This weekend, the blogosphere has been a-buzz with contrasting opinions on the implementation of “silent” on the iPhone. Read Hivelogic to get up to speed if necessary.

Short version: iPhone’s silent switch is actually not a “Silent Mode” in the Nokia or Blackberry sense of the word. It is a “Ringer Off” switch. That means that certain user-triggered activities, will still produce noise. Apple notes this in the iPhone User Manual:

Important: Clock alarms, audio apps such as Music, and many games still play sounds through the built-in speaker when iPhone is in silent mode.

Nevertheless, some bloggers are calling for the switch to be changed to a Mute-All switch. This would do away with one of my favourite iPhone design decisions. In fact, I have overslept at least one important business meeting because I’d left my Blackberry on silent the night before.

I need a phone that:

• Stops making noise (phone calls, emails, messages) when I go to bed,
• and then starts making a lot of noise when its time for me to wake up (alarm clock).

It’s pretty simple.

Sony Ericsson explains why customers shouldn’t expect them to ready with an ICS update any time soon:

Many operators also want to customise the software according to their requirements, which in turn are based on their market, network, differentiation and business model. We implement all of these customisations and create a variety of software packages and releases for each operator.

This is just insane. It’ll be months before anyone sees ICS updates on their phones.

Sony Ericsson goes to great lengths to explain that they also need to replace the default Android “graphics” with their own. Why bother?

My wife got received a Galaxy Ace on her contract upgrade but was given a Nexus S by a friend. These phones are both made by Samsung. The Nexus S is an “Google-experience phone” which runs a unadulterated build of Android.  The Ace, however, is loaded to the brim with Samsung’s silly “TouchWiz” UI and bloatware applications.

The result is a sub-standard Android experience on non-Google phones. It lowers the tone of the entire platform, and reduces its attractiveness to developers.

This is the fundamental difference in approach between Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.  Apple doesn’t care about carriers and what they want. Android handset makers survive at the mercy of the carriers.

Here’s what you’ll want to do:

• Read Alan Hogan’s comparison of Sparrow and Lion Mail if you’re still unsure about Mail.app.
• Follow the Jamie Talbot’s setup guide for Lion mail
• Setup a gmail-like priority inbox using Erik Hansen’s great smart mailbox tutorial.

“Hello, Windows 8? This is iPad. You win.”

That’s Paul Thurott tweeting from //Build/ (yes, the forward slashes are required) where a developer preview for Windows 8 was released this week. You can almost feel the simultaneous relief and collective glee of the Windows community as their mainstream OS becomes cool again.

Apparently the above was actually tweeted in jest:

Made a joke yesterday. Here’s what I really think. iPad, Win8 tablets, and Amazon tablet will all own some part of this market. Obviously.

Interesting choice: iPad, Win8, and Amazon tablets. Notice how only one of those devices actually exists in the market? The Amazon tablet remains a rumour and, while there is no official release date, it seems like Windows 8 is only slated for a September 2012 release. Yes, that’s a year from now. A year.

Microsoft struck gold with DOS, Office and Windows in the late eighties and dominated the consumer technology space in the nineties. By surveying what competitors were releasing and responding rapidly with a commodity solution, they were able to monopolise the industry.

But their game plan hasn’t changed ever since. They’ve applied the same basic strategy to every innovation that has popped up on their radar. Sometimes this has found disastrous results, while in general they’ve just been so late to the game that their imitation is outdated by the time it reaches market.

So let’s consider some innovations (in this case by Apple) and the number of days it took Microsoft to imitate them and bring a product to market:

• 1984 Macintosh (GUI) to Windows 3: 2995 days
• 2001 iPod to Zune: 1848 days
• 2007 iPhone to Windows Phone 7 Series System Series Seven: 1228 days
• 2008 MacBookAir to Windows on Ultrabooks: 1339 days
  (not strictly a Microsoft imitation here - more-so Intel trying to prop up Microsoft’s business in an attempt to ward off ARM)
• 2010 iPad to Windows 8 Tablets (assuming a Sept 2012 release): 882 days

Put simply: Microsoft has accelerated their rate of imitation to meet changing industry demands, and this has become the sole-focus of the corporation. When last did something industry-changing came out of Redmond?

Remember how, until recently, a certain tablet manufacturer literally had people queuing through the night for a chance to buy one? You can bet that’s going to happen again early next year when the third generation device is released.

