Category — iPhone

There is a Starbucks within walking distance of my apartment. It’s a beautiful thing, for a number of reasons. This morning, after waiting in line for a minute or so, a friendly barista greeted me with a smile, said good morning and asked if I wanted my usual beverage (Venti iced, black). He quickly poured my coffee as another cashier rang me out. They both said “thanks,” and I was on my way. Now that, is customer service. It’s one of the things I have come to expect from (most) Starbucks and I am sure it is a high priority on their barista training checklist. It’s one of the reasons I shell out $3.50 for a cup of coffee and keep coming back for more.

It’s not a new thing
Customer service has always been extremely important in keeping patrons happy and ensuring repeat business. But in the last few years a number of disruptive technologies, mainly the mobile Internet and social networks have notched this basic necessity up a few levels. If I find myself in an unfamiliar area and am looking for lunch, I launch the Yelp app on my iPhone – search for what I’m interested in eating and within a minute I’m on my way to the highest rated establishment within driving distance. Poor customer service = low ratings = me never finding you. Experiences good or bad can now be broadcast to thousands of people in a matter of minutes using Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and many more. It’s time to put on your A-game.

A brief history, and then on to the future…

Those darn Internets
As the Internet found its way into more and more homes there was a fundamental shift in the way consumers made purchases. No longer slaves to hyperbolic marketing copy, buyers now had the ability to read user reviews, exchange messages with friends, family and strangers and carry out in-depth research with just a few clicks of a mouse. Things were changing – fast.

The power of mobile
The year is 2007. Steve takes the stage at Macworld and announces what is now viewed as the device that turned the mobile industry on its head. Fast-forward three years. Over a half-million smart phones are being sold worldwide, every day. Consumers now have unrestricted access to the Internet, reviews, and user-generated content where ever they are. That is, of course, if they have a cell signal!  Combine this with all the social networks, especially those that are location based and you have given every man, woman and child with a smart phone the ability to broadcast praise or disappointment, effortlessly. Now that is a game changer. Imagine what this system will bring as more users begin to embrace it: That shady auto repair place? You’re done. The dry cleaner that rips off its customers and doesn’t get your clothes back on time? Not anymore. It hasn’t fully happened yet, but it will.

Talkin’ bout, my generation
Actually, talkin’ bout generation Y or the “echo boomers,” as they’re called. Those born between 1982 and 1995 are my generation and we are heavily influencing  the way companies go to market. We grew up with technology, the Internet, witnessed the birth of Facebook from our dorm rooms and possess the “all about me” mentality that causes us to broadcast our thoughts within the multitude of social “speakeasies.” But more importantly, we have money. We’re employed and gunning to be more successful than our parents, which is looking harder and harder each day (but that’s a different story). Yes, those darn youngsters born after 1995 who are currently enjoying their high school years will soon become a more influential part of this new super tech savvy generation – but for now it’s money that talks, and they don’t have any. As generation Y and Z come of age, wielding their smart phones and Internet connected devices every which way, businesses will be forced to respond even further. No longer can you be rude to your customers, or soon they will disappear. The customer experience will be stressed, even if it’s only one of getting a coffee and breakfast sandwich. While it may not be that obvious at present, to quote Beck, “Things are gonna change, I can feel it.”

The other day I sank into the driver’s seat of my two-door, shoved the key into the ignition, and brought the machine to life. I quickly powered on my head unit – that’s audio enthusiast speak for car stereo – and began toggling through the sources. Like most fossil fuel burning Americans, I had a few options:

FM – Unlikely there will be anything worth listening to here, maybe NPR
HD radio – Sounds great, but it is still terrestrial radio
CDs – What are these again
iPod – Can only listen to the same albums so many times
Sat radio – My personal choice, but awful sound quality and uninspired DJ’s

A sad lot if you ask me. Yes I know, I’m being a tad unreasonable here. But there just has to be a better way – and there is. It’s called the Internet. And the device that makes it possible to connect to this magical network while traveling 75 MPH down the highway? You guessed it, the iPhone.

