San Jose Mercury News Weather Section 2011-12-18

Picked up the Sunday paper (San Jose Mercury News) this morning for the first time in eons — wanting to check out the coupon inserts for my latest gig at Coupons.com — and it’s amusing to see how the content is both obsolete by the time it hits the newsstand and inferiorly static compared to the Internet.

A few obvious examples:

• Front page and other actual news content:  Just about all of this is online and supplemented by more current and extensive information from blogs, RSS feeds, Tweets, etc.
• Weather section:  Print has a visually-appealing half-page summary of local/national/international weather (above), but Web sites and the Weather and The Weather Channels apps on my iPhone and iPad provide up-to-the-minute snapshots and forecasts from across the planet.
• Ads:  Print ad units, with larger formats (half page, full page) and more variety to unit sizes, catch one’s eye better than online ads — at least for me — but can’t be clicked on.
• Real estate section:  Hello Zillow, Trulia, et al.
  
• Free-standing inserts:  There surely are a lot ‘em, but unless I’m a deal hunter or in the market for a particular item or planning a trip to a specific retail store, these go straight into the recycling bin.  Also, I bought today’s paper to look for clip-able grocery coupons — and I can’t find them!
• Sunday Comics:  I read comic strips a lot less since I stopped getting a print newspaper.  I get my Daily Dilbert in my email inbox but otherwise don’t flip through my favorite comic strips as I once did.  Score one for print.
• Tactile feel:  I’ll always hate the feeling of newsprint on my hands.

No real news here in any of these observations but fun for me to note.  Looking forward to seeing the inevitable day when print newspapers are entirely a format of the past.

2004:  I’d never owned any Apple product.

2005:  I bought my first Apple product, an iPod Classic.

2007:  I bought my first Apple computer, an iMac, through a friend of a friend’s Apple employee discount.

As of today, I’ve already owned and retired:

• That original iMac
• 2 iPod Classics
• An iPod Shuffle
• iPhone 3
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad

• MacBook Pro 13″
• Apple Cinema Display
• Apple Airport Extreme
• Apple Airport Express
• iPhone 4
• iPad 2
• Apple TV
• MacBook Air 13″ for personal use
• MacBook Air 11″ for work
• Apple Thunderbolt Display for work

But I’m not switching quite yet.  Here’s why:

• No simultaneous voice and data — This is a non-starter. I frequently access the Internet while on a call. AT&T allows it, Verizon doesn’t, because of the nature of CDMA.

• Limited international reach — GSM is the global standard, and just a few months ago I was in Korea making calls and going online with my iPhone. With Verizon instead of AT&T, this wouldn’t have been possible — and this is true in many more countries than not.

• Not an early adopter here — I won’t buy the first Verizon iPhone for the same reason I didn’t buy the original iPhone: First generation new products — and granted ostensibly only the CDMA antenna is new — rarely work as predicted.  I’d wait for the kinks to get worked out first.

• No guarantees of network superiority — I love Verizon’s network, especially in the Bay Area, and switched from it to AT&T only when I wanted a more global network for international travel. That said, no one can really predict at this point how the iPhone will perform on Verizon’s network. (Although it’s hard to imagine worse performance than we get with AT&T).

• Switching costs — Not a sole deciding factor, but given the other concerns, no reason to pay early contract termination fees to plunge into another unknown.

Will be very interested to see how Verizon’s network performs!

I just have to say, that in this day and age of cold, calculated, cost cutting and crappy customer service, DreamHost chat support is outstanding.

First and foremost, it’s effective.  I just migrated my blog from joonsookim.com/blog to blog.joonsookim.com.  I’m not particularly technically savvy — plus, I’m told I can be . . . well, high-maintenance — so I needed a lot of hand-holding.  I just checked my records, and I logged seven (7!) chats with DreamHost technical support over the past few days.  With a few minor exceptions, my questions were answered, and my blog now has been migrated safely and successfully.

Second, it’s cordial.  A lot of companies can’t master this basic requirement.  Surely, it’s hard to discern tone in an instant message chat, but as best I could tell the seven different representatives with whom I chatted were very patient and polite.

Third, it’s easy.  One click launches a Web-based chat window, and moments later you’re describing your problem to the representative.  Sometimes, the response times are delayed — I suspect they must manage quite a few support contacts concurrently — but not a problem if you’re multi-tasking yourself while awaiting each response.

Last and best of all, DreamHost clearly prides itself on customer support — it’s actually part of their value proposition to customers.  The home page advertises 24/7 technical support, and, once logged in, the chat button is prominent.  DreamHost, unlike it seems most Web companies these days, isn’t trying to avoid your contact!

DreamHost chat support front and center!

I started with DreamHost at the recommendation of a friend three years ago and remain a satisfied customer.  I’ve registered my domains with GoDaddy, host them on DreamHost with its easy, one-click WordPress installations and upgrades, and couldn’t be much happier.

I’m in NYC.  I bumped into a couple Google folks — Google folks working on the Nexus One launch.  Sincerely, I congratulated them, knowing it was a big day for Google and imagining how much fun it would be to work on such a product/project.

Jokingly, I brandished my iPhone, teasing that I didn’t think I could switch.

Guess what?  They both had iPhones themselves — pulling them from their pockets to show me!

Coincidentally, today my brother just adopted Google Voice, his new “number for life,” although, luddite yet BlackBerry user that he is, I don’t imagine I’ll see him with an Android phone this decade.

Recall my most recent complaints:  (1) abysmal battery life and (2) broken Microsoft Exchange integration.

