Palm Pre: iPhone Killer or Dud in the Making?

The Pre is hitting shelves at Sprint stores on June 6th.

Yes, I really did say Sprint. Sprint, with its shrinking customer network. Sprint with its crappier than Verizon customer service. Sprint, with its “cheap” calling plans. Sprint with its cellular coverage that is so poor that it’s the reason that Verizon, AT&T and T Mobile are the taking the carrier world by storm in North America. Sprint had its chance. I’m surprised they’re still in business and admit it, so are you.

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E-Reader Debate Decided: Why I Hate My New Kindle

My wonderful husband chose to get me a Kindle 2 for our anniversary this year. I felt so shocked. I hadn’t quite made up my mind on what was the right e-reader for me, he had spoken out harshly against the Kindle, but when I opened the box, I just stared at it, sort of numb. Of course, I kissed him a lot and truly appreciate the gift. I immediately slid my new Kindle into its cover and downloaded some books from Feedbooks and went to town. So if you see my “reading list” page expanding rapidly this month… you now know why.

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The Blackberry Storm is Coming…

And you don’t need to get the wife and kids to the storm cellar. Much like every other Blackberry, the reviews have come in and said the same things. I’m just going to give you the highlights and a link to the article I found that has a good round up of the reviews I’ve read today.

1. Clunky user interface
2. Sub-standard web browsing experience.
3. Clickable touch screen “seems like a failed experiment”.

The fact that Apple made a great user interface that even my technophobe aunt can use, made a web browser that works like firefox fit on a cell phone, and their gorgeous touch screen are all corner stones of why the iPhone is what it is. Until someone can make these three things come together in a phone again, and put out a device that has some advantage over the iPhone that I cannot currently see, then iPhone killers really are just an idea in the distant future.

How my iPhone Became a 3g.

It was Monday.

Allow me to warn you, faithful reader, that no story that ever begins with the phrase, “It was Monday.” can possibly end well.

On Monday, the cable company sent a technician to our home to check out some problems we’d been having with our connectivity since Saturday night. The guy was here for a solid two hours checking over things before he finally concluded that it was our cable modem, and replaced it. But during this time, he needed to talk to my husband, so I called my husband on my precious 1st gen iPhone, that was less than a year old, and handed it to the cable guy. The cable guy gave it back to me when he was done, and thought it was in my grasp so he let go.

My baby, my iPhone, which is my entire life, hit the floor with a loud crack.

Come to find out, the cracking sound was the case that was on the phone. The screen was undamaged. The case was toast, but the screen was not broken, the aluminum back was unharmed, and it was not the first time I’d dropped the phone on ceramic tile before, so I thought everything would be fine. Then, I hit the home button.

Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

The home button is supposed to take you back to the home screen when you hit it. It’s how you close apps, access your apps during a call and it’s how you reboot the phone, without shutting it down completely.

I began to panic.

By the time all was said and done, I’d called Apple care and was told “We can either charge you 199$ to fix the iPhone you have. Charge you 199$ for a refurbished 1st gen iPhone, or you can go to your local Apple store and pay 199$ for a new iPhone 3g.” I almost told the tech on the phone that we didn’t have an Apple store, and in all reality, very few places that are not the top 20 major cities in this country actually do.

So I went to the AT&T store, the techs there looked at my phone and were amazed at the condition it was in. A guy in the store offered me to buy it off of me, even though I told him it was broken, because other than the home button not working, the phone was in pristine condition. He said he’d open it up and fix it somehow.

So in the end, I got an iPhone 3g and I have to say… I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

The previous iPhone was heavier, it felt like you’d spent a decent amount of money on this thing. There was something about that that was just, right. Especially when those of us that bought them, spent 300$ or more on these phones. The weight of the 3g makes it feel chintzy and cheap and not at all unique from any other cell phone that I’ve ever owned.

The plastic back is a fingerprint magnet. I’d wanted to get the white one, but to be honest, I don’t need 16 gig of storage, I only wanted the white one because it didn’t show fingerprints as badly. This has always been one of my beefs with Apple’s electronics too. So let me get this off my chest:

Apple, quit making color choices cost your customers a premium!

