Posts Tagged ‘apple’

My Top Tech Toys Of 2011

// January 30th, 2012 // 3 Comments » // technology, toys

I firmly believe that technology should enrich and enable our lives, so it’s no surprise that I use a lot of technology in my life. Some of these gadgets are for personal use. Some are for work, and others are just for fun, but here’s a list of the top tech toys that I discovered or started using in 2011.

T-Mobile G2

1. T-Mobile G2 – I got this phone in November of 2010, and it’s been an awesome device. After I rooted it, overclocked it, and put HTC’s Sense user interface on it, it’s been a killer phone. The slide-out keyboard is really what makes it for me, plus having a real camera button.

Apple iPad 2

2. Apple iPad 2 – I tried desperately to use a few different Android-powered tablets, but I just couldn’t. Honeycomb might’ve been built for tablets, but it sucks to use full time. The iPad can’t do half the things I did with my Android tablets, but what it does do is miles better.

Apple iPod Classic

3. Apple iPod Classic – I tried for literally years to duplicate two simple functions with various software solutions on various smartphones, and I just couldn’t. Given the size of my music library, I needed a portable solution that can sync playcounts/times and star ratings from desktop to mobile and back again. I finally broke down and bought an iPod Classic and couldn’t love it more. It doesn’t have apps or all that nonsense, but it does precisely what I need it to, and it does that well.

Kinect

4. Xbox 360 w/ Kinect – after a few years of not even having a TV in the house (no kidding), I finally got one, along with an Xbox 360 w/ Kinect. The media experience with this thing is awesome, especially with the dashboard update that came late in 2011 and brought speech recognition throughout most of the software. I can literally tell my TV that I want to watch Modern Family without ever touching a remote control. Awesome.

Nokia BH-905i

5. Nokia BH-905i – these headphones are just plain awesome. Most of the time I use them wired to my iPod or iPad, but they also have stereo Bluetooth, which connects easily to my laptop. They also have active noise-cancellation technology, so I can watch a movie while Reese screams her brains out (or plays noisily with her toys….) and not miss a thing. Even when the house is empty, I’ll put these bad boys on and just disappear into the music.

Bose In-Ear Headphones

6. Bose In-Ear Headphones – I got my first pair of these at the Nokia: Go Play event and bought a replacement pair two years later. These are my everyday earbuds, and I love them because I can have my music as loud as I want and no one around me can hear it. They’re brilliant for listening to music in public, as well as at my desk at work. They’re pricey, but I haven’t found any other headphones that fit as good.

Angelcare Baby Monitor

7. Angelcare monitor – I lost a cousin to SIDS when I was a kid, so having a good nighttime monitor with the heartbeat pad is priceless. This unit also has video, which is cool. I have a full review coming soon.

Enercell Portable Power

8. Enercell Portable Power – this is similar to the Proporta units that I’ve loved for years, but it’s available at any RadioShack, and it’s a bit smaller. Other than that, it’s the same – huge battery cased in plastic with USB-out. I don’t travel with less than two in my bag.

Chumby One

9. Chumby One – I don’t remember how long I’ve had this, but I know I got it off Woot. I didn’t really use it until I talked with the Chumby guy at the NY Maker Faire, who told me I could get it to automatically change ‘channels’ if I used alarms. So brilliant, it now automatically loads Pandora in the morning and Groove Salad when I get home from work. Excellent.

That’s it – I originally started this with the idea to do ten, but I could only come up with nine, so it’s your turn. Let me know your top tech toy in the comments below.

