Here is another case against iPhone and Apple controlling the ecosystem. This is message pops up as of today on Grooveshark web site for iPhone.

Grooveshark Is Not Supported On The iPhone

Right now there is not a Grooveshark application for iPhones through Apple’s iPhone App Store. Unfortunately at this time, Apple is unwilling to work with Grooveshark to approve our application. This means that iPhones are unable to download Grooveshark for iPhone unless they are jailbroken. We are sincerely sorry to be unable to offer Grooveshark to all iPhones, as we’ve done everything in our power to have it included in Apple’s App Store.

If your iPhone is jailbroken, you are able to download the Grooveshark app. Read our blog post to find out more.

That is lame. I don’t know the reasons why the app is not approved. This is what holds me back from buying more Apple products. I definitely have plans to buy an iPad but whenever I see something like this, I really wish there was a good alternative.

On the preferences->devices tab, I have checked the prevent iPhones and iPods from syncing automatically. I do not want the sync kicking in every time I connect my iPhone to the computer. It stops the playback of whatever I am listening to and won’t go back and continue playing whatever I was playing before the sync kicked in. It is an annoyance. At least it should provide an option not to auto sync when I am playing something or running an application.

So, here is the problem. Whenever I connect my iPhone to the computer, iTunes does a short sync of sort even though I have disabled the auto sync. I don’t know what it is doing but it does reset whatever I was playing. All the podcasts I listened since the last sync are reset back to the state of the last sync.

I do have a workaround though. I close the iTunes before I connect the iPhone to the computer. Once I connect and the iPhone beeps/vibrates, I can open the iTunes. Now it won’t do that short sync. The problem is I keep forgetting to close the iTunes before I connect my iPhone to the computer. Most of the times I just scrub through the podcasts I already listened to get around this. When the number of podcasts I already listened are large, I have to listen a bit to figure out if I already listened them.

Update: This workaround doesn’t work! I just had one instance where it did sync and mess up my podcasts.

I have no guesses on what is the real purpose of this sync. If this problem does not appear on iPod Touch, my guess would be something pushed by AT&T through iTunes.

I also don’t know if the same issue occurs on the Mac version of iTunes.

I am trying to create an iTunes store account that can be used on the second (old) iPhone. I did not want to attach a credit card to that account. Apple wouldn’t let me do that. I ask myself why do they need a credit card information until I make a purchase? Need a new law preventing such practice. No business should ask for credit card or social security number unless it is required to complete a transaction.

I found out a workaround that is to use a gift card to complete the account creation. So I go to the iTunes store and try to purchase a gift card. It won’t let me either. It gave me an error saying my legit account that I use on my new iPhone and successfully used for other transactions is not eligible. The error message is “This account is not currently eligible to purchase gift certificates”. Right. I can buy a certificate that they will mail to me but not something that can be used right away. The reason: not eligible! With Apple you never know what that means. You don’t need to know. You just need to be protected. Sound familiar?

There are some discussions at apple forums about this but not answered.

This is one of the reasons why I always wanted a Windows Mobile phone. But I ended up with not one but two iPhones. Wonder why?

I have never installed iTunes on my work computer based on my experience with it on my home computers. It installs stuff that runs in background and now it installs a device driver for iPhone etc. My colleague who also has an iPhone installed the iTunes 8 today and it bricked the computer. It was the device driver that caused the trouble. It blue screens while booting. All afternoon he was trying to get it back to working. The last I saw him doing was trying to use system recovery. Not sure if it will work. While loading drivers, it is faults in KERNEL32.EXE.

For the past few days I have been postponing the update message from Apple Software Updater on my home computer. I think I will wait until the issues are completely resolved. I only recently rebuilt my computer to Vista. I do have completely PC backup though.

I am tired of waiting for the ultimate Windows Mobile Phone in the US. Meanwhile everyone else is enjoying the benefits of iPhone. Two of my friends who were waiting for the coolest Windows Mobile phone had already switched to iPhone. None of us like the closed platform that Apple provides. But Windows Mobile doesn’t seem to be delivering on its potential. Microsoft’s dependence on mobile phone manufacturers doesn’t seem to be working. I know they acquired one, but there is no news about what their plans are and such.

Today I went ahead and purchased the 8GB black iPhone 3G. Right now it is syncing with iTunes on my Vista machine. It looks like iTunes is frozen because it is not responding to my mouse clicks. I never liked iTunes anyway. Compared to Windows Media Player 10/11, it is pretty primitive. I hate the way it moves around files on my computer. iPhone says the sync is in progress but I doubt it. I do not have too many files to sync.

As for the hardware, these are little things I have noticed. iPhone has one of the best designed chargers I have ever seen. It is just a small cube that plugs in to a power outlet with a USB port on the other end. I completely dislike the custom cable required to connect the iPhone to anything else. I am glad that they provide a cable with the phone unlike old Motorola phones where you had to purchase a cable and then you got the software along with the cable. Motorola already switched to standard USB cables like most of the rest of the world.

