iphone vs blackberry

Yes, I’ve done it.  I’ve bought an iphone and these are my thoughts on the differences between the Blackberry Pearl and my Apple iPhone.

First, some basics. The exact devices i’m talking about are the Blackberry 8100 and the 8GB 3G iPhone.

It didn’t take me long to get excited about the lifestyle benefits of the iphone, especially when I consider that the data plan for the iPhone is the same monthly cost as my Blackberry and I can sell the Pearl for the same price as the iPhone cost me.

So at the end of the day, it’s a straight swap.

I opted for the 8 gb model because I just can’t see the need to spend another $100 for 8 more gigs at this point.

Here was my rationale - I have about 400 songs on my 2 gb ipod right now and it’s only about 50% full.  Movies on the iStore will take up about 850 gigs.  And how often will I put a movie on the iPhone?

Probably only a few times a year when I’m travelling and want to watch it on the plane.

Pictures?  Nope - not that many. Podcasts?  Very few.  As a result, I can’t imagine that I would fill up this phone with how I use it, unless I change my mobile rich media habits.

As with most things in life, you don’t miss them until they are gone, not using the Blackberry anymore has created a few of those moments.

I’ve had the iPhone for about a week now and these are my thoughts:

1. The touch screen is very good and fun to use. If you are a text and email junkie like me, you will quickly get used to it. Be careful though - arriving texts show up on your screen even if it’s locked - you need to set a password to hide this.

2. Navigating web pages as they were meant to be seen is so fantastic. (No Blackberry’s can currently do this)

3. Getting used to the touch screen keyboard is a little weird, but you will get the hang of it. I liked the tactile experience of ‘touch and click’ with the Pearl. I was also quite handy with the track ball.  The touch screen on the iPhone enables me to type just as fast now that I’m used to it.

4. The interface is light years ahead of Blackberry.  Very intuitive and totally “Apple”, if you know what I mean.

5. I miss the built-in voice call / voice recognitions feature (you can get one from the App Store) and button on the Blackberry. One of my cars does not have built in BlueTooth, so if I need to call someone while I’m driving, finding their number on the iPhone is a lot more work than the Blackberry.  With the Pearl, I used to just click the button on the side of the phone, say the name and then the phone would do the rest.  I could do that without taking my eyes off the road. I can’t do that with the Blackberry unless I’m Bluetoothed-up.  And I haven’t tried to use it with my Bluetooth headset yet either, so I don’t know what the BT capabilities are like, but others tell me it’s fine.

6. The iPhone speaker phone is much better than the Pearl.  Callers report that I sound like I’m on the regular phone and I can hear people much better.  My only gripe is that volume is a bit low, even at full blast.

7. The size.  This was a biggie for me.  I really liked the candy-bar size of the Pearl.  It fits nicely in my pocket.  I don’t think cell phones are a fashion accesory and don’t want to look like a security-guard-dork with my phone attached to my belt.  The Iphone is a bit bigger than the Pearl, but a little thinner.  It is also quite a bit heavier.  I liked the size and weight of the Pearl much better.  You KNOW you’ve got the iPhone with you, whereas sometimes I had to pat my jacket to see if I remembered my Pearl.

8. It “should” theoretically last longer.  The materials used in the iPhone are much higher in quality than the Pearl.  The touch screen is actually a type of glass, the trim is actually metal.  Holding both phones, you can just see and feel the difference.  The Blackberry has all these little buttons.  Anytime you have moving parts, they eventually wear out.  The iPhone should last longer because you’re dealing with software to run things, not hardware.  Apple is known for stable software.

9. The App Store.  This is where there’s really no comparison between the two devices.  The iPhone is like a little computer in your hands that is optimized for all the stuff you do in your life.
VERY POWERFUL PARTY TOOL and CONVERSATION STARTER.
The App Store has just about every application imaginable - so free, some for a fee. So far, I’ve installed a few games (the Price is Right, iSlots) and the weather network application.  I’ve also grabbed the Google Earth application which is as good as the real version. There is so much going on at the App Store, than you would probably never see it all. Wine picks?  No problem.  Fitness or budgeting applications?  Yes.  Recipes?  Yes.  Movie trailers and reviews and then times at YOUR LOCAL theatres?  Yes. Salesforce.com integration? Yes.