Back To The iPad 2

// November 15th, 2011 // 5 Comments » // technology

Most of you will be surprised to read this, knowing that I’m a staunch Android fanboy, but I’ve been using an iPad 2 for over a month now, and I absolutely love it. The unit that I have is a WiFi-only 16GB – there’s nothing wrong with the baseline, honestly. I had previously used an iPad 2 with iOS 4.3.3 on it, and I really enjoy some of the improvements added with iOS 5. My previous tablet experience includes the Samsung Galaxy Tab (7-inch, Sprint variant), HP Touchpad (only lasted less than 24 hours with that one, lol), HTC Flyer, BlackBerry PlayBook, Velocity Micro Cruz, and Toshiba Thrive. The Toshiba Thrive lasted the longest – it’s seriously a phenomenal tablet, especially with the full-sized HDMI-out and USB port. However, I’ve stuck with the iPad 2 – here’s the good and bad (coming from an Android user)

Apple iPad 2

The Good

  • Battery Life – it’s ridiculously awesome. I use the heck out of this thing and can easily go two days before I need to juice up. It’s just plain nuts (and awesome for travelling)
  • Responsive – there is literally zero delay when doing things on the iPad 2. This was one thing that bothered me on Android tablets, even the Thrive – system hesitation in various places. The iPad doesn’t hesitate, it just does.
  • App Selection – I know this is a tiresome topic, and Android has come a LONG way in the apps area. However, I will confess that iPad apps are generally much more polished, with actual thought put into the user experience.
  • Flipboard – Quite honestly, for someone as obsessed with reading content on the Internet, Flipboard is an actual bullet-point reason to buy an iPad. It’s that good.
  • iOS 5 – iOS 5 is a pretty big improvement over previous versions, specifically with the notifications experience. More importantly, iOS 5 brings OTA updates, which means I don’t have to install iTunes on my computer anymore. I really don’t think I’ve hated any piece of software more in my life than I hate iTunes.

The Bad

  • Camera – aside from the front-facing camera, I honestly think back-facing cameras on tablets are the most useless thing ever. I have a phone, why would I want to look like a tool holding a 10-inch pane of glass up to snap a photo? That’s right, I don’t. Plus, the stills quality from the iPad 2′s back camera is atrocious. Makes the original RAZR look good.
  • App Prices – there is a serious dearth of good free apps for iOS. Coupled with the inability to ‘trial’ apps like you can on Android, this is a big one for me. The iPad 2 starts at $450, users shouldn’t need to shell out another $50 on apps right out of the box. I have 53 apps on my iPad 2 right now, and only paid for like, 2 of them. Also, app prices range from $0.99 all the way up to stinkin $10.99 and beyond. I can’t fathom paying that much for an app, really. I’m not against paying for apps, though – I’ve spent nearly $50 on apps on the Android market – perhaps that’s why I’m hesitant to spend money on iOS apps. I also think the App Store experience is HORRENDOUS. I literally hate pulling up the Apple App Store.
  • Almost zero customization – I come from Android – the land where you can change nearly everything and anything you want quite easily (even without rooting). To jump into iOS, the land where you feel lucky to be able to change your wallpaper, it’s a big adjustment. I’d like to be able to change the overall color (similar to Windows 7) of the UI, and I would like to be able to replace the keyboard, mainly.
  • Using iPhone apps – with all the focus that Apple puts on the ‘user experience’, I’m astonished that they allow iPad users to install apps designed for the iPhone. The experience is completely horrendous. Not only do you have to click the ’2x’ button to stretch it to fit the iPad’s larger resolution, but the result is a pixelated mess. Worse, though, is the fact that iPhone apps use the iPhone keyboard, which is laid out COMPLETELY differently than the iPad keyboard. It drives me bonkers, and is a main reason that I avoid iPhone apps on my iPad like the plague.
  • Twitter – I have yet to find a decent Twitter experience on the iPad that lives up to what I expect. I honestly love the idea of the Tweetdeck desktop experience on the iPad, but unfortunately, the Tweetdeck for iPad app has been pulled with no ETA (reports are that it was quite unstable, anyways). I’ve also noticed a really frustrating issue with the built-in Twitter support of iOS 5 – if, like me, you have multiple accounts that you want to keep separate (I usually use  a totally separate client for my @Rcadden twitter than I do my @RadioShack account, just to avoid mishaps), iOS will automatically pull those into the same app. I tried this with Echofon for @RadioShack and found that the account was automatically pulled into the official Twitter app, against my wishes. REALLY frustrating.

