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…….

MacTouch Anyone?

James Kendrick lobbed a hand grenade into the mobiquiblogosphere yesterday with his assertion that the company best capable of producing the “handheld computer” to attract the masses is of course, Apple. Since JK posted at 0dark:30 yesterday morning, a veritable who’s who of mobiquizoid all-stars had all day to chime in with their thoughts in the comments section, and it was a fascinating conversation to say the least. One mobile tech guru glaringly MIA during this discussion: Where for art though Hugo?

My 2 cents: An Ultra Mobile Mac might look like an OQO sized iPhone/iPod Touch minus the slide out qwerty (a MacTouch or iPhone “Fatty” if you will). It might have included in the box the new wireless Apple keyboard, and some sort of Samsung Q1esque Organizer Case. It would weigh less than a pound and the screen would have an 800×600 resolution, scalable of course via the same multi-touch funtionality of the iPhone/iPod Touch. An integrated stand would certainly be nice, but I can’t figure out how to do that in my head while still conforming to Apple’s minimalist design ethos. Ports might include 1 USB, 3.5 mm headphone jack, HDMI Out, iPod like dock receiver, and maybe a SIM card slot. 5 Megapixel camera on the back? Maybe. Under the hood: x86 processor of the Silverthorne variety, 30GB of flash memory and, an embedded but beefier version of the iPhone flavor of OSX with a somewhat compromised version of iWork included. Writing on the screen with some sort of stylus with a Magic Marker like tip – very hard to imagine but imagine how nice an Apple Stylus might be?

Of course this begs the question: who the heck is going to buy this and at what price point? Obvious answer: mobiquizoids at any price point!

From One iDay to the Next: iPhone still myPhone

As I type this on a keyboard I have to honestly say I despise, I’m otherwise nearly as enthralled now as I was 11 Saturdays ago when first I fell in love. Actually the first couple days were more tenuos than that, as it took a bit to get used to revolutionary touch based interface. The hardware however, was and is head and shoulders above any portable electronics device ever made. In other reviews of the iPhone, I feel not enough has been said about this and, maybe the device is so stunning, it just goes without saying. I also think my device design druthers predisposed me to fall hard for this one. See, my ideal device would be 5-7 inch sleek, thin, slate, portrait oriented tablet computer. The iPhone/iPod Touch is currently the closest thing to that ideal available for purchase, if only it could be used like a tablet. If handwriting notes on the iPhone with some sort of special stylus becomes possible, I might be set for a long time. But, as it stands I still long for a device that doesn’t yet exist despite my tremendous overall happiness with the one I will always remember purchasing on 6/29/2007.

So, quick confession is in order: I was one of the idiots who bought the hype to such an extent that when I made it to the front of the line at the AT&T store, only soon to be defunct 4Gig models were available, and I was unwilling to risk the potential unavailability of an 8Gig model for even a few days. Little did I know, that I could have walked out of line and gone to an Apple Store 20 minutes from my house the next morning and picked one up, but when I have my sights set on something, my patience and purchasing discipline drop to near zero. I justified the $100 savings by telling myself that I don’t have much of a music/video library anyway, and that 4GB is 4 times more than any other flash storage amount used in any of my previous phones. Well, the $200 price drop coupled with the 4GB model end of life announcement by Jobs recently, made me feel used and stupid. Plus, my library has grown considerably since getting spoiledf by the iPod functionality of the iPhone, my first iPod. The unlocking achievements of late have made me encouraged that I could eventually buy an 8GB model, and more easily sell my 4GB model, but I still feel burned. The $100 early adopters credit also made me feel a lot better towards Apple, and I actually activated that credit a day ago and fancy using it towards either a Touch or a new iMac (brilliant implementation of the decision by Apple to throw the early adopters a bone as they stand to make more money from me sooner than they otherwise would have)

Though I will get into more specifics in upcoming posts, my overall grade of the iPhone thus far:

Hardware – A+

Overall UI – A+

Phone functionality – A

Phone performance – D

Email – C

Keyboard – D- (I haven’t gotten much better at it, but maybe I just suck?)

Web Browser – A+

Music/Video – A+

Camera – B+ (relative to other camera phones)

Viewing/Showing Pics – A+

Syncability – AHackability – A+ (now a true smartphone with a growing list of native 3rd party apps)

Blackjack compares nicely, but not that nicely:

Ab$olutely Bluffant!

