A few days before the 3G iPhone was released I realized that I really wanted one. At first I thought it was a severe case of “iwantitis“, so I waited for it to pass. Since I’m not one to stand in line for hours for something, it was easy to let the release date come and go.

After a week I still wanted a 3G iPhone. To cut a short story shorter, about a week ago I finally got the iPhone from AT&T, after a 14 day wait. Getting one from an Apple Store would have required waiting in line – after two attempts at this I went the “Order from AT&T” route. Basically you pay for the iPhone with a credit card (only at certain AT&T stores) and they order it, which takes somewhere between 7 and 21 days. The card is only charged the day the iPhone is actually shipped to the store. You are then contacted and have 7 days to pick up the iPhone. When you pick it up, it is activated and you sign up for the two year contract.

One thing to be aware of is that you cannot return an iPhone, even within the first 14 days, without paying a 10% “restocking fee”. The restocking fee is waived if the box is unopened, but the box has to be opened in the store to activate the phone. It seems that Apple stores may do something similar. The reason I mention this is because the iPhone is not a regular cellphone or smartphone at all. The virtual keyboard takes some getting used to. That said the user interface as a whole is really natural and easy.

So what prompted me to join several million others and buy this micro-Mac-computer-cellphone? The excellent browser, email and internet on the go and the availability of third party applications were the main reasons.

The Dell XPS M1730 Notebook is not quite back to school gear, unless money is really no object, and you don’t mind lugging a 10 pound plus notebook around.

The XPS M1730 is in the Desktop replacement category (7.5 pounds or more). This entertainment and gaming notebook is really well equipped, with an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X9000 processor running at 2.8GHz, which can be overclocked up to 3.4Ghz (this is according to Dell), 2GB RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a choice of hard drives: a 400 GB RAID (2 x 200GB) 7200 rpm drive or a 128GB Solid State Drive. The screen is a 17 inch 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution active matrix display with a NVIDIA GeForce 8700MGT PCI Express x16 graphics card with 512MB of graphics memory (these are actually a dual graphics cards in a scalable link interface).

A 2 megapixel webcam with digital microphones is integrated above the screen for those important video conferences, or in-game chats. Keyboard illumination can be turned on for gaming in the dark.

Another great feature is Dell’s MediaDirect software, which allows you to play CDs and DVDs without booting the system.

There is also an optional Blu-Ray disc drive, with a choice of either a reader or a burner.

That’s right, I haven’t finished with the new Mobile Computing Platform yet, specifically software for this platform. The platform is available on the Apple iPod Touch, iPhone and iPhone 3G.

I was trying to find a reference to most of the Apple iPhone App store applications being priced around $9.99. Instead I came across the following interesting information. Developers cannot charge more than $999 for a single application, and the maximum size of a single application is 2GB (see Mobile Magazine.com). I’m trying to imagine an application which would run on the iPhone and cost $999, it would have to be a very specialized vertical market application.

According to Techcrunch.com, when “iPhone App Store launched last Friday” (Friday July 11, 2008) “along with the new 3G iPhone, free apps made up 24 percent of the 552 apps available“. The article is bemoaning the low availability of free (or freeware) applications, but that isn’t a bad percentage, considering that the majority of the applications seem to be priced at or below $9.99.

If you had to look at a website selling mobile applications for Windows Mobile or Palm, the prices would be generally higher, as these are more mature platforms. In the case of Palm, which is unfortunately in decline, a number of shareware (not free) applications have simply been discontinued.

Development for Palm devices has been in the doldrums for several years now. The success of the Palm Centro smartphone is relatively small in comparison with Palm’s previous market domination. Developers who could rewrote their software for Windows Mobile and other platforms. Developers of development software had a harder time, some of them closing shop altogether.

Now the Apple iPhone/Touch has become a platform worth targeting for mobile applications. With 6 million first generation and 1 million 3G iPhones shipped it is already a customer base to be reckoned with.

There is a catch though. Although the iPhone SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) costs $99 a year, there is another cost. The SDK requires an Intel Mac running Mac OS X Leopard. For software developers who have been focusing on Palm and Windows Mobile development, this almost certainly means buying new hardware. Fortunately with Boot Camp (included with Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X v10.5) developer’s can dual boot their Mac’s into Windows XP or Vista, which makes it more of a multi-purpose development machine. Parallels Desktop for Mac allows running of Windows XP or Vista in a window on a Mac.

