iPhone 3G

In case you missed it, Apple officially confirmed the iPhone 3G Monday.

Love it or hate it, I think that Apple has been a game-changer for the cell phone industry. They’ve done for cell phone UIs what Apple and Microsoft did for the personal computer - made it powerfully expandable and bearable to use. I’ve had five or six cell phones in my lifetime, so by no means am I a junkie. But I can appreciate how far the technology has come in the past few years.

My penultimate cell phone was a Motorola RAZR. I loved it because it was thin, but the one thing I couldn’t stand was how mind-numbingly unresponsive it was anytime I pressed a button. I’d press a digit and three seconds later it would show up. The applications were useless - and web surfing? Forget it. Text messaging was painful - can’t tell you how many messages I sent that read “tgdre gp a…” (you get the idea).

My most current iteration is a Katana Deluxe through Sprint. It’s OK to use (at least it’s quicker to respond than the RAZR), but it costs an arm and a leg for limited functionality.

[Dan Hesse - want to hear something truly revolutionary? How about a $50 for everything plan? Might attract enough bodies to keep your sinking ship afloat.]

Back to the iPhone - the combination GPS, development community and pricing plan are going to change the market again.

A $199 smartphone? Neat.

A $199 smartphone that I can use as a GPS unit? Pretty dang sweet.

A $199 smartphone that developers can create location-based services with the GPS on? Incredible.

Maybe Android (Google’s open-source cell phone devo program) will change the game again, but for right now, Apple has an incredibly powerful selling position.

There was a lot of hype about 3G, which, admittedly, is a bigger deal for Europe, but I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a game-changer for the US. The reality is that not enough locations have access to the service. It’s only in larger metropolitan areas. Cool to have, but it’s not going to be a compelling reason for me to buy.

Thankfully, I have a little time to think about whether or not this is a worthy purchase - 9 months by my count.

So come next March, when our Sprint contract is up - we’ll have to see whether I can justify the purchase of yet another shiny gadget.

ezMemorize - virtual flashcards for iPT

For all you students.

I’ll check it out later today and let you know my thoughts.

Wireless Apple keyboard update

Had to change the batteries last week for the first time; they lasted about five and a half months.  Still pleased with the performance.  There was a slight lag as the batteries wore down, but it was not enough to cause any issues.

The iMac let me know when the batteries needed to be changed, which was a nice touch; however, when I pulled out the batteries to be tested only one of three showed as bad on my multitester.  I have no idea what would cause one battery to wear down more quickly than the other two.

Can any of you engineering types explain this?

Trust the iPod Touch (iPT) - Tip 2

Initially when the iPhone was announced, there was a lot of speculation regarding the virtual keyboard performance. Many were skeptical that it would be effective and precise enough to be useful. My only complaint thus far is that I can type too fast, and the iPT has trouble keeping up with me.

When typing on the iPT, I’ve found the best way to type is with two thumbs, much like a person would text on a mobile phone. Despite the larger surface area of the thumb, the Touch is remarkably adept at correcting any typos. Even if there are spelling errors, it is quicker to thumb type and correct than use the hunt-and-peck method.

For example, the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the hill” takes about 16 seconds for me to type with my thumbs, and about 18 seconds with the single finger hunt-and-peck method. This doesn’t seem like much initially, but on e-mails it adds up quickly.

Clear cache - Tip No. 1

Much like a computer, the Touch has cache that builds up over time if you do not shut down completely. The Touch goes into hibernate mode by default when you press the wake/sleep button; with time this data builds up and ultimately slows down performance.

To alleviate this, press and hold the wake/sleep button until the “slide to power off” slider comes up. Slide this to the right, and this will clear your cache *and* save you valuable battery time. This is how I’m getting 2-3 days of aggressive, WiFi powered use regularly.

Two months

It has been two months since I purchased my Touch, and I have been fairly pleased with the performance thus far. The thing that probably took the longest to get used to was the auto-correct feature on the keyboard. It has come to the point now where I can type quicker than it can recognize my words; thus, I have to contientiously slow down sometimes.

