Delphi Global Technology

Apple is Losing the Innovation Game

Toby — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:37:16 +0000

Apple is widely regarded as one of the most innovative tech companies out there. I see time and time again headlines that praise the company for their impact on the world of technology and hold the company up as a beacon of light that leads us all to the future of technological nirvana. Nearly every new product is heralded as a success before it even launches. I know that sounds over the top but it’s really how Apple has been portrayed over the last decade. The only thing containing more hyperbole than an Apple keynote speech is the media’s reaction to it.

However, with yesterday’s announcement of a new New iPad – just 7 months after the last “new iPad” was released – and an iPad mini, which basically takes old hardware and shoves it into a copycat small form factor, I can’t help but think Apple has stopped innovating. At least for the time being. In fact, when I look back at Apple’s very successful recent history (the last ten years, or so), I can only think of two products that were actually innovative: the iPod (and the way music distribution was changed by its adoption) and the original iPad. What Apple managed to do with the iPod was take a class of product that already existed – the mp3 player – and truly design something consumers wanted with an ease of use that was unmatched in the field. It’s not that other companies weren’t making portable digital music players, but the process of getting music on them and then listening to that music was far more cumbersome than it should have been. Apple came along and simplified the entire process and it’s hard to overstate what iTunes and the iPod did for the tech industry, the music industry and, most importantly, Apple as a company. Then the iPad came along and again took an idea that others were poorly trying to execute and made it simple and elegant. By the time the original iPad came out, Apple had enough of a following from the iPod/iPhone craze that the device’s popularity took off and changed how people were interacting with content all over the world. It raised the bar for tablets everywhere and forced all other companies wanting to compete in the tablet space to rethink how they were designing and implementing their products.

But honestly, other than those two products, it’s hard for me to think of anything genuinely innovative Apple has done recently. Take the latest release of products that were just announced yesterday; the iPad 4 and the iPad mini. The iPad 4 is, quite simply, a slap in the face to anyone that purchased the New iPad just a few months ago. It’s essentially the same device with a few hardware upgrades. But really, that’s what all the iPads have been. After the iPad 1, every update has been only a minor evolutionary upgrade. Even iOS has failed to update drastically. Sure, every iOS update and new version of an iPad is released with a marketing spin of “this changes everything” but if I compare my iPad 1 to the latest iPad release, there’s really not a big difference (other than the fact that Apple has stopped updating my iPad. So I now have an $800, 2 year old device that’s unsupported by the manufacturer. That’s a different article for a different day, though). Most of the updates to iOS have been made in an attempt to keep up with other, more evolved mobile OS’s; namely the Android OS from Google (which has plenty of its own problems but is at least packed with tons of features). Not exactly what I would call innovative.

As for the iPad mini, it’s basically an overpriced rip off of every other small-form tablet on the market. Apple saw competition from the Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7 and decided it should get in on the small tablet game. It took the old hardware from the iPad 2 and shoved it into a slightly smaller body and rushed it out before the holidays started. And for the first time, I’ve actually seen some of the media report on this for what it is: a blatant cash grab. Apple is feeling pressure from the competition and needed to crank out a few more products to stay relevant. Nothing innovative there either.

Compare that, however, with the other big tech release this week: Windows 8. I don’t think a single company has changed as much as Microsoft has changed this year. They have released completely overhauled and new versions of every major product, two tablets that seek to answer the frustrating question of “but how do I actually get things done on a tablet” and a phone that I’ve heard almost nothing but praises for. Microsoft is a company that has put its entire future on the line by radically changing the interface and user interaction of the most popular OS in the world. It’s pumped tons of money into a new line of tablets (the Microsoft Surface) that marry with Windows 8 in an amazing way. They’re not just aiming for gloss and shine but instead are trying to release products that earnestly help people accomplish their goals. Now that is true innovation.

And while Google doesn’t have a strong hold in the desktop/laptop marketplace, it continues to innovate in the smart phone and tablet arenas. All while mapping the world, building driverless cars and inventing the glasses of the future.

