iPhone in the car

When I bought my Prius, the first thing I did was install a Peripheral iPod input, which connects directly to my car stereo and allows me to control the iPod through the stereo and steering-wheel buttons.

Last weekend I plugged in the iPhone to my car stereo, and realized the iPhone features are great for driving. Some of the benefits are:
* it stops playing music to notify me of an incoming call (which is great, because there are times when I wouldn’t hear my phone ring in the car)
* i can use the speakerphone or a hands-free headset and not have to hold the phone while talking
* when i hangup a call, it automatically resumes playing where the song left off
* i can use Google Maps for directions (although without gps, but that isn’t that big of a deal)
* and i can watch YouTube videos while driving (just kidding

The iPhone is already a great in-car audio and navigation tool, and with a few tweaks (gps, voice recognition, auxiliary device control), it could replace the need to have an in-car nav and stereo. Are GPS and stereo manufacturers now competing with Apple?

Just open it, you won't regret it

Like Fred I had an iPhone sitting in a box for about a month, torn about whether to open and active it since I already have a blackberry.

Even though I don’t really need another phone and didn’t want to carry 2 phones around, I decided that if I don’t open it, I would never have a chance to experience v1 of the iPhone again. Silly as it sounds, this is why I decided to open it.

Now that my iPhone is activated, I have no regrets whatsoever. The blackberry is awful for viewing webpages and is only good for typing (but I’m starting to get better at typing on the iPhone). The iPhone has a far superior interface, both in the browser and the os. A large part of my mobile usage is viewing webpages when travelling or when not at my computer, and for this, the iPhone is really worth it. Two of the standout iPhone-specific apps I’ve used so far include Meebo for instant messaging and Google Reader for reading my fav blogs. Using Safari is really terrific since it’s a fully functional browser, whereas the blackberry browser is really a crippled application. Reading articles on the iPhone is actually pleasant, and using javascript on apps like Gmail is nice, whereas I could rarely get CSS or javascript-based sites to load properly (or in a readable format) on the blackberry.

My only dilemma now is that I have two phone numbers, one for the blackberry and one for the iPhone. To solve that, I’m using GrandCentral  I’ve started to give out my GrandCentral number to people, and I set it up to ring on both cell phones, giving me the option to carry only one phone and/or to take calls on whichever one makes sense (the blackberry is paid through work so I try to use it mainly for work calls).

As soon as GrandCentral begins forwarding SMS messages to my cell, I’ll feel comfortable making that my dedicated number and making the switch 100%. And as for people like Fred who aren’t sure what to do with their new unopened iPhone, I say just open it and use it — you won’t regret it at all. Plus, when will you ever have a chance to have v1 of the iPhone again?

Do joint ventures ever work?

The MTV, RealNetworks, Verizon announcement this week is fascinating, especially if it can truly deliver. The problem, however, is the joint ventures of this type rarely work well.

A couple of points that seem problematic:
*MTV is chipping in $230 million for a 49% stake, but is also requiring the new company, dubbed Rhapsody America, to spend $230 million over 5 years in advertising on MTV’s networks. It sounds as if the investment is risk-free, since MTV will recoup their investment in ad revenue.
*The partnership with Verizon to deliver music over V Cast Music is an exclusive deal, which means the service won’t be available over Cingular, T-Mobile, or any other cellular networks. Aside from the fact it limits the usage to Verizon subscribers, the V Cast service on Verizon is awful and is one of the reasons I decided to switch to Cingular (for the iphone of course).

For something of this magnitude to succeed, I would like to have seen Rhapsody negotiate non-exclusive deals with the wireless carriers and provide them with a rev share for each of their subscribers that use the service in exchange for no restrictions in how the users interact with the service. I suppose the Apple/Cingular relationship made that almost impossible, for now at least…

The National

Just got turned onto The National and have been listening to their albums, Alligator and Boxer, non-stop for the last week. NPR has a live recording“”: on All Songs Considered, which is well worth a listen.