i am derrick's mobile blog...

Trump Tower

2011-10-15T09:36:00.001-05:00

Point of view shot of Trump Tower in Chicago with an Instagram filter applied. Taken on my iPhone 4.

iPhone 3G/3GS analysis...

2009-08-05T09:12:00.017-05:00

Making the Switch to the iPhone

I recently purchased the iPhone 16GB 3G from a co-worker who upgraded to the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone was scratched up quite a bit and the the ringer on/off switch, sadly was broken off, though it would still work if you used an end of a pen cap and carefully moved what was left of the switch.

Still, because of my co-worker's asking price, the iPhone wound up being cheaper than getting an equivalent capacity refurbished model, plus I did not have to renew another 2 year contract with AT&T so that pretty much put the whole deal over the top.

Once I got the phone, I swapped the SIM card from my old HTC Touch Cruise onto the newly acquired iPhone 3G. It wasn't simple "swap the SIM and play" like my other GSM phones however. I was not able to use the iPhone or make calls, until I registered the iPhone and SIM through iTunes. Once I did that, the iPhone was phone call ready at least. One thing that I do really miss from the HTC Touch Cruise, and it is the reason I bought the device in the first place, was the full Turn by Turn GPS thanks to the Tom Tom software for Windows Mobile:

http://www.tomtom.com/products/category.php?ID=2

Tom Tom for the iPhone, however is just down the horizon and will hopefully be avilable sonner than later:

http://iphone.tomtom.com/

I was also subscribing to an unlimited "phone" data plan with AT&T, but apparently that "generic" data plan wasn't compatible with the iPhone, so I had to make a call to AT&T Customer service and change my data plan to the "iPhone Data Plan", which to my understanding only comes in the unlimited flavor for $30 per month, as opposed to my "regular" unlimited data plan, which was around $20 per month. I also got the 200 iPhone text messaging plan for an additional $5 per month. A 1500 text message plan and an Unlimited text message plan were also available for $15 and $20 respectively for the SMS fanatics out there.

I understand the price premium that is placed on Voice and Data, but SMS messages take little if any bandwidth. In fact, for many third world countries that have GSM wireless service available, SMS is the most cost-effective form of mobile communication costing the equivalent one to two pennies in US currency per text, which I suppose is on par with the post-paid plans, but if you don't subscribe to one of these plans expect to be gouged to the tune of 20 cents per message, so if you send/receive 150 texts within a month, that $30 right there, the price of an unlimited plan, making it prudent to, at the very least, get the cheapest text plan to "absorb" the cost of the texts that you are sure to send and receive. But enough about my text rate gouging rant.

I had the iPhone for almost a week and decided to go to the Apple Store the following weekend to see if they could replace the switch. One of the Techs at the Genius bar said that if it was still under warranty, the repair service would be free, otherwise the estimated it to be $150-$200?! I had them check my phone to see if it was still under warranty, and luckily it was. Unfortunately, they also required an appointment since the Genius Bar staff, I assume, was booked for the rest of the day and could not take walk-ins.

I mentioned that the price was a bit steep to replace just a little switch. The Genius Bar tech gave some spiel about the cost of the iPhone not being the actual cost, etc. but it didn't really sink in until I went to my Genius Bar appointment the next weekend. A bit of weirdness happened here, because the Tech who checked my phone said the warranty on that phone recently expired, but since it was within a month of that expiration I was still eligible for service, which was weird because the last weekend they said I had until September. He then came back with a brand new 8GB model. I said whoa! I originally had a 16GB model.

Apparently he got the IMEI number from the SIM tray instead of the phone itself. Apparently my co-worker got the 8GB 3G model at launch, which was around July of 2008 and later upgraded to the 16GB model last September and handed the 8GB model down to his little brother (yes, he's a bit of an iPhone fanatic). I'm guessing that he swapped the entire SIM tray instead of just the SIM Cards.

So anyway I had the tech get the IMEI info from the phone itself instead of the SIM card tray, and everything was A-OK from there, with the small inconvenience that they did not provide any data backup service and unfortunately it had been a good few days since I did a solid synchronization. This also meant that they were going to replace the entire phone.

Considering the "well worn out" state the phone was in when I purchased it, I figured a few lost contacts and calendar entries was a small price to pay for a fully functional and practically brand-new phone, though I would have been much more impressed with the Genius Bar Service, if they did offer data transfer service.

Actually, I'm not quite sure if it was "brand new" or not, I know that the 16GB model of the regular 3G is no longer being sold, only the 8GB for their "low end" for $99 US with contract, while the 16GB and the 32GB models were available for the middle and high end offerings, for $199 US and $299 US respectively. Either they kept a stock of "brand new" models for warranty replacement or they had refurbished models with brand new screens and cases on hand.

Either way, the replacement 16GB 3G model, looked practically brand new and that made me infinitely happy all because of a little broken switch, not to mention that there was an additional 90 days on the warranty added onto the replacement and the option to extend that further by a year by purchasing the AppleCare Plan for an additional $69 US:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC004LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA2Mg&mco=NzU4NzA1Ng

Not a bad deal at all. In fact, having personally dealt with Apple's technical support, I would have to say that it is one of the best, if not the best in the industry.

Having been a former owner of the original iPhone 2G and comparing it with the latest 3.0 software, I can honestly say that the iPhone has come a long way. One of the reasons I did not get the iPhone 3G at launch was, that despite the launch of the nen new apple app store and the full 3G upgrade from 2G/EDGE, there were a multitude issues that remained unaddressed. These are basic features that even the simplest and most inexpensive phones perform, but the iPhone could not, such as the inability to send an SMS to multiple recipients, forward an SMS and send a picture/voice/video text message via MMS.

The iPhone 3G at launch was also lacking the many useful smartphone and/or advance feature phone capabilities such as the ability to run applications naitively, though that was resolved with the subsequent launch of the iTunes App store, back in the early iPhone 2G days only web applications were available via Safari unless you were willing to "jailbreak" your phone and even after the launch of the App Store, you still could not run any of the non-bundled applications in the background, again unless you are willing to jailbreak your iPhone.

Aside from that, here is the "laundry list" of things I found lacking from the original iPhone 3G:

Cannot cut, copy and paste text (Added in the 3.0 Software Update)
No flash or autofocus on the camera (Autofocus added in the 3GS model, but still no flash)
No video recording capability (Video Recording added to the 3GS model, but unfortunately unavailabe to the earlier models)
Missing A2DP Bluetooth Stereo Output (Added in the 3.0 Update for both the 3G and the 3GS)
Missing a "Mass Storage" mode for USB file swapping
Missing Bluetooth Object Exchange for bluetooth file swapping
Missing a Horizontal keyboard mode for all applications except Safari, which meant you were forced to compose e-mails, notes, text messages, etc. using only the smaller half-sized vertical keyboard. This feature was thankfully added to the 3.0 software for text, e-mail and notes, but individual application developers are on their own in adding that feature to their apps.
Missing the ability to forward SMS messages (Fixed in the iPhone 3.0 update)
Missing the ability to send MMS picture/voice/video messages (Fix is supposed to be due by the end of summer)

Thankfully there was a recent 3.0 software update, which along with the features mentioned above, includes:

Browse and download movies, TV shows and audiobooks from the iTunes Store**
Stereo Bluetooth*
Shake to shuffle
New Voice Memos application*
Cut, Copy & Paste with shake to undo
Landscape keyboard in key applications
Added search feature in Music, Videos, Mail, Calendar and Notes
Spotlight search across iPod touch
Improvements to Safari
Performance
HTML 5 support
HTTP Streaming audio and video
Auto-fill usernames and passwords
Wi-Fi auto login
Sync Notes with a Mac or PC via iTunes
iTunes account creation and login**
YouTube account login and access to subscriptions, ratings and favorites**
More Parental Control options for Apps, Music, Movies and TV Shows
New languages, dictionaries, and keyboards
Enhanced Stocks application
Support for CalDAV and subscriptions in Calendar
Find my iPod touch and Remote Wipe via MobileMe (subscription required)**
1,000 new developer APIs, including:
In App Purchases
Apple Push Notification Service
Accessories support
Peer to Peer Connectivity
Embedded Maps
iPod Library Access
Bug fixes

One thing I really missed was since way back in the iPhone 2G days, was the ability to play an MP3 as a ringtone. It has gotten a little better these days now that you can "create" a ringtone through iTunes, but only using music that was purchased through iTunes, so if your entire music collection has been ripped from CDs or downloaded though other sources such as Amazon Music or Napster, you are as they say "s.o.l.". If you are the "average consumer" you would basically have to buy the song you liked a second time, even if you already legitimately owned it.

