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Can I Get an iPhone, Hold the Phone?

Jun 12, 2009

iPod Touch as an alternative to iPhone

I’ve been lusting for the iPhone for quite some time, but being a Verizon user and it not making sense to change to AT&T, I have been forced to resist. Since there’s currently no guarantee on how long it will be before Verizon gets the iPhone, I recently purchased the iPod Touch (2nd Generation) to see if that would work as a compromise.

I’m not done experimenting with it, but so far the iPod Touch is really slick and gives you a lot of the iPhone experience – until you don’t have wifi available. There are still a lot of great things about it though. Even when you don’t have the wifi you are still left with a fairly useful device that has an MP3 player, movie player, game player, photo viewer, e-reader and more. It’s sort of like a PDA, but with loads of extra capabilities. While you will miss being connected when you don’t have wifi, many of the Apps like NY Times, Twitter apps, Facebook etc., will cache the most recently downloaded information for viewing offline. I have found this to be very, very useful. The sometimes Internet connection may be more or less substantial depending on how often you are in wifi enabled areas.

When you do have a wifi, it’s very much like you have a an iPhone. You can take full advantage of the App Store, which is like a reinvention of the Internet for a mobile phone. You can use all of your Apps, surf the web and access your email from Microsoft Exchange, Gmail and most IMAP and POP mail.

The iPod Touch is missing some other significant things the iPhone has besides the 3G internet. It does not have the camera, GPS, compass, microphone and obviously, the ability to make phone calls. A microphone can be purchased separately though and would be useful if you want to do things like use the popular Shazam app or make Skype calls. The iPod Touch does haves the accelerometer (tilt sensor) and light sensor that the iPhone has.

This article also highlights more ways to use the iPod Touch as an alternative to the iPhone: Forget the iPhone—The iPod Touch is Good Enough.

The verdict on the iPod Touch is that it’s fun, useful and a good iPhone compromise, but instead of quelling my iPhone desire, it actually is making made me want it even more. For now it will work though since personally there are too many benefits for staying with Verizon. It’s not as nice as having the connection all the time, but then again I have the consolation of not being locked into a contract for expensive monthly payments with AT&T.

Citi Field Photos

May 10, 2009

I posted some pics from my recent visit to Citi Field, the NY Mets new ballpark. The new park is impressive, although many of the new parks including Citi Field are starting to look a lot like each other. Some of the more prominent features of Citi Field include the exterior facade which was modelled after Brooklyn’s old Ebbets Field, the retro Pepsi Cola sign which is reminiscent of the one in Long Island City and Pepsi Porch, the large walkable area in the outfield. The Porch reminded me of the outfield at Safeco Field in Seattle.

Citi Field has a 42,000 seats which is 15,000 fewer seats than Shea Stadium. I think this is a good move as almost every seat provides a good view and the Mets often wouldn’t fill up the bigger stadium anyway. Citi Field also has greatly improved food offerings, including a Shake Shack. I think the line there is going to be worse than the original at Madison Square Park if that’s possible.

It was weird to be in the area where Citi Field is and be in a different ballpark, because I’ve been going to Shea Stadium since I was a little kid. I’ll miss Shea mostly for sentimental reasons, but it is about time the Mets got a modern stadium.

Citi Field pictures

Links: 3-28-09

Mar 28, 2009

Tesla Motors Model S Backed by Google Founders Brin, Page
This all-electric car sounds like it has some promise, especially if increased production brings the cost down. Some of the specs include up to 300 mile range per charge, 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and speeds up to 120 miles per hour.
Firefox May Already Be Dead
A soon as some plugins start to come out for Google Chrome, it will most likely become my regular browser. It’s so much faster than the disappointing Firefox 3 not to mention there are some things in FF3 seem like a step backwards from FF2.
Lance Armstrong on Twitter
If you haven’t already discovered he’s on there, check it out and live vicariously through his frequently updated Twitter posts. The man leads a good life.
A Public Food Market for Boston
“After a decade of false starts, Boston officials are moving to open the city’s first daily public food market since the 1950s in a building along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, hoping to provide a permanent indoor showcase for the state’s farm products and local cuisine.”

Summer Solstice Links

Jun 21, 2008

Bicycle Friendly Communities
I would consider making this list being a stong indicator that a city is a pretty good place to live. I recently was in Portland, OR, the first large city in the US to reach platinum status. When I was there the amount of bike commuters, bike lanes and “share the road” type signs was amazing. They are probably even happier about their investment in the bicycle infrastucture with gas prices the way they are now.
New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association (NHRRA)
To me a part of short term answer to skyrocketing fuel costs is to look at Europe. When I have been in Europe, whose gasoline costs have been much higher than ours for a long time, 2 things really stood out: small cars dominate the roads and the fact that the trains that seem to go everywhere. Bringing back rail will be more dificult in states with smaller populations like New Hampshire, but it also makes sense as everthing is further apart and therefore a longer drive. Right now the only rail in NH is the Amtrak Downeaster which briefly passes through towns a few towns out towards the coast. There has been some talk of a “Capitol Corridor” line which would connect Nashua and Manchester to Boston.
31 Places to go this summer
The White Mountains of NH, where I spend a lot of time, are number 2 on this list. Ok so it’s not in order of rank, but it’s still cool to see it included on this excellent list.
5 Places not to go this summer
A list of the interesting tourist spots that Americans can’t visit.

The Good Ol’ Days

Jun 14, 2008

3.99 gas prices

I took this picture because as high as gas prices are now, I have a feeling we’re going to be looking back before long wishing for the good ol’ days of $3.99 gas. Hope I’m wrong.

