peter martin

A thought that occurred to me last night: yesterday you had two of the most captivating and charismatic speakers of the past 25 years, Barack Obama and Steve Jobs, making highly anticipated and possibly historically notable presentations within hours of each other. Both delivered in a big way, Obama with his first State of the Union and Jobs with his long-hinted Tablet (still having trouble calling it the iPad), and both speeches were immediately dissected and argued over by warring and often irrational factions (Mac/PC and Dem/Rep; sorry Linux/Libertarian/Green). It was just an incredible day for rhetoric and vision, whether you agree with the speaker’s view of the world or not*. P.T. Barnum would be proud.

* if it’s not abundantly clear, I am a very clear supporter of the visions and capabilities of both men, even if I’m occasionally critical of execution.

Since I blasted Apple on the iPhone 3.1 upgrade sloppiness, it’s only fair that I applaud them when they do something well…and in this case it’s something extremely important to me.

Three days ago, my iPhone stopped switching between silent and normal mode. In silent mode, the volume remained on and the phone vibrated endlessly. Thus, I was forced to remain in normal mode, which put me at risk of having my phone go off in a meeting, at a funeral, etc.

Three days from now, the original hardware warranty on my 3G was set to expire. As you’d expect, I took the first opportunity to rush up to the Apple store and sit down at the Genius bar, hoping that it would be a quick fix (but fearing that I’d lose my phone to some convoluted repair process for a week).

Well, ten minutes after my appointment, I’m happy to say that I walked out with a brand new iPhone 3G, no questions asked. It’ll be a few hours until I can restore my contacts/apps/music from my most recent backup, but that’s certainly an enormous improvement from dealings I’ve had with other hardware manufacturers and wireless vendors (I’m looking at you, Palm, Motorola, and, yes, AT&T).

So, credit where credit is due - that was a kickass response to a problem that would have been more than a minor annoyance, given my reliance on the iPhone for business calls and email. Thank you, Apple.

Something that I’d really like to see: an in-dash computer that runs the iPhone OS. Basically it would be an iPhone, but running on a larger touchscreen (maybe 6”x4”?). The audio would be piped through the car’s system, calls would behave as if you were on speakerphone, and you could run all your apps on the bigger screen. I’m thinking that apps like Pandora would be a great radio alternative. GPS would obviously be more useful with a bigger screen, particularly if you had turn-by-turn voice instructions. The iPhone’s interface would also be a great way to scroll through iTunes. The camera could be mounted externally somehow, maybe pointing at the driver or at the road ahead.

I suppose the icing on the cake would be a dock system where you just slid your iPhone in and the “iDash” took over.