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Like many people I had, up until a couple of days ago, the following appended to all my outgoing emails from my iPhone:

Sent from my iPhone.

My thinking? They’ll understand why I haven’t written a longer reply. That was my intention.

But the effect? Variously:

• I’ve got an iPhone. You haven’t. Ergo, you suck.
• You’re not important enough for me to spend longer replying to  you.
• I’m busy. Leave me alone.
• I don’t know how to change the default message on my iPhone. Ergo, I suck.

The effect was vastly different to my intention.

So what have I done about it? Replaced it with:

- – - – -

http://bit.ly/dajbelshaw

http://five.sentenc.es

At the top is a shortened link to my Google profile, whilst underneath is a website that states that it is my policy to use no more than five sentences (where possible) to reply to an email.

How does that make the recipient feel now? Is the effect closer to my intention?

I think so.

Posted: July 21st, 2010
Categories: Technology
Tags: effect, email, etiquette, intention, iPhone, mobile, signature, Technology
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Posted: July 6th, 2010
Categories: Technology
Tags: Apple, day, iPhone, life, Mac, Nick Dennis, Technology, Wordpress
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It had nothing to do with it’s size.

1. No multitouch. I didn’t realise until it was pointed out in an Android forum that this makes typing a whole lot easier.
2. Lack of apps I use often. Having to use the National Rail website instead of it’s £4.99 app may seem trivial but it’s important to me. Apps pretty much always come out for the iPhone first because of the huge, standardized, user base.
3. Lack of accessories. I could walk into almost any shop on the high street and purchase cases, speakers and other accessories for my iPhone 3G. How many cases did I have to choose from for the Dell Streak? One. And that was fugly.
4. Unintuitive annoyances. Holding down the camera button should bring up the camera app. The device should charge if the power cable’s plugged in – even if it is in ‘aeroplane mode’ whilst I’m asleep.
5. Email. Having GMail, Exchange and IMAP accounts means 3 different apps on Android. #fail
6. Position of headphone socket. Why put it on top of the screen? Hold it landscape and the wire gets in the way. Put it in your pocket and it’s sticking out the side. Oh, and the volume up/down switch should do the same thing in landscape and portrait. #confusing
7. Lack of website support. If you go to popular websites on the iPhone then you get a decent browsing experience because they’ve made sure it’s optimised for that platform. Navigating some websites on the Dell Streak was clunky, despite the lovely Opera web browser I installed.
8. Apps that don’t work. The number of times I purchased apps only for me to have them refunded within 24 hours was ridiculous. I had to force-close so many I lost count.
9. Lack of ‘magnifying glass’ function. If you’ve made a mistake in a text, tweet or email you to half-guess where to tap to get the cursor to go into the correct position. There’s no ability to ‘zoom in’. This leads to frustration.
10. It’s not an iPhone. Close as I was to keeping it, the fact that I was indecisive about it kind of sealed it’s fate. I would have been tied into a 24-month contract with the Dell Streak. And that’s a long time for something you only like very much rather than love!

The Dell Streak is, technically, a wonderful phone, music player and internet device. It’s almost perfect for me. I loved the ‘Rooms’ (virtual desktops) feature and the ability to add widgets to these. Spotify was amazing on the big screen and Google Navigation is better than any Sat-Nav I’ve used. The Shapewriter app made text entry fun and the camera is top-notch.

It’s just that nowadays a phone has to be much more than the sum of it’s parts. And unfortunately the Dell Streak only consists of great parts reasonably well put-together…

Posted: June 11th, 2010
Categories: Technology
Tags: cellphone, Dell Streak, iPhone, mobile phones, review
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This week I have been mostly…

Talking to important people
I’m preparing the ground for a review of mobile and wireless technologies at work at the moment. This involves talking to some very important and innovative people so this week, for example, I’ve been talking to (amongst others) John Cook, Mike Ellis and Andy Ramsden. I even bumped into Graham Brown-Martin and his iPad!

Taking 6 hours to put together a 7 minute presentation
I decided a couple of weeks before the bMoble conference that I attended on Thursday that I would try a different method of presentation at the TeachMeet. Having read about the Lessig Method but never actually tried it, I thought I’d give it a go.

So, 6 hours and 124 slides later I was finished. That’s about 2.9 minutes creation time per slide and about and less than 4 seconds per slide in terms of delivery time. Well, you know, sometimes you have to challenge yourself and raise the bar a little…

Deciding to end the ‘Wednesday Wisdom’ series at number 20
I really enjoy putting together the Weekly Wisdom series and I’ve had a couple of people give me positive feedback. However, it takes a while to put together and it’s clear from Google Analytics that it’s not as popular as my other posts.

What’s going to be in its place? I think I’ll use the space for short series of posts. I’m still weighing up the first of these, but it will probably be education-related.