There is of course a way around this. I'll leave out the step-by-step specifics because it's a bit outside the scope of this article, but for the tech savvy, basically you need to take the original MP3 file, cut it down to 30 seconds or less, then convert it to ACC format (.M4a). Once you have the 30 second .M4a file, rename the extension to .M4r and double click on it to play that .M4r file in iTunes. From there, it should be available as a Ringtone that can be added to your iPhone via Sync through iTunes.

Sharing those ringtones is another matter entirely. Practically every smartphone and unlocked feature phone I've ever owned had some sort of sharing capability from device to device, whether it be through old school Infrared "Beaming", Bluetooth Object Exchange, or even MMS Text Messaging. Even my very first unlocked phone, the venerable MotoRAZR V3 was a rockstar in that respect. In the case of the iPhone, it is severely lacking in all respects. Perhaps there is a jailbroken application that will allow you to send theough Bluetooth, but for right now, I don't want to risk bricking the phone and having one of the best warranties in the industry invalidated, but someday, yes someday... ;)

The diehard gadget geeks may not like how the iPhone is "locked down", but that is what jailbreaking is for. I personally do not like how difficult it is to SIM Unlock the phone to use abroad. Yes it's possible to have your iPhone legitimately unlocked, but the moment you swap the SIM card, you have to re-register it with iTunes, ad nauseam...

Unlike other smartphones/pocket PCs such as Windows Mobile, you can also forget about synchronizing your iPhone to two different computers (i.e. your home and work PC), particularly your iTunes Library (Ringtones, Music, Videos, Podcasts, Apps, Etc) . You may be able to get away with dual syncing your contacts, but really, not much else, so be prepared to put all your eggs in one basket.

Perhaps the best thing about the iPhone is, because of its popularity, innovation and user friendly UI, the design control focus for phones in general has shifted from what was in the best interest the wireless carriers (to a large extent) and the established cellphone manufacturers (to a lesser extent) to what is in the best interest of the consumer. In other words, make a phone that is naturally intuitive to use (multitouch UI), throw on a crapload of popular multimedia features such as the ability to play music and video, and throw in one of the best "full" mobile browsers in the industry (you still can't get to everyehere, particularly full Flash based sites, but it's getting there, hopefully) and tack on iTunes with an App Store, arguably one of the best, albeit pricey (and limited to 10MB downloads straight to the device inless you are connected to WiFi) mobile content delivery systems in the industry, and you have yourself a "must have" smartphone that, at the moment people are flocking to get, even switching carriers and paying those dreaded early termination fees (ETFs) just for a piece of that sweet iPhone action.

Both wireless carriers and handset manufacturers alike have been scrambling ever since to come up with an "answer" to the iPhone. Blackberry has their very first touchscreen handset, the Blackberry Storm, which had a the entire screen setup as a large "button" and a touchscreen on top of that for "selection" purposes. That device has mixed reviews at best and I personally found it a bit difficult to type fast because the entire screen needed to be pushed down to register a keypad press. Perhaps there was/is a fix since then? But for right now, BB/RIMs core competency lies with their Corporate e-mail push solutions and this business-centric feature is the one major factor that has kept it ahead the iPhone, even with the iPhone's ability to have Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail pushed to it.

Nokia, who arguably has the best non-touchscreen OS in the market, the S60 platform, has also put out of thier thier very first mainstream touchscreen UIs the S60 Touch for the 5800 Express Music and thier latest Flagship, the N97. Windows Mobile is still seemingly far off from coming out with Windows Mobile 7, so Windows Mobile 6.5 is just on the horizon, which still supposedly make it much more "touch friendly" than the rapidly aging 6.1 version currently available.

There are also various "proprietary" touch screen offerings from manufacturers such as Samsung and LG. In my humble opinion, I would say that these are at best "interim" solutions and not a full-on challenge to the iPhone OS.

Then there is of course the Google Android platform, which although is still in it's embryonic stages, is definitely showing a lot of promise and is the "great hope" for many handset manufacturers, such as Motorola who is shifting practically their entire development effort on their own Moto customized "flavor" of the Android Platform, and HTC who will be dedicating at least half of their handset production to the android platform.

Palm's latest Touch Screen WebOS featured in the Palm Pre, is also worth mentioning and it's worth Keeping an eye on. I feel a bit mixed on the form factor, I like how the touch screen feels in the palm of your hand folded up, but I'm not exactly a fan of the vertical slide-out keyboard. With my thumbs, a width-wise horizontal keyboard is much more of my flavor, though I have to admit, it's better than no QWERTY at all. Ive read that the Palm has butted heads with Apple on several instances, such as some Touch gesture similarities (Apple still has the patent on Multi-Touch) and has blocked some of Palm's attempts at making the Pre compatible with iTunes.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/palm_uses_apples_usb_vendor_id/

Aside from the latest efforts of the competition, however, I'd say Apple is at least a year or two ahead of the competition, which is why it could afford to make a rather small incremental upgrade from the 3G model to the 3GS model. Still, other than some of the frustrating limitations mentioned above, the Apple iPhone, especially in it's 3.0 software incarnation and even more so with the latest 3GS model, has easily become THE smartphone for the masses, with its innovative and attractive multitouch UI, and one of the best, albeit pricey content delivery system in the form of iTunes and quite easily one of the best warranty service and replacement policies in the industry.

Granted, the iPhone is not for everybody, there are still the corporate types that need Blackberry Enterprise, and the gadget geeks that need the freedom of the Windows Mobile and/or the Android platforms, (or perhaps an iPhone Jailbreak), and there are of course the technophobes who still want just a simple basic phone to make calls, but damn if the iPhone isn't getting close, especially the former iPod die-hards who have transitioned into their first smartphone, thanks to the availability of the iPhone, and those who could not make the transition (because of contract obligations, corporate incompatibilities, etc), there is always the iPod Touch, or the "iPhone Gimped Edition" as I like to call it. ;)

But anyway to conclude my analysis, I won't go so far as to say that the iPhone is the perfect phone, I'm way too much of a handset/phone geek to make that conclusion. But with that said, the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS is definitely getting there, with the inclusion of features that arguably should never have been left out in the first place such as A2DP Stereo, cut, copy and paste, horizontal keyboard for text/email etc. and MMS messaging by the end of this summer. I am happy that the iPhone is going beyond it's snazzy UI and finally raising the bar on actual features (hopefully down the road they will also allow useful App Store applications to run in the background). And most importantly, I am hopeful that the competition will take note and raise the overall quality of their own handsets and will eventually some up with an "answer" to the iPhone that will blow us all away, hopefully someday soon...

.

2009-07-23T15:21:00.001-05:00

Mobile blogging test from iPhone...

Mafia Wars Cuba

2009-06-07T11:42:00.000-05:00

I was one of the lucky ones to sign up and be selected for the beta test of the new Mafia Wars Cuba add/on. I know quite a few weren't able to get in on it and are curious, so I thought I'd take a few screen shots as a sneak preview... Enjoy. :)

Here are a few comments and first impressions on the Mafia Wars Cuba (MWC) Beta. Please note that since this is Beta any content here is subject to change at the discretion of the Zynga developers.

Although Mafia Wars Cuba is technically available at level 35, you will be starting from scratch in terms of money, using the Cuban Peso, instead of the US Dollar, while all your spoils from the NY Mafia will remain in a separate bank account in NY. Unfortunately there is no "Currency Exchange" option in the beta so you will have to earn Cuban Pesos the old fashioned way by doing Cuban Mafia jobs.

This will open up an entirely new set of Job Challenges. This is perfect if you worked all the way to the Master Boss rank and technically have no other Jobs to do except to repeat already mastered jobs for the cash, experience and possible loot.

My recommendation if you aren't in the Beta, is to work on mastering all of the tiers/ranks of the NY Mafia and just get that out of the way so you are not dividing your energy between your mafia in Cuba and NY, once they open up the beta or turn it into a full release.

As it stands right now, your Attack/Defense, Stamina and Energy, while still important for the NY aspect, in terms of attacking, defending, hit listing, etc. are no good for earning Cuban pesos, making Energy the most important statistic in the MWC Beta.

Even if you on are the "Cuban side" and start fighting other Mafia, you will Fight NY Mafia and earn NY dollars, so the only way to earn Cuban Pesos, initially at least is through Cuban Mafia Jobs. You can then use those pesos and invest in businesses (more on that later).

