Her biggest complaint is that I have purchased a few recent books on her Kindle and have been known to curl up on the couch with *her* Kindle on lazy weekends.  I also recently purchased an iPad, which has a Kindle App.  I’ve had the Kindle App on my iPhone for a while and since I’m leaving AT&T and going to Verizon, I recently downloaded the Kindle App for Android.

Here are my thoughts:

• e-Ink on the Kindle is far superior to reading on the iPad.  It is soft on your eyes and after a full day of reading, you really know whether you are staring at pixles on the iPad or the e-Ink.
• The iPod Touch, iPhone, and Android Apps are great for bathroom reading (at work?) or if you just want to read a page or three and are somewhere where it’s the only thing you have available (vs. the iPad or the Kindle itself).
• The iPad backlight is great. I can read late into the evening and not disturb my wife as the bedside light can be off. This is only possible because the Kindle App allows you to dim the iPad screen and therefore it’s softer on the eyes than reading in the dark with a bright display.
• The Kindle works brilliantly in bright sunlight and even with sunglasses on.  The iPad has to be set on maximum brightness and, as I discovered recently, is not visible while wearing polarized sunglasses.
• The iPad is a bit too heavy (1.5 lbs vs. 10.2 oz. for the Kindle) for just reading.  After several hours of reading in bed you can tell there is strain on your wrists holding up the iPad.  It’s more like reading a heavy hardback vs. a paperback.
• The battery life of the Kindle is several weeks of usage vs. 10 hours or so for the iPad (we only turn on the wireless on the Kindle to download new content and/or to sync our place), with Wireless turned on, the Kindle battery lasts days (vs. weeks).
• Synching between the multiple devices is a great feature. If you read your Kindle book on one reader, as soon as you open up that same book on another of your readers it synchronizes to the last page read (the Wireless network has to be enabled on the Kindle for this to work).
• eBook features on the Kindle are superior to those on the Apps on other devices (but this is probably a short term problem as Amazon is developing their Apps to have all the Kindle features (like highlighting, annotating, searching, etc.).

Now, the iPad also has a ton of other features and many many more capabilities than the Kindle but I just wanted to compare them as a reading device.  I still highly recommend a Kindle if reading is what you want to do.  I do not think that the iPad nor the apps on the smaller devices is really something you want to read from for hours on end.

Get Free calls with Google Voice if you have the 900 minute individual plan or the 1400 minute family plan which includes a Friends and Family list which you can update online to get free calls to 10 numbers.  Google Voice works by calling a Google SIP Server and having that SIP server connect your call to your destination number (presenting your Google Voice number in their caller ID). I love Google Voice as I can give out one number and have it reach me wherever I want (and whenever too).  I also like using Google Voice so the actual number I’m calling from is masked from Caller ID (great if I don’t want to give pesky co-workers or client my actual cell number).  I posted about Google Voice months ago. 

To get free calls on Verizon with Google Voice, simply determine what number Google Voice is calling out to and set that up as a Friends and Family number.  Of course, this will cause your Mobile to Mobile calls to charge the recipient, but at least you are getting free calls. You can also set up your actual Google Voice number on your Friends and Family list so calls from Google Voice (regardless of what phone you are using) will also be a free call (that is nice for the family plan as I mentioned Google Voice does kill the Mobile to Mobile calling freebie). However, this last trick does use up one of your 10 Friends and Family spots.

A couple of things to watch out for is that the number dialed by Google Voice is not permanent and may change in the future.  Remember to check periodically to determine if the Google Voice outgoing number has changed, if so, update your Friends and Family list to match.  One trick I found on-line is to add the Google Voice outgoing number to your address book and you would notice if it were dialing a number (rather than a contact).

You will get free texts (SMS) with Google Voice as well as long as you are sending texts from the Google Voice Application or via Google Voice in the browser (and assuming that people text you using your Google Voice number).

With Skype Mobile on Verizon, you get free Skype to Skype calling both inbound and outbound.  This means that you can leave Skype running in the background on your Android phone (or other smart phone) and anybody can call you via Skype for free.  This is great for me as we use Skype to Skype at work.  Likewise, you can call out Skype to Skype from your Android handset for free.  There are a few caveats.  First, Skype Mobile does not run on WiFi.  To run Skype Mobile on an VZW phone, you have to disable your WiFi connection.  This is fine on a VZW phone because the 3G network is generally fast enough that WiFi doesn’t get you much in terms of additional speed.  This WOULD be a problem on the AT&T network as their 3G sucks and WiFi is often the only way to surf or download on AT&T. Another thing to be concerned about is if VZW follows in AT&Ts footsteps and nixes the unlimited data plan, you would be encouraged to transfer data over WiFi which means you would have to turn off your Skype Mobile app every time you wanted to surf or download data.

