Instead of blocking Google maybe they should put up some more cell towers so I will ALWAYS have 3G coverage everywhere. But no. It drops like a mofo.
- Robert Scoble
And they charge my family more than a car payment for our mobile phones (and a nice car at that!)
- Robert Scoble
Can you imagine if you downloaded Firefox or something on the Mac, and it said "This application is unavailable because it duplicates the functionality found in Safari on Mac OS X".
- Mark
such a short-sighted move by Apple/AT&T. Google will just go to a web-app and AT&T will still lose.
- Seth Gray
I guess it is time that we all throw away our iPhones and move to the Google phone.
- Wizetux
I had to send my iPhone back as I had no coverage where I live (UK O2) and had to stay with Orange instead. Maybe it wasnt such a bad thing after all?
- Julia Ault
How much is that nice car payment? Would you mind sharing average cost per iphone per month? Do you think most iphone users are paying much more than $100 per month?
- Charbax
At&t will never change as long as you all just keep complaining but continue to tollerate the service. If you really didn't like it, then you would cancel your contract when they come up, and move to a different service. But you all seem to want the latest greatest version of the phone, which puts you in a new contract before your old one is up. Just like At&t want you to do. *Edit* you are the consumer, you hold the final say on whether you will use or purchase the product a company is selling.
- Wizetux
for all MG Siegler's complaint's, if apple announce a new AT&T Iphone in a years time he will still buy one. We can't help ourselves.
- Mark
Mark: yeah, that is the problem. So far my iPhone has been worth putting up with AT&T. But I'm definitely looking into Android.
- Robert Scoble
This does not look like free society.
- ashish
from iPhone
Perhaps you should consider that Apple may be the evil one blocking your iphone apps? Surely Apple is making just as much money if not more money on each iphone sold on the AT&T exclusivity.
- Charbax
My guesstimation is that Apple is making $1000 per iphone sold on AT&T's network. Anyone have the real numbers? Consider that an iphone costs only $150 to manufacture in China.
- Charbax
@ashish: Free society? why doesn't it? You had the choice to buy the iPhone. You wouldn't buy a speed boat if the only river you had access was only three feet deep because the experience of the boat would not be the same. So because you continue to use a phone on a service that was not designed nor looks like is being developed to handle the phone, that is your ultimate choice.
- Wizetux
Recent comparisons have been very forthcoming in the outrageous additional $ you iPhone owners spend over the course of two years. It must really be an amazing device to put up with the difficulties. That, or just diehard ifanboys?
- jcunwired
How bout this, a class action lawsuit for bad quality on AT&T. You need to have a bunch of people document the bad quality of the AT&T service, then do a class action lawsuit that allows you to unlock your iphone for free to use it on any other network.
- Charbax
I finally activated my iphone today but I am on the O2 network and its just wonderful.
- Mark
A really good reason why I don't own an iphone: AT&T
- Karma Martell
@Charbax. It is not that easy. Not all of the US carriers use the GSM network. You can already unlock your phone, and move it to T-Mobile. But to use the phone on Sprint or Verizon, would require you to put in a whole new chip that works on the CDMA network.
- Wizetux
This is why as soon as I get an update offer/contract is up, I'm moving to an Android phone
- David Kettler
Shoot, I guess I'm lost... wrt AT&T and Google Voice, they're blocking the functionality? (Sorry, geek but a little slow somedays.)
- Kirsten Davis
Wizetux, a class action lawsuit would let you all be able to wave the early cancellation fee and other such costs while still being allowed to unlock your phone to use on T-Mobile if you want.
- Charbax
All along, telcos and phone manufacturers have failed to "get" the Net - from dialup days, to WAP, to the way cellphones had Web access kludged in as a crude afterthought until the iPhone. Google Voice doesn't even threaten anything except their SMS overcharging: you still use their airtime for all your calls, and still need to pay rental+data to access the service! But no, in the telco mindset change=threat=bad.
