The big news last night was that the live streaming video solution Qik.com released their iPhone 3G compatible application. The only problem? You need to hack your phone to make it work. Talk about a crappy solution. The reason that you need to hack your iPhone is that the iPhone 3G currently doesn’t provide video support. This is a huge problem with the phone. When I first heard that the iPhone was 3G, I was excited to be able to begin streaming video.

Soon enough I found out that this wasn’t possible. Then again, given the current battery life, I’d imagine the video streaming time to be exceptionally short. Soon enough video streaming from mobile will be ubiquitous in the United States. We are still at the early stages but my hopes were high when I saw that Qik was now offering video streaming on the iPhone 3G.

Unfortunately those hopes were dashed when I went to view how to install it. It could be months before this application is accessible without jail-breaking the iPhone. I don’t have experience in cracking the iPhone or installing “Cydia”, the application that’s necessary to install this app. Check out how the Qik application works below. Have you experimented with jail-breaking your iPhone?

This afternoon I decided to try out the Evernote application for the iPhone. In the process of installing the application, I had to go through a registration process. As I went through the process, I got to a reCaptcha form as displayed in the screenshot below. Why on earth would an iPhone need to display a captcha form on an iPhone only registration form?

This was probably one of the most annoying steps in the registration process. Typing a captcha form on an iPhone is especially annoying. Perhaps that’s because iPhone has a less than intuitive keyboard. Whatever the reason, I’m not quite sure why an application would place this on an iPhone registration form. Have you had this happen to you?

While I think that iPhone applications have transformed the mobile industry, I don’t think that all the applications have been developed with the end user in mind. Applications should make it extremely easy to register (if necessary) via a one-click registration method. Is there some type of spam that iPhone applications are subject to that I’m unaware of? Who are these unknown iPhone spammers?

Today the iPhone application directory crossed the 1,000 applications milestone. It’s a significant announcement for any new platform and the iPhone appears to be racing to the forefront to potentially become the leading mobile platform for developers. One of the most buzzed about platforms recently is the Facebook platform which has, according to Facebook’s statistics, attracted over 400,00 developers. The iPhone platform is rapidly proving itself to be a significant opportunity as well.

The most significant challenge for the iPhone platform is user adoption. While Apple was able to sell millions of iPhones, the number of total users pales in comparison to other platforms. That doesn’t mean that the platform is one to sneeze at though. Just last week it was reported that the iPhone Facebook application had been downloaded by 1 million users.

While nowhere near the more than 90 million users installed by top Facebook applications, these numbers are still significant for an early platform. Numbers aren’t all that matter though when it comes to comparing platforms. If you take a look at the quality of applications being developed on Facebook versus the quality of applications being developed on the iPhone.

On Facebook, most of the top applications are relatively simple (although they have been improving in quality since the initial launch). At launch, the iPhone provided an immense number of applications which have proven to be extremely useful or at least entertaining. Whether I’m using Shazam to figure out what song I’m hearing in a bar or restaurant, or looking to waste some time playing Labyrinth, BubbleWrap or Monkey Ball, there is a huge value offering.

Also while I was eating lunch in Miami this weekend, I was able to figure out what we would be having for dinner by pulling up the Yelp application and finding nearby, top rated restaurants. The bottom line is that there is a huge value proposition for the iPhone platform regardless of the number of users that have purchased it. Apple will most definitely fill this gap by continuing to sell out of iPhones for the foreseeable future.

As forecasted by many, I believe that the iPhone is the phone to transform the mobile industry in this country and help mobile computing take a huge leap forward. While venture capitalists are warning entrepreneurs not to invest everything in the iPhone, at this point I think it is too large of an opportunity to ignore.

While checking out of a CVS last night I overheard a girl talking to the guy behind the cash register about her iPhone. She had the first version of the phone but appeared to be extremely satisfied with it. She was telling the cashier about all of the cool things she can do with the phone. “I can rent movies just like Blockbuster right on to my phone”, she said to the cashier.

As she walked away from checking out the cashier turned to his co-worker and said, “I’m buying an iPhone.” No matter how much the phone costs, I have no doubt in my mind that he is going to now go and purchase the new iPhone within the next month or two. He’s not the only one. iPhones are sold out around the country and when I went to the mall two days ago, there were still long lines to purchase the phone!