So again, if you aren't in the Beta, work on reaching the Master Boss Rank, growing your Mafia to 501, balancing your stats so that you aren't too low on energy, and scoring some of the better equipment loot, should be your priority. That way you aren't dividing your energy trying to rank both Mafias.

(to be continued...)

Final words on PSN Closed Home Beta...

2008-12-10T09:37:00.000-06:00

It looks like the final days of the PSN Home Beta are drawing to an end as the open beta is officially launching tomorrow December 11, 2008.

The day we’ve been waiting for is here! And this is just the beginning…

Today we announced that PlayStation Home will enter into open beta, and will be available to everyone tomorrow. This milestone represents the very beginning of a long journey together, as PlayStation Home is an ever evolving, always changing, organic experience — full of new friends to meet, new events to enjoy, and new content to explore.

HomePlaza

If this will be your first time in PlayStation Home, be sure to talk to folks that have been around for a while, as they can show you the ropes. We also have a tutorial built in that will get you started with the controls, as well as help menus for you to reference in the Menu Pad. If you don’t have a USB keyboard or Bluetooth headset paired with your PlayStation 3, now is the time to do so – either option will allow you to easily talk and meet everyone.

One of the first things that you’ll notice that there are always things going on – parties, tournaments, events – some of which will be announced, and some of which that will just happen. You’ve got to be there to be a part of the party, so make sure to log in often to see what is going on.

If you want to know what’s coming up, check out the PlayStation Home forums, as we will be announcing events, tournaments, content updates, and feature revisions there, and by actively participating, you will be the first to know. You’ll also find that the PlayStation Home forums are alive with conversation from the PlayStation Home community discussing everything from feature requests to new clubs to join.

Diesel_Front

LigneRoset_Front

Home Uncharted

Many of you will have already seen the news regarding participation in PlayStation Home from your favorite game publishers and brands, including Activision, Disney, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Lucas Arts, THQ and UBISOFT as well as Sony Pictures, Paramount, Red Bull, Ligne Roset, and Diesel. As you can imagine, with this many partners already on board, PlayStation Home will grow rapidly, so you’ll need to check back often to see what is new. We’ll do our best to keep you informed on what is going on, but with so much happening in PlayStation Home, there will always be new surprises and secrets to discover. If we simply told you about everything, then it just wouldn’t be as fun for you to discover…

For those of you that have been in PlayStation Home for a while, I wanted to take a moment to discuss something very cool that you will notice right away. Once you get in, you’ll see that a redesigned Central Plaza is there to greet you - we’ve made major upgrades as a result of your community feedback. Thank you!

First of all, the Central Plaza now features a new 4 player mini-game called “Saucer Pop,” where each player launches a flying saucer from a take-off pad and flies around popping bubbles. These bubbles contain stars that have points attached, but watch out for the bubbles with bombs which will take you out if you’re not careful. You also must keep an eye on your saucer’s fuel gauge and collect bubbles with fuel cells or else you will quickly meet a watery fate. Success is all about the high scores, so good luck out there! I’ve been playing for a while now while we’ve been developing the game, so I’m getting pretty good…for those of you that know me, prepare to pop!

Secondly, you will also see some changes to Listen@Home. Now, you’ll be able to select from a number of songs and vote on your favorites. Which ever song gets the most votes plays for everyone, so be sure to get your voice heard and get down on the dance floor.

I could go on and on about all the cool new things you are going see and find in PlayStation Home, both on day one of open beta and beyond. The important thing to remember is that PlayStation Home will continue to evolve and change overtime, so be sure to get in often so you don’t miss out…

See you in PlayStation Home.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/12/10/playstation-home-open-beta-launches-tomorrow/

This will be a good day indeed for those that have been patiently (even anxiously) waiting for either an invitation to the closed beta or for the beta to open up to all. My impressions so far is that Home is a great place to meet up to other gamers. Although the options to customize your avatar in terms of clothing is a bit limited as of the closed beta, I can see this changing rather drastically once the beta opens up and even more so once they put in the final release.

I can see companies wanting to open shops Home to "preview" their real-life clothing lines by having an equivalent virtual clothing line them made available to people's avatars in Home. There is already a preview picture of a Diesel Jeans Store on the PlayStation Blog:

Hopefully companies will be putting out free things too, but you never know, because Home has a "shopping cart" model that is able to charge to your PSN network wallet, allowing Home enthusiasts to buy everything from houses, to virtual meeting places called clubhouses where you can start a "club" and invite people over PSN into you virtual club and you can purchase furniture to decorate the houses and clubhouses within.

I guess time will tell what will be the prevalent commerce model in Home, but since it's free for PSN users download Home, go in and browse, chat and play the online games that are in there, I'm assuming that there will be an enormous potential for advertising within this virtual space. I'm also guessing that there will be lots and lots of free stuff, combined with purchasable "premiums" for those home users that really want to stand out of the crowd.

In my personal opinion this will probably work very well, Case and point is the unlockable content that is available with the beta version of the game Namco Museum, a compilation of classic 80's arcade games such as Pac Man, Dig-Dug, Galaga, Tempest and possibly more. If you unlock certain things in the standalone game, there is a corresponding unlock, such as Namco arcade game themed clothing for your Home avatar, furniture and "trophies" to decorate your personal Home space and even a playable Arcade game cabinet. Unfortunately, the beta for Namco Museum was only available to closed beta testers on the Japan PSN, network.

That of course didn't stop dozens of resourceful players from either getting somone to "share" the Namco beta code with them, or getting an account on the Japan PSN Network and somehow also getting the Japan Home Beta and Japan Namco Museum Beta combo. Once you have the code for the beta, you can download it onto your PS3 and the unlockables will actually carry over to the US beta, so you have people on the US home server with all the cool Namco T-Shirts, trophies and even the Arcade Cabinet (although the playable games have been disabled in the US version it still makes a cool decoration).

When I saw all that Namco stuff, all I knew is that I wanted to have the Namco Museum game to I could unlock all the cool stuff and show it off indiscriminately on PSN Home and I didn't care if I had to pay for this old school arcade compilation, I just want it. I suspect many others that feel the same way. It's very possible Home is just what Sony needs to get the PS3 out of the constant shadow of the mega popular Wii and X-Box 360. Imagine the possibilities for tie-in content with upcoming titles, like sure-to-be-popular PS3 exclusives such as Final Fantasy XIII.

As for those who missed out on the last leg of the closed Home Beta Test, aside from the social aspect of course, you didn't really miss much at least from my standpoint. Only a handful of locations such as the Central Plaza, the Theatre, the Mall and the Bowling Alley were available, and until only a week ago, only the default furniture and clothing options were available. Game unlockables from Echochrome, Ice-breakers and Namco Museum (for those who has access to the Japan PSN Beta) are excluded of course. There are also 3 T-shirts available to the original, early phase Home Beta testers, the ones (I'm assuming) who did the real bug-hunting and gave extensive feedback in the initial closed beta. Guys like me who came in later on the secondary phases of the beta were mostly there for "load testing", to make sure the servers could handle a bunch of people on there at the same time.

They opened up a few of the mall shops last Wednesday, which was a nice treat for us beta testers, since all the content we downloaded from there was free and is supposed to carry over into open beta. Now whether or not the available mall items will have a price attached to them or how much, will of course remain to be seen. I imagine the "Summer House" having a price tag attached to it, but I'm not so sure about the generic, non-branded clothing or the furniture items. All will be answered tomorrow I suppose. For those who absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow, I'm throwing in a couple more screenshots:

Makeshift bed/futon (made from a couch and footstools) in my Harbor Studio apartment

Makeshift Bedroom in my "Summer House"

A glitch with clipping that some beta testers liked to do to make their avatar appear to be levitating.
(The glitch involved running up the stairs in central plaza and making a quick turn at the end so that you were now walking on an edge that could not normally be accessed part of which had no actual floor graphic. Yes it's silly I know, but we were bored and had nothing better to do. ;)

Anyway, that's all to blog for now, so until next time. =)

Playstation Network Home Beta Testing...

2008-12-04T09:42:00.000-06:00

It looks like I'm one of the lucky people selected for The Sony Playstation Network's Home Beta. I received my invitation on "Black Wednesday" 11/26/2008 and I was able to login the Monday after. When I got into the beta, The Central Plaza, Movie Theatre, Bowling Alley and Mall "spaces" were open.

Most of the extra "spaces" such as the Far Cry 2 environment was taken offline and although the mall space was open for people to walk around in and to play some of the chess games that were available on the balcony level, non of the shops were open yet, leaving you to customize your avatar with only the dozen or so clothing options that are available at default, and a handful of unlockable items which I will get to later.

