General

More Bars or more Pixels?

I recently updated my iPhone to the latest 2.1 release. There were a lot of improvements, but the one that interested me the most were improvements to the radio. I live in a cellular dead zone – I get a bar once and a while which is just enough to annoy me. Lately my iPhone goes “dark” at home and nothing but a reboot would get it connected back to the network when I left home. After upgrading the software I saw three bars! Could it be?

I made a phone call, pretty good quality call, just a tad of a “warble”. As I talked the bars when down to two, then to one. I walked around the house and got “bars” everywhere. This would be the first cell phone getting real reception in my house. Sounds good right?

Later I get a call upstairs (small miracle). Call doesn’t last long and drops. After trying several calls in different places in the house I see the same pattern. Start out with two or three bars, goes down as the call goes on. Sometimes it holds on; sometimes not.

So the question isn’t did the radio improve. The answer is YES! The question is did I get more bars in more places or just more pixels? Both I think. I think the bars seem inflated for what signal I really have (… more pixels), but it has improved.

Is the new iPhone Perfect?

3g iphoneAT&T launched the iPhone last year. Despite some severe limitations (slower network, no easy way to install apps) the platform took off like a rocket. Now with the ability to install apps (from a managed distribution channel) and fast network support it would seem the iPhone has become the killer smartphone device.

I finally took the plunge and got a 8GB iPhone. I had the AT&T Tilt, but became furious with the user interface. Nothing could realistically be done without a stylus. Yes, I tried the cubes, slide2, CMContacts – they were just ok. The IE browser was terrible and the windows mobile version of webkit (the cool factor behind the iPhone Safari browser) was buggy and not usable yet (and the screen is too small) AT&T is really great on the price (with appropriate plan of course) – $200! I’m selling my Tilt on eBay for more than that.

So, is the iPhone perfect? Let’s say practically perfect.

Pros for me

1) Unlike my other smartphones it handles wifi and cell data connections seamlessly without bothering me.
2) No stylus. Both the screen responsiveness and the UI make a perfect touch environment.
3) Huge screen. Yes, when you turn sideways you can view normal web pages and actually read them. Finally!
4) Finally a mobile application repository that notifies me of updates.
5) A great phone. It is easy to dial, the visual voicemail is nice, and I get as good of call quality as any other phone I’ve had (If you read the news YMMV on this one). I had it for a day before I even tried the phone feature.
6) Sync. I have an iMac. It just worked.

Cons for me

1) Programs stop. I’d like to listen to aol music and browse the web. When you switch programs the streaming audio stops. Maybe that’s a “program” thing but I don’t think so.
2) I can’t configure the email program to change the reply-to address.
3) On-screen keyboard still growing on me.
4) I’d like to be able to store files on it and use them (PDF, etc)

Will Android come and change the game? I’m sure it will make it more interesting. For people that want “it just works” I think the iPhone has a lot to offer. I’m very happy with it and feel like I carry around a mac mini-mini in my pocket!

You’ve got a Pizza Tracker for your Website Right?

My local Dominos finally started offering online ordering. Why order pizza online? I like to view what the specials are, see what things I can add, and get the family requests figured out without a stressed-out teenage employee on the other end of the phone. We’ve ordered Pizza Hut online for years, and it works fine. Kids have liked Dominos lately and it is literally “up the street” so usually order there now.

My wife ordered the pizza and found the website to be very simple and informative. It even keeps you up to date on the progress of your pizza as it goes from prep, bake, box, pickup. Really – no kidding. They call it the “Pizza Tracker”
“. At the prep stage the status bar said, “Chris is making your pizza”. She knew write when it was boxed. When my wife picked it up she said, “is there really a Chris that works here?” They said, “sure – he’s right over there making pizzas”.

I guess as it gets easier to use technology to capture more information and make your website fun, interactive, and real time you should. I only have one request. Chris put LOTS of toppings on, next time can I request him?

AT&T U-Verse Router/Gateway Issue

I recently had an interesting problem. I kept getting warnings from my router about a 3rd party router being connected. You might say, “How does your router warn you?” While browsing the web my router would force a redirect to a web page (hosted by the router’s web server) instructing me that a 3rd party router was detected and I could put it in the DMZ. I closed it. I think the message came up again later and one of my kids hit RESOLVE. The router then proceeded to put my iMac in the DMZ!

My iMac didn’t have the firewall on because I was troubleshooting problems with syncing my AT&T Tilt (Mac syncing is not for the faint of heart). All of a sudden I’m getting email bounce messages from all over – I think my Mac somehow was being used to send canned ham. I couldn’t figure out how to stop this DMZ feature from happening. I disconnected my Mac and my laptop was the next silicon offering to the DMZ.

Time for U-Verse support. I called before I left work because I didn’t know the hours of support, seems they are available 24×7. The tech said he’d call me back when I got home and setup a callback time. They called and tried to configure my router remotely but was unable to see my device configuration. Since he wasn’t familiar with my issue he quickly handed me off to the next level of support. This person was an expert in the configuration and had no trouble connecting and turning off the DMZ (just do a restore default settings under Firewall – I was looking for a check-box). Then he set it to not warn me anymore if it detects that condition (which he wasn’t sure why it would do that, I was the first one he had heard of). I asked if there was a way to just use my old linksys router for wi-fi. Answer? Sure – just go to your TV channel 411 and watch the video HOW-TO! Very helpful, 10 minute call. Kudos guys.

