iPhones and Productivity
by Craig Fortune · 08/08/2008 (6:49 am) · 6 comments
iPhones and Productivity
This week I finally got the new iPhone and so far I'm loving every minute of it. What with the iPhone announcement here on GG I thought I'd share with you some thoughts and general ramblings about the iPhone itself, what it means to indie developers and just how it has, in my opinion, the potential to become a sort of generation-defining device in terms of the concept of "convergent devices".
Apple Keynotes
To put it into some sort context my path to becoming an iPhone owner and (soon to be) developer I'd like to show this picture:
(compliments of Gizmodo)
Love him or hate him, this guy is a genius. I'm not mac owner, I've been a windows user since I very first got into computing as a kid, but every time I watch one of Apple's keynotes I get this urge to buy everything that Apple can sell to me. In fact, when I have the spare cash a MacBook Pro is going to be the next little member of my desk's ever growing family of gadgets and gizmos.
I nearly purchased an iPhone last year, but second guessed myself when I packed in full-time work and went full-time freelance for a while before starting my lecturing work for the winter/spring semester. I was always teetering on the edge of making the final decision to indulge my shackled Apple product-lustings and when the iPhone 3G announcement came earlier this year (well it wasn't exactly hidden before that, but then it wasn't really ever *supposed* to be was it?) during a keynote I knew I wanted it. I wanted it badly. Why?
Why iPhone is so good
The iPhone is such a remarkable piece of kit for a number of reasons. The main reasons are not, in my opinion, anything to do with 3G vs Edge, GPS or the stylus-free multi-touch screen. The main thing that makes the iPhone so attractive to many is as per most Apple products, presentation. The way the iPhone seamlessly brings together tasks such as music playing, web browsing, email checking, texting, phoning etc into one tight package that I bet even your likely largely computer illiterate/disinterested elder relatives could, after some tutoring, work their way around, if admittedly not at the pace your good selves would.
Convergent devices are all about bringing the ability to perform all your tasks together into one device, and for you to actually GAIN productivity from this and not be hampered by the device not matching or falling short of the ability to perform the intended function. That is a crucial point I feel has been largely missed before the event of the iPhone: the initial mindset to create a do-all device from the ground up rather than do a nasty little mobile OS (*cough* Windows Mobile *cough*) that feels too much like its trying to be a desktop in your hand. Please don't think that because I'm waxing lyrical about the iPhone that I'm green and not as-of-yet battle hardened by Smartphones/PDAs, when my iPhone arrived I finally got to retire my rather battered and bruised XDA (Obviously on Windows Mobile), which was even at one point serving as a SatNav for my Motorbike. It got a beating :)
Anyway, I digress. A do-all device has to predict what is to be expected of it, as much as developers for it have to align their thinking to focus around what it CAN do rather than what it CAN'T do. I've seen on forums (here and elsewhere) people saying "iPhone sucks, you can't do X", "how would you do X? omg lame" and so on. The truth is, as you well know, these people have totally the wrong mindset. Tackling iPhone development is all about grass roots design as far as I'm concerned. Don't think about pre-existing beliefs you have with how input systems etc should work, throw them out of the window and utilise what the iPhone gives to you. Don't try to fudge it into something its not, just for the sake of familiarity - that denies innovation the chance to come to fruition. Do away with menu systems, instead, have things work in context, present your content as, well, the content. Don't have your app/app interaction as the main thing and your actual content as a side liner.
Presentation is everything in today's age, presentation is just a parallel term to marketing. Everything in marketing is about how to get your product/information/content out there. We live in a highly market driven time, even more so with the credit crunch. Reassess and realign your development to match this. the iPhone app store allows you to get any type/size of app out there to pretty much any iPhone user should they happen to load up the app store. Plus, 70% royalties is a damn good deal! :)
Enough, I'll move on before too many of you get bored with my presentation of this content, hehe.
Productivity
Productivity as mentioned before, or rather increasing productivity, (whether it be via cloud computing, convergence-type devices and so on) is the in-thing at the moment. It seems everywhere you go there is some other way of improving your productivity and ultimately saving you time by providing content to you in different ways. Weirdly enough until somewhat recently I've never been into all that jazz. I've always found myself rather reluctant to sign up to rss feeds of news and blogs and be "fed" information rather than going out and getting the information I want, when I want. Don't ask me why I was in that mindset, because I honestly couldn't give you an answer. It was irrational, it was daft, it was probably a bad choice.