You could also customize your "personal space", which at the time I entered beta was a cool looking studio apartment called "Harbor Studio", with plain white, yet contemporary looking furniture such as chairs, couches, tables and a storage unit. You also have an handful of wallpaper options available.

Since there are no beds available and you only start out in a studio, I thought I'd be a bit creative and stack some of the storage units to create a make-shift partition and a make-shift dresser and I put together a couch and a few foot stools to make a make-shift bed, which ultimately looks like a folded out futon or sofa-convertible which is kind of cool. :) The pic below includes all that and one of my spikey-haired avatars:

As for the unlockables, you can get some by playing the Echochrome arcade game and the Ice Breaker Arcade game. There is also a game called Carriage Return, but there are no known unlockables in that game. Anyway here's how to get them:

Echochrome
Receive 4000 points on Level A (gloves, shirt, pants, shoes that resemble the Echochrome character)
Receive 6,000 points on Level B (Echochrome T-shirt)
Receive 10,000 points on level A ("Thinking Man" Trophy*)
Receive 10,000 points on Level B ("Echochrome Sculpture" Trophy*)
Receive 20,000 points on Level C (Echochrome Table)

Ice Breaker (Level Unlocked may also depend on score)
Beat level 5 (beanie)
Beat level 8 (shirt)
Level 13 (pants)
Level 16 (boots)
Level 20 (Penguin Trophy*)

Carriage Return - Unknown

*Trophies are Furniture, under the Ornaments Category.

Tips:
Echochrome involves you playing a white mannequin character trying to reach a shadow mannequin that stays in a single location. Black mannequins wills spawn on the field and begin to roam around. Using holes and jump pads you try and get your character to the shadow without being touched by the black characters, as this results in a game over.

Once you have reached the shadow, all the black characters will temporarily turn into shadows that can be collected like the main shadow. The score is determined by how many shadows you collected and how long you stayed alive. The characters move on their own, you can only change the environment. Both the white and black characters only make left turns.

Stage B: There is a platform separated from the rest. No black men will appear on that platform. If you simply wait there and build up a large collection of black people you can take them out all at once and get large points. Just make sure to move your curser as the game will time-out after 3 minutes.

Ice Breaker is a simple Break-out style game where the goal is to use a paddle to bounce a ball around till every block on the screen is destroyed. Some blocks contain modifiers that will affect the ball or paddle.

Blue modifier: Makes Paddle Larger
Yellow modifier: Makes Paddle Sticky, Ball sticks to paddle and can be ejected by player
Pink modifier: Makes Paddle Smaller
Green modifier: Extra Life
Purple modifier: Multi Ball, Creates three balls that bounce off the next time the ball makes contact with the paddle
Red: Fire Ball, Destroys everything it hits without bouncing off

List and Tips are copied from: http://aberdeenworks.net/games/?p=509
And modified slightly by me. :)

There are also a few Namco Themed Unlokcables. I don't have the complete list, but here's what I've seen so far:

Black Pacman T-Shirt (4 ghosts in front and Pac-Man on Sleeve)
Matching Black Shorts with a half-suspender strap hanging down
Black Sneakers?
A Red Dig-Dug Shirt
A Red/Yellow Dig-Dug Hat
Red Dig-Dug Shorts

As for how to get these Namco unlockables, from what I have seen in my searches and through asking around while logged in to the US Home Beta, it seems that people who have a Japanese PSN account and also got into the Home Beta in Japan, also have an invite to the Namco Home Museum, a standalone game whose trophies coincide with the Namco unlockables in Home Beta. So basically if you have access to the Namco Beta, and get all the respective trophies they will transfer the unlockables to your Home account.

Now presumably if you also have a code to the Home Beta for any of the other servers (North America, Europe, etc.) and also have Namco Museum still on your HD, you may have to re-unlock all of the trophies on that PSN login, but once you do it will also unlock all of the Namco bonus stuff on your Home account, even if the Namco Home museum hasn't "technically" been released in your area.

I'm guessing that there are people with multiple ID's that are setup in different regions such as Japan and were lucky enough to get Home Beta on both Japan and US, or there is widespread (and unchecked) sharing of the codes for the Namco Museum Beta on the US server, which is why we see so much Namco stuff floating around the US Home Beta.

Hopefully the powers that be will see it fit to release the Namco Home Museum to all the beta testers, not just the ones on the Japan PSN Home Beta, because really I don't want to go through all that rediculousness, I just want some of that cool Namco stuff.

There also seems to be some unknown extra "Home" T-Shirt that was apparently available to early beta-testers (please excuse my amateurish photo editing skills to block out other people's screennames) Note the Pink "Hello" Sticker-like Home logo:

As of 12/4/2008 the PSN Home Beta Servers have been updated to include Shops in the mall. They include the following items. I got the list from the PSN forums:

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3home&thread.id=412410

FEMALE AVATAR
Denim Jacket
Halterneck
Layered T-shirt
Jeans with Turnups
Smart Shorts
Sweatpants
Basketball Boots
Walking Sandals
Work Boots
Star Sunglasses

MALE AVATAR
Cowboy Hat
Hooded Top
Turtleneck
Military Jacket
Cargo Shorts
Drainpipe Jeans
Jeans with Turnups
Basketball Boots
Slip-on Trainers
Winklepicker Shoes

APARTMENT DECORATIONS

Summer House Chair
Summer House Armchair
Summer House Foot Stool
Summer House Table
Summer House Light
Summer House Sofa
Summer House Ornament
Blue Robot
Small Cactus
Large Cactus
Large Leaf Plant
Model Plane
Origami Dog
Rubber Duck
Small Teddy Bear
Tiki Mask
Vase with Flowers

ESTATES
Summer House

JAPAN SERVER
MALE AVATAR
Dude Heart Glasses

Anyway, that's all I have to blog for now. Until next update... :)

Review - HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris)

2008-09-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

This is a review of my latest phone, the HTC Touch Cruise, otherwise known as the Polaris. I purchased it back in June 2008 so I've had a good few months to use the device and to get a decent feel for it. Around the time I purchased the phone, the Europe/Asia version of HTC Touch Diamond was already available, and so was the iPhone 3G. I was also considering the Nokia N95 8GB, but with the N96 and the Nokia Tube on the horizon, I decided to hold off on a Nokia purchase.

Although the Touch Diamond was very tempting, it's lack of compatiblity with the GSM 850 band and the lack the US 3G bands compatibility wee major deal breakers for me, despite the advanced TouchFlo 3D interface and the beautiful VGA screen. The onboard 4GB was nice at the onset, but it was somewhat diminished by the fact that there are 8GB and 16GB devices already out there, not to mention the fact that 16GB microSDHC cards are in the horizon and that the Touch Diamond lacked a microSDHC slot that is ubiquitous to many other phones in the market.

I was also tempted to get the iPhone 3G, but I learned that many of the things I found lacking from the original iPhone was STILL not included in the newer 3G version, such as missing MMS capability, no stereo bluetooth A2DP, no bluetooth sync or OBEX file sharing, no cut/copy and paste functionalty, no Java or Flash support in the Safari Browser, the inability to use the horizontal touch keyboard outside of Safari and the fact that I had to renew a 2 year contract and that it would remain SIM locked to the AT&T network. Despite the stellar multitouch interface, slick design and beautiful screen, all those factors combined were one huge dealbreaker for me.

But enough about those other devices and onto the Touch Cruise. It is a windows Mobile 6.1 device that comes with the first generation of HTC's Touch Flo software, similar to the software found on the more ubiquitous HTC Touch, which is/was available though the major US CDMA carriers like Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and US Cellular. The HTC Touch also has an unlocked GSM version available. The Touch Flo interface over the now-aging Windows 6.1 interface makes it more "finger touch friendly" by adding a useful home screen widget that gives handy shortcut "tabs" to often used functions such as:

a large digital clock
a weather screen
a shortcut menu with eight configurable icons
a control panel to switch your phone from normal to vibrate and silent mode.

It also comes with a "touch cube" which is part of the Touch Flo interface, that is accessible by swiping from the bottom of the screen to the top with your finger, and swiping left or right with your finger to "rotate" the cube to a different face. Swping back down will take you back to whatever screen you had previously. Although there technically only three "faces" to the cube, the 3D effect appears like a cube nonetheless . The "touch cube" includes the three following touch friendly screens:

A customizable 9 contact screen, which also shows the photo if you have one setup with your associated contact.
A screen to access the HTC Music, Photos and Video viewers
A screen to access Email, SMS/MMS, Internet Explorer, Tasks, Comm Manager and Calendar

The full onboard GPS was the major deal sealer for me. The fact that it also had all the GSM and 3G bands and the fact that is available now instead of some future date, really put the decision over the top.

