Technology – Page 15 – Shall Not Be Questioned

iPad

So Apple announced the iPad. I was hoping for something more than just a big iPhone. I was also hoping for some advanced form of electronic paper display, maybe one that did color and had a reasonable refresh rate, but I guess no one really develops that kind of thing in secret anymore. It’s an IPS TFT display, but that’s not new.Â I have to admit to a bit of a yawn over the product. I have a MacBook, I have an iPhone, I don’t think I have a use for an iPad.

If Apple wanted to fill the niche between the iPhone and the Laptop, I think they should have picked a more capable user interface than that of the iPhone. At the least, I would expect this kind of device to handle concurrently running applications.

Holsters: Not Just For Guns?

I was reminded of a topic I wanted to bring up by an e-mail from Jennifer, who’s husband is a custom holster maker. Most of us have gun holsters, and while I’ve gone through a few in my nearly decade of carrying, one thing I’ve noticed is that a good holster lasts a long time. I’ve banged it against door frames, crushed it sitting on it weird, and generally put them through a lot of stress and abuse, and they stand up to it.

My iPhone belt clips, on the other hand, all generally tend to be garbage. I go through one maybe every couple of months before something on it breaks. They are made of Â cheap plastic, and are otherwise generally flimsy. Holster makers are good at making things that stand up to abuse. Why not make a really quality set of holsters for smart phones? There are a few challenges that I see. A gun is easy because you have a convenient handle to draw it from and can apply reasonable force to break retention. A phone still need to be retained, but you need some way to be able to remove it easily. It might take a more ingenious retention mechanism than a firearm. Second the phone screen needs protection. Gun finishes get worn from repeated holstering and reholstering. A screen on an smart phone can’t take that kind of abuse, so you’d have to at least felt line the side the screen is facing.

Still, I think there’s business opportunity for holster makers to get into the smart phone market with a product that can really take abuse, which is none of the crap I’ve seen on the market currently. Maybe the reason is people won’t pay a premium for a quality smart phone holster, but I would if it would last, and it was functional in its role.

Netflix + Wii = Goodbye Comcast

So now that it’s finally official, I think Comcast can expect our cancellation shortly after this goes live. Or sooner. Mix it in with a bundle that Verizon is willing to offer so that we get discounts on the phone & basic tv service, and there’s absolutely no justification for Comcast’s high prices.

Since my last Netflix-related post was unexpectedly popular, here are more topics for discussion:

The Warner Bros. Compromise: Good or Bad?
Wii Streaming: Will you use it if you don’t already stream through another method?
Lost: Ana Lucia’s Finally Dead to Me! Yay!

My own answers will start the comments.

Upgraded

Snowflakes in Hell just got an Internet upgrade. It’s been about four years since I signed up for FiOS Internet, and my connection was 15 megabits down and 2 megabits up. I noticed when I posted pics of my Webley Mark IV, it was getting pretty pokey when enough folks were downloading. I also noticed Verizon didn’t even sell my package anymore, so I quickly realized I might be able to get an upgrade without paying anything. Typically you have to ask, as Verizon will be happy to sell you slow service for yesterday’s price.

Calls to Verizon are aways rough, because I have an unusual account. When you call, they ask for a telephone number to cross reference account info. I have Verizon FiOS for Small Business, because I need a static IP so you all know where to find me. My phone number is a standard residential POTS line. Invariably they ask for your phone number to determine your account, which always sends me to residential service, who quickly realize they only have a phone account for me, and transfer me to business support, who then look at my phone number and say “Oh, this is residential service, let me transfer you back.” Â A back and forth twice, finally being able to say “No, no.. it’s a residential phone line, but I do have a Small Business FiOS account!” Finally I get to talk to someone, but someone who ends up being very nice and helpful.

Turns out I can upgrade to 20 megabits down and 5 up for the same price, but for ten dollars more a month I can do a whopping 25 megabits down and 15 up. Hell yeah, I’ll take that. Apparently I can also save money bundling my phone and TV service with my Small Business Account, which I couldn’t do before. I’m going to look into doing that. To make a long story short, Snowflakes in Hell now has over 7 times the upload bandwidth it used to, and I’m hardly paying any extra for it.

Israeli Airport Security vs. MacBook Pro

Via Ride Fast, an account of some of the security measures Israel uses for air travel, which includes a much more intrusive search for explosives than the TSA uses. The good thing for her is that the hard drive on that MacBook Pro model is in the lower right corner, which as far as I can tell does not have any holes in it. It’s probably fine.