I was sometimes getting less than 5 hours of battery life, even after Apple replaced my unit with a new one.  Firmware 2.1 plus some more prudent battery conservation practices have all but solved #1.  I’ve read too many articles, blog posts and discussion board threads on this to recount.  Plus, I’ve finally succumbed to logical suggestions — most of which I daresay I had heard already — from BW and ES.  Here’s what’s worked for me:

First, I’m only fetching data now, and only hourly.  Such is the disappointment of and lowered expectations in performance of the iPhone 3G that the very reason for buying it — push — is what must be disabled to provide more reasonable battery life.  I’m not even upset that I don’t get push, because it was working so poorly — that battery-killing wheel seemed to be spinning constantly — and I’m so grateful for longer battery life.

Second, I’ve slightly reduced the number of accounts from which I’m fetching data.  I have work Exchange, Yahoo, Gmail and MobileMe accounts.  Instead of fetching data from all of them, I’m forwarding Gmail to Yahoo and fetching from Yahoo.  I use MobileMe only for calendar and contacts syncing, so I have it set up but never check that email.  And I’m even fetching from my work email account.  I came to terms with the fact that I don’t need push email to distract me in meetings, and I already get push when sitting in front of my destop with Outlook open.

Third, I’ve turned brightness down fairly low.  Even with a protective film on the glass, it’s still bright enough for me.

Fourth, I’ve left Bluetooth and Location Services on.  I use my Bluetooth headset to and from work every day, it’s too much of a pain to go into Settings to deactivate and activate it repeatedly, and I’m not convinced it’s a drain on the battery.  For Location Services, much of the time I have this off, but I just end up switching it on when prompted when using Google Maps or some other geo-aware application that calls for it.

Finally, I’ve left both 3G and Data Roaming turned on.  As eBay alumnus Ryan Spoon notes, push has a much greater effect on battery life than 3G.  I know at least one other iPhone 3G owner — ES –  who switches off 3G not because of the perceived battery life drain but because he believes the network is unreliable and results in dropped calls.  I’m accessing the Internet often enough that I want the speed from its being on all the time.

The net effect?  I can go over a day without recharging.  And I don’t live in constant fear of a sudden drained-battery-induced shutdown.  Frackin’ fantastic.  Reasonable battery life?  Check!

Next, I’ll bemoan the complete failure of Exchange integration, my data sync requirements and then the awkward but functioning solutions I’ve devised.

Today, Apple released the new 2.1 firmware, and it’s broken my Exchange integration.  Right now, I have no calendar, no contacts and no email — the unit is useless to me without these core functions.  I’ve tried deleting the Exchange account and re-adding it, but that doesn’t help.  Apple support forums indicate that at least a few others are experiencing the same problem.  Frankly, I’m sick of the inability of the iPhone to perform basic functions, and I’m seriously thinking about switching back to BlackBerry.

Two reasons to buy Apple products:  (1) They just work and (2) sex appeal.  So far, (1) is absent leaving my iPhone decidely unsexy. 

Must Have:

• Improve the battery life. The battery life is so bad that I find myself now becoming accustomed to charging my iPhone throughout the day. Granted, my usage is high. I ran the unit several times until it shut down to maximize battery life as an Apple Genius recommended. But any handheld communications-organization device needs to be able to run from the time I wake until the time I sleep. End of story.
• To-Do List/Notes Sync. I used Notes and the To-Do List (the “NextAction” add-on) extensively on my BlackBerry, and they integrated beautifully with Outlook, including Outlook Exchange Web mail. Now, I remain in a quandary as to what to do with the iPhone. I’m looking at Evernote, EasyTask Manager and OmniFocus as replacements (I’m a partial GTD adherent), but none solve all of the problems I have. (More on GTD applications to come).
• Copy/Cut-Paste. It’s beyond my understanding why this is not available.
• More Robust Email. The litany of issues is too long to enumerate. BlackBerry is way better, period. This is essential if Apple wants to steal share in the enterprise market.
• Voice Dialing. Especially in California, where headsets are now required by law when driving, easy dialing while in the car is essential. Favorites, Recents, Contacts — all of these are too difficult to use when driving. I’ve tried the SpeechCloud Voice Dialer application and it (1) isn’t a dialer – it’s a voice recognition lookup tool and (2) it doesn’t work well. In 4-5 tries, it never found the name I was seeking, and I then uninstalled it. In general, contact and phone number lookup on the iPhone require too many keystrokes, and the ease of use of the basic phone function is less than ideal.
• Overall Stability. My iPhone crashes. Not infrequently. Usually when flipping among applications. An open platform is great. It’s got to be more stable that this.

Nice to Have:

• IR Beam. Remember the Palm V? I do. I’d love better capability to transmit data from phone-to-phone.
• Video Recording. This isn’t that important to me, but I look forward to the day.

I’m still a satisifed promoter of the iPhone and look forward to future improvements. It’s been a week, and I’m still having fun.

• Evernote — This is a pre-existing capture-organize-search application new to me. Take notes, photos, voice notes. Among the many potential uses, I’m taking photos of random scraps of paper I’ve had lying around, tagging them for Evernote and then tossing ‘em. Love it.
• WritingPad — You’ve got to try this to understand it. It’s faster than the keyboard but lacks the magnifying glass cursor placement. Getting to numbers and symbols is a bit of a pain, but for sheer input speed, it’s cool.
• Twitteriffic — Who knew I had so much nonsense to say? (Yes, yes, everyone).
• Pandora — I was using this Web-based before. The iPhone application is great. It’s already changing how people regard radio.

Check these out!