Running 2008

You might have noticed my Nike+ widget has disappeared from the blog. That's because my Nike+ has disappeared from me when I run. It started getting very unreliable when I was running. After three or four 9-10 minute miles, it would suddenly say I was popping off 7 minute miles. I have no idea if it is a problem with the transmitter or the iPod unit. Either way, there was no point in using it if it was giving me wildly inaccurate statistics.

I am definitely still running. I took a bit of a break after the half-marathon in October. I never stopped, but I dialed things back to around 10 miles or so per week. I will probably run the same races I ran last year, so a 10K in May and a half-marathon in October. I would really like to do another half-marathon in July at the San Francisco marathon, but that's always a challenge from a logistical standpoint.

More iPhone/iPod Thoughts

I didn't pay much attention to the price discount on the iPhone yesterday. I have no interest in an iPhone since I love my Blackberry and I like being on a 3G network. But in terms of business, the $200 price cut on the iPhone is big news. The obvious analysis from every wannabe Wall Street analyst all the way up to the real guys is that the only reason you'd cut the price of the iPhone is if it is not selling. That is an obvious reason to cut the price, and that is the most likely reason. But let me play devil's advocate for a moment.

The thing that caught my attention yesterday was the iPod Touch. Let's forget about why Apple released this wonderful looking gizmo for a moment. Let's just look at its price point. It's $300 for an 8GB iPod Touch. Imagine if the iPhone was still being priced at $600 for the 8GB version. That would mean you have to pay twice as much to get cell phone features added to your iPod Touch (remember the equation iPhone - phone = iPod Touch.) That's right, $300 just for phone features. In short, the iPod Touch @ $300 would really cut into iPhone sales @ $600.

So maybe Apple should charge more for the iPod Touch? Maybe it should go for $500? Ok, that's one way to go. Keep margins high across the board. Obviously there would be lower sales of the iPod Touch, but unaffected sales of the iPhone. There's clearly some calculus that could be done here with an examination of lower or higher prices for both iPod Touch and iPhone. Looks like the lower prices won out.

Then there's the other option of just not releasing the iPod Touch at all. There's clearly an untapped market for people who like the iPhone but will have nothing to do with AT&T. I should know because I'm in that market. So not releasing the iPod Touch would definitely leave some money on the table. Again there's a clear calculus here. How much money do they lose by cutting iPhone prices vs. how much are they gaining by introducing the iPod Touch. Keep in mind that some of the losses in iPhone prices are bound to be made up by higher sales.

So maybe the iPhone sales have stunk it up, but there's more variables in play here. I personally think that iPhone sales have been better than expected and that this was the plan all along. If you look at it in terms of Apple maintaining their monopoly on MP3 sales, and thus digital music downloads, this seems to make a lot of sense. That's their cash cow, not the iPhone.

One last iPhone related thing... The launch of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store is very interesting to me. Is it a pure web app? Apple claimed that there would be no special apps for the iPhone, it would just be a web app device. Are they eating their own dog food here, or is there some kind of binary being downloaded to iPhones via software update and being pre-loaded on the iPod Touch.

New iPods

I've been thinking about buying a new iPod Nano. I've had mine for two years, and its been a little flaky lately. I had to do a restore on it, losing some workout data. It froze up on me, and I had to do a soft reset. It's had some unexplainable loss of battery, where it suddenly only got an hour of play off a full charge (it then got four hours of play on a subsequent full charge.) I knew Apple was planning on new iPods though, so there was no point in buying one until the new ones rolled out. That day was today.

Thew new Nano is interesting. It's cool that it can play video. The pricing is nice, with 8GB for $200 (my 1st gen Nano was $250 for 4GB.) However, it is not backwards compatible! What do I mean? Well it looks like it would still work with my Nike+iPod kit. That is good. The new form factor will definitely not work with my existing Marware armband. A protective armbad is essential for anybody who uses their Nano to work out. So that is bad. Right now the only armbands are the weak one from Apple. These are not sweat-proof. So maybe I'll buy a new Nano, but only Marware (or somebody) has a protective armband.

But wait, there's more. There was a new iPod, now dubbed the Classic. You gotta love a 160GB iPod.

The big news is obviously the iPod Touch. Apple took the iPhone and ripped out the phone part. Perfect! Perfect! Perfect! For $100 more than the Nano, you get a bigger screen with Wi-Fi and Safari. Ok, so it's not quite the iPhone sans AT&T. Looks like it is missing some of the iPhone's widgets, namely email. Email sucks on the iPhone when compared to my Blackberry anyways. Now somebody just needs to get Skype on the iPod Touch and Apple's conversion to the dark side will be complete.

As for me, I don't think the iPod Touch would be useful for running. I don't think I'd be able to use the Nike+ thing, and I've heard the iPhone's headphones jack is weird. So my Sennheiser sweat-and-wind proof headphones might not work either. That's how Apple rolls.

Vista Uneasiness

There's an open call for Vista questions on MSDN Channel 9. This was posted by Microsoft programmer/Technical Evangelist Charles, so theoretically there will be some answers to the many questions being posted.

On another Vista related topic, Apple is warning iPod users not to use Vista as it may damage their iPod. As Dave Winer points out, that is just ridiculous. Shame on Apple for not having readied an iTunes update to go out BEFORE Vista shipped. They had a huge amount of time to resolve this issue, so clearly they chose not to. I would be shocked if they did not already have an iTunes update ready. They probably had it ready a couple of months ago. They clearly chose not to send this out in advance, since they thought they could create some negative press for Vista at its launch. A look at Apple's "Hot News" shows lots of cherry-picked Vista reviews that slam on it. Just when Apple seemed to be concentrating on electronic devices instead of computers, they start acting like a rejected boyfriend yelling "Don't go out with him, I'm the best guy for you!"

The iPhone

People have been conjecturing for years about Apple making a cell phone. Then they finally do it, and yet they were still able to blow away people's expectations. That's pretty amazing.

As for the phone itself... Well is there any piece of technology out there that looks sexier? I'm really curious just how functional it's user interface is. It certainly seems like a leap forward and Apple has a pretty good track record of making UIs that people fall in love with.

I'm also incredibly curious about just how much computing power the thing has. Jobs claimed it is running OSX. Clearly it is a lighter version of OSX, a la Windows Mobile vs. Windows. It seemed to have some Apple widgets, but what kind of apps? Will it be able to open Word documents and PDFs? Maybe Excel spreadsheets? It can obviously sync, but can you edit contacts, etc? And speaking of sync, will it sync with Outlook. Or will you have to do some kind of dance like where you use iTunes to put contacts from Outlook onto your iPod? With its high price point, it's going to competing with smart phones that all can do many of the above things.

Personally it's a very tempting gadget! Would it really replace my iPod? If so, then maybe the money would be worth it. It doesn't have enough to storage to be a good video iPod, but I have little interest in that kind of iPod anyways. The $499 iPhone has the same memory as my iPod Nano (4 GB,) though I would assume that a good chunk of that gets eaten by OSX-lite and phone related stuff. Would I be comfortable strapping my $500 phone to my arm and running for two hours with it? Would I be willing to switch from Verizon to Cingular also? Ask me in ten months when my Verizon contract is up...