All posts in iPhone

Is The New iPhone About To Make Video Calling & Mobile TV Popular?

8 Comments Posted On January 26, 2010

Update: Confirmed – the new iPhone has a front facing camera!

Updated: Wrote this post last year before the iPhone 3GS launch, obviously that version didn’t have video calling or mobile tv as its core features but could that change this year? I was a thinking a bit too far ahead last year but now it seems other blogs are mentioning the same thing.

Rumours (and screenshots) are flying round featuring a front facing iPhone camera…9to5Mac has a post with all the theories. Remember the iPhone can’t save video calling on its own, operators will need to create unlimited bundles with standard tariffs otherwise it’s not going to be able to sustain the initial uplift. Maybe this is the kick start video calling needs to begin lowering prices?

Check out the new image and original post below:

The new iPhone is due to be announced soon and I have the feeling that it’s about to change the way people use (and perceive) Video Calling and mobile TV. The two services desperately need a jump start and have been poorly received by consumers for years.

As a consumer I know that Mobile TV is very appealing, I can’t tell you the amount of times I have been out and wanted to catch the football or a episode of Californication. Even at my desk, I can’t be bothered to keep turning my head to watch the plasma and would gladly have a phone in front of me with the TV on. The proposition isn’t hard for the consumer to understand, it’s TV that you love and know…on your phone. Simple.

However the price has always been far too high , I’ve found that most people don’t know that their operator offers TV and the ones that do think it’s too expensive to take up. Currently the price sits at around £3 per month on Vodafone to £8.99 per month on Orange…That’s 35% of my line rental!

Video Calling is just as expensive, on Orange it costs 50p per minute to call someone on another network. Video Calling is a service I would dip in and out of but why would I ever bother at those prices? I know many things have been listed on why video calling isn’t popular, everything from unflattering camera angles to human nature but lets face it, cost is usually king and if it was free people would use it more. Plus video calling is aching for a sprinkling of decent Apple-style user experience.

Amazingly Pointless But Impressive Orange Augmented Reality iPhone App

No Comments Posted On January 15, 2010

Ok so this is a pretty pointless augmented reality application, you look through your iPhone camera and see….an augmented iPhone. It’s a bit like looking at a augmented Internet browser on your desktop to surf the web.

Anyway, where as the idea might be useless, check out the functionality of the augmented iPhone. You can actually USE the iPhone, it’s the first time I’ve seen this much interactivity with a object, it’s incredibly detailed.

The app was developed by Ogmento to promote the launch of iPhone by Orange Telecom Israel

Did The iPhone Getting MMS Functionality In June Cause A Big Impact On MMS Usage In 2009?

2 Comments Posted On January 4, 2010

2009 is over and very soon the Mobile Data Association will be releasing its messaging figures for the year just gone. These are going to be much more interesting (to me anyway) than most years because of one thing – the iPhone.

In June last year, Apple released the 3.0 update which enabled long-awaited MMS functionality on the iPhone 3G. The newer iPhone 3GS shipped with MMS as standard. What affect will all these dormant iPhone have on

Lets take a look at the figures:

Video and Picture messages (MMS) usage stats for the last 3 years in the UK:

2008 total 553 million (+104 million from previous year)
2007 total 449 million (+113 million from previous year)
2006 total 336 million

These statistics can be broken down as follows in 2008:
Year on year growth (2008 vs 2007): 23% growth

As you can see the growth is pretty steady, which is great because it makes any spikes easier to spot. You would normally expect something in the region of +/- 10 million from 2008s figures for 2009.

I’ll check over the figures when they are released for any abnormalities, and do a bit of digging to see they can be attributed to the iPhone. The majority of the spike would need to be from O2 as they had exclusivity on the iPhone until late 2009.

A far cry from the MMS is dead talk hey?

Sekai Camera For The iPhone Finally Launches Worldwide

No Comments Posted On December 23, 2009

It’s been such a long wait I was beginning to wonder if it even existed. Sekai Camera has finally launched for the iPhone.

In the summer 2008, the mobile world was buzzing with the annoucement of the application at Techcrunch 50 (a tech innovation conference). It was one of the first iPhone applications to use Augmented Reality in a way that had never been seen before.

If you haven’t heard of Sekai Camera, it uses the iPhones camera as a viewfinder to overlay tags and information onto actual objects around you. This info is pulled in from servers based on your location and the direction you are facing. It’s a interface between the real and virtual world.

Tagging is bascially just like bookmarking, only in rich multi-media way. The tags can be images, audio, text and video, they can be made by you or your community.

