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The iPhone 3G as a Business Tool – Part 1

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I’ve had my iPhone 3G since iPhone 3G day, 11-Jul-08, almost two months. Before then, I put my hands on the iPhone at an AT&T store, but never truly spent any time with it. The iPhone 3G was released with a number of different Enterprise ready intentions, including 3G and Exchange support, among others. Is it ready for power users and road warriors alike?

In this multi-part series, I’m going to cover a few different areas of the device and go into details where I see the iPhone needing some growth. Specifically, I’m going to cover points on

Operating System
Calendar
Mail
Tasks

We’ll discuss the accelerometer, the Home screen, Bluetooth and Bluetooth profiles, etc. There’s a lot of information here, so just hang out with me for a bit, and let’s explore this together. If I’ve forgotten something, however, please feel free to give me a shout!

Please note: This is NOT a review of the iPhone 3G, nor is it intended to be. It is an analysis and commentary on its readiness as a business tool by the end-user, be they power user, road warrior, or your everyday, on call, communications and web junkie.

After more than a month of dedicated use, I can say with a decent amount of certainty, in my opinion, that the iPhone isn’t quite ready for implementation in the enterprise. No, I’m NOT talking about administration and deployment issues and concerns. I’m talking about end user related issues. From my perspective, there are a few items that Apple needs to correct before I, or most power users and road warriors can make the best use of the device at the office.

I’ve passed some of this around to some of the team here at Gear Diary and to some of the other industry folks that I know. Some agreed with these points, some said that my focus was a bit off, considering that the target audience for the device is, and has been locked on one segment – consumers. However, if Apple wants to stay true to their intent of capturing a share of the enterprise market with the iPhone 3G, they should at least listen to some of these suggestions…I think, anyway.

So, without further ado, here are what I think the growth points are for the iPhone 3G:

Operating System

Security…NOT!
The iPhone world is a-buzz over the last few days due to an unsquashed regression bug that was resolved in ROM 1.1.3, but has resurfaced. According to information at Gizmodo as well as Mac Rumors, users can get around Apple’s password screen and get access to Contacts and the phone with a double tap of the Home button.

This item alone will prevent the iPhone from being deployed in some Enterprises. Depending on the industry, some organizations won’t allow any unsecured device to carry company information; and if I can get passed even simple security without even trying hard, then the device isn’t going to get deployed in a lot of organizations right now, in my opinion.

Oh…and by the way, don’t EVEN get me started about anti-virus software and the iPhone. That’s just nasty…

Today Screen vs. Home Screen/Program Launcher
One of the biggest problems that I have with my iPhone 3G, is that getting access to my schedule requires a bit of work.

1. Turn the phone on

2. Unlock it via slider, or slider and password

3. Tap the Calendar icon to run Calendar

I have to do this each time before I can see my itinerary for the day. With both BlackBerry and WM devices, I have access to my schedule right from the main device page, after the device turns on. Apple provides a series of App Launcher pages, and that’s it.


The standard WM Today Screen	The Touch Diamond Today Screen	My iPhone 3G Home Screen

No offense meant, but I’m busy. I don’t have a lot of time to tap around the screen to see when my next meeting is. Both WM screens above show the next meeting on the device’s main screen. Just because Smartphones are more common place, doesn’t mean that they are tolerated more than before – quite the opposite in fact. I’ve had managers accuse me of playing or of inappropriate multi-tasking when I receive more than 1 e-mail (I don’t always look when I get an e-mail alert, especially if I’m in small meetings). Any way, in situations like this, I really just want to turn the device, on, check to see what my next appointment is, check to see what kind of messages I’ve received, etc. Tapping through to all of the other applets is not acceptable at that point. I don’t need to look like I’m playing with my gadget.

I mentioned this to some of my other mobile device enthusiasts, and they reminded me that the iPhone was first a consumer device, and they’re right. However, with the release of the iPhone 3G, Apple is chasing after the business market. Many business users like the idea of one converged device for all their needs, as I do. The operating system needs to allow for interface modifications so that I can easily get to my schedule, e-mail previews/listings, to-dos, etc. Using something like HTC Home for that or Throttle Launcher would be a good idea. Both of these allow for a program launcher…

Move Bluetooth On/Off out of General Settings
In order to get to the Bluetooth on/off switch, you have to

1. Find and Tap Settings,
2. Tap General Settings,
3. Tap Bluetooth, and then
4. Tap the On/Off Button.

That’s about 2-3 taps too many. Apple needs to find a way to optimize this so that I can very quickly and easily turn BT on and off. One – two taps after turning the device on (maybe a 2x or 3x home button push..?) would be best. In fact, I really like that 3x home button push idea…but only because the iPhone doesn’t have any hardware buttons besides the Home button.