I got a really good package too. It came with the essentials such as an AC charger, stereo headphones that you could take calls with, usb cable and a 1GB microSD card, which I switched to an 8GB card that I had on hand. The bonus was the suction cup windshield holder and car charger, which solidified the GPS functionality.

Little did I realize however that the GPS software provided, called "MapKing" had only Asia/Pacific maps available with Hong Kong being the default map. I was like WTF? That right there was a major deal-breaker for me. I was up all night that same evening trying to get a US compatible GPS program. Because the device itself was pretty expensive because I bought it unlocked, spending even more money for software was not an option, and thanks to the steep 20% restocking fee at the place I bought the thing, returning it was also not an attractive option.

After a few hours of frantic online searching, I finally discovered a version of TomTom Navigator that comes with the US versions of the latest HTC devices through the xda developers forum. It came with one free city map, so I downloaded the one for Chicago. Once I got the GPS software loaded, it worked pretty much like a standalone TomTom GPS unit. In fact, when the Touch Cruise is set to horizontal mode the touch interface is almost indistinguishable from a standalone TomTom. I was very satisfied with the accuracy of the map positioning and the turn by turn directions. There is also a US and Canada Map available though TomTom which I plan to purchase if I do any major long-distacne driving.

Although the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform is very versatile and has a plethora of software available to it, I have to say it is definitely showing signs of age, especially when compared to the newer, sleeker iPhone multitouch interface. The Touch Flo interface helps a little in this respect, but I found that the version of Touch Flo (first generation) that comes bundled with the device has a few shortcomings, which is mostly because for the majority of what you do on the phone such as go into your Email, calendar, tasks, text messages, contact lists, etc., you still have to revert back to the older Windows Mobile 6.1 interface, which means that more often than not you have to switch from using your finger back to using the stylus, not that I don't appreciate the accuracy of the stylus, but there are times when using your finger is more convenient and that convenience is diminished when you have to take out the stylus because a line, or a checkbox or a radio button, or the "X" on the top-right corner of the screen cannot be easily accessed with just your finger.

Of course, being a Windows Mobile device, you are not without choices. I've tried a few decent "shells" that put a touchscreen user interface "overlay" on top of Windows Mobile 6.1, such as PointUI, Winterface, SPB Mobile Shell, even a "clone" of the iPhone UI called iFonz. Of all the UI overlays, the SPB Mobile Shell seems like the most usable, but it also comes with a price because after a trial period, which I believe is 15 days, it requires activation for a nominal fee.

As it so happens, one of the best UI's for latest HTC devices at least is none other than the Touch Flo 3D interface, found on the Touch Diamond and the upcoming Touch Pro and Touch HD devices. There is also an upcoming device(s) to replace the now-aging original HTC Touch tentatively called the Touch 3G. There are mixed reports but the code name is either Opal or Viva. The best part is that there is a "2D" version of the newer Touch Flo 3D interface, although it won't quite have the flashy animations, it will retain most, if not all of the functionality of its Touch Flo 3D interface. In fact, a beta version is available through the XDA Developers Forum and although it isn't quite perfect, it lacks a horizontal mode for instance, the new "Touch Flo 2D" interface vastly improves upon the original "HTC Home Screen" interface. despite the missing horizontal mode in the beta version, it is still a vast improvement over the original Touch Flo and to those who are inclined to upgrade thier devices I highly recommend it.

Anyway, back to the device itself. Although I cannot categorically say that the HTC Touch Cruise is a "must buy" device, because of current and upcoming choices in the market (Like the HTC TOuch Diamond, Pro, HD, The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, etc.), it has the potential of fulfilling the needs of buyers with specific requirements. For instance it has both full Quadband GSM and Triband 3G, covering the majority of the available world GSM and 3G bands (minus the newer T-Mobile US 3G band of course). It basically has the same feature set as the the AT&T Tilt (Kaiser/TyTN II) but sans the slideout hardware keyboard and the bulk. The HTC Touch Cruise also has a very good integrated GPS. The only hitch is, because it is an unlocked "world phone" that you may or may not have the proper GPS software for your area bundled with the package. Because it is a windows mobile phone however, a plethora of software options are available to you.

Before I wrap this review up, here are a list of Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Similar feature set as the Tilt/Kaiser/TyTN II, but in a thinner, sleeker form factor.
Very good integrated GPS functionality
Quad Band GSM and Tri Band 3G which covers the majority of the world GSM/3G bands
HTC Touch Flo system, which makes it more "finger touch friendly" than standard windows mobile devices
Large 3rd party software support
The package that I purchased at least came with close to everything you need such as an AC adapter, headphones, extra stylus, protective case and a suction cup arm and car lighter adapter for windshield placement. The package that you purchase may vary of course.
Uses a standards mini-USB port for data and charging.

Cons:

Device is showing signs of age compared to some of the newer offerings (HTC Touch Diamond/Pro/HD etc)
Windows Mobile 6.1 Platform in general is showing signs of age compared to the likes of the iPhone and the upcoming Google Android
Still has a "standard" QVGA screen
No hardware keyboard/keypad
Does not come packaged with latest Touch Flo
May not come packaged with the GPS software for your region
Does not have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack (needs)

The bottom line is that if you need a solid Windows Mobile phone that is world traveller friendly, has a solid GPS and is highly customizable through various Windows Mobile programs, and is not locked down to many of the limitations that some of the newer devices like the iPhone has (such as the lack of MMS, no bluetooth stereo, etc.) then this phone is for you. This phone has been in the market a while so you may be able to get it for less than some of the newer offerings like the Diamond.

Please note however, that this is mainly a touchscreen device, however so things such as text input must be done on screen. Despite that shortcoming the touchscreen keypads, keyboards, etc. are not bad once you get used to them. The ability to do things like tweak and upgrade the interface definitely increased the usability scan, even for a phone geek like me who tends to frequently switch phones, so again for anyone contemplating a Touch Cruise, I definitely recommend it.

Trump Tower

2008-08-28T01:46:00.000-05:00

It looks like construction is almost complete.

2008-08-28T01:22:00.001-05:00

test

Shake from ATHF

2008-08-28T00:54:00.000-05:00

This is what I do when I'm bored at work... =p

ATHF Shake

2008-08-27T15:58:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when I get bored @ work. =p

I am just testing my...

2008-08-06T19:07:00.001-05:00

I am just testing my new HTC touch phone. So far it's working very well. I'll come up with an ____ hopefully very very soon. listen

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flat tire...

2008-05-31T14:06:00.001-05:00

Okay, so AAA finally and changed my tire to the dounut spare. So now I have to go to the tire shop to get the normal tire replaced. Luckily I have a warranty, it's all good and we're cool from here. Later. listen

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Highway Blogger

2008-05-31T13:31:00.001-05:00

Disgruntled driver

2008-05-31T13:13:00.001-05:00

My ride

2008-05-31T13:12:00.001-05:00

Flat tire

2008-05-31T13:11:00.001-05:00

Instant Jott

2008-04-13T02:09:00.001-05:00

Instant Jott listen

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[no transcription, please...

2008-04-13T02:08:00.001-05:00

[no transcription, please listen] listen

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I'm doing an in-class...

2008-03-03T18:41:00.001-06:00

I'm doing an in-class demonstration for my HDI(?) class. And the secret word for today is "girl scout cookies" for the demonstration. listen

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Usability Analysis of the Apple iPhone

2008-03-02T16:34:00.000-06:00

Part I: Apple iPhone Analysis

Abstract

This article is an analysis on the usability of the Apple iPhone and it is basically a rehash of an assignment I submitted for a class on usability for mobile devices. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part is an overall analysis based on my own impressions of what aspects I find the iPhone easy and difficult to use. The second part is a more formal analysis based on Schneiderman’s Eight Rules of Interface Design.

The Apple iPhone in my opinion is a device that is both easy to use and a device I find hard to use, depending of course on which particular task is performed on that device. One of the main reasons I have chosen this particular single device for my analysis is because in terms of cellphone and smartphone technology it has many features and innovations that work exceedingly well, while surprisingly having other features that are either sub-par or missing entirely (compared to even the most basic mobile phones) on the exact same device.

Describing the Apple iPhone

For the device you find easy to use, describe or answer the following (each in a few sentences):

What is the device?