A Droid in the House

Bitter just got herself a Droid. Playing with it, I think it is in many ways inferior to the iPhone, but there are a few very key things about the Droid that have the potential to make it more useful:

It’s on Verizon’s network instead of AT&T. It’s amazing how fast browsing was compared to my iPhone.
It’s an open-source platform without the crazy control freakishness of the Apple platform.

I’m relatively happy to see Adobe is developing a flash plugin for the Droid browser. Although I really hate Flash, there’s a lot of stuff on the Internet that doesn’t work without it. In theory, I’ll be able to use Bitter’s Droid to watch Cam & Company on the road. I figure if I find myself having to keep borrowing Bitter’s Droid because it’s more functional, that’ll be my signal to ditch the iPhone and move to Verizon.

My Magic Mouse Has Arrived

It came in the mail today, along with a review copy of Dave Kopel’s new book Aiming for Liberty, which I hope to read over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The Magic Mouse is the mouse I’ve been waiting for all my life. We’ve come a long way since the big one button wonder on the original Macintosh. The only mechanical part on the Magic Mouse is the click. Scrolling is done entirely by touch. Right click/left click works just as it does on the earlier Mighty Mouse. Apple’s Mighty Mouse was nice, but the scroll wheel had the odious habit of getting gummed up and not working. That combined with a lack of user serviceability made this a serious flaw. I find the Mighty Mouse’s function intuitive and smooth. My only real complaint is with the packaging, which uses a glue strip to hold the mouse in place, and which leaves a residue on the mouse that needs to be cleaned off before use. Annoying for sure, but that’s probably the only time I’ll ever have to clean the mighty mouse with anything other than a quick wipe down, and that alone makes it worth it.

About Time!

Apple reveals its replacement for the Mighty Mouse. Optical mouse with no buttons, switches, wheels, or balls? It should last forever. I hate the Mighty Mouse. The scroll ball on the mouse will inevitably end up dirty, to the point where Apple’s recommended cleaning method will no longer work, and the mouse can’t be taken apart and disassembled without breaking it. Â The Might Mouse I’m currently using looks like this, because it stopped scrolling, and I had to take it apart to clean the gunk off the gnat sized rollers. It still works, but it doesn’t glide as smoothly across the pad anymore.

The Mighty Mouse is dead. Long live the Magic Mouse!

New Saturn Ring Discovered

Not normally visible, but it apparently emits infrared. White House has issued a press release saying the hithertofore undiscovered ring was never noticed because it has only appeared since his ascension, and is the celestial manifestation of the big guy’s unimpeachable awesomeness. The White House also noted that the next years Nobel for Physics wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for having created this phenomenon.

You’ll Like It!

Countertop has an iPhone bleg. Â I’ve been using PDA’s for a while now, the first being a Newton, then through the Graffiti years with Palm, onto the Treo, through the age of Windows Mobile and to the age of the Blackberry. Â Most of them I’ve found crippled in one way or another, but I think Apple pretty much nailed what the smart phone ought to be with the iPhone. Â But not all is rosy. Â Here’s my impression about what the iPhone beats the Blackberry on:

Interface. Â The iPhone has a far more intuitive interface, and is much easier to navigate. Â There’s no little nubby mouse like creature on the iPhone, which I find annoying on the Blackberry.
Web browsing. Â Except for the lack of flash, browsing on the iPhone is the same as on the desktop, pretty much.
Integration with Calendar, Contacts, E-Mail, etc, on an Exchange Server works much better than on a Crackberry, and without expensive enterprise software needed on the server end. Â I think mail in general works better.
More apps. Â There really is an app for everything.

But there are downsides to the iPhone:

AT&T is the crappiest provider I’ve ever been with, and I’ve been with both Sprint and T-Mobile. Â It is the main reason to avoid the iPhone. Â Expect dropped calls, poor coverage, and slow data connections. Â AT&T’s call coverage isn’t too bad, but 3G coverage is poor.
It is a closed system. Â Nothing gets installed on the iPhone without Apple and AT&T approval, unless you want to jailbreak your phone.
Some people don’t like Apple’s on screen keyboard. Â I like it, but some hate it.
Battery life on a Crackberry is typically better than the iPhone. Â Don’t forget your charger.
iPhone silence switch is easy, too easy, to hit casually. Â You will miss calls by flipping it to silent accidentally.
Speakerphone on the iPhone is way too quiet.

I still prefer the iPhone, even with the downsides. Â But it’ll be a much better platform if they make a CDMA version that can be used on other carriers.