As a teenager, I was a die-hard Apple fanboy. The boy part is obvious. The fan part was the result of having and hacking an Apple II. Naturally, I was hugely excited about the arrival of first the Lisa (remember those?) and then the Macintosh. While I enjoyed programming the Macintosh – all the way through college – I was frustrated with its unfriendliness towards hackers. My Apple II had been heavily modded with all sorts of extras. This was easily possible because the lid of the computer wa...

As a teenager, I was a die-hard Apple fanboy. The boy part is obvious. The fan part was the result of having and hacking an Apple II. Naturally, I was hugely excited about the arrival of first the Lisa (remember those?) and then the Macintosh. While I enjoyed programming the Macintosh – all the way through college – I was frustrated with its unfriendliness towards hackers. My Apple II had been heavily modded with all sorts of extras. This was easily possible because the lid of the computer wa...

Today’s post is over at the Union Square Ventures site on the challenge of creating native mobile applications. We are fascinated with the disruption that is taking place in mobile. The big question is what “native” applications will emerge based on the unique technical capabilities of the mobile platform and the emerging behaviors around those capabilities. Head on over there to read some of our early thinking. There are likely to be some big opportunites for startups!

Today’s post is over at the Union Square Ventures site on the challenge of creating native mobile applications. We are fascinated with the disruption that is taking place in mobile. The big question is what “native” applications will emerge based on the unique technical capabilities of the mobile platform and the emerging behaviors around those capabilities. Head on over there to read some of our early thinking. There are likely to be some big opportunites for startups!

The answer: It depends (on your perspective). I have had some fascinating conversations with folks in both advertising and games about the iPhone. There is an obvious chasm between incumbents who have existing businesses on other phones and folks starting up to target the iPhone. Those with existing businesses usually make an argument along the following lines – by the end of the year there will be 10 million iPhones which is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall mobile market (billion...

The answer: It depends (on your perspective). I have had some fascinating conversations with folks in both advertising and games about the iPhone. There is an obvious chasm between incumbents who have existing businesses on other phones and folks starting up to target the iPhone. Those with existing businesses usually make an argument along the following lines – by the end of the year there will be 10 million iPhones which is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall mobile market (billion...

Beating the iPhone is a tall order and it’s unclear that anyone is even close. Yes folks have good looking phones and are matching some of the other features of the iPhone, but as a completely packaged easy to use consumer product there does not seem to be a real contender. Yet the iPhone has one potential Achilles heel. For the time being anyhow, Apple has decided to expose some of the core capabilities of the phone only to “native” apps, i.e. those downloaded and installed via the Apple App...

Beating the iPhone is a tall order and it’s unclear that anyone is even close. Yes folks have good looking phones and are matching some of the other features of the iPhone, but as a completely packaged easy to use consumer product there does not seem to be a real contender. Yet the iPhone has one potential Achilles heel. For the time being anyhow, Apple has decided to expose some of the core capabilities of the phone only to “native” apps, i.e. those downloaded and installed via the Apple App...

I have played around with the iPhone SDK and Apple has done an amazing job. For starters, the documentation is impressive in both quantity and quality, including a series of introductory videos (quite the contrast with the scarcity of API documentation when the Facebook API first became available). The SDK provides access to most but not all of the nifty features of the iPhone, including the camera, accelerometer and of course the gestures on the touch screen (dock access and bluetooth are no...

I have played around with the iPhone SDK and Apple has done an amazing job. For starters, the documentation is impressive in both quantity and quality, including a series of introductory videos (quite the contrast with the scarcity of API documentation when the Facebook API first became available). The SDK provides access to most but not all of the nifty features of the iPhone, including the camera, accelerometer and of course the gestures on the touch screen (dock access and bluetooth are no...

The likelihood of my switching to an iPhone is rising rapidly. Earlier this year I switched from a Pearl to an 8900 (both on T-Mobile). At first, I was very happy with the 8900, especially the wifi calling capability that T-Mobile offers is super handy as I have no cell coverage in my house. Also, tethering my laptop was easy and I use it frequently. But the browser is simply atrocious. I am not keeping track precisely, but it feels like at least 20% and possibly 30% of links that I click on ...

The likelihood of my switching to an iPhone is rising rapidly. Earlier this year I switched from a Pearl to an 8900 (both on T-Mobile). At first, I was very happy with the 8900, especially the wifi calling capability that T-Mobile offers is super handy as I have no cell coverage in my house. Also, tethering my laptop was easy and I use it frequently. But the browser is simply atrocious. I am not keeping track precisely, but it feels like at least 20% and possibly 30% of links that I click on ...

There are quite a few studies that have come out recently showing that multitasking is bad for performance in humans. For instance, driving your car while talking on your cell phone significantly increases your accident risk. In machines, however, we have come to love multitasking because it enables better CPU utilization. Much discussion has therefore revolved around the iPhone not having multitasking, whereas Android supports it. For starters that simplistic characterization is of course wr...

There are quite a few studies that have come out recently showing that multitasking is bad for performance in humans. For instance, driving your car while talking on your cell phone significantly increases your accident risk. In machines, however, we have come to love multitasking because it enables better CPU utilization. Much discussion has therefore revolved around the iPhone not having multitasking, whereas Android supports it. For starters that simplistic characterization is of course wr...

The iPhone’s Gaming Mettle: Great summary of why the iPhone is such a game changer (pun intended). Meant to pull this information together, but much easier to link to it.

The iPhone’s Gaming Mettle: Great summary of why the iPhone is such a game changer (pun intended). Meant to pull this information together, but much easier to link to it.

In writing and talking about WolframAlpha yesterday, it occurred to me how much I like being able to get stuff done without clicking around. That’s especially important when clicking around is slow (because of latency and processor speed) and clumsy (because of tiny screen), such as is the case on phones. In other words, I want to go back to the beginning with a command line. The Unix command line is of course all powerful for those who really know how to use it, but requires a lot of learnin...

In writing and talking about WolframAlpha yesterday, it occurred to me how much I like being able to get stuff done without clicking around. That’s especially important when clicking around is slow (because of latency and processor speed) and clumsy (because of tiny screen), such as is the case on phones. In other words, I want to go back to the beginning with a command line. The Unix command line is of course all powerful for those who really know how to use it, but requires a lot of learnin...

The new iPhone is out and the App Store has opened. Apple’s servers appear to be melting down (which is sure to have folks ticked off). But those folks who have successfully upgraded (or bought a new phone) and installed apps appear to be ecstatic about the experience. Unless Apple totally melts down this will be the day that mobile changed. Update: Looks like the activation meltdown is pretty serious. I think this will still wind up being nothing but a speed bump on the iPhones path to (temp...

The new iPhone is out and the App Store has opened. Apple’s servers appear to be melting down (which is sure to have folks ticked off). But those folks who have successfully upgraded (or bought a new phone) and installed apps appear to be ecstatic about the experience. Unless Apple totally melts down this will be the day that mobile changed. Update: Looks like the activation meltdown is pretty serious. I think this will still wind up being nothing but a speed bump on the iPhones path to (temp...