My “Top Music of 2011” List

Here you are: my list of the Top Music of 2011…and in no particular order, save for one.  You’ll know it when you get there.
 

The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow
This album came completely out of left field for me.  Someone (somewhere) mentioned it — probably on Facebook — and the “duet” factor sounded interesting.  I listened to an early release of the title track, Barton Hollow, and it sounded great to me, so I waited patiently for the full release.  Strangely enough, the title track (and first single) is not necessarily representative of the rest of the album, which may put some folks off.  In fact, the remainder of the album is considerably more mellow.  That said, this is a great album if you’ll give it some time.  Would I like to hear more of their upbeat stuff?  Sure.  Maybe next time.  But this is definitely one of the best albums to have been released this year.

Death Cab For Cutie, Codes & Keys
Let me be clear on this point: I’m not really a fan of Death Cab For Cutie.  I have nothing against them, of course, I’m just not part of their fan base.  Still, I heard the first single from this album, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  I decided that the rest of the album needed a good listen-thru, and I’m glad I did.  It just sounds like typical “Death Cab” stuff, if you ask me, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all.  Is it ground-breaking?  Not really.  But it is very good.  Funny thing is… I don’t feel like Death Cab ever really writes any choruses into their songs – it’s just one verse after another.  Good stuff, though, and very enjoyable to listen to. 

The Decemberists, The King Is Dead
This album was released very early in 2011, so it’s likely to be overlooked by some.  That said, it was also the first album of the year to truly capture my attention – and I’m not necessarily a long-time listener of The Decemberists.  What can I really say about this album, though?  It’s just a strong release thru and thru.  Some favorites include: “Dear Avery” and “This Is Why We Fight”.

Jane’s Addiction, The Great Escape Artist
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be including a Jane’s Addiction album on my Top Music of 2011 list.  It seemed impossible, but here it is.  For some background, I’ve been a long-time Jane’s Addiction fan – dating back to their “Nothing’s Shocking” release – but their most recent releases have not necessarily captivated me.  Good?  Yes.  Great?  Not necessarily.  So, it was with some skepticism that I grabbed The Great Escape Artist and gave it a listen.  (I’m so happy for subscription music services!)  Quite simply, I was blown away.  Perry Farrell sounds great, the songwriting is top-notch, and (surprisingly) the album is very clean.  On the downside?  It’s probably one of the worst album covers I’ve seen in a long, long time…

Manchester Orchestra, Simple Math
Having arrived late-to-the-game with Manchester Orchestra, I was very much looking forward to their latest release, Simple Math, and it didn’t disappoint.  In fact, I easily consider this to be their strongest album yet.  It seems that Manchester Orchestra is growing up in many ways: lyrically, most of all, but also musically.  There is still an experimental/indie vibe to their songwriting, but it totally works.  Some personal favorite tracks include: “Simple Math”, “Apprehension” and “April Fool”.  Just a solid album.

Josh Garrels, Love & War & The Sea In Between
I wouldn’t normally choose a “best album of the year”, but in this case I feel absolutely compelled to name one: Josh Garrels’ “Love & War & The Sea In Between”.  There is no doubt in my mind.  What started as a mere suggestion from a friend of mine (thanks, Tim!) was followed up by an email from NoiseTrade.com with a link to this album.  I figured that I might as well.  The first song caught me off-guard.  It was more haunting and mellow that I figured it would be.  It also sounded a lot like Damien Jurado, which wasn’t a bad thing in my book – but could certainly be polarizing to some.  By the end of the third song, I was absolutely sold…and hooked.  This is not only the most solid album I’ve heard all year, it’s probably one of the best I’ve ever heard.  Seriously.  Even better?  You fall in love with the first half of the album, and then quickly realize you’ve only partially tapped the beauty of this release.  Your favorite tracks shift on a daily or weekly basis.  But nothing has struck me more about this album than the lyrics have.  Beautiful.  Challenging.  Heart-wrenching.  Encouraging.  And everything in-between.  If you’re still reading this paragraph and have not yet downloaded this album, then do yourself a favor: head over to NoiseTrade.com and download it for free.  You can thank me later.  And thank you, Josh Garrels, for what is easily the best album I’ve heard in year…

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Mutemath, Odd Soul
A very solid release from Mutemath, and I definitely prefer this to their last one.  Still, not as strong as their self-titled album.  I’d like to see the old spark rekindled with these guys.

The Dear Hunter, The Color Spectrum
Having first heard them when I saw them open for mewithoutYou, I was very impressed.  Their last album, Act III, is one of my recent favorites.  Still, this latest release is actually a combination of nine EPs that they released in 2011.  It may be a great album, but I just can’t make it thru it the entire way…

Switchfoot, Vice Verses
Just a great album all-around.  Not mind-blowing, necessarily, but very good.

 

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
I’m actually a bit of a Coldplay fan, so I was very much looking forward to their latest release, Mylo Xyloto.  I heard a few early tracks and I began to get concerned.  Then I heard the full-release, and…well…I basically had no desire to listen through it again.  That’s a bad sign.  Perhaps in a few months it’ll “click” with me, but I doubt it.  I don’t know what happened here…

Lyrics o’ the day: Josh Garrels, “Revelator”

It’s difficult to relay *exactly* what type of impact the latest album from Josh Garrels has had on me.  I would say the best word to describe it is “profound”, and I don’t use that word lightly. 

I’m rarely moved by new artists musically, and much less often moved by them lyrically.  Almost never, in fact.  I am *extremely* critical of lyrical content, which is a frustrating bent to have.  That said, finding an artist that moves me musically, vocally and lyrically nearly never happens.  I was moved to the point of tears on several occasions.  Truly.

Up until a couple of months ago, Josh Garrels was absolutely unknown to me.  While working alongside a friend that I attend church with, the conversation turned to music.  I was surprised to find that he and I had such similar musical tastes.  As we discussed “what artists or albums were currently floating our respective boats”, he mentioned a guy named Josh Garrels that had a powerful mix of lyrical content, vocals, and musical aptitude.  I told him that I would have to check it out, which typically translates to “I’ll forget about it within 24 hours or so”.

Enter NoiseTrade.com

A couple of days later, I received an email from the fine folks at NoiseTrade.com.  As it so happened, the artist spotlight was on the newest release from Josh Garrels, “Love & War & The Sea In Between”.  I took the hint, downloaded the album, and began to listen.

Wow. 

Here’s a link to one of my favorite tracks.  Lyrics below.