So, bravo Microsoft on building (sorry, //building/) what seems to be an impressive new entry into the touch OS arena. However, being a year away from having anything comparable to today’s industry champion is just not reason to announce victory.

I’m on the road today, between a client site [that's us] in Westlake and the home office when I discover that Vodacom have decided I don’t need to talk to anyone. I call my wife 3 times in a row to hear her repeating “HELLO?” in more and more exasperated tones while I bellow fruitlessly into my headset, then rip the headset out of the phone just in case it is on the fritz, not the network. Nada. No joy.

So I think, no problem, I have Skype and Fring on this pocket rocket-phone, I’ll just call via Skype-Out.

Not so much.

The iPhone SDK restricts apps from using the GSM network to make VoIP calls. The user has to have a Wifi connection via which these VoIP calls can be switched.

Dave continues (with links added by me):

They charge us far more than they should for calls, duck and dive when they’re pressured to reduce prices, and then it appears they block us from making use of VoIP over 3G.

The tragedy is that this should not be a problem for South African iPhoners. It is AT&T/Apple policy that has shaped the App Store’s T&Cs to protect the cellular network’s traditional voice business interests. It is Apple’s monopolistic behaviour that has landed the Cupertino-based powerhouse in hot water of the past.

But there seems to be some light in this iTunnel, according to Engadget Mobile:

AT&T’s restrictive network policies might have been behind some of the more notable iPhone app rejections in the past, but at least one major class of applications just got the green light, as Ma Bell just opened up iPhone VoIP calls over 3G. We can only assume this is the result of the FCC’s renewed push for net neutrality and AT&T’s argument that it’s doesn’t need new regulations to remain open, but — what does this mean for you? Well, Skype on the road, for starters, but we’re guessing a flood of interesting new VoIP apps will hit just as soon as devs can get their apps updated and submitted.

In the meantime, here’s the timk.co.za hacky work-around:

1. Get yourself an old phone that has a Wifi chip in it (I use an old Nokia E65 with my iPod Touch when on the move)
2. Download and Install JoikuSpot Light – a free symbian app which turns your device into a Wifi Access Point to serve up the phone’s 3G connection.
3. Connect to the JoikuSpot from the iPhone’s Wifi Manager.
4. Make your Skype/Fring calls

Hope that helps! If it doesn’t, you might be better off with one of these.

Historically, I’ve kept my feeds in Apple’s Mail.app. However, I’ve recently found myself wanting to catch up on RSS when I’m in the car or at the gym. I needed a way to move from Mail to Google Reader.

The trouble is, Apple doesn’t have a way for you to export your RSS links our of Mail (as text or OPML). Thus, I turned to the Google, and found a fairly simple solution:

1. Export the RSS feeds as URL links in plain text (Mac OSX Leopard-only). This bash link places the export on your desktop.
   

   IFS=$'\n';for i in $(find ~/Library/Mail/RSS/ -name "Info.plist");

   do grep "http://" $i | sed "s/.*\(http[^<]*\).*/\1/" >> ~/Desktop/Mail\ Feeds.txt;done

2. Convert to from Plain Text to OPML. I used the excellent converter at http://unold.dk/code/opmlgen/ (Dead-link, update thanks to commenter Tom: http://reader.feedshow.com/goodies/opml/OPMLBuilder-create-opml-from-rss-list.php)
3. Import into GoogleReader!

Simple. I know have all my feeds in GoogleReader, and can access them whereever I am.

It’s an exciting day for Myst fans. The iPhone and iPod Touch version of the game was approved today and is available in the App Store.

Welcome back to Myst. Wherever you are

The original Myst sights and sounds have been meticulously re-assembled for a remarkable experience on the iPhone and iPod touch. Everything that you remember from the original Myst in a format where a simple touch or swipe moves you through the world.

That is, if you live in a first-world nation.

It is not currently available in the South African App Store, and thus I cannot bring you a real review at this time. I’ve emailed the Lead Developer and am hoping that he’ll be able to get it into my local App Store.

iLife, iWork, MacBookPro 17-inch, and iTunes is finally DRM-Free!

It was, by all accounts, one of the most anxiously anticipated Apple Keynotes in recent history. Just 24 hours prior, Steve Jobs had finally released a letter to the community detailing the reason for his dreadful weighloss over 2008, and subsequent absense from Macworld.

