[: neon :] NewEnglandOnlineNetwork

Memo to Business & Personal Blackberry Owners: Get thee an iPhone with MobileMe

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Cannot believe how functional and cool MobileMe is for our new iPhones.

In the world of the PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) we've bought over the past ten years, from having-no-other-choice-back-then-but-endure three Palms, then one horrific nightmare of a Sony version of the Palm and then one superb HP PDA, we turned to the Blackberry and have been relatively unhappy with it, like 55% ok, 45% not ok.

We're now thrilled and amazed at the ease of the Apple iPhone 2's real-time synchronization through MobileMe - - - and the app certainly kicks all current Blackberries (have not yet tried the Bold) out of contention for business enterprise users.

Imagine this, my friends. You suddenly have to enter an appointment or a task or remember to do something at a date and time certain. No matter what computer you're on at the moment, you log on to your MobileMe web-based site, enter your new data and bam, it automatically adds it to your iPhone in real time - or vice versa, which also means that if you're out in the field and have only your iPhone, you enter your new data on that device and bam, it's automatically transferred to your desktop application, again, in real time.

No more docking and synching, no more trying to figure out which direction to choose for your update (the old Palm) or trying to remember whether you synched or when.

Boom, bam, it's all done for you through and thanks to Apple's MobileMe.

On the darker side, should your Blackberry need repair, for example, and last I checked a couple of months ago, Research in Motion (the Blackberry mfr) has not authorized anyone in the United States to repair a Blackberry, so you can't just drop it off somewhere close by and then pick it up later, fully repaired.

So what do you have to do?

For those of you unfamiliar with Blackberry repair, get this, kids, you have to mail your broken Blackberry to RIM in Canada.

But today I heard that AT&T now sends you a replacement until it's repaired, which was never shared with us back when one of our Blackberry Pearls needed a repair last year. AT&T clearly told us it was between us and Blackberry.

Hey, bottom line is that asking your customers to mail you their valuable telephone for any reason is an inefficient (and stupid) business model that only invites problems, promises to give nothing more than either inept Customer Service or falls intolerably short of reasonable - - - and where no amount of internal corporate reasoning is sufficient to justify the inconvenience and potential risk to/for your customers.

Most importantly, the Blackberry certainly cannot be considered a reasonable business enterprise solution to keep customers like us - - - especially after dealing with Apple.

With the Apple iPhone, you find your nearest Apple retailer, log-online for an appointment at the Genius Bar or do it in-store - - - and then just show up or wait your turn. If it's under warranty, they take it in, fix it and you're on your way. If it's not, they tell you your charges and you make your decision.

Apple's sales, retail and Customer Service paradigms are nonpareil, fancy French for something that has no equal, as in the best.

posted by Head Geek

Memo to Apple: we love our new iPhones, but dump thy partner called AT&T

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We braved the lines and we're glad we did . . . so far.

Yup, Mrs. Head Geek and I have been waiting for our respective PDA/Cell Phone needs to be met by a device - and the iPhone 2 seemed to fit the bill for both of us.

So with less than three months left on our Blackberry Pearl AT&T contracts, I studied the Nokia line and the Samsung which Sprint just introduced, neither of which could even come close to the physical or software-resident qualities of the iPhone - - - then we talked with a number of friends who are professionals with AT&T, others we knew in the cellular industry and then some friends at Apple - - - and a decision was made to take the time on Friday to go and buy ourselves a pair of iPhones.

Thankfully, my wife had worked for 10-days straight and despite the pressure she placed on me to be with her @ 8 a.m. yesterday, Friday, we decided (I insisted on) waiting until the afternoon to buy them directly from Apple and not from AT&T.

Needless to say, we're still with AT&T because we have to be, but we're unquestionably waiting for that day when Apple announces the end of their relationship with AT&T - along with the date certain when the iPhones will be permanently unlocked and sold through any carrier worldwide.

