Blogcritics

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

iHype Part V: Three Weeks Later

Daryl D — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:28:22 EDT

Most geeks admit to having an absolute fascination with their new technology toys when first obtaining them. It’s almost the equivalent of a new husband or wife. Like most marriages, once the “newness” wears off, you start to see problems you originally hadn’t thought of. The iPhone was the most hyped up technological device since the color television set. People, including myself, sat in long lines for hours waiting to get our hands on a device that was supposed to revolutionize the cell phone industry. The iPhone certainly had its promising features: an actual (not dumbed down) Internet browser; visual voicemail; the ability to play high quality music and videos; plus a futuristic touch interface. After using this device for nearly three weeks, I can safely say that my idea to call this series of articles iHype was right on the spot, since this device, indeed, is more hype than substance. I know all the Apple fanboys are getting ready to hunt and shoot me down, especially since my initial review of this device was positive. But have they, like me, driven from one side of the country to the other with this phone? I made the long drive from Southern California to Northern New Jersey in the past week and can confirm that there were several areas that the iPhone did not work in: many parts of New Mexico; various areas around Oklahoma City; parts of Southern Missouri; and the service (including data) in Northern New Jersey has been very inconsistent. I kept my Sprint account just in case something like this went wrong. I had to use my Sprint phone during the times the iPhone wouldn’t work. I didn’t notice any outages in the Sprint service, but there were several places (especially in small, rural areas) where I wasn’t able to get their EVDO high speed service. However, I was at least able to make a phone call whenever I needed to. The best thing that the iPhone had going for it was its Safari Internet browser. When I was in an area with higher speed Edge service (which still isn’t much faster than dial-up), this was a great pleasure to use. Making the pages go up or down with the roll of my index finger and zooming in or out on the pages by pinching two of my fingers on the screen was a great experience. Even though AT&T increased the speed of their Edge service in many areas, I found the speeds in most areas that I used the phone to be very sluggish. In the middle of Ridgewood, New Jersey, it took almost thirty seconds to display the Blogcritics.org website. That may have been fast four years ago, but with 3G wireless speeds taking off, this is way too slow. The Wi-Fi on the iPhone works well, but I don’t like to pay extra money for Wi-Fi access when I’m not home. The worst thing the iPhone had going for it, in terms of business use, was its touch-screen keyboard. Apple claimed that once you get used to this, it works even better than a thumboard. I can definitely confirm that this statement is completely misleading, unless you have a small child’s fingers. While my tapping (as well as the tapping of others I talked to) became more accurate over time, it is still inconvenient. I’ve become so frustrated writing emails that I decided that it’s not worth the pain caused by the iPhone to write any more. It has been even worse opening my emails that have Word attachments since the iPhone doesn’t have software to edit Microsoft Word documents. Perhaps I’m being a little unkind to Apple and AT&T, since this is a first generation device. The first generation iPod had some problems that were corrected in future generations. However, this is a $600 device that was hyped up like no other. Because it has been more than 15 days since I purchased the device, it is too late to return. If I cancel my AT&T service, I just have an 8 GB iPod with Wi-Fi features. This doesn’t make the device completely useless as the portable media features on this are excellent. The $600 I spent on this device was probably the biggest waste of money since purchasing the first generation Treo. Palm eventually got the Treo right, and I hope Apple can do the same with the iPhone.

Daryl, who thinks that both Democrats and Republicans are ruining our country, is a freelance writer who writes articles on politics, technology, and entertainment. If you want to send him feedback on any of his articles (good or bad) don't hesitate to email him at report345@yahoo.com.

