Master Dilettante

This is Part II in a series describing my iPhone 3G issues and how I’ve addressed them.  Last, I described how to conserve the battery life, although the iPhone Firmware 2.1 upgrade was certainly the biggest factor.  Today, I describe how my Microsoft Exchange integration broke and describe my somewhat involved setup and sync needs.  This will set the stage for my exploration of solutions.

In brief:  I upgraded to iPhone Firmware 2.1, and my Microsoft Exchange integration broke.  I work at eBay, where we use Microsoft Exchange, Outlook and Web mail.  With my BlackBerry Pearl, everything just worked, without a thought.  With iPhone Firmware 2.0, 2.01 and 2.02, I was delighted that everything just worked too — a seamless transition from RIM, right?  Wrong!  With iPhone Firmware 2.1, email stopped arriving completely and all my contacts and calendar events were deleted from my iPhone and no longer syncing.

This was a disaster because of my setup.  I have a PC at work and a Mac at home, but I have (foolishly?) relied for the past 2 companies and 8 years entirely on my work Outlook to manage my calendar and contacts.  In other words, I have no other complete record of calendar events and contact information other than in Outlook.  With the Exchange integration broken, I now had an empty iPhone calendar and empty contacts.  Nothing, no ability even to call anyone without looking up their number in Outlook.  (No one memorizes numbers in this day and age, do they?)

Realizing this is a dangerous dependency, I recently had started to look to backup my data online.  First, I installed Yahoo! Autosync to sync Outlook with Yahoo! Address Book and Yahoo! Calendar.  This didn’t work very well.  I have close to 1000 contacts records in Outlook.  Inevitably, the number of contacts, in Yahoo! Address Book didn’t match the number in Outlook, Yahoo! Autosync failed to merge records for the same person, and, in many cases, critical information was missing.  Probably some sort of problem with field mapping.  Inelegant.

Second, I exported my Outlook contacts to a comma-delimited .csv file and then imported them into Gmail.  This had the same problem as Yahoo! Autosync — mismatched record counts, non-merged records and missing data.  I also tried Google Calendar sync to sync between Outlook and Gcal.  This worked fairly well but takes an inordinately long time to complete; I think the application starts afresh with every sync.

With broken Exchange integration and no clear solutions on Apple’s discussion boards, I now needed an alternative method to get calendar and contacts synced with my iPhone.

Here’s what I want:

• Ubiquitous access to email, contacts and calendar — from my work desktop, from my home desktop, from any Web terminal and from my mobile device . . . . For me, this means Outlook, Web mail, Gmail/Gcal, Yahoo mail/Address Book/Calendar, Mac Address Book/iCal and iPhone
• Uniform data — no duplication of entries, no omitted entries and consistent data across platforms
• Over-the-air sync — what good is a mobile device if I have to plug it in to get data on it?

Clearly, as much as Apple claims to be targeting enterprises with the iPhone, Apple isn’t ready.  They don’t even use Exchange at Apple is my understanding.  They don’t understand enterprise activation.  They don’t understand Enterprise-level support:  After several calls to Apple, their ultimate advice was:  We have no idea why Exchange broke, too bad, good luck.  Thankfully, email spontaneously restored after a couple of days, but I will no longer trust to the Exchange integration for my calendar and contacts, which remained broken last time I attempted to integrate.

Next post, the available options.

I know I’ve been complaining a lot about my iPhone.  Apple products are supposed to just work — that’s their brand — and this one just hasn’t, at least not for me.  But I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of technology torture, and just about everything’s working now, if not the way I would have liked originally.  I’m going to recount in the next few posts my trials and tribulations and how I overcame them.

Recall my most recent complaints:  (1) abysmal battery life and (2) broken Microsoft Exchange integration.

I was sometimes getting less than 5 hours of battery life, even after Apple replaced my unit with a new one.  Firmware 2.1 plus some more prudent battery conservation practices have all but solved #1.  I’ve read too many articles, blog posts and discussion board threads on this to recount.  Plus, I’ve finally succumbed to logical suggestions — most of which I daresay I had heard already — from BW and ES.  Here’s what’s worked for me:

First, I’m only fetching data now, and only hourly.  Such is the disappointment of and lowered expectations in performance of the iPhone 3G that the very reason for buying it — push — is what must be disabled to provide more reasonable battery life.  I’m not even upset that I don’t get push, because it was working so poorly — that battery-killing wheel seemed to be spinning constantly — and I’m so grateful for longer battery life.

Second, I’ve slightly reduced the number of accounts from which I’m fetching data.  I have work Exchange, Yahoo, Gmail and MobileMe accounts.  Instead of fetching data from all of them, I’m forwarding Gmail to Yahoo and fetching from Yahoo.  I use MobileMe only for calendar and contacts syncing, so I have it set up but never check that email.  And I’m even fetching from my work email account.  I came to terms with the fact that I don’t need push email to distract me in meetings, and I already get push when sitting in front of my destop with Outlook open.

