Out of the Newsroom

On a Saturday morning with major rain going on outside, it was a great time to do some reading, catch up on a few bits of this and that, and explore on the internet a bit.  (Don’t get me wrong, we needed the rain after a week of 90-plus degrees of heat each day.)

I stumbled across one of those things that I have been interested in before, and find myself amazed to discover the progress that was made since the last time I looked into it.

I’m talking about bar codes here, folks.  Bar Codes. Does it get any more exciting than that?

OK, perhaps you don’t share my enthusiasm for the world of those odd lines and blocks that seem to be on,,,well, everything.

But I think it is just interesting that there is this whole eco-system of information that is on just about anything, that we don’t pay that much attention to–but really tracks a great deal of our lives.  Even more interesting to me is that you can now carry a tool that can help you decode and use much of this information on your own, in some cases to learn information that you wouldn’t otherwise know, or even to save some cash.

The tool I am talking about is not one of those handheld scanners that you may be able to use at your local supermarket (though I do think those are a much better way to do the grocery shopping) but rather something you probably already own.

Your high-tech telecommunications gadget, known as your smart phone.

If you have taken the plunge and own an iPhone, Android, or even heaven forbid–a Windows Mobile or other odd phone that you can download and install applications to (otherwise known as “apps”) then chances are you can use your phone as a pocketable bar code reader.  This means your cell phone’s camera can be used to read or “look” at bar codes and turn them into information you can use.

Standing in a store and wondering how much less you might be able to buy the same thing at other stores or maybe even online?  Your barcode scanner app can “read” the barcode as easily as you would take a picture.  A few seconds later, you can do some instant comparison shopping to find out how much less the item is elsewhere–or that you have a great bargain on your hands and you should march directly to the checkout.

Don’t scoff at this little scenario.  I did this comparison shopping in the local Best Buy recently, and when I said that the item I wanted was on Amazon for twenty bucks less, they looked up the Amazon price and matched it on the spot.  Not all stores will be this aggressive about price matching, but it is worth a shot.

The other part of my little barcode fascination is around a newer type of barcode that you might be seeing more of recently.  It is called a QR code.  The QR stands for “quick response” and what’s interesting about these is that you can create them yourself and use them in ways that are pretty interesting.

I had noticed a QR code on a business card I was recently given by a colleague.  I wondered why the code was on his card, when he explained that the code could be read by smartphones and computer scanners, and it would display his full contact information that could then be pulled into the phone or computer with a single click.  No more retyping or cut and pasting, just scan and click.

This seemed like a pretty cool deal, so I downloaded an app to the closest phone at hand, a Droid, and began playing with it.  The app is simply named “barcode scanner” and it works exactly as advertised, except that you can also use it to create your own QR codes.  The idea is that you can turn your information into a QR code and then either email it to someone or even have someone “scan” it off your phone’s screen into their phone.

There are a number of different barcode scanning apps for every kind of phone, I’ve already repeated this little bit of discovery on my trusty iPhone and it works equally well.  Some of the apps are free, others might run you a dollar or two for increased features.

So if you see me at the store picking up different things and appearing to take pictures of those things, note that I am not some kind of odd freak, cataloging the various items on the shelves.

No, I’m probably just trying to save some money.

By the way, if you have read this far and are thinking about playing with barcodes on your own, here’s a QR code from me to practice on:

I spent a good portion of this nation’s 234th birthday thinking about and then being a bit depressed about our current collective state of being.

Maybe more correctly put, our collective state of liberty.

I got depressed because it feels to this author that liberty gets trampled over each day, with almost a fervent glee, as if to prove that those precious documents that declare our independence and then codify the founding ideas into what “Congress shall make no law” about, are to be shredded in the name of democracy at any and every opportunity.

And perhaps saddest of all, that civil discourse is all but dead and gone.

I think Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and even Rutledge would shake their heads at what their nation has become.

For all of the passionate debate and noble thinking that went into the creation of our Union, is it not a bit disheartening to realize that those who claim the mantle of the keepers of the flame for such discourse and thought are found to be so wanting and ignorant of the simple concept that indeed “All men are created equal”?

(Of course we do understand that in the less than gender neutral world of 1776, there wasn’t the common use of the concept of “person” versus the bias of speaking about “Men” as if the opposite sex did not exist.)

The point I’m trying to make here is that I’d like to see some real respect for the fundamental concept that “all men ARE created equal”, whether they be democratic or republican, liberal or conservative, white or black, rich or poor, outspoken or introspective, northern or southern, with a talk show or without, blogger or luddite–that every one of us is entitled to live our American dream with at least a basic bit of respect.

