Why I *still* won't be getting an iPhone

A year ago, when the first upgrade to the iPhone was released, (iPhone 3G), I posted 7 Reasons Why I Won't Be Buying An iPhone.

I'll summarize them here:

1. The 2-year contract.
   
2. There are better phones. (Here I talked about non-swappable battery, non-swappable SIM, no voice dialing, no MMS, no tethering.)
3. There are better pocketable internet devices. (No external storage, no copy & paste, no physical keyboard, no Flash, low-res screen.)
   
4. There are better media players. (Low-res screen, again, no stereo speakers)
   
5. There are better smartphones. (Keyboard again - copy and paste.)
   
6. There are better media phones. (See 4 + 2)
   
7. There are better GPS devices. (No turn-by-turn - not "true" GPS - no voice directions.)
   

Well, the 3Gs has been announced now, and some of my complaints have been addressed. Storage has been increased - up to 32GB is available, MMS has been added, turn-by-turn voice directions from someone who knows GPS devices (TomTom), Cut, Copy, & Paste is available throughout the device, Voice dialing - and voice commands - are built-in, non-jailbroken tethering is also possible in the new iPhone - but it's up to at&t to make that happen, and the landscape keyboard for the whole OS does a lot to answer my complaints against the lack of a physical keyboard.

Plus, for the better part of 2009, I've had an iPod Touch to get me used to and familiar with the power that these little guys offer. So, let's revisit the list.

1. The 2-year contract. I'll come back to this one.
   
2. There are better phones. While I can't say for certain the iPhone is the best phone in the world - most of my previous issues have been addressed. The Palm Pre comes to mind as a potentially "better phone" - and I still want easy, non-warranty-voiding access to the battery and sim card. But I'll scratch this item off the list... for now.
   
3. There are better pocketable internet devices. I'm still waiting for the Nokia N900 Internet Tablet and/or the Pandora vaporware handheld. And there are other devices like the UMID and a few of the smaller, cheaper UMPCs. But it's hard to ignore the popularity and ease of use of the iPhone. I'm keeping this one in the "Valid Arguements" list.
   
4. There are better media players. I'm not even close to being an iTunes fan. I'd rather load my PMP like an external hard drive. Syncing through some draconian propritary software is just plain stupid. That's why there is no music or video on my iPod Touch. Give me a $50 iClone that I can load with any and all of my content from any source at all anyday.
   
5. There are better smartphones. Again, Palm Pre's multi-tasking kick's the iPhone's butt. Plus there's Andriod and BlackBerry.... But the new iPhone has business-class encryption and other pro-professional features.... It's too close to call, so I'll take it off the list.
   
6. There are better media phones. I'd say any of Nokia's media phones are better. At least easier to sync (bleh - that word) and just as good in play back, etc. But Nokia's phones are several times more expensive - at least up front. I'll take it off the list to please the kool aid drinking fanboys.
   
7. There are better GPS devices. Let me say first that, yes, there are still better GPS devices. But assuming the new iPhone GPS works as advertised, I'd say that for a phone, this works more than good enough in the GPS department. Plus, the "Where's my iPhone" feature is just too cool for words. Scratch another item off the list.
   

Really, you could take off the whole list at this point, I'm pretty much sold that the iPhone 3Gs + iPhone OS 3.0 = the best currently available pocket device there is. Gaming, high quality video recording, voice controls, a compass, level, GPS, WiFi, BT, 3G, PMP... and I hear that it makes phone calls, too. :) It's really impossible to find anything better.

The only thing that's holding me back is item #1 - the 2-year contract. I'm too cheap (poor, whatever you want to call it) to pay $100 a month for phone service. If that wasn't an issue - I'd have an iPhone 3Gs on Day One. Hope your financial situation is better than mine so you can get one.

Nokia NSeries N800 Linux-based Internet Tablet Review

Here's my (first?) review of the Nokia NSeries N800 Internet Tablet. It's got WiFi, BlueTooth, a Touchscreen, VOIP, Games, a full web browser, and more. Check it out!

Also, I mention that I'm selling my MacBook on ebay in the video.

