HinesSight

iPhone Navigon app replaces my Garmin Nuvi

Right away my dearly beloved iPhone 4 replaced the Flip Video camera that I used to carry around with me in case I witnessed space aliens landing, or some other newsworthy event that I could film and then sell the video for millions.

(Hey, I can dream.)

Now I've also relegated my Garmin Nuvi GPS device to the Drawer of Unused Electronic Items, because the Navigon app for the iPhone functions better than a standalone Nuvi does.

I can say this with considerably confidence because I've used the Navigon app quite a bit in the past month or so, notably during a week long vacation in Canada -- where we had to navigate from the Calgary airport to Banff, and then find our way around in Banff National Park.

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous about leaving the Garmin Nuvi at home. I've owned several Nuvi models and found them generally reliable and easy to use. But the last few times I used my Nuvi left me with increasingly mixed feelings about it.

When we visited my daughter in Los Angeles, the Garmin would inexplicably take us a long ways on surface streets even though a freeway entrance was near at hand and the traffic was (amazingly) moving smoothly. And when I used it in Portland a few months ago, the Nuvi suddenly went off its GPS rocker just as we were approaching the I-205 exit that I knew we should take. It wanted me to drive eight more miles on the freeway, which was absurd.

On that trip we used my iPhone's Map feature to get us to our final destination. That got me to looking into GPS navigation apps with turn by turn audible directions, of which the Navigon clearly seemed the best.

I haven't been disappointed with Navigon, aside from the fact that I paid $79 for the app, and its now $59. (Actually, I paid $79 twice for it, because after I saw how cool it was, I installed the app on my wife's iPhone also.)

Here's some of the reasons I prefer the Navigon app to my Garmin Nuvi standalone GPS device:

(1) I always have Navigon with me, because I always have my iPhone with me.

(2) Maps of the United States and Canada reside on my iPhone and persumably will be updated in the normal easy app fashion. Updating the Nuvi was somewhat involved and expensive.

(3) The iPhone locks on to GPS satellites much faster than the Nuvi does, and with greater sensitivity. I get a strong GPS signal inside our house with the iPhone; the Nuvi had a lot of difficulty finding satellites indoors.

(4) Turn by turn directions are delivered in more complete English sentences on the Navigon app, and without irritating mispronunciations. The Navigon gal says "please" a lot, and she doesn't pronounce "drive/dr." as "doctor." Miss Nuvi called our street "Lake Doctor SE," which drove me crazy.

(5) If you miss a turn on Navigon, it quietly adjusts without the Nuvi's freak-out: "Recalculating, recalculating!" When I purposely went the wrong way on a test drive, the Navigon app calmly said, "if possible, please make a u-turn in 100 yards." Nice.

(6) The neat Where To? app integrates cleanly with Navigon. So for $2.99 I have a great nearby points of interest finder (just about everything imaginable is categorized) which will fire up Navigon directions to the place with one click.

(7) I can use the iPhone's iPod and listen to music while Navigon'ing away. When directions need to be announced, the music is interrupted and Miss Navigon pleasantly speaks her piece, then music resumes.

(8) Since my wife and I both have XM satellite radio's Skydock, we can plug in our iPhone and hear Navigon instructions over the car radio. Plenty clear, though the plain iPhone speaker is audible enough.

(9) Navigon lets you choose various "speed" options, such as pedestrian and motorcycle. Regarding the latter, you can opt out of freeways and prefer curvy back roads.

(10) Starting and stopping navigation is simpler on the Navigon than the Nuvi. And I like how Navigon gives you several route options to choose from.

Naturally there's also some downsides to the Navigon.

It eats up the iPhone battery fairly quickly, so on a long trip you'll want to have a car charger along. We used it for an hour and a half or so going from Calgary to Banff, though, and I still had over half of a battery charge left.

The screen is considerably smaller than the Garmin Nuvi's, because the iPhone is rather petite. On the plus side, as noted in (1) above I now can have my GPS navigation device carried with me all the time.

I'll end with a caution: the aluminum iPhone 4 is sleek and slippery, especially when used without a bumper or case, as I do. When we were driving from the Calgary airport to Banff I had the iPhone on my lap, so I could glance at the Navigon directions from time to time and hear Miss N. more clearly.

When we started to get into the mountains, the freeway became curvier. The iPhone slid across my lap, past my right leg, and under the driver's seat. I could feel it, but I couldn't pick it up.

For several miles I worried about Miss Navigon talking away under the seat, wondering why I wasn't responding to her. After a while I couldn't stand the separation and pulled over.

Laurel and I then spent an amusing ten minutes or so attempting to get my iPhone back ("amusing" if we'd been watching two Americans by the side of a Canadian freeway, driver's door open, on their hands and knees reaching under both ends of the seat, trying to maneuver the iPhone over a floor hump and past various obstructions, instead of being those people).

Eventually we used a magazine to push the iPhone into my reach after I'd moved the seat as far forward as it would go. Laurel then said, "Don't put it on your lap again, please."

Being of the male persuasion, for a few days I didn't. Then, I did -- after making a crotch depression in my pants. Sorry... no photo.

Wow, Steve Jobs and I think alike (about the iPhone 4)

I just finished watching a liveblog of the Apple press conference where supposed antenna problems with the iPhone 4 were discussed. Steve Jobs persuasively pointed out that all smart phones have similar problems, and very few users of the iPhone 4 are dissatisfied with it.

In my recent post about how I like the iPhone 4 after playing around with it for five days, I said: 

When I put my finger over the crease on the bottom left side that Consumer Reports has identified as a lowered signal strength culprit, one bar appears to drop off. To me, that's no big deal. I haven't had any problem making calls on my iPhone 4, and I rarely hold the phone in the offending manner.

Yes, Apple should have recognized this problem during its testing. And we iPhone 4 buyers deserve some sort of recompense for dealing with the antenna issue. But my basic attitude is nobody's perfect, but the iPhone 4 comes damn close.

Proving that Steve Jobs and I are on the same wavelength (about a few things, at least), here's what the liveblog reported him as saying:

"You know, we're not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren't perfect either."

"We knew that you could see bars drop on the phone when you hold it in a certain way, it's a fact, phones aren't perfect. But people are reporting better reception with this antenna than they've ever seen before."

"Most smartphones take a hit exactly the same way. These were all tested in areas of relatively weak signal strength. This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. It's a challenge for the whole industry. Every phone has weak spots."

Absolutely.

Apple has gotten way more bad press on this antenna issue than it deserved. I think Apple-bashers became all gleeful when the best technology company in the world was suspected of having a serious problem with the iPhone 4.

Except... Jobs demonstrated that the problem isn't serious. Still, Apple will give free bumper cases to anyone who wants one, and offer refunds to people like me who bought on their own.

I like Apple's open, honest, and assertive response to this tempest in a mini-teapot. Now, let's see how all the other smart phone companies deal with their fact that their own devices have similar reception problems if the phone is held in a certain way.

I suspect Apple is coming to come off looking much more customer-friendly than them, which is a big part of why I like Apple products so much.

iPhone 4 is working great for me

I guess every iPhone 4 should come with one of those legalistic disclaimers: "Your results may vary." Because I've been playing around with my new upgraded phone for five days now, and my review is pithily simple.

Love it!

The antenna/signal strength problem has been getting a lot of attention. Friday Apple is holding a press conference.

Maybe they'll give every iPhone owner free bumpers -- which would be nice, since I forked out $29 for mine after I heard they solved the antenna issue (only to discover that the bumper keeps the phone from fitting correctly in my much-beloved Sirius satellite radio Skydock, which is a bumper bummer).

We have pretty crappy AT&T reception out here in the wilds of rural south Salem (Oregon). Sitting outside on our deck at the moment, I'm seeing three bars, which seems better than my iPhone 3G mustered up.

