We catch up with our heroes at the mall, of course!

My husband and I were out having dinner and then intended to see a movie.  Since we happened to be at one of the big fancy malls here in Dallas that has nice restaurants, a stellar movie theater, AND lots of great shops, we swung by the Apple Store to see if they might just happen to have 2 iPhones left over at the end of the day.  No luck, but no worries either–we (individually) got the brilliant idea to check the AT&T store on our way out of the mall when our movie excursion didn’t pan out.  They happened to have a few left, and they were MORE than happy to sell them to us.  I have to give the AT&T store major props…they pushed for the hard sell right away when they found out we were interested buyers, but not in an overbearing, annoying way.  The saleslady was very helpful and answered our questions, and in return we were probably the easiest sale she’d made all day.

We discovered from AT&T that our T-Mobile contract didn’t actually expire until midnight on 8/31 (so, technically 9/1) and that AT&T would be closed for Labor Day.  Since we weren’t able to port our number over until Tuesday 9/2, we went ahead and got them and had temporary numbers put on our SIM cards.  I called on Tuesday and it took about 5 minutes on the phone with a rep to get the numbers ported–very fast, very easy.

I think we may have broken speed limits on our way home from the mall that night.  We walked out with the iPhones in our hand (hubby used his to take the pic of yours truly, right outside the store) and busted ass to get back to the apartment and set them up in iTunes.  I got mine registered and all loaded up with apps first, but much to my disappointment I discovered 3 dead pixels!  So it was back to the Apple Store Sunday morning, where I made a Genius Bar appointment to exchange it per Apple’s 1-pixel exchange policy on their iPhones and iPods.  We ate lunch next door, came back, exchanged the iPhone and I was on my way with a pristine, pixel-perfect model.  We also bought cases while we were there (more on that in another post) and all was right with my world.

So what’s the verdict?

I absolutely LOVE my iPhone so far.  The user experience is vastly superior to any phone I’ve owned.  It’s surprisingly small and sturdy, which makes me happy on a number of levels.  I can slip it into my smallest clutch purse with no problem, and it has a satisfying heft to it that makes it easy to hold on to–so easy that I’ve hardly put it down since I purchased it!

The screen is utterly gorgeous (especially with all the pixels working!) and bright.  I keep my brightness turned down to a lower level because at full-throttle, it actually hurts my eyes.  This also helps with battery  life a little bit.

I knew what to expect with the battery life of a 3G device going into the purchase, since I have worked with quite a few of them in the past while writing documentation and marketing materials for phone manufacturers and carriers.  I wish the battery life was a little better, but I just plug it in during the day while I’m at my desk, and make sure to charge it in full every night.  I keep wi-fi off unless I need it.

My biggest disappointment is the lack of support for older iPod accessories.  We have a small portable boombox with an iPod dock in it that will not charge the iPhone (even though it said iPhone compatible on the box–must be original iPhone only!), and my husband’s iTrip works despite an error message that it’s not compatible, but he gets a great deal of interference on it.  This is really annoying, but not a total dealbreaker.

My biggest surprise was how easy it was to get used to the on-screen keyboard.  I’m not 100% with it yet by any means, but it was my biggest concern when moving from a phone with a full QWERTY hardware keyboard.  The recognition and correction feature on the iPhone is superb, and I like that the character zooms out as you type it so that you know what you’re hitting.

I’m loving the apps–my most used apps at the moment are probably Stanza, Twitteriffic, Pandora, and Tris, plus the iPhone-optimized Google Reader page and the built-in Mail app.  I’m using Nueva Sync’s services to sync my Google Calendar and my Google Contacts to the phone, which has worked flawlessly so far.

Next up, I’ll review Stanza, talk about Nueva Sync, review my new iPhone case, and more!

