In a very visible, transparent, and elucidative email to their current customers, AT&T is making a blatant plea to current subscribers to stay on board at AT&T.  Touting their well publicized advantage of web browsing while on the phone, AT&T has sent emails to their customer base (and even dedicated portions of their website)  to building a sandbag dike against the flood of Verizon-bound customers.

The ad says it all (look right dude).

On a scale from 1to10, this smacks of desperation. Nevertheless, if you got it, flaunt it.  It’s an advantage, albeit a fleeting one, and they need to keep all the subscribers they can.  Go get ‘em. Er, keep ‘em.

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It’s no secret that I’ve had an iPhone for a long time.  Sol and I waited in line at the Capitola Mall when the first iPhone launched in June of 2007.  We were even featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel because we were wacky enough to do so (and we projected Star Wars onto the ceiling of the mall while we waited.)  I’ve enjoyed the iPhone tremendously for almost 2 years straight.  As I am notoriously hard on my gadgets, this is a minor miracle.  When the 3G iPhone came out, I decided that I would stick it out with my old-school Gen. 1 iPhone.  It works great.  Until a couple of weeks ago.

In Vegas for a soccer tournament, my iPhone spontaneously developed a huge issue: the top half of the touch screen stopped working.   It’s pretty hard to use a touch-screen phone when the screen won’t respond to touching.  This left me without a way to communicate for several hours, and more importantly, left me with a device void.

As much as I enjoy the design, form factor, and user experience of the iPhone, there have always been some things that bother me.  For instance, the email function.  The push and pull are slow and sometimes unreliable (at least in my experience.)  Sometimes emails don’t make it out at all, or they come in much later than they should.  Before I got my iPhone, I had a Blackberry 8700c, the last one with the scroll wheel on the side. It worked great.  RIM has it nailed when it comes to mobile email, and I’ve missed the steady reliability of Blackberry email.

Ever since it came out 4 or 5 months ago, the Blackberry Bold (the 9000) has caught my eye.  With a defunct iPhone, and an AT&T account already setup, I thought this was a good chance to try it out.  Worst case, I always have 30 days to return it.  So Monday morning I went to the AT&T store here in SF to check out the Bold.

First thing I discovered, the thing is expensive.  Even with a 2 year re-commitment, I still had to shell out $400 with a $100 mail-in rebate.  Second thing I noticed?  It’s probably worth it.  It is a beautiful device from the gorgeous screen to the cool leather backing.  Drool.

The keyboard is crisp and easy to use, and even though I’ve never liked the nipple / nubbin / pearl / trackball thingy, I found that’s not that hard to get used to.  Email setup and functionality are easy and work like a dream.  One thing I was concerned about was my address book – the iPhone syncs so darn well with my Mac Address Book (and everything else on my Mac.)  I read a bunch of different blog posts, and found very mixed reviews on all the software product.  Luca Filigheddu.com had the best solution I could find: Google Sync.  I exported my Mac Address Book, uploaded it to my Gmail, downloaded Google Sync for Blackberry, and voila everything is where it should be.  Now I have a phone, an amazing mobile email device, and something that is functional for media playback (video, music, etc.)  It’s not as good as the iPhone, but it’s functional.

Now, there’ve been hundreds of reviews of the Bold already, and I don’t need to add yet more detritus to the review world in that sense.  So I’m sticking to the theme of replacing my iPhone with a Blackberry Bold, as opposed to an outright review of an already thoroughly reviewed device.

Unsurprisingly, there are some things I seriously miss about the iPhone.  Media playback is one.  It’s not clean or intuitive on the Bold.  The memory card (I got an 8GB Micros SD for $20 at Buy.com) was easy to insert and load, a lot of the file types supported by the iPhone won’t play on the Bold.  The screen is crisp and beautiful, but it’s a little smaller than the iPhone, and I’ve had a hard time finding things that will play.  This is annoying when I have multiple 1/2 hour commutes on the Caltrain that cry out for entertainment.

In general, I’d say that the overall user experience (form factor, software aesthetics, heft and polish, etc.) are just not as good on the Blackberry.  My wife put it well – the Blackberry is a performance device, it gets the job done.  The Bold is a beautiful phone, but it’s just not an iPhone.

Having used the Blackberry Bold for 3 weeks straight, I’ve come to a decision.  I like having an iPhone.  I love Blackberries – but it just ain’t the same.  Conveniently for me, Apple announced the iPhone 3Gs just this past Tuesday, well within my 30 days tryout period.  So I’ve returned the Bold.  I am waiting it out with my old-skool 8700c for another 8 days, and then it’s back to the iPhone.