Aside from that, leaving BT on all the time is one idea, but with the device’s battery life problems, it just makes working with the device all that more difficult. The fact that the device is perpetually in discovery mode is also a huge security issue. I know many businesses that won’t be happy with that, especially if the device is connected to your corporate VPN while BT is on; and the device is discoverable.

Bluetooth Keyboard Profile
…and while we’re talking about Bluetooth, it would really be nice to be able to use this device with an external keyboard. All it needs is a keyboard profile for what ever BT/wireless keyboard is out there, including Apple’s wireless keyboard, and we’re set. Working on Office documents with only the thumb board is gonna really stink; and be difficult over time, especially if we’re talking about a large document.

Hello..? Landscape..!
It’s not always easy to figure out which applications are accelerometer friendly, and which aren’t. Safari obviously is; but interestingly enough, Calendar, Mail and Contacts aren’t. Not every app supports multi-touch zoom, either. Having both accelerometer and zoom support in Month View for Calendar, for example, might just give you enough room to see what you need to see… However, regardless of how an app MAY look in landscape orientation, Apple should give developers universal access to the accelerometer and let the user decide how he wants to use any given app.

Mail and SMS are good examples here. Not every piece of HTML mail zooms to a level where I can read the text without using some kind of multi-touch action to make the text larger. Then I have to scroll back and forth. If Mail were accelerometer aware, I might be able to see (and read!) an entire message without any horizontal scrolling. Landscape support in Mail would also give the user access to the landscape thumb board (which you can see when in Safari, and entering text into a field in landscape mode), which is easier to type with, as the keys are wider and spaced out a bit more.

While this doesn’t have to happen just to support the enterprise (I can’t tell you how many TXT messages my daughter sends on her Blackjack 1 every month, at least not off the top of my head), it would make a huge amount of sense to implement this level of ability into the core OS so all apps could move back and forth between portrait and landscape.

Lock Screen Customization
If I HAVE to have a lock screen (with the iPhone, the device locks when you turn it off, period), I want to be able to customize the Lock screen to satisfy some business needs (to show me important information about upcoming appointments/meetings or to display the last system even (text/e-mail received, alarm(s), etc)); and I’d like to do more than simply change the background, too. From an IT Admin perspective, that may be a, "If found, please return to…" kinda screen, or something that displays some kind of IT policy. The basics are already in place, including the Pass code Lock screen.

Install/Uninstall Apps
I am not one to advocate complete IT control of my computing experience at work. I don’t like being tied down and prohibited from using or installing tools that I need/want on my own. Having to get Internet access approved and then limited drives me nuts, and I’m not fond of organizations that impose limits on me like that. However, that’s because I’m a power user, and (without sounding too arrogant, because that’s not my intention) I often find I know much, much more than the IT department about the Smartphones I am currently using, and how it integrates and interacts with other enterprise components. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand or know why IT managers do it, it just means that I don’t like it when they do it to me. There’s a big piece missing from iTunes right now (or at least I haven’t seen it, or heard anything on it from any of my industry contacts) – the ability to limit the installation of applications or application types from within iTunes.

Many IT shops simply block the installation or use of iTunes at the policy level. You won’t be able to download or install the app in cases like that, meaning no syncing your iPod with your work computer. This also means that you won’t be able to sync your iPhone with that computer, either. Many IT managers will also want to limit exactly what content you put on your iPhone – what music, podcasts, and most importantly, applications, you are able to download and install. The idea here is to protect the corporate data and network it rides on.

As such, we need some sort of tool that allows IT managers to block the purchase, downloading, and installation of specific apps from the iTunes App Store. Again, while I don’t like this kind of draconian control placed on me, without it, I don’t know that IT managers will be comfortable in supporting the iPhone, regardless of model, in the Enterprise.

Corporate iPhone Development
Am I the only one that’s still running down this road? I thought I had heard something about this when the 3G/App Store was originally announced/rumored. What about the Corporate App Store, or the ability to install custom apps that YOUR company has written on the iPhone? Be it the corporate sales catalog, sales force automation, or some other database or tool. If I can get Super Monkey Ball on my iPhone, why can’t my company also provide me with specialized tools to help me do my job?

The iPhone 3G supports this theoretically, but again, I’ve not seen anything officially on this yet. And you can’t tell me that someone at Apple didn’t think about this and at least pitch it to Steve. The SDK can’t JUST exist for software development companies. What about companies that want to create specific portals and apps that use those portals on the company intranet? Since the iPhone 2.x software supports VPN, this is, like, the next logical step…

Office Document Editing
(In conjunction with the external keyboard gig above…)With the awesome screen and accelerometer the 3G has, this seems like it would be a no brainer, as well. I’d like to be able to take my Word and Excel documents with me and edit them with my iPhone when I’m out and about. While I don’t have to have an external keyboard for this all the time, this is still something that’s missing on the iPhone.

