bradKELLETT

(Yes, an update. I know it’s been a while, but I will try to blog more regularly.)

While I understand Google had to do a lot behind the scenes to ensure that actions mapped into Gmail properly, it has been a long wait for long-time Gmail users like me to get IMAP support in Google’s mail product. I’ve been using Microsoft Exchange for email for a while, but with my reshuffling of jobs, I found I no longer need the advanced features that it provides. Instead, with the new addition of IMAP access (a necessity in my books), I decided to save myself the money on Exchange and switch to Google Apps, and as such, back into Gmail.

This decision left me with a conundrum – how to get my bank of email out of the clutches of the MS empire and into the supposedly less evil Gmail. While my mailbox is not the largest around, weighing in at around 2GB, this was still a daunting task. IMAP support certainly made this easier, but finding the right application to do the move proved difficult.

I tried Outlook 2007 itself, Mozilla Thunderbird, Entourage, and Eudora with varying success, from Outlook’s constant timeouts on the IMAP connection, to Thunderbird ending up with messages without subjects or senders due to Exchange mangling headers. The solution came from an unlikely source: Windows Mail.

Windows Mail is the replacement to Outlook Express in Windows Vista, and was able to import email directly from the Exchange server through Outlook, then upload it to Gmail through IMAP. While the process was slow (around 10 hours for all my email), it managed to get the job done perfectly, without any timeouts and with the complete messages intact. I did not expect much from Windows Mail, but it pulled through in the end, and if Thunderbird wasn’t so damn good, I would consider using it as my full-time email client.

I now have Thunderbird with the Lightning calendar plugin syncing to my Google Apps Gmail and Google Calender, complete with all my email and calendar entries from Exchange. I still fire up Outlook and use the wonderful RemoteCalendars to pull down my Google Calendar for syncing with my iPhone and other devices, but other than that I am totally satisfied with the free alternative to Exchange.

This review was originally slated to be published on MobileBurn, but scheduling difficulties meant we had to pass it over. It could be of use for some though, and it is a pretty great device, so I thought I would publish it here. Read on for all the details. Note: Click on the photos to enlarge. When I get a chance, I will add a few more live shots. Continue Reading

I have held off from blogging about the iPhone here much thus far, but I am going to chuck some opinion out there. This is not just about the iPhone though, it is more about how the industry needs to react because of it.

Let me say this right off the bad: the iPhone is not a device I would buy myself. It is an influential device that will do fantastically in the market, that is for sure, but its omissions are too deal breaking for me. They are also things that could have been easily remedied by Apple, and I am sure they will be fixed in a second-generation product, but for now I will do without a device that can’t record video, use 3G networks and A2DP headphones, and other things I appreciate. But more on my actual iPhone pros and cons in a future post.

What the iPhone has achieved though, is forcing the industry in general to rethink the whole user interface paradigm. Touch sensitive devices have long used a stylus, and are only now evolving to use the finger. This fact, combined with the swishing, swirling, and sliding seen in the iPhone’s UI make it a much more organic device, one that consumers may find easier to ‘relate’ to.

On top of this more organic approach to UI design, the iPhone’s interface just looks so damn good. Sure, Windows Mobile is functional, S60 is pretty, and so on, but the iPhone interface is sexy. User interface design cannot take a back seat to device design any longer, and Apple has shown us that an attractive physical design can be accompanied by a functional and attractive UI design.

While other manufacturers may not have to play catch up to Apple with technical specifications, they definitely need to with UI design. Verizon’s new Motorola Q9m features a fun circular UI enhancement, and devices like the LG Prada and HTC Touch are certainly steps in the right direction, but the iPhone just integrates everything so nicely; this is what Apple does best.

The iPhone is not the device it could have been, but for UI design, it is revolutionary. If manufacturers take nothing else away from the iPhone release, I hope it at least forces them to take a step back and reevaluate the user interface experience.

I hear a lot of talk from people about the fact that the traditional ‘dumb phone’ will eventually be deleted from the market in favor of smartphones. While this is a valid point of view, I don’t entirely agree.

Sure, smartphone hardware and software are getting cheaper and easier for manufacturers to produce, but I think there will always be a place for non-smartphone devices in the market. Simplicity is key here – not everyone needs the full features of a smartphone, and while that remains true non-smartphones will always be produced, regardless of how cheap it becomes to make smartphones.

