The biggest problem with the iPhone nobody is talking about

Everyone knows about how shitty the newest iPhone's antenna is. Basically you hold the thing in your left hand and you'll see your signal plummet to the point where you can't actually make a call. Now, I haven't had as bad an experience as others - in fact I've found the reception is quite a bit better than the original iPhone (iPhone classic?), iPhone 3G, or even the iPhone 3GS. Apple hasn't really talked up the fact that the phone intelligently picks the best cell tower for your call, rather than prioritizing the cell tower with the strongest signal (techie and hard to market). But I digress, this is the problem nobody is talking about:

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New AMDAL Icon/Favicon

The poll has closed and the votes are in: the "L!VE" icon is the winner! Sure, the poll yielded a tie, but due to some offine votes and me not caring about the results, MLR and I picked the better of the three. If you frequently find yourself bored on the go, or if you ever use the bathroom, make it easier on yourself and save this page to your homescreen on your soon-to-be-obsolete iPhone. For a quick 4-step process on how to bookmark a website, hit the link...

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Steve Jobs: This is Why iPhones Don't Have Flash

People have been asking for Flash support on their iPhones for, well, ever since the iPhone came out. Although Flash is primarily used for interactive/annoying ads, websites like Hulu use it to stream video. Hulu on the iPhone would be sweet, right? Wrong, according to Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs released an official statement on Flash today, and I suggest you read it if you have an iPhone. If you just want the conclusions, hit the break...

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What the new iPhone looks like...

In case anyone cares. Head over to Gizmodo.com for better pictures and more videos.

If my longer reviews are quick sixes, consider this my shotgun review: I LOVE IT!

P.S. Apple must be furious with this leak. Whoever left this prototype at a restaurant... well... let's just ask the question: Is Steve Jobs gonna have to choke a bitch?

Quick-Six Review: Slingbox Edition

Some of you may have heard about Slingbox, but others may think its some weird sexual contraption. Its not… unless of course you want to stream the Playboy channel from your cable TV box. Basically what it does is take what's being shown on your TV and stream it through the internet to your computer, mobile phone, refrigerator, etc. I find it pretty useful for business trips where there's free WiFi or when I'm stuck in an airport where "The View" is the only thing being shown in the lobby area. Check out my attempt at making a video preview and read my 6 points below:

1. Its Easy: Much like any good sexual contraption, its really easy to use and setup. All you do is plug it into the wall, the TV, and the internet and you're halfway done. From there, you download the software from slingbox.com and go through a simple wizard to complete the setup. That's about it - you're now able to watch all those fantastic Don Draper moments from your laptop.


2. Quality: So the Slingbox I'm using is the Slingbox Solo. It has HD inputs, but doesn't stream in HD - you need the Slingbox Pro-HD to do that. But from what I've experienced, the Solo does just fine and looks great on both my macbook pro and iPhone. As I mentioned in the video above, there is a lag between the real-time TV and what you're seeing on the Slingbox client. Not a big deal at all, but it's there. The audio is really good to and doesn't have problems keeping up with the video like some other streaming applications do.


3. Mobile Applications: This is where the Slingbox goes from cool to awesome. Once you download the app onto your iPhone, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry smartphone, you can immediately watch your TV after some minor setup. I've used it on both a Windows Mobile phone (Motorola Q9) and my iPhone 3GS and both work really well. Keep in mind for the iPhone, you need to be on WiFi to use this app.


4. Control: From either the mobile application or the desktop application, you can easily control what's on your cable box. I use it a lot for accessing my saved shows on my DVR, or even watching live Football games when I'm in an area that doesn't show my local team. As you can see in the pic above, there's a pretty intuitive remote that works with most cable boxes (I'm on RCN, not Comcast, but the remotes work the same). Fast Forward, Rewind, Pause, Video On Demand - its all there.

5. Use it for other TVs: Sling also has another product that puts what's on your cable box onto another TV (like in another room), and its called the SlingCatcher (I know, another sexual contraption name). Think of it as taking what you can do on your laptop and easily throwing it up on the TV screen. Its not useful to me, but I could see this being helpful if you didn't want to pay for cable and hooked up a Slingbox at your parent's house and the SlingCatcher at your house.

