if connected

Today, I’ve been testing out an Arc mouse, which Microsoft created for laptops. People forget that Microsoft makes hardware — at least mice and keyboards — and has done for years, way before the Xbox or the Zune.

The Arc mouse looks like something Apple designed, except it’s black. However, Microsoft’s website does the Arc no justice, unlike Apple’s representation of its gear.

The Arc is both innovative and yet still does many things right:
(Many flawed products have far too much innovation.)

• The mouse folds for transport. The action of opening it up automatically switches it on.
• The tiny USB wireless transmitter attaches to the mouse underside using magnets when not in use. Plus Microsoft supplies a pouch to keep the mouse clean.
• The fold design makes the mouse large to hold, but small to put into a bag. It’s close to a best of both worlds between desktop and laptop.
• Works without any extra software on both Windows and Mac OS. Although, to have the extra button trigger Expose on Mac OS requires a driver install.

So far, so good, but like all mobile products the jury is out until I’ve been using it for a few days.

Apple has repeatedly acted as a magnet for criticism with its trend towards offering hardware with non-user replaceable batteries. First with the iPod range, then the iPhone, and more recently with two of its MacBook laptops.

Rechargeable batteries do wear out. Each recharge has less capacity than previously. Typically, after 18 months of mobile phone use the battery will last for 70-80% of its original life. Hence the flak Apple has attracted.

But I’ve been pondering whether I’ve ever bought a replacement battery for any device I’ve owned: mobile phone, laptop, camera, mp3 player, games console or anything else. Or, if I’ve ever been issued with one by my employer for any of the various work laptops I’ve used.

I can think of only one instance, and it wasn’t for the Nokia mobile phone I used for four years, or for the two work laptops that managed under an hour of battery life by the time I gave them up.

Ironically, it was for my first generation iPod, which was shipped with a supposedly sealed in battery. Regardless, I bought a third party replacement, prised open the case, and fitted it.

Additional batteries are typically very expensive, hard to source, and the new batteries only become useful when most gadgets have been superseded by cheaper newer models of the gadget. Very few devices have a usable life of more than two to three years.

I really wonder if this is a case of most people’s perceptions being different from reality. Apple may be right here. But if our perception is at odds then Apple will still suffer reduced sales because of a perceived problem that doesn’t exist for most.

Postscript – Despite the above, I bet my iPhone will be the next device that needs a new battery mid life!

I have multiple headphones but none are right. Here’s what I want:

• Good sound quality.
• Quick and easy to put on and take off. So, they’re easy to use when out and about, and I want to take a quick music break to chat to someone in a shop or listen to a public announcement.
• Robust. No pieces to lose. Cables don’t tangle too easily and if they do are easy to unfurl. Survive a little light rain.
• Black, to match the bulk of my clothing.
• Sometimes I need sound isolation for example on the tube. At other times, I want to be able to hear what’s around me, for example when running.
• Don’t fall out of my ears.

So far, here’s how my various current headphones fair:

• Bose in-ear: Great sound. Ugly black and white cable. Don’t tangle. Feel robust but the rubber earpieces tend to fall off easily and keep threatening to go awol. Of the three sizes of rubber provided, none fit my ears well. The small ones are the best, but even with those the headphones tend to fall out of my ears if I move around.
• Apple iPod/iPhone: Poor base sound but a good ear fit. Mic on the iPhone cable is in a good place. Don’t fall out. White, so shouts loudly against my clothing. Tangle easily. I’ve managed to lose them! No sound isolation.
• Sennheiser sport: Even louder green. Don’t fall out but tangle easily. Claim water resistance and good so far. Average sound quality and the earpiece feels uncomfortable after more than 30m or so. Ok for running and doing house chores but not much else.
• Shure: Great sound quality. Cable is bulky both to store and while wearing. The sound isolating rubber earpieces that best fit my ears take 10 seconds to put in which gets annoying. If I don’t take the time, the fit isn’t right, and the bass sounds vanish. The numerous other earpieces — including non-sound isolating ones — that Shure bundles don’t fit my ears. Others report the plastic cables wear and break but it’s not happened to me yet.
• Freebies with my last laptop: Goodish sound isolation. Quick to put on/off, and stay in. Do tangle. Sound quality OK for voice so I tend to use these for listening to podcasts when out.

