I had written earlier this year about Groupon and it’s mobile app. Well this is just a short post that my advice it to avoid Groupon.

There’s stories coming out about how the company’s services and discounts are actually a bad thing. Sure, the app is fine. Nothing wrong with the app. It’s the service that’s wrong.

Here’s a story detailing the issues behind Groupon.

Take the recent North Coast Music Festival in Chicago. Groupon offered a deal on tickets, to be picked up at the event’s gate. Then came the hoops. Customers were forced to walk several blocks and take a tour of a new bar in town. They were herded like cattle up the venue’s stairs, around the bar, through the seating area, out to the back deck, and down the rear stairs into an alley. Many were vocally complaining.

I never found their deals to be good any ways, usually a bunch of crap was all that was being offered… or when something useful was being offered, the “deal” really wasn’t a deal. Now this? Just avoid Groupon.

Peace, JbB

Nice, iOS 4.1 is released today. I’m lookin’ forward to it.

This update contains improvements, including the following:
• Game Center  - Send and receive friend requests  - Invite friends to multi-player games over the Internet  - Play multi-player games by auto-matching with other      players  - View Leaderboards and Achievements  - Discover new games from friends
• High dynamic range (HDR) photos on iPhone 4
• Support for TV show rentals on iTunes• Ability to upload HD videos to YouTube and MobileMe   over Wi-Fi on iPhone 4
• Additional support for AVRCP-supported accessories,   including next & previous track control• FaceTime calling directly from Favorites
• Bug fixes, including:  - iPhone 4 proximity sensor performance  - iPhone 3G performance  - Nike+iPod fixes  - Bluetooth improvements

I’m gonna’ look forward to the proximity sensor update for iPhone 4′s, and the ability to upload HD video to YouTube. Oh yeah, the whole HDR photo taking seems AMAZING! I can’t wait to try it out! Not to mention Game Center ‘n’ stuff.

Peace, JbB

On April 6th, 2010, I wrote the post, The iPad And The 4th Generation iPhone. I wrote it before iOS 4.0 was announced and before iPhone 4 was announced. What I basically did was speculate what may happen with the 4th generation iPhone, based on was currently happening with the iPad.

“Netflix” Prediction

I predicted:

Why is this on the iPad and not the iPhone?

…

The last reason, and possibly the most realistic reason, that there’s never been an iPhone Netflix app is because Apple’s kept (or discouraged) Netflix from doing one for the iPhone in the past. But with Apple trying to get people to buy the iPad as a way to get media content to this device, they of course allowed, if not encouraged, Netflix to do an app for the iPad. But the good news is that, demand and pressure should make an iPhone version come out at some points (months or even longer)

The result? Yes, during the iOS 4 introduction, a Netflix representative came out on stage and accounced that there would be a Netflix app available for the iPhone. It would run on 3GS and 4 iPhones and would work over both wifi and 3G. The release date wasn’t announced and, to this date, it still hasn’t been released “months or even longer” like, unfortunately, I also predicted.

“iBooks” Prediction

I predicted:

iBooks will be released with the new OS 4.0. Do I know this for a fact? Na… but trust me, it will. It’ll function just like Stanza, but will have the better page turning and will have the ebooks market place. People will flock to the iBooks application to read their books from.

The result? Everything I said came true. iBooks not only comes with the new iPhone 4, but it comes with OS 4.0. It functions just like Stanza, but has better page turning and has a great ebook market place. Most people, including myself, have abandoned all other ebook reader apps in favor for the iBooks app.

“Content” Prediction

I predicted:

I don’t think that content is guaranteed to us (iPhones).

I was unfortunately right, that yes, there isn’t content on iPhones like there is on iPads. The reason? In a nut shell; screen size.

“iPhone Forth Generation Speed” Prediction

I predicted:

Now do I think this new iPhone will have the 1,000 MHz A4 processor? I don’t know. The processor may or may not be optimized for the iPhone battery. In fact, it doesn’t have to be a 1,000 MHz processor to put out that kinda’ power. It could be 800 or 900 MHz. It could perform as fast as the iPad (I assume) because of it’s smaller screen not requiring as much CPU to get the same tasks done.

…

Do I think this new iPhone will have a more powerful processor than the iPad? No, I think that’s more than powerful enough.

The result? I was right on the money. I predicted that Apple would use the A4 processor, I predicted that the A4 processor in an iPhone would perform faster than it does in an iPad and that there would be battery drain issues with the current (3GS) battery if the A4 battery was used. And that’s what happened.

Apple did use the A4 processor in the iPhone 4. The processor does perform faster in the iPhone than iPad. And the iPhone 4 has a much bigger battery to compensate for the faster A4 battery.

“What The iPad Means For The iPhone” Prediction

I predicted:

The iPad’s going to give a lot of new content to the iPhone, just has the iPhone will give do the same for the iPad. It’s like a little ecosystem.

