Droid Doesn’t

Have you seen all those signs and advertisements about the Motorola Droid and how the Droid “Does” while hinting at how the iPhone does not?  I am here to report that after a week of playing with a Droid, it most certainly does not do what one would expect.  Read below although my thoughts are summed up beautifully by Stewart Alsop here.

The Droid promised many things – Android 2.0, beautiful hardware, tons of apps.  Sadly, it only partially delivered.

The machine (it is no longer just a phone) is slow: It takes a very long time to search for information (this is powered by Google, right?), taking photos or making videos is nearly impossible (holiday example: I wanted to make a video of my brother jumping in a lake after his golf ball — the video only started working once he was out of the lake…thanks, Droid, for messing up that opportunity), and the phone constantly brings up inane error messages requesting me to wait or force quit.  I hate to say this, but didn’t we move past crazy error messages now that Vista is gone?  Apple just works.  Google (online) just works.  I shudder to think about a mobile machine that fails — ex: 911 emergency and your phone requests that you wait or force quit to make a call.  Please.

Android 2.0 – this is where the Droid [likely] fails as the machine itself is filled with power.  Android is still for power users (i.e. the tinkerers and guys who like to dig into their software).  No regular user wants error messages.  They just want their phone to work.  Android 2.0 is impressive when it comes to things like Maps (the driving directions are wonderful and death knell to the GPS companies such as Garvin).

Hardware: Pros – beautiful screen and slim profile.  Cons – useless keyboard, terrible camera, heavy.  The battery lasts for less than half a day.  NOTE: I force quit a huge number of programs to try and a) speed things up and b) save battery.  It does not help.

I was rooting for the Droid.  I want Moto to succeed (I like underdogs and I think competition is good).  I want Google to succeed (someone needs to compete against the iPhone).  However, the Droid, in its current form (and before any major software updates), is a failure.

Why I can finally use Google Voice

I was a beta tester of Grand Central.  It was a great service but one that I could not directly use.  Why? I could not port my number.  Without number porting, I could send calls to my Grand Central account but could not dial out.  In practice, this meant that I would give my friends and family my Grand Central number but if I ever called them back, they would see my cell number provided by my carrier.  This meant that these people would be required to have two numbers for me, which was more work and confusion than I wanted them to bear.  Due to this, my Grand Central account received almost no usage.

Google bought Grand Central in what, about three years later (might be off by a bit), is turning into a prescient move.  Google is slowly but surely making Grand Central (now Google Voice) into the pre-eminent, centralized place for all of my calling that is outside of the carriers control.  This should (and does) scare the carriers.  It is a powerful idea, which will force innovation (avoided like the plague by carriers).  However, Google Voice, despite all the rucus earlier this year when they were slowly opening the beta, changing names and launching their cell phone apps (and being rejected by Apple/ATT), still had the one glaring flaw carried over from Grand Central – number portability (and the subsequent hassle required).

What changed today that incentivizes me to finally use Google Voice?! Enablement of non-Google numbers for usage with Google Voice.  Read about it here, here, and here.  I enabled call forwarding on my cell phone and now all calls that are not answered go to Google voice.  Goodbye Verizon voicemail and hello, in no particular order (since they are all great features, none of them offered by VZ on my phone), my new Google Voicemail: 1. Voicemail transcription, 2. Automatic email of the transcript (plus the voice message), 3. Customized answer messages for different people.

The first two options are great and will now allow me to actually manage my voice messages (instead of listening to each and every saved message to find the one I want).  However, it is the third option (answer messages for different people) that has me the most excited (even though it has the least utility).  I can now make specific messages for my brother, mother, father, girlfriend, boss, friend abc, and so forth.  It is personalized and fun.  This is the wave of the future.  In five to ten years, everyone will be able to customize their voice messages (assuming we are still leaving them).

Thank you, Google, for innovating and pushing the boundaries.  My life just became easier and more fun.

p.s. Google is going to fix the glaring number portability problem.  It is on the way (supposedly sometime soon).

Blackberry 8830 versus iPhone (and most other smartphones)

My company gave me a Blackberry 8830 (thank you!).  Despite my pleas, my company is Blackberry only.  However, I thought that since the Blackberry 8830 was a smartphone (and a popular one at that), I would be able to customize it to my heart’s content.  I was wrong.  

As a gadget loving tinkerer, I enjoy finding great new programs for my electronic  toys (i.e. phone and computer).  By great, I almost always mean easy to use, useful, and, most important, free.  Sadly for all the developers out there, I have found almost no reason to purchase most pieces of software.  A legal, free alternative is usually viable and available.  If there is no alternative, I pay but it is rare that I actually need said software enough to buy it.  I just do without.  

Back to the berry — I started finding great programs for my phone.  Many seemed useful and fun.  Of course, the options for the Blackberry 8830 are not as easily found or as good as those for the iPhone.  Despite this fact, I was able to find many things that interested me.  I downloaded them.

I quickly ran into a problem that many Blackberry owners have found — lack of memory = messed up Blackberry.  I soon ran out of memory.  Suddenly, most of my messages, past call history, and other important items were deleted.  My berry took forever to open up programs.  I did not get it.  I added a memory card.  At least in the 8830, memory cards do not actually help in the memory department unless you only want to store photos or music.  All programs are stored on the internal memory.  

What did this mean?  Simple — my smartphone is a lot less smart than the competitors (i.e. iphone).   Besides the normal bberry programs, I have Gmail, Google Maps, Viigo, Beyond411, Wall Street Journal program, and an icon for the New York Times and WashingtonPost.  Anything more and my memory would run out.  

I can somewhat forgive RIM for shipping my phone with such a minimal amount of memory.  However, it is unforgivable on the newer Berrys (such as the Bold and new Curve).  On the new phones, memory cards can store programs but this is still ridiculous.  Memory is very cheap.  For the same price as an 8GB iPhone, you can purchase a Bold.  From a memory and program option perspective, the choice is clear (iPhone).  Obviously, some people love BlackBerrys but if you want programs that make your phone truly smart – an iPhone or any phone with real internal memory is the winner.

iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Playstation Portable (PSP)

I just wrote this long, elegant (not really) post about the above title.  Somehow it was deleted.  I don’t have the energy to re-write it.

Here is a rundown:

• iPhone’s multi-touch + gyroscope/accelerometer + software version 2.0 (and the download website) make it an amazing gaming platform.  I speak from experience with my “cracked” iPod Touch.
• The iPhone is what the next DS should have been (and maybe will be):  the iPhone is the mini-Wii.
• When it comes to portability, would you rather have many devices that do 1 thing really well or one device that does all the things pretty well (and in the Iphones case, maybe better)?  I would rather have one.  My pocket will thank me.
• What does the future hold?  Nintendo and Sony (and probably Microsoft albeit through a software/zune gaming solution), will launch multi-touch, accelerometered gaming cell phones.  If they are marketed as gaming cell-phones, a-la Nokia’s Ngage, they will fail.  However, the PSP next is just an amazing looking (and working) Sony/Ericsonn phone that also happens to play playstation games, then it could succeed.
• Microsoft will spend a lot of time making Windows Mobile gaming a reality
• I might be wrong on Nintendo DS Next’s future — knowing Nintendo, they will keep it just as a gaming platform.
• One thing is certain, the iPhone is about to steal the portable gaming market’s thunder the same way it stole the smartphone market’s thunder.  Cue the slapping your head “duh” moment from Nintendo/Sony/MS executives and fanboys alike (minus Nokia, they saw it coming although they couldn’t get it really right).

Check out this video from IGN.

Now I wish Randi could finish her work (it is 11:47pm and my twenty minutes of non-bar thought is up.  Time to go to bar dreams…evidence, crimpro, property — snore).

Sprint-Clearwire-Google-Intel-Cable Companies create WiMonster

The big news last week as I was graduating and taking my final law school exam was a consortium’s creation of a WiMax network.

The consortium is made up of Sprint/Nextel, Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner, and Clearwire.  The deal is valued at $12 billion.  For basics on the deal, read this from the New York Times.  Why did this deal happen?  Simple — economics.  Sprint was attempting to build their own WiMax network, Xohm, with a spectrum footprint that covered about 60% of the US (that number is not precise).  Clearwire was attempting to do the same using spectrum that covered the other 40%.

Sprint was planning on spending $5 billion to build out their 60%.  However, there was one problem with this scenario — imagine spending $5 billion to build a wireless network that did not work everywhere in the US.  Would you buy a cellphone service plan that only worked in certain areas?  Some people would (see Metro PCS) and frankly there might be a business plan for someone to come out with local only wireless broadband (see any of the failed municipal WiFi networks).  Unfortunately, as the failed WiFi networks illustrate, the time is not yet ripe for local wireless broadband.

Consumers need devices that will make them want to go online anywhere (see the iPhone or a Nokia Internet tablet).  Those devices are just starting to proliferate as people begin to need the internet anytime, anywhere.  As relatively early adopter, I don’t know what I would do without internet/email on my phone.  Once everyone else gets a taste, they will need it as well.  The problem with the Sprint or Clearwire plan when standing alone is that few people would want to buy a device that only works in part of the country.  Imagine taking your $300 WiMax Sprint enabled device from DC to Seattle only to find that you will have to sign up for Clearwire service to use the device.  Bummer and a barrier to entry.

Sprint and Clearwire needed to merge their WiMax divisions.  WiMax investment is not cheap (although Sprint’s original $5 billion is much cheaper than the $18 billion Verizon is spending to roll out FiOS).  Plus, you need devices with WiMax chips built in (Intel) with awesome cloud software to make the experience worthwhile (Google).  Throw in some marketing partners (Comcast/Time Warner with a nice quad-play offering) and you have a WiMonster.

Why a WiMonster rather than a WiPrincess (or maybe a WiiMaximus to be very vogue)?  Well, operational HQ for the new venture is in Virginia (Sprint), while strategic HQ is in Seattle (Clearwire).  Intel, Google, Cable guys are also located all over, have strong leaders with strong opinions, and disparate interests.  This deal holds plenty of potential but also myriad risks.  The new leaders need vision and strength.

I hope for the best (plus I like rooting for the underdog, aka Sprint).  I want WiMax everywhere as I am tired of being tied to my home Wifi connection and I won’t pay for a 3G connection.  I want every device I own to be connected — from my computer to TV to my fridge to my AC.   Cross your fingers and prepare for the future!

iPod Touch Review – THE first generation internet tablet

I received an 8 gig iPod Touch as a present this past December.  I immediately “unlocked/cracked” it so that I could install whatever I wanted on it.

Since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed my iPod Touch but not for the reasons one might imagine.

First, three confessions: a) up until this December, I had never owned an iPod.  I refused to jump on that bandwagon.  It was my little anti-crowd protest. b) I don’t listen to much music when I am on the move.  I prefer to hear what is going on around me and revel in the sound of life.  I know that sounds corny but it is true.  I like to hear the world rather than be walled within my own little world of digital music.  c) I firmly believe in device convergence and was expecting cellphone MP3 players to work well and be the next big thing (such as my LG Muziq).  Instead they were all inelegant solutions that only made me not want to use their music features.  Then of course the 500 lb gorilla called the iPhone launched.

I have Sprint so the iPhone was not an option.  But when the Touch launched, I knew I had to have one.

Do I use it to listen to much music, no.  Do I watch many videos on it?  Rarely.  I like to read when I fly although I highly recommend Ted videos to anyone interested in learning something.

Instead, I use my iPod Touch as a an internet tablet/gateway.  I am not near a computer more often than I imagined while still within free WiFi range.  I used to go online with my phone.  It’s screen is small.  Now I go online with my Touch and I absolutely love the experience (if no computer is nearby).  It works flawlessly and fast.  It is a mini-computer with the best input device — a finger (versus mouse, etc).  Post-crack, I have a ton of other fun and interesting programs installed.

I would recommend a Touch to anyone who is not in the market for an iPhone.

What am I really waiting for?  A WiMAX enabled iPod Touch.  Then, I could go online anywhere and everywhere and I would be in heaven.  I like (and hate) being connected.

M:Metrics iPhone survey

Today, research firm M:Metrics released a January survey of 10,000 adults.  The survey’s findings are somewhat dramatic and the survey’s title, “iPhone Hype Holds Up” is apt.

The most dramatic findings of the report are that 84.8% of users go online and that 30.9% use their iPhone to watch mobile TV and/or video.  However, the most interesting nugget of information is that nearly 50% of iPhone users used their iPhone to access a social networking site or blog.  This compares to 19.4% of smartphone users who do the same.  20% of those iPhone users were going to Facebook (compared to 2% of smartphone users).  Interestingly, Facebook was one of the first web properties to customize its interface for the iPhone ans has been featured in iPhone commercials.

Since the official demographics of iPhone users are similar to those of smartphone users (i.e. ale, aged 25-34, earn more that $100,000 and have a college degree), a question arises — why are iPhone users so much more likely to use the internet?

