I’m often asked what Firefox extensions I use in my web browser. For those who ask, here you go.

Basic plugins that anyone may like:

• Gmail Manager – check and manage multiple Gmail accounts
• History block – prevent some sites from crowding your web browser history
• Echofon - Twitter client (formally known as TwitterFox)
  • I’m looking for a better Firefox Twitter client, please comment if you know of one.
• PDF Download – Decide whether you rather download or view PDF
• Tabs Open Relative - Open new tabs to the right of your current tab

Plugins specific to web development:

• Abduction! – Snag a screen shot of web pages
• Chrome View – Open current page in Google Chrome web browser
• Clear Cache Button – Clear browser cache with a simple button next to your refresh button
• Colorzilla - Select colors from within web pages
• DNS Cache – turn on/off DNS caching in Firefox
• ElasticFox - Amazon EC2 client
• Firebug - Javascript debugger
• Firesizer – resize your window to specific sizes
• HTML Validator – check web pages are well formed
• Live HTTP Headers - monitor HTTP headers found in web pages
• MeasureIt - Measure anything in a web page
• Open in IE – open current page in IE
• OperaView – open current page in Opera
• Regular Expression Tester – Test regular expressions from within your browser
• RESTClient – generate and test REST formatted HTTP requests
• S3Fox – Amazon S3 client
• Safari view Win – open current page in Safari
• Server Spy – display the server type in the status bar
• ShowIP – display the server ip address in the status bar
• User Agent Switcher – switch to other user agents for web site testing

On October 20 I ordered both my colleague and my wife (for her birthday which has already passed) Dell Studio 17 laptops with the new Intel i7 mobile processors.  The laptop is equipped and priced comparably to other 17″ laptops made by Toshiba, Sony and HP. Both my colleague and my wife are accustomed to Dell laptops so the decision was made to order the Studio 17’s from Dell rather than change to other brands.

Note: The only difference between my colleagues Studio 17 and my wife’s Studio 17 is the processor. My colleague opted for the faster Intel Core i7-820QM Quad Core while I got my wife the Intel Core i7-720QM Quad Core Processor. As you read on you’ll find out why this is an important detail.

The Order Process

I ordered the laptops in the late evening of October 20th. When I was in the check out process, the expected “ship” date for the laptops was November 10th. My first frustration came after ordering both laptops and finding that this date was moved back to the 11th on both during the checkout process. Okay, one day, I can deal with that.

The second part of the order that got me frustrated was how the pricing of shipping is calculated. I first ordered my colleagues computer, shipping overnight was going to cost $40, where 2 day was $24 and 3+ day was going to be $16. At the time I ordered the laptop, I figured the laptop would just arrive in time (Thursday, November 12) for the conference we were attending that weekend. With the changed shipping date after checking out, this meant I should have selected the overnight option for $40 rather than the 2 day that I did.

Then when I purchased my wife’s Studio 17, shipping totals were way different, $24 for 1 day, $16 for 2 day and $8 for 3+ day delivery. I then decided to do 1 day since the price difference wasn’t that big. That’s when I started wondering how the shipping total was being calculated. My colleagues order had a mouse added to the order that cost $14. Adding that item nearly doubled the shipping. Had I known that, I would have not ordered the mouse from Dell and just went to Microcenter and got a comparable mouse. It wasn’t till after I placed the second order, then re-assembled the 1st order in their shopping cart that I confirmed that Dell increases the shipping based on each item added. If you don’t watch the shipping line item in your shopping cart, you would never know the factor one other item puts on the total shipping.

Changing Shipping Method of my Order: Not Allowed

What’s more frustrating was calling Dell and trying to change the shipping method on the first order. I will not even talk about how rude the call center folks are but you can definitely tell Dell is still using call centers outside of the United States. I won’t even get into my opinion of that, but lets just say if you want to do business somewhere, put your support staff in the same place please!!!! At the time I was willing to pay more and even expected to have to pay some sort of order modification fee. Instead I got a cold reality that calling for support really meant calling to hear someone tell you no.

Expected Ship Date Came and Went

As November 12th (the date Dell switched the ship date for the order to upon checkout) came and went, no status changed on the dell.com web site for both orders. The next morning, I got separate emails from Dell that both orders have been delayed exactly one week. After passing on the bad news to both my colleague and wife, I decided to just wait till next week.

According to the email from Dell, both computers will now be shipped on or before November 18th.

Conclusion for Studio 17 with the i7-820QM Quad Core Processor

On November 16, my colleagues computer was finally shipped and he received it on November 18th. Sadly, no apology letter or any token of appreciation for waiting was included in the shipment.

Current Status of  Studio 17 with the i7-720QM Quad Core Processor

This computer has been delayed another 12 days and is now scheduled to be shipped on or before November 30th.

