FDA cancels my medical treatment

I am getting a lot of questions about the hospitalization so I figured I’ll explain it briefly here. I have some observations to share about the mobile gear I took with me so it’s not totally off-topic, but if you have no interest in the medical bits just skip over them.

Tuesday of this week I headed to the hospital for treatment of a blocked carotid artery. An ultrasound performed a few weeks ago showed significant blockage in one of the arteries, and a subsequent CTA scan of the neck verified it. This scan used injected dye to highlight the blockage, and it was determined the left carotid artery was 80-90 percent blocked. The medical specialists involved at that point explained that I was the perfect candidate for putting a stent in the artery, which would eliminate the blockage. That was scheduled and this week I checked into the hospital to have the procedure performed.

The procedure is a two-step process — first a fiber-optic camera is run through the arteries to take actual images of the blockage (angiogram) in the neck. Once the surgeons visually verify the extent of the blockage and that it is situated where the stent can be inserted, the second phase kicks in. This involves inflating a tiny balloon to collapse the blockage, followed by insertion of the stent over the area. The entire procedure carries some risk, as a small percentage of recipients have life-threatening episodes triggered by the playing around in the arteries. That risk requires recovery in the ICU just in case.

Rewind to Tuesday of this week, I was in the operating room for three hours, strapped down so I couldn’t move. I am sedated against the pain the procedure triggers, but was wide awake as the doctors needed to interact with me throughout the entire process. They wanted to make sure I was lucid so they would know instantly if they had triggered a stroke with the activity in my arteries. The entire time was spent conducting the angiogram, taking images of the blockage within the carotid artery.

It became apparent to me on the table that things weren’t going as the specialists anticipated. It turns out the imaging clearly demonstrated that the blockage was only 70-75 percent, and not the 80-90 percent previous imaging had indicated. That turned out to be very significant, as the FDA only allows the stents to be used in patients like me when the blockage is 80 percent or greater. Even though the specialists felt I needed the stent to correct my problem, they were not allowed to put it in. So after three hours of intense work by a great medical team, and even though I was already on the operating table ready for the full treatment, the doctors had to pull out without doing anything other than the angiogram. They faced serious sanctions by the FDA had they continued as planned with the actual correction of my medical problem.

So my hospital stay was cut short once they were sure no bad things were triggered in the OR. I came home the next day, with a carotid blocked just like it was before I went to the clinic. My doctors’ opinions are still that I need the treatment, but now they must wait and monitor the blockage (for years) until it hits that magic 80 percent that would allow them to treat it properly. Of course if I have a stroke in the future, which the stenting is designed to prevent, then the FDA allows them to perform the treatment in response. They can’t prevent the symptom, but they can respond to it.

My mobile kit

Not knowing how the whole treatment thing would go down, I only took two gadgets with me to the hospital. I carried the Samsung Galaxy Tab, in the leather case for protection, and the HTC EVO 4G. The Tab was a great inclusion in the kit as it handled all online things I wanted to do, namely tweeting about the hospital stay, and was also my e-book reader. While I normally prefer using the Galaxy Tab “naked,” bringing the case turned out to be a wise move as the Tab was knocked off the hospital bed. It fell a good four feet to the hard tile floor, but the case protected the device nicely. Using the Tab in the case is much like holding a paperback book, and I found it comfortable.

The EVO was more useful than I expected, as the hospital was in a Sprint 4G coverage area. I was able to tap the fast network for short periods, although since I wasn’t doing anything heavy the 3G network was sufficient much of the time. I felt more comfortable using the 4G in parts of the hospital where standard phone data connections weren’t allowed.

E-book of the week

I had a lot of time to read and I raced through a thriller by James Patterson. Worst Case is a fast-moving tale of a serial killer with a political agenda, perhaps the worst kind. Patterson tells the story as only he (and his coauthors) can, with lots of twists and turns.

Wrap-up

That’s the week in Mobile Tech Manor, which was a true mobile workspace. The week demonstrated that mobile gear is indeed getting smaller, but more powerful at the same time. Until next week, be safe and happy mobile computing.

Gadgets of the Week

The gadget capturing most of my attention this week was the Samsung Galaxy Tab, sent by Verizon. The 7-inch Android tablet is now available from most major carriers in the U.S., and in many other countries. The more time I spent using the Tab, the more I came to appreciate its strength: maximum portability.

Reviewers have been quick to complain that the Galaxy Tab is just a big smartphone, given its Galaxy S phone roots. They are correct, but I think that’s a major benefit of the Tab. It’s possible to use the little tablet for extended periods in the hand, something that’s not comfortable with the larger iPad . For this reason alone, the Tab has become my e-book reader of choice, as the Kindle app works well on the 7-inch screen.

The Tab also shines as a web tablet, as everything you can do on an Android phone you can do better on the Tab. Browsing the web is downright enjoyable, and the large number of apps in the Android Market offer a lot of options for just about every function. Twidroyd Pro on the Galaxy Tab may be the best app on any mobile device smaller than the iPad. The larger screen gives developers a good palette to work with to create their magic.

I get asked frequently if the Tab runs Angry Birds, and it certainly does. The big screen is a delight for playing the game, and the light Tab can be held comfortably for those long, long sessions. If you are addicted to Angry Birds, the game might be reason enough to get a Tab of your own.

I need to give an update on using the Powermat Wireless Charger for the EVO 4G. This week I had to quit using the Powermat due to a problem that cropped up with the USB hub on the phone back. This hub plugs into the charging port on the phone, and it must be unplugged to open the EVO for any reason. The hub is tethered to the special phone back, and you slide it out of the mount, open the EVO, and then slide it back in to reconnect it for charging.

Unfortunately, I found that after you do that a few times to change the battery or access the microSD card, the hub stops making electrical contact with the internal components in the phone back door. When this happens, the phone won’t charge when sitting on the mat, which defeats the whole purpose of the Powermat. This happened to me on the day I bought it at Best Buy, requiring a return trip to exchange it for this second unit. I believe it’s a design flaw that appears over time, since I’ve used two different units and both developed the problem. So the Powermat is in the dead gadget drawer in my office for now.

Apps of the Week

I’ve been playing with apps more than usual this week, due to the arrival of the Galaxy Tab. Most of the apps I’ve been using are on the Android platform, except for one. Apple updated the Safari browser, and it’s now faster on the Mac than Google Chrome. I’ve been using Chrome for months due to its speed of operation, but Safari now blows it away. It’s time to give it a try if you haven’t used it for while.

The Android app of the week is a simple utility I’ve been using on both the EVO 4G and the Galaxy Tab. Screebl Pro monitors the tilt of the Android device to determine if it is being used in the hand, and when it’s not, such as sitting on a table, it shuts the screen off quickly to save battery consumption. When it senses the device is in the hand being used, it keeps the screen lit up to facilitate its use. The tilt parameters can be easily customized with a slider that graphically indicates the tilting of the device. The backlit screen on any device is one of the biggest battery drains, and Screebl Pro makes it automatic to shut off the screen when the phone isn’t being used. There’s a free version of the app, but at $1.99, I find the Pro version to be a good value.

The Galaxy Tab’s high resolution (1024×600) display led me to question if standard Android apps work properly on the big screen. I’ve tried dozens of apps, and have yet to find one that doesn’t display well on the Tab. Some phone apps are marvelous on the bigger screen — Dolphin Browser HD, Pocket Informant, Twidroyd Pro, Kindle app and Tweetdeck to name a few. And don’t forget Angry Birds.

E-book of the Week

This week, I’ve been finishing up the Void Trilogy covered in previous weeks, and starting a new Stephen King book. The King book, Full Dark, No Stars is a collection of short stories as only King can write. I’ve only just started it, but can tell I’m going to enjoy it a great deal.

How I found out about the King book is a testament to how well the Android platform works in unexpected ways. I was using Twidroyd Pro on the Galaxy Tab and spotted a tweet from Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle. He reviewed the book for the Chronicle and tweeted about it, complete with a link to the review. I clicked the link in Twidroyd and read his review. Liking what I saw, I opened the Kindle app on the Tab and searched for the King book. A one-click purchase later, I had downloaded the book to the Kindle app and was reading it. I went from Dwight’s tweet to reading a new book in less than five minutes. Amazon has built this ecosystem well.

Wrap-up

I am taking a vacation next week, so there will probably not be a column next Friday. Who knows though, if I run across something exciting during the week off I may pen a short one. Have a great holiday week (those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving); be safe no matter where you live.

I am having surgery the week after next, but I should only be out a couple of days. I expect to get the MTM column done so if not next week, see you the week after.

Gadgets of the Week

The gadgets that had my attention this week have not arrived at the Manor yet, but should be here early next week. The folks at Sprint are sending a Samsung Galaxy Tab to test, and I am stoked about the arrival of this tablet. My extensive history using tablets of all kinds has me convinced the 7-inch form of the Tab may be the perfect size for maximum portability. I also believe the Android platform will go a long way to providing good utility on the Tab, so I am excited to get to play with one.

Next week will also see a new phone arriving, and I must admit I am surprised how excited I am to play with a flip phone. Yes, this phone has the old-school flip form, but in a very modern package. It is the BlackBerry Style, a new phone from RIM that blends the famous BlackBerry keyboard with two displays to take advantage of the new BlackBerry 6 OS. The research I’ve done on the Style shows it has some real promise, and I can’t wait for it to show up.

The gadget that captured most of my week is not a new gadget, but what I did to it turned it into a new smartphone. I replaced the HTC ROM on my EVO 4G Android phone, and so far I am happy with the result. Flashing the ROM on a smartphone is not for the faint of heart, as it does void the phone’s warranty. It’s not without risk of turning the phone into a useless brick if things don’t work as planned.

Dire warnings aside, I have to admit the VaelPak 2,3 custom ROM I installed on the EVO has worked without issue, and the developer’s attention to detail make it a joy to install and use. There is even a VaelPak Settings app installed in the process that makes major changes like ROM modifications as simple as selecting menu items in the app. Selected modifications to the system are then downloaded OTA and installed automatically, including the reboot if required. The ResToggle app I recently reviewed has been incorporated into the VaelPak ROM, providing display resolution changes within the VaelPak Settings app.

My EVO is faster than ever, has even better battery life, and is more useful than with the stock HTC ROM. What I like most about the VaelPak ROM is that I can use as much or as little of the HTC Sense system as desired. It’s not an either/ or situation like with other custom ROMs. I don’t recommend that all EVO owners take this route, but if you are already testing custom ROMs I do think you should give VaelPak a hard look.

Apps of the Week

Last weekend saw the time change an hour due to Daylight Savings Time (DST), and unfortunately this affected my favorite Android app — Pocket Informant. All events entered into PI since the time change are now off an hour, and WebIS is working on a fix that should appear shortly. To get around the problem, I am entering all new events into Google Calendar on the desktop, which sync fine to PI.

The Android app of the week is LauncherPro, a launcher replacement that I’ve written about in the past. The developer has improved the app quite nicely, and I am enjoying using it as the launcher of choice on my EVO with the new ROM. The multiple docks alone make this a very useful addition to the EVO.