Had a dream I was alone
A vast expanse of complete unknown
Sea of glass so clear it shown,
Like gold

Then a voice like thunder clapped,
As a dead man I collapsed
I am the first, I am the last,
Now rise my son

Then behold ten thousand kings,
And every creature worshipping
Every eye was on one thing,
One man

He’s like a lion like a lamb,
As though slain he holds the plan
To make war and peace with man,
And reign on earth

Holy, Holy, is the One,
Who was and is, and is to come
In a robe as red as blood,
He comes forth

Ride like lightning in the sky,
Upon the war horse he draws nigh,
The same one we crucified,
Will come again

I’m not just impressed by this album, I’m actually thankful for it.

“Thank you, Josh Garrels, for using the gifts you’ve been given in such a powerful, obedient way.  Consider me blessed.”

Removing The Veil (A.W. Tozer)

This is one of the most profound, moving, and (hopefully) life-altering pieces I’ve ever read.  From A.W. Tozer’s classic work, “The Pursuit of God” (chapter 3).

Here is an excerpt from the last portion of the chapter:

The answer usually given, simply that we are ‘cold’, will not explain all the facts. There is something more serious than coldness of heart, something that may be back of that coldness and be the cause of its existence. What is it? What but the presence of a veil in out hearts? A veil not taken away as the first veil was, but which remains there still shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It is the close-woven veil of the self-life which we have never truly acknowledged, of which we have been secretly ashamed, and which for these reasons we have never brought to the judgment of the cross. It is not too mysterious, this opaque veil, nor is it hard to identify. We have but to look in our own hearts and we shall see it there, sewn and patched and repaired it may be, but there nevertheless, an enemy to our lives and an effective block to our spiritual progress.

This veil is not a beautiful thing and it is not a thing about which we commonly care to talk, but I am addressing the thirsting souls who are determined to follow God, and I know they will not turn back because the way leads temporarily through the blackened hills. The urge of God within them will assure their continuing the pursuit. They will face the facts however unpleasant and endure the cross for the joy set before them. So I am bold to mane the threads out of which this inner veil is woven. It is woven of the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not something we do, they are something we are, and therein lies both their subtlety and their power.

To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins, egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion, are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, form any people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the Church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.

One should suppose that proper instruction in the doctrines of man’s depravity and the necessity for justification through the righteousness of Christ alone would deliver us from the power of the self-sins; but it does not work out that way. Self can live unrebuked at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding Victim die and not be in the least affected by what it sees. It can fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. To tell all the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible Conference than in a tavern. Our very state of longing after God may afford it an excellent condition under which to thrive and grow.

Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. As well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Saviour passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate.

Let us remember: when we talk of the rending of the veil we are speaking in a figure, and the thought of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality there is nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free.

Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life in hope ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life, and then reckon it crucified. But we must be careful to distinguish lazy `acceptance’ from the real work of God. We must insist upon the work being done. We dare not rest content with a neat doctrine of self-crucifixion. That is to imitate Saul and spare the best of the sheep and the oxen.

Insist that the work be done in very truth and it will be done. The cross is rough, and it is deadly, but it is effective. It does not keep its victim hanging there forever. There comes a moment when its work is finished and the suffering victim dies. After that is resurrection glory and power, and the pain is forgotten for joy that the veil is taken away and we have entered in actual spiritual experience the Presence of the living God.

Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with Thee in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter Thy heaven to dwell with Thee there. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Amen indeed.

My “Top Music of 2010” List

It seems to me that 2010 was an interesting year for music – at least as far as my (personal) musical tastes are concerned.  This year felt more “tame”, if you will, as compared to the very powerful albums that were released in 2009 – including Silversun Pickups’ “Swoon” and Neko Case’s “Middle Cyclone”.  Perhaps more interesting is the fact that several new-to-me artists are on this year’s list.

Having said that, here is my Top Music of 2010 list, in no particular order.

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Jakob Dylan, Women + Country
I confess that I would never have grabbed this album if it hadn’t been for the mention of Neko Case as part of the project.  In fact, the earliest accounts of this album sounded like a collaboration between Jakob and Neko, but that wasn’t the case.  Instead, we have a very Jakob-focused album with Neko (and her backup band, it seems) providing most everything else.  The result, it turns out, is really quite fabulous.  With the infamous T Bone Burnett at the production helm, Jakob has released a collection of songs that is arguably the strongest we’ve seen since the first Wallflowers release – and perhaps even stronger.   The “twang factor” is very high with this album, but that’s bothering me less and less these days, it seems.  All in all, a wonderful release.

Broken Bells, Broken Bells
Evidently The Shins are on an extended hiatus since releasing their last (and very successful) album, Wincing The Night Away.  In the meantime, front man, James Mercer, has fruitfully collaborated with producer Dangermouse to release a surprisingly non-Shins and yet very entertaining album under the name Broken Bells.  Mercer’s unmistakable vocal-style mixed with the slightly hip-hop-flavored undertones of Dangermouse’s production, Broken Bells is at times sparse, electronic, spacey, and moody.  Quite honestly, I love it.

New Pornographers, Together
I’ve had very little time to enjoy this album, thanks to the lack of accessibility via the Zune Pass after the album’s initial release, but as you already know, anything involving Neko Case is probably ok with me.  I’ll confess, though, that the band name has been a turn off for me (and likely others, I would assume), but there’s no denying that this is a powerful release from a talented group of individuals. Pop-inspired folk tunes, is probably the best way to describe it.  Favorite tracks include “Crash Years” and “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”.

Starflyer 59, The Changing Of The Guard
Although I’ve listened to Starflyer 59 off and on since the mid-90s, I wouldn’t have considered myself a “fan” until recently.  In fact, it was probably their My Island album that I fully enticed me to embrace their impressive catalog of  work.  Having said that, I find that their more recent work appeals to me much more than their earlier stuff, which is likely quite opposite of the long time Starflyer fans, of which there are many.  In any event, The Changing Of The Guard is probably my favorite release from Starflyer, with the incredible track, Cry Me A River, as one of my favorite songs of theirs.  I’m sure that this album is not shoegazer-ish enough for the hardcore fans, but a release this strong may just usher in a whole new era of Starflyer fans.  If you haven’t already, give it a listen.

Interpol, Interpol
In my opinion, Interpol has been releasing stronger and stronger albums with each release – and this album is no exception.  Although I still consider this band to be an ‘acquired taste’ – primarily due to the droning vocal style – this may be their most commercially acceptable release yet.  Interpol remains, as always, moody and melancholy, but they have a very ‘indie’ feel about them that I really enjoy.  “Always Malaise” and “Memory Serves” are among my favorite tracks.

