My Digital Life

iPad – Migration Away From Flash Will Take A Long Time

The reality is that Steve Jobs cannot eradicate Flash overnight. I agree with his stance on HTML 5, although I think there is still room for debate on H.264 for video. That said how can you tout a device's browsing experience when you don't support a large part of the web. Even MacRumors had this to say yesterday:

"So while developing Flash-free versions of websites may be reasonable for certain publications with the structure and resources to accomplish the feat, it is by no means an easy solution for the many sites out there currently relying on Flash to display their standard Web content. During a visit to New York City to promote the iPad to publishers, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly argued against the need for Flash, pushing publications toward adoption of other technologies such as H.264 video and JavaScript that are more iPad-friendly."

There is no doubt that the iPad will be an initial success, but how long will people stand not being able to browse the full internet. All the claims that Flash is on its way out are fine, but how long it will take to migrate those millions and possibly billions lines of code. People shouted the demise of the mainframe in the 90's and IBM is still selling them at a pretty good clip.

The Coming E-Reader Debate; E Ink vs Backlit LCD

Over the last year, I debated which E-Reader I should purchase. It was clear that the Kindle was way ahead in the ECO system war, however when Sony announced its Daily Reader with a 7" E Ink touch screen, 3G connectivity, and EPUB book format; this was the E-Reader I wanted. Although pricey at $399, I went ahead and ordered it as a Christmas present to myself. Sony did not disappoint by delivering it on December 22^nd.

I love the Daily Reader for its size, battery life, built in protective cover and touch screen (being able to turn the pages with my thumb enhances my reading experience), Apple threw a wrench in the E-Reader world by announcing the iPad. This is a major upheaval in the E-Reader world which was originally conceived as a single purpose device with a specially design E Ink screen which provides paper like contrast and allows reading in direct sunlight. Apple is now touting its In Plane Switching LCD screen as the answer to the E Ink technology with color, high contrast and the ability to read in direct sunlight (I want to see this for myself). In addition to the E-Reader functionality of the iPad you get a Touch iPod on steroids with a 10" screen. Who would not want this type of functionality?

My first impression of the iPad was that it may fail as an E-Reader because of the backlit LCD screen and my assumption that backlit screen might cause eye strain. After doing some research, this seems to be an inaccurate assumption on my part and well described in this February New Times articles entitled "Do E-Readers Cause Eye Strain?".

My big problem with the iPad, is that at 10", I want it to do more since it could replace carrying my Sony VAIO-P and Daily Reader while traveling. The biggest issues I have are:

• No Flash support
• No multitasking
• Weak email client functionality (no flagging support, no push of sent items, no category support, etc…)

Apparently that is not what most people think; last week, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky released survey results showing pent up demand for the iPad (via MacRumors).

This was a WOW moment for me, shows the strength of the Apple brand and what people think about their products trusting them to provide the right mix of functionality.

In the end the HP Slate with Windows 7 might be the better choice for my use, but given the lack luster performance of Netbooks, will it perform? Adobe is not waiting for the June release of the HP Slate; it has launched a salvo with this video (via engadget):

This should be interesting year for the E-Reader world...

iPhone Backup Quick Fix; Not Really But It Works

iTunes is one of those application I love and hate at the same time.

I don't sync my iPhone with iTunes very often, but in the last month I have tried several times to sync and the process seemed to be stuck during the backup phase. In order to complete the sync, I had to terminate the backup by clicking on the little x on the right of the top middle status window in iTunes. Not having a full backup left me with an uneasy feeling, I would hate to lose most of the application data I have gathered on my iPhone. After some Binging/Googling, I found that this is a fairly common problem but the fixes seemed over complicated and risky.

Finally yesterday I put some time aside where I could work on the issue. My first approach was to let the sync process go for an hour and periodically monitor its progress. Over the course of the hour I could see the status progress albeit slowly (If you don't look closely, you might believe that iTunes is hung). I decided to let it go another 30 minutes. At the end of an hour and half the backup completed. I decided to sync again, and now the backup is back to normal time (less than 1 minute). Who knows what activity iTunes was performing to complete the backup but patience seems to have triumphed.

