cent apps, and $29 dollar apps.  Here is the quote from Tim Cook:

“As you know, today we do it by type of app and also have show popular apps and top-selling apps, et cetera,” Cook said. “We realize there’s opportunity there for further improvement and are working on that.”

Apple Insider provides a post that details a lot more information about the call.  So, what can Apple do to really improve the App Store?  Here are a few ideas on how I think they can do it:

1. Allow sub categories - This will allow users to filter down the list of apps within a category.  This would really help in the games category
2. Ratings Sort - Allow users to view a list of apps based on rating, not just free, paid, and release date.
3. Provide Preview Period – create an automatic demo mode that is available for every app.  Apple could eaily track this within the iPhone and allow users to try the game out for  a certain time period.
4. Genius - bring over Genius from iTunes but for app store purchases.  This little service could make recommendations based on past purchases
5. Improve Social Network – Improve the social network around app ratings and follow the model that Amazon uses by creating top reviewers, and have these reviews provide more weight to how the game is factored into qualifying for the top cateogires

What do you think?  How do you think Apple can improve the App Store?

I had a conversation recently with some friends about the true cost of owning a smart phone.  I decided to run some numbers to see what the total cost of ownership really is across 5 of the more popular smart phones out there such as the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Storm, Android G1, and Palm Pre.

Here is a summary chart of what I found while shopping online:

As you can tell the monthly cost of ownership between the iPhone and the Storm are pretty close.  The G1 is your best cost saver across the board, except for when you get into the unlimited talk, text, and data.  Once you get to that tier, the Palm Pre comes through as the cheapest.

Now some basic disclaimers.  I tried to put some carrier specific disclaimers on each chart listed below.  These prices were effective on 7/20/2009.  When listing the price for the phone, I took into account what offers the carriers had running at the time, regardless of if it was a mail in rebate or instant rebate.  The prices do not include any state or federal taxes.  Finally, all of this is based on signing your life away to a 2 year contract as a new subscriber.

Here are the rest of the charts:

[View with PicLens]

So this is probably no secret, but I am a gadget freak.  Always have been, and probably always will.  So needless to say, I think the iPhone is the best gadget out there right now.  Yes this is very “Fanboyish”, but I do believe it to be true.  So how does a true fanboy use his iPhone to get through a day with his family?  This should be interesting since I am heading to a water park and you would think a gadget would not get used much, but lets see:

1. The plan for the family trip was to go to Waterworld (recently featured on the travel channel as the 3rd best water park in the US)  in Denver.  As most people do these days, I had to make sure that I had my directions since it had been a while since I have been there.  Normally, I would track down the laptop or go to my desktop, but no need this time.  Just opened up google maps and was able to track down my directions.
2. Once I had my directions, next up was to get the weather forcast.  As I had done numerous times throughout the week, I just fired up the Weahter Chanel app and checked the forecast.  I was glad to see that it was going to be partly cloudy and in the high 80’s.
3. The drive to Waterworld was just over 1 1/2 hours from my house, and on my way up I had to shoot a quick text to my brother in law to let him know we were on our way to pick him up.
4. Throughout the drive, my iPhone became in car entertainment.  My wife and kids stole the phone to check Facebook and play some games.  I think my wife even listened to a few tunes on the way up.
5. We got to the park early, so while waiting for the park to open I decided to check some news to see if anything exciting was happening, and thankfully there wasn’t.  What I did find out was that the park offered free Wifi.  Nice!, Very Nice!
6. Once in the park and we got situated the iPhone got stored in the locker and it did not see any action until around lunch time.  At this point, it was time to relax a bit since the heat was kicking in and we were getting a bit tired.  While lounging and watching my kids in the wave pool I decided to fire up Google Reader and check out some blogs.  After a bit of R&R, the iPhone went back into the locker and we went on to enjoy the rest of the water park.
7. We stayed at the park until it closed, and on the way out we saw some storms moving in and we also had to track down a place for dinner.  So of course, we tried out a few apps on the iPhone to help us with this.  First, we fired up google maps, iWant, and Yelp to see what was in the area.  We ended up passing on a sit down place because we just wanted to get home, so we hit a fast foot joint near by.
8. While on the interstate I had my wife pull up the local radar on the Weather Channel app to see what kind of weather we were going to hit.  Come to find out that there was a servere thunderstorm warning and of course that slowed traffic down a bit.  But its okay, my wife was able to hop on Facebook to pass the time.  This time around, my kids weren’t asking to play on the phone, since they were passed out in the back seat.
9. By the time we finally got home, my phone was down to about 35% battery life left, so I decided to put it to bed for the night and let it recharge.  I wasn’t too far behind it either.

