Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category

iPhone 1 Year Review

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

I recently passed my iPhone one year anniversary, and I thought I would reflect on what, if any, changes it’s made in my life and business. And no, downloading iOS4 yesterday didn’t influence this at all.

Let me start by saying that the iPhone has made bigger changed in both areas than almost any other piece of tech I’ve owned. Arguably, my first Palm OS device was bigger because it launched me from an analog and paper world to primarily digital, but in practical application, I still think the iPhone was bigger.

My old Blackberry introduced me to mobile email and frustrated me because it couldn’t cut it as a solo device. I still had a Palm organizer, an MP3 player and a stand-alone ebook reader.

Then I got the iPhone. One device does it all, and it does it all well. I can walk out the door with wallet, keys and my phone and manage my entire day. I’ve never been able to get away with so little.

Lots of people are writing about simplifying their life by getting rid of smartphones and other tech. Frankly, I think they are nuts. By having everything I need in one small package, my life is simpler. One thing that makes this possible is “Airplane Mode,” where I can disconnect completely while still having access to my productivity tools. My old Blackberry was much harder to disconnect from.

I’m almost completely paperless now. With a really good way to manage my calendar and tasks, I don’t need a paper organizer. Evernote allows me to take and keep quick “notes to self.”

But it’s not just lack of paper. My netbook could have allowed that. The iPhone allows me to have everything I need with me at all times. Oops! I can’t remember exactly where my next meeting is? No problem, I have the email where we set up the meeting in Evernote. Do I have time on the Metro to work? No problem. I’m actually writing this post on the train to a meeting in Bethesda

I don’t even wear a watch anymore. The iPhone fulfills that function too.

Plus books, music, movies and, don’t forget, Plants vs. Zombies! I use it for work, and I’m more productive. I use it to relax. It goes with me on vacation (in Airplane mode, of course). I kind of can’t remember what life was like before it.

I don’t think Blackberrys can do everything my iPhone can. ‘Droid phones probably can. I have mixed feelings on the iPad. One of my friends uses it more than his iPhone now. I think it’s a great device. But the portability factor of the iPhone can’t be beat.

And now off to play with my new OS. And dream about my future upgrade to an iPhone 4.

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Review: Opera Mini for iPhone

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Last week, Opera Mini for iPhone was finally approved by the App Store. It was a long-awaited app, and many had been concerned it wouldn’t be approved by Apple.

The response to the new browser was so overwhelming that it was downloaded over one million times on its first day of release. Clearly there was significant pent-up need and a general dissatisfaction with Safari, the native iPhone browser.

I was one of those one million folks who downloaded, and I wanted to write up a quick review of the app after using it for a little less than a week.

In a word. Wow!

It is an improvement in almost every way over Safari. Its biggest selling point is speed. I was never particularly unhappy with Safari’s speed. I would even sometimes wait patiently for a web page to download over Edge. I took it as the price of mobile browsing.

I’m delighted to say that patience is not a price we have to pay any longer. Last Wednesday, when the app was released, I had a meeting with a client who also has a iPhone. At the end of our session, we did a speed test.

Full disclosure. The test was not completely fair. One of us was running an iPhone 3GS and the other was running a 3G. The 3GS is a slightly faster phone, even over Edge, which was the network setting we used. Figured the best test was to use the slowest of all the options. It also minimized the 3GS’ slight advantage.

We both opened our browsers and did a Google search on my website. Once we both had it in our search screens, we started the clock and tapped the links.

The results? 12 seconds to completely load the page in Opera Mini. 35 seconds in Safari!

Remember the 3G vs. 3GS difference? The phone running Safari was the 3GS, the slightly faster machine.

So yeah, Opera Mini is fast.

But is speed really everything? What about other features? Opera Mini wins hands down on those as well.

When you load the program, you get a very nice splash screen grid with slots for quick bookmarks. Some are pre-loaded (weather, etc), but you can customize. Saves tapping for the bookmark menu for the sites you use the most.

Opera Mini prompts to remember user names and passwords. Safari does not. Even when there is a box “Remember me,” and I click it, Safari never remembers. Obviously, I don’t use this for really sensitive stuff like financial information. But if someone steals my phone and can hack my Google Reader account, I’m not going to lose too much sleep.

The only drawback I’ve seen so far is that I don’t like the way Google Reader looks in Opera. I like the look a screen layout better in Safari. Not sure why it’s different, but it is.

And of course there’s no way to set Opera Mini as the default browser, so you’re stuck with Safari if you click on email links or links from your Twitter or Facebook client.

But I can live with those. Opera Mini is now on my first screen. Safari has to live with being on the second one, and it may eventually move farther back.

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Coffee House Tech Trends

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

As we move to the end of the year, I wanted to share an observation of technology and how we are using it.

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I spend a lot of time in coffee houses. It’s where I meet my clients, prospects and people I network with. I am also a people watcher, and a gadget freak, so I like to see what gadgets other people are using.

Last year and very early this year, I saw a lot of Blackberrys, laptops and some netbooks. Those appeared to be the mobile productivity tools of choice.

