My Triumph Connectivity Review

This is an update on the My Triumph Connectivity section of my original review of the Triumph Trident 660 motorcycle. 

Here's my setup:

• Triumph Trident 660 with My Triumph Connectivity module (dealer install)
• Sena SMH10D-10 Motorcycle Bluetooth Headset/Intercom headset mounted on a white SHOEI RF-1200 helmet
• iPhone 13 with latest iOS version and My Triumph app
• iPhone is paired to both Sena headset and Trident

Issues I highlighted in previous review:

• Frequent (once a week) disconnection to whatever I was listening
• Navigation (setup via My Triumph app on iPhone) frequently gets stuck
• Volume controls on bike don't work (others do: next/forward, track info, play/pause)
• Not an operational issue, but unit cost $250-ish + dealer install of $300 = $550 is a bit high. 

Here's the solution I figured out:

• Disconnects: Don't pair the phone to both Sena headset and bike. Here's the recommended pairing
• Pair the phone to just the bike; do not pair/connect it to the Sena headset (remove/unpair the headset from Settings > Bluetooth)
• The bike is paired to both the iPhone and Sena headset; it serves as the "hub"
• Note: once your bike is on/ignition (engine does not have to be on) and headset is on... it takes about 5 seconds for them to all find/connect to each other. 
• Navigation: 
• Set the My Triumph app to have "Always On" location access, instead of only when using the app. 
• Bad part of this is that the app has location access even when you're not using the app. (iPhone > Settings > Privacy > Location Services > My Triumph). Obviously this is bad for privacy and potentially drains the battery, and the iPhone will warn you about it. 
• UPDATE: this seems to have been fixed so you can use "While Using" only. 
• Volume control from bike is still a problem. It works from my Sena headset but only upto the max setting of the phone... so I have to remember to crank it up before starting the ride. iPhone somehow does not seem to use a Bluetooth device specific volume for the bike/Sena. 

Triumph Trident 660 Review

Personal experience of a mid-experience casual rider of the new Triumph Trident 660 after six months of riding over 3500 miles (March 2021 onwards). A few things about myself:

• Riding experience: 5 years
• Age: Early-40s
• Previous (first) bike: Kawasaki Vulcan Cafe Racer (660 cc, 47 hp) - rode it for 4 years... excellent, confidence building, starter bike with enough power to ride on highways. 
• First sporty upgrade: Triumph Trident 660 - MATT JET BLACK AND SILVER ICE with accessories:
• Triumph engine guards
• Triumph wheel rear wheel bobbins (front ones are not available!)
• Triumph Connectivity module
• TEC parts brake and clutch levers to replace the originals
• Personal gear:
• iPhone 11 running the latest iOS
• Sena SMH10D-10 Motorcycle Bluetooth Headset/Intercom mounted on a white SHOEI RF-1200 helmet.
• Dainese leather jacket
• Aerostitch pants or Dainese jeans
• Helite Turtle 2 airvest (hi-viz)

Overall

• Just a whole lot of fun, the sound, the styling and the power.
• Perfect upgrade for my first serious mid-end bike. 
• etc: Their marketing and research is spot on for the target customer... plus I like their product managers in all the interviews I've seen... they know their stuff. I'll definitely consider a Triumph for a future upgrade if the Triple does not look so bug-eyed Transformer-like. 
• My other option was the new 2022 Indian FTR or the new Ducati Monster but both weren't going to be available for a few more months and I got tired of waiting. I know they are not in the same range as the Trident... but that's how much I liked it. 