The white iPhone simply made more sense for someone like me who can’t stand smudges on her phone, but was not worth the additional price tag, and if I hadn’t had a first gen iPhone, I would have skipped this one based on that distinction alone. Black is boring, and I want to be able to choose what color I want without having to pay for the privilege.

The internet speeds are quick on 3g, but I never cared about that. People who want to tether their phones to their laptops may care, but I don’t see the need to pay an additional 10$ premium for 3g service, then a 5$ premium to add text messages (which were included as part of the old phone plan) and then spend an additional 30$ a month on TOP of those increases, to have the ability to tether my phone on the 3 or 4 occasions a year that I would actually use it. It’d be cheaper for me to pay a 30$ flat fee every time I used it.

Further complaints include the fact that I hate the cases that are currently available for the 3g. I do not blame the phone for this though, and that’s really something to write about in another article. It is larger than the first gen phone, noticeably. It feels bigger in your hand and in my hands, it feels less secure because I am not able to grip it as easily.

My biggest beef with the 3g though, is this:

It has the crappiest battery life of any cell phone I have ever owned.

I’m getting about 2 hours of talk time before the battery is drained to 20%, and then I can open a couple of apps once or twice before I have to charge the phone. Yesterday, my phone didn’t even make it to 6 pm before it complained about only having 20% battery life remaining.

After the joy of owning a first gen iPhone, this thing… to me, is really a huge disappointment.

The 3rd gen phone had better be nicer than this, because otherwise, I think I’ll skip it, get an iPod Touch and run of the mill Nokia phone. Then I will have everything I need, a great phone that gets decent battery life and the internet in my pocket at any WiFi hotspot.

iPhone Swag: Sedio Inno Case and Dock

Okay, iPhone owners, you totally have to check this puppy out. It’s the Sedio Inno Case. This thing… is the stuff. It’s rubberized, but feels silky to the touch, is completely open on the front of the phone. Yes, I said completely open. No access to any part of the front of the iPhone is hindered in anyway. It fits tightly, without adding a lot of bulk to your iPhone, and the thing is lined with felt to keep the case itself from causing unnecessary scratches.

I loved this thing when I saw it. When it sold out, I asked my husband to watch for them to come back in stock so he could order it for me and he liked it so much that he ordered one for himself.

I also highly recommend the docks that go with these cases if you like to dock your phone on your nightstand at night. The case does not hinder standard cable access, but if you’re using a dock, you’ll need to buy Sedio’s dock in order to avoid taking this case on and off all the time. The docks aren’t perfect, I did have some issues getting the dock to behave when I linked it up to my pc. My iPhone got lost during a sync and I’ve never seen that happen before. They do work great for use as charging stands though, and they do free up an apple cable because the docks are USB to USB.

All in all, I’m very impressed. I’m hard to please when it comes to cases for phones. Usually I get annoyed by them and take them off, but this case is really a cut above.

Honda Chick

So, my husband finally replaced his old beat up volkswagen rabbit convertible (otherwise known as a cabriolet that is the same age as my little brother, who is now of legal age to consume alcohol).

It all started on his birthday. On his birthday, he picked up our son from school and stopped at the mail box to get the mail. When he got back in the car, it wouldn’t start. He and my son had to push the car the rest of the way up the street and into the garage. Little did I know at the time that this was the beginning of the end.

The car has died like this on numerous occasions, so many that I became nervous about taking the vehicle out for family trips in the summer (which is kinda the whole point of owning a convertible anyway, isn’t it?). One time, a county sheriff had to push the car out of one of the busiest intersections in town, into a grocery store parking lot, and I had to go pick up my hubby and take him home. Previously, my hubby has taken these things in stride, saying that he’s just not doing a good enough job maintaining the car, or he hasn’t found the right guy to work on it yet. But this last event… was entirely different.

I knew something was wrong when the mechanic had the car for over a week and he said to me, “Well, we can’t sell it if it’s not running.” Sell it? What? Are you kidding me? I’ve been trying to convince you to sell this car –which would make a fantastic hobby car for someone who loves to get his hands greasy, but really isn’t a great car for a guy who makes his living as a computer geek– for four years and now you’re telling me that you’re going to sell it!

At first I was angry.

Then the phone calls from the mechanic started rolling in.

