it’s the best mobile device, no question.

but it is missing a few things:

• back button – there is no way to go back to the previous screen. you have to press the ‘home’ button and start over. they should have given users a way to go back whenever they want. either by adding a button, or a general purpose multi-touch action
• copy & paste – there is no way to copy and paste. really basic and really missing
• ability to capture videos – you’d expect the camera will enable you to record short video clips. but no. weird. (btw, the quality of the camera is kind of poor. for a $600 device you’d expect more)
• ability to refuse an incoming call – if the phone is locked and someone is calling you can’t ignore the call. only silence the ring.
• typing a name while in the contacts screen – if you want to call someone from the contact list you can only browse through the list. you can’t start typing the name and getting a subset of the contacts.
• connecting to other devices using WiFi – you can only connect to an access-point not ad-hoc to another iPhone (or any other WiFi enabled device.
• GPS – the google maps is great. but putting a GPS in this device would have made it much better.
• using MP3s as ringtones – you can choose one of your MP3 files to serve as a ringtone, which does not make sense (i assume the greedy AT&T wanted that feature blocked to generate ringtone revenues. i am looking forward for the hack that will remove this stupid limitation)
• ability to upload pictures to flickr/facebook/etc. – this is pretty basic. right now you can only email photos.
• more applications – they should open up the platform and fast. right now it has a great potential but if we will depend on Apple and AT&T deciding what applications the user can install it will be a waste of a great platform.

the most important thing missing: making calls over WiFi (using Skype or some other VOIP client)

in the afternoon (3:30pm) i made the decision to go and stand in line for the iPhone in an Apple store near my home. leaving in NJ i assumed the line would not be that bad.

the line was not that bad (i was something like the 90th person in line or so). the first guy on the line camped near the store since yesterday at 2pm. even had a paper hat saying "#1".. maskit asked him when did the second person arrived, and when he said 4hrs after he did, she asked whether he did not feel stupid… she became persona non grata at the head of the line.

it was an interesting experience. the guys from Apple came by every few minutes asking how we’re doing, giving water and coffee. the crowd was very mixed.

some people passing by called us insane and complained about the decadence of the society

once the store opened at 6pm (after a new year style countdown) the line moved very quickly. whenever someone came out of the store holding an iPhone the crowd cheered. and the Apple people were taking photos and videos.

at 6:15 i had my new iPhone.

was worth the wait.

(from the quick survey i did on the people around me most did not have a cingular/at&t plan. so i assume this is going to be a very positive event for at&t. they’ll be able to transfer over many new subs.)

been following the buzz, read all the rave reviews, drooled over the ads..

i know someone who actually posted on craigslist looking for someone to stand in line for him.. (did a quick search in craigslist there are many people doing the same. insane.)

quick pros & cons for getting an iPhone:

pros:

• it looks like the coolest device ever

cons:

• it’s expensive
• i hate at&t
• at&t is more expensive than my current carrier (t-mobile)
• doesn’t fit in our start-up budget
• my wife will seriously consider killing me

conclusion:

• i should get an iPhone

need to think of excuses for wife. here is what i have so far:

1. this is THE most talked about thing in the consumer space. boxee being a start-up in the digital media space, means we must buy it, play with it, learn from it.
2. you always said you’d like to throw away my blackberry to the toilet. here’s your chance.
3. TBD (should be some kind of hard-to-refuse bribe)

i am finding myself pressing the F12 key on my laptop quite frequently (to those who don’t use Mac, F12 brings up the widgets. to those who don’t know what widegts are better read the next post… )

i bring up the widget screen because:

• that’s how i twitter
• because i try to press F11 and miss (F11 shows the desktop)

so i figured this is a good way to keep track of to-dos. i use a sticky note widget and write stuff i should follow-up on.

it’s easy and i get to see it several times a day. which was the biggest issue for me with using various to-do tools. i’d put in to-do items, but will never remember to go back and check on them..

before i got a boxee credit card i ran many boxee expenses on my personal credit card.. since i am not very good about keeping a record of my expenses i looked for a tool to help me figure out how much i actually spent.

the citibank website didn’t give me a good tool to do it, and i don’t use something like quicken of microsoft money.

then i stumbled upon wesabe. i uploaded all my credit card statements in a few minutes, and then used tagging to mark all the boxee related expenses.

it was quick, easy, and now i can even print all sorts of irrelevant graphs of the way the expenses split.

not sure about all the social features around it. can’t see myself use any of them at this stage. it seems it is a heated space, but i am not passionate enough about it to start exploring the other sites.