I hope Apple returns to true innovation soon. When the iPod and iPad first arrived, it pushed the rest of the industry to have to move forward. It helped define a new class of product and set the standard for all other companies to live up to. Sadly for Apple, the competition seems to have not only lived up to the standard, but passed it and left Apple looking a little silly. If you’re a consumer with money and want to buy what everyone else is buying, then go pick up an Apple product (just know that a year down the road, it will be treated like a rotary phone by the company that made it). If you really want truly innovative products that are looking to define the next wave of tech products, go to the competition. My bet is on Microsoft for the next round.

Product Review – Aqua Box Waterproof Smartphone Case

Toby — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:53:14 +0000

Last week I went with my family to the beach, as we do every year. I was pretty anxious to try out my iPhone 4s on the beach and see how useful it was. I won’t go into a lot of detail but I’ll just say that it was incredibly useful. From checking tidal patterns, to looking up different animals we saw to just playing a casual game on the porch, I used the phone a lot. But mostly, I wanted to use it to capture memories.

I usually bring our HDD Camcorder and DSLR down to the beach to take video and pictures but this poses a few problems: 1) They’re bulky and difficult to transport when you also have two kids, a wagon and all the beach supplies that go along with that, 2) it puts both those pieces of electronics at risk of getting damaged by water, sand or mass crab attack (not really the last one) and 3) Any time I move one of those cameras from inside to outside, the temperature and humidity change causes the screen to fog and renders them useless for about 30 minutes. My goal was to use my iPhone 4s as the primary camera and video device on the beach since it takes great pictures and videos but I didn’t want to put it at too much risk either. Enter the Aqua Box Waterproof Smartphone Case.

I bought the Aqua Box from Amazon a few days before we left after a quick Google search and some review reading. It claims to completely protect your smartphone in up to ~20′ of water while still letting you use the touchscreen. This sounded exactly like what I needed.

Sure enough, the Aqua Box lived up to its claims. Now, I’m not a complete idiot, so before I put my phone in the case and jumped in the closest body of water, I tested it out by putting a folded up paper towel in the case and challenging it to a dunk contest. I held it under water, shook it around, poked the rubbery front screen and then checked to see what damage had been done. Not a drop on the paper towel and zero moisture in the case. After that, I felt pretty comfortable putting my phone in.

The phone fit well in the case and the screen responded surprisingly well. I could navigate various apps very easily and even hear the audio on videos I had taken. I wasn’t sure if being in a case would make my pictures look blurry or foggy in any way and I’m happy to report it seemed to have no noticeable affect on picture quality. In fact, looking back at pictures, I wouldn’t know which ones were taken in the case and which ones weren’t.

The Aqua Box also held up to sand really well. The twist mechanism at the top that ensures your phone isn’t going anywhere does a great job of keep water and sand out even when you’re opening it to remove the phone. The plastic on the back felt tough and didn’t get a single scratch on it even after being dropped in the sand, water and being duct taped to the front of a toy truck. (More on that in a moment.) And although I never used it, the case comes with a floating lanyard so you don’t completely lose it at sea if a wave takes you out.

There are a few downsides to using the Aqua Box. For example, you can’t take pictures under water. Once the device goes under, the screen can’t tell when you’re touching it and won’t register your finger (although, you can start a video above water then move the phone to under water). You also have no access to any of the hardware buttons. That meant my battery drained a little quicker than normal because I couldn’t turn the screen off every time I was done using it but instead had to wait for it to shut off itself. It also meant that I couldn’t adjust the volume on a video I wanted to play back without taking the phone out of the case. This Aqua Box also wouldn’t be a good solution for someone that wants to listen to music given that the headphone jack is inaccessible.Here are a few photos I took with my iPhone 4s while it was in the Aqua Box Waterproof Case…

[Click to embiggen]

And here are two videos taken in the case. The first is a video of each of my kids jumping in the pool. The second video was taken with the case taped to a toy truck my son was pushing around the sand. We made a big race track for him to run around on and then let the camera roll. He loved seeing the race in first person view when it was all done!