Pros

• Sound - Super sexy sound of the triple engine.
• Peppy pickup in gears 1-4, 5 for highway cruising. Don't know what to do with the 6th.
• Moves like a fun beast as my first juicy upgrade from my Kawi
• Confidence inspiring engine
• Update: Gear 1 seems too low... but guess that's for the nice pickup. Riding in mid-20 mph is always a bit annoying when 2nd gear is too high and 3rd doesn't quite like it. 
• Riding geometry is excellent
• Perfectly aligned footpegs, handlebars
• Easy to straddle and maneuver around the seat,  comfortable to move back-n-forth on long rides. 
• Can nicely hug the moto to feel one with the machine especially on curves
• Nifty electronics
• Clear TFT display works well in the California sun
• Relevant info always visible with the left-side toggle switches
• Triumph Connectivity module (with a few glitches, see Cons) is decent.  
• play music, audiobooks etc from your phone or 
• to take that rare phone call if you really want/need to
• get directions (text and arrows) via the Triumph app on your mobile since Apple does NOT recommend/support mounting the phone on "high-powered" motorcycles. 
• Promise of low maintenance costs
• I dabble a bit on small fixes but am not a gearhead so a low maintenance would be nice to avoid the crazy dealership costs
• Tires - 
• Looks - Looks different and brings a solid roadster beauty
• Seat height
• The 805 height and narrow setup near the tank allows me (5' 7", 1.68m) to easily reach one foot flat foot, or paws on both sides. And I'm experienced enough to not have problems with this. 

Cons

• Triumph Connectivity module needs bug fixes/updates
• Crazy total cost: unit cost $250-ish + dealer install of $300 = $550!!! You can't install it yourself as they need to update software/firmware and activate it. Blech!
• Can't control volume up/down.
• Sometimes (every 2-4 weeks) loses connectivity with my Sena SMH10D-10 helmet set... dunno who's fault it is... probably the Sena since it will shutdown randomly after a few weeks and needs a reset via the pinhole in the back.  
• Despite this, I love having the controls on the handle bar and not having to touch the helmet controls of the Sena. 
• Traffic directions will occasionally get stuck... freeze and stop updating next set of directions. A restart of the moto usually solves it, but pretty annoying. 
• UPDATED review here.
• Clutch levers
• Just plain weird in terms of reach and pull (got finger cramps after every ride), even with all the clutch adjustments and the silver/steel color looks odd. 
• Ended up buying sleek black machined brake & clutch levers from TEC.
• Fuel tank - wish it was a full 4 gallons instead of the 3.6.
• Suspension sometimes feels a bit wonky, sometimes a bit too soft.
• Storage
• Storage options are limited to small stuff... I guess they meant it only to be an urban/suburban roadster for 150 miles max range (see fuel tank). So no panniers and not easy to mount any decently priced third-party accessories. 
• Oil level monitor
• Really wish they had a directly visible glass level thingy... having to pull out a black colored dipstick, wiping it and rechecking is so 1970s. 

Odds & Ends

• Sometimes do get problems going from 1st to 2nd and do land in neutral... have to make sure to give it a bit of a stiff pull up sometimes.
• Took me 3+ months to get used to the positioning of the left-side controls for the Triumph Connectivity module. The 4 way buttons are too close to the other button. 
• I love that the high beam and dipper are one button... easy to reach and switch with one flick. 

YouTube Channels and Vlogs for Motorcycle Riding & Reviews

Most magazines do manufacturer influenced reviews with loads of genuine feedback. Some have sections/playlists/channels for technical stuff and skills too. Independent reviewers vary but some are just too good while others are noisy. Almost all of the independents and magazines are often very oriented to big/powerful, sporty bikes and for advanced riding skills. Very few cover stuff that noobies need to learn. A few do feature channels/playlists on skills and technical stuff. As someone who started riding more seriously 4 years ago, I found a lot of these helpful in building my skills and learning about the machines.

If there are channels you really like, please share them in the comments.