It is now possible to listen to any one of the 20,000+ Internet radio stations while on the move. Plus- Pandora, AOL Radio, Last FM…They’re all here too! There are even paid services, such as the recently launched MOG, which gives you the ability to stream all the albums in their database for $9.99/month. Also, by using one of the slick Internet radio apps (my app of choice is TuneIn Radio, $1.99) you can do neat tricks like pause live radio and record streams.

But wait, there’s more (that line never gets old). How’s the sound quality, you ask? Well, it blows satellite radio out of the water. A 64K, yes 64K AAC audio stream sounds better than most XM channels. A 128K MP3 stream sounds great. And a 192K stream, well let’s just say you won’t be longing for the days of compact disc.

Hang on now. It gets even better. If your car has A2DP Bluetooth, you won’t even have to connect any wires. Just start your car and within seconds your iPhone will automatically connect – the sound quality over the latest version of stereo Bluetooth is excellent.

Let’s have a little rundown:
Huge selection of Internet radio stations
Access to music services like Pandora and MOG
Sound quality that surpasses XM and FM
Ability to pause/record live radio

Awesome.

So there you have it, liberation from the oppression of traditional in-car audio entertainment…Just be sure to watch your data usage if you’re stuck on a capped plan!

Antennagate, death grip, faulty proximity sensors, black labs, and free cases – boy this is an iPhone release for the history books. Last month I wrote my initial thoughts on the infamous iPhone 4. It has been nearly a month and I wanted to do a follow-up post and share my experience with the phone the world cannot stop talking about.

So are the rumors true? Does the prized iPhone 4 suffer from the death grip and proximity sensor issues – absolutely. “Death grip” can be easily replicated (but it’s effects often exaggerated) and if you hold your phone to your head while talking, the proximity sensor faux pas will surely hang up a phone call or two. At first I had thought these issues were being blown out of proportion. Maybe it was because I was still blinded by the reflection off that 960×640 pixel screen, but more realistically it was because I had had not ample time to test it out in the wild (similar to the Apple engineers?).

However, when all is said and done, these flaws are not tragic – or maybe they are – but they don’t push me into a corner of worry and frustration. First of all, 95 percent of the time I am talking on my phone, which isn’t all that often to begin with, I am using some sort of hands free device. And when I am, the signal is better than it ever was on my 3GS. I have yet to drop a call while driving, or with the phone shoved in my pocket. The rest of the time I am using the device (email, browsing, games, etc.), all is well. I don’t have any connectivity issues while using the data connection and up/down speeds are spectacular.

I read one reviewer who equated these flaws to a small scar on a beautiful woman – I would have to agree. The screen, the camera, the video calling, the processor, the drop dead gorgeous form factor – It is just too impressive a phone to call it a failure.

So I’ll get my free bumper, wait for the proximity sensor issue to be resolved in a software update, and deal with the minor “death grip” issue for the next year. Come on folks, June 2011 is only 11 months away. Kidding- well, not really.

I know. It has been a while since my last post. The schedule has been packed to the brim and now even more so with my recent move into a full-time gig at Nasuni. So what better a topic to get back into the swing of things than to talk about my last few days with the latest and greatest from my favorite fruit company, the iPhone 4.

Like many others, I failed at securing a phone for shipment, but was able to reserve one – and boy it is a good thing I did. When I arrived to the Apple store in Natick, MA last Thursday morning the line for ‘non-reserves,’ as they called them, was not a pretty sight. But, after two hours of waiting in the ‘fast moving’ line, I had Steve’s latest creation in-hand.

For me, the setup process went without a hitch. Many friends and colleagues had reported iTunes timing out, crashing, and other assorted goodies. I suppose I got lucky, but I have never run into any issues with restoring my iPhones from backup.

Feature highlights:

• The screen. Can’t get much better than this folks, ‘surreal’ comes to mind
• The camera. Best cell phone camera I have used to date, yes better than the 8MP DROID
• Pure beauty. The design is just incredible, more akin to the first phone than the plastic laden 3G(S). However, I am much more fearful of dropping it
• FaceTime. Awesome, though lack of 3G support is a reminder of the iPhone’s true Achilles heel
• Battery life. Excellent, easily lasts 1.5x longer than 3GS

Those are the highlights. It’s extremely fast, but I really didn’t feel as if the 3GS was lacking in speed. For those jumping from a 3G or 2G (gasp, yes @lyddiegal I am talking to you) be prepared to smile.

