MacGeek Pro

During the time leading up to the holiday season, many of us make travel plans to go see family. This year was no different for me, and as this was our first Christmas since moving to Lincoln, I knew the trip home would be a long one, especially with a 5-month old baby.

I started looking for ways to charge and support my iPhone or my wife’s iPod classic while in the car. For years, I had been using a cupholder cradle made by Belkin. The problem with the Belkin cradle is that it was made for a third-generation iPod, and it holds the device in place with a suction cup. That suction cup works great for the iPod classic, but not so much for my iPhone’s curved and contoured back.

Along with the Belkin cradle, I’ve been using a Griffin Technology PowerJolt to charge the iPod/iPhone. Now, together, this isn’t an entirely bad setup. But that cradle sits in a cupholder, bringing the available number of cupholders from 2 to 1. When I made a lot of trips by myself, this wasn’t a problem. But imagine a 7-10 hour trip (depending on baby) with only one cupholder for two people. Seriously, imagine it. Yeah. Those cupholders are pretty important, aren’t they?

So I set out to find an alternative solution. Now, I’ve always loved Griffin Technology and their products. They make top quality accessories. They actually give a crap about design, too, which is great for a company that primarily makes accessories to Apple products.

Griffin makes a nice car solution called TuneFlex AUX. It plugs into the 12V power port in your vehicle, and then supports an iPod dock atop a bendable gooseneck cable. You plug in an iPod, run a auxiliary cable or a tape deck converter from the TuneFlex to your car stereo, and you’re done! Cupholder freedom!

There’s only one problem.

The TuneFlex AUX is not shielded from the iPhone’s GSM signal. So it will constantly make that doot-doo-do-doot buzz. Dang it.

“Well, surely,” I think to myself, “Griffin must be making a TuneFlex for iPhone. That just makes sense.”

So I turn to Twitter. See, I follow @griffintech on Twitter, and I’m very glad that I do. So I shot off a message to Dave, the Griffin Twitter Guru, asking if TuneFlex AUX would be iPhone compatible anytime soon. 

The answer came back fairly quickly, especially taking into consideration how many tweets this guy must receive. In mid-November, I was told, “It should be out next month.”

Needless to say, I was quite happy. I like it when companies actually communicate with their customers. I decided to keep in touch with Dave from Griffin Tech, and we’ve bantered back a few tweets here and there. He’s a pretty nice guy.

When it got to be mid-December though, and the iPhone-compatible TuneFlex was nowhere to be seen (nor purchased), I turned to Dave again. I was promptly informed that they were still shooting for December, but it wasn’t looking good for me to receive it prior to my big trip (which Dave knew was coming up from our chatter on Twitter). He asked me to email him my mailing address.

Huh? That was interesting and unexpected. So I shot off my address, and lo and behold, a week later, a package arrives at my door from Griffin Technology.

Inside the package was a Griffin iSqueez. I had seen the iSqueez before in stores, but not recently. It’s a $10 cupholder cradle that is a one-size-fits-all couch for any iPod or iPhone. It even allows generous room for a Griffin PowerJolt charger (which I already have). Sadly, it is also a discontinued product.

However, the iSqueez is a superior fit for my iPhone over my old Belkin cradle. So I welcomed this cute black cradle with open arms. So yes, I didn’t reclaim my cupholder this trip, but I was shown the power of communication between a customer and a corporation.

You see, even though I didn’t get exactly what I wanted when I wanted it, Griffin went out of their way to make things as right as possible. That is a rare trait. I still plan to buy the iPhone-compatible TuneFlex as soon as it is released. The iSqueez will likely be relegated to my wife’s car. 

But Griffin can be rest-assured that I will always come to them first for my iPhone and iPod (and even Mac) needs for the future.

Public Service Announcement, iPhone, iPod

AT&T here in Lincoln, NE (and Omaha, I presume) flipped the switch on 3G this morning, bringing mobile broadband yumminess to my iPhone 3G. What can I say so far? It’s fast. Not quite as fast as using WiFi, but very, very close. This will be handy when out and about in Lincoln. When I am at home, I will probably still connect to my home WiFi.

However, I am resolved to keep my iPhone running on 3G for a little while in order to test performance. Mainly, I want to observe the hit on battery life, since Apple says using 3G may affect that. I noticed after using 3G for about three hours today, I had knocked my iPhone down to 80% battery. For some perspective, though, I was using my iPhone constantly during that time, instead of the occasional glance every 20-30 minutes. 

I am very glad AT&T rolled out 3G here in Nebraska. I had inquired last month at my local AT&T store, and the representative said it should be up and running by Thanksgiving. Looks like that goal has been met. I have to say, with all the griping I have heard people say about AT&T, I haven’t had any problems with them. Well, other than they are nonexistent when I travel to South Dakota, my homeland.

I’ll add updates if I find out anything noteworthy in the next day or two.