If I were forced to give the Blackberry Bold (as a replacement for my iPhone) a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d call it a 6.  It’s an amazing device, and if I were going to keep with the Blackberry, I would’t own any other.  But it doesn’t replace the iPhone.  It really doesn’t come close.

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Wow.  That sounds harsh.  I actually think the Mophie Juicepack is a really cool gadget.  Basically it’s an external battery for your iPhone.  The product design is fantastic – it’s got a black, slightly rubberized, really high quality feeling to it.  The colors (black outside, green inside) look sharp, and it has a neat light-up battery meter.  Sol got one for his 3G iPhone and loves it.  Loves it. (I sent a message to Mophie prior to publishing this review, but they’ve declined to comment.  )

Once I saw his, I knew I wanted one also.  When your phone is starting to run down mid-day, just pop it into the Juice Pack and boom – you get at least another 3 hours or so out of your phone, and you’re still totally mobile.  Sounds great right?  Well, it is great.  When it works.

My first Mophie Juicepack was a dud.   A lemon.  It didn’t work.  I charged it up over night (using a regular 10 pin iPod cable) and the following day, after my phone was about half dead, I popped it into the Juicepack.  Immediately I heard the little upbeat “ping” noise that means the phone is charging.  Sweet.  Until 4 seconds later, I heard the downbeat “pong” noise that means you’ve just unplugged your iPhone.  Weak sauce.

Basically, the iPhone would find the power source, ping the connection, show the “charging” icon with the lightning bolt, and then lose the connection and stop charging.  Naturally I called tech support, and they were honestly great.  The guy I spoke with had me run through some crazy diagnostics, including sticking a butter knife in the connector (it was pretty sweet) to test whether it just needed a reset.  But the test and  reset did not fix the problem, so the Mophie guys sent me out a replacement.  It came in two days.  I have no complaints on tech support, they were stellar. 

Sadly, the new one didn’t do a whole lot better.  It has a slightly less severe, but even more annoying version, of the same exact problem. What happens is this: I plug in the iPhone.  “Ping” goes the connection and BOOM! we’re charging.  Awesome.  Until 30 seconds or so goes by, and the phone “pongs” because it lost the connection.  For 5 seconds.  Then “ping” we’re charging again.  In the 3 hours I had my iPhone plugged into the Mophie Juicepack, it connected, disconnected, and then reconnected no less than 81 times.  I kept count for a while, but got bored.  Do you have any idea how distracting it is to hear your phone going “ping,” “pong,” “ping” in your pocket over and over again?  “Gee David, why not just turn it on silent?”  Nice try.  Vibrating in your pocket ever 15-20 seconds is, if anything, even worse than pinging and ponging.  I had the one of the most annoying, distracting, frustrating dinners of all time on Friday with my damn iPhone buzzing on and off every quarter minute.

Now, as I said, Sol has one of these for the 3G and loves it. And the new “Air” Juicepack for 3G’s looks sweet as well. So maybe just the Gen. 1 version has quality control issues.  The look, style, and feel of this device is so cool, but the performance on two in a row was awful.  And at $99 (a damn hefty price for an accessory) I’d expect solid, reliable performance.  I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt on the first failure.  But two in a row is two too many for me.  If I were forced to give the Mophie Juicepack for gen. 1 iPhones a numeric rating between 1 and 10, it’s a 3 for me.  Outstanding marks for design, dismal scores for quality assurance and performance.  Below is a 12second video of the Juicepack in action. 

Mophie Juicepack for Gen. 1 iPhone on 12seconds.tv

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Apple made landscape work in Safari; if you’re in the browser and have to type (in the URL, or in a form) the keyboard pops up in landscape mode.  This means the keys are bigger, more widely spaced, and significantly easier to tap.  This is good usability.  In either SMS or email mode, I can only use the portrait keyboard.  This is poor usability.  Given the fact that the capability exists, I can’t see any reason not to make the functionality universally available.

Lots of people told me that I’d get used to the keyboard if I gave it enough time.  They were wrong.  It sucks.  It sucked a year and a half ago, and it sucks now too.  Hence my joy, my excitement, my joie de iPhone that Firemail exists.  Firemail is an application available in the App store that lets a user type emails with a landscape keyboard.  Lawdy lawdy, I thought the day would never come.  The folks at Conceited Software are to thank for this handy piece of code.  Let me do so now.  Thank you Conceited Software. Try not to let it go to your head. Pun intended.

