It may seem weird to think that a mobile device that is so good
at mobile web browsing (likely the best to-date [and I've owned 5
Microsoft-based devices whose browsing was initially way ahead of
its competitors]) is killing the web, but I think it is.
Watching the WWDC (Apple's
annual programmer shin-dig in Silicon Valley - they announced the
iPhone 1.0 here last year) keynote that I missed while I was
away on vacation, the eBay
demo blew me away. Apple invited several people up on stage that
had been using the new iPhone tools that let programmers make new
programs for the iPhone. Disney, eBay, the Associated Press, and
others have been doing things on the iPhone already.
eBay's program is what you'd expect: you can search & view
auctions, add them to watchlists and bid on them...
What struck me is that it's the same things that you can do on
their website: but they have made it specifically for the iPhone so
it looks good and works really well for that screen. So it looks
really good, uses the internet & eBay's existing services but
never touches the actual www.ebay.com (or .ca) website. So
it's the services that we love on the web, but without, well... the
web itself. So the interface is better
And you could also mix in some things that aren't web specific.
You can make use of the actual device you are using (in this case
the iPhone).
Loopt is another really cool
application that actually uses the GPS location-based information
of the iPhone. Several games shown use the accelerometer of the
iPhone (a racing game where you tilt the iPhone right to turn right
and tilt it left to turn left).
And yes, I'm excited about the iPhone 2
coming to Canada this summer. I may well be in line or pre-order or
something (which would be a hardware first for me). Hopefully
Rogers won't make the data plan hurt too much.