Customer Satisfaction

The emails I’ve received for the shipping delays included a new phone number I can call to talk to customer service for customer satisfaction. This is where the last straw has been pulled by Dell. If you tell me to call a number and wait on hold while being transferred 3 times to find out the person I end up talking to cannot do anything for me, then why waste my time? Where’s my satisfaction coming from with this pointless call? The way the email is worded, I fully expected to call this new number and have someone say sorry with an explanation and give me something, if not something of value, like a token gift by mail such as a mouse pad that says Dell on it or even just a formal snail mail apology letter. If Dell was really on their game they would give me a substantial discount on my orders for the inconvenience. If they have any intention of maintaining a reputation, they should discount the orders to the wholesale value of the parts. Yes, Dell would loose their profit and cost of labor on my order, but I think that would be fair for missing customer expectations and is a common customer service solution in other businesses.

Why the Delay? Dell Will Not Tell You But I Can

If you search forums, in particular Dell’s forum as well as other PC forums you will find a number of threads of folks complaining about their delayed orders. I’ve found threads for the Studio 17 as well as for the Studio 15 and Studio XPS 16. What they all have in common is the i7 processor. I wasn’t going to blog this as the reason because technically, it’s still not enough evidence. Well thanks to my colleague wanting the slightly faster i7 processor, I’ve now confirmed that the processor is the reason for the delays.

Dell.com Ship Estimates for New Studio 17 Orders with i7 Processor Questionable

What’s the most disturbing is the estimated ship date Dell posts next to their products when you’re customizing your computer. I’ve gone back to Dell.com and observed ship dates that don’t line up with my experience. If my estimate is right, if you order a Dell Studio 17 today with the faster i7 820QM, you may just receive it by Christmas. If you’re ordering the processor with the i7 720QM and you expect to get your laptop on 12/8/2009 as Dell estimates, good luck. I’ll tell you right now you will not get your computer by Christmas unless something seriously changes with Dell. Remember, It is now estimated for orders placed on October 20th that they will be shipped on November 30, so how can an order being placed now with the i7 720QM processor be delivered by Christmas, let alone the date they promise? Dell needs to catch up all their October orders, then all their current November orders before yours is shipped. If you want some advice, take a look at a Toshiba, Sony or HP 17.4″ laptop.

What is Intel Doing About the Shortage of i7 Processors to Dell?

I have no clue if there Intel has a shortage on their processors, but what is obvious is Dell has a shortage of Intel i7 processors. For me, the buck stops at Dell, I blame them completely for offering a computer that they cannot deliver timely. But I am curious, is the issue between Dell not ordering enough for their demand or is Intel having issues producing enough of the processors?

Dell Phone Support Suggestion

Eliminate phone support all together or move it back to North America and empower the support staff. I was upset when I learned that the phone support was outsourced to India many years ago. I’m even more upset when I call and the script they are given to read always ends with “I cannot help you sir”. Why even have a phone support line if they can’t provide support? I say eliminate it completely and pass on the savings to us customers. I honestly believe that after this Holiday season you’re going to need to provide substantial discounts on your products in order to keep what customers you have after this delayed ordered fiasco you’re having.

I wouldn’t have a problem paying $50 more for a computer if I knew I could talk to someone on the other end who lives in the same part of the world I do, who appreciates the same television shows, experiences the same holiday shopping season and just knows the difference between talking to someone from Texas to talking to someone from Ohio (for example Coke/Pepsi is called “pop” in most of the Midwest). There’s a part of the customer service that is personable that is completely lost by Dell. When I call up my cable company for example, sometimes I talk to someone from Toronto, sometimes someone from right here in Columbus. Either way, part of the conversion is defused by talking about hockey or college football.

The other part of the customer service equation is to empower your staff to be able to help the customers. Give them the ability to send apology letters, send small apology tokens like a mouse pad or some other dell corporate swag, or even give them the ability to give customers a discount for their dis-satisfaction. Let them change the orders to some degree. I understand that once an order is placed we shouldn’t be able to change the processor or major components, but it should be easy to change other things within a 3 day window before assembly. Go ahead and charge an order change fee along with that, folks will understand and it gives you a new revenue stream. Lastly, don’t BS folks like me that the shipping method cannot be changed, I’m smart enough to know you don’t print out the shipping labels till the package is ready to be shipped.

Some interesting links on related Delayed Dell Shipments

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1562314/dell-shipping-i7-studio-xps-laptops

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19300240.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19301350.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19305046.aspx

Are you still waiting on a Dell laptop with an i7 processor? Please leave a comment, tell me about your experience!

UPDATE: November 23, 2009

My colleague’s Studio 17 currently does not work. When he finally got to turning it on Thursday evening, it was beeping an error code. The Studio 17 came DOA (Dead On Arrival). At present he is waiting for Dell to come and replace both the processor and the system board. I will be posting a separate blog post soon with an update on his Studio 17.

