Today, PCWorld.com posted an article by Matt Peckham (”Apple Demonstrates Ignorance of Mobile Games Market“) that echoed some of what I was thinking while following the big Apple event Wednesday. However, I think Peckham is mistaken–Apple doesn’t demonstrate ignorance of the mobile gaming market, they are projecting what they want the gaming market to be. See, that’s how they misrepresent. Apple has a long history of insisting on a particular reality until eventually it can be said to be, more or less, true.

Take a look at this screencap from the official video of the event released from Apple:

What that graph refers to is the number of gaming and entertainment titles available in the Apple App Store and compares it to the number of game and entertainment titles compared to the number of game & entertainment titles available for the PSP and Nintendo DS. Now first off, I challenge these numbers entirely.

The PSP has a LOT of movie titles available for it. Well, it did back when Sony still thought it’s proprietary UMD (Universal Media Disk) was a good idea. Likewise, the DS Phat and the DS Lite both support Gameboy Advance games. As a result, I think both numbers are absurdly low when counting “game & entertainment” titles for the DS, as well. Sure, the DSi doesn’t support GBA games, but Nintendo has it’s own version of the App Store coming.

Next, I want to point out that the App Store has a lot of dumb-ass “entertainment” titles that aren’t games and aren’t much of anything. Would that stupid Zippo cigarette lighter app count as an “entertainment title”? I’m guessing yes.

Then there’s the fart app, the virtual bonsai tree-maker, and the lightsaber app and a lot more. Now, to be sure, I sure find that lightsaber app to be entertaining as hell, but would I compare it to Spore or Lego Star Wars, both of which I love on my DS?

Hellz, NO.

And you don’t see Apple comparing them directly, either. That’s because they know it would be like comparing Apples to oranges.

As a person who LOVES his iPhone, I can tell you that anything with as few tactile buttons as the iPhone is NOT a gaming device! I get angry with it just switching tracks while listening to music. There have been countless instances when I’ll be watching a video and try to hit pause so I can back up to catch a subtitle I missed only to find the screen to be unresponsive for 15-20 seconds. Meanwhile, I’ve completely forgotten where the subtitle was and now have to go back very slowly to find it–which, of course, I can’t do because the touchscreen controls are crap.

Sure, the DS has a touchscreen, but it’s more responsive than the iPhone’s and the DS has actual buttons I can use, as well.

I’d also like to see the hard numbers when it comes to sales figures. Undoubtedly, the App Store has sold more game and entertainment titles than Nintendo and Sony combined, but let’s look at actual dollars made.

Most games and entertainment titles in the app store trend toward the cheap. $1-$10 or so. The only game I have on my iPhone, I Love Katamari, was $8, if memory serves. That’s a good deal cheaper than just about every game I’ve ever bought for my DS. So my guess is that Apple wants to convince everyone that the iPhone and Touch can rock as gaming devices, when really, the gaming experience you’ll get on either device is entirely different from the one you’ll get on the Sony PSP or the Nintendo DS.

But then, what else are you going to talk about in your keynote when the biggest thing you have to announce is a camera in an mp3 player?

Seriously though, get up in front of everyone and claim the iPhone and Touch are comparable to the DS and PSP??

Way to misrepresent, Apple. Not to compare Apple’s deceptiveness to that of an orange juice company’s but the whole thing reminds me of how Tropicana’s “Trop50″ drink masquerades as orange juice when it’s actually a watered-down and re-sweetened substance. Much the way real video games are watered-down for the iPhone and Touch.

I’m writing this because I love my iPhone. But I love it the way I love a woman who’s no good for me or a food that is really unhealthy for me. See, the hardware of the iPhone is pretty damn amazing. It’s capable of all sorts of stuff, but out of the box (and even after hacking) it’s still falls far short of what it’s capable of doing. Why is this? It’s because of Steve Jobs wanting to fit in with the rest of the corporate overlords that like to tell us what to do with the stuff we buy from them.

Have you ever bought a DVD player in your home country but try to play a DVD from another country on it? Lots of times you can’t. Why? Because the DVD companies and the DVD player companies are working together to control how we consume what they sell us. This kind of thing happens all the time with cell phones and the iPhone is a perfect example.

