My iPhone Experiment: Conclusion?

So, I caved an bought an iPhone 3Gs, 32GB. After about 3 weeks of use, I'll say that I'm used to it. I do not think I am as crazy for it as everyone else is. Apple has a history of limiting the options available to users, for me that's annoying. I love to play around in the advanced settings and customize things to fit the way I use them.

So now, here is a quick review, followed by some tips I discovered while playing around on how to make your iPhone more productive.

The Big Things that Everyone Else has Already Commented on:

1. The Keyboard. It's fine. It's not great. I miss having a real keyboard. It's not that typing on the keys is so bad, but not having a dedicated keyboard makes having keyboard shortcuts impossible. This is a minor knit, but I notice it constantly. Especially in the email program
2. The Keyboard again. Automatic correction is awful. Why is "Yo" not in there? Also, I constantly hit "b" instead of space and "m" instead of backspage and Shift instead of "a". Hassles, all of them. Landscape mode makes it easier, but it's still not as nice as a real keyboard.
3. Landscape Mode. Sometimes, I don't want to rotate. Sometimes, I want to rotate back. It is often unresponsive and requires closing and re-opening an app. (If you have a tip on how to solve this better, please let me know!)
4. The Email Program. It stinks. No push email is fine (suboptimal, but fine), I can survive because I only use my personal email and things are rarely urgent on that line. I don't like that I cannot sort by unread. Also, the search stinks. If, the gmail webapp weren't available and good, I would go crazy. It would be nicer if it used tags instead of folders, but, again the gmail webapp comes to the rescue.
5. Copy and Paste. It stinks. It's nice that it's there, but it's a pain to use. It makes composing emails harder because moving thing around is tricky. If I had this phone before copy and paste, I would have left it instantly. Huge feature missing at the original launch.
6. Multitasking. It's impossible. Other than playing your iPod, you cannot do two things at once. That is annoying. Again, it makes this device terrible for being productive. Or even just chatting and sharing links at the same time. Push notifications have proven to be pretty good for IM. Except that you have to reload the entire program every time.
7. Battery life. It lasts for a day, max. I think they should be required to include two chargers so you can always have one with you. Frankly, there is no reason they couldn't use the mini USB plugs adopted by Blackberry and roughly everyone else at this point to charge. That would be MUCH more convenient.

Little Things that Irritate (probably only) Me:

1. No sound profiles. This seems like a pretty major oversight. I don't need a million, but I would prefer 3 or more. Also, I'd like more options than just "ON/OFF". On my old Curve, I used at least 4 on a regular basis.
2. Home screen can't be customized enough. Sure, you can set a picture. But, I want a notice of how many missed calls, voicemails and emails I have. Seems like there should be an easy fix, but I haven't found it yet
3. Not a portable hard drive. If it exists, I haven't seen it. I want an app to let me use my iPhone as a hard drive. I want to be able to upload from it and download to it. Not even necessarily to view the files, but to be able to transfer them (via USB, bluetooth and wifi). I don't know why I thought I would have this option. Lame to leave it off (a DropBox app would be sick!). Even if it was not ideal, the Blackberry with a microSD card let me use it as a storage drive.

Good things that I like

1. The internet. It's good. I used Opera Mobile on my Curve, and it was good, but slow. I believe that is entirely due to the EDGE vs. 3G network that I was on. But, basically 3G is way better than EDGE. So, get a new smartphone, [almost] any new smartphone.
   
2. The apps. I have fallen in love with a few apps (listed below). Instapaper is by far my favorite. I have a full reading list to check out on the subway or anywhere else when I finally find time to catch up on the news / analysis I want to read. I actually paid $5 for this when I was still testing out the original iPhone because I love it so much.
3. One device. I only carry my iPhone now. No need for an iPod and Blackberry. Though, the battery life sometimes makes me limit how much I listen to the iPod.

Tips

1. Shake to undo. No one else I know managed to discover this, but if you shake your iPhone it undoes your recent typing. Try it, it works. You look stupid, but it can be helpful.
2. Double Click for iPod. When you're in the locked screen or any app, you can double click the home button to bring up the iPod controls and change the song. The only multitasking you can do on the phone, and it isn't even the default setting. Go into Settings > General > Home and flip the switch labeled iPod Controls to "ON"
3. Turn down the brightness on the screen to save battery. That's a no-brainer. The battery life is bad. Help switch it to not good by turning down the brightness as low as you can stand.