I have some serious complaints about the phone but I think the notion of being able to easily navigate the web, interact with your friends and family and consume all of your favorite media from one device is game changing. The most significant change is that the mainstream is going to once again get access to a plethora of fresh, niche content but not just while sitting at their computer. Instead it will arrive in the palm of their hands.

Last year when Facebook opened their platform it sparked a movement. That movement continues today as MySpace, Bebo, and on Wednesday Facebook, continue to extend their platforms beyond their walled gardens. That’s only a small part of the story though. If you thought the internet was a catalyst for the development of a massive amount of niche content for consumers, I think the iPhone and future mobile platforms could spark an even greater revolution.

The new iPhone could help rapidly extend the reach of podcasts in addition to other forms of media. There is a race right now for applications to gain a significant share of the market. For instance, Pandora is now the default radio for the iPhone. Not a bad place to be. Where is Clear Channel, CBS Radio and the other large radio companies? Nowhere! The only other radio platform is Virgin Radio which launched two days after the iPhone 2.0 upgrade was released. Currently they are being trounced by Pandora though.

The rise of niche media that many web entrepreneurs are betting heavily on have been absent of one thing: a mainstream distribution channel. While there are niche T.V. shows through portal sites like Yahoo and AOL, there is now a new land grab for dominance on the relatively open iPhone platform. That land grab, in my own opinion, is bigger than any of the previous platform land grabs in the past decade.

Last year it took Mark Zuckerberg to reignite the revolution. As Kara Swisher wrote yesterday, “It’s more than a little ironic, then, that about a year ago it was the social-networking site that reinvigorated the idea of the importance of having a platform that a multitude of developers could thrive on.” She continues, “Microsoft has nourished an ecosystem of developers for its powerful Windows software platform for, like, forever. But Facebook surely made the idea bigger, looser, wilder and more exciting.”

Facebook helped to revive the idea of a platform empowering developers. Apple has taken that idea one step further by making it sexy and making it portable. Oh and by the way, it’s also social! With the close timing of the iPhone launch and f8, I think this month may just be one of the primary drivers behind the continued transformation of the social web for the next 12 months.

Over the past weekend I have had the opportunity to play with my brand spanking new 3G iPhone. I’ve also had enough time to find out what’s good and what’s bad about this new “game changing” device. My first impression is a mixed one. As soon as I was able to get the iPhone activated on Friday I began downloading applications and browsing the web.

Problems Ahead

Within a matter of hours the phone was no longer charged and I had to plug it into the wall. This trend continued throughout the weekend and I slowly began to realize that the phone is not really the best wireless device because you need to be plugged into the wall half the day. The maximum amount of usage I’ve got out of a charge so far is 2 hours 45 minutes before plugging it into the wall. While the phone can sit on standby for longer, I didn’t get the phone to leave it sitting in my pocket. I want to use it!

Unlike some other users, I also found that my GPS did not work effectively. After trying to change a number of settings I decided to put the phone on my dashboard while I drove to lunch. Soon enough the GPS was working but by the end of the weekend, I was having the same issues again: the GPS was telling me I was in Boston when I was actually in D.C.

One other issue that I had was that occasionally applications were not loading completely and were instead crashing. If the application wasn’t crashing it was freezing occasionally while I was using it. Finally, some applications simply weren’t built well. So far I have found no more than six applications that I will use regularly: Facebook, Pandora, Twitteriffic, midomi, Monkey Ball and Loopt. So this is where my problems end.

A Revolutionary Device

In the face of all my problems, there is still hope for the device. This morning Alex Iskold gave the new iPhone rave reviews declaring it the “new personal computer.” In spite of all the iPhone’s downfalls, it definitely is a step toward total mobile computing. The best part about the iPhone? It’s browsing capabilities.

I spent the entire weekend on FriendFeed and Twitter because it was a joy to browse the sites using the iPhone. While I was only able to browse for two hours at a time, I found myself spending more time browsing via my iPhone instead of my actual computer even though it was across the room. I also enjoyed downloading new applications.

Those applications that did work were pretty amazing. The gaming potential on the iPhone is amazing. The new Monkey Ball application highlights how revolutionary this device really is. With 3D graphics and its ability to leverage the accelerometer, this game has proven to be a landmark. Pandora worked shockingly well. The songs stream flawlessly and my custom channels that I had pre-programmed were found instantly.

