Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Dots Gloves arrived and USBConnect Mercury first thoughts

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My Dots Gloves finally arrived! Remember these? I ordered them back in October, IIRC, waited a month or two, had my order canceled and refunded (their choice, not mine) and then re-ordered them earlier this month when they were back in stock. They arrived while I was at CES and I’ve been wearing them during my commute. The good news: they work with my iPhone! The bad news: their medium size for women is too big for me. I’ll start working on my review of these gloves shortly…

I’ve been using my USBConnect Mercury modem with my MacBook Air during my commute this week and it’s working out pretty well. It’s far faster than I expected when I have a good signal, definitely better than the on-train WiFi when it’s available and faster than tethering with my iPhone 3G. Oddly, it consistently shows fewer 3G signal bars than my iPhone does at any point – either my iPhone is lying to me or the Mercury is. I’m guessing it’s my iPhone if what I’ve read about how it shows signal strength is correct. I’ve had one minor, yet annoying, problem with it so far though it could be my Mac more than the Mercury. I do lose my 3G signal along my train route (AT&T’s coverage here isn’t complete) and I have to disconnect and reconnect to the network using the HSPA modem menu in my task bar before Safari will recognize the network connection after the connection drops and returns. I’ll have to do a little more research to figure that one out.

Post-CES recovery and Palm Pre thoughts

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I wouldn’t say I’m fully recovered from the sleep deprivation and jet lag from CES last week, but I’m better. I still can’t manage to get out of bed early enough to work out before work, but I hope to get back into my normal schedule next week. I’m the type of girl who needs her sleep, and not being able to sleep in periodically adds up even over short periods of time. We’ve got one of those Tempurpedic beds, so sleeping = snuggly heaven.

CES was crazy – going there as press meant I spent 99% of my time looking at my assigned products (for a sister site covering products I’m less familiar with) on the show floor, taking pictures of them, and then writing about them. I had absolutely no time to wander the show floor for myself, and even if I had, I was too tired to really get excited about anything. The one thing that I did cover for work was the Palm announcement, and that actually was a bit exciting.
At the event, I sat in the second row to see John Rubinstein, Ed Colligan, and the new Pre smartphone in all their glory. There were a few big-time bloggers I recognized in the line beforehand – one who was really loud and quite annoying, and another who felt his fame allowed him to get in and out of the line wherever he pleased at will. Should I ever become web-famous (insert incredulous chortle here), I promise I won’t turn into a jackass. Anyway, the event was not nearly as thrilling as the Macworld keynotes I’ve attended, unsurprisingly. It felt like the audience only warmed up toward the end of the event after most of the details of the Pre had been covered and the webOS demo had concluded, an understandable hesitation given Palm’s lack of innovation in recent years.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my Tweet last week describing how the Pre may tempt me away from my iPhone. I know other iPhone fans out there may feel I’m crazy, easily swayed by new shiny objects, or both, but I urge you to watch the event video that’s now up on Palm’s site to see the full demo for yourself. I was telling a co-worker that it feels like the Palm software engineers started with an iPhone and said, “What functionality can we add to this to create a device that’s even better?” It’s got all the iPhone hardware basics – a decently-large touchscreen (capacitive as well, I think), WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth, though the Pre has an edge with the A2DP stereo Bluetooth profile. Software-wise, the webOS seems to offer as slick of an interface as on the iPhone, with the added bonus of multi-tasking and built-in syncing with Google apps and Facebook.
Now, I have to qualify my potential switch to the Pre. A.) I need an unlocked GSM version compatible with AT&T’s 3G network that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. B.) It MUST easily sync with my Mac – iCal, Address Book, my DRM-free iTunes music, the whole kit and kaboodle. C.) The 3rd-party apps must match or exceed what I’ve got on my iPhone already (entertaining games, Twitter client, eBook reader, SplashID or equivalent, MobileMe iDisk access, etc.). To get all of that in the Pre, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to wait a while. Of course, it won’t play the videos I buy or rent from iTunes no matter what, so I’m a little screwed regardless, and I really don’t want to carry another device since I’ve gotten very used to my iPhone as my portable media player as well.
I’ll give a shameless plug here – for a fabulous first impression review of the Pre, check out this one. To see Palm’s press event video, now up on their site, go here. As a co-worker pointed out, do you see the structural similarities of Palm’s site to Apple’s now? Mr. Rubinstein is indeed exerting a lot of influence at Palm from his last job, methinks.
Regarding the Epic Failage I mentioned in my last post about my USB Modem, I tried in vain to use it at the Palm press event (why they didn’t have a WiFi network for the press, I do not know). Frankly, I don’t think it was the modem’s fault at all – I chalk it up to the overload on AT&T’s network (I saw a ton of iPhones to begin with, and I’m guessing the majority of them were locked and on AT&T’s network). I even tried tethering to my iPhone with NetShare – no dice with that either. I do feel bad that the modem I recommended didn’t work out for Chris over at EverythingiCafe.com – sorry, Chris! 🙁

