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Oct
16
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I just installed and had a quick play with Google maps on my Treo; for a first release it's pretty good; but it's along way from being a replacement for TomTom navigator - ie. no GPS link and the maps are a little slow to download. One neat feature is the (presumably) live traffic updates - though I'm not sure it will route around traffic hotspots like TomTom does.
It's a shame mobile browsers aren't more capable - downloading a native app. for every neato AJAX-heavy application isn't really the answer IMO.
That said, I'll definitely take another look in the future.
Technorati Tags: ajax, google map, treo|
Jan
2
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Best Moment
That's a tough one - between England qualifying for the 2006 Word Cup, winning the ashes;) and watching my kids grow up - I'd have to go with my kids. Specifically - my 18 month old son Jack doing number ones on the potty (he's been doing it for a while for his Mum but did the honours for me over the Christmas break too) - you have to have kids to understand this one.
Worst Moment
The July bombings in London.
Best Blog
Just scanning through my subscriptions (in Google reader - reminder - must find a better blog reader) - I've decided that there isn't a single blog I read that religiously, however I have subscriptions to at least 8 Sun bloggers and read many others. So the award goes to to Sun bloggers - all of them.
Best Gadget
It was a good year for gadgets. By far my favourite was the personal fabricator I saw at Robo Nexus - but cost-wise it's a little out of my league. So for me it was the GlobalSat Bluetooth GPS receiver I bought in September - which I use from my Treo650 (running TomTom) - I've used it a great deal already (in 3 US states) both cycling, driving and walking. I look forward to some more location aware applications in the future.
Worst Gadget
I got a free WiFi detector freebee from some show (can't remember which). I just don't understand how these things are useful. If I know I really must be connected when I'm out of the office and away from home I go somewhere where they have an internet connection that I can use (Airport Lounge, Coffee Shop, Hotel, etc.) - I don't wander around the streets with my little Wi-Fi detector. For one thing it can't differentiate between a secure network, a P2P network and a freely accessible base station.
Best Book
This one is easy, despite having read (listened to) some really good books this year - it has to be Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (which I reviewed back in January 2005). As well as achieving an unprecedented 5 stars on my blog it also won a Hugo award and a clutch of others so it can't be all that bad.
Best Film
Pretty Tough - just scanning back through my Netlifx ratings - there were 3 or 4 films that I gave five stars but I think I'd have to go with the Bourne Supremecy (released in 2004).
Worst Film
Easy. Ocean's Twelve. I'm sure they enjoyed making it but it was almost painful to watch.
Best Talk
In December, I had the pleasure of listening to Michael Raynor (co author of the "Innovator's Solution" and all round smart, interesting guy) - great content and perfect delivery and as a bonus he only really used a couple of slides.
Best Application
This is tricky - Flickr started the year as the main contender but I've been a little bit disappointed with progress since the Yahoo acquisition (it hasn't gotten worse and I still think it's great but it hasn't really improved much either). So I think it's going to have to be Firefox (I'm currently on 1.5) - an application that I use every day, rarely encounter problems.
Biggest Disappointment
Sadly, I have to say it was the long awaited release of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (on DVD). It wasn't really a bad film and in some ways was probably a little better than the 80's TV series. I guess it was a reasonable film of one of the best stories ever so I guess that makes it above par. It'll be interesting to see if they adapt the other books in the series. NB. I'm more than a little tainted having grown up with Douglas Adam's work - listened to the radio show, read (all) the books several times, watched the TV series, played the game, etc.Have a great new year, Rich.
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Nov
2
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As much as I like my Treo650 (see previous posts here and here) and use it for pretty much everything - navigation (via BlueTooth GPS), listening to audiobooks, music and podcasts, email, news alerts, checking the weather, browsing, general organizing and occasionally making phone calls; it's not quite the 'one gadget to rule them all' - but it does come pretty close. I'm constantly thinking ways that tighter integration of the features would really add value above and beyond the value of the individual features.
