David Letterman Just Doesn't Get it

I think I can safely say that most Twitter users understand the shear coolness of spreading the latest news around,but David Letterman had a little difficulty grasping the concept...

Verizon's Tethered Internet - Good, Not Great

On a recent vacation to Put-In-Bay, Ohio, a small town on South Bass Island in the south west of Lake Erie, I was pressed to find a solution that would allow me to stay connected to my office while still being 250 miles away. I, of course, always use remote desktop for working in the evenings and on other trips I’ve taken, the problem with this vacation was the location. It wasn’t exactly in a metropolis where WiFi connections are abundant. The solution was tethered internet access through my BlackBerry Storm.

I looked on Verizon’s website and found the service, and choked at the price of $60/month; but knowing I couldn’t go a week without the internet, I called Verizon to get the service. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that: not only did I get tethering for half price because I owned a BlackBerry (now making the service only $30/month), but I also could turn the service off and on for only the days I wanted it, I didn’t actually have to have it for an entire month. I had the service activated for a period of 8 days, for a grand total of $8.

$8 for internet access anywhere I had cell phone service. Now that’s a value… sort of. Upon arrival to the island I settling in to our cabin I hopped online. The internet was slow, but faster than I expected honestly. I was able to check my email, look up some local restaurants and reviews, get weather reports and maps for fishing; but when I tried to remote desktop back to my office… nothing. There simply was not enough bandwidth to get back home.

Several times throughout my trip I tried to connected, and several times I needed to connect, but I never could. I was able to check my email via a web interface, but that was the extent of my access to my office. This doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work for remote desktops in other locations, but… the fact that I had good signal strength and still couldn’t get connected makes me skeptical to rely on it for mission critical business.

I’m not saying that Verizon’s tethered internet wasn’t nice. It was. It was great to have. But… if you’re looking for a sure-fire way to work when you’re away from the office, I simply cannot recommend it. If you’re looking to just check email, do basic browsing, etc. then it is probably more than sufficient; especially if you’re only paying $1 for access.

iPhone 3.0: 10 Hidden Features in Latest Update

With the recent release of the iPhone 3.0 software update there are many hidden and undocumented features popping up now that people have had time to play around with the new iPhone OS. Here is a compiled list from PC World of the top 10 unknown features of the new operating system and some of my thoughts.

Adjustable Song Scrolling Speed

When previously listening to a song on your iPhone, there was just a simple dot on the song bar to rewind or fast forward your music. However, in the new 3.0 software update, you can now scroll through songs at various speeds by using different movements with your finger. Normally, if you drag your finger left or right on the song bar, you will scroll through a song at "high speed". But, if you do this movement while dragging your finger down the screen, then the speed will decrease to "half speed," "quarter speed," or "fine scrubbing." While its unclear at this moment if this feature works with movies I still have to say the adjustable scrolling speed is a great addition to the iPhone, especially for music lovers.

Special Characters In Messaging

The 3.0 keyboard has a few new features such as special characters and a quick punctuation feature while typing in letter mode. Some of the new special characters are activated when holding down certain keys and signs. For example, if you hold down the "." you also get an option to choose "...". The dash"-" also displays an em-dash "-" while the quotations and apostrophes display "<<" and ">>" respectively. While I'm all for making typing quicker and easier, is there really any use in providing functionality for the ">>" and "<<" symbols?

More Ways to Access Spotlight

Spotlight, the search function that lets you look through your e-mail, contacts, appointments, and notes can now be accessed and opened in many different ways. Your Mail and Contacts screen now how a search bar at the top of the list for spotlight and spotlight can even be accessed quickly from the home screen by swiping towards the right side of the screen. To me, it seems that the spotlight function being added to the contacts and e-mail sections of the iPhone should of been a no-brainer in previous operating systems but its great to finally see them implemented.

Quote Fragment Within Reply in Mail

The Mail app in the iPhone 3.0 update can now reply with a quote from the original e-mail. In order to do so, you need to tap and hold while viewing an e-mail (just like with copy/paste) and select the portion of the text that you want to quote. Then simply hit the reply button and the selected text will be appended to the end of your e-mail under your signature. This seems to be an easy way to reply to specific parts of an e-mail without confusing the other reader.

Remove Individual Texts from A Conversation

One of the biggest annoyances in the iPhone 2.X software was that you had to remove an entire conversation of text messages instead of deleting parts. In the new 3.0 update, there is an Edit button which allows you to select and remove individual text messages from a certain tree, similar to the way it is done in the mail app. In this way, you can also select a text to forward instead of copy and pasting the text itself. This is a great way to keep track of important texts for later reference without having to keep all the extra junk attached.

Open Link In New Tab In Safari

Safari now uses tabbed browsing just like explorers on a desktop. When browsing all you have to do is tap and hold on a hyperlink and you will be prompted with dialog to open this link, copy it, or open it in a new tab, just like Firefox or IE. This is a great step forward in multi-tasking on the iPhone.