Vaja iVolution Dockable case problems – video

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I ordered the Vaja iVolution Dockable case for my iPhone 3G a little while ago, expecting it to be like the Incase Slider in functionality but with a little more panache. Unfortunately, the case did not fit well at all, putting constant pressure on the volume buttons, rendering my iPhone unusable (or at least unpleasant to use) while in the case. I recorded this video for Vaja’s customer service department to show them what I meant in addition to describing it in my email. I admit I didn’t make this video for macgirl.net, so it lacks the amount of preparation and polish (and I would have done my nails, dammit!) I would have attempted in that case, but I thought I’d put it up here for your viewing pleasure anyway. 😉 For the record, Vaja promptly issued a return authorization, so this case is on its way back to them for a refund…

Thinking out loud – wireless modem or not?

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If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my cry for help on whether or not to get a wireless USB modem to use with my MacBook Air. I’m tempted for 2 reasons: I spend 2 hours on the train per day for my commute to and from work, and I’ve got a corporate discount that would knock 20% off the monthly plan cost. Of course, AT&T also offers a mail-in rebate that makes the modem I’m considering free after all is said and done. Free Wi-Fi is supposed to be available on most of the commuter train cars by Spring 2009, but I’ll believe that when I see it at this rate given how little money the MBTA has and how piss-poor they’re performing overall despite increased ridership.

Yes, I know I can tether my computer to my iPhone 3G with NetShare, the virtues of which I have extolled before. But doing this regularly will most likely result in data usage levels that will put me on AT&T’s radar and it would be just my luck to get slammed with some massive fees as a result (which would be my fault – I know that tethering is against the TOS for my account.)
Do I really need to be connected all the time? I thought of this some during the power outage after the ice storm this past weekend. Our house, along with just about our entire town and a good chunk of the state, was without power for just over 2 days. I did tether my iPhone a little since we ran a small generator to power a space heater and I took the opportunity to charge up my computer at the same time. A wireless modem would have been peachy to have since the cell towers were still up and running. I didn’t really lack for anything to do – I love to read and have plenty of books at home. We have a modest collection of board games and the dog is endless entertainment 90% of the time that he’s awake as it is. Though I didn’t ask him to, my dear husband did hook up the TV and  Xbox 360 to the generator at one point so we could kill some zombies in the cold darkness of our family room. God, how I love that auto-loading shotgun. But I digress…
Cost-wise, $32 more per month to my bill for the wireless modem plan is not pretty, but it’s not terrible in the grand scheme of things, and can be covered if I’m more diligent about bringing my lunch to work more often (she rationalizes in her head knowing damn well this may very well not take place). What bothers me most is the 2-year agreement it requires – I know I’ll need a cell phone 2 years from now, but I’m less sure about the modem. I could also cancel if I need to and pay the horrific ETF, though it is pro-rated now and would be down to just over $100 after 1 year. On the other hand, I don’t see my need to connect to the internet wherever I may be decreasing over the next 2 years. In fact, if all goes according to my devious master plan, I’ll be spending even more time online than I do now.
Erk. I am usually way more decisive than this. I just need to saddle up and make up my damn mind.
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