I’ve subsequently canceled the Studio 17 on order for my wife and promptly ordered the HP Pavilion dv7-3080us from NewEgg.com. It is comparable 17.3″ notebook computer with the i7 processor. It is nearly identical feature to feature except the HP comes with a twice as large hard drive (500GB), additional 2GB of memory, media remote control, and a blu-ray player/reader.  As far as cost, this machine is about $200 more than the Studio 17 I had on order. The only feature it does not come with is the back-lit keyboard. Her computer will be arriving anytime today.

I’ve had my Google Android G1 phone for over a year now, and I have a lot of good and bad things to say about it. I’ve had my iPhone 3GS for just over 6 months now and have come to a number of conclusions why I don’t like the iPhone and prefer Android.

In a nutshell, G1 hardware sucks, Android OS and applications rock. iPhone hardware is rock solid, iPhone OS, though easy to use, is very limited and applications do not seem to be as innovative, most likely a result of the limited OS. Lucky for Android users, there are now more than a 1/2 dozen better Android phones to pick from with more available in the coming months.

I got the Android G1 phone back in October of 2008, about a week after it came out. The first 24 hours with the phone was frustrating. Once I read the manual that came with the phone and watched a couple videos, I quickly understood how the phone worked and went from frustrated to enlightened. I’ve met a number of other folks who had a G1 for a few days and then quickly returned them. I suspect if they just spent the time to read the manual their experience would have been a better one.

I got the iPhone 3G S this past summer, essentially a week after the 3G S phone was released. The 3G S is provided by work. Being in the podcasting and new media business, it was important that I have and use a iPhone because it makes up such a large portion of the podcasting market share. It was easy for me to start using the iPhone, I never had to refer to a manual to get started. Coming from Android though, I quickly came to the realization how limited the iPhone is. I will get more into that shortly.

My Analogy of iPhone vs Android: An iPhone is like a desk, it can handle lots of work, but the only way the work gets done is if you do it. An Android phone is like having two desks with a secretary; one for you and another with a secretary working 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You still have to do your work, but it is nice to have your secretary tell you when you get new email, future appointments, Facebook reply, Tweet message or if there’s a flood warning.

This is my biggest frustration with the iPhone. I’ve been told by some iPhone users that the phone can be hacked to do what I can do with my Android phone. But that’s not quite how things work in Android. Not only can multiple applications run at the same time on Android, but all push type notification for things like Twitter, Facebook, Weather alerts, etc.. all funnel into a single stream of notifications that are easily accessible at the top of the screen. Even with a hacked iPhone, the user has to load the specific app to see if anything has changed.

I’m indifferent in opinion if the iPhone should evolve to be a multi-tasking push notifying device like Android. Referring back to my original frustration with the G1, I think there will always be a market for a simple one task at a time, only work when I tell you to work phone. I have a feeling that Apple did this on purpose so users can start using the phone quickly without frustration. Keep it simple works for most.

Unfortunately for Apple, I’m not most people. I have a lot of work to do all the time. Android, though it is initially more complicated than the iPhone, simply does more.

Hardware wise, the iPhone is definitely a well built phone. I am not at all worried that something will break or fail on the phone. I cannot same the say about my HTC G1, after 1 year of use it feels aged.

Some specific features missing in the iPhone found in Android:

• Multi-color LED light: Applications in Android take advantage of this. I setup my twitter app to blink cyan when I have new tweets for example.
• Desktop Widgets: I never have to load the calendar or weather applications, I can see what my next appointment is and the weather simply by looking at my home screen.
• Micro SD card: Comes in handy, I’ve actually downloaded documents on my G1 then plugged the SD card into my laptop.
• Notifications Bar: Applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Weather Bug, system updates, etc.. add little notifications in an easy to access list available by pulling down the top of my screen with my finger like a curtain.
• Google Voice: iPhone doesn’t have this functionality, not because it can’t, but because they didn’t allow it. Sad because Android has 2 applications for Google Voice, one made by Google and another called GV made by Evan Charlton which is even better than the Google version.

Some things about the Android G1 phone I don’t like:

• Hardware on the G1 seems weak. I’ve seen other G1’s where the sliding mechanism feels very sloppy. Since I’ve seen that I’ve been very careful when I open/close my G1. The plastic clear cover over my camera lens has cracked and I find the plastic used on the phone to be of a poor quality.
• Camera is slow – I thought this was a problem with Android, but I’ve seen the Hero take pictures faster and they’re much more crisp compared to my phone.
• Touch keyboard in Android sucks – It can be improved, the only thing I do like is the short vibrate on button touch feature. I haven’t seen Android 2.0, reportedly the touch keyboard is much better on it.
• No 3.5mm audio jack – I have to use a Mini USB to 3.5mm adapter in order to plug headphones into the phone.

Applications noted with an asterisk* are applications I highly recommend.

