Informal Brain

UPDATE: Version 2.0 is now out. Read my review here.

Phantom Fish just released version 1.0.1 of their offline Google Reader iPhone application called Byline.

There is lots to like about this new version. Google Reader does a nice job of feeding you relevant news from your collection of feeds using its automatic ordering algorithms. This continuous river of news works great for the iPhone where you don’t have lots of time to drill into each feed. I hear tag based filtering is coming. Not a big feature for me because I trust googles ordering algorithm seems to keep the fresh, relevant items near the top of the list.

The first big change you see when you scroll to the bottom of the new items like you get a handy “Mark All Items As Read” link. This was probably my biggest complaint about the first release. You can also now, swipe any item to mark it as read. I nice quick action to push it off the list.

Once you tap an item you get an enhanced menu at the top. The first thing you see is a new “share” button. Let’s hope in a future release they will add the ability to tag a small note just like in Google Reader to the item.

All in all, if you are looking for a great RSS reader for the iPhone and you are a Google Reader fan, I can now recommend ByLine as a great purchase.

Well, 7 days later.

Call me unimpressed so far.

1. Battery life with the 2.0 firmware is horrible. 3g Phone can’t make it a single day even if I turn off 3g. My older iPhone would last all day with no problems. I am hearing from friends at work with original iPhone updated with 2.0 firmware and are having serious battery life issues. I have a theory that the battery life and the reception problems are linked. I suspect that the phone is powering up the radio excessively sometimes to boost signal and this is chewing up the battery. I notice sometimes that the phone gets hot in my pocket at random times. A reset fixes the problems. See these threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1610483&tstart=0 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1609372&tstart=0

2. Stability with the UI. Lots of lag. The unlock slider is frequently not smooth, the contact list lags and the search box is horrible. See these threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7636899 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1603058&tstart=0

3. 3G signal reception. 3G is unusable. Frequent 1 bar, dropped calls, dead calls. See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1602608&tstart=0

4. Location services problems. Frequently when i got to the maps application and attempt to use the GPS to locate me the UI spins, I get a cellular triangulation and then nothing. Pressing the locate button then does nothing until I restart the phone. See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1615206&tstart=0

Let’s hope Apple can get this fixed!?

Steve Jobs presented a list of features demanded by the enterprise for iPhone 2.0.

I was surprised to still see data encryption missing from the list. Especially with beta testers like the military and healthcare / pharmaceutical companies.

Remote wipe may solve some of these concerns, but I would still worry about my device and the stored data (like email) if it ended up in the wrong hands.

HTC has released two stunning new phones with some very interesting new features. Many of the features look like they were ripped straight from the iPhone but with an accelerated GPU it looks like HTC has built some custom applications for contacts, weather, etc which look very nice.

The competition is heating up in the market. I still think Apple had some innovation with iPhone 2.0 up its sleeve.

I took this screen shot from one of the youtube demos posted by Google demoing the Google Android OS.

A couple of take awys I thought were important:

• The OS allows both multi touch input and traditional navigation using keyboards and rollerballs (like the blackberry).
• The OS has many of the features the iPhone introduced to us and in some ways has managed to improve on the iPhone’s design in a few key places. For example, street view allows you to rotate the device using the accelerometer / compass. Very cool.
• The home screen is a better design in my mind. It is like Google took a page from Apple’s spaces and brought it to the mobile device.
• Notifications are better managed in my mind. A big problem on the iPhone is the notifications pop up above anything else that is happening. How often have you received an SMS message while talking on the phone. Try hanging up the call… oh oh. Additionally, the notifications are in a list which allows you to work through them. Maybe a bit email’ish but at least you won’t clear that important txt message and then forget about it.

The big questions:

• Will Google find a device partner that can deliver a piece of hardware which is ergonomic and matches the great functionality of the OS with the device. Apple really gets this right.
• When will we see this kind of device in stores?
• And finally, how many phone companies will shut down their own OS development to compete. We have seen motorola struggle. Could this save them?

This will most definitely be an interesting area to watch.