The Aqua Box Waterproof Smartphone case is a great case for the iPhone 4s to use at the beach, pool or anywhere you plan on getting wet or dirty. I could see it being very useful at events like The Color Run or Warrior Dash as well. It’s tough enough to stand up to pretty harsh environments while still letting you use the most important features of your phone. I used it with the iPhone 4s but it is capable of holding tons of other smartphones as well. If you end up giving it a try or have another case you prefer, let us know in the comments!

From Android to iPhone

Toby — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:24:02 +0000

My cell phone contract recently came due for an upgrade and like any tech enthusiast I jumped at the chance to get a new gadget. I’ve been using Android devices for a few years now and have really liked them. They have their shortcomings but what phone doesn’t? My most recent Android phone was a Droid X. I had upgraded from the no-additional-naming-needed “Droid” two years ago and was very happy with the device. It had a huge screen that was great for reading email, web pages and watching video. It also felt far more “complete” than my old Droid.

The main point of contention for me with the Droid X was the camera. When the it first launched it was touted as being the newest greatest phone with a major camera upgrade. HD VIDEO! BEAUTIFUL PICTURES! GET READY TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN! Well, I bought it and excitedly took pictures and videos and was extremely underwhelmed. I tried to blame lighting (or lack thereof), my own shaky trigger finger and a million other things so my new-toy-enthusiasm wouldn’t die too soon. But in the end, it was just a sub-par camera. Other than that issue, I was actually very happy with the device. I added a 32GB storage card and used it all the time for everything from work to play to entertaining my kids. But, like with any phone, two years later, my trusty Droid X had become a rusty Droid X and it was time to upgrade. The question was: do I stick with Android or try another platform? Should I jump into a Windows Phone? I’ve heard nothing but good things about them and it would likely work great with our company’s Windows based cloud environment. Or, should I switch over to an iPhone? I own a MacBook Pro, Apple TV and an iPad and I keep hearing about how well all these Apple products work together.

Since I’m always up for something new and Verizon has a terrible selection in the Windows Phone department, I got an iPhone 4s. I knew it had a good camera and was really wanting that pain to go away from my last purchase. I’ll say up front that my expectations were pretty high based on the hype. I had literally been told by intelligent peers with no hint of sarcasm “This phone will change your life.” I’ve now had my iPhone for a few months and feel I can give it a fair assessment. Here are the pros and cons of my new iPhone compared to my Android device. I’ll start by being nice…

The Good

Speed: this phone is fast. All the time. Everything I do on it feels slick and never lags. About the only time I wait for anything is if it’s web based. (Lack of 4G discussed below.) I can very easily perform multiple tasks and switch from app to app without the slightest hiccup. All the apps I’ve installed run smoothly and I haven’t had one crash yet. Which brings me to…
Apps: They’re just better on iPhone. I had denied this for a long time when I was an Android owner. I had the usual arguments of “Pretty much every app you’d get on iOS is also available for Android! Pretty much…” and “The Android market is just younger. Give it time and the apps will catch up.” Those arguments worked a couple years ago when Android was still relatively new to the game but now, we still see every week a new great app launch for iOS with a disclaimer of “Available on Android soon.” (Example: Even Google just updated their own G+ app for iOS a few weeks before they got to Android!) Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not. Even when it is, it usually looks worse. I had literally hundreds of apps on my Droid X but maybe only used 6 of them regularly. Most just didn’t have that “sticky” quality that kept me coming back to use them over and over.
The Hardware/Screen: the retina display really does look great. I was worried when I switched from the large-screened Droid X that I’d miss the extra real estate. Truth is, I’ve barely noticed it. Everything on the iPhone 4s screen is crisp and clear so it doesn’t need to be large. In fact, the size and feel of the device in general is great. It’s the perfect size for a phone, nicely built and very sturdy.
Battery Life: this should maybe go under hardware but I think it deserves its own bullet point. I’m a heavy phone user for calls, email and apps and hadn’t met a phone that could take me through an entire day yet. The iPhone does so with ease. I enable wireless, location services (GPS) and push email all day with no issue.
Accessories: One advantage of having an extremely popular mobile phone that’s identical across the board is that there’s no shortage of peripherals and accessories. I could use a different case, car mount, media dock or camera add-on every week for the entire time I own the phone and not run out of options.
The Camera: I was ready to be disappointed. After my Android camera let down I didn’t want to put too much stock in this camera. When all is said and done, it’s the real reason I picked up the iPhone 4s over, say, the Galaxy Nexus (the other top contender for my upgrade). I had seen the Galaxy Nexus and loved Ice Cream Sandwich and a lot of other qualities of the phone but the pictures looked just as bad as the ones my Droid X took and I didn’t want to sign up for another two years of blurry. Luckily, the iPhone 4s delivered on the camera. Both stills and video look great. Not only that, there are a ton of photo editing and enhancing apps available to help make my photos even better. Now, every picture of my non-stop moving kids won’t be blurry or taken 4 seconds after the actual moment I was trying to capture.

