Living Digitally

Review of the Apple aluminum keyboard

Apple's newest keyboards are very sexy. They are almost impossibly thin with Chiclet-like keys and an anodized aluminum housing. I bought the full-sized USB version (actually, I bought two -- one for the office and one for home), but there's also a smaller Bluetooth version available.

After several months of use, I've determined that Apple's emphasis was definitely on aesthetics when designing this keyboard rather than function. It's certainly the most beautiful keyboard I've ever used, but it's also one of the least comfortable and "accurate". By accurate, I don't mean that it literally makes mistakes, but there's something about its design that encourages me to make more mistakes than I typically make with other keyboards. In particular, I have problems with capitalization.

My other complaint is ergonomics. Even though Steve Jobs bragged about its good ergonomics during its world debut, I find it relatively uncomfortable to use. It probably isn't any less ergonomic than its predecessor, however it's much flatter which forces me to bend my wrists slightly further forward in order to meet it. According to Steve, this is a good thing, but occasionally, he and I don't see eye to eye.

The new aluminum Apple keyboard looks and sounds better than any keyboard Apple has ever created, but when it comes to comfort and pure WPM, I much prefer my big ugly Goldtouch.

Update: I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten on this article. In fact, I've decided to give the keyboard another chance. I'm really going to work on ergonomics and see if that makes a difference. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Review of the Amazon Kindle

I've been waiting roughly 10 years for a good eBook reader. In fact, I've even tried several times to make them myself out of ultra-mobile PCs, tablet PCs, various Linux-based devices, phones, and old disused laptops. Once I accepted that I would probably never come up with a solution that I could stick with for more than a few days, I started eyeing technology from Sony and Seiko. And then just as I came to the conclusion that the world simply wasn't ready for eBooks yet, Amazon launched the Kindle. I had one in my cart and scheduled for next day delivery before I even fully knew what it was.

The Kindle is Amazon's new wireless reading device. Interestingly, they don't call it an eBook reader. They use the term "wireless reading device" which is actually very accurate, and much more descriptive. All marketing and buzzwords aside, Kindle is a device for wirelessly downloading and reading eBooks, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. It uses electronic ink for a high-contrast and power-thrifty display, and it even hints at music and web browser functionality, as well.

I've only been using my Kindle for about four hours, and most of that time has been spent reading, but here's what I have to report so far:

iFAQ: the complete iPhone question and answer

Below is a FAQ based on my first weekend of using an iPhone. It contains all the questions I had about the iPhone before I bought it, and everything that seemed worth mentioning after using it. If you have any additional questions, leave them in the comments, and I'll get you answers as soon as I can.

Now let's start with something easy:

Review of the T-Mobile MDA

After my less than inspired experience with the new T-Mobile Sidekick 3, I decided to try something completely different. I do this every now and again -- try to ween myself off the Sidekick platform. I've tried it with Treos, I've tried it with Blackberries, and I've tried it with phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. But in the end, I always come crawling back to the Sidekick.

Review of the Sidekick 3 (a big disappointment)

Fist of all, I have to say that I'm shocked by the almost unanimously positive online reviews of the new Sidekick 3. I can only assume that they were written by people who didn't have extensive experience with the Sidekick 2, and who were content to simply regurgitate T-Mobile's marketing collateral. Reading positive reviews of the Sidekick 3 has been like reading positive reviews of Matrix Reloaded. This review is written by someone who is (or was) a huge fan the Sidekick, and who has been using both the Sidekick 2 and 3 from the day they were each available.

I waited several weeks to write this review to make sure I had some real-world experience with the Sidekick 3. The first one I received was in some indeterminable way defective. About six hours after I started using it, while I was demoing it to someone, no less, the screen went completely black. I laughed at first, assuming I had found a software bug that would soon be fixed in an update, however after turning the device off and back on, soft resetting, and then hard resetting it, I wasn't laughing anymore. T-Mobile forced me to sacrifice hours of my life speaking with well-meaning but ultimately powerless customer service and support representatives on the phone, the details of which I will spare both of us. The upshot was that I paid a lot of money to have another Sidekick shipped to me right away since once I get my hands on a device, I can't rest until I've learned everything about it.

So now that I'm on my second Sidekick 3, and I've spend a few weeks with it in the field, I can honestly say that Danger got more wrong with the Sidekick 3 than they got right. To be fair, I'll start out with I think they got right:

The best Mac I've ever owned

I've owned a lot of Macs. Two iBooks, one PowerMac, two titanium PowerBooks, two aluminum PowerBooks, one iMac, and now my first MacBook. Even adjusting for processor enhancements and other hardware advances, I think I'm ready to declare the MacBook the best Mac I've ever owned.

