Apple’s iPhone Announcement
Ok, how about some commentary on Apple’s iPhone announcement from yours truly? Before we get started, let me remind you that Apple is still dead to me.. ok
You can watch the apple announcement here. Basically Apple’s released the iPhone SKD, so developers can develop apps for the iPhone.. which will be sold and controlled through Apple.. Apple takes a 30% cut… many apps will no doubt be free.. and Apple has done a good amount of work to make the iPhone more ready for.. enterprise stuff.. which translates to making it better for working with your company.. basically.
Matt’s commentary
What really impressed me the most is how capable the iPhone is as a gaming platform. I figured.. just for the iPhone interface, and what have you.. well I didn’t expect it to have any kind of 3D graphics ability to speak of.. but if you watch the above announcement, you can see what Sega and EA, in just a couple of weeks of work, where able to do with the iPhone. I dare say it makes the iPhone a gaming platform! One who’s controls are scarily close to that of the Wii.
What’s also impressive is that the iPhone is really poised to be a whole new kind of platform.. as a kind of mobile.. almost computer, with internet… the built in camera, etc. Which, of course, has been an impressive part of the iPhone all along.. It’s just that maturation has been taking some time, I suppose you could say.
It’s hard to truly envision what the possibilities of the platform likely are. What we take for granted on our computers is.. computing is context sensitive.. on some level.. its just that on a computer the context is static, where as.. in the mobile world.. its not. So its like… as you go about your day.. what kind of app would you like…. what would serve you? How could your iPhone serve you?
I can think of many types of things I might like.. but I’m not entirely sure what the iPhone is truly capable of.. processor wise. I live in a world of high powered computing.. so most of what I use a computer for.. I can never have enough power for.. so when I think of things.. I usually think of things that might need a little power.
For instance, could you build media arts tools into an iPhone? Lets say you record a message into it.. and want to trim it up.. turn it into an MP3, and send it some place.. or hell.. just use it as the message you want to leave on an answering machine? Would it be possible to, via the iPhone’s built in wifi, or perhaps via the internet for that matter, to bring video into the iPhone and edit that? Could you use the built in camera to do stop motion animation? Could you make a little art program / image editor? Could you make a little sound tool? I don’t even necessarily know why you’d want to.. I suppose for working with utters, seesmic, and the like.. emerging social media stuff.. these kinds of tools would be great to have on the go..
Mobile Social Networking
I’ve always thought mobile social networking would be an interesting thing.. the equivalent of finding your date on MySpace.. accept.. transfer that to some other space.. could we look at modeling human interactivity and how this could add to a particular social experience?
One thing I think of is.. something like “the tracks people leave.” So you go to an online store and you comment on a product.. and other people comment on that to.. and this allows us to see how humans, on a mass sorta scale.. harnessing the wisdom of the crowds, so to speak, feel about things in cyber space.. but what if this same idea where applied to real world locations? I mean there’s the obvious.. lets look at user generated reviews to this restaurant we just wondered by, or even into.. drilling all the way down to particular menu items..
Maybe we get gossip on the individual sales people at a given store. Maybe the notion of local could play a roll in community building.. like you’re walking around the city when you realize, not from a lamp pole, but from your iPhone.. that Cindy’s cat is missing.
Well.. I’m just speaking out loud here.. random stuff.
Closing Thoughts
The SDK is free.. but if you want to test directly on an iPhone, or distribute your stuff through Apple.. it’ll cost you $100.. and with that you’ll get some tech support. It seems like a cool thing to explore, and I know its something I want to do.. but with all that’s on my plate.. I don’t expect I’ll get the chance to too soon.
But all this does make the iPhone that much more enticing to me. Right now.. its just a question of getting a faster internet, plus a video camera built in.. so I can do qik.. if they do that, I’m sold.