Check out the video below to see the demo.

iPhone Mental Stencil & Notepad | A Must Have For Mobile Designers/Agencies

No Comments Posted On December 12, 2009

One of my new years resolutions is to use a paper and pencil more when designing, I often dive straight into Photoshop, which is great for the environment but is not always a good idea for a creative.

With the iPhone firmly rooted within mobile marketing strategies, more and more people are requesting iPhone apps and websites, so it makes sense to get more familiar with standard UI elements.

Check out this great iPhone metal stencil and notepad from uistencils.com. The stencil only costs $17.95 with the iPhone shaped notepad at $7.95.

Ad Agency Ogilvy Roll Out Another Christmas iPhone App

1 Comment Posted On December 4, 2009

It’s Christmas time and ad agencies are usually about to send out their lovely little holiday messages to their clients and staff. These always have some creative flair, showcasing what that agency does best and letting the client know that their business is in good hands. Read more…

iPhone Gets Its First NFC Peripheral

1 Comment Posted On November 27, 2009

I’ve been keeping an eye out for developments with NFC after the TV and Radio advertising concept I sketched out a while back.

I think it’s going to take someone like Apple to get NFC maintstream, there is much talk of them sticking NFC capabilities in the next iPhone after they filed a patent for such a feature. Read more…

Rival iPhone Manufacturers, This Is What You're Up Against

2 Comments Posted On November 3, 2009

Imagine having customers so passionate about your product that they are willing to whip out Final Cut Pro to skilfully produce 30-second videos and hit back at any other companies that diss their gadget.

Allow me to introduce you to…iPhone customers. This is the beast that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Android are fighting. Many of these companies will have to come to terms with the fact that their new handset release will never create hour long queues or make the front page of a newspaper because of the hype. Their customers won’t bother spending a couple of days creating a professional looking video to fight a rival companies slur or argue that loudly in the pub on their behalf.

Check out the original anti-iPhone advert for the Motorola Droid here:

and the Apple fanboy response here (it’s racked up 275,000 views in a week):

Nokia had a similar fate when they cussed the iPhone, although sadly this particular Apple fanatic only had access to Photoshop and not Final Cut Pro:

Who needs to spend money on marketing when your customers will do it for you?

It makes me laugh when Apple competitors pick on the iPhones bad points when most consumers couldn’t really give a toss about being able to run background applications or open sourced development. How much of the general public actually know what those things even mean? The danger of ending up with egg on your face is quite high once people discover that the handset you are trying to shift is either a) inferior to the existing iPhone b) outdone by the next iPhone.

The proof will come in a couple of months when Orange and Vodafone get the iPhone in stock, then we’ll see how many customers who have been sold ‘iPhone like’ phones start praising the lord and move over to Apple. Until recently Orange even had a section on their website called ‘iPhone Alternatives’, when have you ever, ever, ever, ever seen anything like that for any other network exclusive phones? Read more…

Toyota iPhone App Uploads Your Drawings To Times Square Billboard

3 Comments Posted On October 29, 2009

Remember that Nike billboard in Times Square where you could create your very own trainer in real time on the giant screen? Well it looks like Toyota are using that exact same space for their new Prius Experience iPhone application.

The application itself allows you to explore the Prius interior, play mini games, interact with Prius print ads using the camera as well as draw. This campaign centers around the drawing function where you can draw directly onto the environment of a moving Prius, it then reacts to the shapes and objects drawn.

For example the app may ask you to ‘draw a tree’, then once you’ve drawn it with your finger, your tree drops into the background behind the moving Prius.

Once you finish your lovely finger drawing, you’ll be presented with the option to submit it to the digital display in Times Square. All drawings are updated in real time, you can check out the webcam of Times Square here. I’ve been watching for about 5 minutes and haven’t seen any drawings of genitals so I’m guessing it’s moderated.

Palm Pre About To Outsell The iPhone In The UK According To Silly TNS Survey

No Comments Posted On October 13, 2009

Are you looking forward to getting your hands on the Pre? Oh you haven’t heard of it? It’s the new phone that Palm are releasing that all your friends are talking about..oh they aren’t? Right then.

Market research firm TNS recently interviewed 1000 UK adults aged 16 to 64 and a massive 26% responded that they would definitely or probably buy the Palm Pre when it’s launched this Friday. An even bigger percentage (32%) said they would switch networks to O2, who have exclusivity, to get the Pre.

Ok first things first, following the news of Vodafone and Orange/T-Mobile selling the iPhone, do TNS believe that these customers are going to switch to O2 when they can finally get their hands on the iPhone? After 2 years of being sold crappy iPhone alternatives, I don’t customers are going to go through the hassle of changing.

I can’t tell you how many friends of mine that asked the sales rep for ‘the closest thing to a iPhone’ on their last upgrade only to be let down by some clunky HTC or Samsung device. Read more…