The only downfall to the applications? You can’t “minimize” the applications and do something else. As soon as you exit an application it completely shuts down making it practically impossible to multi-task on the phone. I have spent more time using this phone than any other mobile device I have previously used simply because the interface continues to delight.

If you are involved in the technology industry in some way, I think this device is a must have. Without using it, you can’t understand the potential that lies ahead for mobile. If you aren’t in the industry, this device is a great gadget to have but I don’t think it’s a necessity. Then again, the 1 million people that purchase the phone this weekend can’t be wrong, can they?

At 7 a.m. this morning I arrived at the AT&T store in Friendship Heights (Washington, D.C.). There were approximately 30 to 40 people already in line. By 8 A.M. the doors opened and customers began getting their new iPhones. There was one little problem: nobody was leaving the store. I waited in line with a number of other people who were waiting to purchased their spanking new 3G iPhone and we continued to wait as 6 to 8 people left the store in the first hour and a half.

I figured I would be there until noon at the rate I was going. I came pretty close. What had happened was that Apple’s activation servers were not functioning and customers were simply waiting for requests to go through. While I didn’t ask the first customers if they left activated, I have a feeling that the first few did which is why it took them over an hour to checkout.

What happened to me was unfortunate and most likely irregular. I was forced to get a third phone line (yes, I already have two) in order to purchase the iPhone. I was not eligible for an upgrade and apparently not eligible to purchase an iPhone unless I got another line. Fortunately, this new line ended up saving me $200 that I had expected to spend.

I just returned home, opened my new iPhone expecting to be able to start downloading and testing apps but the following error appeared: “We could not complete your itunes store request. A secure network connection could not be established. Make Sure SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 is enabled in the Internet Options control panel, then try again.”

I searched Google and immediately found articles from last year when apparently there were other activation problems. I tried again a few minutes later and received another error stating that there was a network timeout. The conclusion? I spent four hours this morning waiting in line to get a product which doesn’t even work when I get home!

The good part of this? There were only 20 phones when I left and they were clearly going to sell out based on the line present when I left. I’m not sure how many iPhones are at other stores but there’s a good chance other stores will be selling out as well. I feel somewhat fortunate but at the same time I am dissatisfied. I can only hope that this new phone was worth waiting for.

I’ve justified the purchase by figuring that this new device is the next phase of the social platform wars and it’s my job to track it. Have you faced similar problems this morning? Will you be purchasing an iPhone 3G?

Today marked the launch of the new iPhone application directory and iPhone users worldwide had the opportunity to start testing out the new applications. So far it appears that there is positive feedback and given the expected success of the iPhone 2.0 tomorrow, things are looking up for Apple. There are some unexpected competitors though as Caroline McCarthy points out: Facebook and MySpace.

I have said over and over again that the iPhone is inherently a social device and have suggested that the phone could transform social gaming. At this juncture, I think that could easily be an understatement. With the launch of multiple iPhone applications this morning, it is clear that MySpace and Facebook have distinct competitors: Loopt, Whrrl and of course Apple, just to name a few. Most of those competitors have also built in location based services and some have included instant communications with others in the network.

The other thing that’s important is that companies can immediately start charging for applications, something that no developers have been able to do on social platforms. While that may soon change with the launch of Facebook’s payment platform, Apple has just catapulted themselves to become one of the potential front-runners in the social platform wars.

While the iPhone still has less users than Facebook or MySpace, that could rapidly change. With Apple ready to launch in a number of countries, the company has a great opportunity to reach their iPod user base which is already larger than Facebook and close to the size of MySpace. In the wars of the social platforms (just as with any other platforms), the battles are fought for developers and clearly the current opportunity presented by the iPhone will attract plenty of developers.

Whether or not competing social network offerings will be able to pull away the users from sites like Facebook and MySpace, the initial battles are simply for developers and that’s all that matters. In the coming weeks we may begin to hear of similar success stories to those experienced by the initial Facebook application developers.

As the success stories roll in, the developers will follow suit and jump on the latest platform craze. Facebook better be able to pull something out of their hat at the upcoming f8 event in San Francisco. With the clamping down on privacy violations, developers are getting nervous and there was never a better time to try out the latest hot thing. If Facebook doesn’t pull out something big at f8, there is a chance for yet another monumental shift of development resources.