- James
Well they spent tens of billions putting up these cell phone towers and employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, so, naturally they want people making PAID phone calls :)
- Mark
@Mark - I think they spent all that money on "infrastructure improvements" to their game room at HQ. What other reason for so many iPhone complaints that misallocation of funds? ;)
- Bryan Zirkel
The only "right" move AT&T ever made was making a monopoly everywhere they could.
- xero
@Wizetux: Even unlocking it isn't enough: the iPhone doesn't support 3g on the 1.7GHz frequency T-Mobile uses in some areas ("UMTS1700"), so you'd only get 3g on a subset of their 3g network coverage. Then again, I find EDGE reception rare in the UK, and 3g rather patchy; I'm often reduced to GPRS anyway, whether on Vodafone or O2. I did find AT&T much, much better while I was in the US last summer.
- James
It's a flat rate anyway, so with or without Google Voice you pay exactly the same amount to AT&T. Except international calls, but there are so expensive that I doubt that many would do them with AT&T's plan. And then you can use Google Voice through their (crappy) web app right now, so I really don't understand what AT&T is loosing with Google Voice support on the iPhone.
- Oliver Bouchard
Questions - Since the carriers control all these features (Daring Fireball is reporting it's all AT&T blocking, not Apple) what makes everyone think Verizon (or AT&T) won't do the same to Android handsets? And, what makes ya'll think the Verizon network could handle all the data traffic associated with an iPhone, it's not been tested? And, I have both Verizon voice/data plans and it isn't much cheaper (if at all) than AT&T/iPhone so why the complaints about the price?
- PXLated
@wizetux I meant with AT&T and Apple partnering to ruin the Iphone experience.
- ashish
Just going to drive more and more to jailbreak or make the Android more enticing
- Christian Burns
from iPhone
Christian - Why Android more enticing if carriers control what can or can't run on their network?
- PXLated
AT&T was only mildly annoying during original iPhone and even iPhone 3G. But since the 3GS came out, I have bcome nothing but more and more angered towards them. Give me an iPhone on Verizon LTE.
- Andru Edwards
Andru - Why do you think Verizon would be better/different? (see my previous questions)
- PXLated
Google made a really smart move by having the Google Voice app available on jailbroken iPhones.
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
from iPhone
Robert: They probably are lost for words :)
- Amir
The dropped calls and feature restrictions have me looking elsewhere too. I moved to the iPhone on launch because I was frustrated with my smartphone at the time constantly crashing and I was willing to take the risk on a new platform. Now that I have the iPhone I can see so many things I want to do with it, but yet some of the best ones are blocked or have restrictions that have me...
more...
- Loren Heiny
PXLated - I don't really care about app blocking. I mean, it's annoying, but I understand it. Whatever. What I want is coverage all over, less dropped calls, and a company that doesn't have to "get prepared" for iPhone users to use freaking MMS messaging. Those are just signs of a poor network infrastructure.
- Andru Edwards
Andru - Verizon isn't any better though, I can take you many places you won't get even one bar on Verizon and many where there isn't even a signal. One of those spots is just a mere 10 miles outside a major metro area. And that's a phone signal. EVDO signals are even worse. So, not sure Verizon would be any better overall than AT&T.
- PXLated
Maybe the wrong move but it was very predictable.
- Kim Landwehr
AT&T PR got back to me and said to call Apple.
- Robert Scoble
Not surprised that the PR dept passed the buck.
- Karma Martell
Robert I really hope you get to the bottom of this. PLEASE keep pushing them because this is ridiculous that this app is not on the iPhone. I really think this is AT&T telling Apple no. Phil Schiller already approved GV Mobile! I sent "Steve" and email... here's a copy: http://post.ly/1efR
- Ken Wiesner
This is a prime example of the failure of Government regulation. Competitive capital is discouraged and afraid to move into this space because of things like the Telecom act of 1996 that privatized the risk and socialized the reward. Anytime government can move in to an industry and wipe out returns, Capital won't move in and provide the competition we need.
- Stephen Pickering
I HATE AT&T but I can deal with it long enough to have my iPhone. As soon as Apple goes to a second carrier, I'll be there too.