The place where we took it to have a tune up put in the wrong size spark plug and damaged the head. The place that installed the new wiring harness –the local VW dealer of all things– not only overcharged us for the part, they installed the wrong one AND did it incorrectly, this contributed to draining the battery somehow that I wasn’t able to follow. To top it all off, the exhaust manifold was cracked and the part is no longer manufactured by Volkswagen. Even after all of these repairs were made, the car was still running rough and the mechanic loves working on old cars like this… and could not figure out why it sounded so unhappy for the life of him.

That was when my husband started talking about buying a Honda, the day we picked up the VW from the shop. He drove it home and began surfing and showed me pictures of the CR-V that day. I tried to talk him into something else, I suggested Subarus because they last forever and my dad works at the plant, so we get a discount on buying Subarus. He went and looked at Jeeps, and we finally came back to the Honda CR-V. After some finagling and moonshines, we bought the car and picked it up earlier this week.

This is where the story really begins. Along with the car came “Honda Chick.” My husband spends more time with this gal than he does with me, and to be blunt, it’s really starting to piss me off. He looks forward to getting to have quality time with “Honda Chick” every single day. I don’t think we’ve had a conversation that lasted more than ten minutes that took place outside of his car since he brought “Honda Chick” home. And when I call him while he’s driving home, she annoys the crap out of me with her “Left turn one quarter mile” bull crap. As if he doesn’t know how to get home! Come on lady!

She’s absolutely, one hundred percent, a backseat driver. It gets on my nerves and I’m not even driving the car.

If this doesn’t stop, he’s going to have to make a choice.

Me, or Honda Chick.

“Play with your damn kids!”

Adam Sessler has a message for all you parents out there that have kids that video game. Sit down with your kids and play with them!

This is something I’ve been advocating for years. If you’re kids are doing something, you’ve got to get involved so that you can understand it when they talk about it at dinner, and also to make yourself aware of the kinds of things that they are doing when your back is turned. With video games, you can’t know for sure what they’re playing until you’ve watched them do it. I’m not saying you have to pick up a controller and beat Final Fantasy XII. I am saying that you should spend some time watching your kid beat Final Fantasy XII and ask them questions about the game, find out why they think it’s fun and see the game in action to make sure that it meets your standards. That’s what the demo consoles in gamestop and best buy are for people!

Coming to an iPhone Near You!

This blog now rolls over to a graphics free version for faster loading on your iPhone, so you can get Random Gemini Weirdness whenever you want it!

Why does this matter? Well, tsykoduk@The Roost has an iPhone, as does my hubby. So for the two readers that I know of that have iPhones, this blog’s just for you!

Ipod Swag!

I’ve had my iPod for nearly a month and in that month I’ve managed to get my hands on some iPod swag that I deem to be essential for all iPod owners. So for all you iPod fans out there, here it is, the post of all that is essential in the world of iPod Swag!

1. Belkin Clear Acrylic Case, for 2nd Gen iPod Nano.
This thing is the bomb! The first thing I did with my iPod nano the day after I got it, was drop it on the ground. I was so upset because now it has a scratch in the aluminum finish. The beauty part about these Belkin cases is that the front of them is colored to coordinate to your nano (or you can mix and match if you want), but this colored front hides any damage already on the front of your iPod.
Pros: It has a click wheel protector that does not reduce the sensitivity of the click wheel, hard screen protector for the color screen on the nano and a carabiner clip that you can actually rely on to keep your iPod firmly attached to your belt loop, or in my case, to my purse. It attaches to the iPod securely.
Cons: The headphone jack port is a little tight. Some headphone cords that have large plastic plugs will not fit neatly through the jack port on the case. This can easily be fixed by digging out the port just a little bit with a scalpel or box knife, or you can just use the headphones that came with your iPod. The other issue I have with this case is that it’s really not designed for you to take it on and off a lot. If you do, it will not stay on your iPod as securely. I’m not sure if that’s a flaw. Most people that would buy this case would never take their iPod out of it, but I like to coordinate my iPod’s outfits to my own so… we’ll call it a minor setback. Also the iPod will not fit inside an iPod docking sleeve with the case on, so if you dock your iPod to charge it, as opposed to plugging it into your laptop, you may wish to consider an alternative case.