6. Cost: Ok, this part may push you away from this pretty fantastic product, but here goes: the Slingbox Solo is $160 on Amazon and the Pro-HD is $260. Its not cheap, but it really is a great addition to your media center if you watch a lot of TV. I should also mention the iPhone app is $30, so the total cost of the Solo and the app is around 2 Franklins. If you're thinking you might want to buy, I'd appreciate you going through Amazon (I get a referral). Here are links to the Solo, Pro-HD, and Catcher for your convenience:

All My Apps Are Pointless

I may have to dome  over his username cause I keep writing about my fav Apple product, the iPhone. If you hit the "Future" link to the right, you'll see most of my posts are about how sweet the iPhone is - and you might as well add this one to that list. Without further adieu, here are my favorite iPhone games:

1. My new favorite is Meteor Blitz - its addictive, fun, has good graphics, and isn't too difficult. Its a great time waster and has a simple storyline. Basically you shoot meteors and alien ships similar to the old 2D asteroid game. Trust me, its addicting. $1.99


More Apps below...

2. If you think you have a good vocabulary, check out Word Scramble 2. There's a 4x4 grid of letters and you drag your finger across the letters to create words. The object of the game is to get as many words as possible in 30 seconds. Its pretty fun, but it hurts my feelings 'cause I seem to only know 3-letter words. FREE!








3. Ok, next one up is a great puzzle game called Fling! (The exclamation is part of the app's name, not my excitement… although I am excited). Think of it as chess with only rooks, and you bump rather than replace… you'll see what I mean when you play it. It starts out easy and gets progressively harder. For only a buck, its worth it.








4. Boom Brigade. 3 steps to winning: 1. Run around 2. Kill Aliens 3. Profit! This game combines tower defense, line drawing, and top-down shooters. It's pretty tough though, but a good time waster. 2 Bucks




5. The winner of the "All My Apps Are Pointless" award goes to rope'n'fly 2. This game is highly addicting as you try and beat your previous score (never-ending games are very dangerous in the bathroom, so word of caution). The picture explains it enough, but you're basically spiderman swinging through a 2D city. A dollar.

I'm sure there are other great, albeit pointless, games out there - talk about them in the comments! Also, I didn't mention another great game, Harbor Master, in this post but you can read my Quick-Six review here.

The Future is Now: Bionic Eye Edition

Don't jump to any conclusions about the title: Bionic Eye is simply the name of a sweet new app for the iPhone 3GS. A few weeks ago, I talked about augmented reality in the Yelp app, but pointed out it was buggy and didn't work very well. I downloaded Bionic Eye today and I'm pretty impressed with the results:

First of all, you need an iPhone 3GS to utilize this app - the compass is required to make all this "augmented reality" stuff actually work. Luckily for this post, I own a 3GS. According to the app, Bionic Eye supports these points of interests:

Fast Food:
- Mcdonald's
- Subway
- Taco Bell
- Burger King
- KFC
- Wendy's
- Johnny Rockets
- Arby's
- Carl's Jr
- Panda Express
- Hardee's
- Fatburger

Restaurants:
- Domino's Pizza
- Pizza Hut
- Hooters
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Chili's Grill & Bar

Coffer, Pastry & Ice Cream:
- Starbucks
- Ben & Jerry's
- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Leisure:
- WiFi
- Tourist Locations
- Apple Store

Accomodation:
- Holiday Inn
- Best Western
- Marriott
- Hilton
- Ramada
- Super 8
- Motel 6

Subway Stations:
- New York Subway
- Washington Metro
- Chicago L Rapid Transit

As you can see in the picture, the restaurant and fast food POIs work pretty well. I had a problem downloading the Chicago L stations for $2.99, so I have to call Apple to figure that out. You can hold your phone up to look around to find the nearest POI, or hold it parallel to the ground to get an easy listing of things nearby. So far so good, and it's definitely more refined than Yelp's prototype, "Monicle."

Push Gmail For Your iPhone(!)

