My Digital Life

iPhone 3G - Firmware update 2.0.2 part 2

I am feeling lucky, there seem to be quite a few folks with serious issues after they update to 2.0.2. I think my iPhone is more stable and as I mentioned the Edge signal is definitely stronger. Is it faster as some have reported, I can't say that it is...

I did have a dropped call yesterday while driving, but I believe that was a coverage issue.

iPhone 3G - Firmware update 2.0.2

Two updates in less than 40 days, that can be a double edge sword for a product. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with Apple releasing bug fixes, but this can also help fuel rumors that a product is unstable.

After the update I am noticing that my Edge signal is much stronger in my house than before. I can only get Edge inside my house. I can get 3G outside but it is sporadic.

I have not had any dropped calls since AT&T sent a SIM card update to my phone and I updated to the newest firmware available at the time. (argh, were is that cut and paste for the URL).

I have read that there is an estimate of about 2% of iPhone 3Gs that have problems keeping connections. I guess I an lucky or my instructions worked (LOL).

If there is anything else noticeable I will report back.

iPhone 3G GPS finds location in stages but works well

Yesterday, my iPhone 3G showed its value. I was heading down I270 south towards Virginia when I noticed a backup about a 1 mile ahead of me. After living in the Washington area for many years I have a pretty good idea of where backups occur. I automatically made the decision to get off at an exit before I got caught in it. The problem is that you don't necessarily know why the backup was occurring. Half the time it is just congestion and the other half are accidents or work zones. When the reason for the backup is congestion, you are usually just better off working your way through it. The key is knowing which type of backup your dealing with. There are several methods I use:

1. Take your chance by getting off the nearest exit or working your way through the backup
2. Listen to WTOP traffic, the problem is they only provide update every 8 minutes
3. Listen to Sirius traffic, better than WTOP at every 4 minutes but still a long time when you are approaching a backup at 60MPH
4. Use your traffic enabled GPS device . My aging BMW GPS system does not display traffic data in the US. In Europe it would work just fine with TMC, but that system never took off  in the US. A newer version of TMC is now being implemented in the US via satellite and FM radio but that is not currently an option for me. I use my Internet enabled mobile device to display live traffic using Windows Live Search or Google.

The quickest method is number 4, unless you hit the appropriate radio traffic report in time to make your re-routing decision. My problem to date with number 4 has been to easily display the appropriate map using one hand. Getting your location quickly simplifies the process of displaying the appropriate section of map avoiding any fumbling with the device. With my Tilt, the GPS acquisition time is hit or miss. Sometimes I can get it in 30 seconds, other times the only way to get a fix is to use Quick GPS but that takes additional steps and time. Using the Tilt in this situation is just not reliable. In comes the iPhone 3G, with the location service and Google Maps traffic turned on, displaying traffic is three presses (turn on, Google maps, and find location) and an unlock slide away. The location acquisition happens within 20 seconds, it uses the 3 built in (cell, WIFI, and GPS) methods in sequence to get the most accurate fix and displays the appropriate portion of the map. I was able to determine by viewing the map that the length of the backup did not indicate congestion and was probably due to an accident. I rerouted my trip via back roads which extended my trip by about 10 minutes. Who knows how long it would have taken me to get through the backup. When I listened Sirius radio traffic, they confirmed that it was accident and the current backup was about 10 miles.

My road from Windows Mobile to iPhone 2.0 - it is a keeper for now

Last Wednesday was my 14 day return end date with Apple and I have decided to keep the iPhone 3G. Even though there are growing pains with both Apple's software and AT&T's network, the iPhone's user interface and web browsing functionality is so compelling that I am willing to give it time to develop. The key to my benevolence is Apple's control over the delivery of updates (vs Windows Mobile OEM model) on a regular basis. It looks like they plan on delivering 4 to 7 updates in the next 12 months, although I think once a quarter is probably reasonable.

They essentially implemented the minimum Exchange ActiveSync functionality which is OK, but I really want the calendar invite and flagging functions (I need to write another post on the subject).

There are also application issues which maybe due to the SDK or the developers. I tried to use the Typepad application to blog this entry. When I was ready to post, I received an undefined server error. I terminated the application by holding the home key and lost my pending and draft posts. Not a good user experience...This post was rewritten using ECTO on my PC.