Because it just seems like all anyone can do these days is to put someone else down in some kind of constrained definition. A “box” if you will, to contain that person which they are attempting to describe–and usually discredit–by defining with some degree of disdain or disgust, what is wrong about that person simply because of what they believe.

I, for one, can’t believe that the founding fathers really wanted this for their new nation. They revolted against the imperialism of living in a land ruled by a single monarch, with no small price paid, for this tenacious concept called liberty.

And 234 years later, the freedoms to pursue life, liberty and happiness are limited daily by those of any and all stripe who would discredit and destroy the beliefs of those who don’t share whatever particular stripe that is, as being squarely focused on “destroying our country.”

Is there any more heinous and despicable charge?

If you can’t absolutely prove that someone is trying to “destroy our country” by simply holding a different view, should you be allowed to push your own brand of intolerance sitting behind a microphone, megaphone, or keyboard without any rebuke?

What would America become if we rejected the politics of destruction for that greatest of all promises, “liberty and justice for all”?

Wouldn’t it be the best birthday present ever for the Republic, if we used some of the gunpowder we so casually explode in the air each 4th of July, to blow up the boxes that so many seem to be building ever bigger each day, just to contain those who have the temerity to think differently about things than you might?

As daunting a challenge and unlikely as that prospect might seem, it could happen. But only if a lot more citizens who make the “silent majority” actually demand it of those in the “vocal minority”.

Put more simply, it has never been a better time to let freedom ring.

The questions around the “can’t touch this” signal performance woes of the just one-week-old iPhone 4 have grown to a fever pitch.

So the folks at Apple officially responded with a letter today explaining what they think the problem is:  Better bars.

Yes, the folks from Cuperino (not to be confused with Cupidtino, the dating site for boys and girls who are just too Apple) have studied the issue of the iPhone 4′s supposed suppressed signal strength, and have decided that the problem is that the iPhone (and they mean ALL iPhones, regardless of vintage) doesn’t display it’s “bars” properly.  Those little indications of cell signal have been incorrectly calculated since Apple started making cell phones.  Apple promises a software update shortly that will fix this calculation and show the more correct signal in the upper left corner of the iPhone.

Critics and unhappy iPhone 4 users are mostly calling “bull” on this explanation, and their arguments are supported somewhat by a series of online investigations into how the design of the iPhone 4 and its wrap-around metal band antennas, may really be impacted by the way a user holds the phone.  There will be no belief that the way the bars are or are not displayed has anything to do with the fact that the new iPhone is just a piece of badly engineered junk.

Remarkably, it turns out that no small number of these critics and unhappy users are not actually iPhone 4 owners. Shockingly, many are just people who know that anything Apple makes is crap.

So here is some real world experience from a real iPhone 4 owner and user:

The signal issue isn’t just a calculation problem, though it is entirely possible that the marginal AT&T reception I get at my home is even worse that my iPhone displays.  So I will be looking forward to seeing how much worse it really is.

But after my previous post and serious consideration of taking my one week old phone back to the Apple store for a refund–and a return to my former iPhone 3GS, the rather amazing woman that I’m married to took matters into her own hands and brought me home an official Apple “bumper” for the disappointing Apple of my i.

I was skeptical that a thirty dollar piece of rubber/plastic was going to do much other than destroy the unquestionable good looks of the iPhone 4.  But I put it on and promptly made about a thirty minute call to my older daughter down in Maryland.  And a remarkable thing happened.

Nothing.  But just a call.  A 30-plus minute call with nothing.  No dropped signals.  No “are you there still” moments.

The iPhone worked as..a phone.  Well, a cell phone still.  It had the same issues as every other cell phone I have ever used, in that the signal wasn’t consistent for the whole call, but I’ve seen that happen on cell phones on every network that is out there.  The now-covered iPhone 4 was just fine as a phone.  But then another thing happened.

After 24 hours, my battery was doing much better on how much was left in the tank.

(ALERT: Non-scientific hypothesis follows) I chalk this up to the fact that when I am holding the phone, if I’m getting even a slightly better signal, the unit doesn’t have to “scan” as much for a better signal and thus less work for the radio inside the iPhone 4 could mean less drain on the battery and thus it holds up a bit better.  I know this was true to some degree even on my previous iPhone, but on the “bumpered” 4th generation model it seems to be more pronounced.

There are reports on the internet that if you go into the Apple store and are persistent/obnoxious/bitchy/rude/whatever enough, they’ll give you a “bumper” for free, just to shut you up and/or keep you a happy customer.  This jives with the many first hand reports that there are large supplies of “bumpers” behind the Genius Bar at every Apple store.  I’m not sure I can buy into that conspiracy theory completely, but I can point out that Apple now is giving all iPhone purchasers a full 30 days to return the item (undamaged, of course) with no questions asked and no “restocking fee” deducted.

