Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App - GV Connect

Apple finally approves Google Voice App (the second time) and it is available on the iTunes store now here for $2.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gv-connect/id347835665?mt=8

GV Connect is a native iPhone/iPod Touch application for your Google Voice account. The app features the following:

• Place calls using your Google Voice number rather than your mobile number.
• Send and receive text messages (SMS) from your Google Voice
• Listen to voicemails and recorded conversations right on your device (pause, rewind, fast foward)
• Mark messages as starred, block senders, delete conversations
• Set call forwarding, do-not-disturb), rediections
• Retina displays

I suspect the FTC inquiry on Apple’s blocking of a native Google Voice app sparked the change.

Related posts:

1. Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email
2. FCC Steps Into Apple and AT&T for Google Voice Removal
3. Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Well Jaybird recently released the SB2′s, the next generation of the SB1′s and they were kind enough to send me a pair to review.  I want to make clear that these phones were provided gratis, so keep that in mind while you read my review.  I like to believe that I’m objective enough to say a product sucks even if they send me a free evaluation unit, but I haven’t really faced that situation yet.  (I have been given free iPhone/iPad apps for review and I’ve passed up writing reviews in some cases where I thought the app was just bad, but even those cases are few and far between).

I received the headphones on a Friday (delivered in person by the lovely young lady in the packaging, naturally) and I’ve been using them ever since to really try them out in comparison to the SB1′s.  The headphones come in (relatively speaking) minimal packaging and the box it was shipped in was big enough to hold the headphones but not a lot bigger.  I’ve gotten a bit sensitive to companies that ship their products in way oversized boxes and/or packaging (Amazon, I’m looking at YOU), so it was nice to see some attention paid to minimizing waste.  In fact, one of my complaints about the SB1′s was the large amount of packaging that surrounded the headphones themselves.  Jaybird addressed this nicely in the SB2.

The headphones come with a minimum amount of accessories – a set of very simple instructions, the USB-based charging plug, and two pairs of replacement foam pads arrived along with the bright red (and I mean BRIGHT) SB2′s.  It was really nice to see the extra foam pads included – one of my dings on the SB1′s was the fact that those foam pads looked like they could wear with time, and without them, the headphones are kind of painful to wear.  I haven’t had any issues with them in all my wearings, but I tend to be very gentle on my equipment.  They’ve fallen off a couple times but I just re-seated them and they were fine.  Still, it’s good to see companies thinking about the long term use of their products.

I did a quick size comparison between the SB1′s and the SB2′s as well.  They are identically sized, in both thickness and shape.  In fact you really can’t tell them apart.  The big improvements come on the inside in the Bluetooth firmware, specifically the addition of apt-X.  apt-X, when paired with a compatible transmitter, provides CD-quality audio via the Bluetooth stream.  Since I am not an audiophile and since the iPhone 4 does not have apt-X built in (heck, we can’t even get Apple to give us skip forward/back controls via Bluetooth), I wasn’t able to test this part of the SB2′s.  Jaybird does sell a slim dongle that plugs into the dock port of the iPhone that will provide the transmission portion of the apt-X signal, but I don’t like adding dongles to the iPhone.  They almost always don’t work well with the wide variety of cases and protective gear, and the new iPhone is not a device I want to leave naked.

In terms of sound, the SB2′s sound just as good as the SB1′s.  I did notice that Jaybird made a slight tweak to the volume controls, because I was able to drop the volume down to a level lower than I had experienced on the SB1′s.  This was the other minor ding I had for Jaybird concerning the SB1′s – they didn’t seem to have a low volume that was really low.

I wasn’t able to test the microphone capabilities of the SB2 vs. the SB1.  I know with the SB1 I had some slight issues with pickup under windy conditions, but I have yet to use a set of Bluetooth headphones that didn’t have this problem, so that’s not something I would necessarily ding Jaybird for anyways.

The other improvement that I was able to find, and one I’ll be keeping an eye on for the longer term, is that the earpads are much stiffer when extending or retracting.  This is good – in my SB1′s, the right earpad was starting to become very loose through the daily wear and tear of extending and retracting it to fit my head.  I am hoping the SB2′s will not suffer that issue.  The SB2′s seem to be a bit “stickier” to my head as well, though I’m not sure if that’s actual or if it’s just perception because they’re new.  I will have to see what happens when the SB2′s are on my head as I am on the weight bench.

Overall, I strongly recommend the Jaybird SB2.  They’ve addressed the few minor shortcomings I had with the SB1′s, and the inclusion of apt-X will mean better sound for apt-X equipped devices.  At $99, they are in the middle range for Bluetooth headphones, and I’m sure that you will be able to find them for less online.  I’m planning to switch to the SB2′s for my day-to-day use, and am looking forward to the many stares I’m going to get as I walk to work in my business suit sporting a set of cherry red headphones shining off the reflected light of my shaved head.

By the way, all these pics were taken using the iPhone 4′s camera.  Note the significant yellowing in the bottom two pictures?  That’s a beige surface I’m shooting down onto.  Part of the issue might be bounceback of light from that surface, since the yellowing isn’t apparent in the top two pictures.  Interesting…

Jaybird SB2 Bluetooth Headphones

Related posts:

1. Jaybird SB1 Bluetooth Headphones Review
2. REVIEW: Sony DRBT160AS Bluetooth Stereo Headset
3. iPhone Amplifier by SoundClip

On Protection.

Over the long weekend, I did a bunch of tech stuff I’d been meaning to do for some time. Most importantly, I installed a clear protector onto our new iPhones. For the first time, I used the BodyGuardz line of protective sheets rather than the InvisibleShield line. The BodyGuardz are a much better value. For $25 you get two sets of protective sheets that fully cover the iPhone’s front, back, and sides. Installing them was relatively straightforward but it conclusively proved why I would never be a surgeon.

There is a level of mental comfort in having these shields on our phones. But to cover up that amazing screen with anything is just a darn shame. No film application is ever perfect, and any bubbles are incredibly annoying. The liquid applicator they provide does create a thin glaze under the film which detracts from the beauty of the iPhone’s screen when it’s off. On the plus side, it does give a little bit more tactile grip to the iPhone. I also think it helps a bit with the attenuation issues people have been suffering when they touch the sides. The side films seem designed to exactly fit the phone but it is exceedingly difficult to apply them so that they run the full length properly. I ended up overlapping the antenna gaps just slightly, which seemed to act as a non-conductive layer between my fingers and the band. I don’t know if this is an intended benefit or not, but it’s relatively cheap to try out if you’re having major issues. I personally haven’t noticed a huge problem with attenuation or service interruption but that could just be me.

For now, I’m planning to keep these on the phone, at least until the cases I ordered come in. This phone is never going to be outside a case anyways so I may decide to remove the front film to let the gorgeous screen shine through.

And if anyone has a good case recommendation for the iPad, could they please contact me?  All the cases I’ve tried out so far suck.  I don’t want a sleeve and I don’t want a backside-only protector.  I need something that I can use on a desk as well as on the sofa, and it needs to support the iPad in portrait and landscape modes.  I like the Apple case, but it’s just a little too cheap-looking for me and I’d ideally love a case that has a latchable/securable front protector.

UPDATE (7/14/2010): I’ve had the Bodyguardz film on the iPhone for about a week now, and the glaze underneath has vanished completely.  The screen protector is still visible (you can see where the cutouts are for the speaker and the front facing camera) and it feels like there is more “depth” when hitting the Home button.  I gotta say that I am really liking the Bodyguardz.  I no longer think they interfere with the Retina Display and for all intents and purposes, they’ve disappeared from my perception, which is kind of the point of these things.  I’ve definitely noticed a decline in the number of dropped calls as well, though that needs to be heavily caveated.  First off, I don’t make a ton of calls so I’m not a great sample.  Second, since the issue has been covered to death in every tech blog and news rag, I’ve been more aware of how I hold the phone.  Finally, I could never consistently reproduce the issue, so I may not have been impacted.  Having said all that, I routinely hold the iPhone 4 in my left hand with the antenna gap perilously close to be covered by the base of my thumb and I’m sure I’ve covered that gap on calls, both before and after the film application.  Since I’ve applied the Bodyguardz, I have not had a single dropped call.  Period.  So perhaps the combination of the side protection plus my clumsy application have created a nice little insulated zone around the antenna openings that is helping my calling?  In any case, I’ve become a big fan of these things, and their customer service can’t be beat.  They were prompt to answer my emails about returning my extra films, and they were prompt about issuing me a refund.  Good on ya, guys – keep up the great work.  I am seriously considering buying a set of the iPad 3G protection skins to replace my InvisibleShield cover.  The InvisibleShield just seems to attract more dirt, though that could just be due to the increased surface area.  But definitely something I’m considering in the longer term…

iPad vs. iPhone

I’m fairly sure that if I had gotten the iPhone 4 before my iPad, I would have skipped the first gen iPad in hopes that the second gen would come with a Retina Display. Apple probably knew this, which is why they didn’t pull out the iPad as a “One More Thing” during the iPhone launch.  I still love my iPad but the iPhone is proving good enough for almost everything I need to do when I’m mobile.  I have used the iPhone for navigation, for checking newsfeeds, and for recipes.  It’s perfectly fine as a quick reference device, especially since the Retina Display makes it so much easier to read despite its small screen real estate.  But for consuming books and video, for gaming, and for productivity, the iPad is still the superior device.  Am I glad I have both?  Yes.  Should I have gotten the unlimited data plan for both?  Probably not.  I’m spending $60/mo on data access for the i-Devices, which is a bit much.  I’m seriously considering dropping my unlimited plan on the iPad, except that I’d still like roaming access, so I’d only be saving $5/mo (I refuse to pay for tethering, which is just AT&T saying “please bend over” while holding a very thick broom).  I’m really annoyed that Apple didn’t put a decent GPS chip inside the Wi-Fi only version, since that’s the main reason I went with the 3G iPad.