In marked contrast to posts on the Internet, my experience with AT&T customer service has been very good. They were able to update my SIM to help with the network performance and switching from 2G to 3G. It is better but still needs work; AT&T needs to bring up the promised cell site in my neighborhood sooner rather then later...

In the end, I just find myself using the device more to respond to email and browse the Internet. I am missing a full featured PIM, and over time I will have to see how much of an impact that has on my use, but I know Pocket Informant will be available in the next couple of month. I find that the on screen keyboard works well for me. I would like a stronger dictionary/spell checker but it does pretty well. You have to let the system perform its correction function even if you misspell a word. The correction will appear once you hit the space bar and it works 90% of the time.

It is interesting that problems are being reported, but the buzz for acquiring the device is still there. This last weekend there were lines at the local Apple stores, 3 weeks after launch.

My road from Windows Mobile to iPhone 2.0 - Part 2

This week has been very busy, but I have been using the iPhone exclusively. The AT&T 3G signal is extremely poor in my house, T-Mobile is much better. Yesterday, I turned off 3G to see if it helps. I seem to be getting more bars. I will try it out over the weekend. Dropped calls and lousy connection at home could be a deal breaker. I know AT&T is looking at putting up a cell site in my neighborhood, but how long will it take...

I really like the user experience on the iPhone, but the Exchange ActiveSync requires some work and I have had a strange calendar issue which I will document in a separate post.

I am adding and updating my Pros and Cons (updates in bold):

Pros:

• I am getting use to the finger typing, the system is learning the words I use and it seems to be getting easier.
• Creating emails is faster experience than in WM. The contact chooser is more intuitive and with my new found finger typing skills, the whole process seems faster.
• Form factor: I like how it feels in my hand, it is thinner that the original but I think the feel of the plastic case made a bigger impression on me that the thinner design.
• Screen size: Apple did a great job picking the iPhone's screen size. I find the 3.5" screen is a big plus over the 2.8" on my AT&T Tilt.
• Exchange ActiveSync is as easy to set up as on a Windows Mobile device.
• The GPS position acquisition is excellent, especially compared to the AT&T Tilt.

Cons:

• Battery life is poor (I am adjusting my previous comment). Yes, I still think battery life is poor, however I can't compare it to the Tilt because I rarely used it with WIFI. The one great usability factor for the iPhone is that you can actually use the web browser for more than mobile sites. As statistics have pointed out the majority of iPhone users browse the Internet. This is not the case with Windows Mobile users. You need 3G or WiFi to effectively browse the Internet. Since coverage in my house is poor, I use WIFI thus driving battery usage. This means I have to charge it once during the day. A bummer but manageable and manage radios on and off.
• 3G reception lousy in my house.
• No spell checker, the dictionary is there for suggestions, but a spell check feature would have been nice.
• No Pocket Informant, Sling Player mobile, Windows Live Search. Those are probably the applications I use the most.

App Store:

• Note2Self works very well, recording play in Outlook 07 preview, and the start recording when you place the unit up to your face is great.
• eWallet looks good but the lack of synchronization currently makes it a bust for me. Can't wait until the beginning of August for the update which includes the synchronization module.
• Audio Recorder is a nice application, tech support has been helpful but I have 2 major problems with the application. First I can't email recordings from my home network (an update is supposedly in the works) and the sound file format is in a non de facto standard. By that I mean it uses Core Audio Format files for which you have to download codecs or compatible players to use. Not too user friendly.
• Typepad application. Along with the i.typepad.com sites provides all the functionality I am looking for: create/edit posts and manage comments. There is a bug with the cropping of screen prints. Typepad support is looking at that issue. It would begreat for Typepad to include the iPhone's web site functionality into the application.
• Twittelator is a Twitter application which has everything I need. From the comments it is not as fancy as Twitterific, but for free you can't beat it and it has no ads (the free version of Twitterific has ads).