My move over to the "content-spoon-fed" masses happened by chance. I decided it was time for a backup and format of my desktop PC. Upon the obligatory post windows reinstall sessions of downloading all the new versions of apps you use regularly, but can never be bothered to say "yes" to allow them to update themselves, I happened upon Google Gadgets. I'd never used Google Gadgets before, nor had I really known much about them. It was bundled with a FireFox download, so I thought what the hey, it's bound to be something good, it's Google after all!
I was right. Google gadgets is a great little time saver. I have a nice straight forward music player, ebay watching gadget, to-do list, note taker, gmail checker and a weather checker all sat on my second monitor. If you don't use google gadgets already, give them a shot. I'm not a Vista user but I've been told Google Gadgets are just a hole load nicer than the Vista alternative.
Talking about productivity and different ways to work, I'm actually even writing this on Google Docs. Funny how once you start changing the way you work you end up TOTALLY changing it!
iAvoid
To finish off with (*hears sighs of relief*) I thought I'd show a little picture of a game I'm developing especially for iPhone. Currently I'm just calling it "iAvoid" for lack of anything better at the moment. It's developed in TGB and is solely script changes so I can port it over to Torque for iPhone easy-as-pie later down the line. Basically you control the green object around the screen bashing "attacking" objects away to keep them away from the centre area. Ultimately you'll tilt the iPhone around to control the player object, but now it follows the cursor with some lag to sort of simulate this. There's a few other cool little things that I'll cover in another .plan too - Oh, and excuse the graphics they are placeholder ;)
If you've read this far, thank you :)
-Craig
edit: typos etc, the norm
This week I finally got the new iPhone and so far I'm loving every minute of it. What with the iPhone announcement here on GG I thought I'd share with you some thoughts and general ramblings about the iPhone itself, what it means to indie developers and just how it has, in my opinion, the potential to become a sort of generation-defining device in terms of the concept of "convergent devices".
Apple Keynotes
To put it into some sort context my path to becoming an iPhone owner and (soon to be) developer I'd like to show this picture:
(compliments of Gizmodo)Love him or hate him, this guy is a genius. I'm not mac owner, I've been a windows user since I very first got into computing as a kid, but every time I watch one of Apple's keynotes I get this urge to buy everything that Apple can sell to me. In fact, when I have the spare cash a MacBook Pro is going to be the next little member of my desk's ever growing family of gadgets and gizmos.
I nearly purchased an iPhone last year, but second guessed myself when I packed in full-time work and went full-time freelance for a while before starting my lecturing work for the winter/spring semester. I was always teetering on the edge of making the final decision to indulge my shackled Apple product-lustings and when the iPhone 3G announcement came earlier this year (well it wasn't exactly hidden before that, but then it wasn't really ever *supposed* to be was it?) during a keynote I knew I wanted it. I wanted it badly. Why?
Why iPhone is so good
The iPhone is such a remarkable piece of kit for a number of reasons. The main reasons are not, in my opinion, anything to do with 3G vs Edge, GPS or the stylus-free multi-touch screen. The main thing that makes the iPhone so attractive to many is as per most Apple products, presentation. The way the iPhone seamlessly brings together tasks such as music playing, web browsing, email checking, texting, phoning etc into one tight package that I bet even your likely largely computer illiterate/disinterested elder relatives could, after some tutoring, work their way around, if admittedly not at the pace your good selves would.