Vloggers/YoutTubers

• FortNine - One of the best, very fun, channels from an independent reviewer (who works for a Canadian gear seller) overing accessories, (sometimes) bikes and lots of topics around biking. Ryan does lots of nearly scientific tests covering tires, helmets, engine oil, chains etc. And the snark is good enough to attract even non-riders; proper Canadian without the “aye”. 
• MCrider - a little pedantic in style but good to learn some of the fundamental skills 
• YammieNoob - flashy, busy, noisy videos but sometimes does cover good fundamentals
• Itchy Boots - Dutch girl on a bike travels around the world
• English Biker Dan - name says it all... trying to get his name out there
• Ride & Roll - German lady, balanced, not noisy

Magazines

• Bike World - Brits who love everything Triumph, big bikes and other things. Chris Northcut is the star. 
• Motorcyclist Magazine - has a nice “MC Garage” section for a lot of technical bike things... but the chap who did them has moved over to Revzilla?
• Brake Magazine - off roading focussed but loads of good basic skills even for roads
• Cycle World - Americano with a very nice older series (Ask Kevin) about the machines themselves. Also run most review bikes on their dynamometers (dyno’s) for power and torque curve tests. 
• Revzilla - gear seller is now also featuring video reviews

Back to Mac 2010 Predictions

Since the hacks are putting out really lame predictions for the Apple's October 2010 'Back to Mac' event, I'll give a few good ones (in no particular order):

Mac

• eSATA - atleast Mac Pro's should get this, preferably the entire lineup (perhaps the laptops will not get them for a longtime or ever). But desktops should. 3 Gbps (and 6 Gbps later) is pretty useful for backups and transfer of large files to external harddisks.

Lion / Mac OS X 10.7

• FaceTime + iChat (fairly obvious, also FaceTime API for others)
• Apple TV / FrontRow update - make FrontRow on Mac's run just like the new Apple TV.

Others:

• Less sharp laptop edges! All Mac laptops have really sharp edges where the hands rest on the keyboard and it hurts after a while. Be nice to get them slightly curved.
• Black MacBook Pro. The white and aluminium are nice, but the black one was very cool.
• 7 inch iPad is also very welcome. Beware, I may get a manpurse if this happens, or really baggy jeans atleast.

Product Design

I'll continue to write about this over time as a way to jot my thoughts on product design as a way to learn and improve myself in this area.

Design Rants (easy to do, I'll try to be constructive also)

• Phones Handsets/Cradles

Everybody's got the new fancy VoIP phones with a jillion features. The main complaint is how the handset sits on the cradle. In the old timey phones you can close your eyes and just place it on the cradle, or you can slam it, and the baby will stay in there. Also the old timey cradles were horizontal so you didn't have to turn your wrist in an unnatural way, the new timey ones are 'vertical'. In the new shamncy phones its like a ballet to place the handset back: if you don't delicately place it in the right way... the damn thing will fall off (done it way too many times!). Plus you can't slam it after an annoying person calls you. If you slam, the whole phone goes flying because the cradle is on the right or left edge! And your IT guy's not going to be happy about that either.

• Car Keyfobs

Please just make it of a shape that I can hold properly and not drop it. Not round or oblong things, but cylindrical or narrow things that can be easily gripped by fingers and held in the palm.

• Software (there's just too much in there... lets wait a while)

Sales Tax on Unbundled Price of iPhone 4

Most people who tried to check for the iPhone 4 upgrade eligibility must have seen the following message : "In CA, MA, and RI, sales tax is collected on the unbundled price of iPhone."

It means that you have to pay a 9.75% (in CA) sales tax on the unbundled price of iPhone 4 ($599 for 16GB version) even though you'll be paying only the $199 upgrade fee. That is $57.xx instead of $19.xx.

The reason given is that the state of California should not lose sales tax revenue because the actual price is $599 and AT&T is subsidizing $400 of the price that it will make up by having us pay the monthly service charges.

Fair enough. But consumers also pay a sales tax (among other things) on the service taxes! Seems like double taxation.

Any better ideas, explanation...

