The Computer Next Door

Do We Really Need the iPad?

I have been trying to figure out if I need an iPad.  I mean, it looks nice (from afar).  I haven't seen the actual model yet but I'm sure I will once April rolls around.

What I haven't wrapped my head around yet is the price.  Do I really need another $500 gadget?  I mean, sure, it may be a fine alternative to the other expensive gadgets I also haven't bought yet that are competing for my wallet share, namely: the Kindle and the Nook.  Butl, as I have mentioned before, I am reasonably happy reading books on my multi-purpose iPhone.

So really, Apple - is this techno push, or what? Let's design a cool product and then bet the farm that developers and consumers will flock to it because it is cool?  I do wish I could be sold on this concept, but I prefer (for now) to protect my hard-earned dollars.

Losing Weight (or Not) with my iPhone

It's relatively painless to track calories with LoseIt! on the iPhone

After coming back from a tropical vacation recently, I realized it was time to get back on the wagon about tracking calories.  It's really easy to let it get away from you.  So I took up again with mobile phone application I had picked up for my iPhone - LoseIt!.

This free application helps you set goals and track calories and exercise, and then shows you a little graph of your progress. Or, in my case, lack thereof.  It really doesn't let you off the hook.  I had started my tracking before the vacation and when I took it up again discovered (uh, oh) a slight weight gain after vacation return. 

But that's why I like it - it's hard to cheat.  This combined with a private Who's the Biggest Loser competition I'm having now with a friend in a similar boat may turn this into a pretty useful tool.

Your Money on Your Phone?

My mobile app is waiting for me...and waiting for me...and waiting

Banking can be sooooooo complicated. I used to design software and customer service systems for a bank, I should know.  I slaved away in the days before user-friendly became a household term, hoping to make interactive banking products and services easier for our customers. (Hey, sometimes we even succeeded).

But now banking has come to almost everybody's mobile phone. There are small banking applications available from many major banks for different types of mobile phones - Blackberry, Android, iPhone.  The question is: Is it safe?

It's not that this is keeping me up at night, but I have not yet rushed to activate the banking application I have installed on my iPhone.  I just kind of look at it every now and then.  Is it really necessary to transfer funds while on the move?  Do I need to pay bills while having lunch in the cafe?  What's so urgent that it can't wait an hour or two until I get back to my desk?  I know in my heart of hearts this is coming down the pike to our collective Digital Future, and yet even I - a former banking software designer - still haven't moved on it.

Scary stories have also already occurred, although in far away places, like...Holland.  Check out this story from Wired.com about a nasty worm targeting the money of ING bank customers over there.

Now, granted, you'd have to be an ING bank customer in Holland to worry about it, and you would ALSO had to have "hacked" into your iPhone for the security breach to have worked (something very few people I know have done), but still...I wonder if the public at large is racing to pay its bills and transfer funds over a cup of coffee...and our good old, unreliable cellular networks.

Banks are pretty sure we'd feel this way, so they're offering guarantees.  Here's the one from Bank of America.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  It makes me want to be experimental and actually, well, bank online. It's the 21st Century, after all.

Uh, oh! We're about to lose free access to Times Online!

Oh, NO! - just when I think I have a routine that works, something always crops up to spoil it.  This time, it's the New York Times - they're going to start charging for access to the online version of the paper.  The first shoe to drop was this article from CNET: Report: New York Times to charge online readers

For months (years, maybe?) I have had a routine as comfortable as an old shoe - I sit down at my desk in the morning, review iGoogle for top stories, and almost always click through to a New York Times story in today's  paper - the online paper, that is.

There's always something of interesting to read in the Times. The journalism is top-drawer, the arts, cultural, and technology reviews are insightful, and the photography and multimedia are engaging.

The only problem?  They're not making any money on people like me! I don't give them a nickel for all the articles I read online.  Now, in my defense, I did try to order a paper-based New York Times subscription recently (honest, I did), but because of where I live (upstate New York), it was delivered a day late, which is kind of ridiculous when you think about it.  I suppose it would be alright if I had no other news sources, but a day late? And so I became a devotee of online access.

Having tried and failed in recent years to make a go of online subscriptions, the Times has a very tough road ahead.  The big question is: will online viewers convert to online purchasers?  Will they go the pay-per-article route?  If so, will this business move succeed?

I am routing for them, but honestly don't know if I want to take out my micro-wallet of digital dollars every time I want to read an article (and will such articles pop up in iGoogle anymore, or will they be behind a digital fortress?)

I - along with millions of online readers - wait for the second shoe to drop.

The Rising Tide of eBooks

I was more than a little surprised to see the following article in PC World about the rise of the eBook on iPhones:

iPhone as an eBooks Reader Threatens Kindle, Says Report

But then, maybe I shouldn't be shocked, having just recently completed a lengthy novel on my iPhone and reporting about how good an experience it was!

What is especially noteworthy in the PC World article is the chart by Flurry showing the trendline comparing eBook applications to game applications in the iPhone App Store over the last 3 months.