Well, that's it, nothing more to report other than finding some minor flaws while using some of Apple's Apps Store programs we downloaded - and my surprise that video streaming from YouTube and MLB.com looked much clearer on my WiFi signal than through the new 3G.

But we sure love our iPhones.

posted by Head Geek

Verizon CEO's FT interview: "Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances"

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Just came across this story with quotes from Verizon's CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, about the iPhone 3G and have to say I'm pretty surprised at how those quotes seem to come off so unprofessionally green-eyed jealous - along with one that seemed so gosh darn mean, especially when we remember that Verizon had first dibs on an original iPhone exclusive but turned it down.

You tell me how you read these comments.

From c/net News.com:

The head of the telecom giant seemed a bit irritated about Apple's march into the mobile phone industry when he answered a question posed by the Financial Times about Apple's chances of reaching the mass market with the iPhone 3G by saying, "There goes the conspiracy again. You're declaring them a winner before they've earned it on the field."

Seidenberg's main contention seems to be that the iPhone isn't a success because it has such a small share of the overall mobile phone market, which is sort of like arguing that GM is more successful than Ferrari because they sell more cars.

Now here comes the mean part, or at least what we feel is mean-spirited in the sense of, it's not what you say, but how you say it?

. . . In any event, the 61-year-old Verizon CEO's plan seems to involve waiting for Apple's 53-year-old CEO to retire.

"Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances," Seidenberg told the FT.

Dude, if you had done the math right when you first had the chance, you would also understand that you'll be "old" about 8 years ahead of Jobs - and some of us pray that his chances of living a long, healthy and productive life will be far better than Verizon's chances of ever having the class and pride that Jobs has brought Apple.

Can you hear me now?

Posted by Head Geek

Apple's SDK for iPhone2: unquestionable genius that too many have overlooked

Green-eyed monsters notwithstanding, why aren't more people impressed with how Apple is helping developers?

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UPDATE: 06/11/08 7:05 p.m.
I've just finished reading Tom Yager's blog post review of the iPhone2 on InfoWorld (06/10/08) and it was just an outstanding piece that more than adequately summarized and analyzed iPhone2's current strengths and weaknesses - as well as its competitors' strengths and weaknesses both now and into the foreseeable future. As you read it, see if you too don't see him slip between praise and admiration to frustration, especially when discussing those unfulfilled requests he opines as remaining unanswered by Apple. But also make it a point to learn from the many reader comments that were subsequently posted, 'cause as expected, they too do an outstanding job of enlightening. However, where I was most impressed (of course, he says humbly) was where he seemed to take the position on Apple's SDK objectives I've described below, when he says: There are already gorgeous new handsets out from HTC and BlackBerry, but as Apple's strategy shows, a mobile empire is not built with a device. It takes software, committed developers and accessible, comprehensive services covering the range from consumers to enterprises.

* * * * * * * * *

For those of you who are also into this, I watched the Apple WWDC 2008 Conference in its entirety last night, right alongside Mrs. Head Geek who was equally into the awesome presentation.

Suffice it to say that after reading most of the criticisms in the press along with all of the expressed disappointments, Apple's SDK (Software Developers Kit) is such an incredible advance in software development, offering such outstanding drag-and-drop freedom to the creatives (developers) that I can't figure out why more wasn't, hasn't, isn't being written about it.

What Apple has done is to help unleash the creative and entrepreneurial minds of developers - amateurs and professionals alike - to concentrate on their concepts coming to fruition (for the iPhone2, of course) rather than worrying about hundreds and hundreds of lines of code that they would have otherwise had to write.

I'm certainly not a developer - as in code writer - but as I understood it, as you develop your application, you can (1) choose to include Apple-supplied tracking (as in GPS) functionality, (2) choose to simulate your new app on a screen-based iPhone2 for layout and functionality, and then (3) in an almost finale, synch it with your real iPhone (via your Mac) on the spot, to name just a few!

