Topic: Gadgets

Well, this one’s gonna be a grudge­match, isn’t it? Apple and Nokia both make smart­phones, and there the sim­i­lar­i­ties end. Nokia and Apple fans flood the Inter­net with debate, each think­ing the oth­er has missed some­thing crit­i­cal. The con­flict goes deep, root­ed in the philoso­phies of the respec­tive com­pa­nies and how they try to meet demand for products.

Apple has been crit­i­cized by its detrac­tors for mak­ing sub­stan­dard but pret­ty prod­ucts. They cite a lack of fea­tures or a lack … Read the rest

Once upon a time, I could pull a small com­put­er from my pock­et while sit­ting in a cafe and use it to check my email, write blog posts and short sto­ries, update my resume, and cre­ate invoic­es for clients. I’m not even talk­ing about my New­ton, which stretched cred­i­bil­i­ty to call pock­etable. No, all these things could be done and done well by my old Palm Tungsten|T3, which I bought in 2003. If truth be told, most … Read the rest

Faster «3G» net­work­ing is a nice bonus, but that’s not what’s get­ting my atten­tion. What’s tip­ping me toward the iPhone is that, even though Apple is hold­ing the reins tight­ly, third-par­ty appli­ca­tions are pos­si­ble and a few of my must-haves are already here. Also, word is the new iPhone has much bet­ter sound qual­i­ty than the orig­i­nal. Reports that the orig­i­nal iPhone was not real­ly a great phone did give me pause.

In order to put third-par­ty apps on … Read the rest

I want to like the iPhone. I real­ly do, and I am con­fi­dent that I’ll have one in a year or two. It’s very slick and pret­ty and there’s a lot of stuff that it does real­ly well. I believe most of the iPhone naysay­ers are full of it. I have my com­plaints about the iPhone (which I’ll enu­mer­ate present­ly) but most of the com­plaints I’ve heard about the iPhone are just plain crap. I’ve come to sus­pect these vocal … Read the rest

I can’t say that I’m thrilled about my Treo 680. The best thing I can say about it, I think, is that it’s not as bad as all the oth­er options out there. But a cou­ple of days ago the screen got cracked and so all the think­ing I’ve been doing about how to replace it has sud­den­ly become no longer the­o­ret­i­cal. It’s time for a new phone.

Trou­ble is, I have very high expec­ta­tions of a hand­held com­put­ing device. I … Read the rest