Firemail demo on 12seconds.tv

Now, the mechanics of the thing are not entirely ideal.  In order to write these blessedly quick and easy to type emails, you have to load Firemail from your homescreen, not the email app.  When the app opens you will be able to compose a subject and message.  Once done with your composition you can save a draft (called a bookmark) or send to email.  This is great for writing a new email.  But what about replying to old emails?  That too is possible, here’s how:

• Open your email app
• Open an email
• Hit reply
• Hit the home button
• Open Firemail
• Draft your response
• Select “Send to Mobile Mail”
• Boom shaka laka.  Your email is now a reply to the email you were reading before.

I didn’t even know you could do this till I read a couple other reviews of this app.  iPhone Hacks put a great one together, and so did Ben Boychuck at Macworld.   Personally, I think it’s a very strong app, and it has a place on my homescreen.  I do wish it integrated a little more seamlessly with the iPhone email, but it’s a very solid app and allows me to do something that’s frustrated me since my very first week with the iPhone.

The app used to be free – it was free when I downloaded it a couple months ago.  Now they charge 99 cents for it, and I think it’s definitely worth that fee.   It turns iPhone email from something frustrating and terrible into something that’s reasonably not sucky.  If I were forced to give Firemail a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d call it a 7.

This post is also available at LIVEdigitally.

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On a scale from 1 to 10, 12seconds has done something really cool.

Today 12seconds.tv has done a few cool things:

1. They’ve re-designed their website – cool new look and feel, with a strong focus on video consumption
2. They’ve concluded their invite-only Alpha phase and opened up in a public Beta where anyone can register and use the site

3. They’ve had their iPhone application approved and launched in the iTunes App Store (for $0.99)

I’m happy for their progress from Alpha to Beta, and I think the re-design looks great.  But I’m most excited about the iPhone app.  You all know (both of you) that I’m an iPhone user, and one of my few frustrations with the device has always been the lack of a video recorder.  Apple steadfastly refuses to release one, and there’s no third-party video recording application available (unless you choose to jailbreak your phone.) This annoys me.

12seconds did not manage to sneak a video recorder through Apple’s QA team.  But they did create about the best possible workaround.  App users will take 3 photos (or choose 3 from their picture library), record twelve seconds of audio, and then post their creation to their 12seconds account (unregistered folks can create an account on the fly, in their phone.)  Somewhere in the cloud, the pics and audio are combined and then spit out as a twelve second video slideshow.  Users can email a link to their video directly from their phone  Each video has it’s own unique URL on 12seconds.tv, and can be emailed, embedded (as HTML) or downloaded onto your hard drive.  Here’s a demo of how the app works:

iphone app for 12seconds.tv from Sol Lipman on Vimeo.

One thing I really like about this app is the story telling aspect.  The series of pictures with audio narration really give you that James Earl Jones feeling of comfort.  Also, if you flub the audio and need to re-record, you can do so as many times as you like.  With traditional video, if you blow it, it’s blown.  The moment has passed.  Here’s one video I recorded with a trial version of the app:

Cold Cuts – Chinese Food Style on 12seconds.tv

The app is a first draft.  It works, and it’s intuitive, but there are some features I’d like to see added, including wanting better flexibility in choosing photos and saving drafts.  But on the whole I think the app is very usable.  There’s just room to improve.

Kudos to the 12seconds team on a great launch and a cool app.  This is the best solution to the video-recording conundrum that Apple’s created that I’ve seen yet.  If I were forced to give the iPhone app a numeric score between 1 and 10, I’d call it an 8

Related Posts:

MG Siegler at VentureBeat

Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch

Rodney Rumford at Face Reviews

This post is also published on LIVEdigitally.

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I’ve had an iPhone for more that a year and a half.  I waited in line at an AT&T store the at the mall in Capitola in Santa Cruz, CA in June of 2007 to get the first iPhone.  I love my iPhone, and I’ve been generally happy with it since I’ve had it.  Sure, there a f ew things here  and there that I would change; I’d like better email service, and there should be a landscape keyboard available in every app, but on the whole it’s one of the best devices I’ve ever owned.  Everything was grand, until recently.  