Applications I use on iPhone (besides what comes with the phone):

• NPR News* – If you like NPR, this is a pretty good app.
• WordPress 2.0* – App made by Automattic.com for working with your WordPress blog. Prefer the wpToGo but moderating comments with this app is superior.
• Bump* - Exchanging contacts by bumping phones
• Facebook
• Flickr
• PogoPlug – Works with your pogoplug account.
  
• Pandora – Streaming radio
  
• NASA – Keep track with NASA missions
  
• WeatherBug

Applications I use on Android (besides what comes with the phone):

• KeePassDroid - Android version of KeePass
• ShopSavvy* – scan bar codes while at the store and get both regional store and online compared pricing
• TasKiller (Free/Pro) lets you kill tasks that run in the background, useful if you want to extend battery life
• AndroZip File Manager - Handle/create Zip files on the phone.
• Bluetooth File Transfer – Exchange files with other Android phones
• AndFTP - FTP client
• Wifi Analyzer* – Analyze all the Wifi signals so you can determine the best channel for your wireless access point.
• Key Ring Reward Cards* – Scan all your grocery store and box store cards into your phone. More abou this app below.
• wpToGo* – similar to WordPress 2.0, works better for writing posts, but the WordPress app for the iPhone moderates comments better.
• Listen* – Podcatcher (audio only at present) that runs in the background and downloads any size media. I’ll write more about this app near the bottom of this post.
• T-Mobile Visual Voicemail - just like visual voicemail on iPhone. I prefer the interface better tahn the Voicemail on iPhone actually.
• Pandora – Streaming radio
• WeatherBug* – Way better than WeatherBug on the iPhone becuase it has a desktop widget and adds notifications to my notifications bar in Android. Other than that, it’s similar to the WeatherBug app on iPhone.
• httpmon HTTP Server Monitor – Monitors web sites.
• Barcode Scanner – Alternative to Bump, all your contacts have square barcodes you can use this to scan in or give out your contact information easily.
• Voice Recorder – Simple application for recording.
• FxCamera – Camera app that lets you add effects
• Tuner – gStrings - lets you tune your instruments with the phone
• Qik* – Stream video from your phone’s camera live on 3g or Wifi (unlike the iPhone)
• Snap Photo Pro* – Camera app with a lot of options (default camera doesn’t have that many), it is worth buying this application.
• PogoPlug – Works with your pogoplug account.
  
• T-Mobile My Account – Get account usage and also monitors battery life
• Facebook for Android
• Scoreboard – Follow sports teams
• ConnectBot – SSH client
• GV* – Google Voice application, works better than the one by Google
• Bubble – Level application
• iTweet* – Twitter application, more about it below
• ToggleWifi- Toggle on-off Wifi from a desktop icon.
• ToggleBlu - Toggle on-off bluetooth from a desktop icon.
• Rings Extended – Use any audio on your phone as an audio setting for any application that uses notifications.

Key Ring Reward Cards

This has to be one of my favorite applications on Android. I used to have a half dozen of those cards on my key chain. Sometimes I would go to the grocery store with my other keys and not even have my reward card on me. Now both of my sets of keys are free of these stupid cards. There is also a cool factor when the person behind you sees you using a phone rather than your keys to scan in your rewards.

Listen (Google Labs Podcatcher for Android)

The Google Listen podcatcher is way better than iTunes on the iPhone. It does not have the 10MB limit on 3g like the iPhone does. It also has a pretty easy to use listen queue that allows you to organize the podcast episodes you want to listen to into a simple list. Anything in your listen queue automatically gets downloaded in the background. The application has a lot of potential. The only major downfall of the application currently is its search. You would think anything having to do with Search and Google would be brilliant, but finding podcasts in the Listen app is nothing but brilliant. The trick I’ve found is to search for episodes based on the episodes show notes. Searching for a podcast program is futile at best, but by episode notes typically works every time. You can add podcasts manually by RSS feed as well.

i Tweet (Twitter app for Android)

Not to be confused with iTweet.net, the i (space) Tweet app on Android is the best phone interface designed Twitter application I’ve seen to date. I was using Twitroid for a while, but found its memory usage  and clunky interface got to be quite annoying. i Tweet works in the same way and can run in the background to make use of the notifications features built into Android. When my phone blinks cyan, I know I got tweets waiting for me.

UPDATE!

I noticed I missed some other Android applications that I am using. Here’s the remainder of the list:

• Toddler Lock – Locks the screen so toddlers can play with the phone. makes sounds and displays color shapes.
• BistroMath - Calculate tips when dining out.
• Compass - What direction is north.
• ASCII Chart – Displays the ascii chart and its numeric values (for programmers)
• GPS Speedo – can detect yoru speed when GPS is enabled.
• Where - Find dining, shopping, etc.. based on your current location
• Pick a # – Lets you randomly get a number based on a range you specify.