When I put my finger over the crease on the bottom left side that Consumer Reports has identified as a lowered signal strength culprit, one bar appears to drop off. To me, that's no big deal. I haven't had any problem making calls on my iPhone 4, and I rarely hold the phone in the offending manner.

Yes, Apple should have recognized this problem during its testing. And we iPhone 4 buyers deserve some sort of recompense for dealing with the antenna issue. But my basic attitude is nobody's perfect, but the iPhone 4 comes damn close.

Having failed to upgrade to the 3GS, I'm thrilled to have video capabilities. I've dumped the Flip Video that I used to carry around with me in case I run across a space alien landing, or some other maxi-newsworthy event. With the iPhone 4, I'll be able to email a video directly to CNN (after I negotiate a hefty purchase price, of course).

And the still camera is much improved, with more megapixels and a much-needed zoom capability. This photo of some wildflowers my wife planted along our driveway was taken with about a 2x or 3x zoom.

Just after the sun had set, in a low light condition looking toward the west, here's a no-zoom shot I took a little while ago of Laurel watering a deck plant. Not bad for a cell phone.

Here's some other "I like's."

-- I like how the Maps app accurately pinpoints our home location even when I'm inside the house. Previously the 3G had a tough time with this, often mistakenly believing that I was at a cell phone tower a mile or two away.

-- The improved GPS capability probably is the reason. Yesterday I fired up my Motion X GPS inside our house, where it never worked before. Almost instantly the app had locked onto satellites and determined my location within 30 feet or so. Pretty impressive.

-- Everything feels quicker and snappier than on the 3G phone. And the display is considerably crisper. Last night I downloaded the iBooks app just to see how the free Winnie the Pooh book looked on the iPhone 4. Which was, nice. I'm not ready yet to read a "real" book on the small screen, but it makes me feel better about the possibilities of the iPad as an ebook reader.

-- Being able to put my many apps into folders is sweet. I was dubious that the iPhone could come up with correct titles for the folders when I started dragging icons around, but it did great. Makes everything fit onto two screens, rather than the four or five I had before.

-- Wi-fi reception within our house is considerably improved. Now I can connect in the furthest reaches of my morning meditation lair, whereas before wi-fi was extremely iffy there.

-- The Voice Control feature is neat. My pronunciation isn't always understood, but I just told my iPhone 4, "play Brazilian Girls" and it correctly fired up the iPod feature and found the album. I can also tell it to phone home, and it does, hands-free.

So all in all I'm a happy camper with my iPhone 4 upgrade.

I stuck with our previous unlimited AT&T data plan, in part because I'm hoping that my daughter's husband will upgrade his 3GS so we can play around with the FaceTime feature -- and get video calls of my three year old granddaughter streaming onto my phone from southern California.

iPhone 4 ordering screw-ups -- bad AT&T omen

Eight days ago I was really excited about ordering an iPhone 4 -- Apple's newest must have techno-gadget.

Today, not nearly so much. I can personally confirm Gizmodo's reporting: "Apple's iPhone 4 pre-ordering is a total disaster."

I found it impossible to get any response from either the Apple or AT&T web sites when I tried to upgrade my 3G iPhone.

No, that isn't true. I got some curt error messages -- not exactly the sort of thing I've come to expect from the usually smoothly functioning world of Apple.

Apparently it is more AT&T's fault than Apple's, according to Gizmodo.

The reason for the long lines, however, is AT&T's ordering system. Readers in the comments are reporting that the systems are collapsed everywhere... Apple's processing system seems to be collapsed too. The reason: The iPhone upgrades depend on AT&T account server.

Ugh.

This fiasco is a disturbing reminder that AT&T is the only cellular service that currently works with the iPhone. Lots of iPhone users wish there were more choices, such as Verizon, given the long history of problems with AT&T.

I've been worrying that AT&T's creaky capabilities couldn't handle the new data-intensive video features of the iPhone 4. Now that AT&T has proven itself incompetent at even taking orders for the device, my enthusiasm for getting an upgrade has diminished.

Probably I'll wait a few weeks and let the early must have frenzy subside. By then, hopefully enough people will have reported on how the iPhone 4 works in the real world to reassure me that getting one makes sense.

Apple, please get into the printer business (again)

I'm a fervent devotee of all things Apple'ish. I believe that if I buy enough gadgets from Apple, I will achieve perfect (roughly speaking) happiness.

I have an iPod touch, an iPhone, and a MacBook Pro, plus two Airport Extremes that smoothly and easily connect me wirelessly to the Internet and a printer. Which -- the printer -- I just replaced, again, after my Samsung decided that it would be fun to print half of a page, then stop dead, leaving the paper jammed.

I researched the issue via Google and learned that this is a common complaint of the Samsung CLP-315W, which otherwise has been a fairly decent performer for me over the past couple of years.

But when you're used to Apple products working way beyond the fairly decent performer level, it's more than a little frustrating to be stuck with a choice of printers that seem crappy by comparison.

I started my Apple love affair back in the 1980s, when I got an Apple II+ that was marvelously equipped with a floppy disk and a small green screen monitor. Soon I upgraded to early Macs -- along with the Apple Laserwriter, which debuted in 1985 and was discontinued in 1988.

I loved that printer. I've bought a lot of other printers over the last twenty plus years. My expectations have become depressingly low. Along, it seems, with almost every other computer user on the planet.

Yesterday I read through a lot of user reviews of various color laser printers, since I wanted to get a replacement for the Samsung as soon as possible. I was struck by how, on a scale of 1-5, it was extremely rare for a printer to earn more than a 3.8 or thereabouts.

Hardly anybody gets ecstatic over a printer, like Apple maniacs do over the iPhone and Mac computers. Complaints are ubiquitous, even with the more highly rated models. Clearly, there's something wrong in printer land.

It's the computer industry's neglected product.

But here's the thing, Apple: my MacBook laptop can be working flawlessly (as it is), communicating effortlessly with your marvelous Airport Extremes to connect me wirelessly with Qwest DSL -- yet when my printer screws up, as every printer I've owned for the past twenty years has regularly, my entire computing experience goes in the crapper.

And when I turn to the online Apple Store, I'm reminded that Apple leaves its customers to fend for themselves in the rough sea of printer choices. It's irritating. I wanted to be able to order an Apple printer that I knew would work reliably, simply, and well.

Instead, for an hour or two I had to wend my way through printer manufacturer, Amazon, Office Depot, and computer magazine web sites, searching for expert reviews, customer ratings, and what not.

Eventually I settled on the HP Color LaserJet 2025dn, which, pleasingly, was on sale at our local Office Depot. This morning I set it up and found that it plays nicely with my MacBook. The print quality and speed are superior to the Samsung (when it worked).

So I'm temporarily a happy camper. But I know that when it comes to printers, laser or otherwise, happiness is just a glitch away from turning into WTF frustration. Help me out, Apple.

Take a few of your geniuses off of their iPad or iPhone project and turn them loose on designing the world's greatest printer. I'd like a color laser variety. Make several kinds -- photo, high speed business, whatever.

Just make them as cool, reliable, easy to use, and Wow as the rest of your products. You'll sell a jillion of them. And make a whole lot of dissatisfied printer buyers, like me, even more devoted to Apple.

iPhone 4 -- the way to perfect happiness

Once again, this morning I found myself transfixed before my MacBook Pro, glued to Engadget's live blog of a Steve Jobs presentation of Apple's newest must-have techno-wonder.

The iPhone 4.

And this time it truly is a must-have for me. I was strongly attracted to the iPad when Jobs revealed its appealing features, but after the show was over I was left with a nagging feeling of "cool toy, yet what would I do with it that I can't already?"

Different reaction to the iPhone 4, for sure.