The result? It’s true, the “mindset” of most tech pundits when the iPad first came out was that the “iPhone is old news and the iPad is better and far superior” and that “the iPad will cannibalize the sales of iPhones, their content and their apps”. I was worried that could happen because so many big names were saying it, even though I knew logically it shouldn’t happen. But it didn’t happen.

iPads and iPhones do have a little ecosystem of support. There is no threat from the iPad. In fact, the iPad is a great thing to happen to iPhones.

5 Out Of 5 Predictions True

So I did a pretty **** good job there on my predictions. But when I wrote them, I really wasn’t out to make predictions, I was just out to share some educated observational guesses of mine of how things would turn out. But given my great track record here, I’m gonna’ try to do the same thing next year on the predictions of the fifth generation iPhone.

Will I get my next round of predictions right? Your prediction’s as good as mine.

Peace, JbB

This is amazing! An after market high-end car stereo that can interface with your iPhone to control Pandora!

But it costs $1,000 (will be less of course, about $799). It’s great and all, but you know… you can just use an iPhone dock like I do with your iPhone mounted in touch / visual reach to control whatever it is you wanna’ control. I mean that’s great, don’t get me wrong. Instead of this BS of paying extra for internet access to a radio in your car or something, you can instead use your iPhone like you would normally, feeding off the internet of it to your car’s stereo.

How does this work?

But here’s an important question; does this count as tethering? It shouldn’t. I mean, after all, this is just an API for controlling the iPhone’s Pandora. I mean, it would be tethering if Pandora didn’t run on your iPhone and a car stereo simply used the internet access to feed it’s own Pandora function. But apparently it’s not, it’s just using iOS 4 API’s to feed information from Pandora playing on your iPhone.

It’s like this. Pandora plays on your iPhone and the audio output is already feed through the special car dock connector, and the car is also feed the title information, as well as other interface information, such as artwork, genre, rating, navigation, etc. (Just like systems that can access and control your iPod app, that system really isn’t running it’s own iPod system, it’s simply accessing information off of the iPhone running the iPod.)

It’s fascinating technology though. It shows the explosive power of both iPhones and Pandora. But would I use it? Well ****, if I were offered it for free, heck yeah I would! But that’s a lotta’ money.

Stereo Interface VS. Dock Interface

Basically, let’s break it down to what it really does when compared to current setups. It offers you an interface to control your iPhone to have your iPod music collection play or have Pandora play. But using an iPhone dock (or mount even) right near your stereo gives you the same functionality.

VS.

1. In both setups, you have to physically connect your iPhone.
2. In both setups, your iPhone charges.
3. In both setups, you can run GPS navigation with Pandora running.
4. In both setups, you have easy connecting / disconnecting of iPhone.
5. Only in dock setup can you control every aspect of your iPhone.

And that’s it right there. I mean, having an iPhone dock setup, you can control every part of your iPhone. Wanna’ run something other than Pandora or iPod? You can. If a text message comes up or a notification about a item on eBay pops up, you can see it because your keeping your iPhone out front and center as your “interface” into your media (and GPS navigation, as I’m doing currently).

This stereo is an absolutely great idea, but I’d still want my iPhone to be out front and center like it is currently. I mean, controlling **** like Pandora through the interface of your stereo’s amazing, but you still need your iPhone out front and center at times. For instance, what happens if your music stops all of the sudden? Is it because Pandora froze or because you don’t have cell reception? You gotta’ bring your iPhone out and look at it.

So I’d totally love to have a car stereo system interface like this with the Neocell, but the problem is that I’d want it setup the way it currently is and, in fact, I’d want to control everything from my iPhone itself. It’s just that easy. Got the GPS navigation app open and need to pause Pandora? Double click on the home button, swipe right and tap pause. Receive a phone call and simply pick it up from the dock one-handed to take the call (unlike cables that connect into your iPhone) and start talkin’. Once done, redock, double click home button, swipe left and tap “play”.

There is the convent issue that this stereo has bluetooth hands free calling, but you can simply get that with a lot of stereos on the market now for a LOT less than this stereo.

It’s kinda’ frustrating because this seems like such an awesome product for someone like me, but I can easily see myself not using it’s interface and instead using my iPhone because of so many reasons.

Somebody improve the dock experience

Instead of an interface to control your iPhone, I’d like to see an improvement to the Apple dock. I’d love to see a device that functions just like the current dock does, but has the unique ability to rotate into landscape view all while keeping your iPhone firmly in place, providing power and audio ports (not a built-in wire, but ports like the current dock), low profile like the current dock and most important, a simple “dock” method of connecting and not some stupid snap on bull ****.

Conclusion

This stereo will be great for a lotta’ people, but for me, I’m gonna’ continue building systems around my iPhone being the interface of my system and not the other way around.

Peace, JbB