E-book of the Week

This week I started the last novel in the Void Trilogy series, Evolutionary Void. This series has kept me going for weeks now, a rarity in sci-fi. I’m not sure I am liking where the final chapter of this epic story is heading, but it has me swiping pages as fast as I can. That’s the mark of a good e-book — how smudgy the bottom of my phone screen is from turning pages.

Wrap-up

That’s the week I had in Mobile Tech Manor. Next week looks to be epic with two new gadgets arriving, so be sure and catch me next week.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• Why Apple Hasn’t Sewn Up the Tablet Market — Yet
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
• Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1

Gadget of the Week

The week was one of those rare ones in the Manor as no gadgets arrived for poking and prodding. The lack of new arrivals gave me much-needed time to think about the gadget space and especially about what upcoming devices are exciting me. This thought process kept leading me back to the one gadget that I find really appealing — the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Tab has several things going for it that I think set it apart from the crowd of Android tablets. Primarily, I think the 7-inch form is a good fit for maximum portability, while bringing more utility than smaller smartphones can offer. It’s designed for easy use in the hand, and that’s an advantage over the larger iPad. The build quality seems to rival that of the iPad, and the work on key apps Samsung has done to make them better fit the screen, which is larger than that on phones, rounds out the offering. I’m looking forward to using a Tab first-hand, and will probably be buying one.

Sadly, the Tab is the only Android tablet I have been scoping out that appeals to me. Other tablets the same size don’t seem to be as well constructed as the Tab, and the larger ones don’t really compete with the iPad that I already own. It’s obvious Samsung has concentrated design efforts into making the Tab a slick device that works as well as the iPad, but other tablets haven’t been given that same attention to detail, with companies choosing low cost as the main feature.

I don’t think that indicates as bright a future for Android tablets as I originally thought. Cheap tablets are going to be quickly exposed in consumer’s hands, and the user experience is going to fall short with constant use, and that will yield impressions with consumers that Android tablets are not nearly as good as the iPad. That will be a big obstacle for successful market penetration, and companies rushing to get them to the market will not be profitable. That’s the ultimate failure for a class of mobile devices.

The Galaxy Tab goes a long way to seriously compete with the iPad, but it’s not going to be cheap. It’s not clear how consumers will react to a good iPad competitor that costs roughly as much as the offering from Apple. Since it’s unlikely to be significantly cheaper than the iPad, the Tab will have to compete on quality, advertising and utility, and that may not be enough to take iPad sales away from Apple.

I do think Samsung will sell a lot of Tabs, but probably not enough to establish the Android tablet as a viable commercial competitor for Apple. Having seen the component breakdowns of both the Tab and the iPad, it doesn’t seem likely that Samsung will be able to do much with the pricing of its tablet and remain profitable. The iPad is firmly entrenched in the consumer tablet market, and Samsung may find that a formidable obstacle to consumer acceptance. It is going to be an interesting competition to watch as the Tab starts hitting the market in numbers. If any Android tablet has all of the pieces in place to compete with the iPad, the Tab sure does.

Apps of the Week

I spend a lot of time testing apps on all of the devices I use regularly. The low cost of most apps, coupled with the utility they can bring to the usage of a given device is an appealing combination. One of the apps I spent time with this week isn’t even an app. Google rolled out Instant Search for mobile, and I’ve been using it a lot this week. It was announced on Thursday of this week, but it had quietly shown up on my EVO 4G a few days prior to the rollout. My experience with it on the Android smartphone is mostly good, but not entirely.

In a nutshell, Instant Search starts presenting search terms that Google predicts you might be entering as soon as you start typing the term. As each letter in the term is entered, Google refines its prediction of what search phrase you are likely entering. A drop-down list of these terms gets refined with each letter entered, and it’s usually pretty accurate at guessing what you mean before you type the entire term. I’ve been using it to great effect on the desktop, and while it seems logical it would be even more useful on my Android phone with its more difficult text entry, I found that’s not necessarily the case.

Mobile phones, especially Android phones, have a choice of onscreen keyboards. Many of these touch keyboards have very good predictive text, where they guess what word the user is typing as each letter is entered. If it sounds a lot like Google’s Instant Search, that’s because it is. Because these keyboards with predictive text are so good, many users have been taking advantage of this method even before the appearance of Instant Search.

This means Instant Search isn’t a big game-changer on mobile like it is on the desktop. In my usage of Instant Search on my EVO, I find the keyboard’s predictive text entry butts up against Google’s Instant Search entry. It can be distracting looking at both the predictive text results from the keyboard and the Instant Search results in the drop-down list at the same time. Throw in the fact that the phone’s onscreen keyboard often covers up much of the Instant Search drop-down list, and you get a lessening benefit to the search. It’s surprising that the platform that should stand the most to gain from the Instant Search method doesn’t due to the technology already on the phone.

When I wasn’t playing with Instant Search on my EVO 4G, I was experimenting with a return to my HTC Sense roots. I love to customize the way my smartphones work, and I had done that on the EVO. I’ve used third-party widgets and apps to replace a lot of the functionality inherent in the Sense interface, primarily to build a “look and feel” to the phone that was more appealing to me. This has worked well, but this week, I decided to go back to the stock Sense interface to see what I was missing.

It surprised me to find the Sense interface to be more efficient, less trouble during use and even gentler on battery life. I also found what I knew, but had forgotten: I genuinely like the way Sense looks and works during daily use. I may not leave Sense running things forever  (I am fickle that way after all), but for now, I’m quite happy with my HTC Sense phone.

E-books of the Week

This week found me revisiting the world of Peter F. Hamilton’s Void Trilogy. I finished The Dreaming Void and started The Temporal Void, the second in the series. I love Hamilton’s view of technology in the future, and how he has worlds without much technology living side-by-side with those that do. It is an enjoyable story and highly recommended.

Wrap-up

Thanks for sharing my week, and I hope you found something to take away and help you in your own world. Who knows? Maybe a Galaxy Tab will be hitting Mobile Tech Manor before long.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• Why Apple Hasn’t Sewn Up the Tablet Market — Yet
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
• Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1

Gadgets of the Week

Mobile technology is all about wireless, both in respect to connectivity and in how gadgets connect to one another. Wireless was the theme in the Manor this week as a company sent me a case for the iPad to test. The  case is a pseudo-leather portfolio with a Bluetooth keyboard integrated into the unit. It’s designed for those times when an iPad  user needs to do some heavy text entry, and the onscreen touch keyboard is not sufficient.

According to the company that sent the case over, this keyboard/ case is called the Dooble, but that name appears nowhere on the packaging for the product, nor does the website they directed me to indicate that name. The case is being sold by Solid Line, and the packaging refers to the product as the Bluetooth Keyboard Case for your iPad. The case is also being sold by Kensington, as evidenced in this review.

No matter what you call the case, it works pretty much as advertised. It’s approximately 90 percent the size of a full keyboard, so typing takes a little time to get used to on the Dooble. It’s handy to have a keyboard when one might be useful, but it makes the iPad hard to use as a tablet. The iPad can be removed from the case for such usage, but it’s a pain and defeats the purpose of having such a product that is intended to make a gadget easier to use. I am going to shoot a video of the Dooble next week to show the case in detail.

Last week, I mentioned the Freedom Pro Bluetooth keyboard that I bought, and this week, I tested it with a Windows tablet, the iPad and my HTC Evo 4G Android phone. It works well with all of these gadgets, and so far, I’m happy with the purchase. I wouldn’t normally want to use a keyboard like this with my phone, but admit it’s nice to have the ability just in case.

The third gadget that came to live in the Manor this week is the Powermat Wireless Charging System for the Evo 4G. I shot a video of the Powermat system for those interested in this device, and having used it for a few days, I’m thrilled with the purchase. My Evo easily lasts all day on a single charge of the battery, so at the end of the day, I simply set the phone on the Powermat and it beeps to let me know it is charging. The next morning, I have a fully charged Evo ready for the day. This charger is highly recommended for those looking for an easy solution to keeping a supported phone charged.

Apps of the Week

The app that occupied a lot of my attention this week is one I had been waiting to appear for Android. Pocket Information for Android was released in a free public beta this week, and I quickly installed it on my Evo 4G. It’s a solid performer for a first beta version, and it has already become a big part of my day. The app integrates my Google calendars and Toodledo task management in one place, with the primary purpose of providing me focus on the things I need to devote the most attention at any given time.

We use Google Apps at GigaOM, and I have about a dozen personal and work Google calendars that I follow, and PI for Android brings them all onto the small screen of the Evo quite nicely. Everything is laid out in a format that makes the most sense for tracking lots of information, and the color coding pushes my attention to those items that need it most. I love this program, and will certainly buy it when the full version goes on sale.

I’m only using simple task management with PI at this point, but I am going to be experimenting with a more sophisticated method in the future. Both Toodledo and PI can do a lot in this area, and I am going to build a system of tasks and subtasks to better suit my work. I’ll share that process in this column as it unfolds.

The only other app that has occupied my time (far too much of it) this week is Angry Birds Halloween for the iPad. What can I say? I’m fully invested in the Angry Birds franchise, having the game on the iPad and the Evo. This special Halloween version is as much fun as the original, with smashing pumpkins thrown into the mix. If you like Angry Birds, you’ll love the Halloween edition.

Morning Ritual

I use my gadgets to get going each morning, and have a little ritual that I do every day that I get asked about frequently. The first gadget I grab every day is the iPad, and I use it to check the flood of email that poured in while I was sleeping (and likely dreaming of other gadgets). I like the iPad email app, and I use it in landscape orientation as the two-pane display is productive. I’m able to do this in my easy chair with the first cup of coffee.

I then hit the App Store to see if any of my iPad apps have updates. It’s funny how good seeing available updates makes me feel; I suspect that’s part of the appeal of the app ecosystem we have come to take for granted. It’s like getting something new for nothing when an app gets an update, and it never fails to put a smile on my face.

Once the iPad has been updated, on those lucky days when updates exist, I set it down and grab the Evo 4G off the wireless charger and do a two-step update ritual: I hit the Android Market to see if any apps have updates, and once that’s done, I hit the Amazon MP3 app to grab the free song of the day. Android apps get updated more frequently than iPad apps, and Amazon is filling out my Evo’s music library quite nicely, all with free songs. I love this method of finding new music, and songs from all genres are offered over time. This provides that same little thrill of the updated apps, there’s something cool about getting something for nothing.

E-books of the Week

This week I took a break from the wonderful sci-fi series I have been reading, and raced through the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. Worth Dying For is a great novel starring Reacher, and is as good as any of the novels in the series. Child has fleshed out the Reacher character well over the series, and it is great how he makes us like Jack Reacher, while remaining a bit uneasy about him. The story is fast-paced and unfolds well in the novel, and I raced through the book.