Skype Mobile doesn’t use VoIP (at least, not over the 3G network).  Rather, Skype Mobile dials a Skype Voice Gateway and then connects your calls (not unlike Google Voice).

I started this post by saying that you could use either to get free calls, but not both.  If you have configured your Android phone to use Google Voice for all outgoing calls, you break the Skype to Skype calling over Skype Mobile.  I’m not sure why, but I believe it has to do with the incoming call from your Google Voice number to the Skype Voice Gateway (rather than coming from your wireless number).

I’ll update this if it gets fixed by some smart folks at Google or Skype (or VZW) or if VZW closes the loophole of allowing you to put your Google Voice outgoing number in your Friends and Family list.

Let me start by saying that I got my first iPhone a week after they hit the street. I LOVED it. It was the best phone I had ever used. Years ahead of anything that was on the market at that time. The network sucked, but I could live with it because everything about the phone was perfect. I upgraded to the 3G when available skipped the S and was waiting for the iPhone 4. However lately the AT&T network has really started to be an issue. I noticed this the most as I purchased a Verizon Wireless MiFi last fall and love it. I often have it on and am using the WiFi tether on my iPhone because the AT&T network sucks so bad. And having the proverbial apples to apples comparisons of the AT&T network to the VZW network has really opened my eyes to how bad the AT&T network truly is.

Let me start with the negative. The things that the Android is lacking that the iPhone just does better:

• not integrated well – Apple did a phenomenal job with the iPhone interface. No instruction manual is really necessary for someone with a bit of a technical aptitude. It doesn’t take a geek to add apps, browse, search, email, setup, etc. The HTC sense UI downloaded a bunch of contacts from Facebook (like high school friends) that I don’t want or need in my contact list.

• not very slick – it just seems a bit clunky. It’s not really the resolution, but it just looks kind of glued together. Icons too small, text is a bit too tiny. Having to scroll through the “all programs” I’d tedious.

• Keyboard – the touchscreen based QWERTY keyboard isn’t near as fast as the iPhone. The keys are slightly smaller and I fat figure much more frequently. I’m getting better, but it’s still not as polished as the iPhone keyboard.

• BATTERY!!! – OMG the battery SUCKS!!!  My first day of heavy usage netted me 4 hours and 19 minutes. Next day about 5 and a half. Best to date has been less than 24 and that was with light to moderate usage and turned off while on a plane. I already have battery/charge anxiety … This may be the show stopper for the incredible for me.

• Mobile me and address book synchronization – I’m missing my contact list big time. Looking for some alternative synchronization capability (like plaxo), but the iPhone with MobileMe is such a killer.

• No iTunes – this is a blessing and a curse. iTunes and synching your iPhone to your computer is a hassle, but a blessing in disguise. Making it mandatory is the hassle part, the fact that a new device can’t be used until the initial sync is a pain. I have an iPod so i never really used my iPhone as a music or video device, so i could live without the music synchronization, but apps, backups, photos taken on the phone, etc are great to synch with iTunes. And without MobileMe the synching of contacts and calendar entries is vital.

Here are the good and sometimes great things that Android and Verizon do that the iPhone does not (and some of these are fixed in the upcoming OS upgrade):

• coverage and data speed – noticeable on my very first use. Even more noticeable as I drive around in areas where I previously had NO data and often not enough of a signal for a voice call. The VZW network is just better. Hands down. And if the device is only as good as the network it is on… I really don’t think i can stress this point enough.

• Multi-tasking – though this will be moot for 3GS and iPhone 4 users this week, this is a substantial delta.  Being able to listen to your streaming media (Pandora, NPR, Stitcher) while continuing to use other applications and browsing is such a huge thing. Likewise, keeping Skype or IM running while doing other tasks is vital.  I’m surprised that Apple has not already come up with multi-tasking prior to iOS4.

• voice transcription – is a beautiful thing.  It even makes up for the crappy screen based keyboard as I can send SMS and chats with Skype without relying on the keyboard. I think this will be more and more noticeable as i use it while driving. I try not to drive and text often, but sometimes I slip up and the voice transcription will be a valuable safety tool.

• google voice – I am an avid Google Voice user.  I use it for business as the dialing from the computer and keeping track of incoming and outgoing calls is great.  Hiding or masking my called from number is also a great feature.  Avoiding SMS charges is a bonus, but since i went with an unlimited plan not all that necessary (but having a record and continuity between a chat / SMS session on your phone and on your computer is a huge benefit). Granted you can use google voice from an iPhone thanks to the Ajax web app, but it isn’t like dialing natively like it is on Android .

