To make a long story short, “rabbit rabbit” is a phrase you’re supposed to say on the first of every month for good luck. I’ve written about this in the past, but the topic needs revisiting.
Some time ago, my friend Chad created a Facebook fan page called “Rabbit Rabbit.” He generously made me an administrator of the page. In the early days the fan page only had a dozen fans. We are now up to nearly 100 fans. I would like to see that number rise to 1000 and beyond. This week I created a permanent username for the page so that it now has its own direct URL on Facebook. I’m hoping that by giving the page it’s own unique URL that it will start to appear on search engines and elsewhere. The address is: facebook.com/rabbitrabbitpage
Any Facebook user who is a fan of the page is allowed to make posts to the wall and even post pictures! That said, I monitor this very closely. Last week a user posted a spam advertisement for a website selling rabbit food. I believe that spam showed up on the news feeds of everyone who is a fan of the page. Let me be clear that I will not tolerate junk posts to our page, and I will bring the hammer down on anybody who does. So behave yourselves!
It’s also worth nothing that there is a page on Wikipedia that explains the origins of Rabbit Rabbit. It’s an interesting read, but Chad and I had nothing to do its creation or content.
I’ve wanted to outline a comparison of iPhone GPS navigation apps for several weeks now. I waited to write this post until after Apple announced iOS 5, in anticipation of a potential announcement that free navigation will finally be included in the OS. That turned out not to be the case, and such apps must still be purchased separately. Let me say from the start that I am fully aware that the Android OS provides turn-by-turn GPS navigation for free from Google. I don’t know what solutions are present on the Windows Phone or webOS, as I don’t care about either of those platforms.
Apple doesn’t include free navigation on the iPhone. As a result, many users simply choose to use the free built-in Maps app for maps and directions. The Maps app is useful for finding nearby places but is inadequate as a substitute for turn-by-turn driving directions. I want a GPS app with maps in first-person view and turn-by-turn spoken directions. There are several solutions in the App Store and I’m going to focus on the big three. All three apps below utilize multitasking so you can still use another app or talk on the phone and they will continue delivering voice guidance.
MotionX GPS Drive
In the past, MotionX GPS Drive is the app I have used the most, and I even wrote a post about it in July of 2010. It costs 99¢ in the App Store. It is feature-rich and works relatively well. The catch is that in order to get the voice guidance, you have to subscribe via an in-app purchase. 30 days of voice guidance costs $2.99. It isn’t an automatically renewed subscription, but a 30-day pass that you can re-activate whenever you need it. If you rarely need to use GPS navigation, this is a very cheap solution. You also have the option to pay for one full year of voice guidance at $24.99 (reportedly now $19.99), which is far cheaper than buying a standalone GPS unit.
Some downsides to MotionX GPS Drive are that the app interface is a bit cluttered. I think that many of the options and settings could be simplified. For example, if I’m sitting at a stoplight and I want to quickly navigate to one of my saved locations, I have to click through several screens to get to that. I appreciate that the app has the sheer number of settings that it does, but I’d like to have an option for a much more simplified view of my choices, in much larger writing.
MotionX uses OpenStreetMap as its mapping source. The biggest cost in a GPS system is the actual map data. The big boys charge a premium for their well polished maps. OpenStreetMap is a crowdsourced mapping system that was created and is maintained by the community in a way like Wikipedia, meaning regular Internet users are adding and updating the data on these maps. The use of OpenStreetMap is what keeps the cost of MotionX so low compared to some of the others. This can also lead to inaccuracies, but I never noticed any issues when I’ve used it in my area.
Map data is downloaded from the server at the time you plot a route or choose a destination. You must have an Internet connection via Wi-Fi or 3G to get this initial map data. Maps are then cached and are reused until the cache is filled (up to 2 GB of storage). This is a disadvantage if you are in an area without data coverage. However, it is an advantage in that the app itself is small and maps are always fresh, having just come from the source.
