Apple Briefs

Agile Web Solutions has given us a sneak preview of 1Password for the iPhone (with lots of screen shots!). I have to admit that I am pretty nervous about taking all of my passwords with me. The cost-benefit analysis just seems to weigh against it (the benefit seems pretty low because I seldom need passwords on the run). But Agile seems to have thought pretty hard about the security aspect and has come up with some pretty interesting solutions. The good news is that 1Password for the iPhone will be free (at least for a limited time). Maybe I’ll decide I need it all the time once I have it! Look for it soon in the App Store.

Update: It’s arrived.

My first impressions of Apple’s new offerings are a mixed bag. I really like the iPhone 2.0 software update. I have only downloaded a few apps, but I foresee many more in my future. So far, my favorite has to be WeatherBug, which has all the weather information I need with an attractive presentation. I have also downloaded OmniFocus, but I haven’t had a chance to spend much time with it. I plan to download Things as well, but I am waiting for the promised sync feature.

In contrast to iPhone 2.0, MobileMe has been something of a failure. The “web 2.0″ interface is nice, but I haven’t seen anything compelling. I thought push email would be compelling, but there are two problems with that. First, there is apparently no “push” from your desktop (or laptop) to MobileMe. Second, push kills my battery. I can normally surf and call to my heart’s content, but turning “push” on nearly drained my battery by itself. Apple is going to have to fix that if they want to be a serious enterprise email contender.

The other problem with MobileMe is that Firefox can’t handle it. I use Firefox as my normal browser on Windows, but MobileMe kept bringing Firefox to its knees (making it sluggish and often unresponsive). Switching to Safari solved the problem, but MobileMe should work with any browser, not just Apple’s. I don’t like Safari on Windows. It’s too dark and just doesn’t fit in.

I don’t have plans to get a 3G iPhone, but that doesn’t mean I won’t window shop. There are a couple of nice reviews (with plenty of pics) over at Electronista and Ars Technica. I like the look of the new iPhone, but I am still happy with the clean lines and metal finish of my first generation iPhone.

This week’s big launch hasn’t gone so well for Apple. MobileMe – scheduled to launch late Wednesday night – was down well into Thursday. MobileMe webmail still doesn’t work for me (although I had a few glimpses of it yesterday).

The iPhone 2.0 launch hasn’t gone so well either. I was elated to finally see the message from iTunes that I had an update to download (after repeatedly being told that no update was available). That excitement was short-lived as the update failed rendering my iPhone currently useless. Clicking on my iPhone in iTunes gives me one of several error messages. The reports coming in seem to indicate that 3G iPhone activation is running into trouble too.

It hasn’t been a good couple of days for Apple. Hopefully I’ll get it working and be able to visit the App Store by tonight. Then I can go shopping and post some screenshots.

Today Macworld is reporting that Marketcircle is bringing Daylite to the iPhone. Daylite’s iCal integration is nice, but a lot of the useful information (e.g. the connections to contacts) doesn’t carry over to iCal. Daylite on the iPhone would be a welcome addition.

A couple of weeks ago Marketcircle posted an article on their site called Getting Things Done with Daylite. It’s a nice tutorial on how to use the various tools Daylite provides as part of your workflow.

With iPhone 2.0 right around the corner, details are starting to emerge about some of the iPhone applications we can expect to see. Leading off the list is mobile NetNewsWire. I am a little disappointed to not see Apple Briefs in their screenshots. But at least now I know I am not the only one who checks in every day to see how the lolcats are doing. Some GTD-goodness is headed to your iPhone soon via Things and OmniFocus. OmniFocus seems to be a little farther along – The Omni Group has a teaser page up complete with screenshots. Those pencil drawings of Things look pretty good, though (and I really like the idea of using stencils to plan an iPhone app).