XM SkyDock

To preface this review of the XM SkyDock, I should tell you that I wasn't happy with my XM unit that I had in my truck.
#1 - It was constantly falling off the dash, due to poor stickiness and the heat of Texas.
#2 - The stupid radio fell apart almost immediately, the buttons started falling off about a week after I got it.
#3 - The wires that were run for power and for the antenna were coerced through a piece of the dash that bowed the plastic and really bugged me.

So, a few months ago XM released an application for the iPhone that would allow the user to stream music from their online service, but it restricted certain talk radio stations due to copyright infringement I guess. Because of that, this wasn't an ideal solution for me because I really like talk radio and sports stations. Namely, I like listening to Baseball games while I am driving and I like catching Dave Ramsey if I am in the car. In addition to that, it requires that you have good cell phone signal to listen, and this isn't always the case where I drive.

But at the same time, they announced that they would be releasing a dock for the iPhone that would allow you to connect it to an antenna and receive all the XM stations just like you had a radio in the vehicle.

This weekend they released the SkyDock and I decided that I was going to give it a whirl.

My observations so far is that it works really well, and the interface is really good with the exception of a few features, which I will mention along with the good features.

The interface looks great and it works really well for channels that you know. I know the station numbers that I listen to for the most part. With this interface, I can just type in the station number and it goes there, and faster than any XM Radio unit I have had. Along with this it also allows you to save 20 preset favorite stations. This is handled really well because not only does it show you the station number of the station you are going to, rather than just having to remember which number each station is programmed to, but it also shows the name of the station in the little favorites box. To delete a favorite you go through the same process of deleting an application from the iPhone, tap and hold until it shakes then tap the x in the top right hand corner. It offers categories of music, which you tap and then it lists all the stations within that category, and that works great.

My one complaint about stations is that you can't just flip through stations. From time to time, I like to just skim the stations. Starting at channel eight and going up through 30. I just flip. And on this radio that isn't really possible.

The system also recognizes that it needs to mute the music when a phone call comes in. So you answer the phone and when you are done, the station you were on resumes.

Text messages are a different story. When a text message comes in, you get your notification noise, but when you go to read it the radio stops playing. After you are done reading/responding, you have to re-open the XM application to restart the music.

A few other features that are included:
- It will play from the iPod application on the iPhone, or you can plug in an iPod and play music.
- It has an audio out line, so if you have an auxiliary input, you don't have to use the FM transmitter
- It has a flexible shaft that can be mover around a little bit to position it where you want it and the cradle rotates so you can view it in landscape mode (which the application also supports).

I have one major suggestion though, and I am not sure if this is an application update or a hardware update. The application has to be open to be listening to the radio, which is why the phone works and not text messages, because the phone application doesn't really open, it runs behind the other application and resumes the other application when the phone call is finished. So here is my suggestion. The XM tuner is in the dock itself, not the phone. The phone is just how the user interface to see what you are doing. Since that is the case, couldn't the dock continue playing whether there was an iPhone connected or not? Or whether the application is open or not? If so, you would be stuck on what ever station was last chosen from the iPhone, but that would be better than having to have the application open all the time. And it wouldn't qualify as running an application in the background since the dock is really the thing playing the music. I think this would make this XM Radio/Dock/Charging Unit/Accessory one of the best all time accessories for the iPhone.

Final complaint: You can have a case on because it doesn't allow you to connect all the way with the dock connector.

Google Does Great on the iPhone

Google is apparently the #25 and # 26 most downloaded application from
the app store. Incredible!

MapQuest iPhone App

MapQuest released an application for the iPhone last week and it is awesome. The link at the beginning of this post links to the iTunes App page.

I really dig the application. The one thing that I really like about it, as opposed to the maps application that comes with the iPhone, is that it can mark the location of local points of interest. For me this is great because I just moved to a new area and I use it quite a bit to find restaurants. I am sure it can be used for other things too, like for instance, coffee shops or gas stations. It also includes a feature where one can turn directions in landscape view and flick through the directions as they menuever through the stages of their drive, thus acting much like turn by turn directions without the benefit of changing screens when the action is completed.

All in all it is a pretty cool application that I have been using in the place of the maps application for almost a week now and haven't had any regrets about changing, though I am sure with the addition of the compass, that the maps application is pretty cool right now.

If someone out there is works for MapQuest and is reading this, I hope you add the driving direction deal (map switching direction based on your direction of travel) into account when you release subsequent versions. I would also like to see some new Points of Interest added like Furniture Stores or maybe music stores or possibly even Historic Locations/Points of Historical Interest.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and haven't already gotten this app, I reccomend you at least download and try it.

Google Contact Sync

For everything that Google does well, for everything I say "Google is the coolest" about, I have finally found something that I hate that Google has done.

Contact Sync sucks. I had a feeling that it was going to great problems, but when I finally got to it, it created huge problems.

I did a lot prior to starting the sync up so that I wouldn't run in to too many problems.