Currently I have an iPhone 3G which can't even capture video (unlike the 3Gs, a later model.) So when Jobs talked about how the iPhone 4 takes HD video and comes with a version of iMovie, so my video creations can be edited on the spot and uploaded to You Tube, or wherever, I was sold. 

The video chat ability, courtesy of the iPhone 4's front-facing camera also was way wow.

OK, it's a limited "wow" at the moment, given that you can only chat with someone who also has an iPhone 4, and only via wi-fi (not a cellular connection, undoubtedly owing to AT&T''s crappy capabilities), but the prospect for sharing events with friends or family by means of the back-facing camera is another reason for iPhone 4 lust.

Which explains why I kept checking to see if AT&T had added them to their upgrade options after the iPhone 4 rollout had been completed.

I got Twitterly excited when the wireless area of the AT&T web site was down for "maintenance," but maybe this was true -- since when it came back up there was no mention of the iPhone 4. The good news is that my wife and I qualify for early iPhone upgrades, even though our two-year contracts aren't up for quite a while.

Thanks, AT&T.

On the down side, AT&T is going to charge for the long-awaited tethering capability on the iPhone 4 (meaning, I can plug it into my laptop and connect to the Internet via a cellular connection -- no need for wi-fi when I'm out and about). This doesn't seem fair, since it shouldn't make any difference what device someone is using to access their AT&T cellular services.

This minor quibble doesn't have any bearing on the main theme of this post: I'm about to achieve perfect happiness! All I need is an iPhone 4, and my days will be sunny, worry free, and blissful forever. (Well, until I die, but that's "forever" enough for me.)

I feel that the iPad was a test of my Apple faith, a little bump in the road on the path that is leading me to an eventual surrendering of my life completely to Steve Jobs and all things Apple'ish.

Happiness isn't complicated. Today I simply felt good that the iPhone 4 and I will have an intimate relationship before too long (pre-orders start June 14, and they're available June 24, so AT&T upgrades should be possible before then).

When I got my iPhone a year and a half ago, I came to an important realization (echoed here). 

Jeez, here I am, sixty years old, and only now realizing that I've had it wrong for most of my philosophically-inclined life: notwithstanding the oft-heard adage, money really can buy happiness.

I know this, because I've become increasingly blissful the more dollars I send in Apple's direction.

For an iPod Touch. Then a MacBook Pro. Followed by an iPhone. Then my wife's iMac. And shortly a much-improved iPhone. With each swipe of my VISA card, my life becomes more satisfying.

I can only assume that the trend will continue, until -- praise be the day! -- every aspect of my existence has been embraced by the comforting presence of the most dependable entity I know: Apple.

Of course, I'm not alone in my worshipful stance. There's a Church of the Apple Mind. Plus the Cult of Mac. And this family shows in their video why the Church of Apple makes more sense than Catholicism. 

Apple, though, does its own best evangelizing. In the promo video for the iPhone 4 we learn that this isn't just another technological device, it's going to "have a lasting impact on the way we connect with each other."

Amen to that. See and believe.

Ellen DeGeneres iPhone parody touches on the truth

Apple officials are upset with Ellen DeGeneres for her all-too-true parody of an iPhone commercial, which shows that as easy as it is to use, it isn't that easy.

The Apple guys need to get a humor implant. My wife and I each have iPhones and we frequently experience the sort of stuff DeGeneres does. Laugh on.

How to fix your iPhone wi-fi location

I love my iPhone.

But it bugs me when I'm at home and I fire up some cool app, like Siri, which needs to know my current location to function correctly, and it thinks I'm many miles away -- down in Albany, Oregon -- rather than where I actually am, rural south Salem.

A bit of Googling shows that my wi-fi router apparently is being mislocated. Turning wi-fi off results in accurate mapping, but our AT&T signal is crappy at our house. So now my location-based iPhone app won't work quickly or reliably.

Here's a fix, which I learned about here.

(1) Go to Skyhook Wireless, which is the service used on the iPhone to map wi-fi access points. Submit a wi-fi access point.

(2) If you're like me, you'll have no idea what your "MAC address" is. Or even what it is. No problem. Skyhook tells you how to find it. If you have a Mac with Snow Leopard, download the free iStumbler. It tells you what the MAC address is for your wi-fi network.

(3) Type that into the Skyhook submit form. I kept being told that the MAC address was wrong until I added another "0" to the first "0" in the address iStumbler gave me (meaning, I submitted 00:... instead of 0:..., which made Skyhook happy).

(4) Type in the CAPTCHA code and click "submit." If all went well you'll get an email from Skyhook saying:

It can take up to a few weeks before you see your Access Point in some of our production systems. In the mean time you can download Loki to start using Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System on your laptop or desktop. Go to http://loki.com/download to start using Loki today.

Happy Mapping!

The Skyhook Team

Optimistically, I just tried Suri again on my iPhone. Bingo!

My location is spot on. "Maps" has me pinpointed perfectly. I don't know whether Skyhook updated my wi-fi access point super quickly, or whether a glitch in the iPhone locating system fixed itself.

Regardless, this is an easy way to help assure that your iPhone knows where you are when you're using a wi-fi network that currently thinks you're somewhere else.

Forgive me Apple, for I am forsaking the iPad

Jeez. As non-religious as I am, I feel sort of funny reliving my long-lapsed Catholicism and confessing on a Sunday. But I feel that I have to, because I have been unfaithful... to Apple.

I wasn't attracted to the iPad on the day it was announced. And yesterday, when the iPad was put in the hands of some 650,000 happy purchasers, I remained uncommitted to the newest persona of my Apple lover.

I have an iPod Touch. And an iPhone. And a MacBook Pro laptop.

When the rumors that Apple would produce a tablet started to fly, I was virtually certain that I'd want one -- because I adore all things Apple'ish. So now I feel like I've let Apple down by failing to leap aboard the iPad bandwagon.

In a TIME magazine piece, Stephen Fry ably points to why users of Apple products have such an intimate relationship with them. After all, I've never felt the need to apologize to Maytag for not buying their newest washing machine, or to Toyota for declining to purchase an updated Prius.

The iPad does perform tasks — it runs apps and has the calendar, e-mail, Web browsing, office productivity, audio, video and gaming capabilities you would expect of any such device — yet when I eventually got my hands on one, I discovered that one doesn't relate to it as a "tool"; the experience is closer to one's relationship with a person or an animal.

I know how weird that sounds. But consider for a moment. We are human beings; our first responses to anything are dominated not by calculations but by feelings. What Ive and his team understand is that if you have an object in your pocket or hand for hours every day, then your relationship with it is profound, human and emotional. Apple's success has been founded on consumer products that address this side of us: their products make users smile as they reach forward to manipulate, touch, fondle, slide, tweak, pinch, prod and stroke.

Yes.

The MacBook laptop that I'm typing on has a Multi-Touch Trackpad rather than a mouse or some other less touchie-feelie control device. I'm frequently caressing its sleek aluminum surface with my fingertips to make my computer respond to my desires.

There's a decided sensuality to this. The Trackpad is much more pleasing to use than a mouse with buttons, and I'm sure the iPad takes the user's relationship with the device up several more levels of intimacy, since the whole screen is touchable.

Yet for now I have to remain on the iPad purchasing sidelines. I'm in like rather than lust with it, which is different from how I initially felt about my iPhone and MacBook Pro.

With them, my psyche screamed "I want! I want!" once I knew enough about their sexy attributes. With the iPad, it's more like "Hey, I'd invite it in for a roll in cyberspace if one appeared (free) at my door, but I don't feel like paying to play around with it."

I'm still questioning whether the iPad is going to be a viable ebook reader. I want to be able to highlight and annotate with my fingers, just as I do with the many nonfiction books I read now. And I'm bothered by the lack of Flash support, the absence of a camera, and how reviewers complain about typing on the virtual keyboard.

