alamin ahmed: a typical geek 2.0

Disclaimer: I have been using iPhone since 2007.  This will be a direct comparison between iPhone and Nexus One from iPhone user's point of view.  So if you hate the word 'iPhone', then locate the 'back' button on your browser.

Unboxing images

I ordered Nexus One on Tuesday 3EST and received it next day 11AM.  Mine is unlocked priced at $579.00 with tax and FREE shipping.  Google’s online phone store couldn’t be any easier, in fact too easy to make accidental purchases.

 

Flickr Album

Lets start by praising the phone.  We can get to the "buts", little bit later.

Android it is, after all.

If you rely on Google Services, Android platform is the place to be.  This is true regardless whether you use Nexus One, DROID or any other Android phones.  Android's integration of Voice, Gmail, Talk and Picasa, simply can't be beaten by any other platform, not even desktop.  After using Google Voice on Android, I actually understood why Apple rejected it from iPhone.  It literally modifies and overtakes built-in phone app (if you let it), just like Apple complained.  But I am not complaining.  It's great!  In addition, Android has the best and beautiful integration with Picasa Web Albums. Voice recognition is remarkable and integrated in many apps such as SMS, Email, Search, etc. Lets just say, every thing about Google services is better on Android, then iPhone.  Well, that was to be expected right? I mean, Google made Android.

So what is Nexus One?

With Nexus One, you get a much better experience of Android OS and all the services I mentioned above.  This is mainly because it has a screamer CPU running at 1Ghz and has 3D support.  Nexus also is extremely well built, just like DROID, but much lighter and thinner due to missing keyboard.  It isn't like Palm PRE which feels like cheap and crap.

Nexus One feels really great on hand.  In some ways, bit more comfortable then iPhone.  This is because  Nexus One  is less wider then iPhone.  Even so, it has a bigger screen.  A brilliantly crisp screen with 400x800 resolution.  Crazy.  Browsing web in landscape is even closer to desktop then iPhone.

When it comes to spec and numbers, Nexus has it all.  Every type of communication, and every type of sensors you can think of.  It also has 5MP camera with flash and video capability.

Let’s start with “buts” now.  Hold on to something tight…

Ok, let me just get this out of the way, it is NOT iPhone killer.  I will simply list the reasons why not without too much writing:

• Apple's Engineers was able to optimized a full Mac OS so well, that it is able to run like a butter on 412Mhz processor.  Google’s can’t match that performance even with more then double the speed.   That pisses me off.
• iPhone’s standard GUI and the way of interaction is still far more user friendly and better then Android’s.
• Missing all the apps that I have on iPhone.  Doesn’t have any decent app for most of the categories.
• Games.  Where are games?
• Android’s bottom dedicated buttons are really annoying and confusing.  You have to tap exactly on the spot, otherwise it won’t work.  Track ball is completely useless for touch screens. Back button has confusing usage, much like Windows Mobile phones.
• Speaking of Windows Mobile, you have to deal with application task (apps running in the background).  And way to check what apps running is rooted deep in settings panel.  I liked Palm WebOS’s take on this much better.
• No multi touching.  There are numerous times when I tried pinching and two finger tapping, only to practice on my swear words.
• iTunes integration.  Yes its important.  Unless Google provides something to manage media content with, I need to use iTunes.

Conclusion

Certainly won’t replace my iPhone.  I really was hoping it would, but after making few phone calls and check on my emails, I really don’t know what else to  do with this phone.  Missing tons of apps and games.  Most of my media won’t sync due to DRM.  Also iTunes integration in general is a big must for me.  I manage all kinds of content with it, like audio books, podcasts, movies and so on.

But as I said it before, if Google is your world, and Apple is your villain, then Nexus One is made for you.

So the word on the street is, if you are an iPhone developer then you are probably making millions.
Let put things in clear prospective for current struggling developers who have realized the reality in hard way, and also to my fellow prospective developers so that they know the ship in which they are aboarding.

My primary purpose of this short article is to spread the reality that the press does not seems to talk about while Apple takes the vowel of silence.  Lots of developers probably feel shy to admit these figures, so hope this gives better prospective for everyone.

Who are making money on iPhone

Yes there people making money at the rate of $150,000 - $300,000 per month.  Ya, i know, that hurts in many different ways.  However, there are developers making only $50 - $150 per month as well.  Yes, this also hurts in so many different ways.  So let's break it down who is making what.

We can divide developers into three categories based on iPhone 'Top Paid' ranking system.

When Steve Jobs said that their iPhone is years ahead of competition, I never thought that this would turn out to be a genuine statement. It so sad to see how Palm had to hired tons of Apple engineers, spend so much money and years only to come 'close' and to 'resemble' a device that Apple created back in 2007.  Why can't other big competitors coup up with Apple, even when everything is laid out to them, I will never understand.  I hate Apple and rest of the world for this.  I bought Palm PRE.  $325 and $70/m.  How do I get out of this!

Here are some interesting statistics about iPhone app sales you might like to know. 

