The Mobile Gadgeteer

March 22nd, 2010

Apple should let adults make their own decisions regarding content

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 1:46 am

Categories: Apple, Mobile software, ebooks, iPad, iPhone

Tags: Apple Inc., E-books & E-Readers, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller

Regular readers know that I am a person who talks openly about my faith in Jesus Christ when I talk about applications and services I use on my mobile devices. One of the major reasons I made the decision to buy an Apple iPad was the fantastic Bible study and reading capabilities that I expect to experience on the large screen iPhone OS device. I read Jason Perlow’s article on Apple controlling the content that owners will be able to access on Apple devices and am a bit apprehensive about Apple’s control. While I personally avoid accessing or viewing any type of sexually explicit content and believe that the overabundance of it is degrading to women and not helpful to our society, I do not think that it is Apple’s responsibility to control what people read or view. Once Apple starts to control content, how in the world do they determine what is or isn’t acceptable content? Shoot, the Bible I read could be judged to be unacceptable to some and I believe it is better to let adults decide for themselves what they will or will not read or view.

The Apple Regional Content Review clause that Apple has in place does concern me a bit in regards to content from suppliers outside of the iBooks library. In addition to the Bible study aspects that appeal to me on the iPad, another aspect of the device that helped me with my purchase decision was the ability to read my purchased ebook content from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise, eReader, and more providers that I have purchased content from over the years. I understand that there are no restrictions on this content at this time, but with Apple you never can tell what will or will not be controlled so it remains to be seen what will happen in the future.

March 19th, 2010

Want a tablet-based device but don't want an iPad? The HP Slate might be for you

Posted by Joel Evans @ 10:19 am

Categories: Apple, Microsoft, Tablet PC, iPad

Tags: SLATE, Hewlett-Packard Co., iPad, Tablets, Microsoft Windows, Notebooks, Microsoft Windows 7, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Operating Systems

If you don’t want to give in to the Apple force field and pick up an iPad, there are a number of Windows-based offerings coming to market soon. One of the most talked about ones is the HP Slate. Until today we didn’t know much about the Slate’s specs and didn’t even know a price, other than HP’s statement that

“chip and screen advancements have given us the ability to create a product that can hit a size, weight, battery life and price point that will make this product a mainstream offering.”

Well, now we have some information to go on thanks to a post on clipset.net. According to the site, the HP Slate will run an Intel Atom processor and will sell for approximately US$542.

While $542 might seem affordable, Sal Cangeloso from Geek.com goes on to say that

“US tech companies often price devices at the same dollar amount as the Euro price, which would put the Slate at a more reasonable (and iPad undercutting) $400.”

I did pre-order my iPad but have to say that there’s still a piece of me that hopes Microsoft and HP can pull off the tablet concept. Granted, Microsoft has offered a Tablet PC for a long time now, but the Slate is a category that’s trying to redefine the space yet again.

If you take a look at the video below you’ll see that the HP Slate runs Flash, which is something that the iPad will definitely not have day one. This could be a huge deciding factor for many consumers and corporations, since even though Apple contends that we don’t need Flash, the majority of the web still uses it daily.

Unfortunately, it looks like the HP Slate may suffer from some hold-overs from the Tablet PC days, as Adrian pointed out earlier in his blog post. Adrian took the time to dissect the videos of the HP Slate in action and pointed out that the Windows 7 taskbar looked crowded, and thanks to the Windows desktop paradigm still carrying over, there are tiny controls, scrollbars, and other elements that are far from finger friendly.

Will the above be an issue for the HP Slate when it finally comes to market? My guess is that it will based on my previous experience with devices where Microsoft tried to make Windows Mobile finger-friendly. For the most part it’s pretty difficult to make an OS that was designed for a pen, mouse or keyboard to suddenly work with a finger. Hopefully HP is building in a bunch of its own special sauce in the UI and is doing its best to cover up the Windows 7 navigation elements.

With some word finally leaking out about the HP Slate I’m hoping that HP will now come clean and release all information, including pricing and shipping date. It’s definitely possible that the company is ready to announce and ship in time to compete with the iPad so we could receive official news any day now.

