links for 2007-09-28

Sep 28, 2007 | blog, daily links

Reasons why I can’t buy an iPhone

Sep 28, 2007 | blog

opinion It’s not because it’s Apple.

I’ve been reading and thinking about the iPhone a lot lately.  I’m coming up on needing to upgrade my aging, failing, but fantastic T-Mobile MDA.  I’ve been fascinated by the features and simplicity of the iPhone that has, of course, been the center of mobile tech hype for months now.

The reasons are simple and have little to do with the iPhone itself.  Here they are.

  1. Not T-Mobile This is a big deal for me, I’m not going to change my number over – all my family and friends are on T-Mobile and my calls to them are all out of the unlimited "mobile to mobile" pool that doesn’t cost me a dime extra.
  2. No WMA support. Yep, 18 months ago I converted our entire library of tunes to WMA.  I’m not going to do it again.  I had to pick and there were upcoming WMA players at the time, my Pocket PCs were my player and new Nokia’s are compatible with the Windows Media Player sync tool.
  3. Software I have literally hundreds of dollars of software that is designed for Windows Mobile.  I’m not going to through that away just for because I got a new mobile device.  I am glad that I bought only Bluetooth hardware accessories though – that move has paid off big time.
  4. 3G Yeah, you who know will point out that T-Mobile doesn’t even have a 3G service for their customers (it’s in deployment/testing yet), so I shouldn’t bring up the lack of 3G in the iPhone.  Fine I won’t.  But other devices on the market have had long experience with 3G implementation, so I won’t loose sleep over that.
  5. Keyboard I’ve often scoffed at the keyboard on the face of the BlackBerry for a long time, but they are very handy to craft messages.  My beloved MDA had a sliding keyboard, which I would buy again, but having one on the front of the device would be nice in several ways.
  6. Control I must have control of the device.  From the selection of the firmware to software to the network settings.  Traits from being a true techno geek.  I know how the devices work and I can create a better configuration for my work/usage habits than anyone else can for me.

Well I can’t think of any other things at this point, and this is not to crap on the iPhone.  I really do want one, compared to my initial reaction when it was released.  The device is indeed an advance in design, engineering, interface and usability.  It’s just not on my list this year when I go shopping for a new device.

What will I be looking for?  Probably going to be another Windows Mobile device.  Will need to support 3G HSDPA, all the usual wireless support, keyboard, good camera (3MP or better), video capabilities (record and playback), sync with WMP, more memory and a faster processor…

What’s your take – should a person switch carriers just for a hyped (albeit good) device?

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Rebuilding my browser

Sep 27, 2007 | blog

firefox I’ve been a longtime Firefox user, using many of the excellent plug-ins to extend the experience as I find more services that I use online.  Like many people, I’ve let myself get a bit overloaded with added features, and yes there were several that I no longer use.

So tonight I went through my entire browser, bookmarks, organization, toolbars, plug-ins – the whole works.  I’ve stripped down to the bare essentials and gotten rid of ALL the toolbars I had loaded.  I never used them.  Only the bookmark toolbar is left, and that went from about 50 buttons down to 14 buttons – it may loose even more, we’ll see.bookmark toolbarbookmark toolbar

bookmarks The idea being that I put only the sites, services, and tools that I use every darn day on the bookmark toolbar.  The rest of my bookmarks have been reorganized into one of (up to) ten categories – and yes I numbered them.  When I click on Bookmarks now, I only see 10 categories.  My apologies to Chris Brogan, I borrowed the term "rockstars" for the blogs I actually visit instead of reading their feeds.

I’ll be doing more work on the organization, but I had over 70 folders under my Bookmarks to begin with.  Yeah, I’ll still have a hard time finding everything, but I believe that I can weed out feeds over time.  This was to get the initial Bookmark menu so I didn’t have to scroll through it to find a folder.

So, I’ve got a ways to go before it’s fully organized to weed out the dead links and make it easier to find things but it’s a start.  Wondering what add-ons I left in place?  here’s a rundown that I use almost every day.

Well, that about does it for my browsing environment.  Firefox is my main browser, but I do keep Internet Explorer, Opera, and Flock loaded for testing purposes.  I’m thinking of adding Safari, but it’ll have to wait for a little while.

Now, what is your browsing environment like?  What tools, add-ins, and programs do you use?  Let me know.  🙂

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Happiness LVIII

Sep 27, 2007 | happiness

When was the last time you leaned back in a chair and watched the stars? Bring the kids.

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