inspiration

i started this blog when i made the jump to a smartphone. there were all kinds of things i discovered i could do while mobile. while the world of smartphone is still fascinating to me, it seems so yesterday. maybe that is because my iphone is six months old and the (usable) internet in my pocket is just a given. i love my iphone even though it drops calls way too often.

i recently relocated to ohio when my company, kaleidoscope (www.kascope.com) calls home. i am the director of design as such i see lots of things that i find interesting or inspiring. you will notice the name of the blog is no longer chris_mobile, but chris_is_mobile. when ever i see something cool, it will hopefully show up here. (and most likely from my iphone) i am not sure what they did but the iphone 3gs camera is almost good enough to not ever use a point and shoot camera ever again so i assume most of the posts will be generated on the go via my iphone.

the coolest thing in my life is my family and they take priority over everything else, so post frequency may vary. likewise, my company is in the midst of a format change on our website and i hope to be posting cool stuff there too.

long time no post

It has been a long time since the last post... maybe that is because windows mobile is not that deep and within a few weeks you have discovered everything there is. As I have mentioned in past posts, to me winmo is all about active sync, which works great. Apple is now 3 versions into the iPhone and i have finally made the jump... first some background.

About a year ago, i bought a the 3rd generation ipod nano... it was a refurb and it was cheap. Even though there was no music on it, i was amazed with the 'surprise and delight' factor. The overall polish of the UI, the games that were included... it was cool, even the screen when it was charging was nice. In contrast to what my windows mobile device was like which in some instance was very windows circa 1995. For something that came in a crappy brown box with old ipod headphones and a white, but non-apple usb cable, it was a very pleasing 'out of box' experience. Now on to the iphone.

Apple has done a good job of reducing the packaging... (you need to realize that I have not bought a new apple product since my Ti powerbook... the last iteration of the Ti ID).
When I unboxed it and powered it up, i got the apple logo and the spinning circle that shows it is booting up... then while still black, it said that it needs to be initialized first by plugging it in to iTunes. Ughh... granted most pick up the iphone at the att store or the apple store and that would not be the case. Plus my house has really spotty (if non-existant) att signal which of course is part of the initialization. In true Apple style it said something like you need to take it to the Apple store for help. My assumption was it couldn't get the signal. I let it be for a half hour or so and it was all better... fired up and running. The out of box was a little rocky... the interesting thing to me, was Apple has been doing such high level ID for so long, the artifact was somewhat anti-climatic. The excitement was all about the UI.

the other side of the fence: the blackberry curve

I have been using the Curve for about three or four weeks. So far so good. I feel like I have used it long enough to talk through what I like and what I don't.
Kaleidoscope, the company I work for, does not have a blackberry server, so I realize in advance that my experience is less than advertised. In fact let me start there. I am going to sound like a microsoft fan boy, but I miss the activesync. Yes, I do get my e-mails in a timely fashion, but I noticed that if I review an e-mail on my computer, the e-mail may or may not be delivered to the blackberry. I absolutely hate having to plug in the phone to my laptop and sync the updates to the calendar, contacts and tasks. It will be interesting to see how the new iphone software handles this... it does claim activesync compatibility. The other day, my battery died and I was not in a position to charge it, so I used a windows mobile device for the weekend. I have switched devices enough that I have the outlook settings memorized. Plugged them in and all my contacts, appointments and e-mails show up. Pure magic :)
Speaking of battery, the battery life on the curve is good. Maybe that is because it an EDGE device and doesn't support the 3G. But on eastern long island where I live, there is 3G is pretty rare unless you are deep in Nassau County or in the Hamptons. So based on that, it seems like RIM has done a good job of optimizing the battery life.
I like the form factor. It is a tad too thick, at least it seems to be so. I realize the Blackjack plays thickness games, with the top being thicker than most of the back. If the curve was 1.5 mm thinner it would be perfect. The slightly shorter length than a blackjack is nice.
I think I prefer the non-touch screen, but I will admit that first week, I kept trying to push the buttons on the screen. The overall UI seems dated. Maybe not quite as bad as my old SLVR, but there is a lot of text, icons, and overall graphic feel is a little too windows 3.11. I guess that keeps the GUI snappy and there is never delay because the processor can't keep up with the 'shiny GUI.' But for me, as a designer, I don't think I would choose this over other options.
I set the UI back to the blackberry default. The ATT version wasn't doing anything for me. I did like that I can move the home screen icons around, even remove them. This allowed me to delete all the silly ATT apps, music, radio, tv, etc.
There is some subtle rubber on the rear housing. It is a nice touch... it seems as if the whole housing is IMD parts... Looks nice from a distance, but seems almost cheap up close.
I really would like use the device with the blackberry server. Then I would have the missing 'activesync' connectivity.
The qwerty is good, same width as a blackjack. I think I like the keys of the blackjack better, but the curve definitely look better. I hate the fact that all the punctuation is on a shifted state. It is interesting to me that Samsung, Motorola, RIM spend lots of resources testing and validating keypads, but they all arrive at different solutions.

