Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Where to get live WWDC coverage

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As I’m sure you already know, I’m going to be glued to my computer during the WWDC keynote. I’ll likely have multiple browser windows open to see what’s going on and here are the sites on which I’ll be focusing:

Apple won’t be broadcasting the keynote live online, which is SOP for them. If they did, I’d have to imagine the stream would peter out shortly after going live from the number of viewers who would try to tune in. Last year, IIRC, a member of the press started to stream video of the keynote live, but that died soon after word got around on the internet about it and more people tried to watch it. If any journalist who will be attending the keynote would like to try this, please send me a link to your stream – I promise not to send it to anyone else. Really.
Prayer of the Selfish Child by Shel Silverstein
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use ’em…
Amen.

Living vicariously through others at the Pre launch

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So, I was able to withstand the temptation to get a Palm Pre over the weekend, but that did not stop me from harassing my friend, Bob, for every last detail of his experience in buying one. Bob shares my gadget obsession and he had been trying to decide which cell phone to get next. Of course, I had thrown the iPhone out there as an option for him, but he wanted to see how things would go with Sprint, his current carrier, which is understandable.

I hadn’t been aware of this until Friday, but apparently WalMart was also set to sell Pres at launch, and it appeared that they were willing to sell them at midnight on Friday based on what Bob heard from a local store manager. Unfortunately, this was turned out to be complete misinformation, so it was necessary for him to brave the lines on Saturday morning along with the rest of the world.
At a Sprint store in California, the line wasn’t too long. The first person had gotten there around 5:00 am, and they handed out numbers to everyone in line, so it was possible to actually leave the line to grab a coffee or something and come back a little later after you’d gotten your number. The store had 30 Pres, so most of the people in line were able to get one. The only negative parts were that they were saying that activation would take 45 minutes (!) for each person, and you could not leave the store without activating a Pre (Sprint was definitely taking a line out of AT&T’s iPhone play book with this one). Accessories were limited, with no Touchstones in stock.

The line at a local Sprint store at around 8:00 am

Bob ended up getting his Pre at the local WalMart. He went back there after he’d gotten his number ticket from the Sprint store and found only a couple of people waiting for the mobile phone department to open in order to buy a Pre. Because of the SNAFU from the night before when a manager had told him he could buy one at midnight, one of the 3 Pres in stock was on hold for him. He bought it and was done well before he would have even made it inside the Sprint store given his position in that line.
Bob thinks the Pre is nice, but he’s sorely missing syncing it with Outlook on his PC and may end up returning it, and I can’t blame him one bit. Intellectually, I understand why Palm wanted to make the move to avoid the standard sync-with-computer method (there’s an article on Ars Technica that explains it here), but I certainly don’t agree with it. While I don’t necessarily view the data on my Mac to be the single authoritative source of all of my PIM data, I don’t want to have to refer to my phone or some web-based service to find it when I’m sitting at my computer. I make changes to my data on both my computer and my iPhone, and I want them to stay in sync with each other, which they do remarkably well thanks to MobileMe. I think Palm is missing the point on this as computers become more and more portable in the form of netbooks where a cell phone won’t be the only computing device you might have with you at any given time.

The Pre’s packaging looking just like that of the Treo Pro

Unbelievably, I never even made it to a Sprint store over the weekend to try to see a working Pre demo unit (it was a busy weekend full of lawn mowing, shopping with a friend, and a BBQ) and I doubt I’ll get the chance until next weekend. This is probably going to be very good timing for me anyway since a new iPhone is expected to be announced today and I’ll be less tempted to get a Pre after that. There have even been rumors that the new iPhone model would be available today after it’s announced at WWDC – I highly doubt this, but I would surely exceed every speed limit on my way to my closest Apple store if that turns out to be true somehow.

My favorite fake shot of the 3rd-generation iPhone

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Speculation and rumors abound on the internet about what will be revealed at WWDC next week. Of course, my guess (along with just about every other Mac fan out there) is that a new iPhone will be released. I’ve seen a number of fake pictures on the internet, but this is the one I like the best:

I’ve seen this over at everythingicafe.com and a few other sites. I could seriously dig a new iPhone that looks like that. I’ve seen the picture/rumor of the matte case back for some time now and I wouldn’t mind that at all. I hate shiny surfaces that attract fingerprints like there’s no tomorrow, particularly on a device that’s frequently handled. I think all cell phones should have matte surfaces – if I were queen, I’d make it so. 
Only a few more days to go before the WWDC keynote!

Reveling in the plethora of Palm Pre reviews

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If you’ve checked just about any of the major technology and news sites today, you’ve probably come across a review of the Palm Pre. I got a chance to see it at CES in January (and did a first impressions piece on it here) and I’ve been anxious to see it released. That day is almost here and I’m actually toying with the idea of buying one to see what it’s like and returning it within the allowed window and calling the re-stocking fee I’d need to pay a rental fee.

When I first saw the Pre in January, I was very pleasantly surprised and even Tweeted that the Pre could draw me away from my iPhone. Alas, in CDMA form, this isn’t an option as I have no desire whatsoever to switch to Sprint and give up international roaming capability. However, the reviews so far have shown that WebOS is really slick, if a little sluggish at times, and its Synergy synchronization, notifications, and multi-tasking abilities are quite nice. Most surprising to me is that it can sync media with iTunes, minus any DRM-protected files, of course. Frankly, I don’t think Apple will let this continue, though they probably won’t be obvious about breaking this functionality and disguise it as the result of some other change to iTunes functionality.
I’ve been following the expected Pre availability news online, including the leaked Best Buy inventory shots over at EverythingPre.com, and I’m really disappointed that Palm isn’t better positioned to have a grand launch for the Pre. Somewhere along the line, there must have been problems with suppliers, manufacturing, or even delays in development at Palm to result in this kind of low inventory. It doesn’t feel like Palm pulled out all the stops to ensure that the device that could put them back on the map among smartphone makers landed solidly in front of as many consumers as possible.
So, should I try to get one or not? If I did, it would only be to do a comparison review with my iPhone 3G. Adding another cell phone account at $70 per month is completely out of the question for financial reasons – not to mention the fact that I don’t need another cell phone no matter how much I might like to have one – so it would need to go back within the return period. However, with such low stock expected and my lack of desire to camp out for several hours to be sure to get one, I don’t think it would happen even if I were motivated to try.
At any rate, if you’d rather not read the multiple reviews out there, there’s a good summary of the major ones here. I will continue to mull over the thought of trying to get one. If you see far too many Tweets from me on Saturday morning blathering on about a trip to Best Buy, standing in line for hours, etc., you’ll know I decided to try to get one after all. I’ll try to contain my excitement to a reasonable level, but I make no guarantees whatsoever to remain calm should I actually get one of the shiny devils in my hand.

Review of the USBConnect Mercury 3G modem from AT&T

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If you read my blog, you’ll know that I agonized for a little while over whether or not to buy a wireless modem to use with my MacBook Air during my commute, all the way to its arrival before I headed out to CES in early January, including some trials and tribulations with AT&T in between. I’ve now had the modem for several months and have had ample opportunity to see how well it works in order to write a review. While it’s not as fast as I’d like in all situations, it puts out satisfactory performance in most situations I’ve encountered. Read my full review here.

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