As far as the signal strength issues, I have noticed the signal indicator does some wacky stuff but I have seen no negative impact in call quality. No calls dropped and excellent voice quality for all the calls I have made and received – which leads me to believe this is a software bug. But, it is too early to jump to any conclusions. I will follow up in a week or two of use and report my experience.

Overall, the iPhone 4 lives up to the hype. I will say some of the updates are a bit long overdue. I was hoping for some of these features last year when the 3GS was announced, but better late (and done right) than never. Having tested many of the current heavy-hitters in the smartphone arena I can say with confidence that the iPhone 4 is without a doubt the best phone currently available in the U.S. market.

Head over to my flickr page to see some photos taken with it –

Last week, Elgato announced a new TV tuner/DVR solution for the Mac. It is called the EyeTV HD and pulls 720P HD cable content right from your set-top box. The device was born out of the need to get television shows and movies out of the living room and on to the multitude of devices people are using to get their daily fix.

I am in the process of working up a formal review to be posted on my Boston Tech Gear column, but I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts about the device. To start, I have yet to come across a more streamlined way to move content from cable box to computer. Total setup time is less than 15-minutes, and that includes cable connecting, IR blaster placement, and software installation. Once the device is fired up, all it takes the click of the mouse to schedule a recording.

Recording TV shows to a computer is nothing new, we Mac-wielding television enthusiasts have been doing it since the days of the Performa 638cd. What is new is what happens after the show has been recorded. By way of a simple preference selection or click of a button, the EyeTV software will automate the conversion of the raw H264 HD footage into the iPod, iPhone, and iPad friendly .m4v format. One-half hour of HD content morphs from a 3GB file into 1GB for the iPad and 250MB for the iPhone. The file is then automatically added into iTunes. Very cool.

I will get more into the specifics in my official review, but after a few days of use I am beginning to see some serious advantages to using a computer-powered DVR such as this. For anyone that regularly views movies and shows on their iPhone or iPad, this device could definitely make life a little bit easier. However, without giving too much more away, it isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows (is that even a real saying?). You need a Core2Duo Mac for the EyeTV HD to really be happy. Also, that Mac needs to be within a few feet of a cable box, which is not all that common. But, for those serious about their television, these are small prices to pay.

Head over to my column at Examiner next week (June 1, 2010) to read the full review.

Over the last few years geotagging has become more and more popular with photographers – and with good reason, it’s nice to know where that photo was taken. The problem is that most compact cameras and even professional digital SLR cameras do not come with this ability built-in. So how are the amateurs and professionals doing it? They use devices like the Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS, or the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr. Nikon DSLR shooters have the best option here with the plug-in Nikon GP-1, but at $200 it is not an inexpensive one.

The universal devices work like this: after you are done shooting with your compact or SLR camera, you eject the memory card and insert it into the GPS geotagging device. The device takes a coordinate reading and embeds it as a file on the memory card. When you return home and load your photos the coordinates are then synced to the image files using included software.  Confused yet? These gadgets are far from perfect, but for most users this is the only way to do it.

However, if you happen to have a smartphone with built-in geotagging (iPhone 3G, DROID, Palm Pre – to name a few) you have the ability to “manually” geotag your photos, and it is easier than you think. As soon as you move into a new area where you will be snapping photos, take a landmark shot with your phone, it could be a unique object or even just you holding up a unique number of fingers or gesture. Then take this same shot with your real camera. Your phone will have geotagged the shot automatically, so now when you get home and load up your photos, you can reference back to that phone photo to get the location info.

Obviously, this method is quite manual, but during a recent road trip up Pacific Coast Highway out in California, it proved to be quite useful in keeping track of the photos I took with my DSLR. Trust me, every redwood and vineyard looks the same! It is surprising to me that more cameras are not shipping with built-in geotagging, but this will likely change in the coming years. For now, most of us will have to deal with a sloppy card reader device or using a GPS enabled mobile phone, but hey, it is better than nothing!

