Slacker G2 vs. iPhone? You're kidding, right?

This morning I'm catching up on my news feeds and watching CNet on the TiVo. CNet is reviewing the Slacker G2 MP3 player and introduced it as a possible competitor that can overtake the iPod. As I'm watching this video review I keep comparing the Slacker unit's features to my iPhone, an iPod Touch with a few extra features (wink, wink). Here's some of the features I compared:

1. Radio stations
2. Library playback
3. Playlist creation

The Slacker G2 is a pretty nifty device because it is much more versatile than a standard MP3 player. (Personally, I've never seen the value in a regular MP3 player unless you like to have all of your music with you everywhere you go, thereby necessitating, at least for me, a larger than 30 GB MP3 player.) The Slacker device allows you to listen to radio stations based on artist or genre similar to both last.fm or Pandora. Playlists are created for you based on music you like or don't like -- you tell it what songs you like in a similar fashion to Pandora's thumb up or down or last.fm's love or ban this track. Of course, all this music is free, or you can also transfer and listen to your library of music via the Slacker device.

Basically, I came to the conclusion that the Slacker G2 does exactly the same thing that an iPhone/iPod Touch with the right applications can do. OK, so I can do what the Slacker device does and surf the web and talk on the telephone with my iPhone, and the price of a Slacker device is comparable to an iPod Touch with a lot more storage. Let's not kid ourselves -- the future of the iPod is the iPod Touch/iPhone. In a few more years, the 16 GB model will become a 160 GB model and your standard MP3 player will be completely obsolete.

CNet points out the best features of the Slacker G2 and rightfully so -- the device is well above and beyond any regular MP3 player. Making my iPhone perform the same features as the G2 doesn't add to the cost of my iPhone. What's more, I can do many other things with my iPhone where the Slacker is only any MP3 player. I guess in this case being a Slacker just doesn't make sense.

So, that's how you force a response...

Interesting to see that Infineon is replying to the fact that their chipset was to blame in iPhone disconnects. They were forced into a comment by blog rumors. Yet, Apple and AT&T still remain quiet...

Why do we pay for something we don't use?

Reading Is There a Mobile Divide? got my wheels spinning. According to statistics, only 15% of cellular phone users in the U.S. use the Internet on their phones. You can argue that it is because the majority of phones are not really made to access the Internet, or you can argue it is because of the majority of people don't understand how to access the Internet on their phones. I look at this "divide" from a completely different perspective.

The post goes on to speak about the advantages of using the mobile web, which I certainly agree with. Yet, the post does not touch upon what may be the single most important reason as to why users do not use the Internet on cellular phones -- cost. Access to any data on the majority of cellular phones in the U.S. will cost upwards of $20; unlimited data usually begins at $30. With Internet access at home and at work for most, why pay extra for mobile access?

In addition, if you take into account the fact that most people with broadband access at home are paying for that service when they are not even there to use it, how can anyone justify paying for an additional service that will also only be used part of the time? Apparently in this country, consumers long ago took a back seat to the almighty dollar in the eyes of corporate America.

My family and our Internet usage is a perfect example. We have a high speed DSL line at home, which costs $42.95 per month. My wife and I also have data plans on our cellular phones totaling $69.99 per month. For Internet access, at home and on the go, we spend $112.94 (not including taxes). My wife and I both work and our children are in school. For about 16 hours per day (includes the time we sleep), no one is using the always on, high speed DSL Internet connection at home; while my wife and I are at work, we use our respective employer's Internet connection and use our mobile Internet connected phones for perhaps 1.5 hours of an 8-hour work day. In total, we can't possibly use all our various Internet connections have to offer around the clock because it is just not necessary (or possible).

Have Internet or mobile Internet providers, which in our case is AT&T, given any thought to easing the consumer's burden with respect to this? Not at all. Instead they attempt to limit their so-called "unlimited" service without reducing rates. Why do they do this? Because we, the "smart" consumers, which are a relatively small percentage of their total user-base (probably that same 15%) have found ways to use the Internet that is not to the providers' advantage. Adding value to service is how providers raise rates. When consumers beat providers to the punch, it becomes difficult for the provider to add value to a service and make more money.

