My iPod Touch is Rarely Used for Music

Almost three months ago, we welcomed the iPod Touch to our family.

At the time, I was looking forward to taking videos with me on trips, for surfing the Web via WiFi, and for listening to scads of music. After all, Steve Jobs once said the iPhone, and ergo the iPod Touch, had the best iPod experience ever created. But it's been interesting to see that while my first iPod was all about music, the iPod Touch hardly ever gets used for that purpose.

So what am I doing with my iPod Touch? The overwhelming majority of activity is to browse the Web via WiFi, whether just away from the laptop, or at a friend's home with WiFi. Given the iPod synchronizes its bookmarks with my Safari Web browser, and with the addition of widgets for e-Mail, stocks and weather, just about anything I need is a few "touches" away. And the iPod Touch, to be honest, is the best device I can think of for taking the Web into places where a laptop wouldn't make sense. Ever take a PowerBook into the men's room at work? Didn't think so. But an iPod Touch fits right in your pocket...

As expected, I have used the iPod Touch for viewing movies and TV shows, especially on plane flights. Before my flight to Boston last month, and for this shorter trip to Phoenix, I made sure to rent one or two films before taking off. While Apple hasn't gained the fullest of movie libraries for rent yet, I've found a number of titles worth watching, especially when my alternative is craning my neck to see whatever United or US Airways has on tap. (My latest iPod Touch movie? Punch Drunk Love... and you can skip it.)

With Web access and TV or film, the need to play music is fading. While on my laptop, I almost always have iTunes going, but for my iPod Touch, iTunes is almost a forgotten app.

Recent Apple advances have made iTunes music even less important since I first got my iPod Touch. I've added custom icons to my home screen for Facebook, louisgray.com, FriendFeed and Twitter, and each offers me one-click access to where I'm most frequently engaged and communicating. I'd have added buttons for TechMeme and SiteMeter as well, but so far, I've chosen appearance over functionality, as neither site has a good custom icon. (Here's a great "how to" from Webomatica.)

Gaining the new widgets now puts .Mac and GMail in my pocket, with send and receive functionality. It's not quite able to replace the Blackberry yet, but I've grown quite adept at touch typing on it, more so than I had originally expected. Adding movie rentals to iTunes also made going to P2P networks for films much less inviting.

I'm near my laptop at home and work so often it's a rare time that I need to use my iPod Touch for music. I'm glad it's there if I ever need to tap into it, but over time, it's becoming less and less. Now it's a lot less about finding the right playlist, and a lot more about finding the best open wireless hotspot. That's more than I would have expected when Apple first debuted their original iPod years ago.

In the Future, Everything Electronic Must Be Wireless

Last week, Apple made rumormongers a bit excited when word of MacBook Air prematurely leaked. With silence from Apple in advance of MacWorld, excited Mac fans speculated the new laptop would not only get rid of the optical drive (which it did), but also get rid of power cables, as well as adopting WiMax, delivering pervasive high-speed wireless Internet access from any location. (Rumors like this have been out for years...)

While Apple didn't deliver on these dreams, this time, I believe we stand on the cusp - where developers find new ways to eliminate wires - delivering wireless power, wireless Internet and wireless connectivity between devices, bringing us to an unconnected, truly mobile, future. And it can't come too soon.

In our home, we have ubiquitous wireless Internet. Our Airport Extreme provides wireless access to my laptop, my wife's laptop, our Nintendo Wii, and our TiVo HD (with optional wireless network adapter). We play our Nintendo Wii with wireless controllers. And we use remote controls to interact with many of these devices.

But everything else is wired. We need cables to deliver power to each device. We need cables to deliver television content to the TV. We need cables to transmit audio and video from the DVD player to the TV, from the TiVo to the TV. From the Wii to the TV. The tangled wire jungle once seen only in corporate datacenters is now commonplace in living rooms and bedrooms everywhere, as we add more and more digital devices - and this is entirely the wrong direction.

When you see commercials touting high-definition flat-screen televisions, you always see them flush on the wall, without a wire in sight. When Apple advertises their breathtakingly designed computers, they are shown, again, without wires. Wires are ugly. Wires get tangled and are cumbersome. The companies that make these devices know that, but they aren't solving the problem.

Soon, our living room will feature our 50-inch Samsung on the wall. Our bedroom will have a 42-inch plasma TV on the wall. But where do my wires go? What kind of design is achieved when the TVs are adorned with an array of spaghetti-like strands dangling awkwardly toward the power strips and components below? I can't exactly take an axe to the wall between the two rooms and build out an electronics closet.