Force Quit Unresponsive Apps

Due to the many functionalities of the Home button on the iPhone, this key will no longer force quit unresponsive apps like it did in the previous version. To force quit an application in 3.0, you will now have to hold the sleep/wake button at the top until the red power off slider appears. You will then have to hold down the home button to quit the unresponsive application. While this will probably seem like a hassle at first since you will be accustomed to the old way of quitting applications, it seems that it was a necessary change to due the many functions already associated with the home key.

Change App Store Account On The Fly

In the old days you were stuck changing your iTunes account from your computer and then syncing back up with the iPhone. In the 3.0 software you can now change your account two different ways. The first by going to Settings/Store and logging out and then back in with a different account. The second way of changing your iTunes account is by going straight within the App Store application. At the bottom of each search page your account will be displayed and if you tap on it you will be able to view your account information and even change it.

Unlimited Number of Apps Installed

In the 3.0 software update you can now install an unlimited number of applications on your iPhone with space permitting. The number of application pages themselves has increased from nine to eleven and should applications be installed above the 176 mark, (i.e. they can't fit on the applications page), then these applications can be accessed through spotlight. Its great that iPhones can now have unlimited applications but what I don't get is why they couldn't just make an unlimited amount of application pages with the option to access any of them through spotlight.

iPhone 3G S making waves, and not the good kind

On Tuesday June 9th, Apple made the much anticipated announcement of the new iPhone, the iPhone 3G S. The excitement was building to a level I had not seen before, and especially being kind of "non-techy" it nearly shocked me to see grown men and women acting like children on Christmas eve. Actually, I really think it may have been bigger than that, I think I'm going to go so far as to say the the behavior I saw in friends and across the Internet was more closely related to the fanaticism you see when you look at a pre-teen who is just about to meet her favorite Jonas brother.

Normally I wouldn't follow such a thing, an iPhone is just another cool phone to me. And in full disclosure, I don't own one, I have a BlackBerry. Perhaps that was my problem. That being said, I was interested in what the new iPhone would be like, what new features it would have, and how much it would make the old iPhone look like a 1985 Macintosh. So I watched, read, checked out the twitter trending topic. The second Steve Jobs spoke, his words literally flooded my computer screen at an amazing pace. I got all the info I needed, it wasn't much of a difference. You get a compass and a few features AT&T won't allow the iPhone users to access, at least not until the end of the year anyway. So, that lead me to think, "What are the iPhone junkies thinking now? That's got to be a let down, a huge let down." I was wrong. The excitement grew as the release date was announced and iPhone junkies were ecstatic, until they read the fine print.

According to the AT&T website, the iPhone 3G S pre-orders will start to show up on doorsteps June 19th. But before that can happen, current iPhone users looking for an upgrade need to make a huge decision. Right now (Thursday June 11th 10PM CST) current users have three options to purchase a new iphone, the first: pay to upgrade. This would be anywhere from $399 (16GB) - $499 (32GB) just for the phone. This isn't including the $18 upgrade fee, the additional $18 "one-time AT&T upgrade fee" or the extra $30 per month mandatory data plan. The second option: cancel your contract. Yep. You heard it right. AT&T customer service reps are actually telling irrate iPhone users that if they don't want to pay the full price to upgrade their phone they can cancel their contracts and start over as a "new" customer. But its going to cost you. The early termination fee is $175. I bet you're thinking, "Great, I'll take it!" But there's a catch. You then have to wait 90 days (after losing your phone number) to get a new contract with AT&T. And you'll still be paying $199 or $299 for your phone. The third option: wait until your contract is up and you can upgrade without all the hoops and extra cost. I'm sure by then a new iPhone will be released and you can, once again, be back up to speed with the rest of civilization.

So aside from the obvious bind this puts most "tech junkies" in, it also creates some moral questions. Especially since you, the customer, signed a contract with a company stating that you will be a customer for 2 years in exchange for the subsidized price on the iPhone you purchased last year. So based on my course work in the subject of "Life" and contracts, one would only assume that you are not entitled to a "discount" upgrade in the middle of your contract since you haven't totally fulfilled your part of the agreement. Sure, you can pay the $175 and you're all square, AT&T gets its subsidized money back and you are now free from your contract and the proud owner of an outdated iPhone that you can't use. Seems fair to me. According to a few blogs I've read this week pertaining to this issue, many customers have been loyal to AT&T and the iPhone brand and now they feel betrayed. From a business standpoint, you want a $500 phone for $250, I (as the business owner) will give you the phone for $250 in exchange for you signing a contract that you will be my customer for 2 years, I'll even give you a discounted upgrade at the end of those two years for staying loyal to me. Seems fair to me, and one heck of a deal.

