Why the iPhone SUCKS. Anyone have Cell Phone recommendations?
March 15, 2008 | 8 Comments
So I bought one of those trendy iPhone’s — and I signed up for a huge plan with AT&T, and I also signed up for their data plan [so I can connect my laptop when I’m anywhere — visiting my Dad, at a conference, at the airport, etc].
I’m now finding out first-hand about the limitations of the iPhone. First off, there’s no MMS support?! I just found this out — I mean, is this for serious!? When a friend sends a photo or video, I get this cheesy text message saying to visit ... and then it includes the craziest username and password. WHAT?! Oh, it gets better - I CAN’T EVEN CLICK THE LINK. Wait, better yet — I CAN’T EVEN CONNECT TO THE WEBSITE FROM MY IPHONE!!! Honestly, this is the worst user-experience I may have ever seen in my life.
Wow, seriously? Next — It doesn’t record video? Um… WHAT? I’ve had an LG phone for like 3 years that does video.
Next — The earpiece sucks — I can’t hear shit. And apparently, when I speak to people, they hear EVERYTHING that’s within 20 feet of me.
Next — The Internet speed/connection. I don’t know — but it seems to suck. I read comments that the ‘Edge’ network is crap. I’m curious whether Verizon or Sprint’s is better?
I also hear I should prepare for this battery to go to crap.
So does anyone have a recommendation for a phone? Fred Wilson loves his Curve, but then Jay Parkhill tells me he doesn’t like it.
Here’s what I want to do:
- Easily send/receive photos and videos from my phone to any one on any carrier via MMS.
- Take video.
- Take photos.
- Easily get the photos/videos off my phone [via USB or zip file in my online account].
- Easily transfer/restore my contacts.
- Access the web — and thus, webpages.
- Easily record audio — a voice recorder on the phone.
- Easy to hear people when I speak to them. The person I’m speaking too can easily hear me.
I’m also in the market for a data plan so I can hook my laptop up to the Internet. Sprint, Verizon, or should I stick with AT&T?
As for the cell phone, should I be getting a Blackberry?
Thanks for any suggestions/tips — even if it’s too warn me about lack of features on a certain phone.
IDEA #81 - iPhone Photo Plus [iPhone SDK application]
March 13, 2008 | 1 Comment
The iPhone’s camera is pretty “blah”. I’d love to see an app on the iPhone that allows me to do a bit of a “zoom” [even if it is fake and just manipulating what I see], simple “cropping” (using the touch screen to zoom) in the photo gallery (because I may want to send an image direct from my phone w/o going to edit it on my computer), and simple ability to send a photo to my Flickr or Facebook accounts — as well as be posted/shared via Twitter. And ability to send/share via text (MMS) or email, to my friends.
Also, why can’t my iPhone’s camera record video? Seems like it could record video — and stream it live like Qik.
Couldn’t it also connect to my Flickr or Facebook photo accounts, so I could browse mini thumbnails and then click on one to view the full size photo — and possibly send that to a friend direct from my iPhone?
iTunes Search Engine [opportunity]
January 28, 2008 | 3 Comments
Fred Wilson twittered that he was looking for these “I’m Free” remixes by The Rolling Stones. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of the Stones, but the remixes are by some hot artists — Postal Service, Hot Chip, Fat Boy Slim, and Moby.
I did some research and found out they were released exclusively on iTunes. I happen to not have iTunes installed at this time, so I did a search to try and find an iTunes song search engine. No luck — I couldn’t find one.
So here’s an idea for the taking — create an iTunes search engine. Sign up as an affiliate of Apple through LinkShare. Then I think to get access to Apple’s 6.5mm song data feed (download data feed spec doc), you have to pay $250 to LinkShare (which gives you access to product feeds from many of their merchants). You’ll then earn 5% of any sales that result from your iTunes search engine.
Note: Don’t use ‘itunes’ in the domain you choose for this (you could use something more generic related to mp3’s or music — because then you could work to get a data feed from Amazon.com’s MP3 library, eMusic, and others like IMEEM, these new ad-supported free download sites, and in the near future we’re going to see other big players opening up DRM-free MP3s for sale — like Yahoo!).
Further Note: 5% of a $0.99 track is only $0.05. You’d have to sell a lot of songs to make any real money from Apple’s affiliate program — however, you could complement your Site with display ads (much like Last.fm and Hype Machine do), as well as sponsored search results (from Google, or Validclick, or Searchfeed, etc).
Good luck!
