Technology is cool and so is capitalism. Apple's software is so sweet and clever that people love it. Including me. iPhone is a beauty both in fit and finish, and functionality. There's a fine line between fair competition and monopoly. Ask Bill Gates. If you want totally FOSS, go for it. It's out there. Meanwhile, the for profit working world has to make a living. That involves trade secrets, being the first to market, and other competitive discriminators.
I glance at the clock and see my bud Blaine is about to go live on KSVY. And, I also glanced at Blaine Transue's Virtual Garage Blog. Blaine, I feel your pain. I used what I called my ScoblePhone (because Robert Scoble recommended it to me) for years running Windows for Smartphones before I bought my iPhone. I still use my ScoblePhone. Case in point: the iPhone doesn't have a videorecorder. So, when I wanted to do a mini-documentary for Zoobird, I used my ScoblePhone. The iPhone doesn't have a voice recorder. So, I have to use some (cool) app called Reqall (pronounced "recall") to take my voice notes instead. And, the iPhone SDK is out, as Blaine mentioned. Since I'm a programmer, I know only too well what releasing apps to user means. So, I must say I am pleased with the iPhone suite that works like a champ most of the time. Funny, the only real predictable crash is when I fire up Zoobird in my iPhone's browser. It crashes most of the time. And, I wrote Zoobird! Wait, no, that guy Marc Andreesson's team wrote it. The framework, I mean. Swampcast? Innocent!
Hang on…Mornings in Sonoma with Blaine Transue is spinning up...
The chi part is actually “qi“, which was introduced to me by my friends at Haile Village Bodywork here in the Swamp. The idea, which I was reminded of today while jogging and listening to NPR‘s World Cafe “Viking‘s Choice” (7/14/08), is that the spaces between notes are important. So, you could make the analogy that the apps that are absent from iPhone are opportunities. We have the iPhone SDK, we have the Web2.0 mindset, and therefore we think outside the box.
PS - the photo is a photo of a photo I took with my ScoblePhone, an Audiovox SMT5600, at my favorite coffeeshop, Camp 4 Coffee in dreamy Crested Butte, CO while at one of Bruce Eckel's Web Jams which fuel my creative stove. I meet people I stay in touch with there, like Barry Hawkins and Diane Marsh.
