Those of you who have been reading this blog know that I have become a big fan of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G software. The base software on these devices is a remarkable feat of software engineering. There is no denying this–especially after you have used Windows Mobile on a phone or some of the other music players that are available.

As you might expect, all is not perfect–it never is. Apple has demonstrated remarkable greed with the release of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. One example of this is that many of the cables that worked with previous iPods do not work with the new iPod Touch or iPhone. These include car chargers and USB docking stations not sold or licensed by Apple. The iPod Touch and iPhone do not have a way of outputting video to a TV set without an Apple purchased cabled that plugs into the flat connector at the bottom of the unit. The standard AV mini plug only outputs audio. Previous iPod generations sent audio and video out through the jack. The cables were swapped around to encourage people to pay extra for the Apple branded cable. The new setup apparently checks for some Apple chip or signal and requires the Apple part. This is just greedy on Apple’s part.

The cable situation made a video cable that I owned, a car charger and travel charger obsolete. Needless to say, I am not happy about this. Since I have owned several iPods over the years, I also own a Bose SoundDock for listening to music in my kitchen and dining area. It also has served as a charger for the kids iPods and my wife’s iPod. Unfortunately, the new iPhone will not charge on the Bose device. It says that it is not a compatible device. This is one of the premier third party products for the iPod line and Apple has now made it less useful to me. It can play music from my iPhone, but will not charge. Again, this is Apple greed.

One would think that Apple would not have made the Bose SoundDock user base experience any problems, since they now resell the dock on their web site. Perhaps newer models do not experience the issues that I am experiencing. These signs of Apple greed will make me think twice about further purchases from the company.

Other issues that I have experienced with the iPhone include poor data connectivity and no signal for calling. At seemingly random times, I cannot access web sites or my e-mail through the device. It often seems that it is not the connections, but instead some sort of DNS resolution issue. DNS resolution is when a server is called upon to convert a web site address like alonso.com to the numeric address for the server on which it resides. The “no signal” issue has plagued the iPhone from the very first day that I had it. I will get a message that there is no signal and will need to restart the device for it to find a signal. This is reminiscent of restarting a Windows PC that is running a bit slowly.

Although every issue I’ve mentioned so far takes away from what could otherwise be a perfect product, the one issue that really rankles me the most is that you cannot buy applications from anyone other than Apple. This was presumably done to guarantee the quality of the applications. I can tell you that having downloaded dozens of applications (some of which I have removed now) most of them are full of bugs and crash all the time. I use the New York Times application to read articles from the paper on-line and have to load it at least four times to get through a lengthy article. It continually crashes without any error message. Apple is not delivering a quality experience with the third party software. Unlike music which you can buy from Apple or from any third party and then install on your iPod with the iTunes software, the applications have to purchased and downloaded from Apple. This give Apple the ability to prohibit certain types of applications. One application that was released on the Apple store–presumably by mistake–called Netshare was removed and has not been seen since. It enables an iPhone 3G owner to share the 3G connection using WiFi so that a laptop can connect to the Internet through the iPhone. I managed to get a copy while it was listed, but now have no way up getting upgrades. This is horrible market control and should be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Now it is up to you to decide whether you can live with Apple’s greed and ridiculous control.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

If you are like me, you have probably arrived at a destination, laptop in hand, thinking you were going to work on that flashy presentation or important document. You get there and discover that you forgot the file on the office or home computer and have no way of getting to it. Relief for this type of situation is now available with a service called, “Syncplicity.”

The name of this service almost says it all. It is a web-based service that enables you to easily synchronize files from one computer to another and to store copies on the Syncplicity servers. This service is free for now, but will have a fee structure associated with it soon.

You use the service by downloading and installing a small application that integrates with Explorer. During the setup of the application, you tell it which folders you want to keep synchronized and it begins to upload the content of those folders to the Syncplicity site. Once the process is completed, you can view your documents from the site, you can download them, you can share them with others or you can synchronize them with another PC. The service is so versatile that it even has an iPhone interface at http://m.simplicity.com.

I have uploaded some pictures that I took on a recent trip. These are now available for me to share with others or to synchronize with my other computers. This is my way of testing the system. I am still not comfortable placing confidential data on their servers. You may not be either. Synchronizing encrypted documents, however, should be alright.  You can read more about it or even watch a video of how it works at http://www.syncplicity.com.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

I have been hearing about Skype for a couple of years now. However, I never felt inclined to try it out this wildly popular Internet phone service. I figured there were already so many ways to reach me that what I needed was one less way instead of one more. Recently, a very specific need made me become adventurous and try it. I’ll try to tell you about each step of my experience.

