Awesome and frustrating

The iPhone has changed how I do many things. It’s changed:

• how, when and where I check email
• what I read and where I read
• how I play games
• what I expect from other small displays
• how I surf the web
• how I judge the quality of other gadgets
• how I view my stocks
• how I listen to music
• how I watch video
• how I get my weather
• how I access things like Facebook and Twitter
• what I do when I’m lost or need to find a coffee shop
• how I find what movies are playing today and at what theater

Is that your iPhone ringing?

The above list are just some of the many things the iPhone has changed for me, but it’s not all awesomeness! I love my iPhone I really do, but it’s also changed how I answer a Phone. Gone are the days of pressing a button and hearing a voice at the other end although you can press a multitude of buttons to silence a call. The iPhone has reinvented the way we use gadgets in every possible way, including how we answer a phone. Now you swipe a pretty little graphic to answer your phone. Got winter gloves on? Don’t worry, answer it later. Fumbling around with your phone while getting it out of your pocket? Don’t worry, that phone call probably wasn’t important anyway. Someone trying to buzz you to get into your building and your iPhone has let you know about it two minutes later with a missed call message? Don’t worry, someone else probably let them in.

Yes, the iPhone excels at everything except being a phone. The final blow comes when your iPhone is sitting on the desk in front of you; none of the challenges mentioned above are an issue now. Your phone is ringing, all you have to do is slide that beautiful slider to the right, slide once, slide twice, slide three times, maybe one more slide, please please answer the call! I know I am not alone in this, a simple Google search finds thousands of people with the same issue. The slider randomly locks up and does not answer phone calls sometimes.

The iPhone is sold in countries with winter (AKA Snowy and Cold)

Not only that, the whole slider concept is a stupid idea anyway. Yes it’s cool the first few times you try it, but then practicality comes into play. Try answering an iPhone in Toronto on a cold January day with gloves on, no traditional button means no answering your phone. I think my iPhone would be perfect if I could just press the big button at the bottom to answer the phone.

Still no regrets

That said, I still have no regrets, Apple has trained us all to say iPhone, not phone, so that speaks volumes about the customer loyalty, or possibly their marketing, but I think it’s a combination of both. The fact that my iPhone sometimes won’t answer calls and I still put up with it also speaks volumes. I could also just be a sucker for punishment, but in all fairness this only happens every month or so, but it’s still infuriating.

The iPhone has become a way of life for me. When I was recently stranded in Guadeloupe because of a volcano eruption, a local wi-fi connection, Skype and email made communicating with friends and family a lot more affordable. Every morning I also manage to check all my personal email while walking to work (when the weather is warm). When I’m lost I load up Google maps. The amount of hours I’ve put into iPhone games is probably best kept a secret. The quality and feel of the iPhone is also unmatched in my opinion. It has raised the bar for hand-held devices making many other devices feel cheap and flimsy in comparison.

I want to touch every screen

Like expecting every public faucet to magically turn on when I place my hands under it, I also expect many hand held devices to have touch screens and feel silly when I realize they do not.

The iPhone has made the decision to get an iPad easier

A great experience builds trust, and like most Apple products that trust translates into more sales. My decision to get an iPhone involved a lot of research and humming and hawing, my iMac purchase required less scrutiny, and I doubt I will need much arm twisting when the iPad finally arrives in Canada.

Just give me one button!

My only request would be for my iPhone to always answer calls, even when I have gloves on. That big round button at the bottom would be perfect! Are you listening Apple?

I of course jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, but before I did I spent a lot of time researching many of the smartphones out there. At the time just before the second iPhone was launched there were a lot of great smartphones on the way, but none were out yet. Now that the iPhone has been out for a few months a lot of new devices have emerged. One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was because Apple was ahead of the curve, now a lot of the other manufacturers have similar offerings, but are any of them really iPhone killers? I decided to do a quick smartphone round up to see what’s currently out there.

Android is the newest cool kid in town

Of course you can’t talk about smartphones without talking about Android and their new G1 offered by T-Mobile in the US. This phone by HTC came out a couple of weeks ago, but even before a phone was announced, the Android platform had huge buzz in the blogsphere and tech news sites. I wrote about it several times and was pretty hyped about it myself when I wrote Android Android Android! everyone’s talking about Android and I still am pretty buzzed about it.