I have to admit, I’d be a lot happier if they would step up and give every iPhone purchaser a bumper for free, or even a 30 dollar gift card to use towards the purchase of a bumper or some other cool case if they have .  It wouldn’t break Apple’s bank account, and there is a precedent in that they have done this before–sending all original purchasers of the iPhone in 2007 a $100 gift certificate when they lowered the price of that first model just a short time after it was introduced.

Mr. Jobs, if by some chance this blog has made it to your attention, give some thought to this idea because it could be a huge PR move.

Here’s the bottom line from your author.  A day ago, I was seriously thinking of returning my iPhone 4.  That would have been a first for any Apple product for me.

Now that I have a bumper on my my phone (which for some inexplicable reason reminds me of those motel bathrooms that used to have the paper strip around the toilet seat with the words “Sanitized for your protection”)

Sanitized!

…it is now much more certain that I will keep my iPhone 4 for the full thirty days of the return period.

And probably long after that.

(As always, your mileage may vary–but if you can get your hands on one, I’d suggest trying it for yourself instead of being swayed by anything you might read or hear.  Even from me.)

Since its debut in 2007, I have ended up with an iPhone on each day it has launched, from the original to the 4th generation model which debuted last Thursday. I have been fortunate in that I have never had to do a ridiculous wait in a line for hours on end or anything like that. Having reserved one of the new iPhones when they first went on sale, I only had to stand in a line at the local Apple store for about an hour and a half to pick up “the latest and greatest” model that promises “to change everything…again.”

Though upon thinking about it, I realized after the wait that it was the longest I had ever waited to get an iPhone. Maybe I should have seen it as a bad omen.

Maybe it is that my expectations are impossibly high, or maybe it is the belief the iPhone has redefined our expectations of how a “smartphone” can change the way we communicate with each other and entertain ourselves.

But notable Apple blogger Jason D. O’Grady posted an article tonight on his ZDNet.com blog that raises a troubling, yet growingly apparent sentiment.

Could the real fruit of the iPhone 4 be a lemon?

And I hate to admit it, but there are more and more signs that point in the direction of citrus, at least from my experience of some six days to date.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way to start with. The thing is stunningly gorgeous. The two thin slabs of glass that make up the front and back of the phone are amazing, though they can be a little slick to hold for a long period of time. This bit of design assures a thriving market for cases of every ilk for the iPhone 4, though I have felt fine putting mine in my pants pocket so far.

However the other detail about the case question is whether having one that covers the metal band that wraps around the iPhone 4 (and doubles as the unit’s antennas) is a must have to improve the reception on the phone–which is, in my unscientific testing to date–definitely worse than the iPhone 3GS that it replaced here at Chez Varner. A location which has never had too many “bars” from AT&T in the woods of Northeastern Connecticut to begin with.

It would be easy to blame the much maligned AT&T for all of the iPhone 4′s initial disappointments, but this isn’t Apple’s first phone. And the reality is setting in that there are some other growing question marks here. The proximity sensor, the technology that keeps the phones touchscreen from hanging up every time it touches the side of your face, isn’t quite working as well as in the previous version. I have put nearly every call on hold or mute with my cheek at least once.

Plus, despite some cool advances like the highly hyped arrival of a front facing camera that allows for video chatting via the new FaceTime technology (though only via a WiFi connection, because doing it via an AT&T cell connection might just break THAT network the rest of the way into oblivion) how can it be that I can still only select from the same lame-ass half dozen sounds to tell me I have a new text message?

Is the screen on this thing stunning? Without a doubt. Is the battery situation improved? Not that much, at least that I can tell so far.

So, you might be wondering if whether or not I agree on the “lemon” designation for this new iPhone?

That’s tough, because this is Apple and they do make amazing things. But there are some realities that are not amazing here. Can Apple fix these problems? Maybe, and there is word on the interwebs that a software update may be in the making to address the problems at hand.

Yet knowing that the return policy gives me another week to decide if this was $199 well spent means the clock is running. Fast.

But then again, Bloomberg News is reporting today that the iPhone will be on Verizon Wireless come January of 2011. We’ve heard this before, but maybe this time it really has to happen.

Lemonade anyone?

Or not?

A trio of tech news items from the past couple of weeks that I haven’t weighed in on:

The iPhone 4 shows

Aside from watching Steve Jobs struggle with the WiFi connectivity during the iPhone 4 announcement, I find myself both impressed with the design of the latest generation of the best smartphone in the market and at the same time a little underwhelmed by the thing “that changes everything…again.”

