One of the truly great things about the App Store is that one can go through the entire catalogue of applications and know, when they download an app that it will run on their iPhone, whatever the model. This is a breakthrough in mobile applications that no one seems to have picked up on. No worrying about getting the same application to work on varying pieces of hardware. You can install an app on your iPhone and know that it will operate perfectly as there have been no other models to ‘distract’ the development of the application.

However, with the release of the iPhone 3GS, I think that Apple are making the first steps to diverging the iPhone line, in terms of different hardware functionality. And this will be a problem in the future.

Right now, we’ve got two models of iPhone on sale. The 3G and the 3GS. Both these phones, on the whole are very similar, with the 3GS only having a handful of features, such as video capabilities, voice control, a magnetometer and a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus differentiating it from the previous model.

This leaves very few extra requirements that an iPhone application may have for added functionality or a certain feature to operate at its best. And yes, a lot of the time, we’re only seeing quality improvements. For instance, a barcode reader, to be effective might require the autofocus lens of the 3GS. As with the 3G, the application would struggle to get an accurate image of the barcode. But the app would still be able to function, it’s just that a lot more care would have to be taken in scanning the iPhone. Be it, making sure the lighting conditions are okay and keeping a steady hand.

Now imagine the iPhone landscape a few years down the line. A couple regular iPhones? Plus an iPhone Nano with a smaller screen? This leaves Apple with a very large problem. With there being different capabilities and physical limitations on the iPhone product line – we’re going to see several versions of a single application; first changed depending on physical capabilities, and secondly, games may be changed depending on the speed of the hardware that they run on.

The irony of this of course, is that at WWDC 09 Phil Schiller called out Nokia for this exact issue:

Not all the apps run on all the phones. It’s really complicated so we took a lot of the phones and added them together to make a bigger number [to give a number of apps on the store].

In this scenario, we’d be stuck with possibly hundreds of thousands of apps on the store, some that can run on your specific iPhone model, but other versions that may not. My feelings are that, for Apple to solve this problem they’re going to have to take a tough stance.

Imagine, you bring your shiny new iPhone home after picking it up from the store. Once you’ve plugged it in, the iTunes Store would detect which model you were using and only display the relevant apps that operate on the model you own. So when you go searching for that game that requires a certain CPU speed to run, you won’t purchase the version that doesn’t operate well on your iPhone. In fact, you won’t even know the other version of the app exists. In turn making the browsing experience of the App Store (which right now is pretty poor) a lot more tolerable.

I favour this idea because it hits two birds with one stone; it simply cuts down on the amount of apps in the store and allows you to not have to worry about getting the optimum experience from applications from your iPhone. Not being a developer however, I’m unsure how they’d react to such a system. I’d envision a series of boxes for the developer to tick, suggesting which iPhone models the app will run on.

The other option, of course, is to go to the simple, and effective method of stating ’system requirements’ in the app info section on the store, requiring the purchaser to check if the application is compatible with their model of iPhone. I just feel that the afore mentioned solution is a more elegant way of handling this inherent issue with the current way the App Store functions.

PS: My bud, Chris Gilbert, has written a piece on this very same topic, it’s worth a read.

Glenn Wolsey offered some interesting thoughts on the direction that Apple seems to be taking the MacBooks:

The direction we’re heading in makes it quite clear that the merging of the MacBook and the Air lines would make sense, and is certainly possible. The Air becoming the MacBook whilst the Pro line remains as is in three excellent size choices.

I find it very hard to imagine the MacBook Air becoming just ‘MacBook’. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The MacBook is a consumer notebook, and the Air isn’t. Imagine the uproar if a consumer marketed notebook lacked a superdrive and for most, the lack of USB ports is an immediate turn off.

The only folks who would buy the new MacBooks, in this scenario, are those who would have bought the Air in the first place. Apple just wouldn’t get anywhere with their product line.

Instead, I see Apple filling the void left by the MacBook with the much rumored tablet or perhaps even a netbook aimed primarily at the consumer market that the original MacBooks left. Relatively cheap and portable – but at the same time offering a great everyday computing experience. Be it browsing the web or checking email.

The Air, would be left in its current position. With no price change. I don’t think Apple would, even if they could, lower the MacBook Air prices any further. Though the Air is cheaper, it’s still a premium product, and Apple want to keep it that way.

I’m not going to lie, I’m still fairly skeptical about the Palm Pre. it’s not that I don’t want it to be a success – I just wonder how anyone can stand up and say how a device is going to be a game changer when at most, they’ve played around with a prototype for twenty minutes. I’m also cautious because we’ve been here before. Anyone remember the Blackberry Storm? Everyone thought that was going to blow the iPhone out of the water; for those not aware, it certainly didn’t.

Over the past few months since CES, when Palm announced the Pre, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the direction that Palm are taking the Pre and I can’t really understand the choices that they’ve made. In some leaked internal material, they implore salesmen not to persuade certain “IT Centric Business Users”  – whatever that means – to buy the device.

