2 things I want in iOS 5 (WWDC)
Now that the WWDC keynote is hours away and we are expecting the introduction of iOS 5, these are the two things I feel Apple MUST add to iOS 5:
- A better notification system, yes this has been widely discussed and is essentially a foregone conclusion at this point, but iOS needs a much better notification system, something that rivals Android (they have one of the best notification systems I’ve seen).
- Full offline Exchange support. I am really tired of not being able to manage my exchange email (move/ delete) offline (not to mention the annoying alerts that popup telling me I’m not connected). iOS 5 needs to enable full email management capabilities while not connected. I’ve had it with current implementation. The BlackBerry was great at this. Apple needs to step it up.
- And one more thing…. It would be great to have voice recognition text input much like android.
Just made my first Ally eCheck deposit!
A few weeks ago I heard Ally, which has become my primary bank, released a new eCheck deposit feature allowing customers to scan checks rather than mail them in. I started using Ally late last year as an alternative to my then current bank in order to avoid ATM fees. At the time I was a bit shocked they didn’t have this feature or a mobile app. However, over the last few months Ally has won my business with great customer service, no fees (for some reason no matter where I was, there was never an ATM for my national bank) and an excellent bill pay system.
When I heard about the new eCheck deposit system I asked to be added to the list for an upcoming roll-out, and about two weeks ago Ally made the feature available to me. Today was the first time I had a check that needed to be deposited. The process was fairly simple and straightforward (although I had to play with the settings on our office scanner a bit): input the check amount, scan the front side and align, scan the back after endorsing and align, and submit. In all it took about 10 minutes. Too long if I was depositing a lot of checks regularly, but I’m not, for the occasional check it is an easy process.
Now there is absolutely no need for my brick and mortar national bank, at least none that I can see. Sure I would love to see Ally add this feature to an iPhone app like USAA or Chase (or for them to even have an iPhone app), but hopefully in due time they will get there. For now, Ally just enabled me to close my other account as its sole purpose was to deposit checks. Thanks Ally!
… now hopefully the check clears and there isn’t a problem.
Eye-Fi Direct Mode is here, turns tablets and smartphones into must-have camera accessories -- Engadget
When I read this article I was super excited, I use an EyeFi card in my Cannon S90 (which doesn’t get a lot of use) but has been my goto camera lately whenever I wanted something more than my iPhone. To my dismay when I tried to setup direct mode I discovered my card is not an “X2” card. It turns out I bought my Pro card a few months before the X2 cards came out. Seems to be about par for technology purchases.
One of my biggest requests of EyeFi has been dropbox support. It seems EyeFi will upload to every service under the sun except dropbox. Not only do I heavily use Dropbox for almost everything, but I wanted dropbox sync so that I could manage photos on my iPhone or iPad.
In my perfect world, I would take a photo, EyeFi would upload it to dropbox. If I were at my computer I could import the image into Aperture and be done, but if I were on the road I could access the newly taken image from Dropbox on my iPhone, edit it and share it on the network of my choosing without too much fuss. Sounds great, right?
Well it seems direct mode will essentially let me do just that but faster, since I wont have to find a hotspot to upload to in the first place.
I’m seriously considering picking up a new X2 card just so I can use this feature. On the other hand, I’m finding the camera in my iPhone 4 to be pretty damn good for just about anything I use my S90 for.
iPhone
Following up on a my recent post on the white iPhone, I finally broke down over the weekend and upgraded to the iPhone 4. In a split second decision at the store I decided to go with the black one. The white one is nice, I just prefer the black one. After a few days of use I’m kicking myself for not having upgraded sooner. Seriously, what was I thinking! As I was about to jump ship from my iPhone 3Gs to the Google Nexus S 4G I made one last dive into iOS and am happy I did so. The iPhone 4, as you all know, is an amazing device, the screen is beautiful, camera and speed is much better then its predecessor, and for as much crap as we all give the OS’s shortcomings (eg, notifications) it’s still leaps and bounds above android, from a UX standpoint.