iHype Part IV - The iPhone Review

Daryl D — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 18:26:38 EDT

I was originally going to stand in line last Friday morning at the Apple store in Manhattan Beach, Ca. However, I passed an AT&T store on Hawthorne Boulevard and saw nobody standing in line. So, at 8 AM in the morning, I became the first of more than 100 people in line at this particular store. The security guards (hired for the launch of this) and AT&T staff were very friendly and helpful. They interacted with us in a way that customer service usually doesn’t try to. Finally, at 6 PM, the door opened. My credit was checked and the very small box was put in my hands. I felt like I had just passed the gates to Heaven, but one may think I should be condemned to Hell for waiting in line since 8 AM, when I could have gone to any Apple store that evening and purchased one, although most Apple stores sold out two days later. I immediately activated my phone through iTunes 7.3, an easy and speedy process. Soon, I was given a phone number and immediately sync'd my music, videos, and photos. After using it for an hour, there were some minor frustrations (such as the on-screen keyboard). However, I realized that the iPhone is actually a rare product that pretty much lives up to its hype, though it’s not for everyone, especially heavy business users. First, let’s talk about the design. The iPhone measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 wide by 0.46 inch deep. However, it actually feels smaller. It feels very comfortable in your hands, especially with the rounded corners. It almost feels like a bar of soap, which isn’t always a good thing since it can easily slip out of your hands. Still, it was more comfortable to hold than the Treo or most other smartphones. The 480 x 320 pixel display is bright, crisp and beautiful. At first, it looked like an enhanced picture of a display rather than an actual display. Best of all, the screen is readable in sunlight – something most smartphones aren’t. The beauty of this display is most evident when looking at pictures, which look like actual photos rather than the pixelated mess that you usually see on Windows Mobile phones. Best of all, you can zoom in or out on the photos just by using two fingers to expand or decrease the photos.Portable video enthusiasts will definitely have a geekgasm when watching videos on the iPhone, which makes a better portable video player than any portable media device I’ve used. Watching high resolution videos on a 480 x 320 resolution screen is a very enjoyable portable experience, especially when going to the health club or taking a long walk. There are programs, such as this one from Cucusoft, that encode DVDs or video files (including TiVo) for the iPhone. Even though you can’t store a whole library of videos (the iPhone’s capacity is 8 GB) you can always have them ready on your computer and transfer (or delete) videos when you need to. The process is very simple. If you don’t have any of your own videos, you can always launch iPhone’s YouTube application, which works very well. Unfortunately, there are many YouTube videos that aren’t available for the iPhone’s YouTube launcher yet. This will probably change in the near future. The touch screen is just about the most intriguing part of the iPhone. I never believed that you can use a smartphone without a stylus until I finally tried this phone. A swish of the finger can bring items up or down on the screen, almost like an online rolodex. The buttons, with the exception of the keyboard (we’ll talk about that in a little bit) were very easy to press. Navigating through music and videos is quite simple and most would not miss having actual buttons. It’s easy to smudge the screen, but also easy to clean off. I would highly suggest buying a screen cover or making one of your own by cutting to size overhead transparency film and taping it. The tape may slightly take away the beauty of this technological masterpiece, but at least your screen will be protected. As a phone, AT&T’s network worked well at several locations in the Southern California area. I did hear some static at times during calls – something I never experienced on Sprint or Verizon’s network. The phone offers no voice dial, a major feature missing for mobile warriors. It does, however, have visual voicemail, where one can choose what message he/she wants to listen to rather than having to hear every single message that occurs before the one that is most important. The earpiece volume is satisfactory, but not excellent like the volume in the Treo and other smartphones. Once the earphones are put on though, the call becomes more listenable. As an Internet device, the iPhone works better than most feared. This is partly due to AT&T increasing the speed of their Edge networks, which normally run about as fast as the dial-up internet that has become extinct. In some locations, I only received an internet speed of 70 kbps, while in most other locations, I received speeds of 140 kbps or higher. Although the speed was workable, it was nothing like the 300-400 kbps speed found when using Sprint or Verizon’s networks on smartphones. However, Sprint or Verizon’s smartphones don’t have a web browser like Safari, which is the real Internet, not some dumbed down Windows Mobile version. The pages usually displayed are hard to read at first since so much information displays on such a short space. But it is very easy to use your fingers and zoom by pinching at the screen on any section you want. If the Edge network is still too slow for you, the iPhone has Wi-Fi capabilities and can connect to any wireless Wi-Fi networks. It even alerts you when Wi-Fi networks are within connection range. Many Wi-Fi networks have Internet speeds greater than 1500 kbps. It is rare to find Wi-Fi capabilities on phones from other carriers and if they do contain this capability, you can say goodbye to your battery life. Using Wi-Fi on the iPhone only slightly decreases battery life. If you’ve made it this far into my review, you’re probably ready to run out and get an iPhone (if you weren’t one of a half million people who already did). However, some of you may want to wait. If you are heavily dependent on a thumb keyboard, this isn’t a smart device for you. Apple’s on-screen keyboard requires you to tap on the letters. Apple has circulated videos showing people using thumbs on both hands to type just as they would with a thumboard. This method guarantees a lot of mistakes, although the iPhone does include pretty impressive auto correction software. I have tried using both thumbs for the past three days and have become incredibly frustrated doing so. I experienced better luck holding the iPhone at an angle while using my index finger to tap away at the letters. Thus, the onscreen keypad isn’t useless, but it’s not great either. It will make you long for thumb keyboards seen on the Treo. Apple would be smart to include a tactile feedback thumboard on Version 2 of the iPhone (my great geek intuition tells me it’s going to be available in November). Those who are heavily dependent on mobile word processing documents, beware! You can open Word documents through the iPhone's outstanding email application (far better than I’ve ever seen on any PDA), but can’t edit them. Those who want to use the iPhone to jot down notes, beware! You cannot sync them with Microsoft Outlook, a major oversight from Apple. Because of all the complaints, something tells me that there will be some third party application that will enable these features. For now, however, this is very disappointing to avid business users. Those of you who like making custom ringtones are out of luck. For now, you can only use Apple’s ringtones which are incredibly lame, unless you like the sounds of dogs barking, crickets chirping or a doorbell ringing. Even when your phone goes off, it’s easy to miss the call because the speaker isn’t very loud. It’s great that an iPod-like product finally has a speaker, but the quality is less than average. Perhaps, in the next version of the iPhone, we will have stereo speakers. Despite a few shortcomings, the iPhone is still a major technological innovation that will only alienate a small minority of smartphone users in its first generation release. Three days after using it, I still find myself saying “Wow!” all the time. One has to feel sorry for other carriers, such as Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile, who are about to become extinct unless they come up with something just as impressive.

