This is a question that is on everyone’s mind.  Below are a few reasons as to why you should buy an iPhone

• The new retina display is awesome.  Since you end up doing a lot of reading on the iPhone the new display makes this easier on the eyes.
• New processor and better battery.  Even if you have an existing 3GS phone this could be a nice selling point to upgrade.  While I don’t notice that much of a difference when it comes to the processor, I do notice a difference on the battery.
• The new iPhone 4 has the ability to record 720p video at 30 fps.  With this ability to shoot HD video, this could easily replace HD Flip cameras.  Grab the new iMovie app and things can get really exciting.
• New hardware design.  This phone is a lot thinner than the current 3G and 3GS phones and is more industrial.  The front and back are made of glass that is supposed to be 30 times stronger than plastic.  The frame is made of steel rather than plastic and should help with the durability of the phone.  I really like the feel of this phone over my 3GS and it just looks awesome.

So while all of these are great reasons to own the new iPhone 4 I am now going to play devils advocate and list some reasons as to why you may want to hold off on getting the new iPhone 4:

• If you are a current iPhone 3GS owner then you will already have access to some of the best new features of the iPhone 4 since some features are actually part of the new iPhone operating system they are calling iOS 4.  Multitasking, folder organizations, iBooks update, 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpaper, unified inbox, and over 100 other enhancements.  This update is available to you free of charge.
• No Verizon announcement, and if you want the iPhone you need AT&T.  Now while I have always tried to stay away from the cell phone provider debate, I know some people feel very strong about their hatred for AT&T, so this could be a big issue for you.  If that is the case it sounds like you will need to wait a bit longer for the iPhone to come to VZW.
• No more unlimited data.  AT&T recently announced that they were dropping their unlimited data plan option.  This means that you will have to pay for either 200MB or 2GB worth of data.  With the Netflix announcement at the keynote, the thought of streaming 2GB of data is a reality if you take advantage of that service.  Add on streaming radio and it won’t take you long to reach those limits.
• Lack of Google integration.  The fact that you can’t use Google Latitude or the Google Mobile features where you get turn by turn navigation for free is frustrating when you see all of your Droid friends using those products.
• Reception issues are pretty common.  A downfall to the redesign is the fact that the antenna is around the edge of the phone and when held a certain way you can lose your signal.  If you are a person that will end up putting your phone in some sort of case then this is a non issue, but if you go case-less then this is something to take into consideration.

I ended up ditching my iPhone 3GS for the iPhone 4 and so far I have been pretty happy with the device.  The camera, new retina display, the new OS, and battery life all make the upgrade worth it.  It even made my wife happy as she got to upgrade from the 3G to the 3GS, but she doesn’t know what she is missing….

Here are some quick bits from the past week, just in case you missed them.

Palm CEO: I’ve ‘Never Even Used’ An iPhone – I understand hating the competition but how do you know what your competition is when you have never tried the competition?

Exclusive: Qualcomm to Power iPhone – it has never been a matter of if the iPhone will land on the Verizon network, just a matter of when.  Sounds like that will be this summer.

iPhone wins touchscreen quality test – this is probably one of the things that I will always evaluate as new phones come out as I think the touchscreen and gestures are really important on smartphones these days.

Facebook’s iPhone App Gets New Push and Sync Features – this is the first time I have used the push notifications on my iPhone and love the contact sync.  The contact sync is a small feature, but its just nice to have the pictures automatically pulled into your contacts for you.

iPhone Runs Toy Helicopter Taking Off at CES 2010 – while the iPhone still has a little bit of a wow factor when you show off some of the funny/cool apps that you can run, this would definitely make jaws drop.  Especially the live camera feed while flying the helicopter.

Apple: Three billion downloads from iPhone App Store – the App store still gives the iPhone an edge, but the playing field will be leveled as the Android Marketplace gains momentum.  At that point, I think it will come down to the software on the phone.

So what better way to start off 2010 other than a post that lists my top predictions for the iPhone in 2010.