10. Web Surfing.  Hands down…awesome. Hard to believe that you can surf the web so quickly and easily (thanks to the 3G capabilities).

11. Call quality.  As good as the Blackberry.  Not better, not worse - but about the same in my opinion.

12. Maps.  This is an awesome application.  Thanks to the built in Google and killer-web surfing ability, you can use the phone like a GPS to instantly pinpoint your own location, then type in a destination and it will create a turn by turn route map for you.  Very cool. What is DOES NOT do is follow you and talk to you like a real GPS, you’d need to download an app (from guess where) the app store.

13. Business practicality.  This is one of those tricky questions. I’m a technology person.  I make my living on the web, through the web and around the web.  The Blackberry is a VERY GOOD product - don’t get me wrong.  I REALLY like their stuff.  They do email and do it well.  Let’s not forget they were the first to put email on the phone!
The iPhone does those same things too.  You can integrate with your companies exchange server.  I worry that many CIO’s will find cause for concern with the iPhone because of its “video game like console” approach to mobile communications and am sure that for this reason, the Blackberry will keep its place as the de facto business tool for many years yet.

Conclusions:

Is the iPhone better?

No, it’s just different.  It’s more fun - that’s for sure. Do I miss my Blackberry, yes I do.  Will I keep the iPhone.  Probably.  It’s growing on me.

Is it “just a phone”.  No. Do I “need” it.  No. It’s kind of a hobbyist tool.

Is it practical?  If you want it to be.

It is worth the money? If you get it with a data plan.

Is it the future. Yes.

Is it fun.  Totally.  (if you have the time!)

Would I recommend it?  That depends.  To my dad?  Absolutely not. It would drive him nuts (even though he likes the latest toys).  To a road warrior?  Probably. To an occasional cell phone user with a modicum of techical abilities?  Probably not - but that’s where this gets tricky…because this device is SO capable of getting your attention, which is what happened to me the first time a friend showed it.  I was hooked.

Be careful that you don’t get hooked!

iphoneincanada.ca is a site worth visiting if you’re new to the iPhone world.

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WordPress Logo

Recently I’ve had a few conversations with my old friend James at Conscious Revolution Now about the value of using a blog as a business tool - specifically with WordPress and a decent theme.

While our blogs are not intended be such (at least mine isn’t), there is so much value that a business could gain by using the blog platform to communicate and engage with its prospects and customers.

The reason is very simply this: WordPress is more than a blog.  It is a search engine optimized, highly customizable CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM that DOES NOT require programming skills to leverage.

What if I told you that I’ve customized this blog to look and feel the way it does without any programming?

Would you believe me?

Well…the answer is that it’s true.  If you don’t believe me, then I challenge you to call me on it if you want to use a blog theme like mine (or one of the other millions of them out there) for your business.

The bottom line is that WordPress and a good theme like the one I’m using from Solostream is all you really need.  The rest is up to you.

Gone are the days where you’ll need to call your web developer everytime you need something changed or updated.

Most, if not ALL of what you’ll want to do is do-able within the WordPress publishing panel.

Anyway, here are 10 resources that I think someone rolling out a blog as a business tool should review:

1. Blogs keep Internet Customers Coming back. WSJ.com
2. Understanding Blog Speak. Blogherald.com
3. How to Blog Safely. Electronic Frontier Foundation.
4. Best Blog Sites for Business. iBlogBusiness.com
5. What is RSS?. Debbie Weil
6. What is Social Media? thescobleizer.com
7. Blogging for small Business. Microsoft
8. Technorati blog aggregator.  Technorati.com
9. Forbes best of the web for blogs. Forbes.com
10. Check out Seth Godin. sethgodin.typepad.com

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A really passionate kiss?

It’s no secret that probably the single most important ingredient in the success of any long term endeavor is the passion.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a marriage, a business or a blog.  If you can’t find the passion and remember it every day, it’s time to throw in the towel.

Because without it, the success of that enterprise is not possible.

While yes there are times when it feels like work, but that should be succeeded by the power or your passion for whatever you are doing.

Jamie Harrop wrote a killer post about how he lost his passion for his business.  It inspired me to blog about it.  It’s called “5 ways to lose your passion for your business”.  It’s good.