Realising how much I love my iPhone
OK, so it’s only got a 2 megapixel camera, the battery life is shocking and it feels a bit slow sometimes, but I do actually take the functionality of my iPhone for granted.

I’ve realised this through researching in-depth (as I always do) my options in the form of the Google Nexus One and HTC Desire. They’re both great phones, but Apple provide an extremely high-quality ecosystem. And that matters.

Not doing enough work on my thesis
I’ve got a deadline to produce a journal article by the end of the month. I should be writing that instead of this…

Posted: May 22nd, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: bmoble, iPhone, Lessig Method, presentation, Thesis, Wednesday Wisdom, weeknote
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It infuriates me when I want a quick visual representation to make an informed judgement; all I wanted to do was compare battery life of the 3 major smartphones. Having not found an at-a-glance version, here you go (and you’re welcome!)

The question is, how much better (or worse!) is that than my current iPhone 3G? The latter is supposed to be capable of 3oo hours standby. Which is laughable, so take the above with a pinch of salt…

Links to the specs pages for each can be found below:

• iPhone 3GS
• Nexus One
• HTC Desire

Posted: May 21st, 2010
Categories: Technology, infographics
Tags: 3g, 3gs, battery life, comparison, Google Nexus one, graph, HTC Desire, iPhone, smartphone, vs
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Background

I’ve explained many times on this blog about how great running is for your whole system of productivity. The trouble with running, though, is that it used to difficult to set yourself goals and targets. With the advent of Nike+ and GPS-enabled devices, however, all that has changed.

I first started GPS-tracking my running with my Nokia N95 a few years ago. I still haven’t found anything better than the Nokia Sports Tracker for ease-of-use and useful feedback, if I’m honest.

Since switching to an iPhone, I’ve tried a number of applications that can GPS-track my runs. Most recently I’ve been using SportyPal which I found pretty good and at a nice price (free!)

A few months ago, Mike Schoeffler, the developer of a new iPhone running app called Roadbud started following me on Twitter and reading this blog. I ended up joining the mailing list for updates and a free copy of the app upon release. After some delays, it was available in the App Store earlier this week.

For reasons only known to Apple, the free codes Mike generated are only available in the US (see the end of this post to win one for yourself!) Mike very kindly reduced the price of the UK version from £5.99 to £0.59 so that he kept his promise. Very noble and much appreciated (but this review remains impartial!)

Review

Given that SportyPal, my previous iPhone running app of choice, is free and Roadbud Pro is £5.99 it had better do something special. Fortunately, it has go some unique features. Not least:

• Integration with iTunes music library
• StrongSong (Nike+ style motivational track you can nominate for one-button access)
• Audio feedback on distance covered, time and pace
• Google Maps integration as you run
• Weather information
• One-button access to phoning a friend or emergency services (if concerned about safety)
• Twitter integration (option to tweet your run straight after workout)
• Auto screen-lock

There is a free version (Roadbud Rookie), to be fair, but to my mind that version doesn’t offer anything over-and-above SportyPal. It’s six and two threes…

Whilst I can only give my opinion about Roadbud and my particular running regime, there’s some things I really liked and some things that I thought could probably do with some improvement.

The good:

1. Integration with iTunes music library is a real bonus.
2. I love the one-button access to my ‘StrongSong’ for when I need that extra boost.
3. The Google Maps implementation is seamless and shows at-a-glance whether your iPhone is locked-on to the GPS signal.
4. The audio feedback is useful for focusing on running instead of having to keep looking at the screen.
5. You can choose a workout length (time or distance) with your progress then being shown as a bar underneath time elapsed. Nice!

Room for improvement:

1. Track information of the song currently playing.
2. Feedback when you’ve lost GPS signal.
3. Lower power consumption (25 min run took 40% of my battery life on iPhone 3G)
4. A website, like SportyPal to develop more of a community.
5. The ability to export data to Google Earth.

From my contact with the Mike, the first three of the above are already in development for the next version of Roadbud.

Of course, people have different concerns and needs than me. For example, when my wife gets my iPhone in a couple of months, she’ll no doubt want to use it for running. I’ll then be really glad of Roadbud’s one-touch emergency call facility.

Conclusion + free codes

Would I recommend Roadbud? Yes.

Do I think it’s worth £5.99? At present, probably not.

I’d expect it to be more of a £2.99 app. I certainly think it’s got potential to be worth the higher price, though! I’m looking forward to seeing how it improves given that the developers keen to make it the best it can be.

Want a free version of Roadbud Pro? I’ve got 3 free copies* for those who reweet this post (using the button below) before midday on Sunday 2nd May 2010!

*US residents only, I’m afraid, for reasons given above…

Posted: April 30th, 2010
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: app, iPhone, review, Roadbud, running
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Introduction
I learned today that the best gadget purchases are those that solve a problem. Whilst it’s wonderful to have the latest and greatest (I’ll be getting a free iPad via my attendance at the Handheld Learning Conference later this year) it’s very satisfying when something plugs a gap.

