IMAP Gmail available and working flawlessly on my iPhone

Having discovered this glorious news via TUAW last night, I immediately linked to the the Google provided directions and had no issues setting up a new IMAP account on iPrecious.  I did find it curious upon reading other news accounts about this, that Matt Miller found his account wasn’t working yet due to how Google must be provisioning this rollout?  Another curious thing is that I skipped enabling IMAP in my gmail settings and yet it downloaded messages to my phone and is syncing my changes without a hiccup.

Another question to ask is this:  why would Google give me less need to actually manage my account from a full web browser where they can throw targeted ads in my field of vision?

Perfect Storm Forming

You didn’t really think South Florida was the 2nd best college football team in the country did you?  But if they weren’t who was/is?   The answer we don’t know now, and we won’t know it by the time the last BCS poll is published either.  Parity among the top 20 teams (and beyond with the App St./ Michigan and Stanford/USC upsets as exhibits A & B) in college football this year has never been so obvious and lead to such unpredictable results.  At this point no one can honestly say they have a clue who the top 10 teams in the final polls will be, much less the top 5, or the top 2!

So, again why must we argue over who is number 2, when a much better argument to have would be over who is number 7 or 8?  This way, we would be much less likely to exclude deserving teams from a shot at the national title.  What would it take to make this happen? Adding two very lucrative games to the current BCS bowl schedule, sandwiched between the the 4 traditional New Year’s Day games (or “around New Year’s Day” at least) and the national title game.

The final BCS poll would finalize college football’s Elite 8, and the 4 NYD bowls would suddenly have huge relevance every year in addition to then having the national title game every 4th year, just like it is now.  Except, 2 “Final Four” games would have to be played to determine the participants in the title game, and I say make them home field advantage games based on final BCS rankings.  In other words if you win in the BCS quarterfinal round and you’re ranked higher than the team you would be slotted to face in the semifinal round, you host it.  How freaking cool would this be if say a Michigan or a Florida hosted this kind of high stakes game.  I mean as great as the “around New Year’s” day quarterfinal round would be, this semifinal round would be as compelling as anything in sports…..ever!  And the end result is you almost can’t not wind up with the two best, or most deserving teams in the country playing for the trophy.

With another unpredictable Saturday of “upsets” bound to occur tomorrow, maybe I should pretend we’re already immersed in the playoffs I can now only dream of happening.  But the kind of storm it would take to make my dream a reality is taking shape, and it looks to get much stronger as it hovers and gains speed above a very warm gulf of convention……

111 days of iPhone dislikes

There is plenty to like about the iPhone 16 weeks after I purchased it, including some of the recent 1.1.1 software upgrade enhancements like the double click home button feature, as well as the super snappy and simple iTunes wifi app. But there are plenty of things that have frustrated me thus far, and are as follows by order of
annoyance level:

The keyboard is probably better than I feel like it is, but the lack of
tactile response and my fat fingers combine for a pretty awful thumb
typing experience. However, the text prediction just got me through
the preceding sentence (and all but one word in this one) without the
need to correct or even hit the backspace “button” once. I have to
admit that’s much better than I would have done on a real thumb
keyboard, but the typing experience is definitely the key sacrifice
you make for the screen size and the overall UI experience. It’s a
trade off that at most moments I am happy to make, but not all moments
to be sure.

The typing issue certainly affects the usefulness of the email
application, but even excluding that as a factor the email app needs a
lot of improvement. My chief complaint is the number of taps required
to move from one account to another. Also, full blown HTML messages
are nice but only really practical over wifi. If someone sends you a
note with large attachments forget about even being able to read the text in the note via EDGE. In fact, I received one such email from a
family member and attempting to open it completely locked the iPhone
up requiring a soft reset a la Windows Mobile. I saw this happen I
think 5 different times exactly the same way, so I’ m convinced as to
the cause. This was before the first software update (1.01, followed by 1.02, and then of course the 3rd party app killing 1.1.1) and I haven’t
seen this happen due to large attachment messages since, but the fury
this caused me still lingers….