iPhone Antenna Issues

One of my best friends is a bigshot at M&M/Mars.  He was once asked to participate on a panel discussion at a telecom conference.  The audience consisted of telecom providers who wanted to know how to best sell into the large enterprise market, especially because things like data and messaging were just starting to become popular.  One of the audience members stood up and asked him what he looks for in a mobile phone.  In response, my friend pulled out his Nokia phone (which was at least 2 generations out of date) and said “I’d like it to work as a phone.”  Tech companies really seem to forget this basic concept – it’s a smart phone.  If it can’t make calls, it’s not a phone, it’s a mobile device.  Apple is being disingenuous when they blame the iPhone‘s attenuation problems on their inability to do math.  Too many people are complaining about a problem making calls, which is humorous if you’re not the one suffering from the problem.  But when you’re trying to call 911 late at night after you’ve witnessed a crime or been in an accident, it’s really not funny.  The bad thing is that I can’t rely on the iPhone as an emergency contact device, issues with AT&T service aside.  When I’m trying to call for an ambulance, I really don’t want to worry about whether I’m levitating the phone correctly to maximize signal strength.

It also means that every time I see one of those Apple videos featuring their internal designers talking earnestly about how hard they tried to create beauty and how magical the i-Device is, I’m going to just laugh and blow them off (even more so than I already do) as self-loving nerds.  No matter how good they think they are and no matter how pretty their end result, I know they failed.  Gizmodo had a great post about just how huge a failure this is on Apple’s part – they’ve fallen so in love with themselves that they are ignoring the fact that good industrial design means that it works, not just that it’s pretty.  If I have to think about how to use a product, something’s wrong, and Apple has only themselves to blame.  They’ve been promoting that mode of thought ever since they released the first iPhone.  Yet now here they are saying, basically, “yes always think about how you’re using your iPhone to make sure you’re not using it wrong”.

Luckily, phone calls are rare and far between in my household, and 90% of my calls are to my fiancée, who is also on AT&T, so those minutes buckets are pretty much unlimited.  I really hope, though, that she’s never stuck late at night on a bus coming home from work and trying to reach me.

iPad’s Video and iPod apps

These apps suck.  Suck suck suck suck suck.  No other way to put it.  Why they are split into two apps rather than the single iPod app that’s provided on the iPhone is beyond me.  There is obviously some higher design principle at work that I am too pedestrian to understand.  But when I can’t skip through a list of video podcasts using the CONTROLS PROVIDED FOR THEM, I consider that a pretty major design flaw.  The only way I can move from one video to the next without picking and choosing each one is if I create a playlist.  That’s just stupid, Apple.  Why should I create a playlist of video podcasts when the Videos app has a podcast section?  And is there any reason why you decided that TV shows don’t need to have any identifying information aside from a still image from the show itself?  Maybe I’d like to, oh I don’t know, see the SHOW’S NAMES?!?!?  You guys are starting to approach Microsoft levels of stupidity with these issues, and I sincerely hope that you fix them in the next version by providing an iPod app, rather than this craptastic Video/Music split function junk.

On the plus side, you seem to have fixed the issue with Smart Playlists not being synced when Live Updating is checked.  I think it’s only been about a year now since that issue’s been reported?  So I guess I should expect an iPod app on the iPad when you release iPad 3.0?

UPDATE (7/14/2010) – Yea, Apple, your Video app sucks hairy moose testicles.  What is the sense in showing one sequence of videos on the iPad and a completely different sequence in iTunes?  This weekend I was playing through some TV shows I’d ripped and I realized they were completely out of order on the iPad.  Since I’m a metadata FREAK, I quick checked the iTunes versions to see what I’d screwed up.  Lo and behold, the iTunes list was in correct order.  After much trial and error, I realized that the iPad sorts TV shows using the Track Number while iTunes uses Season and Episode Number.  Can someone tell me how the team that created the Video app thought this was a good idea?  It’s like they decided to remove the Video functionality in the iPod app but just do a half-assed job of it so that they could piss off as many people as possible.  So for those of you trying to figure out why the hell the iPad isn’t sequencing your shows correctly – either fill in both Track Number and Episode Number fields for each show, or just rely on Track Number to do your sorting.  Of course, if you choose the latter, I fully expect that one day Apple will fix this stupidity and then you’ll have to go back and re-enter the Episode Number data so you might as well do both now.

iPad memory issues

I’m running a jailbroken iPad, primarily because I can.  Now I understand that jailbreak tech is really young on the iPad and developers are still trying to figure out how to do it right.  But I’m seriously concerned about the iPad’s lack of RAM.  I think Apple made a bad choice when they went with 256MB in the iPad vs the 512MB in the iPhone 4, because when multitasking comes along, apps are going to be seriously memory constrained.  Apple’s limited implementation of multi-tasking in iOS (a name I predicted here on this blog well before His Jobs-ness announced it) is a lot more memory-efficient than traditional multitaskers a la Backgrounder.  But still  - I see memory leaks all the time running apps like Reeder and TweetDeck under the jailbroken iOS 3.2.  And I’m pretty sure that it’s not due to leaks in the jailbreak code.  TweetDeck reboots itself regularly on the half-hour, even when it’s the only app running on the iPad.  Running it on an unjailbroken iPad, the reboot periods are longer but I know they still were happening.

My guess is that iPad iOS 4.0 is going to be based a lot on iPhone iOS 4.0.  It’s a little aggressive to have the entire code base made common between the two platforms, but it’s inevitable that that will happen.  My guess is iOS 5.0 next year will be the first true common iOS base for all Apple platforms.  They can’t keep doing this multi-version iOS thing forever, especially if they release an iOS for AppleTV and for the Mac.  That would be four different fragments of the same base, which would make Android look like a bamboo shoot in terms of variety.

Multiple users on the iPad

The iPhone is intended to be a single-user device.  No bigs – it’s (marginally) a phone, it’s small, it’s got a fixed identifier (the phone number) attached to it – it’s very personal.  The iPad, for all its “magic”, is a multi-user device.  I’d like to share my iPad with my fiancée and a regular basis and my son has basically adopted the iPad as his own when he’s with us.  I’m totally cool with that, but it means that I’ve removed all my email accounts from the iPad.  I’d like some way to have user profiles and app sharing rules set up so that I can control what others accessing my iPad have access to.  I know user accounts are a big OS overhead issue, and there would be all kinds of complaints that Apple didn’t allow fast switching etc etc.  But basic user-level customization would go a long way to making the iPad a viable family device.  There’s no way I’m buying iPads for every member of the family and it’s stupid for Apple to think that people actually will do this.

And while we’re on the subject, Apple’s lack of controls on their Safari browser means that there is no way to control/limit kids’ access to the Internet.  Apple only allows binary control – either Safari is on or it’s off.  There’s no way to firewall or block access to non-approved sites.  Tools like OpenDNS’s Family Shield are a good start, but it’s relatively easy to circumvent.

So what do you guys think?  Am I way off base?  Spot on?  Comment up any of your complaints or compliments!

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Useful and Free iPhone Apps
2. Apple Unveils iPhone 4
3. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor

Penultimate uses a notepad & pen metaphor to allow you to capture handwritten notes.  You can create notepads as needed, with each page customizable to be a grid, lined, or blank format.  You use your finger to either write/draw on the pages or to erase your musings.  You can add as many pages as you’d like and you can email individual pages or notebooks as desired.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why this is such a popular app.  I could not get the hang of writing notes with my finger, and I was very glad I had my stylus with me.  There is only one size pen and one size eraser.  You can undo or redo your last action.  And that’s about it.  Here are some screen captures of my notes.

I had several complains about the interface.  First, you can only see one page at a time, whether in portrait or landscape format.  I can understand why you’d have only one page in portrait orientation.  But to force that same limit in landscape mode seems artificially limiting.  Also, in landscape mode, you have to scroll down to get to the pen and eraser controls.  This is despite having  ample free space between the edge of the notebook page and the edge of the screen.  Furthermore, you can only flip the pages from the bottom of each page.  The notebooks are arranged based on last edit date and there are no other options.  It would have been nice to sort them alphabetically.  Finally, the pen and eraser action areas seemed excessively large.  It would have been nice to have at least a couple widths for the pen tool.  And the eraser seemed to erase a lot more than the width of the pen, which doesn’t really allow for fine erasing.  Usually, if I needed to erase, I ended up erasing everything or deleting the page and re-starting rather than just removing the section I wanted to.

If the app had been $0.99, then this might have been OK.  But for $2.99, I expected a bit more.

Related posts:

1. My iPad – Initial impressions
2. iPad Update – the Return
3. Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

The kit arrives in a short tube. That explains why S&H is a bit on the higher side, though overall reasonable. It also pretty much means your shield is going to be curled. I fixed that by rolling/unrolling it several times in the opposite direction and flattened it pretty well. The package comes with the two shields, plus a generous bottle of application fluid and the standard rubber squeegee.