Apple, Celebrate Good Times, Public Service Announcement, Review, iPhone

Original iTalk

Many a moon ago, I had a nifty little recorder for my third generation iPod (my first beloved iPod). I used in college to record any presentations I did and lectures. Back then, the iPod had a connector next to the headphone jack called the remote port. This little recorder was called the iTalk by Griffin Technology, and it used the remote port to interface with the iPod, instead of using the brand new (at the time) Dock connector that we are all so familiar with.

This was a great little device, but there was a fatal problem when I upgraded to the fourth generation iPod a year and a half later—the new iPod ditched the remote port. Apple had chosen to favor the superior Dock connector over the remote port, thus making my iTalk useless.

Griffin eventually released the iTalk Pro, which they still sell, for use with the Dock connector, but I never upgraded. Because Griffin was still a fairly small company back then, it took some time for the new product to come to fruition. In that time, I lost my taste for recording.

iTalk

When I bought my iPhone, I wondered if there would be an application that would utilize the microphone to record conversations, speeches, etc. Today I found my answer. Griffin has released iTalk Recorder [App Store link] for iPhone (and the second generation iPod touch) on the App Store.

This is a very polished app that is much more intuitive than the old iPod’s built in recording options. iTalk for iPhone allows you to title a track, select between Good, Better, or Best recording quality, and allows you to append further recording onto any previous recording. Even playback of the recording is pretty, as it mimics the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail interface. You can also delete a recording fromt he device if you no longer need it.

 Another gem Griffin has added as a compliment is iTalk Sync, a desktop application for Mac & Windows (Windows version coming soon). iTalk Sync allows iTalk on your iPhone to transfer files through your local wireless network. I used this app to transfer a test recording, and then used iTunes to convert it to a more bandwidth-friendly AAC file, and I‘ve uploaded it for your audio sampling pleasure. Nevermind, WordPress wasn’t cooperating, and I got frustrated. The app takes nice recordings, trust me. ;)

Well, that pretty much sums up my review. I give the app 4 out of 5 stars. Also, for a limited time, iTalk is free in the App Store. No word on how long this deal will last, nor how much it will cost when the offer has expired.

Review, iPhone, iPod

On Friday, September 19, Apple announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program. Yep, that’s a mouth full. Basically, the cute little power adapter which charges the iPhone (pictured below) has a nasty tendency to leave its prongs in the electrical outlet. Not good. Bad Ulatracompact USB Power Adapter! Don’t do that anymore!

Apple will begin exchanging these faulty adapters on Friday, October 10 with adapters that look exactly the same except for a green dot.

The green dot signifies the awesomeness of this adapter. It is superior. It is…dotted green. My guess is the prongs are reinforced and won’t spontaneously escape from the adapter’s main housing.

Apple recommends all iPhone 3G users who have an adapter sans green dot to stop using the faulty adapter until an exchange can be made. Instead, users are encouraged to charge their iPhone via the USB port on their computer. More details can be found at the link in the beginning of the post.

Apple, Public Service Announcement, iPhone

You may remember July 11, the day I bought my beloved iPhone 3G, as the day Apple had a lot of applesauce all over its face. The company had a really, really bad day. 

Between the simultaneous launch of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 Software, the App Store, and MobileMe, quality control went into a tailspin and smoked the Earth, leaving a stinky, black crater. iPhone activations were slow, the App Store was full of buggy apps created on a beta SDK, MobileMe was a complete mess (and its features are still incomplete), and the iPhone 2.0 Software was extremely glitchy.

Compared to the original iPhone launch a year prior, the iPhone 2.0 felt poorly designed. Many, including myself, think Apple just bit off more than it could chew, and when the dealine hit, Apple choked. 

One week ago, Apple released the iPhone 2.1 Software. When I wrote my first review of my iPhone, I waited a month, hoping things would get much better. Well, I only needed a week with iPhone 2.1 to know my verdict. This is what Apple should have released on July 11. 

The iPhone works much better as a phone. Granted, I didn’t have dropped calls prior to 2.1, but I often had noise interference—which is now gone. Bug fixes? Heck yes! Scrolling long lists (like playlists or contacts) is completely smooth now. My apps (even 3rd party) either don’t or rarely crash anymore. In the past week, I have only had one app crash, and I am pretty sure it did so because I tried forcing it to do more than it was capable of. 

Here’s the unexpected fix, at least in my opinion: Improved battery life. My battery life was pretty good before 2.1. It was better than my old Motorola RAZR. And the iPhone even does web browsing! After 2.1, though, my battery life became outstanding! I’m very impressed. I no longer feel like I have to give my iPhone a quick charge in the early evening.

I still think Apple rushed the 2.0 software out the door before it was ready. 2.1 is the caliber I expect of Apple, and I expected it on July 11. iPhone 2.0 wasn’t completely terrible, but it definitely didn’t have the “Apple Polish” I’ve come to know and love throughout the years. 

Now the iPhone lives up to being the best mobile phone ever created.

Apple, Rant, Review, iPhone