I’m also still curious how Apple is going to address native file synchronization on the iPhone. I’m going to want to create, edit, save, attach to e-mail, detach from e-mail, modify and resend, etc. at least Word and Excel documents at some point. Right now, I don’t really have the ability to do this…

Come back next week, and we’ll continue on discussing the Calendar issues I see with the device. In the mean time, please join us in the discussion area and let us know what you think so far.

Take the No Reboot Challenge

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My good friend Mike Temporale of Mobile Jaw has thrown down the gauntlet. He says, Windows Mobile is a stable OS. And he’s so adamant about that, that he’s challenged the entire WM community! Take the No Reboot Challenge!

Mike’s point is that the OS is stable, and like the iPhone 3G, its all of the third party apps that users install that make the device flaky and unstable. In order to prove his point, Mike has hard reset his BlackJack II, set it up to sync his PIM data, and installed four, yes just four applications on it and has vowed to NOT soft reset or kill any of the programs with the task manager for any reason, unless the device locks up completely, necessitating a reboot.

Mike asked me to take the challenge with him, and I’ve agreed. I’ve hard reset my AT&T Tilt, synchronized it with my Exchange Server, installed AT&T Navigator and Pocket TV Listings, and that’s it! I’m not putting anything else on the device. Over the next few weeks, the device is going to do what its gong to do, and I’m not going to reset it unless it completely locks up.

Like Mikey T., I will be making updates to this (or similar) post and will keep everyone updated on how the device is performing.

I challenge YOU Gear Diary Readers! Come help me help Mike prove that WM by itself is stable! Take the No Reboot Challenge!

Review: Spire Edge 15 Computer Sleeve

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When I bought my MacBook Pro back in 2006, I was all over needing a case for it. I tried regular notebook cases, and those didn’t work for me. I tried a backpack case, and that seemed to work ok, but I couldn’t help but feel that my baby was still a bit on the naked side. When Judie offered me the opportunity to review the Spire Edge 15 Laptop sleeve, I jumped at the chance. The last thing I wanted was another ding on my MBP (see the last picture, after the break)

Front of the Spire Edge 15 Computer Sleeve

The sleeve is made of durable 1680D Ballistic nylon, and to an extent, it’s somewhat water resistant (though I wouldn’t go dunking it in a bathtub to test it. However, raindrops will initially run off of it without penetrating the sleeve, giving you a moment or two to get your laptop and the Sleeve in a full case or backpack before things really get damp. Complete specs for the sleeve can be found below:

Available in 3 sizes, perfect for Macs and widescreen PCs.
Exterior: tough 1680D Ballistic nylon
Interior: smooth, padded 210D nylon
Unique triangular flap for easy access
Available in all-black or gray/black

The front flap is held in place with Velcro. The sleeve is nicely padded, providing your laptop with protection as well as a stylish look

Back of the Spire Edge 15 Computer Sleeve

The Best thing about this sleeve is that it fits in my backpack, in the laptop "spot" with the MBP inside. My baby gets extra protection from the elements, as well as any additional bumps and bruises along the way to the office.

Front of the Spire Edge 15 Computer Sleeve, with my MacBook Pro semi inserted (notice the ding I mentioned to the left of the Apple logo)

Since I started carrying my MBP in the Spire Edge 15, it hasn’t gotten any other dings or damage. This is an awesome, affordable accessory that is one of the biggest no-brainers I’ve every bumped into. If you have an expensive laptop, or even one you really need to care for, then you owe it to yourself to give the Edge a try. The price is right, and you can’t beat the protection it provides.

Price: The Spire Edge is $20 USD, and can be purchased here.
What I liked: Sturdy, durable, (somewhat) water resistant
What needs Improvement: It might be nice if the Edge came in a couple different color or material choices; but its awesome as is.

Fallout – Apple & AT&T Investigate 3G Reception Issues

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When will the finger pointing stop and the problems get resolved..?

Until recently, both Apple and AT&T were pointing fingers at each other indicating that [the other] was responsible for resolving reception issues on the iPhone 3G. Reports are now coming in that both companies are looking into resolving the problems. All I can say is, its about time!

I noticed on iLounge that AT&T spokesman, Mark Siegel said, “…while customer concerns were being looked into, it is difficult to know if they are widespread or related to individual circumstances.”How a device performs in individual situations depends on circumstances like where you are in the 3G coverage, how close you are to a cell site. Things like terrain and buildings all come into play," Siegel said. "I’m not denying that people are having a less than satisfactory experience, but overall, the phone is doing great."… Nomura analyst, Richard Windsor, has said in a note to clients that the problem may stem from an immature chipset from Infineon.