The instructions are generic. How do I know? Because they recommend removing the battery if possible (hah!). Also note, that there is no cutout in the shield for the antenna plate of the 3G. Not sure if that was deliberate or not. In any case, I’m pretty well versed in the InvisibleShield routine, since I’ve had one on every iDevice I’ve owned since the company started.

The installation process is pretty standard. First, clean off your glass. Really rub out all the fingerprints and smudges using a clean microfiber cloth. Then the fun part of putting on the shield itself begins. This was, quite frankly, a pain in the ass. There’s no good way to put it. ANY sort of floating particulate matter will adhere to the screen. They give you a generous size bottle of fluid, which is good because I ended up using almost all of it.

I covered the front glass pretty easily, though aligning such a large sheet of sticky material is difficult even with the lube. The back shield was even worse in some respects and easier in others. The back shield is a bit larger than the front shield (or seemed to be) but I also didn’t care as much about any particles that might have stuck to it. I’m planning to keep the iPad in a case for its natural lifespan, so the back protection is kind of moot.

I ended up removing and reapplying the front shield about five times. Even so, there are still bits of fuzz and grit that are now bonded to the underside of the shield. Luckily, none of it impacts the usability of the iPad, but it’s annoying because I can see them in certain positions and under certain conditions. But I also don’t know how ZAGG could do any better. I wouldn’t want to use multiple smaller sheets to create a coverage surface, and you want the thing to stick to your screen, so you can’t make it easy to take on/off. The shield can be removed/re-applied for about an hour or so after you’ve put it on, but much longer than that and I’d be worried about stretching when you’re taking it off.

The shield does NOT provide side protection. The sheets are just big enough to cover the front and back plates only. I’ve not noticed any signal degradation due to the covering of the antenna plate, so that’s good. I’ve also not seen any issues resulting from the ginormous pools of fluid that were wiped out from between the glass and the shield during the multiple applications process. I think 95% of the lube I sprayed onto the shield ended up being squeezed out and I got a little panicky seeing my new iPad with so much liquid on it.

Now that I’ve had it for a day or so, I’ve enjoyed the slightly more tactile sensation that the InvisibleShield gives the screen. It does, however, impede the usability of my stylus. You have to push a lot harder to get the stylus to be recognized. Which is weird, since I don’t notice a similar issue with fingers.  Also, if you think the iPad has glare before the application of the shield, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  The screen seems much more reflective.

All in all, I’m glad I put the shield on my iPad. But I don’t know that it’s going to be as useful as it would be on an iPhone, since the iPad is not going to be spending tons of time in my pocket with keys and change. Also, I’d guess that the majority of users will put the iPad into a case of some sort, so the times that it will be naked in public are pretty small. But for peace of mind, it was worth the $25.

Related posts:

1. Zagg Invisible Shield
2. InnoPocket launched HexaPose Stand for Apple iPad
3. Penultimate for iPad

iPhone 4

Steve Jobs says the new iPhone is beyond any consumer product that’s ever been seen, only 9.3mm thick and 24 percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS, making it the “thinnest smartphone on the planet.”

Availability
The new iPhone 4 arrives on June 24, while preorders begin on June 15. It is available in the same prices and capacities as last year’s model: $199 for 16GB, and $299 for 32GB. The iPhone 3GS will be available for $99.

Internals
The new hardware also has a larger battery that offers longer uptime, including 7 hours of talk time 3G, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby.

Dual cameras
The iPhone 4 also includes a whole-new camera system that includes LED flash with a 5 megapixel lens that records HD video. The new rear camera will record 720p video at 30 frames per second. Users can also use built-in video editing to trim their HD clips right on the phone.

The handset’s forward facing camera can be used for video chat with the application FaceTime, allowing users to see someone using another iPhone 4 as they talk to them. Videos can also be edited using the new iMovie application, which will cost $4.99 on the App Store.

Related posts:

1. Apple iPhone 3GS
2. NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor
3. Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

So for those of you who don’t know what the ChargePod is, it is a very simple device.  Basically, think of it as a starfish with charging ports for arms.  Up to six different devices can be connected and charged using a variety of dongles.  And by variety, I mean variety – over 3,000 different devices can be charged using the ChargePod’s stable of available connectors.  The device comes with three different connectors – one Apple Dock connector, one mini-USB connector, and one micro-USB connector.  It also comes with a coupon for a free connector and another for 20% off your first order, so all in all, you can set yourself up pretty well for not a lot of money.  Each dongle is about $10.

From a review perspective, it’s very simple.  The product does what it’s supposed to.  I plug in the power to the ChargePod and plug in my device and the device charges.  Cool.  A product that works as described.  It’s mindlessly simple.  My fiancee and I use it to charge her RAZR, her iTouch, my iPhone – I’m planning to get connectors for my son’s PSP, DSi, a generic USB connector so I can plug my headphone recharger into it….(umm, you folks at CallPod weren’t expecting this unit back anytime soon were you?).  We like the device, needless to say.  And the great thing is that it removes the tangle of wires that connect to my USB hub.  With ChargePod, I realized that 90% of the reason I have a USB hub is so I can re-charge something.  The ChargePod removes the need to keep my hub around.  The only cord I have in there now is for my iPhone so I can sync, and my headphone charger cause I don’t have the USB connector for the ChargePod yet.

The only “complaint” I have (cause no review can be perfect) is that you need a fairly decent amount of surface area to plug everything in.  To give you a sense of perspective, that sheet of paper is roughly 10″x14″.  It’s more elegant than a tangle of wires, but I’d love to wall mount this thing and somehow create a little electronics mandala to help remove some of the horizontal space requirements.  But it’s a minor quibble.  I’m looking forward to the V2 ChargePod, which will allow you to charge a laptop as well as other devices, plus plug in USB drives and the like.  It’s basically a portable universal laptop adaptor on steroids.

So why do I say that the ChargePod allows you to be a hero?  Well, I was in an all-day meeting last week at an off-site with limited Internet connectivity (which you had to pay for).  Almost everyone in that meeting was checking Blackberries every 10 minutes if not more frequently.  And because of that, their little addictions needed to be charged.  I personally was using my iPhone to access the corporate webmail presence, so I’m certainly not innocent.  But the thing I noticed was that everyone was swapping out a single charger between the various Blackberries.  And I thought to myself, if I got like five more mini-USB connectors and brought the ChargePod to my next all day offsite, people would love me.  LOVE me.  Hmm…$32 to buy the affections of a bunch of VPs and Directors…?  Might be worth it…

Related posts:

1. ChargePod will charge your iPad
2. USBCell Rechargeable Battery
3. 4-port USB hub connects to your network

———-

There are a  number of utilities that have sprung up of late that are designed to help folks keep track of their various passwords.  We are constantly being given opportunities to create user IDs and their attendant security information, and unless you use the same stable of passwords, keeping track of all of them become difficult.  For sites you visit often, it’s not a problem.  But for occasional use sites (like credit cards, affinity programs, retirement accounts and the like), I always have a devil of a time trying to remember my security phrase or password or whatever.  The tool I use, however, does not sync with the iPhone, so I can’t access my information when I’m away from my PC.  Keeper resolves that disconnect.

Keeper has both a desktop and a mobile component.  The desktop component is compatible with Mac, PC, and Linux, while the mobile component will run on the iPhone/iTouch, Android, and Vodaphone.  I ran Keeper on a Windows 7 laptop with the iPhone mobile component.  The mobile component is free; the desktop component is $19.95 regardless of platform.  I took a quick look at other similar applications available through iTunes to do a price comparison.  mSecure runs $2.99 for its mobile component but the desktop component is $14.99.  And SplashID is $9.99 but doesn’t have a desktop component as far as I can tell.  eWallet runs $9.99 for the desktop component and $9.99 for the iPhone component – you get the idea.  About $20 seems to be the sweet spot for these types of programs.

When you install and launch Keeper, you’re greeted with the above screen.  You pick a master password (preferably a complex one) and enter it twice.  It is critical to not forget this password.  You only get five attempts to log in after setting the master password; after that, Keeper wipes your data.  I couldn’t find a way to change the login attempts allowed to be more than five – if it’s not a feature, I’d suggest making it a future enhancement.  This is very important because the password you set in Keeper desktop has to match the password you set in Keeper mobile to allow syncing to occur.  Complex desktop phrases suddenly become a lot harder to enter when tapping on the iPhone’s virtual keypad.

The data entry interface is pretty straightforward.  The Folder field allows you to group sets of accounts by type.  The Title field allows you to name the specific entry.  The Login and Password fields are self-explanatory and the Notes field is pretty much your catchall for anything else.  A few more fields would have been nice, specifically things like URL and PIN.  I ended up using the Notes field to store those, plus things like answers to security questions.

The Settings allow some level of customization of the data entry fields, as well as timeout settings and data storage.  There is also a way to import and export your password database.  Exports can be for backup purposes, or you can print your database to PDF, text, or Excel.  Only the export to text file option allows for encrypting of the output.

The mobile component is very similar to the desktop component.  Options are limited, but how many options do programs like this really need?  You do have the option of turning off the self-destruct of the database if you fail to enter the correct password.  I thought this was an interesting option – on the one hand, you kind of want the database gone if someone tries to access your info.  On the other hand, I ended deleting my database three times either because I couldn’t remember my master password or because I mis-typed my complex (but easily typed on the desktop) password.  Again, balancing act – complex enough to make it difficult to guess but simple enough to enter easily on the virtual keyboard.  It’s a tough choice.

