This is my first post from the iPod Touch. The interface is slick. To do this right I really need an iPhone to include pictures. Since I have a thirty day trial period on my Verizon phone I could still get the iPhone. Time will tell.

I decided against the iPhone 3G and opted for an iPod touch instead. For a phone I chose the LG Dash. The iPod touch gives me most of the functionality of an iPhone minus the phone and GPS. The LG Dash provides improved phone service and the turn-by-turn voice directions using GPS. Interestingly the Dash has no keyboard. Its totally a touch screen system. For a first generation device it works well. With a $50 rebate the Dash was like $250. More then an iPhone but for me worth the price. We are a Verizon family… that is we have 5 devices on a family plan. Have an iPhone left me outside the family and a big consumer of our collective minutes. Moving to a Dash was only a $9.99 a month increase with free in system calls. So I dumped AT&T at $70/month for $9.99/month at Verizon. That like a tad less then the AT&T’s fee increase for data on the new iPhone.

I must admit to experiencing sever iPhone withdrawal pains. Next to the iPhone the LG Dash provides a very, very, very, very,… poor user experience. Verizon’s web browser is just almost usable. Actually it sucks… then again what do you expect from an industry composed of a bunch of blood sucking leaches. If only one customer oriented cell phone provider would step forward they would own the market.

Now that a new iPhone appears to be on the way I did a jailbreak. I was a little concerned that it might brick the phone. But to my surprise it worked. The process took only 3 minutes. Afterwards everything worked except voice messages. I next installed a couple of applications and was amazed. My favorite uploads pictures to flickr. When applications are available through iTunes this phone will dominate the market.

The temptation was to great. I really tried to resist but could not do it. I am nothing but a weak willed Apple fan boy. I admit it. Thats the first step; Admission. Yes I purchased a MacBook Air. Thats bad enough, but I got the one with a solid state hard drive. The deed was done while on my way home from work. It was like a force took over my car. Instead of going home it took me to our neighborhood Apple store. Now I didn’t need this system. I already have a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro 17". But I had to have this new system. I read all the reviews. The Air is underpowered, has no CD drive, limited ports, internal battery, etc. None of this mattered. I just had to get my hands on this system.

After two weeks, I am in awe of the MacBook Air. I carry it everywhere. It’s so light yet solid. This is the Ferrari of laptops. It meets all my portable needs; World of Warcraft, Aperture, iWorks, email, internet, open source development (mySQL, php, Apache, Ruby on Rails, etc.).

Performance of this MacBook Air is truly astounding. The keyboard is the best as is the mouse pad. Until this system, I always used an external mouse with my laptop. Incidental contact with the touch pad does nothing. The MacBook Air can easily be my only system…

This weekend the MacBook Pro gets listed on eBay…

I finished “PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice”, by Matt Zandstra. This is really a good read. PHP 5 has moved strongly into the OO camp, and Matt’s book provides the detail on the why’s and how’s of using patterns. Next on my reading list was a couple of texts on Ruby. But instead I will read “Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP”, by Quentin Zervaas. It received great reviews in a couple of blogs, as well as Amazon. Besides, I am a sucker for at title that contains “Web 2.0”.

The mention of Amazon reminded me that Heroes is no longer available through iTunes. You can get it at Amazon unless you are a Mac user. Sounds like NBC made a great move. Instead of the convenience of iTunes, they sell through Amazon, at the same price, $1.99 per episode. But now they exclude all Mac users. Clearly NBC doesn’t like us Mac users. That might not be all bad, from the ratings on Amazon, it looks like Heroes has tanked. Perhaps NBC does love us and its there way of saving us time and money.

Mom’s new cell phone modified to prevent inadvertent actuation of the volume and voice command buttons.

Cell phones are not senior friendly. Button placement is awkward, labels difficult to read, and nonsensical. It would only take a little field testing and the application of very basic human factor principles to design a senior friendly phone. But I don’t expect this to happen.

My 91 year old mom who never owned a cell phone, now needs one. To meet her need Sandy and I picked out the best offering by Verizon. We chose Verizon because we have an existing account. Its not like they have any senior friendly phones. Like all cell phone companies, they are a bunch of blood sucking leaches with only one purpose in life… suck every penny out of each and every customer while providing as little service as possible. I rant…

The biggest problem with cell phones for seniors is the volume control. It is strategically located so that when picked up one can easily turn the volume off. It would really be nice if the volume setting could be locked in software or the switch itself had a lock. Since neither feature is available, I super glued the switches so they can no longer function. Before applying the glue I made sure the volume was set to max. We didn’t do this for Sandy’s mom and she frequently turns the volume off and not hearing the caller hangs up.

Mitchell Ashley, you need to get out more. Windows Mobile 7 Plans are vapor ware. How many times have we heard the planned version of Windows Mobile X will be the all we have been waiting for. Six times? Who wants a system that frequently crashes, takes multiple taps to do simple tasks, and is not intuitive? I don’t want to read a manual or be a phone geek to use my phone. Just give me a dirt simple intuitive interface. Thats why I dumped my Windows based smart(really dumb) phone for the iPhone. I have read all about the limitations of the iPhone. However, in spite of all its failings it just works. That’s its secret to success… It just works.

So bring on Windows Mobile 7 and lets see what you got besides Plans.