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Paul's Journal

paul
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03/08/2008 16:51 #43584

The camera interface on the iphone
Category: mobile
I have to give it props. Not in terms of photo quality - which are pretty good but not as good as other phones. But in terms of ease of use when taking the pic, the iphone has it right with the camera's point and shoot interface. It woudl be nice to have a hardwware camera button. I don't think it would have cluttered it up to have one more hard button on the side.

However, if you are already on the home screen, it is so easy to take pics that snap really fast. The really mastered the interface for taking a pics. Too bad they fucked up all the stuff you would do with the picture after you took it.

In no particular order:

1. No file uploads in the browser.
2. No bluetooth sending pics or surfing for them from other devices.
3. No wireless sync
4. No sending multiple images in an email and not ability to change the name of the image sent.
5. No video capture.
6. No Settings for white balance, etc
7. No led flash which easily doubles as a flash light on other phones. The tilt lacks that too ;(

It does not do a very good job with even slight darkness. This pic was taken at 2PM.

Check out how much snow
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Looks a lot nicer after I turned up the exposure in iphoto, why not just allow those settings on the iphone itself.

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More snow
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(e:matthew) buying some flowers at Wegman's - this one I did not manipulate. We rushed to Wgmans's today because we were out of everything and the news made it seem like the stuff was flying off the shelves and nothing was left. One woman interviewed said that she left tops for Wegman's because tops had nothing left. I think it was a media frenzy just to make people shop. I wonder if Wegman's paid the news to say that.

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More snow - this one I did
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It is amazing how slow edge is. I had forgotten what dialup was like till I was out of wifi zone with the iphone.
jenks - 03/08/08 18:47
fwiw i read some review somewhere that said they're trying to add cut/copy/paste but don't want to "clutter the interface" or some crap like that. All based around that 'zoom bubble' thing, that frankly I kind of hate. I'd like to have some "back" key that would let me move back a little to fix a typo rather than use that bubble thing. Ah well. but i agree, the camera is decent.
paul - 03/08/08 17:58
I traded my nokia 7900 for it. The friend who had the iphone hated it and I was curious to see what it was like.

I think it could be better if the cut/copy/paste thing and file upload was addressed which would just be a software upgrade.
empireoflight - 03/08/08 17:45
Sounds like a hassle; I haven't played with an iphone for more than 1 or 2 seconds, let alone typed a bunch of stuff on one. I'm definitely not an early adopter like you! BTW-What made you get an iphone?
paul - 03/08/08 17:35
There is no excuse for the lack of cut/copy/paste or file uploads in safari. The file upload button shows up in the browser, they are just nonfunctional.

I mean how did they not get that right, especially seeing as just about every review faults them for that and they have had several software revisions since it came out.

When is the last time you wrote anything on a digital device that did not include using cut, copy paste. I mean even if not from different sources. Isn't that type of editabilty what makes working with digital text so much better than say using a typewriter. The way I have to move, delete retype so much on the iphone makes me feel like I am using those stupid white out plastic films with a old style typewriter.
empireoflight - 03/08/08 17:29
I'm guessing the iphone will get it right after it's been in production for a while-remember, it hasn't been out for even a year yet and afaik they are still on rev a.
james - 03/08/08 17:19
I don't get this 'rush to the store thing'. During the October 'holy shit!' surprise last year the city was operational again in a day. Some people may have not had power, but no one went hungry.

Liquor store runs are different though ^_^

03/08/2008 13:09 #43583

And the winner is windows mobile 6/htc
Category: mobile
Most importantly, I am a mac user thst loves mac os x but the iphone/ipod touch OS is not to windows mobile what the mac OS is to windows XP unless you mean in terms of eye candy.
Arch, I can't finish editing the bottom of the post because the edit box has no scroll on the iPhone and there are no arrow keys.

I have an ipod touch at work for testing websites and i really hate it - much more than the iphone which at least has its own gsm chip - and it is definitely less sophisticated than the nokia n800/n810.

I would not buy unless all you want is an ipod that can surf the web at home where you already have a computer ;( Or if you have a huge collection of music the ipod touch might be better becaus eit can be 32GB. I do not have that much music.

