Technology
Google Apps Premium
On several occasions I have blogged about Zimbra. In June I decided to switch back to Google apps. For about a month or so I had been playing with both Zimbra and Google apps. What’s funny is I was relatively happy with Zimbra, but when I was playing with android phones I started looking again at Google apps. It seems like nowadays Google apps is universally accessible on multiple operating systems and phone platforms. Zimbra does use Microsoft’s exchange sync but do not as universally compatible as Google apps. The biggest drawback was the limitations on android phones. Even though I ended up not keeping an android phone I actually like the flexibility that Google apps gave me. When I first started using Zimbra I actually A copy of mail both on my Gmail and on my Zimbra account. Recently I have been less concerned about downtime with anyone provider, so that redundancy seemed like overkill.
What I ended up doing was I stopped using Zimbra and started using the free Google apps. Once I got the IOS 4.0 upgrade for my iPhone however I was compelled to purchase the paid version. There was a quirk with each change sync settings and IOS 4.0 that was fixed with the premium version. I tried the 15 day free account and liked it. I ended up canceling my Zimbra account and and now I am only using Google apps. Feature wise I can’t complain about Zimbra. Overall the two products were similar. I do however like the UI of Google apps. Recent integration of Google voice to my Google apps for domains also affirms my choice was the right one for me at the time. The
So far I’ve been happy with my choice for the past few months. I know every year or two I reassess the situation. I did that about two years ago when I switched from Google Apps to Zimbra, any year or so before that when I moved on to Google apps from another mail provider. Let’s hope I am satisfied with what I have now for a few years. Of course if Google doesn’t continue to innovate I’m open to other options.
Plex Media Center 9
Earlier this month Plex came out with a new version. I had been really liking version 8 since I started using my Mac mini as a media center back in late June. I was eager to download the new version when it came out. Initially I was not very pleased. I had significant issues with my media library upgrading. Well, part of the problem was it didn’t upgrade. I had to start over and lost all my customizations. The new version also had issues downloading TV metadata initially. Thankfully the download issues were resolved and I am actually quite pleased now how Plex 9 is turning out.
I also purchased the IOS media streaming app for my iPhone and iPad. That is slightly slow, but it is very cool to be able to stream everything to my portable devices.
I’m still playing around with my set up, but I hope to have everything tweaked the way I like it very soon.
Virgin Mobile Mifi
You may remember that back in December I had purchased a Verizon MiFi. Other than the cost I was actually very pleased with it. I never really used it that much. It was a really nice to have and did come in handy, but I didn’t NEED it. I was pleased and surprised to see virgin mobile announce mobile hotspot of their own with the pay-as-you-go price plan. The $20 a month for 200 meg plan was perfect for my occasional need for hotspot. Before my trip to Syracuse for the Fourth of July I ran out to Best Buy and got one. I wanted to try it out head-to-head with my Verizon one and see how the performance was. The reality was the Verizon hotspot was faster. It is very noticeably faster when I ran a benchmark. Of course for the price that speed difference wasn’t really that much when you take into account the vast difference in cost. Well at least that was my opinion.
While I was away I bought 3G iPad. That made my needs for mobile hot spot decrease even more. The fate of my Verizon MiFi was field. Even though I bought the Virgin one in early July I didn’t get rid of Verizon one until late August. Most of the month of July was playing around with both of them to be really sure that I wanted to get rid of the rising one. Once I was sure I wanted to get rid of it, I needed to wait until the billing cycle ended.
What I like best about the virgin hotspot is its flexibility. I don’t actually need to keep paying for service every month. I can purchase service for month, and when that expires I can purchase service again when I need it. That means I can go up to a year between actually paying for month of service. That suits me since I don’t always need a mobile Wi-Fi since I have my iPad 3G, but I have the option when I need it.
iPad 3G
When the iPad was announced I decided to stick with a MiFi and go with the Wi-Fi version. I already had a 3G hotspot (my MiFi with Verizon) and the Wi-Fi version was coming out much sooner than the 3G version. In practice using the MiFi wasn’t that seamless. It was okay, and I was getting decent speed, but there were times when it didn’t work or was just slow to work.
Because of the limitations I decided that maybe I could use the 3G version after all. I have a Wi-Fi version so I was in no rush however I started checking out the Apple stores in New York City to see if they have them in stock. For most of June they didn’t. While I was in Syracuse I stumbled upon an Apple Store in the mall. I figured it didn’t hurt to ask if they had a 3G version in stock, so I did. As it turned out they had exactly what I was looking for, the 64 gig 3G iPad. Since they have them in stock I figured what the heck. I went and bought one. I assumed, accurately that I could sell the Wi-Fi version for nearly as much as I paid for it. When I got back from Syracuse I posted it on eBay. I don’t know the exact amount but I don’t think I lost $50 on the transaction.
