fitzage.me

Now that I've had both an iPhone and an iPad for a while, I thought I'd write a little bit about the breakdown between the two devices. In other words, what do I use them for?

When I first got the iPad, I used it a lot for all kinds of things. Now that the newness has worn off, my usage of it is falling into a more steady rhythm, and I'm back to using the iPhone for some things that I had been using the iPad for (although some of this could be the fault of getting a new iPhone 4, from which the newness hasn't quite worn off).

For some of these things, I know the iPad is better but tend to use the iPhone instead because it's almost always in my pocket. I don't always remember to grab the iPad when I leave the office, and don't always feel like going back to get it.

Reading

I've mentioned in previous articles that I do my long-form reading on the Kindle. There are some things that I still read on the iPad or iPhone, however. Primarily, this means Instapaper. I like Instapaper on the iPad because of the larger screen, but I like the crisper text on the iPhone 4. Lately, I've been doing most of my Instapaper reading on the iPhone 4 because I'm doing it out of convenience rather than purpose.

What I mean by that is that when I decide that I'm going to read some articles, I'll grab the iPad. But what I've mostly been doing lately is just reading when I'm in the bathroom or have some other available time, and then I use the iPhone because it's handy. I didn't really do this before the iPhone 4, though, so it's probably also a matter of the crisper text.

Writing and Note Taking

The iPad is much more pleasant to type on than the iPhone, in my opinion, unless I'm laying in bed or something. But sometimes I get an idea for a blog idea when I'm not at my computer and don't feel like getting the computer. Or I'll take notes in church in Pages. All of this works better on the iPad than the iPhone. Obviously, it's nicer to type with a physical keyboard, but the iPad isn't bad in a pinch.

Email

Email includes kind of a combination of several other items, like reading and writing and maybe some others. I prefer reading emails on the iPad because of screen space, and most emails aren't optimal for the iPhone screen size.

I tend to write more emails on the iPhone, but they tend to be short and are usually replies. I write longer ones on the iPad, though, because it's so much easier to type.

Also, the screen size makes it easier to read things like the three daily comic strip emails I get. I tend to read these along with my news feeds at breakfast.

The iPad suffers from some usability concerns in the Mail app, though. First is the fact that there is no unified inbox yet (that should come when iOS 4 comes to the iPad), and I've gotten quite used to having a unified inbox on my iPhone. It takes too many taps to go back to another account on the iPad.

But the biggest problem goes beyond that. I have always been obsessive about disabling the preview pane in my email clients. I remember doing this with GroupWise back in my college days. The iPhone doesn't offer a preview pane because of screen size, so I don't have to do this. The iPad, on the other hand, doesn't offer a view with no preview pane.

At first this doesn't seem like a big deal, until you realize that this means an email must always be selected. What happens is I often end up deleting that email from another device (either my iPhone or my computer), and then the iPad sometimes ends up marking an email as read that I haven't actually read yet because it switches from the email I deleted to the next email which isn't necessarily an email that I've seen. I've submitted this as a bug to Apple, but I doubt it will make much difference.

Remote Access

Occasionally I'll use the iPad or iPhone to remotely access one of my Macs or one of my servers. I have an app called iTeleport (which is like VNC, with much better control features than the other iPad VNC apps I've tried) for accessing the Macs, and I use an SSH client for accessing the servers.

Obviously, when it comes to remotely controlling a screen, the iPad is a better choice. The iPhone works in a pinch, but the iPad is actually quite useful. The iPad also works better for SSH, but that's more due to keyboard usability than it is to screen size, although the screen size also makes a difference.

Twitter

When I first got the iPad, I used Twitter on it a lot. I also used it a lot when travelling. For normal daily usage, however, I find myself almost never using Twitter on the iPad. I use it on the iPhone a lot and on my laptop a lot, but not on the iPad much. I'm not really sure why this is, but that's the way it's settled out.

Facebook

Facebook on the iPhone has the advantage of having a purpose-built app that's pretty well done. Facebook on the iPad uses the normal Facebook web interface. I probably use Facebook more on the iPhone, just because it's handy for checking things quickly, but I use it fairly frequently on the iPad as well.

