Life and times of palmsolo (aka Matthew Miller) » Apple

Picked up an iPhone 3G in white

palmsolo — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:09:23 +0000

I resisted for a couple of weeks, but after a more detailed look at my actual mobile usage I figured I would try out the iPhone 3G. I had to drive on to work on Friday anyway so I went to the University Village Apple store at 7:55 am and found about 40 people in front of me. I was amazed that there were still lines like this after almost 3 weeks. They had employees outside handing out vouchers so you could get one and come back by 6 pm if you had to go off to work. I chose a black 16GB model and was ok the store after about 35 minutes. I then saw black and white side by side and switched to a white one, which made someone happy since they ran out of 16GB black models. I wasn’t quite sure if this was a good choice, but now I find I really like white.

I have been hemming and hawing about whether or not I was going to keep the device, but I have to admit it is pretty amazing in many respects. The RF signal is a bit iffy, battery life is not great, and I have had some issues with 3rd party apps. However, it is easy to use, quite responsive, and the large display is awesome.

I picked up the tether app when it was available so I do have that ability. I found I rarely copy/paste and wonder of this missing feature really is that big of a deal. I am pretty fast ok the keyboard and need to test my speed against the E71 and other devices.

I was very happy to find that Mantis offline Bible with notes support and this made the iPhone much more valuable to me. I am also using it instead of my Sony Reader for eBook reading. Give me background app support for IM and Last.fm and I will be very happy.

Apple iPhone 3G announced

palmsolo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:48:06 +0000

As you all know, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 3G yesterday at the end of a long WWDC keynote. The new device has 3G, GPS, and long battery life. However, your data plan rate will increase $10/month too. The rest of the hardware is the same so my plan is to skip this small update and wait to see what may be announced next January at MacWorld.

The iPhone 2.0 software update will also be coming in July so I do plan to update my current iPhone to get Exchange ActiveSync support, which will be great. Apple also announced their new MobileMe service that looks awesome and I think this is the bigger announcement than the iPhone 3G.

BibleTech08: Day 2 – Session 06, Beyond Mobility: Synchronizing User-created Data…

palmsolo — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:02:40 +0000

… Between Platforms, Readers, and Vendors. The final session I was able to attend (there was one more presentation that I could not stay for due to obligations at home) was given by Mr. Craig Rairdin from Laridian. I will start my blog post off by letting you know that I was blessed with an invitation to be a Laridian VIP (very influential person) back in 2005. Nothing is required of me, except for honest feedback in response to their products that I often get a first look at in advance of public releases.

Craig started off his presentation with a bit of his history related to Bible software that goes back 20 years when developed QuickVerse and eventually co-founded Laridian. He mentioned that 20th century Bible software focused on massive and expensive libraries contained on a user’s desktop PC. Today’s 21st century Bible software user is not tied to the desktop, wants their Bible on a portable device in many cases, and uses “disposable” products. User expectations include portability of their content and the ability to backup, print, and share the content they generate, such as notes, highlights, and bookmarks.

In regards to portability, Craig talked about the challenges of the different mobile operating systems (similar to what Olive Tree explained earlier). Like Olive Tree, Laridian has negotiated portable content licenses to help users that switch platforms. He posed the question about a possible universal content license that could be shared across vendors. The idea sounds plausible and as we move away from a world dominated by DRM this may become a real possibility. This could mean you buy the NIV version of Olive Tree’s Bible and then make a move to Laridian’s Bible application with the capability to receive a free or low-cost license to the NIV Bible compatible with Laridian’s application.

I found the next portion of his talk very informative as he explained the current situation at Laridian in regards to the different platforms. Laridian has eight readers from four different sources. The readers for Windows Mobile (touch and non-touch screen), Apple iPhone, iPod/MP3 player (audio), and Windows PC are in-house developed readers. The Palm OS MyBible application was actually written by a Palm employee who then moved on to Google and sold the code to Laridian. The BlackBerry reader is from Noah and Laridian only provides the content for the BlackBerry platform. This reader is also licensed non-exclusively so it makes for an interesting partnership. Laridian also purchased the Theophilos Windows PC desktop software last year.

