Mark Kolier’s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

Like so many RIM – Research in Motion – BB users, last week’s worldwide Blackberry outage was a big inconvenience for me. I was traveling and even more reliant on the efficacy of BB’s email platform. A by-product was that for whatever reason the lack of messages was somehow combined with a fast depletion of my battery power so that for a time I could not even make telephone calls. Thoughts of iPhones and Androids were dancing before my eyes.

I’ve been a BB user for more than ten years. Most of us that are BB aficionados defend the lousy platform as being acceptable because the email is excellent as is the telephone. Conversely BB web browsing is slow and clumsy and the Apps are the worst of any of the smartphones.

I was with a friend on Sunday and he too claimed to have been a BB addict for almost fifteen years. He now has an iPhone and has for the past year. He noted that the iPhone telephone is terrible but email was ok, but his most interesting observation is the iPhone is a small version of an iPad. That something I’ve not heard anyone say that before.

My friend also noted that in 2010 at a friend’s daughter’s sorority rush all the ‘sisters’ have to throw their mobile devices into a pile and cannot use them during rush. Of the 38 devices 37 were Blackberrys. This did not surprise me as my own daughter who is a freshman this year has a BB and her primary reason for getting one was the BB Messenger service – immediate and ‘free’ texting. However he added that this year in 2011 of the 35+ phones – only one of them was a BB and the rest were iPhones. In his opinion BB is already dead since once the younger set rejects the BB platform they are truly going to be toast.

BB has been espousing its new forthcoming operating system (QNX – pronounced CUE-nix) including an entire new generation of Blackberrys. We’ve all seen what a disaster the BB Playbook tablet has turned out to be. So to say I am skeptical would be an understatement. The New York Times had an article about Blackberry today – http://nyti.ms/pp1J93 – I did not know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic after I read it.

Another friend of mine last week showed me his BB Torch (he is an email junkie like me) as well as his new Samsung Android i997 – a big touch screen, thin and fast web-browsing smartphone. And it was only $ 99. For him carrying two devices makes sense. I don’t think I could carry two phones around with me all the time.

As usual whenever I write about Blackberry, or any non-Apple platform all the Apple acolytes chime in that I am totally missing the boat. They say that the iPhone (particularly with the new 4S and Siri – a true world phone they aver) is the only way to go. However I also hear snippets that iPhone email can be problematic and that the phone is the weak link, while the Apps are fantastic and web-browsing is great. Since I primarily use my smartphone for email, telephone calls and THEN web-browsing and Apps, I remain unconvinced.

I don’t consider myself a technology nut although there are those that might disagree. For instance I do not own an iPhone (although I am moving closer to breaking down each and every day), nor an iPad. Actually I don’t even own a tablet computer at all. My now ancient Blackberry Storm 2 (no longer produced by Research in Motion) has slow and at best adequate internet access and I primarily use it as an email platform since there are so few apps made for the BB Storm.

But Amazon’s impending release of its 7 inch tablet has me intrigued. First the suggested retail price is more compelling than an iPad – $ 250 for Amazon’s yet-to-be-named tablet (although rumor has it they are going to name it – the Kindle) vs. $ 400 or more for an iPad 2. Second the 7 inch color screen is attractive to me since I have always found the iPad’s larger size (10 inch touch screen) be a detriment and not an asset. Don’t get me wrong – the iPad is an amazing piece of technology but if I really want something to supplement and not yet replace my laptop it should be smaller and more portable. Eweek.com wrote about this last week – http://bit.ly/nW95Fq

I still own and use an original Amazon Kindle – actually that’s not exactly true. It took three times for Amazon to get me a Kindle that worked correctly but they did that and at Amazon’s cost each time. I’ve been using my current (or re-furbished I assume) Kindle since 2008. While many new e-Readers have come into the market the original Amazon Kindle remains a useful and good working piece of technology.

For that reason I am likely to give the new Amazon tablet (er..Kindle?), a chance. I also like the ideas being tossed around regarding an annual subscription-based (think Netflix for books) library to ‘rent’ certain e-books on Amazon.

There’s no word yet on what the connection charges might be. The current Amazon Kindle’s internet access operates on the Amazon ‘Whispernet’, which is free, but I have serious doubts that the new tablet will handle internet access in the same fashion.

I’ve waited a long time to get a tablet. The iPad did not seem to be right for my needs. But perhaps the waiting is going to have been worthwhile. Here’s hoping.

Do you have a tablet computer? Did it replace your laptop such that you will never use a laptop again?

Maybe you sleep with your mobile device right next to your bed? I’m continually impressed when I find out that many people I know keep their iPhone, Blackberry or Droid on their nightstand when they go to bed at night. I’ve come to expect that teenagers will take their phone to bed with them and at times text the night away. But adults? Has it come to that?

