Tiny Twitter: it’s good. portable. Twitter.

From Tiny Twitter –

Tiny Twitter is just what you are looking for and it will work on ANY Java enabled device (that’s a bunch & includes the CrackBerry) and ANY Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone (they’re pretty cool).

If you like Twitter, but wish there was an app out there to allow you to tweet from you cell, look no further.  Web Worker Daily comes through again, and shows us just the ticket:

“On my Windows Mobile phone the interface is crisp and clean and Twhirl like.  I can see and browse through my timeline and tweet, reply or direct message easily. Options let me choose how often it checks for updates which is great with the ever changing API limits that Twitter seems to be imposing.”

What’s not to love?

Jott Feeds comment + true Lifehacker feedback = innovation

So, you know (thanks to Lifehacker) that Jott will read your feeds to you. Suppose yours truly left a comment on Lifehacker regarding another potential use:

If I’m not mistaken, can’t one get a feed of his gmail inbox? If it’s not too cumbersome, I could see listening to email during morning commute.

But wait! It’s not that simple (read: it does not work). What to do?

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound, LH’s own Kevin Purdy comes through with a way:

You’ve always been able to email yourself with a phone call through voice-to-text service Jott, but with the introduction of Jott Feeds, Gmail (and Google Apps) users can now have a summary of their messages read to them by phone. The secret sauce lies in Gmail’s RSS feeds and a go-between web site that handles password requirements. I’ll show you how …

You know what Wayne and Garth would say, no?

Lifehacker, “we’re not worthy!”

8525 iPhone centro

So, you’re finally looking at smartphones, but so many choices.  Let’s play the one-question game:  what are you after — high function or fun design?  If “fun design” is you, go try an iPhone.  (Enough said; see earlier posts for more iPhone detraction, even perhaps a retraction.)

If you want/need to get more done and nifty is not as important as can-do, you might look to an 8525 (Tilt is its successor w/precious few improvements) or Centro.  The Palm Blog recently presented a decent review of what a Centro offers versus other smartphones.  At conclusion, it conceded some of “what you don’t get” with a Centro:

1. Built-in Wi-Fi. Current Palm models lack built-in Wi-Fi, though Palm CEO Ed Colligan said last year it would be added to future Palm devices.

2. Built-in GPS. Given how clueless GPS-based driving directions can be, I don’t see this as a terrible loss. Also, Google Maps came preinstalled on my Treo, and it has often served me in a pinch.

3. A Pleasurable Web Browsing Experience. Surfing the Web on my Treo is painful, even using Sprint’s fast EVDO network. If a meaningful mobile Web experience is crucial, your best smart phone choice currently is the iPhone.

4. Style and a Large Screen. I’d love to see a sleek new Palm OS handset that combines a large touch screen with the usual sturdy Palm keyboard.

Now, do you “don’t get” those spec’s with a Tilt (improved 8525)?  No.  Understand?  The Tilt has:

1.  integrated wi-fi;

2.  Telenav GPS Navigator(TM) support

3.  web-browsing with Explorer on 3G network (Opera mini is a free-n-easy add-on for “pleasurable” full internet zoom in/out function); and

4.  style and large screen?  2.8-inch screen (versus Centro’s 2.2) and let’s just leave “style” to the eye of the beholder.

If you think the Kansas Business Attorney is off-base on the 8525, ie. your phone is better, do tell because I doubt it!  I realize there are a few out there which will stream live video to the web.  My 8525 will not handle that (guess whether I need that function), nor does it handle GPS without add-ons (yes, that’s one of the improvements in the Tilt, along with a tilting display and 3.0 vs 2.0 mp camera; see previous “guess whether…” comment).

Your phone is more productive than mine?  Prove it and say on.

iPhone Connected: ACU

Link: Abilene Christian University. It is no secret the Kansas Business Attorney has been skeptical of the iPhone. The rest of the story. While the AT&T 8525 has certainly filled the bill for mobile connectedness, there is a quiet concession to be made. Fewer keystrokes may have value. Some may have had a tendency (due to an old stereotype that Apple products are merely “more expensive and prettier”) to bash the iPhone in favor of the Windows Mobile (first 5, now 6) platform. True, it still seems the Windows Mobile can ultimately do more (and it already meshes well with Outlook), but for what it will do (and yes, that list is growing and many are eager to be its primary grower) the iPhone will do it faster than than a WinMo device.

Remarkable Concept: ACU Connected: Convergence and the 21st-Century Classroom. In its brief discourse (”Implications for the Emerging Classroom”) on the “flexibility, creativity, and community manifest in Web 2.0″ ACU suggest today’s students are

“born multitaskers for whom convergence is second nature.