Wrap-up

This covered the major points of my week in Mobile Tech Manor. I hope you enjoyed sharing them with me, and perhaps found something to take away. Until next week, take care and do something nice for someone close to you.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• Why Apple Hasn’t Sewn Up the Tablet Market — Yet
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
• Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1

Gadgets of the week

This week, I spent a lot of time using the TEGA v2 tablet that had just arrived when I was writing last week’s column. The TEGA v2 is a 10-inch (1024×600) slate that’s almost as thin and light as the magical iPad. The v2 packs both Windows 7 Pro and Android 1.6 under the hood, making it an unusual tablet. It’s the first Windows 7 touch slate I’ve used, and this week I used it quite a bit.

I like using the v2 – a lot, in fact. I’ve long been a tablet fan, and the comfortable form factor makes it a joy to use. I’ve been surprised how comfortable it is while using it for long periods, either in portrait or landscape orientation. The Atom processor is plenty fast, and the SSD keeps Windows humming. The newly exposed HP Slate 500 will give the v2 a run for its money, with dual digitizers and cameras.

The TEGA v2 is essentially a fast netbook without the keyboard; it has the same hardware components as netbooks, with the addition of the good capacitive touch screen. The touch screen makes Windows 7 pretty useful, but it doesn’t go far enough to replace both the keyboard and a trackpad. Windows is designed to be operated with the keyboard and mouse (trackpad), and sometimes they’re required to get the job done.

I have an old Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard that, for some reason, doesn’t work with the TEGA, so I researched portable keyboard options currently on the market. The search brought me to the Freedom Pro Bluetooth keyboard, and I ordered one from Amazon for $85. It’s expensive, but besides being highly portable, it has one feature no other keyboard has: dual protocols for working with mobile gadgets.

Keyboards designed to work with computers use the HID protocol to connect over Bluetooth. This is used by both Windows and OS X, and even the iPad uses HID. That’s not the case for Android phones and BlackBerry devices, which use the SPP protocol. Portable keyboards usually support one protocol or the other, but the Freedom Pro keyboard can toggle between the two. I can use it with Windows systems like the v2, and also with my Android phone. I don’t really have a need to use a keyboard with my EVO 4G, but since I was getting a keyboard anyway, I figured it was good to have the capability.

The keyboard is really nice, and I intend to write a review of it soon. It folds in half and is so small and light it’s easy to throw in a bag just in case it’s needed. It’s a good companion for the v2 for those times when I need to do some serious writing and a keyboard is the tool of choice. I am happy with the purchase so far.

Apps of the Week

The only new apps I played with this week were both related to the TEGA v2, and I showed them off in a video. FrontFace and Thinix Touch are shells that try to hide the less-than-touch-friendly Windows 7 interface from the user. So far, I like FrontFace better; even though it’s not officially released (and not fully functioning), it’s getting close. It completely hides Windows and turns the whole screen into a touchable interface that’s easy to use with fat fingers. I’m in the process of configuring it the way I prefer, which, admittedly, is a big task. I’m hoping to get the official release soon so all functions are operational.

One app that I’ve been using for almost a decade is Pocket Informant, a calendar/task manager that is great for mobile devices. I’ve used it on Windows Mobile devices, the BlackBerry, and most recently, the iPad. It’s the first app I run each morning on the iPad, which sits next to my computer where I can easily keep an eye on the things that are important to me. I spoke with Alex Kac, the PI developer, about the version he’s working on for the Android platform. I could really use PI on my EVO, and Alex reported he’ll be ready to release a beta version for Android any day now. It’s not out at the time of this writing, and I am so excited about the impending release I’m checking the Android Market several times a day to see if it’s available. From early looks on the PI website, it might be one of the best apps for Android once released.

E-book of the Week

This week, I’ve been plowing through Judas Unchained, the last of the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. The series has been great — an epic space opera — and I’m almost finished with it. I may take a breather and read something by another author before jumping into Hamilton’s Void Trilogy, which is sitting in my Kindle library waiting for me.

Wrap-up

That’s how I spent my week in Mobile Tech Manor. It was a typical week full of small things that do big things. I’ll be back next week, and who knows what I’ll have to share. Until then, be safe and happy computing.

Big news of the week

Microsoft formally announced Windows Phone 7 (WP7) and it’s looking like a totally new platform with some real potential. The old WinMo platform was getting old and cranky, and the folks in Redmond took a bold approach by totally scrapping it and starting fresh for WP7. I spent some quality time with a WP7 phone in San Francisco a short while back, and I came away with a real appreciation for the platform.

The system of “tiles” and “hubs” is nicely integrated with a touch interface that makes it easy to see what’s important at a glance, and drill down to what matters at the moment. The fluid swiping and swooping to move around the information is well done and fun to use. WP7 bears watching, as many phones hit the market in the next few weeks. It’s not often we see something totally unlike the competition in the smartphone space.

Sprint 4G rocks, when it’s available

The trip to San Francisco had an unexpected benefit, as I found the Sprint 4G network to be active everywhere I went in the city. Sprint hadn’t officially launched the 4G network, but it was lit up in preparation for the rollout. I discovered firsthand what a game-changer it can be to have super-fast broadband available all the time.

I saw speeds on my HTC EVO 4G phone that blew away anything I have seen here in Houston. I was able to use the EVO as a mobile hotspot for my laptop and the iPad, and it was like having high-speed Wi-Fi everywhere I went. It demonstrated how life-changing such fast mobile broadband can be when it’s available.

Unfortunately, availability is Sprint’s Achilles heel as far as 4G is concerned. The network has been active in my home town of Houston for months, but since MTM is way out in the ‘burbs, the coverage is spotty at best. I find that my neighborhood is in the very fringe coverage area, and even when I find 4G to use it is nowhere near as fast as I saw in San Francisco.

The solid coverage I experienced in SF also pointed out something that I had suspected about my experience back home. I have noticed that the area around MTM has small pockets of coverage where I can find 4G, but if I move a few blocks it’s gone. I now believe what I am seeing are pockets of 4G around Sprint and Clear stores that have seemingly sprung up all over the neighborhood. The stores have some sort of equipment to make sure prospective customers are duly impressed with 4G speeds, but this equipment is very short in range. That’s the only explanation that seems to fit. All I know is now that I have experienced solid 4G coverage and performance, I want it all the time.

Gadgets galore

This week one gadget arrived that I’m just starting to test. The TEGA v2 is a tablet roughly the size of the iPad, yet it runs both Windows 7 and Android. Yep, it’s a dual-book slate aimed at the enterprise. I haven’t been testing the v2 long enough to get a feel for it, but the hardware is very nice. It’s only slightly thicker and heavier than the iPad, a first for a Windows-based tablet that I’ve seen.

I’m going to be testing it heavily to see how well it handles daily use, especially on the Win7 side. I can see the benefits a tablet like this can bring to companies that must run Windows and want an easy-to-use slate form for workers.

Apps of the week

The mobile scene has become an app-fest, with new apps released every day for all the major platforms. It’s a real chore keeping up with new apps, and major updates to existing apps that significantly add functionality. I spend a lot of time each week checking out apps to share, and this week was no different.

I’ve covered Pocket Informant for the iPad in the past, as it’s a major part of my work day. It seamlessly brings my calendar and task list together in a format that makes it easy to determine at a glance where I need to focus. PI got a recent major update that added new ways to interact with PIM information and display it more intelligently. It is a must-have update for all PI users.

On the Android front, my search for the perfect on-screen keyboard is well-documented, and this week, I found the best one yet. Ultra Keyboard offers more options than any app I’ve tried, and I find as I use it more heavily, I’m able to adapt it to my work style on  the fly. It makes text entry much more productive on my EVO 4G, and I find myself entering longer passages while using it than I have been comfortable doing on other keyboard apps.

E-books of the week

I am a voracious reader of e-books using the various mobile devices I carry with me. Having the Kindle app on the iPad and the EVO 4G means I have no shortage of books with me all the time. This eliminates wasted free time, as I can pull out a gadget and jump into an e-book right where I left off.

Since the last MTM column, I’ve been reading the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. I started with Misspent Youth, followed by Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained. It’s a wonderful epic sci-fi tale covering space exploration, alien invasions and human drama all rolled into a fast-paced story. Highly recommended, and I can’t wait to continue the series with the Void Trilogy that picks up where the first series left off.

Wrap-up

That’s the week as it went down at Mobile Tech Manor, and I enjoyed sharing it with you. I missed doing this column and based on the feedback I’ve received, many of you missed it too. Let me know in the comments what you think about the return of the column. I write it for you, and it’s nice to know if it is something you value. Until next week — be safe and happy mobile computing.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• Analyzing the Social E-book
• The Week E-books Won the War
• As E-book Sales Grow, So Does Disintermediation

Medical peripheral?

This week was the second full week since the Magic Trackpad arrived. I’ve enjoyed using it as much as I expected, and happily, it’s served the primary purpose behind my purchase. I’d long been using one mouse or another in the Manor, and due to 8-10 hour work days, I was having problems with my right wrist by the end of the day. The wrist would be painful, and sometimes I would experience some numbness. I was definitely in the early stages of repetitive stress injury (RSI).

I bought the Magic Trackpad hoping it would be more ergonomically fit for prolonged use, and was curious to see if my wrist problems would lessen. I’m happy to report that I have yet to experience any sign of the problems that have afflicted me for so long. It may simply be the result of working the wrist differently, and that the symptoms will eventually return. I hope not, but I will take being pain-free for as long as it lasts.

I like the trackpad on my MacBook, so I knew I’d like using the Magic Trackpad. One of the features providing me the most utility is 3-finger dragging. The default trackpad setting for dragging objects on the desktop requires clicking down on the trackpad with one finger and dragging things around while continuing to press the button. The 3-finger dragging is easier to perform as there is no clicking. Just position the cursor over the target and swipe 3 fingers in the direction you want to move it. This is obviously helpful for moving windows and icons around on the desktop, but the greatest use for me has been using the 3-finger method for highlighting text in any window; it is simple and very precise. Be aware that this must be turned on in the trackpad settings in OS X, as it is turned off by default. Note also that this setting activates this on any MacBook Pro trackpad — no Magic Trackpad needed.

An app a day

I’m finding Android 2.2, aka Froyo, to be really useful on the HTC EVO 4G. Version 2.1 was pretty good in its own right, and some feel that Froyo is only an incremental change. That’s true, but the changes are for the better in every way. The EVO is darn quick no matter how many things I have open at once, and using the phone is fluid. I’m finding the EVO to be a full computer the more I use it.

This week, I was given an early copy of TweetDeck for Android, and while it’s a very early beta, it shows real potential. I love TweetDeck on the desktop, and this Android version is fun to use. It has one function that no other version of TweetDeck has: the ability to “blend” multiple network updates into the main timeline view. Besides Twitter, I have Facebook and Foursquare configured so updates on those services appear in real time on my Home timeline. Each service appears in different colors, so it’s easy to visually tell the different network updates apart from the main Twitter updates. As the developers add more features to TweetDeck, I predict it’s going to be very popular for Android.