There are further articles related to iPhone 3G reception and connection issues at MacRumors; and C|Net has been monitoring this thread at Apple. It seems that Apple put in an untried and very new 3G chipset into the iPhone 3G, instead of a [perhaps more expensive] more mature, tried and true chipset/radio. Ok… show of hands… Who here bought the iPhone because Apple’s stuff "just works?" Who here bought the iPhone 3G thinking that it would be a more mature product than the original iPhone, because the iPhone has been around for a year already?

Yah… that would be me, too.

[Rant on]
Excuse me while I blow a little steam… Apple products come at a premium. You pay more (even for a used Apple device or computer. Try buying a used Intel based MacBook on eBay, and you’ll see what I mean…), and because you pay more, you expect the device to just work. Like the chick who saved Christmas by plugging her digital camera into a Mac, I expect to do just that – "plug" the thing in, and have it immediately work as designed and intended. That’s what I want. That’s what Apple wants, too. It’s the main reason why they are so controlling. They want the "Apple Experience" to be a premium experience. Premium experiences come with premium price tags. Despite the fact that the iPhone 3G is subsidized (you end up paying $40 bucks more for it than the original iPhone over the life of the contract, remember), Apple can say no less with the iPhone 3G.

Yah…so far (for me at least) I’m not feeling the "Apple Experience" with the iPhone 3G. Stevie J. should be paying attention about now. He took the hit for MobileMe, and I applaud him for that, but he really needs to take the project team that designed this thing to task. They screwed this device up, and didn’t test it enough, in enough places. The BOM should NEVER have included an immature radio, despite any production cost savings it might have gained them.

I had heard that the iPhone 3G was [primarily] tested by both Apple and AT&T in Cupertino and Atlanta, and that was about it. Now, that information may not be ENTIRELY accurate; but just go with me on this for a bit… There are reports cited in the iLounge article (line above), that the reception issues with the iPhone 3G being reported ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, are also being experienced in Europe and other countries. Trouble shooting cell phone reception issues (you have to deal with hardware, location, environment (other radio signals, for example), weather, etc.) isn’t easy. There are many variables. Apple wanted to keep the iPhone 3G hush-hush, and from what I’ve been able to dig up, didn’t do any wide spread testing, in multiple (domestic or international) markets to see how this thing would REALLY function in the field.

(Steve, are you listening, again??) Well, now based on that decision and the decision to go with the Infineon chipset, Apple’s reputation is suffering. Many people are discussing the many problems that the device is having. I have written more articles on the iPhone 3G than not in the last 4 weeks. I can’t get a newsletter in my e-mail inbox without at least one iPhone article in it. Its made the local news at least 2-3 times here in Chicago, and is (obviously) all over the web.
Now, whether the problem is easy or hard to solve. Is quick, not so quick…what ever… from Apple’s point of view, does it really matter? With as much bungling that has happened with MobileMe, Steve taking the hit (and the resulting reorg at Apple) do we really need any more? And at the end of the day, when all of this is resolved, and they have answers to all of the, "why am I having trouble with my iPhone 3G?" questions, what are they gonna do?

If the problem is a Radio ROM issue, the solution is easy – release updated iPhone 2.x firmware to correct the problem. It its a hardware problem (or a combination hardware/software problem, which is more likely…) How is Apple going to resolve the problem? Are they going to recall 3 million iPhones and update them? Are they going to recall them and issue updated hardware? Are they going to issue some kind of monetary compensation? How is that going to work with AT&T..? And honestly, that’s the more important question…

I took an AT&T subsidy for this device on a 2 year service contract. In other words, unless I want to cough up a prorated $175 (now about $160 bucks), plus the cost of consumed service to return the device, I’m stuck with the device I have if the reception problems are in any way hardware related. Then what? How does Apple address that? How much does that cost Apple (in either reputation or dollars); and in the long run, is it going to be worth it?
[Rant off]

I’d really like to hear from Steve Jobs and Apple on this. What are the long term plans to resolve these issues? How are you going to address the damage to Apple’s, "it just works out of the box" reputation? More importantly, what are you going to do for me (and all of the other 3M plus iPhone 3G owners) who are stuck with this turkey, but don’t necessarily want to part with it just yet? Has anyone at Apple or AT&T really tried to address this; or are we simply sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring it, hoping that the issue and all the complainers will simply go away?
Plainly put, the iPhone 3G was a highly anticipated device. There was a lot of hype wrapped around it. Many people, myself included, paid a lot of money for it, stood in line a long time for it, etc. I wanna know if Apple is truly going to take responsibility for this and address the entire problem, or if they are going to continue to point fingers back at their carrier partners (if this is truly related to an immature 3G chipset)?

