Three week iPhone evaluation
Still great.
That is all.
OK, it isn't. Since the last time I posted, I've picked up a few more apps (All right, a lot more apps). Besides OmniFocus and Grocery IQ, others that have gained prime location on the first screen include The New York Times app; CheckPlease, a tip calculator; and Livestrong, which I'm using to track daily weight, not calories, because I'm not on that kind of diet.
I also got Pandora; a nice app that allows me to trade files between the phone and the desktop called Files lite; the great Amazon app; and a surprising favorite, Lexcycle's Stanza e-book reader. I never thought that I would read books on a handheld device, but Stanza is sweet. I've already read a couple of books with it, and downloaded a bunch more. It's cool knowing that as long as I have my phone with me, I'll have something to read when I'm stuck waiting at places. There's a bunch of free ebooks available, and I bought some more from Baen's Webscription site.
Attention, iPhone Developers
Are you an iPhone developer? If so, I'd like to point out two recent events:
- Last week, Tom and I both purchased iPhones
- This week, Apple announced that iPhone developers can now give away promo codes to their apps
Coincidence? Maybe… or maybe not. But either way, feel free to send those promo codes on.
Why I got an iPhone
As Tom mentioned below, yes, we got iPhones recently. As many of you heard my paeans of BlackBerry love over the last two years, I've already been asked a few times: how on earth did Tom convince you to switch?
Well, here's what it came down to:
| iPhone | BlackBerry Bold | |
|---|---|---|
| Where they're mostly equivalent | ||
| Initial price (with two year contract) | $300 | $300 (after rebate) |
| Screen | 480 x 320 pixels | 480 x 320 pixels |
| GSM/GPRS/EDGE | 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz | 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
| 3G | UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) | UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) |
| Bluetooth | 2.0 + EDR | 2.0, A2DP |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11b/g | 802.11 b/g |
| Storage | 16 GB | 128 MB ROM, 1 GB onboard storage, Expandable Memory Storage (microSD): 32 GB |
| Weight | 4.7 oz | 4.8 oz |
| Dimensions | 4.5 × 2.4 × 0.48" | 4.49 × 2.57 × .59" |
| Camera | 2.0 MP | 2.0 MP |
| Music Formats | AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV | .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ |
| Where the Bold wins | ||
| Records video | No | Yes |
| Camera has flash | No | Yes |
| Keyboard | Virtual; requires both hands + eyes on the phone to use; no tactile feedback | Standard QWERTY keyboard; external full-size Bluetooth keyboards also available |
| Extra batteries | Not available | $80 |
| Hands-free wired earpiece (3.5mm mono w/single earbud) | Not available | $15 |
| GPS | "Assisted" | Yes |
| Google Maps | Partial (does not include Street View) | Yes (includes Street View) |
| Tethering | No (AT&T restriction) | Yes |
| Works with already-owned accessories | No (not even iPod chargers) | Yes |
| Where the iPhone wins | ||
| Browsers | Mobile Safari | BlackBerry Browser, Opera Mini |
| Basic Monthly plan (450 minutes + 5000 night/weekend minutes) | $40 | $40 |
| Data add-ons | $30 | $60 (BlackBerry® Personal with tethering) |
| 200 Messages/month | $5 | $5 |
| Voice dialing | Requires 3rd party app | $5 |
| AT&T Navigator (provides spoken turn by turn GPS driving directions with automatic reroute, full color maps, and real time traffic alerts all on your device) | Not available | $10 |
| Total monthly cost: | $75 | $120 |
| Total cost of ownership over 24 months: | $2100 | $3180 |
Or in other words, $45/month × 24 months ($1080) is what it takes to get me to move to a phone that I'm otherwise currently finding very frustrating.
Will I ever get used to this keyboard? Or having to manually refresh an app when I want it to update? Or to only being able to use one app at a time?
If you switched from a non-iPhone to an iPhone, tell me how it worked for you in the comments.
Updates:
- According to the manufacturer, this handsfree mic works with the iPhone 3G.
- While Google's Mobile Maps page says that Street View isn't available for the iPhone, it appears that that feature shipped with the 2.2 update.
We've succumbed
Last Sunday, we switched from our Blackberries to iPhones. I was tired of the small screen on my Blackberry Pearl, and was never thrilled about the BB user interface anyway. And I wanted a real Web browser. Dori would have preferred to stick with BB, as she really wanted a Bold. But we priced it out on AT&T, and it just didn't pencil out. AT&T charges an extra $10/month to enable the BB GPS, and there are some other charges that nixed the Bold.
Besides their exclusive with the iPhone, AT&T has 3G coverage here, and our old carrier, T-Mobile, does not. So that was a factor, too.
So far, I'm loving the iPhone. I'm running OmniFocus for it, which syncs nicely with my desktop and notebook Macs. E-mail on the phone is nice enough that I actually use it. And I like a grocery shopping app called GroceryIQ.
On our Thanksgiving trip down to Southern California, the iPhones saved us a bunch of time, because we used the Maps app to scout ahead of us for traffic jams. We routed around two different jams, and probably saved a few hours of being stuck in traffic.
All in all, a good purchase.
Making electricity smarter
The idea of a "Smart Grid," which applies information technologies and decentralization to electric power generation and distribution, was strongly endorsed by both candidates in the presidential campaign, and has been reiterated by Obama since the election. But I realized that I didn't really know what the idea of the Smart Grid entailed. It turns out to be an interesting combination of changes not just at the utility level, but down to the municipal and consumer levels. I found this Smart Grid white paper (PDF) done by the US Department of Energy that gives a good overview of the project.
The promise of the Smart Grid is that it can make electricity generation and distribution more efficient and reliable, and can even help the consumer use electricity more intelligently. And like the Internet, decentralization means that the electric grid would become more robust to natural disaster and external attack. The grid could also better integrate more generation capacity from many different, smaller sources, including wind and photovoltaic. Sounds like a project worth doing.
Where to Get the Worst Deal on a Professional-level Mac
Once again, I'm in the market for a new laptop. It's been almost two years since I got my current 2.16GHz MacBook Pro, and the state of the art has advanced enough that a new machine may be worth it to me. The machine I'm pricing now:
15" MacBook Pro
- 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 6MB shared L2 cache
- 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
- 320GB Serial ATA hard drive; 5400 rpm
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor w/512MB GDDR3 memory
- SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
A little bit of shopping around, and I discover that most of the sources to get it have nearly-identical prices, with one exception:
| Vendor | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apple retail | $2799 | $216.92 CA sales tax, free shipping |
| SmallDog | $2799 | No tax, free shipping |
| MacMall | $2794 | +CA sales tax, +$17 shipping |
| B&H | $2799 | No tax, free shipping |
| Apple* | $2738 | $212.20 CA sales tax, free shipping |
Wondering now where that last price came from? That's how much it costs, combined, when you buy the MacBook Pro and an Apple Developer Select membership. And any operating systems Apple ships in the next twelve months are automatically included.
So, my question is:
Why does anyone—developer or not—ever buy a professional-level Mac (i.e., Mac Pro and MacBook Pro machines selling for $2500 and up) from Apple retail?
[Of course, if you want to spend a whole lot less and get an almost-as-good Mac, the place to buy is Apple's Refurb and Closeout store.]
Good to know
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