Yesterday, Google announced two new services for Android phones that are pretty darn cool. The first is a utility that ties the Chrome browser on the desktop to the Android phone. ChromeToPhone is an extension for the Chrome browser that makes sending specific information to the phone as simple as tapping a button in the toolbar. ChromeToPhone consists of this extension and an app for the Android phone (in the Android Market) to tie the two platforms together.

While ChromeToPhone was just announced this week, it’s been available in an early form for a while. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks and find it extremely useful. Once of the main uses for the extension is getting web sites into the Android browser for bookmarking on the phone. When I find a site I want to bookmark on the phone, I simply hit the button in Chrome on the desktop and it sends a notification to the EVO. Tapping the notification on the phone instantly opens the site up in the Android browser on the phone; I can then add the site as a bookmark.

This will also send other useful information from the browser to the phone. When I’m searching for something on the desktop and fire up a Google map, I can send it to the phone with one tap. Opening the notification on the phone then automatically fires up the same map in Google Maps on the phone. This is incredibly useful.

The other new service that Google announced this week is called Voice Actions, a new extension to voice searching on the phone. Searching on an Android phone by voice has always been pretty good, but with voice actions, it’s taken to a whole new level.

The first thing I did with Voice Actions to try it was say “send text to Sheri Kendrick, I will be home at 6″. This fired up the Android text message box with that very text message ready to send to my wife’s mobile phone. A simple tap of a button and the text was on its way. The speech recognition is very accurate and can be used for other functions. You can say “navigate to Reliant Park” and it will fire up the navigation screen in Google Maps and calculate the route to get there. It’s very powerful.

I’ve mentioned using LogMeIn Ignition on both the iPad and the EVO. It’s a useful way for me to access either a Windows PC or a Mac back in the office from either the EVO or the iPad. I can control the remote system as if I’m sitting in front of it, even if I’m across town. I just received welcome news from the LogMeIn folks that the next iPad version, due out shortly, will take remote control to a whole new level.

Currently, interaction with the remote desktop is done by either panning the entire desktop under a fixed mouse, or by moving the cursor around on the remote desktop. Either method works fine, but I constantly fight the urge to just tap on the remote desktop to make something happen. The next iPad version of LogMeIn will turn the Windows or Mac remote desktop into a full interactive desktop using multitouch. When you want to click an icon to run a program, you will simply tap it on the iPad screen. It will in effect turn any Windows or Mac remote system into a touch operated system. I cannot wait for this update, which will be free to app owners.

e-Book of the week

This week I finally finished the massive sci-fi collection I started two weeks ago. The collection of stories is awesome and I highly recommend it to sci-fi fans of any ilk.

Wrap-up

Last week I took the trip down memory lane and recapped the first 100 columns in this series. It was great to relive mobile tech of the past two years. This week was a solid start to the 2nd 100 columns. Hope to see you back here soon.

Related GigaOM Pro Research (sub req’d): To Ship or Not to Ship — Product Launch in the Smartphone Era

The beginning

The first column of this series chronicled my new life as a full-time tech writer with the GigaOM network. That was a big change for me, having “retired” from my previous life as a geophysicist, and then being able to devote my attention to my driving passion: mobile technology. The wonder of the new venture was just sinking in, as this passage drives home:

“This has been a long time goal of mine and I still have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not just dreaming.  I have longed to write for so many years and now that I can do just that is quite heady and I am a very content person.  Thanks to Om Malik and all the great folks at GigaOM for making this dream a reality.”

Working with the GigaOM team has indeed been a dream, and I consider myself very fortunate to be associated with such distinguished professionals. I’m a better writer due to the constant guidance of the writers and editors at the network; the improvement in my writing couldn’t be more evident than reading the first column. You don’t even have to read the column, you can see in the thumbnail of the article (right) the too-long paragraphs, and the sentences attempting to break the record for the “most rambling.” It embarrasses me to see this.

In spite of the poor writing, looking back at that first column shows how far the mobile tech space has evolved in just a couple of years. That week I was testing a new Windows Mobile phone with a “disappointing” 64 MB of user memory. Phones with 16 GB of memory are commonplace now, and WinMo is on the shelf waiting for Windows Phone 7 to arrive. Back then, I was also having a look at two-feature phones. You may remember those, prior to the rise of the smartphone.

MTM #25- those new netbook things

Jumping to the 25th column shows how far the mobile space has evolved since it was written. That week, two new gadgets arrived to the Manor: one of the first netbooks to hit the scene and the biggest laptop I’ve ever used, then and still today.

The HP Mini 2140 was HP’s refresh of the very first 10-inch netbook, and a good refresh it was. It’s still competitive with similar netbooks on the market today. The 2140 shipped back then with Windows XP, as Windows 7 wasn’t released. That didn’t stop me from installing a beta version of Win 7 on the 2140 which ran “very well.” The only real problem I chronicled with the Mini 2140 would end up getting addressed by HP in subsequent models:

“The 10-inch screen of the 2140 suffers from low resolution, the affliction that affects most netbooks.  It can be a bit taxing to do a lot of web surfing at that low resolution so it will be great when HP makes the higher resolution version available soon.  This netbook would be killer with 1366×768 and would easily be the best netbook on the market.”

The other laptop that arrived at the Manor that week was as far at the other end of the mobile spectrum from the netbook as a notebook can be. At the time, I said the Lenovo ThinkPad w700ds was “easily the biggest laptop I have used as it packs a full 17-inch display, WACOM digitizer, numeric keypad, many ports and the second 10.6-inch screen that slides out of the 17-inch screen.  It’s the only two screen laptop I am aware of and it commands attention when it is fired up.”

This laptop is still available today in a largely unchanged form, aimed at engineering and graphics professionals. I still remember the ruckus it caused when I took the w700ds to work in the local coffee shop. That almost threw my back out, so I only did it once.

MTM #50- small tablet in the house

Column #50 covered my use of one of the coolest handheld computers to hit the Manor, and it’s one that’s still available today. The Viliv S5 ran Windows XP and packed a full computer into a form with a small 5-inch touchscreen. This column covered the integrated update process in detail, a nice inclusion on all of Viliv’s ultraportable products.

You’d just fire up the update and all hardware drivers and pre-installed software were checked against available versions. If the utility detected a newer version, it was downloaded and installed automatically. I wish more systems worked this way.

The smartphone I was using at the time of column #50 was the Palm Pre. The webOS interface was the best on any phone at the time, and in fact, it still is. I only recently traded the Pre in for the HTC EVO 4G, and I admit I still miss webOS. Let’s hope HP keeps it alive with some cool new phones.

MTM #75- Kindle fever

The Mobile Tech Manor columns are proof positive of my love for reading e-books, and in column #75, I shared the joy I experienced with the Kindle. I normally read e-books on phones or the iPad, but the week of this column, I’d just returned from a trip on which I’d brought the Kindle. It’s clear from my thoughts why so many folks are turning to electronic readers in general, and the Kindle in particular. I also stressed how important connectivity is to me for my gear.

“Reading on the two flights was very enjoyable using the Kindle. It was easy to hold for several hours, and it fits in the pocket in the seat back in front when not in use. I did have to remember to turn wireless off on the flights, which I almost forgot. The Kindle brought the number of devices on this trip which I had to remember to turn off the wireless radios to four. In fact, I only brought four gadgets with me for this short trip and all of them have wireless connectivity. That’s a true mobile geek.”

While I really like the Kindle — and still have it — I have to admit I no longer use it. The iPad has replaced the Kindle for most of my e-book reading. The Kindle app for the iPad lets me use it just like the Kindle, or in even more instances, since I can read in low lighting. I also use the Kindle app on the Android smartphone platform for reading when running around. I’m even further entrenched in the Kindle e-book ecosystem than I was when only using the Kindle device. That proves how sound Amazon’s strategy is to put the Kindle app on smartphones and other devices.

Random thoughts

This look back has been eye-opening for me on many levels. It proved how fast things move in the mobile tech world. Coverage of netbooks in the column watched the devices shoot to the top of the charts, then settle into relative obscurity as so many hit the market with no distinctive features.

The most rapid changes seen over the life of the column have been in the smartphone space. Smartphones went from things only early adopters bought to them being commonplace in today’s market. The feature phone is still around, but the powerful smartphone has taken center stage in the mainstream market.

This column has seen the birth of webOS, chronicled by my own adoption of the Palm Pre, and then seen it settle into relative obscurity when HP acquired Palm. It’s now in limbo waiting to see what (if anything) HP will do with webOS in the smartphone space. The company intends to make tablets running the OS, but there’ve been no firm announcements regarding phones. It would be a shame to see webOS disappear on phones.

The most amazing change witnessed over the life of the MTM column is the appearance of the Android smartphone platform. It didn’t even exist when this feature began, yet Google is now challenging the biggest players in the space for dominance. There’ve been many Android phones covered in these columns — too many to count. I’ve personally owned two Android phones already, and I’m sure there will be others covered in future columns.

Apple’s iPhone is still around, and will be for some time. My iPhone 3G got a lot of coverage in these columns, and was recently retired. The iPad I picked up on launch day eliminated my need for the iPhone, leading to the cancellation of service with AT&T.

I was reading e-books long before the cool kids did. I get more feedback over the e-books section in these columns than anything else. I enjoy sharing the e-books I’m reading each week, and what devices/software I am using to do so.

As a direct result of this column, I’ve become pen pals with four of my favorite (and top-selling) authors. I correspond with these folks regularly, and hear about new works in progress. These friendships are a direct result of writing this weekly column, which is just cool.

Writing the Mobile Tech Manor column is my favorite thing to do each week. I get a kick out of sharing my experiences weekly, and based on feedback, I know many enjoy following them. Here’s hoping one day I’ll be writing the 500th column; that would be awesome. A special thanks to those of you who follow MTM each week. You’re the reason I enjoy writing these columns so much.

Gadgetry

The doors at Mobile Tech Manor aren’t really revolving doors, but with gadgets going in and out so often, maybe that would make sense. This week, a couple of smartphones headed back home, the HTC Droid Incredible and the Motorola Droid X. These are the two newest Android phones in the Verizon Droid line. I thought I had already sent the Incredible back to Verizon, but found it boxed up and sitting in the corner when I went to send the Droid X back. Oops.

I came to really like the Droid X; I feel Motorola has done a great job with this phone. I was impressed with how small and light it is in spite of that large gorgeous screen. Android 2.2 had not rolled out OTA for the test unit prior to returning it, so I didn’t get to test it with the new OS.  I imagine it will be even better with the performance increases inherent in Froyo.

This week, I agonized over whether or not I wanted to root my EVO 4G. That’s the first step required to allow using third party ROMs from the web to add features not on the shipping version. I was reluctant to do that, as I have been quite pleased with the stock EVO, and I don’t want to create problems for myself. On the other hand having played with a Nexus One running Froyo (Android 2.2), I am itching to have that update.

There is a ROM available for rooted EVOs that allows running Froyo, and I have been sorely tempted to bite the bullet and root the phone. It’s not as dangerous as it used to be; you can fairly easily restore to the stock ROM if problems are encountered.