Wanna shoot video? NOPE, you can’t. Why? Because a few hundred thousand iPhone users uploading videos will clog AT&T’s very own series of tubez. Rather than just upgrade their services, Steve Jobs dumbs-down what the iPhone can do via the software that runs on it.

Think of it like buying a chicken from the supermarket and having the farmer that raised it and the supermarket owner telling you how to cook it.

But let me get specific.

Things the iPhone can’t do but really should:

1) video recording/shooting/streaming. Yeah, that’s right, I should be able to use it like a portable VCR, camcorder and Internet-broadcasting device. The hardware is perfectly capable of this but even after hacking it, I can only do two of these three things.

2) Enough with the fricken iTunes crap. I want to drag and drop, dammit. I can do it with my Jailbroken phone, but it’s just not the same. Stop treating us like thieves and pandering to the media companies. Screw those guys, they only know how to make crap these days anyway.

3) Let me use my damn phone on the carrier I want. Stop telling me what businesses I can and can’t give my money to. And cell phone carriers? Give me unlimited data already! This is idiotic, I’ve spent $20-$40 a month for unlimited broadband service to my home for EIGHT YEARS. Why can I not have unlimited data AT EDGE SPEEDS AT LEAST, DAMMIT??

4) Let apps run in the background, dickhead. WTF. My old Sidekick 3 can do this.

5) I don’t care if you add cut & paste because I’ve hacked my phone and can do this two different ways. (Though you should do it so folks don’t HAVE to hack their iPhones for this BASIC BLOODY FEATURE.)

6) Custom wallpaper/skins (see #5)

7) A browser that actually caches. Almost every time I pull up Safari, it tries to go online for the latest version of the web page you previously had up. Lame. Don’t want it.

Now, mind you, I’ve written this before the big announcement(s) at WWDC on June 7, 2009, so I don’t know what Jobs is going to pull, but I can bet it won’t solve all of these problems or avoid creating new ones.

I could go on, but it’s damn late and I want to post this a LITTLE before the WWDC announcement.

So, I’d just like to conclude by saying that I think it’s pretty much anti-American to let us buy something and then try to control what we can do with it. So, just let go with the control issues. This is supposed to be a free country.

OK, for years now, it’s been easy to see why Apple does so well. The only time I’ve ever really wondered what drugs they were on was when they introduced the first iPod Shuffle. With no display screen I was puzzled as to just what I was supposed to do with the thing. Years later, a friend gave me his since he wasn’t using it and I realized that, for me, it was perfect for listening podcasts. Who needs a display when you can listen to the podcast and know what you’re listening to? Songs, however, are a different story–but now Apple wants to think it has that problem beaten–by having the iPod Shuffle talk to you. That’s all fine and good, but wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just throw a display on it? And how the hell do you hit play? And what’s with the posing of the hand model in the pic on Apple’s main page right now (see above)?? The way the hand is holding the super-smooth Shuffle with it’s rounded edges suggests the form factor of a suppository.

Seriously, Apple has taken a cute little player with personality and made it a faceless, boring slab that could easily be mistaken for a tampon (ladies, back me up on this!).

So, sad. Please get better soon, Steve Jobs!

Posted via email from thepete’s posterous

UPDATE: I just read the product page again and it turns out the play and skip buttons are on the earbud cable. Wow, so now I can’t use my own headphones with the flippin’ thing! That is even more lame now.

So far, since Jailbreaking my iPhone many moons ago, I have run into very few problems with my choice to do so. I don’t miss the original firmware and it turns out I have, not one, but two apps that provide the coveted “cut & paste” function that Apple idiotically left out of their Jesus-phone. Likewise since I unlocked my iPhone back on January 1, 2009. I did have a few bumps finding an alternative data plan from AT&T’s, but I’m happy with T-Mobile now and spending about $20 less a month than I was with AT&T is pretty cool. All this said, I’ve recently come across a couple of problems with the Jailbroken, unlocked iPhone that I think my fellow JBUiPhone-users should know about:

1) iPhone dev-team member MuscleNerd Twittered just today about the possibility of silent update that plugs the hole yellowsn0w unlock uses to get in. MuscleNerd also says: “definitely don’t update to 2.2.1_5H11 if you want to retain soft unlock / yellowsn0w :)” So hold off on any updates to your iPhone’s firmware until further notice. Check out blog.iphone-dev.org for that further notice. Personally, I’ll never update the FW on my iPhone just cuz.

