Franz Kelsch on Tech

I remember when the Apple iPad was released and I looked at it’s features and thought it would not be very successful.  It just did not have the right functions and features.  Once again I was wrong because Apple knew better what people really wanted, even maybe needed, more than most of the technically oriented pundits.  I have lived long enough to know when TV was really simple.  You had your single knob to change the channel, rotating it from channel 2 through 13.  You had another knob for the volume and a third knob to turn the TV on and off.  All the knobs where different and you never made the mistake of using the wrong knob.

Fast forward to today and you ended up with many electronic devices that do far more than that ancient TV, but frankly have terrible interfaces.  Take your typical remote control today, most likely designed by someone in Japan, who might be great engineers but have no idea about human factor engineering.  They make all the buttons tiny, all the same size and the labeling is in brown on black, almost unreadable.  I guess we are suppose to be amazed at how many different functions they cram into the remote control.

I had an extra Macbook computer that is hooked up to my TV which could do most anything.  So when I was watching Steve Jobs introduce the new Apple TV I was not sure I needed it.  However it seemed interesting and the price of $99 was so low it was worth buying one just to see how it worked so I placed an order for it knowing it would not ship for about a month.  Before the end of September, just as promised, I received the device by mail, shipped directly from China.  I was struck by how small the shipping box was.

Inside was a square box that was beautifully packed, as you would expect from an Apple product, was the Apple TV, the power cord and the tiny remote control.

There was no included HDMI cable, but what do you expect for something so cheap.  I was taken back by how small the Apple TV was and very impressed with the power cord.  No big brick power supply like comes with so many devices now days.  In fact the entire contents of the box were not larger than the typical power supply bricks of some gadgets.  The cord was nicely wound, with a plastic loop, not packed with a twist tie like so many cords today.  As usual, Apple knows how to present things right when you open the box.

The back of the Apple TV has very few connectors but I only need two, one for the HDMI cable and one for the power supply.  I don’t have an internet cable down to my family room so I was using the WiFi.  So it took only a minute to connect it and switch my audio/video receiver over to the the HDMI port connected the Apple TV to.  Soon I was connected to my Apple wireless router upstairs and off and running.  There was a small user manual in the package but no need to even look at it.  The interface is simple and the remote control even simpler to use.

There are actually seven buttons on the remote control but it feels like only three,  The tiny remote fits nicely in your hand and in no time I am using it to control everything without even looking down at the remote.  Image doing that with most remote controls that seem to think the more buttons the better.  The Menu button acts like the back button and takes you back where you were, or up the menu structure.  There is a play/pause button that works as expected.  Then there is a click wheel, used to move in four directions with a select wheel in the middle of the click wheel.  Simple but highly effective when coupled with the interface.

I quickly was able to connect to my Mac’s iTunes library on my computer upstairs and play anything from it, including movies or podcasts.  The Apple TV also supports many podocasts which you can mark as a favorite to quickly find.  I then tested the Netflix steaming, one of the features I most used with my connected Macbook computer.  I was surprised how slick the interface was, much better than what Netflix itself offers over a web browser.  Streamed content looked great, even over 802.11N WiFi.

What does the Apple TV lack?  There is no way to check email, no web browser, and no internal hard drive.  However it does have 8 Gb of on-board flash memory to cache rented movies.  I rented the movie “Robin Hood” and was surprised it would take over an hour to download it, but that was a function of my slow internet connection.  The Apple TV determines your download speed and has you wait until it caches enough of the movie so that once you start to play it, you will not be interrupted while you watch in high definition.  This is different than Netflix that lowers your quality to match your download speed.  The movie looked great.  I knew that the Apple TV movie was in 720p, not 1080p, but on my 42 in. LCD TV I was not really able to tell the difference.  It looked about the same as my BluRay disk player.

I have now disconnected my Mackbook from the TV and use only the Apple TV.  It is instantly on, no need to fumble with a keyboard and mouse and go through a computer interface to do something simple like view a Netflix movie.  Steve Jobs was dead on when he talked about what users wanted and why they designed the Apple TV as they did.  Inside the Apple TV is essentially the same components as the Apple iPad and runs on the same iOS.  So it can be enhanced as Apple decides to.  However for now I am happy with what it does, which is 95% of what I used my Macbook on my TV for.  Once they release Apps for it, it will be even more useful.  Next month they will release the new iOS for the iPhone and iPad so you can stream from them to the Apple TV using something called AirPlay.  Once again Apple gets it right and keeps it simple and easy to use.