One thing the aforementioned update seemed to have fixed was the flaky
crashes Safari mobile was quickly becoming infamous for. However, the
Apple and/or Google developers don’t seem to have cracked the code on
the same problem occurring regularly in the otherwise glorious Google
Maps app even now by the 3rd software update.

The only other issue with Google Maps on the iPhone is how much more
intuitive it would be with a back button. There are times where you
simply can’t (easily anyway) get back to what you just searched. The
email app has this button so why can’t GMaps?

One thing Gmaps and email have that the contacts portion of the phone application could
sorely use is Palmesque contact filtering. I am almost certain that
Apple is choosing not to make this option available due to UI
aesthetics though. They would prefer we scroll for our contacts and
it is very neat and minimally less efficient than filtering (and
depending on where you’re looking in your list sometimes more so), but
I would like the choice nonetheless.

With regard to the Jobs promise that the phone app would be the
killer app on this device, I have to say I largely agree. Aside from
the need for some way to speed dial more easily (double tap of the home button helps but an icon on the home screen would be perfect) it is otherwise a true
joy to use. Apple seems to have borrowed and beautified the phone
application from PalmOS largely, and I much prefer it over the phone
apps from any of the other mobile OSs. If only the call quality were
as good as the Nokia N70 I used for a few months, or the Treo 700p (when
it didn’t crash during a call of course), or the Blackberry 7100 I
borrowed from my wife regularly or even the many HTC Windows Mobile
devices I’ve used over the last few years, which though similarly
challenged in terms of call quality, were still a little better than the iPhone.

And one more gripe: lack of copy and paste functionality on a device
so capable of so many things makes it’s omission more frustrating than
it otherwise would be I think.

So what do I like? Gosh where to start is a dilemma because so much
about iPhone experience is so good. However since web browsing is
what I do most, I’ll start there, but in a another post….stay rss tuned.

Turner & Charter know drama?

Isn’t it interesting how the first three days of the MLB postseason
have showcased games with distinctly similar personalities on each
day?  Day one saw 3 dominant pitching performances in games that all
lasted mercifully under 3 hours.  Day two was comprised of three
blowouts that dragged on forever it seemed, with the first two games
bleeding into coverage of the games that followed.

Speaking of that bleed, TBS is using sister network TNT to cover
simultaneous action which is the only way I can watch the broadcasts
in HD, and of course as soon as the need for bleed coverage ends, TNT
returns to being the Law & Order channel.  Why no HD on TBS?  Only 6
days ago TBS  was being broadcast in HD via Charter in the ATL.
However, Turner Broadcasting has decided to maintain their local
signal, or the original WTBS, as “Peachtree TV”, and make TBS
nationally syndicated and no longer a concurrent local feed.  They are
to this point broadcasting none of the programming on this “new”
channel in HD. And yet Charter has inexplicably replaced what is now
the national version of TBS in their HD lineup with this non HD
Peachtree TV spin off.  What makes even less sense is their
broadcasting of a non HD version of TBS which thankfully has allowed
me to watch the games at least.  It is difficult to imagine this is
just incompetence on the part of either party, and smells much more
like a game of chicken while meanwhile their customers get ignored.

Anyway, enough of my ranting and back to baseball.  Yesterday’s
contests were garden variety October nailbiters, both ending in walk
off fashion. That the Red Sox won and the Yankees lost made it all the
more enjoyable.  It is surprising that all four NLDS series now sit at
2-0 because if ever there were a year where any of the 8 teams could
win, this is the one.

So what will today’s games bring?  Hopefully plenty of need for bleed!

Octoberbest

My favorite month in the year has indeed begun and my exhilaration is even more heightened this time than in the past.  Of course, the reason for my joy is the onset of post season MLB and though my Braves are for a second year in a row not involved (which is actually, sadly a relief for the 2^nd year in a row too), I’m still thrilled about watching the teams who are, as is my 2 year old son who loves nothing more than he loves baseball (thereby proving that God does indeed exist). 