I bought an iPhone because Apple’s stuff just works. This isn’t just working…far from it. I WANT the iPhone experience, and I want my experience fixed. The 2.0.1 firmware update did a lot to increase device stability and improve radio reception, but not all of the issues were fixed. In fact, many of them still exist. I still have dropped calls, tower hand off issues, performance and stability issues, app crashes, etc.

Are you [still] having trouble with your iPhone 3G? Join us in the discussion area and let us know what you’re bumping into, and what you’d like to see happen.

Review: Diskeeper’s Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008

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I remember back in the day, the only tool that I knew of that actually had a defrag tool of any real value was Norton Utilities. In fact, I believe that Stacker, a drive compression tool that provided real time, data compression and decompression (effectively doubling the size of your drive…) of data on your drive ended up using an embedded version of Norton’s defrag utility. Point being, I loved that utility. It did everything that I needed it to do, including consolidating my directories, without having to boot to a command prompt; but alas, those days are long gone.

With the introduction of large capacity hard drives and the evolution of MS operating systems with the introduction of Windows XP, defrag tools have also evolved. Norton Defrag doesn’t work with any modern OS, and hasn’t since, I think 1997-98. So, I’ve had to find another tool.

Honestly, I’ve bounced back and forth between a couple different tools based on industry input and reviews, and with the implementation of different technologies. Lately, I’ve been using Diskeeper’s 2008 Pro Premier product and I have to say, I am very pleased. Is it the tool for you? Let’s take a quick peek and see…

With the older tools, there were a number of different methods used to defrag hard drives. Some of these technologies provided better results than others; and honestly, I really don’t remember what they were or what they were called. What’s even more important, I shouldn’t have to. A defrag tool really, at the end of the day, should be a "set it and forget it" kind of tool; and that is EXACTLY what Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier is. For the less experienced user, it’s exactly what the non-techie type of computer user needs.

While Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008 will run on any XP compatible or Vista capable PC, in my opinion, its designed for high end computer systems. You should (realistically) have, at a minimum, a PC running XP/Vista with 512MB of RAM and a 2.0 GHz processor. In my experience, running previous versions of Diskeeper on any value-based PC with less than 512MB of RAM was painful and not recommended. Unfortunately, I can’t test this out with Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008, as I don’t have a value-based PC in the house. If you do and you give the app a shot, I’d love to hear back from you on how things went. However, if it takes forever to defrag your somewhat fragmented (5-7%) 250GB hard drive, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In the past, many different apps, Diskeeper included, tried to defrag your drive in the background. In many cases, this meant running an NT based service that monitored downtime, and then kicked off a defrag after a set period of idle time had been reached; or during the middle of the night, which ever came first. The defrag would stop once you started using the PC, it finished, or another processor intensive task kicked off, again, which ever came first. This process never really worked well, as the defrag app tended to start and stop a lot, leaving the defrag in varying states of completion; and in the end (I think, at least) causing more fragmentation than it resolved. That ends with Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008, thank God!

One of the best things that I like about Diskeeper Pro Premier 2008 is that it uses something it calls InvisiTasking to defrag your drive. InvisiTasking is true transparent, background defragging of your system. You’re never really gonna know that the app is running. Diskeeper has done a really GREAT job of creating a "set it and forget it" kind of app. All you’re gonna know is that after you install the app, your PC is going to stay running at peak performance, because Diskeeper monitors drive fragmentation in the background and corrects the problems before they become an issue. When you run the app manually, it automatically displays InvisiTasking defrag results for you in a log, letting you know when it ran and how many file fragments were eliminated.

The application also implements a couple of different additional features to help eliminate and reduce drive fragmentation – I-FAAST and Frag Shield. I-FAAST 2.0, short for Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology, accelerates file access times to meet the heavy workloads of file-intensive applications. It closely monitors file usage and organizes the most commonly accessed files for the fastest possible access, boosting file access and creation to speeds above and beyond the capabilities of your system when it was new, up to 80% faster.

The other feature, Frag Shield dynamically prevents fragmentation of critical system files, maintaining system stability and reliability. It helps you configure your MFTs (Master File Tables – the place where information about every file and directory on an NTFS hard drive is stored) and paging files (a hidden file on your computer’s hard disk that Windows XP & Vista uses as if it were RAM) as recommended by Microsoft. Following these guidelines will help you keep these critical system files working their best. Your system will not slow down from fragmented MFT’s or paging files.

Frag Shield 2.0 is comprised of two components: the MFT configuration tool and the paging file configuration tool. These tools allow you to set up your MFT’s and paging files so that fragmentation will be very unlikely to occur in the future.