The Apple iPhone

What task(s) does the device perform?

A Multimedia Smartphone – Phone, Music and Video Player, Mobile Web Browser, Mobile E-Mail Client and personal organizer (calendar, reminders etc.)

Present at least one way in which this device is easy or enjoyable for you to use?

The Apple iPhone quite simply has one of the most intuitive and easiest to use interfaces on a mobile device, thanks to its innovative “multi-touch” screen. The multi-touch interface really shines when using the Safari Mobile web browser which is one of the main iPhone applications, especially when connected through a WiFi network as opposed to connection using EDGE, which is a lower-bandwidth wireless mode alternative that is available to the iPhone that works though the cellular network.

As an analogy you can consider EDGE to be slightly faster than a 56Kbps dialup connection, while WiFi can have bandwidth of up to 54Mbps, thanks to the Wireless G capability, so connecting through WiFi can be close to 10x faster then EDGE depending on the wireless connection, so iPhone users will preferably connect through WiFi when available and use EDGE, which has a significantly wider range of coverage as a backup when away from a WiFi Hotspot.

With the iPhone’s multi-touch interface, the user can browse full web pages and easily navigate to different parts of the page by swiping the screen to a particular section of a webpage and either doing a “reverse pinch” on the screen with your thumb and forefinger to zoom the screen in or double-tapping your finger on a particular text block or image you want to zoom in on. You can change the screen orientation on the fly thanks to the built in accelerometer by simply rotating the device horizontally or vertically to accommodate text or images while browsing and of you need to zoom back out to see a larger portion of the web page you are browsing, you can do “pinch” on the screen and the Safari Browser will zoom out accordingly. This makes web browsing on a small mobile device with a fraction of the screen “real estate” of a larger PC or Laptop, not only intuitive but quite easy to use once you get the hang of it all.

Aside from mobile devices that have their own “QWERTY” keypad built into the hardware such as Sidekicks, HTC Pocket PC phones, Palm Treos, Blackberry devices, etc. the iPhone also has one of the best text-entry interfaces in a mobile device thanks to the touch keypad. The touch keypad is especially effective in the horizontal orientation so that the virtual keyboard takes up the width of the screen and the user can more easily and quickly type with two thumbs. Also, thanks to the predictive text feature, one can not only type fast, but with a surprising degree of accuracy. Personally I found it much easier and faster to type in full, non-abbreviated sentences using the touch keypad than it was to type in other devices that use a standard numeric keypad and T9 or iTAP for predictive text.

The bottom line is that Apple really hit the ball out of the park in terms of user interfaces with their iPhone device. After coming off the iPhone and switching to a different device such as a laptop or someone else’s phone, I found myself instinctively wanting to navigate by touching the screen and may have even accidentally, mistakenly and sometimes embarrassingly double tapped an icon or two with my finger on devices that did not have such a touch screen, which should be a testament to how intuitive I found the iPhone’s interface.
· How might someone else find this device difficult to use?

Well, aside from the fact that I’m an early-adopting tech geek that tends to assimilate technology faster that an average user, the iPhone, being a touch screen device interface aside from the audible “tap” sound relies on visual cues and feedback almost entirely. As such this device obviously cannot be used by the visually impaired. For those who like to type and text by touch, perhaps middle school students trying to hide their texting activities to their peers from their teacher will have a difficult time typing as well without the tactile feedback, plus the audible clicks while typing would be a dead giveaway to teacher with keen hearing.

For the device you find difficult to use, describe or answer the following (each in a few sentences):

· What is the device?

Also the Apple iPhone, which is a Multimedia Smartphone – Phone, Music and Video Player, Mobile Web Browser and Mobile E-Mail Client

· Present at least one way in which this device is difficult for you to use?

For starters, the Apple iPhone for better or worse is integrated with Apple’s iTunes service, which means if you want to add or remove any content to and from the iPhone such as music, photos and videos, it has to be done through the iTunes software. For those who do not own an iPod and have a large music and video library that is not integrated with iTunes, the process can be very long and drawn out, perhaps even excruciating to those who are used to a simple “drag and drop” way of managing files.

I understand that iTunes is a cash cow for Apple with the throngs of iPod users who do not know anything different, but now Apple is dealing a different group of users who have delved into mobile phone technology because they offer what Apple never did in a mobile device prior to (and in some cases even after) the iPhone, such as swappable and expandable memory, removable batteries, wireless Bluetooth stereo and an easy way to move files such as music and video both on and off the device. In terms of features, multimedia cellphones pretty much trumped the iPod in almost every respect, save memory capacity since some versions of the iPod had actual miniature hard drives, which nowadays can go up to 80GB to hold all that music and video that iPod fans have purchased through the iTunes store.

If I were to make an educated guess, the preponderance of technology present in many mid to high-end cellphones in comparison to the now “vanilla” iPod is probably why the Apple iPhone was born in the first place, because Apple’s iPod could pretty much kill every music/multimedia player in the market except for those darn multimedia cellphones, that could not only play music and video, but make phone calls, be used as a GPS, check and send e-mail, browse the web and download at broadband speeds wirelessly and even take a simple picture or video and send it to grandma via MMS to greet her a Happy Birthday.

· How could this difficulty be resolved?

Although I don’t imagine Apple taking the iTunes dependency out of the iPhone anytime soon, it would be nice if I could actually manage the content I have already downloaded through iTunes on the iPhone device itself and put that cool new touch screen interface to good use.

Let me move, delete and rename my tunes and video and create play lists on the iPhone itself instead of forcing me to spend all that extra time on the computer and then forcing me to spend even more time waiting for my PC to synchronize the content to the iPhone. I’m a mobile user and I need to be on the move, let me do as much as I can on the device itself and let the PC be a tool to enhance the device, not an anchor to weigh it down.

· Do you think other users would have a similar negative reaction to the device?

Aside from the stellar touch screen interface, I would think that anyone who has taken advantage of the multimedia capabilities of all the smartphones that are out there would have similar reactions. Aside from people who have an extensive library already under iTunes, I really can’t imagine anyone who is used to the simplicity of dragging and dropping their files directly on to a device via USB cable or removable flash memory card wanting to voluntarily manage their files through the iTunes interface.

In my opinion, aside from that ridiculous and artificial 100 song limit, I think that is one of the main reasons the music phone collaboration between Apple and Motorola, the ROKR E1 failed miserably. It was because competing music phones not only had a simple drag and drop file management system that did not require something like iTunes to use, but it did not have that artificial 100 song limit. Well, that and the ROKR E1 seemed very plain next to the iconic iPod and the newly launched iPod Nano. Using the ROKR would have only been practical for those using the smaller capacity iPod Shuffle.

· Is there anything positive about the design of the device?

Aside from what I had mentioned above in the “enjoyable and easy to use” section, which also featured the iPhone, I believe the iPhone has a superlative build quality. The iPhone truly feels like a solid device. The handful of things Apple did with the iPhone outside of the touch screen interface, such as the “home” button, the volume “rocker” switch, the power button and the “sound on/off” switch were implemented well and complimented the touch screen quite nicely.

Even the stereo earbuds, which doubled as a “hands-free” headset had a tiny button to both answer calls and “remotely” control the music. One touch of the button cause the music player to either play or pause, while two quick successive button presses caused the music player to forward to the next song. A very nice extra indeed especially if you happen to be running on a treadmill, you don’t have to break your stride or concentration to look at the device to change or pause a song that is playing.
· Overall, what are the aspects of the devices' designs that contributed to your positive and negative experiences?

The innovative touch screen interface was definitely a major selling point for me as far as the iPhone is concerned but the fact that the iPhone could not do simple things such as send an Multimedia Message Service (MMS) or manage files within the device was an almost bewildering experience for me. I can only hope that competing manufactures can take the examples of what the iPhone does well and expand and evolve beyond it.

I also hope that Apple can improve upon its own iPhone design not only by expanding features with future generation iPhones, but addressing the many things the iPhone is missing by upgrading and patching the current generation iPhone so that it can do things that even the lowest common denominator such as a “free with contract” phone can do, like send an MMS message or send a standard SMS text message to multiple recipients, not to mention the higher end features like having a chat client, or managing the content from within the device itself.

· Apple iPhone Updates

I would be amiss if I didn’t mention a major update that was released after the initial draft of this article in January 2008. Among other things, the January ’08 update added the capability to send multiple SMS messages, a feature that was missing in the original release. The Apple iPhone still does not have the capability to send pictures and or video via MMS, but who knows? It may be made available in a future update.