Rather than fighting against a change that’s old news for our students, and rather than passively waiting for the development of new pedagogical models, we think it’s important to embrace and nurture the trends demonstrated by the 21st-century classroom and Web 2.0. We believe that the best way to fulfill these goals is to encourage communication and convergence. We see the new generation of converged mobile devices like the iPhone or Blackberry as devices uniquely suited to this purpose, offering multiple communication technologies - phone, voicemail, email, multi-session chat - while also bringing together an unprecedented level of media and information access - audio, video, photography, and the web.

At their core, these devices offer compelling support for the strategies of the 21st-century classroom. Further, they offer students, faculty, and staff unprecedented opportunities for building academic and social community, bringing technologies together in a way that encourages participation, creation, and exploration rather than passive consumption. We see them as ideal platforms for developing innovative and integrative applications for higher education.”

What are those terms Jobs always throws around: remarkable … fascinating … groundbreaking. Pick one. Any way you slice, convergence and the classroom — the iPhone on any campus = pretty cool.

AT&T 8525 $99

If you’ve been watching for the deal, here it is:  Amazon is offering my favorite tool for $99.99.  While it lists Windows Mobile 5, one can browse right over to htc.com to get WM6.

iPhone: Apple’s overzealous control thwarting its potential

Brian Lam at Gizmodo gives the full scoop (and a “don’t buy” verdict) on just how useful the iPhone can be, just how much Apple is choking-off that potential, and how its buyers rightfully resent being at the mercy of the Apple Overlord. Still want a great phone with tons o’ function? Get the 8525. Desperate for the iPhone look? So, skin your 8525, and save what you would have spent (on the iPhone) for OLPC.

Phonifier: easy mobile access to web content

Having trouble reading pages on your mobile device? (You may not have the best mobile browser.) Try Phonifier … from what I can see, this service strips down the page to a very clean, feed-like quality — just text, links and the key images. What I want. Go to Phonifier, add your target URL…enjoy.

Sample this Phonifier-ized post by the Home Office Lawyer to get an idea of how a post renders via Phonifier.

What I like about Phonifier: it strips away much of the busy-ness of many sites, and it stays with you (ie, when you click to the next link, you stay “Phonified”, much like the way Google Reader rendering stays with you on a mobile).

What I really like about Phonifier: let’s say I was traveling the last two weekends and I convinced Mrs. KansasBusinessAttorney to drive a couple legs of the trips; let’s say I used the data connection on my AT&T 8525 as a modem for my laptop to get connectivity; but suppose I was out where most of the population wasn’t (ie, not the greatest connection) — Phonified was/is the perfect alternative to easily push even your laptop to render only what you want and not what you don’t care to see (or wait for). Who knows … maybe I could get hooked on a clean internet.

Bottom line: Phonifier is for mobile, but rebel, rebel … try it on a desktop/laptop.

Posting with 8525

Well. Probably not as fashionable as posting with an iPhone and typepad…pretty unremarkable really. Why didn’t I think of this a long time ago … I guess the 8525 is just so versatile that blogging didn’t seem so exciting.

Cha-Fring!!! to the Tune of $12Million (& Fring on 8525/Mobile 5.0)

Updated news from Techcrunch reports:

VOIP start-up Fring has closed an estimated $12 million second round, led by US VC fund North Bridge Venture Partners. VenFin and previous investors Pitango, Veritas and Yossi Vardi also participated. If the investment estimate is accurate, it would be one of the larger rounds for a VOIP company.

Fring is a mobile application for Windows and Symbian phones that uses VOIP to make cheap/free mobile calls and instant message. Unlike Jajah, but like Truphone, Fring sends calls and chats over Wi-Fi internet access or your 3G or GPRS Internet data plan …

This writer will tell you, having the AT&T 8525 for more than a month before finding/adding Fring? (What’s the opposite of “priceless”?) It’s no wonder folks are handing over money.  Making VOIP calls or chatting over wifi or your (better be unlimited) cellular data plan, integration with voice/chat Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN … all I can say is when I wifi-Fring-Jott my soccer team to text their parents that the game has not rained out because rain cannot survive this heat, they’ll never know what hit ‘em.

Isn’t it Fringing wonderful.

iPhone hacked

Per the New York Times (by John Schwartz),

A team of computer security consultants say they have found a flaw in Apple’s wildly popular iPhone that allows them to take control of the device.