Here are some more apps suggested from Matt Gunn:

• Movies – Display currently playing movies at nearby Theaters
• SportsTap – Sports portal like Scoreboard
• Foursquare – Explore major cities
• Robo Defense – game

I’m at WordCamp Columbus! It’s great, there are about 100 or so folks in attendance. Now at lunch we’re eating during an open mic, some hard core WordPress folks are speaking about whaty they do with WordPress, asking questions, etc.. I just learned that there are only 6-7 plugin devolopers here today.

I’m looking forward to the afternoon. The sessions sccheduled will be covering topics I’m not so knowledagable. At 2pm I’ll be doing my presentation on setting up WordPress with Podcasting where I’ll cover the plugins avaialble and go into detail on Blubrry PowerPress and WP Audio Player plugins.

So I keep getting emails from Microsoft and today I decided to unsubscribe. When I click the unsubscribe link, I am directed to a Microsoft Passport sign in page. I then surfed around the site and came across this page: http://www.microsoft.com/info/unsubscribe.mspx Which in any of the three options, requires me to sign into my Microsoft Passport. Unfortunately, the email they are sending spam to is a Google Email address, and when I enter my Google Email address in the forgot passport password page, it tells me that my Passport account does not exist. I’m not about to create a MS passport account simply to unsubscribe to their annoying mailing list. Is this Microsoft’s legitimate way of verifying email addresses, something spammers do to confirm that the destination is a live recipient? Crafty Microsoft, nice work.

This is just another sign how Microsoft is out of touch with what is happening on the web. Their horrible web browser and piss poor podcasting support in their operating system is an obvious sign of this but the little details such as this one just put into perspective that Microsoft will not be leading anything in the web technology sector anytime soon. My prediction, Microsoft will need to spin off or shut down some of their piss poor divisions so they can focus on being an Operating System company.

Oh and let me unusbscribe from your horrible news letter without having a passport!

So I’ve had this Google phone for 2 weeks and I must say that I’m very pleased with it. Unfortunately, I have not used a blackberry or an iPhone for 2 weeks, so I cannot fairly compare the phones. I can, however, point out the important features as well as the ergonomics of the phone that make this phone awesome.

Features That Rule!

The functionality and tight integration of the applications make this phone kick butt.

Gmail – Gmail works awesome on the phone. It has its own separate Gmail application which makes it easy to send and view Gmail messages. Since the phone is multi-threaded, everything works similar to how things work on a regular computer. For example, during the election I was following twitter on the phone and NBC4 Columbus put out a tweet asking for pictures of the lines at the voting booths. First I opened up Gmail, started a message. Then I turned on the camera, took a picture, closed the camera whcih brought me back to my message then quickly attached the image I just took and finished by clicking send. The whole process is pretty seamless.

Contacts – My contacts in Gmail and on the phone are all part of one single database of contacts. Anytime i add a new contact on the phone, it appears in Gmail. When I add a contact in Gmail, it appears on the phone. This is just one super powerful feature.

Calendar – I have a number of calendars. As expected you can view your calendar on the phone. What’s sweet is it also views all the calendars that are shared out to your Google Calendar. This means that the overlay of calendars from my work, personal and wife’s calendars appear in my phone. What’s even more awesome is how calendar events that have alarms configured set off the alarm in the phone. This whole calendar integration was very well thought out and Google deserves an A+ for this one.

Google Maps – This has already come in handy twice! Last week I was trying to find the West Marine store here in Columbus. When I mapped it at home, I thought the store was located on the west side of Sawmill road. When I drove over there and couldn’t find the store, I decided to re-map it in Google Maps on the phone. Though the point mapped did not indicate which side of Sawmill I needed to be on, it displayed the phone number for the business as a clickable number in the same way other numbers appear as contacts. I just clicked once and bam, the phone dialed West Marine and within seconds I was talking to someone who helped me find the store.

Dialer - The dialer application is what it is, the app that lets you dial numbers and contacts. This may be the first part of the phone that i could see vast improvement with. One cool feature though is how the Phone’s contacts can be filtered by groups. I setup a group in my Gmail contacts of people I call the most so those are the numbers that only appear in the main list of contacts in my phone. But don’t let this fool you, just because you only list contacts that are in a specific group does not mean the phone doesn’t recongize all of your contacts. It’s pretty tight phone in that regard.

Text Messaging – This works similar to Gmail, with each person you text listed as a separate thread. Nothing good or bad to say about it.

IM Client – It works pretty well and does the job.

Browser – The browser works pretty well. The coolest part of the browser is how it handles tabs. I like to open new links in a new tab, so all I do is hold my finger on the link for 2 seconds then a menu appears letting me open the link in a new tab. Moving between the tabs is pretty easy too. Sometimes I find myself in twitter in one tab and reading a blog in another. My only gripe so far is that you cannot perform file uploads from the browser. Not sure why this limitation is set but it is definitely something coded into the browser.

All around the default package of apps in this phone make this a very powerful tool for keeping in touch with others in all modern forms of communication.