Convergent devices are all about bringing the ability to perform all your tasks together into one device, and for you to actually GAIN productivity from this and not be hampered by the device not matching or falling short of the ability to perform the intended function. That is a crucial point I feel has been largely missed before the event of the iPhone: the initial mindset to create a do-all device from the ground up rather than do a nasty little mobile OS (*cough* Windows Mobile *cough*) that feels too much like its trying to be a desktop in your hand. Please don't think that because I'm waxing lyrical about the iPhone that I'm green and not as-of-yet battle hardened by Smartphones/PDAs, when my iPhone arrived I finally got to retire my rather battered and bruised XDA (Obviously on Windows Mobile), which was even at one point serving as a SatNav for my Motorbike. It got a beating :)
Anyway, I digress. A do-all device has to predict what is to be expected of it, as much as developers for it have to align their thinking to focus around what it CAN do rather than what it CAN'T do. I've seen on forums (here and elsewhere) people saying "iPhone sucks, you can't do X", "how would you do X? omg lame" and so on. The truth is, as you well know, these people have totally the wrong mindset. Tackling iPhone development is all about grass roots design as far as I'm concerned. Don't think about pre-existing beliefs you have with how input systems etc should work, throw them out of the window and utilise what the iPhone gives to you. Don't try to fudge it into something its not, just for the sake of familiarity - that denies innovation the chance to come to fruition. Do away with menu systems, instead, have things work in context, present your content as, well, the content. Don't have your app/app interaction as the main thing and your actual content as a side liner.
Presentation is everything in today's age, presentation is just a parallel term to marketing. Everything in marketing is about how to get your product/information/content out there. We live in a highly market driven time, even more so with the credit crunch. Reassess and realign your development to match this. the iPhone app store allows you to get any type/size of app out there to pretty much any iPhone user should they happen to load up the app store. Plus, 70% royalties is a damn good deal! :)
Enough, I'll move on before too many of you get bored with my presentation of this content, hehe.
Productivity
Productivity as mentioned before, or rather increasing productivity, (whether it be via cloud computing, convergence-type devices and so on) is the in-thing at the moment. It seems everywhere you go there is some other way of improving your productivity and ultimately saving you time by providing content to you in different ways. Weirdly enough until somewhat recently I've never been into all that jazz. I've always found myself rather reluctant to sign up to rss feeds of news and blogs and be "fed" information rather than going out and getting the information I want, when I want. Don't ask me why I was in that mindset, because I honestly couldn't give you an answer. It was irrational, it was daft, it was probably a bad choice.
My move over to the "content-spoon-fed" masses happened by chance. I decided it was time for a backup and format of my desktop PC. Upon the obligatory post windows reinstall sessions of downloading all the new versions of apps you use regularly, but can never be bothered to say "yes" to allow them to update themselves, I happened upon Google Gadgets. I'd never used Google Gadgets before, nor had I really known much about them. It was bundled with a FireFox download, so I thought what the hey, it's bound to be something good, it's Google after all!
I was right. Google gadgets is a great little time saver. I have a nice straight forward music player, ebay watching gadget, to-do list, note taker, gmail checker and a weather checker all sat on my second monitor. If you don't use google gadgets already, give them a shot. I'm not a Vista user but I've been told Google Gadgets are just a hole load nicer than the Vista alternative.
Talking about productivity and different ways to work, I'm actually even writing this on Google Docs. Funny how once you start changing the way you work you end up TOTALLY changing it!
iAvoid
To finish off with (*hears sighs of relief*) I thought I'd show a little picture of a game I'm developing especially for iPhone. Currently I'm just calling it "iAvoid" for lack of anything better at the moment. It's developed in TGB and is solely script changes so I can port it over to Torque for iPhone easy-as-pie later down the line. Basically you control the green object around the screen bashing "attacking" objects away to keep them away from the centre area. Ultimately you'll tilt the iPhone around to control the player object, but now it follows the cursor with some lag to sort of simulate this. There's a few other cool little things that I'll cover in another .plan too - Oh, and excuse the graphics they are placeholder ;)
If you've read this far, thank you :)
-Craig
edit: typos etc, the norm
About the author
#2
Having said that I'd like to know exactly what this means (from the iPhone page here on GG)
No device is ever going to satisfy everyone. Theres a few things I have already noticed I would like to change. Having said that its more of a case of having to adjust my thinking to suit the iPhone, as mentioned in my .plan its somewhat to do with "mindset".
Its a shame you have decided against developing for the iPhone, I think you have a lot to offer with determinance and experience.
08/08/2008 (9:32 am)
Admittedly if you want to develop stuff for iPhone you'll ultimately want to have access to a Mac. I've been wanting a MacBook Pro for a while now (I keep getting involved in education based projects, so a Mac is really becoming somewhat of a necessity) so I can use this as a final reason to make the purchase.Having said that I'd like to know exactly what this means (from the iPhone page here on GG)
Quote:and you can develop your game on a PC and test your application on an iPhone emulation of your application using Apple's iPhone Developer SDK.
