Blog | mechdrew

Today Apple released version 4.0 of it’s mobile operating system for iPhone and iPod touch. (Sorry iPad users, you have to wait until later this fall.) The OS-formerly-known-as iPhoneOS includes a lot of new features, but of course the most anticipated and hyped feature is multitasking. I’ll admit that I am one of those who wanted this explicitly for Pandora, and I am more pleased than I expected with it.

First of all, the update was free. Formerly Apple has charged iPod touch users for major OS revisions, but I was able to install it at no charge to my 3rd generation iPod touch. Secondly, the features like wallpapers and multitasking are easy to use, as long as you actually knew how to use you iOS device before. Two taps on the home button brings up the app switcher, and a tap-hold on any open app will allow you to completely “close” the app. Wallpapers are customizable for both the home screen and lock screen; when you choose a new wallpaper you can set it to either screen or both, it’s all so easy.

Pandora excites me for more than just the background play. Apple make the audio background service tie into the iPod music software, which means that the iPod controls on the lock screen and home screen work just as fine as if using the Pandora app. But the ultimate tie-in for me? My headphone remote now can pause the music. I know that sounds so minor, but working every day listening to Pandora gets a little irritating when I always have to pull it out of my pocket to pause the music when I need to have a conversation.

There are other enhancements as well, but in the meantime I am just glad that I have multitasking. It really makes a difference in ease of use.

If anything has bugged me more about the iPad announcement than the iPad itself, it would be the constant moaning and groaning from the blogosphere and its commenters (Download Squad article, I’m pointing to the comments section primarily) about the general lack of Adobe’s Flash Player on any iPhone OS device, including the iPhone (duh), iPod touch (I just barely got one of these about a month ago) and the aforementioned iPad. Adobe has been after blood ever since the iPad announcement, and even went so far in their smear campaign to “accidentally” include pornography in one of its screenshots to try to justify the need of Flash on iPhone OS.

Are we being serious, folks? You want Flash, the bane of Internet design and functionality for over a decade, and you want it on your mobile device that badly? Granted, Flash provided features that were not commonly available in most browsers or media players in the beginning, but it has been superseded now by much better browsers and programs (dare I drop the word “apps”?) that perform those functions much faster and much better. And let’s not forget that the primary use for Flash on most websites today are those hideous, annoying advertisements that get in your way, make your page load slower, and require me to use tools like Adblock Plus in both Firefox and Thunderbird (for RSS feeds) just to save my sanity. You’ve got to come up with much better reasons than games and video sites like Hulu to convince me. May I point out a few flaws in this reasoning? Continue reading

So here goes my attempt at a recurring feature, Tech-on-the-Cheap. Either save money or get more bang for you buck out of today’s (and yesterday’s) technology.

One of my recent passions has been the most low-tech innovation of the past three years: netbooks. In theory, netbooks should never have been successful: paying close to the same price as a normal laptop for inferior hardware? The old me would have said, “No way, Jose,” but after actually owning one for a year and becoming immersed in the the Mac netbook scene I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of function-over-specs.

One huge problem with netbooks is that they really are limited in their modern capabilities. For example: Adobe’s Flash Player software, commonly used on YouTube and online games, is just barely functional on most netbooks. Soon newer models with new processors and video technologies will lure a lot of current netbooks to ditch their old model for an upgrade.

So what’s a person to do with an underused netbook? Here’s a few ideas to keep you netbook in practical use beyond just the normal e-mail and web browsing.

1. Portable Video Player
You know those little portable DVD players that you can buy at most retailers? They are usually junk unless you start getting into the $150+ range. By that point you can almost pay for a decently-discounted netbook! So why not make your netbook a non-DVD video player? Continue reading