Spoon, Transference
How do you follow up an excellent previous album?  Well, if you’re Spoon, then you probably attempt to alienate a portion of your new found fan base with an album that is at times genius, eccentric, and (perhaps) entirely purposeful.  I say that because I get the feeling that Spoon intentionally held back on this album – perhaps in an attempt to not dig too deeply into the Top 40 lists – and in the process limited their commercial appeal with Transference.  Don’t’ get me wrong: there is some absolutely genius material on this album, but it never seems to reach the magnitude of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.  Maybe that’s exactly what they were hoping for…… or maybe this album just isn’t as good.  I don’t really know, but I still like it.

The National, High Violet
My good friend, Ken, recommended The National to me a couple of years ago.  Again, due to inaccessibility via the Zune Pass *and* my lack of interest from the 30 second audio clips of the album, I passed on this band time and time again.  For whatever reason, though, when I saw that High Violet was available, I snatched it up like a Christmas morning toy.  I’ve not been disappointed.  I would definitely consider The National to be an acquired taste, mainly due to the melancholy overtones and uber-low vocals, but for fans of Editors, Joy Division, or Interpol, this album is likely to hit the spot.  Bloodbuzz Ohio is definitely one of my favorite tracks.

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Strangely, previous releases from Arcade Fire did little to excite me.  I enjoyed the song Keep The Car Running just fine, but the rest of the album felt pretty lackluster to me – and certainly not worthy of the hype that it received.  Just my opinion, of course.  I wanted to like Arcade Fire, but it just didn’t do it for me.  The Suburbs, then, was met with fairly reserved expectations, but there was an undeniable sparkle to this album.  I’ve found it engrossing, artistic, and challenging.  Quite honestly, this is a very good album.  The biggest surprise to me?  The fact that this artistic, quirky band receives so much commercial success.  Most of the “good” music goes largely unnoticed by the general public.  Anyhow, this album is well-worth your time.

Over The Rhine, The Long Surrender
As my wife recently reminded me, the very first music I ever played for her (aside from my own music, of course) was Over The Rhine’s Patience.  Needless to say, I’ve been listening to this band for a long, long time.  Not only that, but I considered their album, Ohio, as my top album of the decade for 2000 – 2009.  I like this band a lot.  I will confess, though, that as they’ve moved toward a more “jazzy” sound, I’ve probably been less enthused with their releases – the difference being “really good” vs. “incredible”, in my opinion.  We had the opportunity to download The Long Surrender as part of a pre-release purchase, which is why I’m including this album in my 2010 list, even though the general release is set for early 2011.  In any event, this album is probably closer to their last release, The Trumpet Child, than any previous release – and that’s exactly what you’d expect.  Having said that, The Long Surrender is slightly less jazzy than their last, and has all of the genius elements that you expect from Over The Rhine.  My wife and I were also fortunate to have seen them “live” very recently, which featured much of their newest album, so we feel more intimately acquainted with this release and the stories of the songs it contains.  Not my favorite OtR album, but a very good album nonetheless.

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As always, thanks for reading.

T-Mobile Vibrant: basically a lousy device

Back in the early 90s, I purchased a red Yamaha 750 Special motorcycle.  You can read about my vehicular history here, if you so desire. 

Anyhow, this particular purchase is noteworthy because it’s one of the first times that I can clearly remember having strong, nagging doubts about a major purchase, but then I balked and went through with it anyhow.  Aside from the fact that the bike looked very cool, I more or less hated every moment that I had with that vehicle.  It was a “lemon”, plain and simple.  When I finally sold it off to another sucker buyer, I had that overwhelming feeling of ‘whew! I finally got rid of that piece of junk!’.

That pretty much sums up my experience with the T-Mobile Vibrant (a.k.a. Samsung Galaxy S).

It went like this: having owned the iPhone 3GS for a few months, I finally couldn’t take being “yet another iPhone owner” any longer.  The T-Mobile Vibrant had just been released, so I stopped by a store to check one out.  It was lightweight, fast, bright, and the camera was snappy.  It seemed like a good purchase at the time, and getting a (mostly) current version of Android – version 2.1, though a few phones were on 2.2 already – promised that my previous Android frustrations would likely be appeased.

Or not.

I don’t want to inter-mingle my frustrations with Android and my frustrations with the Vibrant too much, but they are entwined in a few ways that are worth mentioning.

HARDWARE

One of the notable features of Android is how “open” it is.  The OS is presented to developers and manufacturers with only a few caveats regarding minimum hardware specs, screen dimensions, etc..  Otherwise, it can be slapped on low-end phones, high-end phones, with cameras, without cameras, big, small, with physical keyboards, on-screen keyboards only, and a slew of other options.  Case in point, Verizon is currently listing ten different Android phones for sale on their website – pre-owned and tablets excluded.  The market has gone from just a few Android phones available at all, to (in my opinion) being obnoxiously over-saturated with them. I’m fine with having “choice”, of course, but a large number of the Android phones out there are flat-out awful.

Samsung made a very interesting move with their Galaxy S line of handsets: basically, design a good “core” device, and then release concurrently on every major carrier, with only mid-to-minor tweaks between them.  The Vibrant (on T-Mobile) is probably the most “stock” as far as hardware goes, and then got bundled with a bit of extra memory and the movie Avatar.  The Captivate (on AT&T) differs quite a bit on the overall look, but otherwise has little else to offer vs. the stock hardware.  Note: I personally like the looks of this phone the best.  The Fascinate (on Verizon) features a front-facing camera, but otherwise looks nearly stock.  Finally, the Epic 4G (on Sprint) is probably the best-of-breed with a front-facing camera, 4G data speeds, a slide out keyboard, and a camera flash.  Now, Google has released the Nexus S, which is basically a Fascinate running stock Android 2.3 and little else to get excited about. 

You know what else?  Samsung has sold like a bajillion-million of these phones.  Their gamble with the Galaxy S appears to have paid off in spades.

Aside from the Super Amoled screen – which, by the way, truly looks great – I can’t get very excited about this phone. 

Let me explain. 

1) It’s very light.  Probably too light, in fact, because it ends up feeling like a toy instead of a quality phone.  It seems like Samsung could’ve easily just replaced the back plastic cover with a metal version and improved the overall weight/feel tremendously.

2) The phone creaks in an unnerving way – you can hear and feel it – even when you’re just holding it up to your ear during a phone call.  It gave the impression that the phone was cheap and that it could easily shatter if you dropped it from any distance.  In fact, no one ever commented to me that it felt like a premium-quality device.

3) The volume rocker is a slow, “clicky” button that’s a hassle to use.  It just doesn’t feel right.

4) While we’re on the subject, the Vibrant earpiece was never truly loud enough for me – even at the max volume.  I don’t need ear-blisteringly loud, by any means, but it shouldn’t need to be maxed out for a ‘passable’ amount of volume. 