Other updates include:

1.0.1 -

July 31, 2007
· Safari security update
1.0.2 - August 21, 2007
· Fixed bugs
1.1.1 - September 27, 2007
· This update is commonly called the iPhone "September '07" update by Apple [78]
· iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
· Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
· Home button double-click shortcut to phone favorites or music controls
· Spacebar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space (eg: ". ")
· Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape modes
· Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be reordered
· Apple Inc. Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
· Support for TV out
· Preferences to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
· New Passcode lock time intervals
· Adjustable alert volume
1.1.2 - November 12, 2007
· Battery charge level shown in iTunes
· International language & keyboard support
· Patched the TIFF exploit
· Adds custom ringtone field
· Fixed bugs
1.1.3 - January 15, 2008
· This update is commonly called the iPhone "January '08 Update" by Apple [79]
· Google Maps gains the 'Locate Me' feature which determines the phone's approximate location using cell tower triangulation and (in the US and Canada) Wi-Fi data from Skyhook Wireless; also adds hybrid map support and the 'Drop Pin' feature.
· Icons on the homescreen can be rearranged and placed on multiple homescreens (up to nine).
· iTunes gift cards can be redeemed on the iTunes Wi-Fi store.
· Movies acquired through iTunes have chapter support.
· Music has lyrics-support feature
· Web Clips can be added to (and subsequently removed from) the homescreen.
· SMS messages can be sent to multiple contacts.
· SMS storage capacity increased to 75,000 (from 1,000)
· Default Gmail IMAP setup for new accounts (previously was defaulted as POP3).
· Multi-touch keyboard (ie: simultaneously pressing "Shift" + "a")
· The clock timer now remembers the last used options. (bug fix)
· Incoming SMS messages now prompts the user to "View" or "Close" (previously "Ignore" or "Reply"). Pressing either option now marks the message as "seen" so there is no way to defer messages anymore.
· Labels for contact data can now be deleted.
· Applications on the phone no longer run as root; they run as the user "mobile" instead.
1.1.4 - February 26, 2008
· Fixed bugs

Part II: Analysis using Schneiderman’s Eight Rules of Interface Design
Overview of Schneiderman’s Eight Rules can be found in the link below:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-gui-list/1998-November/msg00074.html

1. Strive for consistency.

· In terms of User Interface, the iPhone follows some of the more standard criteria, such as having a group of icons, which can be used to activate the major applications on the home screen.

· Although the iPhone is using an innovative “finger touch” interface, interaction with the interface itself is rather intuitive because it resembles that of a more conventional mouse and cursor and a touch screen and stylus interface.

· Activating the icons is as easy as “double-tapping” the icon with your finger, which would resemble a mouse click double-tap.

· Although the touch screen is used for the majority of the interactions, affordances such as a numeric keypad for the phone, a QWERTY keypad for text and Play/Pause, Stop, Skip Forward, Skip Back, etc. among other things, have been added to the interface to make the use with the iPhone more intuitive.

2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.

· The latest iPhone Patch (January iPhone Update) has added a new feature that allows users to not only customize their own home screens by rearranging existing icons and adding shortcut icons to their favorite web applications, but create multiple home screens as well.

· Prior to that patch, the majority of iPhone users were simply stuck with the default home screen and only those who ventured into hacking the iPhone and potentially damaging the software (sometimes irreversibly) and possibly voiding the warranty could modify their home screens.
3. Offer informative feedback.

· Fingertip touch screens interfaces usually lack the natural tactile feedback of an actual keyboard and/or keypad. The iPhone compensates by providing an audio “click” and visually enlarging the letter that is being typed right above the fingertip.

· Competitors such as Samsung and Nokia are developing touch screens with haptics such as vibrational feedback so that the fingertip being used to tap on a virtual interface will also feel as if something is actually being tapped.

· In terms of navigation, the iPhone offers visual feedback in terms of an icon of a dot moving around in a circle when a web page or application is being processed in the background.

4. Design sequences of actions so they are organized and yield closure.

· Most of the functions are designed as discrete tasks.

· For example, the user can make a phone call by first tapping the phone icon.

· The user can either select a name from the contacts list or dial the number from the numeric touch keypad.

· Once a number is selected the user can tap the “Send” button to send the call.

· The call will then connect through the wireless carrier and the person, voicemail or answering machine at the other end will pick up.

· The user can then have a voice conversation or leave a voice message.

· The task is completed when either side of the wireless phone connection terminates, the user can manually terminate the call by pressing the “End” button.

5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling.

· Although it is not exactly perfect, the iPhone has a predictive text feature that can automatically correct common spelling errors and help speed up typing with the touchscreen.
· There are also standard fare “yes/no” confirmations when performing difficult to reverse actions like deleting iPhone’s WiFi settings or wireless e-mail configurations.

6. Permit easy reversal of actions.

· The iPhone more or less provides the standard fare in terms of reversal of actions. There is a “back” feature of the web browser and a backspace feature for text entry.

7. Support internal locus of control.

· For the most part the iPhone works well with this paradigm as long as the user is fine with using iTunes to manage and synchronize his or her multimedia content.

· The paradigm breaks down however if the user is used to working with devices with a more open “ecosystem” since other mobile devices have multiple and convenient ways to transfer files, such as USB mass storage mode, where the connected device acts as an external hard drive, hot swappable flash memory card (such as MiniSD, MicroSD, M2 Memory Stick, etc.) Bluetooth Object Exchange (OBEX) and transferring files via WiFi, managing and transferring files exclusively through iTunes can be restricting.

· For other functions such web browsing, the internal locus of control is also maintained. The user can browse the web on the iPhone in a way that is similar to full desktop, going forward and back, entering text and even browsing multiple pages.

· Thanks to the multi-touch interface and the pinch and reverse-pinch gestures, most pages on the web can be browsed in it’s full mode, which greatly reduces the reliance on mobile-specific web pages.

8. Reduce short-term memory load.

· The iPhone has a visual interface with generous use of well placed icons so getting to the most common applications should be a simple task for most users.
· Delving into some of the more technical functionality however is a bit more challenging because common functions like turning Bluetooth and WiFi on and off are buried in the same menus where Bluetooth and WiFi are set up. Preferably, such settings should be no more than one level deep from the main menu. I would suggest that an “on/off” slider toggle switch be placed directly under the settings icon option for both Bluetooth and Wifi.

· Turning the ringer (and sounds) on and off on the other hand is as simple as flipping an external hardware switch, which for the most part provides the utmost convenience, as long as one does not inadvertently leave the switch in the “off” position, when the mean to leave it on of course.

These principles are obviously GUI-focused. Which still apply to IAs, which do not? Can you suggest any others related to what we covered in class, i.e some IA specific guidelines?

Schneiderman’s Eight Rules of Interface Design, which better follows the criteria for Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) may or may not apply to Information Appliances (IAs) in the following ways:

1. Strive for consistency.

· Any information appliance no matter how much technical functionality has been added on to it, should follow the metaphors of its analog counterpart.

· Therefore, functions such as “baking” and “broiling” on an IA such as a computerized “smart oven” should achieve the same ends as a regular gas or electric oven. Thus, this principle may easily be applied to IAs.

2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.

· Although this principle may be a bit more limited, especially with simpler IA interfaces, it can nonetheless be very useful, for users who not only use a particular IA frequently, but use the same function over and over again.

· One example would be a “smart” coffee maker with built-in grinder.

· The user would set his or her preferred coffee settings on the machine, set the time and finally load the coffee beans and water the night before.

· After the machine has been programmed the first time however, a user should be able to save the settings for the next morning and easily get to it so he or she needs only load the coffee beans and water and press the “preferred coffee setting” shortcut the night before.

3. Offer informative feedback.

· This principle should be rather universal in terms of IAs as well.

· For example, if the microwave is done cooking or defrosting it should beep or ring and if it has a display, it should say something like “DONE”.

4. Design sequences of actions so they are organized and yield closure.

· This would help for IAs that require multiple steps.

· A “smart” dishwasher, for example would instruct the user to:
1. Load the dishes (if the were not loaded already)
2. Load the Detergent
3. Choose load size and temperature settings
4. Start the washing cycle
5. Provide an alert when the washing cycle is over

· This functionality can be further enhanced by allowing the user an easy way to repeat the settings in step 3 or setting up a favorite setting, for example one household may prefer a "powersaving" setting, while another my prefer a "heavy duty wash" setting.

5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling.

