Hi-Tech Recap

by Bob Seidel

Sometimes strange things happen here at the Bob home of technology. My office manager and financial consultant (read: wife) will sometimes baulk at one of my high tech purchases, and yet at other times will spontaneously and without my input suggest a fairly large expenditure. Go figure.

Anyhow, we were sitting around last night watching an Apple iPhone commercial and she says that I should buy one - that I deserve it. She feels that it is important to my readers to report on new technology, and that you all in fact are just waiting for my review. Never wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth, I thought this might be a good time to take check the iPhone out.

I believe her primary goal is to get portable Internet access. We have certainly become email and Internet junkies, and feel deprived when away from home - especially when traveling on long car trips.

But there are some issues, not to mention the price! First of all, the iPhone is primarily a cell phone. As such, my phone gets a lot of use and banging around as it is used for business purposes. A phone never lasts more than two years for me. So will I be able to use this beautiful but probably fragile gem and not worry? And one very important feature to me is voice dialing - I use that all the time. Now I will admit that I do this mostly when driving, and if NC passes a law against using a cell phone while driving that this problem will no longer be an issue - but it is an issue for me right now. And the iPhone does not have voice dialing.

The iPhone is also an iPod. As such, I am not sure whether it uses the standard flat iPod external connector. This is very important for connecting to car radios that directly support the iPod - I need to check this out.

But my biggest issue is with the AT&T (formerly Cingular) cell service itself - and the price of it. In the many reviews I have read of the iPhone, the most severe criticism seems to be not of the unit itself, but rather the AT&T service. And only AT&T sells iPhones.

So, I will debate the cost and make a decision; in the mean time there are plenty of reviews in the Internet if you need one.

This makes me think that it might be time to checkpoint other hi-tech stuff I have around the house. Just like a popular TV car show does long term results on its car tests, I should do the same with my devices.

After a couple of years of Garmin C330 GPS use, I am still totally in love with my GPS. Physically it has never failed. The directions are terrific - totally accurate, anywhere in the US. Obviously it doesn't know very new roads, but Garmin does issue a yearly update. The only issue with the spoken directions is that it has some difficulty with the concept of "straight". "Left" or "right" is easy, but we have had times where we approached (for example) a kind of 3-way Y - you could go left, right, or straight. If the correct answer is "straight", the GPS doesn't say a thing. This is certainly correct, but a bit disconcerting when in traffic in an unknown city. This happened to us recently in Charlotte. If you shop around, you can still find this model for $250 or one of the newer models for less than $500.

My Logitech Harmony 880 universal TV remote control has in fact brought harmony to our household, and has certainly lived up to its claims. It is relatively easy to set up (although unless you are a total techie like me, you probably don't need to do this more than once) and is very intuitive. Any TV or audio related task can be accomplished with one button push. I don't like the actual physical key layout, though. They tried to make it too sexy and swoofie, and I would have preferred more rectangular keys that were line up more straightly.

So, now on to the iPhone store!

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)