5) The capacitive buttons are lousy.  Not only did the Search button require a concerted effort to trigger, the capacitive buttons needed to be ‘activated’, if you will, before they could be used.  That meant double-pressing, in many cases, if the button backlight ever turned off.  Not sure if this is typical of capacitive-button phones, but I’m guessing not.  Just a feature of these fine phones.

6) The battery life was ‘ok’ at best, abysmal at other times, and not at all consistent.  Some days I could easily get through the day with 40% of my battery remaining (using the stock battery gauge, which was off by a good 10-15%), while other days I’d be tanking by the early afternoon – and this with a couple of short phone calls, light email checking, and not much else.  I just never knew what battery life I was going to get from day to day.

7) If the battery life was abysmal, the performance of the phone was, at times, maddeningly poor.  Despite the fast processor and abundance of RAM, Samsung somehow managed to cripple these devices through some poor file system choices.  You might find the phone generally speedy, and then come across an application that was almost too slow to be useful.  The mail program, for instance, could barely move from message to message in less than 3 seconds – it would just lag.  After a 3rd party hack to move part of the app storage to RAM, those programs started behaving normally.  Not exactly a fix I would suggest for your average joe user, though, and not something that anyone should HAVE to do for reasonable performance.  Otherwise, the performance of the phone was frustratingly inconsistent – much like the battery life.  At times it was snappy, and at other times laggy as all get out.  In fact, this has generally been my experience with Android phones.  Maybe I’m just uber-sensitive to phone lag or something.

Not all was completely lost, though.  As previously mentioned, the Super Amoled screen is very nice to look at – if a bit overly saturated, which didn’t really bother me at all.  The sliding cover for the USB port is nothing short of genius.  All manufactures should take note.  Finally, the right-hand side power button is, in my opinion, the most natural place for it to live.  Although I did accidentally hit it a couple of times, it’s no match for the times that I “didn’t quite hit” the top-mounted power button on most other phones.  Personal preference, I suppose, though it’s worth mentioning that most other users were quite stymied to not find the power button on the top edge.

All in all, the Galaxy S devices have a lot of work to do, in my opinion, before they can truly be considered high-end handsets.  They ooze “cheapness” and “cut corners”, which leaves the end-user feeling pretty uninspired.  Well, it did for me, at least.  It really surprised me that Google opted for the Galaxy S design for their next “Nexus-branded” handset.  Not a wise move, if you ask me (and you probably didn’t). 

SOFTWARE

Don’t be dismayed, though.  For however much the hardware lacked on the T-Mobile Vibrant, the software lacked just as much. 

Whatever advances are made via Google to the Android operating system, the manufacture can opt to replace most of those advances, if they so desire – at least the ones you can see with your eyes.  In this case, Samsung has replaced a major portion of the user experience with their own TouchWiz UI.  Essentially, they’ve gone out of their way to make this Android handset look and act as much like an iPhone as they possibly can. 

It’s as awesome as you think it’d be.  </sarcasm>

   

The third screenshot of the app drawer really shows off Samsung’s desire to make the TouchWiz interface an iPhone-clone.

Although the TouchWiz interface does offer a few enhancements that are nice to have – phone control in the drop-down shade, easily text or call a contact via a left or right swipe, decent calendar integration – the majority of it is a mish-mash of design decisions with little coherence.

The default home screen features four main applications at the bottom – a la the iPhone – that remain as-is no matter what screen you’re currently on.  Speaking of home screens, the Vibrant features a default of not 3, not 5, but 7 screens for you to swipe between – and many of them are pre-loaded with widgets that are (seemingly) designed to make your phone run as slowly as possible.  Removing extra screens is easy enough to do, if you know where to look, though I usually ended up with the wrong screen as my default.  I never could get that to work correctly.  Lastly, the dots at the top of the screen tell you which screen number you’re currently on.  Sadly, they have a jagged outlined circle around the numbers which, honestly, looks pretty poor.

Like many phones these days, the Vibrant came pre-loaded with a bunch of stuff that I didn’t ask for, didn’t want, and didn’t plan on using.  Some of them can be removed, while others require ‘rooting’ the phone to be rid of them – and those are at your own peril, since you can negatively affect the function of the phone if done improperly.  Here’s the deal: if you’re going to include extra applications with the phone, at least give us a clear-cut way to remove them, if we so desire.  The pre-loaded stuff shouldn’t feel like a punishment.

Another bit of frustration were the camera and gallery functions.  For whatever reason, the AT&T Captivate actually features a *better* camera application than the Vibrant, even though the camera hardware is the same.  Thankfully, you could browse the XDA forums and get the Captivate camera app to load onto the Vibrant, but this isn’t something that a family member is going to do (or a co-worker ,or most of my friends, to be honest).  The gallery application looked nice enough, but sorted my pictures exactly backwards so that I had to scroll through all of my photos before I could see the most recent one I’d taken.  Nice, eh?  Also, the photos remained lo-res even when you zoomed in.  I never could fix that issue either.

The one saving grace of all this?  There are easy-to-find launcher replacements for Android.  Though I personally used the excellent LauncherPro, there are others just as worthy: ADW, Helix, Zune Home, and the stock Google interface, to name a few.  Any of these is better than TouchWiz.  Trust me.

On the positive side, Samsung saw fit to include Swype, which is an incredible on-screen keyboard replacement.  Certainly the best keyboard on Android, and it might be the best virtual keyboard on any platform.

All that said, the default software experience on the T-Mobile Vibrant did very little to impress me.  In fact, I came away more frustrated than pleased.  Not exactly a glowing review.

IN CLOSING

The T-Mobile Vibrant, while initially fun and exciting, eventually became a continual source of frustration for me.  The stock experience was lacking in so many ways: camera application, gallery features, overall phone performance, home screen layout, too much bloatware, and so forth.  I eventually concluded that I couldn’t with a clear conscience recommend this phone to anyone, unless they were willing to root it, load a new home screen launcher, replace several of the default applications, use a hack to fix the file system performance, and then deal with the cheap feel of the device itself.  All of that made the phone useful, at best, but still nothing to write home about.

Bringing this full circle, owning the Vibrant was a bit like owning a boat: the happiest days were buying the phone and selling the phone.  Everything in-between was just frustrating.

Thanks for reading.

When Pigs Fly! (Day 110 – The Completion)

So, this is really a catch-up/close-out article to my When Pigs Fly! series covering my experience with switching to the iPhone.  You can check out the previous articles here: Day 44, Day 7, Day 3, and Day 1.

Why “close-out”, you ask?  Well, after 110 days with the iPhone, I finally sold it off via Craigslist.  To the credit of Apple (and the iPhone), it was very easy to sell, and I was able to get top dollar for it – around $300.  That money was then used to purchase a T-Mobile Vibrant (Samsung Galaxy S), but that’s for another post at a later date.