A general conclusion about the iPad is that it is a media consumption device, not a media creation device. As a regular blogger, this means that the iPad can't replace my laptop, because I do a lot of typing and need a device that is attuned to wordsmithing.

Sitting at a coffeehouse table right now, comfortably looking at a quasi-vertical 13 inch screen while comfortably typing on a horizontal lighted keyboard with nice tactile and audible feedback, I can't see myself enjoying writing a blog post while hunched over an iPad lying flat on the table.

It's a good bet that version 2.0 of the iPad will be much improved, and version 3.0 even more so. So there's a chance that an iPad is in my future. I just need a "Must have!" reason to get one.

Alternatively, I suspect Amazon is busily working on the rollout of a Kindle ebook reader that will compete with the iPad. If a new Kindle has color and a touchscreen, I could be happy with it.

Anyway, I still love you, Apple. Let me know when the next generation of the MacBook Pro is on the market. Then I'll probably be in an Apple Store, drooling.

Porn on iPad will make it more appealing

OK, my first lackadaisical impression of the iPad could be proven wrong.

If Apple promotes an "explicit" App Store category, as seems likely, porn could turn out to be the iPad's killer application.

By enabling developers to publish "explicit" software titles in the App Store, Apple will provide the potential for a new, unanticipated killer app for iPad: digital interactive magazines, comics, and games that present adult subject matter to audiences that want them while also enabling parents to prevent access to such content within iTunes' preferences.

Access to adult content has long been credited with the success and popularity of technology platforms. It is widely held that JVC's VHS videotape format won out over Sony's Betamax due to the fact that JVC did not attempt to block distribution of adult content in the early 80s. The explosion in popularity of the consumer web has also been credited to its ability to deliver unfettered access to adult content.

Exorcise evil Adobe Flash from Safari browser

Ah, I feel purified.

Ever since Apple announced the release of its iPad tablet computer, which notably lacks support for the Adobe Flash Player, I've been wondering whether the ubiquitous Flash is as evil as Apple makes it out to be.

But Apple’s support for Flash has been flagging. While Flash is present on nearly every Apple desktop and laptop computer, the company decided that Flash would not be used on the iPhone. Apple has argued that the Flash technology is too slow and unduly taxes laptops and netbooks. The company also has concerns over Flash’s vulnerability to viruses and other malware, as well as the way Flash-based content can voraciously consume battery life.

So I was primed for an exorcism. I find Flash ads annoying, and they do seem to slow down my MacBook Pro's loading of Flash-heavy web pages.

Browsing the TUAW site for Apple news and gossip this morning, I came across "Browser security: "The main thing is not to install Flash!"

Yikes! I'm insecure! I have Flash!

Fortunately, the recommended solution was easy. Just took a minute or two. I headed over to ClickToFlash, downloaded the free software, restarted Safari, and praise shareware! -- I was free of Flash (unless I wanted it).

I did send $6 to the developer via PayPal, so ClickToFlash was voluntarily non-free for me. After seeing how it worked on a few web sites, I was grateful enough to fork over the cost of a few lattes.

The New York Times home page had three Flash applications; MSNBC, two; CNN, one. I didn't feel like I missed anything when I visited the sites Flashless. And all I had to do was click on the grayed-out box to have ClickToFlash release the exorcism.

Over on YouTube, I conducted some additional most pleasant research: watching Shakira's "She Wolf" video several times -- first in its native Flash format, then in the ClickToFlash H264 (MPEG-4) option.

I'm sort of vague about what H264 is. But if it isn't evil Flash, that must be good. The video played fine with it, absent a pop-up ad that appeared in the usual You Tube player.

So if you use Safari on a Mac, give ClickToFlash a try. If you aren't convinced that Flash is evil, check out a few other opinions here and here.

I want to love the Apple iPad and iBooks, but...

At 10 am yesterday I was glued to my MacBook Pro, watching Engadget's live-blog feed from the Apple event where the long-awaited iPad tablet was announced.

I fell in love immediately. Or, was it just a passing lust?

Today I'm trying to figure out whether iPad and me are going to have a long-term relationship, or whether my instant attraction to her was a passing thing.

Ms. iPad is unavailable at the moment. Reportedly it's going to be a couple of months before I could bring her home and start feeling her up (the iPad is like an iPod Touch or iPhone on steroids -- similarly controlled by a touch screen rather than keyboard or mouse).

The iPad is indisputably sexy and beautiful.

Over the past 24 hours I've read enough instant reviews and watched enough videos of the iPad to know that she's my type, along with my iPod Touch, iPhone, and MacBook laptop (ooh, I could be on the edge of an Apple foursome!).

But here's the thing: the iPad is fairly pricey, $449 to $829, not counting possible add-ons and a potential cellular agreement. I need her to be more than a pretty plaything.

I have an iPhone with all kinds of apps. I have a 13 inch MacBook with all kinds of programs (plus a CD/DVD drive, USB ports, and other stuff the iPad lacks). So why do I need -- as contrasted with lust for -- a 10 inch iPad that basically is an iPhone/MacBook hybrid?

Watching the iPad rollout yesterday, at first I was wowed by how photos, emails, web sites, maps, and such could be manipulated on this snazzy touchscreen tablet. It even has iWork. Wow!

Except, after a little reflection, un-wow. I already have Pages and the other iWork applications. I already have iPhoto. I'm happy with how Mail works on my MacBook. My iPhone has GPS and I don't feel like forking out for another spendy cellular data plan.

So what's going to make me buy an iPad after I get the word that it's available for purchase?

One thing: a great, or at least very good, e-reader (or e-book) application.

I returned a Kindle 2 about a year ago after deciding that I wasn't ready to take the plunge into reading books on a screen. Then I looked long and hard at the Nook when it was released, but wasn't really turned on by it.

The iPad's iBooks app looks promising, but I've got some questions about it. Notably, and this may sound picky but it is super important to me, can you easily highlight and ideally also annotate a passage in a book?

This first impression of iBooks disturbs me:

A limitation definitely dictated by the ePUB standard is the lack of facilities to highlight or annotate passages of text in a book. Despite much lobbying, the ePUB standards group hasn’t defined how annotations etc should be held within a book. The iPad with iBooks will be severely limited within the educational and academic arenas without the ability to highlight and annotate.

Yeah, no kidding.

Also within the non-fiction book-reading arena, where I am a daily player. As noted before, I'm addicted to highlighting. I was counting on Apple to recognize that a touchscreen would be well-suited to drag a finger across highlighting.

If something like this isn't available on the iPad, Apple probably has lost me. (Are you listening, Apple sales department? You've still got time to request software changes.)

As I see it, the basic problem with the iPad is that it isn't a must-have like the iPhone was for millions of people. There is no amazing oh my God! new killer application that makes me say "I've absolutely got to get an iPad."

If it is a markedly better e-book reader than the competition in this area, I'll happily get out my VISA card. But the jury is still out on this iPad application. I'm eager to learn more about iBooks.

Fabulous fantasy feature set for the Apple tablet

Beautiful! Mark Morford nails his lust list of desirable features for the long-rumored and apparently about-to-be-announced Apple tablet. Bring it on!

Here's some of Morford's entirely reasonable wishes (he's speaking directly to the tablet).

On the topic of health and happiness, it would be tremendously helpful if I could, say, hold a given food item in front of your gleaming screen and have you instantly reveal, via an intricate array of special sensors, the exact nutrient value, fat quotient, caloric assessment, global carbon footprint, potential colonic damage and overall dietary necessity of said comestible, along with exactly how amped or sluggish, healthy or regretful I will feel for the next three days if I consume it. Also, please perform the same function for potential girlfriends. Sexual playthings. Children. Pets. Politicians. Religions. Vitamins. Illegal drugs. Grand unification theories. Sunshine.