In fact, the advantage of the iphone over the nokia wifi devices is that it has its own phone connection. Buffalo is not connected enough to have a wifi only device.

That being said in addition to wifi the nokia n800/n810 can also piggy back off a cell phones connection via bluetooth which is a huge bonus in a city like buffalo that does not wifi everywhere. So it offers more functionality and more connectivity options. In fact San Francisco really doesn't have open wifi very much either in my limited experience. I just wish the n810 has a gsm chip. So sad that it doesn't and I think that is what kills its market share. On the other hand, you have no monthly service fees, same with the ipod touch.

Can the real winner please stand up
But he real winner to me for an all in one, high speed mobile convergence/communication/entertainment device is windows mobile 6 on HTC. All in all, windows mobile on an HTC device like the AT&T Tilt is by far the best hardware, software combo out there. I think the mac stuff only has a large market share because of sexier hardware design and much sexier marketing.

The interface is not as pretty as either of the other two especially by default but once you add the HTC home screen and apps it does everything, play music/video, email, outlook sync, flash, phone, streaming radio, IM, keyboard, cut/copy paste, real gps, and HSPDA super speedy 3G connection. Not to mention there are hundreds if not thousands of free programs that do everything else you need.

Here is a great review of the AT&T tilt vs the iphone that someone else wrote

Here is one about speed comparisons in the browsers



03/07/2008 17:59 #43578

iphone pre drama
Category: mobile
I can't wait to get the iphone so that I can officially hate it and not have everyone thinking I hate it because I haven't experienced it.

Nice things coming:
activesync so I can use my outlook stuff on the phone

Things that I just can't be happy with:
Still no freakin cut copy paste.
no 3G
no real keyboard
no styles
no video camera
emails still only send one image called photo.jpg
the ability to mass move and delete emails
no flash
no streaming radio

And then, this I totally cannot believe but just read on CNET


The SDK item drawing the most attention Friday, however, is that third-party applications will not be allowed to run in the background. TechCrunch's Mike Arrington wrote, "Instant-messaging applications (we saw a demo of an AIM version at the event today), can't run in the background and collect messages while you are doing something else. Leave the application to take a phone call, and it shows you offline."



That is insane. Every phone in the world besides series 40s nokia and a few starter phones that are free from the telcos have the ability to run things as background tasks. It is a major step backwards to not have that ability.

This is what the apple docs have to say:


Writing Code for iPhone OS

The iPhone SDK supports the creation of graphically-oriented applications that run natively in iPhone OS. The applications you create reside on the user's Home screen, along with the other system applications, such as Photos, Weather, and Clock. After it is launched, aside from the kernel and a few low-level daemons, your application is the only application running on the system. While running, your application occupies the entire screen and is the focus of the user's attention. And when the user presses the Home button, your application quits and the system displays the Home screen again. Having the system to yourself is advantageous because it gives you full access to the underlying system resources. You can take advantage of built-in hardware such as the accelerometers, camera, and graphics hardware to run just your code.



So wow, it really can't run multiple apps. that seems so silly like that old palm OS that didn't let you run programs in the background. Somes the notphone or tilt have 10 programs or more running at once.

03/07/2008 22:05 #43580

Post iphone drama
Category: mobile
Nokia n810 notphone vs iPhone

Screen
The resolution of the nokia n810 not phone kicks the iphone's ass. The clarity of the colors, the brightness and the 800 x480 pixel screen kicks the iphones 320 x 480 screen.

Keyboard
The keyboard makes the not phone a little bigger but I would say it is definitely a great tradeoff for a couple millimeters on both side and neatly tucks away

The zoom vs the stylus
When you really break it down, the pinch zoom feature of safari is required to overcome the lack of styles. Essentially, the links need to be big enough to click them. This results in lots of zooming in and out. When looks cool as a novelty and then becomes really old. The notphone is so high resolution that pages display much more full size.

File Uploads
Iphone has no fucking file uploads form the browser. That is ridiculous in today's world of web sites that you contribute images too. Why limit this? Even my series 40 phone running opera mini can do this. Not phone has fully featured file uploads.

Email
Again, no cut copy paste. Only one image in the email.