• and why are CA, MA and RI the only ones?).
• What if I (as a CA consumer) purchased my iPhone 4 from an Apple store in Arizona? Would they pull up my ATT record (which they will to verify credit & eligibility) and ask me to pay the extra/CA sales taxes? Don't think they can because the sales tax would have to go to AZ. They can't split it and say $19 goes to AZ and the rest to CA!

iPad

A few thoughts:

• The positioning of the device between a mobile/smartphone and PC, and better at music, video, web,... are key to explaining its intended usage. Thinking of it as a bigger version of iPhone/iPod Touch is too simplifying. The experience of a larger touch screen in reading and watching video is enormous. That said, it still feels primarily like a "media consumption" device. The creation parts will depend on well developed custom apps like iWork.
• The iPad keynote did not show a more than a few seconds of editing or typing. For a lot of potential users, the iPad is likely to replace their notepad/folio where they take meeting notes, jot down thoughts, make lists etc. So ability type fast and comfortably will be key. And the true test for this will come during the in-store tests. I know a few people who are aching to do so!
• Women, large man purse carriers and those with messenger bags will love the ability to whip it out and quickly look up something (what time's my flight, check a map, read a document or book...). Ofcourse, you can do all of this with an iPhone/iPod Touch, its just better now.
• Apple should really think a way to physically secure it to the owner. If not a Kensington slot, something else to attach a lanyard (or Velcro strap) that can be wrapped around the wrist or tied somewhere (don't know if you want to hang 1.5 lbs from your neck). I am always paranoid about dropping my iPhone or having it swiped away in crowed places. Same will happen with the iPad. Imagine dropping your sleek $800 iPad on a pavement.

Other thoughts:

• If the iPad were a little smaller in XY size you could almost wear it on one hand's palm with a strap and use it with the other hand! The first commercial wearable computer.
• Industry specific usage, like healthcare, sales, insurance, and any mobile work environment, is going to be enormous. And, when can I get this integrated into my car's entertainment console?

A Look Under the Hood of Tesla Motors

Re: A Look Under the Hood of Tesla Motors

I remember when the Tesla was first unveiled in 2006, I ran (drove) to the Petersen Museum to see a prototype in person, and it was gorgeous.

Regarding the NYTimes blogpost, Tesla does not have other income sources it is much more committed to creating and selling electric cars sooner than the big companies which can take their time to do so. It is a matter of survival for Tesla. Ultimately their success will depend on their (and partners') ability to make the technology leaps and their management ability.

As such the giants also have learned to deal with such disruptive innovation by creating launching new vehicles (BMW MiniE, Nissan Leaf...), but not separate groups/divisions/companies that deal with all electrics while being aligned with the market. And the giants target the mainstream/existing usage market right from outset, while Tesla and others will start with specialty markets (like sports cars, golf carts...) that allow the technology to develop while giving themselves cashflow to survive and establish position (standard disruptive innovation theory you can say).

But it has taken a lot of time for Tesla to sell more of their Roadsters and the giants seem to be catching up a little - but they are still going for the mainstream market where the technology is atleast 3 to 5 years away from being mature for regular usage. The mainstream usage technology may not be ready for a while and it will be interesting to see how long the giants continue their "investment". It may give one of the all electric companies an equal or better chance of beating the existing giants or just vanish!

Air Travel Sucks! Trains Rule!

Why air travel sucks:

• Airports are damned far away. Planes are noisy and so usually outside or far from cities. So travel by car, metro/subway, bicycle... takes time, especially during the morning rush hour (I just missed an 8:50am flight even though I started 2 hours earlier from home [which means I woke up at 6am]- so I shall complain!).
• You have to arrive atleast 40 minutes in advance or they will not issue you a boarding pass because you may not clear security in time. (once they give you a boarding pass they have to wait a few minutes past departure time if you don't board - I believe).
• Severe restrictions in the number and size of luggage. (I sometimes have 2-3 laptops and you will hate me when you're behind me in the line. I know of someone who flys every week and has a metal plate in his knee/jaw/somewhere... he has spent more time flapping his arms in a single year than a normal human does in their lifetime).
• The security rules on what you can/cannot bring are always changing or are different in every country/airport so even seasoned travelers can be caught off guard. Take your shoes off, don't take 'em off; no lighters, but matches are ok; remove belts, don't remove belts; only 1 carry on allowed, including purses & laptop bags (come on Luton... you can't be serious), or $25-50 for an extra bag (go to a different queue to pay for that if you didn't in advance - 'thanks Easyjet, you make it real easy')... I am almost in favor of the full body scanners where they can see everything over/under your clothes/skin/bones. There is little privacy anywhere, everybody's beach photo's are online, young people wear skimpy clothes anyway... 'why so serious' about this?
• Road warrior, not! Plus a lot of passengers are casual travelers so they don't know the rules and at 7am in the morning everyone is going to be stupid . 'madam, take your jacket off'; Lady: 'huh?'; 'put the toiletries in a clear x ounce bag' (I really pity the guy/gal who has to repeat this a 1000 times everyday and still be vigilant); 'put your laptop in the tray, put the shoes separately'; 'don't put the jacket on top'...
• For a 1 hour flight, here's the total time spent: 1 hour of driving to airport + 1 hour in checkin/security + 1 hour flight duration + 30 mins to collect bags + 1 hour driving away from airport = 4.5 hours. Talk about efficiency!
• Congested seating... its not that airlines are now like buses, they are worse! If you are a premier/gold member (thank you Austin Powers)... you get 5 extra inches! or pay $50 for that privilege. 3rd class has just been re-introduced!
• Germ factories... 100's of people in a confined space: breathing, sneezing, touching, kissing... for hours. Have fun CDC! (and perhaps Joe Biden was right atleast about airplanes... hard to stand those who put on no deodorant and those who put on 2 liters of their favorite eau de toilette - just do the literal translation)
• Crappy service. Budget airlines have proliferated and lowered the rates and services. So for business travelers at small to medium companies (which have way more employees than the F500 biggies) there is no choice... since everyone is trying to save, the dept admin will book your travel on the cheapest one. And crews at budget or traditional airlines, with some exceptions, are just tired of unruly/rude passengers, nearing retirement, hate their job, dream of days gone by...
• "Please switch off your electronic devices... we are going to take off/on/up/down/sideways...". Has any of this been proven with scientific testing... or we've decided to just bore everyone? Shutting down communications is welcome (during the entire flight), but why can't I listen to my iPod, watch video or read my Kindle ebook or write an email (offline)?
• Disgusting food or whatever it is. Almost everyone has no free food (fine, no problem), but the ones that sell you food... what am I paying for? (Air Canada sells 6" Subway sandwiches for $5. When someone opens a 2 hour old sandwich like that... there are going to be sick people).
• I've got plenty more... but am preserving my fingers for the next section.

Why trains (like in Europe and parts of east coast US?) are awesome!

• Show up 5 minutes before departure! Yeah, it only saves 55 minutes in the morning... but at that time of the day every second counts.
• The train station is in the city and connected to the local train/subway station! Sweet! Takes only 30-40 minutes to get there. They have a park-n-ride or bike stand (good luck at the airport) and other options as well.
• Full-sized bathroom!
• Cafeteria/bistro/dining car! Wow... decent food, real espresso... freedom of movement!
• No body searches you! And nobody needs to see what toiletries you you use.
• Bring as much luggage as you can lift/push around! Nobody's stopping you.
• Walk around... jump around, sleep... play music, video...work whatever you like!
• Stretch your legs in a real human sized seat!
• If the train is late: just sit around & relax, eat a banana, read a book... (If a plane is late you sit on the floor near the gate with a million people cursing or worse on a cramped airplane).
• I could go on... but this is a first draft.

Anyone else with opinions on this?

Someday when I have more time to waste than this post... I'd like to survey which one of the above is the most hated thing about air travel. I can't blame Michael O'Leary for trying to run a profitable business, but no thanks... ('yeah, Mr. Expense Report Checker... that's 50 cents for 1 visit to the loo', 'What? You want a receipt?' BTW: lots of train stations in Europe charge for using the loo) I don't object to flying his particular airline or any particular company mentioned in this post/rant or even charging for toilets (just put it on my tab when I buy the beer). I just object to flying until they fix this mess (and please bag OBL meanwhile, someone).

Anyway, this is more of a rant than a blog post. But it's time someone fixed this mess.