Ergonomics Gets a C+

Though the phone is growing on me, it has some obvious ergonomic flaws. I pointed these out early on in my first blog post about the phone (click here) so I’ll just touch on them.

Ports, or lack there of – The position of the USB port sucks when you are texting. Though so far I have not found a need to have headphones plugged in while I am texting I can foresee that this will be a problem when I’m using the phone as both an mp3 player and as a phone. The lack of portion options also limits this phone. Had they just put a headphone jack along the right side of the phone then I’d be a happy camper. Then I could listen to music while texting without the plug getting into the way of my hands.

Camera – The camera has absolutely no options which sucks. Since it’s a camera phone, I’d like to set the picture quality a little lower so the files are smaller for sending in email. One other complaint is the delay when clicking the picture button and when the picture is actually taken. You absolutely cannot take a crisp picture with this phone holding it with just one hand. I am getting used to it but boy my last phone had a 1 Megapixel camera and took pictures much faster than this one.

3rd Party Apps

SSH Client – Okay, the average person would not even care about this but being a programmer and network administrator this feature is awesome. The application is called ConnectBot. It’s a petty simple SSH client. Though it is a bit painful to use with a texting keyboard compared to a regular keyboard, it does the job. I haven’t had to use it in a practical sense yet but if I am ever out of town and away from a computer I still have a way to connect to one of our rack servers and fix a critical problem through the shell. Extremely powerful tool in my opinion.

Twitter - There is a pretty good Twitter app for Android called  Twidroid. It works pretty well. The only feature that it lacks is a screen of public @ replies. Otherwise it works pretty well.

Pac Man – Yea, who doesn’t like old Atari games.

Others – I’ve installed an app for calculating tips at restaurants, an app which lets me use the camera to scan bar codes at stores to search other stores for comparable pricing and a weather plugin to easily obtain the current, hourly, 3 day and 10 day forecasts.

Overall Opinion

This is a great tool. I no longer want to refer to this as a phone as it is much more than that. I now know why so many people love their Blackberry’s or iPhone’s, these multi function devices let you do so much. However, they will never replace a computer, that is for sure. If anything, these devices could bridge the gab for the need for laptop computers. I am sure it will not be long before I hear about folks going back to desktop computers because their phone does everything they need when they are out of the office. I also predict that in a year or so we will see Android based laptop and desktop computers. I don’t see any reason why Google would not do this, as this would complete the gamut of needs for the average person and business as far as computing is concerned. Apple took OSX to the phone and I am certain Google will take Android from the phone to the desktop. Time will tell if I’m right.

Okay, I said I would wait a week before I give my review of my new Google G1 Android phone, but I now decided to wait 2 weeks since next week is the election. So this post will be a 3 day review of the phone thus far.

First conclusion, if you use Gmail, then this phone is for you!

Integration with Google

This phone is tight, I mean tight, with Google services. I use Google apps for my Domain, which means Email sent to mandato.com is actually handled by Gmail. The phone worked right out of the box with my mandato.com Gmail address. This tight integration with my Email and calendar alone will save me a lot of time and help me better manage my communication via both Email, IM and phone. If you use Gmail for your business and/or to communicate with family and friends, you will appreciate this phone.

So how tight is Android with Gmail? Well, all my contacts in Gmail are contacts in my phone. My calendar events are now synchronized between my phone, Google calendar on the web and my desktop Sunbird calendar application. Sure other applications and services (Act, Lotus Notes and Outlook come to mind) integrate with Software phones on computer desktops, etc.., but this does the job for new kinds of customers like myself, those who have mobile and/or virtual business environments.

So, this is why I got the phone and I must say it does everything I expected.

The Good, The Interface

The Interface for the phone is intuitive, though I would have to say this phone is not for everyone. As far as a phone is concerned, it works pretty well. In normal mode (keyboard closed), you can do a lot of basic stuff with the phone, access your calendar, dial, Google maps, web browser, email, etc… As soon as you need more computer like functionality, just put your thumb on the left side of the screen and push it to the right, and you got yourself a nice functioning keyboard. I never understood why someone would design a phone like this, but now I have it I know why, to keep things simple when possible. For example, I don’t think my parents will have a problem answering a phone call with this phone, but they certainly would have problems using the keyboard. I still have a phone that my mom could make a phone call with without getting completely confused.

There are some items about using the phone, that I’ll call techniques, that someone will need to learn to appreciate how to use and navigate a G1 phone.

First is the menu button. At any point, you can click the menu button to do essentially the same as clicking the ‘File’ pull down menu in any Windows application. For example, in an IM chat, click the menu button to do things such as close the IM chat window or toggle to another ongoing chat window. You’re going to need to learn this fast as there is no touch screen option to get to these options or settings screens.

Touch and hold, in some instances, will achieve the same as a right click when in a Windows application. For example, when viewing email messages, touch and hold the message in question to see options such as delete and mark as read/unread.

