Haptic Feedback on iPhone
In his review of iPhone 3G for USA Today, Edward Baig mostly regurgitates information that Apple has already made known: 3G is faster than Edge, the headphone jack is now flush, the phone must be activated in the store, yada yada yada. The article’s bore factor can be forgiven because (1) Baig did not have access to the App Store and (2) reviews like his are for the masses — you know, that largish group of people who don’t take part in obsessing over the conspicuity of two screws.
Well, those two screws were rather interesting to me. Suffice to say, I found Baig’s review to be quite dull. However, one bit of information hadn’t occurred to me before. I was intrigued.
Unpublicized feature: Developers can take advantage of the iPhone 2.0 software to provide tactile forced feedback. This is known as “haptics.” When my vehicle crashed inside Cro-Mag, the iPhone 3G vibrated.
Haptic technology does not interest me so much when it comes to gameplay on iPhone. After all, I’ve been acquainted with haptic feedback in gaming since the Vibration Pack was introduced for the Nintendo 64 controller. (And probably even before then. Baby toys, anyone?) The convergence of haptic and touchscreen technology, however, is quite a bit newer.
I first experienced it on a friend’s LG Voyager, which vibrates slightly when you interact with buttons on its screen. To be sure, the Voyager is crap, but I was extremely fond of its use of haptics. The subtle quiver under my finger truly enhanced the touchscreen experience, giving me the sense that I was interacting not with a smooth piece of plastic but with actual objects.
It is exciting to hear that third-party developers are taking advantage of haptics. I hope that Apple eventually employs iPhone’s built-in vibration to give users tactile feedback and an improved user experience in OS X iPhone. I don’t see why they would be opposed to it: it is not a gimmick and it enhances UX. I have a feeling that soon enough our fingers, along with our eyes and ears, will share in the pleasure of iPhoning.
Mail in Leopard is a disaster
I’ve been messing around with Leopard all day, and while there are a number of improvements, the update was not worth it yet. I’ve come across a number of bugs, particularly in Mail, which, in my opinion, is a complete and utter disaster. Notes? More like nots. To dos? Nuh-uh… more like to don’ts. Not intuitive, completely buggy, fugly, a mess. Get away from me, Mail. I hate you.
99¢ + 99¢ = $1.98? No way!
Thank you, Apple, for doing that math for me. Now let me do some math of my own.
Apple’s iPhone holds songs. Lots of them. Some people would like for those songs to play when they receive a call. And, understandably, many of them would like for the songs to start playing at a certain point when a call comes in.
In the latest version of iTunes, a brilliant piece of software, Apple has added a feature that allows these people to do just that: pick a song and decide where they want it to start playing when they receive a call. However…
Apple charges them a dollar to do so. (Okay, 99¢. Same difference.)
So, basically, these people are paying 99¢ for a software feature. And not just once. Every time they want to use this feature in iTunes, they have to cough up another buck (read: 99¢).
See, you’re not paying for the ringtone. The ringtone is simply a 30-second clip of a song you already own. You’re paying to make it. By yourself. You do the work, then you pay someone else for your work. It’s like spending $10 on a stock photograph, then paying another $10 to crop it. What a load of crap.
Whatever. Custom ringtones are so last year anyways.
40 iPhone Wallpapers
So, I’m finally back from my seven-week journey through Europe. I’m hoping to write a post soon about all the places I visited (two continents, eight countries, around 16 cities), but that will have to wait seeing as I’m off to Los Angeles tomorrow morning to visit my sister, and when I get back move-in will take priority. This will be my last year at the University of Michigan — hard to believe, and very sad to think about.
Anyways, on a happier note, I’ve had a couple days now to play with my new iPhone. Hands down, it is the sleekest, most incredible gadget I’ve ever owned. The screen is gorgeous, rendering photographs beautifully with its 160 pixels per inch. I couldn’t wait to turn a bunch of my photographs into wallpapers, and following in the steps of Greg Storey and Garrett Murray, I decided to make them available to all of you.
40 iPhone wallpapers, each one a photograph, some from years ago, and a lot from my recent trip through Europe and to Turkey. Enjoy.
Leopard looks nice, but the Apple website looks great
Just finished watching/reading the announcements made by Steve Jobs at this year’s WWDC keynote and I think I speak for many when I say that I was significantly underwhelmed. (“You can be overwhelmed, you can be underwhelmed… but can you ever just be whelmed?”)