That may not mean much to some of you, and as consumers, some might say, big deal, so what, what does that mean for me?

But I get it.

I get what Apple wants to do.

Supporting this creative incubation known as SDK (fully underwritten by Apple) will indeed yield extraordinary results, many of which will become new parts of our lives . . . and we will ask, once again, how we ever lived without them.

That's how you prepare for the future, by providing for and helping the now.

P.S. - Those who've sold off Apple stock since Monday can only be called foolish, although saltier words do come to mind.

iPhone2: 3G, push and GPS, will the next gen deliver . . . us?

Spent the late morning - and part of the early afternoon - watching LIVE blogging of the Apple announcement about the new iPhone 2, interspersed with trying to do some of the work that earns one's living.

Kudos, kudos, kudos to the folks at http://www.macrumorslive.com for doing such an outstanding job of LIVE blogging the WWDC 2008 event that included some terrific "continuous updating" technology that did not require us to "refresh" our browsers constantly while waiting for any updates.

They also gave us pics within seconds of having taken them, an always appreciated feat.

Even Mrs. Head Geek was trying to watch the events LIVE on macrumorLIVE, whilst trying to do her job. And when the announcement came, or, for us, the confirmation that the features we wanted to see on the new iPhone were indeed going to be, we actually reached one another on our respective BlackBerries within seconds of notifying the other.

How cute. (Then again, when you can finish one another's sentences, this ain't so special, I guess).

Anyway, this message is also for the good folks at Adobe - who, for whatever reason, never developed a "plug-in" for use on the last iPhone - to please be thoughtful this time to those of us who professionally and personally use Flash every day, and provide that necessary plug-in for this next gen iPhone! We want to be able to stream/record/play any video from any video hosting service that uses Flash, on our iPhones . . . and we need your program to do it.

And finally, to Al Gore, whom some have said was seen wandering the theatre, why aren't you here in Boston or New York City suffering these wickedly high, record-breaking Spring temperatures right along with us (obviously to stand-by your always-scientifically-challenged point) rather than adding to your carbon footprint by jet-setting to all of the cool events that have nothing to do with Global Warming?

Honestly, what some people won't do to get a little attention.

I know, Al, do as I say, not as I do.

Night Video of Apple's Newest Store on Boylston in Boston

Had to be in downtown Boston pretty late last night, so I thought I'd take a walk to - and actually go inside this time - the newest Apple store on Boylston Street, which is open, I believe, until 11:00 p.m.

But in the video you'll see below, you can hear me express my discomfort with Apple's glass-step staircase, something I will not traverse again. A freaky, horrible, calamitous feeling - along with a runaway imagination - coursed through my tired frame, compelling me to promise myself that their elevator would be my vehicle of choice next time.

Anyway, my Canon PowerShot SD 750 takes some amazing pictures in daylight, but it sure as heck proved that it was outstanding for night vision as well. You'll see what I mean.

LIVE VIDEO: Apple's new Boylston store opening

Still recovering from an amazingly eventful day yesterday at the Grand Opening of Apple's now largest store in America on Boylston Street in Boston, we noticed that some of our visitors to [: neon :] were being directed to a not-so-updated update page of ours - and hence were not getting to see these videos.

So, we decided to post them anew, immediately below.

Enjoy.

UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.

It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.

Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.

Apple's Boston-Boylston store Grand Opening Video Update

UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.

It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.

Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.

Apple/Boylston Grand Opening Update

UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.

Just managed to get out of the crowd to post this audio, since I won't be able to post the multiple videos until later tonight. Have some terrific shots.

Unbelievable is all I can say. What an experience, what an incredible Public Relations team they have.

UPDATE: Well, TalkShoe just surprised me and made the audio file size more than 3 Gigs, yikes, so forget it, I won't have time to break it up and post it right now. Instead, go to this link, Apple Boylston Grand Opening - 05-15-08 and give a listen.

Will post everything later tonight.