In a moment of weakness (also known as a visit to the Apple Store) last week, I found myself parting with more money than I can easily justify for a shiny new iPhone. What followed was somewhat painful; canceling T-Mobile this soon after I had come back to them hurt, just not as much as the early termination bill soon to arrive in my mailbox.

I’ll get the obvious cheers and jeers out out of the way (I don’t expect that you, dear reader, will have missed them in any of the other thousand iPhone reviews, so feel free to skip the following lists)

Cheers

• The User Interface is amazing - I can’t imagine going back to my once loved PEBL (loved until last Tuesday)
• Apple did some amazing bargaining with AT&T over cost of the plans - I can’t imagine how much this would have cost on any other carrier right now
• I actually seem to like the keyboard

Jeers

• EDGE can be slow - I mean, a couple of minutes to download a text email slow
• The battery life is a bit low - I’m not one of those guys who plays chicken with my cell phone, but at the tail end of a normal day, I look at the battery indicator and wonder how this thing is going to die. It hasn’t yet, but it generally gets a bit too close for my comfort.
• Text selection - I find it interesting that the company famous for bringing GUI concepts like cut and paste to the masses seemed to forget to add that functionality to the iPhone
• Including the YouTube app was a mistake - now I lose so much time just killing my battery whenever I have free moments. I could take some personal responsibility, but blaming Jobs is so much easier
• Ear buds - why couldn’t Apple released at least their in-ear headphones with the push button microphone?

Now that we have the major items out of the way, I would like to discuss how this device changes things for me.

I no longer carry around a creased and bled index card full of notes to myself (the exact title of the book you are looking for is x, it is also found by other name of y). Instead, I put a note into Ta Da Lists and if I need more information, search Google (or Amazon or IMDB). This is handy.

I now understand the usefulness of Twitter and its ilk. I couldn’t understand dealing with it via SMS or just a computer, but with the iPhone it helps keep me sane (like when I spend two hours to see if certain contact lens work (they didn’t and then did) with my poor eyes).

I’m no longer dependent on restaurants (take out or otherwise) that I am familiar and/or have a menu for. Instead, I select my apartment bookmark in Google Maps (or wherever I am) and type in the type of food I am looking for. Minor annoyance, sometimes the most obvious (and closest) place doesn’t seem to make the grade (a direct search does work in those cases). The benefit of being able to call directly from Google Maps has been wonderful.

All in all, there are a number of features that don’t always make sense (why you can only edit contacts from specific screens, why a missed call and a voicemail look the same on the home screen, etc.), but ultimately, the iPhone shows a different perspective in how a cell phone should work. For me, it has ultimately been an extremely positive experience, and I truly can’t imagine going back to any other phone. Nothing even approaches the iPhone with regards to the pleasant experience (even if I cannot stand ear buds - I am not using them, by the way) you simply cannot avoid.

Thank you, Apple. Now, go and finish 10.5 and make me some in-ear headphones so that I may lay even more capital upon your retail alter.

Generally here I speak of web design and development, but I do have other roles that I have played.  Today, I want to speak as a Systems Administrator and talk about security.

Security on a network level is based on a number of different factors, most of which are addressable any sort of systems group.  These include patches, firewalls, open ports, password policies, etc.  Generally the weakest link in network security is the rules.

A sysadmin must walk a fine line between enabling users to work as unencumbered as they wish and to protect the users from themselves.  For this reason, best practices must be put into place.  Hopefully an organization will also codify officially these rules so that everyone knows the playing field.

A major rule that I have always had is one in which remote access is minimized.  In fact, I call this rule “No Remote Access.”  Remote access allows for a user to (surprise) remotely access network resources (shared files on a server, etc.).  This means that I, as sysadmin, lose control of the client machines.  I can no longer verify that they are virus free, that they haven’t been stolen with all the passwords and addresses saved or written down.  In short, the portions of the network that the user has access to are compromised in such a way that I have no idea what is legitimate or not.

By enabling remote access in an organization, you are in fact greatly increasing the chance of downtime due to virus or lost data.  Does that seem smart?

The Pondering Pundit asks:

In my opinion Microsoft’s announcement of Photo2Search, will send ripples through the mobile world. It will also be the tipping point for mobile marketing, mobile search and physical world connection adoption.
The camera on your mobile phone is your “mouse” and every physical object has, or will become, a physical world hyperlink, Phase 2 of the Internet begins.

Phase 2 of the Internet?  Are you serious?  Nevermind the lack of computer vision technology, or the lack
mobile storage and processing power to even attempt computer vision.  Let’s just deal with the term.

