I sure hope this fixes the problem! My #1 complaint with Rdio is the constant sync problems and loosing synced music. Has me looking at spotify.
iPhone 4S
Yes, I will be buying the new iPhone 4S very soon. It’s not so much that I really need all the new features that are not on my iPhone 4 (better camera, Siri). I’m sick of AT&T. AT&T doesn’t work in my current house (thank you skype for saving the day) it doesn’t work in half the places I am, and now that i’m moving to San Francisco I know from experience and reputation that AT&T is horrible there (i know it doesn’t work in our office building there). The real question now is Verizon or Sprint. Looking back at my usage I’m not a heavy simultaneous voice and data user, so I am not worried about loosing that feature. Normally it wouldn’t be a question and Verizon would be the answer. However, the rumors are that Sprint will offer an unlimited data plan, which will be nice, but more importantly is Sprints carrier side google voice integration. Assuming it works for iPhone users, It’s a tough sell not to go with Sprint. Google voice has been my primary number for more than a year now. Sure I hate the extra iPhone clients that i need to dial out and do SMS’s through, but i love being able to call and txt through gmail or the chrome extension as well as have one number that follows me everywhere. Having google voice act as my primary number would be amazing. Now I would be ok with keeping my current setup, but some of the new exciting features in iOS5 (most notably Siri) are more likely than not only going to integrate with the native apps (voice dial, voice SMS) as well and bluetooth car kit integration. I really love the idea of having google voice integrated on the carrier side, it allows for all the native features of the phone to work with the portable features of google voice. I look forward to seeing the blog posts written over the next few days on this topic as the Verizon/ Sprint question remains unanswered. posts
2 things I want in iOS 5 (WWDC)
Now that the WWDC keynote is hours away and we are expecting the introduction of iOS 5, these are the two things I feel Apple MUST add to iOS 5:
- A better notification system, yes this has been widely discussed and is essentially a foregone conclusion at this point, but iOS needs a much better notification system, something that rivals Android (they have one of the best notification systems I’ve seen).
- Full offline Exchange support. I am really tired of not being able to manage my exchange email (move/ delete) offline (not to mention the annoying alerts that popup telling me I’m not connected). iOS 5 needs to enable full email management capabilities while not connected. I’ve had it with current implementation. The BlackBerry was great at this. Apple needs to step it up.
- And one more thing…. It would be great to have voice recognition text input much like android.
iPhone
Following up on a my recent post on the white iPhone, I finally broke down over the weekend and upgraded to the iPhone 4. In a split second decision at the store I decided to go with the black one. The white one is nice, I just prefer the black one. After a few days of use I’m kicking myself for not having upgraded sooner. Seriously, what was I thinking! As I was about to jump ship from my iPhone 3Gs to the Google Nexus S 4G I made one last dive into iOS and am happy I did so. The iPhone 4, as you all know, is an amazing device, the screen is beautiful, camera and speed is much better then its predecessor, and for as much crap as we all give the OS’s shortcomings (eg, notifications) it’s still leaps and bounds above android, from a UX standpoint.
As I previously mentioned, I spend a ton of time on my phone and I can’t believe I waited this long to upgrade. Now lets just hope the iPhone 5 doesn’t drop in June or July! I can live with September.
White iPhone
So the white iPhone 4 was released yesterday. It’s not all that special, it’s the iPhone 4 in white. What I find interesting and telling is the timing. As others have noted, this release so close to Apple’s historic annual iPhone refresh seems to indicate the next iteration, a.k.a. iPhone 5, will not be released anytime soon. Current rumors point to a late Q3 or early Q4 launch. Now Apple may surprise everyone, but the timing makes an early release doubtful in my mind.
So here I sit with an old iPhone 3Gs. Why I don’t know. I normally buy phone’s annually and now I’m well more than 20 months into this phone and it’s falling apart. I mean really, it’s cracked the ringer switch works about 50% of the time, it’s lived its life and I don’t know how much longer it has left. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is an amazing device, and I’m still kicking myself for not having purchased one last summer but I was trying to get off the annual upgrade cycle. I now realize these phone are designed to be replaced almost annually (at least for heavy users). In the time I’ve owned the 3Gs, I’ve bought a ton of gadgets that replace an older version, and these are items I don’t use nearly enough as my phone. Due the painfully slow 3Gs processing speed I’m noticing that I spend more time using my iPhone than any other device, other than my work computer, I own. It should be up-to-date.
So I’m rapidly approaching a crossroad, do I:
1) Hold on to this device until it dies or the day the iPhone 5 comes out;
2) Buy the iPhone 4 now and then evaluate the upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it comes out (at that point hopefully its Q4, as I would hate to buy a new phone which will be obsolete in a month); or,
3) Buy the Nexis S 4G from Sprint and totally change-up the game.
I’ve accepted that I’m going to spend a few hundred dollars on phones each year. And while I don’t really want to drop cash on a new phone, its come to the point that the device I use for hours a day is in need of an upgrade much more so than any other device.
If the new iPhone were coming in June, I’d try to wait, but with a 5-7 month wait I know my current device will be need to be replaced before then, the question is when and with what. Maybe an Andriod device.
A VC: Mobile Notifications
Couldn’t agree more that iOS notifications need to be significantly improved.
