Finally I See A Purpose For The iPhone!

Nick assured me in a comment the Apple's App Store was a good idea. I agreed but never realized it was this practical:



Now, I am married so this specific use won't help me much. However, knowing the App Store can solves life's real problems like this one is a really motivating reason to go buy an iPhone.

Subtle Evidence The iPhone (and Macs) Are Becoming More Popular.

How could you know if the iPhone, or Apple products in general, are becoming more popular? Look at sales records? Sure, but that's so old school.

Instead I will point your attention to the fact that Objective C for the first time in history is becoming a popular programming language. Objective C, for those who don't know, is Apple's language of choice for the Cocoa environment they use for their products.

And Objective C is such a worthless "next generation C language" that nobody else uses it so rising Objective C usage can only mean Apple products, and especially the iPhone are becoming more popular. Everybody other than people like Steve Jobs knows that C++, Java and C# took C in the direction it should go, but like the one button mouse, some bad ideas just don't leave the Apple Headquarters.

Now, why am I emphasizing the iPhone? Because it is the iPhone's App Store that is actually driving this trend. Every developer wants to make money selling an iPhone App and so the increase in Objective C usage.

If there was no App Store, the only people using Objective C would be Apple employees forced to use it by their employer. But alas, the increasing popularity of the iPhone with its App Store coupled with the overall rise in Mac use is fueling the increase in Objective C use.

Legal Update on iPhone, Stem Cells and a Vote!

Turns out a company called Cisco has owned the name iPhone for years and that for the last two years Apple has tried to work out deal with them to no avail. Since they went forth with the announcement anyways they have gotten into a little legal trouble.

Also, today the stem cell bill passed again in the House, 253-174. Now we will have to see if it makes it through Bush's veto. This is the second major thing passes by the House in their "first 100 hours." The other was to raise the minimum wage to $7.25. They promised they would pass a bunch. So far, in the "first 100 hours" this congress looks more promising than the last one. Can anyone remember anything passed in the last congress over months?

By the way, I know a few things did pass but the key word is few and hence the last congress was named the "do nothing congress." At least this congress is quickly getting things done, even if you don't agree with it all. You may not agree, but at least so far they are efficient. It would be nice if this was true about all areas of the government.

Now the vote: who thinks Nancy Pelosi(Left), the new speaker of the house resembels BYU's own Susan Easton Black(Right)? These pictures may not be convincing but you have to see them both talk!

Amazing New Products Announced From Mac Today

Steve Jobs, Macintosh's fearless leader gave one amazing keynote speech at Macworld 2007 today. He unleashed a couple of products which will be revolutionary, even more so then the iPod.

The first is AppleTV: it is a console which is a TV and a computer. It is designed for High Definition and Widescreen. It has wireless networking, no more cords, and since it is a computer you can do on your TV what you would do with a computer. That is nice. Furthermore, it syncs with 5 other computers, allowing your High Definition Widescreen TV stuff to be broadcasted wherever you have a computer, again wirelessly. Watch in your bedroom, office, kitchen, etc... Pretty cool

Next is even better. The iPhone. This will blow all cell phones out of the water with one swoop. It runs Mac OSX so is a full computer, not just some mobile gimmicky wannabe computer. Full with wireless and bluetooth support. It is designed, which which Jobs says, revolutionary touch technology.

Just look at the screen! It is a high definition widescreen screen which allows you to do computer stuff, watch movies, and deal with phone stuff. The phone has a two megapixal camera. Just on the side, I will say, he could have done better than two megapixal, that's so 5 years ago technology. :( One really cool feature is your voicemail is stored like email. You don't have to listen to all the messages, like email you can pick which messages to listen to. You can have multiple calls coming in and can pick the ones you want to talk to in which order and can set up conference calls. It allows you to do split screens to do multiple things at once. It even has a built in weather meter!

Look to see a movie playing in wide screen high definition format. Next Picture, look how your music is organized. Next is the voicemail screen. And next is the internet. (He uses the New York Times, good for Jobs)

Jobs also annouced that they will be teaming with bith Google and Yaho to prodide the best search engine, emial, and internet software hat the phone could have. Both Yahoo's and Google's CEO's appeared and gave small speeches of how glad they are to be behind creating this phone and helping take technologies to the next level. How many new technologies? Well they have filed for 200+ patents for this phone. All for a pricetag of $499-599, depending how big a hard drive you want. They also come with a two year cingular plan. Would I like to have one? Of course. Can I afford one any time soon? Probably not. Unfortunately, like iPods, every teenager will have one before me. I'm already taking bets on the above. Any takers?

Here is the iPhone website. Enjoy!