Here's a couple of examples, the latest version of the TomTom nav. software I use has a couple of neat features :
1. TomTom allows you to get real-time traffic information for the route you currently have planned - I have used this feature and can confirm it works - I've even used it to re-route around an accident. Neat but no good enough - the majority of hold ups I encounter are just your run-of-the-mill high traffic density delays - and TomTom doesn't really provide much detail about those - presumably because there's no sensor grid covering all the freeways in the US to give accurate traffic flow information. But hold on - what if every GPS system had the ability to share local information - ie. could share speed / route telemetry with a central server that could build up an accurate real-time picture of the traffic flow - ie. drivers ahead of you on US 101 could essentially help you avoid the slow jam they were in. That would be neat - share local information to everyone's benefit.
2. TomTom has a nice feature in it's directory lookup - eg. mid route, you can lookup the nearest gas station, kids park, store or restaurant - it even gives you the opportunity to phone them (eg. if you wanted to check they were open). Again, pretty good - but not good enough - TomTom hs it's own internal and fairly limited database - what I really want is to be able to quickly do a search (ala Google) with some implied search terms related to my current location and future destination. So when I'm driving back from Soccer - I can simply ask to be routed to the nearest Taco joint or more likely in my case the nearest chiropractor ;). This would be an especially useful feature when you're travelling - eg. in a foreign city (where asking directions is often a challenge).
3. Here's another idea - now that I have added location to my identity - how can I share it ? Just as I share my photos and thoughts on the web - in certain cases, I'd actually like to share my location - especially with friends and co-workers - if you've travelled you've probably had that call @ 3am in the morning on your cell phone from one of your office neighbours to see if you want to go for a coffee (they didn't know you were in a different time-zone). Another example - when I'm at a conference - I'd like to know if some of my contacts on my social-network are around - it would be nice to meet in person. Clearly - I want to control who I share my location information with because I don't want to start getting smart-location-aware-spam !!
If you work for Palm (or other gadget vendor) and want more ideas - I'd be happy to share in return for toys !!
Technorati Tags : Treo650, Mashup, Location, Web2.0, Phone2.0
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Sep
26
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About six months ago I bought TomTom Navigator for my Palm Tungsten (see my previous blog entry) and more recently upgraded my Palm to a Treo650 (blog entry). The GPS receiver for the TomTom was the serial cable type which doesn't support the Treo650 (different physical connector) so I've been looking to upgrade to a Bluetooth GPS receiver so I can sell the Palm Tungsten and wired GPS receiver on ebay and just use the one device. TomTom doesn't sell just the wireless receiver so I had to take a bit of a risk and buy one from elsewere. As it happens my concerns were unfounded; after a little research I bought the GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth GPS receiver which I also believe is called the iTreck M3. I'd originally envisaged connectivity or compatibility problems but the device was detected immediately (and having added it to my Treo650's trusted device list - connects quickly whenever the two devices are close enough).
The GPS receiver is very compact - about the size of a very small cell phone; and very light. It has a couple of LEDs (indicating power, satellite acquisition and bluetooth activity) and a power button - very simple. It can apparently handle up to 20 satellites (but TomTom Navigator only display 14 and I've only seen 8 acquired) and the battery lasts up to 17 hours (yet to test this). It has a good auto-power off feature - so you can throw the device in your glove-compartment or bag and forget about it - when it fails to find a bluetooth device for a while it'll turn off and save your battery.
I haven't really 'test driven' the combo yet - the latest version (5.0) of TomTom Navigator provides new route setting features for pedestrians / cyclists and over the weekend I did try that out (whilst trying to get Jack to sleep) - though next week I should get to try it out in the urban canyons of San Francisco as I'll be attending the Web2.0 conference. To me this is the ideal trip for a portable GPS - driving to a place you don't know well (and having to deal with roadblocks and grid-locks) then parking and having to navigate at street level.
It'll be interesting how the combo deals will cell phone calls (using a BT headset) whilst navigating - I don't know if the Treo650 (or BT in general) handles multiple concurrent device sessions - I'll let you know when I find out.
