Last week's class was interesting. Got to try out a new Iphone app - Ocarina. Creatively, it was undeniably great work. For apple, a gold mine was born - thanks to the Stanford group that worked so hard on it. However, being somewhat of a non-conformist, I still don't buy the apps angle as a reason to purchase an Iphone. The data fees notwithstanding, and even despite the fact that the Iphone will be available through multiple carriers in 2010, I still believe that as a consumer, my adoption of technology should arise from a functional deficit and utility should be high - not so much the existence of it. From an educational standpoint though - I am looking forward to finding out how to build an app and from a business perspective, an ingenious effort on Apple's part to not only increase their financial bottom line, but also gain market share as well as increase the loyal 'mac-head count' tremendously.
"Neither an early adopter nor a laggard be" (Roy Tennant)
While doing the h/w I learnt so much about html - the big one that comes to mind is how to use CSS on the head & title elements. The HTML validator was also a new tool I discovered last class that I will definetely put to good use.
Would not having an Ocarina before be a functional deficit? I generally agree - one should find a need and then fill it. But, unless we play around and explore things outside of our comfort zone, we may not find unfilled needs that we didn't know we had (have?)
ReplyDeleteFor me, the iPhone app thing is kind of like BPM/SOA. Each app is a small item that may or may not be useful in supporting my life and work (could include the entertainment value - ask my 2 year old who keeps asking me to show him Train videos on the iPhone)
Of course, there is a lot of junk out there, but you can find some very useful items and when combined can help to make the iPhone (and presumably other smart phones) a very useful too.