My Rant of the Day: the Wall Street Journal’s Pricing Model Makes No Sense

I understand the need for newspapers to find ways to fund their reporting and paying for subscriptions is fair way to generate revenue. I pay for an annual Wall Street Journal online subscription. I was happy to see WSJ develop an iPhone application which is top notch, however they are now charging for content I already get via a web browser (IE or Safari). This makes no sense to me, once you purchase an online subscription you should be able use any device to view their content. They are currently discounting the additional feature for $52 per year, but will charge an additional $104 per year for the privilege of using the iPhone app. They are not going to get that from me!

 

Blocked WSJ content using the iPhone app.

 

This is the same article, viewed using my online subscription in Safari.

Will 2010 Mark the End of the Stylus?

Since the days of gray scale LCD screens on PDAs, the stylus has been the invaluable tool which allowed you to precisely navigate the small screen. With killer applications like the venerable PhatWare Calligrapher, which converts hand writing to text, you can use the stylus to mimic the analog world of pen and paper. Along, with integration of cell phone technology, the hope of a converged hand held device for your mobile life was starting to become a reality. As cellular data and push email where implemented, the world was starting to be at one's stylus tip. Microsoft along with Palm were visionaries in understanding that the success of this new world was tied to the innovation of third party applications and there again the stylus played a key role in providing an easy way to access application functionality. Although, Research In Motion has proved, with its thumb keyboard, that not everyone was or is a stylus devotee. However without the stylus the BlackBerry never became an multi faceted application device. The Windows Mobile vendors adjusted quickly to that fact and offer the best of both worlds with physical keyboards and/or styli support.

Four years ago, Apple through a monkey wrench into the device design paradigm by introducing the iPhone, a device with no stylus or physical keyboard. Google Android has followed suit by providing a finger friendly OS which does not require a stylus but does allow for form factors with physical keyboards like the Motorola Droid. On the Windows Mobile front the HTC HD2 is the first device that I know of, that does not ship with a stylus. As we slowly move towards Windows Mobile 7, will the stylus become extinct? With the talk of capacitive styli (HTC HD2 stylus) for the new breed of touch sensitive screens, designers seem to be on the fence and if a majority of users are not clamoring for a stylus, over the next couple of years the stylus could become instinct.

What are your thoughts, do you use a stylus or do you prefer your finger?

Quick Fix – Twhirl and Windows 7 Lockup issue

After I upgraded to Windows 7, I started having issues with Twhirl locking up. Even after terminating the process using Task Manager I could never get Twhirl to start up again without performing a reboot. My suspicion is that Adobe Air which Twhirl is based on is not fully Windows 7 compliant. The reason I say this is that once the problem occurs, I tried to use TweetDeck (which is also based on Air) and it would not load.

The quick fix is to go to start, type twhirl, right click on the program twhirl, click on properties, click on the compatibility tab, check "run the program in compatibility mode", select Vista Service Pack 2, and click ok.

Hurray! After 6 Months AT&T Finally Turns Up 3G on a New Cell Site Down My Street

3G signal strength inside my home has been terrible until yesterday. It has forced me to use 2G while at home (iPhone did not switch bands effectively and caused too many dropped calls), which has been a real pain since on the iPhone it takes 4 taps and I have to remember to do it.

Back in early 2009, I heard that AT&T was about to put a new cell site down my street and I was quite excited. Little did I know it would take so long to activate. The antennas were put up back in May, but apparently there were issues with Verizon (the local phone company) installing the appropriate backhaul circuit and Dominion Power installing a dedicated power feed. Even after all the regulatory and contractual hoops AT&T has to jump through to get a cell site approved, they then have to deal with the local phone and power companies taking their sweet time to deliver critical infrastructure. Especially Verizon who has no real incentive to give AT&T any slack when it comes to building out their 3G network, I know this is cut throat business but…

Anyway, it looks like yesterday was the magical day when all the stars aligned themselves and now I have 5 bar 3G coverage even the depth of my basement. And look at that dslreports speed test result…

Blogged with Word 2010

My Directv HR20-700 Video and Audio Stutter Issues (Update 3)

Back in mid-September Directv released a new version of their software. After the automatic upgrade issues with my recordings started to occur. The video and audio would drop out and essentially stopping the playback from 2 to 5 seconds. This happened so many times that it made the viewing experience of recorded content lousy. I have had no issues with watching live TV, but I seldom do anymore other than for sporting events.

In mid-October Directv released version 0x0368 of their software. This version helped considerably but the problem was still very noticeable.