SMS
No cut, copy, paste - no picture mail

Load time
site take longer to load on the iphone and then require all kind of zoomin g in and out to make it readible. The higher resolution, larger screen and stylus of the notphone make it way easier.

Sound
The headset free sound on the iphone is worse than any of the phones in our including (e:matthew) and (e:terry)'s free phones. Maybe there is something wrong with the speakers. the notphone is loud and clear enough to be used as an audio entertainment device for the whole room.

Radio
The iphone is limited to my mp3s, the notphone has streaming radio of multiple variaties out of the box.

It also has an FM radio built in for those times when there is no internet.

Cut Copy paste
Again, the lack of it sucks

GPS
The not phone has it, the iphone has it only simulated. On its defense, google maps is way better on the iphone minus lack of cut, copy paste. The zoom interface works really well. Compared to the tilt, they both suck, The tilt running yahoo maps with GPS over HSPDA is the best combo in my opinion.

Summary
I was doubtful before I really had it to play with, but while I think that the iphone is a great consumer, idiot proof device - the nokia n810 is definitely the cooler device for a true technophile.

Some of it is hardware, like the screen and keyboard and gps but the main thing is that the iphone is gimped by the lack of software (bluetooth, email, picture sms, cut/copy/paste, browser upload, streaming radio, flash)

Now if only the nokia n810 has its own GSM chip I would never ven be having this discussion.

Sorry about the quality of the pics. It is dark in the room I am in.
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The best part is that the not phone lets you run instant messenger with a keyboard, and you can leave it open while other programs are running. It also bluetooth transfers files to all my other devices and also acts as a UPnP for my playstation.
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paul - 03/08/08 17:26
(e:tiburon), the tilt is awesome, but if you get it - I can help you get the AT&T crap off and get the cool stuff on it. I wrote about my feeling about it here (e:paul,43583) Ya, it is expensive to have a plan for it though. I think without text messages it is $30 for the dataplan and $35 with 200 messages. You could use it on t-mobile if you bought an unlocked one but then you would have to use edge speed even though it would be cheaper.
tiburon1724 - 03/08/08 17:21
what do you think of the tilt overall? I'm thinking about getting it, though with AT&T adding the data plan to the basic plan plus texting makes it like $95/month + taxes :(
james - 03/08/08 11:54
Paul, have you ever considered getting employment reviewing these little gizmos? Imagine, every wireless device company sending you products so you can try them out. How sweet would that be?
jason - 03/08/08 11:48
Damn, I didn't realize the iPhone tech was so limited. I've been itching to buy an iPod Touch, but doesn't it share some of the features with the iPhone? But then what would I do if I had the iPhone plugged into the car, playing my music, and the phone rang? What would I do? How would it work?

I just feel like I'm stuck with two devices, my iPod and my phone, and it would be annoying to me to be in a situation where I have to live with duplicity. The iPod Touch seems cool but I don't know if it would even be useful in Buffalo as compared to San Fran.

My requirements in a mobile device might not be as stringent as yours, but I definitely sympathize in terms of not having something that satisfies everything you want. What do you think of iPod Touch as a device?

03/07/2008 10:06 #43573

Black vs Woman President
Category: politics
Hillary is not the greatest woman candidate but I think it would be way more radical to have a woman president than a black one.

I mean black men had the right to vote fifty years before any woman. Why not let it be the other way around this time and let the woman have a first, first. What really surprises me is that making fun of Hillary for being a woman, calling her bitch, etc is acceptable while calling racially demeaning names at Obama is considered unacceptable. I guess woman still are just less equal in the main stream - thats sad. On democracy now they just had a news brief saying that on average woman are paid 16% less then men for he same job. That just blows my mind.

According to it looks like Blacks are only 12.4% or 37.1 million of the US population while women are probably closer to 50% of the US population and maybe more.

I guess I always thought there were more black people. Probably because I grew up in buffalo which has such a large black population and then moved to South Carolina for a while which also had a lot of black people. Before reading that I seriously thought blacks were like 40%+ of the population. I guess I was just judging on my own observations.

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james - 03/07/08 21:00
I try to not to get hard over things like "a black president" or "a woman president" because having one or the other isn't going to change the reality that both are marginalized in our society.

We should elect a S&M gimp to the presidency. Now that would be progress!