The new WordPress iPhone app is out! I am writing this from my iPhone and it appears to work well. This will certainly make posting on my blog while on the road easier.
Tag Archives: iphone
The Great Technology Battle of 2008
A week ago today, I was ready to declare war on my e-mail, address book, and basically my electronic existence. My life is built around technology. It has been part of my existence as long as I remember. It is my career. Yet, it was slowly drowning me. How could I turn this around I thought? Technology is supposed to help, not supposed to drown you. If anyone can figure out how to harness technology, it should be me. I had to do something.
The signs were clear: I had to do something…
- My inbox was overflowing. I had over 40 labels in my Gmail account (many redundant), hundreds of e-mails a day, and many unread e-mail’s. Most of this was due to three e-mail accounts worth of e-mail being forwarded into my main Gmail account, years of laziness in figuring out how to organize it, and no time to do it. Most of what I didn’t read was just filtered into a folder, to be occasionally deleted without me even looking through them.
- I had three address books (my Mac’s address book, my POS cell phone address book, and Gmail’s), none that synced with each other and none that were close to 100% up-to-date. My Gmail address book was in the worst shape due to the horrific feature of Gmail adding every person I have ever e-mailed into it. My Mac one wasn’t much better…it still had the phone number for my grandmother that was 2 or 3 numbers ago.
- My bookmarks are scattered everywhere, between three web browsers (Safari, Firefox, and Camino), none of which were in sync.
- My calendar situation was ironically in the “best” shape, as I had a central calendar I kept everything on. Only issue is access as it was hanging on the wall of my apartment, not very good if you need to check it from work or a friend’s place. Anything I wanted to write on the calendar would either be scribbled on the back of scrap paper (hoping I remember to take it out of my pocket before washing the pants) or worse, committed to a memory that does not remember such details well.
- I had too many gadgets. Just a few years ago, I had 3 cell phones (2 from work), an iPod, and 2 computers. I had since narrowed it down to an iPod, a cell phone, and a computer. I knew I could do better though.
What did I have going for me? An immense knowledge of technology, the desire to figure out how to do it, and the will to do it.
Here is my progress:
- It was time I joined the smartphone junkies. Since there is really only one smartphone that plays nice with Macs and really only one smartphone that could do what I had planned, it was time to get an iPhone 3G.
- The iPhone immediately retired an aging POS flip phone and a 2G iPod Nano. Two devices become one. My entire digital personal life is now down to two devices: an iPhone and my Macbook. When I left the apartment, I knew I had to carry my iPhone and my wallet. That is it. The fog began to clear my mind.
- Finally I could schedule my life on-demand. The calendar on my iPhone? Always up-to-date. I enter every event into the iPhone, even when I should work out at the gym (Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 12 PM in the gym at work, reoccurring event). Plug in my iPhone into the Macbook twice a day (morning when I wake up and evening when I get home), all changes instantly synced with iCal. No more guessing, no more pieces of paper to lose.
- One address book to rule them all. I hated paper address books. They were typically bulky and who carries a pen/pencil around 24/7? So I kept three ones scattered online, on the POS flip phone, and on my Mac. Now it is all organized into one: the iPhone, synced with the Address Book application on my Mac. Two hours of organizing, adding, updating, and deleting later…and my address book is finally up-to-date for the first time in memory. I even added some birthdays in there.
- The inbox battle was delayed several days, but arrived Thursday night. By Friday morning, I went from 40 labels in Gmail to 5 (possibly going to four once I figure out how to deal with one of them). All filters were deleted. Everything went to the inbox. Any e-mail lists that I didn’t delete? I completely unsubscribed from them, roughly 25 of them to be exact. My sword was swift and deadly (and still swinging even today). When I was done with an e-mail? Delete it or archive it one of my 4 or 5 folders.
- My iPhone and Mac are now setup to use IMAP with Gmail. Both devices are now synced 100% together.
- My separate e-mail accounts became truly separate again. Instead of lumping my personal e-mail with my web site e-mail and my CSFBL e-mail, it is all separate now, ready for me to deal with each of them respectively when I can. All setup with IMAP of course, on my iPhone and Mac.
My progress is staggering. My personal digital life has changed drastically in the past week. E-Mail’s are now being answered promptly, I am no longer stressed trying to keep everything accurate/synced, and I even feel much smarter now I am organized. My digital life is now contained in an iPhone and my Macbook. That’s it. What an improvement.