Android promises a lot of innovation and is really shaking up the industry. First it’s open source, which means anyone can play with the innards of the code. Up until now this was practically unheard of, and this could be the end of locked down phones, which I think is great. I can do what I want with my computer, I should be able to do the same with my smartphone, which is basically a portable mini computer. This is one flaw with Apple’s phone, without special applications I can’t even treat this phone as a storage device or copy my music on to different computers. The Open Handset Alliance is another great by product of Google Android.

Everything I have read about the G1 says that it is no iPhone killer, but there is massive potential and that this is just the start. Google is on to something here, and one of these days there may be a Google phone that is an iPhone killer. Remember this is Googles first phone.

See Engadget’s review on the G1

Blackberry Bold and Storm

Research In Motion is one of the big players and has been around for a long time. The big toys from RIM this year are the Bold and the Storm. If any phone could have swayed me from my iPhone purchase it would have been one of these. In the end I’m glad I went for the iPhone because the Bold does lean towards business users, and the Storm is taking forever to come out.

The Bold is the newest and greatest Blackberry in town, with a higher resolution than the iPhone but smaller screen this thing is crystal sharp. I have played with it once and it is pretty clear, but you have to wonder what the point of such high resolution is with such a small screen? It’s a nice phone, but it still feels a bit flimsy, I’m not a fan of how easily the Blackberries tend to scratch, but with that said if I had to pick a second best phone, I would probably go with a Blackberry.

The Blackberry Storm may be a different story, this is RIM’s attempt at the consumer market and is a direct competitor to the iPhone. It has what RIM calls “tactile-touch” which is basically a spring loaded screen. You basically have to push all the way down to hit a key, which sounds pretty cool. I’m used to not having to push down, so it might be hard to get used too. So far I have read that the new touch screen is awesome, to not so great, so only time will tell. I think what you are used to will have a lot to do with how much you like the screen. Blackberry is late to the game and a lot of people who use touch screens have gotten used to how they work now, but this may appeal to the users who have not switched to a touchscreen yet.

You can find first impression reviews at Gizmodo and Engadget along with a gallery of PowerPoint slides on The Boy Genius Report.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

Sony’s EXPERIA X1 has been rumoured and talked about so long that I almost forgot about it. Its already available in some places, but still pretty hard to find.

This is a pretty sweet looking phone, but I’ve read a lot of good and bad about it. First it’s Windows Mobile, so depending on how you feel about Windows Mobile, your decision may be already made. There have also been claims of slow response on the touch screen and that the keyboard keys do not provide enough tactile feedback. Either way, I don’t think this phone will be viable until it’s on major carriers. Rumours are that it will be available on AT&T at some point.

Unboxing of XPERIA X1 and some nice high resolution shots and a very early review at The Boy Genuis Report.

HTC and a world of cool smartphones

HTC has so many cool phones it’s hard to mention them all. They build the G1 Android phone and had a hand in the XPERIA X1. They also released the Touch Diamond this year, and the Touch Pro will be out soon. There is also the really cool HTC Touch HD which unfortunately will not be showing up in North America, but it has been called an iPhone killer.

HTC definitely makes a whole lot of cool phones, and I’m sure we will be seeing Google’s Android on a lot more HTC phones.

Nokia

Nokia is huge in a lot of the world, but not so much here in North America. That may all change if they start bringing out slick phones like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It comes with a stylus so you can write out your messages, so if a stylus is your thing, then the XpressMusic might be for you.

Engadget has a hands on review.

Samsung instinct

Samsung has also jumped onto the touch screen smart phone bandwagon, the big one this year was the Samsung Instinct. I’m a huge fan of Samsung products, especially their LCD displays, but for some reason their phones just don’t do it for me. The instinct did perk my interest, but then the reviews came out and laid my anticipation to rest. The Omnia on the other hand seems to score a bit higher, but it’s a windows mobile device and it doesn’t have the prettiest interface. Samsung is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance, so we may see a Google Android phone from them in the future; fingers crossed.