The Bad

Navigation: Holy geez is the navigation terrible on the iPhone. Apple should really just staple a map to the back of every phone they sell and not waste the storage space putting their terrible Maps app on there. As somebody who is HORRIBLE with directions and also needs to drive to clients scattered throughout the Southeast, I rely heavily on GPS to get me where I’m going. The iPhone Maps app is a terrible excuse for a navigation app. It’s clumsy, lacks basic features like turn-by-turn and usually gets me more lost than I would have been had I just printed the directions off Google Maps before I left. That, or I almost wreck my car trying to read their directions or figure out which way I’m supposed to be driving. There are a few other replacements I’ve tried that are definitely better (Waze and MapQuest to name a couple) but getting to actually use the replacement apps is far more cumbersome than it should be. Which brings me to…
App Lockdown: On my Android device, I had several navigation apps installed as well (I always went back to Google Maps though because it’s darn near perfect). If I pulled up a calendar appointment with the address of where I needed to go, I’d tap on the address and get asked which navigation app I wanted to use. If I use the same one all the time then I just say to use that app by default and never have to think about it again. But, it doesn’t have to be Google’s app by default. On the iPhone, when I tap on an address it will ALWAYS open the horrible Apple Maps app. In order to get my address into a better navigation app, I have to long-press on the address, choose ‘copy’, exit my calendar app, go find the app I want to use and open it, then find where to enter the address and paste it in there. Not a graceful implementation at all.
The Keyboard: this kind of plays into the app lockdown topic as well. The only bad part about the iPhone screen size is there’s not much room for error while typing. At this point, the iPhone keyboard and attempts at fixing your typing are literally a joke. The other downside is that I can’t opt to use a replacement keyboard like I could on Android (I loved SwiftKey X).
The Myth of “It just works”: This is a complaint I have with Apple products as a whole and could probably write 10,000 words on but I’ll try to keep focused on the iPhone for the purposes of this article. Let me state up front – things don’t “just work” in the way you’d like them to. If they do, it’s not without jumping through an amazing number of hoops at times. For example, try to add a custom ring tone to your iPhone. The iPhone is a great device for storing and playing your music so it seems like it’d be easy enough to just use one of the songs you already own as a ring tone. Not so. You can either buy the ring tone version of the song again (!) or go through all kinds of hassle to get one of your songs usable in the proper format, length and “folder” on your iPhone. On my Android, I would simply drop a song in a folder called “Rings” and be done. This type of hoop jumping isn’t limited to ring tones and navigation. I could give you countless examples of ways in which the iPhone is more difficult and less intuitive than the Android. Changing settings for an app might be done from within the app or within the settings App for the iPhone or usually both. There’s nothing intuitive about having to leave the app I’m using, open the Settings app and then go find the right spot to change a preference for the app I was just in.
Lack of 4G: There’s no good reason, other than planned obsolescence, that Apple left 4G off the iPhone (despite AT&T customers’ 4G icon). I’m sure it’ll be available in the next phone but it should have been available in this one.

