Let me say this right off the bad: the iPhone is not a device I would buy myself. It is an influential device that will do fantastically in the market, that is for sure, but its omissions are too deal breaking for me. They are also things that could have been easily remedied by Apple, and I am sure they will be fixed in a second-generation product, but for now I will do without a device that can’t record video, use 3G networks and A2DP headphones, and other things I appreciate. But more on my actual iPhone pros and cons in a future post.

What the iPhone has achieved though, is forcing the industry in general to rethink the whole user interface paradigm. Touch sensitive devices have long used a stylus, and are only now evolving to use the finger. This fact, combined with the swishing, swirling, and sliding seen in the iPhone’s UI make it a much more organic device, one that consumers may find easier to ‘relate’ to.

On top of this more organic approach to UI design, the iPhone’s interface just looks so damn good. Sure, Windows Mobile is functional, S60 is pretty, and so on, but the iPhone interface is sexy. User interface design cannot take a back seat to device design any longer, and Apple has shown us that an attractive physical design can be accompanied by a functional and attractive UI design.

While other manufacturers may not have to play catch up to Apple with technical specifications, they definitely need to with UI design. Verizon’s new Motorola Q9m features a fun circular UI enhancement, and devices like the LG Prada and HTC Touch are certainly steps in the right direction, but the iPhone just integrates everything so nicely; this is what Apple does best.

The iPhone is not the device it could have been, but for UI design, it is revolutionary. If manufacturers take nothing else away from the iPhone release, I hope it at least forces them to take a step back and reevaluate the user interface experience.

By no means am I saying that there isn’t a place in the future for print media, but I believe that its place in the world will change. No longer will print media be where people turn for news, instead I believe that more and more people will look to the internet – we are seeing this already, is isn’t a new thing. Print media will transform into a place for feature articles and longer pieces, mainly due to the major advantage that online journalism has over print: speed. Print media still has the advantage of portability currently, which is why it still has a place with feature articles and the like, but even that content is available online and will be made more accessible with the advent of e-readers, UMPCs, and other fun gadgets.

I can think of many times I have been up in the wee hours of the morning preparing an article on a piece of news that has just dropped. I can write a story and publish it online before most print media outlets are even aware of it. Take the announcement of the iPhone for example: I was preparing an article during Steve Jobs’ keynote, with the article live on MobileBurn not 30 seconds after the facts were revealed. Tech magazines would have had to wait until the following month at least to report on the news, and even newspapers would have had to have held off for an afternoon edition, if not the next day. It just makes sense for people to turn to the most recently updated news source, which will almost always be the internet.

Online media also has the ability to be very specialized. At MobileBurn, we do better reviews of handsets than almost any print publication out there. We know phones, it’s what we do. Most magazines have to cover a broader range of subject matter, and as such do not have the same depth of knowledge on all topics. The perfect publication would be made up of specialists reporting on what they know best, and this is far easier online. It does happen in print, but through RSS feeds and other syndication technology readers now have the ability to view exactly the content they like, rather than one publication choosing who is the best in a field.

I have no problem writing feature articles for print media, I quite enjoy it, but I really do believe in online media.

So without further ado, here are five blogs not already on Kent’s list that I think he, and others, might enjoy:

• Blogging Pro
  Lots of news and tips for personal bloggers and pros alike
• D’Arcy Norman
  Works at the University of Calgary, has an interesting insight on the education scene and internet trends in general
• Daily Cup of Tech
  Timothy Fehlman’s blog, full of freeware and really great guides to doing fun things with technology
• UNEASYsilence
  “Observing the unobserved,” full of interesting little bits and pieces on all sorts of topics
• PaulStamatiou.com
  Young blogger from Georgia Tech, interesting insights and reviews

I have tried to steer away from the larger, professional blogs in favor of the smaller outfits. Also, I mainly subscribe to technology feeds, which may have limited appeal to some. Hopefully someone will get something out of that lot though.

Remember, my main reading list is always available in OPML format here, and a rotating selection of links from that list that refreshes every ten minutes appears in my sidebar.

Sure, smartphone hardware and software are getting cheaper and easier for manufacturers to produce, but I think there will always be a place for non-smartphone devices in the market. Simplicity is key here – not everyone needs the full features of a smartphone, and while that remains true non-smartphones will always be produced, regardless of how cheap it becomes to make smartphones.