The Other

The iPad is clearly a more polished experience at this point, if you’re in the market for a tablet. However, Android’s not far off. I haven’t yet used anything with Ice Cream Sandwich (which, for the record, is completely ridiculous to type) nor have I used any particularly ‘sexy’ piece of Android tabletry (the Thrive is awesome, but it’s not really a ‘looker’), so there’s still some opportunity there.
Apple fanboys will tell you that the multitouch gestures in iOS 5 are basically the second coming of Jesus, but honestly, I never use them. They’re not immediately apparent, so I don’t even remember what they are, much less use them on a regular basis. Also, double-tapping the ‘HOME’ button is quite functional. Most people don’t know that if you swipe to the left enough, you get quick access to brightness and volume control, which I use constantly.
Another area where the iPad is vastly superior (for me) is in the work environment. I tried taking the Thrive to meetings and such, instead of my laptop, but it constantly fell short. The software weirdness of Honeycomb made navigating during a meeting a complete nightmare, as I was constantly waiting for things to happen. A key difference, too, is that the built-in Exchange support in iOS 5 lets me search the server – Honeycomb’s email client doesn’t do that. In fact, oddly, there’s no search function at all in the default Exchange email solution.
Overall, I’m totally digging the iPad 2.
Disclaimer (in addition to the one below this): I work at RadioShack, and my iPad 2 is a work device.

When Customer Service Isn’t

// October 24th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // stupid

There was a story circulating the Internet last week about a little girl at an Apple store. It seems this little 10-year-old girl saved every penny she could for nearly a year so that she could buy herself an Apple iPod touch, which she desperately wanted. All good so far – I’m all in favor of teaching the younger generations the importance of saving and paying cash, especially for gadgets.

Apple Store

The story gets weird then, when the little girl and her mom arrived at an Apple Store at 10:30 am, and were greeted by Apple employees who told them the store would be closing from 11a-2p and that they could not shop at the moment. The story goes that the mom put up a fight but they were turned away anyways, until the ‘heroic’ Apple store manager chased them down and was willing to make a ‘special exception’ to allow her to purchase her new toy.

The story is making the rounds as some sort of a big deal for the Apple store, how the manager went out of his way to help this ‘poor little girl’ and how it’s the experience of the Apple store, blah blah blah. Not so fast, let’s recap those details, shall we?

1. The girl and her mom arrived at 10:30a

2. They were told that the store was closing from 11a-2p and they could not shop.

I’m not sure what reality distortion field others live in, but I grew up knowing that 10:30a comes shortly BEFORE 11a, which means the mom and daughter had a full 30 minutes to shop before the store’s scheduled closing. The girl didn’t need to wander the store – she had known exactly what she wanted to buy for like, 9 months.

Maybe I’m missing something but the whole thing sounds silly to me. Also, is the Apple store the only place to get an iPod touch these days? I’m pretty sure I know of at least one retailer with over 4,000 stores that carries them and DOESN’T close randomly for 3 hours in the middle of the day. As we lead up to the U.S. holiday season, I’m fairly certain we’ll see more ‘customer service’ stories pop up here and there.

Apple Ping Is Barely Half-Baked

// September 8th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Social Networks, stupid

After fighting it since the announcement, curiosity got the best of me and I turned on Ping in the new iTunes v10. I only did so after confirming that there is an easy way to turn it off, so I figure I don’t have anything to lose. After trying to use Nokia’s various Ovi services for a few years, I firmly believed that no one could release a service that was as half-baked as those, until I tried Ping.

In case you’re not technically inclined (but somehow reading my blog), Ping is billed as a social community built around music. I’ve used something similar – called Last.FM – for years. It’s really quite brilliant – you simply listen to music as you normally would, and automatically share your listening habits with your friends. They can see what you’re listening to, you can see what they’re listening to, and you can each comment on each others’ stuff. If you listen to a ton of music like I do, it’s really quite brilliant, and definitely helps me find new music when I want to.