But don’t assume you are safe to update your Mac’s OS if you have a JBUed iPhone:

2) My fellow XO laptop owner friend Donna posted a comment to my last iPhone-related post about an issue where updating your Mac OS after JBing your iPhone may lock-up said Mac. She links to a Gizmodo story that informs us that we should:

Be careful with that latest QuickTime update if you have run any “DFU fix” Automator scripts on your unibody (Late 2008) MacBook or MacBook Pro. Do not upgrade to QuickTime 7.6 until you’ve repaired the alterations that the script made to your system. UPDATE: I am learning from commenters that this is not just limited to unibody Late ‘08 MacBooks, but it applies to ALL MacBooks running 10.5.6.

Seems if you’ve got a Mac running 10.5.6 and want to JB your phone, you may be stuck. Lucky for me, I’m still running 10.5.5 and see no reason to update. I’m also running Quicktime 7.5.5 so I’m covered there, too. In fact, after reading this, I think I’ll just stay away from updating iTunes, too.

Thanks for the heads-up, Donna!

3) Finally, I’d like to point something out that I noticed myself just last night. I updated the JB app Backgrounder to the latest version (I think it’s svn.r125) and ran into weird trouble. What Backgrounder does is allow apps to run in the background so you can surf the web or read email while you’re waiting for a pal on your IM buddylist to reply to your instant message. It’s a great app, but after I updated to the latest version last night, I found that I suddenly couldn’t open any apps without locking the screen first. So, I’d tap the “email” app icon and it would just gray-out a bit. I’d have to press and hold the power button until it asked if I wanted to power-off. Then I tap “cancel”, then hit the home button and unlock the screen and finally, I see the email app. This is the same for any app I try to open. Once I uninstalled Backgrounder, everything runs as it should. Sadly, I don’t have Backgrounder anymore and it was a very handy app, to have. :(

So, there you have it! Be warned! Don’t update ANYthing (firmware, OS, or even your apps) unless there is obviously a problem with them. I suppose if you really feel compelled to update, do your research first to make sure the updates are safe.

Don’t be a good little Apple consumer and eat whatever they put on your plate. Sometimes it’s bad for you.

Jailbroken iPhone, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

I now have access to even more bells and whistles, yet still no video
recording, VoIP, or unlockage. Supposedly, these will come in time.

So, WordPress released their app for the iPhone and it seems cool enough. It’s very basic, however–it doesn’t let you do any real admin, sadly. Like no plugin tweaking, no theme editing, and, worst of all, no way to troubleshoot if something goes wrong inside of WP.

Like that ever happens! :P

Of course, the other issue is how the WP app works with the iPhone itself. Just in the process of writing the above I’ve learned the following:

1) The WP app needs a landscape mode badly. Typing with one hand gets really tedious really quickly and, sadly, my thumbs are too big to work together (accurately) in portrait mode.

2) The iPhone’s incessant need to correct what it determines to be spelling errors makes blogging with HTML an annoying process. I tried to add emphasis tags and it kept replacing them with the word “email”. Sure, I can tap the insanely tiny “x” when the “correct” word pops up but I’d rather not have to do that EVERY time.

Of course, if there was a way to turn OFF the auto-correct feature you can bet I’d do that over expecting the WP guys to come up with a solution.

3) No tactile keys makes typing really hard, even with “click” sounds on. I find that I type MUCH slower on my iPhone than I did on my Sidekick 3’s pfysical qwerty. Also, having to go to different keyboards for certain (very) common keys is a serious drag.

4) No caps lock. No web-rant is complete without a sentence or two typed in all caps. How else are people to know that I’m yelling at them?

5) If you’re like me, you make mistakes. Like, just a moment ago, I was proof reading this post, realized I needed to add something to part of a sentence to better make a point but ended up adding it to the wrong part of the sentence. I then had to backspace out the entire addition and retype it again elsewhere thanks to NO DAMN CUT AND PASTE. (That last bit was really annoying to type without a caps lock, BTW.)