See the real photos below on Flickr:

October 25th, 2009

Over the last decade or so, we consumers have had the word “convergence” thrown at us in every which way. “In the future”, they said, “there will be no more computers. You see, your computer will be your TV, and your TV, well, that will be your computer.” That’s what they’ve been saying, and it is not like they haven’t tried. Manufacturers have made various attempts to bring this dream into reality, but have found very little success. See, it’s not that consumers are turned off by the idea of having the ability to use their home TV as a computer, it’s just that it is not practical to do so. Sure, you can plop down a wireless keyboard and mouse onto your coffee table, but try to use that setup to do any real work and you will be longing for your computer desk. The point of my rambling isn’t to clue these “media center” folk into making a more practical hybrid TV/computer system, but rather identify where the real convergence will take place over the course of the next few years.  Cue in advanced wireless home networks, smart phones, super fast Internet connections, and of course, social media networks/Web 3.0. These are the components that will work together to shape the next generation of entertainment, lifestyle, and communication convergence.

Wireless home networks
It wasn’t long ago that the wireless network was viewed as a luxury item. Like any new computer technology, wireless networking was slow, expensive, and required a bit of computer savvy to get things up and running. Fast forward to present day, wireless routers can be had for less than $40, their transfer speed, for the most part, rivals that of a physical connection, and many are now offering media serving options through simple software installation or a USB connection. This is the first major step in true convergence – to get all of the devices in a household or office talking to one another. With a speedy wireless network, all it takes is a manufacturer to build a wireless radio into their product to get it integrated into a home’s network.

The doors are now open to more creative uses of wireless communication, mainly having to do with home automation. Want your refrigerator to log and report it’s temperature? Not a problem. Want to turn your oven on from your cell phone? Again, all it takes is an oven capable of accessing your homes wireless network. Things like having the ability to control and monitor your homes electrical and heating systems from any desktop will soon seem commonplace. This level of home automation will increase exponentially as the younger generation comes into home ownership and the cost of the technology comes down. However, the smart home revolution that is upon us is a different story altogether. Could all of this have been done without the proliferation of wireless networking? Of course. But the likelihood of the average homeowner installing an Ethernet jack behind their refrigerator was not good, to say the least. Wireless, for lack of a better expression, cut the cord and made it possible for anyone to extend high-speed network communication to every nook and cranny of their home. Now that homes are on the “on the grid”, what better way to communicate with them than from your mobile phone?

Smart phones
While sales of traditional cell phones have plateaued, the number of smart phones being sold is increasing exponentially. Consumers are realizing the power and convenience of mobile email, web, and the host of other things that these miniature computers are capable of. The smart phone will be the universal remote to control a person’s television, computer, and eventually, their home. Home automation companies such as Crestron, Lifeware, and Z-Wave have already discovered that the iPhone makes a great home automation remote and they are developing systems around it. It will only be a matter of time before your handheld email machine will be unlocking your front door, turning on the A/C, and preheating the oven – all with the tap of a finger.

Broadband Internet
Commonly used as a term to refer to anything faster than dial-up, broadband Internet has finally reached the tipping point for U.S. consumers. With proliferation to more than two-thirds of U.S. homes, we are finally starting to catch up with the rest of the developed world. However, it is only the new, super fast Internet that allow for the proliferation of the multimedia/device convergence. Powered primarily by fiber optics, this new generation of broadband brings speeds ranging from 15 to 50 Mbps. At these speeds a household can run multiple computers, gaming consoles, and various other devices all at the same time with no noticeable degradation of Internet performance. These are the networks that will allow for the downloading of high definition video content in minutes rather than hours, and provide the necessary bandwidth for the advanced home networking and automation systems. This ultrafast broadband will also make possible the seamless integration of the final ingredient in our convergence stew, social media.