- Dane Deasy
The newer "other options" are beginning to tempt me away from the iphone...AT&T get a clue
- Gordon Montgomery
a) Was he trying to break his longest touchdown dive record? b) Was it something that worked during training sessions? c) Is he excessively stupid? d) All of the above
- Nenad Nikolic
#4 for those interested, great post Zee, the animated gif gave a feeling on that first FF beta day that was inexplicable, modern times type of feeling, that things were changing for the service in interaction gathering. 8}
- ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
"“Virtual machines are a strange beast,” says Bak. “There’s no perfect solution, instead you optimise for the ‘sweet spot’. There’s a lot of craftsmanship. It’s a long game, you can’t burn out. “There’s a constant workload,” he adds, “so I always stop for dinner. You can have a normal life.” For Bak this means family and privacy. The issue of work/life balance crops up again and again in conversation – and though he’s not anti-American, he clearly prefers the Danish way of life. “In the US, there is an aggressiveness, the extra level of belief in yourself that is needed. The European way is less aggressive. But in the US, you can get promoted and stay in touch with the technical side. In Europe, you turn into a paper manager. It’s hard to get your fingers dirty.” By working in Denmark for Google, Bak was aiming for the best of both worlds."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
Funny -- I just met Lars this last Monday.
- Joe Beda
Strange article, but it does paint a very inspiring image of Lars and Kasper working from the farmhouse. Lars is one of the most intimidating guys I've met at Google. It's not that he is unkind or overly forceful; he just knows his stuff to a point where you start to doubt yourself. :-)
- Kelly Norton
It's a loss that he no longer works on HotSpot :) I think the Dalvik team could really use his expertise that he applied on Sun's Project Monty.
- Ray Cromwell
Darn it! I was going to tell a joke about Josh's mom, but then I realized that she's my mom too!
- Morgan Haley
Those are some glory HOLES alright!
- sofarsoShawn
Actually Shawn, pic #3 of the Monticello Dam spillway...that actually IS known as the Glory Hole. There might even still be signs up along the dam that proclaim that. :D (I grew up and live near there)
- tinypants - Hagitha of FF
I could really get into this whole cooking thing! Steaks rubbed down with a mixture of Bacon Salt, ground garlic, and Herbs of Provence then grilled to the rarest side of medium served with asparagus tossed with olive oil, sea salt, and lemon before searing on the BBQ.
- Sparky Crocker
from Bookmarklet
I don't believe in evolution either. Also gravity. Also, the world is flat and the sun is really a chariot being pulled across the sky.
- You.
from BuddyFeed
Don't be ridiculous - it's an ox cart, not a chariot.
- Hayes Haugen
Conclusion So congrats, now you have a 100% functional OS X netbook. I've been using mine for a few days now, and it's quite the machine for basic netbook activities-surfing, IM, email. It connects to my shared AirPort disk and streams my video collection (even high-def files) perfectly, and also backs up wirelessly over Time Machine. The 9-inch screen will make even your lower-res full-screen video look fantastic—YouTube or Hulu, QuickTime trailers and video rips are a pleasure to watch. Watching an episode of something in bed without lugging my 15-incher in with me is really nice. In addition, I think I may have found the perfect toilet computer. No one wants to fight Windows on the throne. And of course it's amazing for traveling. I'm about to take a trip to Cairo, and I'll be bringing this little guy without a doubt.
- Alfredo
I'm going to do this when I get my netbook :)
- Alfredo
Compared to the price of a MacBook Air (which, frankly, has a similar feature set), this is a much better idea. Though Apple can technically kill it with updates, this looks like a killer idea.
- Mike Nayyar
yes apple will not like this but it is kinda a wake up call for them with their price too high and all
- Alfredo
"A new game by Professor Erno Rubik, inventor of the iconic Cube, is tipped to become a best-seller when it goes on sale later this year."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
This is a cool concert. Thanks Werner! (For those who don't know who Werner is, he's the CTO of Amazon).
- Robert Scoble
As Werner mentions, the audio quality does not do justice to Beardyman. If you like the "human beatbox" checkout another one of is his videos where he jams with "flutebox" Lee :) http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- berkay
"Bartz told the staff that she'd "dropkick to fucking Mars" anyone whose company gossip ended up on the blogs." ... sounds like a fun person to work for!