Gaming

The iPad is better for most games just because of the size of the screen. It makes such a huge difference even for apps like Angry Birds that are really not that much different between the two devices. Again, though, iPhone gaming tends to happen a lot when I'm out and about with some downtime, or on the toilet.

Surfing

Surfing is by far better on the iPad, and I do more on the iPad than I do on the iPhone. But again, if I just want to look something up quickly, the iPhone often wins out because of convenience. Sometimes, though, I think that going and finding my iPad and using it would take less time than dealing with the screen restraints of the iPhone.

Shopping

I probably do online shopping more on the iPad than the iPhone, although the iPhone Amazon app makes it really easy to do price comparisons when I'm out shopping in a physical store.

I did run into one little problem with the iPad Amazon app the other day, though. I was looking at an item that turned out to be way overpriced. The price was so high, I thought it was a multi-pack before I tapped it and pulled up the full listing. I was about to tap the next item in the list when my other thumb accidentally bumped the one-click ordering button.

I cancelled the order within 5 minutes, but it shipped anyway and I had to return it. Evidently they have to actually have human intervention to cancel the order, and the human wasn't available at the time.

News

I read a number of RSS feeds, and Reeder on the iPad is awesome for this. This is probably one of the things I use the iPad for the most. I prop it up using the awesome Apple case, sit it on the kitchen counter, and go through my feeds while making breakfast. Then, when I sit down to eat breakfast, I put the iPad on the table next to me and continue reading and eating.

I occasionally use the iPhone for news feeds, but again this is a matter of being out and about. Are you sensing a theme here yet?

Chat

I don't do this while mobile often, but when I do I almost exclusively use the iPad. After all, it's all about typing and the iPad is way better for typing than the iPhone. Of course there's SMS. Not really any options for that.

Task Management

I do almost no task management on either mobile device. If I want to do some organizing of tasks and such, the iPad is way better because there's lest switching of screens and such. I usually only use my mobile task management apps when adding tasks. I should probably do more of this. Of course, if I'm out and about running errands and have them listed somewhere, the iPhone is the best option. No need to carry the iPad around the stores with me.

Video

This is one of the key things I use my iPad for, whether it be to watch the latest Futurama episode, or a screencast to help me learn programming or something. I often have it propped up next to me at my desk so I can put the screencast on there, and do my programming on my laptop and external monitor. It's easier than switching back and forth between the screencast and my text editor.

The iPhone is decent for watching video, but the screen is still so small that the iPad is much preferred.

Music

I have most of my music on my iPad because it has so much more storage space than my iPhone. I often use it to listen to music when sitting at my desk since I'm already running so many things on my computer I don't need to run iTunes as well.

Sometimes, if I'm not driving, I'll use the iPad for music in the car. Lately, though, I just use an SD card or my iPhone since both of them integrate into the stereo.

Directions

The iPad is excellent for mapping out routes, but so is the iPhone. I like doing this on the iPad more, but I kind of tend to forget I can use it for that. I think it's partly because I've been mapping out routes on my iPhone for a few years already, so that's just an ingrained habit that having the iPad hasn't changed. It probably also has something to do with the fact that I don't take my iPad with me to that many places, so I'm more likely to use the device that I always have with me.

IMDB

I thought IMDB deserved a specific mention. I mainly use IMDB to look up information on specific actors while I'm watching TV. This is how I do things like verify that the actor who played Bo Duke in the original Dukes of Hazzard series has been showing up on shows like CSI and Leverage as a bad guy in recent years.

The iPad version of the IMDB app is awesome, but I've hardly used it. Why? I guess it's because I already developed the habit of using the iPhone for such things, and I don't have the iPad with me in front of the TV as much as I thought I would.

Summary

So as I've been writing this, it's helped me realize one key thing: I often use my iPhone for things that the iPad is better suited for just because I'm more likely to have the iPhone handy. Perhaps I will start to make an effort to have the iPad handier to be better able to put it to use, or maybe I'll just realize that sometimes good enough is good enough, as long as it's convenient.