App Recommendations

1. Instapaper PRO. It's amazing. Start with the free one, and then upgrade. It's great because all the links and articles you see at work are there for you to read when you commute home. This is the only app I've paid for. (I've been writing about it for a while)
   
2. Evernote. It's a note taking application that also syncs with your home computers and a web interface. Also, if you take a picture of something with text, it converts that text and makes it searchable. Amazing!
3. Palringo Lite. Free IM application that has push notification. I like it. I wish it had landscape mode, but it works fine.
4. Facebook. Seriously, v3.0 is amazing.
5. WSJ and NYTimes. Free apps that give you all the articles on these papers. They also download for you for reading later, so definitely practical if you don't know what you want to read later.
6. KICK Lite. Free NYC subway map.
7. OpenTable, UrbanSpoon, Yelp. If you don't know what these are, google it.
8. Fandango. Let's you order tickets from the phone, which makes it better than Flixster in my opinion.
9. Remote, Boxee, VLCRemFree, MochaVNC Lite. These are all remote control apps for full programs your computer. They are great if you use the associated programs, which I recommend (and have in the past)
   
10. Shazam, Pandora, Imeem. Music apps. If you don't know what these are, google it.
11. Google and Vlingo. Both enable voice search of your phone. Vlingo let's you search your phone too, though, and make phone calls. Though, I'm not sure it's voice recognition is as fast or accurate.
12. I have a bunch of others that I don't use as much. But a sudoku game is great. As is the Chipotle app, Epicurious, AllRecipes, TripIt, TweetDeck among others. If you have favorite apps, that you can't live without. I would love to hear about them.

Overall, my impression of the phone is that it's really great at everything not related to actually communicating. On the communication front, it's passable, which is why those other things finally swung me in favor of the iPhone. But, I think I would have been equally happy with a new BlackBerry Tour, HTC myTouch, or even Palm Pre (oh, and I've been on AT&T for my entire cellphone life, so I don't really notice network issues).

My iPhone Experiment

I just activated an old, first generation iPhone. The experiment begins. If I can last a month, I'm getting an iPhone 3GS. If not, Blackberry, Palm, HTC / Google are all in the running.

I expect to miss my BlackBerry. But, I don't want to commit to an iPhone 3GS over the Blackberry Tour (probably on Verizon), without at least seeing if the apps can be worth the loss of instant messenger. Key things I expect to miss in addition to google talk include background apps, over the air syncing with my google account, and a real keyboard. I'm already not looking forward to deleting all the duplicates this just created by using both my google contacts and apple address book (which it forced me to do!). Note to apple: I don't always want to use your product. In fact, most times, I don't want to use it. So, leave me be.


Any tips for making the switch greatly appreciated.

On the bright side, I'm no longer carrying around 2 Blackberry Curves and an iPhone. Not sure if that makes me more of a geek or less of one.

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Guess who has an iPhone?

Me!

Your favorite Blackberry lover got an iPhone. Don't go crazy or anything, someone stole my jacket and ipod over the weekend and a friend had a 1st Gen iPhone laying around for me. (Thanks Rabe!). So, now I'm carrying around an iPhone without service and a Blackberry Curve. I find it hard to imagine myself dropping my Curve for the same reasons I've been saying (mobile IM it better than SMS in almost every way, real keyboard, keyboard shortcuts, etc.)

But, most interestingly, I'll be trying to get it to work well as a remote for my computer. I already installed Mocha VNC Lite (which is awesome, if not a bit slow). Obviously, I installed the remote program for iTunes. As I've written recently, I'm excited about Boxee and I think the iPhone could be a great remote control (hence the installation of Mocha VNC). And, according to Avner at Boxee, they are working on the app.