At 9am PST, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketting, Phil Schiller, took to the stage to deliver the 2009 Macworld keynote-of-death. A visibly nervous Schiller cracked: “Good morning everyone, I can tell you how excited I am to deliver the Macworld 2009 keynote. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you all showing up.” (Laughter) [GDGT]

Apple had come out in mid-December ’08 with a statement that Steve Jobs would, for the first time in over a decade, not be delivering the much-anticipated Macworld “Stevenote”. The announcement also indicated that this would be Apple’s last year at the IDG Macworld Conference & Expo. They would instead be focusing on their own Apple-controlled events and product launches from now on – a dire mistake, in my opinion. But more on that later.

For the first time, I got to enjoy live audio from the keynote thanks to Chris Pirillo’s live feed – complete with the odd Leo Laporte & co. commentary! I also had GizmodoLive, Technologizer, and MacRumorsLive open for the text and visuals. Sadly for MacRumors they were careless and left some passwords available for anyone to see – soon 4chan.org had control of their live stream and hilarity ensued.

Phil had three things (and one last final thing) to talk about, and executed them in a style Sir Steve would surely have approved. Here’s the summary:

iLife ’09

iPhoto:

• Face recognition, searching and tagging (Picassa-style, but much better).
• Export photos to Flickr and Facebook (Goodbye Third-party plugins, hope you enjoyed putting food on the table).
• Places: GPS geotagging and search of photos.
• Slideshows: Uses the Face detection technology to correctly contruct “Smart Slideshows”

iMovie:

• Automatic Image Stablisation of imported video (thank goodness!)
• Brand new Timeline editor for Video and Audio (together or separately).
• Drag and Drop video or audio anywhere on the timeline.
• Video Special Effects

Garage band:

• Teaches you how to play an instrument.
• Comes with video instruction from professional musicians.
• Nine basic lessons included.
• Additional downloads can be purchased from within Garageband for $4.99 each. Clever.

iWork ’09 and iWork.com

All I can say is, goodbye forever Office! I’ve used iWork ’08 exclusively as my office suite for the last six months and have always enjoyed it, barring a few niggles. This year’s update changes all of that.

I’ve installed it and have enjoyed a quick look around the Three apps this evening. I’ll be using it extensively tomorrow and will report on its performance.

Keynote:

• New transitions: “Magic Move” will animate (tween) movements of like objects upon transistion. It works insanely well when you play with it.
• Chart options: Great new charting tools.
• Keynote Remote app for the iPhone and iPod Touch to control Keynote wirelessly.

Pages:

• Full screen editing of documents. Think WriteRoom… kinda.
• Dynamic outlines (finally).
• Mail Merge with data from Numbers
• Integration with MathType and EndNote.
• 40 great new themes.

Numbers:

• 250 new functions (and a great new Function Browser)
• Table Categories

iWork.com

• Online collaboration suite (think Google Docs, Zoho Office)
• I’m in the beta and it seems really interesting. Will be testing tomorrow.
• Built on the SproutCore Javascript library (as is MobileMe’s web interface).

New 17-inch MacBookPro

Featuring the new Unibody case design and a huge 8-hour (non-replacable) battery, the new High-end MBP is the laptop to rule them all. Let’s see what’s in the 0.96inch deep box:

• Three USB ports
• Mini DisplayPort
• Firewire 800
• 320Gb HDD or 250Gb SSD
• nVidia 9400M and 9600M
• Max RAM: 8Gb 1066Mhz DDR3
• Digital audio in/out
• Expresscard slot
• Gigabit Ethernet (finally! Yay!)

There’s also a $50 anti-glare option available for those of us normal human beings who can’t stand the glossy look.

One More iTunes thing

Not so much a thing, but probably the biggest story of all. iTunes is going DRM-Free. As of today, 8 million of the catologue are being freed (and users can upgrade to iTunes Plus for free). The balance of the catologue will be completed in the coming months. In April, the price-plan will change to a three-tier model. Songs will sell DRM-Free for 69cent, 99cents and $1.29 depending on the label.

Conclusion

It was no Macworld keynote 2007. There was no new iPhone, no new iMacs, and perhaps worst of all – no new Mac Mini. It was, however, a solid and interesting keynote. Great hardware is only as good as the software it runs, and the ’09 editions of the Apple apps will take strong advantage of the new NVidia-based notebooks that we rolled out in September ’08.

I suspect that we’ll see a Desktop Mac refresh in April. This Special Apple Event would include lots of news about Snowleopard, a new iMac and (finally) a new MacMini.

[Watch the broadcast at: Apple Events]