First Legitimate Facetime Use

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My wife and I just used FaceTime on our iPhones for the first time, for a legitimate purpose. We recently moved into a new apartment and my parents who live 5 hours away have not been to visit yet. I fired up iChat tonight to call and talk to them from my 27" iMac to their 24" iMac using our webcams/microphones. On the call, they were asking how well our unpacking was proceeding, and I tried to tilt my iMac downward a bit so that they could see all of the boxes stacked up behind us still. Then I had an idea.

I snatched my iPhone 4 from my desk, called my wife's iPhone 4 and handed the phone to my wife. Telling her to stay put, I ran into the other room and grabbed her phone, answering the facetime call. My wife proceeded to hold the iPhone up to the webcam on my iMac, which my parents said they could see O.K., well enough to make out what was on the screen with reasonable detail. I then walked around the apartment with my wife's iPhone 4 giving them a mini-tour. iChat to iChat over the internet, analog from webcam to iPhone 4 screen to another iPhone 4 over wifi, from the other iPhone's rear-facing camera. And it worked.

They like the new apartment by the way.

Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s in first three days

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From Apple

CUPERTINO, California—June 28, 2010—Apple® today announced that it has sold over 1.7 million of its iPhone® 4 through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24.

Previously, Apple sold just over one million iPhone 3GS units in 2009 (in the same 3 day period) and the same amount in 2008 (again, in the same 3 day period).

What is Fast App Switching?

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Matt Neuburg over at TidBITS wrote a nice piece on the intricacies of Fast App Switching that does a wonderful job of explaining exactly what is expected by the user from iOS 4 on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 phones. I highly recommend anyone with an iPhone 3GS or new iPhone 4 to read this article as it will give you a much better understanding of how iOS 4 handles this.

An excerpt:

Those of you who have just used iTunes to install a shiny new iOS 4 on your iPhone or iPod touch, or who are about to obtain a shiny new iPhone 4, may find yourselves wondering about one of the touted features of this new system, fast app switching. What is fast app switching? What does it have to do with multitasking? Does it operate only through the new Home button double-press behavior? And why, for most apps, does nothing very remarkable or new seem to be happening?

Is Google far too much in love with engineering?

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Great article by Chris Matyszczyk at CNET:

Google does many interesting and clever things. But, at this stage of its development, its office does seem to be full of too many people with the emotional maturity of Dwight Schrute.

At a time when the company needs to create more products that become an essential part of real people's lives, it often seems incapable of communicating the worth and, dare one suggest, the magic of such products to those very people.

I think he hits some very good points with this piece. Also, read the article above and with that knowledge, read the piece by Jon Lech Johansen discussing Google's Mismanagement of the Android Market

Sometimes I get frustrated with Apple's iTunes App Store due to difficulties I have in finding new and interest apps. I've never owned an Android phone. I've never even seen the Android Market. After reading these articles I am even more grateful for the efforts Apple expends to curate their own app store.