I have a few problems with this. Surely, Palm, a company that isn’t doing so well right now should be putting all their energy into a phone that really, if it lives up to the hype; should be able to do ‘everything’ a Treo can do. This suggests to me a very confused product line, and makes me doubt who exactly Palm are marketing the Pre for. After all, surely if this device is so damn easy to use, the Pre should be for everyone. By doing so, like Apple, Palm wouldn’t be alienating a large possible portion of what could be a lucrative market – everyone. Apple is not afraid to say that the iPhone is for everyone. Look at the name of their ad campaign “There’s an app for just about anything”.

There’s one aspect about the whole business focus that Palm is working on that I’m slightly miffed about which Engadget pointed out:

One critical thing to note for business users and frequent flyers: the Sprint version of the phone — the first to be released — will not be a global phone, meaning it can’t be used on GSM networks overseas.

Let me get this straight. You want me to purchase a phone for business that I can’t use in most parts of the world? In other words, you want me to have two phones. One for when I’m at home and one for when I travel abroad. Forgoing to whole logistics issues of having multiple numbers and syncing everything together there’s a very large financial aspect for business to worry about. Seriously now, wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to buy one cell phone that happens to cost the price of the Palm Pre (after rebate, I’ll get onto that later) and works in other countries?

I hate pointing out the elephant in the room but… iPhone?

John Gruber put it best: “rebates suck”. They really do. The whole idea is that it’s such a terrible procedure to go and get the money back from the manufacturer – that most people give up and the company doesn’t loose any money. A sucky way to do business if you ask me. There is a silver lining however, Best Buy, are offering an instant rebate. I would be very, very surprised if Pre’s were purchased anywhere else but Best Buy.

I was really, really surprised when I found out that Palm weren’t going to be offering any form of desktop syncing application for the Pre – and slightly worried. Anyone who knows a little about the success of the iPods and iPhone is aware that, really, it’s iTunes that’s behind it. iTunes is the piece of software that allows the experience to be so damn seamless. I am not of the opinion that we are at a point where one can rely on their cell phone completely for contact information, let alone media.

By the sound of things, Palm’s intent on having a “Data Transfer Assistant” which for me suggests a world of hurt. For instance: I want to watch a movie on my Pre. How do I go about doing this? I can’t use iTunes or any other downloadable content store because of this little thing called DRM. So movies are out to the picture. Next up, music – a lot easier now that DRM for audio is a thing of the past. But first I have to navigate through my entire music file structure, copy it over to the “Data Transfer Assistant” and pray that the Pre works out where is should be stored?

Yeah, not quite my cup of tea.

Don’t worry, it’s not all bad however, there are a couple of items on the feature set that have caught my eye. If Synergy works, it will be revolutionary. If it doesn’t, then in turn the rest of the experience with the Pre will be a nightmare. I’m also very curious about the WebOS that Palm are pushing – kind of similar to how Apple intended the iPhone to operate. Of course, it didn’t and for now at least, we won’t be running any 3D Games on the Pre.

In the end, no matter how well the Pre does, Palm will have learnt a lot about the current state of the mobile industry, and being an iPhone user, I’m glad someone is keeping Apple on their toes. Because, RIM and HTC certainly aren’t.

Your move, Apple.

Three weeks, or so, ago I sent in my MacBook Air in for repair. The signs were very obvious that my hard drive was about to pack it in. And there was that sound… the sound every computer owner dreads: Click. Click. Click. So instead of waiting for it to die on me, I decided that is was the opportune moment to hand it in for repair. I was nearing the end of my school Easter holiday and had finished most of my computer based work that was required of me. I had never been keen on the idea of having my computer repaired in the school term – I rely on it far to much for some lessons. A week of not having a computer at hand would be a disaster.

I received my Mac back a little over a week after dropping it off with a new hard drive installed. The folks at John Lewis were kind enough to copy all my data over for me, so I had everything exactly as it used to be. However, I was not satisfied with the performance. Apps were crashing left right and centre, and I wanted a fresh start.

So, I decided that a clean reinstall was in order, at the time – it was all the rage – so after reading up on what to back-up and what not to. I began to process.

The Back-up

Backing up data was relatively easy. All of my documents are stored with DropBox, an incredibly easy file syncing app; that also happens to act as a back-up. I copied over my iTunes library, iPhoto library and some databases from Address Book, Bento and Littlesnapper into an external USB hard drive I had lying around.

All my software licenses and passwords were stored in the ever useful 1Password application, so no sweat there. I simply exported an encrypted file that would be opened by 1Password after the reinstall.

After the obvious elements of my system had been backed up, it was down to the nitty gritty that I wasn’t particularly sure about, such as preferences. Once I’d cut down on all of those extra apps I wasn’t using – I copied some of the preference files to make the transition a little easier. One aspect I was concerned about was Mail, which didn’t go according to plan, and to this day I don’t exactly know what went wrong.

I followed this guide here (obviously, not recommended!) to no avail. Luckily, being the cautious person I am, I stringed together important emails and forwarded them to a random web mail account for such a case as this.

The Reinstall

Up until this point, I had never made use of Remote Disk. I was very much, pleasantly surprised when it worked without a hitch. I installed the Remote Disk software on my brother’s Mac. Inserted the Leopard Disk and ran the “Remote Install Mac OS X Utility”. I connected my MacBook Air to the MacBook Pro via ethernet, hoping to quicken up what I new was going to be a long process.