Here's the auction for the "Apple MacBook Dual Core OS X Leopard Mac Windows XP OSX
White MacBook with Leopard iLife iWork Office and more!" - ebay Item # 230214193666.

My New Nokia NSeries N800

I just got my Nokia N800. This is not to be confused with the upcoming Nokia N810. This NSeries model does not have GPS or a physical keyboard. It has WiFi, BlueTooth, a good sized Touchscreen and lots of apps, including Skype! Check out my unboxing. I'll be posting a review or 3 later on.

And the Beat goes on... your new touchscreen WiFi OS X based iPod?

What will be announced at today's "And the beat goes on..." Apple announcement? Will be be the iPod Touchscreen? FatBoy Nano? WiFi for iPods? OS X based iPods? The Beatles' library on iTunes? All of the above? How about a speed bump for the Mac Pro and the Xserve? Only time and the Steve will tell. But, mere hours before the announcement, Chad W. Smith (hey, that's me!) gives his thoughts on the subject.

Digg this

Return of the AntiPod Nano!

I just wanted to give an update on my "AntiPod Nano" - aka my new mp3/mp4 player. There have been some questions, especially since it was so cheap. It just seems too good to be true.

The player seems to be most of what it was advertised to be. I can't get it to record, but it does have audio and video playback, it does have an FM tuner, it even has ebook and contacts list support. Just no record, (that I can get it to work, anyway - there is a hole on the side labeled "mic" but selecting record from the menu results in a reboot).

What the player is, is what's called a S1 mp3 player (actually, an S1 mp4, player, but anyway.) They are cheap knock offs made in China. There are users lists and forums - one such is s1mp3.org. The controls are kludgy, and it's rife with copyright and patent violations. (The box has mp3 / mp4 writen with an upside W from the Sony Walkman logo, and every page of the horribly translated manual has the Apple logo on it.) It's a click wheel design, like the iPod.

I've heard the rumors (on s1mp3.org) that it may not actually be 4 GB - just 2 GB. It says 4 GB when I connect it to my PC - but they said if I format the drive, it will only be 2 GB, or even 1 GB. That is not the case (at least not for me). What some people have problems with is, after 2 GB, it starts giving them error messages, so they reformat the drive to FAT 16 and only get 2 gigs. The problem isn't the player - it's the format. FAT 16 only supports partitions up to 2 GB (or so I've been told). I've reformatted it twice to FAT 32, and it gives me 4 full GB. (I haven't put that many songs on it yet, so I can't vouch for it not having error messages. Also, before I formatted the drive, my MacBook didn't even recognize that it existed. It now works.

There is no real way to organize the music. You can't sort or shuffle on the device at all. The mp3s play in alphabetical order within the folders. Speaking of folders - you can only have 99 files in a given folder. It just won't recognize file # 100 or higher. And you can only have folders one deep (so music1/ and music2/ not music1/a/ music1/b/ - just top level folders). I'm not sure, but I'd guess you can only have 99 folders - so 99 * 99 (9801) is your absolute limit of number of files.

Also, you don't load it through iTunes. You just use it like a drive. I read something about using Windows Media Player to load it (and maybe that will let you arrange playlists or whatever) - but I'll just stick with doing it myself.

The point is - if you are willing to put up with some frustation and limitations - it's a good deal. If you just want a simple player - and video player and/or money isn't important - get something else.

The Cash On Delivery thing threw me for a loop, too. But look at it this way - if it's COD, they can't take your money without shipping you *something*. It could be an empty box or an envelope - but you will get something. If you pay with a Credit or Debit Card or electronic check - they have your money before anything leaves their office. It does cost about a buck to get a money order from the post office or a gas station or something - but it's not much, (I paid $0.89 I believe.)

I can't completely recommend this site. I mean, it's a little shaddy, but I got what I ordered (well, I also ordered a 4 GB MiniSD card, but got a 4 GB SD card, so there was a mistake.) So it's really up to you whether the risk is worth the reward. I can say it's not a total scam - they didn't rob me - but there's 0 service after the sale (no replies to my email saying I got the wrong card and can't get record to work).

My New Media Player

You can order this MP4 player with more features than the iPod Nano with 4GB of storage for only $58 on the Computer Warehouse Inc..