I can’t tell you how much I love this application, and I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve tried many different defrag apps looking for one that would do what I wanted, in a way that gave me confidence that it was truly working. Diskeeper does all of this and more. I couldn’t be more pleased. The results it delivers are immediately noticeable, and you’ll definitely notice a difference in your PC’s performance and behavior after installation. Truly, the best thing is that it works with both XP AND Vista, and once installed, you never really have to touch it unless you want to, or are curious about what its doing. It does its magic all on its own.

Pro Premier is a bit expensive, $99.95, but on a home network, its really pretty cool, especially if you have multiple drives attached to the computer its installed on. The application also comes with a trial version, so you can at least try it out before laying your cash out.

Price: Diskeeper is licensed one per computer, and can be purchased here.

Diskeeper 2008 home * – $29.95, 18.3 MB Download
• Only supports 32 bit Windows
• Does not support Windows Vista Business, Vista Enterprise or 64 bit Windows
Diskeeper 2008 professional – $49.95, 21.9 MB Download
Diskeeper 2008 pro premier – $99.95, 33.4 MB Download
Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer – $69.95, 33.4 MB Download

What I liked: Complete data fragmentation maintenance, InvisiTasking
What Needs Improvement: App activation doesn’t warn you that the trial is going to deactivate. It just stops working, which surprised me a little. I didn’t expect that; BUT that’s minor.

Is 64bit Vista Ready for Prime Time?

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There’s been a big push my Microsoft to get everyone to cross over to the 64bit version of Vista. Are you and your hardware ready for it?

I’ve got a MacBook Pro. I purchased the notebook in December of 2006. It’s the low end unit, with a 2.16 GHz C2D processor, 4GB of RAM (yes, Leopard will see and use all 4GB of RAM, despite what you might think, or are told), and a 120GB hard drive. It’s not a bad unit; and has treated me well in the almost 20 months that I’ve been using it.

The biggest problem I’ve got with the box right now is (obviously) the size of the hard drive. It’s the last upgradeable component left, and if this $2200 laptop is going to stay with me for any justifiable amount of time, then I’m going to need additional storage. I’m trying to decide between a 320GB drive for about $110 bucks and a 500GB drive for about $300 bucks. The problem, aside from the $200 price difference, is compatibility. I’m not certain that the 500GB drive is going to be compatible with my MBP. I’d hate to order it off eBay and then have to worry about trying to return it.

Then there’s the service charge to install the drive. I’m not going to do it myself. I’m not confident that I could change out the drive in this PC, and with the price of the PC so high, I’m not going to chance it. One Apple service provider said they would install any drive I brought them (provided it was compatible); but wanted $130-$150 to install the drive and do a bit-for-bit transfer of both OSX and Vista operating systems. When the service can cost more than the drive, I’m gonna pass. BestBuy can do it for $50 bucks, but won’t do the data transfer due to a tool issue. However, I’m still all over that.

So what does all this have to do with 64bit Vista?? Great question! Bottom line – if I do buy the new drive, I’m going to have to rebuild my whole PC, both Leopard and Vista. There’s no way I’m paying $130-$150 to install the new drive, image and restore it. That’s just nuts.

Microsoft has been touting a large acceptance of 64bit Vista among both businesses and consumers. However, they do admit that there are little to no native 64bit drivers available, especially for legacy devices, like older optical drives.

Microsoft is claiming that 3x as many people are running 64bit vista than there was 3 months ago. They further indicate that 20% of new Windows Vista PCs in the U.S. connecting to Windows Update (the source of these stats) were 64-bit PCs, up from 3% in March.

Microsoft seems to think that the use of 64-bit versions of Vista among consumers will increase as retail channels begin selling 64bit hardware. True; but I don’t know a lot of users that really have need of 64bit software. While many consumer users will benefit from it, eventually, it’s not quite there yet. Again, the biggest issue is drivers…

You would think that many of the items in my MBP would have 64 bit drivers available; and/or that the Microsoft provided drivers would work. Not the case, as I found out 6 months ago when I bought Vista Ultimate, and tried to install it. It recognized all 4GB of RAM I bought, but performance sucked as I had problems with video, as well as other peripherals (like WiFi, Bluetooth, etc) that just didn’t work out of the box. The biggest disappointment then was that Apple didn’t provide 64bit Boot Camp drivers. However, I just found out something very interesting – Apple does have 64bit drivers for Boot Camp!

Back in January of this year, when I built the Vista partition of my MBP, Apple didn’t have 64bit drivers for Boot Camp. Back in April of this year, they released Boot Camp 2.1 which provided an update for Windows XP, 32bit Vista and included drivers for 64bit Vista. All of the information, including download links for all versions can be found here. (http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) The download links are on the right side, near the top, in the Software Updates section.