1. I made sure that my address book on my computer included everything from my google contacts.
2. I made sure that I had a backup of my address book so that if anything went wrong, I could restore it.
3. I deleted my entire google address book, thinking that if I start from everything on my computer, it would create fewer problems.
4. I uploaded my current address book to google.

At this point, my Google contacts and my address book were identical; same names, same numbers, same addresses, etc.

I then synced my iPhone to Google. You can only sort them with the first name first. I don't like that. Also, it creates 2 address books. One from your computer and one from Google. I don't like that.

Then I plugged my iPhone in and it downloaded my Google contacts into my address book, with the names reversed, so then I had 2 of each contact, on that read first name first and last name last, and one that read last name first, first name last.

Wonderful.

I deleted the duplicate contacts and turned syncing off.

Things I Hate . . .

. . . About the new iPhone and the US mobile phone market in general.

Why do we have to subsidize the damn phone?
I think that a 4 or 5 hundred dollar price point is an acceptable price for a phone if we could use it on any network we like (of course limited to GSM vs TDMA/CDMA). I would prefer to get a phone I like for a more expensive price and be able to use it where ever I like. That was one of the decent things about the first generation iPhone. You had to buy it from Apple or AT&T, but you could take it home from there and do with it as you pleased.

One could take to the house, connect it to the computer and sign up for, or upgrade, an account with AT&T without the obnoxiousness of sitting in a cellular phone store for it to get done.

One could take it to the house, connect it to the computer and jailbreak it so that it could be used on any GSM network.

Hell, you could take it home and jailbreak it and not activate service on it at all.

It was up to the user what he wanted to do with it. You spent the money, you choose. But on the second generation, they have lowered the price, an obvious subsidy from either Apple or AT&T, and dropped the price almost in half from the original price point. Thats great, except as far as I hear that means that you will have to activate your service in the store. You don't have the option to do with it what you like, unless you sign up for service and then cancel the service within 30 days. I am sure that they will tack on the rest of the price of the phone when you do that.

One thing that I think is amazing about the cell phone market here is that the buyer goes to cell phone stores and picks out a phone that he likes and then goes to whichever carrier he wants. The phone is a bit more expensive, but you don't have to deal with the stupidity of being tied to a contract or the rediculous interactions you have with employees of cellular providers.

Cellular Phone Service

Canceling a phone due to be outside of the coverage area is much more difficult than I was led to believe.

Because of my extended leave outside of the country, I went to the AT&T store and asked what was necessary to discontinue service. The response given was not very good. First they told me that due to the discount I was given on the phone when I signed the contract that it was impossible. When I informed them that I was given no discount the store wanted me to give up $175 dollars because they, AT&T, did not make any money when the phone was sold (an Apple iPhone). I pointed out in the contract that it made no reference to what phone I purchased, just that if I lived outside the service area, that the early termination fee would not be charged. At this point I was told that the store would not help me with the cancellation and that I should call customer service.

I called customer service and was basically given the same run around. They gave me many options that would allow me to cancel my service prior to the end of the contract without a fee; A utility bill, a cell phone bill, and many other things that I won't have for at least three months. I mentioned that I wouldn't have any of these things and that having a conversation on an international call to cancel my service was not something that I wanted to do.

Finally I was connected with a guy that told me that if I could send a document on company letterhead explaining that I was offered and accepted a job internationally that I would be released from the contract. He was a really good guy and got my service canceled out sans early termination fee. So as of Feb the 9th, I will no longer be reachable at my home phone number.

If I am given a new number any time soon I will release that to all my friends.

Macworld

Macworld should probe to be interesting. I don’t say that because of any specific product they might release, though I think there are a few that they will release that are cool. I have come to find that the Macworld Keynote is fun and entertaining. Regardless of the products that are released I am drawn to them for entertainment. The updates on iTunes and iPods are always interesting. There always seem to be predictions that are floating about for a week or so prior to the Keynote. Some are absurd, some are plausible, and some are down right stupid, but they are always fun. Someone should start a Macworld Keynote pool. Take all the predictions that are made and put them into a chart and let people buy squares for a couple dollars each, then you could also have a pool for what order they would come out in and what the … On last thing … would be. By my calculation, assuming 10 dollars per box, the winner could take home up to 300 or so dollars. That would be if there were 5 predicted products being announced (ie upgraded macbooks, Mac Minis, Mac Pros, Macbook Pros … )

I think it could be fun.

I just got f-ed right in the a

Just thought everyone would like to know that.

Where I Bitch About an Apple Product, No, Really

This past weekend I happened to be in Dallas. I had two things on my agenda while I was there.

1. Visit and Apple Store
2. Visit Cabelas

The best way to achieve my first goal was to go there on the way into town. I had some questions to ask, so on my drive I called and made an appointment at the Genius Bar. I was also interested in purchasing a few products.

This will be my first disappointment in Apple. I walked in the door and told them that I had an appointment in 20 minutes at the Genius Bar. The guy quickly logged me in and walked away. The reason I had arrived early was to pick up my products prior to the appointment. So I had to track down another employee, which took about 15 minutes to find someone that was free of stupid people asking questions about how a Mac compared to a Dell. I think those stupid fuckers should be thrown out of the store immediately for not doing any research prior to butting in on the time of people who know what they want.