What’s the key word here? It’s background, my friends. As we all know, the iPhone doesn’t allow for apps to be run in the background. For instance, the new, official last.fm client can’t run in the background while you’re playing songs from your iPod, so right now there is no mobile scrobbling. That is a HUGE bummer for me, because I was really looking forward to last.fm picking up tracks as I played them. Same with AIM–if you want to chat with your buddies, fine…but you can’t do anything else in between IM messages.

I understand the various reasons behind not having apps running in the background (chiefly memory and battery power), but I still hate not being able to do it. Thankfully, there is a sort-of solution on the horizon…yesterday Apple released the iPhone Push Notification API to a select group of developers. The Push Notification Service keeps your programs connected with third-party servers to alert you of any new happening (like an IM, for instance). Back in the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs indicated that this service would be available to users in October, so I guess the heat is on to get it integrated into the 2.0 apps that have come out so far. I’m interested to see how it will actually work. Will it be disruptive to the iPhone user experience to have constant updates from various programs? I have to believe it will be more seamless than that, but I guess only time will tell!

How do you feel about background-running apps vs. push notification? Talk back in the comments!

After I decided which iPhone I wanted to get (white or black really isn’t a hard choice!) the first thing I started thinking about was the kind of case I wanted for my phone. I know that the iPhone is very elegant on its own, but I’m being realistic here–not only am I a girl who likes to accessorize, but I’m a clumsy girl at that. If I’m plunking down $299 for a phone, I want it to be as well-protected as it can be without losing any style or usability. I know lots of people like carrying their iPhones naked, which is all well and good for them, but it just makes me too nervous.

My case requirements are as follows:

1. Must be a hard case or really, really good silicone case
2. Must include a screen protector or be screen protector friendly
3. Must completely cover all parts of the iPhone except for the screen
4. Must NOT include a belt clip
5. Must include a color choice I like

The first case on my radar is the Griffin Wave. I love the wave styling on the side that gives the case its name, and I like that it includes a screen protector too.  It’s a hard case, which I really like, because I’ve grown very used to the Agent 18 Nano Shield I have my red iPod nano G3 in.  Investigation into the Wave has produced some great reviews on the original iPhone model, all which lead me to believe I would really feel good about choosing this case for my 3G iPhone.  I also think that the Wave is a great price–ony 24.95 for both a good case and a screen protector.  That’s a value!  And, of course, it comes in pink…I definitely like that!

Another case I want to check out is the Agent 18 Eco Shield.  As I said, I’ve been really happy with the Agent 18 case that I have on my iPod nano–I put it on almost as soon as I got my nano, and while the case looks a little dinged up in places, my iPod is in pristine shape.  A friend of mine is a huge fan of Agent 18 and he turned me on to their cases–I’m glad he did!  The Eco Shield is also a hard case that covers most of the iPhone while still providing access to all the buttons and the screen.  It features silicone pads for extra cushioning and a dock adapter so you can dock your phone without taking it out of the case.  It doesn’t come with a screen protector, so that’d be extra.  The Eco Shield runs at a very reasonable $29.95.  It also comes in pink!

My friend Kathleen is really happy with the iSkin revo that she has for her 1st Gen iPhone.  iSkin has come out with a version of the revo for the iPhone 3G–the revo2.  It has a lot of great things going for it, like full silicone coverage, antimicrobial material, good screen protectors, and much more.  Despite its list of impressive features, it is the one that I’m least sold on.  It looks really rugged and not very sleek in all the pictures, and none of the color choices are jumping out at me.  I’m also concerned that a silicone case may not be protective enough, or durable enough.  The last silicone case I had for my PDA phone tore in quite a few places.  I also hate how silicone cases pick up any lint or hair that is in the area–and I’m usually either covered in cat hair or shedding my own mane!  I’ll give it a look, but I’m not sold on the revo2.

What case is protecting your iPhone?  Do you have any other suggestions for me?  Talk back in the comments!