The primary focus of Craig’s talk was on the synchronization of user-generated content. He showed a slide with columns for notes, bookmarks, and highlights to show what platform supported each of these types of generated data. If you have tried the Laridian PocketBible Windows PC version since mid-December then you may be familiar with their new synchronization provider and Sync Manager solution. The Sync Manager is PC-based and works with the sync provider plug-in to sync your user-generated data between mobile devices and the desktop. The current sync providers are available for Windows PCs and Pocket PCs (touch screen Windows Mobile devices). The current plan is to provide sync providers for other platforms in this order:

iPocketBible (preliminary version was demonstrated at BibleTech 2008)
PocketBible for WM Smartphone
MyBible for Palm OS

Craig gave demos of the PocketBible Pocket PC version and iPocketBible version. I am personally quite excited about how slick this tool works and didn’t think it could be done so well with the iPhone. Laridian is solving a MAJOR issue that I have been frustrated with for years. I used to backup my data, but I would either lose it or forget about integrating it when I switched devices and it just wasn’t a simple and easy solution. This new synchronization worked extremely well and I highly recommend you give it a try.

Craig went into the details of the logic behind the synchronization process and everything is related to time-stamps so they can determine what data is the latest and greatest. There is sound logic behind most all of the sync processes and Laridian includes a conflict resolution stage if there are apparent conflicts caused by data being changed in both locations or having time stamps different than the last sync time. Laridian may want to consider a skip or keep both conflict resolution option so that you can merge or edit your data if you previously added content on both the PC and mobile device. As a user of Windows Mobile, desktop, and iPhone Laridian applications it will be interesting to see how sync works with a PC and multiple mobile devices with different operating systems.

The Laridian Sync Manager utility can be used with providers other than Laridian as well so it may serve as a global data synchronization methodology. The details of the individual databases are isolated in the sync providers and provision is made for syncing of different formats. There are opportunities for synchronization across vendor products and any developer interested in this syncing functionality should contact Craig to discuss the future possibilities.

Technorati Tags: BibleTech08

iPocketBible from Laridian is now available!

palmsolo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:48:18 +0000

I have tried a few of the Bible applications on the Apple iPhone, but they are very basic and serve primarily as a way to read a specific Bible translation. Some are not formatted well for the iPhone and others don’t have the Bible translations that I prefer to read and study. Laridian has been working on a solution for iPhone users and I was very pleased to read on their blog they just launched iPocketBible. In the past I have actually switched mobile platforms to get PocketBible or MyBible working as I find this functionality that important in my life.
After reading the news, I immediately visited the site and saw that the service is US$1.99/month or US$19.99/year so I went ahead and subscribed for the year since I find their products that valuable to my mobile arsenal. The great feature for us who already own Laridian Bibles, devotionals, dictionaries, etc. is that you get full access to those resources you already purchased with PocketBible or MyBible so you just need the iPocketBible service. If this is your first Laridian purchase, then you will need at least one Bible translation to read some content and they actually offer bundle specials for this. One key note, that they actually bold on the site, is that you use two fingers to move down the page and read the content. At first, I did not read this and couldn’t figure out how to scroll down the page so I tapped the green arrow that ended up taking me to the next chapter. The interface is pretty slick and iPocketBible also allows you to search and set bookmarks that you can revisit later. They also have a list of upcoming features that will make this application almost like a stand-alone application with highlighting, personal notes for verses, reading progress planning, synchronization with PocketBible for Windows, and more.

iPocketBible just made my iPhone that much more useful and with T-Mobile as my carrier on the iPhone I am a very content Apple iPhone owner again.

UPDATE: I’ve been playing with the Nokia N95 again since the device is such a good media player and I really LOVE the 3rd party application support. I decided to give iPocketBible a try on it since there are no S60 versions from Laridian and guess what? It works! Now I did find I had to switch the zoom level or go from portrait to landscape to see my login boxes, but that was a quick step. You also scroll around in iPocketBible with two fingers, but on the S60 device a scroll bar does appear on the right side so you can maneuver without a touch screen. I did find that I had to scroll right and left to go between the scroll bar and the text, but the ability to access my Laridian resources on a S60 device is worth it. Keep up the great work Laridian.

