5 days with a new iPhone 3G
Posted by The King on July 20th, 2008 filed in mobile, rave, reviewSemi stream of consciousness thoughts on the highlights and lowlights of the new iPhone 3G, from a new iPhone owner.
- Glitches:
- ”Sync w/ Google Contacts” - this isn’t a sync, it’s a “duplicate” function. It doesn’t do any merging that I can see, and in a very un-Apple way there are two places you need to turn this off to have it really stop (once in iTunes and once in your OSX Address Book). Back to SpanningSync, thank god it works well. Technically this isn’t a brand spanking new function, it was released a version or two of iTunes ago, but I’m just using it for the 1st time now.
- Breaks iTunes Playcounts. I’ve had a 100% hands-off playlist for all my podcasts that completely managed itself for several years, automatically deleting podcasts after I had listened to them and always syncing up my iPod and computer perfectly. . .until now.
- Geotagging has unacceptable glitches. Around one out of three photos I take is tagged on the wrong side of the prime meridian. If I stand outside and take five photos in a row, one or two of them, in no particular order, will be tagged with an inverse latitude. By reading these comments it sounds like other people are having all or none of their latitudes transposed, but I’m getting just some of them goofed up (with seemingly no correlation between how/where I’m taking the picture.
- Gripes:
- Battery life does indeed blow, multiple recharges a day will be needed if you want to have any fun and/or usefulness. . .It’s at least as poor as the battery life on the Nokia N95-4 I tested.
- Cool iTunes Remote app but no Airtunes support?
- I’d like the Maps app to have a screen orientation lock/unlock switch so I can either rotate 360 degrees as freely spin the iPhone and have it rotate like a compass, or have it lock the orientation. Maybe this will solve itself with 3rd party GPS/mapping programs. . .but has anyone else actually tried to follow directions on foot using the maps app in a dense urban area? It’s really awkward to not have the screen properly orient itself NSEW.
- The hard reset (holding down the menu button and lock button for 10 seconds) should be mentioned in the short instructions that come with the phone. Having it do a hard lock, constantly repeating 2.5 seconds of a youtube video over and over (with no way to stop or control volume) - then having to run to a computer and google that problem, made for a rather embarrassing demo that I was trying to give to a friend.
- Google Reader: it would be *awesome* to have it work just like the real version and mark things as read as I scan over them (even when condensed). I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds, and as best I can see this forces me to actually open every one I want to mark as read. Otherwise, this is so close to being a bullseye I am hesitant to go to 3rd party readers.
- Accolades:
- Apps store rocks (favorites so far are Facebook, Twitterific, Speed Dial, Chopper, CBNK 3D, Tetris).
- Look forward to trying “Quick Voice” memo recorder. . .I’ve been looking for this kind of thing for a long time. It would be nice if their companion Mac app could manage and/or sync these notes better. As a pseudo journalist I’ve yearned for a one trick pony that would eliminate the need for other devices to do voice recording for a long time (and not need external mics, etc).
- Location Aware: for places I’ve played around w/ Yelp & iWant. . .I slightly prefer iWant’s cleaner interface. 3-4 clicks to locate and call a restaurant is amazing (60 seconds total). The social networking location aware features are all over the place. . .as of right now I am not seeing a stand out winner screaming out at me that it will get enough critical mass to make it actually useful. There needs to be a really simple app for you to locate another friend, in an on-demand sort of way, integrated with the maps app. . . In real usage so far I think 50%+ of my location aware inquiries could be satisfied by justing having the ability to “push” a thumbtack of myself on to someone else’s map app, saying “hey, I’m here, come find me.”
- Plain old “non-push” email, setup w/ my Gmail account, works like a champ.
Google Maps & Public Transit team up to help you go green.
Posted by The King on June 23rd, 2008 filed in green, rave, review
With the exception of foot power, there’s probably nothing better you can do to save gas than to use public transportation. For me, living in Chicago, access to good public transportation has never been a problem. My biggest hurdle has always been synthesizing the “real” directions to my destination into sync with the dozens of schedules and system maps.
Screenshots are actual directions to get from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) to Wrigley Field (Chicago, IL). In order: driving by car; public transit by bus; public transit by light rail.
“What stop should I get off at?, What train line runs the most frequently at this time of day? Where do I transfer to bus #XXX?, How long will it take me to walk to my destination from that stop?”
Eurkea! All these and more are answered by Google Maps new integration with public transportation schedules. As of this writing Google has already processed the public transit systems in approximately 40 large cities across the globe, with additional cities being integrated at a rapid clip.