Openmoko, truly open

Although a much smaller player in the smartphone field we cannot forget Openmoko, the truly open source smartphone platform and the device it runs on, Neo FreeRunner. I have been keeping an eye on Openmoko for many of the same reasons I watch Google’s Android platform. I believe in the concept behind these platforms, but Openmoko steps it up a notch, this is a truly open source project, everything from the OS to the phone itself; even the CAD files can be downloaded so you can modify the actual phone itself. Openmoko is definitely a hardcore computer geeks dream.

More information can be found on the wiki entry for Openmoko. The phone can be purchased at the official Openmoko website, and you can also visit the Openmoko wiki website which has much more information.

Apple iPhone, the darling of touch smartphones

And of course this roundup wouldn’t be complete without the iPhone. Apple has lead the way here the same way they lead the way for mp3 players. Whether you love or hate Apple there is no denying that they are market leaders in innovation and have consistently upped the bar delivering a compelling product that’s hard to beat. Almost every review I have read on smartphones uses the iPhone as a measure of quality. You always hear references to Apple’s iPhone or “the iPhone Killer” catch phrase.

That doesn’t mean the iPhone has no flaws, one of the most mentioned features that is missing is “copy and paste” functionality. I don’t know if Apple will ever add this, but it’s a much needed and requested feature, especially for sending web addresses to people in applications such as Twitterific. There is an option to email someone a link from Safari, but copy and paste would be a lot more useful. Another thing that needs fixing is the browser, although it’s a fantastic mini browser, possibly even the best, it does tend to crash an awful lot, at least for me. That said, I am more than happy with my iPhone and it really is the best device I have bought in years. Many of the games are simple but very addictive, just what you want on a small device like this and there is a constant stream of new applications every day. When I was showing my phone to someone once they asked “is there anything it can’t do?”, well yes, it won’t do your laundry yet.

An amazing year for gadgets

It really has been a great year for great gadgets and smartphones in particular. I can’t help but get excited about 2009′s lineup. Where will Apple be this time next year, and the one I’m really keeping an eye on is Google’s Android. It will also be interesting to see how the Blackberry vs Apple battle turns out, I personally think Android is more of a threat than the Blackberry. The Blackberry has a strong loyal consumer base and owns the business sector. They are also making their phones pretty, because lets face it, even business men and women want to have a cool cell phone.

For the third iPhone next year I’m predicting a higher resolution, better GPS and a better camera as obvious places to work on. I hope all the other smartphones have surprises up their sleeves also. 2008 was an amazing year, lets hope 2009 is even more ground breaking.

You can see more pictures on Engadget of both the desktop and the laptop. I only wish I could get this sucker with Windows XP, I am not a fan of Vista. The desktop comes with a 500GB hard drive, 3GB memory, Wi-Fi,  built in camera, wireless keyboard and all the expected bells and whistles including high performance with the exception of a great grpahics card, you get the Intel GMA X4500HD. There are three models to choose from ranging in size from 20 to 25 inch. Here is a first look YouTube video.

Another thing that makes a setup like this great and no one gets this more than Apple is the clean look. Unfortunately, this baby will come plastered with tacky stickers all over it and these things are not fun to peel off. Why on earth they would do this to such a beautiful machine is beyond me, but this is the way every windows machine works. The same can be said for cellphone branding. How come apple is the only manufacturer that does not uglify their hardware? Here is the Sony Desktop uglified with tacky stickers.

Anyway, after peeling off the stickers and upgrading to Windows XP, this system should be pretty sweet. Will wait to see this baby in the stores, but I’m still leaning ever further towards a Mac these days. My next computer upgrade is still a ways off, but it’s nice to see windows machines getting the Apple type treatment.

The trip was fantastic and I learned a lot. Mike has been doing this kind of thing for years, and so have I, but to a lesser degree. This was my first time going on a multi-day canoe trip so I had a lot to learn about knots and bear bags; I had always been a day tripper until this trip.

The luxury of time

So why would two technology crazed geeks want to leave the comforts of our digital gadgets, games and… gasp the Internet behind? Well, first of all there are lots of camping gadgets to play with, everything from cool chairs that can transform into mattresses to hammocks that become your room between two trees for a few days, but the real luxury in getting away from it all is time.