I have seen a trend over time of a general rise in the technology level even in cheap handsets, which is an obvious repercussion from the reduced cost of the components that make them. I wholeheartedly agree that even cheap handsets will eventually come with big, high-resolution screens and other treats, but I doubt that all handsets will become smartphones. The PIM features in non-smartphones have come a long way, and have reached a point where they will accommodate most users; transitioning to a smartphone user interface will do nothing but add a level of complexity that will ultimately drive the market away.

I am all for the advancement of technology, but only if it suits the needs of the consumer. There will have to be a radical change in the usability of smartphones before they truly become mainstream, perhaps the introduction of a ‘dumb’ mode that removes things like the ability to install new applications and the more complex PIM functionality would be beneficial. For the foreseeable future though, I think there will still be the constant flow of new non-smartphone devices.

Younger generations are far more open to advertising in general, probably because of the way it is always in their face, and has been since birth. Sure, advertising has been around for a long time, but older generations would have had far less and in far fewer places, making them far more resistant to its introduction these days.

The fact that youth are more open to advertising is aided by the way there is more commonly something in it for the viewer. Schemes like Virgin Mobile’s ‘Sugar Mama’ allow users to earn free minutes on their phone accounts for viewing mobile advertisements, which makes it feel like the viewer is getting rewarded, making them want to view more ads. The company showing the ads will then get more advertisers interested, making it a win-win situation, provided the company being advertised finds leads as a result.

I do not believe this trend will stop, and I think that advertising will become a more pervasive part of our lives. This may upset some people, but for the next generation, it will just be a fact of life.

• Worst Product Intro: “Ultra Swift Meets Xtra-Thin” (courtesy Samsung and the Ultra 12.1 press release)
• Best Press Release Headline: “Apertio appoints Michael Jackson as new Chairman”
• Stupidest Product Name: “MOTOQ q9″

Leave a comment if you have some of your own.

That’s right, I went to the shops and purchased a nice suede covered notebook, and have been using it for everything. Jotting down small to-do lists, ideas for different projects, notes on the day’s meetings, directions on how to get to places I need to be, everything. This notebook has now become an integral part of the way I work, and I take it everywhere. I don’t think any other purchase of something to help organize my life has had this kind of impact on me in some time.

All this is not to say that I will be forgoing Microsoft Outlook and the smartphones I use every day though, for the simple notebook is still inferior for time management applications like Outlook’s calendar and such. I still make use of digital to-do lists as well, as so far I am yet to find a way to synchronize my notebook with my work’s groupware. The to-do lists on my PC/smartphone are more longer-term lists though, with the notebook being utilized for things I am doing right at that moment.

I implore everyone to reassess his or her use of technology for this kind of thing and see whether it is actually helping or hindering you. There is still a place for applications like OneNote in my life, but for the simpler things, I am in love with my notebook.

While this didn’t strike me as odd at all for a start, in hindsight it really was quite interesting. This person, who is very computer literate and intelligent, took no notice that Windows Media Player came bundled with Windows XP, and used it based purely on its media merits. To me, this seems to completely oppose what was trying to be proven in the 2004 European Union anti-trust lawsuit that resulted in the creation of Windows XP N (a version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player bundled).

In this suit, it was ruled that Microsoft “…broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the market for… media players,” [link] and by including Windows Media Player with the operating system it did not encourage users to make their own choice in a media player. Here is a regular user, one that probably has more knowledge than most (and an avid music listener at that), that made a complete and free choice of media player.

I’m not a lawyer, this is just some food for thought. Just because a piece of software is there, doesn’t mean that a user will not seek alternatives.

Anyway, it’s back to CES work for me – I’m really looking forward to sleeping after this week is over…

Personally, I hardly ever have the need to go into a bank branch. The last time I found myself in a bank was to sign the papers for my car loan over a year and a half ago. ATMs and EFTPOS serve me very well for withdrawals and deposits, and I use internet banking for bill payments and other monetary transfer needs. I would be more than happy to have lower bank fees in exchange for not having a branch nearby to go to.

ING have its ING Direct banking service here, wherein there are no branches and all transactions to and from the account are electronic, but it is only for savings accounts – no ATM card. I think there could be a market for a purely electronic banking account, but so far I have not seen it from any of the banks here. I don’t know what the situation in other countries is, but I really wish someone would capitalize on it in Australia.

I guess there will always be the need for bank branches, mainly for business banking and for people in more remote locations, but for my needs I would be more than happy to have an electronic-only account.