So as you can tell we were still able to make pretty good use of the iPhone even though we were at a water park.  I know some people will say, “hey, just enjoy your time with your family” and I can respect that, but the iPhone is a convienence gadget and it helps me unwind by doing some light reading or playing some games.  My wife picks up a good book, I pick up my iPhone.  I also made sure that I wasn’t getting too wrapped up with the iPhone and enjoyed the water park just as much as my kids did.

There were also signs that this is the future and more and more people will expect to be connected, even at a water park.  There was evidence of that the minute I entered the park and saw the big sign that said “Free Wifi”.  I will also mention that I was not the only person at the water park on their iPhone.  Right now it probably was probably other iPhone fanboys that I saw, but as the smart phone market continues to grow more and more average people will expect more and this will become the norm.

Today, I came across this article from CNET about how to preserve the battery life of the new iPhone. I typically just ignore these types of articles because they all offer the same old advice, which is pretty much to disable every feature on the iPhone, but I figured I would check it out to see if there is anything new related to the new iPhone 3GS.  The article started out a bit different than other articles and listed a few items that I would agree wtih, such as draining your battery completely and force quit applications.  After those, the article fell into the trap of every other article out there, including the ones from Apple Support which is disable every feature that made you want the iPhone in the first place.

It is suggested that you:

1. Minimize location services
2. Turn off push notifications
3. Fetch new data less frequently
4. Turn off push mail
5. Autocheck fewer accounts
6. Minimize 3rd party applications
7. Turn off Wi-fi
8. Turn off 3G
9. Turn off Bluetooth

Give me a break! Most of these options is why I bought the phone in the first place!  I typically get about 6 hours of usage and that is from using app, surfing, listening to music, texting, and making calls.  A full charge usually lasts me 2 days, unless I just get bored and play on my phone.  In that case, the phone will only last me a day.

Here are a few habits I have gotten into to help with my battery:

1. Turn off auto lock and get into a habit of locking the phone manually.  I don’t know how many times the phone would lock up while I am just reading stuff on the phone.  I thought about increasing the time on the autolock, but found out that I liked just locking the phone manually
2. Turn off “wifi ask to join networks”.  I would gest extra push notifications for having this on and found it annoying.  I also figured it would help with battery life since its sending out fewer notifications
3. Turn down the brightness on the phone.  Dont’ turn it down too much or else you won’t enjoy your apps very much, but the dimmer screen can help and is easier on the eyes.
4. When you do charge the battery, try your best to hold off as long as you can.  I try to make sure my battery if as low as possible before I charge it as it could help prolong the life of your battery.

As you can tell, my list is pretty weak and I am stretching it a bit, but that is because I don’t recommend removing all of the features that make the iPhone what it is.  I would recommend that you do play with some of the settings such as push and pull email, although when I played around with that I did not notice much of a difference at all, but your results may vary.  And if you are a power user, look at getting a rechargable battery case that can usually double your battery life.  I haven’t done this yet myself, but it is something I may consider if my needs ever increase

What do you find works the best to increase the life of your battery in your iPhone?

[CNET Article - Get the most out of your iPhone battery]

In case you missed it, Sprint recently started running an ad that was targeted at iPhone 2G users who are up for renewal on their contract. The ad is trying to point out some reasons as to why they would want to leave their iPhone and buy a Pre instead. While I am sure a few users may do just that for various reasons, I think it will be a while before people really start thinking about giving up their precious iPhone.  

Here are some things that I would think would need to happen before people start bailing on the iPhone for the Pre:

1. Device Maturity – this is a first generation device and based on the reviews and from my experiences with the device there is room for improvement. If you think about the changes from the original iPhone to the 3G iPhone, it was pretty drastic and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Pre. The keyboard needs to be improved for sure, and the over all quality of the device needs to be improved. Visual Voicemail is missing, video capabilities, and what about the possibility of a virtual landscape keyboard? The good news is that most of these features, and many others will arrive through software and device updates.
2. Lack of SDK and App Store – so it appears that they followed the same model of the iPhone. The first iPhone was released without an official SDK and we know one will be coming from Palm. Palm knows the importance of this and once they release this they will have to then start a the process of trying to get developers on board. This is something that all the new smartphones are playing catch up on when it comes to try to tackle the iPhone. Because the iPhone was first to market with this, they were able to jump out in a huge way with their AppStore and this has given them a good advantage over the competition
3. Better Carrier – If people continue to bitch and moan about AT&T, people could be more open to looking at the Pre if it was on more carriers. It has already been confirmed by Verizon that the Pre will be coming to their network in 6 months, and once that happens there could be a chance that more people take a more serious look at the device. This will give a lot more exposure to the device and would rather choose a Pre than switch to a Blackberry or over to AT&T for the iPhone.
4. Need to innovate, not just copy – What also made the iPhone so successful is the innovation that was brought to the smartphone market. An awesome AppStore, full web browser support, gestures, touchscreen, a real OS and a real music player. Apple saw a lot of potential in the smartphone market that others like windows mobile and Palm have missed out on. The Pre has to come up with something that really makes it stand out rather than just playing catch up.

Out of all of the bullets listed above, I think number 2 is by far the biggest thing that sets the iPhone apart from the Pre and all of the other smartphones out there. The SDK and the AppStore is huge, and even with all of the complaints about how Apple micro manges the AppStore, people are still spending a lot of money there. I think for any smart phone to really compete with the iPhone, this is an area they need to target and develop quickly. They need to target the developers and provide an SDK thaty makes it easy to leverage the hardware in the device and help the developers create some really powerful apps for their device. Apps that are fun and comical, but also apps that will help the consumer be more productive by owning a smart phone.

What are your thoughts on what it will take to de-thrown the iPhone?

Most people are suprised to find out that AT&T does NOT offer insurance for the iPhone.  Apple does offer a product called AppleCare that will provide some additional protection for your iPhone.  For $69 you extend your 90 day warranty to a fully 2 years of coverage.  This will extend your technical support on how to use the devices as well as your hardware warranty in case the device malfunctions.  You will also get some extended coverage on your battery and get a replacement as the battery starts to fade.  AppleCare does NOT cover you against accidental damage though, which is usually standard coverage when you get insurance on other phones from AT&T.

AppleCare Details
AppleCare FAQ

Would I buy AppleCare?  Not a chance.  I really don’t see much value in AppleCare.  Since AppleCare does not cover against accidential damage, I find the coverage pretty limiting.  The only selling point for me is the battery replacement, but I figured I would take my chances and see how well my battery holds up.

Your alternatives are pretty limiting though.  The only other way that I found that you can insure your iPhone is through a company called SquareTrade.  The coverage looks pretty decent as it extends the normal warranty and covers you against manufacturing defects, but it also covers you for accidental damage.  When making a claim for accidental damage, you will be charge a $50 deductiable, but this is pretty standard even with insurance provided by AT&T.  The pricing for SquareTrade is very reasonable, 8GB $76, 16GB $96, and 32GB $115.

Has anyone ever used SquareTrade?  Let me know by leaving a comment.

So now that the 3.0 verison of the OS is a few hours away from being released, lets start focusing on the next version.  Here is whats on my wish list for next major release of the OS

1. Local document storage – we get to store photos and email locally, but why not other things?  I would love to be able to save PDF’s and Word docs to a local storage area on my iPhone and be able to sync them through iTunes with my desktop
2. Over the air sync – I would love to be able to sync with my desktop either through bluetooth or over my wireless network.
3. Flash support – I know this is more on Adobe than Apple, but this needs to happen sooner than later.
4. Improved Push Notifications – modal dialogs suck!  The Pre seems to handle the push notifications more gracefully and it would be nice to see Apple follow with something similiar
5. Custom Home Page – why do I have to unlock the phone to do anything?  It would be nice if the home page (screen that is shown when the phone is locked) could give some info on latest texts, missed calls, voice mails…
6. Better Email Client – switching between 3 email accounts suck!  The breadcrumb navigation makes it cumbersome.  I saw the suggestion a while back about having a single inbox, which could help.  Also, what about a built in browser?  Another slow task is clicking on a link from an email and opening up Safari.
7. Better Calendar Management – What about multiple calendar support, the ability to create meetings, and how about a snooze button on that alert box?
8. Background Processing / App Multi-tasking – some native apps are able to run in the background and it would be nice to have some of the other apps run in the background.  Even if this is a drain on the battery, there are some apps where this could be helpful
9. Printer Support – how about support for wifi printing?

Whats on your list?