I used to have a pair of Sony over the ear headphones with retractable cables that had a great sound, didn’t tangle and didn’t fall off. But they broke, which is always the trouble with any gadgets that have moving parts.

Suggestions?

This year I learnt a pile of new things:

At least one hospital cares little about mobile phone use. As my son was being born, a phone rang in the corner of the operating theatre. My other half started blaming me, but the consultant answered her phone so ending the argument.

Hospital walls are too thick for good 3g reception. I spent many a night browsing online with my laptop in a hospital room on mobile broadband, but it kept falling back to 2G.

Some cameraphones really do have good enough cameras. On an increasing number of occasions I have left my real camera at home, instead taking a mobile. I even went to a wedding with just my cameraphone.

Working for a company that is bought by a larger competitor has plus sides. Can’t talk in detail here.

Flash/SSD drives for laptops transform the convenience of using laptops. It’s their quietness as much as their speed that makes them a pleasure to use. Hopefully in 2009 I’ll be saying how much better their reliability is as well. It’s too soon to say now.

TV set-top boxes are becoming louder than PCs. Plus, they crash about as often, based on my experience with a UK pay TV DVR supported by a little Google searching.

Babies can be distracted from using your laptop with a fake keyboard. But only a real mobile phone will satisfy them.

WiFi works better for location finding in cities than GPS. Mobile handset GPS’ have particularly poor reception indoors. Even dedicated GPS units struggle.

Dell’s next day on-site repair is less convenient than a drop off service. Having to wait at home for several days in succession during a repeated failure to repair a PC is a much greater waste of time than using a repair centre.

Back in the day, Nokia had religious zeal for one-handed use and an aversion to touch screens. Now, with the just-announced N97 and the 5800, everything changes in Espoo. But there’s still a real need for mobile handsets to be usable one-handed.

I used to think the best test was to walk down a busy street with a bag in one hand, phone in other, while making calls, sending texts and reading emails.

With a baby in the house I’ve realised that isn’t a sufficient exam. Using that measure, here’s my take on some popular devices:-

• Nokia N82 – Pass, mostly. This is a fairly standard pre-touch screen Nokia phone. It has some one handed rough edges: Opening the lens shutter cover and rotating the device to use the camera is hard. The byzantine S60 menu structure requires too much thought to pass the baby test easily, except for pro users, although it’s fine in less distracting situations.
• Google G1 phone – Fail. The handset is too big. Plus, the asymmetric bump at the bottom makes juggling the phone in one hand very hard when using the keyboard. Typing requires two hands or at least two thumbs.
• iPhone – Pass, just barely. It’s almost great, but the software routinely places buttons in all four corners of the screen, making large hands essential for full one handed use. If that’s fixed, it would be A1.
• HTC Windows Mobile QWERTY slide phones – Fail. There are many examples of these phones, often they have operator branding. The Windows Mobile software is almost impossible to use without a stylus, which means two hands. The sideways slide is also a two hand task.

There’s still enormous room for improvement. I hope that Nokia hasn’t forgotten the basics in the rush to compete using touch screens.

Before I do the O2 tale, something fun:-

Amazon’s new Kindle ebook reader relies upon a mobile network standard (EVDO) that is used in only a few parts of the world (US and South Korea mainly). Amazon chose its (few) target markets for this initiative when they decided upon the Kindle device specification.

Ironically, Amazon-acquired Mobipocket which runs both an ebook store and creates cross-platform ebook reader software, was originally a French company.

Now, in the light of the US-specific Kindle hardware, Mobipocket seems semi-detached from Amazon’s ebook strategy: there’s no cross-promotion of Kindle on mobipocket.com, Mobipocket is international but Kindle is not, and there appears to be no compatibility between Mobipocket-bought ebooks and Kindle (*).
Weird.

* “Mobipocket non-DRM books are compatible with Kindle. However, books purchased from Mobipocket or retailers who use the Mobipocket format with DRM are not compatible with Kindle.”