Chaotic Neutrality

As much as I enjoy the iPhone App Store and the applications available there, I also find the need to explore alternate applications that do not fit into the App Store or its restrictions. To this end, I have turned to jailbreaking my iPhone (still the 2G version) and installing 3rd party applications via both Cydia and Installer.

Aside from my desire to customize the theme of my phone via Winterboard, I also enjoy the innovation that takes place outside the controlling hands of Apple. One such innovation is the application Qik, which enables you to stream video (with audio) from your iPhone to the web through the iPhone’s shitty 2 megapixel camera.

I have used Qik over WiFi on my 2G iPhone and it works great. Here is an example - the video files are saved on the Qik site after streaming.

Less effective on the 2G iPhone is streaming via EDGE (without WiFi). If your signal strength is good, it is passable, but if your signal strength weakens, the video will freeze or get extremely choppy.

Overall, still a pretty cool application that lets you shoot video (or do live streams) via your iPhone and automatically save to the web.

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Blizzard’s World of Wacraft, the most successful massive online multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG), has recently launched a new marketing campaign designed to increase subscriptions.

The new campaign is based on recruiting friends to sign up for a subscription — and then rewarding the person who referred them to sign up. The rewards include:

• Faster Leveling Speeds
• Exclusive in-game items (such as a mount)
• Ability to summon your friends to you

These rewards may seem meaningless to those not familiar with the game, but to those who are… rewards like this will certainly help bolster the subscription base with either new ‘friends’ or from current subscribers who sign up for secondary accounts just to receive the rewards.

The aspect of the marketing campaign that impresses me is that Blizzard, once again, shows that it has a great grasp on its customer base and what makes them tick and spend money. A large percentage of Warcraft players are extremely motivated by exclusive in game items — to the tune of those customer paying hundreds of dollars for these items on eBay or by purchasing in-game currency from 3rd party sites so they can purchase them inside the game’s world.

Even though Blizzard already controls the largest piece of the MMORPG market share, they have been receiving some increased competition from new games (Age of Conan, Warhammer) and want to make sure that they can retain and grow their customer base in this lull while they wait for their new expansion to come out. Luckily for them, they continue to create a great product, understand their customer base, and continue to innovate in an industry that has grown accustomed to just raking in their montly subscription fees without providing any additional thought or effort.

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This is my first post made using the new iPhone WordPress application (available via iTunes).

The application seems like it would be very useful for blogging on the go. It allows for all of the necessary blogging items (tags, categories, post status, attaching photos, etc.) and is very easy to use.

The only problem I have encountered so far was having a ‘local draft’ version of a post disappear into the void. Aside from that and the inherent pain of typing long sentences / paragraphs on the iPhone keyboard, I definite recommend this application to anyone who could benefit from mobile blogging (that has an iPhone)!

The application homepage is iphone.wordpress.net (apparently you can’t create links in the application easily, or at all, yet).

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I purchased the 2G (EDGE speed) iPhone from Apple a few days after the initial launch in 2007. Since then, I have enjoyed the product thoroughly and love having the ability to carry a phone/mp3 player/mobile computing device in my pocket.

When Apple announced the 3G (super speedy) version of the iPhone, I was initially pretty excited. The EDGE speeds of the 2G version were one of the biggest annoyances for me, so the 3G speeds sounded like it would solve all of the problems. I had marked the release date on my calendar and had every plans of buying one during the first week or so.

Almost 4 weeks later, I still have not pulled the trigger. The reasons for me remaining “on the fence” are:

1. Product Cost & Additional AT&T costs - The reality is that the phone is more expensive. I’d have to shell out $299 for the 16GB model and then pay an additional $10/mo. surcharge for the 3G service plan plus an additional $10/mo. for a new text message plan (which is already included in my 2G plan). I still feel that the new features don’t warrant those extra expenditures on my part.
2. Lack of New Features - Aside from the 3G speeds, the only new feauture is the GPS ability. GPS would be cool to have, but I’m not sure it’s worth the extra $500 that will have to spent over the first year of usage due to the increased costs mentioned above. If the 3G iPhone had any of the following, maybe it would help change my mind:
   • Better Camera (no improvements since 2G version)
   • Ability to Record Video
   • MMS multimedia text messaging
   • Ability to play Flash content
3. Battery Life Concerns - My 2G phone lasts pretty much throughout the whole day with my phone, music, web browsing tendencies. All of the 3G reports suggest that you will need to recharge the new version at least once a day, if it makes it through the full day (which is definitely not a guarantee). Being unable to actually use the cool features of the phone is a serious detraction.
4. Looks Less Cool - The 2G iPhone has a cool looking aluminum back. The new 3G one is made of plastic that gets dirtier looking and has more potential for cracks.
5. 2.0 Applications & App Store - All of the cool applications are available for the 2G version of the iPhone also. The applications are one of the best things about the iPhone and they can be used on the orginal 2G version.

It just doesn’t make sense from a financial perspective, nor does it make sense from an overall consumer perspective. The lack of features (only GPS, really) is pretty sad.

I still have high hopes for the iPhone, but for now, I think I will be waiting it out and seeing what the next incarnation is. I want more features or improvements to current features… not just faster speeds.

(PS - I still hate Apple and Steve Jobs, even if I do like the 2G iPhone!)

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Last week, I read an article on CNN.com that mentioned a new search engine joining the fray. The new search engine, Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’) had received $30 mil in venture capital and was being led by a former Google executive, or some such.

After reading the article, I went over to cuil.com and started doing a couple searches. I was less than impressed with the results provided by my initial searches — the results were not really similar to (or as relevant as) those returned by Google. I was also less than impressed with the way the results were displayed as I found the multi-column layout to much less easy to scan and figure out if the results were what I was looking for (vs. the single column, organized layout that Google, Yahoo, MSN provide).

I like the idea of competition for Google, but at the same time, I’m not convinced that Cuil is in a place to be that competition. Cuil definitely needs some work (and for their results to make sense to me before I would ever consider switching) and in reality, “google” is so synonymous with “searching” that I think it will be a hard, uphill battle to sway searchers away from the beast that is Google.

Only time will tell, but for now, Google remains well ahead in round one.

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