Nico Macdonald

London

Writer

Truphone is a great application, not least exemplified its focus on user experience. For instance, on the iPhone it uses the same address book as the Phone application. In a piece in Guardian Technology in 2005 ('It's your call') I noted the limitations of many VoIP solutions in this area, and argued that "in the medium term, the benefits [of VoIP] will be measured in terms of flexibility, features and ease of use". This is proving to be the case. However, in the area of instant messaging, until the iPhoneOS supports background notification IM clients on the iPhone will be all but useless. Even the much maligned PalmOS has supported background notification for years. Like 'cut and paste' (which it popularised in MacOS), Apple has some catching up to do with the 'also rans' in the smartphone race.