mac diddy

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Apple said they were “surprised” to find that the formula they used to calculate reception bars was faulty and “in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength”? While I remain skeptical that this was truly a surprise to Apple, it appears that they’ve adjusted their formula with the new iOS 4.0.1 update.

I haven’t lost any bars yet, but apparently I live on top of a cell tower. What I did notice is that Apple’s signal bars have become taller. So while you may soon get hit with the reality that your three bars are really one bar, you can at least take comfort in the fact that it’s represented by a taller bar.

In semi-related news, Apple will be holding a press conference tomorrow, most likely about the iPhone 4’s antenna woes. Could this be related to a report from TheStreet that the problem is related to an internal insulator and an internal “bumper” fix may be coming? It’s an enticing thought for those of us who love our iPhone 4s, but fear the consequences of touching them inappropriately.

As AT&T approaches the home stretch of their third year of iPhone exclusivity, the inevitable question arises: will the next iPhone be available on other networks? I’d wager it will. Sort of.

There are a lot of reasons to believe that AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple is coming to an end, but really they boil down to one: it would seem that this exclusivity no longer sufficiently benefits both parties to keep it going. While I have no numbers to back this up, it is easy to imagine that AT&T must be seeing diminishing returns on subscribers who are switching solely for this very expensive iPhone exclusive. And given recent research on the relatively massive data consumption by iPhone users compared to users of other smartphones, it is doubtful that AT&T’s already stressed network could handle significantly more iPhone subscribers, particularly as slower old iPhones are weeded out and faster (more data hungry) ones take their place.

But perhaps the more compelling argument for the end of Apple phone exclusivity is Apple’s own interest in going multi-network. When Apple first released the iPhone, there was nothing comparable and so the game was changed with the iPhone, continuing with the 3G and 3Gs. And not only did the landscape change completely, but in time so have Apple’s competitors. Where there was previously no product to offer serious competition to the iPhone, we’ve recently seen a number of solid offerings from Google, Palm, and even Windows, particularly in the last year.

Apple doesn’t want you picking up a Google phone on Verizon or any network. They don’t want you to realize that even Microsoft is bringing cool new innovations to the smart phone market. But you will realize this if you’re one of the over 90 million subscribers on Verizon’s network who wants a sexy smartphone but can’t get the iPhone due to an exclusivity deal with AT&T. Apple doesn’t want this. They want consumers consuming in their App Store, not someone else’s. They want developers to favor their App Store and they want to continue to dominate the market they re-shaped and re-created. The fact of the matter is that if Verizon subscribers can’t get iPhones, then they’ll simply get other phones. And while many of them might have preferred iPhones, most of them will be relatively happy with something from Google.

My guess is that we’ll see a sexy new iPhone announced for AT&T only in June and then, once the buying frenzy has subsided somewhat, an Apple phone will be at least announced for Verizon by the end of the year.

“An Apple phone?” you ask. “Don’t you mean the iPhone?” Maybe, but not necessarily. Perhaps the iPhone as we know it will come to other networks, or perhaps the offering will be a cousin, like an iPod Shuffle or and iPod Nano are cousins to the iPod Touch and the iPod Classic.

Update: The game subcategories have reappeared, now underneath the right column. Still no subcategories under some of the other genres, but perhaps this is a sign that those are coming.

Along with the shiny (and slightly buggy) new version of iTunes release on Wednesday, Apple updated their iTunes store. With the tens of thousands of apps available, App Store users have been pining for better tools with which to navigate, sort, and explore the myriad of offerings. So naturally expectations were high for the new iTunes 9 combined with the new iTunes store.

Sadly, not only have expectations not been met thus far, but many users have found the new interface to be a significant step backwards when it comes to browsing apps. This author would argue that the only thing the new format improves is Apple’s ability to spotlight apps of their choosing, while presenting major obstacles for users to navigate on their own.

In the old App store, you might click on Games, the fastest growing category in the App Store. You would then be brought to a page which spotlighted a bunch of apps and more importantly, gave you a bunch of subcategories to help you browse. You could limit your browsing to categories you enjoyed, like Strategy, Puzzle, Action, Word, RPG, etc. Now instead you just get 661 pages of apps with very few sorting options. Also gone is the useful ability to sort by customer rating.

You might notice a Browse option hidden in small text at the bottom of the App Store home page. This takes you to a text-based list with hardly any sorting options. Want to browse the medical apps? Well no subcategories there. Just 1,361 apps on one page without even icons to catch your eye. Just the names of apps, prices, and developers to go by. And while you can add sort options like Ratings in the View Options, they don’t seem to work. Click on Games and you do get subcategories here, but with 4,708 Puzzle games alone, you’ve got little to work with other than the massive list of app titles.

While a few bugs (like the occasional unexpected quit in iTunes 9) are par for the course, these larger issue make the launch of the new iTunes feel premature. As the App Store grows quickly and shows few signs of slowing down, good apps are getting lost in the massive shuffle and Apple should know that we need better tools to sort through all of the noise. I’ve made my noise about it and you could let Apple know that you want the same through their feedback options, listed below.

iTunes Feedback

Apple Feedback Page

Of course, it’s not all gloom and doom. As I mentioned previously, the added ability to organize your current apps through iTunes is a welcome addition and the iTunes LP functionality shows lots of promise. With some bug fixes, I’m certain the Apple will get the new iTunes at least up to par with the old iTunes where app browsing is concerned. But as the App Store multiplies, will par still be good enough?

Amongst other improvements, the iPhone 3.1 software update released today allows you to organize and re-order the apps on your iPhone through a new interface in iTunes. Users will likely find this to be a handy alternative to the clunky click-and-drag system on the iPhone itself. The new iTunes interface presents a clean and responsive means to shift apps around your iPhone.

Just prepare to allow for plenty of time for the update to complete. By the time iTunes automatically downloaded and installed 3.1, backed up the updated phone, and then re-synched, I had counted close to 40 minutes total for my 16GB iPhone 3G.

AT&T has announced that the long-awaited MMS feature would be coming to U.S. customers this September 25th. It is well known that iPhone users have already put incredible strain on AT&T’s data network, so their official line is not surprising:

The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One.

The availability of built-in MMS on the iPhone should at last put an end to the current cumbersome method of receiving an image through the Messages app, where users must leave the app to visit a website and enter a unique username and password for each multimedia message they receive. This was particularly tedious before the recent addition of copy and paste functionality in iPhone 3.0 software.

The “free memory” apps are either changing or disappearing from the App Store quickly. I first noticed this a few days ago when I updated iStat and the handy feature was gone from the new version.

For those who don’t already know, memory-freeing apps free up runtime memory on your iPhone, making it more readily available to other apps. Sometimes the results are dramatic on a phone which is running low on memory resources, upping the free memory from 2MBs to 40MBs in seconds.

According to iStat developer Bjango, their “Free Memory function was removed at Apple’s request.” Recession Apps confirmed that Apple is demanding app developers remove this feature. Rather than remove the feature from their app, aptly named Free Memory, they removed it from the App Store entirely.

Apple’s reasoning behind these demands remains a mystery, which is not entirely surprising given the oft secretive nature of their App Store related decisions. It is especially strange after a long enough history of Apple approving free memory apps and the move is sure to hurt some developers who built their apps around this feature. Personally, I will be reverting iStat – one of my favorite apps – to the previous version in order to retain the feature.