Social Media
Status updates, tweets, blogs, forums, wish lists, user reviews, likes, diggs… The list goes on. There’s no denying it folks, social media is here to stay. But how is all this connected to the impending real world convergence we so eloquently speak of? Well, now that our homes are one big, super fast wireless network, with all of our devices talking to one another, what better than to bring Facebook, Twitter, Google, Netflix, and Amazon to the party. Stay with me now. Let’s say you just came in after a long day of work. All you want to do is collapse on the couch and fire up that new 46 inch LCD TV. You press the guide button in search of a good show, but instead of scanning through channels you click “recommend.” This new social media powered recommendation feature has just analyzed data from your Facebook account, Netflix profile, and Amazon Wishlist to generate a real time recommendation of shows beginning in the next five minutes. Taking it one step further, you also are granted access to Netflix streaming media, YouTube, and Amazon Video on Demand. You find a show that was recommended to you because of 22 “Facebook likes” from friends, 89% compatibility to your Netflix Queue, and 14 movies in your Amazon Wishlist. After you press play, your Facebook and Twitter status both are updated, informing friends of what you’re watching – your Gmail status switches to busy, and your voicemail greeting changes from your professional greeting to your personal one. This all may sound a bit intrusive (and anyone familiar with the Facebook Beacon debacle would probably agree) but evidence gathered from the actions of Generation Z would suggest otherwise. This generation, born after 1990, wants to broadcast their likes, activities, and opinions to anyone who will listen.

What’s Next?
The decentralization brought upon us by wireless broadband networking, laptop computers, and smart phones is changing the way we incorporate technology into our daily lives. From the way we network our homes, to the social networks we participate in, the real convergence of communication, entertainment, and computing has begun. Imagine telling someone five years ago that you were video chatting with your mom on the living room TV, ordering takeout from a touch screen phone, and wirelessly downloading a high definition movie to your laptop, they would have thought you were crazy. Just imagine what the next five years will bring.

These days, with all the docks, card readers, hubs, chargers, etc. desk space comes at a premium. To help free up some of that valuable real estate Griffin Technology has made a device appropriately named “Simplifi.” Think of Simplifi as a an iPod dock on steroids. In addition to charging your iPod or iPhone, it will read your digital camera’s memory cards, and give you two additional USB ports.

Simplifi is made from a brushed aluminum chassis that will look right at home next to your MacBook Pro (don’t worry it goes well with all computers, even PC’s!) On the top you will find a universal dock bay that accepts a number of plates (the plates are plastic pieces that snap in to the larger opening, each one made for a specific iPod or iPhone). Griffin supplies you with plates for all the most popular iPods and all iPhones. The front features two media slots, one for SD/xD/Memory stick, the other for Compact Flash. On the back you will find the power input (device is powered by a wall adapter as to not drain your computers USB bus power), mini USB to connect it to your computer with included cable, and finally two USB ports that can be used for a mouse, printer, or any other device you may want easy access to.

The device measures in at about four inches wide by three inches deep and features a rubber base which prevents it from moving around. Build quality is excellent, transfer speeds are fast, and the device is compatible with both PC’s and Macs. At $69.99, this gadget isn’t for everyone. However, if you are looking for a way to free up some desk space and get the added convenience of a multi-function dock, this is the product for you.

July, 1st 2009

Haircut near Boston MA. Sushi near Cambridge MA. Dry cleaner near Lexington MA. Sound familiar? Well, for millions of Americans these concise search terms have entirely displaced the need for the dusty old phone book. However, this evolution of search for local business has gone far beyond a phone number and an address.

I believe it to be a fairly safe argument that the vast majority of my generation now expects to see any worthy local business, large or small, appear on the Internet. And this doesn’t just mean appear with a name and a phone number but with photos, reviews, prices, hours, directions, nearby parking info, etc.

When I perform a search in Google maps, I have come to expect the following:
1. Photos of the business, the more the better
2. At least a few user ratings, yes this may be a false sense of security, but if there are no user reviews or ratings, I’m most likely moving on
3. A business web site, I don’t care if it looks like a 13 year-old made it, as long as it contains the appropriate information
4. Street view of the location, this is not a deal breaker as local businesses have no control over where the Google street view car travels

Adding to the importance of web presence is the increasing number of smart phones on the street. The Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and iPhone have changed the way people get information. Many of these phones combine Google maps (or similar) and geo location to make local searches very easy to execute on the go. Say you are a few towns over from where you normally reside and are craving some great Mexican food. Pull up your iPhone’s maps feature, tap current location, type in Mexican food, and instantly you will have the names of all nearby Mexican restaurants. It’s just a matter of sorting through the results. The point of this story isn’t to sit back and say, “Wow, this is cool,” but rather stress the importance of being found in these searches.