Quality time is something very special and I think in the hustle and bustle of day to day life we can lose sight of what’s important. Toys and gadgets are great, but sometimes you need to watch a spectacular sunset in the middle of no where to get some real perspective. Taking hours to make dinner over a fire and really enjoying it, or seeing the night sky the way it was meant to be, before we polluted it with spot lights for the newest club in town. Time and nature give you these luxuries.

Lots of toys to play with

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any toys to play with, there’s also things like cool mini water filters, miniature stoves, small pots and pans, and lots of other great things to play with like a flint fire starter and the reward of starting a fire without matches or a lighter. Oh and lets not forget a Pakcanoe that can be completely taken apart and stored in an apartment! It’s all pretty clever stuff and much of it serves a dual purpose, whether it’s zip off pants (or pantsformers as Mike likes to call them) or transforming chairs, a lot of it is designed to be ultra light and with multi-use in mind.

Next time I would like to play with some more technology gadgets out there. It would be really cool to do a video blog entry with a flip mino or charge your iPhone with a portable solar panal. They charge slowly and you don’t really need them, but I’m a Geek, so why not.

Although I didn’t have some of these toys, I had a great time. Next time I’ll definitely be bringing a mini solar panel charger, but these are just fun things to play with in an area that always inspires regardless of toys and gadgets.

Turn your iPhone off dude!

As I mentioned earlier in this post we did bring our iPhones, and mine served us well with it’s GPS on the way there, but unfortunately and with much ridicule from Mike I didn’t know that you had to fully turn off your iPhone to completely stop using the batteries. Yes, I know, I should know this, but I didn’t. Anyway, by the time we got out of the park, the one place I would want to use it (there is no service in the park at all) the batteries were dead. Lesson learned, and next time I’ll bring one of those funky solar chargers.

Some pictures from our trip.

A great sunset in Algonquin Park

Amazing sunset during a mostly cloudy day

Lately E Ink has been getting a lot of press. Earlier this month Esquire showed off the worlds first ever E Ink magazine cover. This brought visions of the science fiction film Minority Report to many people and an environmental disaster in the making for others. There are also many e-readers being released with iRex to introduce a 10.2-inch E Ink reader next week. Although I love the technology, I think the current vision of E Ink by the press and blog sphere is somewhat flawed.

Minority report animated paper

Every where I read about E Ink I hear things like “Will this replace paper” and “This will allow for a more print / newspaper friendly layout”. These are all flawed concepts to me. It reminds me of other great technological advances like “Will the TV replace radio” or “Will the Internet replace TV”. Yes some of these technologies merged and can be used over the Internet, but no technology replaced the other. We still listen to the radio, whether it is satalite radio in our car, FM, or streaming radio, and we all certainly still watch television. We also use the web in the way it was envisioned also.

The grid

My art teacher would shoot me for saying this as she felt that the failure to adhere to a print like grid was a major failing of the web. I on the other hand believe it is a major advancement, I really hope that we don’t resort back to old fashioned print style layouts. This was done on paper because there was a finite amount of space and paper costs money so you have to use it all up. Writing content to fit little boxes isn’t fun. Anyone who has had to create print style web layouts knows this, it usually doesn’t work. The wonderful thing about a digital display is that you have a liquid medium and unlimited paper. The text can be as long as you want and flow around images and boxes according to font size or display type. With CSS you even have the power to display the content in different formats, independent from the layout. This allows web designers to support many different platforms, and make sites usable for the visually impaired.

If e-readers do take off, and I think they will, I really hope that print changes to be more like the web, and not the other way around, it’s a far more flexable approch. It’s also only a matter of time before touch sensitive E Ink displays will be the norm, why lock it down to old fashioned design principals. Will I even have to click/touch my way to page 5 to continue the story? Maybe we can even add E Mess to the reader itself so that when you hold your reader for a long time your fingers become all soiled just like with a real newspaper.

A land fill nightmare, why?