Maybe it’s because I haven’t actually seen or held one of them in person yet, because more and more I find that as visually stunning as Apple products are, the bigger impression they make on me is how tactile their creations are.

My iPhone 3GS and my iPad are things that I like to hold, and really just fondle, even when I am not using them. I actually hate putting a case on either one of them. Jobs described the iPhone 4 as feeling like a beautiful old Leica camera, and anyone who has ever held one of those can tell you that it really is different than just holding any other camera. There is a sense of size, balance, and functional style that just makes it feel different in your hands.

If the iPhone 4 lives up to that billing, then it might be a must-have (for me at least) on that basis alone. But given that I will be able to update my one year old iPhone 3GS to the new 4th generation of the newly dubbed “iOS”–I might be content to live without the style, the video calling, and other improvements…for a little while.

At least a week or maybe even two.

(But I have noticed that with my trusty iPad, I don’t necessarily use the iPhone as much as once did for internet, movie watching or game playing. Truth is I now use my iPhone more as a….phone! I haven’t seen yet how the iPhone 4 actually improves on the counts of being a phone.)

AT&T Drops The Flag On The Wireless Data Meter

When you used to get into a yellow taxicab in New York City (and other places, I’m sure)–the driver had to start the electro-mechanical taximeter that recorded your fare by literally turning a metal handle from an upright position. The metal handle also served as a “flag” to indicate that the cab was vacant.

This act was known by drivers and experienced passengers alike as “dropping the flag”, meaning that the fare charges had begun accumulating for the ride. These days, there is no mechanical “flag” to drop in a taxi, the silent electronic taximeters of today look more like oversized calculators. The driver pushes a button to begin the process of charging you for every eight of a mile traveled.

You still watch the thing silently eat up whatever cash might be in your pocket.

I have always hated anything that followed a similar model of commerce. Early dial-up internet was charged by either the kilobyte of data, or hours spent online, or some other standard of “metering” usage. There was no better thing that the advent of “unlimited” internet service to the creation of services like audio and video streaming.

Now AT&T, who has pretty well-known issues just delivering a signal and data to its cell phones in many places, has decided to end the all-you-can-eat data buffet with the introduction of billing plans that have a limit (or “cap”) on just how much you can data you can use to surf the internet.

They say that the limits are generous and that most users will never bump into them and people like me who download a lot of whatever on their iPhones should be paying more for our bloated data diets in the first place. Even though we signed up for “unlimited” service in the first place.

Why does this strike me as one of those “all you can eat” buffet deals that charges you for your subsequent plates after the initial one?

To its credit, AT&T has grandfathered existing “unlimited” data users like myself, for as long as we want to keep paying more for the privilege. So I’ll probably keep paying more so I don’t have to go back to watching and worrying about the meter.

Revenge of the Droids

The arrival of the latest “iPhone Killer”, the Droid Incredible on Verizon Wireless a short while back, has come with the usual fanfare. Many good reviews, and now it is in short supply as people snap this good looking high-tech phone in droves.

Styled in the “slab of touchable glass” motif that the iPhone made iconic, the Droid Incredible features a wealth of latest technology that equals–and in some cases surpasses–the just announced iPhone 4, proving that the Android software that Google is pushing to phone makers for every wireless company is more than capable of battling with the iPhone–in principle at least.

Many who have gotten frustrated waiting for the oft-rumored arrival of the iPhone on a network other than AT&T, are going to look at hot new phones like the Droid Incredible and its equals that are arriving to every carrier on a near weekly basis, and in many cases those folks will settle for a wireless device that is not much of a compromise–except maybe in perceived status.

The smartphone wars are far from over, and for right now at least, the growing legions of Droids out there just might just keep the battle with the Apple empire going well into the future.

Or at least until someone writes the third script in this trilogy.

I’ve been wrestling with two goals for my blog over the past couple of weeks–well, three actually if you count just finding the time to work on anything that falls into the “fun” category of life.

First up is that I am working on a redesign of this blog as well as moving it to a new online host. For any of you who have tackled the latter item, you know its not necessarily easy or obvious on how to accomplish it seamlessly. To try to do the redesign at the same time seems logical, but really isn’t.

Anyway, I was making good progress on this front with all the “behind the scenes” stuff, when I ran into a really nasty episode of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Now I freely admit that I was one of those skeptics on the whole carpal tunnel problem front. Seemed like a dodge for people who just didn’t want to work, or wanted a fancy new keyboard/chair/ergonomically whatever kind of setup.

A few days of pain alternating with numbness in both of my hands (though much worse in the right one) has made me retract my snide-ass comments and rethink the whole issue.

That and the less-than-fashionable wrist braces that I frequently sporting on both arms now.

But I am back at the keyboards and soldiering on.