• integrated Skype – i didn’t think this would be such a bit advantage, but it is.  The free Skype to Skype calling actually uses a voice call to a Skype server and then Skypes your contacts. We use Skype for work so this is a great addition.  Having the Skype application running in the background (multi-tasking) is great because i get notified of an incoming chat even if using another application.  I did discover two problems with the integrated Skype.  One is that you have to disable WiFi to run Skype, which since the VZW network is so much better AT&T it might not be a big issue (until they do away with the unlimited data plans).  The other is that using both the free Skype to Skype and Google Voice is not possible if you have selected to force all calls out of google voice.  The dialer dials some Google Voice number and then calls the Skype number which never completes the outgoing call.

• Friends and Family (combined with Google Voice) – all outgoing calls are free!!!

• No iTunes – as i mentioned this is a benefit and a curse as the iTunes synchronization had some great features.  There is a disk that came with my Incredible, but it only runs on Windoze (and I use OSX or Ubuntu as my preferred desktop OS and only boot Windows XP when I have to (which is getting less and less frequent)).

I’ll post more and/or add comments as I discover more things or when I have something to update (like Froyo).

I’m drafting this on Pages on the iPad. I’ll port this to my blog using a cut and paste into the dashboard, then will touch it up and add links using the dashboard on a PC.

We took a trip last week. I intentionally did not bring my laptop as I wanted to use the iPad as a prime device and didn’t want to have the option of falling back on a PC. Lack of multi-tasking is still obvious, which after this coming week and the iOS4 upgrade should not be an issue. App developers can also fix this by opening up the app with the same view in the same location where it was ended. It amazes me that some apps still don’t do this.

Lack of Flash is still an issue. I also was traveling with my Android phone which supports basic flash and on a few instances grabbed the Android and opened up the URL that was not available on then iPad. Over time, if Apple has it’s druthers, flash video may be phased out on mainstream websites (and replaced with YouTube?), but other sites that rely on flash will require a flash supporting device. I missed my yahoo chess!

(the irony of this with Apple and Google going at each other like cats and dogs makes me chuckle)

Using outdoors is also difficult. My wife and I went to a park to do some reading. I had downloaded a few e-books (using e Kindle app as we like to share books). She pulled out her Kindle and I pulled out the iPad. The very first thing I noticed is that I couldn’t see jack. The iPad in portrait mode can not be viewed while wearing polarized sunglasses (opposite from the iPhone which is fine in portrait but unusable in landscape). Just for a comparison, my Android is visible in both portrait and landscape. Even in landscape mode it is difficult, so I ditched the sunglasses, but still found myself squinting to view even on maximum brightness. After an hour I had a headache from squinting and the overall brightness outside as I was not wearing my sunglasses.

The battery life is phenomenal. I only charged when it was convenient. Even now I’m working on a charge from the hotel over 24 hours ago after using moderately yesterday surfing the web in the airport and reading e-books on the plane.

Pages is great. I can actually edit, format, and move around in a full size document. I can read (and edit) Pages documents and Word documents with ease. I have used Numbers as well and for a tablet it is a very functional spreadsheet app. Starting from scratch to create a useable spreadsheet is a slow process, but opening up one from e-mail and making quick edits works quite well. I had a pretty through loan calculator that I had created with Numbers on my Mac which was quite easy to use on the iPad to change values and observe results.

So I’m still happy with my purchase. I’m loving the iPad.

Next post … Later this week … My Android vs. iPhone experiences.

I’ve had it about 24 hours and I have so say that they live up to the hype (so far). I told my wife I’d lose the Netbook if I got an iPad (as the eeePC was a constant presence with me around the house and usually was wedged between the couch pillows).

I went with the 64GB WiFi Model.  I don’t really think I’ll need the 64GB, but it was the only model they had left. I figured I’m fine with the WiFi as I already have a Verizon Wireless MiFi, so I didn’t need the 3G and I am ditching AT&T anyway as it pretty much sucks and our new home has NO AT&T coverage.

The lack of multi-tasking is obvious, but I think that’s due to certain apps (if you need to go to another app to cut and paste something … say into a tweet when you reopen the app you wanted to work in, you may have to navigate back to where you were). Regardless, multi-tasking is coming up in a few weeks so it will be a welcome improvement. Lack of Flash is not as obvious unless you are trying to watch video in some random website (like Comedy Central or TPM (on the opposite end of the spectrum) that hasn’t grasped the whole youtube phenomenon) or online gaming (like Yahoo Chess which I am totally addicted to).