While everyone was praising Esquire for bringing magazines into the 21st century did anyone stop to think of the environmental implications? This is a little more serious than my first grip; why do we have this disposable attitude towards everything? Here we have this fantastic reusable technology, but we want to turn it into a throw away medium? Don’t we have enough garbage clogging the landfills already. I know we can recycle newspapers, but I’m not so sure about E Ink, and recycling costs a lot of money. Why bother when we can just re-use the technology. Once everyone has an e-reader they can just wirelessly download their favourite newspaper.

If papers had to stay old fashioned with their multi-columned mess, companies could even deliver content in multiple formats. Lets hope that every time we read a newpaper or magazine in the future we are not dropping batteries by the boatload into our garbage cans as we step off the subway for work. It should be about reusability, not a throw away technology.

Cost

The cost is the last major hurdle. Right now really popular readers cost anywhere from 300 to 1000 dollars. This is just too much for the average Joe. The new 10.2 inch iRex reader to be released next week clocks in at $850 for the high end model with Wi-fi, Bluetooth and 3G. Couple that with the fact that a lot of people don’t even get through a book a month and the cost of buying physical books is still a lot cheaper.

E-readers will have to get a lot more competitive or offer features that we can’t live without. Right now the average smartphone / laptop can do everything an e-reader can do, and in colour. The only real advantages an e-reader has is a screen that can be seen in bright daylight and long battery life, not enough for a lot of people, but if you read lots of books it can be worth it. I think back to breaking my back with college and university books; an e-reader would have come in handy back then.

The future is electronic paper

That said I do think the future is in electronic paper. Like any technology it is still in its infancy. Some day in the near future refresh rates which are pretty slow right now will be faster and the technology will be available in colour as E Ink has already demonstrated. I could even see monitors switching to this technology someday.

From Apple:

Apple has determined that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock.  We have received reports of detached blades involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported.

Apple has called the program the “Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange program“.

Users with ultracompact power adapters should immediately stop using them until they exchange them for a new, redesigned ultracompact adapter.

In the meantime, they should charge their iPhone 3G by connecting it to their computer with the USB cable that came with their iPhone or by using a standard-sized Apple USB Power Adapter (with fold up prongs) or with a third party adapter designed to work with the iPhone, such as a car charger.

You have two ways of getting a new Apple Ultracompact Super Duper USB Power adapter thingy. You can either order it via the web or take in your current one to an Apple store after October 10th. Your new adapter should have a little green dot on the plug side as shown to the right. I was hoping it would be one of those cool fold up plugs, but it looks pretty much the same, only it won’t suffer “detached blades”.

Check out the full details on Apples official power adapter recall page.

Hot on the heals of the Google Android phone will be the new Blackberry Storm which is a direct competitor to the iPhone. It has a soft touchscreen with built-in tactile feedback. I can’t help but wonder how scratch resistant this will be; I have a Nintendo DS which is a soft touch screen and it is very scratched up. I really wouldn’t want this to be the case for a phone that goes in your pocket for most of the day. The iPhone screen is extremely scratch resistance, so this could be a show stopper for some people but we’ll have to wait and see. The release dates around the Storm are a bit cloudy as Verizon seems to be playing games with everyone. Today many blogs linked to Verizon’s Storm announcement page which was then removed.

Exciting times in deed, although the Android OS has my attention more than any of the phones themselves. Another interesting tidbit was in London today when one of the Android guys was asked if it could run on other devices he replied “why not?”.

His entire website looks interesting and I plan to dig around some more when I get some time, but what really caught my attention was his Wii projects YouTube videos. These videos show everything from Minority Report style interaction to virtual reality all using a Wiimote for the underlying technology. Minority Report is a near future science fiction movie starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film was released in 2002 and featured a lot of fictional technology that many people said was within the realm of reality in the near future.

Minority Report computer terminal

Although Johnny Chung Lee’s demonstrations are no wear near as fantastic as those we see in the film, it does give us a tantalizing look at what the future may hold. As I watch his video’s I find my mind running wild with idea’s of what the game consoles, computer interfaces and even the web of tomorrow will look like. How we interact with computers will probably change drastically over the next 20 years, and if you are like me you probably can’t wait. I think of where we are today, and then I think back to my Commodore 64 days over 20 years ago and see how much things have changed. Couple that with the fact that technology is exponential in growth and you know we are going to have some amazing gadgets and computers over the next 20 years. The iPhone multi-touch is an example of a new way of interacting with a computer device and that is just the start.