March 18th, 2010

HTC claims innovations long before Apple's patents

Posted by Joel Evans @ 1:10 pm

Categories: Android, Apple, HTC, Smartphone, Windows Mobile, iPhone

Tags: Innovation, High Tech Computer Corp., Patent, Apple Inc., Pocket PC, Smart Phones, Handhelds, Leadership, Cellular Phones, Strategy

Earlier this month Apple filed a patent suit against HTC and now HTC is responding. According to HTC’s press release, the company

“disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself.”

To refresh your memory, Apple is suing HTC for violating 20 patents related to “the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.”

The press release goes on to say that HTC

“strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible”

What I found particularly interesting about the press release was HTC’s ability to not only say that they’re innovators but to demonstrate it time and again by including a quick timeline of firsts. I’ve included them below:

• First Windows PDA (1998)
• First Windows Phone (June 2002)
• First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005)
• First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007)
• First Google Android smartphone (October 2008)
• First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008)

As you can see from above, HTC’s innovations start long before the iPhone patents come into play. I’m not a lawyer but I would think that HTC may have a case here.

I’ve been a Windows Mobile fan since it was first known as Pocket PC and actually had one of the first Pocket PC phones (pictured above). I even wrote a review of the Pocket PC Phone back when it was first released. It was a great phone, way ahead of its time, and clearly demonstrates HTC’s ability to innovate at a time when most phones were used just for talking.

Lawsuits have a tendency to drag out for a long time. At this stage I hope this one wraps up quick so that we don’t see a strain on HTC’s pocket book or innovation as a result.

If you’re interested in seeing more of HTC’s history be sure to check out HTC.com/history. I remember hearing about HTC long ago when I was playing with the iPAQ and other devices and it’s amazing to see how far the company has come since.

March 18th, 2010

Update your DROID to 2.1 to enjoy some pinch-to-zoom

Posted by Joel Evans @ 12:21 pm

Categories: Android, Google

Tags: Google Inc., Operating System, Update, Operating Systems, Software, Joel Evans

If you’ve been holding out hope for the ability to upgrade your DROID to 2.1, your wait is finally over. Verizon Wireless is now offering the update and has posted instructions on performing the update, including a list of features available in the update.

Included in the update are things like pinch-to-zoom in the browser, Gallery and GoogleMaps, a new Weather and News app and widget, voice-to-text entry support, and a whole lot more. Basically, 2.1 delivers a lot of the features that the Nexus One did, albeit a bit late.

Google is also offering up a bunch of improvements in this update so be sure to do the update via the “Install now” option.

I like that Verizon is finally making this update available and sort of bringing the DROID up to par with the Nexus One. I have to wonder, though, if Google is planning similar updates for all of its Android-based phones. Right now there’s a lot of fragmentation in the Android OS marketplace with devices running anything from 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.0.1, and of course, 2.1. Each OS offers different features and while some devices running the earlier OS can’t be upgraded to the latest, perhaps Google can offer some of the same features of the new OS as an update? Also, with the fragmentation of the Android OS comes the inability for all apps in the now 30,000 strong Android Market to run on all Android devices. I would think that cleaning up that issue would be even more important for Google as it tries to play in the “App Store” game.

The good news is that Google does seem committed to trying to upgrade the OS often. Now it’s just a matter of where the line in the sand will be drawn for features and upgradability.

UPDATE: We’re hearing that the update is delayed again but have not yet been able to officially confirm the delay.

March 17th, 2010

Kindle for Mac is now available

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 10:36 pm

Categories: Apple, Kindle, ebooks

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Amazon.com Inc., Kindle, Desktops, Hardware, Matthew Miller

Last fall Amazon rolled out Kindle for PC so you could enjoy your purchased Kindle content on your Windows computer. Last night Amazon released a beta of Kindle for Mac so you could enjoy Kindle content on a Mac. Remember that a Kindle is not needed to use either of these clients or the clients for the iPhone and BlackBerry devices.