There are a couple of companies which have announced software for the iPhone. They already have their software running on numerous other mobile platforms.

The iPod Touch is a converged device; a portable media player and a basic PDA. At the moment it appears to be the younger (and neglected) sibling to the iPhone. It also appears at first glance to be more expensive than the iPhone:

iPod Touch 8GB costs $299, 8GB 3G iPhone to cost $199
iPod Touch 16GB costs $399, 16GB 3G iPhone to cost $299
iPod Touch 32GB costs $499, no 32GB iPhone yet.

Of course the 3G iPhone comes with a two year contract which costs at least $70 per month (without any text messaging package). That means after two months the a 3G iPhone will cost more than the same capacity iPod Touch.

Two weeks ago I was almost sure there wouldn’t be a price cut for the iPod Touch, now I’m not sure.
The iPod Touch is an important device, it is the next generation iPod, a true portable media player with a wide screen and closer to a PDA than any other iPod before it. With the next firmware update, which unfortunately is not free, the SDK will be added. Now third party developers can legally write applications for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. I know of at least one commercial developer with several applications which run on everything from Palm to Blackberry to Symbian devices. They are now developing for the iPhone as well. This will bring some world class applications to both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The 3G Apple iPhone was announced with a price drop of $200. It features new apps developed with the official Apple SDK, as well as the Apple SDK or runtime. The new firmware for the iPhone is version 2.0. Existing iPhone owners will be able to upgrade to this new firmware around July 11. Since the price drop of the 3G iPhone is subsided by the cellphone carriers, the monthly plan for the 3G iPhone will be more expensive – between $10 to $15 per month.

It remains to be seen whether the iPod Touch will have a price drop – somehow I doubt it, as there are no cellphone carrier to subsidize the Touch. The apps which are free on the 3G iPhone cost $10 for the iPod Touch. I have seen a lot of rants about this by irate iPod Touch owners in various forums, most of it not repeatable.

As an interesting point, anyone who bought an iPhone after May 27 is eligible for a free upgrade to the 3G iPhone. Since the iPhone has been out of stock almost everywhere for a few weeks, that may be a handful of happy people. As for the iPod Touch users, Apple should not forget them.

The iPod Touch is all the rage, deservedly so, but there are other touchscreen Portable Media Players available.

Many have heard of the Archos 605, which was covered in the Blog posting “Internet Browser: $30“. Here are two other players which are well worth mentioning:

The first is the feature-packed Cowon D2. The Cowon D2 is a compact 3 by 2.2 by 0.6 inches with a 2.5 inch (diagonally) touchscreen. The touchscreen can be operated using an included triangular stylus or a finger. The player supports multiple audio file formats, as well as JPG photo display and video playback. It also has an FM radio along with voice, radio and line-in recording. The battery is rated for over 50 hours of audio playback and 10 hours of video playback. Firmware updates have added extra functionality including flash-based games and an optional flash based interface. There is also an SD Card slot which supports High-Capacity SD Cards.

The second is the Samsung YP-P2, which is closer to the iPod Touch in size, although about half an inch shorter and slimmer, but almost as thin, and sporting a 3 inch screen. Whereas the iPod Touch has Wi-Fi, the P2 has Bluetooth. This is where it gets interesting. The P2 can be paired with Bluetooth headphones or speakers. It also can be paired with a cellphone and the built-in microphone used to for a conversation (a non-hands free device?). The touch interface of the P2 supports finger tapping and swiping actions, although is not that precise according to several reviewers. The menu is customizable, and Samsung have released a number of firmware updates with new features. It supports a couple of common audio and video file formats. The P2 is currently available in 4GB and 8GB capacities, with a 16GB version having been announced. Unfortunately it does not have a memory expansion slot.

Both the Cowon D2 and the Samsung YP-P2 have excellent sound quality.

Does it make a difference whether an electronic device has a user-replaceable battery or not? By “electronic device” I’m including everything from a Bluetooth headset to a Laptop.

When buying a Bluetooth headset, the fact that its battery will eventually go flat and cannot be replaced is no big deal. By the time that happens better ones will probably be available anyway.