- Adam Ostrow
What is the perfect grilled cheese? I say the perfect grilled cheese always has buttery (using real butter*) browned bread slices, melted cheese, and something acidic, generally mustard - totally non-negotiable. The rest is wide open as the heavens with cheeses and breads for stars.
- Derrick
from Bookmarklet
Some gutbusting combinations: gruyere, bacon, green onion and Tabasco on sourdough; and farmer's, bleu cheese, basil on rustic bread and drizzled with a red wine and balsamic reduction.
- Derrick
I make the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever without using butter. "Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"
- Anika
And one of my favorite things on earth was given to us by the French with a variation on the grilled cheese with the Croque Monsieur, although the protein hound in me prefers the Madame, with the perfect fried egg on top laid just so.
- Derrick
can't cotton to the mustard part of this. my weird german-nigerian friend swears that this special german mustard on cheddar is the business, but i still refuse to believe.
- tiffany
I've never seen such technically flawless and artful photography of food...what did you take these pictures with?
- Andrew Villeneuve
Andrew, I didn't. I found the blog through Tastespotting and, like you, was immediately drawn to the images. The fact that it's an awesome, gooey, cheesy grilled cheese sandwich, notwithstanding.
- Derrick
Good news for Mac and Linux users - Google chrome is now available for download for both operating systems | Chrome tweaks - http://chrometweaks.org/news...
"It’s a dream come true for some of you, because Google Chrome is now available for Mac and Linux users. The release is not official, but the guys from Codeweavers managed to make Chrome work on both operating systems. Based on the open-source browser project and developed using CodeWeavers’ Wine development expertise, they named it CrossOver Chromium. Now for those who are curious to see how it works, you can download Google Chrome for Mac and Linux from the following links:"
- mjc
from Bookmarklet
To be clear, this is a way to run the Windows version on Mac or Linux. Cool stuff, but not an official Chrome project, and don't let it color your expectations of what a native Mac and Linux version will look like.
- DeWitt Clinton
Damn, I thought Christmas had come early
- Ray Cromwell
Piaw - it is a little slower than native, but not by much, it's WINE for mac used on chrome.
- mjc
Pengtoh Reports that the VMWare penalty is about 6%. Is the WINE penalty more or less than that?
- Piaw Na
It's ghastly. Not even worth mentioning. Not even for free. In fact, they should be paying everybody for even *THINKING* about using this.
- l0ckergn0me
You had me excited there for a minute. As much as I appreciate Crossover for the effort, their ported Mac Chrome fails on font rendering to the point that it's unusable for a ton of sites. I'd warn most to stay well away
- Duncan Riley
oi vay, this must get at least 100 comments; carries some weight given your FF rock star status as you note; you're obviously not expecting an Xmas present from your FF buddies this year, looking forward to seeing their retort...
- Bob Sonin
the problem with twitter is that it's an addiction. Just when I think that I am out, it pulls me back in. It's the simplicity. I primarily use FF, but twitter fills in the gaps. There is a place for both, but more people should jump into FF. Although my wife is still unsure of twitter, so I have my work cut out for me. How bout that post Robert? "10 reasons why email/SMS is for you and twitter is not." :-)
- Bob Blunk
The complexity is what gets me, but really only between Friend Feed and Twitter. There's a feature to autopost to twitter here on ff, and I turned it on and forgot. All of a sudden I've got like a million tweets about my last.fm and google reader stuff. Not to mention that a post direct to twitter went circular.
- adam garrett
I just spent a little time watching your real-time feed. Clearly, I cannot follow anywhere near as many people as you do. I get lost in the flood of data.
- DGentry
Because, of course, more features makes a service better. Right? ;-)
- Brent Newhall
I loved this line: "You can’t handle that, which is why Twitter is for you. Any service that has a tutorial on how to use a feature is just not for you."