Some of the other great apps like Pandora or Shazam won't be as useful for me, because I rely on wifi only. I'll be focusing on free apps though, because without the internet with me all the time, I don't think it's worth it to pay for apps. However, tons of other programs in the app store have potential for me. The instapaper free program looks to have tremendous potential to keep me up to my ears in content to read on the subway (auto downloading like I've been asking for from my mobile RSS readers). And, urbanspoon makes choosing where to eat downright entertaining.

So, friends with iPhones/iPod Touches, let me know what apps you've downloaded that make your experience amazing. In the meantime, I'll try to get used to the fake keyboard.

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• 
  
  
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Don't be scared of 'Advanced Settings'

A recent article in the New York Times focused on the new, feature-poor gadgets that people are buying. I've written about all the features we have, but don't use.

I think it's a bad sign that people are regressing in their love of features. It is an unfortunate situation that ignorance about technology is acceptable. Our whole world is becoming much more reliant on technology every day. If you don't make a modest effort to keep up, you will only get yourself into more trouble later. Think about what would have happened if 50% of the population refused to learn how to use a car. And if 85% of those who learned to use a car didn't learn to use the headlights or the windshield wipers. We'd have a pretty bad situation on the roads.

The article stands in stark contrast to some great new Sprint commercials (embedded below). The CEO, Dan Hesse, promises that they will teach you how to use all the cool features of your new Sprint phone. Just come in to one of their stores. To me, this is a brilliant and wonderful marketing campaign. Sprint hasn't been doing well. Hopefully, this will help them turn it around.



The point is: Don't be scared of the advanced settings and features on your devices! Computers are amazing. They are also very flexible. Programmers go through a lot of stress to give the end user as much customization as possible. They work hard to also provide a clean, usable interface

People are so scared of technology. It's yours! There is no way to permanently ruin your computer by messing with the advanced settings. This is especially true in software that you have installed (as compared with the drivers that make your hardware work).

Make some changes. Tinker with the settings. You can change a lot of things that will make your computer (and cell phone) interactions more pleasant and productive. If you don't like the way a change worked out, change it back. You can always reset a phone or computer to factory settings if you get flustered.

A few ideas:

• In your Blackberry internet browser, set it to enable HTML tables. Many mobile websites will be much better. (You get there by pressing the Menu key and then going to options)
  
• In Microsoft Excel, set the default for a new workbook to only have one worksheet (Under Tools > Options)
  
• In Microsoft Outlook, set messages not to automatically mark as read. (Can you figure out where this setting might be?)

There are so many changes you can make to your computer and cell phone to make it easier to use, more productive. These devices are there to make your life easier. Learn to use them!

New Blackberries and Google Phone are coming

Some updates about more iPhone competitors that I think sound cool:

1. They are launching a cool new phone called the Blackberry Storm on Verizon in November (Engadget)
   
2. Blackberry will launch an Application Center
3. Berrystore already launched for free applications to help get going
   
4. The Blackbery Bold is launching on AT&T on October 27th
   
5. The G1 (Google phone) launches on T-Mobile (Mossberg, Pogue)
   

As you all know by now,  I want a non-iPhone to 'win'. I don't like the way Apple deals with its customers. I don't like their 'walled garden' approach. I do admit the hardware is cool looking (but overpriced). Anyways, I'll save my mac critique for another post.

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Microsoft Excel Add-in

I was recently thinking a lot about tiered pricing of items. I spend a lot of time in the Excel help files and googling about my issue.

My specific problem: I wanted to evaluate many different pricing schedules. I had a lot of clients and I wanted to evaluate the impact of each pricing schedule on each client.

I could have done it with a lot of if statements in a lot of columns. The problem is that is not dynamic enough. I didn't know how many tiers I would need. Plus, it isn't just finding the right tier and applying that price. I also needed to price incremental units on the next tiers. For example, you buy 1000 units. The first 100 cost $2, the next $100 cost $1 and anything about cost $0.50. So, each additional unit lowers your average unit cost.