I guess we will all just have to wait and see what Apple and AT&T do next. Perhaps Apple will issue everyone who upgrades and pays full price for the iPhone 3G S a $50 iTunes credit or an Apple store discount for life. Who knows. But all that I'm seeing now is a bunch of grown men and women literally crying over this piece of metal and plastic. Its a phone. Yes, its an iPhone. But its still JUST a phone. If you want it bad enough I guess you're just going to have to do what you need to do to get it. And for some, no price is too high to be the first to own something that everyone will have soon enough.

Palm Pre At Best Buy For $200 Up Front

Everybody loves seeing new things at a great price. Take the Palm Pre for instance. Sprint is offering it at a decent price of $200. But wait! There is a catch. In order to receive this price you have to pay $300 and send in a $100 rebate. Rebate!? Yes everybody hates rebates. Waiting and waiting for your money to come in the mail is a pain and nobody wants to do it. But what if I told you that you could get the rebate price without sending in the rebate? Would you believe me? Well it is most certainly true.

Best Buy is selling the Palm Pre on launch day, June 6th, for the rebate price of $200. Now in order to get the rebate from Sprint, or the rebate price from Best Buy you have to commit to a two-year agreement, which is basically a standard requirement for discounts on U.S. smartphones.

But I wouldn't recommend waiting around to get a Palm Pre however. Sprint is warning that they expect the demand of the Palm Pre to exceed the supply immediately after launch. "We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for awhile."

If you don't know anything about the Pre, here is a small overview. The Pre itself will replace Palm OS with Palm's new webOS. WebOS is a multi-tasking operating system with the ability to wirelessly sync a huge variety of of data through online servers like Facebook and Google. The device has a 3.1 inch multi-touch-capable display as well as a sliding keyboard. It has 8GB of on-board storage with 7GB available to the user. The Pre also comes with a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi b/g, GPS, and Bluetooth 2.1.

The U.S. version of the Pre will only be available with Sprint. Sprint plans on incorporating into the Pre their mobile broadband service EV-DO Rev. A, Sprint TV, and Sprint Navigation. The Canadian version of the Pre will be provided on the Bell Mobility carrier and will be released later this year. In Europe and Latin America, the Pre is expected before 2010 and will have the 3G standard HSDPA.

If you are looking to buy the Palm Pre, you are definitley getting your moneys worth. I would advise buying it at Best Buy. While you still get the same price from Sprint, at Best Buy you don't have to hassle with the mail-in rebate. Get it quick, because the Palm Pre is expected to be sold out quick.

iGo Green Universal Charger

Imagine a world without multiple chargers for all of your multiple gadgets. This fall, that world could become a reality as iGo will make the first green universal charger available. The charger, just one in a new line of green products scheduled to make their debut this year, will work with over 3,000 devices including the most popular laptops, cell phones, media players, GPS devices, and handheld gaming consoles.

The universal charger will also be electric bill-friendly. The charger consumes about 80% less power on standby than traditional products and will shut down when the attached device is fully charged.

But that's not all iGo is doing to go green. In a recent press release, iGo president and CEO, Michael D. Heil, announced that iGo is launching iGo Recycles, "an electronic device and charger recycling program created to reduce landfill waste," to accompany the release of the new universal charger and other green products. Through the program's website, customers can print shipping labels to mail in old chargers to be recycled. The website also features a list of places where electronic devices can be recycled and makes them easy to locate by zip code.

The charger will be available in two versions. One plugs into a standard wall outlet and is scheduled to sell at $110. The other is designed for cars and airplanes and will cost $130. Custom power tips will be available for about $10 a piece. The green universal charger from iGo will be available around September 2009, both in stores and online.

First Samsung Phone with Android

Last month on April 27, 2009, Samasung became the first company among the global top three mobile phone manufacturers to reveal an Android-powered mobile phone. This new cutting-edge smartphone is known as the Samsung I7500 and features a 3.2" AMOLED full touch screen, blazing fast 7.2Mbps HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), and WiFi connectivity. What especially makes this phone great is that the user will be able to access all of the Google mobile services as well as fully browse the web, all thanks to the Android mobile OS.

The Samsung I7500 offers access to a full suite of Google services from Google Search, Google Maps, and Gmail, to YouTube and Google Talk. The I7500 even comes with an integrated GPS receiver which can be used with Google Maps to find your location, access Google Street View, find your latitude and longitude, and even get a detailed route description. There are currently hundreds of applications available to be used by the Android OS and there are sure to be many more to come.

Being the first of its kind, the I7500 will be setting the industry standard for mobile phones utilizing the mobile Android operating system and they do not want to disappoint. This phone will offer a comfortable 8GB internal memory with 32GB available externally and will also feature a 5-megapixel camera. The power behind the phone revolves around a 528Mhz Qualcomm CPU and a 1500 mAh battery. As of right now the i7500 looks like it will be setting the bar high when it becomes fully available in June, 2009.