today and tomorrow

So despite my initial enthusiasm, I didn’t buy an iPhone 3G today. It wasn’t an easy dicision but the T-Mobile iPhone 3G plans just don’t fit my needs. I don’t want any included minutes or T-Mobile hotspots access. I want a fair minute rate (not 0,29€ a minute) and more data transfer at full speed (not throttled after just 300 MB). So I guess I’ll plan my next holiday to one of the countries with prepaid iPhones.
If you want to see more iPhone 3G hardware pron, iFixit has the images to get you off.

One more month baby!

For those of you who want to come and visit Berlin there is this new website called berlin.unlike. You can find addresses of bars, shops, clubs, … etc, but also events; it’s an ongoing collection of course. You can add all this info to your own tour. It’s dead simple, you don’t have to register, you can start right away with adding the things you want to visit.  Your tour will get it’s own unique id, you may not forget to bookmark it when you want to add anything later (go to your tour and click on settings on the right). You can share your tour with anyone and browse it on your mobile phone, hé it’s hooked up with google maps. Here is mine. Very neat!

Tadaa the iPhone SDK is here, ok it’s still in beta though. So if you have seen the presentation video, you might be quite excited too. Just skip to minute 41 and there you have it, nintendo Wii-like controls for gaming. The big advantage that Apple has, is that they have full control over the hardware and software. And that’s where I see the weakest point of the Google Android platform.
And for those of you who are still waiting for the Flash plugin for the iPhone. I guess as long as Adobe doesn’t make a custom player, we won’t see Flash on the iPhone. How would the iPhone / Flash player scale down Flash content anyway? And is the processor strong enough? Battery life? … just forget about it.
I actually had to use someone else’s mac to have a look at the SDK, I still have a G4 Powerbook and you’ll need an intel one.

Yeah, that’s a mobile phone. Well actually it’s a development circuit board for the google Android operating system by Qualcomm. Can you see an iPhone competitor in there?
More info and hardware porn shots at Wired’s Gadget Lab.

Edward Tufte, a specialist in the field of analytical design, did a review of the iPhones interface. The elimination of screen-hogging computer administrative debris and the high resolution of screen are the main winners in the design of the iPhone. Of course he has some critique ,which I don’t really share, he doesn’t think that the stockmarket and weather widgets are well designed. I guess that his alternative designs won’t meet Steve Jobs design standards. Watch the video for yourself here.
found at Daring Fireball

Yesterday, Google released the software development kit for its mobile platform called Android. Of course I had to install it and give it a try, it comes with sample code and some standard features like a web browser and a maps application.
The standard graphical user interface looks dull to me, especially since I played around with an iPhone before. The screen resolution of the demo phone is only 320 by 240 and it’s not that snappy, maybe that’s because it’s only an emulation.
Although the iPhone is available since last Friday here in Germany, I didn’t buy one for the simple reason that the iPhone and the contract are too expensive. But if I could get one from the States (over a €100 cheaper!), I would.
So Apple, I’m quite curious to play with the iPhone SDK next February! Bring it on!

Comcast has this little website called TripleSlanguage to promote their triple-play offer (internet, telephone and TV). They invented some new words like ‘Quizjacking’ and ‘Tomphonery’. I guess I’m guilty to several …
‘What’s the capital of Belgium? Waffles.’

Some time ago, some people found out that there are some design similarities between the iPhone calculator and some Braun calculators from the late 70ies. Erik Spiekermann, a well known typographer, found an other one between Apple’s current aluminum look and an old world receiver. Apparently there some fans of German design in the Apple team.