Mobile websites v.s. full blown websites

I've been an avid smart phone users since the days of the Treo 600. Yes, I'm that old… In those days the web browsers were quite limited in their functionality. The connectivity was just as limited, no Wifi, no 3G, perhaps EDGE, GPRS was a rule. As you understand surfing the web wit a 30kbit/sec bandwidth - at best, made you look for alternative, lite, versions of the websites you were interested in. RSS versions - if they existed was quite useful due to the limited band with they required from the client.

Fast forward to current day. The handsets available today have multiple connectivity, Wifi, HiSpeed 3G and so on. The screens have increased in size and resolution, some even supports flash. You can check the sites you are interested in from just wherever you are whenever you want. A close friend of me confessed that he regarded a visit to the restroom without his iPhone a waste of time. I have to agree. You check e-mail, Twitter, Facebook. Stock Exchange, news sites, Youtube, Flicker, and many other sites depending on your particular interests regularly as soon as you get a moment.

Many modern smart phones claims that they can browse the full websites, the iPhone, Android, Symbian and Windows mobile, they all claim that they can give you the "full desktop web experience". In my mind I don't se that as a advantage - at least not always. Any serious website almost always provide a "mobile enhanced" version of their "normal" website. Unfortunately they have a bad habit of hiding the address. Most often the site name is changed from e.g. http://www.engadget.com to http://i.engadget.com. An increasing number of sites can actually detect that you are using a mobile web browser and automagically redirect you to the mobile version of their website. This have in fact led me to increase the amount of browsing I do on my iPhone. Why? Well, to start with I lose all the blinking, shouting, distracting flash based animations and ads. What a relief. The amount of advertises on the mobile enhanced sites are decreased to a bare minimum. The mobile websites I visit regularly have a better overall design than their desktop counterparts. All news and updates on the site is presented in a clear and effective manner and the whole page loads really fast - with a minimal hit on the bandwith. What not to like ?

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? If I visit the full web site from my computer once, I will visit it from my handheld 20-30 times. No advertises, no website design that draws away your attention from why you came there. Just a clean, effective interface allowing you to do exactly what you had in mind - without any distraction. E.g. the number of Twitter clients on the iPhone is staggering, it's very unlikely that you can't find a client that you like. All major smart phones of today have a native Facebook client. If not - you can use the mobile version of Facebook at http://m.facebook.com.

If you haven't tried i yet - start visiting your daily websites from you smartphone instead. I think you'll be surprised how much clutter and crap you are spared. N.b. if you don't have unlimited data in you contract please be sure to use the WiFi connectivity instead since mobile data over 3G comes with a price tag.

MacBook as new

Less than 36 hours after submitting my MacBook to my local Apple service center I got a phone call that it was ready to picked up. Apart from a minor adjustment of the left side of the top side plastic it was all like new!

24 hours after picking it up I got an e-mail from the Applecare manager who approved the (out of program) repair, asking if I had any problems or everything was to my satisfaction. Wow!

I wish I had had similar experience from other service incidents when repairing other gadgets. Normally a service will take 7-10 days, most often a couple of more days than initially promised, they don't call you when it is ready for pick up, and so on.

I've been a certified card holding member of the Apple fanboy club before and after this experience I'll absolutely continue to be one.

At the moment my shopping list consists of a second hand intel based Mac Mini, a 16GB iPhone 3GS, a 13.3" MacBook or MacBook pro, and a couple of AppleTVs. A substantial amount of money but I don't plan to buy it all at once. The iPhone is the top priority since I need to replace one of the original iPhones in the family.

I've run some 4.5K runs and a 10K run this week. None of them especially fast I have to admit. I felt very low on energy when I did the 10K run - the clock stopped on 1 hour exactly. I have some serious training to do before I'll reach my target time of 50 minutes. I have a 10K race planned for the 8th May so I still have some time.

Hey, this was my second blog entry this week - a first in veery long time!

Cracking MacBook

Spring has finally start to show some good and clear signs of returning after a long, cold, and snow rich winter. Running, length and frequency, is starting to pick up. Last week I ran about 15K which is great and I expect to reach my 30K/week goal in a few weeks. I have a 10K race planned in the beginning of May, so I have a goal.

Computer and gadgetwise there hasn't been much happening. The iPhone 2Gs in my family is starting to show their age, the batteries are not holding charge that well anymore and one is having stability issues and is crashing about 3 times each day (to my youngest daughter's irritation). I will probably buy a second hand iPhone to replace hers and have the batteries exchanged on the other two.

Computerwise, I must increase the storage of my souped up PowerMac G4 since I'm almost out of storage on the media disk. I use this machine to synchronize my AppleTV and I would hate to start deleting old movies to add new ones. I have some plans to build a media solution with one AppleTV connected to each TV and perhaps have one by the main stereo and add a 17 inch TV there as well, replacing the Kodak Photoframe and use as a jukebox with the stereo. But this will be a substantial investment, three AppleTV's, one 17 inch TV, and adding 802.11N for increased bandwith for the more modern devices that supports it.

The PowerMac G4 is ancient and not very energy effecient so it should probably be replaced with an intel based Mac Mini. It's just a question of time before the PowerMac will die one way or the other since it is an ancient "sawtooth" model, about 10 years old by now.

About a year ago Apple decided to acknowledge the problem with cracks that could develop at the hand rests on the plastic MacBooks. Since my had those cracks I instantly called Applecare and they acknowledged the problem and I got a ticket number to use when I submitted the laptop to an Apple service center. I contacted my local Apple dealer and they needed about 10-14 days for the repair. I decided to hold off the repair for a while since I needed the machine. Suddenly a whole year had passed. I called Applecare. The MacBook was now over three years old and because of that it was out of the repair program. A manager at Applecare decided to let me have the repair only because I had reported it within the correct time frame. Very, very kind of her!

This monday I went to my local Apple Service center again. I told them that it was OK to repair the MacBook, gave them the ticket number and serial, and the contact information to the Applecare manager. This time the repair time was calculated to 36 hours!! I haven't yet picked up the machine today but I surely hope that they will be able to fulfill their promises. Even if it will take another day to have it fixed - it will be ok too.