As 2009 progressed, I saw a change. I now see fewer laptops and Blackberrys. What I see now are more netbooks, iPhones and other brands of smartphones.

It’s actually surprised me how the number of Blackberrys has dropped off. It’s a good mobile tool, but based on my unscientific measurement, it seems to be losing ground to the iPhone and other smartphones. I expect to see more Android-powered phones next year, especially as long as Verizon continues to not have an iPhone. People seem to like the touch screen phones, and the Blackberry Storm has not taken off here. I see it, certainly, but compared to the iPhone? No comparison.

The switch to more netbooks does not surprise me. More portable is better. Hence my recent netbook purchase. Most of the work done in coffee houses seems to be web browsing, basic word processing, email (and watching YouTube videos). Netbooks perform those functions very well.

What did surprise me until I thought it through was what I perceive as a switch from netbooks to iPhones and the like. Note the work I mentioned above. iPhones and many other smartphones perform most of those functions very well. Word processing is the only one where a computer is clearly better, but I have written plenty of documents on my phone, so it certainly can be done.

My observation is, of course, in the Washington DC area. Anyone from another location have observations to share? Is this an “inside the Beltway” phenomenon, or does it extend elsewhere?

Oh, just one more observation. While I was in Disney World last week, I noticed that while iPhones certainly were present, they were scarcer than the DC area. It might have had something to do with the fact that the AT&T service was horrible in the Orlando area. I couldn’t get 3G at all in the parks, and even my Edge connection was sluggish at best. I used to think all the complaints about AT&T were unjustified. The service in the DC area is quite good. Now I see that my experience here is hardly universal. Another reason to stay put for now.

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Review: Birdbrain for iPhone

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Yes, Birdbrain is kind of a silly name. But it is a wonderful program. It isn’t a Twitter client, but it does make your Twitter experience better.

How? By helping you manage your followers. Twitter doesn’t send you an update every time someone follows you. And it doesn’t send you a message when someone unfollows you. Nor does it tell you when they kick someone off the island for being a spammer. So that tally of Followers on your profile page can change inexplicably. One day, according to Twitter notifications, I added 4 followers, but the number on my profile page went up by 6. Huh?

Birdbrain tells you exactly what’s going on. When you first install and run the program on your iPhone, it takes a snapshot of your followers. And then every time you run the program after that, it updates that snapshot, showing you exactly who has started and stopped following. Cool, eh?

You can also look at a new follower’s Timeline to decide if you want to follow back. And can start following without leaving the program. It will track your Mentions. After you’ve been using the program for a while, it will give you reports going back 90 days.

All in all, well worth the $1.99 they are asking for it. If you have an iPhone and are using Twitter, give it a try. You won’t regret it.

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More Technical Challenges

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Not exactly the post I was planning for today, but what I wrote last week is kind of unavailable at the moment. It seems to be my month for technical problems. A week and a half ago, my laptop crashed. And over the weekend, my iPhone mostly crashed. I say mostly because all the native apps are working. Nothing installed is working, including WordPress Mobile, where Monday and Tuesday’s blog posts are. Lesson if you use WordPress. Upload blog drafts as soon as you write them. If I’d done that, I’d be fine today. As it is, I have two posts in the can as soon as I get the phone fixed. Not a completely bad thing.

Well, I’ll be off later to the Apple Store for my tech support appointment. Let’s hope the Apple folks can get me up and running soon. Hardware crashes happen. Let’s see if Apple’s tech support is as good as their product.

Oh, yeah. And my recent experience with my laptop taught me the value of regular backups. iPhone is completely backed up. After a restore, I should be as good as new.

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Working Without a Computer

Friday, September 11th, 2009

I’d been meaning to try a day without my computer, just to see how it worked. Could I be productive on my iPhone alone? Well, last Thursday evening my laptop died, and I had my “experiment” thrust upon me. So let’s find out how it works. This post will be a running commentary on Friday without laptop.

Right now, it’s almost 10 AM, and it’s going better than I expected. I have checked and updated Facebook (both my personal and business pages). I’ve read all the blogs I am subscribed to and forwarded and tweeted items of interest. I’ve edited and posted my own daily blog post and am working on Monday’s. (This one.)

My calendar and action lists are on my phone, so no worries there. I will be where I need to be when I need to be there. I’ll see what action items normally done “at computer” can be done on the phone. Hopefully most of them.

Alas, not. Most of them involved either web research or access to files (which were backed up) that weren’t on my phone. None of them were tasks that had to be done today, so not a big problem.

Emails have been easy. No one sent me anything weird that I couldn’t open on the phone. The iPhone is an excellent email device. In my opinion the larger screen makes it superior to a Blackberry with hard keys. Never played with a Bold, so I can’t comment on the differences between them.

Blogging is very easy on the phone. I wrote a couple of posts today which puts me ahead for next week.

Overall, I wouldn’t want to live like this, but it worked. I was able to be productive in enough areas without the laptop.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it’s fixed and fine. I didn’t even lose anything. I’ve got a great tech guy, if you need his name and number.

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