Kindle for Mac supports automatically synchronizing between devices via Whispersync, bookmark creation, annotation viewing, and shopping for the more than 450,000 books in the Kindle Store. Amazon stated in the press release that the Kindle application will soon be coming to the Apple iPad, but we already have a Kindle application on the iPhone so they may be working on an optimized version as well. It is nice to see Amazon roll out these applications across as many platforms as possible since it is all about the content and not the reader.

Thanks to MacWorld for the tip on the news.

March 17th, 2010

April Fools a little early: Windows Phone 7 Series will have copy and paste

Posted by Joel Evans @ 5:31 pm

Categories: Apple, Microsoft, Windows Mobile, iPhone

Tags: Team, Paste, Copy, Microsoft Windows, Team Management, Human Capital Management, Operating Systems, Software, Management, Human Resources

I was going to cover the rumors earlier that had surfaced that were stating that Windows Phone 7 Series wouldn’t have copy and paste, but they just seemed too far fetched. Instead, I was waiting to confirm with some people “in the know”. I still haven’t heard first hand but now the folks at istartedsomething have it on good authority that Windows Phone 7 Series will have copy and paste eventually.

According to the post, copy and paste is

“definitely a scenario and feature that the team is putting a lot of thought about and hope to bring to the platform soon after initial release.”

It goes on to say that the team itself knows how they’re going to implement copy and paste in Windows Phone 7 Series but did not think they could implement it without affecting the release schedule.

I only have one word for this: phew! Seriously though, how can Microsoft release its new mobile operating system without copy and paste? Didn’t the company learn anything from Apple’s release of the iPhone and its two-year delay in getting copy and paste implemented into the platform?

Now we have to wonder if the company really had planned on implementing copy and paste in the platform eventually. I bet that the team had planned to roll it out but is now fast tracking the rollout since it’s getting hammered for its explanation that most users don’t need copy and paste.

Regardless, copy and paste is coming, so that’s a good sign. Unfortunately, it’s not coming on day one and even though the platform will ship with Office support, even the Office apps themselves won’t do copy and paste.

In the end the lack of copy and paste may turn out to be a good thing for the folks behind QuickOffice and Documents To Go. If they manage to implement copy and paste, they could see some serious sales on launch day.

One more thing: I want to give props to Jason Dunn of WindowsPhoneThoughts. Not only has he been passionately following every moment of this debacle and keeping me aware of many of its layers, but he has not been shy about his opinions either.

March 17th, 2010

PayPal wants you to Bump some cash to your friends

Posted by Joel Evans @ 11:19 am

Categories: Apple, iPhone

Tags: API, PayPal, Joel Evans

I’ve been a fan of PayPal since its early days, when it was originally designed for beaming money from one Palm to another. A lot has changed since July 1999 and today PayPal has released a new version of its PayPal app for iPhone that lets users Bump cash to each other.

The new PayPal app lets you type in the recipient’s email and send money the old PayPal way, or simply “Bump to Send Money”, thanks to the company integrating Bump Technologies’ API.

I remember reading a while ago that the folks behind Bump were working on a business model that involved licensing the technology. A quick look at their site shows an API page, which looks to be offering the API for free once you fill out a form. It’s not clear if this is a restricted API and if PayPal may have paid extra for a bit more access, but one this is for certain–with PayPal on board the company will no doubt either secure some serious funding or be ripe for acquisition.

Download the new PayPal app at itunes.apple.com and start Bumping some cash around today.

March 17th, 2010

I can type 54 WPM on my iPhone

Posted by Joel Evans @ 10:48 am

Categories: Apple, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Joel Evans

One of the big questions I always get asked is how I can type so fast on the iPhone. It seems that most people either can’t type very fast on the iPhone or just can’t believe how fast I type on it.

I used to think that I was a pretty fast typist until I came across this video on YouTube. It seems that the creator of the video used the iPhone app itextspeed and clocked himself typing 81 WPM on his iPhone. His 81 WPM has since been beaten by Kyle Ota, who according to his latest twitter post via the itextspeed app, has now hit 88 WPM.

