Archive for January, 2007
Book: The Art of the Start
I’ve just finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start and I must say I’m quite impressed.
For the last two years I’ve been working for at a start-up on an interesting product. We’ve got the core of our ‘magic sauce’ working just great but now I’m relying on business people to make it happen and I should probably have some idea of what that involves and how I can help.
This is where Kawaski’s book steps in and whilst seemingly-short packs in lots of useful and practical information on developing your product, team and company from scratch.
As Guy is now running a venture capitalist company and was there in the early day s of Apple as a software evangelist he certainly has the credentials to be putting it all on the line (or should that be paper) for you to digest and he certainly delivers in clear English what he’s expecting from people approaching his company for funding.
Check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog where he puts up additional information, video clips, tips, hints and templates along the same lines as his book.
Great stuff, 5/5
[)amien
Guernsey Developers User Group, January 25
The recently-formed Guernsey Software Developers Forum are having a meeting on the 25th of January at the GTA University Centre above the post office at 6pm.
The founder, Fillippo Borselli will be giving a presentation on FIT – a Framework for Integrated Test and it should be a good place to meet a few fellow developers.
[)amien
True cost of the iPhone
So you like the iPhone and think you’ll buy one?
In the USA…
If you live in the USA then thanks to Cingular’s exclusive multi-year deal if you want an iPhone and go with their cheapest voice-only plan at $39.99 a month (which you have to pay for 24 months) you can expect your iPhone to cost you (assuming you can get out of your current contract without penalty):
4GB – $499 + $959 = $1,458
8GB – $599 + $959 = $1,558
Being that Cingular normally discount smartphones by around $150 when you take a contract I guess Apple could end up selling them for $599 and $699 once they are out of the Cingular deal. Hopefully this "exclusive deal" leaves the door open for Apple to sell them direct without a plan for a slightly higher price.
This guy believes the text, voicemail and Internet supplements needed push the monthly price up by another $35 a month!
Europe…
When Apple come to Europe signing such an exclusive deal could severely hamper adoption and gaining that elusive 1% worldwide market share. Europe is a massive patchwork of operators and people won’t want to switch and loose their number – especially the sort of heavy-use/business people they’re aiming for.
Perhaps we just have it cheaper in Europe for once?
My current plan costs around $30 a month and includes 50 free minutes, 50 free texts and gives a whopping $350 discount off a HTC TyTN smartphone when you take out an 18 month contract. On that basis the price would be:
$481 + $360 = $841
The user interface can’t touch the iPhone and it has less storage (for now, thanks to the microSD slot) but it is also UTMS/3G, can load third party apps, has instant messaging and also can connect to a Bluetooth GPS device to interact with third-party mapping software. I can also change the battery when things go bad if needed and it runs Skype – the second camera – the one on the front means I can videocall.
Nice try Apple but I’ll wait for the 3G iPhone – why not add some of these fun features in the mean-time ;-)
[)amien
Apple Macworld misfires
So the Apple TV and iPhone are finally announced and visually impressive with a very refined user interface – but some of the technical specifications aren’t quite there.
Apple TV
First off the Apple TV tops out at 720p high-def – what!? For less than Apple TV’s $299 I can get an Xbox 360 that does video & audio streaming at 1080p. Sure the 360 is missing HDMI and the slick software but it does play state of the art 3D on-line games.
Video scaled up to 720p by the device and then scaled up to 1080p by the TV is ugly.
iPhone
Apple’s iPhone is supposed to be state of the art but GSM really isn’t good enough. The world is moving on to 3G and UTMS is essential in the likes of Japan and important even in the USA. Other manufacturers do it, why isn’t Apple?
Secondly this is supposed to be state of the art Internet? Where the hell is instant messaging? You’ve got the UI with SMS but what if I want to talk to iChat, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger users? Zip.
Thirdly where is the SDK/API? Initial reports are indicating that it is a closed platform.
Hello?
Phone users seem to fall into one of two groups. People who want a voice phone with maybe a few extra features who won’t be prepared to pay $499 (plus the cost of a 2 year contract) and the second are existing smartphone users who often need to install additional applications and maybe even games. No mention of J2ME, no mention of an SDK. Nada.
It’s a slick product but for now is just functionally incomplete compared to what I have. Smartphone + iPod all the way.
Finally…
Jobs also thinks they are going for 1% of the massive mobile market share. Funny as ex-Apple’s Kawasaki puts this goal at number 11 of his Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs.
My god who decided to let the Cingular CEO on stage to read their corporate brochure.
[)amien