Do you think Facebook, MySpace and other social platform developers will soon jump ship?

Today the iPhone application directory launched and there are a ton of social applications, most of which are completely free. There are obviously the basic social network applications which includes the Facebook and MySpace applications. Both have a robust set of features.

Instant Messaging

As I posted on AllFacebook though, the new Facebook application one-ups the MySpace application by including Facebook chat. If you aren’t into Facebook chat though, there is also an AOL Instant Messenger which lets you chat with any of your friends, manage your buddy list and even send SMS messages directly to your friends.

Location Based Applications

If you want to track where your friends are though you are going to need to use something aside from the new Facebook and MySpace applications. Instead you can use the Loopt application which functions similarly to competing Brightkite but includes a map. If you aren’t into Loopt there is also an application called “Whrrl” which lets your friends share their location, view a history of your friends’ locations, remember places that you want to visit and filter by types of destinations.

Finally there is the “Where” application that helps you find restaurants, gas, concerts and locate your friends. It doesn’t appear to be affiliated with the Where magazine but it definitely has some useful features. I haven’t been able to test out the application yet since I won’t have an iPhone until tomorrow!

Blogging Applications

There are a number of blogging and micro-blogging applications featured in the directory. TypePad has created an extremely useful blogging application which lets you blog directly from your phone as well as embed photos and adjust their size. I could see this being a highly used application. If you are a big Twitter fan, there is also a free ad-supported Twitterific application as well as a premium version without ads.

Pownce has also included an iPhone version of their application. It doesn’t look robust and based on the application description I have no idea what features are included!

Public Social Networking

Want to meet random people at the coffee shop or airport? There are now a number of applications that let you publicly broadcast your profile as well as publicly broadcast messages to people that are in your vicinity. These are digital icebreakers that help you start dialog with other people. There is currently the iFob application and the Shout It application.

There are a number of other applications as well. If you’d like to view it, go download the new version of iTunes and visit apple.com/appstore. Launching the application store a day early will surely help build the buzz for the iPhone launch tomorrow and possibly convert any last minute buyers.

This morning I walked back to my computer after taking a shower and saw the dialog box pictured to the left sitting on my desktop. Apparently the Apple iPhone camera was connected to my computer. That’s strange though because no iPhone was ever connected to my computer. I’ve been thinking about the new iPhone a lot recently, even going so far as heading over to the AT&T store to find out the scoop on the new phone and finding out how much I’ll have to pay.

Unfortunately I’m not currently eligible for an upgrade and will find myself paying $299 for the new iPhone. No matter how much it costs, it’s now become my job to buy the new phone and so when it launches on Friday I will be one of the customers waiting in line for the 2nd version of the iPhone. There is a ton of buzz surrounding the new iPhone and much of it is focused on the new games that will be launching in the new iPhone application directory.

I’ve also been hyping the phone as the next device to transform the entire social web. I still stand by that and with f8 following right behind the iPhone launch, I have a feeling that we may see a new mobile offering by Facebook as well. Whatever ends up happening at f8, one thing is certain: this week’s iPhone launch is going to be big. My calling came in the form of a desktop notification. Have you been called upon to purchase the new iPhone?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, there is a good chance that you’ve heard about Apple’s new 3G iPhone which is set to transform the mobile industry. The new phone comes with GPS, runs on the faster 3G network, has improved battery-life and only costs $199 for the 8 GB model. Unfortunately for me I listened through the entire Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Monday just to get to the end where Steve Jobs announced the new device.

While there were false rumors about video chat and dual cameras on the phone, the phone is still expected to dominate the cell phone market. Piper Jaffray expects Apple to sell a whopping 45 million iPhones next year. It’s not just the iPhone that will positively effect Apple’s bottom line though. Based on numbers that Dan Frommer completed, Apple could generate upwards of a quarter billion dollars in operating income from iPhone application sales.

While I am currently a Blackberry user I am most definitely going to purchase one of the new iPhones for the purpose of testing out the new applications being built on the platform. With GPS integrated applications, the phone will transform location based services and in my own opinion it also will transform the social web. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, the phone is inherently a social device whereas a computer is not.

Will you be purchasing the new iPhone? Do you think it’s going to help transform the social web?