Meantime, I would like you to thoroughly organize my 8,000+ song library, my 20,000+ photo library, along with all article clippings, porn collections, shopping habits, grocery lists, cocktail recipes, address books, mailing lists, fond memories, future plans, unicorn-adorned dream journalings, sleep mutterings, in-shower brainstorms, post-coital poetics, childhood traumas, spiritual longings and nagging subconscious lifelong anxieties that are now manifesting as mysterious pains in my kidneys.

Please sync it all with my Vedic astrological chart, my delta sleep cycles and my yoga teaching schedule, cross reference it with my various moods and meditative temperaments, and then automatically play the exact song/photo/article/whatever my deepest soul was hoping to experience at the exact moment I was wishing to experience it, so as to alleviate all personal sadness, fears, doubts and suffering for all time. Or at least while I'm in the tub.

Nuvi 285W replaces Nuvi 350 as my GPS friend

Yeah, I'm fickle. If something more desirable comes along, I'll break up in an instant with an attractive piece of technology even if I've had great times with it.

So goodbye venerable Nuvi 350, who's been a part of my life since November 2006. Thanks to an after-Christmas Amazon sale, I'm now in an increasingly intimate relationship with a younger Nuvi, the 285W.

Lots of people, including me, love the Nuvi 350 -- as evidenced by 3,140 mostly glowing reviews on Amazon.

My only significant gripe with the 350 was how she mispronounced basic names, like "drive." We live on Lake Drive, or in Nuvi-speak, Lake Dr. For three years I've listened to a female voice guide me home by saying "Turn on Lake Doctor SE."

No matter how many times I screamed at the GPS device No! It's drive, DRIVE! she kept on with her irritating ways. The 350 also had trouble with some other words, while the Nuvi 285W has been pleasingly correct with its pronunciation so far.

This alone is worth the $135 I paid for it. But I've found quite a few other improvements over the 350. Such as...

Faster start-up time. I just conducted an inside-the-house test. From the moment I pressed the "on" button, it took 23 seconds on the Nuvi 350 to get to the home screen, compared to 17 seconds on the 285W. Four satellite reception bars appeared at 1:40 on the 350, and at 1:13 on the 285W.

Bigger screen. W is for widescreen, I believe. Which figures, since the 285W has considerably more viewing territory than the 350. Pressing "view map" on both GPS devices, I could see a lot more of our neighborhood on the 285W. Plus, street names for our rural area showed up, while the 350 was nameless. 

Better searches. I like how the 285W lets you choose a distant city and then do searches for food, lodging, and such. I'm pretty sure the 350 can't do this. The "Where Am I?" feature also is nice, showing GPS coordinates, nearest address, and nearest intersection (along with buttons for "hospitals," "police stations," and "fuel").

Bluetooth. Only problem is, I barely know what Bluetooth is all about, never having used a device with it. Even so, I managed to get my iPhone and the 285W connected. Now I just need to figure out why I need Bluetooth (Oregon did just implement a law that banned talking on cell phones while driving without a hands free device, but I rarely use my iPhone as a phone (that's so last decade).

Cranked-up volume. Sometimes it was hard to hear the Nuvi 350 give her turn by turn directions, though I was glad to have the mispronunciations as garbled as possible. The 285W seems to offer a higher speaker volume, which is nice when I'm on a noisy road.

Both GPS receivers are terrific. I'm just finding that the Nuvi 285W is more refined and offers additional useful features -- which it should, being three years newer.

For example, the 285W shows the speed limit for non-urban roads. It seems to be quite accurate; as soon as I reached the 55 mph sign on Liberty Road that marks the end of 45 mph, "55 mph" popped up on the map.

These days, everybody should have a GPS device. Especially business people. Today a guy was scheduled to come out to our house and give us a bid on a repair job. He phoned three times before he arrived.

First call: he'd left our address at his office. I gave it to him, along with some rough directions. Second call: he couldn't find Lake Drive on his map. I told him we didn't live within the Salem city limits, so it probably wasn't going to show up on any of his maps. I gave him more detailed driving instructions. Third call: he said he couldn't find 10771 but was at 10371. I told him that was our house number. "Oh, I must have put down a 7 rather than a 3."

By this time I wasn't impressed with the guy's savvy. If he can't find our house, does he have the smarts to fix what needed repairing? A $95 Nuvi 205 GPS navigator would be a great sales pitch investment for him.

I don't feel oppressed by technology

I love gadgets. They make me happy. Amazon just sent me a snazzier Garmin Nuvi. Trying it out while driving around yesterday, I had a great time. Really.

I'm a believer that money spent on technological innovations actually can buy happiness, especially if what I've bought is made by Apple. 

So I found quite a bit to disagree with in a recent New Scientist article by Yair Amichai-Hamburger, "Free yourself from oppression by technology." (Yes, that's a real name; he's director of an Internet Psychology research center in Israel.)

Such as...

The other factor is relatedness: our need to feel close to other people. Technology is a threat to this. Devices like the iPod can be used to create a bubble that disconnects us from normal human interactions, and while some virtual relationships may be truly meaningful, in many cases they come at the expense of real-world connections. Psychologists have found that the pivotal difference between happy and unhappy people is the presence or absence of rich and satisfying social relationships. Spending meaningful time with friends, family and partners is necessary for happiness.

Admittedly, he has a point.

Some people get obsessed with Facebook, gaming, online pornography, or other cyberspace enticements. But people also get obsessed with solitary fly-fishing, reading romance novels, and crossword puzzles.

Probably when writing started to become common, some of our ancestors decried the impersonal nature of communicating via papyrus or clay slates. "Why aren't we talking to each other face-to-face so much any more?!"

Ditto when the telephone came along. Yet now getting a letter in the mail or a phone call, rather than an email or text message, is viewed as a marvelous bit of old-fashioned personal outreach.

Culture changes. Society changes. Technology changes. Communication changes. Where's the problem in that?

I spend quite a bit of time on my computer. Maintaining two blogs, with a daily post on one or the other, keeps me staring at a MacBook screen for an hour or two each afternoon or evening, not to mention all the other stuff I do online.

Reading and replying to emails. Keeping up on my favorite web sites. Handling our finances. Etc. Etc.

I don't feel at all oppressed by this. Nor do I feel depersonalized. I keep in touch with lots of people who I would otherwise have no interactions with. I've "met" countless commenters on my blogs who live all around the world.

Yes, getting together with our fellow humans physically is nice. But so is getting together mentally. When I communicate with someone online, I consider that I'm doing so "in person."

I've gone to a lot of social gatherings where the normal mode of interacting is shallow chit-chat. I can take it for a while, but eventually my head feels like it's going to explode if I talk for another minute about the weather, or grandchildren, or how good the snacks are.

I have lots of meaningful interactions with people face-to-face. I also have lots of meaningful interactions with people technology-to-technology, which often are deeper and more honest.

The print version of the New Scientist article has this title and tagline:

Shiny, unhappy people
That new phone or laptop may be giving you a warm glow, but beware a stealth attack on your happiness, warns Yair Amichai-Hamburger

OK, maybe this is a fair warning for some people.

As for me, I'm going to continue enjoying the warm glow of happiness I get when I flip open my laptop, browse my iPhone applications, and check out the tricks my Garmin Nuvi 285W can do.

Or write a blog post all by myself. Ah, the bliss of pushing the "publish" button. Here comes a burst of joy...

Dell customer service: horrible, frustrating, outrageously bad

Canceling an order for a laser printer cartridge should be easy. With Amazon and other competent online retailers it is. But with Dell, it's insanely difficult.

This morning I spent well over an hour trying to do something that should have taken me a minute. There's no excuse for this, Dell. Either you're trying to make it extremely hard for customers to cancel an order, or you are a mismanaged company.