I am not one of those people smirking at those smug Apple zealots who have constantly regurgitated the mantra that “with Apple, you just don’t have the virus and security worries you have with Microsoft products …” I’m not; I’m just an 8525 guy.

iPhone vs At&t 8525: review (and beta post)

[*Update: If you are considering purchasing from Wirefly/Inphonic online (and you think their rebates look promising), you might consider it due diligence to at least review and consider: D.C. Sues InPhonic Over Rebate Restrictions; Cell phones: Poor customer support from Inphonic.com/Wirefly.com; and Ripoff Report: InPhonic. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of any of that information, HOWEVER, after my personal compliance, re-compliance, online status checks, online customer service requests, emails, and certified mail regarding a RAZR rebate (yes--it has been one phone ago), it was apparently the use of three magic words which ultimately inspired my long (many months) overdue rebate check to finally come in the mail: Better. Business. Bureau. Find info here. To be sure, the RAZR was truly great and the Cingular/AT&T service was fantastic. This customer's experience with Wirefly's ("fulfillment" by Inphonic) rebate? Well let's just say my mother taught me, "if you do not have anything nice to say, stay quiet." In that case "________" should make the point.]

So it’s July 12 and the iPhone has been in a lot of hands now for nearly two weeks: Is there now a revised (more considered) opinion?

• DennisKennedy writes: Is the iPhone ready for Business? pointing to a Business Week tech commentary on Making the iPhone Better for Business (what does that tell you) as well as a Consumer Reports write-up (noted by Dave Winer) which highlights a not-so-great (per the writer, comparable to Treo 680) call quality in the iPhone;
• ErnieTheAttorney reports on the iPhone blank screen of death (my words — homage to persistent blue-screen-of-death references by the many mac-faithful);
• FutureLawyer (a daily stop for this writer) drops a not-so-subtle hint, noting a post entitled “Fixing the iPhone“;
• {this portion is arguably not quite worthy of a full bullet, but here it is anyway: should you be part of the want-windows-function-but-with-iPhone-look crowd, the folks at Lifehacker present an iPhone knock-off skin and procedure to make your windows mobile smartphone/pocket pc look like the iPhone}; and finally,
• my revised comment (thanks Finis): My mistake — the iphone keypad does, in fact … go landscape.
• Update: Be sure to see Home Office Lawyer’s competing view on iPhone (and just as Bo knows sport, Grant most certainly knows tech), lest we forget that reasonable minds differ and that for us early-adopters anyway, how cool it feels in our hands does matter.
• Got an honest assessment of the iPhone? Say on.

AT&T 8525 Better than iPhone

So straight to the comparison:

vs.
Price: (w/2-yr plan) iPhone is $500-$600 while 8525 is $300;
Display: 3.5 inches vs 2.8;
Menu: i comes with “essential features” at main display; 8525 allows selection of such for “Today” display;
Interface/entry: i has touchscreen control for everything (what if it has a problem), and vertical qwerty on screen (one and only keying option) which can’t go horizontal and must go elsewhere for symbols or numbers (very inconvenient for texting/emailing) while 8525 has qwerty touchscreen (w/numbers) stylus included, slideout physical qwerty, blackberry roll/punch trackwheel, and directional button similar/common to many cell keypads;
Connectivity: each has Bluetooth 2.0 and wi-fi, together with same data network via AT&T fka Cingular;
Camera: each has 2.0 megapixel but 8525 adds video and more snapshot/shutter options;
Messaging & email: similar at first look, but iPhone has no cut/paste features;
pdf/word/excel: iPhone only views, while 8525 creates and edits (just not on pdf’s);
video/music: i via itunes (but must sync to manage); 8525 via media player or web interfaces (cellular video, mobitv, mobile xmradio, and others), and relevant to this feature is 4GB on iphone w/o expandability, then 51MB on 8525 expansion card adds 2.0GB (more, I suppose as micro SD cards grow);
Browser: iPhone has an edge here, using the Safari which renders true web vs. mobile web you get (as available) on 8525 (haven’t tried non-windows browser on 8525 yet)

Summary: for the cell/text/email/doc editing user (yes, like me), 8525 will make you happier and actually do more; if you are an ituner/ipodd-er and you want one device which also provides cellular service, (limited) text/email features, and browsing go put $500 (or 6) down and $60/month (x24) to join the craze, and test-drive the newest thing (just remember, now many of you will have two ipods, no?). Let’s face it, if you phone/text/email, you’re going to tire quickly of trying to put two thumbs (or one of any digit from each hand) on iphone’s limited touchscreen qwerty.  (Update: see Home Office Lawyer’s differing view on typing and other functions.