Paris + WiFi = Free

Here's the Google Map of all the 260+ accesspoints:

(And the above website has loads of information on what else to do in Paris, with some information available in the English version of the website as well).

And here's how to signon :

Ok, if you needed help with that... here's the Google Translate output on the useful part:

1. Identify signage Paris Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi logo Paris

This indicates that you are in the area (of) an oasis Paris Wi-Fi

2. Turn on your Wi-Fi equipment

3. Select the Orange network.

4. Start your regular internet browser and type any website address (eg http://www.paris.fr).

5. Select your pass Paris wi-fi 2h offered by the City of Paris and the Ile de France

6. Now you can surf freely on the Internet, send and receive emails, and all this without needing to be connected in any way!

Text Messaging Is Cheap?

Not sure if its the job of newspapers to spread or create conspiracy theories, but this article in the New York Times (which I love and read often) by Randall Stross is just half-baked. But it sells newspapers, so let's do it!

Mr. Stross figures out, with the help of experts, that the basic cost of text messaging alone is pretty low. A text message or SMS rides on the control channels that are used for communications between the cellphone and the base station and then go over wires from the base station to the core of the network. So we learn that, once the basic investment in the network is done... its all cream, he implies. Mr. Stross quotes another professor saying that the cost of transmitting 100 million messages is not much more than those for a million. 

Yeah, the basics about text messages are right. But are you going to build a network costing billions to send text messages? Ofcourse not, so to run a wireless network there are costs for voice minutes from initial spectrum cost of billions, tens of thousands of cell sites, cell site maintenance, equipment purchases, and many more. And now they are building faster data networks which also costs billions, and while these are growing fast - they don't make enough money. Recall the whining about the iPhone, in 2007, only having an EDGE (2.75G) connection. "Where's my 3G?" the press cried. And the $20 or $30, now, for the iPhone data connection is not enough to fund a nationwide network covering over 200 cities that, at inception, only has less than 10 million (data) customers. If we use his logic then software should only cost 50 cents - the cost of burning a CD with the software. 

Its strange to see an article by a business school professor/teacher in the country's most prominent newspaper to not even mention the entire economic picture of running a company. Text messaging is a cash cow, one that helps funds other parts of the business. If you really want to do cost accounting, then let's put the partial cost of towers, spectrum, SMS servers, employee costs, billing systems and lots of other things also on its account. Obviously, the operators are making good money on it, but they may be losing money in other parts of the business. But why should they open it up to scrutiny? Also if casual or non-plan texting (sounds like sex!) is a very low percentage of the revenue and number of total messages sent - then what's so wrong with charging higher for it?

I am not advocating that the senator or FCC or the responsible regulatory body or a journalist  should not query or check this; they should certainly probe it - but don't make it another conspiracy theory or another way we are cheated!

It really makes me believe that even the best guys want to use controversy and half-baked ideas to sell their product. This is similar to the way newspapers and magazines use/report numbers to make them sound more interesting but miss the point.

Disclosure: I have never worked for a mobile operator/carrier. I have worked as an engineer for an equipment manufacturer and understand some aspects of a cellphone networks' working and cost structure.

Better mousetraps, I mean Ethernet switches

Sometimes a better mousetrap is just super useful!

Our technical sales guys do a lot of traveling with demo kits and (obviously) want the lightest, most compact gear possible (ofcourse that doesn't reduce the stares at the airport security line).

One of the things he found is a USB powered 5-port Ethernet switch. Just connect a small cable to the switch and hook the other end to the USB port of a computer, and voila!

I have been using it for a few days and love the little black box. Its 2 in x 3 in x 1/2 in and can fit in my pocket!

Plain old benefits:
- saves an extra power jack on the strip
- no need to go down under the desk to find a power jack (at work)
- quick ability to switch connections between various machines (very essential for testbeds and demo kits)
- small and light enough to carry a few in my backpack or demo kit.