Anyways, I did it by writing a function in excel and have created an add-in that you can use. Download it here. Code follows:

Function TieredPrice(volume As Double, tiers As Variant, prices As Variant) As Double
    TieredPrice = 0
    If IsObject(prices) = True Then
    If TypeOf prices Is Excel.Range Then
       If prices.Rows.Count > 1 And prices.Columns.Count > 1 Then
            TieredPrice = CVErr(xlErrRef)
            Exit Function
        End If
        If prices.Rows.Count > 1 Then
            NumCells = prices.Rows.Count
        Else
            NumCells = prices.Columns.Count
        End If
        pricesUB = NumCells
    Else
        TieredPrice = CVErr(xlErrRef)
        Exit Function
    End If
    End If
   
    If IsObject(tiers) = True Then
    If TypeOf tiers Is Excel.Range Then
       If tiers.Rows.Count > 1 And tiers.Columns.Count > 1 Then
            TieredPrice = CVErr(xlErrRef)
            Exit Function
        End If
        If tiers.Rows.Count > 1 Then
            NumCells = tiers.Rows.Count
        Else
            NumCells = tiers.Columns.Count
        End If
        tiersUB = NumCells
    Else
        TieredPrice = CVErr(xlErrRef)
        Exit Function
    End If
    End If
  
    If tiersUB = pricesUB Then
        If volume < tiers(1) Then
            fee = volume * prices(1)
        Else
            fee = tiers(1) * prices(1)
        End If
   
        For i = 2 To pricesUB
            If (volume - tiers(i - 1) < tiers(i) - tiers(i - 1)) Then
                If (volume - tiers(i - 1)) < 0 Then
                    fee = fee
                Else
                    fee = fee + (volume - tiers(i - 1)) * prices(i)
                End If
            Else
                If (tiers(i) - tiers(i - 1)) < 0 Then
                    fee = fee
                Else
                    fee = fee + (tiers(i) - tiers(i - 1)) * prices(i)
                End If
            End If
        Next i
   
        TieredPrice = fee / volume
      
    Else
        TieredPrice = CVErr(xlErrRef)
        Exit Function
    End If
   
End Function

Keyboard to a Man's Heart: a touch keyboard that works?

Swype just launched at TechCrunch50. It provides a way to more quickly use a keyboard on a touchscreen. You can imagine that I am impressed. It looks amazing and definitely has potential, in my mind to remove the 'it doesn't have a keyboard' complaint that I have about the iPhone. I previously wrote:

I really like having a physical keyboard. I haven't used the iPhone keyboard that much, but I do have some difficulty with it (though I'm sure I could get used to it). What makes me nervous about it is that in my effort to type more quickly, as I move my fingers to type, I would hit every key as though I dragged them along the keyboard. I haven't tried this, so I don't know, but I could imagine that I would have to lift my fingers a bit more and that would annoy me (though this has to be slightly insane on my part)

So, now that Swype has come around and literally encouraged me to drag my finger across the keyboard, this could be gone as a complaint. I could see it still being a bit slower than my two thumbs slapping at the keyboard on my blackberry.

Check out the video demo on their website (which is way cooler than this one I've embedded below).

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Mobile RSS - Update

A few weeks ago, I started using Newsgator Go! to read my RSS feeds while commuting. (You already know that I love RSS, even if you don't use it). My impression of it: meh.

Newsgator Go! has a few major usability issues for me.

First, the web-based Newsgator is not a good experience in my opinion. I don't like the interface, it's just not as intuitive as Google Reader. The other option is to use a desktop-based application. The desktop application for mac, NetNewsWire is fine, and does sync with the server, so multiple instances would reconcile without issue, but it just isn't ideal for me. I ended up creating a feed from a specific tag in google reader that would be just for articles I planned to read on the subway. So, maybe I didn't give the web reader enough of a chance, but I don't see why I should. I'm generally pretty good with the computer, so I think if I don't like it, there's probably a good reason.

Second, the application does not download stories automatically. So, I have to check each of the RSS feeds before I got on the subway each time, if I want to read them. No thanks. That is something that obviously could run in the background automatically.

I do have to admit that NewsGator has some advanced functionality that could be totally cool. The Smart Feeds seem like a very useful feature. Signing up for email newsletters, but having them come to the feed reader would be nice. I deliberately don't sign up for those things now because I don't want my inbox clogged up. But, in my experience, if there exists an email newsletter, there often exists an RSS feed with that same content anyways.