I have been a Directv customer for 14 years now, but with the onslaught of Verizon FIOS marketing, the fact that I have FIOS for internet and home phone service, I was starting to think hard about switching to their TV service. The two biggest issues I have had with switching are:

1. The Motorola DVR which FIOS provides is substandard and they don't allow you to add an external drive.
2. If you purchase (additional cost) a Tivo DVR which provides the external drive functionality, you are stuck using one way cable cards which eliminates any pay per view or interactive feature.

Yes, FIOS could work for me, but the overall Directv experience is better and their iPhone app is a great little tool. The forums like dbstalk.com have provided very little help other than to the RBR (Red Button Reset) the DVR. This seems to help a little but you have to do it almost daily so that is not a solution. As I was planning my potential move to FIOS, I decided to call Directv customer service to see what they would suggest (I have to say I was pretty skeptical). As I explained my problem, the CS person narrowed the potential issue down to the disk and suggested I run a disk scan and report any errors.

I ran the disk scan (RBR, wait on the "just a few more moments" message, press the front panel down key and record button simultaneously until the scan message comes up). It took 16 hours to scan my 1 Terabyte external hard drive. No errors were found, but the scan clearly resolved some issues.

Last night I started watching recorded programs and although not perfect there are no audio dropouts and the video stutters are blips that do not negatively impact the viewing experience.

Bottom line this clearly a disk related issue associated with the update and probably associated with the external drive functionality which is supposedly unsupported but operational.

Updates:

11/23/09: Good weekend for recorded material with only minor video and audio stutters. It was interesting that the hard drive started making quite a bit of noise again (I wonder what is going on, could it be defragmenting?), but if it makes things watchable I will live with (my DVR and HD are in a cabinet 20 feet away from my LCD panel). I may schedule another scan this week.

11/21/09: I ran another scan Wednesday night and last night watched 3 recorded shows. This seem to help quite a bit, I had 2 minor video/audio stutters on a 30 minute show. I will keep monitoring.

11/19/09: I am sorry to say that the video and audio dropouts/stutters are back when I watched 2 recorded shows last night. I had planned on running another scan and started it around 10PM last night. It is about 60% done this morning. If this does not work, I may purchase a Western Digital My DVR drive to see if that helps (I would need it anyway if I went to a Tivo/FIOS setup).

 

Note: BTW, I am using a special starter edition of Office 2010 (closed beta w NDA) to edit this blog post I created with Office 2007. It is funny to see the file being opened in compatibility mode.

3G Coverage by Population

After the Verizon ad attack against AT&T 3G footprint, I thought it would be interesting to find out what the four major carriers 3G coverage is by population.

1. Verizon Wireless 284 million (source: mocoNews.net)
2. AT&T Wireless 233 million (source: AT&T)
3. T-Mobile USA UMTS/HSPA 200 million by the end of 2009 (source: Business Wire)
4. Sprint EVDO Rev A/0 170 million (source: Sprint)

The Sprint number seems low but it came from their web site, and the reference to 2006 looks like this page has not been updated for a while. I guess that is par for the course for Sprint…

A Major Reason I Love Lenovo ThinkPads

I have been using ThinkPads since the late 90's and have always been very happy with the design, durability and IBM service. I feel I am probably in the minority but I love the trackpoint, it works for me not to have to raise my hands while typing to use the mouse functions.

I have not had to use the depot warranty service for several years now. At the beginning of this year the middle latch of my 2 ½ year old X60 tablet fell out and I lost it. The latch pushes up and down through the LCD panel case so you can lock the panel to the keyboard base in either standard clamshell mode or reverse tablet mode where the LCD is exposed.

The reversible latch (at the top of this picture).

I finally planned some time where I was not going to need my X60 tablet; I was going to be away for the weekend and planned on using my VAIO P. I called Lenovo/IBM (IBM currently provides the service in the US) on Tuesday, they shipped a return box which I received on Wednesday. Thursday evening I took my machine to the local UPS store; IBM received the machine on Friday, repaired and shipped it back on Saturday for delivery on Monday morning. This level of service makes the rather dull but business looking ThinkPad a winner and the fact that Lenovo has so far kept IBM's design philosophy and build quality is what keeps me coming back.

My X60 is 2 ½ years old; it has worked very well with Windows Vista and is working even better with Windows 7. At this point I have no need to move to a newer model for the foreseeable future…