In the last 2 or 3 months, I’ve had trouble talking on the phone.  Specifically if I just hold the phone to my face, sans bluetooth or headset (you know, like a normal phone) then people on the other end can’t hear me.  It’s an issue for me when my phone doesn’t let me talk to other people.  I went to my local Apple store and asked about getting it serviced.  They don’t do servicing.  If it’s outside of warranty (which mine is) then I can do one of three things:

1. Deal with it
2. Buy a new 3G phone
3. Pay $200 and they’ll give me a brand new (or refurbished) phone of the same type

iPhone vs. Google Phone on 12seconds.tv

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So I have been using the iPhone Defender case from Otterbox for about 5 days straight now. I have some thoughts. I think the easiest thing will be to break this up into several categories:

• Beauty
• Fit and Finish
• Protection
• Accessibility
• Functionality

Beauty: 8

The case looks great. There is no question that it bulks the phone up a bit, which is an unfortunate side effect of almost any case you put an iPhone into. But if you are into the rugged, rubberized look then I think you will dig the appearance of this case. I have the black model, and it looks serious.

Fit and Finish: 6

Ok, the rubberized, silicon skin is great. It doesn’t feel sticky, but it has the right amount of tack to keep it firmly in your hand. I like the feel of it. However, when you peel off the skin, the plastic underneath feels a little bit cheap. Also, it is nearly impossible to figure out to open the darn thing. At first I didn’t actually realize that the skin comes off. Once I figured that out, I couldn’t see how to open the plastic case itself. No doors, no levers, no buttons. I finally noticed that there were small holes in strategic locations around the outside of the case. I took a small screwdriver and pried those open, and the case finally popped free.

The whole time I was holding my breath because the plastic felt friable and likely to snap. It didn’t and the thing opened fine, but it was definitely not intuitive. Later, when I looked on the website I found this video about using the case – I wish I had seen it earlier. To be clear, you NEED to watch this video if you are going to own this case.

Protection: 8

This is a”lifestyle” case from Otterbox, meant for every day use. It is not waterproof, but it will certainly protect from every day bumps and drops, and a light rain sprinkle. For it’s intended purpose, I think this case performs admirably. It’s not supposed to protect from full immersion or nook-u-lar attacks. It works very well for casual, every day living and usage.

Accessibility: 6
As the website notes, you can not access the “silence” the phone using the the slider button on the top left of the iPhone. While they did disclaim this issue in the product write-up, the fact remains that this is a pretty core piece of functionality to be able to access. I was in a meeting, and then later ewnt to the movies (to see Rambo IV.) I did not want to go through the hassle of removing the case (it’s a process.) Both times I was forced to power off my phone, and it would have been much simpler use the silence button.

I could also have put it in Airplane mode, but that required more steps, and is not much quicker to come back than a straight up power-off. I don’t see why they don’t use another flap in the silicon cover or create some kind of toggle. There are plastic bumpers at the corners, presumably for both protection and for structural integrity, but this is not a bomb-proof case. I think they need to integrate this feature, it’s something I use every day.

Aside from the issue of the silencer button, this case give pretty good access to all the other features. The camera lens, home-screen button, volume buttons headphone plug and power plug all work fine. It is not possible to set the phone into its cradle while in the case, but it is easy enough to simply plug the cord directly into the phone’s base.

Functionality: 5

I did run into one major problem with the functionality of the phone while in the case. The issue was typing. Trying to type text messages and emails is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult with the case on. The problem is the ridges on the side of the case. They stick up and make it very difficult to hit letters that are close to the edge of the screen. The touch screen is already difficult enough to type, and this makes it worse.

One other small problem was a weird issue. With the case and cover on, a wet spot would appear under the clear plastic cover, over the screen. It almost looked oily. I took the case apart and thoroughly cleaned both the plastic cover and the screen of the phone, but the problem persisted. Really weird, and very annoying. However, when I watched the video, I discovered that Otterbox is well aware of the problem, and has a solution. As the video demonstrates, before you put the phone into the case, you should clean it off and then rub your palm over the screen. This fixes the problem. I don’t know why or how, but it totally worked. If anyone knows why this works, please feel free to comment below. Bottom line, WATCH THAT VIDEO if you buy an iPhone Defender case.

On the positive side though, I am very impressed by how well the touch screen works, even through the plastic covering. It seems to me to be 95% as sensitive as it was without any covering at all, and that’s excellent.

Now for the total. If I add up all the scores (8+6+8+6+5) I get a total of 33. Divided by 5 we get an averaged score of 6.6, and we come out with a (rounded) total score of 7. So that is my review total for the iPhone Defender case from Otterbox, 7 out 10 and a confident recommendation. If you want a good looking case that will protect your phone and give you access to most of its features, this is a good purchase.

At $49.95 (plus tax and shipping) they are not cheap, but it could well be worth it to protect your (rather) expensive phone. Just be prepared to suffer a new learning curve in typing – if you are iPhone email freak or text-master then I would be wary of this case. And WATCH THAT VIDEO.

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