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Live iPhone OS Launch on Blogs: Do We Need TV?
Rahul Srinivas, Mar 18, 2009 1157 hrs ISTThe power of microblogging
The date was fixed, so was the time. Invites rolled out, and then the jostling began. Any iPhone event is unlike others I have witnessed so far - online.
Yeah right, so what if I wasn't there to witness the going ons at Cupertino? In this age of broadband and Web 2.0, "not being there" isn't an excuse any more. Live TV coverage? Who covers tech events live in India? These things usually end up as 10-minute snippets on leading business channels - unless of course you're watching the Techtree show on UTVi!
It was nearing 10 PM (IST), when I logged on to my Twitter account, and all my IM accounts. The deluge of "tweets" and IMs had already begun. It started with the likes of "Hey, watching the iPhone webcast?" to "You not in Cupertino?" What surprised me was the fact that even people who I had thought were non-geeks were about to start watching the webcast and were following the updates closely! And here I was, still looking for a good link to watch the minute-by-minute broadcast of happenings at "Ground Zero." At around 10:20, a colleague popped in a link - complete with exclamations and a tip asking me to "concentrate."
At the other end, on Twitter, I quickly reinstalled TweetDeck on the laptop so that I don't need to refresh pages manually - saves a lot of time, really! At about the same time the colleague messaged me, I noticed the going-ons on Twitter. Here too, it was all iPhone OS 3.0! In fact, for a brief period of time before the announcement of the cut, copy-paste feature, the terms "cut, copy-paste" were "trending" on Twitter.
For those new to this entire Twitter thing, "trending" is akin to "the most talked about" topic on the site. You will get to see what's trending if you happen to visit the Twitter search page. Almost 10 hours after the launch, "iPhone 3.0" was still trending.
Also Read: iPhone OS 3.0 Preview: Gets Cut-Copy-Paste Feature
Most Twitter users were posting random thoughts about what they thought of the updates to the OS. Almost all of them were glued to live Twitter-like updates from top blogs around the world. Engadget, Gizmodo, and Techcruch (in the guise of MobileCrunch) were posting minute-by-minute updates on impromptu live microblogging pages that popped up on these sites - just for the event. Gizmodo even had live "polls" asking for instant user feedback as the updates rolled. This, as far as I know, is as interactive as it could get. No live telecast would ever be able to match this. By the time the Apple event ended and the world came to know what lies ahead for the iPhone 3G, blog posts were up, comparisons done, some had already put up a "first look" - minutes after the event ended. There is no time to waste.
And this is precisely why microblogging is getting bigger by the day. We experienced the power of microblogging during the unfortunate terrorist strike in November when Twitter users managed to put up a blog within hours of the attacks with details of the dead, injured, important numbers - updated minute-by-minute. The entire thing was smoothly managed and was supported by people around the country. While the overall effect of this entire microblogging thing might not be very significant, it has become a force to reckon with at least within the tech arena. And I see no reason why this sentiment won't gradually trickle into other domains.
Also Read: iPhone OS 3.0: Hits and Misses
Were you following the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 updates live? We would love to hear if you still prefer the "normal" detailed reports you get to read the day after or impromptu live updates within seconds of the event happening.
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