iThoughts on the iPhone
The iPhone seems to be everywhere these days. Here are my thoughts on a few of the bigger stories:
Games, Games, Games – I’ve noticed a significant jump in the quality of iPhone apps recently, especially the games. Anyone who’s been around me recently knows I can’t stop playing Fieldrunners (must. beat. hard. setting.) and I’m eagerly anticipating Rolando. But today I saw the first legitimate first person shooter for the platform: Brothers in Arms. If it looks a little buggy, remember it’s pre-release, but it appears that they’ve nailed the controls.
2.2 & Stability – Apple released iPhone software 2.2 a few weeks back and there’s been a lot of controversy over the stability of the update. VentureBeat seems to think the claims are unwarranted (or at the very least exaggerated). But, from my own exprience, stability has definitely taken a dive. I’m not saying everyone will have these probems, but I certainly have. Now they’re neither a deal-breaker for everyday use nor have I quantified the severity to any degree, but apps and web pages are crashing more often than before, probably once or more a day. I’ve even had a couple full system freezes in the short time since updating, which rarely happened before.
Linux On The iPhone – This is awesome. I’ve been saying for a while that I want the ability to dual boot Linux (i.e. Android) and OS X on my iPhone. I’d love the abilty to switch over the Android for apps not supported by Apple. Well, the first steps are underway. And as great as this is, I’d much prefer an official “Boot Camp” quality option from Apple… but I’m not holding my breadth.
iPhone Outsells Windows Mobile – Not much else to say beyond the title, but iPhone sales surpassed those of Windows Mobile for the first time last quarter. It’s been relatively quiet on the WinMo front. I’m interested to see how the boys up in Redmond respond.