My road from Windows Mobile to iPhone 2.0 - Part 1

I am still amazed that I actually waited 9 hours to purchase the iPhone. It seems like a blur, and does not seem like it was that bad (interesting how you can rationalize such events). It was not so much the waiting but what I could have done with that time. I did do about 4 hours worth of work between my 3.5 hours worth of X60 battery time and phone calls; that left 5 hours of essentially milling around and talking to fellow line mates hoping Apple employees would move faster, then dreaming of the end game. But that is all over now and it is time to see if this version of the iPhone is worthy enough to become my daily driver. Since I purchased it at the Apple store, 95% of the purchase experience was performed with a Microsoft Windows CE Symbol device, the last 5% was the iTunes activation on a Mac. I have 14 days to return it (until July 30th). If I choose to return it, I will have to pay a 10% restocking fee ($30) which is better than being stuck with a $300 device I will seldom use and a 2 year AT&T contract.

I have already forwarded  my T-Mobile number to the iPhone. I have a 1000 minutes of forward minutes which should work fine with my 450 minute iPhone plan.

The key features I will be looking at ,are the Exchange integration and available productivity applications, as well as AT&T coverage in my area. Off course the usability factor will play a big role in my evaluation. After one full day of use, here are some initial pros and cons:

Pros:

• Form factor: I like how it feels in my hand, it is thinner that the original but I think the feel of the plastic case made a bigger impression on me that the thinner design.
• Screen size: Apple did a great job picking the iPhone's screen size. I find the 3.5" screen is a big plus over the 2.8" on my AT&T Tilt.
• Exchange ActiveSync is as easy to set up as on a Windows Mobile device (more to come on ActiveSync differences).
• The GPS position aquisition is excellent, especially compared to the AT&T Tilt.

Cons:

• Battery life is poor. I unplugged it around 8AM yesterday, at about 3:30PM the battery was down to 20%. I have WIFI and Bluetooth turned on with occasional GPS use. I used it as I would my Tilt. At this point in the day I am used to having at least 50% left. Just like the recessed headset jack in the 1st generation iPhone which was ridiculous, I think the Apple designers went crazy on trimming the width of unit at the expense of a larger battery. I would gladly have the iPhone 3G be the same width as the original to have more battery time.
• No spell checker, the dictionary is there for suggestions, but a spell check feature would have been nice.
• No Pocket Informant, Sling Player mobile, Note2Self, Windows Live Search and eWallet. Those are probably the applications I use the most. I know all of these will come soon enough. Ilium has pushed eWallet to Apple, however they have delayed the deployment to the app store because of some additional checking that they must do (event hough Ilium has all the paperwork done) because of the export controls on encryption technology.

App Store:

• The only application I currently installed is the Typepad blogging application which is nice but I feel it is missing a major piece of functionality: being able to update current published posts.
• I have perused the App Store and have not really found anything earth shattering in the productivity area. The games are a different story and I will probably have to try some out. (see David Pogue's very high level roundup

Usability:

I am starting to better comprehend the UI paradigm and it does differ from what I am used to in Windows. An example of that the applications that I have tried do not have a save button. Example: In the Typepad and Mail application you click on the Cancel button and it brings up a menu to save and/or exit. I am not sure that I agree with this paradigm but I can see that you could argue both ways. There are many applications in Windows that will perform the same way by clicking the x, but the majority of them also have a prominent save function. So my issue is really with the lack of a save function front and center.

HTC goes for US brand name recognition

As  Windows Mobile geeks, we all know the HTC brand name. However, the average consumer in the US is clueless that Hi Tech Computers (HTC) is the world's largest maker of Windows Mobile phones. HTC is about to try to change this in the US with a multi million dollar advertising campaign dubbed "Set Your Fingers Free" which will be running in print, outdoor, online and on cable TV channels. The TV spot can be seen on HTC's US web site. It looks like the ad campaign is an admission that people want to use their fingers rather than a stylus, and of course an ode to the iPhone..

In an attempt to develop more brand awareness in the US, a year ago HTC placed it's logo on the back of each phone.

The back of my AT&T Tilt.

US residents can now also sign up for HTC's e-Club which includes hot fixes and ROM upgrades, however it is not much good unless you own an HTC branded device (no carrier devices can be registered). When I tried to register my unlocked AT&T Tilt which is an HTC Kaiser, I received this message: "Unable to register your serial number. The serial number you entered is not for an HTC branded product".