1. The iPhone will land on Verizon.  This is just a matter of time and if the rumors are right the exclusive contract is up this year and some version of the iPhone will land on the Verizon network.
2. Android momentum won’t catch the iPhone.  Right now, Android looks sweet and is driving competition against the iPhone.  The main reason it has a lot of momentum is because Verizon users don’t have any other device that can compete with it.  Once the iPhone hits Verizon I think people will take the iPhone over a Droid phone.
3. Multi-tasking, Voice Commands, 5mp camera, LED flash will come to the next version of the iPhone.  You can thank competition from the Droid and Pre lines for this one.  I may even go to say that there will be a front facing camera with some sort of live conferencing capability.  The voice commands are something that is built into the Android platform and is pretty slick, the iPhone will need to catch up to that.
4. Storage is the next thing to increase but they still won’t support external storage cards.  Do they really need external storage if you have 64GB of space?
5. The App store will hit 350,000 apps by the end of the year and there will be an option for developers to expedite their approval process by paying extra.
6. Subscription services will come to the iPhone and iTunes.
7. Flash won’t come to the iPhone in 2010.  I know Adobe has the mobile version but I just don’t see Apple letting that run on the iPhone and take away from their game market.
8. The overall form factor of the device won’t change much but the screen and internal CPU compoents will get get an upgrade.  The screen should get an HD upgrade, while the processor will go dual core which will allow them to open up multitasking.
9. Major enhancements to the default maps application, even a move away from using Google.  Integrated Traffic and weather?  Better GPS?
10. Continue to dominate sales and be the best phone out there.

What are your predictions?

Today was the start of Adobe’s Max Developer Conference and the big announcement from the conference so far is an enhancement to their Adobe Flash Platform that will allow their player to work on smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PC’s and other Internet connected devices. You can see the official press release from Adobe here. A public beta will be available later this year and will be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, and all the major desktop OS’s with Android, Symbian, and RIM are all expected to be available at a later date as well.

As you can tell the list of vendors jumping on board to support the initiative is pretty broad, but Apple is no where to be found, which is perfectly fine by me but more on that in a minute. I think we need to look at why Apple is so hesitant to allow Flash on to the iPhone. Once they allow Flash on the iPhone Apple would be giving developers a way around their AppStore Cash Cow. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal for utility type applications because the user experience would not be the same (Flash apps would probably not be allowed to have an icon on the main menu system), this could be a big blow to Apple since they are marketing the iPhone as a gaming platform. If the iPhone had Flash that can take advantage of the accelerated graphics and video, why would developers create a game that is specific just for the iPhone and go through the Apple approval process?

On the other side I think more and more iPhone users are starting to get used to life without Flash, which makes you wonder how necessary it really is. Based on my usage, I really don’t see a need for Flash anymore and I hope it never comes to the iPhone. I visit more and more sites each day that just created a mobile or iPhone version of their site that works great without Flash. I find that most sites that I visit use Flash for either navigation or ads which can easily be replaced with a non-flash version of the site that performs better and does not eat up system resources. The only real use I could see for Flash would be for streaming such as video from Hulu, but I would rather see that implemented as a native app that is feature rich and not in the browser.

So where do you stand when it comes to Flash support on the iPhone?

Leave your comment below.

During Apples 2Q earnings call, Apple’s COO acknowledged that Apple is considering changes to the App Store so that they help level the playing field when it comes to 99 cent apps, and $29 dollar apps.  Here is the quote from Tim Cook:

“As you know, today we do it by type of app and also have show popular apps and top-selling apps, et cetera,” Cook said. “We realize there’s opportunity there for further improvement and are working on that.”

Apple Insider provides a post that details a lot more information about the call.  So, what can Apple do to really improve the App Store?  Here are a few ideas on how I think they can do it:

1. Allow sub categories - This will allow users to filter down the list of apps within a category.  This would really help in the games category
2. Ratings Sort - Allow users to view a list of apps based on rating, not just free, paid, and release date.
3. Provide Preview Period – create an automatic demo mode that is available for every app.  Apple could eaily track this within the iPhone and allow users to try the game out for  a certain time period.
4. Genius - bring over Genius from iTunes but for app store purchases.  This little service could make recommendations based on past purchases
5. Improve Social Network – Improve the social network around app ratings and follow the model that Amazon uses by creating top reviewers, and have these reviews provide more weight to how the game is factored into qualifying for the top cateogires

What do you think?  How do you think Apple can improve the App Store?

I had a conversation recently with some friends about the true cost of owning a smart phone.  I decided to run some numbers to see what the total cost of ownership really is across 5 of the more popular smart phones out there such as the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Storm, Android G1, and Palm Pre.

Here is a summary chart of what I found while shopping online:

As you can tell the monthly cost of ownership between the iPhone and the Storm are pretty close.  The G1 is your best cost saver across the board, except for when you get into the unlimited talk, text, and data.  Once you get to that tier, the Palm Pre comes through as the cheapest.

Now some basic disclaimers.  I tried to put some carrier specific disclaimers on each chart listed below.  These prices were effective on 7/20/2009.  When listing the price for the phone, I took into account what offers the carriers had running at the time, regardless of if it was a mail in rebate or instant rebate.  The prices do not include any state or federal taxes.  Finally, all of this is based on signing your life away to a 2 year contract as a new subscriber.

Here are the rest of the charts:

Today a company named Safeware announced a new insurance product for the iphone.  You can read all of the offical details on their website, http://www.insuremyiphone.com.  They provided this comparison chart to show how they compare against Squaretrade and BestBuy

In a previous post I talked about insurance offered by SquareTrade.  Squaretrade has better options when it comes terms, pricing, and the deductible.  Squaretrade is cheaper because of its term, and it also offers free battery repair if the iPhone battery life drops below 50% of the original.

Safeware does provide some additional coverage that Squaretrade does not, such as coverage against theft, fire, flood, and vandalism.  One other key difference for Safeware is that you don’t have a 30 day window for the coverage.  So even if you bought your 3G iPhone a year ago, you can still get coverage, where with Squaretrade you can’t.

It will be interesting to see if people report back on how good the service is.  I would still bet that its a better option than AppleCare, which is just a really bad option for protecting your iPhone.

[via Macworld]

I recently came across an announcement on Twitter about a new Breakout type game called Radial 50 that was just released in the Appstore.  I figured I would give it a spin and see what new twists it has added to one of my favorite games.  So what is Radial 50?  Here is their description from their website:

A new spin on an arcade classic – Radial 50 features fifty intense rounds, challenging gameplay for both beginners & arcade veterans, and a location based leaderboard to track your scores against friends.

Radial 50 definitely offers a new “Spin” on this classic game since your game board is now round.  The objective of the game is the same though, control your paddle so that you direct the ball at the bricks and break them up so they are removed from the game board.  As the game pieces are removed from the board, your goal is to get to the middle of the board and hit the diamond to finish the level.  The game offers 50 levels of game play and starts out slow so that you can learn the controls and figure out the rules of the game. The developers did a really good job at offering some good tutorials at the start of the early levels to help teach you the rules of the game.   As you proceed through the various levels, the game play really starts to pick up and the help will start to go away.  As you learn the game, you can also go into the options menu and disable the help all together.

The first challenge with the game will be learning how to control your paddle. You control the paddle by sliding your finger up and down in the control paddle area.  The paddle area is controlled by user preferences and can be set to right or left.  This takes a little bit to get used to because you easily find yourself dragging your finger horizontally around the panel to rotate it.  From what I can tell the paddle will still move, but the farther you get away from the control paddle area the less the paddle will move.

Once you learn how to control the paddle, you primary objective is to project the ball towards the targets.  Striking the targets will eventually unlock the center defense, allowing you to strike the inner most diamond and advance to the next round.  As you break down these targets, you begin to accumlate points.  Points are also accumulated by collecting particles as well as completing the round in a timely manner.  You also have to make sure that you don’t let the ball strike the wall too many times which will eliminate your health. Health will regenerate over time, but once you lose all health the game is over.    Whats is also nice is that the game offers some feedback as the ball hits the wall.  This is helpful for times when you are using your paddle to collect particles, and you lose track of the ball.  When the ball hits the wall, your iPhone will vibrate a bit and you will know that you need to move your paddle to block the ball so it won’t hit the wall anymore.

You also have the ability to earn various bonuses throughout each round, or as the round completes.  You can get bonsues based on time and health, but you also get bonuses on the number of particles you collect.  For example, you can get a bonus if you complete the level without losing any health.  You can also earn some bonsues for the number of particles that you collect throughout the round.

The game also offers an extensive list of achievements that you can try to complete.  There are 20 different achievements available to you, but some of them do not unlock until you reach other achievements.  I should also note that achievements don’t give you extra points that would affect your ranking in the leaderboard, they are just their for your own personal goals.

Radial 50 also offers a nice social aspect to the game.  The game offers the ability to post your various scores to their leaderboards.  The leaderboards have various categories broken down by by your device and your city, all the way up to a global leader board across everyone who has registered with the community.  The registration process was simple and you can easily post your latest score to the leaderboard, as well as Twitter and Facebook.

The only real gripe that I have with the game has to do with a side effect that is caused by the fast game play at times.  The ball will easily get lost in the mix because of how fast it can move at times.  I would also like to see them expand on various game modes that are available.  This would give you more exposure to all of the levels in the game.