You can read his post here.  My hat is off to jamie for writing that post because it shows transparency and humility.

It made me stop and think about how I spend my time.  I think that it will do the same for you too….especially if you work for yourself or wish to.

What are your thoughts on passion?  Does it last?  Is there another, more important element to long term success?

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Liberty Helicopter does a great job of showing people the sights by air and offers lots of packages for every budget, starting from rides 6 minutes in length up to 45 minutes.  They use state of the art aircraft called the Eurocopter EC 130 and well trained pilots. My dad and I took a short tour of South Manhattan on a cool December evening and felt very safe.

Our tour was 8 minutes long and cost $110 per person.  Since it was the last flight of the day and the weather was poor, the pilot extended the trip a few minutes.

Liberty Helicopter also offers New York helicopter service and transfers if you are looking for something more than helicopter sightseeing.

Brooks moments before taking off

We had to wear lifejackets because the flight was over water. In addition, we had to go through a security scan exactly the same as you do when you board any flight these days.

Headsets are provided for all passengers and cameras are allowed on board. You can book the whole bird for yourself if you like, but we opted for the more economical “share with others” option.

Seats are comfortable and suitable for six foot, two hundred-plus pound guys like me.   The actual flight experience is very smooth and calm.  There were no sudden jerking or dropping sensations.

Seconds before lifting off

Actually, the experience is incredibly fun being inside a helicopter.  In fact, you’ll have to remember to not let the helicopter ride itself overwhelm the reason you’re there in the first place, which is to take in the view and sights of New York by air.

South Manhattan Looking at Ground Zero

If the cost of the helicopter ride is prohibitive, the next best option in my humble opinion would be the observation deck in the Empire State building.

For admission to over 40 of New York City’s best attractions (including the Empire State Building) I always check out New York Pass for the best deals.

Here is a short video clip of my experience:

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It is a VERY BIG RED.

This red wine has even exceeded my appreciation for the Heartland Shiraz I reviewed a few weeks ago.

It’s so big and luscious that I can only think of one term every time I have a sip: black cherry jam. Not the kind that Smuckers would make. But rather one that your grandmother would make with cherries as big as plums.

Like those Lapin cherries.  Have you ever had Lapin Cherries?

Nugan Estate Front of the Bottle - Am I BIG ENOUGH FOR YA?!

I know what you’re thinking…Brooks is on a huge Aussie Shiraz kick right now. And you’re right. The wines coming out of that region are awesome.

The other reason is that the people deciding what to buy in our government run system are picking wines that are really good from Australia. We have a huge selection of well merchandised, priced and displayed Australian reds in our liquor store.

This red should be winning awards left and right. The label says that you’ll get pepper in addition to other flavors - I didn’t get much pepper…probably because my palette is fried from eating so many spicy things.

2006 Nugan Estate Shiraz Back of the Bottle

If you want a REALLY hot and spicy red, check out my Seven Sinners Syrah review.

Anyway, this is a wine for special occasions or a night together with that special someone. It doesn’t borderline on a desert wine, but definitely will evoke that cherry jam flavor.

I totally loved this wine. If you like robust, full reds, I highly recommend you find this one and try it - it’s NOT going to let you down.

I promise.

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Generally, the term usability refers to how easily one can navigate around a given website and find what they are looking for.

It also refers to a few other things that are less about function or form, but more about content. Nothing drives me nuts more than going to blog that has no direction, no focus and doesn’t immediately let me know what it’s all about.

In most cases, this can make it tough for new readers to understand the site and develop trust with it’s author(s). Oh, wait a minute? This sounds like my site! The tag line around here these days is “things I am inspired to blog about”.

Actually, I aim to develop a readership of people who arrived on the site because they are looking for something in one of my categories.

Well defined categories and a half decent about page (one of the most visited pages in my blog), can help eliminate this problem. Here are some other things that I’ve learned which will help increase your blog (or website’s usability).

1. Work hard to say more, with less words.
2. Use bold and bullets because people don’t read, they skim and scan.
3. Use video whenever possible. People want infotainment - so give it to them with video.
4. Don’t force users to open your links in new windows or tabs to keep them on your site. If they don’t like you or your content, they will leave anyway.
5. Mix up your sentence structure and length.

