Anyone have any work arounds? No news from either developer… Post here if you have any news!

I put together a post  here of some recent thoughts regarding the direction of online media, particularly direct response versus impression media. Cliffs notes is:

• online media is a true direct response media and is better at direct response than it is brand awareness
• brand awareness activities online need new creative sizes (less commoditization) and more creative exploration
• we need to maximize the value of all the traffic we do manage to attract by making sure sites are tuned to maximize conversion

The iPad represents one of the most intuitive ways to manage email and I find I can blast through it each morning on the train, marking unread the items that require deeper assistance with my laptop (which I now leave in the office).

If I need access to any web apps safari or individual apps provide all the access I need (evernote, omnifocus, gmail). If anything requires more robust formatting or graphics tweaking, I move the drafted doc to my laptop-as-desktop via evernote, email or pages to email.

Whats striking after a month is that with mobile me and dropbox, I can keep all of my machines (including the iPad in sync quite seamlessly. This makes me yearn for a true desktop both at home and at work…a bit ironically perhaps.

I’d venture a guess that other traditional laptop only-types like me might have the same urge. So my conclusion is that desktop mac sales might actually see an increase in popularity with the advent and wider adoption of the iPad, I am curious what others think…

Only bummer is Jobsco can’t control the crappy network service AT&T is attempting to provide (which is soiling the reputation of the iPhone and hurting it’s growth.) I am a resident of a suburb of New York City. Each day thousands of iPhone users and I struggle through a dark commute. The AT&T service basically is non – usable for 80% of the ride (see image below: the box represents little or no service). This is inexcusable and destroys almost 2 hours a day of productive time.

Sad thing for Apple is there is little utility for a fantastic device if it can’t access the web. FYI: Verizon subscribers have connectivity the entire way. (I tested this myself on a droid for 2 weeks).

Further bad news for Apple: I have watched as many familiar train faces have shown up with new Verizon blackberries or Droids. Folks are to putting down their iPhones for a better network, or even worse, starting to carry two devices (this wastes money and kills the elegance of a single device, charger, platform, etc. Thanks to AT&T, technology has once again made people’s lives more complicated- shame on them). This New England commuter use case demonstrates further why Apple needs to build a CDMA iPhone folks could use on the superior Verizon network. I would pay full price at this point for a CDMA and contract free Verizon iPhone, as I am sure many others would from DC to Boston.

Simply stated AT&T service is horrible on my commute from Fairfield county to New York City. This is an affluent demographic that would likely pay full bullet for a data plan for the forthcoming iPad…but no one will till there is a CDMA version of the iPad or they buy a MIFI. AT&T’s argument that most recent network speed (not coverage consistency!) test that declared them winner (which is suspect in my mind…they clearly test in favorable environments and definitely do not test the common use cases of millions of commuter each day.)

AT&T got lucky with the iPhone. It covered up a glaring wound in their network… and they better bend over for Steve to keep the exclusivity so all the iPhone hardware loyalists theoretically stay locked in to a second tier network. As soon as there is a CDMA iPhone, you can bet on a mass exodus from ATT.

Its too bad amazing hardware doesn’t make up for crappy network coverage. For the love of god, Verizon and Apple, will you please get this deal done, its a no brainer!

I just read an interesting post regarding the Droid release on Fone Frenzy.

The thing that stood out for me was that Motorola, not Verizon paid for the anti-iPhone campaign. So why do we care? Simply stated, Verizon doesn’t risk incurring Cupertino’s wrath and ruin the prospect of having a CDMA iPhone running Verizon.

An excerpt form the post:

“My sources have confirmed that Apple and Verizon have been testing a CDMA iPhone on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Yes, you read that correctly, Verizon and Apple have been testing the first 4G phone on Verizon’s 4G network. The tests have been taking place for the last couple of months but with no confirmation on the release date.”

One might safely assume that Verizon still wants the option of having iPhone on its network after all!

1. Will the phone have a solid way to backup photos and videos to the desktop? No point in creating all the content if we aren’t able to integrate it into our desktop editing and archiving apps. Sure there will be youtube and picassa integration, but what about easy integration on the desktop?
2. Will the phone play nicely with itunes? Pre has had their problems…iTunes is the dominant leader. An easy sync solution here would be wildly popular.
3. Will the Verzon network break with a game changing device like at+t’s did? Only time will tell…
4. Will Verizon let us tweak and customize our own phones? They have a not so stellar past of maintaining walled gardens to prevent anyone else form monetizing the platform.

When we see this thing live in the flesh, we will know some of these answers. Looking forward to playing with one!