The Hopp Stop

NY Times on the two sides of Tressel. This uses Brian@MGoBlog’s term, Cheatypants [Mc]Sweatervest. Thanks to MGoBlog for story.

Internal tension and lack of discipline for the Pistons?

Profile of Jim Delaney, BMOC in college sports and ruler of the Big Ten.

I didn’t realize he was writing for the NY Times now. See here. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Dyer, he’s a hilarious young writer that (to my knowledge) got his big break with Automobile Magazine and now writes every month for Esquire on cars.

Amazing, wow, awesome, how slick. This just blows away everything else out there. Given how far ahead of WinMobile, Palm OS, etc. it looks, they must have been working on it for 2.5 years like Jobs says. Not a surprise that they plan to support syncing contacts, e-mail and calendar from Windows machines as well as Macs, since it is consistent with the current iPod situation. I can’t wait (c’mon on June!).

Update: As always, Fake Steve has a funny post about the iPhone. Here’s one of those cool 3D comparisons of the iPhone versus some current smartphones; I was surprised to see how close in size it is to the Moto Q POS, as I thought it was taller based on photos.

Given the claimed 5 hour battery life for talking or viewing video, will this have a removable battery? Seems like a must if it is to the One Device to Rule Them All–you can’t very well run out of juice and have to chain yourself to a power outlet. The photos so far are either Apple PR glossies or shots through a glass display case, so still a question AFAIK.

Update #2: Engadget is reporting that the battery is not removable, among other tidbits. In the end, this will be a first-generation phone from Apple, so it won’t have everything (e.g., glaringly, no 3G cell network support) and will probably have its share of hardware glitches (e.g., first rev of MacBook). That said, I will be waiting in line for one on day one. I haven’t been this excited about a tech gadget in a while.

Time Magazine has an interview with Jobs that reveals some nice details on the development of the iPhone.  Is Time part of Apple’s PR department? I’ve come to expect the fawning Time piece as much as the closing John Mayer performance.

Some thoughts on the Blackjack phone, a week into ownership/rental: The phone quality is very good, equal to the Q and far superior to my old Treos. The screen size is noticeably smaller than the Q–I have to hold it closer to read text at times (mostly when I’m scanning for typos in my e-mails due to small keys).

Which brings up the small keys. I think they are ultimately acceptable, but only just barely so, and I can’t imagine someone like my dad using the device. The keyboard keys are about the same size as those on the Q, but closer together due to the reduced width of the device. The four-way pad and other buttons at the top lack adequate demarcation between each button, such that I’ll often hit the dial button (brings up recent call list) when I mean to hit the left soft button, or I will hit the right soft button when I mean to hit right on the four-way pad. There should be a raised edge around the four-way pad and between the buttons, if they are to work well in such a small space.

Two final notes, related to GoodLink on the device: First, sending and receiving e-mails is super fast on the device, about equal to actually using Outlook. On the Q/Verizon, you could go a half hour without the Q updating itself to match your inbox–very annoying. Especially annoying given that my two Treos on Sprint were as fast as the Blackjack/Cingular combo is now, so really the Blackjack is a return to past performance after the unpleasant Q/Verizon interlude. I am inclined to think that the issue is with the Verizon network based on these limited data points.

Second final note: there is a glitch in the GoodLink software we are using (v.4.9 something, I think). If you try to drill down through your contact list using the keyboard (e.g., type “m ho” in any relevant Good field, such as To: in a new e-mail, the search field in the Contacts page, or to bring up a phone number from the home screen), it defaults to assuming that you are dialing a phone number and not typing a name. So typing “m ho” actually yields “9″ (which quicly turns to a Z for some reason–half-assed number to text functionality?), then “5–>G”, etc. (Also, the Blackjack interprets the keys immediately to the right of each number key as equal to the number key, presumably to help with inaccurate button presses, hence why the M key is seen as a 9, which rests on the N key.) If you hit a key not associated with a number (such as Q), this switches the Blackjack/Good over to the proper behavior; you just delete the Q and type what you originally wanted. If you don’t use the Q-then-delete workaround, there is literally no way to type in someone’s name to compose an e-mail or search for their contact information you have to pretend you are typing the name in using a standard phone keypad, not a QWERTY keyboard (i.e., “Hopp” equals “4677″). I say glitch because I have searched all the arcane and poorly organized settings found within Good and for Windows Mobile and can’t figure out how to change this behavior; also, the Q performed in line with my expectations. I’m going to talk to our IT to see if they know a workaround or setting to change, but odds are this is just a glitch to be (hopefully) fixed in the next GoodLink release. Not a dealbreaker, but pretty annoying.

Let the Jobs reality distortion field effect begin!

Also, looks like PS3 sales are only good and not smoking hot, whereas the Wii continues to be sold out, at least based on Ars’ informal surveying of a couple metropolitan areas. I haven’t checkecd on PS3s recently, but Wiis continue to be sold out online everywhere, even with crappy rip-off bundles.

Last week’s NPR All Songs Considered podcast included a new tune, “Intervention,” from the Arcade Fire, off the forthcoming “Neon Bible” album. Apparently they released the track on the iTunes Music Store in December, although I was unaware of its release. You can go here to access the entire podcast (about a half hour in length) or to listen to just the Arcade Fire track. The album is currently slated for a mid-March release.

The podcast also includes new music by the Shins and Of Montreal. I’m interested to hear the new Shins album (out January 23); I think they have gone even longer than the Arcade Fire since their last album. There was an article about the Shins in the most recent GQ; I’ll post a scan of that soon.