Back button is very important, as it does as it implies. Anytime your in a screen and you want to cancel what you’re doing or go back to the last screen, just click the back arrow button and you’re good.

The most tricky but coolest of features is the “closing the blinds” like feature to see the current list of notifications. It is hard to describe, but basically at the top of the screen is a bar that tells you what’s going on with the phone, date/time, battery life, etc… The top left corner will have icons for different types of notifications such as email, gmail, calendar, IM, txt, missed calls, voice mail etc…. All of these incoming messages or notifications are all listed in these blinds. This feature is definitely pretty sweet.

The Bad, The Hardware

I do have a couple items with the phone that I don’t like. Fortunately, they are issues with the hardware, not the software.

First problem is the lack of port options. The only way to plug anything into this phone is through its one proprietary USB port. The phone does come with stereo headphones, though if you want to keep the phone plugged in to charge, then listening to some music or making a hands free call isn’t an option. I did order an adapter off Ebay, but you would think it would just make sense to solder on a 2.5mm jack, as it is the most common hands free jack size.

Using the keyboard while something is plugged into the USB port is no walk in the park. My right index finger wants to surround the sides of the phone when typing, the cable just gets into the way. See photo. When nothing is plugged into the USB port, I’m just peachy keen. When a cable is plugged in, my finger constantly has to decide if it should wrap above or below the cable. Very very annoying. What would be ideal is either a second USB port on the right side of the phone (top side when in keyboard mode) or if the USB port was at a corner and could rotate from corner to corner or bottom. My vote is for either a second port or headphone jack centered on the right side (top side when in keyboard mode).

The built-in camera is not so hot. Part of the problem may simply be with the button location though. When I take pictures holding it vertically, it is hard to press the camera button. When turned sideways, the button is a little easier to push but you still need to hold the camera with both hands to keep it as still as possible to prevent blurring. I have yet to take a clear photo with the camera.

Conclusion

This phone is awesome. It is definitely going to save me time allowing me to keep up with work when I otherwise would not be able to as well as keep everything tightly together so I can access all my data from any computer and my phone.

If you haven’t herd, our house was one of the many casualties of the Wind Storm that blew through Ohio this past Sunday. No one was hurt, but the roof on the house got a pretty good beating. Our power was out from about 5pm that Sunday and was restored at about 9pm Monday evening. We were without power for about 28 hours. Just about everything but the pop and water in the frig is marked for the trash.

The storm also damaged a fence gate and blew off one of the rails to our deck. Many other homes in the neighborhood have similar or worse damage.

Sunday night was very interesting, before the sun went down Heather and gathered all of our flash lights and candles, got our small gas grill out of the garage and figured out how to open the garage while the power was out.

On Monday, Heather navigated through the city of broken stop lights and got to work. I spent the first half of the day fixing the fence gate and putting together the baby change table. Once I ran out of things I could do without power, I took the laptop to my Brother-n-law’s office and got myself caught up on email. When Heather and I got home around 6pm, there was still no power so we went out for dinner. Finally at about 9pm, the power was restored!

Our neighbor had to get a gas generator in order to keep their sump pump powered. Though we don’t have a water issue under our home, our dependence on electricity from the grid hit home pretty hard. We’ve decided that we don’t want this to happen to us again. Over the next 3 months, we’re going to make an investment into purchasing solar panels and battery packs for both situations like these and they can be used for camping/traveling.

I did some math and discovered that our cable modem uses roughly 2 Watts and my laptop uses roughly 75 Watts. In a pinch, it would not take much in order to power just these two items. I did some research, it looks like I can get a battery pack and some solar panels to charge the battery for less than $500. It’s a start, though not a complete power replacement for all of the electronics and lights in the house. I’m also ordering a Kill A Watt device to monitor the Watts used by certain devices in the home so in the future we have a good idea what we can and cannot power through a solar system.

Another item I’m going to be ordering soon is a solar USB charger. You can find these on Ebay. Anything that you own that can be charged plugged into a USB port of a computer can use a solar USB charger. Both heather and I have a USB charging cable for our cell phones, which would have been very useful for us this past weekend.

How did the wind storm impact your home? Were you prepared for the power outage? Are you taking steps like I am to be less dependant on electricity from the grid?

I was downloading the latest version of Firefox today and came across a Google sponsored ad in my firefox search . The sponsored link goes to FirefoxIIl.com (that’s the word firefox plus two capital i’s and one lower case L). I found it interesting that the Mozilla foundation would sponsor a new distribution, and more interestingly under a new domain name. After checking out the web site, I found the site did not have any copyrights or links to other mozilla/firefox web sites or plugin downloadss. Further more, the only thing you can download from the site is the version 3 exe install and a couple themes. Who ever put the site together listed a few Firefox plugins, obviously the authors favorites.

The owner of the domain is not the Mozilla foundation. The current domain owner is “INTERNETWIRE COMMUNICATIONS GMBH”, web site: http://www.internetwire.de. They do not appear to have any connection with Firefox or Mozilla.