Googley Design Principles

Jun 8, 2008

I came across these Google design principles the other day while working on a user experience document, and I thought it would be worth posting here. If more developers/designers used philosophies like this we would gain a lot more milliseconds (ahem, Yahoo!)

Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
Every millisecond counts.
Simplicity is powerful.
Engage beginners and attract experts.
Dare to innovate.
Design for the world.
Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
Be worthy of people’s trust.
Add a human touch.

Southernmost Chickens

May 7, 2008

It took me a while but I posted some pictures from a trip to Key West, FL back in March. After driving over all 42 bridges that stitch the Overseas Highway together, I arrived in Key West to the sounds of “cock-a-doodle-dooooo” seemingly ringing out of every corner. Apparently it is against the law in Key West to harm or seize chickens and so they just hang out and multiply a lot. This could be a good or bad thing depending on whose point of view it is.

Note to self for future trips to the Keys: don’t go during spring break. It was hard to tell what there was more of, tourists or chickens. With it being the fun, easy-going, remote island that it is, I think it could be an even better place to hang out during mellower times.

Key West photos

Hands Across The Merrimack Open

Apr 29, 2008

Hands Across The Merrimack pedestrian bridge

A photo I took tonight of the "Hands Across The Merrimack" bridge. The long planned pedestrian bridge in Manchester, NH is now open! Yay for ManchVegas!

Links: 4-20-08

Apr 20, 2008

Bikely.com
Don’t know how I’ve managed to miss this site until now, but I’ve been waiting for something like it for a while. Bikely allows people to share information about bike routes, partly by drawing on a Google Map. I am always trying to find safe new routes, especially in New Hampshire where most of the state is sadly devoid of any “Share The Road” signs. I also have friends who say they would bike to work, but there is no safe route. This should help myself and others.
Currier Museum of Art reopens
After being closed for almost 2 years for expansion, one of the highlights of Manchester,NH is back.
Possible Dreamweaver alternative
I’ve gave Aptana Studio free version a quick tryout and it seems to have a lot of useful features. It looks promising as it is very similar to Dreamweaver, only $399.00 cheaper.
I fell in love with a female assassin
This story about a photojournalist in Columbia seems like it could make a great book. “There comes a point in every new relationship when your girlfriend wants to share a secret. Usually it’s to do with sex – how many other partners she’s had (with a few conveniently erased) – that sort of thing. Often, the secret changes the basis of the relationship; honesty comes with consequences. But what happens if your new girlfriend has a much darker and more sinister secret than having slept around a bit?”

Baxter State Park Winter Trip

Feb 7, 2008

Well after a recent trip to Mount Desert Island, it was time for another journey up into Northern Maine. This one was not quite as luxurious as the previous one, but still a fun adventure at another one of the more spectacular places to visit in Maine. The plan was to spend 4 days at Baxter State Park with the primary objective being to do a winter summit of Mt Katahdin. Kathadin is the high point in Maine (5,267 feet/1,606 meters) and the end of the Appalachian Trail. We’d also try to explore whatever else we could from Roaring Brook Cabin, which was our home for 3 nights. To get to Katahdin, it is approximately 20 miles total in the winter (depending on which trail you take up to the summit ridge).

After spending the night at Hotel Terrace in Millinocket, we woke up to rapidly falling, big puffy snowflakes. This looked really nice, but once we got going it would turn the first day into a death march. We had to hike 12 miles in to Roaring Brook Cabin, as opposed to the summer when you can drive right to it and we were pulling sleds with food and gear. The snow was constant, heavy and wet which made it feel like we were doing a marathon while pulling a dead body in our sleds behind us. We got to the cabin a lot later than we anticipated and were quite spent.

The plan was to go for the summit of Katahdin on Saturday and this would have been ideal, because the forecast called for the temperatures to plummet on Sunday and Monday. The trip in the day before though eliminated the chance of that though. We didn’t have enough time do do the necessary preparation and we were still pretty exhausted. This was unfortunate, because with the arctic blast coming the next day, we knew it was our best chance.

Instead with the weather being nearly perfect, mostly sunny and not too cold, we decided to go for South Turner Mountain. It’s not a huge mountain at only 3123 feet, but because it is positioned directly across from the broad Katahdin ridge and was a steep and interesting climb, we found it to be a very worthwhile. With deep snow and the trail totally unbroken, it was also one of harder small mountains I have done in a while.

Sunday morning the Artic blast set in as scheduled. While it was still dark and -5 degrees I went to fill 9 water bottles down at the brook. This was one of those moments where you ask yourself, “I like doing this why?!”. Of course it’s actually rare that I feel like that but I think it happens to any winter hiker sometimes.

As we were setting out for the summit of Katahdin, I was pretty sure right from the start that our chances of summitting were pretty slim. At 6:45 after taking a little Vitamin I (ibuprofen), we started for Chimney Pond and it just got colder as we went. By the time we reached Chimney Pond it was -10 degrees and we could see a nasty, swirling snow plume blowing around up at the summit ridge. Even at 2900 feet, boogies and sweat were freezing on our faces. We decided it could turn dangerous a little too easily and turned around there. We probably could have made it, but if we ran into one snag we might have been looking at a dicey situation.

Even though the averse conditions prevented us from reaching our primary goal, it was still a great experience to see Baxter State Park in the winter. As usual on these winter expeditions, I learned a lot and walked away much better prepared for the next trip.

View Baxter State Park photos

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