Overall, I had a fairly successful experience with MotionX. My biggest complaint is that the app would often tell me to turn when I was right on top the turn, or when I was already passing it. I often didn’t get enough warning of an impending turn and found myself glancing at the screen a lot just to feel certain about what was coming next. Another downside is that the voice navigation doesn’t pronounce street names aloud. It says highway numbers but leaves road names out. I prefer to hear the road names spoken to me. In addition, I prefer to see speed limits within the GPS unit and MotionX does not provide this information. That said, MotionX is constantly being improved and updated. New features are made available all the time.
Garmin StreetPilot
Garmin finally got in the game at the beginning of 2011 with StreetPilot. This iPhone app looks exactly like the Garmin Nuvi GPS unit. The interface is dead simple and easy to use. Maps on the Garmin are downloaded on-the-fly just as MotionX does. Garmin isn’t using OpenStreetMap though, it uses the same map source used in their GPS units, so map data is likely to be more accurate. The app also offers real-time traffic updates.
StreetPilot is a one-time purchase of $34. It is cheaper than TomTom and far cheaper than a standalone unit. I almost purchased StreetPilot, but I’d read many negative reviews of it on the web and in the App Store. Garmin has released several updates since the initial version, but users have still complained about various aspects of it. The number one complaint I’ve seen is that the voice isn’t clear or loud enough. Many users reported trouble understanding the spoken voice guidance. I’m sure it Garmin makes a solid product, but the user reviews turned me off and I looked to TomTom instead.
TomTom USA
From my research, the TomTom app is the gold standard of iOS navigation apps. It has won the praise of many. TomTom bundles all of their map data within the app, so no data connection is required to use it, just like a standalone unit. The maps are updated when they release new versions of the app. The inclusion of the map data makes the app itself very large. The TomTom USA app amounts to a whopping 1.3 GB, easily the largest mobile app I’ve ever downloaded. When TomTom releases an update of any kind, you have to download an entire new 1.3 GB app again. That said, some map updates are pushed to the app automatically, and large app releases are relatively few and far between. TomTom is also quite expensive at $49. I bought it a few weeks ago on sale for $39. That is a lot of money for an iPhone app, but a fraction of the money I would have spent on a TomTom standalone unit, which I was also considering at the time.
I really like the TomTom GPS app. The interface is simple and clean, with large letters and graphics. It warns me with ample time to make a turn or to change lanes. When I approach a complex interchange on the freeway, the app automatically shows a zoomed view of what lane I need to be in to stay on course. That is pretty sweet. TomTom is the only one of these three to offer celebrity voices, including Homer Simpson! Celebrity voices cost extra via an in-app purchase. I have not installed any such voices. They are cute, but rather unnecessary. The included voice is perfect as it is. Street names are all read and pronounced aloud. Traffic information is also available, if desired. TomTom also makes a US and Canada combo app that is slightly more expensive than the US only version. International versions are available as well.
Overall, MotionX provides the cheapest GPS navigation solution, but I find the TomTom app to have a bit more polish, accuracy, and ease of use. I also prefer the one-time purchase over subscription pricing.
I finally sat down to fill out my registration form for a washer/dryer that I recently purchased. I knew better than to bother writing in all of the information and mailing in the card. That would take forever. I was going to use the Whirlpool website and register online. Still, I needed to track down my serial numbers first.
Not so fast! On the registration card is a special barcode that you can scan with your camera phone! I have a barcode scanner in my iPhone called RedLaser. I fired it up and scanned the provided barcode. My phone instantly took me to the Whirlpool mobile website where it already had my product information displayed and the individual serial numbers of my actual units! Wow! Then all I needed to do was type in my name, address, email, and select the store where the products were purchased. Boom! I was done in a flash. It said my product was registered and I immediately got an email from Whirlpool with warranty and product information. I will be notified about potential product recalls via email in the future.
To think I was going to use the website and type it all in. That behavior is now considered old school. I am very impressed. Wow! The future has arrived.