The one I've got is from Bytec BT-555. I haven't seen it at a Fry's or Best Buy, only online.

iPhone 2.0 Software - Push

Everybody knows that iPhone 2.0 software supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. But the devil details are as follows (based on my experience):

• Exchange email & calendaring works beautifully - just like the preview videos Apple showed and like BlackBerry and ActiveSync users have been enjoying for a while. And setup is a breeze using the iPhone Configuration Utility. It does feel a bit strange to email the config file instead of just dowloading it to an attached iPhone. But it'll work well for enterprise users - "one profile to rule them all".
• Cisco VPN setup with Group authentication is a bit awkward.
  
• If you get a lot of emails, like 1 every 5 minutes, because someone put you on a jillion lists then enabling 'Push' will drain your iPhone's battery enough to require daily charging even with minimum use. Plus your phone vibrates every 5 seconds and makes you look like a twitching retard. Use Fetch with settings of 15 min, 30 min or 1 hour - depending on how desperate you are.
• Someone tells me that there are specific push-related rules, i.e. set a rule to determine which email messages get pushed. But apparently it is only available, for setting, through Outlook. I use a Mac and checked Outlook Web Access using IE on Windows XP under Fusion, but could not find it. Need more research!
  

• Below are relevant documents & links on the subject.

1. Apple's docs on implemented/omitted features: http://support.apple.com/manuals/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf
2. MSFT blog comparing the implementations: http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2008/07/18/iphone-2-0-windows-mobile-for-push-email.aspx
3. Exchange ActiveSync FAQ: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb288524.aspx
   

iPhone 2.0

So it seems that lots of existing iPhone (1.x) owners had serious problems in either downloading the new 2.0 OS or installing it ("got bricked") or activating their phone after installation. My experience was different. It did take iTunes a while before it was ready to update the iPhone OS. Around 5pm it allowed me to download and in 15 minutes the new OS was installed, 5 more minutes to restore settings from backup.

First review:
Very good set of usability improvements. Location-finding (even without A-GPS) seems to work a whole lot better (better than 1.1.3 atleast). But the App.Store is amazing. Find an app, select it for download, enter your iTunes Store password and in minutes it flies! Ofcourse this works best in WiFi covered areas. Have to see how long it takes to download a few megs over EDGE.

The range of app's seems pretty impressive for day one. It's hard to believe what will come in the next few months and years. All the promises and potential from the iPhone SDK preview are going to be true. This is the mobile platform of choice. The best developers are or will be flocking to produce iPhone apps.

Multi-Touch is Key
One thing is clear - the bold and courageous choice Apple made in using a touchscreen and forgoing any keys (except 'home', volume, vibrate & 'sleep') is paying off bigtime. Applications are free to define user interaction in a very very customized way. No crazy remapping or multipurposing (using alt/shift...) of the numeric keypad or other buttons; no need to cramp 3 letters of the tinniest font on/around each key. The slight loss of speed is replaced by the elegance of a well-defined, aesthetic and colored interface. App. developers have better freedom than PC's to create a new way for user interaction. Make no mistake, the new way is and will be more impactful to the consumer adoption than anything else.

iPhone meet IT
The addition of MS Exchange support, Cisco VPN and iPhone Configuration Utility to iPhone is as big as the switch to Intel for Mac's. These new features are basic product features to compete against Blackberry and Windows Mobile in the corporate market. The rest will be in continuous courting of corporate IT. Ofcourse employees bugging IT and the attraction of CXO's to the iPhone will push IT to start supporting the iPhone.

PC vs. Mac all over again?
The iPhone and its OS togather unquestionably form the best mobile platform today. Windows Mobile came out years before iPhone OS (unlike Mac OS vs. Windows), but has yet to mature in terms of user experience. WM has all/most of the needed functionality, but is defiicient in other areas. It took Windows almost 10-15 years to mature into a stable and, relatively speaking, usable form (with 2000 and XP). But the story of licensing OS' is worth considering. Will Apple license iPhone OS? No it won't! Not with the success of the Mac, iPhone and iTunes. They are more confident than ever of their beliefs, innovation and capabilities.