No device is ever going to satisfy everyone. Theres a few things I have already noticed I would like to change. Having said that its more of a case of having to adjust my thinking to suit the iPhone, as mentioned in my .plan its somewhat to do with "mindset".
Its a shame you have decided against developing for the iPhone, I think you have a lot to offer with determinance and experience.
#3
The downsides are that Apple are being freaking assholes about it. The Apple apologists trot out the "it's AT&T" excuse, but that doesn't make the iPhone's bad points go away - it just indicates that they're here to stay.
My biggest gripes:
1) The NDA, now the subject of essentially its own meme because it's so obnoxious.
2) Bluetooth. My razr works great with my macbook. It syncs via bluetooth, it works as a modem. So do most other phones out there. The iPhone? Crippled. Can't even pair it just so you can use homezone or similar, let alone sync contacts using it.
3) Can't distribute apps yourself. Apple are ruling the app store with a subjective iron first, and demonstrably abusing the power [netshare, boxoffice]. The NDA [see point 1] means that you can't even distribute code to other people who have a license to run stuff on their phone, let alone distributing a compiled app to normal people that have windows PCs or don't code. I consider the hundred dollar fee obnoxious, but not prohibitive.
Again, the Apple apologists can come out and say how great the app store is, how smooth and usable and great it is. Great, and most people will use it as such. But some people want other options.
Gyah. It's true, the iPhone is great in many ways. The mouthbreathing masses love it. Developers looking to make a quick buck love it. But until Apple pull their heads out of their asses, I'll still just see it as "the device that could have been".
I think you're off-base in that people that hate it don't hate it because they don't understand it [everyone can now see that developing for small touch-based devices is something new that hasn't been done before]. People that hate it, hate it because Apple have crippled it from doing the things that it's obviously capable of doing - it's like a poke in the eye.
Gary (-;
08/08/2008 (1:00 pm)
The thing about the iPhone is that, as noted, it's a great chunk of hardware - Apple have shown people that their phones don't have to be the same junk everyone's put up with since mobile phones were invented. And don't get me wrong, I use a Macbook Pro as my main machine both at work and at home.The downsides are that Apple are being freaking assholes about it. The Apple apologists trot out the "it's AT&T" excuse, but that doesn't make the iPhone's bad points go away - it just indicates that they're here to stay.
My biggest gripes:
1) The NDA, now the subject of essentially its own meme because it's so obnoxious.
2) Bluetooth. My razr works great with my macbook. It syncs via bluetooth, it works as a modem. So do most other phones out there. The iPhone? Crippled. Can't even pair it just so you can use homezone or similar, let alone sync contacts using it.
3) Can't distribute apps yourself. Apple are ruling the app store with a subjective iron first, and demonstrably abusing the power [netshare, boxoffice]. The NDA [see point 1] means that you can't even distribute code to other people who have a license to run stuff on their phone, let alone distributing a compiled app to normal people that have windows PCs or don't code. I consider the hundred dollar fee obnoxious, but not prohibitive.
Again, the Apple apologists can come out and say how great the app store is, how smooth and usable and great it is. Great, and most people will use it as such. But some people want other options.
Gyah. It's true, the iPhone is great in many ways. The mouthbreathing masses love it. Developers looking to make a quick buck love it. But until Apple pull their heads out of their asses, I'll still just see it as "the device that could have been".
I think you're off-base in that people that hate it don't hate it because they don't understand it [everyone can now see that developing for small touch-based devices is something new that hasn't been done before]. People that hate it, hate it because Apple have crippled it from doing the things that it's obviously capable of doing - it's like a poke in the eye.
Gary (-;
#4
Have a look here though
As for Bluetooth, not tested it yet as I've had no need to. Will likely test it with a hands-free kit sometime soon tough. Ultimately its hardly a unique circumstance for devices to not work in harmony via Bluetooth.
Having the understanding about something is not the same as having the correct mindset. I'm not saying people don't understand it.