Today on my local weather site, they prominently display a graphic of a lightning bolt and rain for this evening. But under that graphic in small print it reads: “30% chance of scattered showers and storms.” What?! 30%? That practically means there is hardly any chance of that happening. Just put up a picture of a sun or a moon and stop the exaggerations already. Seriously, no graphic should reflect adverse weather unless the actual possibly is at least greater than 50%.
I bought an iMac!! I was replacing my Mac Mini that I purchased four years ago. It was a great machine, but it had its limitations and was really starting to show its age. My iMac is the latest model that was just released this month in May 2011. It has the Intel i5 quad-core processor. I couldn’t be happier. It’s a work of art.
I’d like to recommend two great iOS apps that work in the cloud using Dropbox. Hopefully any serious computer user already has a Dropbox account. If you don’t, stop reading this and go download it. Every user gets 2 GB of cloud storage for free. I have it on all my computers and my phone.
The first app you should check out is called Plaintext. It has replaced the Notes app for me on my iPhone. Plaintext is a free and simple barebones text editor. What makes it so useful is that there is no local saving of text files. It automatically saves everything you type into a folder on Dropbox. Plaintext makes note-taking much easier than using the Notes app where you sync files via iTunes. I can now jot down notes on the go and when I get home to my computer, the notes are already there waiting for me. It works in the opposite direction as well. I can write and save files to the Plaintext folder in Dropbox on my computer and I can access and edit them on my phone. There are other apps that do the same type of thing that Plaintext does, but Plaintext is completely free and does works perfectly. I highly recommend it.
Sometimes I don’t feel like typing long notes on my phone and would rather record a voice memo. Say hello to Dropvox. It is a simple voice recorder where the recordings are automatically saved to Dropbox. The Dropvox app is extremely basic, almost to a fault. You can’t go back and listen to what you just recorded, or see a list of files saved. It is a one-way street. Of course, you could use the Dropbox iOS app if you want to browse what is in the folder. Limitations aside, it’s nice to sit at my computer and see the files of my recordings waiting for me. This is easier than using the Voice Memos app included in iOS where you have to sync the phone to iTunes to get the files. Granted, the audio quality is compressed with Dropvox, so you wouldn’t want to use it in situations where you want the best audio quality. I tend to use it when I’m driving and I want to remind myself of something to look up later, or something to add to my hate list, for instance. Dropvox costs 99 cents.
Apple is rumored to make a big cloud push this year, and the release of iOS 5 may bring this type of functionality to the native Notes and Voice Memos apps. We shall see. For now, try the two solutions above. Both Plaintext and Dropvox work on the iPad as well.
I love Google Voice, but their iPhone app is in need of an overhaul. Since November 2010 when the app finally made its way into the App Store, it has never been updated to my recollection. It certainly works as advertised, but there are plenty of features that I would like to see added or expanded. I’ve used other free texting apps that have had better interfaces and features, but I choose to use Google Voice because the service is better. I like the ability to send text messages directly from the website on my computer and maintain archives the way that Google does well.
Before I get into my list of features I want in the iPhone app, I would like to point out a glaring omission with the Google Voice system as a whole. That omission is that MMS texting is not allowed. If anyone sends me a text message that includes a picture, I receive absolutely nothing. No notification, no bounceback. Absolutely nothing. I don’t know why this isn’t fully supported. It couldn’t be a storage issue since Google owns enormous properties like YouTube. The amount of data to manage MMS messaging would be less than a drop in the bucket of the data management for YouTube videos. At the very least, I wish Google would deliver me the text portion of a MMS message with an “attachment not included” warning. Get on this already!
Back to the iPhone app. For some unknown reason, composing text in landscape mode is not supported. I most always lock my phone in portrait mode, so it’s not a huge deal for me, but not everyone uses it the way I do. Landscape mode for the Google Voice app is surely needed, especially for people used to typing in that fashion.