So, while it’s obvious blogging on your WP blog is possible through their official app (I’m doing it right now), I don’t think it is very easy or fun currently. Much of that is Apple’s fault not the WP guys, but I think the WP guys could do a few things to make WP-blogging more fun and easier to do.

Good first try, though, and with the WP guys you know there will definitely be updates. Hell, they probably put one out while I was typing this. :P

So, today was the “Stevenote,” aka the keynote address given by Apple HHIC Steve Jobs, at MacWorld 2008. Every year Macheads and gadget geeks (like me) like to follow the Stevenote live because we want to be among the first to know what exciting new innovations Apple will be loosing into the wilds this year. Over the past couple MacWorlds, I’ve been less and less enthused by what he’s announced. I remember thinking AppleTV was a big fat “who cares?” and the iPhone and Touch were both pretty underwhelming (iPhone can’t do video and the Touch has no camera and neither can wireless sync) so I was kind of hoping this year would be different.

Truth be told, I’ve been so distracted by my XO, I barely remember MacWorld was even happening until Sunday night. It wasn’t until this morning when I heard about the rumors of the “MacBook Air.” So, I can’t say that I was frothing at the mouth. What was funny was that it seemed like everyone else was.

TUAW.com was slow to load, Engadget just stopped loading as did even Twitter.com, which was very frustrating since I had trouble pulling up my own Twitter account–that means that the keynote was hitting sites not even directly related to Apple stuff.

So, what did we get from all of this hubub? Not a whole lot. Apple TV is finally what it should have been all along–a standalone media PC–it no longer needs another PC (did it need one before?) and can stream in DVD quality or HD, which (I guess) is nice. Of course, all I’d want it for is recording, but the Apple TV still can’t record. The new $229 price is nicer, though.

Oh and iTunes is renting movies now. This I think is cool, but nothing to write home about, really.

Then we’ve got Time Capsule, which is nice, but over-priced. It’s a wifi networked hard drive that automatically backs up your Mac. It runs $300 for 500 gig and $500 for a terabyte. I think that’s a bit pricey since 500 gigger HDs tend to price in at around $100-$150 and enclosures are $20-30. Granted, the TC is wifi, but who cares for something like backups? Personally, I have trouble keeping both of my Macs connected to my NetGear n router these days–I don’t need something else that will fall off the network randomly.

Then, the iPhone.

Yeah, gotta say that I’m not inspired to rush out to buy an iPhone or a Touch after today. For a minute I was thanks to those movie rentals, but since Steve still didn’t say anything about cutting and pasting on the iPhone, I’m sticking with my Sidekick 3. I can cut and paste on that, thanks.

All those new apps don’t do anything for me, either. Triangulating your location between cell towers? OK, great, but that’s only good if you’re lost. What if you don’t get lost very often? When I do, I just ask for directions (even as a guy, I do this).

And I’ve got to say, what’s the big deal with the MacBook Air? I like the thin and the battery life, but a 13.3 inch screen? Seems to be missing the point of “small”. Apple should have something to compete with the UMPCs out there, they don’t need something else that competes with other laptops. I’d rather have innovation over elegance. Oh and now they’re saying that the battery that last 5 hours on a charge isn’t replaceable. Whoops! Plus only one (ONE???) USB port, no FireWire, no ExpressCard slot, no SD slot, no IR port (so no Apple Remote usage), and as RodFather points out, it’s so flat, will it wobble at all? Aluminum can bend ever-so-slightly due to subtle pressures on it when it’s in a bag–the Air will be even more susceptible to this thanks to it simply not having the kind of structural support a thicker laptop would have.

Remember all those complaints when the Nano came out? Everyone said it was too thin and people were sitting on theirs. Granted, the Air is HUGE, but still–thanks to straight rules of physics, it can’t be that sturdy.

And again, I fall back on the whole lack-of-innovation thing. It’s just a really thin laptop. The only thing actually innovative is that it can come with a 64 gig SSD (Solid State Drive)–there’s a catch, of course. The price tag rockets up to $3000.

3 grand for nothing more than a reeeally skinny laptop? No, thanks.

Now, if they did something like a MacBooklet, a sort of tabletable eee with OSX on it, then we’d be talking!

But only a vaguely cool update to the iPhone and Apple TV? I think this is the last Stevenote I’m going to (try to) follow as it happens…