So, what am I asking for or what is my point? Fairness. If I'm at work all day and no one is using my home Internet connection, quit charging me so much for it -- bundle my mobile data and my home Internet connection costs. Currently, as an AT&T Internet customer, I can access the Internet for free at AT&T connected Starbuck's and at many other AT&T connected WiFi Internet locations. That gives a consumer incentive to stay with a provider -- you are showing me you care about me. I also want to see my mobile Internet data bundled into that package. AT&T at home and an AT&T cellular phone should give me a lower monthly cellular data rate. AT&T offers some bundle discounts currently, but $5 here and 10% there do not amount to a hill of beans. My wife and I should pay no more $70 per month for all of our Internet connections.

What are your thoughts? Aren't you tired of paying these crazy amounts for service you don't use? Or are you just going to hang your head and say, "That's the way it is and I can't do anything about it?"

But I can't do it without technology

Today, I came across a great post at Stepcase Lifehack: 3 Ways to Stop Living Vicariously Through Technology Hello! I'm guilty... I need to stop watching so much and start doing.

I began this year playing racquetball on week days to try and get back into shape. I lasted the month of January. Time to start up again.

Call me here, no there, no wait...

GrandCentral is an excellent way to centralize all your telephone communications. GrandCentral provides you with a telephone number that you can then program to call you at various locations simultaneously. Callers will never know what phone you are answering from and you can even transfer calls between phones!

I give out my GrandCentral number as my mobile number. When a caller calls my GrandCentral number, my home telephone (not between 8am and 6pm when I won't be home), office telephone and cellular phone all ring. I can answer on my home telephone and then transfer the call to my cellular phone seamlessly.

Now, thanks to the Lifehacker post I just read -- GrandDialer Brings GrandCentral to Your iPhone [Featured IPhone Download] -- I can place calls using my GrandCentral telephone number from my iPhone. Now, the caller id will match the number I give out. The application is even integrated with the iPhone Contacts, so I won't have to dial all my numbers by using the keypad. The final step will be an iPhone application that will work like the visual voicemail availble on my iPhone for my GrandCentral voicemails.

The four stages of owning a new iPhone -- an abridged version of the five stages of grief

Now that I have become a 3G iPhone fanboy, I know what browsing the Internet using a real mobile browser is like. Having come from a Windows Mobile device (AT&T Tilt), I don't know that I can accurately portray the benefits of the new 3G iPhone. After sending an email to some fellow 3G iPhone users with One thousand iPhone tips and tricks in your hands (Revisited), I received the following response from my friend, Patrick Burbank (iPhone and 3G iPhone owner):

Thanks bud…how are you liking
yours so far? You may be going through what I call the four steps of new
iPhone ownership:

1) First week with your iPhone –
the honeymoon/novelty phase…having a great time figuring out all the cool, fun
stuff the phone does.

2) Second week with your iPhone –
the divorce phase…you learn all about the iPhone's idiosyncrasies (What? No cut
and paste?) and start looking at your phone as an over-glorified
paperweight. You stare longingly at small ponds and lakes and wonder how
many times you can make the damned phone skip across the water before it
plunges to its abysmal grave.

3) Third week with your iPhone –
the acceptance phase…you realize that what the iPhone does well, it does
superlatively well, and it outweighs the things it does poorly or
annoyingly…which are superlatively annoying!

4) Fourth week with your iPhone –
the New Era – you realize that the damned thing really is great, has some
mind-numbing faults, but pray to His Holiness Steve Jobs that his software
developers will work out the bugs because otherwise, this thing is just really
damned COOL!

So,
that sums up my first month with the first-gen iPhone last year.
Thankfully, after a year of tinkering, most of the really obnoxious downfalls
have been addressed, but a few specters still linger…like why the HELL can't I
open up an SMS pic/text message without having to log in to the stupid
viewmymessage website while trying to remember an impossibly cryptic login
sequence! So, for you iPhone newbies, as frustrating as it may get
sometimes, just think of what it was like a year ago…

A touch screen here... a touch screen there...

After reading Kevin Tofel's post Plica concept: are two touchscreens better than one?
I began to wonder about a few things. The Nintendo DS uses one touchscreen and one regular screen. Wouldn't a gaming device be a sure fire candidate for two touchscreens? How much more beneficial would it be to have two touchscreens? I would like to see one larger touchscreen device, like a 10" iPod Touch. If a larger touch screen unit can also auto-rotate like the iPhone/iPod Touch, I think it would be unnecessary to have a need for two touchscreens in one device.