Downloading and Installation

The first thing I did was search for "Skype" on Google and found that the first listing is the web site for Skype. The Google listing is very well organized and has links to all the areas of the Skype web site that you might want to visit. I went right to the download page, but then decided to do some reading before actually downloading and installing the software. After a few page reads, I decided that it was alright to download this software. It took a few minutes to download. I chose to run it directly after the download. The install process was smooth and took only a few minutes.

Configuring Skype

After the install completed, the Skype software requires that you choose a user name and give it an e-mail account and password. This took me a little longer than is probably usual because I am very picky about user names and do not like names like "robertalonso56897." Since every variation of my name was taken, I settled for "alonso.consulting." (Now, readers of this blog have another way to reach me…)

Test Call and Contacts

Skype automatically loaded my contacts from my Outlook. This was something that I found a little disconcerting. I still don’t know if this information resides on my local machine only or if they uploaded it somewhere. I am very leery of cloud computing when it comes to my contacts and financial data. I then tried a test call to an automated system that Skype provides and discovered that my microphone was not working properly. Once that problem was fixed I was ready to call people.

Calling People

You can call people on Skype by finding their listing in the directory. You can search by name, Skype name or e-mail address. Once you have found someone you know, you add them to your contacts and that person is notified that you are attempting to add them. They can accept or decline you. Once they accept you, you can click on that person’s name in the Contacts tab and the Skype software literally rings on their end. When they answer, you can talk as if your were on a phone, you can watch each other if you have a web cam and you can also text message and send files to each other. If you become a big user of the service, you can buy a Skype certified headset that includes a microphone for about $29.

After my initial calls from my PC, I downloaded the software for my Smartphone and was pleasantly surprised to see it work through my phone’s data plan. That is what I call very cool.

Although I did not try it, you can also call contacts that are not on Skype. You need to pay to call land or cell lines, but the fee is very reasonable at $.021 per minute.

Final Thoughts

I recommend this service because it is unobtrusive, works reasonably well and is mostly free. I do have a warning for you if you decide to use it: Skype’s terms of use allows them to monitor your conversations, web video and text messages as well as your contact relationships for the purposes of improving the service and providing you with goods and services that you might want to purchase. I found that more than a little creepy–so think about it before using the service. You should also note that the service is owned by eBay.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Most computer users do not know that when you type the name of a web site like alonso.com that the name is looked up on one or more servers on the Internet. These servers are known as DNS servers because they provide a lookup database that matches a name with the numerical (IP) address of the server that hosts the web site that you are requesting. The DNS stands for Domain Name Server. When you sign up for Internet service you are provided with the address of one or more DNS servers. You usually put these addresses in your router. When a computer on your network starts up, it gets the DNS addresses from the router and then will look up all the sites that you request using these servers.

OpenDNS provides a free service that allows you to send all your DNS requests to them. When you use OpenDNS, they can provide you with a foolproof way of locking out sites that you do not want your children exposed to or that you do not want employees visiting. I have been using OpenDNS for both my office network and home network for months and can attest to the excellence of the service.

Signing up is easy. Just visit http://www.opendns.com and click on “Get Started.” You will be able to block content by categories, like adult sites, gambling, webmail and many other categories. You will also be able to block specific sites and to exclude sites that fall within a blocked category, but you find acceptable. In addition to this, you get phishing protection against malicious web sites that mimic real sites for the purpose of stealing your passwords.

One of the usability enhancements that OpenDNS provides is typo correction. that will attempt to take you to the site you intended to visit even if you typed a couple of transposed letters. It also gives you another time saver–shortcuts. You can use this to set up words that you type into the browser address bar  like “mail” to automatically take you to any page you want. “Mail,” for example, can be set to take you to your web-based e-mail. I had some fun with this feature by setting up “handsome” to take family members to a picture of myself on the Internet. Your imagination can guide you to the many uses for this feature.

I recommend this service wholeheartedly. Alonso Consulting can help you set it up should you have any difficulties. Please call us at (973) 575-1414.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Google has a free 411 service that should be on everyone’s speed dial. If you have ever wanted to call a local pizzeria and just didn’t remember the phone number, then this service is for you. You dial 1 (800) GOOG-411 or 1 (800) 466-4411 and speak your location and business type and you are given a list of matching businesses. When you select the correct one, you are automatically connected. The best part of the service is that you won’t be charged anything–unlike the phone companies which charge $1.00 or more per 411 call. Once you try this service, you will wonder how you lived without it.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting