Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

It’s finally here!  The iPhone now has most of the functions of the BlackBerry - over-the-air push and sync of Exchange email, contacts, and calendars!  Apple let the 2.0 OS out of the bag earlier today, and intrepid souls (and me) have taken the plunge and installed it.

While most people, including me, headed to the (also active) App Store to try out the native games, I quickly turned the other way - towards the new Microsoft Exchange integration.

Read on for my first impressions and instructions on getting it up and running.

By the way, the apps are great!  Sega’s Super Monkey Ball is touchy, but I think I’ll get the hang of it.  And my 4 year old loves Jirbo Match!  Too bad the Red Sox weren’t playing or my test of MLB At Bat would have been much more exciting!

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Google added a nifty feature to their arsenal of sorta-world-taking-over products the other day (while I was away) - chatback. This lets us webby-writing people add a special chat balloon to our pages which lets random strangers google-talk with us.  So I added it to my sites and actually had a productive use for it today!  But not all is bunnies and flowers…

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One of the (few) surprises from this month’s MacWorld was that the Google Maps application integrates location data not just from cell tower triangulation (using Google’s “My Location” technology) but also Wi-Fi visibility information, thanks to Skyhook. This combination of technologies piqued my interest, and it turns out that I was in a unique position to see just how these two data sources are integrated into the iPhone’s Google Maps application.

Although Mac Rumors reports that the Skyhook Wi-Fi data trumps the Google cell tower data, the reality is much more complicated, and thankfully more reliable, too! See, I used to live in Massachusetts (where Skyhook has data) and now live in Ohio (where they don’t). So I was able to test the priority of the location data used in the iPhone in a simple way - I compared different good data/bad data scenarios to determine just how Apple is deciding what your location is.

The short answer is, they’ve done a great job programming this and are falling back gracefully when fed bad data. When you tap the location button on an iPhone, you’ll almost always get at least a reasonable location from it, except where Skyhook has bad data and you’ve got no cell service, which is rare enough to be useful.

But if you are using an iPod Touch or iPhone with no cell service, your location data can be woefully incorrect, and even easily spoofed! Although Google Maps location is (probably) not a life and death piece of data, we can be pretty happy with what we’ve been given. But I can think of a whole lotta pranking that could happen once this tech gets more widespread use!

More details after the jump…

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OK, so Steve just announced the new iPhone software, and it certainly fixes a number of my “complaints”. But as much as I love this thing (and I do love it), there are quite a few remaining problems.

What Was Fixed

1. Google maps - This app went a long time without much of an update, but we can now drop pins (like I could do on my BlackBerry last year), see hybrid view (which is admittedly new to the handheld space), and the cool location thingy that thinks I still like in Massachusetts (because that’s where my WAP was when Skyhook drove past).
   
2. Home screen organization - I can now hide useless apps on another page (I’m talking about You, Tube, and your friend Clock, too!) and order them more logically
3. Web clips - So I get this whole web apps thing, but thanks for un-hiding them so I can actually use them on the go!
4. Actual apps - Yeah the web apps are great and all, but we really needed download-and-install apps on this thing!  Could use a few more details, though…

I still don’t care about multiple SMS recipients - yeah this was a really important addition, much more so than MMS or IM!  Ooh, lyrics!  Subtitles!  And at least my iPhone already had chapter support (thanks, Handbrake!)

What’s Still Wrong

1. Copy and paste - Please please please please please!
2. SMS popups - These “show through” every app - even the lock screen!
3. Landscape email - I always want to rotate my mail to read it better.
4. That darn headphone jack - I hate the Belkin adapter! What were they thinking?!? But at least I now have a sweet pair of headphones (Vibe Duo Nero) that work with the iPhone.
5. Notes - I want to use notes. Please! This is getting crazy!
6. Calendar integration - It’s hard to use the iPhone for business when you can’t get meeting invites over the air! They don’t even download so you can read them manually… And how about Google Calendar syncing?
7. Persistent web data - I can’t figure out why Safari loses its data all the time. I’ve got a gig or more of storage space free - Let me at least not lose the web page I was looking at (sometimes) when I exit Safari!
8. Hidden contacts - It’s very un-iPhone like to have the contacts database hidden in the phone and email apps. Sometimes I want to look at a contact without actually contacting them and this just feels weird.
9. Actual IM - Please please please start supporting actual Gtalk, AIM, and Yahoo IM protocols. The web versions of these apps stink.
10. Device compatibility - My Belkin Auto Kit works just fine with the iPhone, yet it still nags me to go into airplane mode every time I plug it in!
11. Bluetooth support - Please let me stream whatever audio I want to my Bluetooth headset. A better Bluetooth stack could blow open the accessory market - GPS, stereo headphones, laptop sync, remote control, etc etc etc…
    
12. Improved iPod controls - The iPhone is the worst iPod ever made when it comes to the controls - they move around inconsistently between portrait and landscape mode, and some are lacking entirely. You can’t scrub forward, set stars, or access podcasts or movies, in cover flow?!? And these are all hidden even in portrait mode!  And how about video zoom - I want to be able to pinch in when I’m watching a letterboxed film.  Is that so wrong?

Don’t get me wrong here - I still think the iPhone is insanely great.  I bought two!  Consider this constructive criticism…

If you’re a Google user like I am (in my off-time), you’ll be happy to learn that Google finally made two long-awaited changes today. First up is the addition of presentations to the Google Docs suite. Although Docs still lags well behind the full-featured office suites (especially Microsoft’s unexpectedly great PowerPoint 2007), this addition does add much to Google’s ammunition in pushing their online office suite. One funny thing, though, is that none of Google’s office apps yet support the XML-based OOXML formats pushed by Apple (iWork), Microsoft (Office 2007), and Novell (OpenOffice). In fact, Google pushes that last - you’d think they’d use the format, too. In other news, a cryptic post shows that Google’s excellent Reader app is finally out of the Lab…

Robin Harris blogged today about Google’s pay-for-storage service, and he hit the nail on the head. It (and pretty much every other current online storage service) is nearly worthless to most folks because it lacks one simple thing: A usable interface. Set aside Google’s traditionally horrid (lack of) marketing and you’re left with a service that’s sure to confound everyone. But Microsoft’s recently unveiled SkyDrive isn’t any better… Read on for my take on these services and what they should offer.
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Next time someone trots out the old argument that “only pirates hate digital rights management (DRM),” just point out what just happened at the old Googleplex. They just canceled their pay-per-download Google Video site and locked everyone out of the content that they legally paid for. We all knew this could happen with DRM, and now it has.

Buyers have a grand total of 2 days to enjoy their downloaded video before losing access to it forever. Not that I used this source, and not that they really had much content, but it should put the fear in anyone who does buy DRM-ed content online.

I personally use Apple’s iTunes Store and Amazon Unbox on TiVo fairly frequently, and both could easily lock me out of my purchases if they so desired. I’ve already been bitten by the handcuffs put on Amazon by content providers - new releases can’t be re-downloaded within so many days (usually 90 from the looks of it) even if you didn’t watch them yet. I’ve so far paid for 3 rental movies that I didn’t get to see because they were deleted off the TiVo before I could watch them. At least they were $.99 sale items…

By the way, being the “do no evil” company (and probably lacking customers for this service) Google has decided to refund 100% of Video purchase cost in the form of Google Checkout credits. At least they are being nice-ish…