I was ready to do this yesterday, but word leaked that Sprint will roll out an update containing Froyo and other goodies starting today. That is great news, so I’ve decided to hold off for now. Let’s hope I get that Sprint update quickly.

App central

I was putting a lot of software through paces all week. I love trying new apps and checking out new features when an app I already use gets an update. I’ve been duly impressed with LogMeIn Ignition for Android since it’s recent release. The ability to connect to my Mac and Windows systems from the EVO is very powerful.

I don’t depend on the ability to remotely connect from my smartphone for my work, but the process works so well that those who need to will find it very useful. I was able to use it for my work as a test, but I wouldn’t want to blog from my EVO routinely.

I’ve shared blogging from the iPad in the past, and how I used LogMeIn on that device to connect to a computer back in the Manor to finish the publishing process. I duplicated that effort on the EVO, and it worked surprisingly well. I wrote the draft blog post on the EVO using the WordPress app (which received a minor update this week), and then used LogMeIn on the EVO to connect to the Mac back home to finish the publication. It was easier than I expected, and could be used in a pinch, which was the purpose of my test.

I picked up Pocket Informant for the iPad the moment it was available, and it has become an integral part of my daily work routine. I usually have PI running on the iPad next to my work system in the Manor, which lets me keep on top of appointments and tasks that need my attention. It’s very useful having the tasks and calendars in one app at my fingertips. I highly recommend this to those needing the same.

I’m always looking for cool, useful apps to try on my different devices. I found a couple this week that have obtained a place on my home screen on the EVO, a rare recognition. Edwin for Android is a simple utility that takes spoken commands and instigates the desired action. I can ask Edwin what time it is and it will speak the time to me. It will launch programs by name and fire off searches by voice.

Google voice search in Android is pretty good, but Edwin extends the ability and provides a simple interface to the functions. One day I was craving Chinese food and asked Edwin “where is nearest Chinese food.” A disembodied voice informed me that Panda Express was as xxxxx street xxx. I already knew that, but it could be awfully useful when visiting a new area. I then told Edwin to “map nearest Chinese food” and after verbally confirming what it was doing, it fired up Google Maps centered at my current location with all restaurants offering Chinese food indicated by pins. This is a good use of the technology. Edwin is free so it’s worth trying.

Another Android app I’ve been using a lot is the Houston Traffic app. This shows traffic conditions for all of Houston on a map that can be zoomed and dragged around the screen as desired. There is also a tab to show the Transtar traffic cams, a great way to know what Houston’s traffic conditions are like before heading out into the fray. It’s a useful free app.

I saved the best app for last. I found Tasker for Android on Lifehacker yesterday, and it is the most powerful free app you’ll ever find. It’s a macro program on steroids, able to do anything on an Android phone automatically, triggered by virtually anything you wish. It can run things at certain times, control certain aspects of the phone when particular events occur, and just about anything else you might imagine. Take a look below at the tasks I defined within the first 15 minutes of using Tasker, and you’ll begin to see the sky’s the limit to what you can do with it.

The first thing I did with Tasker was create two profiles for GPS. I leave it off all the time, and it’s a pain when I run Google Maps or Sprint Navigation, as I have to manually turn GPS on, then remember to turn it off when I exit those programs. With Tasker, my EVO now automatically turns on GPS when either navigation program is run, and then turns it off when I exit the program.

Then I got fancy with Tasker based on an example from Lifehacker. I created a profile that does something very cool. When I set my EVO face down on a table, the phone goes into silent mode and turns off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. When I turn it over everything goes back the way it was when turned face down.

When I talk to my Mom on the phone it’s usually painful at first. Mom is hard of hearing, and she yells into the phone as a result. She blasts my ears on every call until I get the volume turned down halfway. Enter Tasker — when I call Mom’s number, or she calls me (Caller ID) the EVO volume jumps to the magic half volume setting. When I hang up, the call the volume reverts to what it was prior to the call.

Lastly, I got really sophisticated with Tasker which took me a couple of tries to get right. I wanted an easy way to get back to the main home screen no matter what I was doing on the phone. Now when I shake the phone to the right and back up again, it jumps instantly back to that screen. I can shake the phone in any application, and in just one second I’m back to the home screen. Pretty cool, no? I’ve only scratched the surface with what I can do with Tasker, and I intend to turn my EVO into the most powerful superphone ever. Did I mention that Tasker is only GBP 3.99?

My obsession for push buttons explained

I have a confession: I am a button-aholic. I like things operated by pushing buttons — the more buttons the better. This obsession crosses all aspects of my life, and plays a big role in my love for gadgetry with touch screens. I’ve been fanatically using gadgets with touch controls and buttons for as long as I can remember.

This week, I realized where my fascination with operating things with buttons originated. The realization hit me as I was walking down memory lane toward a different destination than where I ended up; I took a mental left turn when I meant to take a right. Those blasts from the past never follow the rules.

I was remembering the 16th year of my life; more accurately, I was revisiting learning to drive a car. You remember being 16, that time of life when you are bullet-proof. No, you are invincible, as you think nothing can really hurt you. Well, the only thing that can hurt you at 16 is embarrassment in front of your peers — that can actually be fatal.

The year was 1972, and I was learning to drive the family car at 16. The embarrassment was in full force. We had a lovely Dodge Dart — a 1963 model if I remember the year correctly. This car was the ugliest car ever made, far uglier than the Edsel you’ve surely seen. It was absolutely the most uncool car a teenager could be seen driving, and to do so with a parent in the passenger seat was nearly traumatic.

So back to the button fascination. Why did this ugly Dodge Dart start me on a lifetime trip of pushing buttons? Because of the push button transmission, of course. The Dart didn’t have a manual transmission with a gear stick; it didn’t even have an automatic transmission with a lever. No, the Dodge Dart was the only car I’ve ever seen to have push buttons instead of a regular gear shifter.

Not just any old push buttons, the Dart’s buttons were little round buttons to the left of the steering wheel. They had to be operated with the left hand, probably a safety feature designed to keep idiot teenaged passengers from slamming the car into reverse on the highway as a practical joke. Invincible teenagers do things like that.

These buttons were positioned in a slanted vertical row, with reverse being the top-most and low gear at the bottom. These buttons were finicky, at least in our old Dart. You had to hit a button dead-center, and forcefully, to get it to actually depress. Failure to do so resulted in either nothing happening at all, or worse a horrific grinding noise signaling that the transmission was being destroyed. This noise was the most embarrassing thing you could do in the Dart, other than forgetting to turn the key before driving.

These buttons were bad enough to operate by an image-conscious teenager, especially being right-handed, but the sliding lever for Park was even worse. That lever was situated next to the buttons, and slid up for Park and down for everything else. That turned the process of going from parked to driving into a two-step dance. Slide the lever down, hit the button for Drive (or Reverse). The amount of coordination required to do this effortlessly was beyond this 16 year old.

My left hand has never been coordinated; it’s designed to operate nothing more precisely than a bulky baseball glove, for Pete’s sake. This two-step dance in the Dart was just not possible for me on the first try. Ever. It was always slide, push, grind. Reverse the process and start over again. I don’t believe I ever got the Dart going in less than three tries.

That’s why the embarrassment factor of the Dart was at the top of the meter, especially when first learning to drive. I cringed at the thought of a practice driving session with my Dad because of those darn buttons. I loved to drive once I got going, it was the getting going part that mortified me.

It wasn’t until later that I noticed that other cars lacked the buttons. They all had slick gear shifts or levers that worked as advertised. The Dart may have been the only vehicle besides the space shuttle to have a push button transmission.

As traumatic as the push buttons were to me while learning to drive, I believe they conditioned me to expect everything to operate with them. I jumped on handheld gadgets early on due to the touch operation. Pushing a button to make something happen was second nature to me, and doing so without the grinding noise was wonderful. My fascination with all things touch I blame firmly on Dodge and the old Dart.

e-Book of the week

This week I’ve been engrossed in a sci-fi collection of short stories that is a fantastic read. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 27th Annual Collection covers a lot of sci-fi ground, from the near future to the oh-so-distant future. It contains 32 short stories that bounce all over space, and I’m enjoying the heck out of the collection.

While reading this week, I realized my e-book reading method has changed, and for the better. When the iPad was first released, it quickly became my favorite reading device. I love the iPad reading experience, and the long battery life is great for long reading sessions. I like to head out of the office for lunch each day, and I would take the iPad along to read while having a bite.

This week, I noticed I wasn’t bringing the iPad along. Since the Kindle app for Android was released recently, I’ve been using the EVO a lot for reading books. The screen of the EVO makes for a good reader, and it saves me from bringing an extra gadget along for my lunch breaks.

I still use the iPad for reading while at home; it can’t be beat for long reading sessions. But the EVO is great when I head out, because it’s already in my pocket and it has something the iPad lacks for my lunch reading: the kickstand. Folks make fun of a phone having a kickstand, but it makes the EVO perfect for reading while eating.

Wrap-up

I hope you enjoyed sharing the week at Mobile Tech Manor. It was a good week full of gadgets, apps and buttons. Drop by next week, and we’ll do it all over again. Wow, next week will be the 100th MTM column! Maybe we’ll do something special. Until then, take care.

Disclosure: Automattic, maker of WordPress.com, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Google Takes the Open Battle to Apple on Multiple Fronts

Apps, Not Programs

Not too long ago I was buying programs — big chunks of software that I either downloaded from the web, or got out of a box. These programs cost a lot — sometimes hundreds of dollars — because they were designed to do an awful lot. I only used a small fraction of the functionality of these programs, but the extra features were there just in case I needed them.

Because these programs could do so many things, they often didn’t do the little functions I needed well enough. You can’t expect developers to get every little thing perfect when they have millions of lines of code working together do so many things. The programs could handle most things they were designed to do, but often not optimally.

Developers of these programs had their hands full keeping them going; addressing the long list of little niggling things that customers didn’t like was a full-time job. The only way this could be done was to keep plugging away at one little bug at a time, and then releasing a massive update with lots of improvements rolled into the mix. This worked for a long time, and users tolerated it, as that was just the way things worked.

Then apps came along and things changed. I started using apps on PDAs way back in the day, but they were not as prevalent back then. Early apps had a tighter focus than big programs, which was an advantage, as developers often made them perform the one function very well. The price of these apps was a fraction of that of programs. It was possible to pick up a good app for twenty or thirty bucks, a bargain compared to the pricing of the big box programs.

App developers did a better job at support for these small apps, due to the small amount of code involved. It was common for brand new (and significant) features to get added with a new version of the app, extending the value to the user. The value proposition was easy for the consumer to see. The apps were much cheaper than big programs, but they still cost enough that it was prudent to research the various apps designed to do one function to make sure you got the right one.

Then came the smartphone and the entire app process changed again. As the number of apps on the market increased, prices dropped dramatically. A good app can often be picked up now for a couple of bucks, and that has impacted the way I approach my need for software tools. I still research online to get an idea which app may serve a particular need, but I’m not averse to grabbling several different apps designed to do the same thing to settle on the one that works best.