Third, I’ve turned brightness down fairly low.  Even with a protective film on the glass, it’s still bright enough for me.

Fourth, I’ve left Bluetooth and Location Services on.  I use my Bluetooth headset to and from work every day, it’s too much of a pain to go into Settings to deactivate and activate it repeatedly, and I’m not convinced it’s a drain on the battery.  For Location Services, much of the time I have this off, but I just end up switching it on when prompted when using Google Maps or some other geo-aware application that calls for it.

Finally, I’ve left both 3G and Data Roaming turned on.  As eBay alumnus Ryan Spoon notes, push has a much greater effect on battery life than 3G.  I know at least one other iPhone 3G owner — ES –  who switches off 3G not because of the perceived battery life drain but because he believes the network is unreliable and results in dropped calls.  I’m accessing the Internet often enough that I want the speed from its being on all the time.

The net effect?  I can go over a day without recharging.  And I don’t live in constant fear of a sudden drained-battery-induced shutdown.  Frackin’ fantastic.  Reasonable battery life?  Check!

Next, I’ll bemoan the complete failure of Exchange integration, my data sync requirements and then the awkward but functioning solutions I’ve devised.

Some of you may know that I’ve been having myriad problems with my iPhone 3G, mostly around rapidly deteriorating battery life and inability to restore from backup.

Today, Apple released the new 2.1 firmware, and it’s broken my Exchange integration.  Right now, I have no calendar, no contacts and no email — the unit is useless to me without these core functions.  I’ve tried deleting the Exchange account and re-adding it, but that doesn’t help.  Apple support forums indicate that at least a few others are experiencing the same problem.  Frankly, I’m sick of the inability of the iPhone to perform basic functions, and I’m seriously thinking about switching back to BlackBerry.

Two reasons to buy Apple products:  (1) They just work and (2) sex appeal.  So far, (1) is absent leaving my iPhone decidely unsexy. 

Korean food must be going mainstream! I was at the Mountain View Costco this weekend and saw for the first time shelves and shelves of jars of the traditional Korean pickled cabbage side dish, from a brand you could find at a Korean grocer, too.

I don’t think the Korean population is particularly large in this area, and plenty of Korean grocery stores are nearby, so I’m not sure how long this will last. I, for one, will continue to buy any kimchee from a local Korean market. But how cool!

Postscript: This post the first I’ve written on my iPhone WordPress application.

Is anyone excited about the Olympics?

It’s just around the corner, but I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated the Olympics less. Perhaps it’s age. I have a mild interest in watching the U.S.A. basketball team, but, other than that, ho hum.

A good friend of mine just asked me which Bluetooth headset she should get. I’ve done a fair amount of research here, bought a few too many devices myself and actually had planned to post reviews of the BlueAnt Z9 and the Plantronics Discovery 925. I’m going to skip those reviews and instead copy-paste my response to my friend right here:

What are your requirements? Are you thinking of a wireless Bluetooth headset?

J.I. just got the original Jawbone, which has come down in price quite a bit, particularly since a new model has been released. I wrote three blog posts on the original Jawbone, with mixed reviews: http://www.joonsookim.com/blog/?s=jawbone.

In general, I think you should be considering (1) sound quality, both receiving and transmitting, (2) ease of use, (3) physical comfort/fit and (4) durability.

Here’s what I think the options are:

I’ve looked at reviews of other Bluetooth headsets. Some folks like various Motorola versions. My sense is that these four above are among the best if not the best. Certainly, the BlueAnt and the Jawbone receive the highest acclaim.

Lemme know if you have more questions!

With this said, I continue to get some feedback that the Plantronics Discovery 925 transmitting sound quality can be spotty. I’ll likely check out the Jawbone NinjaAssassin at some point and will let you know how that goes.

I’ve been the proud, delighted owner of my 16MB white iPhone 3G for a week now. I love it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its drawbacks. And I find that many of my complaints are around the absence of functionality I had on my BlackBerry Pearl. Following my first impressions, here’s what Apple could do that would make me say, “What BlackBerry?”