changes...

February 15 was too long ago. To a certain degree that is because I have become accustomed to the blackjack and windows mobile. As I have mentioned in previous posts, when it comes to outlook integration I am really impressed with windows mobile. Just plug in the settings on the device and never hard wire sync again. Once I started traveling with a new ipod nano, I gave up on multi-media on the blackjack.
About three weeks ago, I ordered a Samsung sgh-780. It is sort of a Blackjack big brother. The form factor is virtually identical to the Blackjack II. But it has a larger display, a touch screen, camera on the front, wifi and it runs the full version of windows mobile, not smart phone. Like the Blackjack II it is quadband gsm, but it seems to me that the radios are tuned when a phone is certified by a carrier. The 780 seems to drop calls too frequently, even shut the phone feature off when there is no signal... which is pretty often on Long Island.
I am surprised how different windows mobile and windows smart phone are... because my primary apps are making calls and sending and receiving e-mails, I think I prefer the smart phone version. It just seems a little cleaner.
The 780 has a really cool optical navigation button on the front. It is sort of a super mini track pad. It takes up less space than a traditional 4 or 5 way key. I assume it is much more reliable than a joystick. The rubberize finish on the rear and battery cover is nice. It reminds me of the original Blackjack. I personally prefer the satin finish to the super high gloss of the Blackjack II.
The wifi is great too. Pretty speedy web browsing, and it is nice to still be able to connect to e-mail in the house where there is no cell signal.
We had some pretty bad rain the last several days, and the non-reliable phone is N.G. (no good). So I am moving on...

blue screen

ok, it wasn't blue, it was an at&t globe, but yesterday morning when i went to start my phone, it would begin to start up but got hung up somewhere before the end of the boot. it sucked!
I finally figured out how to get it unstuck. (hold the up of the nav & press the power button while it is starting.) but it wipes out all the data on the phone... i removed the sd card so i did not loose that.
once or twice in the last 7-8 years I have had a phone get stuck, but i was always able to remove the battery and it would come back up... and I did not loose all the data.
i suppose if i had the outlook settings memorized i could have survived without my laptop. activesync is awesome... once i plugged my settings in, all the contacts were back as were the unread e-mails... but shame on windows for needing to flush everything.

mobile phone infrastructure

It seems like the only time I have to catch up on my reading in on airplanes. While reading last months Metropolis magazine, I stumbled across Ericsson's new cell towers. As a designer I think they are cool, much nicer than anything I have seen out there today. So at least it is no longer an aesthetic blight on the landscape. As far as I can tell it doesn't do much to reduce RF emission, which would make it the ultimate infrastructure solution. Here is the link to the Ericsson web page that discusses the new towers.

calendar

The last week has revealed some frustration with the calendar. There have been a number of instances where I would like to have been able forward a meeting appointment to someone else. There may be a way, but I have not been able to figure it out. It is an action that I use frequently on my outlook on my laptop.