Local business owners: if you don’t show up on an Internet search and you don’t have a website, how do you ever expect people to find you? Yes, there may be that trendy 10-table French bistro that prefers its patrons find it via word of mouth, but this boutique status is not common. Get registered with Google maps, get a website, encourage user reviews, and reap the rewards of being found.

June 24th, 2009

Last Friday, more than one million iPhone 3G S models found their way into people’s pockets. It’s now been five days since I activated my 32GB model, and I figured it was about time to share some thoughts!

Let me begin by saying my previous iPhone was a first generation EDGE model (from original launch day back in June 2007) so making the step up to not only a 3G model, but one with faster hardware, was a giant leap forward. So what’s the verdict? Let’s just say it’s one that is accompanied by a Cheshire grin.

3G S is FAST
Between the new hardware and the new operating system, the iPhone has reached near perfection. This iPhone is fast. Every reviewer out there has been echoing this since launch, and boy is it true. Compared to the original iPhone, EVERYTHING is faster on the 3G S. Typing, web surfing, picture taking, app launching, and gaming are all done at speeds that bring a smile to your face. This is how a smartphone should behave.

Camera, Video, Voice Control, Compass
It wasn’t more than a days time before I found myself at a social gathering. Cocktail in one hand, iPhone in the other, it was time to experiment with the long awaited video capturing capabilities. Slide the photo/video select over to the right, press record, and you are good to go. Video is captured at an impressive 30 frames-per-second, however, it is not HD, and not even wide screen. I think Apple could have done better.

The camera, on the other hand, is fantastic. Low light picture taking is still a weakness, but the autofocus works extremely well. Click here for a sample.

I didn’t experiment with voice control until the latter half of the weekend. To me, voice control on cell phones has been too inconvenient to make it worth while. Is iPhone’s voice control a game changer? Not really. For dialing contacts it works surprisingly well. For iPod control, it works well in a quiet environment, but out in the noise of the city streets – not quite as reliable. “Play songs by Phoenix.” – “Playing songs by Akron/Family.” Yes, strange. But, sitting here at my desk, it was able to successfully select five artists in a row. This is impressive from a device that has not been trained to recognize it’s owners voice. But who are we kidding here, voice control is clunky and at this point in time I cannot really see past it’s novelty.

The compass is great. Never again will my friends and I be running around like headless chicken trying to follow walking directions in the city. Also, the compass app is just plain cool.

Other thoughts
Battery life – I am not impressed. My two-year-old 1st gen model had similar run times the day I took it out of commission. This really isn’t a fair comparison for a number of reasons (no push, no 3g, no gps) but I was expecting more.

Headphones – I was delighted to find a volume control in-line with the multifunction “clicker.” This brings me back to the days of MiniDisc (where nearly all the portables had fully functional in-line remotes). I was also impressed with the sound quality of the phones, seems like it is improved. Another pleasant surprise was the material the cables are made out of, it appears to resist tangeling. For anyone who has stuffed their headphones in a pocket while at the gym, then spent 5 minutes untangeling them – this is wonderful.

Screen – I don’t care for the yellow tint of the 3G and 3G S screens. I will take the original iPhone screen in a heartbeat. Though with the brightness turned up, it is less noticeable.

Built in speaker – Not a 3G S thing, but wow, I finally can use speakerphone, hear video clips, and use music clips as ringers.

Conclusion
Even though this phone keeps the same form factor as the two previous models, it’s faster processor and graphics capabilities really makes it something new. It is a huge improvement over the 1st generation iPhone, and in my opinion, if you could get the full subsidy, a worthy upgrade to the 3G.. However, with it’s faster processor I have to question Apple’s “one app open at a time” design. I see absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t be able to use my KCRW Radio app while I surf the web! For any first time iPhone buyers out there, I highly recommend scraping up the extra 100 bucks to get the 3G S model over the old 3G. As all the AT&T subscribers out there know, the initial phone cost is nothing compared to what you will spend over the course of two years on service!

So what can we expect next June? Aluminum case, OLED display, front facing camera, and 128GB disk space. Fingers crossed.

See below for a few photos: