MobileViews Blog

Category: Apple

  • amazonmp3 Beta

    The Amazon MP3 Beta download service advertises DRM-free MP3 song files for 89 cents and albums for $8.99 or less. This undercuts Apple’s iTunes prices and one ups them in the bit-rate area by providing 256Kbps files (compared to Apple’s 192kbps). I don’t have golden ears. So, I probably can’t tell the difference. But, the higher bit-rate seemed appealing anyway.

    To give it a bit of a torture test, I took a roundabout way to get the audio bits from Amazon MP3 Beta to my iPod. Here’s what I did. I used a PC running Microsoft Windows Vista with Firefox. However, Amazon’s download fires up the default browser which happens to be Internet Explorer on my PC. It seemed to get a bit lost at this point. So, I switched over to IE and had it reinstall and start the Amazon download utility. There was a bit of contention between Amazon’s browser pop-up and IE, but eventually, it actually downloaded the MP3 files (I bought a non-US 6 track EP for the test). The entire process was not nearly as simple as using iTunes on a Mac (I’ve never used iTunes under Windows).

    Next, I used Windows Media player to create both a backup mediafile CD data disk (MP3 files plus album art) as well as an analog CD music disk for archival purpose. I took the CD data disk with MP3 files over to a Mac and imported the files into iTunes. Finally, I synced an iPod touch with the Mac and brought in the EP’s MP3 files. The good news is that all the meta-data (album art, artist name, song name, etc.) came over intact. Nothing got lost in my Rube Goldberg-esque test process.

    The extra bonus is that the DRM-free MP3 files could also be used with non-iPod audio players if I ever decided to switch hardware vendors. Amazon needs to work a bit harder on the front end process when dealing with Windows Vista and IE7’s security bottlenecks. But, the resulting download works fine right now and is less expensive than buying from iTunes. I also like the digital download history Amazon provides in my online accounts area. So, thumbs-up for this service even with the little IE7/Vista related front-end glitches.

  • Back to Basics: Touch Screen Alignment

    Pocket PC Align Screen

    I had two recent touch screen issues that prompted me to write a bit about screen alignment.

    The first has to do with the iPod touch. My daughter brought her touch to me and said touching the left side of the screen did not work. After fussing with it for a bit, I peeled off the $14.95 screen protector she bought recently from the local Apple Store. And, yep, the touch screen worked fine. I had to try twice before reseating the screen protector to the point where touching the left side of the screen worked. To make matters worse, this $14.95 screen (ouch!) is not even clear. It is translucent. I don’t like it at all. On the other hand, the $3 screen protector I bought from iFrogz is transparent and does not see to cause any touch screen issues. It is thinner than the one from the Apple store. This makes it harder to place it on the screen without bubbles.

    The second screen issue cropped up with the TyTn (1st model). I found I couldn’t grab the scroll bar on the right side of the screen the other day. After fussing around with this device a bit and aligning the screen a few times, it occurred to me that I was one of the old styuses I had bought in the 1990s. It turned out that the tip was just a little to wide. The Pocket PC (Professional Edition) is a touch screen but not a fat finger or even a fat stylus tip touch screen.

    Touch screens used to be even finickier in the old days than they are now, believe it or not. We used to have lots of problems with dust going under the screen and even a small bug or two taking up residence under the first screen layer. So, perhaps a few alignment issues now and then is not so bad.

  • New Google Interface for iPhone/iPod touch

    Google Interface for iPhone and iPod touch

    I just read on TechCrunch that Google quietly launched a new interface for Apple’s iPhone (and iPod touch too by default). If you have your iPhone (or iPod touch with WiFi turned on) handy, just head over to google.com. You don’t need to type a special URL. Your iPhone will be autodetected and sent to the new interface. Switching between web-areas (say from Home to Gmail or Calendar) is instantaneous.

    Heading over to Google with a Pocket PC or Smartphone redirects you to the older and, unfortunately, uglier, mobile device interface. This widening gap between the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices should be a great concern to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team. iPhone Safari users (and iPod touch users) are clearly getting a more satisfying mobile browsing experience than Windows Mobile Internet Explorer users. This is clearly reflected in the Gartner data I quoted in my previous blog that shows the iPhone browser use marketshare has eclipsed Windows Mobile browser use marketshare in the less than 6 months since the iPhone launched.

  • iPhone Browser Marketshare Greater than Windows Mobile

    According to the Gartner data reported in this Computerworld blog item…

    iPhone browsing marketshare closes in on .1%

    … the iPhone browser marketshare eclipsed the total Windows Mobile browser marketshare in less than half a year. That is pretty impressive considering that Windows CE/Windows Mobile has been around since late 1996. The iPhone checks in with 0.09% of the browser market share while Windows CE (aka Windows Mobile plus a few other devices) had a 0.06% share. Something listed as simply iPod in the list is probably the iPod touch and has a 0.01% share. If you add that to the iPhone, it has a full 0.10% browser share. I guess this explains why so many sites are building iPhone tuned web pages. The iPhone clearly has momentum in the mobile browsing world.

    Other points of interest: The Nokia S60 series has a 0.01% share (same as the iPod touch). The Hiptop shows up with 0.02%. Windows XP is #1 with a 78.37% share. And, Windows Vista is a distant second with a 9.19% share. The Mac is divided into two categories: MacIntel (3.59%) and Mac OS (presumably PowerPC based with 3.22%) with a combined share of 6.81%.

  • PowerPoint for Mac 2008 Exports to iPod and iPhone

    Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac is due out early next year. The Office 2008 for Mac team blog let us know about a very interesting feature that PowerPoint 2008 for Mac will have: The ability to export PowerPoint  slide decks as pictures to iPods that provides photos viewing (all current models except the Shuffle do). This trick has been used for a while now. But, it is nice to see the Office Mac team build it directly into PowerPoint 2008. You can read their blog entry for more details…

    PowerPoint to Go

  • Thumbs Up for ifrogz Customer Service

    After watching Jeff MacArthur’s review of ifrogz cases on commandN #110, I decided to order a case. The case arrived pretty quickly. Unfortunately, ifrogz sent the wrong case. I sent email to try to get it corrected but became impatient even though I hadn’t even waited a full 24 hours yet. So, I called ifrogz’ customer service number and was shocked to be speaking with a human being right away. No gigantic touch tone menu tree or voice mail jail. The person on the other end (Kim) took down my order number, listened to my explanation and took care of the problem right away. She said the correct product would be shipped to me as soon as possible. No hassles, no DNA samples, no annoying 20 questions. Thumbs up for ifrogz customer service.