What is there left to do?
- Switch to using Safari on my Mac. It pains me to do it (been a loyal user of Firefox since Phoenix 0.1). But my iPhone syncs with only Safari. Might as well keep everything consistent and simple.
- Time to clean up the bookmarks. Delete old ones, organize them, and bookmark only what I truly need.
- Clean up my RSS feeds. I need to figure out how to best do this. Google Reader is great, but I have 300-400 feeds I keep track of in there, many are redundant. I need to clean house on those. Google Reader on the iPhone works alright, but I hope it either comes out with a native application soon or someone does a better iPhone RSS reader.
- Keep the iPhone apps I truly need. Given the release of the app store a week ago, my iPhone is quite the mess at the moment, with icons everywhere. Need to clean it up and keep only what I need to use.
- Better time management. I can be much more productive with my time. I really need to get going on reading Getting Things Done.
It is a start, but a drastic step forward. More later on this.
iPhone feature request #1
I would like to make an iPhone feature request. Who knows if anyone at Apple will listen, but here goes nothing.
- I have my home button setup to show the limited iPod controls (pause, previous track, next track, close, iPod) when pressing it twice. What a fantastic little hidden feature! It would be even better if you could rate songs on this screen, so you don’t have to wait for the full screen iPod application to load (thus closing whatever you have open).
I know I said I would not do it, so I did it.
I know a few weeks ago, I said that the iPhone plans were overpriced. Ok, that is putting it mildly…I flipped out. I also said I could not get one until December due to my Verizon Wireless contract.
Yet yesterday, my wife and i purchased two iPhones. Yes, you read this right, we bought two iPhones. What gives? That is about as close to a flip flop as you can get.
Alright, I have to go to my defense on this one. A few factors are at play here:
- My wife’s 2G iPod mini is on its last legs and showing signs of dying. That means shelling out at least $150 for a new iPod to replace it.
- My 2G iPod nano is starting to act flakey (freezing when trying to play a song for example), with firmware restores not helping. That means shelling out another $150.
- We hated our cell phones with a passion. They were not due to be replaced until December though.
- I have issues at times remembering appointments, events, etc. that I agreed to attend. I really need my calendar with me. I hate paper calendars…I lose them all the time, forget to bring them with me, or just forget to use them.
- Some phone called the iPhone came out with a new model. You have may have heard about it.
- I worked out the budget to pull off using an iPhone family plan. Am I completely happy about it paying this much for a plan? No, but we determined it would be worth it.
So we had a choice. Spend +$300 on new iPods with a chance of buying iPhones in December, or pay $160 in ETF fees with Verizon and then pay for two new iPhones ($299 white 16GB models). In the end, we ended up about $140 in the positive if you assume we would have otherwise gotten new iPhones in December anyways. Why pay for new iPod’s when we were going to get new iPhones within 5 months anyways?
So my wife and I are now in the possession of two new 16GB iPhone 3G models. What is the verdict?
- The touch screen takes some getting used to, but I am getting the hang of typing real quick and my wife seems to be doing well with it too. I can type with two thumbs pretty quickly now. I could see if someone sends 100+ e-mails a day from it where it maybe a problem, but even my decent e-mail needs seems quite doable.
- The UI is absolutely gorgeous and easy-to-use. In fact, so easy-to-use that we occasionally say “that’s all you have to do?” when doing a particular task. Like being able to mark phone contacts as favorites and just press the home button twice to bring it up.
- The App Store is amazing. There are already some great applications on there (I will write later about what I installed) and the potential is there for so many more. There are also some quite huge duds on there (the Mobile Banking application from Bank of America is beyond horrific).
- AT&T coverage is really hit and miss in New Hampshire. I can already tell it maybe an issue. A positive is our home is fine coverage wise. We went out to the New Hampshire seacoast (our state’s lone 17 miles worth of ocean views) and the beach we settled in had maybe 0.25 bars if the breeze died down for a moment. So a day of catching up on reading blogs on the beach was thrown out of the window. On the way home, we stopped by a place for some ice cream and where there used to be coverage in our Verizon days is a big black hole now.