Google Earth for the iPhone and iTouch has now been released and this is one amazing application.  It integrates with things such as your contacts list.  When I selected to search, and started to type my own address, my full address showed and I was able to just select it.

You zoom in/out using the usual pinch finger.

It was speedy using the WiFi connection. It includes the Panoramio and Wikipedia layers under the “Geographic Web” by default. Click on a blue photo icon when you see one, and it will load the Panoramio photo for that location.

Read the blog entry by the Google Earth team.

Here is a video released by Google.

So cool! There is a new Word press app for the iPhone that allows me to write or edit a posting to a WordPress blog. I am using it for this entry.

Too bad it does not yet support images from the iPhone camera

I am glad I bought the 8 Gb version of the iPhone since I have nearly filled up that space now.

The video includes two movies and several video podcasts. The audio includes my 4 and 5 star rated music and many audio only podcasts. The photos include all my photos I have in iPhoto for 2007. I am sure they will have a 16 Gb version of the iPhone soon since they are now offering that in the new iPod Touch. I don’t think I need a hard disk based iPhone like some want with 80 Gb. That would defeat the function of being slim enough and long enough battery to use as a phone.

Another limitation that I am finding is Apple’s approach of not allowing the installation of programs by 3rd party developers, except what they can do with Safari. I just think there would be a lot of neat little programs like were developed for Windows Mobile, that would be useful. On the top of my list would be a real version of Skype and a version of Slingbox player. They have a version of the Slingbox player for Windows mobile, Windows smart phones and Palm phones. But all of those allow the installation of a program. Currently with the iPhone the only thing a developer can do is host something on a website you browse to with Safari. Considering that Apple claims the iPhone is running OSX, it should not be difficult for them to open it up. Their claim about security is most likely a cover for what they really want, and that is to control everything, typical of Apple.

The final limitation is the use of the AT&T Edge network. When I am at home it uses WiFi which is fast. But Edge is slow. But I had that on my old Windows Smartphone so I guess I am not sure what I am missing.

Even with those limitations, the iPhone is by far the best phone I have ever purchased and I continue to be amazed by is capabilities. The user interface is outstanding.

Hre is an update to the post about buying a new iPhone, after I have had a chance to use it for a few days. On Saturday, I broke down and finally bought a new iPhone. After Apple reduced the price of the 8Gb model by $200, it seemed like a good deal. My existing phone with AT&T cost me $20 a month for the data plan (with no text messaging) and the new iPhone data plan is the same cost, so on a monthly basis there was no increase in costs, plus I get 200 text messages included. There is just no comparision between my old Windows Mobile phone and the new iPhone. I can actually use the iPhone for email and web browsing while that old phone was almost worthless for that. I actually don’t use my phone as much for voice calls as for data, so it made a lot of sense to go with the iPhone.

I have now had a chance to use the phone for a few days and clearly state that this is by far the best phone I have ever used, even exceeding the Blackberry phone that I had while I was working. I would even go as far as to say it is the best user interface on any device I have ever used.

My previous phone was a Cingular 3125. It had Microsoft Mobile 5.0 on it but had a regular cell phone keypad. It was very hard to read email messages on it and for me to send a message meant only a few words. I did like the slim design. However it got poor reception. When I complained about that initially, the Cingular store said it was just our local town and since I was new to Cingular, I was not sure. But with the iPhone, now on the same network, gets 4 bars of reception in the exact same place my old phone barely could get one.

The iPhone is the first phone I have ever seen that browsing the web is at all practical. Sure it is not as useful as a regular computer, but you can’t put a computer in your pocket either. The fact that it uses WiFi is a big plus since the Edgne network can be slow (as I already knew from my old Windows Mobile phone). It would have been nice to have the iPhone use the new 3G network, but for me I rarely would be in a place to take advantage of that at this point in time.

There are tons of reports on the workings of the iPhone so I will stop here and just say I am very pleased with the phone. I just need to learn to type on the touch sensitive screen that has no tactile feedback. I am improving but have some ways to go. Apple has once again taking a mature market and turned it upside down.