The NewsGator products also do a good job of giving you 'location-specific' options. You can choose which feeds show up where. So, if I wanted to, I could limit NewsGator Go! to have only my 'to read' feed while having the desktop client show all of them.

So, if NewsGator Go! was the only option out there, it would be serviceable. However, (!) the Wall Street Journal put out a mobile RSS reader. Now, this is a product that I like. For one, it gives me free access to WSJ content. Plus, it easily let me import my 'to read' items from Google Reader. It's still not ideal, but at least it updates automatically. And, overall, the program just seems more responsive.

Interesting to note: FreeRange Communications powers both programs, so I'm not sure why they are not more similar. But, I imagine that has something to do with server capacity, syncing, etc.

One thing to note with both of these products is that there does not seem to be a way to let them know that I have a microSD card in my Curve. This means that my memory gets full quickly and I've experienced a weird disappearance of text messages and emails. You can change the options about how many articles these programs should download and keep, but it's still a bit of a swag. Some tips on how to deal with this are here.

If you've given any of these things a try, let me know (in the comments, ideally).

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Trade you an iPhone for a Curve? Ummm....

Reader Justin writes in:

What bberry did you end up getting? I'm getting ready to start medical school this fall and I want to be smart phone equipped before I arrive. I'm pretty keen on the new iPhone, but I know that proper due diligence requires me to look into the RIM options. You seem pretty happy with yours based on your blog--if you had to choose again now, with the 3G iPhone about to roll out, would you choose similarly again?

Thanks for the question, Justin. I got the Blackberry Curve and I love it. I've actually done quite a bit of customizing since I got it to make it the best cell phone I can imagine having. So, I will NOT be getting the new iPhone, despite its improved 3G speeds.

Here's why:

First, the iPhone does not have a native instant messaging app. I use Google Talk for the Blackberry constantly. I LOVE being on IM all the time, its infinitely better than text messaging (I talked about it here). So, even though Google Talk signs out sometimes when you lose reception (e.g., the subway), I still have Blackberry's proprietary BBM system that fills the gap and delivers messages when you get back in range. Seriously, I think this is the deal breaker for me. Not only does the iPhone not have mobile IM, it doesn't even come with text messages anymore, so the price becomes substantially more expensive while the usability actually decreases on my favorite feature. I know that Google Talk just launched an iPhone version, but I don't hear great things about it.
Reviews of iPhone Gtalk at VentureBeat, TechCrunch, GigaOM, CNet and Lifehacker

Second, the mobile internet. I thought this would be the game changer for the iPhone. However, the pages I use most frequently when I'm on the move are typically formatted for my blackberry (ESPN, Google Reader). I also just downloaded Opera Mini, which brings the FULL browsing experience to the blackberry (and is completely free). The navigation is not as cool as the iPhone finger flick, but the keypad and ball work just fine for moving and zooming. Opera Mini has a feature of saving pages down to the MicroSD card that I've installed. That makes offline reading possible, and opens the potential for me to read my RSS feeds on the subway (which is something I really want). Granted, it's still EDGE network, but I can deal with it (and frankly 3G still doesn't seem like it will be as fast as my home wifi connection, so it may be a bit overhyped). Also, I've grown to distrust Apple with their 'we control the ecosystem approach' and don't think they'll really let people put a web browser that is not Safari on their iPhones. And, Mozilla is working on a mobile browser that could be pretty sweet.

Third, the first reviews for the 3G iPhone indicate that it has poor battery life. That's part of the reason Apple does not let apps run in the background. The battery on my Curve lasts for almost 2 days of normal use (from morning day 1 to night day 2), which includes much mobile web browsing and instant messaging, a little bit of talking and taking a few pictures. The iPhone battery is said to last 10 hours with the 3G turned off and only 5 hours with it on! To me, that is in no way going to get it done.
Reviews of iPhone 3G from David Pogue, NYTimes and Walt Mossberg, WSJ

Fourth, the big benefit of the new iPhone is the app store, which is just launching and available to old iPhone owners as well. And, Blackberry has had developers writing apps for it for some time already (like Opera Mini or Google Maps). Also, there are a few other programs that I have tried to varying degrees of success. I wrote about voice enabled services, and I really want to like them, but they don't really have use for me since I basically never drive. GigaOM reviews Vlingo.