But despite the fact that I like the bumper, it has some significant downsides:

1. Remember the first generation iPhone? Where you could only use headphones specifically designed to work with it because of the recessed headphone jack? If you get a bumper, expect a return to that. The hole for the headphone jack is exactly the same size as the headphone jack itself.

This doesn't present a problem for my Shure earphones, but it does present a problem with the speakers in the bedroom, the aux cable in the car, and my AKG over-the-ear headphones.

2. This is related to number 1. The hole for the dock connector is designed specifically to work with the Apple USB cable. The tolerance is very tight, so here are some things it won't work with:

a. The dock connector in my car.
b. The iPhone 4 dock you can buy from Apple.
c. The cheap Chinese knock-off cable that is almost identical to the Apple cable.
d. The older Apple cables that have the spring clips to hold it in.

3. Dirt. The rubberized portion of the case seems to pick up black dirt like crazy, especially on the corners. I have yet to find an effective method of cleaning this, although I haven't tried throwing it in the dishwasher yet. The shiny edges are fine. If you have a black or gray bumper, it's probably not a problem. But the colored bumpers are prone to this issue.

For now, I'm going to continue using the bumper, but the drawbacks are really starting to get to me.

iPhone 3.0 has a new system-wide search feature. By default, it searches all content on your phone.

I have no need to search all content on my phone at once. If I'm looking for a contact, I'll be in the Address Book or Phone app. If I'm looking for music, I'll be in the iPod app.

So I went into Settings > Home > Search Results and unchecked everything except Applications. Now the system-wide search only shows Applications. Now, similar to LaunchBar or Quicksilver on my Mac, I can launch an app just by typing the a portion of the name. Saves me from flipping through about 8 pages of apps.

Since I previously wrote an article about a number of issues I had with my iPhone, I figured I'd better go back through that list now that many of the issues have been fixed. Some of them still aren't fixed, but the most annoying ones are.

Since the 2.1 update (and iTunes 8), most of the annoying issues I had have been fixed. Lets look at them:

• Reboots: I haven't had anymore issues with spontaneous reboots, or reboots that never finish prompting a restore.
• iTunes Warnings: I had a problem before where iTunes deleted all my apps and app data off the phone before warning me that the computer was no longer authorized for the iTunes account. This time, I moved my iTunes library to a different computer and it warned me and gave me the option to authorize at the beginning of the sync, so I didn't lose anything. This was probably an iTunes update fix, not an iPhone fix.
• App Updates: Finally, when I update an app directly on my phone, it puts it in the location that the old version was. No more constant rearranging of icons to get them back where they belong.
• Backups: Backup speed has increased dramatically. It is no longer even a tiny bit of a problem.
• More App Store Updates: The App Store no longer tells you there are no updates on one computer if you've already downloaded them on a different computer. This is very handy for a multi-iPhone, multi-computer family.

Of course there are still some issues that haven't been fixed, and there are also some new issues.

• With the 2.1 update, SMS notifications will notify you multiple times if you don't respond the first time. I don't really like this feature all that much, but there is no way to turn it off without turning off notifications completely.
• At some point in an iTunes update, the screen that shows available app updates was no longer included in the history for the App Store. This means that when looking at my list of available updates, I can't click on one to see what's changed and then click back. Once I click on an App, I have to go back through a couple of steps to get back to that screen.
• The home screen still doesn't scale well for having 60+ apps.
• SMS notification options are still severely limited.
• There is still no multiple-delete for anything other than Mail.
• There is still no way for game developers to offer an option for suppressing SMS notifications as far as I know.

Overall, the experience is drastically improved. The most annoying things have been fixed, but I wish they'd take care of some of the remaining quirks.

I love my iPhone. I really do. It's an incredible smartphone. But lately I've had an insane number of problems.

The 2.0.2 update seems to have fixed most of the stability issues I had in the past. None of these issues were major, but the phone would occasionally reboot, and some apps would crash quite frequently. These problems appear to be mostly gone with 2.0.2.