I didn’t think I would notice the native iPhone apps versus the iPad apps, but it’s very noticeable and quite annoying that even expanded the apps are pixlated.  The lack of a decent Twitter app is my biggest headache.  Tweetdeck has a native iPad app, but it crashes if in landscape and just seems like a rushed job.  I am waiting for the Twitter (Tweetie) app as that was by far my favorite iPhone Twitter app.  Ironically, I use Tweetdeck on the computer and if it didn’t crash all the time it would be an excellent iPad Twitter application.

Typing on the iPad is fast.  Not as fast as a keyboard, but faster than a QWERTY phone and much faster than the touch screen interfaces.  I typed two blog entries on the iPad, one using the WordPress Dashboard running in Safari and another using a WordPress app.  Both allow you to post text, but lack any ability to post images, edit images, and due to multi-touch using the WYSIWYG editor isn’t possible.

I’ve only had it for about 48 hours now (I started the post a while back) and battery life is great, screen is crystal clear and bright, it feels good in your hands, and is fast(er than an iPhone). It’s a bit heaver than our Kindle and I do have some books on it, but haven’t really had the marathon reading session yet to see if the weight and/or screen is an issue however, late last night I was playing with it and my wife asked me to turn off the light which I couldn’t have done with the Kindle (future post about the new 2.5 Kindle OS).

Favorite app so far is the Netflix app which allows you to watch your “Watch Instantly” queue. I watched a few episodes of Friday Night Lights and was very impressed with the streaming video through the app. Email is nice on the larger screen (than the iPhone) and may actually be more than just a crutch (which is how I feel about e-mail on an iPhone or Crackberry).

So this was a pretty rambling review of my first 24 (ahem 48) hours with the iPad. So far, I’m digging it.  Great new addition to the geek family.

It allows you to insert photos, but you can not select where they will end up in the post, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to delete then (hence the off topic and random attachments on this post … at least until I log on and delete them through the Dashboard using a computer with a full browser).

OK. Enough of this post. I will post a more through review of the iPad and my first 24 hours with it later.

The keyboard is much faster than the iPhone keyboard, but not as fast as an actual keyboard. Text navigation is also a bit slower than on a computer with keyboard and mouse, but still doable.

Using the Dashboard HTML editor it is also laborious to create links. However, it can be done manually (as opposed to using the GUI). Same thing goes for more advanced text editing features, you can do them, but not as easy or as fast as the WYSIWYG way of doing things.

Tagging and other post features are really no different than on a computer.

Enough of this post. I’ll write another with the WordPress iPad app later today and maybe another with some more solid review of the iPad itself at a later date.

I upgraded to the 3G iPhone the week it came out (even though there was no 3G where I lived (yet)) and I’ve still got my eye on a WiFi iPad.  I just can’t wait until Christmas to see if Apple and Verizon can come to terms (and if Apple will build a CDMA version or if they will wait for LTE).

Eventually, the AT&T network in Blacksburg, VA improved, I could use the phone in my house if I stood by the window in the dining room or our bedroom (but not where my home office was).  We moved to Raleigh, NC last summer and there was decent coverage out where we live in Apex.  There were still a few places where I didn’t have any service that were regular travel destinations (a few clients in VA and NC). I used open WiFi an Skype when I needed to make a call, but eventually broke down and bought a Verizon Wireless MiFi which works just about everywhere with higher speed (and allows me to make Skype calls from my iPhone to boot).

I was still on the fence since we are moving to a new location near Ithaca, NY and our new landlord said that the only network with any signal out where we are moving is Verizon. I considered the $150 (and no extra fees) network extender, but that would only work in and around my home … what about the drives to the grocery store, or drives to and from town?

The coup de gras was just the other day on a pretty big road between Raleigh and Chapel Hill, in the suburbs. I couldn’t make a call while my wife was gabbing away on her Verizon phone.  I had to ask her to get off the phone (with her mother) and make my call from her phone.  Later that day, even with signal (that was flipping between Edge (2G) and 3G) I couldn’t use my phone for any data. My contract is coming due so this seemed like the appropriate time.

I don’t have my Android yet, but I just ordered the HTC Incredible from Verizon Wireless and it won’t ship for a few weeks. I will do my best to post unbiased reviews and comparisons when I get my new phone. I will admit that I’m a huge fan of Apple products.  I bought an iMac when the Core 2 Duo processor was introduced, I have a MacBook Pro, Airport Extreme and Express, two iPods, my wife also has a MacBook Pro and a Touch, and I’m itching for an iPad. So the Android has a high bar to get over.  I will have my 30 days of evaluation to determine if I can live with the phone (and if Steve makes some unexpected announcement at WWDC).