So….Ping, then. Getting started is pretty easy – you login with your Apple iTunes account, setup a super-basic profile, including a photo, your location, a short description of yourself, and then you choose 3 of your favorite genres to start things off. Shortly thereafter, you’re taken to the recommendations screen, which for me, looked like this:

pingSo, there are 2 major things wrong with this screen:

1. Nothing in my library indicates that I should follow 50 Cent, Daddy Yankee, or Lloyd Banks. I’ve never even heard of the latter two. Out of the 1,586 artists in my iTunes library, Ping only found 37 to recommend?

2. The only ways I see to connect with my friends are by searching for them by name or by inviting them via email.

So, I have fully established contact lists on Twitter, Facebook, and Google, at the least. I’ve spent a while building these, curating these along the years. Regardless, Apple hasn’t offered me the ability to search these contact lists for other people I may know using Ping. This would be forgivable if there was an easy ‘share my profile with my friends’ link that I could post to Facebook or Twitter – no such luck.

There is a dedicated link to my Ping profile that I can share with others – mine’s here – but I had to dig around a bit for it. I can assure you my parents wouldn’t have found it, nor would most of my ‘normob’ friends – the ones interested in Ping.

Another one of the major ‘features’ of Ping is the ability to follow your favorite artist, to see what they’re up to. I can’t really think of a good reason I would want to do this, but for the sake of the experience, I’m following a few of my favorites. How do I find my favorite artists? The same way I don’t find my friends, apparently – searching one-by-one. Amazingly, Apple hasn’t built a way for me to let iTunes analyze my library to see which of my 1,586 artists have the most playcounts and then see if they’re on Ping yet.

I’m not going to give up on Ping just yet – I’ll give it a fair chance, but the first impression is pretty pathetic. It definitely feels half-baked, which is odd for Apple. I’m definitely going to keep using Last.FM – the service is too valuable for me to pretend Ping can replace it. Have you tried Ping on iTunes? What are your thoughts?

Of Course AT&T Doesn’t Want Google Voice

// July 28th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Mobile, technology

I’ve been a Google Voice user since it was called Grand Central, and use the number as a disposable one – I’ll give it out to anyone. Until recently, that was the only real benefit that I saw – using Google Voice like a filter, to control who has direct access to my ‘real’ mobile number (which I protect carefully). However, a recent post from Andy Abramson shined a light on a much better scenario.

You can now hook up your Google Voice to your Gizmo5 service, using Gizmo5 as the SIP gateway to sending and receiving calls to/from your Google Voice number. After installing Gizmo5 on my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, I am able to tether the tablet to my phone over 3G, and then use it to directly dial a phone number, and my caller ID comes across as my Google Voice number. Brilliant. I almost have the same setup working on my Nokia E63. On my N79 and 5800 XpressMusic, I can do the same thing using Nimbuzz to handle the SIP features, again, over 3G.

Why is the 3G significant? Because, currently, with AT&T, it would cost me $129/month to get unlimited domestic minutes, unlimited messaging, and unlimited 3G. If I want *just* unlimited 3G, with no minutes, it costs $59/mo – less than half the price. If I could make unlimited domestic calls with Google Voice through Gizmo5 SIP over 3G, I could get the features of the $130 plan, for only $60/month.  I would have replicated the entire cellphone experience with nothing but a data connection.

Of course you can do this without needing Google Voice, but using it brings along the SMS part of the equation, along with more advanced call management options, such as being able to send the call to another phone, etc.

So, what’s the catch? First off, coverage – 3G coverage, while plentiful, is nowhere near the same level as EDGE coverage, and a voice call over EDGE is spotty, at best. The other catch is battery life – maintaining a constantly active data connection on today’s cell phones isn’t likely to last you through lunch, much less an entire workday.

The point is, it’s doable, and with today’s technology, not something that’s coming down the pipeline. Given that AT&T’s 3G network is already stretched to the max, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if AT&T was the one who prompted Apple to remove the Google Voice applications from the App Store recently. What do you think? Are you a bit more interested in Google Voice, now?

This also leads me to ask a familiar question – if/when AT&T (or the other carriers) finally realize that they are nothing but a dumb pipe, how will they compete? Will we have all-out price wars, or will we finally see the mobile carriers competing in the areas of customer service, extra features, etc?

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