Essential Dilbert, Especially for Unfortunate iPhone Haters

The woman with the triangular hair is my favorite character.

The Kindle

Quote of the day:
“People do more of what’s convenient and friction-free.”
--Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com

Six months ago Amazon introduced an electronic book reader called Kindle. It has been very popular. For a while they were having trouble keeping up with demand.

As much as I am interested in the applications of technology, I’ve always been very skeptical of devices on which you can read books. Most are hard on the eyes and emphasize technology over the actual reading experience.

I do love getting news and information from the internet, especially since page layouts have become more intuitive and attractive. There’s a hitch to this, though.

Even with a bright and sharp monitor, it can be quite tedious to read anything long. I think the internet is built for browsing. Hence the “browser.” And it’s built for referencing.

Images, sound and video are important tools on the web. These three things are irrelevant in the average book. Novels, poetry and non-fiction may contain black-and-white illustrations, but that’s about it.

I’ve always considered reading a book a unique experience. I wouldn’t consider reading a book on the web. It’s never entered my mind to even try it.

For the same reasons I would also not consider reading a book on my iPhone, or any PDA. It’s a little-bitty screen, and I would be fumbling with it so much it would distract from the experience.

Book lovers say things like “there’s nothing like the feel of a book.” They talk about its portability, and a vague connection felt with the author through the physical pages. All of this is true.

From everything I’ve read about Kindle, it succeeds admirably in replicating key parts of the “book experience.” The screen is practically identical to a printed page--black on white with a high resistance to glare. Very easy on the eyes--and you can enlarge the text.

Owners seem to love the chance to carry around a few dozen books with them. And they rave how easy it is to preview, buy and load books directly onto the Kindle from anywhere. The size and weight of it are just about ideal--roughly the same as a paperback. You can highlight and make notes in the margins.

Evidently, there are a couple of major drawbacks. While more than 100,000 books are available, when Merrie went searching for many of the books she wanted to read, most were not available. I suppose this will be remedied over time as Amazon secures more rights.

More unfortunate is that the design of the keys on the device is clunky and not intuitive. Many owners complain about accidently turning pages, or having to fish around for the “home” key which takes you back to your list of books. They also complain about the time lag when turning pages, and the menu functions in the software design.

Amazon is the biggest book seller in the world. They know about books. They are not hardware or software designers.

I think a device like this is in our future, and is a very good idea for many reasons, personally and ecologically. I give Jeff Bezos a huge amount of credit for the work done on this product. It’s also admirable that one of Amazon’s (huge) goals is to increase the attention span of Americans. Kudos for that. (I don’t use the word “props” yet.)

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Amazon worked in partnership with Apple to get the design right?

iPhone Improved

Quote of the day:
“The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.”
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Apple has released a very interesting update to the iPhone. If you are anti-iPhone (as in “My (blank) is just as good, and cheaper/faster/more reliable”), please don’t read any further. You’ll just get annoyed.

They’ve added a number of small conveniences, and there are two significant improvements.

One is the ability to touch an icon on the maps page and have my current location marked with a red pin. Then I can touch another location on the map to get directions to it. It’s not GPS, but does essentially the same thing using wireless locations.

It works great. While I won’t use this a lot, it’s good to know it’s available if I need it on the small device that I carry with me all the time.

The other improvement is the ability to customize the functions and icons. I can add one-touch access to any internet page. There is capacity for 60 of them, divided into separate screens I page through by swiping the screen.

Believe me, I’m trying not to gush. But this is so cool it’s never been in the same precinct with school. We’re talking randomly sick.

On my iPhone, I have the phone, text, mail and internet browser on the task bar. My first screen is news (MSNBC, NY Times, BBC), business (Stocks, MSNBC, LA Times) and reference (Dictionary and Wikipedia).

Second is entertainment, including iPod, iTunes, YouTube, camera, photos, local movie times, Mountain West basketball standings and a couple of games (Connect 4 and Blackjack).

My third screen has banking, iPhone settings and various internet pages that I’m checking out or that don’t fit anywhere else.

What this is turning out to be is a very handy, fun and amazingly easy to use resource that I carry everywhere.

The Device of the Year

Quote of the day:
“When a person says his ‘x’ is just as good as a ‘y,’ he really wants a ‘y.’”
--Preston Creston

It’s the device of the year. In fact, it’s probably the device of the decade.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s the iPhone.

This year Apple will bring out a version that has 16 gigabytes of storage--and 32 gigabytes is not too far after that. They are pushing hard for more advances in flash-memory, for more music and video storage.

There’s also been much talk about the coming release of a new iPhone using fast 3G technology for internet access. We may see this in 2008.

