You see, Pocket Cocktails is an absolutely gorgeous drink recipe app for the iPhone.  The interface is fun and retro, which is a big plus for me…but the real beauty lies in the recipes themselves.  Each one features a painstakingly photographed drink to go along with the recipe, presumably so you know how the drink is supposed to turn out.  When we were planning my birthday party, I thumbed through all the yummy-looking drinks and landed on a pretty pinkish one that looked delicious–the French Martini.  I sent my husband out for party supplies and he came back loaded down with raspberry vodka, Chambord, and pineapple juice…the very instruments of my demise.

Despite the hangover, the drink–and the party–were both raging successes, and Pocket Cocktails became a must-have app on my iPhone.  I’m forever hemming and hawing about what drink to order at a bar, especially if I’m in the mood for something fruity.  I’ve never been a beer girl, and sometimes I’m just not feeling like having a glass of wine.  Most of the time if I’m drinking liquor, the fruitier and girlier the drink is, the happier I will be!  Pocket Cocktails is not just a reference for mixing my own drinks, it’s a great primer for ordering something a little more exotic than your typical Cape Cod or Long Island Iced Tea.  And if the bartender doesn’t know how to make it?  Just hand him your iPhone!

What really impressed me was that Pocket Cocktails was developed by Robert Maran and his fiancée out of their apartment in Toronto.  They set up their bedroom as a temporary studio to shoot the gorgeous drink photos and put the app together.  One thing I love about Apple app development is that it allows anyone who can make an application to do so, without requiring significant resource needs or overhead.   I really enjoy supporting small developers like Robert because I can tell that a lot of hard work and attention to detail went into the development.

I highly recommend Pocket Cocktails if you’re in the market for a drink recipe app for the iPhone.  For more information or to purchase the app, please visit http://www.pocketcocktails.com.

So, when I was planning my switch over to the iPhone, one of the first things I was concerned about was the availability of a good eBook reader.  I have tons of books in tons of different formats, and it was important to me that I would be able to read them on the iPhone without having to jump through a lot of hoops.

The app that caught my eye after the release of the app store was Stanza.  It promised support for almost every kind of eBook file one could imagine (txt, html, doc, lit, pdf, etc.) and retails for the low, low price of free.  It was the first app that I downloaded in anticipation of purchasing my iPhone…I wanted it ready to rock and roll when I brought my shiny new baby home!

Stanza has two components–the iPhone app, which lets you read books as well as download them OTA from various sources, and the desktop app, which lets you read books on your computer as well as share them over Wi-Fi for download to Stanza on the iPhone.  Right now the desktop app is in Beta and also free.

From the get-go, Stanza was great.  It reminded me a lot of my favorite eBook reader on the Windows Mobile platform, uBook.  I loaded the iPhone up with some books and have used it to read on an almost daily basis since getting my iPhone back in August.  It allows you to fully customize your reading experience with font size, colors, and more.  I prefer my reader to have a black background with white text, which is less hard on my eyes.

Recent updates to Stanza have been amazing.  Books now have cover art associated with them–if your book doesn’t have cover art, all you have to do is tap a few buttons and Stanza loads cover art for you directly from the Internet.  You can even choose from different covers if it brings up a selection.  The covers appear as small thumbnails next to the titles when the phone is in portrait mode, and in landscape mode you can browse your library in a Cover Flow-esque setup.

You can also now purchase and read anything from the eReader/Fictionwise catalog directly from Stanza.  I had some old books purchased from eReader that I hadn’t read, and I used Stanza to download them and put them into my book library.  This is a huge boon for me because I don’t like having multiple applications that serve the same function.  Now I don’t need eReader!  This also means that I’m no longer jealous of the Kindle owners who can buy a book from just about anywhere–now, so can I!

Random House also offered a selection of free eBooks this week, again directly accessed through Stanza on the iPhone.  I must confess, they all looked so good I downloaded every single one!  Who doesn’t love free?

