Please note the date on this post. Read our more recent posts on the iPhone for more up-to-date information.
We’ve been watching the announcement of the iPhone with some interest here. While we like new shiny things we’re less than thrilled about the proliferation of smart phone operating systems. On the one hand the iPhone looks cool; on the other it’s just one more OS to support (or not support, depending on how many people buy the things).
We’re interested in your feedback… Do you think the iPhone looks like your next phone? If so, why? If not, why not?
I’ve been waiting for someone to come out with a phone without all those crazy buttons, something to replace my aging Tungsten T. If the iPhone were available in Canada, it’d certainly be at the top of the list.
For now, I think I’ll stick with what I have, and bypass any plans of getting a Treo. The other platform I wouldn’t mind MyBible on is the Sony Reader, but again the device isn’t in Canada, plus it isn’t Mac-friendly, and it’s overly expensive for what it does. In the end, I think I’d rather the iPhone.
As for as OS proliferation, I am curious about development, and if any of the existing OS X Bible software companies are considering the iPhone as a target. MacSword is open source, and provides some framework to start with, though it’s not nearly as good as MyBible.
I think the iPhone is a very pivotal device. I’ve been using Pocket PC’s of some sort since 1995, starting with the Philips Nino. I’m currently using a Dell Axim X5 which is a couple of years old. There has been very little innovation in the PDA market over the years, most devices are very similar, I’m not really compelled to upgrade. The last devices that really excited me was the Clie line from Sony.
With the popularity of iPod the iPhone really has a chance to make PDA devices common. Look how difficult it is to find a PDA today, a couple of years ago I could browse PDA’s at a variety of brick and mortar merchants, not anymore. If the iPhone is popular maybe eBooks will finally become mainstream. I know you guys would like writing for a device with a couple of million users.
Don’t you already support the iPod?
Wouldn’t it likely build on that OS?
Tim
10,811 days
Tim,
Not even close. The iPod is an MP3 player with no ability to run third-party applications. It has a simplistic “notes” application that is really a collection of text files with limited hyperlinking ability. Our iPocketBible product is a collection of MP3 audio files and text files of the NLT. The text files use the “notes” capability to present the text.
The iPhone is supposedly based on Mac OS X. At this point it is not clear if third party apps will run on it, with some commentators saying they won’t and others saying they will. Assuming it accepts third-party apps, they should have the full capabilities of any desktop app with the exception of working within the limited user interface of a handheld device.
Craig
Have you read this?
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=12729
Yes. Have you read this?
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/my_5_minutes_alone_with_apples_new_iphone/
(The payoff is at the end of the article.) The two almost maybe contradict each other with respect to third-party apps.
Craig
Craig,
I am a current customer. Started with an early iPaq before the HP merger. Upgraded to the HP5555, now on the Sprint PPC6700 Windows Mobile.
If iPhone delivers the technical prowess, elegance and sizzle its promising I would move in a minute. The things that hold me back are Goodlink, eWallet, Laridian, and Olive Tree compatibility. Time will tell.
I could hack my way around the Goodlink problem but eWallet would be very painful to move from given my hundreds of passwords database. Also no Bible software would be a show stopper. I have good habits now with my Bibles and Study tools in hand and would not want to move away from that power.
I am also in the habit of using CNSNews, Drudge and WSJ from the browser.
I would drop $600 on an iPhone and even pay the penalty to switch carriers.
I am watching this closely. I logged on specifically today to encourage you to port to the iPhone and am doing the same with eWallet and Olive Tree.
I am happy to see that your avocation is supporting you. I hope it does so well and wish you more success in the future.
We met at some conference (Christian Computing?) seems like it was in Glendale CA but it was some years ago.
My 6700 by the way is very awkward. Since its Windows it frequently locks up and requires a reboot. Very inelegant to operate, the opposite of the thoughtfulness of iPhone. I would expect frustrations in the iPhone with regard to corporate connectivity however.
Best Regards,
Russ
Hi Russ,
I’m glad we had a chance to meet. Those Christian Computing conferences were fun. I wish they would’ve been profitable, too, so we could’ve continued to have them.
Don’t let your frustration with the 6700 cloud your expectations for the iPhone. The one on the store shelf always seems to lock up less than the one in your pocket.
My dad has a 6700 and has no problems with it. He doesn’t run as many apps as you; perhaps one of those is the problem.
