Posts Tagged iPhone
How Do You Arrange Your Iphone Icons?
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings on November 13, 2009
So I’ve had my iPhone for about 3 months now and I’ve loved every minute of it. Hands-down it’s the best device I’ve ever used. One of the biggest draws for me to the iPhone was the number of applications available in the App Store that was better than any other smartphone platform. I think that there are now close to if not over 100,000 Apps available.
With so many options of Apps to use, I’ve been playing around with how to organize all these Apps so that the ones I use most are quickly accessible yet the ones I rarely use are still easy to find in the moment that I need them the most. I’ve tinkered around with two different organization structures. Both of these structures include the same home screen – one that has all of the Apps I use everyday multiple times. Read the rest of this entry »
First Impressions: Tweetie 2 for iPhone
Posted by Matt Brown in Reviews, Technology on October 13, 2009
If you don’t already know, Tweetie is one of the most popular iPhoneTwitter clients out there today. It combines tons of powerful features with a killer user interface that you’d swear came from Apple. So when Loren Brichter, Tweetie’s creator, started work on the next version, he was competing with his original app. To do this, Brichter totally rewrote the app from scratch, leaving behind every bit of code from version one. Then he applied all of the experience he gained from the original and created an even more powerful, feature-packed version with the same level of simplicity that made Tweetie a success. The result is Tweetie 2.
The first thing you’ll notice about Tweetie is its clean, easy to understand user interface. Navigating through Tweetie works just like the Mail or iPod app; it’s all hierarchical, gradually taking you from general to specific. Buttons and interface elements look great, lists scroll with no delay, and the entire layout makes perfect sense. No feature is left out, yet not one bit is cluttered. It’s near perfect.
At the bottom of nearly every screen is the familiar iPhone tab bar which contains tabs for viewing the timeline, mentions and direct messages. Whenever new information comes in, a blue light appears below the corresponding tab.
On the UI front, there were only a couple items I would have changed. Mainly the section which shows a user’s profile image in the “single tweet” view isn’t great. I also feel like the user info view could use some slight refining. Users of the original Tweetie may be disappointed to find that there is no theme support, at least not yet. Otherwise, I love every inch of Tweetie 2’s UI.
When you open Tweetie for the first time, you’ll be prompted to enter your Twitter login info. The app optionally supports multiple accounts which can be added by tapping the plus button in the accounts view.
Could you run your entire business from a smartphone?
Posted by Matt Brown in Insights on September 28, 2009
Last week, I had what every computer user dreads getting – my Hard Drive Crashed. I was watching a movie, and all of the sudden everything just stopped. I tried to reboot, but my computer didn’t even recognize my Hard Drive. I didn’t panic about losing my data though, as my computer is constantly backing up to Time Machine. (note: BACK UP YOUR DATA CONSTANTLY!) However, I was panicked about how I was going to be able to maintain my business. I had to be go anywhere from 2-10 days without my laptop depending on what the complete problem was, and how long until Apple would be able to turn it around.
Lucky for me, I upgraded to the new iPhone 3G S just 2 weeks ago. This phone is the perfect tool to run your business away from the office (or sans computer). Now a days, thanks to the variety of business apps available in the App Store, I can process a credit card payment, manage my accounting, update my inventory, track shipping, and more: all on my iPhone.
My short experience (luckily only 4 days) brought me to think though -
“Could you run your entire business from a smartphone?”
It’s certainly easy to run a business from a laptop from anywhere in the world because so long as you have an internet connection you can operate the same as if you were in the office. But would it work running your business from a mobile device all the time? Read the rest of this entry »
AT&T No-Commit iPhone – Is it worth it?
Posted by Matt Brown in Daily Ramblings, Technology on March 20, 2009
AT&T said that starting next Thursday, they will begin selling the iPhone 3G smartphones without requiring a two-year contract. As with the current subsidized models, the cost will be tiered based on storage capacity: the 8GB model will cost $599 without contract, and the 16GB model will be available for $699 without contract.
The phones will still be locked to AT&T’s network and there are no plans to offer prepaid service for the smartphone.
AT&T is about to (finally) make good on its promise to offer a “Pay-As-You-Go” plan without the usual requirement for a two-year service contact. For those scared of making commitments, your phobia comes at a high price. This “no-commit” pricing is only available to existing AT&T wireless customers, but activation is not required at time-of-sale.
Under AT&T’s current pricing, basic iPhone voice and data costs $69.95-a-month, with text messaging an additional $5-$20 monthly, depending on how many messages you expect to send.
So the question I want to know is – Is this a smart move for AT&T?
Here is their current monthly pricing structure:
Let’s break it down hypothetically:
-You buy an 8GB iPhone at the subsidized price of $199 with the required two-year service plan. (If you cancel service on day 31 of the contract, the early termination fee is “up to $175″ according to AT&T’s Web site.)
- $199 for the phone + $175 for early termination = $374 ($225 less than the $599 no-contract iPhone).
- $69.95/month for basic voice/data gives you 3 months of service.
So unless AT&T also plans on offering reduced price service to go along with this “Pay-As-You-Go” plan, it makes absolutely no sense for anyone with any brain to go ahead and pay $599 or even $699 for a no-contract iPhone. You can buy the subsidized phone, get three months of service, then pay the early termination fee and still come out a little bit ahead of paying the $599 no-contract price.
The only thing I can think about the logic behind AT&T’s new plan is that they have no intention of selling many if any iPhones at these prices. Maybe no-commit pricing is just a marketing-ploy in order to impress their current customers with how much buying the new iPhone with a two-year commitment “saves” them. So from that perspective, it may turn out to be a really good plan for AT&T to gain up some of those customers that Sprint keeps losing!
I’m sorry but I don’t want to insult my readers but if you buy this phone at full price, you are a moron… What do you think about this tactic that AT&T is taking?
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