Just to check that someone is not doing some weird hoax or distributing a version with spyware or a virus, I downloaded the version from firefoxiiL.com and did a compare to the one from Mozilla. They are identical files, so at least no one is being harmed by this stunt.

So the question is, why would someone create a hoax site and pay Google to advertise it?

Update

@blookins from twitter replied with the lookup of the IP address of the server hosting firefoxiiL.com, it is hosted in China. Very suspicious.

Google

Why are you selling your Adsense service to a potential fraudulent web site?

I just found out my Internet Service Provider (ISP) called WOW Internet and Cable has been monitoring our web traffic since March of 2008 for profit. The monitoring takes place by installing hardware made by NebuAds within the ISP’s network, WOW Internet in my case. Web traffic from WOW Internet customers (like me) is routed through these hardware devices for tracking. The data (html, javascript, images, etc…) that customers like myself request from web sites such as Google could be modified in order to display targeted advertising. According to DSLReports, WOW cable (and other NebuAds clients) can make at least $2.50 a month per customer.

I was made aware of this by a local TV station here in Columbus, Ohio.

When I spoke with WOW today, they informed me that I was recently made aware of this change when they sent me a notice in the mail of recent change in the terms of service. Like any trusting customer, I did not read the fine print. The notice did not come with a cover letter explaining what part of the notice changed and/or why. See Third Party Advertisers section of WOW Internet Terms.

Notice that in the WOW Internet Terms they created an acronym for “Personally Identifiable Information” as “PII”. The way the acronym is written in the sentence it implies that it encompasses other items. Make no mistake, they clearly state that PII is your name, address and phone number and nothing else. They do not state that IP addresses are PII. In my opinion, your IP address on the Internet is just as personally identifiable as your telephone number or street address. An IP address identifies you on the Internet so data knows where to be directed over the entire World Wide Web. The same can be said about telephone calls and snail mail. Apparently WOW does not believe that your IP address on the Internet is considered “personally identifiable information” even though IP addresses have been continually used to identify individuals and is commonly added to header information of many Internet protocols such as email and web browsing.

Users may opt out of the service on a per browser bases using cookies. This means that anytime I decide to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, Opera, Safari or another computer for that matter, I have to remember to follow a procedure (that I currently do not know) to add a cookie to each browser I use to turn this tracking off. Further more, I now have to do this for every computer in my home and for anyone who visits who uses my Internet. This means that browsers used in my home must support cookie handling, removing my choice (or anyone else in my home’s choice) of turning off cookies in web browsers. For 3rd party applications (Non web browsers) that use the Internet (such as to download or check for product updates) will continue to be tracked by WOW.

WOW Internet is the 12th largest Cable provider in the United States. WOW has been using NebuAds to profit from its customers since March/April of 2008. For the past three months, WOW has made more than $7 from myself alone. I have yet to see any savings passed onto my bill. It appears this $2.50 is an additional revenue stream for WOW and is not something they are using to pass savings to their customers in exchange for invading their privacy.

The 3rd largest cable provider, Charter Communications, recently decided not to use the NebuAds service to make money from its customers. Charter decided to abandon the practice following the release of a report that caught the interest of the United States Congress into the legalities of the adveritsing targeting mechanisms.

The most upsetting aspect of this whole thing for me personally, is that I’ve discovered that this tracking is known to cause problems with Google Gmail. I use Gmail and Gmail for my domains and have come to rely heavily on Google’s Gmail service. Since March I have experienced issues with Gmail and for the longest time have presumed Gmail was the problem. Now that I know that my ISP, that I’ve been paying over $100 a month to provide me reliable access to the Internet, may have been the cause of the problems I’ve been experiencing with Gmail frustrates me greatly. I’ve lost a lot of time and productivity with the problems I have had with Gmail. Email is a vital service, especially for someone who requires not only for tracking and paying bills but for employment and work as well.

I’ve called and notified WOW that they will have to contact me in 7 days to let me know that they will no longer be tracking my Internet and have stopped modifying my Internet traffic. Otherwise I will switch to another ISP. They have until July 7th to resolve this issue, or they will loose me as a customer. If after July 7th, they do not rectify this problem with their service, I will contact federal, state and local government representatives in my area of WOW’s shady practices, notify my neighbors what WOW is doing with their Internet usage, and make it a point to NOT recommend WOW for Internet services.

WOW, you have 168 hours. What is your answer?

UPDATE (GREAT NEWS)

WOW cable called me today (Thursday) at about 4pm to let me know that they are removing the NebuAds for all of their customers! I no longer need to switch ISPs! What an emotional roller coaster but unlike some businesses apparently WOW does listen to its customers. I’m going to stick with WOW now that they will no longer deploy this questionable intrusion of advertising in my web surfing.

As soon as I have a press release to link to I’ll create a new blog post about it.