Distributing apps yourself? I think the app store will actually help pave the way to more quality apps and not just any old rubbish. Its not common, and that alarms people because they like their cushy, democratic, everyone-gets-a-shot development. Think of it like a console, you have to to pass Apple's standards be be allowed to distribute.
edit: Oh and thanks for entering into the debate with decorum and knowledge. It's rare on the net ;)
08/08/2008 (4:02 pm)
NDA, admittedly odd, but won't concern me much with my game development as far as I can currently see.Have a look here though
As for Bluetooth, not tested it yet as I've had no need to. Will likely test it with a hands-free kit sometime soon tough. Ultimately its hardly a unique circumstance for devices to not work in harmony via Bluetooth.
Quote:I think you're off-base in that people that hate it don't hate it because they don't understand it
Having the understanding about something is not the same as having the correct mindset. I'm not saying people don't understand it.
Distributing apps yourself? I think the app store will actually help pave the way to more quality apps and not just any old rubbish. Its not common, and that alarms people because they like their cushy, democratic, everyone-gets-a-shot development. Think of it like a console, you have to to pass Apple's standards be be allowed to distribute.
edit: Oh and thanks for entering into the debate with decorum and knowledge. It's rare on the net ;)
#5
Well, the problem with the NDA is that you can't communicate with other people on how to get stuff done, if you run into problems. The torque community is a great example; even some of the best programmers that lurk on irc and the forums here occasionally have to ask a question - you simply don't get that option with the iPhone.
My understanding [and I may well be wrong] is that you also don't get to use LGPL libraries in your game. There's a *lot* of LGPL code out there, and a lot of it gets used in a lot of games.
The bluetooth headset thing works fine [everyone I know with an iPhone has a bluetooth headset for it :-)], it's just everything else.
I've heard of many teething problems with bluetooth [on windows and linux] in general, that's true. The irony here is that my *Apple* macbook pro has always magically worked with every bluetooth device I ask it to, never had a problem with it. It's only the Apple bluetooth device that is the problem! The iPhone literally refuses to pair with anything that isn't a bluetooth headset
Mh. Kinda. I do agree that the App Store as a place to download quality apps that probably won't bust your iPhone is a great idea. And for 99% of people, that's the only clearinghouse they'll ever need, and that's a Good Thing.
The first problem is that Apple really will pull your app without a second look. Last I heard, the boxoffice guy still doesn't know why his app was pulled. It's obvious why the netshare app was pulled, but I'm from the camp that feels that if AT&T don't want to provide unlimited data through their plan, then perhaps they shouldn't advertise it and sell it as unlimited.
There are many, valid, reasons to want something like netshare [even non developers], but Apple simply won't allow you to do it. Right now, if I wanted to use my laptop on the road outside of wifi range, I couldn't use an iPhone to do it - I'd need to carry two mobile phones around with me, and pay for two data subscriptions. That sucks.
The second [and bigger issue to me] is Apple explicitly closing off other avenues of distribution, including sharing source code. Considering the iPhone to be like a console [well, "appliance"] would be fine except that that's not how Apple are hocking it. If it was just a stupid closed device with devkits costing tens of thousands of dollars, then no-one would care. But you can download the devkit for free [as in beer], and for only a hundred bucks you get the privilege of running an app on the actual device.
It's *not* being sold to developers as an appliance, but then developers are limited to an appliance-like distribution model. How people feel about this varies between the obvious "meh" [to normal people] and "hostile bait&switch" [to hippies like me].
Something of a rarity for me, specifically, too :-D
Gary (-;
08/08/2008 (4:37 pm)
Quote:NDA, admittedly odd, but won't concern me much with my game development as far as I can currently see.
Well, the problem with the NDA is that you can't communicate with other people on how to get stuff done, if you run into problems. The torque community is a great example; even some of the best programmers that lurk on irc and the forums here occasionally have to ask a question - you simply don't get that option with the iPhone.
My understanding [and I may well be wrong] is that you also don't get to use LGPL libraries in your game. There's a *lot* of LGPL code out there, and a lot of it gets used in a lot of games.
Quote:As for Bluetooth, not tested it yet as I've had no need to. Will likely test it with a hands-free kit sometime soon tough. Ultimately its hardly a unique circumstance for devices to not work in harmony via Bluetooth.
The bluetooth headset thing works fine [everyone I know with an iPhone has a bluetooth headset for it :-)], it's just everything else.
