Twitter for iPhone: May Tweetie 2 Rest in Peace
Tweetie 3.0, or as Twitter would like you to call it, Twitter for iPhone is the worst software update I can ever remember downloading. Generally, updates make things better, not worse. Twitter for iPhone adds nothing useful to Tweetie’s base. It actually breaks Tweetie. And I feel fine calling it an “upgrade” because this “new” iPhone app overwrites your exisiting Tweetie 2. I can forgive poor design choices because the corporate overlords who bought your soul told you that you had to include their featured tweets and suggested users, but when you force your shiny new free turd on people and overwrite better software that they actually paid money for, you are taking your credibility and stomping all over it. Cause that’s what gets me more than anything. I’m going to run down some specific interface stuff that doesn’t benefit anyone but Twitter, but it’s this forced upgrade that kills me.
Full article here. It's a bit full on, but I totally agree... I want Tweetie back! Twitter for iPhone is worse than what came before, which is especially a shame as it's still better than anything else out there, meaning we're stuck with a worse selection of Twitter apps than we had a month ago. Boo!
Will I Develop For Android? at Malcolm Barclay
Whilst the Google Android OS is growing rapidly, the market for paid apps is just not there yet. In the paid apps space it’s 1/10th the size of the iPhone market and there are problems with fragmentation, payment systems & even multiple stores. This makes it cumbersome for users to purchase applications & makes it really difficult for developers to be rewarded for their efforts.
The amount of people prepared to pay for an application on Android pales in comparison to the iPhone. I don’t blame the consumer, just take a look at the Android Market website.
You can not:
- Search it
- See the price
- Read any reviews
- Download applications
Yes, I know that the Android way is to download on the phone directly (and this is what many do on the iPhone) but don’t you think as a potential customer I am going look at the Android Market website to see what my app options are?
Based on some of the email exchanges I have had, it’s very interesting to note that some people are buying Android phones (even switching from iPhone to Android) based purely on philosophical grounds. They certainly aren’t doing it for the games titles, because the choice & quality on Android compared to the iPhone platform is abysmal.
One person comments as to why they switched to Android…
“Unlike apple is giving what they want, rather than what people want”
People don’t have to buy Apple products, no one is forcing them too. People are buying Apple products because it is what they want. They like the ease of use, ease of app purchasing & many other things about the platform. Apple are not infallible, one may argue they over step the line with what they allow or don’t allow; but it’s their platform and they can do whatever they like with it. Just as SkyTV can decide what sports they will or won’t show, it’s their channel.
The article continues at mbarclay.net and is an interesting discussion from a developer's point of view on the differences between platforms.
Opera Mini for iPhone - Not just crap to use, but can't render pages properly either.
Anyone know of other apps with letter-based icons? Wondering if I can make an alphabet ;-)
Palm messing up their App Store approvals too
Starting up an application store is no easy matter. With Palm’s App Catalog set to begin application sales this Thursday, many developers have been submitting their applications for consideration. The flow of new apps into Palm HQ has been such that some developers have been left wondering about the status of their submission. As it would turn out, there have been so many apps submitted that Palm is having trouble keeping up. In response to questions about app submission status, Palm Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach posted the following on Palm’s developer discussion boards:
We got more applications than we could handle well, which is a good problem to have. Unfortunately, it means we dropped some things on the floor, and that's bad, but with the impending "stuff" that's coming, this is all going to get a lot easier for everyone and a lot more transparent.
If you didn't get a response in a timely manner, let me apologize to you. We should have done a better job on this, and I apologize for this. I'm working with the people I work with on this to try to make sure we do a better job of this moving forward. Good news is we've hired some people -- one's started, one starts next week, and the third starts the week after that, and that'll give us some great people and some new resources to make sure this gets fixed and works properly.
Seems Apple aren't the only ones with problems...
Want to be a creepy stalker? There's an app for that.
The Case Against Apple
Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com and generally respected geek recently presented The Case Against Apple in Five Parts, explaining that he's an Apple fan but has grown fed up with them recently. Much has been said in many places about the merits of his arguments, but the general concensus seems to be that he's mostly talking rubbish. However, he's talking enough sense to be worth considering, and I don't disagree with everything he says. I had a lively discussion around this with a colleague, who urged me to blog my thoughts, so I am. I recommend reading the original post, and perhaps one or two of the other good responses. But anyway, here's the relevant bits, along with my take on them...
More iPhone Apps
Last week I shared some of my favourite iPhone apps. Here's a few more, including transport tools, media apps and a set of web information tools...
Got Any Good Apps?
The percentage of my friends who have an iPhone is quite frankly incredible. So when we get together, once we've caught up on our latest news and got through a pint or two, the question inevitably arises, have you got any good new apps? Similarly when chatting to someone new who turns out to have an iPhone, the same kind of question pops up. The App Store is like a little club that we all joined, and sharing recommendations about the best downloads is a new game. So as to further ruin my conversation possibilities with my friends (one of whom says that my blog is great because she can keep up to date with my life without ever having to speak to me!) I thought I'd share the current contents of my home screen. Here's part one...
Why the App Store Rocks
The best thing about the iPhone these days is its software model. I've talked in detail before (1, 2, 3, 4) about the device itself, and mentioned the AppStore, but Apple Insider presents (as part of their extensive and pretty good series of posts on the iPhone 3G) a fascinating comparison of iPhone software versus Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian and even PSP and DS software platforms.