How about the MacBook Air Notebook? Apple’s ultra-thin notebook is really impressive. However, it does not have a user-replaceable battery (See Engadget’s article “MacBook Air doesn’t have a user-replaceable battery“) After paying well over $1500 for a notebook, when the battery eventually goes in 2 to 3 years time you won’t be able to replace it yourself. Instead, according to Engadget’s article”MacBook Air battery replacements: $129, free install!“, you would have to send the MacBook Air into Apple, and for the price of $129 for a new battery, they will replace it for free.

So as not to only bash Apple, most Portable Media Players, including all iPods, do not have user-replaceable batteries. Even for manufacturers who used to make Portable Media Players with user-replaceable batteries, the trend also seems to be towards batteries which are not user-replaceable – SanDisk is one example.

Handheld computers seem to be split at the Palm/Windows Mobile line. Apart from their smartphones, none of Palm’s handhelds have user replaceable batteries. Windows Mobile devices generally do. Cellphones have user-replaceable batteries of course, except for the first Treos, and the iPhone.

The cost of replacing a new battery is not much when the device was designed to have the user replace it. Although you can buy a new battery for the Palm Tungsten C, it is tricky to replace it yourself. and you could damage it if you are not careful. I have an old Dell Axim X30, and I’ve replaced the battery once, simply by buying a replacement battery like the Lenmar Replacement battery For Dell Axim X30. Apart from proper disposal, it is not much of a problem when the Axim X30’s battery no longer charges.

Do thousands of colors make a difference?
The Creative Zen Vision:M portable media player, which won Best of Show and Best Portable Audio & Video Device awards at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (see this Wikipedia article), has a 2.5 inch backlit TFT LCD Screen with 18-bit color depth (262,144 colors). The Apple iPod fifth-generation update, aka iPod Video 5.5 Gen, also has a 2.5 inch backlit LCD Screen. However, it only has a color depth of 16-bit (65,536 colors). Both devices have a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels. I’ve had the opportunity to watch video on both devices at different times. Unfortunately I never actually compared them side by side to see if the additional 196,608 colors were actually noticeable. What I did notice though was that videos looked better on the iPod, simply because the screen was brighter.

Does screen resolution make a difference?
Two iPaq handhelds, the HP iPaq 110 Classic and the HP iPaq 210 Enterprise PDA may seem easier to compare. Both have 16-bit (65,536 colors) screens, although the HP iPaq 210 was initially wrongly advertised as having an 18-bit screen (on the HP site it has been partially corrected and reads 65,536 colors (18-bit), which of course makes no sense). The iPaq 210 has a 4 inch 640 by 480 pixel, that is, VGA resolution screen. The iPaq 110 (also referred to as the HP iPaq 111 Classic) has a 3.5-inch 240 by 320 pixel screen. Frankly the iPaq 110 is a great little light handheld, with the same processor as the iPaq 210. The iPaq 210 is larger and heavier (6.8 oz compared with 3.7 oz), but for those who have previously owned a handheld with a VGA resolution screen (like the Dell Axim X51v), a lower resolution screen may be too much of a step down.

What do you get when you cross a SanDisk Sansa Clip with a SanDisk Sansa View?
The Sandisk Sansa Fuze.

This MP3 player, slightly bigger than the third generation iPod Nano, is squarely aimed as a competitor to the Nano and the 4GB and 8GB Zune. At 3.1 inches by 1.8 inches by 0.3 inches and weighing 2.1 oz it is a reasonably small player. It comes in a variety of colors and capacities: black (2GB, 4GB), blue, pink and red (4GB), and silver (8GB). Like most SanDisk Sansa media players it has a microSD expansion slot, which accepts High Capacity (microSDHC) cards. This means that currently an additional 12GB can be added to the player. A variety of audio formats are supported, including MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible. Subscription music is also supported via secure WMA. The Sansa Fuze also features an FM radio, voice recording, picture viewing and video playback. Its screen is only 1.9 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 220 by 176 pixels, so is not that great for watching videos.

Reviewers are almost unanimous in pointing out that SanDisk’s media players are steadily improving in build quality, and the Fuze is no exception. At around $100 for the 4GB version and $130 for the 8GB version, the Sansa Fuze is very competitively priced. I would definitely add it to my collection if I did not already have a too many media players.