For a few more ideas check out ne of the best posts on this subject from Performancing Ads. It was written a few years ago and it still is just as accurate today.

You can read it here.

Do you have any comments or suggestions of your own that you’d like to add?

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These color codes simply tell the web page how to display a specific color to your monitor. Do you see a color that you like? Want to use it for a project that you’re doing?

Use color detector to find out what it is.

A screen capture of Color Detector in action: What color is white? fffff, Dear Liza

Recently, I needed to find out what the background color of my post pages were so that I could configure my Google AdSense background to match the rest of my site so that the ads didn’t look took intrusive.

I used color detector.

You can get it for free here, by a software publisher called Cosmin.  Unlike Pixel Ruler, there is no annoying nag screen that pops up when you close the program, even though Color Detector is Freeware.

Simply run the program, point the mouse cursor anywhere on the screen, and the color detector window will display the RGB values, HTML hex code, and the color name of the color of the pixel pointed to by the mouse cursor.

Color Detector has won a few awards and is a tool that no self respecting web perfectionist should be without.

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Pixel rulers for us ‘netizens are about as necessary as having a hammer or screwdriver around the house. I am always using a pixel ruler to measure something on my site or something else on a screen.

For example, the other day I was embedding a Flash video player into a post that I wrote on a cigar review that I did.  I needed to measure how high the player controls were because the sizing of the video made everything look squished.

So I whipped out the Pixel Ruler and measured the vertical depth of the Flash player controls, which happened to be exactly 20 pixels.

Pixel Ruler in action!

Then I went into the control panel for the player size and increased the vertical height by 20 pixels, saved it, refreshed the page and bam!

The video looked perfect.

The above Pixel Ruler is free to install and use.  It will float over your screen and will with all of your applications.  You can also rotate it horzontally or vertically.  The widest you can make it is 1300 pixels and you can change the color of it as well.

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This was the Robusto version of the VSG - with a 50 ring size and five and half inches long.

For the money, this has to be the best cigar that I’ve enjoyed yet.  It’s as good or better than the Exodus and the La Flor.  You’re going to get cocoa and pepper on the palette. It’s not a mild cigar, but it doesn’t have edge either. It’s smooth.

It’s box pressed and is square, which I found had very practical value when I had to put it down and it didn’t roll away!

Brilliant.

The Dominican tobacco is grown by the Fuentes family for Ashton and the wrapper grown exclusively by the Oliva family.

Strangely, this cigar did NOT put out a lot of smoke and held the toast longer than most cigars with this ring size.

Here’s the video review of the cigar, while being stalked by a bee.

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It kind of reminds me of the search engine I reviewed a while back called Cuil.

After doing some research, I’ve learned that they’ve only been around about a 18 months and are driving about 2,700,000 visitors a month according to Compete.com as of this post.

By comparison, it is estimated that Google gets about 132,000,000 million visits a month.

What makes Mahalo different is a few things:

1. They say that they are a human powered search engine that is different from the others that use software and algorithms.  They claim to produce “hand crafted” results for you.
2. The result pages are great! You will get pictures, text, videos and other media. In addition, I found links to some very cool stuff that never came up on comparable Google or Yahoo! searches.
3. They claim to list quality websites and links you wouldn’t find at other search engines over low quality spam sites with excessive advertising.

Their whole process is mildly reminiscent to me of the early days at Yahoo! when people were categorizing stuff on the web by hand and then it just got to big to handle, so they automated it and the rest is history.

Having said that, I did a search for BMW M5 on Mahalo and was totally impressed with the result page that I got.

If I was going to make a page about that car based on stuff from the web, it would be very similar to what I saw.

In comparison, I did a search for Brooks Van Norman, and the result page said “we’ve never heard of you”.

Why am I not in here?

While I almost closed my browser at that point, until I saw a link that said “Create a Brooks Van Norman page”.

So I did.

…by merely adding the link to this blog!

We’ll see if those human editors think I’m good enough to be listed in their cool search engine!

Anyway, I like Mahalo.  I would call it a Web 3.0 search engine - a social media based search engine with morals.

Let’s watch and see if they can scale…

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