Interesting how no one pushed out any press on this. This is a big deal, as most of the software that I use, has a 64bit version available for it. Looks like I have a hard drive rebuild coming in my near future, whether I buy that hard drive or not!

What do you think? Is the consumer ready for 64-bit Vista and vice-versa? Which flavor of the Windows OS do you run, 32 or 64bit? Why don’t you join in the discussion and let us know!

Update: Just an FYI… I attempted to install the 64bit version of Boot Camp 2.1. It didn’t work. The file would NOT execute. I’m not entirely certain why; but it wouldn’t. I am back on a completely rebuilt version of 32bit Vista as a result. For me, 64bit Vista isn’t ready for Prime Time…

iPhone Trouble Speculation

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Despite releasing ROM update 2.0.1, Apple has yet to identify what the actual problem(s) are…

Chris Gavula and I have been beating this issue up over the 2 weeks since the release of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 firmware. Both of us are Windows Mobile veterans of many years, and have bumped into problems like those that iPhone 3G users have been experiencing, before.

This morning, both of us are goggling it up, trying to get the skinny on who manufactured the iPhone 3G. What we’ve found is that MANY different companies made all of the different components. However, like the original iPhone, FoxConn (Han Hai), out of Taipei is the assembler. What neither of us have been able to nail down, though, is who made the 3G radio, and who wrote the radio ROM.

After using HTC devices over the years (they made many of the original iPAQ’s, like the 38/39/5000 series, the Treo 600/650 and 700/755, as well as all of imate’s devices until they went solo), I’ve come to expect radio issues from my Windows Mobile devices, especially when it comes to 3G here in the US. Issues with 3G/2G signal switching on a 3G/2G border, tower handoffs and excessive dropped calls are all symptoms of a buggy radio stack, and can also lead to POOR battery life. (Honestly, I can run through a battery cycle on my iPhone in under 2 hours (i.e. the train commute home) and be doing NOTHING more than just reading an eBook.)

For example, did you know that a device’s radio stack controls ALL communication on a mobile device? Items like the GPS receiver, WiFi radio, Bluetooth radio as well as the cell radio are all controlled by the device’s radio stack. Did you further know that depending on how well the radio handles communication with external devices, including cell towers, GPS satellites, access points and routers, and other COM devices (like BT headsets and headphones), that the processor in your device (whether an iPhone, WM device or feature phone) will work harder to correct or compensate for problematic/weak signal?

Many of the problems and issues we’ve been seeing on the iPhone lately, like –

Application Crashes
Device Instability
Dropped Calls
Poor Signal Strength
Weak GPS signal/Inaccurate GPS fixes

can all be traced back to a poorly written radio stack. The device WILL try to compensate for these problems and consume additional resources (processor cycles, RAM, etc.) as it tries to stretch to keep communicating with a cell tower, struggles to establish communication with the next cell tower, handle a cell tower handoff, establish/keep/handoff communication with an access point, get a 3D GPS fix, etc.

Do I know anything for certain? No. As the title of this post clearly states, this IS pure speculation; but all of my experience with cellular, mobile devices over the past 4-8 years tells me that we may indeed have a (relatively) stable OS in iPhone 2.0, but may be dealing with a poorly written radio stack.

I am also going to FURTHER speculate and say that the radio stack in the iPhone 3G is COMPLETELY new. With the addition of 3G in the device, the stack was likely rewritten from the ground up instead of built upon the existing EDGE radio stack. How the 3G radio swaps towers and switches between EDGE and 3G (communication modes) would likely necessitate enough revision on the 2G/2.5G radio to warrant a complete rewrite; but again… I’m speculating.

Chris Gavula further pointed out an interesting article on Apple Insider that suggests that a great deal of work is being done on the iPhone’s software. Apple is working on 2 different updates, 2.0.1 and 2.1. We’ll likely see 2.0.1 fairly quickly, and then see 2.1 (which is reported to include updates to both GPS and Background Push Notification. The feature lets third-party native programs receive data, such as alerts or new messages, without actively running. The feature saves processing power without interrupting some apps that depend on constant access to the Internet). The 2.1 release is rumored to hit the streets sometime in September, though an official announcement has not yet been made.

So, what do you think? I’d love to hear what other people think may be causing all of the iPhone trouble we’ve been seeing. Please join in the discussion and let your voice be heard!

A Pox Upon Thee, Psystar..!

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Apple seems pretty miffed, and has filed one heck of a law suit…

Last month, Chris Gavula posted on Gear Diary about the lawsuit that Apple filed against Mac clone maker, Psystar. Details of the suit are finally emerging, and from what I’ve read so far, it doesn’t look good for the clone maker.