The login page shown is a bit deceptive because it defaults to numeric entry.  This particular page is only shown when you launch the app for the first time and need to set a master password.  I’d originally set a numeric password when I launched the mobile component, but then later had to reset the master password for the mobile app when I wanted to sync (more on that later).  Once the master password is set, however, you get a more standard login screen with a single password field and the alpha keyboard, rather than the numeric one.

I would suggest that Keeper look at using two different passwords on the mobile app.  The first password should allow access to the mobile app, while the second password should be the one used for syncing, and be forced to match the password on the desktop component.  This way, you can set a simpler password to allow quick entry to the application when you need it but you still retain a complex password for keeping the desktop and mobile versions coordinated.

Callpod will allow a one-time backup of your password database.  You pick a security question and provide an email address.  The mobile app then backs up your database to the Callpod servers.  When you want to restore from that backup, you provide the email address you used when you created the backup.  Callpod emails an access code to that email address, which you then enter into the mobile app.  Once entered, you must provide the answer to the security question you chose when you backed up the file.

But what most interested me about Keeper was the mobile/desktop syncing.  It works over Wi-Fi and it’s pretty slick.  You activate syncing on both the mobile app and the desktop app.

On the mobile app, you get an IP address plus a numeric key.  You enter this information on the desktop component, decide how you want the syncing to be done, and hit the Sync button.  The process is pretty quick and fairly bulletproof.  I tried syncing five or six different times and had only one failure.  I just re-tried the sync immediately however, and was able to sync just fine, so it’s not like failure means hours of troubleshooting.

Overall, I was pleased with Keeper and thought it was a solid product.  If you’re hesitant about buying it outright, the mobile component is a free iTunes download, so you can try it before you buy the desktop companion.  Callpod’s willingness to host a backup instance for free gives you a way to store your passwords securely, so if you don’t add tons of accounts on a regular basis, it’s possible for you to set up all your important passwords on the mobile version, have Callpod store a backup, and be about your merry way.  (Not sure that the Callpod folks are going to be happy about this suggestion!)

The biggest problem with Keeper (and other apps like it) is something they will not be able to solve on their own.  I am referring to the lack of multitasking on the iPhone, which makes products like this totally annoying to use.  I can’t just flip back and forth between Safari and Keeper on the iPhone – instead, I have to log into Keeper every time I want to access a different secure site.  It significantly deteriorates the usability of the application through no fault of Callpod’s.  I think an app like this would be great for the iPad, which is much more intended to provide a complete web experience.  However, the lack of multitasking on THAT platform will also make things annoyingly frustrating.  For a company that talks all about the user experience, Apple is having a harder and harder time justifying the lack of multitasking on its portable products.

Would I buy Keeper based on my experience with it?  Honestly, I’m not sure.  For a long time after I got my iPhone, I was looking for some way to view my passwords for American Express and Ameritrade and the like.  But since I couldn’t find anything that I was willing to pay for, I actually ended up learning the passwords.  If there were an easy way for me to switch between Keeper and Safari, or have Keeper pass URL, user ID, and password information to a Safari session, I think this software would be totally worth it.  But given the frustrations of flipping back and forth between Safari and Keeper, I just couldn’t see myself using it on a regular enough basis to justify its cost.  Your mileage may vary.

Related posts:

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The C309 is a relatively svelte machine, especially compared to the behemoth that was my Dell (hatred and denigration of Dell products will be a theme throughout this post, so if you’re a Dell fanboy, just leave now).  It came in a ginormous Amazon box.  I tried to take some unboxing pictures but my iPhone apparently was operated by an epileptic on crack so I’ll be sticking to stock photos.

The C309 is a wireless/wired photoprinting AIO unit with a duplexer.  I was dreading the setup for this printer because my experience trying to set up the wireless printing on the Dell was a Chtulian nightmare.  And after all the pain of setup, the wireless printing never worked right, leaving my fiancee and I passing USB cables back and forth to print.  So you can imagine my complete surprise and amazement when the manual gave me a completely wireless setup option.  And not only was it an option, the option actually worked!

Coincidentally, I’d bought a new router about a year or so ago.  One of the features it had was something called a WPS button, which supposedly would pass all necessary wireless settings to any WPS-equipped device.  The C309 is one such device, so when the printer booted up and asked for a WPS signal, I was able to have it connected to my network in about three minutes.  It was amazing.  The touchscreen confirmed my SSID, asked for my network password, and went through a few more confirmation questions.  The software installation took longer than the connection to my home network.  If I have to ding HP on something, it’s the fact that they have ALWAYS released bloated software.  This thing was fatter than a pregnant cow with triplets.  It also had a very annoying feature that forced an immediate reboot.  I lost several web pages that I hadn’t had a chance to bookmark because the install program shut down my laptop.  Make sure you’ve saved everything important before you install the HP monitoring software.

That one bit of nastiness aside, I was connected to the printer and testing within probably 15-20 minutes.  But the biggest test was connecting my fiancee’s laptop to the printer.  Again, HP pulled through.  The second installation was as smooth as the first.  Within 30 minutes, both of us were printing to the C309 sans wires.  The duplexer works just fine, but it’s a bit slow because the printer automatically waits for the ink to dry before flipping the page.

Speaking of ink, the C309 uses individual ink cartridges.  There are five altogether – four for photos (including a photo black) and one for text.  I haven’t priced the ink out in great detail, but I do recall seeing sets of photo ink for this printer in the $25 range, which isn’t terrible.  The POS Dell’s ink was so expensive I actually considered buying a new printer rather than replace the ink.  Instead I just didn’t print anything (which was good, since I couldn’t print anyways).

The other awesome thing is that HP provides an iPhone printing app.  The HP iPrint will let you print pictures directly from your iPhone to any compatible HP printer.  Launching the iPrint app, I was able to detect my printer and send a test print to it with zero setup.  Tres cool.

I’d never really been a fan of HP products before, but if the C309 is any indication of the typical quality and ease-of-use that HP is putting into their designs now, they’ve just become my favorite PC hardware manufacturer.

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For those of you who don’t want to pay for a gym membership, body weight exercises provide effective exercise with minimal equipment and space requirements.  And they’re not a wuss-out form of exercise, either – studies have shown that bodyweight exercises will build mass, reduce fat, and get you in shape just as efficiently as weight equipment, if you do it right.  In order to help you do it right, a company called BrainBakery has created a suite of iPhone applications and a supporting web site under the moniker GymFu.

The GymFu line consists of four iPhone applications – CrunchFu, SquatFu, PushupFu, and PullupFu.  They run $0.99 each.  There is also a free version of SquatFu called SquatFu Lite that limits you to 30 reps but gives you a chance to try out the product line.  I downloaded three of these apps – I did not buy PullupFu because I don’t have a pullup bar.  The other three exercises only require some floor space to test out.

The basic concept behind all the apps are the same.  Each application trains you to reach a target goal for the given exercise.  For pushups, the target is 100 reps; for squats and crunches the target is 200 reps; and for pullups the target is 50 reps.  There are two modes.  The training mode is used to progress towards the target reps for the exercise, while battle mode allows you to compete against other GymFu members.  In order to use battle mode, you need to create a GymFu.com account (which I didn’t do).  If you create an account, you can post your progress to GymFu.com and see how you compare against other users of the app.

GymFu’s apps, however, don’t just record your progress – they make sure you’re doing each exercise correctly by using the iPhone/iTouch’s accelerometer to figure out if your rep was a good rep.  They only count the good ones, so the apps help keep you honest and make sure you’re doing a full range of motion.

To start off, each application gives you a short tutorial on what proper form looks like for the exercise in question.  It also gives instructions on how to mount the iPhone/iTouch for best sensitivity.  The app then has you go through a leveling section, where it tries to figure out at what level to put you into.  There are ten stages to the training but you can skip several of them depending on how many reps you can do when you first start out.

Each training session consists of five rounds.  The first four rounds have set target reps, depending on where in the progression you are currently at.  The fifth round is an “as many as possible” round, used to help determine whether to move you on to the next level or drop you down some.  Each training stage consists of three “days”; once you pass the 10th stage, you reach a finale where you perform the target number of max reps in one go.

The apps count your reps for each round.  They will also tell you if the rep was a half-assed one or if the rep was done incorrectly.  In use, I found this part to be a little annoying – it’s highly dependent on proper placement and perfect form.  It’s also important to get a strap that will fit you.  That’s not a problem for arm straps but finding an arm strap that will also fit around your thigh (for the squats) will be a bit of a challenge.

The default voice is a bit mechanical but if you sign up for an account, you can download two additional voices.

Since I belong to a gym and work out on a regular basis there, I didn’t use these apps as much as I thought I would.  However, for people who want to exercise in their homes and want a way to keep themselves honest and motivated, these apps are as good as anything else.  They’re also probably a better workout than a Wii Fit and a heck of a lot less expensive.

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The basic concept of ProSwitcher is to replicate on the iPhone an interface similar to that of the Palm Pre.  It is a front end to Backgrounder, an app that allows you to set certain apps to run in the background.  Backgrounder is a must-have app for jailbroken iPhones but it has a distinctly minimalist interface, plus switching among the various running apps requires the standard interface actions so it’s hard to keep track of what’s running in the background.

When installed, ProSwitcher creates an icon plus a Settings entry.  You never need to touch the ProSwitcher app itself – everything is handled through its Settings.

The settings primarily revolve around how ProSwitcher is activated, though there are a number of other parameters that can be set using the interface.

The activation options are many and varied, and you should play around with them to figure out which method works for you.  When activated, ProSwitcher cards look very Pre-like.