BookSmart is a GREAT concept.  Blurb is definitely on the right track with what they’re offering.  However, the execution leaves something to be desired.  BookSmart is laggy and frustrating.  It’s a Java-based application and it took almost a full minute to open.  That’s two strikes against it before I’ve even been able to use it!  When I finally got into the program, I was expecting something like creating a book in iPhoto, only more customizable and with a lot more bells and whistles.  What I got was something about ten times as frustrating as iPhoto, which made the customization not feel worth it.

Not everything about BookSmart is bad.  It has good integration with your existing iPhoto library–as long as the files are the right format.  I had to export my wedding photos to JPG (they were in TIF) so that I could use them with BookSmart.  This rendered my meticulously organized iPhoto albums pretty useless to me.  BookSmart can also integrate with Flickr and other online photo galleries, as well as pull content from blogs.

My patience with the program came to an end before I got past creating the front cover.  I couldn’t imagine creating twenty more front and back pages of photo and text content at the slow pace I was being forced to move at.  When I would drag an image to a location on the page layout, it would take upwards of 20 seconds to load and display.  I realize that I am using an older Mac, but I have the RAM maxed out and rarely experience problems even with the latest and greatest software.  Perhaps a native application could work a little better, perform a little smoother, and create a better user experience.  Strike three, BookSmart.  I’m out.

In comparison, the iPhoto user experience is great–it’s easy and FUN to create books, cards, and more from your iPhoto library.  It’s incredibly intuitive and natural.  My beef is with the cost of the iPhoto books, which is significantly more expensive than a service like Blurb, and with the lack of true customization for people who want more than a canned theme might offer.  I’m going to continue to try to find a happy medium between ease of use and customization, but I’m pretty bummed about Blurb.

My mom keeps trying to get me into scrapbooking, and while I love being crafty, the idea of scrapbooking our wedding is daunting to me.  I want something that looks sleeker, more elegant, and won’t involve me wasting hours with glue dots and decorative edge scissors.  What could be more perfect than a customizable, professionally printed photo book?

As a Mac user, I love iPhoto and have finally gotten all the photos imported and arranged into individual albums.  I started trying out the book creation feature in iPhoto, which is a lot of fun, but honestly I am less than impressed with the pricing of the books and the lack of real customization.  This got me looking around on the Internet for a viable alternative.

Blurb is the service I’m most excited about trying out.  I have downloaded their free BookSmart software to try and I can’t wait to get started!  It integrates directly with iPhoto, Flickr and more and lets you make books of all kinds.  The best part is that it’s highly customizable and a LOT cheaper than the iPhoto books for the same quality.  They even publish a blog full of helpful tips and tricks.  There are other services out there, like all-around awesome self-publishing service Lulu, or Flickr partner QOOP, but Blurb seems to be exactly what I’m looking for.  I look forward to posting my thoughts once I have a photo book created!  I have a feeling these might be finding their way under a few Christmas trees this year…

This week I will be continuing my CHDK experiment and finishing up my series on calendar sync, so please feel free to poke around, read, and bookmark the site to come back to again and again!  Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed in the sidebar on the right.  Happy reading!

• Shooting in RAW, with RAW Average, RAW Sum, and RAW Develop features
• Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
• Zebra mode (live-view under/over-exposure subject-area alerts)
• DOF-calculator, Hyperfocal-calculator with instant Hyperfocal and Infinity focus-set, and more
• Battery indicator
• RAW and Video space-remaining gauges with custom low-limit alerts
• Scripts execution (exposure/focus/bracketing, intervalometer and more)
• USB-cable remote shutter-release
• Motion-Detection triggered photography (fast enough to capture lightning strikes)
• Customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Tv, Av, ISO, and Focus bracketing (unlimited shots)
• 99 constant bit-rate and 10 constant-quality video compression levels
• 1 Gig video-size limit removed in earlier cameras
• Zoom during video for cameras without
• Shutter, Aperture, and ISO Overrides (shutter speeds of 64″ to 1/10,000″ and higher)
• High-speed Flash Sync at all speeds up to 1/64,000 second (even faster in some cameras)
• Custom framing, cropping, and alignment viewfinder Grids (user editable)
• File browser
• Text reader
• Calendar
• Some fun tools and games

Keep in mind that the installation methods for Mac and Windows are very different.  I completed my CHDK installation with the help of my G4 iBook and an SD card reader.