I don't use my Dell 3000cn color laser printer very much any more. I've flown the PC coop and use a Mac now. Dell doesn't offer a Macintosh driver for the 3000cn, so I have to hook my old ThinkPad laptop up when I want to use the printer.

Which I did today, having a bunch of color Christmas letters to print. A message popped up, saying the yellow cartridge was low. I figured I should order a replacement for future laser printing needs.

That was easy. Dell's online ordering system works well. But Dell's unordering system is one of the worst I've ever encountered.

Soon after I pushed the submit button on my order I remembered a box sitting in the back of my office closet that had a Dell logo on it. Digging it out, I saw that it contained a yellow laser printer cartridge.

"Good," I thought. "Now I can save myself $70. Just need to cancel the order."

A whole lot easier said than done. The Dell order confirmation email contained no info about how to cancel an order. I checked the Dell "help" link on its web site. It told me to phone the Home & Home Office number to cancel an order: 1-800-624-9897

OK. Sounded simple enough. Except I ended up on hold after navigating through several automated options.

After fifteen minutes of being told my call was important to Dell and someone would be with be shortly, I put my phone on speaker, remembering that an offer to chat online with a sales person had popped up when I was ordering the yellow cartridge.

I clicked on a "chat" link. And found that I was #7 in line. Didn't sound too bad, since my phone was still playing annoying recorded music and announcements from Dell, assuring me that my call was important, blah, blah, blah.

In five minutes or so I was chatting with a Dell guy. I typed in that I needed to cancel an order I'd made not long ago and gave him the purchase number. He wrote back: "You need to call 1-800-624-9897."

I got testy.

I responded that at this very moment I was on hold with that number, it looked like I'd be on hold for a lot longer, and I had better things to do with my day than spend an hour or more trying to cancel a simple order.

He typed back: "Call our Customer Adjustment Service, 1-800-247-2076." I thanked him, though I didn't feel very thankful.

Dialing that number, I reached another guy who had a distinct Indian accent. I told him I needed to cancel an order. "I can help you with that," he told me. Oh praise Krishna, I thought, finally!

He asked for my order number. I gave it to him. Then he said, "I'll transfer you to someone who will complete the order cancellation."

And I swear to God, holy crap!, I heard the exact same recorded messages I'd been listening to before. Except I figured I now was at the end of the on-hold waiting line that I'd just spent twenty plus minutes on.

I went upstairs to my MacBook, put the phone on speaker again, and tried to figure out another way to cancel my order before the irritating music and repeated "a representative will be with you shortly" messages drove me more insane than I already was.

I tried to reply to the Dell email message confirming the order. I said that I wanted to cancel and was going to refuse to pay a restocking fee if the order was shipped before I could cancel it and I had to return the cartridge.

As I expected, my reply bounced back, since the Dell email had come from an automated system.

Then I tried the "Email customer support" link on the Dell web site. At first the "order support email form" looked promising. I dutifully filled in all the information requested, including my Dell Purchase ID.

Except, that ID wasn't recognized as a valid order number. Also, several entries (zip code, phone) on the Dell email support form were garbled on my Safari browser, probably because Dell figures that it isn't important to make their web site fully usable by Macintosh users.

I recall clicking around and finding another web page that had a "cancel order" listed on a pull down menu. When I selected that, another Oh fuck me!!! passed through my ever-more-frustrated psyche, since I was told to phone the number I was still on hold for.

I fixed lunch. Passed the time by Googling Dell customer support horror stories. Found quite a few (here's an example).

Eventually, after being on hold for about an hour, a human being came on the line. By that time I just wanted to be done with Dell. Plus, I figured it wouldn't do any good to yell at a worker bee who wasn't responsible for the messed-up Dell management.

She quickly canceled my order. Asked if there was anything else she could do for me. I said "No."

Though I was thinking, If you could find the Dell CEO, tie him up, and make him listen to his company's recorded music/messages for a couple of hours, that'd make me feel better.

This being impossible, my next-best goal is to never buy anything from Dell again.

Apple's tech support is delicious (and not in India)

Yes, my wife and I paid more for our Apple computers (MacBook Pro and an iMac) than a PC would have cost.

But when something goes wrong with our machines, we're in capable hands with AppleCare tech support. It's by far the best in the business, according to Consumer Reports.

Dream on, PC users, about what I experienced this morning when I made a call to figure out a couple of problems with my wife's new iMac.

Within a few rings the 800 number was answered. OK, not by a real person. However, the automated voice recognition system was snazzy, crisp, and clear.

I was asked a few questions about my problems, the most vexing of which was an inability to sync iTunes on the iMac with Laurel's iPhone. So I started with that. In less than a minute I was transferred to an iTunes specialist via the automated system.

Who wasn't in India, though a few years ago Apple considered opening a tech support center there and (thankfully) dropped the idea. Here's a Business Week factoid:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has long had a thing for India. After working at game developer Atari in the mid-'70s, Jobs took a break and backpacked around the subcontinent in search of spiritual enlightenment. Upon his return to the U.S., his more capitalistic instincts took over, and he and Steve Wozniak launched Apple.

Anyway, I digress.

The AppleCare woman listened patiently to my tale of repeatedly connecting the iPhone to the iMac and finding no sync'ability.

We'd put an audiobook and Sade album into the hitherto virginal iTunes on the new iMac, but they weren't being smoothly copied to Laurel's iPhone, as has always happened when I connect my own iPhone to my MacBook.

She had me click away on various attempted cures. Then asked, "Has the iPhone been sync'ed with another computer?" "Yes," I said, "my wife's previous PC laptop."

Now, you'd think that iTunes would pop up a helpful message if it discovered that an iPhone user had been playing around with a different computer, so wasn't in the mood to get sync'y intimate.

This shows that Apple software isn't perfect, just as PC software isn't.

But as some friends and I were discussing at a coffee house today, here's the difference: an Apple problem can be frustrating, but usually is resolved quickly due to the company's great tech support and service programs. A PC problem, though, can ruin your days for a long time.

Is third-party software the culprit? Your hardware? Operating system? With Apple almost always it doesn't matter, since everything is so highly integrated.

I learned from the iTunes specialist that the iPhone wouldn't sync because it is monogamous and needed a divorce from the PC before it'd hook up with the Mac. So she showed me how to back up the iPhone's contents, then give the go-ahead to iTunes to "marry" Laurel's iPhone with the iMac.

Bingo! Success.

On to the next problem: the iMac kept demanding an administrative password after a restart even though I'd selected "Automatic log in." I got transferred to an operating system specialist for this question.

After checking the settings that I already knew were correct, she made me feel really special. "This is amazing," she said. "I've never seen a log in request when automatic has been selected."

Oh, great, I thought. The one and only time an Apple computer has played this trick, and we happen to own it. What now?

Well, an impressive response. I told the OS specialist that this problem wasn't a huge deal, since we won't be turning the computer off very often. Restarts mostly are needed after certain software upgrades.

But she was the one who wouldn't let it go.

"No," she told me. "I want to figure this out. I'll talk to some other people here and get back to you." I suspect she will. Haven't heard from her yet, but it's been less than a day.

With both of the Apple tech support staff, I felt that I was talking to someone who was unrushed, competent, and genuinely committed to helping solve the problems with my wife's computer.

Believe me, I've talked to a lot of tech support people in my almost thirty years of personal computing. Few, if any, have been as pleasant to deal with as the folks who work for Apple.

More Apple love: an iMac enters our life

 Ah, there she is, so lovely.

Sleek. Slender. Well-designed. Responsive to the touch. Fun to play with.

It's no wonder both my wife and I have fallen in love with her -- though this Apple iMac resides on Laurel's desk and mainly is her techno-toy.

Observe the lack.

Of cords, because the keyboard and Magic Mouse are wireless. Or of a desktop tower, because Apple crammed a 500 GB drive and the rest of the computer innards into the slim 21.5 inch LED display.