anyway. cool little tool. very useful.

we will soon move into a new office in israel. there is a philosophical question regarding the layout of the office. whether it is going to be an open-space or are we going to have separate rooms for people.

it is probably a theoretical debate since the budget we are allocating for the rent will probably just get us one small room… still as we are building our corporate boxee culture we get do discuss these issues, and people have firm opinions.

i found this short summary of benefits of open-space vs. offices:

Summary of Benefits of Open Space

• Most appreciate the sense of community an open spaced work environment instills in them
• Space allows for better communication and exchange of information among co-workers. It is easier to ask each other questions in an open environment
• Some preferred being among other people, not wanting to feel “closed in” or “all alone”
• The open work environment also allows some to know what’s “going on” in the office – being “in the know”

Summary of Benefits of Closed Space

• 9 in 10 state that privacy is the number one benefit of a closed space/work environment
• The idea of having walls around you, keeping roving eyes from drifting over to your work and “your space” makes some feel more secure
• Another key benefit of working in a closed space is the reduction in noise
• A closed space can also translate, for some, into more room/space. It usually connotes an office or larger work/office space

i personally think that in an early stages of a company there is no question that an open-space is better. everybody should be working together, all the time. i believe that open-space encourages creativity and collaboration and keeps everyone on the same page (i also find the egalitarian aspect of it to be appealing).

i am not sure when comes the time that having private rooms starts to make sense. maybe never.

a good friend recommended that i read "the dip" by seth godin. as i wrote before i am not a big fan of "business" books, but my friend promised it is very short and worthwhile. so i went on amazon and got it.

it is very short (80 small pages with big font..).

the dip tries to explain that in certain situations quitting is good (rather than sticking with something hopeless). he calls these situations "cul-de-sacs".  and that real winners know when to stick and when to quit.

it sounds kind of obvious. and it really is. i think the only advantage to reading the book is that it make you think about whether you are currently facing any dips or cul-de-sacs.

i guess by definition any entrepreneur that moved beyond a certain stage (quitting his job,  risking his own money, etc.) has made it through a dip that most people will quit. i hope we’ll be determined enough to move past future dips and smart enough to quit cul-de-sacs we come across.

like in many other business books it is very repetitive and could be summarized well in an article. but then it would not make as much money for the author… (i think The Long Tail is another example of monetizing article material into a best-selling book). to seth godin’s credit he kept it down to quick 80-page booklet, when he could easily made it into a 300-page book.

got seat 25E (in the middle seat in the middle row).

opted-out from the hindu food. figured it will send me to the restrooms and didn’t want to bother my neighbors.

had an old lady sitting on my left. she was very nice, though kept tapping my shoulder to ask question. her favorite question was what time it is. she wanted to get the answer in san francisco, new york, and israel time-zone. then she’d ask how long before we arrive.

watched a bad movie ("crank") on my laptop. the old lady kept peeking, she was most interested in the sex scene..

rented a car from avis. they gave me a car i never heard of before, Nissan Micra. it looks like a SMART car with a severe allergic reaction. i believe i drove lawn mowers with bigger engines.

we spent a few days in the west coast. had meeting with our designers, potential partners, potential investors, friends and potential friends

a few observations:

starbucks – while i make an effort to avoid it. there are really no alternatives in downtown san francisco. it is bad coffee served in over-sized cups. to my surprise our morning starbucks served a ’small’ size (which in every other country would be considered regular). a major improvement. now they only need to have better coffee beans, better grinding, not over-heat the coffee, not burn the milk, and learn how to make proper foam..

motivating music – first time that i rented a car that had XM built in. took us a long time, but finally we found a station we liked. not sure what the number was, but it was playing all kinds of electronic music. it felt good. charging us up before our meetings.

the secret for more effective networking – i found a way to improve my networking skills. alcohol. it works even better if the other people drink too…

designers are magicians – we really enjoyed the time we spent with our designers. i can’t understand how they do what they do. to me it feels like magic. 

we finally decided on our logo, colors, etc. will publish it here soon. (together with a new design for this blog and our the boxee.tv site page)

techdirt is one of those places every start-up wants to be featured on. so it’s no surprise that they have to deal with many emails spam from PR people.

from time to time it annoys them enough to post about it. like this post from a few days ago (there are also links to previous posts they had about PR abuse).

we view blogs as a great way to get the word out about boxee (we and everyone else), but if it was not obvious by now there is no way we are going to use a PR agency… we’ll do it ourselves and keep it real.