There are a small set of dots underneath the application title – these describe the number of running apps.  To switch between the apps, just flick the cards left or right.  To close a running app, just hit the “X” button in the top left corner.  You can activate any of the dock icons directly as well as flicking between the active apps.  And that’s pretty much it.

The main issue I had with ProSwitcher was that I didn’t have an iPhone 3GS.  On the faster processor with the larger free memory, I’m sure this app would have been really amazing.  But on a 3G, the lack of RAM plus the slow processor makes this app worthless for running more than three or four apps at the same time, and since two of those slots are typically taken up by the Mail and Phone apps, and since I use my iPod app more than just about any other app on my phone, I was pretty much only single-tasking anyways.  But if you’ve got a jailbroken 3GS, definitely check out ProSwitcher.  I think it’s a great little app, and the fact that it’s (currently) freeware is even more amazing.  I was going to buy MultiFl0w, the other highly rated multitasking manager, but I’m glad I tried ProSwitcher first.  Not because it’s necessarily better, but because it showed me that I really don’t multitask very much.

ProSwitcher is available via Cydia.

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In case folks around here hadn’t noticed, it’s gotten rather cold of late.  And one of the difficult things about being cold is that using electronics in the cold is just a rotten experience.  In tech’s never ending quest for miniaturization, designers seem to forget that there may be impediments between your tech and your hands that prevent proper usage.  I speak, of course, of the glove, bane of gadgetlovers everywhere there is snow and ice and freezing rain.  This problem is a lot worse with devices that use capacitative screens, such as the iPhone/iTouch.  Those devices rely on the electrical resistance provided by skin to do their thing.  In the case of the iPhone, you can’t even make an emergency call without touching the screen.  DOTS gloves were designed to address this issue.

The company itself is a couple years old.  I remember reading about them last year but by the time I’d gotten around to ordering them, they were out of stock.  They also only had one model last year if I remember correctly; this year they have three.  And this year, I went and ordered my pair early before winter really started so that I could be assured of having a set.

The DOTS gloves work by providing a small patch of thermally conductive fabric on two fingers plus the thumb portions of the gloves.

(Please excuse the crud on the gloves – the large animal in the background enjoys gloves for breakfast and dinner, and it’s a constant battle to ensure the gloves survive their daily use.)  If you look closely, you can see the two dots on the tips of the first and second fingers of the glove.  A similar dot adorns the thumb.

The conductive patch allows the gloves to pass electrical resistance from your skin to your device while keeping your hands warm and comfortable.  They come in three sizes – small, medium, and large.  My advice is to err on the smaller side.

I purchased the D200 model, which is their warmest one.  I originally ordered the medium and then ended up switching them for the small.  It’s critical to have a tight fit with these gloves, and the medium made me feel like my hands were swimming inside fabric.  Even with the smalls, my hands still have plenty of room, and therein lies the problem.

The gloves themselves do OK at keeping your hands warm.  They aren’t going to be a lot of use in really intense cold but then again, few mass market gloves will, so that’s not a big problem.  I’d rate them at about the same level as a good pair of Isotoners.  But in terms of letting you use your iPhone while gloved, I’d have to rate them as only so-so.  I don’t know if other reviewers had really big hands or if there’s a smaller size I could have gotten that would have fit better but I just couldn’t get the gloves to be tight enough against my skin that the dots would consistently make contact.  And without that contact, it’s like wiping a microfiber cloth against your screen – nothing happens.

I freely admit that I have delicate hands – my piano teacher called them bird hands they were so thin.  But in a way, I represent a subsegment of the potential user base that DOTS is eventually going to have to figure out how to handle, namely women.  I can’t imagine that women would find the size small versions to be a good fit.  I know girls who have hands even smaller than mine, and there’s no way they would be able to use these gloves in the way they were intended.  Even women with big hands could be challenged because in general, women tend to have thinner fingers than men.  Maybe the other DOTS models provide better fit and contact, but in my daily use, I ended more often than not taking the gloves off, working my iPhone, then putting the gloves back on.  I think if they could incorporate some Lycra into the gloves so that the fit were tighter and if they made the dots bigger so that they contacted more skin surface, the gloves would work better across a wider range of people.

I like the concept of these gloves, but now that conductive thread has come out, I’m tempted to get a really close fitting pair of regular gloves and sew a couple of big fat patches onto the fingertips.  Better fit and bigger usable surface.

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So today was Avatar day.  The fiancee, kids and I took in the 3:40 IMAX showing of James Cameron’s latest epic at a nearby megaplex.  I have to admit that I was not having the greatest of expectations for the movie, though I’d studiously avoided all reviews, critics, discussions, and associations with the movie to keep myself pure.  And of course I had to see the 3D version, because there was no way I was going to sit through a 2.5 hour standard movie.

We got to the theatre about 40 minutes ahead of showtime to find a rather large line.  But we only waited about 10 minutes before they let us in, and we got pretty good seats near the middle of the screen, in the row right before the dropoff to the next lower level.  I’m not sure if you’re aware but there are seats in an IMAX theatre that are useless for movie watching, and the number of bad seats increases for 3D movies.  In general, if you’re in the lower levels and on the outer ends the rows, you should probably just leave and get tickets for a less crowded showing.  This becomes critical for movies that Avatar is going to spawn because of how Cameron does 3D (more on that later).  I’m sure if you google “bad Avatar 3D seats” or some such, you’ll find plenty of articles talking about the details.  I personally have a rule that I will not sit below the midline of an IMAX movie, and for 3D movies, that rule has been amended to not sit below the midline or towards the ends of any rows.

So enough preamble – how was the movie?  In a word, amazing.  The glasses were uncomfortable at first but you get used to them really fast.  And after a bit, they disappear and you immerse into the screen.  The 3D is incredible.  Not the popout type of 3D, mind you.  That whole market has just been effectively rendered dead by Avatar.  No, this 3D was more about general depth.  There was a distinct difference between the foreground and the background, and the focus had a sense of being in front of the screen, almost as if it were being extruded from the screen itself.  And because Cameron doesn’t rely on the popout type of 3D, it means that you can’t focus on the background or you’ll get a migraine.  Flat movies can use an in-focus background to add depth to a scene or to shift attention.  If you remember Speed Racer, one of its signature visuals was that everything was in focus simultaneously, both foreground and background.  Avatar is different.  You have to look at what Cameron wants you to look at because if you don’t, the background won’t come into complete focus and it will give you a headache.  The few times I felt the most vertigo was when I was trying to pick out details in the scenery rather than watching the characters currently in focus.  That is a darn shame, because the visuals of the planetary ecology are just incredible and you want to see all the detail.  That may be the main advantage to the 2D version – you can catch more of the side stuff.

If you haven’t seen Avatar yet, I strongly urge you to see the IMAX version.  Even if you have seen the regular version, go and see the IMAX one.  I’d be pretty curious to know if you thought the movie was a deeper experience because of the 3D.  I can’t imagine seeing this moving in a flat version now, and quite frankly it’s going to color my decision to buy the DVD (Blu-ray of course).  The 3D was that good, and because it ran through the entire movie, there were no real “gotcha” moments where arrows leap off the screen or animals jump out at you.  The only times I saw anything like those types of moments were in a few scenes where ash or insects were flying around the characters – they appeared to be in midair, and seemed so natural that you almost wanted to brush them away.  I am not sure that Avatar will make a billion dollars like Titanic did.  But it will make a mint, and there will be sequels.  I’m not really looking forward to those, because the story is not anything to write home about.  But what I am certain of is that Cameron as a visual pioneer has raised the bar on immersive movie experiences and Avatar will now be the starting point for a whole new generation of movies that blend 3D into cinematography as a natural extension of filmmaking rather than as a gimmick.  My kids are going to be a bridge generation between flat screen films and true 3D, and their kids will probably grow up never knowing what a 2D film really was like.  Few people are able to advance an industry overnight.  With Avatar, Cameron joins the ranks of those few.  Absolutely amazing.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Instead of the usual answers to what are you thankful for? Family, friends, blah blah blah. I want to ask you what Free Apps are you thankful for?

It takes a lot of effort to develop applications. We should recognize the author’s efforts.

Here is my personal list to start:

• WordPress
• Shazam
• Pandora
• YouTube
• Gmail
• Google Chrome
• Google Voice
• Google Calender
• Google Apps
• Google Docs
• Firefox
• Dropbox
• Cydia (iPhone Jailbreak)
• LogMeIn Free

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Google Wave iPhone App

Google Wave has been making headlines in the tech world. Not many people know this since not everyone received the official invite yet but it already works in the iPhone. It looks quite fantastic.  You can simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone and wil be prompted that you are using a browser not supported during the preview, however, once you click through, it actually works well.

You can save a bookmark on your Home screen and it creates a little icon like other Web pages on the iPhone. However, Google Wave is a bit different. Once you launch it it removes the Safari wrapper which allows you to nagivate to another page or search the Web. It actually looks like a regular native iPhone app.

The screen shot on the right is what Google Wave looks like on the iPhone launched from the Home screen bookmark. The screen shot at the bottom is what it looks like from within Safari.

Via TechCrunch

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Google Phone Coming To Verizon

Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones will be available on the Verizon Wireless network under an agreement the companies announced Tuesday.

Verizon states that Android-based handsets will becoming in the next few weeks. Android is Google’s operating system for mobile phones.  The new Android-based devices will come loaded with mobile apps developed by Google, Verizon, and third parties.

Even if this competes with the tremendously popular iPhone, we believe as long as there are innovative devices coming out, it will force companies to improve for the sake of consumers.