I agonized for days over whether to go with the MacBook Pro or the standard MacBook, and in the end, I opted for the more modest standard MacBook for the following reasons:

• Apple finally positioned the ports on the MacBook on the left where they belong (unless you're left-handed, of course). Not ramming my mouse into a thick black DVI cable approximately 3,000 times per day was probably worth the price of the MacBook in an of itself.
• At 5.2 pounds, the MacBooks are the most portable of Apple's Intel notebooks. Unless you plan on hiking the Appalachian Trail with your MacBook, though, you probably wouldn't notice much of a difference between the 5.2 pound MacBook and the 5.6 pound 15" MacBook Pro.
• The battery life on the MacBooks is about as good as it gets. Up to 6 hours compared to 4.5 for the 15" MacBook Pro, and 5.5 for the 17". There's an ancient Chinese proverb which states what one gives up in screen size, one gains in battery life (except in the case of the 17" MacBook where Apple simply shoved a big enough battery into the case to compensate).
• The new MacBooks use a magnetic latch as opposed to two tiny metal hooks to keep the machine cinched tightly closed. I don't know about the MacPook Pros, but the PowerBooks had problems with their latches. I have a friend who has replaced his PowerBook latch with a piece of masking tape until he can get his hands on a new MacBook. As Apple has clearly learned with the iPod, the fewer moving parts, the fewer warranty repairs.
• The MacBooks have new keyboards which initially come across more like rows of buttons than keys. Presumably Apple made improvements over the old keyboards (still in use on the MacBook Pros), however I'd be perfectly happy with either. I have noticed that the keys don't come into contact with the screen when the machine is closed which used to do terrible things to the old PowerBook screens, however I believe that issues has been fixed since the aluminum models.
• The standard MacBooks have plastic cases rather than the aluminum cases of the MacBook Pros. I learned from the iBooks that the plastic is either more scratch-resistant, or does a better job of concealing scratches. It's also less prone to the warping that has been known to occur due to the excessive heat of some models.

Even though I love the standard MacBooks, there are several features that the MacBook Pros have that a lot of professional won't be able to live without:

Comparing noise-canceling headphones

I've been a big fan of the Bose QuietComfort headphones for years. My first pair was a cheap, beat-up display model from the Apple Store which I later upgraded after the release of the second generation to take advantage of the more compact and travel-friendly form factor. I've used my Bose QuietComfort headphones everywhere from my own office to long international flights, and they have always come through.

But that doesn't mean they're perfect. The biggest problem I've had with them is interference from GSM phones. You know the annoying ticking you get on speaker phones when someone has their Treo or Blackberry sitting on the table? The Bose QuietComfort headphones let you experience that pleasure directly in your ears. Of course, they are primarily intended for flying which presumably means everyone's phones are turned off, however when you live in the city and work in sea of cubes, you never know when you're going to need the little extra peace and quiet from noise canceling technology.

Unfortunately, the interference problem recently got worse after upgrading my wireless network. I went from my ancient Lucent ORiNOCO gateway to the much more impressive looking Linksys WRT54GX, which, in addition to producing a stronger signal, also produces a constant buzz through my QuietComfort headphones. I'm a glass-full kind of guy, though, so when I run into incompatibilities like this one, I look at it as an excuse to buy new toys (fortunately, I had an Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket).

This time, I decided to go with a much more low-tech solution to noise cancellation: the Etymotic ER6i Isolator Earphones. Rather than sampling ambient noise and generating a correction signal to cancel out unwanted sound, the ER6i headphones are basically earplugs with tiny speakers in them. They cancel noise the old-fashioned way: by physically blocking it.

I just got back from a trip to Seattle during which I had a chance to really give the Etymotics a thorough evaluation. Here's how they measure up to the Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones:

• Effectiveness: It's hard to compare the effectiveness of the Bose and the Etymotic headphones because they actually block different kinds of noises. I found the Bose to be more effective at blocking things like the low drone of an airplane engine, and the Etymotics to be more effective at blocking less predictable sounds, like those you experience in your cube when your co-workers are yapping or laughing at the newest YouTube video.
• Sound quality: I'm going to say that the two are tied here, but only because my ears are not discriminating enough to hear the difference. I'm sure a sound engineer could tell you which delivers better what, but to me, both sound good enough.
• Portability: The Etymotics win hands down in this category. They fit into a little 2"x2" pouch which adds no bulk or weight to your bag during a trip. To be fair, the QuietComfort 2 headphones are much more compact than the first generation, but they still add the size and weight of a good sized paperback to your travel load.
• Comfort. I actually find the QuietComfort headphones to be slightly more comfortable than the Etymotics. The only problem with the Bose headphones is that they tend to tickle the inside of your ears for some reason that seems to be related to pressure after extended use, but in general, I prefer headphones that cup over my ears rather than get crammed inside them. I also don't like how the Etymotics accumulate ear wax, no matter how clean you keep your ears, meaning they really can't be shared among people who are the least bit concerned with hygiene.
• Price. The Bose QuietComfort headphones go for $299, and the Etymotics can be had for about $89.99.

