The WSJ is reporting that Skype is finally being released for the iPhone. Check the AppStore Tuesday for the official release. Personally this is the most wanted app on my phone. I’m hoping it will work with backgrounder.

• Does the iPhone suck?
• Skype for Mac 6 months no update

photo by ubiq_01

• Does the iPhone suck?
• OSX on UMPCs

When the iPhone was first announced I, like everyone else, wanted one. I took my own advice by holding off on getting a first generation device and waited for the prices to come down and for potential bugs to be ironed out. Now that I’ve had 2 weeks with the iPhone 3G I wanted to share some thoughts on Apple’s most amazing and desired gadget.

The iPhone is a conversation starter. The multi touch UI is easy on the eyes and pleasant to use. The build quality is top notch. Having a phone + GPS + iPod is pretty cool. The OS while a bit sluggish for a phone is stable. The ability to install apps right from the appstore is well done and the app ecosystem is a game changer for the software industry.

However, as a smartphone – the iPhone sucks. Apple has taken what is potentially the coolest gadget ever made and then crippled it just about every way they could. I’m trying to imagine just how bad the iPhone would suck if it was not Jailbroken – which mine is. I’m an Apple fan. I like their software, hardware and the thought that goes into their products. The frustrating thing about the iPhone is just how cool it could be.

List of things that make iPhone suck.

NO Bluetooth

What modern phone, let alone SmartPhone, does not allow for basic bluetooth pairing and file transfer? I’ve become accustomed to writing all of my SMS through an app on my Macbook dashboard and then sending them off with an easy Control+S via bluetooth to my cheap ass Nokia ‘dumb phone’. I can also browse the file system of the Nokia 3310c from the Macbook or send notes to it as easily as right clicking on them and choosing to send them to the phone. The fact that I can’t do this on the most advanced (supposedly) and most expensive phone I’ve ever purchased does not sit right with me.

NO WiFi Sync

My iPhone has WiFi, so does my Macbook. Why then do I have to carry around a cable to sync circa 1999?

NO Document support

Out here in the real world we use PDF and Word Docs as a format to exchange files. I guess in Cupertino they use post-its? My macbook can read these formats natively without additional software – why can’t my iPhone?

NO File Manager

And no search for that matter. Some of us actually store and retrieve real file from our PDAs. Sometimes we even search for them when we forgot where we left them. We like to search our contacts as well. I think they need to bottle the water in Cupertino as they have super human memory over there.

NO Flash

What the hell? Flash video.. Games? Maps?

NO Video

OK, I can use Cycorder if i want to go face jailtime but the fact that this feature is left out is a JOKE. Seriously. I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall at Apple at that meeting. “I know, lets really fuck them up and put a camera there but get this, they can’t record video!” WTF?

NO Skype

Skype on the iPhone would be awesome. It seems like Skype is running on everything except the iPhone. I don’t really care if the blame for this one falls at the doorstep of Apple or AT&T – it just sucks. Fix it.

At the end of the day the iPhone feels like a Disney theme park ride. Have your fun as long as you stay securely in your seat and on the rails. Even though your car on the roller coaster looks like a spaceship, it’s really a fiberglass car on steel rails.

Some might say, “Don’t worry though, all of these features will be provided by the hacker community and eventually filter their way into an official update or app at some point in the future.” I’d rather have these smart folks working on a cure for cancer or the next generation alternative fuel source than figuring out how to reverse engineer the bluetooth stack on my silly iPhone. But that’s how it goes.

However much I am bitching about the iPhone – I’ll hang on to it for another month or so to see if the next child genius has figured out a way for me to hack my phone so that it compares to my throw away Nokia.

So here is my advice, don’t buy an iPhone. Wait until Apple pulls their head from their ass and realizes we’re grown up enough to handle features that have been on even the most basic of phones for the last half decade..

It’s still pretty cool to see my four year old playing with Zephyr.

• Skype mobile for non WiFi JAVA phones
• Pystar lawyers accuse Apple of anticompetitive tactics

That said, in my opinion so for in this part of Malaysia, Celcom has the best network for anyone that plans to use their plan while in motion or outside of major urban areas. I’ve been able to get a full HSDPA signal on high speed boats halfway to Indonesia and on a bus with nothing but palm trees viewable on the way to Johor. If you will be using mobile braodband in Nilai or Melaka you’ll be happy with Celcom HSDPA coverage.