We’re excited about any phone that causes as much buzz as the iPhone. The jury is still out yet on whether it will be able to install third-party apps. There’s a developers conference later this year, but long before that we should get the news.
Craig
I’ve been a loyal Palm OS person since since 95 and haven’t really ever been drawn to get an ipod so I’m no Apple addict. From the looks and some of the specs of the iPhone, I REALLY WANT ONE! But what will drive the final decision for me is if third party developers can develop for it without a development license. There are a great number of high quality open source or shareware apps for the Palm. It’s why I like it. If the iPhone remains closed or is only friendly with licensed developer shops, then I’ll stick with my Treo, thank you very much.
I’m interested in this, but after reading more thoughts on it (PocketPCThoughts has a pretty active thread going from dedicated WM/PPC users), I’m just not sold that this is “the” phone to have. It’s cool, has all sorts of bells and whistles, but from what I’m reading – no 3rd party app support according to most sites, resolution is not quite VGA, no hardware buttons, battery is not replaceable (at least not easily), and there is no expansion slot.
Positives – the UI is pretty cool. Scaled down version of OSX built in gives it a lot of potential. Apple did their R&D well with this product aimed at consumers. Using it as a phone/media player seems to be very well thought out, complete with moving things around, easily conferencing others in, putting media on hold. Web browsing is well developed over PIE.
Negatives – Locked in to whatever Apple says you can do. Battery. No keys/buttons – all done on screen. No expansion. Price ($600 – yipe).
I have a Cingular 8125 now and it does quite a bit. The screen is small, but I have a keyboard when needed, an expansion slot for larger memory cards, bluetooth, WiFi, and the ability to run 3rd party apps. I kind of wish I’d held out for the TyTN (8525), but that is another story.
My real hope here is that this pushes MS to realize that WM5 is not just for business users/enthusiasts and that they need to do a little of this with their devices. Not go the route of all touch screen, but converge the devices, give the users a positive UI experience, and push on manufacturers to increase built-in memory. It was a really cool demo and if it weren’t for the price, I’d probably consider it to a greater extent.
-Pete
No iPhone third party apps – http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/technology/11cnd-apple.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
“I don’t want people to think of this as a computer,” he said. “I think of it as reinventing the phone.” – Steve Jobs “We define everything that is on the phone,” he said. “You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers.”
Well, I guess that is that. I think it is a mistake on his part.
Ed and Craig – while Apple says “no third party app” I think they mean no public SDK and no apps you can just download and run. I think they will allow third party apps, but only through iTunes meaning just like today’s iPod games you’ll have to sign an contract with Apple to be a special ISV and then that gets you into their iTunes system.
But for me, without Pocket Bible it matters not. No iPhone for me – no matter how much I adore the device.
I will pray for an iPhone… but won’t be able to afford one for a long time should the price drop after a few years…
But as an iPod user and recently converted mac fan… everything that I have owned by apple these past 4 years has been excellent.
I think the iPhone has the potential to touch a need the pocket pc didn’t … widescreen touch … and iTunes compatiblity… watch a movie… and check out the internet with more simplicity…
I was pretty good with a stylus on a pocket pc… but it broke… and my pocket pc phone was always getting some errors… myself and others I know didn’t replace our pocket pc phones with another one…
I think the iPhone will take a while to go mainstream for a while… missing many customers for price… but eventually the price will come down and they will explode…
I hope to eventually own one… expecially if they get VOIP compatiblity with like skype…
decrease
To me the iPhone is just a “toy” (I have been using phone/PDA “converged” devices since the Qualcomm pdQ back in early 2000… and now I am using the 8525 running WM5). I wish I could have sat in on the focus group meetings where they tested out the 100% touch-screen input. What did those screens look like after an hour? For me personally I have been ejoying watching the touch-screen gradually being de-emphasized (the Treo 600 may have started this trend, amongst pdaphones anyway)… and both Microsoft and Palm seem to be recognizing that people don’t want to use a stylus anymore (and I don’t think that going from a stylus to using a finger is a step in the right direction). I’m sure Patty has gotten tired of all of the e-mails I have sent her over the years bugging you guys to stop requiring us to use a stylus for some of the features! (and the center button of the 5-way nav in WM5 still has no function… it would be perfect for bringing up the books of the bible and letting you navigate to your verse, just like in the Palm version… but that’s a comment for another thread!).