Overall, I was very suprised about how fun this game is.  The game play is fun and addicting, and I think people will really enjoy the various challenges that the game provides.  For $1.99, I would highly recommend this game, but be prepared to get hooked.  Make sure you visit the website link below and check out the “First to 50″ Contest link.  They are giving away some great prizes to the people who can complete all 50 levels.

Enjoy, and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Radial 50 [iTunes Link]
Radial 50 Website

One of the small enhancements to the 3.0 version of the OS for the iPhone is the ability to email more than one picture at a time.  When you go to your photos and view all of the pictures in the album, you now have a arrow icon in the lower left corner.  This icon gives you the option to select various photos and perform an action against them.  You have 3 actions available: Share, Copy and Delete.  Share is nice because it allows you to select up to 5 photos and and email them to someone., but you will notice that it it disables after you select more than 5 photos.

So how do you share more than 5 photos at a time?  Easy, just select all of the photos you want and then select the Copy action.  Then navigate over to the email app and create a new message, tap and press into message body area to get the new paste menu.  Once you select paste, all of the images that you copied when in the photo album will appear in your message.  Provide a recipient and subject for your email and click send.

Enjoy!

So this is probably no secret, but I am a gadget freak.  Always have been, and probably always will.  So needless to say, I think the iPhone is the best gadget out there right now.  Yes this is very “Fanboyish”, but I do believe it to be true.  So how does a true fanboy use his iPhone to get through a day with his family?  This should be interesting since I am heading to a water park and you would think a gadget would not get used much, but lets see:

1. The plan for the family trip was to go to Waterworld (recently featured on the travel channel as the 3rd best water park in the US)  in Denver.  As most people do these days, I had to make sure that I had my directions since it had been a while since I have been there.  Normally, I would track down the laptop or go to my desktop, but no need this time.  Just opened up google maps and was able to track down my directions.
2. Once I had my directions, next up was to get the weather forcast.  As I had done numerous times throughout the week, I just fired up the Weahter Chanel app and checked the forecast.  I was glad to see that it was going to be partly cloudy and in the high 80’s.
3. The drive to Waterworld was just over 1 1/2 hours from my house, and on my way up I had to shoot a quick text to my brother in law to let him know we were on our way to pick him up.
4. Throughout the drive, my iPhone became in car entertainment.  My wife and kids stole the phone to check Facebook and play some games.  I think my wife even listened to a few tunes on the way up.
5. We got to the park early, so while waiting for the park to open I decided to check some news to see if anything exciting was happening, and thankfully there wasn’t.  What I did find out was that the park offered free Wifi.  Nice!, Very Nice!
6. Once in the park and we got situated the iPhone got stored in the locker and it did not see any action until around lunch time.  At this point, it was time to relax a bit since the heat was kicking in and we were getting a bit tired.  While lounging and watching my kids in the wave pool I decided to fire up Google Reader and check out some blogs.  After a bit of R&R, the iPhone went back into the locker and we went on to enjoy the rest of the water park.
7. We stayed at the park until it closed, and on the way out we saw some storms moving in and we also had to track down a place for dinner.  So of course, we tried out a few apps on the iPhone to help us with this.  First, we fired up google maps, iWant, and Yelp to see what was in the area.  We ended up passing on a sit down place because we just wanted to get home, so we hit a fast foot joint near by.
8. While on the interstate I had my wife pull up the local radar on the Weather Channel app to see what kind of weather we were going to hit.  Come to find out that there was a servere thunderstorm warning and of course that slowed traffic down a bit.  But its okay, my wife was able to hop on Facebook to pass the time.  This time around, my kids weren’t asking to play on the phone, since they were passed out in the back seat.
9. By the time we finally got home, my phone was down to about 35% battery life left, so I decided to put it to bed for the night and let it recharge.  I wasn’t too far behind it either.

So as you can tell we were still able to make pretty good use of the iPhone even though we were at a water park.  I know some people will say, “hey, just enjoy your time with your family” and I can respect that, but the iPhone is a convienence gadget and it helps me unwind by doing some light reading or playing some games.  My wife picks up a good book, I pick up my iPhone.  I also made sure that I wasn’t getting too wrapped up with the iPhone and enjoyed the water park just as much as my kids did.

There were also signs that this is the future and more and more people will expect to be connected, even at a water park.  There was evidence of that the minute I entered the park and saw the big sign that said “Free Wifi”.  I will also mention that I was not the only person at the water park on their iPhone.  Right now it probably was probably other iPhone fanboys that I saw, but as the smart phone market continues to grow more and more average people will expect more and this will become the norm.