I’m a tech-loving guy and sometime (but not every time) early adopter of new and emerging technologies. But I have not (and I hope to be strong) yet found the desire to plug in my Blackberry and keep it in the bedroom. I figure anyone who really is important in my life and needs to find me at an hour where I am hopefully cutting zzz’s, will have the good sense to call me at home. And yes we still have an old fashioned landline even if supplied by our cable provider.

This is not to deny that before I go to bed I take a quick look at my BB and after I’ve made the coffee in the morning, collected the papers (yes I know so old school again!) and let the cat out or in, I check my BB to see what might have flowed in overnight (usually only 15-30 emails in 8 hours).

When I am on the road and staying in a hotel room obviously I have my phone plugged in such that I could answer it at any time since it is within earshot. And that’s ok as there would not be another easy way for someone to reach me. In fact we’ve become so reliant on mobile connection that my wife does not always know specifically in which hotel I might be staying on any given night. If for some reason I did not answer my phone I am confident she could find me if she really needed to. And she’s fully capable of going places without her smartphone – and that amazes me too. That’s a place I just cannot go.

Given that our agency has gone global and we have connections from China to Europe to New York and California at any given moment some amount of people we are connected to will be working. It’s a 24/7 world after all and I like so many people work at odd hours, nights, weekends, whatever it takes to keep up and get the job done.

But I’m going to try my hardest to hold out here and not bring my BB in the bedroom at home. It might be a last stand but I want to believe that I can live without the tether at least for 8 hours.

How about you? Is it with you all the time? In the bedroom? And if not do you look at your phone first thing every morning even on weekends?

Since the iPhone remains on the AT & T platform I am just not interested in experiencing the vagaries of AT & T service. That’s why I decided on sticking with BlackBerry in the first place.

My first BB Storm (got it in January of 2009) worked well – for about fourteen months. Then the crashing began. It was as if it was tired of being on all the time, which in my case it is. To me there’s no point in having a phone that you turn on and off to save battery life. The touch screen was a bit finicky but I adapted and did not have a problem – until the 14 month mark.

After dealing with the slow spiral downward for two months and having to reboot the phone three times or more a DAY, I finally capitulated and sprang for a new phone even before my contract was up (November – I was trying hard to hold out). Now that I have the BB Storm 2 I wonder why I waited so long! It is a waaay better machine.

The BB Storm had limited space for applications. The Storm 2 has well over 100MB of space for apps which is something like 8 times more than before. The touch screen works much better with a nearly audible click when you type – a bit off putting at first but now strangely reassuring. Phone service is excellent (it was before) and 3G internet browsing and Wi-Fi are added features – and really good ones. The digital camera is still one of the best around and shooting video is a good experience as well.

I’ve used an iPhone and acknowledge how good the technology, design and interface is. The iPhone is pretty good for email (not as good as a Blackberry but still ok), really good for web browsing and the phone service is lacking. The BB Storm 2 is a big upgrade from the BB Storm 1 but I am left with the idea that the entire BlackBerry touch screen platform should be revamped and have its own unique features that are different from the iPhone. I have heard that it is in development and I am eagerly awaiting that release. If the BB platform does not further differentiate itself my next mobile device will be an iPhone.

One can only be a resistor for so long.

It is said that revolutions happen one moment at a time. Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. have been consistently gone against the grain and in so doing created a company and I daresay even a movement counterculture based on the Apple platform. In today’s Wall Street Journal ‘Apple wins Ground in Fight Over Flash’ http://bit.ly/c1vyvU , the hissy fight with Adobe and its Flash technology is highlighted.

I am a big believer in breaking the mold and trying to do things a different way. The iMac was a different approach to personal computing. The iPhone is widely considered to be even more ‘revolutionary’ (despite the lousy phone service) when Apple unveiled the device in 2007. And the iPad may well turn out to be the gateway to a future in how people consume content (a very overused term BTW).

Yet I have difficulty in understanding how Mr. Jobs’ seemingly personal war on Flash will help make things better for consumers – and make no bones about it, Mr. Jobs likes to think of himself as the leader of a movement to make things better.

The alternative that Apple is suggesting is HTML5 programming which according to some is several years away from broad adoption. Since 75% of online video uses Flash (which has the ability to secure and track videos) not having flash on the iPhone or iPad is very limiting and from what I have heard very annoying.
The article also notes that analysts estimate that only 5% of Adobe’s revenue is directly tied to Flash. So it’s not as if the (should Steve Jobs has his way) possible crash of Flash would destroy Adobe. It seems to me that Apple is trying to protect its turf. That’s not the way that I (or many people) have perceived Apple as a company and it may be an indication that Apple has gone from an upstart anti-establishment company to being an ‘establishment’ company.

I suspect that people that work for Apple like working there, and like working for Mr. Jobs thinking that at Apple you are not working for ‘the man’. Those same people then will be disappointed when they figure out that they have might have been working for ‘the man’ all along.

Good Apple or Bad Apple? Or both? What say you?