Punderings

OK, hate is a strong word, given that I’ve never run a mac as my daily driver. But still, whoever on the iPhone design team decided to use a non-standard audio jack is just plain stupid.

Whether you call it a bad engineering choice – if they actually thought they needed the structural strength for the case, thereby meaning a smaller jack size – or a thoroughly evil business choice – if they simply decided to force lock-in for headsets – it was a bad choice no matter what.

I mean, sure, Apple’s got this pretty design and wow factor as huge selling points. And yes, their user interfaces are very different than the rest of the world – they are so good they’re like magic 80%+ of the time, which most people like. And the other 20% is well understood, and either you don’t mind (most humans) or you can’t stand it (geeks who need control). But that’s the software side.

Headphone jacks? 3.5mm TRS connectors have been pretty darn standard for decades now, especially for audio purposes. If they wanted small, they could have gone for the normal 2.5mm TRS that cell phones have made standard for years now. But no, Apple had to go out and do something that was almost a standard, but wasn’t. If I were in any worse of a mood, I’d compare their design choice here to Microsoft’s, but it’s been a pretty good day, so I won’t go quite that far.

But now I think of it, I do know a handful of people who’ve worked at Apple. Maybe someday I’ll get to meet the “genius” who made the final decision on this one, and get to call them stupid. Normally I’d call them dumb, because as a very small person reminds me, stupid is not a nice word. But I expect better design than this from Apple, so in this case, I’m sticking with stupid.

So – tips for over-the-ear iPhone compatible headsets, especially ones that double as phone headsets (i.e. mic too)? Preferably ones not sold by Apple, please.

No, I’m not a pod person. I’m an iPhone person. Finally a device that combines beauty, size (i.e. small), functionality, and an actual ability to do useful stuff. Even the boxes are beautiful, although disappointingly not as intricate as the old iPod boxes used to be.
Obviously seeing and using a bunch of friend’s phones at ApacheCon helped me decide that iPhone might actually be worth it, but it was really a number of factors including some of the unfortunate events of early winter. In any case, I overcame my reluctance to spend money on my geek desires and bought one.
It’s sweet. Yes, I hear the complainers out there, but part of what you have to remember is that form and function are linked in my brain, and I happen to like the vast majority of designs that Apple produces. The case is nearly beautiful – if they had gone just a touch farther with the back, I’d love just a plain shell to play with and leave on my desk. That, plus the fact that the touch interface really is pretty nice, and turns out to be intuitive (for me, at least), means that I’m inclined to like it off the bat.
Then comes the obvious: it’s an actual computer, and – equally importantly – it’s networked. Magically. At home or at wifi hotspots it’s just as fast as browsing with my laptop, but a lot faster to turn on. And on the road, sure, the EDGE network isn’t the fastest thing in the world, but it works. Want to read your favorite blog on the train – anywhere? Sure. See a billboard for a neat product on your long car trip (while you’re a passenger, I hope)? Go online and buy it right there and then, no need to slow down.
Now it is Safari, so there are the 1% of websites that are a bit funky. And the screen is small, if beautifully crisp, so complex forms take a while of zooming and panning. But you really can do it. Heck, the only thing that didn’t make sense to me was the hit-space-for-wordcompletion on the keyboard. I kept expecting it to give me a hover listbox of alternates, but it’s word completion engine only gives the single most obvious word at a time.
And I find the other finger gestures work just right. I still wish I could spin pictures by twisting two fingers, but scrolling through long lists is fun as the items spin by with a nice acceleration rate if you flick it. I suppose if I think about it they might have overloaded the on/home button to also be off (by holding for 2 seconds), and eliminated the off button. But otherwise, it’s a very nice package of minimalism in moving hardware.
You really can watch short videos well, although I admit I haven’t tried full movies, although I might on my next plane trip. And the built-in speakers could actually function for music instead of headphones if you’re in an office or home environment.
(Pause while I smile at my beautiful folly)
Oh, and for me, the iPhone is a special treat. Not because it’s shiny, or has actual memory, or all that. But because it has SMS. My previous phone – an i500, which does a great job of being a really small color Palm plus a phone (and will be for sale soon) – didn’t really do SMS. All that power of the Palm OS and Sprint network, and no default SMS. Silly Sprint. Not that I need a ton of txtmsgs, but they are darn useful at times. I’m so much better at asynchronous messages…