· Allowing a user to easily back out of a mistaken entry would be welcome on simpler devices, such as clearing a “300 minute” cycle when the user only want to cook for 3 minutes on a microwave.
· On more complex devices such as the aforementioned “smart” coffee machine, alerts can be provided if insufficient coffee beans and/or water has been loaded for a particular setting.

6. Permit easy reversal of actions.

· A simple “back” or “cancel” button would be welcome on even the simplest of IAs and should be a requirement on the more complex ones like the “smart” oven, coffee machine and dishwasher appliances mentioned above.

7. Support internal locus of control.

· This is one of Schneiderman’s rules that may actually be more appropriate for GUIs than IAs. Because Most IAs presumably have simpler courses of action, it may be better for the IAs to actually indicate to the user what needs to be done next especially for novice users and even more especially if the steps must be performed in a specific sequence such as a series of robots for an assembly line.
· Shortcuts can of course be provided for expert users, but for the most part, the locus of control can remain largely on the IA, leaving the initiation of the task and loading of inputs or requisite materials to the user.

8. Reduce short-term memory load.

· This is also an universal rule that can be applied to IAs, like the example of the different bread makers in class, a common task like baking a simple loaf of bread should be as easy as loading the mixed ingredients and pressing the “Start” button, instead of requiring the user to provide several different inputs to perform the same task.

Mannequin Night Club Go-Go Dancers

2008-02-02T15:13:00.001-06:00

Mannequin Night Club 02/01/08

2008-02-02T15:07:00.001-06:00

Mannequin Night Club 02/01/08

2008-02-02T15:06:00.001-06:00

Mannequin Night Club 02/01/08

2008-02-02T15:04:00.001-06:00

2008-02-02T15:00:00.001-06:00

If only I had skis...

2008-02-02T14:58:00.001-06:00

The only bush I'd vote for

2008-02-02T14:55:00.001-06:00

Winter in the city

2008-02-02T14:53:00.001-06:00

Snow Day

2008-02-02T14:50:00.001-06:00

I just came from the...

2008-02-02T13:27:00.001-06:00

I just came from the dentist and you know, I had the cleaning and filling done. And the cleaning part was redone [...] at all. It's all my fault really cause I haven't had a cleaning in a really really long time so he was in there scraping and doing all that stuff to clean that gunk out of my teeth. I think I'm all better now, you know, so I think that's it. Later. listen

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Hello,(?) I am at this...

2008-02-01T21:48:00.001-06:00

Hello,(?) I am at this gathering, it's called a First(?) Friday's(?) at the Museum of [...] Chicago and it's actually a single buy(?) thing. It's really loud here and [...]. You know, I probably do(?) singing(?) again. I need to talk a little bit about [...]. I'm done, bye. listen

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The Macbook Air its...

2008-01-30T21:56:00.001-06:00

The Macbook Air its pretty hot, it's pretty fucking hot device. I really am tempted to buy one but its probably not a practical as a Macbook Pro or something, or maybe Alienware, I mean the price is ridiculous but at least I can play games on it. Yeah, that's like my thought for today. Talk to you later. listen

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Self-portrait

2008-01-26T23:41:00.001-06:00

Video Blog

2008-01-26T18:06:00.001-06:00

Okay, so, I'm doing...

2008-01-26T17:40:00.001-06:00

Okay, so, I'm doing another voice blog from Jott.com. So far it been pretty cool. I been doing little shopping. First off, I went the Sony Style Store. I want to get one of them bluetooth stereo headsets, pretty nice, thinking I'm gonna buy one of those in near future. I also passed by Best Buy, they have both Guitar Hero 3...[time limit reached] listen

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[Note: It looks like the voice to text from Jott isn't quite perfect, but it's fairly close, so I had to go back and correct some of the misinterpreted and missed words via PC.]

It's done okay it's...

2008-01-26T17:37:00.001-06:00

Damn, okay it's pretty short so I'm gonna keep my message short because it cut me off yah Guitar Hero 3, pretty hot, Rock Band, with both the drum set the guitar and the mircrophone that's also pretty hot and I passed by the Mac Apple store and they don't have the Air yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing that, it looks pretty hot. I think that is all for now then so, I'll talk to you later. Bye. listen

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Need - Rockband Special Edition for the PS3

2008-01-26T17:28:00.001-06:00

For the PlayStation 3. Comes with the Guitar, Microphone and Drum Set. Hotness...

Want - Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock for the PS3...

2008-01-26T17:27:00.001-06:00

Guitar Hero III for the PlayStation 3. w/ Wireless guitar controller of course...

Okay, so, I'm only testing...

2008-01-24T21:28:00.001-06:00

Okay, so, I'm only testing this voice application to Blog. It's by a Jott.com. It's seems pretty cool so far, hopefully this will post correctly on my Blog account. Talk to you later, bye. listen

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Sony Ericsson K850i

2008-01-17T09:59:00.001-06:00

Sony Ericsson K850i

2008-01-17T09:57:00.001-06:00

Sony Ericsson K850i

2008-01-17T09:53:00.001-06:00

Sony Ericsson K850i

2008-01-17T09:51:00.001-06:00

Sony Ericsson K850i

2008-01-17T09:50:00.001-06:00

Climax nightclub

2008-01-12T17:04:00.001-06:00

Riverview

2008-01-10T20:18:00.001-06:00

Post no bills

2008-01-10T20:17:00.001-06:00

Turnstyles

2008-01-10T20:15:00.001-06:00

Adams and Wabash

2008-01-10T20:14:00.001-06:00

Payphones

2008-01-10T20:11:00.001-06:00

Bored in class

2008-01-10T20:09:00.001-06:00

El pipes

2008-01-09T18:27:00.001-06:00

Elevated

2008-01-09T18:25:00.001-06:00

Starship Origami

2008-01-09T17:18:00.001-06:00

Candy wrapper cranes

2008-01-09T17:15:00.001-06:00

Twist tie sculpture

2008-01-09T17:13:00.001-06:00

Turnstyle out

2008-01-08T19:56:00.001-06:00

Stairs up

2008-01-08T19:18:00.001-06:00

Stairs down

2008-01-08T19:17:00.001-06:00

Montrose to Kimball

2008-01-08T19:15:00.001-06:00

Montrose Station

2008-01-08T19:14:00.001-06:00

Oncoming train

2008-01-08T17:50:00.001-06:00

downward spiral

2008-01-08T17:47:00.001-06:00

No mail

2008-01-08T14:18:00.001-06:00

Mailboxes

2008-01-08T14:17:00.001-06:00

Escalate

2008-01-08T13:01:00.001-06:00

Marina

2008-01-08T12:20:00.001-06:00

fire safety

2008-01-08T12:18:00.001-06:00

unseasonably warm

2008-01-08T12:16:00.001-06:00

Update

2008-01-06T23:59:00.000-06:00

As you can see from the pics I've already posted, it looks like we are good to go with the photo blogging straight from the K850i. Setup was fairly easy as Sony Ericsson was nice enough to pre-set their phones with a "post to blog" feature that goes straight to blogger.

I believe, however that any phone with a camera and SMS capability can be used to post to blogger just send the photo from your phone to go@blogger.com via SMS or e-mail. Once you send the SMS or e-mail you will shortly get an text or email back to your phone with instructions on how to begin the setup of your blog.

Although my own K850i has a 5 megapixel camera, it looks like blogger bumps the resolution down to SVGA 800x600. I suppose I'll have to live with the significant scale-down of picture quality for the convenience of blogging straight from my phone.

Actually a good majority of the pictures I've already posted were actually taken with my older phone the K800i, which has 3.2 megapixel camera which isn't half bad either. Because the 3G data on that phone can only be used in Europe, I was just never really motivated to set that phone up to post mobile blogs given the data transfer would be restricted to the painfully slow GPRS technology.

Thanks to my latest phone however, all that has changed. With everything set up and running, there will definitely more photo blogs coming soon.

Jalapeños

2008-01-06T23:52:00.001-06:00

82222

2008-01-06T23:47:00.001-06:00

NYE 2008

2008-01-06T23:43:00.001-06:00

Poinsetta

2008-01-06T22:25:00.001-06:00

Test

2008-01-06T20:10:00.001-06:00

welcome...

2008-01-06T19:55:00.000-06:00

greetings and salutations. from the title of this blog you can probably guess that i'll be posting my photos here. what you may not know is that i will be using my new sony ericsson cybershot k850i phone to both take the pictures and send them wirelessly to this blog. i'm getting a bunch of the techincal stuff set up but once that's out of the way, i suspect i'll be expressing myself photograpically, hopefully on a frequent basis.