The telecom industry was stale for so long. Remember when the Motorola RAZR came out? It looked slick at first, but there weren’t many features. They also kept coming out with many different versions with little varied features confusing the market. Apple’s iPhone was a game changer and forced telecom to make better phones and provide richer services.

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Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Dropbox is an easy to use online file storage that syncs your files across all your computers. I installed it recently and must say it is very intuitive, easy, and fast! You simply go to their website, create and account, and then install on your computer (both Windows and Mac compatible). You can then select your drop box folder to by synced. Files or folders that are in your Dropbox folder are then synchronized online. The performance is great. When you make a change, Dropbox sends the “delta” only to the server thus making the change very quickly. You can also access your files through the website.

The free version begins with 2 Gig of storage space with an additional 1 Gig by referring friends. There is also premium paid version which offers much more.

Dropbox recently released an iPhone application to make it even easier to access your files anywhere in the world. This new iPhone app will let you get access to all your Dropbox documents, PDF’s, pictures, videos and much more. Dropbox also introduced offline viewing in the iPhone app, with “Favorites.” If you add a file to your ‘Favorites’, they’ll be accessible at any time. To do so, just hit the star at the bottom of any file, and it’ll be added. Otherwise, your files stay in the cloud. This is great for people who complain that the iPhone does not offer local file storage. Dropbox offers this and more with automatic sync with their cloud!

Dropbox can also let you share files and folders to anyone in the cloud. The iPhone app also lets you upload pictures and video (with iPhone 3GS).

In just a few days, Dropbox reached over 2 million users. Impressive.

When is Google’s rumored GDrive coming? Google???

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Google Push Email and Calender Sync

Dammit.  I just spent $2.99 on an app to give me push Gmail on my iPhone and then Google goes and adds that capability through Google Sync.  Damn you Google, for making what used to cost money free.  Details at the Google Mobile blog.  Thanks to TechCrunch for alerting me.

If you have GSync already set up on your iPhone, all you have to do is go to the Exchange entry and activate the Mail option.  Simple!

Warning – the Google mobile blog servers are apparently mobbed right now, cause performance is slow slow slow.

UPDATE: In the 20 minutes since I activated this service, I’ve noticed three things.

• You don’t get a popup alert on your screen when new emails come in.  This could be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view.  You will get  a buzz indicating new mail (if your iPhone is set up for that).
• There is a definite lag between receipt of email and Google pushing it to your iPhone.  It’s not huge but it can be a couple minutes.  I’m curious as to if this is due to the newness of the service or if it’s normal lag due to using Exchange.  It’s no different than what sometimes happens with the Blackberry, so unless you’re OCD about your email you probably won’t notice it.
• My Yahoo push email has apparently never worked properly and for whatever reason I do not get my Yahoo mails pushed to my iPhone.  I only noticed this because of how Google’s push works.  Luckily I don’t care about my Yahoo accounts, since they serve as repositories of spam and junk emails for various signup lists.  Plus all my porn user names and passwords.

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iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Fix

One of the most frustrating and surprisingly under reported issues is with AT&T and iPhone Visual Voicemail notifications. When you receive a voicemail on your iPhone, an alert appears and you can play your voicemail as if its a song. There is now a solution!

Since the iPhone 3GS was released, some customers experienced lack of alerts for voicemail (me being one of them). I recently found a fix for it while I was researching tethering for 3GS. Apparently, tethering your iPhone may cause this issue.

So here’s the fix. Navigate to Settings → General → Network → Cellular Data Network and within the Visual Voicemail section add “acds.voicemail” into the APN field. Your visual voicemail will now work once again.

CAUTION: This fix does break the tethering. You can’t have voicemail notifications and Internet tethering work at the same time.

Via Apple Blog

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So here’s the background.  Following the lead of our fearless leader Quang, I jailbroke my phone using the easy-as-cake redsn0w tool about two months ago.  And life was good, though not super-wonderful.  The main point of my jailbreak was to get access to deep customization and themes, plus a couple of apps that Apple refused to allow in the Apps Store (GVMobile and the uTorrent monitoring app).  I really didn’t need background apps or tethering, so a lot of the real benefit of jailbreaking was lost on me.  Still, I’d grown pretty accustomed to being able to change the look and feel of my device on a whim.  And I got kind of obsessive about monitoring the free memory of my iPhone.

When OS3.1 came out, a lot of the features it contained (Genius mixes and apps organization specifically) were things I wanted to play with so I figured I’d upgrade, try it out, and return to jailbroken freedom in due time.  Well the upgrade went fine (btw, jailbroken iPhones will sync just fine with iTunes 9), but now my iPhone does not display all the apps I’ve installed on it.  I believe that this is due to my use of a jailbroken app called Categories, which allows you to create folders into which to place your apps.  I think that the linkage between Springboard and Categories (which hides the app once it’s been placed in a folder) still exists and that the iPhone thinks the apps are installed but that Springboard has them set to hide because that’s what Categories told it to do.  I only noticed this issue this morning so I’ve tried a hard reboot to see if that would fix the problem.  No dice.  I’ll have to wait until I get home to do a full restore, and then if that doesn’t work I’m going to try to remove all my apps and re-add them to the iPhone and see if that does the trick.  If not, then I’m well and truly hosed and I might have to return to factory defaults as a last resort.

So word of advice – don’t upgrade your jailbroken iPhone until the Dev Team gives the all clear!

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Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

One of the most popular feature requested from Google Voice was the obvious forward inbound text messages to email. You can now receive incoming text messages to your email. Furthermore, you can even reply from email as well. Users previously could respond to the Google Voice text message on their phone but email forwarding was previously not an option.

Now, once we can have Gmail push to our iPhones then I can cancel the ridiculously priced text messaging plan from AT&T.

Via TechCrunch

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Twitscoop iPhone App

Have you ever wondered what people are talking about in the cyberspace cloud in real time? Well, now you can with the iPhone App Twitscoop.

Twitscoop allows visualization of real time trends and discussions on Twitter straight from your iPhone. The tag cloud grows and shrinks in real-time depending on the popularity of the topic.  The app has a trend algorithm that pulls buzz words, breaking news, and content such as pictures, links, and videos.

Strangely, the key feature lacking in Twitscoop is the lack of ability to tweet from within the app. It is such an obvious feature that they should include it in future updates.

Twitscoop is available for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

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Mac OS X Snow Leopard

The price is only $29 for an upgrade? Much more reasonable than the headaches and price you get from Microsoft Upgrades.

Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard

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Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Google Voice now allows you to make free calls to Canada from within the continental US. Previously, you can only make free calls within the US with your Google Voice number.

You can make the call by logging into mobile apps , or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call. You can also install GV Mobile for a jailbroken iPhone from the Cydia store. GV is now free and can utilize your phone’s Contacts.

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GPush Gmail Push Notifications

There is finally a simple iPhone app to allow Gmail push notifications. Can’t wait every 15 minutes for your iPhone to automatically check your email? This app is for you and the reviews have been pretty good. Push notifications allow you to receive a new email rather than having your mail application check (or pull) for new email. Simply turn on the app, enter your Gmail username and password (running over encrypted SSL) and you can get push notifications with From and Subject fields. It supports a variety of alerts such as sounds, badge, or vibrate.

A neat trick is to setup Google Calender notifications to push to a different email that you setup on GPush. You will still get alerts but they won’t come into your main inbox. This reduces SMS alerts which costs you less money as well. Every now and then you will just have to push your email for “junk” or notifications.

It only costs $1 at the App Store and may go up to $2 eventually.

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But sometimes I do receive Friend Requests where the Profile No Longer Exists. I assume that these are spam accounts that were detected after the request was sent. However, having an avatar with No Photo and status of This Profile No Longer Exists has not purpose. You cannot click on it and it doesn’t provide any value to the user.

Why can’t MySpace simply not show any of these This Profile No Longer Exists messages of these deleted accounts? The user cannot track what the profile originally looked like so what’s the point? There is no added value to displaying these items. Why has this been over looked for so long?

MySpace No Longer Exists or Is Relevant

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The YouTube video below is a concept on how it would work.

Furthermore, iTunes 9 is rumored to feature Blu-ray support and more integration with Twiter, Facebook, and possibly Last.fm. The integration can involve status updates to the respective social networks on what songs you are playing on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Facebook has worked with Apple before on integrating the iPhone camera to upload to Facebook so this collaboration rumor is not so far fetch.

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Here’s a simple query I entered into Google.

Note that, even though Google didn’t find anything relevant search-wise, it very kindly pointed me to the UPS website’s tracking functionality.  Here’s the same query in Bing.

Again, note the link to UPS.  And Yahoo?  Here’s Yahoo’s result.

Fail fail fail.  If Yahoo can’t keep up, they need to get out.

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You may remember my review of an app called Pano.  AutoStitch one-ups Pano by removing the need to manually align subsequent photos to create the panorama.  Before I go into detail, let me show you a couple of the pics it created.  (All panoramas have been reduced to 60% of their original size to help them fit better on most screens.  Click on the images to see them in their full glory.)

The image quality is not bad at all, considering I took these using the iPhone 3G’s junky camera.  This app actually made me want to upgrade to the higher resolution/quality of the iPhone3GS, because I think the same pictures would have turned out even better.

If you recall, Pano used its own interface to the iPhone’s camera to do its thing.  You took a series of pictures that overlapped guidelines that Pano provided.  While I originally really liked Pano, I found it really difficult to use in real life because it’s tough to get the overlap Pano needs to make its panorama.  I also found that Pano was slow to snap and save successive images, making picture taking a pain.  AutoStitch solves both those problems.