Before I could even download the beta CHDK, the first thing I needed to do was determine the firmware installed on my camera.  This will help you determine which CHDK to download.  Thankfully there are very detailed instructions.  Read on for my experience with the CHDK installation.

To determine the firmware on your camera, you have to create an empty text file called ver.req and put it in the root directory of your camera’s SD card.  I used TextEdit to create my text file.  I opened a new file, went to the Format menu and selected Make Plain Text (it opened in Rich Text Format), and then selected Save from the File menu.  It is important when you save the empty file that you make sure that you change the plain text encoding from UTF-8 to UTF-16 and that you uncheck the If not extension is provided, use .txt checkbox.  Your Save window should look something like this.  Don’t forget to put it in the root directory of your memory card!

It should be noted that it is a lot easier to save files to your memory card and get CHDK to work when you use a card reader versus plugging your camera in to your computer.  This is recommended by the CHDK wiki because sometimes the camera can be very finicky if you’re using it to transfer the CHDK files and get them working.

Once I got the ver.req file transferred over, I started the camera up in playback mode by pressing the playback button on the back of the camera.  Then, I held down the FUNC SET button while pressing the DISP button.  However, instead of seeing the firmware version as I had expected, I saw a blank screen with a stylized clock on it.  Never fear–this can happen with certain cameras and the ver.req file.  This just means that the particular camera needs a file called vers.req instead!  I popped my SD card back into the card reader, renamed the file, and returned it to the camera.  I held down FUNC SET and DISP again, and the camera informed me I was running firmware version 1.02A.

After checking the wiki page for the SD750, I downloaded the correct version of the CHDK beta for my camera.  For some reason, the ZIP file for my firmware was called filename.zip.zip.  When I saved it as-is, I could not unarchive it even when I renamed it to be filename.zip.  So, I deleted it and tried again, this time saving it as filename.zip during my download, which worked perfectly.  I unarchived the zip using Stuffit Expander–one important thing of note in the wiki is that the Archive Utility in Leopard 10.5 locks down files downloaded from the Internet to not run unless you do some complicated things in the Terminal.  If you use a utility such as The UnArchiver or Stuffit Expander, you don’t have the problem.  Stuffit unarchived two files: DISKBOOT.BIN and PS.FIR.  I copied both files to the root of my SD card, ejected it from my Mac and then installed the card back into my camera.

To get the CHDK running on my camera, I again started the camera up in playback mode and then pressed the MENU button.  I scrolled all the way down to the bottom and selected the Firm Update… entry from the menu.  The camera rebooted itself, and voila! CHDK is now running on my camera.  The great thing about CHDK is that it doesn’t actually overwrite your camera’s firmware.  Unless you set it up to load automatically upon startup (more on this process later), you just load it into the camera memory every time you turn your camera on by following the steps I described above.  Now, if I can just figure out these fancy new features on my camera…

If you’re interested in installing CHDK on your Canon camera, you can check for a CHDK version for your model here on the CHDK Wiki and click on the link for your model for more information.

Next up–using the CHDK!

I’ve been exploring the different options I have for recording a video podcast, as I discussed with Cali Lewis last night on Cali Live. I jumped the gun a little bit and not only registered my vlog domain, Tech Girl TV dot com, but also linked it on the blog…and then haven’t done anything with it since! Talking about it with Cali really spurred me to get back to work on developing it, so I picked my camera research back up.

