Jul 26 2008

Apple IPhone 3G: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I  had the opportunity to get a new IPhone 3G last week. I have been using a Blackberry 8700 for the last two years and I just started testing out the IPhone for my day-job employer. So I figured that I would give you a my take on this phone. 

 
The Good. The web browser is great. You can finally look at most websites and see them in the format that they were intended (No Flash or Java though). The price of $200 for the 8GB phone (with a contract) actually is better than a lot of other smart phones on the market. It also has the mobile me service (costs extra) that allows you to keep the phone synced with your computer. It has built in email, calendar, contacts, a GPS, Music and Camera. It integrates nicely with outlook and google mail, and google provides optimized applications for the device. The calculator is nice because the touch screen buttons mimic an standard calculator, and you don’t have to figure out what keys do what. The touch screen is pretty intuitive for basic operations. All applications have to be approved by Apple before they can be offered  the Apple store, so they are less likely to work cause problems with the phone.
 
The Bad. Battery life, with what I would consider moderate usage, I got about 12 hrs out of the battery, my 8700 got about 36 hrs, and there is no way to change the battery on the IPhone. (Of course the 8700 didn’t have power draining features like 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and the screen was half the size.) It doesn’t have a built in task (to-do) application, and cannot sync tasks or notes with Outlook. You can’t categorize contacts, for instance business, personal, family, etc. Some of the useful options are buried in the settings, for instance the ability to use CAPS LOCK, is hidden in the general settings and is defaulted to off. The built in mapping application is rudimentary at best. There is also no way to add a memory expansion card. All Applications have to be approved by Apple so there are less apps available than for some other smart phones since the testing and approval process can be time consuming.
 
The Ugly. The phone is only available through AT&T so if they don’t cover your area, or you don’t wat to switch, you are not getting an IPhone. In order to activate your Iphone you have to provide a credit card for an ITunes store account, even if you are not going to buy anything.
 
(By the way, I can’t decide if I like the soft keyboard better than the keyboard on the Blackberry. It takes some getting used to, but it works ok.)
 
IPhone and ITunes  are Trademarks of Apple, Inc.
Blackberry is a Trademark of Research In Motion Limited.
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Jul 13 2008

Get Free Money From the Government

The US government has hundreds of grant programs that it creates each year, they include everything from programs to create micro-businesses in Peru, to grants to create frequency sensors for the the Air Force. The US Government has a free site  to allow you to search these grants, grants.gov. While I suspect that there are not grants for everybody, and the process for applications may be daunting in many cases, it is certainly worth a look to see if there is something here for you. Its your tax money … you might as well use it.

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Jul 12 2008

Save hundreds of dollars with Free Microsoft Office Alternatives

Microsoft Office is known as the premier Office Suite application, it has hundreds of really cool features–that you will never use. So, why pay for Mercedes when all you need is Chevy? Below are three applications that may meet your needs, and best of all, they are all free.

OpenOffice. Open Office is a full featured office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application, database, and drawing application. I terms of features its nearly on par with Microsoft’s offerings. Its about 80% compatible with Microsoft Office so you can read and create documents that can be shared. Open office is pretty easy to learn if you are familiar with Office 2003. I use Open Office and I have yet to come across a situation where I couldn’t read document from a Microsoft app or save a compatible one.

Google Documents. Google documents is a web based suite of basic office applications that you can run from almost any web enabled computer. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application. Google Document isn’t as full featured as OpenOffice or Microsoft Office, but its fully capable of most basic word processing and spreadsheet operations. Its easy to use, but since it web based it does take some getting used to compared to the PC installed applications. It can read and create MS office compatible docs, but is more limited than Open office as to the features that it can read.  
 
Zoho. Zoho is an interesting suite of office products. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application and more. They also have a planner application, note application, a wiki, and quite a few trial versions of other business applications. I have not worked much with this application but it I have seen good reviews of it, and it is certainly worth looking at.
 
Remember that with any web based application, you won’t have access to you documents if you don’t have Internet access, and if there is a problem with the provider, you could loose some or all of your work, so back up your documents locally from time to time. (Make sure you also have a system to backup your documents on your PC  as well)
 
 
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Jul 12 2008

Organize your to-do list with Backpack for Free

I live and die by my email. I check it constantly when I’m on the computer, and I can check it on demand on my Blackberry. Frequently I find that I need be reminded of repeating tasks, and other special activities. While most calendaring tools offer pop up windows to remind you of a task, I tend to close them a to get them out of the way, and then forget all about them. On the other hand a reminder email is there until I delete it, nagging me until I get the task done.

One tool, that I use,  that offers automated reminder emails is backpack www.backpackit.con from 37Signals. You can setup one-time and repeating reminders. However its real purpose is to be a basic todo list. If you currently use a legal pad (I used to) to keep you todo’s, this tool is an easy transition to a web based list. You can list your todo’s, and categorize them in sections. You can also add note elements to the page. The todo list doesn’t have the advanced features of some lists like due dates, categories, filters, and sorting, but  if you don’t use them there’s no point in having them. (Any time I get a more advanced system I spend a lot of time setting it and then ignore most of the features–a big waste of time.)

The free version includes the todo list, notes , and reminders. There are various paid version as well that include the addition of file storage, and message boards, and a calendar.  All the versions support multiple users so you can share lists/and notes for group projects. If you dig into this application, you will see that it has a lot of cool features beyond the limited description I have given here, and and a quick look may be well worth your time.

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