We'd change our dog's name to "Apple," but she already responds nicely to "Serena." Otherwise, we're steadily embracing all things Apple'ish. Our lives now are enhanced by a MacBook Pro laptop, the iMac desktop, two iPhones, and two iPods.

And I'm expectantly waiting for Apple to come out next year with a tablet computer that will double as an e-book reader. The offerings from Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (Nook) don't turn me on.

Whatever Apple produces will. 

I can say this with confidence after having spent the past few days helping my wife get her iMac up and running. Laurel has used a PC laptop for many years, but could not -- by any stretch of the imagination -- be called a computer savvy person.

Her primary strategy for staying on top of the not-so-wonderful world of Windows has been to yell, "Brian, come here! My computer is doing something weird."

Usually I could figure out the strangeness. Because I too had spent a lot of time dealing with the unlovable eccentricities of an operating system that (1) doesn't operate very well, and (2) doesn't deserve the name "system."

Apple products are marvelously Microsoft opposites. They simply work. 

This was a central point of my "Why I love my Mac more than my PC" YouTube video that I put up about a year ago, as well as its follow-up. The videos have gotten about 17,000 views, plus numerous comments.

Here's a recent comment that I enjoyed. "Macs suck" is the attitude of many hardcore PC users.

first of all, macs suck and you dont know shit because youre old as fuck. Were you thre when they invented the phone? None of your videos matter anyways because youre probably gonna die soon because your so fucking old. dumbass

Well, I'm a happy dumbass when I'm using my Apple products. As is my wife.

Even though I get more of a thrill out of gadgets than she does, owing to my Y chromosome, I enjoyed seeing how pleased she was last night when she easily dragged a photo from her iPhoto collection into an email and sent it off to some relatives with a "Wow, my iMac is neat!" email message.

Laurel has never had a warm and fuzzy relationship with a computer. That's going to change now that she's in the embrace of her iMac. I can almost guarantee this will happen.

In no small part because Apple not only knows how to make quality hardware and software, but also is adept at selling and supporting its products. I extolled the virtues of the Apple Store in suburban Portland's Bridgeport Village when staff fixed my MacBook on the spot.

Laurel had a similar positive experience when she bought her iMac. For $99 she got a One on One membership for a year. This entitles her to unlimited training sessions in all things Mac'ish.

Plus, transferring her PC files was a breeze. She simply brought in her IBM ThinkPad to the Apple Store and her photos, contacts, web browser bookmarks, and documents were transferred over to the iMac for her.

Of course, Macs aren't glitch free. Every relationship, no matter how positive, has some low points.

Yesterday (Thanksgiving) I discovered that Apple Store staff must have entered an administrative password that they didn't tell Laurel about, because we couldn't figure out what it was when a software update asked for this.

Not wanting to wait a day to figure out the problem, I reset the password by using the OS X (Snow Leopard) installation disk. Fairly easy, but a bit irksome.

As was the setup process for a HP Photosmart C4780 printer that we got for $30 or something after rebates if we bought it along with the iMac. Seemed like a good deal, since the printer also scans and copies, and has a wireless option.

Many Apple Store reviews of this printer bemoan how difficult it is to install. I can testify to that, but this is mostly due to poor documentation. A sticker on the printer's box warns that the installation CD shouldn't be used if you have the most recent Mac operating system (10.6, or "Snow Leopard").

The sticker says that 10.6 has what's needed for the printer. Not really true. A basic printer driver popped up when I connected the Photosmart with a USB cable, but it couldn't scan and wasn't wireless.

Tip to any other confused C4780 buyer who is trying to install it on a Snow Leopard Mac: go the HP web site and download the software package for OS X v.10.6. Once I did that, installation was a snap.

All the features of the printer worked, including wireless connectivity. I was a completely happy Apple user again.

Which is the usual state of affairs when I'm using an Apple product.

(Another tip: the pull out keyboard drawer in the photo above cost $9.99 at IKEA. It looks good and functions well despite being amazingly inexpensive compared to other drawers Laurel considered.)

New CNN is ugly, confusing, and irritating

What could CNN be thinking?

It's in last place among cable news networks. Yet CNN changes the look of its web site to make it painful to look at and almost impossible to find any real news on.

I used to spend quite a bit of time on CNN.com. Now I take a glance, get a headache, and quickly click over to the New York Times and Google News.

Big red banner. Big ads. Big headlines about nothing important (current featured story, "Groggy: excess sleep could be reason"). Small type size. Small focus on hard news.

This all adds up to a lousy web site. Some find good, bad, and the ugly in the redesign. I haven't noticed anything good so far, agreeing with a Yahoo questioner: "Why does the new CNN website sucks so bad?"

I'm bothered, because Fox News already is kicking CNN's butt. That hurts my progressive sensibilities. I'd like to see CNN become more of an effective truth-counterweight to Fox's falsities.

But the new CNN"s emphasis on video is a step in the wrong direction.

I like to read my news online, not watch it. I don't want to spend five minutes watching a CNN video, complete with ads, when I could scan a written story in a few seconds and get the info that I'm looking for.

This comes on the heels of CNN"s recent release of a hugely annoying iPhone app that reeked with ads and hard to read white on black typography.

(Note to web site designers: when I come across a site or blog that has light colored type on a dark background, I race away -- the eyestrain isn't worth it, no matter how good the content).

What must have happened is that Fox News infiltrated an undercover agent into the CNN graphic design staff, who now is doing his or her best to make CNN difficult for people to enjoy.

The plot is succeeding, for sure.

Apple Store love: my sick MacBook Pro is fixed on the spot

I haven't been shy about expressing unforbidden love for my MacBook Pro, a sleek aluminum clad beauty who came into my life about a year ago and has stimulated blog posts of adoration (here, here, here, and here).

Now my love affair has broadened to include the Bridgeport Village Apple Store in suburban Portland (Tigard). Here's why.

As lovely as my MacBook Pro is, she has a few flaws, as do all objects of passion. A few weeks ago my 13-inch laptop stopped speaking to me.

More accurately, she started whispering in a high tinny voice. Something had gone wrong with the internal speakers in my MacBook. Low volume, no bass. 

I took it over to the Salem Mac Store, where I'd bought the computer. The news wasn't good.

The problem didn't seem to be software related, as I suspected. My laptop was going to leave me for a while, I was told -- shipped up to a Lake Oswego repair center, which could take five to seven days.

Five to seven days! No way. Unacceptable. Cruel and unusual punishment.

I wasn't about to be separated from my lovely that long. I'm addicted to her. I had no desire to return to the much less attractive embrace of the IBM ThinkPad who has been sitting in a closet since MacBook came into my life.

I dug up a small battery powered speaker that I bought for my iPod Touch, when I wanted to listen to music without earphones. That got my laptop speaking audibly to me again, but wasn't a viable solution to MacBook's internal speaker problem.

Then I gave Apple support a call.

The guy I talked to agreed that my computer needed to be repaired. When I started to get panicky again about being separated from her, he offered up some advice.

"Make an appointment at the Apple Store on a Monday. That way, if a part is needed that isn't in stock, they'll be able to get it before the weekend."

Those words calmed me down somewhat. But being without my MacBook for even a few days still seemed horrible.

So I prepared for the worst last Sunday night: backed up my laptop via Time Machine. Copied files onto a USB flash drive that I might need to use while MacBook was in the Apple repair depot. Made sure that I had plenty of wine in the cupboard, in case I needed to drink myself into a lovelorn stupor while she was away.

The reality was much more pleasant.

As soon as I walked into the Bridgeport Plaza Apple Store, I felt healing energy wash over me. Apple Store are happening places these heady days, what with sales soaring and new customers flocking in. 

