The online Apple Store really should have a spiffy iPhone interface like Facebook and Amazon.
Much love,
The Macalope
September 7, 2008 10:30 AM PDT
September 6, 2008 7:50 PM PDT
September 6, 2008 7:33 PM PDT
Born of the earth, forged in fire, the Macalope was branded "nonstandard" and "proprietary" by the IT world and considered a freak of nature. Part man, part Mac, and part antelope, the Macalope set forth on a quest to save his beloved platform. Long-eclipsed by his more prodigious cousin, the jackalope (they breed like rabbits, you know), the Macalope's time has come. Apple news and rumormonger extraordinaire, the Macalope provides a uniquely polymorphic approach. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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Imagine the hue and cry from the general punditry if Apple did this; all you'd hear is "Oh, I thought the iPhone had the *real* Internet. If that's true, then why does Apple feel it's necessary to create a special iPhone version of their own website!? Obviously, it's not the real Internet, and Apple lies, and blah blah blah, you should buy an HTC Touch."
You know they would jump all over that. Personally, I can do without an optimized version of the online store (though I agree that would kick ass), but I would LOVE to see an iPhone optimized "top iPhone web apps" section. I mean, come on... what could possibly make more sense than that?
Apple promises, and has come closest so far in delivering the "real internet" on a mobile device. The whole point of MobileSafari is that you don't need a crummy, crippled version (WAP-like), and yet another different format to maintain -- just the "real internet".
Personally, I find it very annoying when Amazon and Facebook hijack my iPhone browser and force it to show the (very poor) iPhone version, when I'd much rather have the same, fully functional page I use on my desktop (and use just as easily on my iPhone).
Apple understands this and gives us the real, standards compliant, Apple store on the PC and on the iPhone, ditto the Apple WebApp directory.
Now, if what you consider Amazon iPhone and Facebook iPhone to be WebApps, then I suppose that's fine, but I would rather get the real page on the page, and if I want the WebApp, let me pick and webclip that myself, thanks.
http://tinyurl.com/yv8937