Here’s a video of my first impressions of the new iPhone 4. Full review coming soon but for now I am blown away. It really is a quantum leap that others will struggle to emulate. Many aspects of this device will have direct and impressive impacts for real estate. The FaceTime is nothing short of jaw-dropping the first time you have a FaceTime call it’s hard to believe we have been talking about this stuff since grade school and now it actually works….anyway more soon.
As I travel the country speaking to real estate agents the one complaint I hear over and over is “Max when are we going to be able to use our iPhones to access our MLS lock-boxes?” My answer has normally been that the iPhone does not have IR (Infrared) capabilities so if your MLS uses lockboxes that depend on IR to communicate you will have to stick with one of the older IR capable phones (such as Palm Treo etc) or be forced to cary another separate device (a dongle) that will allow you to access the lockbox. Now all of that may be changing as several companies have developed IR devices to be used with the iPhone. They did not however do this in response to the real estate industry and their lockbox woes, but rather as a response to a much bigger market demand, that of the home consumer and their desire to use their iPhone or iPod Touch to control all of their home entertainment equipment (TV, Stereo, DVD etc). That being said now that the hardware issue has been resolved it would appear that it will only take a progressive lockbox manufacturer that wants to satisfy the needs of it’s customers to simply write an app for the iPhone that uses one of these IR hardware devices to communicate with their lockboxes. I am sure we will see the same devices soon appear for the Android phones that are flooding the market. So here’s my public appeal to the lockbox manufacturers on behalf of thousands of your customers that now use the iPhone (and now Android phones) PLEASE DEVELOP AN APPLICATION!
Here are a few of the manufacturers of these IR devices for the iPhone (and many for the iPod Touch as well), I am sure they will be looking at similar devices for the Android phones shortly.
POWER A Universal Remote Case with IR installed
POWER A Universal Remote Case without IR installed (still works as a case)
As many of you know I have been an iPhone user since day one, currently on my 4th one which is the 3GS (I lose things…but at least I could track it last time I lost it…..it got stolen).
Anyway I also have a Motorola Droid and it’s the best phone I’ve ever had on the Verizon network….that being said as I use both often and the Droid is a far cry from the iPhone. If Verizon ever get’s the iPhone (which is not looking good with the latest deal Jobs made with AT&T for the $29.99/month service on the iPad) I would switch in a heartbeat as then I could use just one phone. The biggest complaint I have on the Droid (albeit again a nice device for those stuck on Verizon) is it just pales in comparison to the iPhone in basic usability on a daily basis. Using the touchscreen for example has always been more pleasurable and accurate experience for me on the iPhone than the Droid. Especially noticeably while using the on-screen keyboard as the letters are pretty small so touch-screen accuracy is key.
I recently read an article from Moto Development Group that confirmed there are significant mearsuable differences in the accuracy of the current touch screens on smartphones. Watch the video below for details but the bottom line is the iPhone was most accurate followed by the HTC phones (the Nexus One and the Droid both Android devices) then came the Palm Pre, the Motorola Droid (almost a tie) and just a bit worse and rounding up the bottom the BlackBerry Storm 2.
I’m sure you will see these technologies improve fast as this was the first touch-screen for some of these companies but I can tell you from experience this is a pretty important part of your daily use. Until next time…Max-out