I have seen a trend over time of a general rise in the technology level even in cheap handsets, which is an obvious repercussion from the reduced cost of the components that make them. I wholeheartedly agree that even cheap handsets will eventually come with big, high-resolution screens and other treats, but I doubt that all handsets will become smartphones. The PIM features in non-smartphones have come a long way, and have reached a point where they will accommodate most users; transitioning to a smartphone user interface will do nothing but add a level of complexity that will ultimately drive the market away.

I am all for the advancement of technology, but only if it suits the needs of the consumer. There will have to be a radical change in the usability of smartphones before they truly become mainstream, perhaps the introduction of a ‘dumb’ mode that removes things like the ability to install new applications and the more complex PIM functionality would be beneficial. For the foreseeable future though, I think there will still be the constant flow of new non-smartphone devices.

I was reading an article on Pocket Picks the other day, wherein they reported that figures from Q Research indicate that 71% of 11-20 year olds would be happy to receive advertisements on their mobile phones so long as they were targeted to their interests. This actually surprised me a little, and would have been unheard of in generations past.

Younger generations are far more open to advertising in general, probably because of the way it is always in their face, and has been since birth. Sure, advertising has been around for a long time, but older generations would have had far less and in far fewer places, making them far more resistant to its introduction these days.

The fact that youth are more open to advertising is aided by the way there is more commonly something in it for the viewer. Schemes like Virgin Mobile’s ‘Sugar Mama’ allow users to earn free minutes on their phone accounts for viewing mobile advertisements, which makes it feel like the viewer is getting rewarded, making them want to view more ads. The company showing the ads will then get more advertisers interested, making it a win-win situation, provided the company being advertised finds leads as a result.

I do not believe this trend will stop, and I think that advertising will become a more pervasive part of our lives. This may upset some people, but for the next generation, it will just be a fact of life.

I was contacted the other day by one Ori Katzin, who shared his detailed impressions of the recently released Samsung SCH-U620. With his permission, I am going to share his thoughts with everyone here, as it is an interesting real-world perspective of the handset. Click below to view the full text. If you wish to contact Ori, please send your message to me through the usual means and I will forward it to him.

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Checking the stats on MobileBurn, in the six hours that my Apple iPhone article has been up, it has received as many hits as any other release story from CES has received in the full 24 hour period after publishing. That’s on track for four times the popularity of its nearest competing story, the Nokia N76, and that is amazing. This has been reflected on the stock market today as well, with Apple shares up over 8%, and Motorola down 1.83%, Nokia down 1.32%, and Research In Motion down an astonishing 7.68%. Talk about shake up the market.

Anyway, it’s back to CES work for me – I’m really looking forward to sleeping after this week is over…

Looks like Samsung will be unveiling two new handsets for the US market at CES next week – on the 8th at 10:30am, to be exact. Both devices will feature stereo Bluetooth, a microSD memory card slot, a 2.0 megapixel camera, and will be slim devices (as is a regular occurrence with Samsung), though one will be tooled for video and one for music. I have a feeling that they will be a version of the SGH-F500 and SGH-F300 announced back at ITU Telecom World for the US market, but I’m not willing to place money on that.

I also know all about Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s releases for CES, but I have to keep hush-hush about that. Watch the CES page on MobileBurn for live coverage from CES for all things mobile.

In one of the most ridiculous news items I have read in a long time, Stuff is reporting that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), which oversees secondary and tertiary qualifications in the country, will be allowing SMS-style ‘TXT TLK’ in exams this year. I have written about my concerns over school age children using mobile phones here previously, and this just seems ludicrous to me.

While the NZQA is stating that it is strongly discouraging students to use the shorthand, and that in exams where requirements specifically state that candidates should demonstrate good language use, such as English, abbreviations would be penalized, I think it is terrible that ‘TXT TLK’ will be accepted at all.

We should be trying to teach students an appreciation of language, and the ability to write, spell, and speak with a high standard, not encouraging laziness and a complete butchery of the written word. I hope that the public makes a stand on this, and the NZQA realizes the stupidity of its ways.

While I had the equipment out, I decided to film a quick video of the MOTOKRZR to give people an idea of the size of the device and speed of the user interface. Click below to watch the video.

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