This means my software tool kit is better now than it has ever been, and at a fraction of the cost. I pick up apps regularly when a need arises, and with little effort I end up with a collection of apps on my smartphones that do a superb job handling the functions for which they are designed.

Because these apps are so cheap, developers are able to sell them in volume. That allows them to continue to support them, and in a more timely fashion than those old programs. Apps that cost very little are frequently updated, and developers are often adding totally new features to them that adds great value for the user. The worth of the app keeps increasing, and the tool kit keeps getting better.

Apps had been limited to the smartphone space until recently. The iPad let apps escape the confines of the little smartphone and jump over to a “real” computing device. The $2 app that was good on the smartphone, is often fantastically useful on the bigger iPad screen. Owners are buying apps at an amazing pace as a result of this new-found value.

The move of the app to a bigger device is profound. Just like on the smartphone, it is not uncommon for me to buy several apps on the iPad that do the same thing in my quest for the perfect one to meet my needs. I’m not dropping much money to do what amounts to hands-on research of the apps. The end result is I get the best tool for the job.

I’ve touched on the value of frequent app updates, and it has been nothing short of amazing how many updates many apps are getting. Several times a day on my smartphones and the iPad I hit the app stores to check for new app versions. Almost every day I find at least one, and often two or three new versions of the apps I have installed. Some of them are minor updates to address bugs, but many of them add totally new features that often have a major impact on how I use the app. It’s like getting a totally new app in these cases, and often the original app purchase price was very little.

As I thought about the massive growth of apps for phones (and now the iPad), I realized it has changed my approach to my daily work. I no longer look for larger programs to provide the tools I need, I always look for apps first. It is common for me to define a specific need for a software tool, and then buy several cheap apps to find out how they work. At the end of this short process, I usually end up with a great solution to a specific problem.

This has become such an ingrained part of my approach that I can’t remember the last time I bought a big program to do anything. There is simply no need to spend big bucks for a program that will require me to put a lot of time into learning how to use it effectively. The tiny focused app is cheap, can be installed in minutes and is easy to master. I have totally switched from programs to apps.

e-Books of the Week

I discovered a new action series this week that kept me entertained for hours. I read the first two books in the Jonathan “Digger” Grave series by John Gilstrap. Digger is the operator of a private investigator firm that specializes in operations others won’t touch, like rescuing kidnap victims. He has a good team of characters to help him, and Gilstrap tells a good story. The first book — No Mercy — whet my appetite to jump right into Hostage Zero. I enjoyed reading both books, switching between the iPad and the EVO 4G as appropriate.

Wrap up

That’s my week, spent doing a lot of heavy thinking about the way I work. My findings are appropriate for me, but your take on things might well be different. That’s why I share my take on things, and I love to hear yours in the comments.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): To Win In the Mobile Market, Focus On Consumers

Droid X launched

Verizon and Motorola launched the Droid X yesterday, and I’ve been playing with one for a week. This phone impresses me the more I use it, due to its performance and form factor. It’s got the big screen, yet is thin and light. It is extremely comfortable in the hand, and it never ceases to amaze people when I show it to them. They are equally impressed how small it is yet with such a large screen (4.3 inches).

Motorola hit a home run with the Droid X, and I like everything about the phone. The TI OMAP processor is snappy, and Motorola’s including so much storage (8 GB internal, 16 GB microSD) is outstanding. The Verizon 3G network is as good as can be, and the ability to use the Droid X as a mobile hotspot (extra cost) is a useful feature.

If Motorola can produce enough of these phones — something that has taxed many OEMs lately – it is going to sell a lot of these. The original Droid on Verizon is one of the top-selling Android phones due to the heavy promotion by the carrier, and I foresee the Droid X surpassing that due to how much it has improved over the first generation Droid. There were actually people lined up to by the Droid X the night before it launched. Android is here to stay.

There’s an app for that

The Android Market is growing by leaps and bounds, no matter who you believe. This week Androlib proclaimed there are now 100,000 apps in the Market, which caused Google to step up and say there are officially 70,000. Whichever number is accurate, there are a lot of apps available, and more submitted every day.

I have noticed the quality of apps is improving over time, and when you start looking for one to do a particular task, you can now find several to choose from. It makes it hard to find good ones since there are so many, so good user-generated lists are invaluable.

I’ve owned the HTC EVO 4G for over a month, and I still like this phone a lot. I have been observing the operation of the phone by using the System Panel app, which can be configured to monitor things like CPU usage, network usage and battery consumption. It has a unique ability to chart this usage over time, and having watched it for a while I can make some general observations about Android’s operation.

One of the coolest features of Android is the Live Wallpapers, those home screen backgrounds that are animated. Some of them even do cool things that are useful. In addition to the ones that come preinstalled on any Android phone, there are gobs of them in the Android Market, both free and at a cost. Ever since I first saw the live wallpapers in action, I was curious how they might impact the performance and battery life of the phone. What I’ve discovered using the system monitor with them activated is that you have to be very careful with them.

Some of these wallpapers have a huge hit on the system. I have run tests where I noted what time I activated a particular live wallpaper so I could check the activity graph later and see how it impacted the system. I’ve run into a few of them that immediately hit the CPU hard, even when the phone is idle, and don’t stop until the wallpaper is deactivated. I’ve seen this to be so consistent I no longer run any live wallpaper on any Android phone.

I have noticed this affect on three capable Android phones: HTC EVO 4G, Droid X and the Droid Incredible. Not every live wallpaper hits the system hard, but you can’t tell from what the wallpaper does just how hard it might tax the system. It’s easier to just avoid them. No matter what Android phone you have, if the wallpaper is hitting the CPU hard constantly, it will have a negative impact on the battery life.

Run your computer remotely

One of the apps I use a lot while mobile is LogMeIn Ignition, the remote control program that lets me take over any computer back in my office from one of my mobile devices. I originally bought the iPhone app to address those emergencies I encountered when working away from the office and needed access to a real computer. LogMeIn released an iPad version of the app (free to iPhone app owners) that is really useful, as I can use the iPad as a window into either a Mac or a Windows system and run “real” apps remotely.

This week the Android version of the app was released, and I’ve been testing it on the EVO. It works much like the iPhone version, and having the 4.3-inch screen on the EVO makes it a very useful utility. I have worked with my Mac and a Windows system using the little EVO, and it is pretty cool. I’ve only tested it over 3G and it can get a little laggy due to the connection speed; it is still very useful for short sessions. I intend to test it using a 4G connection which should be quite good.

This Android release is important for those who provide technical support on the go. I’ve heard from a few support folks who indicated they would like to switch from the iPhone to Android, but can’t as they are totally dependent on LogMeIn to do their job. This barrier is now removed, so Android is now an option for support people. The app is expensive ($29.99) but is worth it for remote support sessions.

Mobile tech in the studio

I had a great time on the Technology Bytes radio show this week. This show is on KPFT 90.1 FM and it’s great to sit down to talk tech with Dwight Silverman, Jay Lee and the rest of the gang. Even though we were sitting in a studio, there was mobile tech in attendance, some that surprised me.

There were four of us in the booth, and since we all had computers to get online in case it was necessary to answer a caller’s question, the collection of computers was very mobile in focus. There were two netbooks — MSI Wind and Acer — one MacBook and my iPad. All of us were able to do everything we needed to do on the show, which demonstrates that the different platforms have converged.

I was surprised to see Dwight using a Clear 4G modem in the studio. When I questioned him about that he said the station’s Wi-Fi could sometimes be erratic and the 4G coverage in the studio was very good. Based on his good 4G experience at the location, I pulled out the EVO and turned on the 4G. The connection speed was outstanding, so I turned on the mobile hotspot and used it to keep my iPad connected for the entire two hour show. Mobile tech doesn’t require a mobile setting to be useful, as I’ve often said.

e-Book of the week

This week I read the latest novel from one of my favorite authors, James Patterson. Private is a typical Patterson story, this one involving private investigator Jack Morgan and his immersion in several simultaneous mysteries. It’s not the best Patterson book, but certainly entertaining.

Wrap-up

That’s the week at Mobile Tech Manor as it went down. It was highly focused on Android, as it is the hottest platform currently. Watch those live wallpapers, they can be killers. Until next week, be safe.

I have used many, many smartphones, both those I have purchased and others I have evaluated for the site. I consider myself a heavy smartphone user, as I tend to do a lot of things with the phones I use. Having used the EVO 4G for a month, and given it a lot of thought this week, I can truthfully say it is the best phone I have ever used.

It’s a phone first

The EVO handles everything I throw at it with ease, and makes it all enjoyable. It is an outstanding phone, as calls have been good quality without a single drop. The handset audio quality is good, the speakerphone is very loud for a phone, and performance with a Bluetooth headset has been great. The dialer app is easy to use with big buttons, and the smart dialer is as good as any I have used. That’s the dialer that searches the contact list as you tap numbers on the keypad, narrowing the list as each additional key is pressed. After just a few taps the right name is sitting there ready to tap to dial.

It’s a web appliance

The Android platform is designed from the ground up to be good at working with the web, and HTC adds features in the Sense interface that even improves on that. The EVO seamlessly links my Google contacts with both my Twitter and Facebook friends, so I stay updated on all of my people’s happenings all the time.

The stock web browser is very good, and the large 4.3-inch display makes web browsing a very desktop-like experience. It is the best browsing experience I have enjoyed on any phone, bar none. The touch interface is well implemented, with good finger scrolling and pinch zooming. I like working the web on the EVO.

Even though this browser is good, I also like using the Dolphin HD browser. It makes tabbed browsing a little easier to do than on the stock browser, and I really like how swiping left brings the bookmark menu onscreen. It becomes so natural to do this that I wish such an easy way to interact with my bookmarks existed on my desktop systems. It is that good.

I have been using Twitter more this past month than ever before, and that is due to how well the EVO serves this function. There is no shortage of good Twitter apps in the Android Market, and checking for Twitter updates is a standard part of my routine now. I have settled on the Touiteur Premium app for Twitter after trying four others, as I like how it utilizes the display. I have been asked and subsequently answered many questions about the EVO on Twitter, so if you don’t follow me (@jkendrick) and you’re interested in this phone (or other mobile stuff) you’re missing out on information you might like.

It’s an e-book reader

It is no secret I read e-books, and probably as many in a week as anyone you will meet. I have been reading them for a decade, which is about a hundred years in tech years. I have long used mobile devices as a reader, so giving the EVO a go as a reader was not a stretch. The big screen is a natural for reading e-books, and I find myself using the EVO even more than the iPad which had become my only reader since picking that up.

There are now lots of good reader apps for Android phones, and I am using two of them a lot. The Kindle app has become my favorite since it was recently released, as it interacts with the app on the iPad when needed. I also use the Kobo app since I have a few books in that library, but it doesn’t sync up with the iPad version very well so I like Kindle better. Now that Amazon has a Kindle app for all of my devices, I will be sticking with it in the future to buy all my e-books. I read mostly newer novels, so price is not a factor.