I don’t know yet the quality of 3G, but even without update to software version 2.0.2, the Internet access speed was good. I just updated to the latest version. I didn’t know that the download size was almost a quarter of a gigabyte. The best updates I have seen are from Microsoft where the updates are not like the entire OS.

Even though the iPhone 3G had been out for almost a month now, there was a line to get it in the AT&T store. Not too long but everyone had to wait like 30 minutes to an hour. With all the recession and all, I was not expecting the line for a phone. I am not sure if this is how it is always done, but the AT&T was only able to transfer my contacts to SIM card and then that SIM card to the iPhone. Other data like ring tones, pictures etc were not transferred in store.

I have been reading many many articles that tells you why you should or should not buy an iPhone. I think this is a great phone for the price but would be nicer without that 2 year AT&T contract. I have had a chance to play with an iPhone the day after it came out. My friend walked in to the Apple store in San Francisco late in the night on June 29th asked for an iPhone and they had plenty.

iPhone is very easy is to use, I did not need a manual or even the help from from my friend to use it. That for someone who has no Apple products at home or work. It is bigger and heavier than most cell phones but thinner and lighter than most smart phones. Smart phones with similar feature sets are heavier and thicker. I kept telling everyone that the touch screen keyboard is going to be its biggest drawback for people on the move. You cannot type without looking at the screen. It is true. But if you are looking at the screen, it is very easy to type. I did not find it difficult as many others mentioned in many articles.

Many say iPhone is too expensive. People paid the same for Motorola RAZR when it first came out. I recently paid $125 for an unlocked RAZR V3. But remember, Apple products usually costs the same for a long time.

Tiny storage? Yeah 8GB at the max. XBox 360 which is media powerhouse had only 20 GB until recently.

I would not buy the iPhone for very simple reasons. I do not want to get stuck with AT&T. I am not a big fan of completely closed platforms.

I think Apple should have released the iPhone unlocked to the general public and they would have had a better success than with AT&T. iPhone is being sold not because of AT&T brand but just because of Apple brand name. I don’t understand this business, so, may be I am wrong.

What are your plans for iPhone? Do you think there is a better phone coming out that you can get unlocked?

I got a loaner N95 from my friend today. The phone looks good. Will it be a competition for iPhone? After 2 hours of using it, I don’t think so. And it costs $800 on Amazon.

- N95 slides open in my pocket easily. This one even automatically unlocks the phone keys when it slides open.

- Setting up WLAN is a pain. I could not figure out how to delete WLAN entered I have made.

- GPS says I am somewhere in Europe. I will try again.

- Bluetooth kills the battery as usual. Every phone I have had the same issue, no exception here.

- No touch screen. I did not realize this before. Bummer.

I cannot believe that with all the technologies out there, an expensive phone like this is so mediocre in usability.

I never would. Not even it proves to be a good phone. My impression about Cisco is that the company waiting to sue anyone. I felt they are more like RIAA when they sued the security guy. If I ever buy an iPhone, it will be from Apple and not from Cisco. Even if it is not called iPhone anymore.

For one, most of the features offered by iPhone were available to everyone for over a year already in the form of Windows Mobile 5. The phone itself looks like my Dell Axim x51v. But that is only a PDA. Dell could have expanded it to a phone and it would have been my first choice for a smart phone any time. But they did not. If they don’t do it, someone else will. In this case Apple did it. Dell’s PDA has better media capabilities, a more powerful processor and a VGA display. That PDA is already more than a year old – a 2005 story. In the second half of 2007 Apple is coming with a media device that is QVGA, that is a quarter of resolution of VGA.

Windows Mobile has most of the features Apple is bringing. But As usual Apple product will be more usable than the Microsoft product. But Apple products usually lacks features. What that means is that you may need to carry more than one device. In that respect I still prefer to see Nokia N95 in action. Nokia may not look as cool as iPhone but it has more complete features and a more global appeal. Apple may not be able to beat that. There are more innovation in cell phones outside of US. The best of cellular phones are all available only outside of US. As long as subsidized phone sales by carriers rule in the US, there may not be a lot of innovative cellular products available here. If I need a really cool smart phone, I need to import it from either Europe or Korea.

Other issues why iPhone may not be cool are

It uses similar touch screens as iPod. You know how scratch resistant they are.

It will support only EDGE for data when it arrives in 2H 2007. What? Most of the world has moved over to 3G already.

It has a non removable battery. Given the history, you will be calling Apple Service often to change that battery.

No expandable memory. Very nice. N95 allows Micro SD cards. How about that?

No WiFi syncing to your PC. After the Zune I thought the next Apple product will feature this.