If you’re a real geek then you likely have already read the Google translation from French of  the Akihabaranews review of the Fujitsu “Storm Trooper” convertibleUMPC (translations of hard to translate phrases about things which you know quite well are tremendously entertaining no?).   When I saw the first released pictures of this device my impression was how ugly I thought the device was, especially relative to the devices in Fujitsu’s Lifebook line that precede it.but upon reading the quite positive review and particularly on the ergonomics of the device, I’ve reconsidered my position. Having used the P1510 for a month and fondled other Lifebooks at my local Microcenter, I’m well aware of the build quality Fujitsu’s laptops have.  And a tablet with a 5.6 inch touch screen and a small but usable keyboard might be perfect for my goldilocks mobile computing druthers, so much so that the styling of the device could therefore grow on me?  Having recently sold my Samsung Q1P (to purchase a 12.1 inch Toshiba M400 and then selling that to get a 13.3 inch Asus R1F), and a year prior spending an unfortunate week with the original UMPC, the eo 7110, I’m close to deciding that a 7 inch screen is just too “in between” ( I say close because I might pull the trigger on the Q1 Ultra).  In fact I think the 8.9 inch screen and small keyboard on the Fuji P1510 was also too in between for me.  But you know what 12.1, and definitely 13.3 feel too big from a tablet ergonomics perspective.  It’s surely nice to have that real estate both on the screen and the keyboard/trackpad, but it ain’t real easily manhandled.  In fact I decided today whilst reading about the HUGOMETER in slate mode on the R1F, that any convertible tablet over 4 pounds is going to feel heavy no matter how balanced the weighting. For a tablet to be comfortably used in slate mode weight/dimensions and/or the keyboard must be shed and at 1.28 pounds with a decent keyboard the once fugly “Storm Trooper” is now beginning to morph into a beautiful Siren in my head……..The link from the review to the online store offering it (Geekstuff4U.com) has a cold splash of water posted price of nearly 2k though.  So, I’ll clearly need more credit card pondering, device fantasizing, work up the courage to pull the trigger and put my current device on ebay time now won’t I……..?

Palm’s New "Chicken Hawk"

Ryan Block just doesn’t understand what Palm was thinking and I generally give Ryan an amen on most everything.  Mike Cane calls it “Flopeo”.  Crunchgear correctly posits “at least it’s not a table“.  Jason Dunn reminds us though that ”there’s no laptop on the market with a 10″ screen and five hours of battery life that costs $499 USD”.  Many Brighthand bloggers took their guesses as to what the “Hawk” would be and my guess is Jeff Hawkins disappointed them all including Brighthand chief editor Ed Hardy who unfortunately predicted it to be nearly exactly what it is: a crippled laptop replacement. 

But let’s be rational about this.  Forget about form factor for a moment and consider what you could be getting: a Palm engineered Linux internet device with WiFi, Bluetooth (2.0 EDR?) that has special sauce sync software to emulate what’s on your smartphone ((which upon further consideration gives me the HotSync/ActiveSync heebie jeebies).  I posed this to my wife who used a Treo for a time and she immediately envisioned something more like this:

I replied “and so did a lot of other people sweetie” (and how cute is the new geek with the Jasjar?!).   Interestingly she also immediately asked “so there’s no phone in it?’

Jeff Hawkins clearly had his eyes closed much earlier than his interview with Uncle Walt would have indicated.  Too bad for us as Palm really could have lived up to their name and created a tremendous handheld, maybe priced higher than most people might be comfortable with but closer to what every geek was hoping for and they clearly chickened out…..

HTC’s UMPC is the Shift

Jenn over at Pocketables makes a great point about how confident HTC must be to have given the device this name.  If it fails as essentially all other UMPCs released thus far have in the eyes of the mainstream media, it’s name will surely be altered/satirized the way the BCS acronym has been by college football fans.  In fact, what if we were to acronymize the name Shift:  Shangra La (the codename for the device until now), Hotware, Impossibly Functional and Tiny).

The only real disappointing spec especially in light of the last week’s Samsung Q1Ultra announcement, is the screen resolution of 800×480.  I’m using that resolution now whilst  I type on the Q1P via USB keyboard and it’s tolerable until you need to use the TIP.  Resolution switching is an answer (and a hi res picture at UMPCPortal appears to confirm a hardware button on the Shift that does this), but not the answer: which is a native res of 1024×600 and the Q1Ultra will bring it.

The sweet keyboard and sliding/tilting though look to overcome any shortcomings the device may have, save for battery life though with a Via processor and the aforementioned 800×480 screen juice should not be an issue.

The only real question in my mind is what I will name it when I own it: something Snoop Doggesque, or will I gain inspiration from Samuel Jackson’s wallet in Pulp Fiction

Samsung BlackJack Review

Having spent 4 months with this device (and that’s a long time for me people), I feel I can certainly serve justice on the goods and bads. The recent switch by Chris Leckness from the BlackJack back to the PocketPC based Treo 750 gave me some pause and I have flirted with the idea of picking up the Cingular 8525 (primarily so I could load WM6 as downloaded from XDA-developers.com), but then the thought of parting with the SGH i607 becomes to much for me, and I think it’s going to be that way for a while because I love using this phone!

