Comments on: Passive/aggressive iPhone bashing http://www.macalope.com/2009/01/15/passiveaggressive-iphone-bashing/ Full of sound and furry Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:20:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rip Ragged http://www.macalope.com/2009/01/15/passiveaggressive-iphone-bashing/#comment-3101 Rip Ragged Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:45:15 +0000 http://www.macalope.com/?p=354#comment-3101 Thank you Mr. Lope for reading it so I don't have to. I read Philip Elmer-DeWitt today. That should be enough for anyone. Thank you Mr. Lope for reading it so I don’t have to. I read Philip Elmer-DeWitt today. That should be enough for anyone.

]]> By: Peter http://www.macalope.com/2009/01/15/passiveaggressive-iphone-bashing/#comment-3100 Peter Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:23:56 +0000 http://www.macalope.com/?p=354#comment-3100 Perhaps he's trying to avoid getting blasted by thousands of iPhone users when he makes legitimate points. For example, supporting yourself via advertising: The application in question, Trapster, has 350,000 users. Advertisers don't care about a number that small. So, the theory that iPhone developers will get rich selling cheap or free apps which support themselves through advertising is dubious at best. And I agree wholeheartedly that limitations in the iPhone make great apps hard to deliver. A classic example is navigation apps. I want to enter where I am. I want to enter where I'm going. And I want the phone to tell me how to get there in such a way that I don't have to take my eyes off the road--such as telling me a mile or so beforehand when a turn is coming up. You can do that with the iPhone right now... ...as long as you don't get a phone call. If that happens, you'll get no notification until you hang up, your navigation app restarts, and you're told you missed your turn twenty minutes ago. And why is this? Because you can't even run a small notification app in the background that keeps track of where you are and notifies you of things. Of course, there are good reasons to do this. But in this example, I'm fine with the reduced battery life since I probably have my phone plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car. Perhaps he’s trying to avoid getting blasted by thousands of iPhone users when he makes legitimate points.

For example, supporting yourself via advertising: The application in question, Trapster, has 350,000 users. Advertisers don’t care about a number that small. So, the theory that iPhone developers will get rich selling cheap or free apps which support themselves through advertising is dubious at best.

And I agree wholeheartedly that limitations in the iPhone make great apps hard to deliver. A classic example is navigation apps. I want to enter where I am. I want to enter where I’m going. And I want the phone to tell me how to get there in such a way that I don’t have to take my eyes off the road–such as telling me a mile or so beforehand when a turn is coming up. You can do that with the iPhone right now…

…as long as you don’t get a phone call. If that happens, you’ll get no notification until you hang up, your navigation app restarts, and you’re told you missed your turn twenty minutes ago.

And why is this? Because you can’t even run a small notification app in the background that keeps track of where you are and notifies you of things. Of course, there are good reasons to do this. But in this example, I’m fine with the reduced battery life since I probably have my phone plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car.

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