I have had little trouble with the e-mail functions. It was extremely easy to set up, and the only major issue thus far has been pushing updates to gMail’s servers after I view e-mails on my Touch. For some reason, it does not register quick enough, and I’ll go to my iMac only to see the same e-mail still marked as new. Eventually, it syncs up, but I have noticed a lag time of about 30 minutes. Perhaps this is due to gMail’s server and not the Touch. Time will tell.

Battery life has been fair. I can typically run the Touch for two days intensively if I remember to power it down at night. Light usage extends that time to about four days.

The biggest feature it lacks currently is some sort of notes / task integration with my iMac. It seems strange, but one of the reasons I purchased my iMac is so that I will have seamless integration between devices. It is much easier to deal with the Apple networking / computer setup than fighting Windows. I had hoped that the notes would sync with Mail. However, it has been noted there are some hangtime issues with Mail revolving around tasks, and my assumption is that Apple is still trying to work most of the kinks out with that before rolling out Touch integration.

If you have any questions about my experiences, please feel free to suggest topics to explore, and I would be happy to post about them. One of my frustrations leading up to my purchase was the lack of substantive real-world discussion of usability. This is one of my main goals for this blog.

I should post a little more regularly, although they might be shorter.

Until next time, touch gently.

Quest - Conquering My Apple PDA

Last week I finally broke down and bought one of the new iPods, fully intent on converting this handheld computer into my PDA powerhouse.

It was a well-thought out decision; I have been thinking for a while about purchasing a PDA to focus my time on computer-based, transportable, sync-able time management solutions. Having to deal with paper calendars, sticky notes AND the computer just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

For the money, I thought the touch had very comparable features to those of the Palms, Blackberries and whatnot. Granted, it doesn’t have phone capabilities, but as I already have a phone and am locked into my contract for the next few months, I decided that this would be a better route to go.

Thus, for the next few years I will be carrying around two devices - my phone in my left from pocket and my iPod touch in the right.I thought this would be a good thing to focus my blog on for the next year or so — I tried to Google search on using the touch as a PDA, but the information is not only limited but poorly done. If you’re in the process of deciding whether or not to use the touch for your time management solution, my hope is that this blog will serve as a good reference tool so you can understand current gripes, hot tips and general usability comments.

If you have any comments or questions for me about my experience thus far, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to address it promptly.

Touch gently,

Sam

Dependability.

Definition:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This de·pend·a·ble /dɪˈpɛndəbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[di-pen-duh-buhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

capable of being depended on; worthy of trust; reliable: a dependable employee.

---

[Origin: 1725–35; depend + -able]

[or]

A quality missing from my generation’s collective work ethic.

It utterly amazes me how my generation approaches work.

Tardiness. Absence. Disloyalty. Laziness. Dishonesty. Unfortunately, these adjectives more correctly describe us.

In some ways, it’s difficult to blame only employees in cultivating this attitude. Companies are at least partially to blame.

Increasing attention to profitability and less to the overall health of the organization has resulted in a devaluation of the everyman. I know several people that serve as examples of incredible employees; they are hard-working, dedicated and dependable employees. They’ve worked hard their entire lives, and have been steadily promoted through the years.

In one particular instance, the company decided to forgo “trimming the fat” and instead amputated an entire limb of the company. One of my role models was let go on the verge of being fully vested and comfortable retirement.

What message does that send to my generation? Work 60-hour weeks for 10 years and we’ll let go of you right before your “benefits” mature?

This approach not only undermines company morale, but those of us who look up to our elders see this and are disheartened. More importantly, we learn from this and it’s reflected in our working attitude.

I’m a little old school, but I still believe in the value of hard work and dependability. Despite seeing example after example reinforcing this message, I cannot change who I am and how I was raised.

Your work reflects your integrity. Work does not define you, but it does reflect the quality of your character.

The problem is that I am surrounded by others who don’t share this philosophy, and I am forced to pick up the slack because that is all I know to do.

I know I’m not alone, because I’ve met others who face similar challenges. The question that weighs on me most heavily is how we can sustain this philosophy without getting burnt out.

Any ideas?

Mr. Overzealous Tennessee Titans Fan

See link:  

Quotable quotes…

(See story)

Frankly, it really didn’t matter who was catching the balls and who was trying to defend them after a certain point. Favre was displaying the kind of rhythm that would make Justin Timberlake envious.

Now that’s how sports writers should write — clever and spunky while maintaining his class.