Let me first say that like Leckness I was won over to the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform pretty quickly after thinking it would never be enough for me. It is so much easier to navigate and use the device as a phone than PocketPC devices have been for me. (even the Treo, though notably a very Smartphone like implementation of the PocketPC platform by Palm, and is what they did just an early version of Photon when the two Windows Mobile platforms will finally merge?).

Speaking of using the device as a phone, reception on Cingular’s network has been nothing less then stellar. I’ve literally had one dropped call and it was with no service bars displayed (which was the first time that had ever happened). That dropped call occurred in my family’s house in Columbus, GA where I’ve always had reception challenges (no matter the phone or the network). But in Atlanta where I live and work, my 3G cup runneth over! Call quality on the Blackjack has been pristine and there’s nothing much better to a mobile warrior than being able to use the near wifi like data speeds that are possible when using the phone as a USB modem connected to my laptop (and lately my Q1Precious), AND be able to take or make a clear call simultaneously!

How’s the Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR (and A2DP by the way) you ask? Well, recently while I waited for an oil change and emissions test to be completed on my car, I tried to get some real “work” work done, and made a bluetooth network connection to the Blackjack (running the AKU3 buld of WM5 so the “internet sharing” app is present which replaces Bluetooth DUN with so called PAN or Personal Area Networking and it’s exceedingly easy to use). Of course, as soon as I got setup and made a VPN connection to my work network I was called out to the garage so they could explain to me why I needed more than just an oil change (stupid me for expecting to spend less than $100) and I with BlackJack in pocket carried Precious out to the garage expecting to lose my network or at least my VPN connection. Not so, and the speeds were in the 500kbps range consistently.

How’s the keyboard you wonder?

It’s not great, but it’s as good as the Treo’s and I’d rather feel a little cramped typing to enjoy the slim and narrow form factor I’ve been enthralled with for 4 months now.

I do have to add though that I find the keyboard tremendously useful when navigating through the WM Smartphone menus. It really beats the Pocket PC way of menu navigating via various combinations of dpad/stylus usage.

The 1.3 megapixel mini humpback camera on the SGH i607 has been a pleasant surprise.

It disrupts the sleek lines of the device, but in good lighting it takes better pictures than any cameraphone I’ve ever used, including the 2 megapixel equipped Nokia N70.

This is a shot taken from said Samsung cameraphone of my Samsung camera (what did you expect me to have, a Casio fool?)

Patience is required for saving pictures though. The “My Photo” app included as a soft key option in the camera app is a solid way to browse your pictures. Unfortunately, it’s not the default picture viewer and in order to use it, you’re required to either open it from within the camera app, or navigate to “My Stuff” in the program list to open it from there. Simply navigating to a picture file within the file explorer app will open the Picsel Viewer picture viewer (say that just 3 times real fast, much less 10). Picsel Viewer is a great application for viewing Adobe or Office files, but with a series of pictures your forced to open them one at a time, unlike the My Photo app which takes you to the next or previous picture in a folder by clicking the left or right on the dpad.

Speaking of the dpad, it is the only real complaint I have about this device. It’s positioned flush to the surface of the phone which looks sleek but functionally sucks. Samsung also chose to put the green and red call buttons right next to it (unlike it’s European cousin the i320), so in my first week of using the device I was constantly either starting the phone app or ending whatever I was doing by hitting red button. It would have been a deal breaker were it not for the convienent placement of the back button which would immediately take me back to whatever app I had accidentally closed. Once I learned to use my finger nail to operate the dpad, I became much more adept at avoiding this frustration.

As an email device it more than gets the job done via the Exchange Activesync “push” capabilities (which once you figure out how to configure with some approval and help from your IT dept, works very solidly). Also provided is a Cingular branded version of the push email application by Seven and though it can’t seem to push my Gmail to me, it does do a regular “pull”, and as infrequently as I look at my personal email during the work day, it feels as a good as “push”. Like I mentioned before the keyboard is somewhat cramped, but I type email replies on it surprisingly well nonetheless.

All things considered the BlackJack is the best overall smartphone, or for that matter, phone I have ever used. It weighs and almost feels like a normal (but quite sexy) candy bar phone, but packs a serious punch. It’s a serviceable PDA, a serious web browser (especially because of the speed with which you can browse and did I mention how nice the QVGA screen is?), a terrific email device, a bonafide MP3 player, a decent camera, and the best phone as a modem solution currently available in America. Is it perfect and will I use it forever? Noooo, I’m a neophiliac people! But it remains to be seen which device will usurp this one in my daily grind, and though there are some devices on the release horizon that certainly have me interested, there is nothing currently available that trumps the BlackJack!