If you got the same message and don’t want to be bothered (or having someone click RESOLVE) go to this URL:
http://192.168.1.254/MDC

This is the more advanced management console for your router. Go to Local Network on the left, then Configuration. Scroll down on the right side and you’ll see an option “Display router behind router warning”. Just uncheck it and be happy.

Great Commericals.

Apple has great commercials. The PC/Mac guy ads are always good for a laugh. Here’s one if case you haven’t seen them.

I recently got an iMac, 20″ LCD screen. I’ve mostly liked it. I’ve had problems with some of the graphics I created for my friend Steve’s website. The top graphic has a background with a slight gradient that looks great, except on my Mac. On the Mac it’s invisible. I assume it’s something about the Safari browser at first, but then FireFox on the Mac has the same display problem. I’m baffled. Maybe my windows graphics program creating some magic windows-only jpeg image!

Then coincidentally my friend Brian tells me about the new class action lawsuit on the iMac I bought. Now all of a sudden it makes sense. It’s the monitor! So I send the URL to a friend with a new macbook – he can see the image fine. It’s time to visit the mac store and make sure it’s not just my monitor. This would be a huge disappointment. I mean I’m used to computer companies advertising false things, using cheap stuff, and of course Windows.

Maybe I believed the commercials…

GPS

Well… I finally took the plunge. I bought a refurb Garmin 550 from buy.com for $179. I’ve wanted one for my wife, and for when we travel – but I also wanted one for bluetooth phone integration (as a speakerphone). The price point was always $350 or more – more than I was going to spend. $179 no tax, free shipping – DONE.

gps

Garmin calls the refurb units “Completely Overhauled”. My wife said, “I think I like REFURB better”. My only observation is the volume knob seems a bit sticky but not worth trying to replace. Screen, etc. all looks superb. Great interface, simple setup, and even works with my AT&T 8125 phone. So far it has exceeded all my expectations but one. It doesn’t allow me to load destination addresses from my phone (maybe would require Bluetooth ADAP protocol).

Works like a champ, Garmin has this nailed – great Navteq maps. 5 stars so far. Go ahead Frank, sell the Newton, get a Garmin… It’s half the size.

Mac Update

Some people have been asking me questions about my blog. I realized something amazing! SOMEBODY IS READING IT.

Would I replace all my windows machines? No. I simply couldn’t afford it. All the software my kids have doesn’t run on it. I can’t afford it. If I was buying a new laptop – it would be a Mac. For the family machine the Mac is working great. I think as I move more toward software services like Gmail with smart apps that can manage those software service I become less concerned with the OS anyway.

I used to think Apple ripped you off on service, etc. Then I looked at the prices at BB and CC (geek squad etc).

K9 comes to the Mac

No, not a dog – a web filter! K9 is an amazing tool for filtering internet content. If you don’t like that idea just stop reading NOW.

Bluecoat is a company that sells industrial strength security and filtering tools. One of their assets is a huge categorized list of Internet sites and their general category. Is the site business, porn, movies? it’s all in the database. K9 is a free tool Bluecoat created for home users to filter internet requests. Most filters just look at the words on the website and make a guess if the content is OK. They use PICS ratings and other things but the bottom line is content filtering only gets you so far. K9 brings an immense categorization of the Internet to the table so most sites can be screened out (or in) with ease. K9 drops down to do content filtering if the site isn’t in it’s database. One thing I like about K9 is you can set it up to only allow sites in a certain set of categories and if it doesn’t know about the website it blocks it. K9 runs in the background – you forget it is there. It doesn’t hog your CPU, slow your internet browsing, or give you a lot of false warnings.

K9 has one HUGE problem. It’s only available for Windows.
Mac has one HUGE problem. Apple’s parental controls filtering is pathetic. The other filters are content only and are EXPENSIVE.

Bluecoat has announced there is a Mac version coming in early ’08! Problem solved. To the folks at BlueCoat – you’ve done a great service to parents and more, keep up the good work. Your product helps protect people from some of the worst society has to offer.

iMac – Week 1 & 2

Ok, it’s just different. Different in good ways and in stupid ways. I can’t figure out why alt-tab shows me only icons of maximized windows. Couldn’t it be an option? No fear, get the free program “Witch” to help pick “Which” app you want – including the minimized ones. I’ll put a list of my favorite freeware items in an iMac HOW-TO since _____ will be asking for it soon.

The other day I got a kernal panic! How fun. OS X says, “Please power off your computer now”. Better than blue I guess. When I restart I find that the parental controls caused it. Hmm… How does that happen? This is unix right? I thought kernal panics mostly happened when there were system problems – maybe parental controls goes deeper than I expected, I just doubted it since the options are slim.

Part of my frustration has been some simple free software – like easy image editing, etc. I’ve found a bunch of that and am happy with some of that software.

The screen is great, the UI is fun, it takes up no room. It crashes but not like XP. No mysterious hangs like Vista. 1GB of RAM is plenty for 2-3 users with apps running. I’ll still give it a thumbs up.