Believe me. It was.

After several cups of tea, a mowing of the lawn (my house has a very big lawn), and an episode of Tekzilla: the reinstall was complete and all I had to do was enter the necessary information and take the obligatory avatar snapshot.

The Recovery

The rest of the afternoon was spent downloading applications, reapplying operating system settings, and installing Adobe CS3 over Remote Disk, which worked perfectly. All in all, I was very satisfied with the results. My MacBook Air is now a lot faster on a day to day basis and I’m not suffering application crashes nearly so frequently.

What else did I gain from this? Confidence. I was always very worried that I would forget to back something up. Moreover, I was concerned that Remote Disk would stop in its tracts, leaving me in an impossible position. All of these worries proved to be unfounded, something I’m super happy about.

If you are finding your Mac (or PC for that matter) a little slow. Why not try a reinstall? After all, when was the last time you did?

I’ve got a new favourite iPhone game – FlightControl [App Store Link]. A gorgeous and very addictive app that requires you to take on the position as an air traffic controller.

Paul Thurrot on the iPod Shuffle –

This is a rare misstep for Apple, and, I hope, the end of the miniaturization silliness that currently grips the company. Smaller isn’t always better. Nowhere is that more true than with the iPod shuffle 3G.

I think this is another case in which Apple has sacrificed form over function.

Apple made no apologies for the lack of a screen in the Shuffle when it was first released. Now, it’s as if they’re trying to shoehorn the capabilities of an iPod with a screen into the Shuffle. This had led to an overcomplicated and frustrating method for controlling the music on the Shuffle.

Along with the newly redesigned iPod Shuffle, Apple have released a ‘Guided Tour‘ for the product. It’s very informative but I couldn’t help notice the edge Apple took when they compared the speech synthesizing on Windows to Leopard – which of course was superior.

How many companies’ adverts do you actually go looking for to watch again after you first see it on TV? I can think of two. Firstly Microsoft’s, because to get any idea what they were actually talking about you had to watch them several times, and secondly – Apple’s.

Why? Because they actually show you what the product can do in less than thirty seconds. They don’t just give you a reason to buy the product, they give you several good reasons. Especially the iPhone ads.

In the UK we’ve got an ad very similar to this one. What does that ad tell you about Blackberry? Pretty much nothing apart from the fact that they make phones and they’ve got a really crappy marketing department.

While, this ad on the other hand, has a rather different story. Apple’s ads give you instances that might actually happen while you’ve got your iPhone on you. The total opposite direction to RIM, who are to afraid that when you start looking at the low-res pixelated screen and hard to use navigation buttons – you’ve going to be turned off the product.

And they’re right to be scared. Every Blackberry I’ve come across has had a sucky interface.

In the case of Apple’s advertising efforts: they’re talking about getting a cab, working out your share of the dinner bill and one of the coolest apps I’ve seen so far – the leveler! Sure, you might not use them everyday, but they’re the sort of apps that one might find handy every so often and make a great demo.

Apple are trying really hard to sell their product, and that shows through very clearly. RIM however, have a harder job. Everyone has heard of the iPhone, but it’s a different story with Blackberry; so they have to introduce the product and show of its features in the same amount of time. In the case of this ad, they manage to do neither.

RIM wants to be seen as innovative and cool. Why does it matter though? Surely, if it looks cool people will want to buy it? After all, there is no doubt that they used some pretty spiffy stuff to make the ad.

Apple manages to get away with not using lots of fancy effects because everyone knows that the iPhone is cool, that everything Apple makes is cool. If you own an iPhone – you’re cool. The Blackberry on the other hand… lets face it, isn’t very cool. At all. RIM are trying to turn around the Blackberry brand. They’ve worked out that if they’re going to survive in the current financial climate – they need to branch out into the consumer market.

The latest advertising effort by RIM is to show the world that they do more than business, after all; I didn’t see one image of corporate life in that ad. The problem is, they haven’t gone about it in the right way. They should be telling me what I can do, as a teenager everyday, with a Blackberry.

Sorry RIM, but you’ve got quite a bit further in your advertising efforts to go if you want me to trade my iPhone in for a Storm.

Marble -

Based on our sources, however, Apple will apparently use Snow Leopard’s release to tweak the overall user interface for Mac OS X and unify it across applications…The codename for the new interface is said to be “Marble”.

Apple are continuing to make their user interface more refined, and as some have noticed, a total contradiction to Microsoft’s approach. Apple are stepping away from the flashy UI and going for a far more subtle look. I can’t say I really ever liked “Aqua” very much, especially within Leopard – it just looked out of place; so these are welcome changes.

The biggest interface change I’m hoping for is for all the the windows to be straight rather than curved. It drives me crazy.

An iPhone with a keyboard? -

“Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149.”

Why would Apple ever do this? By doing so they would be acknowledging that their touch technology isn’t as good as they promoted and be and their keyboard with they touted as better than a tactile keyboard floored. Apple can’t turn back now they’ve gone down the touch road.

Piper Jaffray gets the dumbass of the week award from me.