- Daniel J. Pritchett
my fave "d. You can “Comment” on an item. Here’s my comments. More than 6,000 of them. You really don’t want that kind of distraction. You might have to participate and that wouldn’t be good."
- ernie yacub
Scoble already stated in a previous post that DM'ing sucks, anyway. I don't think a service is going to implement full email-like features when that's not even the point of the service. People can just use email or IM.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF
My point wasn't about the merits of DMing, just that it's possible in friendfeed, but it's the friendfeed way.
- ·[▪_▪]·
I love this ... where's Dave Winer? hahahaha!
- Susan Beebe
It took me a second but good read Schoble.
- Nation Hahn
It slays me when people say Friendfeed is more complicated than Twitter. Investing maybe half an hour in setting up Friendfeed *the way I like it* made it highly usable and simple for me. There is nothing I can do to Twitter to make it useful for me except investigate third-party apps and I don't have the patience for that.
- Laura Norvig
I like how twitter reminds me of birds tweet tweet #11
- sofarsoShawn
I can't help but love this post, but I do still tend to agree with some others that Robert is a tad too belittling at times. Most of the time I'd just say "man the f*ck up," but in this case it's actually a little confusing as to why Robert is so condescending at points.
- Tyler Hayes
from twhirl
Funny sarcastic post. Gets the point across. Note: in that tutorial, please explain what a 'meme' is b/c it took me 2-3 weeks to figure that out. (**I have no problems admitting my huge learning curve!!**)
- Amani
Those are all good reasons, largely narrowing down to Twitter is >SHOCK< simpler than FF. Which is excellent. They both rock for their own reasons.
- Clay Newton
#11 FriendFeed won't let you change your background image. You love that on Twitter you can put links to your blog, linkedin, etc., in an image instead of tempting them to navigate to there with a real link or distracting them with your superfluous activity from those places.
- Daniel Sims
These are all good reasons... but still. I have met many people that just don't get Twitter. They shout out in space and wait for people to hear them.. - noone does... after a few days/weeks they think its lame and leave never to return. As soon as you understand RSS, Friendfeed its all simple... but the main reason I vote for FF mainstream attraction is the threaded conversations. Everyone can enter "Best of day" and instantly be part of a conversation with others without feeling as an outsider.
- Peter Efland
Summing up.... the tech aspect of FF might be more tricky, but I think the social aspect is easier to get for newbies.
- Peter Efland
So much sarcasm bundled up into one post. Gotta love it. "...why Twitter is for you and FF isn't" http://is.gd/aFOl (via @scobleizer)
- Chinkerfly
Do you agree with Robert that FriendFeed is way too complicated for most social media users? ;-)
- Ben Watson
from twhirl
FriendFeed has layer upon layer of usefulness. I've been using it a *lot* for the last few months and I still learn new things now and then. Once people start using FF there's often an 'a ha!' moment and then things pick up.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
That's just the reason why FF is for me and not Twitter
- Uwe Schwarz
I don't actually get Twitter, I use it,but only to simultaneously feed into FB and FF.. (espcially wihen I'm mobile). I rarely hit the site to read since the ppl that I want to follow also feed into FB which I find much more my cup o tea.
- Kelly W.
I still like using both... FF is my place you can find and read everything and twitter is more like a notification service of my online and other activities.
- tomit
Alright, I laughed : ) but I'm not sure this was such a great idea.
- Jeremy
I love the twist on this article. We need more people falling in love with FriendFeed. More people = more variety of content. As of now, it's too tech centric. I think as more people grow more comfortable with 'feeds' this service will go mainstream. Right now, people are just getting the value of commenting in Facebook. I think that's funny. :/
- Patrick Yaeger
This was a fun read and a great overview of FF despite the fact that the author has 2 likes, 2 comments all time. Maybe this is the 90-9-1 rule in action and she's a regular lurker?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel, I think you are right, either that or a poser:)
- Mike Fruchter
"We tried Get Smart yesterday night to see if it was as bad as Crystal Skull was, and it had the same jitteriness at the beginning, but it was much better, clearing up after the first quarter of the movie. That said, both movies were junk. :-)"
- Louis Gray