Ruralocity Blog

The WordPress mobile blogging app is now available for the iPhone. Download your free copy from the iTunes App Store. So far, so good.

I’m following Gizmodo’s live coverage of today’s WWDC keynote, and saw Schiller referred to the new Mobileme push e-mail/calendar/etc. app as “enterprise for the rest of us.”

It sure would be interesting to see Apple take on the enterprise with this as a service IT departments could install on their own networks, huh?

Apple officially announced the software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone today. In short: It looks like it will be really easy to download and install third-party applications for your iPhone. You’ll be able to install and uninstall programs directly from the phone or through iTunes. In addition, if you rely on enterprise e-mail (such as Microsoft Exchange) you’ll be able to access mail directly via Exchange protocols (I can access my KU mail from my phone via IMAP, for what it’s worth).

Tons of blogs have covered the news in detail, so I won’t rehash what they’ve said–read for yourself:

• iPhone gets official third-party apps, AIM, and enterprise support (Lifehacker)
• iPhone SDK – what you need to know (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
• Streaming video of Steve Jobs’ presentation on the iPhone SDK (Apple, via TUAW)
• iPhone enterprise and SDK: First impressions and questions (Daring Fireball)
• Happy now, bitches? (Fake Steve Jobs–don’t read if you don’t like the swearing.)

One downside to how software will be distributed–that is, exclusively through Apple–is that the availability of freeware from small developers will probably be slim and none. Apple is charging developers $99 per year to distribute software through the exclusive channel. So, unless software developers adopt freeconomics en masse, we may be limited to freebies from the big guys only. That’s not the worst thing in the world–giving the small developers a few bucks every now and then is what keeps things moving forward.

Either way, I’ve been waiting for this since the day I bought my iPhone–I’ve been a chicken about jailbreaking my phone because (a) it’s my only phone, and (b) I’m not well-off enough yet to go around throwing money at expensive cell phones willy-nilly.

Last week I worked on a small school project in which we explored the merit of iPhones in education. Abiliene Christian University, it turns out, is on the forefront of this cause, with an excellent blog called iThinkEd posting the progress of their study into the matter.

Today, ACU announced they will begin handing them out for free to incoming freshmen, beginning this fall. Students will be able to “receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances” via web-based applications developed by the school.

This is very intriguing! Makes me kind of wish I’d contacted them last week about their work; they’re going to be hammered with requests now. Good luck, ACU!

(Via Engadget)

OK, I’m not positive this is a permanent return from my self-imposed hiatus, but here you go. Much has been going on.

One: I finished my requirements for my independent study about social networking’s place in education. Verdict: I should have done a better needs analysis. Also, Ning kind of sucks as a social network for folks new to social networks (struggling to keep from saying the word newbie here, especially since my target audience really shouldn’t be newbie in any sort of general technology upheaval in my opinion). If I were to do this all over again, I’d stick with Facebook or host my own network. But maybe I should’ve just pointed out the benefits of the much more popular Classroom 2.0 network.

Two: I don’t think I’m going to use said social networking project in any way for my final project two semesters from now. I’m over the social networking thing, or at least how I implemented it; and some cool things are potentially coming down the pike (or is it pipe?) at work. I’ll get into those in the next couple of months if they pan out.

Three: I ordered me one of these today. Will it replace my normal day-to-day laptop? Probably not. But it’s actually been getting some good buzz, and I’m all for tiny and cheap when it comes to electronics. I got the mid-level one because I hear ASUS is being cool about not voiding warranties when you try to break open cases for memory upgrades and junk.

Four: You can easily create custom ringtones for your iPhone now, if you’re on a Mac. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will say that all my iPhone problems (of which there are only like two) started when I tried a hack way to put something besides one of the officially provided tones on my phone.