Once Stanza is out of Beta, it will reportedly cost somewhere in the vicinity of $15 (I assume for the desktop application).  I personally can’t wait to give Lexcycle some of my hard earned cash, because they deserve it for writing such fantastic software.  Stanza may very well be my favorite iPhone app…it has a coveted spot on the front page!

For more information on Stanza, please visit http://www.lexcycle.com.

After that I tried Twittelator, Twinkle and TwitterFon, but none of them really did what I wanted them to do.  Twittelator flat out never worked on the iPhone no matter how many times I tried it.  The other two just didn’t really feel like they offered anything more than Twitteriffic did.

I hesitated on buying a Twitter app when Twitteriffic was perfectly functional and for the very reasonable price of free, but I decided that as much as I use my iPhone, I needed a more robust app to do my Twittering and Twitter reading.  I surfed around for a bit and did some custom searches, and decided that I would give Tweetie a try for 2.99.

Boy am I glad I did!  Tweetie has every feature I could have wanted–the ability to load as many tweets as you want, picture posting, location posting, DM and @ replies, retweets, auto-shrinking links, trend watch, custom searches, being able to follow or unfollow people right from the app, the ability to look at your followers and following screens, and MORE!  Plus, it was stable and speedy from the moment I installed it.  It’s been a day or so now and I’ve already used Tweetie more than any of the other Twitter apps I’ve tried.  I love it when an app turns out to be worth every cent of what I paid for it.

For more about Tweetie, visit http://www.atebits.com/software/tweetie/.

I had done quite a bit of research on the iPhone cases out there, and of course none of the ones I really wanted were available at the Apple Store the morning after our iPhone purchases.  The only one they had that I’d looked at before was the Agent18 Eco Shield, which did not impress me in person at all.  The plastic looked cheap and dull, and I didn’t want to put my baby in a cheesy looking case.  One thing I had also realized was that I didn’t want to put my iPhone in a bulky case.  It’s a sleek design that fits great in my hand, and I didn’t want to add a lot of heft to it, even in the name of protection.

It’s quite funny–as we were searching for cases, I noticed an empty-looking box that had been opened and put back on the rack.  In the name of being a good Samaritan, I took it to the nearest Apple genius and explained that I had found this empty box over in the case section and I wanted to bring it to their attention.  The guy thanked me, looked at the box and said, “Oh, actually the case is still in here!  See, it’s right there!”  He held it up and I looked a little closer than I had before–what I thought was part of the plastic insert that held the case WAS the case.  It was so thin I hadn’t even noticed it!  Needless to say, I was intrigued–so intrigued I bought it!

The case in question was the Power Support Crystal Air Jacket for the iPhone 3G.  The Air Jacket consists of a back piece that snaps on to protect the plastic back of the iPhone and 2 full screen protectors (crystal and anti-glare) that cover everything but the Home button and the earpiece.  It comes in both Crystal, which I got for my white iPhone, and solid black, which Shawn got for his black iPhone.

The Air Jacket adds only 0.7mm to the body of the iPhone–the plastic back is thin but feels very protective.  I have noticed that it scratches easily, but you can’t really tell until you take the back off the phone.  And hey, it protects my iPhone from getting scratched, so it can scratch all it wants!  There are small, sticky clear plastic “dots” that you put in strategic places on the back of your iPhone to ensure that the plastic back fits without being too tight, which creates little gray pockets of trapped air that are harmless but unsightly.

I have quite a bit of experience with screen protectors given my background with PDAs, and I have to say that both the crystal and anti-glare screen protectors are among the best I have ever used.  I had issues getting mine on the first time (per usual) so I just cleaned it of hair and lint by running it under the tap, shaking off the water until it was mostly dry, and using the corner of a paper towel to barely touch the protector and soak up any remaining water droplets.  It went on very easily even after being cleaned, and after a couple of tries I got my protector on perfectly.  I used the crystal screen protector and Shawn used the anti-glare, and I think we’re both very happy with them.  I like that the case comes with both the crystal and anti-glare so that you can choose your favorite and also have one in reserve.  If you already have a case, the screen protectors can be purchased separately in packs of two.