Every time I've been in this Apple Store, it's been hopping. Yesterday was no different, even at noon on a Monday. I was efficiently greeted at the Genius Bar, signed in, and soon was talking with an Apple product genius.

After taking my MacBook into a quiet back office to listen to her inaudibleness, he explained that the right speaker, which incorporates a subwoofer, wasn't working at all. So I definitely needed a hardware repair.

He started to type into his own computer -- which happened to be a 13-inch MacBook Pro, just like mine. I began to sweat. How many days are we going to be apart, I thought, how many endless empty days?

The genius turned to me: "We've got the parts in stock. The repair should be done in an hour or so. How does that sound?"

I wanted to scream, holy fucking fine, bro!

But contented myself with a joke about how I'd planned at this point in my Genius Bar experience to see if a bribe would be accepted for an expedited repair. Overhearing me, a neighboring genius looked over and said, "Tell him it's going to be a week."

"How about if I skip the bribe and simply write a laudatory blog post?" I replied. "That'd be fine," my genius said.

It turned out to be a bit over two hours, not one. No problem. I had a good time browsing nearby Border's, REI, and Whole Earth stores before my iPhone rang and I was told, "Your computer is ready."

Good as new. They replaced both speakers for free (I've got a three year Apple Care contract, plus the computer is still under the basic warranty.)

I made the right choice to head up to an official Apple Store, even if I had to drive 45 minutes. Getting MacBook fixed on the spot was hugely better than being without my laptop for five to seven days.

In addition to making terrific products (I've got an iPod Touch, an iPhone, and a MacBook Pro -- all work wonderfully), Apple has great technical support. Consumer Reports rates it much above that of any other computer maker.

Now I know why. And I'm not saying this just because a complimentary blog post is my bribe substitute.

MotionX-GPS Drive: another reason I love my iPhone

My love affair with the iPhone is still passionate, continually renewed by the marvelous apps that I keep discovering and downloading.

MotionX-GPS Drive came into my iPhone life yesterday. We're getting along great. This is a terrific GPS application that cost me $2.99 -- a far cry dollar-wise from the Garmin Nuvi that I also adore. (Laudatory review here.)

Yet GPS Drive accomplishes most of what the Nuvi can do, and goes beyond it in some respects.

 
I like the clean and simple GPS Drive interface. The left screen is the home page.

There you can search for various needs/desires, like nearby coffee houses, gasoline stations, parking, medical attention, and such. Plus, of course, you can input an address and GPS Drive will guide you there whether you're driving or walking.

For the first 30 days Motion-X throws in free turn by turn spoken directions.

After that, I believe the cost is $25 a year, or thereabouts. A bargain, compared to what other iPhone GPS apps charge for turn by turn directions.

I tested GPS Drive out on a scooter ride to The Grind Coffee House in south Salem. I've been wondering how I could use a GPS device on my Suzuki Burgman 650, and I quickly realized that GPS Drive is well-suited for scootering.

I started the app up, clicked on the "Coffee" symbol, and found The Grind Coffee House.

(Actually Bad Ass Coffee, which used to be in that location. GPS Drive has a feature that lets you send in corrections to driving instructions, so I've let them know that Bad Ass has become The Grind -- which has a nicely erotic tone to it.)

After clicking on "Navigate," I attached earbuds to the iPhone, stuck them in my ears, then zipped the iPhone into a chest pocket on my scootering jacket. My full-face helmet slipped on nicely, leaving the earbuds in place.

Because I ride a quiet big scooter, not a noisy Harley, I could hear the turn by turn instructions -- which were right on target.

In fact, I was taken to The Grind on a way that I hadn't thought of before. Shorter, more scenic, less traffic. When I got to the coffee house I praised GPS Drive to the young'ish owner/barrista. (Of course, now that I'm 61, just about everyone looks young to me.)

She was an iPhone aficionado also and said that she'd probably get this app. No reason not to at $2.99.

And I'm confident it's only going to get better and better, based on my experience with MotionX-GPS Sport, which has been part of my iPhone app library for almost a year.

Using GPS Drive on a dog walk this afternoon, I found that it worked as well for getting around on two legs as on two wheels.

Halfway around a neighborhood street loop, I asked GPS Drive to guide me to our house. It started navigating correctly, offering up estimates for how far dog and man had to go, and when we'd arrive at our destination.

I was curious to see what would happen if I took an off-road trail for a while. GPS Drive dutifully tracked our progress across a shortcut, then updated its distance and arrival time info once we got back onto a road that it recognized.

Pretty impressive.

One of the few drawbacks to an iPhone based GPS device is that when cell phone service is lost, as happened a couple of times on our walk, maps can't be updated (but the GPS capability remains, so progress still is shown on a static map).

This is because GPS Drive maps are downloaded on demand, rather than residing on the device, as is the case with my Garmin Nuvi. So no cell phone service, no maps.

On the plus side, information is going to be more up to date with GPS Drive, since it is as current as the Internet is (GPS Drive uses Bing as its search engine). So if a new restaurant opens up, my iPhone will know about it long before the Garmin Nuvi database is updated.

I'm regularly blown away by how many creative and useful apps there are for the iPhone.

I rarely use it to make phone calls. But many times a day I'm checking email, looking up a weather report, seeing what's new with the news, Twittering, and -- without fail -- playing another round of Ragdoll Blaster. 

Hugely addicting. Who knew that shooting ragdolls out of a cannon in order to solve increasingly complex target-hitting puzzles could be so much fun? 

Not me. Until now.

Just as I've come to realize that it's possible to buy a first class GPS device for $2.99 (leaving aside the not-insignificant cost of an iPhone, which, however, has come to seem cheap at any price to me).

Ads make CNN iPhone app hugely annoying

Yesterday I got excited when I heard about CNN's app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I forked my $1.99 over and started playing around with it. At first I liked it.

Then the ads started popping up.

And popping up some more.

Hugely annoying. I didn't expect to get so many ads (or any ads) in a non-free iPhone app. Especially in the middle of reading something.

CNN has updated its own story about the app with a lame acknowledgment of all the criticism it's been getting about the ads. Thanks for the feedback; we're not changing a thing.

Usually people upgrade to a paid app so they can get rid of ads. With the CNN app, you pay for the "privilege" of seeing ads. Ridiculous.

The iTunes store reviews have been decidedly mixed. Many people love the app. Lots hate it -- largely, but not only, because of the ads.

I'm with them. The more I use the CNN app, the less I like it.

The white type on a dark background is difficult to read. Major design error.

Then, I figured that "live video" meant live video. Silly me. I didn't see anything of the sort (like live coverage of the Senate Finance committee hearing that was streaming on MSNBC).

All I found was links to previously aired stories on CNN. Those already are available on the mobile version of the CNN website. And you don't have to pay to see the ads.

I'm sure CNN is thrilled that Lexus and Chevron have bought all the ad space on the app. This likely means that ads are going to stay.

Well, it doesn't mean that I have to keep on watching them.

Lexus and Chevron, you might want to rethink your commitment to this app. When I think of your products now, "annoying" is going to jump right to the front of my mind.

Solution to Safari not loading pages completely

One of the few glitches I've found with my dearly beloved MacBook laptop is how the Apple web browser, Safari, fails to load all of a page much of the time.

Sometimes it stalls and I have to reload the page to get any content. Sometimes it will download some images, but not others -- leaving Google News or Google Reader, for example, littered with annoying missing picture icons.

Others have complained about the same problem. Today I found an easy solution that, so far, seems to be working.

As the suggestion on that link said, I went to my Mac's system preferences (under the Apple icon) and clicked on Network, then Advanced, and finally DNS. I added two lines under the DNS server info already there: 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2

I have no idea what this does.

But it sure seems to have solved the problem of pictures not loading. Web sites appear to load faster and more smoothly now, so I wanted to share this tip in case somebody else has been frustrated with a similar Safari irritation.