A natural question to ask, then, is “why”.  Why did I sell off the iPhone?  What, if anything, was wrong with it?  Truth be told, I’m not sure that I can fault the iPhone for a whole lot.  The 3GS was a nicely-built handset – probably the best I’d ever had – while also being very stable, generally speedy, and accomplishing most everything I’d asked of it. 

It wasn’t perfect, however.  I had a few crashes and/or times when the phone *seemed* to lock up for a few moments (they call that being “unresponsive”), although eventually it would return to normal.  Occasionally the device would lag – especially in the animations involved in returning to the home screen (which you do ALL THE TIME), but it mostly kept at a nice clip.

My biggest complaints, however, are perhaps (for many users) among the top reasons for wanting an iPhone in the first place: the Apple ecosystem, and the “yet-another-iPhone” factor.

Let’s discuss.

THE ECOSYSTEM
Basically, there is no escaping the Apple ecosystem when you begin using the iPhone.  Part of the phone activation has historically involved the iTunes software, getting apps onto your phone involves an iTunes account (the constant request for credentials when installing new apps is ridiculous), backing up your phone contents online involves the MobileMe service (from Apple, naturally), the default email signature says “sent from my iPhone” – and all of this while you’re using a phone with a bright n’ shiny silver apple on the back of it!  If you love Apple and all they stand for, then you’re probably fine with this.  If you loathe Apple (and all they stand for), then this is tantamount to unrelenting torture.  If you’re somewhere in-between, well, then you’re probably somewhere in-between.  Technological purgatory, I believe.

This isn’t just an Apple issue, though, as all of the major smartphone OSes have similar requirements.  An Android phone really isn’t being used properly if you’re not signed up with Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google-centered services.  The Windows Phone is likewise centered around a Windows Live account.  It’s the way things are done these days, but I’m not a huge fan of it.  I use what I want to use, and I don’t appreciate being man-handled toward iTunes, Gmail, Hotmail, or what have you.  Thanks, but no thanks.

All in all, I probably suffered at my own hands in this regard.  Although I was willing to switch to using an iPhone – at least for a time – I wasn’t really willing to commit whole hog to their ecosystem, and, quite honestly, I shouldn’t have to. 

My $.02 on that matter.

YET ANOTHER IPHONE
I was at a birthday party a few weeks ago, and I noticed something sickening startling about halfway thru: at least half of everyone there was sporting an iPhone.  It may have been a higher percentage, to be honest. 

Now, imagine if every other person there had driven up in a dark blue Volkswagen Jetta (maybe a beige Toyota Camry is a more fitting choice).  What would the general reaction be?  Personally, I’d feel pretty lame for driving the same car that everyone else has. I suppose that generally sums up my feelings on the iPhone world.

This may also be best handled in its own blog post, but I’m one of these people that has grown up wanting to look different, listen to different music, act differently, and (generally) go outside the “norm”.  You’d think that Apple’s long-running  “Think Different” campaign would strike a chord with me, but I actually find it rather humorous how non-different the Apple world is.  Their phones, tablets, laptops, and accessories essentially look identical.  There’s nothing “different” about them, when you get right down to it, despite their marketing campaign to the contrary.  In fact, when I began using computers – back in the day – Microsoft Windows was “thinking different”!  Funny

Let’s get back to the point, though.

The mere fact that I was using yet another iPhone finally became very much of a sticking point for me.  Everywhere was iPhone, iPhone, iPhone, and it got tiresome.  Is that petty thinking?  Perhaps, but it’s honest.  What would I do, then, if “my favorite phone” suddenly became the overwhelming favorite amongst most people?  I probably wouldn’t care a whole lot, to be truthful, but it’s also worth mentioning that the other major platforms (Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, etc.) actually give you choice in what type of phone you’re buying.  They can look different, feel different, and often suit your personal preferences.  Call me crazy, but I like having some choice. 

Weird, I know.

LESSONS LEARNED
All in all, I’m rather thankful for my time with the iPhone.  I went through with the experiment, I did my time, and I got to see how the other half lives.  Quite frankly, though, I’m surprised at a couple of conclusions that I’ve come to. 

#1 — The iPhone handsets are far nicer devices – both in build and quality – than most of the phones out there.  Sure, they’ve had their issues, but they’ve also raised the bar for what consumers expect in a phone.  I’m amazed at how major manufacturers (I’m looking at you, Samsung!) continue to produce phones that feel like toys, creak in your hand, and cannot even seem to get basically functionality dialed-in.  At least Apple appears to really pour over their designs before releasing a new (or updated) device.  I like that.

#2 – Apple doesn’t really have it all nailed when it comes to UI design. 
My understanding (and what I believed *everyone else* believed) was that no one could hold a candle to Apple when it came down to user interface design.  After my time with the iPhone, however, I really (truly, honestly) don’t buy that at all.  They get a LOT right with the iPhone, for instance, and then throw in some very random interface decisions from time to time.  It’s not that you can’t eventually figure things out – you usually can – but it surprised me how often they would make interface decisions that appeared to follow no standards whatsoever – even their own.  Need to change some settings in the Maps app?  Just click the corner page curl, even though no other program has anything like that.  Need to delete a contact from your Favorites page?  Easy, just click on the “Edit” button, then the newly-revealed red circle (which now turns sideways), and then click the Delete button.  So random.

That said, if the iPhone UI is occasionally random, then the Android interface is extraordinarily random – much of it due to 3rd parties adding their own touches, nuances, and applications.  The most consistent UI that I’ve seen thus far (you can argue “best” or not, if you like) is actually found on the Windows Phone.  It is surprisingly simple, consistent, (at times) stark, and yet feels very current.  I’ll give a full Windows Phone write-up at a later date.

SO, WHERE TO FROM HERE?
It’s already been mentioned, but I finally switched from the iPhone 3GS to the T-Mobile Vibrant.

Yes, back to Android, and I wish I never had.  More on that later.

Between selling the Vibrant and purchasing my current phone, however, I borrowed an iPhone 3G (non-S) from my good friend who was gracious enough to loan it to me.  I can say this, though: it’s a good thing that I didn’t start off with a 3G, because that phone had some performance & stability issues.  Perhaps it was just that particular device, but  my understanding is that iOS 3.13 on the 3G handsets is generally known to be underwhelming.  I would call that “confirmed”.  The 3GS (and iPhone 4, I assume) is a much better experience.

Otherwise, that’s about all I have to say on this matter.  I would like to thank my wonderful wife for putting up with my technological fickleness, as well as my friend, Andrew, for the conversation/banter over the years.  Good times!

Thanks for reading.

When Pigs Fly! (Day 44)

It’s been awhile since I posted on my “switch to iPhone” journey.  In fact, it’s been roughly 37 days since my last entry.  I’m still alive, my iPhone is still kickin’, and I haven’t been mocked into hiding…yet.