Windows Mobile - WorldCard Mobile

As part of HTC's Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM for the TyTN II which I am using on my AT&T Tilt, they included PENPOWER's WorldCard Mobile application. This a great little application which allows you to photograph a business card and then performs an OCR translation into a contact record. The process takes three steps:

1. Take picture of business card.

2. It does an excellent job of recognizing all of the text and places it in the appropriate fields.

3. Export to a contact record.

Then, the beauty of ActiveSync comes into play; the contact is automatically synchronized with Exchange for use with Outlook and other compatible device.

The only minor issue I had  was that the address was created as a single line which included city, state and zip, I had to add a carriage return in front of city for the address to be properly formatted. This is one of those handy little applications which makes your life more efficient.

Typepad improves mobile experience

Typepad is migrating its blogs to a new platform which helps with mobile rendering. Although Typepad still does not reformat for mobile devices, it does do a much better job at creating html that mobile browser can easily interpret. In the past mobile browsers failed to render my 3 column blog into anything that would be easily viewed. Now the 3 columns are rendered sequentially and displayed at a reasonable speed even over T-Mobile Edge network. The columns get displayed in order.

To enhance the rendering speed, I have moved items from the left sidebar column to right one. Since I really don't use Twitter on a daily basis and I have not decided its value, I have moved it to the bottom of the right sidebar.

I have viewed my blog on my AT&T Tilt and WM 6.1, as well as the iPhone. I happy to report that the blog is now easily readable on a mobile device.

Back from my 2 week hiatus

 I thought I would blog during my vacation but I never found the time or inclination to write...It did give me a chance to ponder what my upcoming blog posts should be about. Here are some of those thoughts:

The big announcement while I was away was the release date and specification of Apple's 3G phone. I still have not watched Steve Jobs keynote, but from all the blog posts, I have perused, it looks like it was mostly about the price and 3G performance. On the price side, I found the new agreement with AT&T to subsidize the 3G iPhone very interesting. Finally someone at AT&T has realized that they were not going to stop the hackers, you have to change the economics to make it less appealing to SIM unlock the iPhone. In the end, Apple does not care, they get their money one way or another. It also looks like AT&T made sure that the T-Mobile USA 1700 3G network band was not included. Even if I forgo the economics of signing a contract with AT&T and terminating it, the fact that I can't use the iPhone on the T-Mobile 3G network is a real negative. In the end I will have to wait for July 11th to see all the fine print before making any decision. All that said, at $199, this device is going to fly off the shelves. It was to bad that there was no announcement or inkling of any MID type computer.

I used my Tilt with the HTC Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM update extensively (I found it very stable) during my vacation and found it to be very stable. I had my iPhone with me but never really used it. I was in France for 10 days, purchased an SFR (Vodafone) pay as you go SIM card. Windows Mobile 6.1 detected the 3G network instantly, although the APN was wrong. It was configured as SFRWEB when it should have been SFRWAP. With the SFR pay as you go plan, you only have access to a subset of the Internet, however I was able to synchronize with Exchange via ActiveSync. I ended up not using data very much because of the cost. All in all it was convenient having a local number but with the Dollar's exchange rate it is more of a luxury than a necessity.

Every hotel we stayed at had free WIFI. This made accessing the web to synchronize my email and watch some US news (via SlingPlayer) from the Tilt a breeze. Another valuable benefit was using HotSpot@Home with my wife's T409. We were able to call back to the US for free. We were able to do this at 2 of the three hotels. I kept getting a connection failed at the one hotel. In the two hotels we were able to use HotSpot@Home, the connection at one was much better but at both hotels the service was usable. I can't emphasize how great a feature this is even if it is not 100% stable.

My other pet project while on vacation was to use my new Fujitsu U810 MID Tablet PC. I mentioned earlier that I ended up not using the iPhone I brought with me. I think the biggest reason was having full browsing access on the U810. With the current iPhone's ROM version, what makes it appealing to use is that it is fun and that Safari works very well. If you take that away, other than having iTunes, I had no real need for the device. Obviously the 2.0 ROM and all of the potential applications will be a game changer. The other piece of my project was the ability to easily transfer pictures from my camera which I will blog about later.

My review of the Cellpoint Flamingo Music earphones was published on pocketnow.com while I was away.