I hate the term Web 2.0.  I absolutely hate it but use it for reasons of common understanding.  I have always preferred the term “social software.” But that is all a non sequiter.  Web 2.0 is inherently false.  An organic system doesn’t have version numbers, and any complex enough computer network behaves like an organic system (as per Linked).  When I graduated from elementary school I didn’t become Bill 2.0, I remained simply Bill.  There is no point where the web became 2.0.

Having the audacity to call a doomed to failure technological implementation “Phase 2 of the Internet” is mind boggling.  First off, the web is around Phase 7 anyway.  Phase 2 was when someone figured out how to send email automatically through multiple computers.  What TPP is referring to isn’t truly a piece of the Internet any more than this site is a phase of the Internet.  So a machine translate a picture into a collection of objects, then referrences those objects online, providing the user with such information.  That’s called machine-assisted research with the queries being performed by computer vision.  It’s not as important or world shattering as TPP realizes, and when it is actually implemented (15 years later, at least), it will be considered a basic service.  It won’t be the “killer app” of computer vision.

I’m going to do you product designers a favour.  I’m going to spell out for you right now what I want in a mobile device.  But first, why you should care.

• I’m 25 and have graduated college.
• While I may not have a huge amount of disposable income, I do have a tendancy to make impulse purchases on what I view as cool toys.  This is evidenced by my unemployed purchase of a 15″ PowerBook G4 and 20″ Cinema display and four iPods.
• I am technically competent and have, on occasion, been ahead of the crowd.

That said, I think I am the general early adopter that companies want to woo.  So, for Origami or Nokia’s next mini tablet, this is what will make the difference in if I purchase and talk about your toy:

• Good Storage: If I’m going to spend iPod money on something bigger than an iPod, it better have a hard drive in it.  I don’t need much, 30 or 40 GB is fine, but no less than 20GB.  I may not need it, but I won’t buy if it isn’t there.
• Good Size: This is the hard one I think.  The screen can’t be smaller than 4 inches or bigger than 8 inches.  It also needs a good strong resolution.  This is post-HD people.  Please stop giving me mobile devices that I might watch video on or surf the web on with resolutions less than 800×600.  And that’s a minimum.
• Good Features:  It has to have WiFi, and bluetooth would be nice.  It should play video (and not just WMV or MOV).  It should be able to get my photos from my camera (so USB).
• Good Price:  It has to be at the cost of a toy.  $1000 is too much, hell so is really $500.  I would like half that, but I would settle for $400, if everything else is good.

Along with things this beast should have, there are a few things it should definitely not have.

• Phone Support:  God, if I see cell service bundled in with yet another product, I will flip out.  I mean it.  I don’t need the extra cost and concern with bundling all of that circuitry and cost into something that I will never use.  I mean it.  Really.
• Need For AntiVirus:  Microsoft, if you are making this dream machine, please for the love of all that is good either disable the features that are attacked or come up with some way to not need additional software.  The AV programs just take too much of a hit on a system, and I don’t want to pay for more system than I need just to make sure it is usable.  I don’t think I’m alone here.

There you go.  Now, make me something to be proud of.  Please.  And, if you base it off of my specs, please give me a free copy so that I can eat.  Thanks.

I love my PowerBook; I really do.  I’m one of the few who doesn’t want a MacBook (although, if Jobs offered me one… ah dreams).  I bought this thing not even a year ago and plan to have last as my main laptop well into 2008, hopefully even 2009.  That said, if Origami is anything like the hype right now (and the price is right), I will have a new toy.  It will be a complete breakthrough, probably not in technology itself (but then again, neither was my precious iPod), but in size, capabilities, and (yes) marketing.

I am not one of the Apple fans who have clamored for a tablet mac.  I don’t really feel the need for a laptop that folds, or (even worse) a laptop that is missing a keyboard.  I have a laptop, it’s pretty big, but it does everything I need it to do.  For me to add another computer at this point, I would need to see a new use.

Tablet computers as they exist now are too big, too weighted down by their features.  This is something different.  It looks to be a bit bigger than my iPod and can go online, allow me to jot notes (not that I would be giving up my moleskines anytime soon), and handle other work.  It would have to allow me to leave my laptop at home and still be able to function.  If Microsoft is the company that will deliver this to me, I am amazed.  Who knows, though.  Jobs has been really screwing around with touch interfaces recently (seriously Steve, if you need someone to play around with one of your toys to, you know, put it through it’s paces I have one thing to say to you: I’m here).  This could possibly be the next “killer app.”

Or it could simply be the next bomb.  There are three factors that have to be at least close to perfect: features, size, and price.  Guys, don’t fuck this up.