Non-iPhone owners can stop here. For the rest of you, this post is so important I've brought out my black-framed nerd-specs and my speech-class repressed lisp for this one.

Guyth, seriouthly, lithen to me on thith one


Remember in May when I said you could sync your phone to Google Calendar and Contacts but that you'd have to wait patiently for instant (push) gmail? Well the wait is over.


Google explains how to do it here. If you already have sync set up, it's as easy as flipping the Mail switch to "On."

Once again, Google proving its worth beyond the iPhone but still (for now) requiring the semi-symbiotic relationship until a better piece of Android hardware comes out. Thweet.

Update: Make sure you've saved your contacts from your iphone to an external source FIRST. You can do this with a CSV file (a type of excel spreadsheet). Just Google "CSV" and whatever mail program you use (I know that sounds dismissive but there are a bunch of different mail services and respective CSV creators so just give the internets a look). Also, this process does NOT save pictures assignments. A small price to pay.

Quick Six Review - HarborMaster iPhone App

The iPhone and iPod Touch have really changed the way I play video games. Sure, games like Madden and Halo should really only be played on a TV screen with a controller, but some games are just as fun on a portable device. Now that I have a bunch of ridiculously stupid and mindlessly addictive games right in my pocket, I can waste time whenever I want. Enter HarborMaster - the extremely well designed and graphically appealing harboring/docking/screen fondling game. Its awesome for these reasons:

1. Its Easy - I hate games that are impossible to play - they make the bathroom experience less enjoyable.

2. No Real Story Line - All you do is drag boats into docks and drag them back out without having them run into each other. Its simple, and you just do it to the point where one of them crashes - no levels or lives, just fun.

3. Nice Graphics - Sure, the iPhone can run games that look as nice as the Playstation 1 (Remember that, back in the nineties?), but cartoony looking games seem to work the best on the small screen.

4. Island Music - Everyone in the bathroom will know you're having a relaxing time.

5. Soon-to-be Multiplayer Support - When the update comes out, you'll be able to play with the guy/girl in the next stall! I hope they allow you to customize the "you've been challenged" message so I can say "the guy playing the island music wants to play an iPhone game with you."

6. Pirates - Excerpt from the game's description on the App Store: "Pirates!"

To get HarborMaster, click here to download the app in iTunes - I highly recommend it for a whopping $0.99.

The Future is Now: Yelp Edition

For you iPhone 3GS users out there: go immediately to the App store and download the Yelp app. If you already have the Yelp app, delete it and go to the App store to re-download. Once you launch the app, shake your phone 3 times - no joke. It took me a couple tries (just throttle the shit out of it) and an Indiana Jones-like message will appear saying "the Monocle has been activated." Now you'll see an icon at the top called "Monocle" - tap it to start the augmented reality feature.

The 3GS is required - older 3G models wont work (you need the internal compass). If you don't have a 3GS, or an iPhone for that matter, go give Apple your money.

More pics after the break...


Augmented reality is the next big thing for mobile phones. What I want to see (dibs on the idea) is a "Hot-or-Not" augmented reality app that randomly chooses if someone is hot or not. Fuck facial recognition, it would just throw a bubble above someones face saying their ugly. Watch out though, insecure males and females may lash out by throwing your $299 mobile fantasy window to the ground. On the other hand, if they're lucky enough to get the "hot" bubble... waka waka.

Spotify Got Approved!

To follow up on Block's post on the music service, Spotify, the iPhone app has just been approved by Apple. Considered to be an "iTunes killer," its pretty amazing it got through the approval process. Keep in mind its not in the US yet, but hopefully it will soon. You can read more here.

30 Days of dumbPhones*

(Taken with my smartPhone. Meta.)

Like drinking PBR and wearing flannel shirts in the summer, hating your smartPhone has become the latest cool thing to do. Not one to miss out on a trend, I now despise my iPhone.

Seriously though, I've become increasingly dependent on my mobile computing device. A few weeks ago, I went on a road trip with Casey McK., Rob C. and Evan C. We showed up at the airport in Seattle with no plans, travel guides or maps. But we did have two iPhones and a car charger. Turns out that was enough.

