The Chosen Two
Out of the box, the iPhone has just two free gaps available on the first page of the dashboard (application launcher). Unless you move things around, the bottom row will start with iTunes and end with App Store, but what comes next? Over the last few months my chosen two has included Evernote, iPlayer, Record, Tuner, Fieldrunners and the ever popular iChalky! However, in the last couple of weeks I’ve settled upon Twitterrific and Wikipanion. Of the ninety or so extra applications on my iPhone it’s these two that I want to find the quickest.
I have a feeling this particular chosen two will be hard to budge! What two extra applications have you promoted to the first screen of your iPhone?
How many applications does the average iPhone owner install?
Apple’s 2008 Q4 financial details were released last week, and were all over the web of course. So I won’t go into it myself, apart from highlighting that in just 15 months, the iPhone has grown to provide 39% of Apple’s income, and that – by revenue – Apple is now the the number three phone manufacturer, globally. Wow.
I just have a simpler equation to consider:
iPhones (original and 3G) sold: 13 million
Applications sold through the App Store: 200 million
200/13 = On average, each user has downloaded and installed 15 apps 7 apps.
(Edit: see my comment for an explanation of the revised figure)
I’m well aware that such a simplistic figure ignores an awful lot of factors (it would be more interesting to know the mode), and includes certain people who download a lot of apps. But, it’s a starting point. And from this point, one things springs to mind:
For a per-user metric, I think this average number of installed apps is quite high, and probably higher than any other mobile platform.
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Add voice recording to the iPhone for free
Just a quick one: Griffin – makers of the the iTrip FM transmitter amongst other things – have released their iTalk application for the iPhone. And for a limited time it’s free 
There are a few free options available for recording iPhone voice notes, such as EccoNote and QuickVoiceRecorder.
I’ve just downloaded it and tried out some recording. The interface is simple, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. iTalk also comes with sync software (Windows and Mac) which works over Wifi.
All the download details are available at Griffin’s website.
(via Daring Fireball)
More Applications Than You Could Shake a Stick At – But Where to Put Them?
Matt has written (or is going to write – ha! my crystal ball!) elsewhere on All About iPhone about the average number of application that users download from the iPhone AppStore. 15, apparently. Maybe I’m unusual then. Because I’ve grabbed over 60. (Out of interest about a dozen of these were commercial and the rest free)
But, and this won’t be news to existing iPhone owners, with all the built-in applications (around 18, depending on model), this makes a total of around 80 applications to organise in some meaningful way.
Pages and pages of apps
Is there a fundamental problem with the iPhone application launcher? What’s the best way to keep things organised? And how could Apple improve things? Could they learn something from traditional phones after all?
The Great Mystery Battery Drain and the Modern OS
I woke up this morning to a dead device. Hmm…. I pressed the ‘Sleep’ button, to see the Apple logo and a boot up sequence, followed by a quick battery warning pop-up message. And then, a few minutes later it was off again. The strange thing is that I had charged it fully yesterday evening. And this isn’t the first time this has happened in six months of ownership.
Low battery
Looking round the forums online, it seems that is phenomenon has been seen by others. No definitive explanation has been given, but with 15 years of mobile computing in my blood I’m going to offer a few thoughts anyway…
On gadget reviews and gadget love
This is a post that takes a slight time out.
It’s also a post that confirms why Boing Boing is a daily read for me, as something interesting always turns up. Such is the case with Joel Johnson’s review of the Android-powered G1.
Gadget reviews – especially of the iPhone – of are easy to come by (incidentally, there are a ton over at Test Freaks). But, what could have been just an ordinary hardware and feature run-through, is instead a meditation on the relationship we have with our personal technology. Here comes a quote:
When it comes to owning, using, or reviewing a gadget, there are really only two states: love increasing or love receding.
Please fix the iPhone!
When I’m preparing articles for this site, I’m wary about the level of griping that I do – by which I mean talking about all the things that are missing from the iPhone. However you feel about the success of the device, it’s clear that there is a lot of functionality not present compared to even many low-end phones.
So there are valid concerns that users would like to be addressed. In this vein, Steve has just asked Who cares about Copy/Paste? Well it turns out that – as of the writing of this article – exactly 1389 people care about copy and paste.
That’s according to Please Fix the iPhone. It’s a website from Fullsix that:
…gives a collective voice to those that want to smash their iPhone into a wall when it is impossible to do simple and intuitive tasks that we have all been doing for years on other phones.
Who cares about Copy/Paste? You’ve got YouTube and the AppStore!
Another gratuitous link of interest over to All About Symbian, one of my other stomping grounds, in which (I love advocacy and comparison pieces) I’ve been seeing if S60 phones can match some of the Apple iPhone’s ‘party tricks’.
Hopefully you’ll find it an interesting little read, although the main thing to take out of it from the iPhone’s point of view is that in several cases I found it necessary to have third party software on the Nokia N95 in order to get close to the iPhone. And, in the case, of the AppStore bit at the end, S60 phones simply had no answer.
An even more interesting list would be ‘What’s needed to bring the iPhone up to S60 phone-like specifications?’. Apple’s got a great set of built-in apps and a superb UI, but I’d argue that, to achieve real mainstream must-have status, top priorities should be:
- A decent camera. 2 megapixels with no flash just doesn’t cut it when Nokia has been making 5 megapixel, auto-focus camera phones for over two years, some with Xenon flash, and with most phone makers having also now introduced 8 megapixel cameras. Yes, people don’t really need 8mp, but 5mp is a definite ‘sweet spot’.
- Doing a deal to get real time navigation on the iPhone. Google Maps is great, but it doesn’t go the extra mile when you’re using it to navigate while driving.
- As previously mentioned, add Copy/Paste and a common file store to the iPhone’s OS. This is an utter show stopper for many professionals.
Carnival of the Mobilists #146
A quick heads up: the latest Carnival has been published at London Calling. Some excellent posts as ever, especially some technical notes on mobile video call quality. And the Post of the Week? Look no further than All About iPhone’s thoughts on the Nokia 5800 Many thanks Andrew.
James’ App Store Pick of The Week!
I had not heard of the Tower Defence game genre until I came across Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios. In short, the aim of any TD game is to stop wave after wave of advancing enemy troops by placing defensive towers across the play area.