Business Applications on Top Paid apps:

• Ranked top 10-15 paid app will sale about 70 a day
  
• Top 25-40 ~ about 35-50 a day.
  
• Top 40-55 ~ about 15-20 a day.
• Top 60-75 ~ about 4-10 a day.

Productivity Applications:

• Top 30-40 ~ 40-60 a day

Utilities Appliation

• Top 40 - 50 ~ 70-100 a day
  
  

*These data varies from weekdays to weekend and holidays.  Also Productivity and Utilities data are about two months old.

Task PRO is truly an amazing task management application for the iPhone.  Task PRO supports sub-tasking, a powerful mechanism to hierarchically organize task/information.  Task PRO also has a very clean & elegant design, and is extremely flexible in nature.  Since version 1.0, there has been tons of emails with positive comments/feedbacks that lifted our spirits. However, there were many feature requests also.

So, after little over a month of initial release, Task PRO v1.1 was released on first week of May.  Almost 70% of the user requested features were implemented.  Lets see whats included and then we can see what left out and when to expect them.

v1.1 features:

1. Allows to manually sort task lists.  This option is found under sort/group menu.
2. Application icon badge with due/overdue count.
   
3. Lists  show hierarchy levels.
   
4. Lists by priority - "high", "normal" or "low".
   
5. Now you can add due time along with date.  This will help track daily tasks.
6. Ability to delete completed tasks
7. Swipe-to-delete feature.
8. As may requested, we also added additional symbols/icons for the tag.
9. Emailing tasks will also include sub tasks in nice formatted text (HTML formatting used)
10. Application setting allows to change some of the default behaviors.

Clearly this was a huge update. 

Here is a quick video of Task PRO v1.1

We are currently working on version 1.2 to wrap up rest of the requested features.  Some of the notable features will be:

1. Repeat/duplicate feature.  (One of the most requested).
2. Desktop application to quickly view/add/edit tasks.  This should work with both Mac and Windows.
   
3. Backup/restore database.
4. Full Toodledo syncing with supporting more fields.
   

Version 1.2 is expected to be released by early July.

Apple Inc. claims that iPhone has 8 hours talk time, 250 hours of standby, 6 hours of Internet, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback!! These are very impressive numbers, except that claims has lots of strings attached which no one actually reads it.

Although, you may not get even close to these numbers, but I will attempt to provide all tweaks and settings to get as close as possible.  I have collected most of these tips from Apple's fine prints and some from support page of an iPod. Don't worry, I am not going to ask you to turn of Wi-Fi or other features that would simply cripple your iPhone.

1. Brightness setting:  this alone can do the trick of getting most out your iPhone's (or any device for that matter) battery life.  Even though iPhone has bright and gorgeous screen, you may want to turn it down to get that screen playable little longer!
   How-to: "Settings" -> "Brightness" -> slide it to about one seventh
2. Auto brightness: iPhone has built-in sensor that checks the lighting condition where ever you are and adjust the brightness accordingly.  This is sweet feature, but the sensor eats up battery life.
   How-to: "Settings" -> "Brightness" -> turn the "Auto-Brightness" switch "OFF"
3. Auto-Lock: turn that display off as frequently as possible.  Make sure it is set to 1 Minute
   How-to: "Settings" -> "General" -> "Auto-Lock" -> "1 Minute"
4. Auto detect Wi-Fi: iPhone has feature to
   How-to: "Settings" -> "Wi-Fi" -> "Ask to Join Networks" -> turn "OFF"
5. Email Check frequency: this may not be suitable for lots of business or frequent email users, but it does save battery life.  You can set iPhone to check email every 15, 30, 60 minutes or do manual check.  Of course, ideal setting for saving battery would be "Manual", but you can also set to "Every hour"
   How-to: "Settings" -> "Mail" -> "Auto-Check" -> select "Manual" or "Every hour"
6. Turn of some sounds: iPhone makes noise for about everything you do on it.  You can turn off some of these sound effects such as keyboard click noise and Lock Sound noise.  These two are really unnecessary for the most part.
   How-to: "Settings" -> "Sounds" -> "Lock Sounds" turn "OFF" and "Keyboard Clicks" turn OFF
7. Turn of that Equalizer: yes, according to Apple, turning of Equalizer will save little battery time!
   How-to: "Settings" -> "iPod" -> "EQ" -> "Off"
8. Turn of Sound Check: iPhone provides Sound Check feature to adjust music volume to keep consistent range for all songs.  Most of the time it does not work (at least for my songs).  So you can turn it off to save some juice.
   How-to: "Settings" -> "iPod -> "Sound Check" turn "OFF"
9. Audio encoding: compress size of your music file for better cache purpose and encode using MP3 or AAC encoding. AIFF and some other formats are not good and eats up CPU cycles
   
10. Room Temperature: Keep iPhone in room temperature and do not charge your iPhone while it is in carrying case or cover.  This keeps battery in ideal temperature even when charging.
    

Hope these tricks help you get more life out of your iPhone's battery.  Just as an additional note, Apple has also announced iPhone's battery replacement program for $79.99 + shipping.  read it here: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/

iPhone. Ahs and Ohs