I really like having a physical keyboard. I haven't used the iPhone keyboard that much, but I do have some difficulty with it (though I'm sure I could get used to it). What makes me nervous about it is that in my effort to type more quickly, as I move my fingers to type, I would hit every key as though I dragged them along the keyboard. I haven't tried this, so I don't know, but I could imagine that I would have to lift my fingers a bit more and that would annoy me (though this has to be slightly insane on my part). Also, there is NO CUT AND PASTE on the iPhone. That amazes me as an oversight. I use cut and paste all over the place with my phone for emails, IM, text messages and adding contact information (so I don't constantly have to ask for people's addresses).

Admittedly, I have never had an iPhone, so I haven't been able to set it up to match what I want like I have with my Blackberry. I've set up the smart keys on the side of my Curve to launch the programs that I use most often and I've got my icons arranged in order of use. I use email a lot, so it goes first, etc. I feel like the blackberry has a lot of customization possibilities where the iPhone may not. The iPhone may get more options with new software from the app store, etc, but those will likely cost real money. But, I have to admit that the iPhone apps for jailbroken phones that are already out there seem pretty sweet (though I haven't met anyone who took the risk of jailbreaking).

All of this said, I may consider picking up a used iPhone 1.0 for cheap if the price is sweet enough (circa $50), though I mostly want to use it to remote control my computer. But, I have to admit, I think the games look really cool (sorry, brickbreaker).

Justin, I hope that answers your questions. And, if you decide on the iPhone anyways, I definitely want to hear all about it.

Getting Calendarized

I almost always write about using the new tools of technology to improve your life. I also have written several times about smartphones. I think they are fantastic. Even regular phones have tons of features that are overlooked on a daily basis.

One of the most useful functions that I have recently embraced is my calendar. For as long as I've been getting homework, I've needed to remember it. I generally did OK without writing most of it down because I had daily reminders from teachers and classmates to prevent me from forgetting to do the work. In college, all assignments were posted to the class website and given out on the syllabus well beforehand. Now, in real life, I have real events to keep organized and no one to remind me about them. There are all kinds of events: meetings, dinners, drinks, gallery openings, plays and, my favorite, birthday parties.

To keep track of all of this, I use Google Calendar (of course). I use it because it is integrated into my email and it is pretty easily integrated and synced with my Blackberry. Google Calendar is also integrated with Jott (which I wrote about recently) and Remember the Milk, which I use sporadically to organize my todos (mostly grocery lists, though). I also really like this fbCal facebook app that imports all my events and friend's birthdays to Google Calendar (I read about it here).

With all of this, I'm still not fully organized in my personal life. But, I think I've discovered some powerful, free tools that should help me make more progress and achieve more in my lifetime.

Do you use a calendar program? How do you keep in sync? I'd love to hear what my friends are doing. Reading what people who are professionally organized for a living do is more beneficial to someone who rates higher than a 3 out of 10 on the organized scale. So, let me know in the comments. And get more information about the wonders of Google Calendar here.

Jott Update

I came across this link about a cool update to Jott. It integrates RSS feeds into Jott, by having Jott read your feeds to you. You know I'm a fan of this idea because of my love for RSS and for computers doing things for me. However, I'm not sure if I'll actually use it, given that I don't do much that would reqire listening rather than reading my feeds while on my mobile. But, again, Jott may be more useful for people with old school cell phones and cars rather than blackberries and subway commutes.

What do you think?

Smartphone Update: Voice Enabled Services

I hope that you own a smartphone. The time when your mobile communication was limited to SMS or a phone call is behind us! Embrace smartphones and the internet in your hand. Instant message via AIM, gChat, Blackberry Messenger. The fact that it lets you know when your friend is typing a response makes waiting for an SMS reply seem like putting a message in a bottle. It's the main reason holding me back from the iPhone, big time. There are of course a ton of other benefits of the smartphone. Access to the internet from anywhere is truly game changing, even if it's just on your couch. (Aside: I'm looking to build a service on top of mobile instant messaging, so I may be a bit biased, but I hope that more of you do get yourselves into it.)