Actually, it’s pretty funny because an event that occurred earlier week was *exactly* what I had been expecting, and yet has happened quite infrequently thus far.  Basically, a co-worker was in my cubicle, my phone rang (and I had to grab this call), and while I’m answering my iPhone, his eyes get wide.  He mouths the words, “YOU…got an iphone?”.  I nod “yes” while continuing my conversation.  The mocking was implied and brief, but ended there.  He’ll probably end up with an iPhone too someday soon.

So, the ridicule has been relatively light, which is somewhat unexpected.  What has gone as planned is that my “utter Apple hatred” has diminished quite a bit, and I find myself feeling much less aggravated at Apple-based coverage, seeing people carrying iPhones, and all that jazz.  It’s a good thing, actually, and part of what I was shooting for – to be less emotional about technology.  No one needs to care that much.

HAS IT ALL BEEN FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES?

How can I best sum up my iPhone experience thus far?  In a word: uneventful.  I mean that in a good way.  Whereas my Android experience was wrought with aggravation and times of “oh, I guess I can’t do that”, the iPhone is stable, clever and easy-to-use.  In fact, my biggest emotion in all of this hasn’t been frustration at what Apple has been able to achieve, but rather baffling disappointment at what other phone OSes (and vendors) have NOT been able to achieve.  Honestly, it’s sad.  For all of the success that the Android platform has managed, that whole world is a mess, in my opinion, and is only getting worse with each new Android phone, modified branches of their OS, and sub-standard performance.  It’s ugly.  These phone vendors have had years to get their act together, but don’t seem to be able to.  Personally, my hope is in the next version of Windows Mobile – Windows Phone 7 – which I’m very excited about.  A nice phone + my beloved Zune Pass = one happy camper!

But you probably don’t care about that stuff.

One of the most important things to remember about testing a phone (or any platform, for that matter) is “time”.  Spending 1-week with a device really doesn’t give you an accurate representation.  I would run into this time and time again as members of the XDA forums would tout how a new ROM for their Android phone was “rock solid and fast as heck” – and this after using it for 30 minutes!  Heck, even my posting on my iPhone experiences after 7 days of usage wasn’t entirely accurate.  At this point, though, having used the iPhone for a month and a half, I feel like I know this phone fairly well.

Let’s talk about that.

GIVE US THE STRAIGHT SCOOP

I can sincerely say that the iPhone is a very stable phone, and I’m thankful for that because I’m still using a method of “unlocking” that requires me to connect to a computer when I reboot the phone.  Ugh.  Thankfully that hasn’t been an issue.  Best that I can remember, I haven’t restarted my phone in the past 4 weeks, which is great.

Note: just as I was typing this blog entry, my phone kinda…freaked out.  Pressing the phone button (to call voicemail) gave me a blank screen, and then I received a “sad iPhone” graphic which was followed by a “safe mode message”.  I was able to recover without restarting the phone, but the timing was absolutely classic!

Other sticklers for me are “performance” and “performance-over-time”.  Thankfully, the iPhone performs quite well in general, though that is to be expected since the processor is one of the fastest currently used in mobile phones.  Still, the OS must be taken into consideration as it has to load/unload memory on a regular basis, and in that regard the iPhone OS is surprisingly capable.  Now, I have found that the phone is “chugging” more than it used to – and I see it most often in the screen animations, which can chop from time to time.  Certainly a phone restart would resolve this and make it feel “fresh” again, but that wasn’t really my point, was it?

Of course, stability and performance don’t really account for much of anything if the phone itself isn’t very usable.  The iPhone is, of course, the “king of usability”, or so you could argue.  Spend a few minutes with the phone, and you’re ready to use it in most any fashion.  Still, it’s not perfect.  One of the biggest grips I have is with the Mail application that, for whatever reason, thinks you need to see your folder view before your Inbox.  Switching between my Yahoo! Mail and my Exchange mail, for instance, is a series of many clicks.  If I’m in my work Inbox, as an example, I have to click back to the folder view, back again to my accounts, click on my Yahoo! account, and then once more to get to my Inbox.  That’s fine and dandy, I suppose, except that most of us spend 98% of our time in our Inbox.  It ought to be the default location when I click on an account within Mail.  Hopefully the 4.0 iPhone OS will fix this, but we’ll see.  For most things, though, the current iPhone is far more useable than most devices on the market.  Kudos to Apple for that.

There are some obnoxious things, too.  The iPhone likes to “push” information to you – new email notifications, Facebook updates, text messages, and so on.  Personally, I like to have *some* information pushed, and the rest I’ll check when I get around to it.  In this case, I have my email checking automatically on an hourly basis, with no notifications aside from the homescreen badge stating “9” unread messages, or something like that.  Unfortunately, the Push Notifications live up to their pushy name with screens like the one to the left.  I see that screen almost every time I launch the Words With Friends app.  I’ve connected with iTunes, of course, but it didn’t help.  I could turn off the Push settings as well, but I don’t really want to.  How about a “don’t show me this message ever again” option?  Nope.  For that matter, I really wish that the iPhone would never, ever mention iTunes unless I was in the Music app (which I don’t use).  The tether that this phone has to iTunes is ridiculous, if you ask me.  That said,  you’ll never, ever get Apple to change that.   Such is the nature of the beast.

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW

So… just a passing update on my iPhone use.  All is pretty well, though I do have my eye on those soon-to-be-released Windows Phone 7 devices.  Not until they’re out on T-Mobile, though, so I’m in iPhone-land for a bit longer

Thanks for reading.

(Note for full-disclosure:  I began writing this post on April 30th, but finished it and posted in on May 3rd – in case you’re wondering why the day count/post-date doesn’t quite add up.)

Adobe Reader installs… like herding cats!

Back “in the day”, the bane of every tech guy (and a lot of end users) was installing anything from Real Networks.  The had-to-have-it RealPlayer was known for not only taking a while to install, but also *sneakily* attempting to get you to install a whole lot of other stuff that you didn’t want or need.  It was pretty aggravating, to say the least.

Thankfully, Real Networks is mostly out of our lives now, but their legacy lives on… thanks to Adobe and their Adobe Reader install process.  “But everyone uses Adobe Reader, don’t they?”  Well, yeah… that’s true.  That’s also part of the reason that Adobe thinks they can co-install a bunch of others apps along with Adobe Reader.  Although there are some fairly easy workarounds, most folks won’t know about it until after they’ve already walked through the unnecessary Adobe install process, at which point they just leave well enough alone.

Let’s take a look at that install sequence, shall we?