Must Have:

• Improve the battery life. The battery life is so bad that I find myself now becoming accustomed to charging my iPhone throughout the day. Granted, my usage is high. I ran the unit several times until it shut down to maximize battery life as an Apple Genius recommended. But any handheld communications-organization device needs to be able to run from the time I wake until the time I sleep. End of story.
• To-Do List/Notes Sync. I used Notes and the To-Do List (the “NextAction” add-on) extensively on my BlackBerry, and they integrated beautifully with Outlook, including Outlook Exchange Web mail. Now, I remain in a quandary as to what to do with the iPhone. I’m looking at Evernote, EasyTask Manager and OmniFocus as replacements (I’m a partial GTD adherent), but none solve all of the problems I have. (More on GTD applications to come).
• Copy/Cut-Paste. It’s beyond my understanding why this is not available.
• More Robust Email. The litany of issues is too long to enumerate. BlackBerry is way better, period. This is essential if Apple wants to steal share in the enterprise market.
• Voice Dialing. Especially in California, where headsets are now required by law when driving, easy dialing while in the car is essential. Favorites, Recents, Contacts — all of these are too difficult to use when driving. I’ve tried the SpeechCloud Voice Dialer application and it (1) isn’t a dialer - it’s a voice recognition lookup tool and (2) it doesn’t work well. In 4-5 tries, it never found the name I was seeking, and I then uninstalled it. In general, contact and phone number lookup on the iPhone require too many keystrokes, and the ease of use of the basic phone function is less than ideal.
• Overall Stability. My iPhone crashes. Not infrequently. Usually when flipping among applications. An open platform is great. It’s got to be more stable that this.

Nice to Have:

• IR Beam. Remember the Palm V? I do. I’d love better capability to transmit data from phone-to-phone.
• Video Recording. This isn’t that important to me, but I look forward to the day.

I’m still a satisifed promoter of the iPhone and look forward to future improvements. It’s been a week, and I’m still having fun.

Here’s what I’m loving so far:

• Evernote — This is a pre-existing capture-organize-search application new to me. Take notes, photos, voice notes. Among the many potential uses, I’m taking photos of random scraps of paper I’ve had lying around, tagging them for Evernote and then tossing ‘em. Love it.
• WritingPad — You’ve got to try this to understand it. It’s faster than the keyboard but lacks the magnifying glass cursor placement. Getting to numbers and symbols is a bit of a pain, but for sheer input speed, it’s cool.
• Twitteriffic — Who knew I had so much nonsense to say? (Yes, yes, everyone).
• Pandora — I was using this Web-based before. The iPhone application is great. It’s already changing how people regard radio.

Check these out!

Over a year ago I endorsed the Jawbone Bluetooth headset with unbridled enthusiasm. At the time, it was clearly superior to any other Bluetooth noise reduction headset. Not too soon after I bought it, my enthusiasm subsided and I reluctantly acknowledged a few concerns. Yet I remained satisfied.

Now, over a year later, events since then and the emergence of competing products prompt this reassessment.

Last year, I articulated my evaluative criteria: (1) sound quality, both receiving and transmitting, (2) comfort/fit/usability and (3) durability. I rated the Jawbone as outstanding in sound quality, I was noncommital with regard to fit, and I questioned its durability.

I stand by my assessment of transmitting sound quality, and reports are that the new Jawbone NoiseAssassin has much improved receiving sound quality.

However, I grew more and more dissatisfied with the fit the longer I used the original Jawbone. No matter which ear bud or ear loop I tried, I could never get a reasonably comfortable, snug fit in my ear; the Jawbone always felt as if it might fall.

On top of this, the usability and/or durability of the Jawbone wasn’t up to snuff. I’d originally broken my first one by a single short drop to the floor. Next, I found difficulty getting the Jawbone to charge. The awkward fit between the charger and the Jawbone port was a difficult marriage to make. Even using different chargers, sometimes I simply couldn’t get the Jawbone to fit and charge. Finally, the last straw for me was when the Jawbone would appear to charge but simply wouldn’t power on or function anymore.

Now, the NoiseAssassin is sexier in its sleekness, but I’m reading even more criticisms of its hit or miss fit. (I think this is the downside of relying on a heralded designer — the wrong designer will emphasize aesthetics over function). Apparently, Jawbone recognized the charger issues and has addressed them. But at this point, I’m once bitten and twice shy about trying the Jawbone again.

Oddly, I remain a promoter of the Jawbone. I’ve found that no headset is perfect. But I’ve since parted company with Aliph and its products and moved on to other alternatives. More on my quest for the perfect headset very soon.

I’ve been marveling at the rate at which humankind is generating data and the hardware capacity that will be needed to store it all. Has anyone analyzed the physical limits to electronic data storage?

Core77 (cool design site I follow) is blogging today about the above Neatorama chart visualizing 12 terabytes of information. As a sometimes fan of Edward Tufte — love his books but find his lectures wanting — I found the Neatorama chart pretty neat. Check out the original Neatorama post for more figurative color.

If you’re wondering how large a terabyte is, note:

• 1 Bit = Binary Digit
• 8 Bits = 1 Byte
• 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
• 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
• 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
• 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
• 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
• 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
• 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
• 1000 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
• 1000 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
• 1000 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte

By the way, I’ve long assumed that human brain capacity far exceeds electronic data storage capacity. Neatorma is estimating human brain capacity at 1.25 terabytes by relying on the opinion or work of futurist Raymond Kurzweil.

Enjoy.