Tuesday Tech Talk #53

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Excuse my absence last week, just had too many things in the hopper to get a post out. This week Apple held a press conference about the iPhone 4 so lets get right into things.

iPhone 4 bar issue

Apple held a press conference on Friday to discuss the signal and bar issue on the iPhone 4. Apple did announce the iPhone 4 has dropped more calls than the 3GS but it is less than 1 per 100 calls. They also announced that until 9/30, they are offering free bumpers for the iPhone 4 purchases and if you bought one already you get a refund. Also they are accepting iPhone 4 returns for full refund within 30 days of purchase. So if your not happy with your iPhone 4 then you have no excuses but for the most part this story is blown out of proportion.

AT&T and the free 3G MicroCells

Not only can you score a free bumper with your iPhone 4 purchase but you may also get a free 3G MicroCell tower from AT&T if your lucky enough to receive one of the golden tickets..err...I mean orange envelope with a letter stating so from the blue stripped Death Star itself.

MacBook saves late night!

So you have a popular late night talk show, your set to do a show and the set has a power outage affecting the control room and broadcast areas. What do you do? Well in Jimmy Kimmel’s case you whip out your MacBook and film the show using its webcam. Now that is genius! If it were Jay Leno or David Letterman they would just call it a day and put on a best of episode, but not Jimmy! Kudos to Kimmel for his creativity!

More thoughts on iPad

So it has been a few weeks since I have had my iPad and I continue to enjoy using it. Right now I am blogging from my MacBook but it is one of the rare times I am also using the MacBook lately. For the most part my MacBook is used to sync up my iPhone and iPad every few days but other then that it stays on my desk plugged in mostly.

Which leads me to my next point, what I would love to see in a blogging app for the iPad. I really want something that allows me to create a link simply by highlighting text and clicking a link icon to create a drop down link box that makes the text a clickable link and of course the ability to drop a photo in the blog post and resize it while writing it. That being said Mariner Software the makers of MacJournal is preparing an iPad version so hopefully my dream blogging app will be here soon enough.

The battery life is incredible on it. On average I can go 2 days without charging it with normal use. I enjoy using the NetNewsWire app for my RSS feeds and HelloTxt for posting my updates to Facebook and Twitter. HelloTxt also allows you to schedule a post much like HootSuite which at this time doesn’t offer an iPad version of its app but you can run the iPhone version on the iPad. But HelloTxt has won me over, I no longer use Ping.fm for my daily updates.

So those are my thoughts of the iPad so far and will continue to share more about going forward.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

Navigon MobileNavigator ($49.99) - Yes, Navigon has at last got the update out for the iOS4 and with a nice price drop as well. Of course it now supports multitasking but it also has live weather updates and has a feature called CleverParking which shows you parking areas around your destination. I haven’t used it since the update since I haven’t been out of town to use it. But it is nice to take a call now or play Pandora on the iPhone without losing your directions.

Netflix (FREE) - This is the iPad version and I finally got around to using the features of it including watching the movie Moon on it. In-fact I even capture a screenshot while watching it.

Well that will do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week!

Tuesday Tech Talk #50

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. This past week I got my new iPad so it’s going to be an iPad centered Triple T this week.

How I Got it

So we will start with how I got one. I’ve been saving my money for one of course and I have wanted to get a 3G model. So I have been looking at the 32GB WiFi+3G model and that is indeed what I wound up getting. However actually getting it took a bit longer than I thought. My initial plan was to just drive up to Memphis and drop by the Apple Store in Germantown and pick one up. Before doing that I decided to call first and glad I did because they were sold out. I also checked with the Birmingham, AL and Ridgeland, MS stores and same there. So I put myself on a reserve list for the model I wanted at the Germantown store and on Wednesday I got the email that my iPad was waiting for me there.

The drive and purchase

I got ready and even borrowed my wife’s Corolla as it has better gas mileage for the 100 mile drive each way than my Chevy S10 truck does. I listened to some talk radio on the way up and used the Navigator app on my iPhone for the GPS. The drive between Tupelo and Memphis is pretty uneventful, there is no traffic and no major things to see along the way besides gas stations and fast food places off the exits. However once you get into Memphis it is 18 wheeler city as Memphis is a major distribution area to the whole country, in-fact FedEx is based in Memphis. About 20 mins later after getting into Memphis, I had arrived at the Apple Store in the Saddle Creek shopping center. I walked in and told the greeter I was there for my iPad and she told me to wait a few minutes as it was quite busy at the time there so I played around with an iPad. A few minutes later a member of the Apple Sales team assisted me in my purchase, I got my iPad along with the AppleCare I buy on any Apple hardware (3 years of coverage is excellent!). He also offered to get the iPad setup so I can use it right after leaving the store but knowing I had quite the drive home and can sync it once home, I declined his offer and headed home but not before filling up the Corolla with gas which up there was 20 cents cheaper a gallon than down here.

The Unboxing and Syncing

I got home and unsealed the wrapping and opened up the box and synced the iPad to my MacBook. I did a manual sync as I didn’t want all the apps on my iPhone to be on my iPad and I didn’t want my music on it either just podcasts. The syncing didn’t take long and soon I was using it and showing off features to my wife. I used a few apps native to the iPad I had previously downloaded before I had to leave for work.

Stuff I Love about it

Quite a few things here, I have the iBooks, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble eReader apps so if you have the iPad, you have the most versatile eBook readers around. Also there is the MLB At Bat app for tracking baseball games. I used it while watching the game and the pitch status is within several seconds of the pitch. If you are a subscriber to the MLBTV package, you can even watch the games on the iPad. It is by far an awesome app for the iPad.

For my RSS feeds I use NetNewsWire. It syncs with the Google Reader and the interface on the iPad is highly professional!

How Does it Fit into Everyday Use?

The bigger screen and longer battery life makes it preferable to viewing content on a long term basis over the iPhone. Also it is a lot lighter than the MacBook and also has a longer battery life. So for me, sitting in my recliner with the iPad instead of the MacBook when all I want to do is consume media or do some light creativity is a welcome change. Another benefit is the iPad puts out zero heat while the MacBook battery does put out quite a bit making the laptop part of it not so fun longterm. At the same time, there is still an everyday use for all 3 systems. For editing and heavy blogging, I will continue to use my MacBook, obviously I need a cellphone and the ability to keep track of my email and there are just some places I do not take my iPad to like work for example. With the iPad, I can read content around the house, at the coffee shop, or other places since it is a 3G model.

The iPad apps

At Bat 2010 ($14.99) - This app is great for keeping track of your favorite major league teams. You get a catchers view of every ball and strike and a manual scrollable scoreboard at the top to track the out of town games. You can also listen to the games and if you subscribe to MLB.TV service, can even watch the games on the app.

NetNewsWire ($9.99) - This is a great app for tracking your favorite websites if they offer an RSS feed. You use your Google Reader login to bring up your RSS subscriptions and it keeps current with the Google Reader website so whatever is marked as read in NetNewsWire is also marked in Google Reader.

Pages ($9.99) - The same word processor application that is part of iWork on the Mac is also on the iPad. I have used it on the iPad and find it easy to compose a document in no time using the onscreen keyboard.

WordPress (Free) - If doing some light blogging, WordPress for the iPad is great! In no time you can compose, tag, and categorize a blog post and publish it.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week for another edition of tech news.