I read a lot of blogs (see blog roll at left), and I sometimes use google reader's mobile web site to do it. It's not perfect. You have to have an internet connection, which is unfortunate, because I really want to use it on the subway. There should be a google gears enabled version where I can download the unread blog posts to my device and read them whenever I want.

One thing that I've done with my Blackberry is download programs that take advantage of my voice. There are two that I use from time to time. Yahoo! Voice Search and Jott are both useful services. Voice enabled products can be tough sometimes because lots of words sound alike. However, these two are still useful.

Jott is especially useful because you can integrate it with other web services like Remember the Milk or Twitter. You don't actually even need a smart phone, because it has an 866 number that you call to interact. I don't use it as much as I should, but I really do like this service.

Yahoo Voice Search is less useful because my phone has a full keyboard. If you have an oldschool phone, both of these services might be much more useful. Though, you might have to deal with paying the data charges to download them originally.

So, this isn't a really in depth review of any of these services, but I wasn't sure what to write about today. Anyways, take advantage of the services and please please please get yourself a smartphone and get on mobile instant messaging.

What other programs have you downloaded to your mobile device? What do you use that you couldn't live without?

Smartphone Update

I got the Curve on Thursday. So far, I'm totally pumped about it. If anyone out there also has a Blackberry, and is on BB Messenger. Send me an invite.

Also, quick review: it's great and I'm slowly updating my address book to be more complete with email addresses, etc. The internet, while not iPhone internet, is surprisingly usable. Substantially better than my work blackberry. The only complaint I have is that brickbreaker is not as fun as on the old scroll wheel blackberry.

Lastly, I think I'll still get an iPhone at some point. Maybe I'll wait for the 3G, maybe not. But this was pretty cheap and there's no discount on the iPhone, so I figured I would give it a whirl.

The Great Smartphone Debate

I've been debating getting a 'smartphone' for a few months. I have a work blackberry , but its worthless because they block me from doing anything I would want to do (except play brickbreaker), like check my own email.

Since the Blackberry Curve and iPhone have been out, I've been thinking harder and harder about spending the $90 a month on a data plan for myself. Since I started writing a blog, I decided it would be cool/nerdy to be able to post mobilely (is that a word yet?).

To date, I'm having trouble deciding which, if any, to get right now.

Here's a quick summary of my thoughts:
iPhone = fucking seriously cool, real internet everywhere but no keyboard and expensive as hell
Curve = pretty cool, real keyboard, brickbreaker, lamer internet and only $50
Both probably are easy enough to setup email and sync contacts etc.

The Blackberry has brickbreaker going for it, which is a pretty sweet game. Though I've so demolished it on my work blackberry,that it isn't even conceivable that I would lose before the phone breaks. My current score is over 250,000 and I have 60+ lives left. Am I a nerd? You bet. Are you impressed? No doubt about it.
Does anyone know if there is a way to save my game to a new Blackberry? That would substantially increase my likelihood of getting a curve.

Anyways, I'm not sold on either one, mostly because neither one rocks the big daddy 3G wireless network and EDGE is more like dial-up (I know the iPhone has wifi, but not all the time). I think the iPhone has the slight edge because they are rolling out the developers kit to allow third party apps on the phone rather than just the web, finally. (aside: am I the only one who thinks Apple is about 100million times worse than Microsoft ever was in terms of shady business practices?) So, I figured that I could get used to typing on a picture of a keyboard. It might be tough to text late at night, but I've been meaning to cut down on my drinking anyways. But, does it come with any games?

Personally, I don't really care about the multimedia features. Both can play music, though playing video could be quite cool, especially if hulu (which i blogged here) looks good on it.

So, I was all set to bite the bullet and pick up an iPhone when I saw this rumor about the Blackberry 9000 that has 3G! A wrench has been thrown into the system.

What say you, dear reader, should I take the plunge and pick up an iPhone now, when a 3G Blackberry is rumored to be coming out in May? I'm gonna let it marinate until I get back from Costa Rica. Hopefully, someone out there will have made a strong case one way or the other.

And, seriously, how impressed are you with my brickbreaker score?