Overall

As bad as the bad section above sounds, I still really like the iPhone 4s. I especially like it for the media aspects like pictures, video and music. (Ironically, the things I was hoping to use my iPad and MacBook Pro for then discovered they weren’t any better than my Windows options. But that’s another post for another day.) I can take pictures and videos, edit them together with title slides, music, transitions and credits then upload it to YouTube in a matter of minutes right from the phone. The call quality is great and I enjoy using it with my Apple TV at home. It’s true the apps tend to cost more, but they also look and work better so I’m OK with paying $.99 for most of them. I’ve also found a few good sites for keeping track of when paid apps offer deals and are either steeply discounted or free (For example.). There are little things like a back button, file browsing, LED notifier light and widgets that I miss about my Android phone but I honestly don’t miss them as much as I thought I would.

The truth is, one phone really doesn’t blow the other one out of the water like Apple and Google would like you to believe. The iPhone didn’t “change my life” as my friend predicted but an Android phone wouldn’t have either. Knowing what I know about the iPhone compared to a comparable Android now, I would have made the same decision to switch to iPhone. As for next time; who knows? When it’s time to upgrade my phone again, hopefully Microsoft will have some good Windows phones on Verizon and I can take one for a spin. In the meantime, I’ll be using my iPhone to take really nice pictures of a map so I can find where I’m going.

John Barker – Entrepreneur of the Year

Toby — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:24:50 +0000

We’d like to congratulate our own John Barker on being awarded the 2011 Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year. John’s been extremely involved with the chamber on Delphi’s behalf over the last year attending ribbon cuttings, new member events, receiving both Entrepreneur of the Month and Volunteer of the Quarter and many other activities.

Congratulations again to John and here’s to a great 2012!

Pictured: John Barker receiving his award from Ben Looper

Ask Alex the Intern! Round I

Toby — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:37:51 +0000

Over the last month or two, we’ve gotten to know Alex the Intern pretty darn well. Here are a few things we’ve noticed…

He’s very responsible. If he’s running even two minutes late (to his internship that has no solid start time), he’ll call the office to fill us in then walk through the door only 30 seconds after we’ve hung up the phone and apologize for being late.
He hates chairs. At least, that’s all I can assume since there are two chairs and two stools within 6 steps of where he sits every day and he still insists on sitting on the floor.
He’s a good kid. Any senior that wants to hang out at our office several days a week and actually enjoys it has to be a good kid. Not that John and I aren’t nice guys, but to a senior in high school, I’m sure we’re less than ideal to hang out with. We’re like the human version of Star 94 or any other bad morning drive radio: adults like us and think we’re fun and even sometimes funny but their high school kids just roll their eyes at them and wonder how they could possibly enjoy us. Especially since we don’t even give away free concert tickets.

But now it’s time for YOU to get to know Alex the Intern a little better too! We sent him some questions and told him he had to answer them or his next intern assignment would be dressing up like the archer in our logo and standing in front of the office waving a sign. Here it is; our first round of “Ask Alex the Intern!” His answers are in blue because, as you’ll soon find out, it’s his favorite color. Any notes I want to make along the way are in red because, as you’re finding out while reading this sentence, I like to have too many colors on a page. Enjoy…

How are ya?

I’m answering ALL the questions!

Where do you go to school?

I go to school at Woodstock High School.

Favorite color?

My favorite color is blue.

Favorite type of music/band/song?

I really enjoy electronic music, and my favorite artists are deadmau5 and C418. (I have no idea what those letters and numbers mean. I might as well be 100 years old.)

Favorite food(s)?

My favorite food is bacon. (Good man.)

Least favorite food?

Brussel sprouts.

Any pets?

About 20 birds, a betta, and a Sudanese plated lizard. (This deserves and will likely receive an entirely separate post. That’s alotta birds!)

Future aspirations?

Have a tech room so tricked out that the electric company has to come out and reconfigure the stuff at my house so I can run it all.

Dream job?

Senior software engineer at the FF department at Square Enix, or an ethical hacker.

