One has to hand it to Apple, the world’s greatest marketing company. What Steve Jobs and company have done since the beginning of the world of personal computing is to provide the world with some of it s most innovative technologies. They seem to have this incredible knack for providing us with something we know we want but don’t know we do. When they came out with the MacIntosh computer in 1984, they realized that people wanted to use computers but for most people, it wasn’t about being computer scientists. So they came up with simple things that had already been invented  and repackaged it for public consumption. They made computing fun and useful.

What does the iPad bring to the public today? Some say its a tablet computer. Well, tablets have been around for a long time. This device enabled folks to work directly on the screen. You had a stylus that enabled you to write on the screen and that could be saved. Using your stylus, you could do all the things you would with a mouse. Unfortunately, tablets didn’t sell well. Most of the folks that use them are field service engineers, technicians, nurses, doctors, pharmacy sales people (They’re always interrupting my visits to my doctor armed with these things) people who need to work with a screen instead of a keyboard. Most of us who use computers do so sitting down with a screen and a keyboard so we opted to buy desktops or laptops. We didn’t need tablets. Read the full story

When I heard that Apple was coming out with the iPhone 4, I maintained my sense of skepticism, and decided to wait and see what happens. Sure enough, first was the fiasco of the missing iPhone which apparently was left in a bar only to be discovered by someone who handed it over to engadget.com providing the world with a sneak preview of this machine. My sense of skepticism told me that that was all a ploy by Apple to start the buzz about the coming phone. Sure enough, there was buzz, enhanced by Stephen Jobs previewing the phone and all the cool things it would have. The high definition screen, the ability to multi-task, the metal body, the ability to make video calls . . . all made this phone the one to have and true to its fan-base, people were again lining up to get their device. I looked at the commercial they had online and was sold. I was going to get mine as well.  Then came some fuss about the phone having a problem. People were complaining about its reception fluctuating when held by hand. This became known as the “death grip”.  I’m still thinking about getting the phone and went to my account on att.com to see how I could do so with a little trepidation. What I remember doing is looking at the blow up of the phone that Apple showed of the phone. They showed where the antenna was and how it fit into the body. I saw that the antenna was actually part of the frame of the phone. It dawned on me that if there was a problem with the reception of the phone, this had to be a very big problem. I was disturbed when Apple came out and said the problem was a software problem and all that was needed was an update to it. Think of a car with a tire pressure sensor. If you get a flat, no amount of adjusting the electronic systems would lead to a different result. You have to fix the flat. It was no surprise to me then to hear that Consumer Reports said that they wouldn’t recommend the phone as it has a design flaw. Read the full story

One of the first peeves I had about the iPhone was it not syncing its notes application with Outlook. With Windows Mobile, this was available but not an important feature to many. Even when implemented, it was responsible for the many crashes I had with it. Now you may wonder, why Notes. As an old school user, one of the first things I relished was the use of Yahoo’s services and its ability to record notes with its notepad application. Imagine back in the day being able to record your lists, notes, thoughts and whatever online! I used to use it for passwords until my Yahoo accounts got Read the full story