The modems come with a driver / script package from Huawei that in general, sucks. I’ve experience several lockups and kernel panics on Leopard with the Mobile Connect app. I’ve not ditched mobileconnect.app and just use the dial-up networking in OSX combined with Cheetah to monitor the signal quality.

• Uninstall the Mobile Connect application by dragging it to the trash.
• Plug in your modem then go to network preferences and click + to add the interface (Huawei Mobile) and service type (3g)
• Click on the Configuration drop down and create a new one, mine is called Celcom3g.
• Set the telephone number to *99# and leave the rest blank.

• Click Advanced and choose Generic for vendor and GSM/3G for Model, Set APN to celcom3g if you are using Celcom otherwise set the one specific to your provider. For Maxis it is maxisbb. Maxis also requires a username and password where Celcom does not. (maxis/123)

• Click PPP and uncheck “Send PPP echo packets” under Configuration in the Settings drop down menu.

From here you should be able to connect from the menu bar rather than launching mobile connect every time and having to enter your admin password. Grab CheetahWatch to monitor signal quality and usage stats.

• Celcom broadband slow and unstable
• Huawei e272 pairs nicely with MacBook

After deciding on Celcom 3g, I bought the Huawei e272 from Andrew on LowYat. I’ve not had a chance to do much testing but it was very easy to set up on the Mac. The design is quite nice and looks great with the white MacBook. A bit of 2 sided velcro tape keeps it in place. I left it peeking to the side a bit so the line status light is in view. Note to designers, put the LED on the end so that the modem can sit flush to notebook screen edge keeping the LED status visible. The attached cable is also just a hair too short.

Looking forward to using the HSDPA connection on the go. Celcom supports speeds to 3.6 Mbps. The modem is capable of 7.2 Mbps.

photo by wicho

• Celcom broadband slow and unstable
• Social networking: Women outnumber men

Head on over to http://store.apple.com/my

Prices are a bit higher than the US store. 1023 USD for a MacBook vs. the US Apple store price of 999. No mention of educational discounts. Free shipping on orders above RM 250.

• Apple is now 3rd largest PC vendor in the USA
• Does the iPhone suck?

Poor Vista – looks like we might see the next version of OSX very soon.

via VentureBeat

• Swarm Player, P2P video seeks to disrupt
• Mastodon Divinations, awesome video

The most welcome feature for me in Snow Leopard is Outlook Exchange support built into Apple Mail. Having to use Entourage just to access an exchange server sucks. Let’s hope Apple is working hard on getting this feature rock solid. All the more reason for enterprise to adopt OSX.

via Apple Insider

• Mastodon Divinations, awesome video
• WD TV-2 media player has ethernet, dts and optical audio

Dropbox is a great service but it only backs up data in your Dropbox folder. Like me you probably have existing folders you’d like to backup without moving everything under your dropbox folder. Solution, symbolic links. SymbolicLinker is a cool plugin for creating symbolic links using Finder from the right click menu. Place the links in your Dropbox folder to backup the corresponding files and folders.

• New Dropbox build 0.6.425
• Dropbox update, build 0.6.402 adds Win2k support

Hackintosh PC users everywhere will be watching this case. Hopefully Apple learns to think different on this one. Apple is missing a huge opportunity by not opening up the Mac OS to run on other platforms. Apple’s losing billions in revenue by not selling OSX separate from their cool Asus manufactured hardware.

Psystar, based in Doral, Fla., is challenging Apple’s requirement that only Apple-branded devices use its software, which Pystar contends illegally ties the sale of one product to another. That’s not the case with operating systems software from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or the open source Linux, which can be installed on devices from any number of manufacturers, Psystar said.

Psystar made its claims at a press conference Tuesday, during which it said it will soon file a legal complaint against Apple alleging the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker is engaged in unfair competition and an attempt to monopolize and other violations of U.S. antitrust acts.

Psystar’s pending complaint is its formal response to a lawsuit Apple filed against it on July 3 claiming Psystar’s Open Computer desktop computers and servers violate Apple copyrights and trademarks. Pystar denied those allegations Tuesday.

“Our goal is to provide an alternative,” Psystar co-founder Rudolfo Pedraza said Tuesday.

via CNN

• Does the iPhone suck?
• Apple is now 3rd largest PC vendor in the USA