Besides being 3G there really isn’t any major difference between Wi-Fi version. The problem I was trying to solve, a.k.a. easy turning on 3G when there is no Wi-Fi was fixed. Now all I have to do is wait for the new version of the OS with multitasking and all will be right with the world.
The New Mac Mini
I ordered one of the new Mac Mini's the other day. It should arrive on Wednesday. It is taking so long since I wanted 4gig's of RAM so it was a special order. I got the stock HDD and Processor since I don't think I needed more than what it came with. Now I will agree I have a few computers so why would I want another one? Good question. No real good answer. I don't "need" anything. However with this new Mini I can use HDMI naitivly so my hopes for a media center machine are once again alive. I don't know if this Mac will have the same HDMI issues as my other ones have with the adapters to HDMI, or if the native cable will "just work". If this doesn't work I am sure it is my TV that is the problem. Well I am already pretty sure it is my TV that is messed up but we will see Wednesday.
If the media center doesn't work out I mainly bought this new one because my 20" iMac is slowly going. Not sure why since it is only 2 years old but I don't have Apple Care and the screen has lighter colored vertical bars here and there (in regular intervals) that make me think it is the back-lights. That was an issue for a while but now I am not even able to put most DVD's into the drive. It starts making really bad sounds and wont spit them out. I know I use the iMac as a server mainly to host up my iTunes video library but I do want it to work. If the DVD drive goes I may end up just moving it to my bedroom to use as a TV or streaming host for videos that I wanted to do a while back and use the new Mini to host my iTunes collection. In the end the Mini will be used as some sort of media center. If it plugs into my TV or an extra monitor on my desk is really all that is up in the air.
Google Apps vs Zimbra
Way back in October of 2008 I started using Zimbra (Hosted by 01.com) instead of Google Apps. At the time the reasons were based mainly about security and the lack of good syncing from Google Apps to my iPhone. I also recall the less than stellar Contact management on Google Apps.
Whats different? We first the Contact management on Google Apps/Gmail is much improved. I think it is pretty close to being on par with Zimbra, or enough to be really usable. Secondly they offer Exchange like sync to any devices such as my iPhone. With those two problems solved plus the fact that Google Apps always was a better email system I was very tempted to switch.
Another driving factor for me was I wanted to try the Nexus One (see previous posts) and having a Google Apps or Gmail account would make Android work so much better. That was probably the tipping point for the switch even though I wasn’t sure if I would continue with Android. Google Apps since it now uses Exchange sync works with many devices including both Android and iPhone.
Is there still a security issue with Google Apps, perceived or otherwise? The short answer is maybe. I think they will be good enough if I pay for the Premium account.
For years I have paid for mail forwarding services from Dyndns.org. I love it, but it is not cheap. It costs almost as much as a full year for 1 mailbox on Google Apps Premium. What I would do is route mail to my Zimbra account and to my free Gmail account so I had my mail basically in two places in case I lost any one provider. It was a bit over kill I know, but I got burned before with a regular email provider. So on top of my mail routing service I also was/am paying for Zimbra. 2gig’s of storage and iphone syncing is about $65. If I just bite the bullet and go with one host only (google apps) I can save almost $100 if I go for the free services. If I want to pay for better SLA and more space, etc I am saving 50% or $50.
Any cloud service has some security risks. I may be a bit paranoid about the whole google has my stuff issues I have so I started using Google Apps again. I first tried using it with my old Scott.ac domain and used Dyndns to route my main domain to it. I found that I really don’t think I want to continue to using the mail routing service after it expires so I setup another Google Apps account for my main domain.
I spent the past half a week uploading all my mail archives to the new account. The vast majority of my stuff is up there now and labeled and is all perfect.
It is now the first time in years that I have turned off the mail forwarding and have all my mail going to only one place. I did that as a test to see if I will be happy with this setup once the mail routing service expires. So far, so good. Knock on wood. If I am happy in 3 months than I am now I may actually buy the Premium service.
My Barely A Week With The Nexus One
Back in December I tried T-Mobile and the G1 out as a possible alternative for my iPhone. The idea was that T-Mobile’s no contract plans might work out for me and if I liked the Android OS enough I would get a newer Android phone to replace my iPhone 3GS. That experiment ended badly due to the G1 being no where near the iPhone and T-Mobile service sucking as bad or worse than AT&T did where I use it.