So which would I recommend? It depends on what you need them for, and how important portability is to you. As always, the only true answer is to probably just own both.

The #1 reason why I love the Sidekick II

I bought the Sidekick II the day it came out, and I've been using it almost everyday since. I tried replacing it with a Treo 650 and a Nokia 6680, but both times, I ended up switching back. I've used all kinds of phones, PDAs, and personal information management system, and I've found that the Sidekick II offers the best overall experience of them all. But as impressed as I've always been with the Sidekick II, I recently gained an entirely new appreciation for it.

Without getting into too many details, my Sidekick got destroyed the other day (let's just say that Sidekicks are tough, but cars are tougher). For a brief moment, I thought I might try to wean myself from the Sidekick and go with something like the Motorola RAZR which I've always really liked, but I ended up walking out of the store with another brand new Sidekick II (I had pretty much worn my old one out anyway, so I didn't mind replacing it). I took it into the office with me, plugged it in to charge, and that's when the magic happened.

All I had to do was insert my SIM card, log in, and wait about 30 minutes, and my new Sidekick II was, as far as I can tell, 100% restored to its former glory. All of my PIM data, applications, settings, and configuration had been completely restored, right down to my custom sound profiles and POP email accounts. I knew my PIM information (address book, calendar, etc.) would be preserved, but I had no idea all the additional applications I purchased would not only be automatically restored, but with all the data from my previous Sidekick -- every birthday, high score, and preference. I don't know of any other device in the world that would have made that process so painless.

A couple of things to think about...

• Why isn't it that easy to migrate from one computer to another? When I get a new computer, it usually sits in the box for a couple of days until I can find the time to do the painful manual migration.
• As much as I love the Sidekick, I'd still really love to have a smaller phone like the RAZR for certain occasions. Why can't I have both (without the pain of switching SIM cards, which is far from ideal)? I'd love to have multiple mobile phones on a single account so I could just grab whichever one is more suitable for the day's activities.

Stream music to your Xbox 360 (from any computer)

My Xbox 360 monitoring script worked, and I got a Platinum system from Circuit City. I've had it for about a week now, and I think I've spent as much time playing with the dashboard and media capabilities as I have playing games.

I don't have a Media Center PC (yet), but it turns out I don't need one in order to stream music to my Xbox 360. All you need is a media server that the Xbox thinks is a Media Center PC. I'm using a server called TwonkyMusic from Twonky Vision. I'm running it on a G5 iMac in my kitchen, and it streams music to my Xbox 360 over a 802.11g wireless network perfectly. The server automatically starts when I log in, and indexes all the MP3 files in the /User directory. It even runs a little web server on port 9000 that you can use to administer the music server from inside or outside your network. The TwonkyMedia server will stream photos, as well, but I'm only interested in music since all my photos are on Flickr (who I hope is working on some sort of media streaming solution of their own).

The one issue I've had with the server is that I ended up having to shut off the firewall on my iMac (but not the firewall between me and the outside world). I tried opening all the ports that TwokyMusic claims to uses, and that let me connect to the server from my Xbox, but not browse music for some reason. I have to look into that further, but otherwise, it's been working great, and my Xbox 360 has been playing music just about nonstop ever since.

The Twonky server products are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and will allow you to stream music to about 34 different devices. I'll still probably end up getting either a Media Center PC, or whatever Apple announces in a couple weeks, but in the meantime, this is a great solution.

Playing with the Yahoo! Mail beta

I finally got on the new Yahoo! Mail beta after applying three times and even asking some friends at Yahoo! to put in a good word for me. You see, I'm a big Yahoo! Mail fan. Back when Gmail launched, I created a Gmail account like everyone else, and I still use Gmail sometimes, but I decided to stick with Yahoo! Mail as my primary email solution. I've been using Yahoo! Mail for several years now, and I've always been happy with their feature set, and I always knew someday they'd release a revolutionary new interface.