I’d love to get a new camera with all the bells and whistles, but that is really not an option at the moment. First on the list of priority tech purchases is the iPhone (only 38 days left!) and then a new MacBook to replace my aging but still kicking iBook G4. I could probably get a dedicated video camera in about 6-8 months, which should be enough time for me to decide if I really need one!

I’ve considered the Flip line–specifically the Flip Mino, since it seems to be at the head of the Flip pack feature-wise–but the more research I do, the more I’m edging away from a Flip. It really fits its niche market perfectly, but as with all other things tech, I think I might end up being more of a power user.

One thing I’ve been intrigued with ever since I saw it on Lifehacker is the CHDK, or Canon Hacker’s Development Kit. It is custom firmware enhancements that run on a range of Canon cameras. They are still in development on the version for the SD750 but a beta version has just come out. The Canon seems to have pretty good video capability as it is, so I’d love to see what the video enhancements could do to make it a really viable camera for my use until I can invest in a nicer one.

My plan is to load up the CHDK on my camera in the next few days and do some testing, then share my experiences with you! Look for more blogs to come on the CHDK and my SD750 very soon.

It is frustrating, considering the only place I run Windows is at the office. At home I run nothing but OS X and Ubuntu. So, as an experiment, I installed Windows XP on my Asus eeePC 701 about a month ago to see if it made it any more useful to me.

I did a custom nLite installation of XP so that I could get rid of absolutely anything I didn’t need–this took my installation size wayyy down to just at a gig. When you’re dealing with a 4GB SSD drive, you have to make sure that Windows doesn’t eat up your entire partition! It took a while to install, but when I booted–it was FAST. It booted faster than any normal Windows installation I have ever worked with. I barely had time to blink before I was already on my desktop.

I installed a handful of programs–Firefox, Skype, Microsoft Office (on the SD card to save some space), iTunes (just because), Foxit Reader, and a ClearType utility (a must for making text on the small screen sharp!). At first I was impressed by the performance…but after a week or so with XP on the machine, I started to change my tune.

In my opinion, Windows is not meant for the sub-notebook. Some of the things that have turned me off:

1. Windows and Windows programs can be giant resource hogs. I’ve never had trouble with Skype, not even with video calls, on the eeePC running Ubuntu. But last night I was testing Skype video calling in Windows, and my processor was maxing out at 100%. I’ve also noticed that other programs are not very snappy if I’ve had the computer on for awhile. It’s really zippy after a reboot, but I don’t want to have to constantly reboot my machine to get good performance. I’ve even noticed that my wireless signal is not as solid under Windows–watching anything on hulu.com causes massive amounts of buffering, and I had an utterly crappy voice connection on Skype.
2. Windows is not as smart as Ubuntu. Ubuntu Hardy Heron knows enough to resize many screens for the smaller eeePC. I had trouble with lots of programs trailing off the screen in Windows, with no handy key+mouse combination to move them around. The Move command just flat wouldn’t work because Windows didn’t want to put the screen where I wanted it to go. It has made using the eeePC frustrating for anything more than checking my email and the occasional IM conversation.
3. I just don’t feel good about using Windows anymore. I use it at work because I have to, but I find myself pining for some of the programs on OS X or Ubuntu. I wish I could use the same nice shortcuts and time-saving programs (Oh Quicksilver, I love you so! You, too, Gnome-Do.), and I just think Windows is visually unappealing, even when it’s skinned. Plus, I got a little addicted to the giant treasure trove of open-source software for Linux. It’s like Christmas!

It’s great to be able to watch Netflix streaming or have iTunes on my eeePC, but I’ve discovered that I don’t think it’s worth it. XP is dragging my little laptop down. Maybe if Windows came out with an OS specifically tailored to the sub-notebook or UMPC, I’d bite. I know that Origami is supposed to take the Windows OS and “optimize” it for use on a UMPC, but that’s not the same thing as having an OS JUST for the UMPC and sub-notebook devices.

It’s back to Ubuntu for me as soon as I can install it!