2. iMode Alarm Clock/iPod Docking Station
There are nicer versions of this toy out there that have better sound. My husband got me this one because he wasn’t entirely sure I would enjoy it. The truth is, I love the thing. I can dock my iPod to it and it charges the iPod. You can play music directly from your iPod and wake up to a playlist of your choice. The sound quality isn’t all that, but it’s not bad for a clock radio at all. This clock radio only has one con and that’s the size. It takes up a fair amount of space on a night stand and almost deserves a home on a dresser, rather than on a bedside table. Also, this particular radio comes with a host of docking sleeves so it will work with every iPod from the iPod mini to my new second gen nano and a remote so you can control your iPod from across the room!

3. Belkin TuneCast FM Transmitter
In some areas, FM transmitters are not the way to go. The simple fact is, in major cities where the airwaves are flooded on the FM band, you should consider using a direction connection to your car stereo via an auxiliary cable, as opposed to going wireless. Where I live, I can get clear enough signal on an FM transmitter that it makes them a very viable alternative to using an auxiliary cable when your stereo doesn’t have an auxiliary jack on it. I’ve used three different FM transmitters and the Belkin TuneCast is by far my favorite for clarity of sound and lack of interference. Also, Belkin thought of some very nice things like plugging the end of the headphone jack into the top of the transmitter when it’s not in use so you don’t get dust and junk inside your iPod when you plug it into the transmitter. Also, the car adapter plug for the TuneCast is not some flimsy little thing that will bend if someone accidentally steps on the plug when they get into your car.

4. Floola
I know that when I first got my iPod, I went on and on about iTunes and how much I loved it because it worked like I expected it to work. These things are still true, but iTunes has one fatal flaw. My laptop has a gig of ram, and while it is an older machine, it’s still not a slouch. There is no excuse for iTunes that will justify making my laptop act like it’s swimming through peanut butter other than coders who just didn’t care. This has been a big frustration for me because photoshop doesn’t give my machine as many issues as iTunes does. As a result, my husband went on a search and found me alternative software for transferring files onto my iPod. That software is Floola.

Floola is by far and away the most essential iPod swag that I’ve managed to get my hands on because it is small and it runs directly from your iPod. You sacrifice space for one song to have Floola on your iPod. You do not *have* to use iTunes after you’ve used it to transfer one song onto your iPod. You can use Floola on any windows machine/linux box/mac. It is not necessary for that machine to have iTunes installed in order for you to use floola to transfer music onto your iPod. Floola is also ridiculously easy to use and it understands and builds smart playlists.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of essential iPod swag. At the very least, go give Floola a download and see what you think. It’s free, though I have to say those guys deserve a donation if you like their software. They did a beautiful thing when they wrote Floola.

Zcovers

I received a zCover for my birthday. I’ve tested it out for a couple of weeks and I love this thing. There’s only one drawback for the zen micro zCover, it does not have a screen protector for the screen. Otherwise here’s the breakdown.

ZCovers are silicon covers for your portable devices. They make covers for apple laptop keyboards, standard keyboards, the psp, all of the iPods, the creative zen players, the older sony mp3 players and several of the more expensive cell phones, such as the blackberry and the treo. They have an optional belt clip on the back that is a trick to remove, which is a good thing because once you get that puppy on there, you are sure that it won’t be coming back off.

First thing’s first. The belt clip on this thing rocks. I have had a problem with belt clips in the past. For previous incarnations of protectors with a belt clip attachment, the clips have never been very secure. If you bumped into something or someone, the clip would fall off and your small device would go scattering across the floor. This is not the case with zCover’s belt clip design. What makes it work so well, is that it’s very tight. It’s hard to get attached to your belt or pocket, but once it’s on there it will not come back off until you mean for it to. I’ve bumped into the kitchen counter, other people, had my dog jump up on me and everything else that I could think of that one might encounter in a day to day use of this product and have yet to have the belt clip fail on me.

As for the shock absorbing factor, it works great. My zen slid across the kitchen counter and onto the floor due to an overzealous child and is in great working order with no damage. I suspect this is the more typical sort of impact that your device will take and what these products are designed to withstand. The zCover just adds another layer to that.

The zCover comes in a variety of colors and styles to suit your tastes. If you own a portable device like an mp3 player, you need one of these things.

Visit the zCover site to learn more.