All Gadgets Aside...

So the release of the iPhone has come and gone. All in all the near immediate sell out of iPhones across the country would definitely make the initial launch a success. As most people that know me will tell you, I am a fan of just about everything Apple related. So why don't I have an iPhone in my pocket? Before I get into why let me give a quick review of the iPhone itself and what I have seen from it.

So the iPhone is a great device. Aesthetically pleasing, well designed (thanks to the infamous Jonathan Ives), has great battery life, a decent camera, and a very beautiful OS with complimenting applications. The device makes a great iPod, works very well with google maps, the safari browser is right at home on the device as well. One of the greatest assets the iPhone has is it's multi-point touch screen in which allows you expans pictures and web pages by simply stretching them out. I have had sometime to play with the device and I think it does everything it's intended to do very well. On the downside, I have also seen a couple things that make me wonder what Apple was thinking. First off, where is the MMS support. When I have sent MMS messages to my co-worker who proudly owns an iPhone he gets a standard SMS message with a link to the location of where the image is stored on the internet. This is hardly an MMS solution, it will take you substantially longer to view your message than if it would have gone straight to your device. The second downfall is the lack of a development platform beyond web apps. Web apps will work but this doesn't seem the way to go to get a dedicated program that will work wherever you are and perform as snappy as it should. The rest of my complaints about it are more specific, which brings me to why I don't own an iPhone.

First and foremost, one of the biggest things for me when it comes to a phone is freedom. The freedom to use your phone as you please, install what you want and turn around and sell it for what it's worth rather than be stuck with a device locked to one network. So it goes without saying that this shoudl be an unlocked device. Unfortunately here in the US the top GSM providers will not sell you a phone unless you buy a contract thus making it difficult for Apple to justify selling it unlocked and free to be used on whatever network you please. This doesn't mean that people aren't willing to dive into a contract to own a device that is free from being locked. Second, the iPhone does what it's intended to well. What about everything else? My current Nokia can do everything the iPhone can plus about a million things more that the iPhone can't do. My Nokia N73 cost me $350 and it has a 3.2mp Camera, takes decent quality video, surfs the internet with the best of them using Nokia's browser, or in my case Opera. On top of that the Series 60 platform has a multitude of applications that have been developed and more constantly being developed.

Basically what it boils down to is that Apple will have to kick up it's game to compete in the game of a making a full featured phone with heavyweights like Nokia. Even mobile manufacturers like Sony Ericsson and LG have mobiles with feature sets that vastly outweigh what the iPhone can offer. Apple, you wil have to do more to impress even your most seasoned customers.

One of my favorite designers in recent years is Simone Legno. Most of you are not familiar with his name but you may be more familiar with his design moniker, Tokidoki. These days it seems like his artwork is popping up all over the place. It seemed to start with handbags designed in collaboration with Le Sport Sac and then it kind of snowballed from there to the point now that he is even releasing a line of make up in conjunction with famous cosmetics brand, Smashbox. It only seems like this probably shoudl have happened sooner, but they have Simone Legno has just designed a series of iPod skins that are probably some of the coolest skins that I have ever seen. Grazing the skin of your iPod are some of the standard characters from his sensuous ladies, the cuddly grim reaper, the spikey cactus loving Sandy to his newesy creation, The Moofia(milk containers that happen to sport cow features). I highly recommend picking these up as I am sure they won't last long and from seeing them in person I can say they are incredibly beautiful iPod accessories.

So Anycom got this marvelous idea in their heads. They decided to take what they do best, which is make bluetooth products, and create a bluetooth adapter for the iPod Nano named BluNa. You might say that transferring music to your iPod via bluetooth would be slow, and I would agree. But imagine using wireless headphones and connecting to your stereo from wherever you are in your house(BluNa is compatible with a variety of bluetooth devices). The absolute beauty of this product is that there is so much potential. This is a huge step beyond all those RF wireless adapters that are so hokey. The device is said to be selling for $119.99, which is a little steap at this point but I wouldn't be too suprised if that price dropped over the next few months. For more information check out the product page here: BluNa

Hmm? Yes you heard me right, take all that cuteness and stick it in your ear. Sega Toys is going at it for another round of ipod inspired and cute items that you can use to listen to music(see iDog, iFish). This time instead of bugging your fellow terrestrial beings with some barking from your deprived iDog you can listen to the music yourself through the arms of a robot that looks like something from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Sega Toys is coming out with a little robot guy that just so happens to be name Mu-Bot. Much like the stretch armstrong toys of yesteryear, you can stretch the arms of Mu-Bot out but this is so much more functional in the fact that Mu-Bot's arms are really ear phones. And buried in the underside of one of the robots feet is the plug to plug into any audio source. I for one am all about gimmicky little tech items like this so I give this item, despite knowing the sound quality, 2 thumbs up. How can you go wrong having a little robot thinger as your headphones?