But this update also brought its own problems. Four or five times in the course of a week, I had to restore my phone because it would spontaneously reboot and get stuck in boot mode. The only way to fix this was to restore it. Two of these times I did not restore my backup but installed everything from scratch. The Apple Store was kind enough to replace my iPhone for me, and the new one was working great. Until today.

I hadn't synced with iTunes in a couple of days, so I told it to sync before I went to bed last night. When I got up this morning, the phone was sitting there stuck in boot mode. It had rebooted itself sometime during the night and got stuck. It was hot from cranking away all night, and the battery was almost dead even though it was plugged in.

The only fix, of course, was to restore it again. I restored from a backup, and then told it to sync. As it turns out, I had never authorized my new laptop to work with my iTunes account. So, instead of telling me before synching that this was a problem, iTunes deleted all my apps off the phone and then warned me that the computer wasn't linked to my iTunes account. Why can't it warn me ahead of time so I can fix the problem?

When you delete apps off the phone, guess what it does? It deletes all your application data, like preferences and saved games. So, now that I've authorized my computer again, I have to restore the phone from backup again, hoping it gets all my settings and saved data back.

I'd ask for another replacement, but at this point I'm pretty sure that these problems are a result of 2.0.2. Hopefully the 2.1 update that is supposed to come out sometime this month will finally clear up these issues.

In addition to this, there are some other weird things and annoying things about the iPhone:

• When downloading an application that you've already paid for, it doesn't tell you that it will be free until you've already gone through a couple of scary dialogs telling you that you will be paying for it. That dialog should come first, so that you know exactly what's going to happen.
• When updating an application directly on the phone, it will not put the updated version where the old one is in terms of home screen organization. It puts it in the first available empty spot, which could be several screens away.
• The home screen was fine when dealing with a few apps, but it does not scale well to dozens. Perhaps having the ability to list alphabetically and maybe assign categories to apps would help.
• Backups take a very, very long time sometimes. Perhaps they should have stuck with firewire?
• With the 2.0 software, they added the ability to delete multiple email messages at the same time. That's nice, but why didn't they add this for other, similar apps? Like SMS?
• The notification options for text messages are pretty limited. You can't set them to vibrate only without silencing the whole phone. If you tell them to have no audible alert, they won't vibrate either. Also, unlike ringtones, you can't install custom notifications for text messages. This is bad because pretty much everybody finds all but the default notification annoying, so everybody in the office uses the same sound. Personally, I would like to have text messages just vibrate, and everything else be audible, but that isn't allowed.
• Apple doesn't provide a way for game developers to suppress text message notifications. This means that most games will pause every time you get a text message. Now I wouldn't want games suppressing my notifications without asking, but I would like to have the option to turn it off.
• The App Store update process is really flaky. iTunes will usually incorrectly report the number of available updates. Also, updating on one computer means that another computer tied to the same account cannot use the update feature, because it will tell them there are no updates available. This is a pain since I then have to copy the apps from my computer to my Adina's computer manually.

Still, though. If I were to go back to the Blackberry Pearl, I could also come up with a long list of problems with that device. Same with the Palm I used to have. The iPhone is the best smartphone I've ever seen, despite these issues. Hopefully Apple will get on the ball and address some of these issues soon before I go insane.

I was happy to see that Twittelator Pro for the iPhone includes a way to send links from Safari to Twittelator for posting to Twitter. However, they don't have an automatic way to do this. They say to just replace the http:// part of the link with twit://, which is a bit tedious. So I made a bookmarklet to do this:

javascript:window.location='twit://'+window.location

You just need to save this as a bookmark with the javascript code as the link, and whatever name you want to give it. I recommend entering this on your computer and then synching to the iPhone, although I did manage to tediously type it in directly on the phone. I haven't put this through extensive testing, but it has worked for the few URLs that I've tried.

Update:I've updated the code based on the developer getting back to me and giving me a more reliable method (it should also work with https:// etc. I'd tried this method before, but I must have done something wrong because it wasn't working correctly. I've tested it now, and it's working just fine.