I’m sad to have to do this, but the phone is only as good as the network it is on and I’m finally fed up enough with AT&T that I’m moving on.

On the up-side, I have a lot of paid iPhone apps.  I may just be forced to purchase an iPad to run all those apps I own .

So for several years and several providers (Verizon DSL, Comcast Cable, and until recently Time Warner Cable), I’ve been running a small laptop as a web host.  It runs WordPress, Mediawiki, some static pages, and some other applications that I use (like MyTinyTodo).  I’ve also used it to host FTP for large files that I couldn’t attach to an e-mail, and many many other uses. It has proved a geeks invaluable tool. I used dyndns.org to keep up with any IP changes (which has happened a total of three times in five or six years). Now my upstream traffic is tiny and is probably not even noticed. The site gets very few visitors and viewing my web stats only a few MB per day worth of traffic. It was nice to have the ability to reach my home from the public internet.

Recently due to some changes, Time Warner has blocked incoming connections to my little server (I can’t even SSH to my home anymore) (and reading their fine print on their service they do not allow users to “run servers”). So while this pisses me off, I’m actually getting ready to physically move (again) from NC to NY so was considering hosting my sites anyway.

I went with the super budget hosting (iPage.com). In the event that I don’t like it, I can pay for a more expensive hosting solution, but I just needed basic transfer, MySQL, PHP5 and some tools to manage it with.  I also took good notes on things that worked and things that didn’t and kept good backups of my work and will continue to take backups of databases and file structure so I can move easily.

I didn’t transfer my domains, just updated their nameservers to the new hosting company. This in essence commoditized hosting as I can move at will to the provider which provides me what I need at what I am willing to pay (granted there is some elbow grease involved in the process).

Here is what I had to do:

Static Files – FTP them to the correct directory, point the subdomain to that directory, update nameservers on the Domain Manager on GoDaddy.

WikiMedia – a little more complex and I possibly could have simplified things – install new version of WikiMedia (create database, etc.), perform export on old server, perform import on new server, point subdomain to correct directory, update nameservers on GoDaddy. I also moved the extensions by simply moving the extension directory over and adding the extensions in LocalSettings.php … there are some files that I will move manually and one of my extensions isn’t working properly (probably a version issue with the new version of MediaWiki, but I bet I can fix that one by hand (sometimes coding is actually fun)).

MyTinyTodo – expand tar file, move database (export from old server, import to new server), run setup … super easy, point subdomain to correct directory

WordPress – followed instructions here – there were some limitations on the size of the SQL Import on my new hosting company (via their phpMyAdmin version) so moving the database had to happen in parts (the one large table had to be broken up into 8MB segments (I just used vi)), but it’s done now – point subdomain to correct directory, copy MX records and some other domain specific (subdomain) information from my old nameservers (dyndns.org) to the hosting company, update nameservers on GoDaddy.

Overall it was not too complicated. If you are methodical about the process you can move from one hosting company to another with little trouble and minimum downtime (or like I did from your own host to a hosted solution).

Here’s my $0.02 (and then some).

The idea behind this is to identify (and punish) the high bandwidth users. Comcast (and other broadband companies) have skated by for years on this “bucket-of-bits” concept where you buy a bucket of bits (we’ve all seen the UPTO 16MB commercials). This is a whole additional discussion which I don’t want to get into here, but in short I refer to that advertisement as fraudband.

So with this bucket-of-bits concept you pay a monthly fee for a connection and you use it as much as you want. The problem is that the *more* you use it, the *less* the provider makes for your usage. This is an upside down business model and I’ve tried to think of other companies that are incented to sell you a product that you shouldn’t use (help me out by commenting if you know of a successful business model that follows this upside down paradigm (and don’t say cell phone companies)).

What they are doing by opening this door is saying that your monthly fee (let’s say it’s $34.99) is good for upto 250GB of usage. If you exceed this amount you will get less traffic or have to pay an additional fee. But what happens for those *good* broadband users who don’t use their allocated 250GB? Do they get to a refund on the unused portion of their bits? How about roll-over bits?

If the formula is $34.99 for upto 250GB of data … can I pay upto $34.99 for what I actually use?

I work from home and as such am probably one of the heavier users. I also watch Netflix on demand on my TV via my TivoHD XL. I rent online movies from Amazon as well. I use Vonage. I don’t do it regularly (as it makes my VoIP phone almost unusable), but I have been known to share files via P2P and download a lot of content from non P2P sites as well.

My guess is that I’m a heavier user and that I’d exceed the upto usage, but when I don’t I will be doing everything I can to get credited for what I didn’t use in a particular month.