When you launch AutoStitch, you are greeted with a very simple screen.

You have your list of photo folders plus the iPhone default Camera Roll.  I wound up using mostly my Camera Roll as my source (I’ll explain why later).  When you select a folder, you get a thumbnail view of all the pictures in the folder.

You just tap on two or more pictures to begin the process.  Each picture you tap on gets added to the “Photos to Stitch” area.

You can remove pictures from the stitching area by just tapping it.  Once you’ve selected your set of pictures, you tap the Stitch button to start the process.  To show you the output, here’s the three pictures I’m stitching together:

You can get a sense of how those three pictures might overlap to create a single image, no?  Well so can AutoStitch, because here’s the output of its manipulation of the above three images.

(Click on the image to see it in full size).  Pretty impressive, no?

AutoStitch doesn’t use the iPhone’s camera directly.  Instead, you snap pictures using the Camera app and then just select them in AutoStitch to generate the panorama.  This makes picturetaking blazingly fast.  The iPhone’s camera app is pretty quick to take and save pictures, so you can snap off a series of images to stitch together in no time.  (This is why I say you’ll probably use the Camera Roll most of the time – you just snap pictures into the Roll and then select them for stitching.  I recommend you do this quickly after taking the sequence – it becomes difficult to remember which images went with what panorama if you let too much time pass.)

Another benefit of AutoStitch is that you’re not limited to just six images like Pano.  Instead, you can use as few as two or as many as 20 to create the final frame.  AutoStitch recommends that you let each picture overlap by at least 30% to ensure the best results, but I didn’t really pay much attention to that after my first few stitches.  I just kind of did a fast pan-and-snap and trusted in the app to do its thing.

Once AutoStitch creates the panorama, you can crop the image to remove top/bottom fragments that result from AutoStitch doing the overlapping necessary to generate the image.  The crop area suggested by AutoStitch can be overridden by you but I found that I didn’t really need to do that – the app did a great job of finding the maximum size photo that could be extracted from the stitched images.

As my final showoff of the app, take a look at this gallery of thumbnails:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

And here’s the final output:

I’m totally impressed by AutoStitch and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to create panoramic images from iPhone snapshots.

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[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Highlights of the demonstration break down as follows:

• The install on Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop took about 10 minutes and 1 minute to restart. Better than Windows XP or Vista installs
• Reboots in about 25 seconds.
• Fast performance in its stripped down beta form. We suspect performance will still increase as they tweak the OS
• The blue orb functions essentially as the Start menu.
• Navigating the file system can be done in “exploration” (like Windows explorer) or “browser” (search based) modes
• The Chrome Bar can also host a search ba.
  
• Future Chrome OS netbooks will feature an iconified Chrome key on the keyboard similar to the Windows flag key

Via Engadget

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NetFlix Streaming iPhone App

Let’s talk about an amazing brand called Netflix. It has been able to stay relevant being a completely online movie delivery service even while Blockbuster has the straddle strategy (online and brick and morter). We think that Netflix’s success has a lot to do with the abundant LongTail collection of niche films as well as popular ones. In addition, they were really the first company to deliver movies through the mail and online.

A search for Blockbuster’s iPhone app yielded no results on the iTunes App Store at the moment.

There is now a rumor that Netflix Watch Instantly streaming service would be available on Apple’s App Store as well as available on the Nintendo Wii.

This is something I’m sure a lot of Netflix subscribers would love to have. The biggest question is if AT&T would allow such bandwidth utilization of streaming video on their 3G network. Afterall, they seem to have an unofficial hand in dictacting Apple approval of iPhone apps that competes with their core business like Google Voice. Ironically though, AT&T and Apple do allow the MLB At Bat app to stream video over the network. Let’s not forget the iPhone also comes with a YouTube player that can stream both on 3G and Wi-Fi.  According to AT&T, it doesn’t want all this video streaming to further clog its pipes, which could be the reason why the rumored Hulu app is not released yet.

The next question would be if Apple themselves would allow such a service to compete with its movie downloads. Then again, Apple does offer radio streaming apps like Last.FM and Pandora which theoretically competes with its iTunes Music Downloads. Apple’s app approval still seems unpredictable despite its disclosure.

Via TechCrunch

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from sitting on Apple’s Board of Directors after nearly 3 years. It was a wonderful partnership at the start. Apple would create the fan boy devices while Google concentrated on dominating online services. However, as Google moves toward the telecom space with Google Voice, the mobile phone, its own browser, and creating its own operating system Chrome for both mobile and desktops, conflict of interests undoubtly arise with Schmidt sitting on the board.

Eric Schmidt’s resignation comes only a few days after the FCC sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T on why Apple denied Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.

Apple released a statement on the matter

Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Image Courtesy of Technologizer

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Bluetooth headphones are even more difficult to fit than normal headphones.  That whole wireless thing really confuses manufacturers.  I’ve tried expensive sets and cheap sets.  My best set to date were a pair of wiREVO S300‘s that I used until I beat them into the ground.  I’ve since tried at least five different makes/models in my quest for the perfect set.  (the wiREVOs were a bit too loose on my ears without the headband and too tight against the back of my ears after a couple hours with the headband).

Today, I picked up a pair of Sony DRBT160AS headphones from a Sony Style store in my future employer’s shopping plaza.

I was a little skeptical of these initially.  The CNet review was OK – not great, not bad.  Of special concern were the weight of the housings containing the electronics, plus the ability of the earbuds to fit my ears and ear canal without being annoying.

I popped the package open, pulled out the phones, and tried them on.  The default set of earbuds were too small, so I replaced them with the biggest pair.  The earbuds are color-coded so that you don’t mix up your pairs, a nice little touch.

It’s hard to get a sense of scale with these.  They look bigger than they really are.  And they are surprisingly light.  The headband is definitely flexible but you can’t adjust the loop diameter, so if you have a very large or very small head, that can be an issue.  I’m also curious how they would work in winter, when you’re wearing a jacket.

The electronics casings do make the headphones a bit wobbly, and the first few times you handle them, they almost feel like they’re going to snap.  Long term wear and tear is a bit of a concern, and I’d be afraid to just throw them into my bag for transport.  I’ll probably end up wearing them around my neck when I’m not using them.

With the modification to the earbuds, I found that they did an excellent job of sealing my ear canal.  Ambient noise was diminished and the earbuds fit nicely into my ear.  The casings aren’t terribly heavy and they don’t really impact your experience.  It didn’t take me long to get used to them to the point where I could ignore them.

I then charged them for about an hour or so before taking them out for a test walk.  Grabbing my trusty test canine, I headed out into the world.  During my 30 minute excursion, I found myself pleasantly surprised.  The transmission was strong, with none of the stuttering I’d experienced with other headphones.  The weight was negligible and the volume levels were more than acceptable.  Coincidentally, a call came in while I was walking and I was able to test the headset functions.  My caller did note some wind noise (partly from my walking while talking and partly because there was a storm moving into the area), but the conversation was fine otherwise.  I was able to hear him just fine and he didn’t mention any level issues from his end.

The left casing holds the battery and has a plug for the charger.  No USB-based charging plug is included – you have to plug the power cord into an outlet directly.  So if you plan to travel with this gadget, plan on bringing its charging device with you.

The right casing holds the controls.  Power button and microphone on the outside, phone control button on the bottom, and a five direction toggle on the back of the casing to control the music.  Once you figure everything out, the controls are intuitive and easy to manage.

For those of you with glasses, you’ll be happy to know that they seem compatible with most frames.  I tried them with both my sunglasses and my eyeglasses and didn’t notice any conflict.  The lack of frame compatibility was why I had to return the Jaybirds I’d tried out earlier in the year.

After trying them out in the gym and on the run, I will give these a solid B+ rating overall.  The band does get in the way at the gym, especially when using benches.  However, they didn’t fall out of position on my head when I was laying against the bench and they didn’t move around much while I was working out.  The left side definately felt lighter than the right side, which made my head feel like it was off-kilter.  Running with them was fine – they do bounce a bit, but nothing too terribly distracting.  I wasn’t running all that fast though, so speedy peoples’ mileage may vary.  For power walking they would be fine.

Good on ya, Sony – finally a product I can get behind.

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So the first thing to note is that the icon is clearly labeled “Lite”.  This is because this version does no dynamic routing.  It’s basically intended to be a proof of concept to familiarize potential users with the interface and capabilities before Navigon asks them to shell out serious coin for the full version.  And I’m sure that these apps will not be cheap, btw.

Above is the boot screen for the app.  I’ll be frank – it takes a WHILE to boot.  And this is without the routing logic being loaded.  I have an iPhone 3G, so memory is definately at a premium.  On average, from launch of the app to clear the above screen ran about a minute and a half or more, sometimes entering into the 3 minute range.  And that’s just to boot to the main screen – GPS lock-on could take another one to five minutes beyond that.  Considering that my Mio can get GPS lock from cold boot in about 3 to 4 minutes tops in the summertime, the Navigon app is way slow.

The above screen shows the primary options in the main menu.  To choose a destination, just tap the first option.

You can enter a ZIP code or a city name.  If you enter a ZIP, the app will have a lot less data to filter through.  This is important because of the Navigon’s next screen.