But, I digress. The two products I was going to purchase were Apple Care for my phone and the Apple iPhone Bluetooth headset. Neither are on the shelve, you have to ask for both of them. So, the guy I finally got to help me goes and procures from some back room both of my products and checks me out about 30 seconds prior to my appointment, at which point my name is called and I get on with the question asking. This was the source of my post the other day about keeping the phone in a case and charging while in a case.

I had used my Bluetooth headset while driving back from Dallas and while I was in my apartment, but I hadn't used it while moving around. There in is where my bitch to Apple is. Apparently, there are a lot of things this phone has problems with when surrounded by a thin piece of fabric. The headset has an inordinate amount of interference when the phone is in my pocket or my my case. Last night I spend 45 minutes on the phone with an Apple guy who believes, and I agree, that this has more to do with the earpiece than the phone. Either way I am going to return the thing or have it replaced.

End of bitching

A New Phone Phact

Apparently there is a thing with the iPhone not liking to be charged while in a case and also not liking to be in a case.

While I was in Dallas this weekend I made an appointment at the Apple Store to discuss my short battery life. They kindly asked me some questions about how I use the phone and whether in a case or not and then how I charged it. They gave me some suggestions, including not charging while in a case. They also deemed that my power brick was faulty.

After about a half hour of discussing it, they told me to follow their suggestions and if that didn't work, to bring it in and they would send it to be fixed. That was really kind of them to offer to pay for me to drive all the way back to Dallas in order to drop my phone off. How amazing of them.

No, wait. That isn't what they said at all. They said that I could come back, when I told them that I lived 5 hours from that store, they told me to go to a closer store.

So far, amazingly enough, the battery is doing well without a case.

iPhone : Review

The Good: The phone interface is great. Dialing someone that is in your address book couldn't be easier. Choose your contact, choose the number. Sounds quality is better than I have every had on any of my four Razrs that I have had for work. And it is certainly better than either of the phones I have had for personal use in the last 3 or 4 years (motorola something and a blackberry).

The iPod is good, I like the interface almost as much as I like the scroll wheel. The only bad part about it is that I have had the iPod "crash" while using it and Safari at the same time.

Safari is also really good. I can't complain, nor do I understand any complaint, about the speed at all in a wifi network or on the edge network. It is certainly slower on Edge, but it is not as ridiculously slow as I was led to believe prior to release and the Blackberry seems slower. Being able to check movie times and such without calling movie phone is one of my favorite things so far. I also like that I can look things up on the fly if I am uncertain of the facts, this might fade in time because as of right now it is a toy to play with and its fun. Also, most of the time I can find a wifi network to jump on when I am around in the city.

Text Messaging and Email would only be better if the keyboard would rotate. It is a lot easier to use the keyboard with the device horizontal. I use the email for when I get calls and I am not in the office to email myself a note to check into the matter when I get back to the office. It has eliminated the need for me to carry a notepad with me all the time to keep notes. And I am much better at checking email that I am at looking back through my notes.

The not good and not bad: YouTube, I find this to be totally useless. I don't use You Tube on my computer that much, so using it on the phone isn't really something I care about. It isn't good and it isn't bad, but it is there.

The Bad: The interface with gmail creates an inbox message every time you send an email. This is aggravating because it makes me want to check my email on my computer and check my email on my phone. But I believe my blackberry did that too. There is a hint out there to change one of the settings to stop getting this, but when I change it, all of my old mail comes through too, meaning that something like 100,000 emails are sent to my phone. I don't like that. So I will continue to deal with this for the time being.

The screen only rotates in Safari. I like the wide keyboard in Safari, but that is the only place you get it.

The final, and most bad, terrible thing is that I will get a warning that the battery is at 20%, then ten seconds later it is at 15% and about 2 minutes later, 10%. This happens after three days off the charger, but it is still a bit aggravating when you go from 20% to almost zero in the matter of 10 minutes.

Thats it, if I didn't mention it, then I haven't really used it yet. After a couple of months I think I will put up an update.

iPhone Rediculousness

I went to an At(and)t store to pick up a charger for my phone today and happened to ask a couple questions about the release of this very anticipated product. The information that was revealed to me was:
1. The phones will be delivered by teams of Fedex drivers. Not one, but many, or at least 2.
2. The store here in Midland will have guards at the store 24 hours a day starting on the Wednesday prior to release.
3. At(and)t employees are thoroughly upset about the secrecy of apple on the phone and the plans (the guy basically went off and said that apple was his least favorite phone provider at the moment)

Not all that informative about the actual product, but interesting none the less.

And So on With Apple

My prediction after having read this list of questions regarding the iPhone is that Apple will release a new generation of iPod at about the same time the iPhone comes out. It will look similar to the iPhone but not have the internet and phone functionality.

This is just a prediction, not a rumor.

I am sorry for focusing on the Apple topic so much. Surely I will find something more interesting to post about soon.