No, no, not another post referencing the iPhone’s AppStore – and in any case, Nokia for one can’t be accused of going all me too on that front, since every Nokia smartphone since 2005 has had a ‘Download!’ on-device store (just not a very successful one) – what I’d like to focus on here are the innovations in the iPhone’s form factor and how Nokia and others are responding.

Cast your mind back, if you will, to the momentus MacWorld keynote at the start of 2007 in which Steve Jobs announced the iPhone to the world. The three main points which stuck in my mind about Apple’s new creation were:

1. The way in which the ‘too much plastic’ problem was overcome. Now, full-screen PDAs had been with us for years, and some Windows Mobile smartphones were just that – full-screen PDAs with a phone tacked on. But Apple brought us a full-screen, purpose-built phone that aimed to compete with the ‘plastic-ridden’ qwerty-keyboarded smartphones at their own game, but without a physical keyboard.
2. Finger touch was now OK. After years of everyone saying ‘Don’t touch your screen, you’ll get it dirty/greasy’, it’s now not only OK, but indeed the only way to interact with your device. Radical.
3. The iPhone interface, seamless from top to bottom, doing away with menus and finger-friendly throughout. Purpose-built, you might say, even though in reality it sits on top of a version of Mac OS X.

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You may remember this post, in which I looked at areas of functionality in which Apple are very strong with the iPhone and areas in which they really should have stepped up to the plate, evening out the gaps. Recognising that there is something of an inbalance between the functionalities of different phones on the market though, I wanted to point out that there’s another option for fans of the iPhone OS, of the superb hardware and of the App Store. 

Regular readers here will know that, although having access to iPhones, I (personally) use an iPod Touch. Not crazy at all, this feature will hopefully explain one of the reasons why I’m happy with the ‘lesser’ device. The other reason is ongoing network/contract costs, but that’s another rant for another day.

Raise your glasses to the iPod Touch

You see, for Apple fans who eye up the telephony, connectivity and photography advantages of the best of the Symbian/Nokia world, it really is possible to have your cake and eat it. Read on…

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There’s an interesting article on The Grauniad’s Games Blog this week. Keith Stuart discusses the buzz around Apple at the Mobile Games Forum, and the iPhone’s impact on games for mobile phones.

With the iPhone, developers have a decent Software Development Kit and solid end-hardware on which to run their code. This makes developing a lot easier, and I think we are seeing a shift away from Java and Flash-based games. As TUAW says, “iPhone is dominating independent gaming“. When developers can easily create and sell games that make US$250k in 6 months, then you are going to attract a lot of developers.

But the main differentiator is the distribution channel, which attracts the users. Or as Keith puts it:

the App Store…is a familiar, enjoyable browsing experience. It doesn’t suck the very soul out of you

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As a web developer I’m always on the lookout for quick, easy ways to implement code written in XHTML and CSS on the small screen.

Of course, now there are plenty that appear on delicious or digg. However, one I keep sending colleagues to is over at ‘Woork’: Tips to design your site for mobile devices.

It has the easiest to follow steps showing how to get your carefully hand coded web pages to work seamlessly on mobile devices, such as the iPhone.
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Create with Context have done an interesting study of how people
actually use the iPhone, and released some of their findings in a PDF:

http://www.createwithcontext.com/landing-iphone.html

And on Slideshare.

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?

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?

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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.

Of course, you may well be happy to follow your nose in Apple’s iPhone on-device AppStore. If you’re anything like me, it’s proving rather addictive. Am I the only one who taps eagerly on the icon each day hoping for new updates, new apps, new ideas? The iPhone AppStore is certainly by far the most active third party software scene on the planet at the moment!

In an attempt to control my own addiction and perhaps help yours, here are some realistic AppStore tips… Read the full story

BBC iPlayer goes from strength to strength. The iPhone has become the best way of accessing the quality content of the BBC. Recent changes included an iPhone formatted front end, availability of an entire series, and now streaming radio via wifi.

The radio shows are provided in MP3 format at 128kbps. I listened to Radio One’s ‘Fearne and Reggie’s Request Show’ this morning, I was able to find the show within seconds and the quality was superb, certainly way better than FM.

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