I have been eying the Nexus One for a little while since they offer an AT&T version of it. It is the latest in Android phones and it has some advantages over the iPhone in hardware. That and it used the same network my iPhone did I was curious to see if I could make the switch to the Nexus One and Android. I keep saying the iPhone is the best phone I ever had but I would love to get rid of it so I figured I would give it a try.
I bought the Nexus One off of Google’s site. It arrived the next day. I give them props for that. Unlike the G1, the Nexus One hardware was very nice. Call quality was great, the screen was amazing and sharp.
I will cover in another post my switch from Zimbra (hosted at 01.com) to Google Apps. I had to make this switch for this test to really work well, but I had been pondering this switch independently of the phone test for a while also. The point is with a Gmail/Google Apps account setup the process of setting up my contacts, mail, and calendar on the new phone was totally painless. The fact that Google Voice only works with an associated Gmail account and not Google Apps is a down side, but I survived.
I was all set to jump into the Android OS. My original plan was to force myself to switch and use the Nexus One for a month. By that point I will have either wanted to stick with it, or the new rumored iPhone would be out and or announced. In reality I got only a few days (and not even using the phone for full days) before I threw in the towel.
On the plus side most of the apps I used on my iPhone had equivalent apps on Android. I would say the vast majority of the apps I used had some sort of replacement on the Android. The caveat to that is most of them were the Android versions were no where near as good as the iPhone versions. They either were functionally inferior or just visually looked bad. The option of more types of apps still had me interested. Like the ability to have a caller ID app run all the time, or a location based profile app run all the time both were great ideas and reasons why I wanted an Android for multi tasking. But those advantages were short lived when most of the apps I was used to using weren’t as good. I have read others talk about this on Android and I can’t understand how reviewers can say Android will beat iPhone until this is fixed.
One major downside that may have pushed me over the edge in not wanting to use this phone was its music player. I bought a cheap app to sync my itunes playlists to the phone so i was happy about that, but there was no easy way to use the music player when the phone was locked. With the iPhone when the phone is locked you only have to double tap the round button and you get music controls. That is huge! If i wanted to get to the same controls on the Android phone when it was locked I had to hit the power button, swipe my finger to unlock and then either have a music widget on my home screen or swipe over to another home screen with the music widget on it. That just bothered me to no end. Then I realized the Android OS doesn’t come with a video player. Really? And this is supposed to be a nice easily replacement for every day consumers?
The final straw for me was when I was editing an email and I couldn’t use my finder to highlight or move the cursor. I can with the iPhone (well you have to with the iphone since that is the only input), but with the Nexus One you need to use the trackball. Why? I don’t want to use a trackball. I don’t for anything else, but you kinda have to with this function. Little things like that bothered me with this phone. I have read that people say Android is not as “polished” as the iPhone. They are right. It isn’t. I am a savy technical person (or I like to think so) and this stuff bothered me, so not sure what the average consumer would think. I know several friends who are average consumers who love their Android phones. My friend Dave just got a new Incredible. I just don’t get how they are happy, but then again they haven’t used an iPhone. I chalk it up to each person has their own tastes.
On the flip side Google Voice was fantastic on the Nexus One. If anything that was one of the main reasons why I tried this experiment. This plus couldn’t make up for all the short comings.
Lastly the fact that shopping for apps is only possible on the phone was a problem for me. It worked out ok, but I like to browse on the computer and then send stuff to my iPhone. Minor issue but still why can’t there be some sort of over the air sync?
In the end I got a few days out of the phone. I am not worried. It is in mind condition and will go up onto ebay in a few days. Android may be popular and someone will be very happy with this phone, but I am happy drinking the cool aid and I am sticking with my iPhone 3GS. Well until Apple announces something new this month!
Suprise, Yes I bought An iPad
Air that most of my friends will not be surprised to find out when I bought the iPad. I pre-ordered it the first chance I got. It arrived this Saturday. I actually should have just gone to the store and pre-ordered it for pickup. Instead I ordered it and had it shipped so I didn’t have to deal with the store, but there was a lot of uncertainty on if the shipment would arrive on time.Next time I may just go to the store.
I wanted a tablet for some time, and I believe I written blog post about it. I was skeptical at first that the iPad would not suit my needs, however after reading more about it I think it will.
My first impressions are very positive. It seems nice and well built. The screen is fantastic. The dedicated iPad apps also pretty neat. I really do need a case that will allow me to stand up on angle but those won’t be available for later in the month. Other than that the lack of other accessories available now I can’t wait to give this a test drive. I opted for the 64 gig WiFi version. Since I have a Verizon MyFi I don’t need to wait for the 3G version.