This incident wasn't the first time I relied on technology to save the day. Have I really become this attached to an inanimate object? Could I live without it if I had to?

Enter social experiment number 2: 30 days of dumbPhones*

For the month of August, I'll be switching SIM cards out of my awesome but dominating smartPhone and into my humble but effective dumbPhone. The *asterisk* is necessary because I'm not going cold turkey (that'd be crazy, plus I use it for work). Instead, I'm weaning myself off; every weekend of this month, I'll be going smartPhoneless. Using the phone above, I'll make calls, text, check voicemail and nothing else (camera sold separately). To kick it off, this weekend I'll be hitting the road to Boston and then Long Island, with nothing but a circa 2005 Motorola flip phone and printed out Google maps directions (quaint, I know).

I've also figured out ways to text into AMDAL, so I'll be liveblogging my experiences periodically. So follow along and watch me sweat, twitch and vomit through all the withdrawal symptoms as I fall down the social status ladder back to a world where snake was the only game and, like O'Doyle, T9 ruled.

Am I excited? A little. Scared? Definitely.

So we'll see how my weekends sans-QWERTY goes. Wish me luck. But quick, I gtg. TTYL8R :)

Hat tip: Klingon for providing the dumbPhone - enjoy the shirt.

Quick Six Review- iPhone 3GS

So this is the first of many (hopefully) quick six reviews. I've been getting more and more "what should I buy" emails, so what better place to make gadget suggestions for my friends than AMDAL. I'm assuming that about 90% of you already have an iPhone and 100% know enough about the iPhone to make this review helpful. Here goes:

1. The "S" is for speed, and its for good reason. Its much faster than the 3G in so many ways - to the point where it makes sense to shell out more money to get the better processor. It makes doing everyday things much smoother and less frustrating, like the keyboard no longer has any lag when you first start typing.

2. The camera is actually good enough to use as a replacement for your point-and-shoot. To focus, you simply tap on the screen where you want to focus/set exposure and the camera quickly makes the appropriate readings. Also, video recording is much better than you'd think - 30 frames per second looks smooth and the auto-focus helps the clarity.


3. The compass is awesome - when you launch Google maps and hit the "Find Me" button twice, it orients the map to where you're pointing. This is especially useful when you're in a new place trying to figure out which way to start walking to find a cab.


4. The latest firmware (3.0) is really optimized for the 3GS, so it runs flawlessly on the new hardware. When using the new spotlight feature, search results are displayed almost instantly. This may be shameless self-promotion, but the wireless headphones I developed as a product manager for Motorola work amazingly well with the new 3.0 firmware: Motorla S305.

5. Open GL 2.0 support may not be so apparent right now, but when new games start coming out that utilize it, you'll appreciate the feature. The easiest way to think of it is 3G:3GS::PS:PS2. I already see a huge improvement in Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and it doesn't even utilize Open GL 2.0.

6. Voice Control - finally you can make calls without having to go to the phone, then contacts, then dial... all you have to do is hold down the home button and wait for the prompt. It works pretty well for me, but asking the iPhone to play a certain artist wasn't so hot.

The bottom line: I'm happy I paid the extra $299 to get the latest iPhone, so if you have $199 to $299 to blow on another iPhone, I would definitely suggest upgrading. Oh, and for you runners out there, the Nike+ support is pretty awesome, so that may be another reason to upgrade.

POGUE!

I read his awesome 3GS / iphone 3.0 software review here and figured I'd drop him a note.

David Pogue to me

show details 4:21 PM (16 minutes ago)

So glad you enjoyed it... Thanks so much for the note!

Dp

On 6/17/09 3:21 PM, MLR wrote:

I was very downbeat about Apple, but I'm feeling better after your upbeat and well written review.

Anyways, I'm a big fan. I've linked to your review a few times on my Dartmouth-centric blog and we all look forward to whatever you review next. Looking forward to the video review.

Thanks again.

Mike

PS: Fear of yodelers = Classic.

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David Pogue
Tech Columnist, The New York Times
www.davidpogue.com
www.missingmanuals.com