PC or Mac?

PC all the way. (Don’t get him started. Just trust me on this one.)

What’s something you never ever want to do?

I never want to get an account on Facebook. Also, answer the next question…

If you could, and had to, punch either Toby or John, who would it be?

http://xkcd.com/706/ (Well played, sir. Well played.)

Most valuable lesson learned so far in your time at Delphi?

The carpet here isn’t as comfortable as the carpet at my apartment. (USE A CHAIR!)

Read any good books lately?

Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Played any good video games?

Minecraft (which will always be awesome), Conduit 2, FFXII, MH3

Favorite leisurely activity?

Minecraft and browsing Memebase.

Is this too many questions?

The number of questions on here is too damn high! (Memebase reference)

So there you have it. Now you know Alex the Intern THAT much better. If you have any other questions or just want to argue with Alex about his answers, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

The Now and the Not Yet

John — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:19:17 +0000

With all the rage about tablets (iPads, etc.) we’re often asked “I’m in the market for a new PC/Laptop, I was wondering if I shouldn’t just get a tablet instead.”

Well – it depends. Purpose and usage are everything. Tablets are GREAT devices, and they can probably DO everything a PC can, but not always as easily. Tablets are, however, incredibly convenient and portable and shine at certain tasks.

Personally, in addition to a standard PC and a laptop, I have a tablet – an iPad. The iPad has network connectivity and I’ve attached a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse on several occasions. Sounds like a pretty complete setup, right? Do I do my job on it? Can I do my job on it? Not usually. Why? Is it me? Am I just not giving it a fair shot? Admittedly, part of it is a learning curve. To accomplish the same tasks, in many cases, I would need to purchase custom applications to do tasks I’ve already learned how to do well on another platform. In some cases, it’s just not physically practical. Manipulating documents on a ten (or seven) inch screen is in no way the same experience as the larger real estate of a twenty-something inch desktop monitor. I also can’t balance a tablet on my legs when travelling (no matter what accessories I buy) the same way I can my laptop.

But that really is the point. Tablets aren’t made to be manipulated the same way a desktop (or laptop) is. When you find applications and tasks built for the touchscreen, you’d never want to try and do them on a PC again. Also, the convenience of a zero-boot-time tablet operating system to do a quick email check/send or look up something on-line has caused me to remove my laptop from the living room. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I took it out of the bag after work hours. At work, the tablet takes on a different role. I can’t find a better way to access my media library. It also serves as a great third (smaller) monitor where I can keep applications like TweetDeck or Seesmic within viewing distance.

Bottom line, if I’ve got serious work to do, I still reach for my PC/Laptop first. If I’m looking for convenience or specific applications that are either ancillary, or touch-fantastic, it’s iPad all the way. If you’re in the market to purchase one or the other (I’m looking at you college-student), pick the laptop. Tablets definitely aren’t toys, but in this writer’s opinion, they aren’t replacing PCs just yet.

- John

This article was originally written for and published in the August/September 2011 issue of Around About East/West Canton.

Introducing Alex the Intern

Toby — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:14:58 +0000

We recently attended the Cherokee County Business Expo hosted by the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce. It was a lot of fun and great to meet some of the other local businesses and community members. One of the many great people we met while at our booth, was a representative from Woodstock High School. Woodstock High School has an intern program taking place for their senior year students and one in particular was interested in technology. The representative asked us about taking on an intern and we were excited to help out.

A couple weeks later, we met Alex. It’s now with great pleasure I get to introduce you to Alex the Intern! (I hope you like fireworks.)

Alex is a great guy so far and has been able to put up with us pretty well. He’s polite, smart and doesn’t seem to mind cleaning the bathroom. Just kidding, we don’t make him do that … yet. We knew Alex was a good fit when on his first day here, John printed a document and before John was able to get out of his chair, Alex jumped up and retrieved the print job off the printer and brought it to John. Take note other interns: that’s how you do it.