There were a few mildly exciting points, so I’ll start with those:
The new Finder was great news. It is cleverly based off of the iTunes interface, even allowing one to browse through files in CoverFlow mode. This could be extremely useful when browsing through folders filled with photographs, but maybe not so much for browsing document folders.
MacBook on crack
Last night I stupidly fell asleep with my computer open on my bed. My twin-sized bed.
This morning at around six, completely unaware of the presence of my computer, I turned on my side to stretch and reposition, when “CRASH!” I immediately knew what had happened and was almost too scared to peer over the side of my bed to find out what had resulted when my MacBook came face-to-face with the tile floor below.
Bad news: the display cracked and is now completely unreadable. (See: photo above).
Good news: the computer was asleep, and seems to be working fine, so I am assuming nothing terrible happened on the inside. Also, I have an external monitor, which I am using as I type this, therefore I can still use my computer until I figure out what to do.
Bad news: Apple stores everywhere are closed for remodeling, including the two located near me.
Sigh.
Disappointment Sucks
I, like many others, am feeling somewhat let down by Apple’s latest releases. I’ve been anticipating the Macworld Expo for quite a while now, especially with the rumors of a new “mini” iPod, so I’ve been checking Apple.com regularly. Today, when I arrived at Apple’s site, I was greeted with a banner for the brand-new (and all-too-ugly) iPod mini.
I’ll admit, I was happy to see that the rumors were true (as if I even doubted them), but the iPod mini is far less than what I expected. Excuse my rant, but I think the shape is unattractive, the colors are hideous, the price is outrageous, the new wheel and screen are unaesthetically placed, and what Apple calls a “product gallery” seems to be nothing more than five equally disturbing digital renderings.
“The reason that I’m so put off by them is not that they’re sky blue, baby pink, and tacky gold.”
OK, time to be optimistic. So, the colors aren’t terrible. I suppose they could be worse. I think the reason that I’m so put off by them is not that they’re sky blue, baby pink, and tacky gold; I’m put off because they don’t follow the cleaner, simpler scheme that Apple has maintained over the past couple years. Dropping the candy colors of the old iMac for the opaque white and transparent plastic of the new iMac was a smart move. Bringing in these metallic “blah” colors was not. Still, I’m going to try to remain optimistic, and save my final judgement for when I see one in person. I’ll admit, there are a few photographs of the iPod mini in real environments on the site, and they look somewhat promising. I will give Apple props for the stylish iPod mini Arm Band and the new In-Ear Headphones, both which can be found among the other iPod and iPod mini accessories.
My next disappointment was iLife ‘04. I was greatly looking forward to some substantial improvements, but in my opinion, Apple didn’t exactly deliver. Yes, GarageBand seems like an awfully cool application, but for who? Musicians. No offense to musicians; I think it’s great that Apple has targeted the musically-talented with the new iLife release, but it’s definitely something I’d never use on a regular basis, or even on a “just playin’ around” basis. Especially because if you want to use the application realistically (read: not use the mini “built-in” keyboard), you have to own a USB keyboard that you can plug into your computer. Anyways, I’m being negative, and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that will thoroughly enjoy iLife’s newest member.
Continuing, iTunes has nothing new, which I can’t complain about, as they recently released a free update, and iPhoto is now “faster” and has new transitions (whoop-dee-doo). iMovie and iDVD have more noticeable improvements. At least Apple kept the iLife ‘04 affordable, unlike the iPod mini, at only $50.
Anyways, I don’t want to be too much of a party-pooper, so congratulations, Apple, on all of your new releases. Perhaps the only reason I’m acting so bitter is that previous Macworld Expos have brought forth what, in my opinion, were more prodigious products.
I’ll leave you with a few links to some of the newer stuff at Apple.com:
100 Million Free Songs
So I watched the Apple Music Event yesterday, and in his presentation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained the “100 Million Free Songs” promotion.
In a nutshell, Pepsi is going to produce 300 million Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Sierra Mist bottles with special yellow caps. With every bottle you buy, you have the chance to win a free song through iTunes. All you have to do is launch iTunes, enter the code on the cap, and get your free song! The best part? One in three caps are winners! (Hence the 100 million free songs.)
The promotion will launch with the Superbowl on February 1st, and last for 60 days, until March 31st. Expect major promotion and advertisements on TV and in print.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but for that two month period, whenever I’m thirsty, I’ll be sure to grab for a Diet Pepsi, Pepsi, or Sierra Mist (the last two being my favorite two soft drinks anyways!)
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