iHype Part III: One Day Left!

Daryl D — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:48:54 EDT

This it the third part in a series on Apple's hyped up iPhone. In part I, I covered all the crazy hype over the iPhone. In part II, I covered the iPlan rates and why business users might want to take caution before investing. I will be writing a couple more parts in this series, with the final part consisting of my full iPhone review. The historic release of the iPhone is just one day away. My fellow geeks and I have been calling each other nonstop and sending instant messages. Last night, I went outside my geeky world and interviewed some people, who appear to be normal, about the "Jesus phone". Juan, 29, of Manhattan Beach, California thinks I, as well as other people excited about this phone, really need to get a life. “It’s only a phone!” he laughed. "I’m saving my money for more important things, like my daughter's education." His wife Victoria, 30, seemed to have more sympathy.“Even though I have no desire to get this phone, I’m not going to judge anybody,” she said, in a serious tone, but laughed afterwards. Victoria finds business phones like the Treo a lot “cooler.” A lot of business users may end up taking her point of view as well, since it has been revealed that that the AT&T network the iPhone runs on is excruciatingly slow. “I’m going to wait until they fix all the bugs in the first version,” Mikhal, 44, of Redondo Beach, said. “Usually, first generation phones like this are buggy as hell. I remember the problems they had with the first generation iPod. Now, the things perfect,” he continued. However, there have been no major software bugs in early reviews of the iPhone. Things may change when the iPhone gets into consumers' hands tomorrow. It is important to note that consumers will not need to sign up for their plans at an Apple or AT&T store. Instead, they will be required to have the latest version of iTunes on their MAC or PC computers, sync their iPhones, and sign up with a plan online. It looks really easy on Apple’s demonstration but one has to wonder how simple it will actually be when thousands of people, all at the same time, are trying to activate their phones. Bad news for people trying to buy the iPhone and use it as a media player: the iPhone’s features can only be accessed by signing up with an account. To prepare for the iPhone, I not only recommend that you download the latest version of iTunes, but that you buy an iPhone video converter as well so you can have all of your videos ready. While I’m sure that there will be some freeware programs that convert video for the iPhone, I suggest that you fork out $40 more and buy Cucusoft’s iPhone video converter. I have used this software on the Microsoft Zune, as well as previous iPods, and the results are speedy and flawless.I would also suggest that you not worry about camping out for this. Inside sources tell me that Apple stores will receive between 800 and 1,000 iPhones in their first shipment tomorrow, though most of those will be the $600 8 GB version (I don’t know why anybody would want a 4GB version that’s only $100 less). AT&T stores will not reveal their stock on the phone, but the fact that they announced that there is now a limit of two iPhone purchases per customer is refreshing since, before yesterday, the rumor was that they would only sell one per person. This can only mean they will have more iPhones than originally planned. Most AT&T, as well as Apple, stores will not let you camp out overnight. It seems that they will allow lines to form once individual stores are opened. My suggestion is that if you are going to buy your iPhone at an AT&T location, get there by 2:00PM just to be safe. If you are going to an Apple store, get there by at least 4:00PM. Both stores will start selling the "Jesus phone" at 6PM. I will be in line at Apple's Manhattan Beach location on Sepulveda. If you have time, come by and say hi. I’ll be the one who has a geeky foam chair to sit on, as well as my Sony laptop so I can blog directly from the site. Stay tuned to BC Magazine for more news on the launch of the iPhone.