We’re still getting to know Alex the Intern here as it’s only his second week but we’d like your help in mining the deepest recesses of his past. Or, you know, just figuring out what he likes to eat for lunch, what his favorite video game is, favorite movie and that sort of thing. We’ll start having a semi-regular segment called “Ask Alex the Intern!” where you can ask Alex anything you’d like. You can leave questions on our Facebook wall, Tweet them to us, email us or leave them in the comments of this blog post. We don’t care how questions get here; just get ‘em here. Who knows, if we’re feeling especially artsy (read: have too much time on our hands one day) we may even video tape Alex the Intern answering your questions and post it to the blog.

Alex, if you read this (he has to; it’s part of his internship) welcome aboard! We look forward to the coming school year and having you around the office.

Tech on Vacation

Toby — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:46:13 +0000

Working in the technology field, I can’t help but mix business with pleasure. Technology is everywhere so it makes it nearly impossible to completely get away from it. Personally, I love technology and the things we’re capable of doing with it so I usually don’t want to get away from it. Such is the case when I go on vacation. Last week, we went with my wife’s family on their annual trip to the beach. When I go on vacation, I know I’m going to use several different devices and applications but they all need to be convenient, functional and have that “they just work” quality. I’ll also be using the technology for more than just myself. When you’re the appointed tech guy of the family, you get relied on for everything from “Can I use your laptop to check Facebook?” to “Can you fix the wireless at the beach house?” to “It’s raining. Got any fun games on your iPad?” So, here’s what I brought with me and the applications I used on each device throughout the week…

Phone

My phone is a Motorola Droid X. I love the Android platform and the big screen of the Droid X makes it great for being more than just a phone. Here are the apps I used broken down by function (note: most of the paid apps on this list I got for free through the Amazon App Store’s free app of the day):

Photographs/Video – We used the phone as a camera a lot on this trip. It’s smaller than my DSLR, convenient and takes good enough photos without much effort. We ended up taking just under 300 pictures on the phone alone. I use the stock Camcorder app on the phone for any of the video. It takes 720p video that looks pretty decent and doesn’t require a lot of work on my part. (I still think the iPhone takes better looking videos and it’s the one part of the Droid X I was a little disappointed with when I first got it.) For still pictures, I use the stock Camera app along with two others: Vignette and Retro Camera Plus. I use Vignette a lot more than Retro Camera Plus though because it has a TON of options for giving your pictures great looking effects. My favorite feature of Vignette over a lot of other camera apps is that it keeps a copy of the original picture without the effects so if you find out your effect didn’t make the picture any better, you still have a copy of your normal looking picture. I also used PicSay Pro to fix some lighting and make minor adjustments to pictures from the phone. (And for the record, I’m still amazed at the types of editing I’m able to do directly on the phone.) Here’s a sample picture my wife took using Vignette of the rainy shore on our last day

Weather and Maps - For Maps, I still haven’t found anything that beats the built-in Google Maps app. I use it all the time and vacation is no exception. We had some storms come through during the week and I was able to get quick updates using The Weather Channel app. It alerts me when conditions are unsafe and I have the app’s widget right on the homescreen of my phone for weather-at-a-glance. (Dear Apple, please give us widgets on iPhone and iPad. Please.) We had a few people that liked to surf with us so I downloaded Tide Chart Free and they were able to use it to judge when the best waves would hit. We also had fun using Star Chart at night to point out constellations to the kids.
Music - I used a combination of Google Music and Audio Galaxy to keep the tunes coming. Audio Galaxy is a great app that connects back to your home computer and lets you stream music right from there to the phone. I’ve been impressed with how cleanly the music plays and how little I’ve seen the dreaded “buffering” indicator. Google Music essentially does the same thing, only it streams music you’ve uploaded to Google’s cloud service to your phone. Using these apps frees up space on my phone for my way-too-many-pictures
Other - I also used the Facebook app for uploading pictures I wanted to share; although I had to use FriendCaster to actually tag people in them. (Dear Facebook, please let us tag people in pictures directly from the app. Please.) And several members of the extended family checked-in to the beach using Facebook Places and tagged everyone there. For sending messages and pictures of the kids back to my side of the family, I use Handcent SMS. It’s the best text messaging app I’ve come across on Android. It looks great, has lots of options, handles media well and gives you great flexibility with notifications.

