JM's Digital Life

Bluetooth headset at the Gym = Freedom

2009-11-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

One of the things I enjoy when I go to the gym is the fact that I have 90 minutes to myself where I can just forget about anything else going on in my life and just enjoy a good audio book or some upbeat music.

For many years, I used a Creative MuVo TX FM at the gym to listen to audio books, podcasts or listen to TV audio locally broadcast on FM frequencies. After many years, it broke and I replaced it with a Creative Stone I had bought at Fry's for $20. The good thing about the Stone is that it's cheap. I wasn't afraid to loose or break it. The bad thing was that the menuing system was really slow. Slow to the point where you weren't sure you had pushed a button. I used the MuVo and Stone with a Sony Active Style headphones.

Then earlier this summer, out of curiosity, I figured I would try out a stereo Bluetooth headset with my Blackberry. I bought a Motorola Motorokr S9-HD. I was able to pair it easily and could use both the phone headset and the A2DP (stereo) profiles. The only problem was that my Blackberry Pearl had no local storage, so I could only listen to Pandora. I was really impressed with the quality of the sound. Because of the way the ear buds are designed, most of the outside noise is blocked out. That was nice and all, but obviously not a solution for the gym just yet.

A few weeks later, the iPhone 3Gs came out, and I made the switch from Blackberry Pearl to iPhone. The Motorokr headset I had bought earlier paired easily with the iPhone. I decided to take my iPhone to the gym for a spin. I loaded it up with music, audio books and podcasts and off I went... Wow, how nice it was not to have any wires dangling anywhere and the sound quality was just amazing.

Here's the only downside. The Motorokr rechargeable battery lasts about 6 to 7 hours on 1 charge. However, the battery seems to loose charge when not in use, so in theory, I should be able to go to the gym at least 3 times without recharging the headset, but sometimes, it doesn't seem to make it through the 3rd visit. The Motorokr gives you an audible signal about 5 minutes before going dead. That is definitely NOT useful. So that's why I still carry my Sony Active Style headsets in my gym bag for those days when I forgot to recharge my Motorokr headset.

Kindle on iPhone, on PC and... on Kindle

2009-11-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I was going to Austin for business. I had forgotten to bring something to read with me. At the airport, I considered getting a book at the kiosk. Then I wondered if Amazon might not have created a Kindle app for the iPhone. I checked, and sure enough, the Kindle app was available and free. I downloaded it and a few minutes later, I had purchased "Angels & Demons" for $7.99. I thought I would give e-reading a try.

I got on the plane, and after being distracted by the interface for a few minutes, I just settled down and started reading. After 10 minutes or so, I thought, well, this isn't so bad. It does *feel* a little funny not holding a book and instead just staring at my iPhone. But this is really convenient. Anywhere I go from now on, I have a book with me.

Then a few weeks later, I decided to take the plunge and buy and actual Kindle. I received the 6" Kindle Global Wireless a few days later in a matte Amazon box. I pulled it out of its cardboard cradle. It was small, light, sleek. I liked it already. The screen looked like it had a thin plastic film with instructions on it. But to my surprise, even though the Kindle was turned off, it was still able to display instructions; the display doesn't need power to hold the e-ink in place. Now I'm really impressed.

I quickly paged through the user's guide pre-installed on the Kindle. Then, I downloaded the book I had previously purchased on my iPhone "Angels & Demons". I didn't have to pay for it again, it now belongs to my book archives. It only took a minute of so to download the entire book. As soon as I opened the book, Whispernet (Amazon's marketing name for bookmark synching) asked me if I'd like to go to the last page read on a different device. I answered yes. There I was. Looking at the last page I had read on my iPhone. This was genius.

I'm now very comfortable reading on both my iPhone and Kindle. A few weeks ago, Amazon made a PC version of the Kindle reader available. I tried it out too. A few minutes later, I was reading my "Angels & Demons" on my laptop. How convenient was that?

In addition to portability, I really enjoy the built-in dictionary. I can pull up a definition with just a few clicks. (The iPhone version doesn't not yet have an integrated dictionary, but of course, you can use the Dictionary.com app).

Now, let's talk about the downsides. Using the iPhone app means the iPhone battery will deplete faster than it already does. When I flew to the east coast from San Jose, my phone ran out of battery by the time I was at the Ottawa airport. However, on the way back, I made sure I didn't use the internet in 3G mode. I was able to listen to music and read my book throughout my entire trip.

The Kindle itself has a few quirks of its own. When the "Next Page" button is pushed, the Kindle needs a split second to recompose the e-ink on the page and that causes a weird flashing that is a little anachronistic in this age of smooth scrolling and cute iPhone animations and transitions. The menuing system feels clunky, the entire UI is black and white, the search is slow. But all in all, I'll will spend the majority of my time reading a book, so honestly, I don't care that much about anything else. The fonts used are excellent, the font size is selectable, I can read the screen in bright sunshine, just like a normal book.

eBooks are now part of my life.

Offline Access to Gmail

2009-11-27T11:53:00.001-08:00

Have you ever been frustrated that you'd have to pay $5.95 to access that one email in Gmail while waiting in an airport? Well, I just found one solution to this problem.

I just added a Gmail labs feature called "Offline". I then had to install Google Gears in Firefox. It only took a few minutes. Then I clicked on the "Offline" link on the upper right and after a few minutes of synching, I was configured to access my mail offline.

To try this out, I put Firefox in offline mode (File->Work Offline). This simulates not having access to the internet. The little green check mark icon on the upper right hand side of the screen became a grayed out crossed-out circle. I then deleted a couple of emails and used my iPhone to verify that they were still available. Then, I re-enabled online access in Firefox and saw my 2 emails disappear from my iPhone. Magic! I then tried the opposite, I deleted an email from my iPhone and sure enough, the email only disappeared from my Firefox Gmail browser when I went back online.

This is a great feature that I'm looking forward to using next time I'm on a plane without wireless access.

My Transition to the Cloud

2009-11-26T09:13:00.000-08:00

That's it. I've had it with maintaining my own mail, web, LDAP, DNS servers at home. I can't compete with Google. For the last 10 years or so, I took pride in telling anyone who cared that I didn't rely on any public email system. I ran my own sendmail server. I didn't trust my email in the hands of anybody else.

But over the summer, I started using Google Docs. I saw a world of possibilities open up before me. It dawned on me how powerful the ability to collaborate and share documents online was. I went on a trip to Italy this summer with 7 friends of mine. I setup a Google spreadsheet to help us coordinate information. I couldn't believe what I saw: "You're telling me that I can update this one spreadsheet cell and someone else will see the change immediately?" -- Yes. Awesomeness.

I was using Thunderbird as my email client. I liked it because it ran on Linux or Windows. Then, I saw that Thunderbird 3.0 introduced an email search that shows results in a similar fashion to Gmail. Then I thought: "Why am I using a system that is only now catching up to what Google has been doing for years?". The last hurdle in my mind was price. I thought I wouldn't want to use a system that would lock-me in and then gouge me. I checked my current mail spool file that contains about 7 years worth of email: 700M. Gmail gives me 8G for free. And as of today, I can get 20G of space for $5/year. Why am I even bothering?

I use Google Picasa, Reader, Maps. I signed up for Google Voice over the fall. So now, I'm transferring the last 2 services to Google: gmail and my blog.

Long live Google!