The AirJ acket will not, of course, protect your iPhone from a steep drop or something really abrasive, but I think it does a great job of protecting from every day elements without adding bulk.  I have been really happy with my choice and I highly recommend both the Power Supply case and the screen protectors.

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!

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!

I’ve considered the T-Mobile Wing (aka the HTC Herald) quite a few times since it was introduced into the T-Mobile lineup, but never bit the bullet despite the temptation.  When I found out that’s what I was getting on loan, I was pretty excited to be able to try it out.  I love HTC devices, and so far this one has NOT disappointed me!

Let’s look at what the Wing is packing under the hood:

• TI OMAP 850 201 Mhz processor
• 128 MB ROM
• 64 MB RAM
• Talk time of up to 4 hours
• Standby time of up to 6 days
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• MicroSD slot
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional

My JAQ3 was running virtually the same processor, but it never felt as fast and responsive as the Wing does.  Programs that took up to 20 seconds to open on the JAQ3 open in just a few seconds on the Wing, and since I’ve had it, I haven’t had to soft reset the device once.  I was resetting the JAQ3 4 or more times a day at the end.

I can also see a huge difference on battery life using the Wing as well.  My typical usage during the day has the device checking my GMail and work IMAP accounts every 10 minutes, syncing my calendar via GooSync a few times, syncing my tasks via Milksync once every 4 hours, and talking for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.  I also fire up uBook to read an eBook quite a bit.  I’ve only seen the battery drop down below 50% when I’ve done all those tasks PLUS read an entire eBook.  That’s pretty impressive, considering I have grown used to constantly having a charger or mini-USB cable on me at all times, just in case the JAQ3 runs out of juice!

I grew quite used to the QWERTY thumbboard on the JAQ3, and while it had a really beautiful, clear screen, I often wished that it was bigger.  The slide-out QWERTY keyboard on the Wing seems like the perfect answer to that wish–the screen is large, clear and bright, and when I need the keyboard I can just slide it out.  The screen auto-rotates when the keyboard mechanism is engaged, which is a nice touch.

The JAQ3 was a slightly buggy device that I hoped would be fixed by a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade that was promised but never delivered.  I can only imagine the things it might have fixed…the Wing runs flawlessly on the newer OS.  Programs that never quite worked right on the JAQ3, like SPB Phone Shell, are working in ways I never thought they could on the Wing.  For instance, I have a black list set up in SPB Phone Shell to block random 1-800 numbers that call me from time to time.  On the JAQ3 it would work sometimes, but not all the time.  Numbers on the blacklist would still ring through or shoot to my voicemail.  On the Wing, I never get a single blacklisted call.  Video also works perfectly on the Wing, whereas on the JAQ3 it was laggy, would only play in portrait mode (read: sideways) on the JAQ3’s landscape-oriented screen, and you could only play video in Windows Media Player, which has never been my choice for mobile video.

The call quality on the Wing is on a whole other level from the quality of the JAQ3.  My poor friends and family have put up with a buzzing noise over the line for the last year and a half, and I know they must be happy to be free at last!  I actually have to turn the volume down on the Wing–on the JAQ3 I had to keep it cranked up to the highest level to hear my calls clearly.

Data on the Wing works without a hitch–the JAQ3 worked great at first, but the longer I had it, the spottier the data connections seemed to get.  I rarely connected on EDGE, even though I was in the middle of the T-Mobile EDGE network, and the data connection would drop intermittently, as would my signal.  I would have to reset the phone to get it to pick the signal or the data back up again.  It was so frustrating, but I dealt with it because it was just too convenient to have my PDA and my phone all in one device.

I’m looking forward to moving on to the iPhone a great deal, especially now that the App Store is open, but in the meantime I’m really enjoying one last month with a great Windows Mobile device.  If you’re on T-Mobile and looking to pick up a solid PDA phone, I highly recommend the T-Mobile Wing. I give it 4 out of 4 DTD stars!