Laridian bringing the Word to the iPhone

palmsolo — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:14:15 +0000

I just read over on Mobile Ministry Magazine that Laridian will be bringing their awesome Bible products to the Apple iPhone soon and have a video showing it up and running. I just recently posted on how I use my iPhone to read and study the Word, but am very EXCITED about seeing such a high quality product as Laridian’s coming to the iPhone as well. Keep up the great work Laridian and let’s get this out soon, please

How do I use the iPhone for sermon notes and Bible study

palmsolo — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 04:33:23 +0000

At this time, there is no dedicated ebook reader that works on the Apple iPhone, but I have found other ways to access the Bible and use it for my walk with Jesus. The first thing I did was load up iPocketBible, the audio Bible. I put the whole New Testament on there to start with and unfortunately you cannot put the written Word into Notes since Notes on the iPhone don’t sync like they do with regular iPods.

I do use the Notes application, though, to record sermon notes in church. Since you cannot sync Notes over to a PC, I then email the sermon notes to my Gmail account where I then add a Sermon Notes label and archive the notes for further study in the future.

I have also found a couple of iPhone-optimized Bibles using the iPhoneAppr.com and GetLeaflets iPhone application aggregators.

So now I can listen to the Bible, read the Bible, and takes notes on the iPhone. These may not be the “cleanest” solutions, but they work and the Word is now once again with me and my Apple.

As the iPhone turns

palmsolo — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:51:35 +0000

So my soap opera with the iPhone has taken another turn that you may have read about on my ZDNet blog. After going almost 5 days without the iPhone I couldn’t stand it and went back and picked another up at the Apple store. I then cancelled my T-Mobile data plan to offset the cost for the AT&T plan and am quite satisfied with my final decision. The iPhone that I picked up this time actually has MUCH better speaker volume on the handset (the speakerphone is still too low) and there are now over 200 web applications, including at least 4 very good Bibles. The developers are helping make the iPhone experience much better and now we just need Apple to step up to the plate and release a firmware update that fixes a bunch of these issues.

I am also listening to a lot more podcasts and was wondering if anyone had any good Christian podcasts I should try out?

Apple iPhone heading back to AT&T today (again)

palmsolo — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:51:57 +0000

I really wanted to like the Apple iPhone and if I was an AT&T customer already I probably would have held on to it with the hope that Apple would be issuing updates to fix the issues with the device. It is very fun to use and is a great iPod, but it is a poor phone as I detailed in my latest ZDNet blog post. It is just way too expensive for a crippled mobile phone when there are so many other better alternatives out there, but I will definitely be keeping my eye on future Apple devices and do hope it forces Microsoft and Symbian/Nokia to take a look at their future operating system plans.

UPDATE: So I had the iPhone all packed up and was on the way to the store when I had to pull over and admire the device again. I just can’t return it after all the memories of camping out with my girls, fun posts at ZDNet, and the awesome UI. I discovered I can forward 500 minutes from T-Mobile to the AT&T number for free so the impact the my family plan should be minimal. I am going to give it a couple more days and hold off my final decision until minutes before the 14 day period, but I am leaning towards keeping it now.

UPDATE 2: OK, so the iPhone is all packed up and will be returned in about 1.5 hours to my local AT&T store. The extremely poor speaker volume, very weak email program, and monthly cost of adding AT&T to my T-Mobile service just pushed me back to a return state. I have to say it is a relief to finally make a final, final decision. I will definitely take another look at the iPhone after Apple updates it, but now I am much more educated on its limitations, and strengths, so I know when I will be willing to jump back into the iPhone game. Thanks for the 2 weeks Apple and good luck with the iPhone.

iPhone under review, is it a keeper?

palmsolo — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:16:33 +0000

I just returned two of the three iPhones I bought last Friday since my wife had no interest in keeping one and they are actually selling for less than what it cost me on ebay. I am still testing the one I opened and have another 10 days or so to decide what route I am going to take with it. The user interface is incredible and if you have used one you have probably also been blown away like me. However, as far as features go it has less than other smartphones and even less than many feature phones. I do have to applaud Apple for an outstanding first product in this very tough market and it will be interesting seeing what people think about the iPhone after the wow wears off.

Do you have an iPhone and if so, is it a keeper?

1st in line for an iPhone at the AT&T store

palmsolo — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:35:09 +0000

After more revelations that the iPhone SIM could be used in other devices just fine and that the EDGE data network has been maximized then I decided to get in line like a good gadget geek and wait for the iPhone. My two oldest daughters decided to join in too so we arrived 24 hours before the actual sale begins and ended up being the first in line in Puyallup, WA. You can check out a photo and a short video posted on my ZDNet blog.