The Problem
Briefly stated:

• I’ve got lots (probably hundreds) of journal articles to read for my Ed.D. thesis.
• I use a computer screen for my work much more than I used to, meaning on-screen PDFs is problematic.
• I get the train (c.30 minutes each way) and then walk to work. I don’t want to have to carry around anything heavy.

The Solution
Today I bought (or should I say my parents, who are extremely supportive of my studies, bought me) a Sony Reader PRS-600. It’s the one with the touch screen for highlighting and annotation. It’s got an e-ink screen meaning it appears like a physical book instead of a flickering screen.

What I’ve tried previously:

• Printing out articles (cumbersome, expensive and not environmentally-friendly)
• Dropbox iPhone app (doesn’t ‘reflow’ PDFs meaning horizontal scrolling which isn’t very user-friendly)
• GoodReader iPhone app (iPhone screen too small for annotation)

I considered an Amazon Kindle, but after seeing and handling the Sony Reader at the JISC Conference earlier this week, I was sold on it. JISC had funded a project where the Sony Readers were used by previously technophobic academic staff to mark student essays. They loved them and if they’re good enough for that purpose, it’s good enough for me!

It’s still (very) early days. I’ll let you know how I get on!

Posted: April 15th, 2010
Categories: Education, Thesis
Tags: academic, ebooks, iPhone, journals, reading, Sony Reader, Thesis
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Building on the success and interest generated by Mac OSX apps I currently use, here’s the apps currently installed on my iPhone (click to enlarge without notes):

Which iPhone apps do you use and wouldn’t like to be without?

Posted: February 16th, 2010
Categories: Technology
Tags: apps, Flickr, iPhone, recommended
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This is another one of those blog posts best told through images and videos than text. Watch this:

That’s a Tenori-On. They’re expensive and perhaps not-quite-worth-it.

Fortunately, there’s an app for that:

There’s the official video on YouTube here. Version 1.2 of Melodica is $0.99 (£0.59) and Version 1.0.2 is free. The video above shows v1.2.

Posted: February 12th, 2010
Categories: Education
Tags: app, iPhone, Little Boots, Melodica, music, Tenori-On, video, YouTube
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CC BY-NC spengy

I remember fondly my first ‘proper’ watch: a digital Casio black-and-blue affair with a stopwatch. It was awesome. When I got older and a bit more style-conscious I requested a Seiko Kinetic for my 18th birthday. The Kinetic range had just come out and seduced me into thinking I’d never need to replace the battery in it. They were right, I didn’t. Instead, within two years the whole drive mechanism needed changing at a price not far away from the original purchase price of the whole watch. You never buy version one of anything, trust me. For my 21st birthday I received (at my request) another Seiko that looked very similar but used a good old battery. That’s the one I’ve still got but, as of January 1st, 2010, no longer wear.

I was at university when I got that watch, in my third and final year. During that year I had a lecturer for one of my Philosophy modules who would whip out his Sony Ericsson T68i every so often to look at the screen whilst he was lecturing. At the time I thought this was incredibly rude: how dare he be checking to see if he had any text messages whilst lecturing?!

Later I became the proud owner of a T68i. It dawned on me that my lecturer didn’t wear a watch and, because the phone has the time in big, bold numbers as a screensaver, he had been merely checking what time it was so he didn’t run over. I forgave him post-hoc.

I’m always a bit worried about getting RSI, and so began to take my watch off automatically upon sitting down at my Macbook Pro after I noticing that taking my watch off whilst using it made my right wrist ache less.* But then I started to think… When I’m using my Macbook the time is displayed at the top-right of the screen; when I’ve got my iPhone on me (pretty much always) it displays the time on the lockscreen. Why am I wearing a watch at all?

The nail in the coffin for my watch, now cutting a forlorn figure on the kitchen table, was an article in WIRED magazine (to which I now subscribe). It too laughed at watches as an anachronism. Why on earth, it asked, when the time is all around us – including on personal devices that we carry everywhere – do we insist on wearing something that can only single-task? That was it, I decided I’d be watch-less in 2010.

Since then, I’ve found how liberating not knowing exactly what time it is can be. Yes, it’s necessary sometimes (when teaching, for example) but when in and around the house it certainly leads to more Flow experiences. And that’s a good thing.

How about you? What else do we do or wear that could be considered anachronistic in this day-and-age?

* Yes, I (used to) wear my watch on my right wrist. No, I’m not left-handed. And no, I don’t know why I (used to) do this. I just always have done.

Posted: January 26th, 2010
Categories: Productivity
Tags: culture, flow, iPhone, Mobile phone, Productivity, society, time, watch, WIRED magazine
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