Note the list of streets that are populated once you select a ZIP or city.  The smaller a universe you can provide, the faster it will perform.  My Mio does something similar, narrowing the universe as you type the street name.  Navigon’s approach allows you to scroll to an address, but I can see it getting out of hand if the list is really long (and entering a major city like Philadelphia will produce a LONG list).  I would have liked to have seen Navigon provide a quicknav list on the right a la the Contacts app so that I could quick jump to a letter of the alphabet.

The above screen shows how Navigon allows you to select an intersection.  I thought this was pretty useful – my Mio’s intersection entry is annoying and very hit-or-miss.  This approach is much more intuitive and easier to identify a cross-street location.

In the Lite version, you can see the destination and simulate the trip.  I assume that this is where the real version will allow you to confirm the endpoint and initiate routing.

The above shows the app “calculating” a route and displaying progress in the 3D view.  I’m not sure how much dynamic re-routing will add to the memory footprint.  I’m also concerned about the speed of recalculation.

This is the same route in 2D view.  Note the large number of POI references.    I’m using this in portrait mode, so the screen is rather compact and hard to read.  The landscape view would probably not be as tight and give better spacing.  I didn’t see a way to limit the POIs to only a specific set, but I’m sure that will be there in the final version.

This is the night mode view in 2D.

Here I’ve looked up a POI and had the app plot me  a route.  Note that you can change the route profile to modify the path taken.

This is the map view in 2D mode.  I was viewing this while on the bus.

Here’s the 3D version.  Yes, we actually are going 0 mph.  Traffic was a mess that day.

Hey we’re moving!

Widescreen view.  The widescreen view is much closer to my Mio’s interface and will probably be the default view when using this app.

Overall, the Navigon app is impressive.  But my concerns are really around its ability to dynamically route, which you can’t experience in the Lite version.  My 3G definately felt pushed to its limits by the app.  I was listening to music over a Bluetooth connection while using the app and I definately noticed more stuttering of the music stream.  I’m also curious how phone calls would be handled while the nav app is running.  Since the iPhone OS doesn’t allow multitasking, I wonder if the app continues to maintain a route when a phone call comes in.

All in all, I am intrigued by the app, but my concerns about performance would make me very hesitant to sink a large amount of funds into it.  If there was a way to actually try the full function app without paying full price, I would definately recommend that as the way to go.  The other concern I have about the app is its sheer size.  The Lite version is almost 2GB.  I don’t know how much of the full map universe is in the app, or how much the dynamic routing functionality will add to that size, but it took a good 10 minutes or more to sync my iPhone to install this app.  Owners of 8GB iPhones are not going to be happy.

Any 3GS owners out there wanna comment on their performance?  I’d really like to know if it will be a big improvement on the faster hardware.

UPDATE:  Since this post was released, the Navigon app has gone live.  For a limited time, it’s $70 in the iTunes store.  iLounge has a very thorough review of it, which I highly recommend you read if you’re even remotely thinking about buying this app.  They give it a “C”, which matches my impressions based on the Lite version.  Also, there are some screen changes that I did not encounter in the Lite version.

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Google’s been on quite the update frenzy of late.  First they remove the beta label from a slew of their cloud apps, then they go and announce that they’re going where few have dared to tread and attempt to release a complete OS.  All within the course of two days!

Let me preface all my commentary by saying that I am a Googler.  They own my a**.  I live in Gmail.  My life is managed completely through GCal.  I have two sites I manage that are drivien by GApps.  I am moving more and more of my files into GDocs.  I now get 99% of my daily news and information via GReader.  I have a Google Voice number.  Most of my web surfing outside of work is done on Chrome.  I am so Googled, I may have their logo tattooed on my back.  Suffice it to say that I use their products to the point where they are indistinguishable parts of my life.  So I would be a natural for their OS right?

Well, not exactly.  What disturbs me about all this is that Google seems to be heading right where Microsoft was a few years ago.  At what point does Google become a defacto monopoly?  They already own something like 2/3 of all the world’s search.  I know their growth is slowing and they are looking for more ways to embed themselves into the fabric of our lives (especially our corporate lives).  And I totally agree with the arguments that Google’s various apps (mail especially) have been out of beta for the past year or longer, and that they only kept the beta tag so that the techies could claim to be using an “advanced” product.  Now that that tag is starting to hurt them in the enterprise sales market, they removed it from a bunch of apps that are at various stages of development.  Gmail is one thing but Google Voice?  C’mon – they only just started taking new requests for numbers.  If they followed the same approach with the GrandCentral acquisition that they did with all their other acquisitions, then they basically re-architected the whole thing to fit Google.  You can’t tell me they did that in a year to the point where it can be considered reliable from an enterprise perspective.

And that’s the key issue – there is no announced standard by which Google is declaring a technology as being out of beta.  Does the fact that Gmail is no longer in beta mean that my uptime guarantee is higher?  Or am I still at the “reasonable effort” level of service?  Many companies just won’t hand over critical infrastructure to Google (or any other outsourcer) for less than 99.999% uptime guarantees, and many cloud-based services just aren’t there.  And email, while vital, isn’t yet on the same level as phone service.  Can you imagine trying to dial a number and not being able to?  We can’t because (short of natural disaster or emergency), when we pick up a phone, we get a tone.  It’s so ingrained in us that we just assume it to be the truth.  Google’s not there yet.

At least with their OS ambitions, they are starting small.  A lightweight, web-centric OS is perfect for netbooks.  Even with XP, a netbook will get sloggy – so a super version of Chrome could do wonders for speed and performance of these primary cloud-focused products.  But what’s going to kill the G-OS (and most other web-centric OS’s) is that people don’t like being limited.  When they go to a web site, no matter what the platform, they want it to work.  When they get an application, they want to be able to use it.  Most users don’t want to think “is X compatible with Y”, which apparently is such a foreign concept to product designers and techies that to this day it continues to boggle them when people complain that stuff won’t work together.  The only company that’s really gotten the closest to “getting” this is Apple, and, with the release of the iPhone 3GS, we’ll see how long that singlemindedness lasts.  It’s very possible we’ll start seeing apps that focus exclusively on the 3GS because of its faster performance and enhanced graphics capability.  At that point, fragmentation can’t be too far behind.

So am I looking forward to the G-OS?  Yes, but I have my doubts as to its reception and success in the market.  And with each expansion of Google’s scope, I become more convinced that they will become our defacto overlords.  At least I’ll have identified myself to them as a loyal minion.

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Pocket Informant (or PI) basically replaces your iPhone’s default Calendar and To Do applications with a single app that is light years beyond those simplistic toys.  It features full synchronization with Google Calendar, without the five calendar limitation that Apple forces on its Calendar app.  I have ten calendars I’m using or following in GCal right now, and PI pulled them all in without any problem.  The one calendar it can’t pull in is the new Google Tasks calendar, but that’s only because Google hasn’t released the APIs to allow them to do that.  I’ve emailed the developer and that functionality is planned as soon as Google allows.  Until then, you can either manage tasks manually using PI or you can sync it to a web service called toodledo.com.

What makes PI truly worth its price are the ways they display your calendar.  First, there is a Today view, that shows you all events and activities for the current day (I’ve blocked out the event descriptions because they’re from my real calendar).  The Today view allows you to see at a glance everything that’s going on today, plus it allows you to see upcoming actions that are coming due.

The List view shows you only your schedule, and allows you to scroll up and down to see past/future events.  This is just like the List view in the Calendar app.

Similarly, the Day view is much like the Day view in the Calendar app, but with a great twist.  Rather than using forward/back arrows a la the Calendar app, PI allows you to flick left or right to move back and forth in time.  Much easier to flick through one-handed.

Where PI really shines, however, are in its Week and Month views.  The Week view is not even available in Calendar, and it’s probably the single greatest thing about PI, in my opinion.

In one screen, I can see everything about my week.  There are several subtle things about this view that make it incredibly useful.  First, like the Day view, you can flick left or right to move back and forth in time.  Second, if you have too many events in one of the compressed days to see clearly, you can select that day and PI will pop up a custom view for that day that includes your events and activities.  You return to the Week view with a single tap.  Brilliance.  The Week view can be organized so that the same day is always shown as the wide day, or you can set it to have the current day as the wide day.  You can also arrange the other small days either top to bottom or left to right.  Note how each day has a graphical representation of time under each day’s heading, with color coding to represent when you have appointments.  And even within those tiny squares, you can scroll up or down within the day to see events that are off the screen.

The Month view is another great PI innovation.

Note how PI goes above and beyond Apple’s Calendar app to give you an overview of what your month looks like.  All day events, as well as scheduled events are clearly indicated.  Need to see what you’re doing on a specific day?  Just tap that day to bring up a detail view.

You can see what’s happening for that specific day, plus you have a representation of your schedule for the week.  A single tap returns you to the Month view.

The To Do view is pretty standard.  To Do’s are classified by Projects and can be given Start/Due dates.  I’m sure there’s tons of functionality in here that I’m missing but honestly I didn’t want to get too into the To Do’s because I want to wait until Google Task integration is released.

Finally, the Search function allows you to search Events, To Do’s and Contacts.

I’m hoping that this means PI will be expanded to include a Contacts function as well, because I’m not a huge fan of the Contacts app either.  The developers seem committed to continuing to evolve the app, and they’ve even got a version ready for when iPhone OS 3.0 is released.  All in all, I love PI and recommend it highly.  If you are hesitant (like I was) to spend so much for an app, WebIS makes a free trial version that limits you to syncing of 15 activities and two weeks of events, plus it doesn’t have the Today view.  I used that for a couple days before taking the plunge.

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