THE WRONG WAY

• Start off by searching “Adobe Reader”
• End up at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ and see a screen like this one:

• Note the circled areas: Adobe Acrobat.com, Adobe AIR and the Google Toolbar are installed by default, regardless of whether or not you want/need those.  Only the Google Toolbar can be unchecked at this point.
• Hit the “Download” button and proceed along to the next screen.

• In this case, we are prompted to install an add-on called “Adobe DLM”, which has never been mentioned.  The download instructions (below) encourage you to allow this install and continue.

• We are prompted once again to install “Adobe DLM”, so we play along… like most people would.

• Ahhh!  “Adobe DLM” is actually the “Adobe Download Manager”, which evidently I needed to install Adobe Reader.  Meanwhile, it proceeds to download Adobe Reader and pester me with other crud that I could install, if I wanted to.

• Once completed, I have a new folder on my desktop (“Adobe Reader 9 Installer”) and two new shortcuts.  Just what I wanted.  I also have the “Adobe Reader 9” and “Acrobat_com” shortcuts in my Start Menu.  Thanks, Adobe… more clutter!

 

• Opening MSCONFIG (great for disabling unnecessary Startup programs… but use it wisely), I find two items that are now configured to start up automatically with my computer: “Reader_sl.exe” (Reader Speed Launcher) and “AdobeARM.exe” (Adobe Reader Manager).

• Finally, I now have (4) new options in my Add/Remove Programs dialog.  Somehow my initial 37.85mb install has swelled to 245.96mb.  Certainly makes my day!
• </sarcasm>

THE RIGHT WAY

• Start off by searching “Adobe Reader”
• End up at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ and see a screen like this one:

• Hit the “Download” button to continue.

• Forget about the “AdobeDLM” requests.  Cancel those altogether.  Instead, click on the “click here to download” link just below the instructions.

• When prompted to “Run or Save this file”, choose “Run” to download and install Adobe Reader.  (Note: you can choose “Save” if you prefer to have the installer for later use, or for redistribution)
• Let the install finish and enjoy your slimmer and trimmer Adobe Reader install.

THE OTHER RIGHT WAY

• Open your browser and go to:
  ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/

• Click on the latest major version folder (9.3, in this case)
• Click on the “enu” folder for English (or choose your language)

• Click on the .exe file to download and install Adobe Reader
• Done… and still “slim”

OTHER NOTES

Sadly, the full install of Adobe Reader is still about 211mb, which is quite large.  If you prefer to use a PDF reader with a smaller footprint, I recommend the free & fast Foxit Reader, which weighs in at under 10mb.  For advanced PDF features, you may still need Adobe Reader, but for 99% of the PDFs out there, Foxit Reader works just fine.

Thanks for reading.

Versions of Windows Movie Maker… on Win7

Opinions have differed over the years on the Windows Movie Maker line, but it’s a capable enough product.  You’re not going to be creating cutting-edge media with WMM, but for the cost (free), well… you get what you pay for.

There was some excitement when it was announced that Windows 7 would have access to an entirely new, refreshed version of Windows Movie Maker.  I say “have access to”, because the new version – Windows Live Movie Maker – would, instead, be a separate download – along with Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer, and a few other things.  Certainly leaving some of those *core* products out of Windows 7 wasn’t everyone’s favorite decision, but it keeps the OS slimmer & trimmer.  That’s a good thing.

Sadly, the new Windows Live Movie Maker is probably not the follow-up that most folks were hoping for.  While it does utilize the updated ribbon bar interface, which is nice, most of the improvements end there.  The ever-usable “timeline” view is gone, taking a “picture from a preview” is no longer offered, and the ability to manually “stretch” objects out to adjust the timing has been replaced with manually typing in values.  It’s too bad, too, because the updated Windows Movie Maker could’ve really hit it outta the park, but the more I use it, the more I find things that I cannot do that I used to be able to.

Thankfully, there is some good news. 

For starters, WMM 2.6 is available for download, and seems to work just fine on Vista or Windows 7 – both 32-bit and 64-bit.  Even better, the WMM version that was updated for Windows Vista (ver 6.0) works on Win7 as well, provided you download the proper version for your OS, and then run a simple batch file.  Version 6.0 (released with Vista) included new effects and transitions, support for hardware acceleration, and some newer file formats.  Also, the UI is a refreshed & improved version of the WMM 2.6 interface. 

Why offer both versions?  Well… the 6.0 version offered some hardware acceleration features that not every Vista machine supported.  For those users, the refreshed XP version of WMM was released as version 2.6.  Confused?  Don’t worry about it.  For most folks, the shipped Vista version (6.0) is the best of the bunch, so…

Let’s take a look at installing that.

First…

• Download Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (32-bit) for Vista/Win7
• Download Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (64-bit) for Vista/Win7

Second…

• Extract the “Movie Maker” folder and copy it to your C:\Program Files directory.  (Note: for 64-bit users, the “C:\Program Files (x86)” folder will not be used in this case, since the 64-bit version of WMM is a true 64-bit application.)
• Open the “Movie Maker” folder that you just extracted.
• Right-click on the “reregdlls.bat” file and choose to “Run as administrator”.  Choose ‘yes’ when prompted and allow the batch file to run.  It should only take a moment.
• Finally, left-click on the “moviemk.exe” file and drag it onto your Start button to “pin it to the Start Menu”.
• Open the Start Menu, click on “Windows Movie Maker”, and go!

Notes:

• Although both versions of Windows Movie Maker (2.6 and 6.0) can function along side Windows Live Movie Maker just fine, it appears that the 2.6 and 6.0 versions stomp on each other somewhat.  I recommend that you choose just one of those versions to have running on your Win7 system – with 6.0 being the better of the two.
• The 2.6 (XP) version works fine on Windows 7, but seems to have a few issues – either by design, or by running on an OS that it was not intended for.  For instance, the “collections” view won’t show your imported video files – those have to be selected directly.  Also, importing video files takes quite a while, and then breaks them into “chunks” rather than the whole video file.
• The 6.0 (Vista) version is obviously not intended to be ripped from Vista, so your experience under Win7 may vary and/or be problematic.  Haven’t heard of any issues, though.

Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (Vista/Win7 refresh of the WMM XP version)

Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (Vista-released version, 32-bit or 64-bit)

Windows Live Movie Maker (Downloadable for Windows 7)

Finally, a special thanks to this forum for pointing me in the right direction!

Hope you enjoy using Windows Movie Maker on Windows 7!

When Pigs Fly! (Day 7)

My view of Apple has long been one of the “Kool-Aid Factor”, with Steve Jobs selling you something that you neither needed nor necessarily wanted.  I’m convinced that Mr. Jobs would gladly saw off your leg and sell it back to you – at a profit to himself, naturally.  Some of that stems from my long-held anti-Apple bias, but also from what I’ve seen from him over the years – namely, not a whole lot other than a slave-driver mentality and a “be the best no matter what the cost” work ethic.  Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs is probably both neurotic and slightly genius, though he’s done wonders for Apple Computers.  No doubt about it.