It’s a mobile hotspot

I work in different places, and this month I took a short business trip, too. The EVO has the mobile hotspot feature that I have been using a lot. It has worked as advertised, dishing out either 3G or 4G to multiple devices, and all with a simple tap on the screen. It is easier and quicker to connect than either the MiFi I used for a while on Verizon or the Overdrive I used on Sprint.

Sharing the 4G (WiMAX) connection is simply wonderful. The speed is awesome for a mobile device, and to share it with up to 8 devices is incredible. I have only shared it with as many as 3 devices, but even that’s worth the price of admission ($29.99 monthly).

When 4G is not available, and it wasn’t on my Florida trip, the Sprint 3G network is good enough to share. I used it the entire trip and it was solid enough I forgot I was on 3G most of the time. I would tap the hotspot toggle, and then my iPad and MacBook were almost instantly connected to the web over the EVO Wi-Fi. It is a great way to travel.

It’s a messaging phone

I do a lot of text messaging with family members, email with everybody and Google Talk with colleagues. The EVO does all of this with ease. HTC has a good messaging app for the texting, the GMail app works well for the email and Talk works well for IM sessions.

I have done more text entry on the EVO 4G than on any phone I have used in the past. The HTC onscreen keyboard is quite good, but I installed Swype when it became available a few weeks ago. I find I can enter text using Swype faster than I can type using the HTC keyboard, and I was happily using Swype with three exceptions.

The HTC keyboard is one of the few onscreen keyboards that has four arrow keys, which makes editing text much easier. I found myself constantly missing those keys while using Swype. I also missed the context keys that the HTC keyboard presents when needed. These are keys like the .COM key while working in fields expecting URLs to be entered. Swype doesn’t do that, and I really missed them. Thirdly, the Swype keyboard doesn’t have the microphone key to allow voice input, and as a result I had been neglecting to use that nice feature.

This week I toggled the HTC keyboard back on, and I am finding it makes using the EVO more productive. I may try Swype again at some point as I can type really fast with it, but for now I’m leaving it off. The voice input feature on the EVO works really well, and I have not been using it nearly enough due to the Swype experiment. I am going to force myself to use speech as much as possible.

It’s a blogging phone

WordPress released an Android version of the blogging app that is the best on any mobile platform. I have lamented the lack of a visual editor on the iPad version of WordPress, and amazingly the Android version has one. The Android version also accesses the blog statistics, something every blogger does many times a day.

WordPress on the EVO is a joy to use, and while I wouldn’t use the phone to do a lot of heavy blogging, I can easily keep up with the site and edit posts when needed. WordPress and the EVO is a very powerful combination for me.

It’s an app phone

David Pogue calls superphones “app phones”, and that term applies to the EVO. The performance of the phone is outstanding, and there is plenty of memory for running apps. I admit I have been app happy with the EVO, as the list of apps currently installed from the Android Market demonstrates:

• Twidroyd for Twitter
• WordPress
• Handcent TMS
• ASTRO File Manager
• Jorte
• twicca
• Touiteur Premium
• Google Earth
• Dolphin Browser HD
• Qik for HTC EVO 4G
• Kindle for Android
• eBooks by Kobo
• RedEye Scanner Live
• Nexus Revamped Live
• Silhouette Live Wallpaper
• Google Maps
• Bookmarks I/O
• NexusMod Live Wallpaer
• fring
• SystemPanel App
• Pandora Radio
• Quick Settings
• Got To Do
• Bookmarks to SD
• Bookmarks Widget
• Speedtest.net Speed App
• Evernote
• NYTimes
• Facebook for Android
• Google Goggles
• vizBattery Widget
• Twitter
• Pure Grid calendar

The apps I regularly use constitutes a much shorter list:

• WordPress
• ASTRO File Manager
• Jorte
• Touiteur Premium
• Google Earth
• Dolphin Browser HD
• Qik for HTC EVO 4G
• Kindle for Android
• eBooks by Kobo
• Google Maps
• fring
• SystemPanel App
• Pandora Radio
• Got To Do
• Speedtest.net Speed App
• vizBattery Widget

So what’s the catch?

If you’ve stayed with me so far, you are no doubt thinking that no phone is perfect, so what’s the catch? I admit as I gave a lot of thought to my use of the EVO this week, I aggressively tried to come up with things I was not happy with; or things I wish were different. I can truthfully say there is nothing I don’t like about using the EVO. Everything works as advertised, and while there are a few things that might be improved there is nothing requiring a change for my use.

I have always found things I would change on phones I’ve used, and my total satisfaction with the EVO surprises me more than you can know. I have wracked my brain for something less than acceptable, and I simply cannot find even one thing. I would change the four touch-sensitive buttons on the front of the phone to real buttons, but it’s not because they don’t work well. I would change that simply because I prefer real buttons.

I am still asked about the battery life of the EVO every day, due to the reports about poor battery life that have appeared in various places on the web. I answer these questions the same every time I am asked — the EVO battery life is no better nor worse than any smartphone I have used. I use the EVO more heavily than any other phone, and the battery lasts all day without fail. It usually has >40 percent left in the tank at the end of the day.

I charge it every night as I do all of my gear so it’s topped off in the mornings. I make sure I don’t run lots of widgets that require constant web connections to do updating in the background. I use Twitter apps all day, but I close them when I am not actively using them. I never, ever run any Twitter widget on the home screens as I have seen those hit every Android phone hard. I don’t use the HTC Friendstream widget as that forces lots of background updating, even if the widget is not on the active screen.

e-Book of the week

This week I read four short novels I got free at the Kindle bookstore. These were the Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith 1-4, and they were good. There are lots of Star Wars novels in the Kindle store, and I am just getting started with them. It’s surprising (and wonderful) that all four of these short novels are free. Worth every penny.

Wrap-up

That’s the week, sorry it was all EVO, all the time. The phone is still impressing me each day, and I am glad I bought it. Until this time next week, take care and be safe.

Is that a computer in your pocket?

I spent a lot of time playing with the Viliv N5 UMPC supplied by Dynamism for evaluation. The N5 is not available for purchase but will be in a couple of weeks. The best way to describe the little N5 is it is a pocket computer — essentially a netbook in a little clamshell form. I have used pocket computers for years, and the Viliv N5 is as good as any I have tried.

The first thing that stands out while using the N5 is the silky feel of the case. It is not slippery at all, and the covering Viliv has put all around the case feels really good in the hand. It’s the first thing people say when I hand the N5 to them — “it feels good.” I admit I found myself stroking the case more than once, that’s how good it feels in the hand.

A nice covering is not what makes a pocket computer a good gadget, however. That determination lies in the features packed in the small form and how well they work to make the device a productive tool. That’s where the N5 really shines. It has an Atom processor which performs in the N5 as expected — nothing outstanding but good enough to get things done. The little keyboard is better than expected with good key travel and easier to use for thumb typing than I thought it would be. Viliv did make some design choices that I don’t like, likely due to the daunting task of fitting so much functionality in such a small package.

The evaluation unit has 1 GB of memory which is just enough to run Windows 7. It uses a 32 GB SSD for storage to help with performance and battery life. It’s got integrated 3G which works as expected. The performance is good enough, but nothing to write home about.

Using the Viliv N5 is a decent experience, but there are a few design choices that tempers that somewhat. The keyboard is good, but Viliv has packed so much into the QWERTY keyboard that it sometimes creates problems. The “L” and “K” keys are smaller than all the other keys, and this makes typing a little harder than it should be. The problem is there is only so much room to work with, so Viliv had to compromise on the keyboard. Virtually every key has a special Fn assigned to it, and while that makes it easier to control system functions it does get in the way occasionally. It’s impossible to use the Ctrl – + combination to zoom in the web browser, as the “+” key is a Fn key that prevents that.

The N5 takes a special route for mouse control by using a small optical pad located between the keyboard and the screen. This little pad works extremely well, far better than I expected, and it makes zooming around the screen easy. The screen is a touchscreen so it can be operated by touch, but things are so tiny on the screen that is not really practical. Viliv decided to use two standard keys on the keyboard as the two mouse buttons, and while that works most of the time it is a bit different. Most UMPCs have special mouse buttons and I find myself looking for them from time to time.

The display on the N5 looks good, but it is so small it can be difficult to work with. It is only 4.8 inches and displays at a high resolution (1024×600) so things are awfully tiny. That’s why touch is not really a viable method to use on the N5. I could easily forego the touch capability as I find the optical mouse works so well I don’t use it at all.

The design of the screen hinge creates a situation that some have complained about, and with good reason. The display bends back behind the base of the N5, and that makes the unit unstable for typing while sitting on a table. Dynamism is aware of this flaw, and I am told the production units will ship with a special rubber foot to eliminate this rocking. I don’t have one of those so I can’t comment on if that addresses the issue.

I find myself using the N5 in my hands, typing on the keyboard with my thumbs. It’s really the only way I can see the tiny things on the screen anyway, and this method works well. The N5 is a fully functional Windows computer, and I can see this serving as the main mobile system for many. The price of this evaluation unit will be $799, which is pretty expensive compared to cheaper (and larger) netbooks. It may be a worthwhile purchase for road warriors who must have the most mobile gear possible. The model without integrated 3G will be $649, which may make more sense for those always near Wi-Fi. I will shoot a video of the N5 soon as it really must be seen to appreciate how much functionality it packs in such a small case.

Apps of the week

I didn’t spend as much time playing with apps as usual due to circumstances but a on of the of apps I’ve mentioned in the past got a significant update this week. The iPad app iThoughts HD is my mind mapping tool of choice and the developers made a free update that adds some features and cleans up the interface. Don’t miss this update if you use the app.

I also installed the Kindle app for Android on the EVO 4G — I did that the second it was released. I have since been using it and really like reading e-books on the big EVO screen. The app does seamless syncing of books and reading position as do all the other Kindle apps which makes it easy for me to switch between the iPad and EVO for reading. I use the device that makes the most sense given the situation, which is where Kindle shines.

Family stuff

My step-daughter had a baby a couple of weeks ago and while Mom is doing fine baby Taylor has been in the intensive care nursery since birth. Her condition is not life-threatening (thankfully) but requires constant monitoring. Mom and Dad are understandably upset as are the rest of the family as they cannot bring the new family member home. The scary thing is that the specialists are stumped what is causing her problem, and they have been running a battery of tests with no definitive answers so far.

It’s going to be an atypical holiday weekend for our family as a result, and we hope to have some good news soon. Please keep them in your thoughts.

e-Book of the week

I am reading a great thriller this week that is highly unusual. Imagine if all of your favorite mystery writers got together to write a novel. That’s how Watchlist came about. It is started by Jeffrey Deaver and each of the 22 writers pick up with a chapter after the beginning. We’re talking real heavyweight mystery writers: David Hewson and Lee Child to name just two of them. The story moves right along, with each author bringing his own flavor to the novel. It is breathtaking to experience this collaboration, and I am anxiously turning the pages. Well, tapping the screen, to be more exact.