Bottom line is that I don’t think there is a big enough market for the iPhone. I also think that the “finger navigation” is a big mistake (am I the only one that is highly bothered when there is even a spec of dust on my screen, much less a zillion fingerprints?). One big step it could help the industry make is to allow real-time music downloads direct to the device (although the iPhone does not have UMTS support, only EDGE, which is very strange since my 8525 on Cingular already has UMTS). BUT, are the phone carriers willing to kill their $2.50 per ringtone business for the sake of selling full songs for $1? It will be interesting to watch.
Robert,
Your comments about using a stylus were interesting. For me there are two issues with these massively converged devices. First, they’re not shaped like a phone. They’re awkward to use as a phone because they’re too wide and too short. The other problem with the shape is that you’re generally smushing the screen against your face, resulting in “face prints” on top of the finger prints.
The second problem I have is the opposite of yours. I’d much rather use a stylus than my finger on any device this size. And I’d rather write using the old Palm alphabet than use a thumb-sized keyboard. I carry a third-party pen/stylus that is half the length of a normal pen.
I write notes during church using PocketBible on my Pocket PC. These are in the form of an outline with nested
tags with type attributes to control numbering. I say all that to give you an idea of the complexity of what I’m entering with the stylus and it works fine.
One of my concerns with the iPhone is the arrogance displayed by Apple by eliminating (or at least limitting) third-party apps. They’re saying they know better than you what you want to use your phone for. Sure, they hide behind the smokescreen of “network security”, but since that’s a crock and everyone knows it, one wonders what their motives really are.
Craig
I am sold on the iPhone! It is also the first phone that my wife actually wants to have. We’re saving our money and planning on having one in each of our stockings on December 25th.
I’ve been using Laridian’s great products ever since they came out. It would definitely be a great shame (for us) if you didn’t support the iPhone. Two copies of MyBible would be the first app we’d be installing. (IF there is third party software allowed!)
That’s a long time to wait. They’ll probably be obsolete by then.
Craig
Unless this iPod on steroids can do something that other smartphones can’t, I would be inclined to pass. Yes, the iPhone looks fantastic, but is it worth the price?
The iPhone is of interest, as my Treo 650 is aging (repaired twice in past year), but I may pass on both the iPhone and Microsoft’s new Vista OS, due to DRM (Digital Rights Management) concerns. I also just got an improper $71 bill on my AT&T home phone bill for a service problem that wasn’t in our house, and AT&T doesn’t seem interested in living up to their earlier promise to restore service for free in such a case.
If the AT&T repair bill isn’t adjusted, there’s no chance my next cell phone will be from AT&T (Cingular), even though I was previously expecting to switch to them next time. It’s also making me rethink whether I even need a landline phone any more, and if I do, why not get that through my excellent cable supplier wowway.com instead? Lots to consider, but as such thoughts indicate, lock-in is something I minimize whenever possible.
By the way, thanks for your openness in supporting lots of alternative devices without having to rebuy all the translations etc. if I ever switch from the Palm OS to say the Windows Mobile version. That definitely helps me stay devoted to your products.
Enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. We are, presently, researching our move away from a landline. I am a regular user of the Axim X30, running a 624MHz processor, and thoroughly appreciate the Pocket PC PocketBible 2.023 version I’ve been running on it. In that I was going to move into a cell phone, I have been researching the Cingular 8525 as a combination device, wondering if it would serve my purposes well.
Naturally, owning a couple of Mac OS X laptops…I was excited to think the Mac OS might be available for something akin to my PPC, but running my preferred OS–the iPhone sounded like my prayers had been answered. I’ve been researching the Notes program on the iPod, trying to find out what the space and formatting limitations might be–whether or not the Laridian software I enjoy so much might find a home on the iPhone, someday.
Is anyone out there successfully running the new Pocket Bible 3 version of the Laridian software on their X30, perhaps? Or…might anyone be able to report to me the efficiency of trying to run the Pocket Bible 3 software on an Intel PXA270 Processor type, running @ 624MHz?
I am thinking of trying to purchase and run Pocket Bible 3 on my current Axim X30 PPC and then leaving myself some wider options as I consider which phone to purchase. I am thinking, as a Mac fan, as well, about waiting for the June availability for the iPhone. Like the rest of y’all…I want there to be third party options available to us–we know best what we want our devices to make available to us as we carry out the responsibilities of our lives.!