In my mind, not only do we need wireless Internet, and wireless power, but we also need to enable our digital devices with BlueTooth or 802.11 capable addressing, so the TiVo can talk with the DVD player, the Apple TV, the Nintendo Wii and the TV itself, without dragging cables between each machine. I shouldn't have to battle for open ports and connectors, and untangle a veritable rat's nest of wires just to enjoy the entertainment or information I've brought into my home.

The issues of wireless power and wireless device connectivity are in my mind more important than higher bandwidth speeds, higher disk drive capacities or improved video and audio resolution. I want my data and my connectivity to be pervasive. I want high-speed Web access anywhere, without wires. I want my devices to be wire-free. Now.

See also:
It's Time to Make Power Wireless and Battery-Free
The Power to Set You Free (of Power Cords)

Take Your Blog or Web Site Mobile With Wirenode

One of the big drivers behind RSS syndication is the ability to publish once and distribute anywhere. A single posting to a blog is now not only posted on your main site, but through software RSS readers, e-mail applications, widgets and the like. Your content is also being taken beyond the Web browser and PCs to mobile phones, often with unpredictable results. One new startup, Wirenode, based in the Czech Republic, is looking to help you optimize your site for mobile access, so you can be sure it looks the way you would like.

I first met Tomas Zeman of Wirenode at the Plug and Play Expo in Sunnyvale in September, where he gave a demonstration of the company's product, and how you can easily create a mobile-optimized version of your site, confidently knowing it will display well on mobile phones, no matter the brand or carrier. Today, I got a follow up note from Tomas saying he had done me a favor and mobilized my blog, at http://louisgray.wirenode.mobi/.

(You can see a screen capture of what that mobilized site looks like on the right)

The promise of Wirenode is that publishers can take their presence beyond the browser, and modify the way mobile consumers access and view their content. Content owners can login to the site to modify the way it's displayed or make edits.

But, while Wirenode is working on optimizing your Web site for mobile access, mobile providers are optimizing their hand sets for what's seen as "the real Internet", Apple's iPhone included. Are people really going to go to my mobile Web site instead of louisgray.com on their handheld? I'm not sure. But we'll see where their technology is headed.

After all, how could you not root for a company whose "about us" page was written in ComicLife, and whose blog marvels at the wonders of the San Francisco Bay Area on a recent visit?

Want to get your blog or Web site optimized for mobile phones and get your own wirenode.mobi address? Start at www.wirenode.com.

We're Back Home In the Bay Area

Some quick notes after our week (plus one day) away:

* We DID have some impact from the earthquake, which was evident immediately. Some of our pictures and picture frames on bookshelves or stands had been knocked over. In one amusing example, one of my two fantasy football trophies looked like it had been flung three feet from the bookshelf. More likely, it fell and bounced, but still, pretty impressive. Also, one plaque on the wall is now at a 30 degree angle, when I swear it was straight before. Despite that fun, no damage, and nothing broken. I looked throughout the house.

* Although I had thought I adjusted well to the switch to Standard Time, I forgot all about it before going to bed last night. So when I thought I was going to get up early (at 6 a.m., according to the alarm clock), I was actually getting up at 5 a.m. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

* Our 18 year-old beagle, Molly, is home from my mother-in-laws, and doing fine. She seemed out of sorts last night, disoriented, and likely a bit miffed we abandoned her for longer than I can remember, as this trip exceeded even our honeymoon. Combined with the fact Molly goes to bed at 9 p.m. when at "Grandma's", and we had her up past 11, it's no surprise she seemed to be a bit in a fog. Don't worry though, by the time I served her breakfast kibble this morning, all was well.

* There's something to be said to coming home to a technology haven. We drove all over Denver and Aurora yesterday looking for WiFi, until we found it at an Aurora Barnes and Nobles, helped by my looking it up via my Blackberry on Google Apps. Now at home, we confirmed our WiFi works, the TiVo recorded all the shows we asked it too (including this year's Halloween Simpsons episode), and we're back in the swing of things. There's also the matter of our WiFi being faster than the hotel, although it was admittedly pretty good.

Now, I'l have to avoid the typical post-break doldrums and not feel like I need more time off right away.

