Round 2, fight!
Remembering my old days of street fighter 2 player, I can imagine apple in one side and Nokia in the other while I looked at the new products from Apple.
Itunes music WIFI x Nokia Music Store
Nokia announced last week it’s service and was received well, maybe with a little bit of doubt about it’s price (no more doubt: only 1 cent above itunes price) and also microsoft DRM (not so big problem). Today Apple unleashed not only the client but the service running on WIFI. For people where carriers already offer good price for full access in data packages this seems to not be a competition, but for places where wifi is widely available and you use more wifi than celular networks to get data, the services are quite similar and Apple is for sure ahead with lower price.
Both offers seamlessly integration with your desktop. Just a shame that both have DRM.
Ipod touch x Nokia N800
This is very hard for me. I just like my n800 too much, but everyone is going to say it so here it goes:
Ipod touch is a really competitor to the N800 or nokia internet tablet family. Why? How can you be so sure without ever using it? Well, I have an iPhone for quite a while now and I can garantee : It’s the best mobile browser experience. But it was more expensive, with contract and so on. Now it’s 50 or 100 dollars cheaper, same capacity (16 gigas, but not included on the N800 and that would make the price goes up at least 200 bucks). So I can see this is REALLY a serious threat to the N800 positioned as a “internet tablet device”. The Safari works better, zooming is better, snappier.
What’s funny is that everything points to the fact the the Ipod has the same hardware as the Iphone, so a 600mhz CPU against the 320mhz on the N800. How this thing is cheaper? The camera is not enough to make the N800 more expensive, and the battery life of the touch is a lot better than on the N800 (ok 640 screen x 800×480) but come one, we deserve a better price =)
Ringtones : HA!
this was really, one of the first things on my mind when they announced the iPhone. “how apple could make more money? Unmm… ringtones for sure”. It’s funny that people are complaining, but it’s quite common here in brasil to pay twice a song price for a ringtone, that sometimes are even MIDIS (so : no band recorded, no studio was needed, just a keyboard and a license of a simple media software).
It sucks for users, but was a brilliant step for Apple, and of course makes the life of people that are not tech savvy easier.
Price drop on the iPhone
This was REALLY a surprise. 200 dollars LESS from the 8giga bytes? (I’m so happy I sold my 4 giga fast enough) This makes the 8gb iPhone quite a deal for those who want to be AT&T slow network slaves. I think a lot of buyers are also pretty pissed with that :)
The new iPods
The “phatty” was real. The new nano is really something, unm, let’s say, of a doubtful taste. Ok, I have the most incredible respect for the design team at apple, and I can’t see another way of doing such a small device with that screen without killing the scroll wheel but : it is VERY funny. Almost a joke. Looks like a mockup of someone in the web. Apart from the form factor the nano is amazing, thin, metal on the back and a real nice and high resolution display. But I need to say: I can’t stand watching videos on small screens like this. So it’s more for “screen satisfaction” than for “real video watching screen”.
The classic has now a full metal body and a really big 160gigabyte disk. That’s some storage for a media player but it’s not something really new.
Shuffle now is also in PRODUCT RED. Ok, so what.
But what I really want to know is
Now that I’ve briefly talked about what you can read on several more professional web sites, I will say what I really want to know about this devices:
1) Does the Ipod touch will be able to have MAIL? Come one Apple, you placed safari. You gave it the youtube but no MAIL? is there, just scp the application package to the image and release to your future customers.
2) Is the Touch hackable like the Iphone? Can I install native hacked applications on it ? =)
3) GAMES. Iphone games please.
4) Ringtones of music we already own? Can we do it?
5) Does the itunes store update coming to the iPhone, closes the 3rd party hacks =)
6) Where is the goddamn iPhone software unlocking solutions?????
Update, I made a typo on the n800 speed. sorry, thanks Cfit.
Hello
September 6th, 2007 at 5:01 amIt means to me a great competition between Archos and Apple.
I don’t think Archos can be used here =)
September 6th, 2007 at 2:37 pmHey, cool. As I saw someone else argued elsewhere, the N800’s CPU runs at 320 MHz (The DSP is 220 MHz — Unless you know something I don’t), and the current best guess for the iPhone is 400. There’s not that much discrepancy in the hardware as you suggest.
I have no doubt the Touch is going to kill the n800 in sales, and that the Apple device has a browser that’s more fun to use.
My take on your questions:
1) Mail? The core of the iPod philosophy that’s made it so successful is its simplicity: they make products designed for one function. The iPhone is a communications device. The touch is an entertainment system.
2) How many successful portable computing devices have we seen that aren’t hackable?
3) Six months at the ITMS
4) Of course! It will only cost 99 cents, on music you already own that has the appropriate licensing flag.
5) Probably only those that impinge on their revenue stream, or that involve contractual obligations (like making your own ringtones, VoIP apps, or unlocking software). But Apple’s philosophy has also been complete control over the hardware and software environment.
6) Somewhere underneath a lot of letters from Apple lawyers.
So is it a competition? No, but in raw sales terms, Nokia will lose. The n800 is a communications device, not a media player with an internet browser optimized for downloading music. The n800 also isn’t ready for prime time. Heck, I spent an hour this morning just installing this Canola application due to some repository funkiness; thankfully I already had xterm and dropbear running or it would have taken much longer.
Good Luck.
September 9th, 2007 at 3:01 amHi CFIT =)
About the hardware, yes I made a typo, already fixed thanks.(the omap 2420 is the core of the n800 and the cpu is indeed above 300mhz.) and of course the post is not technical, but the N800 could be a lot better with a better video BUS and the 3D drivers. It’s amazing even being a 330mhz machine you’re not able to redraw the whole screen without flickering. Other thing that makes like more complicated it the bigger screen. (it seems that the most likely processo is the samsung at 600 and something mhz http://tinyurl.com/kwswe)
So, I still believe that there’s a lot of difference, not in core cpu speed but in the whole system performance.
“I have no doubt… has a browser that is more fun to use”
that’s the whole point. While hackers have a lot of other use for it, regular users buy for the”internet tablet” or navigation thing (we try to make them buy for the media play also =))
But now you have a smaller device, lighter, cheaper that navigates the web and handles media a lot better. That’s bad.
1)I agree, but the browser or the internet is deep tied to the email experience. It’s a vital thing for any internet user. Of course anyone can use gmail on the web on the touch but the client is quite nice.
2) yes, I was being VERY ironic on that one =)
3) But how they can set a appropriate flag if my music has even no name at all (ripped from an old brazilian cd?) =) I will never pay for a ringtone like thathehehe
About the unlocking, selling them is a crime, but if someone releases on the internet quietly there will be no way of punishing people who use it for legal use on another network.
I still think is competition… because you buy for almost the same reasons.
Don’t worry we will try to avoid any repository mistakes in the future, but it really sucks to develop for a device that the screen can’t be updated without tearing : /
September 9th, 2007 at 8:57 am