- Speaking of AT&T coverage, there is no 3G coverage in New Hampshire, so that means we have to deal with EDGE unless we find a Wi-Fi access point. EDGE is slow but usable in my belief. Rumor has it is that the Manchester, NH area will get 3G in the Fall, so hopefully that comes true. In the meantime, I look forward to going to Boston soon so I can try 3G on the phone.
- I have subscribed to several video podcasts now. They are going to be great to watch during my lunch breaks.
- The iPhone will use my iPod connector in my car, but suggests I use airplane mode. I can say no and it works, the only thing is my stereo system in the car could receive interference from the iPhone. A quick test shows that it seems to work fine. A good test will be my commute tomorrow.
- Best feature on the iPod application: the ability to easily turn on shuffle when in a playlist. Why this was never added to the regular iPods is beyond me.
- Google Maps with GPS on the iPhone rocks. We used it both on the way to the beach and on the way back to look up locations of everything from ice cream shops to grocery stores.
- Organizing my contacts and calendar on the iPhone? Priceless. Already worth the price of the iPhone.
Anyways, that is a good initial review of my thoughts on the iPhone. It is by far the best phone I have used. It has some minor quirks and I know AT&T is going to be tough to deal with for two years, but it was worth the price and effort to switch over.
iPhone 3G plans are insane
For many years I have wanted the perfect cell phone. I had been sick of unreliable phones, awful user interfaces, little to no syncing with computers, and cell phone plans that are borderline criminal. I longed for a cell phone that made me proud to use it, not forced to use it.
The iPhone fits almost all of the criteria above. For a phone, especially a version 1.0 one, it is spectacular. My brother has one and loves it. My best friend has one and loves it. The reviews I have read love it. The user interface is beyond beautiful, simple, and easy to use. It is one of the few phones that makes syncing simple and without hassles. If it weren’t for my Verizon Wireless contract not being fulfilled until December 27th, 2008, I would have probably gotten one by now already.
Yet there is one huge hangup with the new iPhone 3G: its phone plans. They have now crossing that line between borderline criminal and outright criminal.
The first iPhone plans seemed somewhat reasonable. AT&T Wireless isn’t the greatest service, but I could live with that as long as it worked well in Manchester, NH and my condo, which it does. A $109 for 2 iPhones on a family plan, 700 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited nights/weekends, rollover, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, 200 text messages, and visual voicemail? I can handle that. About $34 more for 2 phones to get internet access and visual voicemail seemed reasonable. The text messages are an outright disgrace (it costs more to send a text message on AT&T then watching a freakin YouTube video), but I don’t use those much.
The new iPhone 3G data plans are a joke. For a family plan if my wife and I were to each get an iPhone would cost about $140 plus taxes to equal what the old iPhone family plan offered. Data rates went up, text messaging was taken away (so I had to add $10 worth of messages to my estimate), and I am sure they found a way to raise the price on the voice plan too.
Given how the economy has been the past few months with few hopes of improvement in the near future, how the heck does AT&T and Apple expect to sell a ton of iPhones if no one can afford the cell phone plan for it? Right now I pay $75 for 2 lines with Verizon, 500 minutes, 250 text messages per line, and your standard cell phone plan features (unlimited nights, etc.). To get an iPhone for my wife and I would effectively double our monthly cell phone bill. Yes, having an awesome phone that I can sync everything to and use the internet wherever I am would be awesome, but doubling my cell phone bill awesome? I don’t think so.
The iPhone seems a perfect candidate for a family plan. Yet it barely, barely, gets a discount. Most cell phone plans only cost $9.99 more to add a second phone line. The iPhone? You get the the priviledge for $50 more a month. Are you kidding me?
My wife and I would love an iPhone, for different reasons. Yet in December, when our Verizon contract has finally been fullfilled, I don’t know if we can afford it. AT&T now stands to lose 2 customers they could have switched from Verizon Wireless. Their loss.
Update: According to AppleInsider, it is even worse then I feared. Apparently for Family Plans you either have the option of $30 for unlimited text messaging or paying per text message. There is no SMS plan in between these two extremes. This is complete bullshit. Now the iPhone family plan for 2 lines will be $159 + taxes, more then doubling what I am currently paying for my cell phone plan with Verizon.
It is official, my wife and I are not getting an iPhone 3G. AT&T just officially lost a customer and Apple officially lost 2 iPhone purchases.