Anyhow, enough of that.

So, it was just over a week ago that, after much sweat + toil + tears, I switched to an iPhone and blogged about the experience.  After a few more days, I blogged again.  It’s blog-a-mania!  Part of me wishes that I would’ve had nothing but hassles and problems with the iPhone.  (That’s the anti-Apple part of me, if you hadn’t figured it out.)  The other part of me just wanted to have a phone that I could be happy with, and the iPhone seems to have satisfied that, for the most part.  Honestly.  I don’t have a lot to complain about, and the complaints that I do have are pretty nitpicky.

IT’S ALL RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS

That heading is a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, but my experience with the iPhone over this past week as been overwhelmingly positive.  It turns on when I want it to, checks my email, browses the web, takes pictures, connects to wifi, makes calls, ends calls, uses my Bluetooth headset (without hassle), and so forth. 

As well as those other things, it turns out that I’m “messing with my phone” less than I used to, and I mean that in a good way.  With my Android phone(s), for instance, I felt like I was constantly fiddling with things – settings, volume, killing apps, freeing memory, and so on.  I felt like I was doing more work than the phone was doing, which gets old quickly.  With the iPhone, though, I’ve really been more focused on what I *do* with the phone, rather than the phone itself.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DETRACTORS

Well, I guess I was one of the detractors, wasn’t I?  Truth be told, I rarely had anything bad to say about the iPhone itself.  My beef was (and has long been) with Apple as a company, and thus my unwillingness to use their products. 

Yeah, I heard that <snort> in the background.  The irony is thick.

There are a few things that folks have knocked the iPhone for over the years:  lack of  multi-tasking, closed ecosystem, no physical keyboard, uncustomizable, lack of “copy & paste”, dropped calls, battery life, no removable battery, lack of Flash support, and others.  Let’s hit on some of these issues.

• Multi-Tasking:  So, the iPhone does NOT have true multi-tasking as we understand it.  If I’m watching a YouTube video, click the Home button, make a call, and then go back to the YouTube app, I’ll find that I’ve been bumped out of the video back to the select screen again.  The real question is this:  is that a problem?  Both Android and Windows Mobile (6.5 and earlier) have real multi-tasking, which is often touted as a “feature”.  In my experience with both platforms, though, it really ended up meaning that the user needed to work at keeping the apps killed or under control.  In fact, one of the first apps I would install on Android is “Taskiller”, with it set to ‘kill background apps’ – and this was just to keep the phone running reasonably snappy.  Sound familiar?  I’m basically trying to emulate what the iPhone does by default.

  When it really comes down to it, multi-tasking should be used in scenarios where it makes sense.  How many things can I really do at one time on my phone?  If I can do more than one thing, is it sensible to prefer that over snappy system response?  Personally, I don’t think so.  I’m also hearing that the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series will “multi-task” similar to the iPhone.  They’re being pretty much worked over for making that choice too, but I think it’s the right one – at least for now.

• Closed Ecosystem:  Yeah, the iPhone ecosystem is shut tighter than the Bill Gates’ estate.  Apple has always maintained strict control of their devices, and the iPhone is no different.  I wouldn’t expect this to change until Apple sees it really hurting their bottom line.  Until then, they get to call the shots on what people see, what people use, and (for the most part) how well it works.  I don’t agree with this standpoint, but I don’t disagree with it either.  It is what it is.
• No Physical Keyboard:  Apple certainly chose this for aesthetic reasons, but the truth is that their virtual keyboard works great.  In fact, I can probably type faster on the iPhone keyboard than I could on my old T-Mobile Dash.  I’m annoyed when trying to access ‘symbols’ to type, but even that works out over time.
• Uncustomizable:  Truth is, *every single iPhone* looks the same.  Sure,  it might have a funky case on the outside, or a wacky wallpaper on the unlock screen, but past that they are identical: a wall of colorful icons.  You can move the icons around, as I have, and even choose to have none on  your homescreen, but hardly anyone does that.  An iPhone looks like iPhone.  Is this an advantage?  Sure.  Apple knows what every iPhone user is going to have in front of them, so supporting it – both for the end-user *and* developer – is much easier.  The down side?  Well, it’s a bit boring.  In the Apple world, we would all have walls of icons, brushed metal status bars, and screens that suck into the trash can like a Ghostbusters gun.  I’d like to see Apple take their mastery of the UI world, and put it toward giving the end-user some real, creative control.  Now *that* would be amazing.
• Cut & Paste:  This functionality was added with the release of iPhone OS 3.0.  It’s handy and all that, but (honestly) I rarely have a real need for it.  Glad to have it, but the world wouldn’t end if it wasn’t there.
• Dropped Calls:  Mud has been slinging since day one on the issue of the iPhone dropping calls regularly.  Since my buddy Andy has seen about an 80% decrease in this behavior since jailbreaking and moving (back) to T-Mobile, I’m going to pin this issue primarily on AT&T and their bloated network.  That said, I *have* noticed that my iPhone drops signal more quickly than my previous phones, so there is something there that Apple should own as well.
• Battery Life:  I’m calling this a relative non-issue.  With most options turned on by default – push email, wifi, Bluetooth – every phone I’ve used has had pretty poor battery life.  The iPhone has faired as well as, if not better, than the MyTouch3G.  Figure out what you *need* to have on, and then turn off the rest.  Dialing back the “push email” to check every hour or so will definitely help with battery life.  Do you really need to have email *instantly* sucked down to your phone when you’re working at your desk – in front of your primary email client — for 8 hours per day?  Yeah.  I thought not.
• Lack of Removable Battery:  I hear that the next iPhone *might* have a user replaceable battery, but I’ll believe it when I see it.  In the meantime, the geniuses at Apple have to replace the battery for you – and at a significant cost.  That sucks.  Thankfully, the iPhone batteries appear to hold up pretty well, and most people I know go through phones so quickly it probably doesn’t even matter.
• Lack of Abobe Flash Support: 
  Steve Jobs claims that adding Adobe Flash support would absolutely ruin the blemish-free iPhone experience – both in performance, and in battery life.  I call “lame”.  Let users choose to run Flash if they want.  Personally, I don’t really care.  I find *most* Flash-enabled websites to be obnoxious, but “choice” is nice.  You know, choice?

THAT’S ENOUGH FOR TODAY

Alright.  Let’s stop beating this worn-out piñata and call it a day, shall we? 

All in all, my iPhone experience has been very good so far.  Not perfect, mind you, but very good.  I’ll rant about some of those things in a few days.

Thanks for reading.