iPhone
App-noxious? I'm guilty, how about you?
05/16/09 10:38 Filed in: miscellany
With an
app for this and an app for that, iPhones and other
smartphones are now capable of all kinds of amazing
feats. But while our technology has developed by
leaps and bounds, human nature — specifically our
tendency to become obsessed with shiny new toys —
hasn’t changed a whit.
In other words, we’ve officially become “app-noxious.”...
Oh dear, have I become like these people?
“My girlfriend has like eight (screen) pages of apps at this point,” says Clark Manning, a 34-year-old architect from Brooklyn who lists "Pocket Guitar," as well as a mustache app and apps for yoga, Spanish, a light saber and a decibel level meter among her many applications.
“Her iPhone is the last thing that touches her hand before bed and it’s the first thing there in the morning. When the app store first opened, I didn’t talk to her for two weeks without the iPhone between us.”
Manning says he thinks part of the allure is that as a graphic designer, his girlfriend is “enamored with all things Mac.” But he’s starting to think of her downloads as a bit, well, app-hazard.
“She’s got an app that estimates the size of something based on a credit card,” he says. (It’s called “No Ruler.”) “She’s like, ‘This is so cool, it’s like eight credit cards long.’ I’m like, why don’t you just get a tape measure and measure it? It’s this fascination with the technology without thinking, ‘Is this really helping me?’ ”
In other words, we’ve officially become “app-noxious.”...
Oh dear, have I become like these people?
“My girlfriend has like eight (screen) pages of apps at this point,” says Clark Manning, a 34-year-old architect from Brooklyn who lists "Pocket Guitar," as well as a mustache app and apps for yoga, Spanish, a light saber and a decibel level meter among her many applications.
“Her iPhone is the last thing that touches her hand before bed and it’s the first thing there in the morning. When the app store first opened, I didn’t talk to her for two weeks without the iPhone between us.”
Manning says he thinks part of the allure is that as a graphic designer, his girlfriend is “enamored with all things Mac.” But he’s starting to think of her downloads as a bit, well, app-hazard.
“She’s got an app that estimates the size of something based on a credit card,” he says. (It’s called “No Ruler.”) “She’s like, ‘This is so cool, it’s like eight credit cards long.’ I’m like, why don’t you just get a tape measure and measure it? It’s this fascination with the technology without thinking, ‘Is this really helping me?’ ”
Amazon's Kindle and IndieBound top two iPhone apps
Both
book-related! How cool is that! From
GalleyCat:
Less than two weeks after surprise news that Amazon.com, Inc. acquired the company that created the iPhone reader, Stanza, the Apple App Store landscape has shifted. Stanza--the former number one Book app--is now ranked #3 in the free application category, while the American Bookseller Association's indieBound application is #2.
The indieBound iPhone app allows shoppers to find nearby independent bookstores, browse in-print catalogs, and buy from independent bookstores.
I think I need to go check out indieBound!
Less than two weeks after surprise news that Amazon.com, Inc. acquired the company that created the iPhone reader, Stanza, the Apple App Store landscape has shifted. Stanza--the former number one Book app--is now ranked #3 in the free application category, while the American Bookseller Association's indieBound application is #2.
The indieBound iPhone app allows shoppers to find nearby independent bookstores, browse in-print catalogs, and buy from independent bookstores.
I think I need to go check out indieBound!
Kindle vs. iPhone (and no, I don't have either... )
02/21/09 09:22 Filed in: ebooks
At some
point, the warring formats and digital rights
management are going to come to a Betamax vs. VHS
battle. Kindle gets you books and gives them to you
as long as you use their device and their format, and
is still kluging PDF files. The iPhone was similarly
closed to innovation until the 2.0 release and the
iPhone app store, and is now able to take all kinds
of book formats with Stanza, as well as allowing you
install other fun things to waste your time that you
should be spending indexing.
Unless the Kindle opens up, I don't see it winning this war. Reading books aloud to me is not the major feature I would have jumped for in this release. I would have jumped for good internet access, but I guess there's no money to be made there.
Karen Templer on the Readerville weblog thinks that there will be an iPhone app for Kindle books soon, but that it will come with a price - you will have to have a Kindle to use it. This will not be convergence, or a clear winner.
And no one mentions the index, anywhere, ever. It's discouraging.
Unless the Kindle opens up, I don't see it winning this war. Reading books aloud to me is not the major feature I would have jumped for in this release. I would have jumped for good internet access, but I guess there's no money to be made there.
Karen Templer on the Readerville weblog thinks that there will be an iPhone app for Kindle books soon, but that it will come with a price - you will have to have a Kindle to use it. This will not be convergence, or a clear winner.
Reading various accounts around the web of the Amazon press conference this morning, I’ve seen some lamenting that there was no announcement of an iPhone app, with the suggestion that was expected. Certainly the remarks last week begged speculation, but the more I think about it, the less I think they’re on the brink of simply making Kindle-format books available for other devices. That’s what they’ll have to do if they want the whole Kindle concept to survive for the long term, but it seems to me that, for now at least, they’re deeply invested (literally and figuratively) in the device—in making Kindle-format books available to Kindle owners. So while I can see them releasing an iPhone app this year, I don’t see it as standalone access for the purchase and enjoyment of Kindle books. I see it as a way to enable people with Kindles to sync those books onto their phones when going places without the Kindle. (In fact, here’s how PW put it: “… Bezos said Amazon is working on ways to sync the Kindle to other mobile devices.”) In other words, an iPhone app will cost you $359, Kindle included.
And no one mentions the index, anywhere, ever. It's discouraging.