My favorite feature of the iPhone rotates daily. Right now it’s the built-in camera. I know, it’s not that innovative–but I have to say, it’s nice being able to take respectable photos on the spot without lugging around an SLR (or even a standalone point-and-shoot). And it’s leaps and bounds higher in quality than what was included in my old phone.

For example, today I was out walking downtown and stumbled across a Ferrari show. 20 or 30 cars from local owners were on display. While it would have been fun to practice my skills with my SLR, it wasn’t with me. My iPhone was, though. So now when I say, “hey, I think Tom Magnum was staying at the Eldridge!” I have a visual to go along with it:

Less exotically, the reason I was out and about in the first place was to look around at trucks. I plan to buy one in the fall, but on Sundays the dealerships are closed and you can wander around and look without sales pressure. The iPhone’s camera was handy for my notes on what to buy–I’ve got each truck and its data sheet stored away in iPhoto for when the time comes. This one, maybe?

Being able to e-mail photos directly from the phone is also nice, especially when sharing quick snapshots with Betsy while she’s in Paraguay. But I’m looking forward to the day when Flickr supports direct uploads.

Hey, guess what. I bought an iPhone last week.

I wasn’t really planning on it, but you know who it is–you’re in the market for a smart phone, existing smart phones (the ones Sprint offers, anyway) suck, your contract has been up for months, you’re at the Apple Store at the Galleria, one of the geniuses explains how it’s really not that hard to switch carriers–and next thing you know, you’ve bought an iPhone.

And you know what? I like it. Quite a bit. I know it’s got its shortcomings. Here are some of my favorite things so far:

• Maps: The Google Maps implementation on the iPhone is great. Unlike the Palm version, it’s easy to get directions and actually follow them. I like having a list view for easy reference on the road, and the zoom out/zoom in feature is a nice touch to keep Point A in perspective with Point B.
• Web 2.0 applications: People who complained about the lack of an API aren’t quite getting the big picture. This is the way application development in general is going. I’m excited that the door is now open for longtime web developers like me to be able to develop top-notch software for handhelds (not to mention desktops), and that others are getting in on this as well. (37signals’ iPhone implementation of Ta-da List is excellent).
• It works with my Macs! Sure, the Missing Sync is pretty dang good at providing the Mac support Palm seems to not care about. There were still hoops to jump through, though, and straightening out conflicts was a regular activity. No more–now I plug in my iPhone and it syncs. No fuss, no muss. Awesome.

And yeah, there are a few little things I find lacking–but by and large, that’s what software updates are for. The way I see it if Apple had made this thing do everything people wanted right out of the gate, there would be that many more potential bugs to squash, and that many less new features down the road for people to ooh and ahh over. So I’ll let others whine and enjoy my iPhone.

Tell me again why I shouldn’t ditch Sprint, shell out a ton of cash, and get myself an iPhone:

iPhone ads on Gizmodo

Everyone’s heard about the iPhone by now. I’ve already had to field a common question a few times–”Why would anyone pay $500 for a phone?”

I think Apple has done this potentially amazing product a disservice by labeling it a phone. When you think about it, the iPhone is really a tiny, feature-packed computer. One of those features happens to be mobile telephony. Maybe the pending patent infringement suit from Cisco over the name will be a blessing in disguise–and just as Apple gave meaning and ubiquity to a previously meaningless word (ahem, iPod), they could come up with the new word and the new standard to which all other mobile communication devices are compared.

Anyway, when the day comes that I pick one of these up for myself (it really is a question of when, not if), the phone function is probably the one I’ll use the least–though it is a necessity these days. In the end, I’m looking forward to dumping my Palm, phone, iPod, and point-and-shoot for one convenient device. The drawback is that I’d have to switch carriers. I’m not particularly in love with my current carrier, but I hear negative after negative about Cingular. The timing’s not great, either–I’ve got about two months left on my current contract and could go month-to-month until the iPhone’s release. But my current phone is on its last legs. Do I keep it together with paperclips and duct tape or settle on a Windows-based smart phone for a year or two?