Wrap-up

That’s the week as it happened at the Manor. It was a busy week made even more so by the family stuff. I’ll do this again next week, same time, same channel.

Time for Mobile Tech Manor column number 94, where I get to share the past week in MTM with you. I wasn’t in the Manor for much of the week due to a trip to Orlando. No, I didn’t get to go to Disney World, as I haven’t won any major sports championship. Instead I went to a tech conference hosted by the folks at Freescale who make chips for a bunch of gear. I carried my office in a bag to Orlando, and was thoroughly impressed at the lack of compromise in my work routine that resulted given the great gear I brought with me. Come on in and lets chat.

The trip to Orlando was a productive one due to the contents in the gear bag. I decided to travel lean and mean so the bag was light as I only brought three pieces of kit with me. The 13-inch MacBook (not the Pro but the aluminum predecessor) traveled with me along with a second battery for extended time away from a power outlet. That second battery came in handy as I did drain the primary battery twice. I never carry the power adapter out of the room on trips to keep the walkabout kit light, and the two batteries did the job.

The iPad came along given its thin and light form, as the multiple uses it provided were worth the small space it took in the bag. I used the iPad constantly on this trip — my first since the arrival of the Wi-Fi iPad — as it is so easy to slip it out of the bag pocket and get something done quickly. It was a true workhorse walking around this big conference. In the hotel room it became a second monitor for the MacBook, transforming my office setup into a full multiple display work system. This was accomplished using Air Display, one of the most useful apps I own.

In my shirt pocket rode the HTC EVO 4G, which functioned as my phone and a mobile hotspot on many occasions. The conference area had good Wi-Fi available, but the hotel itself charged for it everywhere. Unfortunately Sprint has no 4G coverage in Orlando, but the EVO dished out 3G through the mobile hotspot feature with ease. I simply tapped the hotspot toggle switch and in less than 10 seconds I was enjoying tasty 3G on either the MacBook or the iPad (or both). The Sprint 3G network had full bars in the hotel and was plenty fast enough to make me productive.

My reason for attending the conference was to sit on a panel discussing the future of mobile gear aimed at the consumer. It was a good panel and I enjoyed meeting the other two panelists– Matt Burns of CrunchGear and Hubert Nguyen of uberGizmo. They are good guys who are good at what they do and it was great to spend time with them both. Matt was using a review EVO at the conference and Hubert had used one in the past so all three of us were familiar with the phone. Interestingly, neither Hubert nor I have trouble with the EVO’s battery life, while Matt complained about it. He ended up admitting he was considering buying an EVO, so perhaps his experience wasn’t all that bad.

I found I used the EVO heavily during the conference. It was my primary email machine given the push Gmail. I also used Twicca for keeping up with Twitter the whole time. The MacBook was the main writing machine, while the iPad and EVO handled keeping up with the world around me on the run. This system worked flawlessly, and I came away duly impressed with all pieces of my kit.

Most of the attendees at this conference were technical folks, and I was surprised I saw very few Macs in evidence. I must have seen hundreds of Dells, HPs and ThinkPads, but only a handful of Macs the entire time. Matt and I had a chuckle as we repeatedly saw attendees racing down the conference hallways, laptop in one hand and power adapter in the other, as they went from one event to the next.

The trip was a good one, and once again proved to me how important having the right gear can be to how successful a trip turns out to be. I had absolutely no compromises in my work given this gear, in fact I didn’t have to stop and think about the tools even once. That is the mark of a great kit, and it proved to me once again that I can work anywhere without regrets, as long as I have connectivity and the right gear.

e-Book of the Week

This week I am reading City of Fear by David Hewson, the latest in the great Nic Costa series. David mixes history with the present in the way only he can do, and the story is great. I am reading the book using the Kobo app on both the iPad and the EVO, and it’s great being able to bounce back and forth between them as needed. I do find the Kobo app on Android to be lacking in features, and while it will sync with my online library it is not syncing my bookmarks. This forces me to manually find the current reading position on the EVO, a royal pain. I hope they update the app soon. The online help files state the Android app will do such syncing, so it appears they simply haven’t gotten around to including the ability yet.

Wrap-up

That’s the week as it went down, and the trip proved that Mobile Tech Manor is actually the gear in the bag and not the physical office. It’s great to be able to work wherever events take me, and it was a good experience. Thanks for sharing it with me, and until next week, take care of yourself.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Work Force?

Gadgetry

Nothing new arrived at the Manor this week, an unusual situation. Fortunately, I am still in the honeymoon phase with the HTC EVO 4G which I picked up recently on its launch day. I have been using it heavily as I incorporate it into my daily routine and discover all of the things it can do. There are still reviews of the EVO popping up on the web, and a lot of digital ink has been spent on its terrible battery life. This week one such review stated the EVO battery would only last an hour before running dry, and like all such statements this thoroughly confuses me.

I shared my tips for preventing background tasks on Android phones from hitting the battery hard, and with these easy steps my own battery life has been quite good. I use the EVO quite hard each day, and there is still plenty of juice in the tank at the end of the day. I even had one day this week where I used the EVO very heavily due to a special circumstance at the Manor, and even with lots of phone calls, texting, emailing and tweeting (sorry NYT) I still had over 60 percent of battery remaining.

I can’t understand what these reviewers are running on their test EVOs to hit the battery so hard. I even wonder if some units have something strange going on that drains the batteries extraordinarily fast. Maybe there is a batch of bad batteries going in these phones? Or perhaps what is happening to these reviewers is that they are installing a lot of apps and widgets to test the phone, and then leaving them all running in the background. Even so, to drain a full battery in an hour is something I don’t think I could do on my own EVO if I tried to do so deliberately. It’s pretty strange.

Thinking back on my own EVO ownership, I did have one similar incident right after I got mine home. I had not optimized the settings listed in my tips, I simply bought the phone and started using it. After the one battery draining situation, I did a factory reset of the EVO and then changed the settings to work properly and the battery life has been outstanding. Perhaps HTC is not setting these things up very well, and cleaning the slate and starting over properly is the key?

Apps everywhere

Due to the lack of new gadgets arriving, there was lots of time to try out new apps on the devices already in the Manor. That’s a dangerous situation for me, as my addiction to apps is well documented on these pages. I hear about a new app, and I have to try it out to see if it has some magical feature that will revolutionize my usage of a given device. What makes this addiction so insidious is that most apps are only a buck or two. That makes hitting that “Buy Now” button something I can do with little thought; then at the end of the week I wonder why my operating account is lower than it should be.

The best app I found this week was Swype, a touch keyboard that turns tapping on a keyboard to enter text into an amazing experience. Words are entered by swiping over the keys to spell the word, and Swype figures out uncannily what word is desired. It is even accurate when the swiping is not the best; it can determine the correct word even if not a single letter in the word was actually touched. You just have to be reasonably close to the right letters when swiping and Swype gets it right. The app is only available for a short while so Android phone owners should grab this right away.

I have been honest about missing the Palm Pre that I gave up to get the EVO. One of the features in webOS I miss the most are the task cards that sit on the screen for easy task manipulation. Tap a card to switch to that app. Swipe a card up to delete the app. Simple and elegant, and not duplicated on any other platform.

A free app I found in the Android Market for the EVO is TaskOS. It is a graphical task manager that works like webOS in a limited fashion. Running tasks appear in a band on the screen, and you swipe left or right to get to the right one. Tap it, and you go to that app. Swipe up on a task icon and it is deleted. It’s pretty cool, and helps me get my webOS fix.

The great Dolphin Browser HD for Android was updated to version 2 this week and it is now even better. It has become my default browser on the EVO, knocking off the browser that shipped on the EVO even though that one is pretty good, too. Dolphin works better, is faster and has an interface that is highly optimized for touch operation. It is the app that I use the most on the EVO.

Last night I found a new browser for the iPad, and it is pretty cool. The Life Browser is a webkit-based browser that is designed for touch operation, and even though I am just getting started with it I am finding it to be a good browser. It presents tabbed browsing in a unique way, with visited web sites becoming a “wheel” that can be spun through by touch. It’s hard to adequately describe Life, you have to see it in action to appreciate it. It probably won’t become my default browser, but it is pretty good so far. It does bog down when you get lots of open sites, probably due to the amount of RAM in the iPad.

This week Reeder for the iPad was released, and even though I have several RSS feed readers I like, so many people on the web praised it that I picked it up. It is pretty cool, but I am still trying to figure out what makes it better than some of the other readers I’ve tried. It does present a nicer graphical interface than most, but the actual operation is pretty similar. The verdict is still out on this one.

A new version of Google Earth for the iPad came out this week, and it is simply awesome. GE has always been a good program on any platform, but this new version on the big iPad touch screen is marvelous. It cannot be missed by iPad owners.

Upcoming trip

Next week I am traveling to Orlando; no I’m not going to Disney World as I didn’t win a sport championship. I am speaking on a panel about mobile tech at a conference with some of my peers and it will be totally cool. The trip is only for two days so I am traveling very light in the gear department. I intend to take the MacBook, iPad and the EVO 4G. That’s it; I know I will be able to handle anything that might come up with this kit, and it fits in a little backpack. Of course I will take the second MacBook battery, so I can get 8 – 10 hours each day without power concerns. The EVO will do double duty as a mobile hotspot, so I’ll always have 3G connectivity available. I checked the Sprint coverage map and unfortunately there is no 4G in Orlando; none in all of Florida as a matter of fact.

Lost dog

This week the unthinkable happened — my little dog Oreo disappeared. I let him out in the back yard and in just five minutes he was gone. This little guy is special to me, and I was devastated. I searched for him for hours and hours to no avail. I tried using tech to find him — I tweeted his photo and information out to see if that would help. In less than an hour this had been retweeted hundreds of times, and I’ll bet thousands of folks saw his photo and were aware of the situation.

Oreo was waiting for me at the back door the next day as if nothing happened, and it is a mystery how he got out  and where he was for a day. The neighbor a few houses down found Oreo at HIS back door the next morning, and his back yard is enclosed like mine. There is no visible indication where (and how) he got out of my back yard, and none at the neighbor’s house to indicate how he got in his back yard.

The neighbor brought him back home at 5:30 when he discovered Oreo, and that’s why he was waiting at my back door that morning. It is a total mystery, and the whole street is trying to figure it out. I want to thank everyone who enlisted in the Twitter army to find Oreo. It was interesting to see how fast the campaign took off and amazes me how many people were looking for him as a result. It was the digital equivalent of the “Lost dog” posters appearing on every Twitter street corner.

e-Books of the Week

This week I continued the trilogy by Stieg Larrson I began last week. The Girl Who Played With Fire is an outstanding mystery, and I raced through the novel. The novel picks up where the first book in the series left off, and was a joy to read. I am now in the middle of the last book in the trilogy — The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and it is great, too. This trilogy is the best thing I have read in a good while. It is too bad there will not be any other books from Larrson.

Wrap-up

That’s the week as it happened at Mobile Tech Manor. Lots of apps, lots of Android and lots of fun. We’ll do this again next week; until then take care.