Posts by Julie Ask from July 10, 2008

Julie Ask | July 10, 2008, 02:21 PM
Short Line in SF at the Apple Store

I was on my way back from a meeting early this morning downtown when I wandered by the Apple Store. It was mostly a typical scene at 7am in downtown San Francisco. Streets were being cleaning. Vendors were opening up for the day. A handful of homeless people were beginning to wander around.

I walked by the store and saw a tent. I though – oh, a homeless person camped in the middle of the sidewalk. That’s odd. (There are a lot of homeless people in SF, but they typically don’t camp in the middle of the sidewalk at busy intersections.) Then it dawned on me, “oh …. That person is ‘the line.’” I went to my meeting for a couple of hours and then wandered back by.

Turns out I “knew” the line – was Dale Larson. I stopped to chat. I had a lot of questions – was it safe? Where did he use the bathroom? How did he fetch food without losing his place in line? (I last slept on the street about 14 years ago because I made a last minute decision to go to the San Fermin in Pamplona and didn’t have a hotel room, but wanted a great spot for watching the bulls. Felt out of practice.) Dale was dressed in a sports coat and tie none-the-less. Said the folks in the Apple store let him use their bathroom. He wears earplugs at night. Street corner is busy enough that he feels safe. One of the most interesting things is, people bring him food and stop to chat. While I was there, two women stopped by – “Number 23” and “Number 24” from the original iPhone launch in 2007. They were old friends. Dale was only #3 last year.

Julie Ask | July 10, 2008, 01:51 PM
Apple's Apps

I'm really jazzed to see some of my favorite applications making their way on to the Apple platform and into the applications store. And some of the best ones are FREE!!!

The majority of cell phone users (ok, well the minority buy applications, but among those who do buy and download content to their cell phones) who buy content and applications for their phones do so directly from the carriers' decks. There are lots of limitations as we know. OTA allows the purchased to be spontaneous, but it can be difficult to find what you want.

An iTunes experience for mobile applications that is on par with their music, video, podcasting, etc. experience could really move the needle - at least for iPhone users in the near term. I have so many other reasons already to sync my iPhone with my computer to get my latest music, podcasts, photos, etc.

I've mostly been looking through press releases to see what is there plus searching for some of my favorites. Good to see a lot of location-based applications (Loopt, Where) and utilities - applications that go well beyond personalization and appeal to a more mature audience.

AT&T also announced today that they are delivering 1.4Mbps to handsets - those speeds rival your average crowded Wi-Fi hotspot.

I'm very anxious to begin downloading some applications and see how the device and the platform have been leveraged.

My colleague Michael Gartenberg is covering the launch in more detail and fielding press calls for us.