Caribbean Water is Beautiful
Amy and I had a great trip to the Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas ship.
Departure Port:
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Ports of Call:
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Oranjestad, Aruba
Willemstad, Curacao
Philipsburg, St. Maarten
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
iPhone Confession: I took it back
Sorry to admit it, but I caved and bought an iPhone. Took it home Thursday afternoon. Had it configured and up and running by 8:00PM. I used it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
What did I like:
– thought the WiFi was awesome…miss that from the Nokia E61 I used for a short time.
– some web-based iPhone apps like the one for Facebook, iPhoneMiles
– media and music support
– Apple-centric sync — worked flawlessly for me
Mixed emotions:
– keyboard / touchscreen…I can go either way as I got used to it pretty quickly
What I missed:
– copy and paste (simple example: my wife texts me asking for a mobile number of friend — I had to write the number down on paper first before I could send it on)
– shortcuts and streamlined steps to data and email applications
– device optimized browser rendering — wasn’t sold on the “cool” pinching
– SureType adding a period and many auto correct typing features
– one-handed operation — felt like I had to use two hands to work the keyboard quickly
– overall faster speed of applications
I took the phone back, paid a $60 restocking fee, and quickly went back to the comfort of my BlackBerry Pearl. I love the navigation speed, SureType correction, texting, address book, calendar, and email push functionality on my Pearl. The size and light weight of the Pearl still makes it a winner. At least for me.
Engadget Nailed it for Palm
Peter Rojas, Ryan Block, and Joshua Topolsky nail it for Palm over at Engadget today. Great read!
I can’t think of a bigger misstep from any tech company as big as Palm. WordPerfect missed Windows and failed. Iomega rode high for a while, but CD burning, USB, and Flash made them obsolete.
I bought every Treo from the 180 through 650. You lost me because you didn’t innovate.
iPhone comments
I left a comment for Robert Scoble on his post on the iPhone today. I lasted about 60 days with my Nokia — everything took too many clicks to do what you wanted and the OS was slow to respond to lookups. I agree with Dave Winer‘s comments about the iPhone vs. BlackBerry (except I think BlackBerry does a better job of punctuation through SureType over the iPhone’s multi-step process).
In the end, I think those people who have used smartphones will find the iPhone too limiting and with little vision for improvement without waiting for a a significant update from Apple. It’s a great first smartphone for those that have never used a smartphone. If you live on the road and love the freedom your BlackBerry provides, I think the iPhone may feel too restrictive. I’m sticking to the BlackBerry Pearl for now. Can’t wait for WiFi in a future device of similar size, but I’m waiting. And for the record, I think the BlackBerry has a lot of holes too (HTML email, “real” IMAP updating, bluetooth sync w/ Mac, etc.).
Challenges with Podcasts
Bob Tedeschi’s story in the NYTimes today talks about advertisers interest in leveraging the podcast medium. Interestingly, a large number of traditional media companies are now participating in the podcast revolution. NPR, WSJ, and even ESPN are offering content that listeners can access on their own timeline.Advertising is a natural for these traditional media companies. They fund their businesses through ads.
Unfortunately, I’m of the opinion (as is John Furrier at PodTech.net) that interruption marketing just doesn’t work. Even as I tried to access the NYTimes URL to share in this post, I had to wait 20 seconds to watch an advertisement — or perhaps I should say, I had to ignore the in-your-face advertisement to get the URL. The only reason I knew the ad was for Sprint is I went back to the web site.
Permission marketing works better. I have no problem accessing content that is associated with a company. I support that model. Interrupting a podcast to spin an advertisement just doesn’t work. New mediums need new models. Of course I’d love to get some dough for the more than 75 podcasts I’ve published!
While I’m ranting, I must also say “podcasts” is a dumb word. More multimedia (video / audio) content is being consumed online in a browser. Adding content to your iPod or MP3 player is too hard. With Flash based media players (like the PodTech player), we can now publish our content for online consumption. It’s easier to consume. I’d love to see the Association for Downloadable Media make it easier to get content onto portable devices.
Lego-Playing, Free-Dry Cleaning, Spoiled Google Employees
Fake Steve Jobs takes a stand on Google employees today.
Funny thing is that there are many companies in the tech world with this same problem. Many provide all the perks and never make it to positive cash flow. It’s strange to me that VC-funding has replaced the “work by the sweat of your brow” reality of the “harvest of life.” At some point, all these people who live off someone else’s money will realize that wealth and security come with revenue generating businesses.
As for Google, wow do they generate revenue. And in this case, Wall Street is penalizing Google for missing a quarter. Sure they have their many experiments–as does Microsoft and others. But They also have a cash cow that is pumping out the milk!
From Fake Steve Jobs Post…
“They’re going to look like a bunch of spoiled coddled self-involved Lego-playing 20-somethings who have free massages and dry cleaning and groovy ethnic food and have been turned loose with no adult supervision to do whatever the [fbomb] they want, and who all are suffering from acute Attention Deficit Disorder so that they never finish anything because they get bored and move on to the next stupid idea that some bozo has dreamed up on a white board.”
Relocating Water in the West
I just watched the program, “Desert Wars: Water and the West” on Salt Lake’s KUED public television station. Very interesting program.
The value of water is undeniable. Unfortunately, it’s hard to put borders on underground aquifers. Sharing water around the west is a serious issue. People relocating to Las Vegas, Phoenix, and even smaller towns like St. George Utah or Mesquite Nevada make these western cities among the fastest growing cities in the USA. This growth is putting strains on resource needs, particularly water.
As I watched the program, I saw both sides of the issue. People who have water today through existing springs and underground aquifers certainly are justified in their fear of loss of the water they rely on. Those who live in the city are reliant upon their governments to provide for them.
I couple of items I feel strongly about:
- Northern Utah uses too much water on landscaping (including yours truly). We need to change. As the second driest state (behind Nevada), we need to be more like those in Las Vegas who have adopted a “desert” lifestyle and decor.
- Just because a high-growth location is filled with opportunity, it doesn’t mean that the growing location should get higher priority or is more justified in getting the water.
- Las Vegas is more than gambling and “sin city” lifestyle. Utahans need to realize this and stop judging and stereotyping.
- It’s impossible to place a value on the loss of Bonneville cutthroat trout or migratory birds that have used springs in the desert as resting spots.
- Ranchers are as important as businessmen. Unfortunately, ranchers and their lifestyle don’t always afford the financial opportunities to defend themselves against deeper pockets.
The full transcript of the show is available here.
Message From the 2007 Open Championship Web Site
As they say, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Couple of my Cell Phone Snapshots on Schmap
Snapped a couple of shots of the Carlton Oaks golf course in San Diego area. Uploaded them to Flickr. Now they are on Schmap, some shopping / map application. Images were used with my permission.
Carlton Oaks Country Club
Carlton Oaks North Golf Course
IE7 vs. FF2
Internet Explorer swept in and took everyone out. And then there was Firefox. Amazingly, in Europe Firefox is picking up market share in huge strides. Still a ways to go in a lot of places, but inroads are being made. Stats according to iTWire:
Only about one third of IE users have adopted IE7 compared to 85% of FF users who have adopted the latest version of the browser, FF2. Significantly, FF2 has a greater market share than IE7 in 17 European territories, while IE7 is ahead of FF2 in 16 territories.
Been a Firefox (or Mozilla’s Camino browser) user for the past 18 months myself. Go get ’em.
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