Printed Antimatter

AppleTV: A lovely product I will never buy

Okay, first of all, what the hell is up with using the Apple [AAPL] icon in the name of the product? Did Steve learn nothing from Prince's foray into unpronounceable, un-typeable symbol usage?

Now that that's out of the way: Am I the only one throughly unexcited about the red-headed stepchild of MacWorld, AppleTV? There are three reasons:

1. I'd hoped it was going to be a PVR. Yeah, that's not Apple's fault.

2. I'm not interested in using my Mac as a video hub. I would much rather buy a movie or TV show on DVD than download it from the iTunes Music Store.

3. And most surprisingly, considering we're talking about Apple: It just seems kludgy.

It sounds simple: You attach a $300 box to your TV, it syncs wirelessly to the iTunes of every computer in the house, and then you play video and music from it directly with the Front Row interface.

I know I'm expecting too much here, but syncing to an additional hard drive seems like one step too many. It would be so much more elegant if you could attach an Airport Express-style box to your TV and then stream video directly from your computer, á la AirTunes. This would sidestep the AppleTV's disk-space limitations, and it would probably cost half as much.

The Apple iPhone's design: 10 cool features and curious choices

1. A touchscreen qwerty keypad does not look at all fun for texting or writing emails. I rely on feeling the bumps of the little keys when texting-- I slide my thumb over to the right key, and when I know it's there, I press. Not an option with a touchscreen. Plus it seems like there would be a lot more mispressed keys, like from your finger brushing against the screen. Could be wrong, will have to try it. At least the auto-spelling correction will help.

2. Visual voicemail is the greatest thing ever invented. The worst aspect of voicemail is having to listen to every message in order to find the one that interests you. This was especially bad when I had a Cingular phone, because I couldn't delete a voicemail message in the middle of playing-- I had to wait until the message was done. Like I said in my last post, in a few years visual voicemail will be the standard. And it's a godsend for call screeners like my girlfriend.

3. Why no iChat? Dressing SMS up as IM is not an appropriate substitute. IM is one of my most-used features on my Sidekick, and my last three phones before that all had IM capability. One commenter I read suggested it's because IM would rob Cingular of SMS revenue, but that explanation might have a hole in it. Does no Cingular phone have IM? I suspect also that it may have something to do with too many cooks already being in this kitchen, what with Cingular, Yahoo, and Google all helping out. Maybe there just wasn't room in the kitchen for AOL.

Seven more after the jump...

The Apple iPhone is not revolutionary, but it will change everything

  The new iPhone @ MacWorld 
  Originally uploaded by Global X.

So Apple has finally released its Jesus phone, and hosannas are being sung far and wide-- along with the expected chorus of haters.

But the folks out there complaining about the price and battery life and Cingular should not be so short-sighted as to see the iPhone as a mere product. Rather, they should realize it's a harbinger of a beautiful future.

The iPhone's mojo is not in its features, most of which are available on current smart phones, but rather its integration between them, and its interface. The interface is so user-friendly and intelligent, bolstered as it is by myriad little sensors, that the iPhone seems less like a gadget than a robot sidekick.

Here are three things to keep in mind when you decide to dismiss the iPhone as the new Cube:

1. This technology is going to filter down to even the cheapest iPods. Remember how expensive the iPod Photo was when it came out? Now photo capabilities are standard on every iPod with a screen. I bet that within a couple of months, Apple will release an iPod Widescreen that is basically an iPhone with a hard drive and all the communications and internet tech removed, and it'll cost the same as a regular high-end iPod does today. Also, in a couple of years, Nanos will be sporting the multi-touch interface.

2. In two years, the iPhone will cost one-third as much and be three times as cool. Think how far the iPod has come since its introduction.

3. As goes the iPhone, so goes the cell-phone industry. Just as everyone is trying to mimic iPods now, everyone is going to come out with their own iPhone knockoffs. In a couple of years, not having visual voicemail is going to seem hopelessly outdated.

So yes, the current iPhone is prohibitively expensive, and only die-hards who are willing to switch to Cingular are going to get them, and it's easy to scoff. But in five years, we'll all be talking on iPhones, whether they're Apple or not, and whether we realize it or not.

Some thoughts on the iPhone design in the next post.