 The month did not get off to a great start for me though as TBS has the rights to the Division Series and NLCS games this year and also had the rights to the instaclassic playoff game between the Rockies and Padres Monday night, except no one at my cable provider Charter seemed to be aware of this, as the game simply wasn’t carried.  Locally in Atlanta what used to be TBS will now be “Peachtree TV” and TBS will become a nationally syndicated channel only and the change took place on Monday which was more than Charter was apparently prepared for.  The online options both desktop and mobile for keeping up with sports scores are plentiful fortunately, and I used MLB Mobile for the iPhone because my preferred way to do this via Pickleview wasn’t keeping up with the game either?

 Anyway, the father/son connections in the TBS broadcast booth will be especially meaningful for Braves fans, since anchoring the telecasts will be Ernie Johnson Jr. and calling the play by play, Chip Caray.  These highly talented and affable sons of longtime Braves announcers Ernie Johnson Sr. and  Skip Caray are probably along with my own son’s budding interest, the key to my level of excitement as I love listening to both.  TBS began this new era by first ending the era of Braves only telecasts which started back in the 70s.  Chip, who once inherited his late grandfather Harry’s spot in the Cubs play by play booth, has now inherited his father’s spot in the Braves booth, so it was only fitting that in the final Braves TBS telecast this past Sunday, father and son were paired together. At the end Chip whose enthusiastic delivery is more like his grandfather than his father said the kinds of things to his father that every father hopes one day to hear, and punctuated it with a kiss on the cheek for dear old dad.  Skip who is famously stoic and cynical, then had difficulty keeping his emotions in check (as did I), but eventually managed to give his standard and final TBS salute of “So long everybody”.  Highlights of all the signature moments on TBS followed and included Skip’s unforgettably emotionally unbridled radio call of Sid Bream sliding in safe to win the 1992 NLCS.  

 The last conversation I had with my own father was in October of 1998 about the Braves blowing it in the 98 NLCS to the Padres (not unhappy to see them get eliminated Monday night as you would expect) The first post season baseball I ever watched with him that I can remember was game 6 of the 1977 World Series, the game Reggie Jackson hit 3 homers for the soon to be (and even back then it was the 21^st freaking time) World Champion Yankees.  Most every October since then I’ve been locked in and of course 1991 was the year when it got truly serious for me.   1992 I remember with great fondness as well, and October of 1993 began with the Braves winning the last great pennant race, sending the 103 win Barry Bonds lead Giants home to their pre-wildcard era fate.  It was this day 14 years ago that I traveled with a friend to see game 1 of the NLCS in Philadelphia’s Veteran’s stadium.  Curt Schilling started for the Phillies who would win in extra innings and set the tone for a series that other than the Yankees beating us in the 1996 WS, is my most bitter baseball memory.  We truly had the best team in baseball that year and I would rather have won it that year than in 95.  Cubs fans can certainly curse me (pun intended) for saying something so frivolous and of course the Phillies are today playing their first post season game since that memorable year, so I guess I should be grateful.

 I don’t remember much of that last conversation I had with my father in October of 98, but I do remember thinking at the time that there was no other person I would rather have been talking to.  Of course my own son won’t remember any of our first conversations about October baseball this year, but, speaking of being grateful, I can promise you his father will.

HTC Shift….go ahead and drop the f

With battery life nail in the coffin confirmation from Chippy’s live blogging coverage of the HTC press conference today, it seems certain that HTC is poised to fulfill Jenn’s worst nightmare prediction about how it’s initial UMPC offering could be remembered in the mobile computing community. Two hour battery life on Vista is as Thomas Ricker so accurately describes it over at Engadget: “generation-one UMPC pathetic”. In fact, the date on the post from Jenn at pocketables.net I link to above is dated 3/26/2007, when HTC first unveiled the Shift. That was almost a year to the day after I thrillingly received my Tabletkiosk eo only to discover how pitiful the battery life was (90 minutes with wifi), which prompted a return of the device for a full refund (as Tabletkiosk to their credit made quickly possible).

Chippy contends that the Shift is indeed efficient at power drain, but the problem is the capacity of the battery, and therefore the overall form factor – the biggest selling point of the device to begin with. Whatever the case, for them to be so tantalizingly close to mastering the UMPC equation makes it all the more frustrating that they’re just as close to releasing their own Folly of a device as Palm was…….