iPad

I have a first gen iPad that I use all the time. I’ve found it’s perfect for vacation where I’m not creating a lot of content; but rather doing a lot more casual reading, gaming and entertaining. Here’s what I used this time around:

News - I use the USA Today app and the CNN app for most of my general news reading on the iPad. USA Today has been my favorite news app to date. They’ve done a great job with layout and flow and I always feel like I can find what I’m looking for and skip past the items I don’t have an interest in. Pulse News Reader and Flipboard are other favorites for bringing several news sources together by topic or source. For strictly tech news, I’ve found TechWire to be a good option. It’s another app that brings together popular articles from several technology sources.
Kids Books/Apps - I have two kids of my own and there were several others on the trip as well. Something about the iPad always gets kids excited about using it. We use it for both educational and fun games for the kids as well as reading interactive kids books. Here’s a quick list of some of the favorite books we read: Rhymes and Goosed-Up (both compilations of nursery rhymes), The Cat In The Hat, The Lorax and PopOut! Peter Rabbit. PopOut! Peter Rabbit is one of the best kids books I’ve seen on the iPad. It looks beautiful, feels like a vintage pop-up book and doesn’t overload the user with interactive options but provides easy ways for the kids to “play” with the story. As for kids apps, here’s what we used: Sound Touch (for the littler kids), ABCs and Me (for the slightly older kids), Pocket Pond and Wheels on the Bus HD. All fun, all different.
Games - We didn’t play a ton of games on the iPad this week because, well, we were at the beach. Get outside! But when it rained, we did play a little Zombie Smash HD and Plants Vs. Zombies HD. (Dear developers, please create more levels for each of these games. Please.)
Other - I used Friendly to check in on Facebook. We also used an iPhone app called Songify to have some fun. Basically, you speak into the microphone and it auto-tunes your voice and puts it to a beat. It’s way more entertaining than it should be, especially in a group. With all the cooking we were doing, I used Weber’s On The Grill app once or twice as well. It’s a beautiful app and definitely worth the couple bucks it costs. And of course, we used the stock YouTube app to do what YouTube was made for: watch dumb videos of dogs and cats.

That about takes care of it. I brought along both my laptops (a MacBook Pro and a custom built Windows 7 machine) but didn’t use either of them that much. Now that we’re home, I’ll use Picasa for editing the photos from the week and then post them to our Picasa Web Albums to share with the family. I’ll also use Sony Vegas Movie Studio on my home Windows 7 computer to put together a video compilation to share with the family.

So, what do you take on vacation? Any killer apps I should know about? Feel free to leave me some recommendations in the comments!

-Toby

Toby is Chief Solution Architect at Delphi Global Technology. He hopes that writing about his vacation for work will allow him to write off the entire vacation on his taxes next year. To contact Toby directly, send an email to tflowers@delphigt.com.

Merger

John — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:41:36 +0000

Delphi Global Technology did a phenomenal job helping our company, and especially our IT group, merge with a company they have supported for a number of years. They were available at all times, helping with implementation, making suggestions about the best course of action, generally making the transition go as well as it possibly could in as complex an effort as a merger of two companies with offices distributed across the country. We were very appreciative of their help, remarkable patience and flexibility during our small IT group’s first merger and would use them again in an instant. ~ Steve Haas – SVP Information Technology, Walker & Dunlop

Leveraging technology …

John — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:30:08 +0000

“The challenge for us in the beginning was leveraging the equipment we already had. Delphi Global met that challenge head-on and brought value to our existing technology. Over the years they’ve continued to do that while our company has grown tremendously. Everything from our network to our email to our backups has scaled effortlessly with our company’s growth. More importantly, doing business with very competent people you can trust to treat you fairly has given us a competitive edge in our market place by leveraging technology to our advantage ~ Kris Maynard, Essential Ingredients“