A cool feature of the itextspeed app is that it gives you the instant ability to brag, via either Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed. I chose to share via Twitter and it put this up for me:

just texted 54 WPM in a 30s game of iTextSpeed for iPhone and iPod Touch. Check it out! http://itextspeed.com #iTextSpeed

The itextspeed app is 99 cents (or there’s a lite version) so if you want to join in the fun go to itextspeed.com.

I clock in around 94 WPM on my keyboard so I think it’s game on for me and the iPhone. Kyle Ota, I’m coming for you!! Also, I’ll have to fire up some other typing trackers on other smartphones and see how I do. The iPhone has a great predictive text engine, which is probably helping out a lot.

See the previous record holder in action below.

March 16th, 2010

Spring Design launches pre-order store for Alex ebook reader

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 5:14 am

Categories: EPUB, Gadgets, ebooks

Tags: E-book, Alex, Ebook Reader, Spring Design, E-books & E-Readers, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller

One of the ebook readers I checked out at CES 2010 and one that has a lot of people interested is the Alex from Spring Design. We just received a press release stating that the dual screen ereader will be available online for pre-order starting today for $399 (store not open quite yet). Devices will ship to US buyers by mid-April. The Alex is an Android-based ebook reader that supports EPUB, PDF, HTML, and TXT formats and has a large bottom color display that functions much like a Google Android internet tablet. With Alex’s full Internet browsing using WiFi connectivity, users can read and download books, access online audio and video content including YouTube videos, communicate using Gmail and chat and use a number Google Android applications.

The top is a typical 6 inch eInk display while the bottom is a 3.5 inch color capacitive display with virtual keyboard. I played with the Alex at CES and have to say the device was much more responsive than I thought it would be and has real potential for those looking for more than just an ebook reader.

One features I didn’t hear much about before that is mentioned in the press release is Spring Design LinkNotes. Here is how they are described:

Authors may insert hyperlinks in their books that show up on the eInk reading screen indicating that there is linked-in web-based content available. Users can click on hyperlinks in eBooks, corporate documents, or periodicals that lead to relevant web-based information or to multimedia content stored on the Alex eReader that will enrich their reading experience. Spring Design anticipates that this feature will be highly valuable in the education market where professors will be able to provide their own study notes, video illustrations, and audio enhancements to augment already-published textbooks.

The Alex weighs 11 ounces and measures in at 4.7 x 8.9 inches and less than a half inch thick. A microSD card slot, supporting up to 32GB, is provided for content storage. WiFi and USB connectivity options are present for connectivity.

March 15th, 2010

The business-focused QUE proReader hits a shipping delay

Posted by Joel Evans @ 6:40 am

Categories: CES, ebooks, iPad

Tags: Plastic Logic, iPad, Mergers & Acquisitions, E-mail, Corporate Law, Team Management, Sales Channel, Financial Services, Investment, Finance

On the heels of the iPad pre-order madness comes word of a delay of Plastic Logic’s QUE proReader.

According to paidContent, Plastic Logic’s CEO, Richard Archuleta, sent an e-mail out to customers who had pre-ordered the QUE proReader informing them that the QUE proReader will not ship until this summer. The reason given for the delay is that the company needs to

“fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience.”

The device was originally supposed to start shipping in mid-April, so receiving this announcement about a month before expecting to see the device in-hand is sure to cause some cancelations of pre-orders. Then again, the company did state that it won’t charge any credit cards until the device ships, so at this point if you pre-ordered you might as well hang on until after you see how well the iPad fares for business users.

The target user of the QUE is not the typical iPad user (as Matt Miller reported from CES earlier this year) so even though the iPad will now ship long before the QUE, if a business had its eyes on the QUE, chances are it will still want the device for its users. However, with the QUE now delayed until summer, that does give iPad developers a lot longer to create an experience similar to the one that the QUE was hoping to deliver.

As of this writing, Plastic Logic is offering to cover shipping when the device finally ships. This is a nice gesture but with the iPad hitting for $499 and the QUE starting at $649, I would bet that the Plastic Logic team is also now going to try to figure out a way to drive down the acquisition cost of the unit, too.