I've heard of many teething problems with bluetooth [on windows and linux] in general, that's true. The irony here is that my *Apple* macbook pro has always magically worked with every bluetooth device I ask it to, never had a problem with it. It's only the Apple bluetooth device that is the problem! The iPhone literally refuses to pair with anything that isn't a bluetooth headset
Quote:Distributing apps yourself? I think the app store will actually help pave the way to more quality apps and not just any old rubbish. Its not common, and that alarms people because they like their cushy, democratic, everyone-gets-a-shot development. Think of it like a console, you have to to pass Apple's standards be be allowed to distribute.
Mh. Kinda. I do agree that the App Store as a place to download quality apps that probably won't bust your iPhone is a great idea. And for 99% of people, that's the only clearinghouse they'll ever need, and that's a Good Thing.
The first problem is that Apple really will pull your app without a second look. Last I heard, the boxoffice guy still doesn't know why his app was pulled. It's obvious why the netshare app was pulled, but I'm from the camp that feels that if AT&T don't want to provide unlimited data through their plan, then perhaps they shouldn't advertise it and sell it as unlimited.
There are many, valid, reasons to want something like netshare [even non developers], but Apple simply won't allow you to do it. Right now, if I wanted to use my laptop on the road outside of wifi range, I couldn't use an iPhone to do it - I'd need to carry two mobile phones around with me, and pay for two data subscriptions. That sucks.
The second [and bigger issue to me] is Apple explicitly closing off other avenues of distribution, including sharing source code. Considering the iPhone to be like a console [well, "appliance"] would be fine except that that's not how Apple are hocking it. If it was just a stupid closed device with devkits costing tens of thousands of dollars, then no-one would care. But you can download the devkit for free [as in beer], and for only a hundred bucks you get the privilege of running an app on the actual device.
It's *not* being sold to developers as an appliance, but then developers are limited to an appliance-like distribution model. How people feel about this varies between the obvious "meh" [to normal people] and "hostile bait&switch" [to hippies like me].
Quote:edit: Oh and thanks for entering into the debate with decorum and knowledge. It's rare on the net ;)
Something of a rarity for me, specifically, too :-D
Gary (-;
#6
Secondly, pretty much all my development is going to be within Torque. So all my potential discussions will be based around Torque tech and not the iPhone SDK (which is what is NDA'd up). I'm hoping to never have to play directly with the iPhone SDK much at all.
Thirdly, I'm firmly within your: "meh" [to normal people] category :) I don't consider myself to have a right to tell Apple how it should do things. Nor do I consider that they have an obligation to bend to the whim of developers. Thats not to say in an ideal world this would still be the case, far from it!
A closed model has its pros and cons, an open model has its pros and cons. I suppose this comes back to my "mindset" comments and how you perceive a model-type as positive or negative.
08/08/2008 (4:56 pm)
Firstly, I'm from the UK so all AT&T stuff is like a giraffe's fart to me. However over here with O2 its unlimited data within a "fair usage" policy or some such. Thats common place with ISPs here too and as such I consider it the norm.Secondly, pretty much all my development is going to be within Torque. So all my potential discussions will be based around Torque tech and not the iPhone SDK (which is what is NDA'd up). I'm hoping to never have to play directly with the iPhone SDK much at all.
Thirdly, I'm firmly within your: "meh" [to normal people] category :) I don't consider myself to have a right to tell Apple how it should do things. Nor do I consider that they have an obligation to bend to the whim of developers. Thats not to say in an ideal world this would still be the case, far from it!
A closed model has its pros and cons, an open model has its pros and cons. I suppose this comes back to my "mindset" comments and how you perceive a model-type as positive or negative.
Associate Logan Foster
perPixel Studios
I certainly hope that you have lots of good fortune developing apps for it Craig. I wanted to do this, but unfortunately developing apps for the iPhone requires you to have a Mac with the latest OSX. Obviously I have no desire to buy an overpriced, and underperforming Mac to do just this, so I went from having some very high hopes and expectations (even willing to learn how to program again) to being bitter and annoyed (as you can tell).
I have other beefs, and things I like about the phone, and dont get me wrong I have enjoyed it. But I think I would have certainly enjoyed it a lot more to this point if Apple would stop being the retarded f'in company that they are and stop f'in around with consumers.
Edit: For those of you wondering what my beefs are, you can read this post and this post on my personal blog.