Further down he demo’s a Multi-point Interactive Whiteboard. These have existed before now, but they are very expensive, and his demo uses a simple setup again with a Wiimote. He says you can use up to four pens.

The last demo on the page is a virtually reality demo and this is probably truly the most stunning; you really have to see it to understand. When we look at a television screen, the image does not move when we move. This is what makes it look static, but in the example shown, he tapes the Wiimote sensors to a camera and even in the video you can see the effect this has. Your TV goes from looking like a static picture to a window frame with depth, where things move when your head moves and you can actually look around objects.

This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space.

If you are feeling ambitious he has links to everything you need to replicate his demos. For a glimpse of technologies you may be using in the future check out his site.

My first iPhone street car ride home was spent catching up on my Google Reader feeds. People have asked me why I need to be connected all the time, so I tell them it’s really not much different than reading a newspaper in the morning only my preferred method is digital and the content I want to read for the most part won’t show up in the morning newspaper. Couple that with the fact that I hate how a newspaper feels, lets face it, they have a horrible user interface.

The main reason for getting an iPhone was staying up to date on gadgets, web trends and being connected whenever I want. I talk about being connected all the time in my post Why am I so addicted to the web? The iPhone is so much more though, now I have an iPod, video player, hand held game console, maps, text, chat, and the list goes on. Oh and lets not forget it’s actually a cellphone, something easy to forget, especially for me since I have never felt the need to own a cellphone. It will be nice to avoid the Ebola-ridden payphones of Toronto now, and finding one these days can be a real challenge.

Two great devices

When it came down to my final decision I was swaying between the Blackberry Bold and the iPhone. I really do believe that these two phones are the best out there right now, but they do have two types of users. The Blackberry seems a bit more business practical then the iPhone. It has a removable battery, a huge plus for travelers. It has a better reputation in the business world with exchange servers and Unix, although their is an iPhone ssh client in the app store now. Some would say the keypad is better too, but I am getting used to the iPhones keypad very quickly and the predictive typing is really good. Both devices are very cool, but the iPhone had a little more cool factor to it for me. I’m sure either phone would have made me happy for what I need them to do, but a rich browser experience was number one for me, and that is where the iPhone excels.

Does this mean I’ll stop talking about smartphones? Not a chance, I find the current ongoing innovation in hand held devices extremely interesting right now. The way many of us experience the web is slowly shifting from a desktop or laptop environment to a hand held experience. There are lots of great gadgets on the way too, although Android has had some setbacks it will be interesting to see what comes of it when it does finally arrive. The Blackberry Thunder (RIM’s respond to the iPhone) could also shake things up in October.

Well, someone has finally taken the first step. A few days ago the Eee Stick was officially announced by Asus. These are Wii like controllers that you can hold in your hand and use as pointing devices. They are being marketed as gaming devices and Asus is hoping games will be designed with them in mind. I don’t know if they will satisfy my need for a wireless mouse pointing device, but one would hope that they should work at least as well as a the Wii remote does.

Eee Stick

There is no mainstream Wii type technology that i know of that that you can easily pick up at your local computer store and just plug in and go. Many have played with Wii remote hacks to get their remotes working on PCs, GlovePIE is one method some people are using to get their Wiimotes working on computers. The Wiimote Project is also an online community where people discuss Wiimote modding.

Wii Nunchuk

There are some gyroscopic mice and other alternatives out there, but they can be hard to come buy. The Gyration Air Mouse is one such mouse, but at the time of writing and every time I have ever checked their site, it always reports that the stand alone mouse is sold out.

Gyration Air Mouse

There are other companies working on wireless pointing devices, and I’m sure Asus won’t be the last to release one. I think the next few years will be very interesting as far as input devices go. There’s a lot of really interesting technology just around the corner and we are only just starting to see some of the really cool stuff like wireless pointing devices and multi-touch user interfaces. It will be really interesting to see how we interact with our computers in twenty years.