As I previously mentioned, I spend a ton of time on my phone and I can’t believe I waited this long to upgrade. Now lets just hope the iPhone 5 doesn’t drop in June or July! I can live with September.
A few days ago my TripIt inbox was empty :( a very odd feeling. Good to see that in a few days that all changed back to a more normal state.
White iPhone
So the white iPhone 4 was released yesterday. It’s not all that special, it’s the iPhone 4 in white. What I find interesting and telling is the timing. As others have noted, this release so close to Apple’s historic annual iPhone refresh seems to indicate the next iteration, a.k.a. iPhone 5, will not be released anytime soon. Current rumors point to a late Q3 or early Q4 launch. Now Apple may surprise everyone, but the timing makes an early release doubtful in my mind.
So here I sit with an old iPhone 3Gs. Why I don’t know. I normally buy phone’s annually and now I’m well more than 20 months into this phone and it’s falling apart. I mean really, it’s cracked the ringer switch works about 50% of the time, it’s lived its life and I don’t know how much longer it has left. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is an amazing device, and I’m still kicking myself for not having purchased one last summer but I was trying to get off the annual upgrade cycle. I now realize these phone are designed to be replaced almost annually (at least for heavy users). In the time I’ve owned the 3Gs, I’ve bought a ton of gadgets that replace an older version, and these are items I don’t use nearly enough as my phone. Due the painfully slow 3Gs processing speed I’m noticing that I spend more time using my iPhone than any other device, other than my work computer, I own. It should be up-to-date.
So I’m rapidly approaching a crossroad, do I:
1) Hold on to this device until it dies or the day the iPhone 5 comes out;
2) Buy the iPhone 4 now and then evaluate the upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it comes out (at that point hopefully its Q4, as I would hate to buy a new phone which will be obsolete in a month); or,
3) Buy the Nexis S 4G from Sprint and totally change-up the game.
I’ve accepted that I’m going to spend a few hundred dollars on phones each year. And while I don’t really want to drop cash on a new phone, its come to the point that the device I use for hours a day is in need of an upgrade much more so than any other device.
If the new iPhone were coming in June, I’d try to wait, but with a 5-7 month wait I know my current device will be need to be replaced before then, the question is when and with what. Maybe an Andriod device.
Sleeping with iPhone in airplane mode
Lately I’ve been trying to improve my sleep through a lot of trial and error. The last few weeks I’ve been placing my iPhone into airplane mode at night. I use the iPhone as an alarm and notifications (vibrate and screen turning on) were becoming very disruptive especially when trying to fall asleep. So far, it’s become my new routine to place my iPhone into airplane mode at night. Only downside, if someone needs to get ahold of me at the dead of night for some emergency they’re going to have to come and physically wake me.
See your location history dashboard and more with Google Maps 5.3 for Android
View your location history dashboard from your Latitude profile on your phone and see estimates of where you’ve spent your time.
-See your location history dashboard and more with Google Maps 5.3 for Android
This looks like a sweet use of google latitude, especially since i love tracking the various datapoint generated by my life. It’s not enough of a reason to get an android phone, especially knowing that the battery use with running location all day will be killer.
New SaneBox Stats
I’ve written about my love SaneBox.com before, the service helps me sort through the mess that is my inbox, not only has it been better and sorting email than Gmail’s priority inbox, for me, it gets the unimportant messages out of my inbox into other folders/labels that can review when i have time thereby keeping my inbox clean.
In this weeks stats email (I also love that i get a weekly email on my email usage) SaneBox added a chart that compares my email volume to other SaneBox users. All I can say is that i shouldn’t be this far to the right on this cart. Obviously my inbox would not be manageable without some sort of filters. However, this just mean SaneBox needs more heavy users so I can move down to the left on this chart.
Gmail slowness
It seems to be that time of the quarter again when where Google services like gmail start grinding to a halt. The last two days gmail has been painfully slow. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who’s effected. Gmail definitely deserves an award for its performance lately.
