N95 vs. iPhone – Connectivity

Alright, this is the last of my rambling comparisons of the N95 and the iPhone. Now connectivity. There are different levels of connectivity.

First, how do they connect you to the people you want to call – in other words, are they good phones. It’s a draw. Some people may have cited difficulties with AT&T’s service, but that isn’t my experience. When I call my mom, my friends, my family – they all sound as good as they did on my old land line (remember those things?)

Second, how do these devices connect with other devices? When I buy an electronic device these days, it can’t stand alone. It has to fit into the universe of all the other devices I own. A device must match my mobile media milieu. The iPhone plays well with one device – my primary computer. The hard-wire cradle that comes with the iPhone allows it to sync with one of the computers I own. When it is synched, iTunes passes along audio and even pictures in the format that iTunes likes best. And getting my pictures off the iPhone requires the use of a certain piece of software, iPhoto. Feels a little restrictive, right. The Nokia N95 is much more flexible. I take a picture, then send it via BlueTooth. Now for those of you who don’t know what BlueTooth is, you are missing out. It is a short-range and fairly high-speed wireless technology. When I attempt to send the picture with BlueTooth, the N95 starts looking for other Bluetooth devices in the area. My home computer, my office computer, and my laptop all have BlueTooth capability so the N95 can send the picture in all its original resolution, size, and colors to the computer I choose. That computer asks if I want to accept the file. In just a few seconds, the file is transferred with no translation. And this will work with audio files as well. It is estimated that there are over one billion Bluetooth enabled devices out there – not just cell phones but cameras, mice, keyboards, cars (yeah, my Prius has it). It is a great way to transfer data. Now here is the weird thing – the iPhone has Bluetooth, but it is crippled. It can only be used to connect with hands-free devices like those Borg-esque earpieces and certain car phone systems (like my Prius). What really makes this restriction surprising is how Apple has embraced Bluetooth in the past. The reason I fell in love with Bluetooth is that it worked so well with my Apple computers. So why pull back with it comes to the iPhone? Hard to say, but there are a lot of people who say it is to stop peer-2-peer Bluetooth song swapping. But that doesn’t really jive with Apple’s latest agreement to sell music without its FairPlay digital rights management system. In essence, those songs can be swapped easily. I think the iPhone is less attractive without this capability. The N95 plays better with my other devices.

Finally, there is connecting with data. How well do they work with the internet? Here is where the iPhone really stands out. Just like the commercial says, this isn’t some scaled down internet – it is the internet. Within minutes, my son (Scoop) had the iPhone on the WiFi in our house. We connected to WiFi in my office. I tried to call Scoop the other day and I got a busy signal – he was facebooking (yeah, it’s a verb) at the pool. And the kicker came at the lake last weekend. I deliberately have not put any type of internet at the lake house. I have to disconnect sometimes, right? But on Friday just as I left the office, I sent an email to a colleague in California. I knew that she was going to be emailing me back an important answer. At 6:58PM EST I borrowed Scoop’s iPhone while we sat on the dock. It found an AT&T EDGE signal and I could read the email through UGA’s web email interface. Easy, quick, great! Now this is something that the N95 can’t do. I am an early adopter on the N95, but I am still having trouble connecting it to my WiFi (there are some bugs with the software). On this front, the iPhone’s desire to be more computer than cell-phone makes it a better web device. No contest.

OK, enough analysis. What am I carrying in my pocket? When I gird up for the day, I walk out of the house carrying the Nokia N95. I love having the high quality camera that allows me to transfer pictures via robust Bluetooth. It is just too convenient. Yeah, there are times I miss the great web experience that the iPhone provides. But until Apple develops a way to work with universities and corporations on group accounts, I just can’t afford an iPhone for myself. Instead, my son has the iPhone. When you are 16 being cool is important, at my age money matters more.

iPhone = Can your phone be 2 cool for your own good?

My 16-year old son is finding out it is possible to have too cool a phone. He has the iPhone and people are constantly asking to see it. They want to watch YouTube, see the web, flip through the music, etc. And his girlfriend really loves it, as well. She was playing with it just the other day when he got a text message – from another female. He tells me it was totally innocent, but he still had to sweet talk his way out of it. Relationship multi-tasking used to be easier when your phone was tied to the wall. My sons both learned how to set the phones on silent at a very early age. Now Scoop is much less giving with his iPhone.

iPhone = the Musical and the Blender

I have seen some funny online videos about the iPhone. Here is one from the New York Times, iPhone – The Musical = http://tinyurl.com/273hkp. And another actually blends the iPhone (http://tinyurl.com/3a7y5w) – let me know if you cringe, too.

Outting Hygeia Philo – Shamp Writer

Sure, we all love the crazy stories out of Second Life – flying, dancing snow tigers, vampires. As much as I embrace the zaniness, it does make it hard for a First Lifer to take SL seriously. But the Centers for Disease Control is (are?) working on ways that Second Life can actually make people healthier in meat space – and last week I met the people spearheading this initiative. I had seen Hygeia Philo in video clips and I even spoke with her briefly at the CDC landing pad (http://slurl.cm/secondlife/Juwangsan/215/216) in SL. And I have to say, she stood out. Then I heard that Hygeia was a guy in real life. I knew there was a story there. So I went to meet with John Anderton, the Associate Director for Communications Science at the National Center for Public Heath Informatics, a unit of the CDC.

Wow, Hygeia and John really couldn’t look more different she is a svelte red-head, he is a 6’4” and a little burly (in the best possible sense). John built the Hygeia Philo (greek for “lover of health”) avatar because he walked past a marble bust of the Greek goddess of health everyday at the CDC. John and Hygeia both share a vision for the way that SL can positively influence people’s health care decisions. They have some great ideas that I am looking forward to watching in the future and they are both coming to visit the Second Life class being taught in the New Media Institute fall semester. The CDC is helping other federal agencies think about ways to serve through virtual worlds. And here is one of the cool things I found out, John is a Bulldog – he got his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. I wonder if Hygeia is an alum as well.

ATHICA EMERGING Exhibition – 7/14 – 7/28

For the next two weeks, the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art will present an EMERGING artist exhibition featuring work by Tyrus Lytton and Anthony Wislar. For more information = http://www.athica.org/.