There are several potential answers: 1. all iPhone plans come with unlimited internet use.  Once you have it, you begin to use it.  As I can attest to from experience, the internet on your phone might not be something you are willing to pay for up front.  However, once you taste its sweet nectar, you can’t go back to a life without it.  Unfortunately, I do not believe that this answer fully explains the disparities discussed above.  The fact is that many smartphone users (although not 100% like the iPhone) have free internet included in their plan.

A second potential answer is that iPhone users are not as similar a demographic as M:Metrics would have you believe.  On the surface, they are similar (i.e. age, education and earning power).  However, iPhone users may differ on one key component — net/tech savvy.  The current crop of iPhone users include many early adopters.  These are the people who buy the “cool” new product. They are the people who already live the digital lifestyle (and find it fun). They spend a large portion of their day online; the iPhone only makes it that much easier to stay connected.  The average smartphone user, on the other hand, may be more business focused, less interested in Facebook, and less likely to spend time going online with their phone because they are already receiving their email through a push mechanism.   I am making broad assertions but their are greater differences between the iPhone and smartphone group than initially shown.

A third option is that the iPhone is simply a much better internet device than any smartphone before it.  I have used and played with many smartphones and I can compare them to my iPod Touch (same internet surfing experience, albeit slightly faster over wifi, as the iPhone).  The iPhone is a better internet device.  It was designed with the internet in mind.  A finger is a better navigation device than a blackberry ball, a scrollwheel, or any other interface device (except for a mouse, which needs a computer).  The iPhone makes it easy and fun to go online.  It is a harbringer of things to come and I ardently hope for some strong competition.

Sprint loses $29.5 billion…sucking sounds continue

Sprint just announced losses of $29.5 billion for the fourth quarter. Read about it here. I wish I could have said I saw this coming but $29.5 is almost too hard to fathom.  (However, note, a large portion of that loss is the write-off related the failed Nextel merger — an almost text-book example of how not to merge two companies). Sprint seems to be falling apart. The stock lost nearly 11% today. I was thinking of shorting the stock but I did not. Bummer…

I have read a lot about Dan Hesse, Sprint’s new CEO. Everything I have read impresses me. I think he has a decent chance of turning the company around if he can only hold the walls together long enough. Moves like Sprint’s $99 truly unlimited plan is a start (although I was hoping for a much cheaper version). However, Sprint is fighting a huge negative wave.

I know a lot of people who hate the service. They either had the service or have heard from others who used to have it. No one ever says anything kind. As a long-time Sprint user, I try to defend the company. I never have dropped calls (except in NYC), can roam on Verizon if I am really pissed, and pay way less. I do try to avoid customer service if at all possible.

For competition sake, I hope Hesse can hold it together until they stop losing customers. Once that happens, they can start to turn the corner. The process is going to be slow and hard. Too many people are too annoyed with the company and would rather pay $10 more a month for another service without the hassles or dropped calls.

How can Sprint turn this around? That is for another post.

Sprint launched their own $99 unlimited plan — no “” marks needed

Today, Sprint launched their own $99 unlimited plan. Peep the press release here. Unlike its competitor’s $99 plan, this one truly is unlimited. That means the quote marks surrounding Verizon/Tmobile/ATT’s plans are not necessary. This plan includes all you can talk, all you can web surf, all you text, all you can watch. For the smart phone (or really talkative crowd), this is a great deal.

For a comparison, a similarly unlimited plan with everything included costs $35 more from ATT and $39 more from Verizon.  Of course, ATT also happens to have the best smart phones (such as that unnamed monstrosity from Apple) and the slowest network while Verizon has the best coverage and a 3G network as fast as Sprints’.

No matter how you look at it, you have to say, “Sprint, great job!”  You have finally given users a reason to switch to Sprint. You have now differentiated yourself.  That wasn’t too hard, was it?

The slippery slope towards commodity status marches on…

Sprint’s $59.99 unlimited plan

I have only heard rumors, but Sprint might be considering a radical $59.99 unlimited plan.  Compare this to the $99.99 plan offered by the other major carriers.  A $40 savings for a service that is generally on par (within reason) to what the other carriers offer.

Sprint needs to do something radical and this could be it.  They used to differentiate themselves on price.  Now, they are just another carrier, which is boring.  New marketing campaigns have tried to right the ship but when the product is bland, a snazzier picture can’t do much.

Sprint, do something crazy and wild, launch the $59.99 unlimited plan and make this month truly one of the most interesting the telecom world has seen in a while.