Some people continue to express amazement at the popularity of the iPhone, since other devices can do what it does--sometimes faster or more cheaply.

Yet they continue to sell like crazy. When Merrie and I visited our Apple store last month, people on both sides of us in the checkout lines were buying iPhones, for themselves and their friends.

The thing is this. While Blackberrys or phones from Nokia or Samsung may have similar, even faster capabilities, they are nowhere near as easy to use.

Yes, I know. No one needs an iPhone. No one needs a television or a computer either.

But the iPhone is just fun. Send a text message, touch the screen to call a friend, look up something you're curious about, watch a podcast, sit back and listen to some music, check your calendar, read and respond to your e-mail, check the weather, read the news. All you have to do is get it out of your pocket or purse.

And, I repeat, it’s fun.

This is not a trivial or unnecessary doodad. We are way beyond doodad.

Rhymes With High Cone

Quote of the day:
"We are two different nations, an artificial state created as a buffer between big powers, and we have nothing in common except a king, chocolate and beer."
Filip DeWinter, the leader of a right-wing Flemish party, on Belgium’s ethnic tensions (thanks to Andy)

Ah yes, the iPhone. As you may remember, Merrie and I were early adopters. Read that: standing in line on the day they went on sale. (The June 29 post has the blow-by-blow.)

Yes, Steve Jobs announced a $200 price cut a while back. Some folks were wildly wacko about this. As in, “how COULD they?”

That so many people took it so personally is an indicator of the odd bond many Mac users feel with Apple. It didn’t especially bother me. The price you pay for being an early adopter is that you pay more. Whether it’s worth it is a matter of debate.

I am a believer in the iPhone, which I think of as a non-device device. It is a non-gadget-like gadget that will relieve you of the need for just plain gadgets.

I promise not to go on and on. But I gotta say it is so much fun to be able to pull it out of my pocket and get maps, news, weather, stock quotes, e-mail and my favorite music and podcasts (I carry last week’s “News From Lake Wobegon” wherever I go, and Merrie always has “Meet the Press.”)

And phone, text, notepad, calculator, camera, photos and YouTube.

It’s just cool. If you don’t think so, that’s ok.

But it is most coolness.

The Future is in My Pocket

Quote of the day:
"I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful."
--Marilyn Monroe

Quote of the day no. 2:
“This is the next step in not accepting poor design any longer.”
--David Myers, executive chef of Food Arts Group in Los Angeles, talking about the Apple iPhone.

Merrie and I have been using iPhones for about two months now. I gotta say, it is one fun and convenient device.

The main criticism of the iPhone has been that, outside of wi-fi areas, internet speed is very slow on AT&T’s Edge network. For Merrie and me, this has not been a huge problem. We are still able to get information and news when we need it, including using the maps gadget in the car to look up where we’re going and the traffic on the way.

The intuitive and ergonomic design of the iPhone is excellent. It is amazingly easy--and fun--to use. The day has arrived when, in a single, attractive and easy-to-use device, I can carry in my pocket the internet, my favorite TV and radio shows, four days worth of music, the internet, e-mail and a telephone.

In coming years, refinements will come--more speed and capacity, customizability, much longer battery life. But the device of the future is here now. And, I say again, it’s convenient, helpful and fun.

Having the iPhone does not make our lives more “gadgety” or full of technological complications. In fact, because it combines so many functions and is so incredibly easy to use, it actually makes our lives simpler, richer and more fun.

iPhone in Actual Use

Quote of the day:
“I’m recording our history now on the bedroom wall,/ And when we leave the landlord will come and paint over it all.”
--Ani DiFranco

There has been so much said and written about the iPhone, but nothing replaces actually using one for a while. It’s incredible. Really.

It doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but the way it does what it does IS revolutionary. It combines cellphone, e-mail, calendar, notepad, photo albums, camera, internet access, video playback, audio playback and a reader for MS Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and pdf files in a small, sleek package that is both easy and fun to use.

You can just pick it up and get your current weather forecast or stock quotes with one tap. You can carry enough music and podcasts to listen for five days without repeating anything. You can download movies and TV shows.

All of this synchronizes completely with your computer. The synch begins when you drop the phone in its charging dock.

The video screen is sharp, crisp, vivid and easy to read. Navigating is all done by tapping and dragging a finger or two across the screen. After I did this for a couple of hours it started to become natural. The motions and process are intuitive.

It’s easy to learn on your own, but Apple is having free introductory classes for any questions.

The criticisms of the iPhone have mostly centered on technical aspects. I have not yet read a complaint that the phone is hard to use.

It is expensive, though my Palm Treo was, too. And please don’t compare this to the Treo (Palm organizer, e-mail, internet and phone). I know the Treo. The Treo was my friend. Believe me, the iPhone is no Treo.

Comparing the iPhone to the Treo, or any other high-end cell phone, is like comparing Paris, France to Toledo, Ohio.

iWait for iPhone

Quote of the day:
"You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth."
--Henrik Ibsen

I have never been an early adopter. I’ve always been proud of my reasonable approach: to wait a few months or years for the kinks to be worked out and for the price to come down.

But I decided to use the gift card the kind people at Mission Hills United Methodist Church gave me to buy an iPhone at the Apple Store.

I thought I might have to wear a funny hat if I went to the store early to wait in line. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. We met some interesting people, young and old and in-between. Some folks recognized me from my KPBS days.

We were about 200th in a line that was calm and well-managed. The Apple folks came by regularly with updates and bottles of water (Smart Water, naturally).

A in-house video crew came by and asked to film an interview with us. I didn’t say “call now!” a single time. Merrie sparkled in her star turn.

At 3 minutes before the iPhone’s release at 6 o’clock, the entire store staff--about 50 of them--came running down the line, cheering and high-fiving everyone. Yeah, yeah, it’s a gimmick--but it was great!

At six, a roar went up as the doors opened. There was quite a crowd gathered just to watch. Merrie and I were inside making the purchase about a half hour later.

The iPhone is amazing, by the way.

iPhone, iPod, iMe

Quote of the day:
“All the smiling television faces blend to make a shimmering suit that might hold you.”
--Mary Gaitskill

Quote of the day no. 2:
“This is the next step in not accepting poor design any longer.”
--David Myers, executive chef of Food Arts Group in Los Angeles.

Myers was talking about Apple’s just-announced iPhone, which has caused a surge in Apple’s stock and lots of chatter about the future of cell phone devices and whether Apple will make much of an impact. He is suggesting that the iPhone will make an impact, even if it is only another step in bringing good design into our daily lives.

I have a confession. I am an Apple fanatic. More accurately I would classify myself a bit shy of “fanatic,” but others have suggested I drop the “bit shy” facade and come clean.

For 23 years I was a tried-and-true Windows guy, at home at at various workplaces. But after getting some advice from a software engineer whose judgment I trust, I bought an iBook two years ago. I will never go back.

When I heard the sometimes-irrational rhapsodizing of Apple people for years, I was tempted but very skeptical. I knew that my PC could do all the same things, and was just as good, and cheaper. Yet once I started using the iBook--and all the associated “i’s”: iTunes, iPod, iPhoto, iWork--I began to know what the fanaticism was about.

Simply put, Apple products are designed with actual, living human beings in mind. The goal is not to adapt a machine to be useful to me, but to begin the design process with human DNA, not silicon. It’s a bit like the difference between buying a suit off the rack and having one made in the exact fabric and fit for a real human body.

It’s clear with everything I do--little things as well as big things--that my needs and interests have taken precedence over the machine’s. Here are three “little” things I love. If you’re an Apple user, you may find yourself nodding as you read this.

First, I open the iBook with one hand and it instantaneously wakes up and is ready to use. I close it with one hand and it goes to sleep. Second, all the inputs and outputs are on the left side. Whenever I need to hook something up, I turn my head slightly to the left and slide the connection in with my left hand. Third, the AC adapter is a white square the size of a deck of cards and plugs directly into the wall if you’re fairly close to an outlet. An extension cord is supplied for longer distances. But I rarely use the AC when I’m working, because the battery lasts four hours or more on a charge.

I know I’m already past three things, but the AC adapter also has those little built-in wings that you can fold out to easily wind up your cord. That’s just way cool.

Those of you who are in PC land--maybe you’re stuck there--thanks for reading this far. Some of you might be saying to yourself, well my laptop also has long battery life, or a similar arrangement of inputs/outputs, or whatever. Your manufacturer is likely copying Apple.

Which is the point. It seems that all other computer (and phone and MP3) manufacturers design a device and then add convenience or styling features. My favorite is the attempt to do away with the beige box. Instead, let’s have a grey box, or a titanium box. Let’s put a curvy design on it and maybe a racing stripe.

For Apple, convenience or styling features are not added on. The device itself is a convenience and styling feature. Most computer (and phone) users will continue not to care about this, evidently caring much more about the design of their refrigerator, which they are neither carrying with them nor sitting behind and looking at for hours a day.

Yet there is a small and steadily-growing segment of the population who do care, which means Apple will continue to thrive.

And even though I find cell phones annoying, I will be buying an iPhone.