Important side note - at least for Chicagoans. . . I noticed that our inner-city light rail (the “El” if you’re from here) is covered, though the larger 6-county Metra rail system isn’t included yet. It’s absence isn’t sorely missed, the Metra is more of a longish distance commuter option whereas the El is truly used for trips of all sorts and distances.
In researching this new functionality inside Google Maps I stumbled across another really cool website that can help you in your quest to go green. WalkScore.com is a new site that assigns a numerical score to a neighborhood’s “walkability index.” I tried it out and more or less it was right on the money. Looking to go carless? This is a great tool to use when evaluating potential neighborhods before you pick your new apartment randomly from Craigslist (ps - though it misses some listings, www.housingmaps.com is a great mashup that puts CL ads right on an actual map).
Week 25 Quick Picks
Posted by The King on June 20th, 2008 filed in rave, review
Wakerupper.com - (Web) Free wake up calls to your cell, landline, or any phone you want to register with them. You can even type a short message to be reminded of like “buy playoff tickets.” In my testing I’ve found you better actually answer the phone if you want to hear the message, don’t count on it being recorded as a voicemail. I’ve been a happy user for months - simple, quick, and free reminders are (almost) always a good thing.
Bee Doc’s Timeline - (Mac) It’s not a secret that sometimes a timeline is the easiest, most visually appealing way to convey information. What I’ve never found was an easy way to make timelines of my own. . . until now. I came across Bee Doc’s Timeline and liked it so much I bought it and formatted my resume with it. You’ll be shocked how quickly you can make beautiful, useful timelines. Free trial so you can kick the tires all day long (with a watermark), $40 standard version or $65 for the 3D version.
Crappy Graphs - (Web) Timelines aren’t the online useful way to graphically convey info, but sometimes an Excel produced chart is too much. Maybe you just want to make a simple, slightly comical point? Enter Crappy Graphs! It’s geared more towards the witty guy looking for a great way to respond to the “for every person you forward this email to,” and not for actual business use. Reaching back for inspiration to the inventor of the ice cream glove I came up with this work on the left.
Go To Assist - (Web - IE Only) If you need an easy way to help a friend out with his or her computer this is it. Citrix’s new service is my favorite Windows remote support client yet. It works like a champ because you avoid having to mess around with the configuration hurdles of Microsoft Remote Desktop or a VNC client. Like similar web based solutions (gotomeeting.com to name one) this is practically zero config and easily gets around firewalls (with your consent, of course). Free while it’s in beta.
Shure SE110 Headphones: large sound with even larger size.
Posted by The King on June 19th, 2008 filed in mobile, rant, review
As high-end audio manufacturer Shure continues to expand their portfolio of consumer headphones I jumped at the chance to try the new $99 entry level Shure SE110.
I’ve read a lot of great reviews lately of nearly all the models across the Shure consumer headphone lineup. In the end of my two week test I came away enjoying the high fidelity and great sound reproduction of these headphones, but there are a few fatal flaws and I would not recommend them for most people. Maybe the high price puts reviewers and purchasers into some sort of trance, but the problems plaguing the SE110 seem to run so deep I seriously question how much time was actually spent using them in the wild before most of these glowing accolades were written.
Firefox 3 Release - world record silliness.
Posted by The King on June 17th, 2008 filed in rant, reviewMozilla’s idea of inciting pandemonium around today’s latest release of their internet browser, Firefox, in hopes of setting a world record seems silly at best, and downright ridiculous the more I think about it.
First off FF3 has had over eight public betas. If Star Wars had 8 public pre-screening versions to the last installment, can you really garner worthwhile data from its first “real” weekend at the box office?
Second, Mozilla is trying to establish a world record for something that there is no world record for and no one cares about. It is reminesecnt of the obscure combinations of stats that sportscasters try to put together to build suspense, “though technically he’s the league’s worst pitcher right now in terms of ERA, he is also the *best* lefty reliever when playing in domed stadiums built after 1995, but only when the opponent is not a team that has relocated since inter-league play began.”
Third, how could Mozilla not know that people would have a very difficult time downloading FF3 today? It’s not like they don’t know anything about the internet.
My many attempts today can be summed up by the large screenshot in this post. . .however, my favorite is when I finally thought I was downloading FF3 only to see it was actually a link that sent me to a FF2 download.
In defense of ATT’s 3G network for the iPhone.
Posted by The King on June 12th, 2008 filed in mobile, rantI just wrote this email to Windows super-guru Paul Thurrott in response to his blog posting from this morning that was titled iPhone 3G’s Achilles Heel is still AT&T.
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