The Power to Set You Free (of Power Cords)

In February, I stated one of my biggest tech wishes is to find a wireless power solution for my laptop or other devices. While we've grown accustomed to wireless Internet in most major locations (home, work, airport, hotels, etc.), we're still required to lug around power supplies which present issues themselves, as cords fray and connectors get bent or misaligned.

I've suggested the first company to make wireless power simple and affordable will have a major hit on their hands. GeekWhat's Tony Chung agreed.

Now, it appears others are waking up to the potential for wireless power to become a reality. A company called Powercast has developed a way to power low-voltage devices wirelessly, and Philips will be bringing it to market, according to Mathew Ingram.. Chris Pirillo is similarly excited, saying "Finally, a piece of technology that nobody will be able to live without."

Powercast has a major write-up in the upcoming April issue of Business 2.0, which any good geek should be subscribed to, BTW. Business 2.0 says the technology isn't any more sophisticated than AM or FM radio, as it converts radio waves into DC electricity.

The biggest drawback I could find in this early access product? It only charges to distances of 3 feet, for now. So it won't power large devices, and it won't power them over the distance of a room or a house, so there's still a lot more work to do, but I really like the direction this is going. I can't wait to ditch the power cord.

Hotel and Airport Internet Access a Must

I've ranted and raved here before on the number of times I've checked into a supposedly swank hotel, only to find the hoops I need to jump through in order to get a quality Internet experience can negatively impact the whole trip. For some reason, it seems that the more I pay per night in a hotel, the more I end up paying per day, and the less I pay per day for the hotel stay, the more likely it is that my access will be both fast and free. Being budget minded doesn't mean I have to give up something I believe to be a requirement.

In this weekend's trip to Phoenix, we stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites, and had great wireless Internet access. I could turn on the laptop and get high speed Internet anywhere in our suite. But it wasn't perfect. Not only did I have to pay $9.99 a day for the privilege, but I had to call the front desk every day to turn on my access, as the password changed every day at noon. This made us have a daily ritual where I called the front desk around 12:02 p.m. to get the new day's codes, only to call back 24 hours later. Even the front desk said they were annoyed by the policy, but there was nothing they could do.

It could have been worse, for sure. In the last few years I've gone to hotels that didn't feature any kind of Internet in their rooms, but only in the lobby, I've gone to hotels that promised high speed wireless, but I could only get a fraction of the signal if I placed the desk chair and laptop in the closet or huddled next to the door, and I've found others that required me to run Microsoft Windows. I've paid anywhere from $4.95 a day to $19.95 a night, regardless of how much activity I had online.

I see the hotel Internet access issue as being graded:

A: Free high-speed wireless access in hotel rooms and the lobby
B: High-speed wireless access in hotel rooms and the lobby for a fee
C: High-speed access in hotel rooms via in-room Internet cable
D: High-speed access in the lobby or business center
F: Anything less than high-speed access

This issue is even worse when it comes to airports. For some reason, the Silicon Valley's major airport hubs, in San Jose and San Francisco, demand you pay ten bucks or so through T-Mobile for the privilege of synching up before the flight, whether you are just catching up on e-mail before boarding, or find yourself stranded for a day changing from airline to airline. Oddly enough, other airports, in Las Vegas and Phoenix (where I am now) don't ask for diddly squat - only that you agree not to do anything nefarious on their network. Given their courtesy, I promise to be good at least for an hour or so.

To ensure highest productivity, I need to have immediate access to Internet on all my travels. Those vendors which solve the access issue will get my business. Those that don't will find themselves passed by as the more technology-oriented of travelers choose alternatives.

New Apple Airport On Its Way Early

While it wasn't as exciting as learning my new AppleTV had shipped, or if I had somehow obtained early access to the iPhone, I received a pleasant message in my e-mail today, as Apple let me know they had received clearance to offer their newest 802.11n-capable Airport base stations, and they were set to ship immediately, a full two weeks ahead of schedule. Now, instead of expecting my new wireless experience in March, it's looking a lot more like I'll be zipping around wirelessly a lot more quickly come Valentine's Day or so.

Below is the text of the e-mail.

  To Our Valued Apple Customer:

  Apple today began shipping our new AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n). We
  are delighted to tell you that we plan to ship your AirPort Extreme Base
  Station (802.11n) two weeks earlier than we had anticipated. We now plan to
  ship your product on or before Wednesday, February 14. No action on your part
  is required.

Silly Apple. Don't they know that the way to dominate the market is to announce delay after delay and increase anticipation?