Chris originally filed this story about 2 weeks ago, and interestingly enough, I haven’t seen too much on this since. Yes, you’re right, there’s been one or two little articles here and there about how they have a decent lawyer (the firm has taken Apple on before and won), but that’s about it.

The Mac clone maker hit the streets in April or so of this year, and rocked the world with a 1980’s-esque introduction of the popular computer. They answered the begged question on the tip of anyone’s tongue: can OSX run on any box with compatible hardware? The answer is yes and no. There are specific drivers that are needed, and Software Update (Apple’s version of Windows/Microsoft Update) won’t run without some tweaking on Psystar’s part.

Apple isn’t just trying to get Psystar to stop selling Mac clones. It’s seeking financial damages AND an injunction requiring the hardware assembler to recall all of its machines. Apple’s 16 page complaint (short and sweet..?) indicates that Psystar intentionally set out to harm Apple, as well as confuse the public. Specifically, Psystar is accused of 10 different violations of its EULA and California law:

Copyright Infringement,
Contributory and Induced Copyright Infringement,
Breach of Contract,
Inducing Breach of Contract,
Two Claims of Trademark Infringement,
"Trade Dress" Infringement,
Trademark Dilution,
Unfair Competition Under California Law, And
Unfair Competition Under Common Law.

Apple claims that its licensing agreement specifically prohibits the use of Mac OSX on anything but Apple related hardware. "Apple has never authorized Psystar to install, use, or sell the Mac OS software on any non-Apple labeled hardware."

Officially, Apple wants relief and is asking to recover unspecified damages, including profits from the sale of Psystar’s Open Computer. Basically, they want the company shut down, but have stopped short of saying or demanding that. All of the relief elements, however, will leave Psystar little room but to shut down, if they lose the case. They aren’t big enough to survive something like that; and considering how they came on the scene (finicky website that went up and down, a dysfunctional web store that couldn’t and wouldn’t accept credit cards correctly, facility issues causing the IT industry to wonder if they were legitimate, etc.), loss of this case could mean the end of the company.

I’m going to be watching this situation and will be interested to know if little ol’ Psystar really is causing Apple all the damage they claim they are; or if the company really is just a front for this court case where the end result is to bust open Apple’s monopoly on their own OS so that Apple becomes much like Microsoft – they license their OS to computer manufacturers/assemblers and consumers get to choose the brand of box they run the OS on.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this, especially that last part… Does Psystar plan on staying in business, or did they hit the scene just to challenge Apple’s hold on OSX?

The $1000 iPhone 3G

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Despite efforts by Apple and AT&T, scalpers are still getting their mitts on the new iPhone…

I saw this over at BetaNews, one of my favorite sites, and I just had to comment… The iPhone 3G is nearly sold out. If you don’t have one by now, it could be weeks, or months, before new Direct Fulfillment orders are fulfilled. In the mean time, desperate customers are turning to a tried and true alternative source – eBay.

While both Apple and AT&T have gone to great lengths to curtail wholesalers or scalpers from getting their hands on the new iPhone 3G, with device stock levels all but depleted around the country, some of the devices have found their way to the online marketplace. In some cases, auction price tags have crested the $1000 mark.

Most sellers are trying to clear a quick profit by selling their own iPhone 3G, hoping to capitalize on the shortage and high demand. However, some sellers have obtain the devices in quantity (between 12 to 50 devices); and it’s unclear how any seller go their hands on so many. While this was possible with the original iPhone, AT&T is now requiring iPhone customers to register their purchase against an active or new cell account. Confusing, ain’t it?

While this does provide a source of the devices for those early adopters that can’t find one, you have to realize that going through eBay is likely going to require you to pay between 3-5 times MORE for the device than you would from Apple or AT&T. Those stores are selling the devices at $199 for an 8GB device and $299 for a $16GB device.

The $1000 iPhone 3G

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Despite efforts by Apple and AT&T, scalpers are still getting their mitts on the new iPhone…

I saw this over at BetaNews, one of my favorite sites; and I just had to comment… The iPhone 3G is nearly sold out. If you don’t have one by now, it could be weeks, or months, before new Direct Fulfillment orders are fulfilled. In the mean time, desperate customers are turning to a tried and true alternative source – eBay.

Most sellers are trying to clear a quick profit by selling their own iPhone 3G, hoping to capitalize on the shortage and high demand. However, some sellers have obtained the devices in quantity (between 12 to 50 devices, for example); and it’s unclear how any seller go their hands on so many. While this was possible, and more probable with the original iPhone, AT&T is now requiring iPhone customers to register their purchase against an active or new cell account. Confusing, ain’t it?