iHype Part II: AT&T Reveals iPlans

Daryl D — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:23:47 EDT

Yesterday, AT&T released details of some reasonable plans, all which feature unlimited data for email and web surfing, rollover minutes, 200 text messages, and unlimited AT&T mobile to mobile calling. The $60 plan includes 450 regular minutes with 5,000 night and weekend minutes while the $80 plan includes 900 regular minutes with unlimited night and weekend minutes. The most expensive plan, which will run the consumer $100 a month, includes 1,350 regular minutes with unlimited night and weekend use. There is still no word yet on whether one will be able to tether the phone as a laptop modem, but you can bet a third party solution will be found. Some might wonder why anyone would want to tether the phone as a laptop modem in the first place. The iPhone supports AT&T’s incredibly slow Edge service, which is equivalent to speeds of dial up modems that are gradually becoming extinct. AT&T has a much faster HSDPA network with speeds comparable to light broadband modems, just as Sprint and Verizon do with their EVDO networks. Fortunately, the iPhone supports Wi-Fi wireless Internet as well, but you have to be in a wireless hotspot for this to work. The Internet speed on the iPhone is a major disadvantage when compared to other Internet enabled smartphones.Business users may want to exercise caution before investing in this phone. Unlike the Treo or Blackberry smartphone devices, the iPhone does not have a built in thumboard. Instead, it has what is described as a predictive QUERTY software keyboard on the device that you touch with your fingers. Something like this can cause a lot of problems, especially for people who are used to a thumboard with tactile feedback. Still, the New York Times says that the iPhone may not be perfect, but lives up to most of the hype. Many early users have stated that using the iPhone is like having an actual computer in your hands, not some dumbed down mobile version of an operating system. Start lining up now and stay tuned to BC Magazine for more iPhone information.

iHype Part I: History In The Making

Daryl D — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:45:10 EDT

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon. I wish I could say what a memorable day it was for me, but I wasn’t born yet. I wish I could say that I experienced the arrival of the Beatles. Sadly, all my generation has is U2. I’ve always missed out on truly historical events, minus the September 11 disaster. But that wasn’t a happy day for anyone. I’ve always fantasized about the day that an extraterrestrial lands on Earth. I still believe that’s going to happen, but perhaps not in my lifetime.In January of 2007, however, my outlook started to change. Once the iPhone was announced, I knew I would be a part of History. The iPhone - a video player, MP3 player, Internet device, and phone, all in one sleek futuristic device - soon became the most talked about electronic device since the color television set back in the 1950s. Many people have titled this new device “The Jesus Phone.” To understand why this device is hyped up so much, just take a look at this commercial. If that doesn’t do it, take a look at this. If you have high bandwidth, you may want to go to Apple’s main site to watch the demonstrations. A warning to those in bad financial situations: watching the videos may take you one step closer to bankruptcy. The iPhone will go on sale at 6PM, on June 29, at most Apple and AT&T stores. With a two year contract, a 4 GB version will run you $499 and an 8 GB version will run you $599. Is this phone overpriced? Probably! Is this phone overhyped? Yes! But as you can tell, even hard-to-convince technophiles, such as myself, have bought into the hype. Today, I am preparing to camp out for the iPhone. I first have to make sure I have enough food, water, and other protective gear (such as an umbrella to prevent sunburn) before I reach my final iPhone destination in Southern California (which I’m not sure exactly where yet) on Thursday night. Am I crazy? Yes!This article is the first of several documenting the upcoming historical day of June 29, 2007: The Release of The iPhone. In future articles, I will interview other people about the iPhone, talk more about the technical details, give advice for iPhone buyers, etc. This will all lead to the grand finale: The BC Magazine review of Apple’s history making “Jesus Phone” -- or will it end up actually being “The Satan Phone.” Stay tuned to BC Magazine for up-to-date information.