There are no zero options for notification sounds! The only sound the app makes is the generic iOS default notify ding. I’ve used the TextFree app in the past and it had a dozen or so options for notification sounds. This would be a very welcomed feature for Google Voice. The fact that it doesn’t exist already is outrageous. This is one of my biggest complaints.
The font size for text composition is entirely too small. If I compose a brand new text message, the font size and window for typing is just right. However, when working in the inbox timeline of a text thread, the font is really tiny, and replying is done in an incredibly small window. I would like this to change. I would even like to see some font size options in the app settings. In fact, the entire interface of the app could be a lot more attractive overall. I’m calling for a complete overhaul of the user interface.
I use the Google Voice app a lot during the course of a day and I feel like the app is a battery and resource hog. I have no evidence to back this up, mind you. It’s just a hunch. At times it can feel a bit slow and clunky. I don’t know what could be done about this, if anything, but I can’t get past the feeling that the app is making my phone work harder than it should. This issue is the least important in my wishlist and for all I know, it isn’t really an issue at all, but I had to toss it in at the end.
I’ve never used Google Voice on an Android phone so I can’t comment on that experience. I do love the service as a whole. I just wish the iPhone app would receive the overhaul it desperately needs. Get on it, Google!
The cost of text messaging is ridiculously high. I refuse to pay $20 per month for AT&T’s unlimited texting plan when I’m already paying for cell minutes and 3G Internet data. Texting should be free when I’m already paying for mobile service. Of course, texting would never be free because it’s too much of a cash cow for the mobile carriers.
I have to sign up for some sort of texting plan because without being enrolled in a plan, each text sent and received costs 20¢. At that rate, costs can spiral out of control very quickly. I have opted to pay $5 per month for 200 texts. It isn’t many, but I use the Google Voice app on my iPhone to bypass the carrier and do my texting for free. Not everyone understands why I have two phone numbers, so I typically only give out my Google number to my friends who are the most heavy texters.
I wish that AT&T would offer a rollover system for unused texts for everyone who has a texting plan below the unlimited plan. I don’t always use my allotted 200 texts per month, but I will occasionally go over that limit. It would be nice if I could carry over those unused texts the same way that I can with my voice minutes. More text plan options would be good too. Currently, there are only 200, 1500, and unlimited plans. How about adding a 500 or 1000 plan in there somewhere? I’m not certain what Verizon’s texting plans are, but I’m sure they’re equally expensive.
In fact, the entire text messaging industry is a complete and total rip off. A past article in TechCrunch calculated that the cost of text messaging at 20¢ a pop is equal to $1310 per megabyte of data. That is a staggering figure.
I’m proud to announce that I’ve successfully completed the move of this site to a new web host! I’d been at my old hosting company (1and1) since even before I started this blog. I’ve eventually grown tired of them and their limitations. For months, I’ve wrangled endlessly trying to get Tweet Nest to work correctly on my server. I decided to change hosting companies. If nothing else, for the end-user, I hope that my site will now at least load faster than it did previously.
Moving my domain and WordPress database has been a learning experience. I’ve enjoyed tinkering with it all, and look forward to more. The biggest benefit of this effort is that my new host allows far more advanced controls, like SSH access, for instance. My new service is at a much more pro level. I have begun to feel like a wizard behind the curtains.
I was working on my blog this morning when it suddenly struck me that I’ve been doing this for five years now. I wrote my first entry on December 2, 2005. I didn’t realize that my five-year anniversary had just passed unceremoniously. When I started this whole project, I didn’t know how long I would continue to maintain it. Yet, I’m still here. Happy anniversary, blog!
Now that my blog is five years old, I want to share some statistics with you. This morning I added a word counter to my blog footer at the bottom of this page. To date, I’ve written 545 blog posts that collectively amass a whopping total of 110,289 words. Incredible! Some day I would like to make a giant coffee table book of the entire production. As awesome as that sounds, such a printing would probably cost a small fortune.
Here’s to (hopefully) many more posts in the future. I can’t promise five more years. I’m just doing this day-to-day. For all I know, I could decide to quit tomorrow. Cheers!