More on the following in later posts.

Real Challenger #1: Nokia/Symbian
Nokia/Symbian clearly see the challenge and their recent changes are interesting to say the least.

Real Challenger #2: Google Android

Wake up time: Microsoft Windows Mobile

No Hope #1: Pure Open Source/Linux-styled mobile OS's

No Hope #2: Blackberry OS/devices

Forgot Master Password on Mac

If you forget the Master Password on your Mac, you are in trouble! But if you have set the Master Password but not turned on FileVault then you are in luck.

Here's how to fix the problem:

Just delete the file /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.keychain
This will reset the master password. Or you could go into terminal and type

"sudo rm /Library/keychains/filevaultmaster.keychain"

and your problem is solved.

Printing on Leopard over a Windows Network

Anybody at a small company with a Mac has faced this nightmare: all the printers are on a domain controlled Windows Server and its incredibly impossible to print on them!

Seems like 'Kerberos Printing from OS X to Windows Active Directory Printer Share' is the solution.

Use CUPS to add a printer and select 

1. CUPS: http://localhost:631

2. Add Printer -> Enter Name / Location / Description

3. Select Device as "Windows Printer via SAMBA with kerberos support" 

4. Enter "ksmb://username:passwd@printserver/PrinterName"

5. Finish it up!

Oh, by the way entering your password like that will place it in direct text form in /etc/cups/printers.conf. Normally printers.conf has user read-write permissions only. So you should be safe from other users on the machine or on the network. But if you let someone use your login for a few minutes (while you are away) - then you are in TROUBLE! They can read your login password in plain text in less than 3 seconds. So be careful!

Great Leopard Spots

Features in Leopard (Apple Mac OS X 10.5.x) that absolutely I love

Yes, a lot of these are part of the 300 that really make Leopard a great OS. I no particular order of priority.

• Searching in Activity Monitor for a particular process by its first letter

Yes, its finally here! Just hit the first key of the process' name and you'll find it. This is more easier if you sort by process name.

• Active repartitioning in Disk Utility
  
• Time Machine
• CoverFlow
• Spaces
• AirPort connection info (press Alt/Option when clicking on AirPort icon on menu bar)
• BootCamp is official!
• 
  

Stuff still not there!

• Good multi-display support
• 
  

Switchin'

Recently I acquired a new MacBook Pro (2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 200 GB HDD, 256 MB Nvidia 8600M GT). And switching from my MacBook (Tiger) to the new machine could not have been easier. Leopard's Migration Assistant asked me to run the MacBook in Firewire mode, hook up a firewire cable between the two and 'boom', in 30 minutes all my data and settings were moved over - INCLUDING APPLICATIONS like Thunderbird, Firefox and others. I clicked on Thunderbird, entered my password and had my corporate email going without ANY EFFORT!

Only glitch was the need to reinstall our Cisco VPN client because it seemed to be binded to the old machine's network adapters (or something like that!).

You can call that a serious saving of time and heartburn! Less than 1 hour to switch to a new machine - from start to finish. The migration of applications was much faster than having to install them one by one and configuring them to my settings. Kudos to the Migration Assistant team of Leopard.

And the best part will be the ability to use Time Machine to backup my data everyday - automatically. I and others in the company who travel a bit have seen laptops suffer catastrophic failures at the worst time. Recently we spent a few thousand dollars to retrieve data from a failed hard disk.

Four Horsemen (Versions) of Apocalypse (Vista)

Okay, the title is a little dramatic. But you have to imagine the pain that product managers at 1000's of small & medium companies are going through: testing your product on four versions of 'one' operating system - and that is before the service pack. Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate!

Sure its one OS, but they do have different capabilities (especially for graphics) and you can't leave this to chance. Plus the drivers issue that's been plaguing lots of users creates an additional complexity - "hmm, our product works on our machines, but will it work on the users machine?" . Users, both consumers & business/enterprise customers, are likely to buy systems with any of these four. That means IT and testing have to have provide access to all four of them (with or without SP?) to all/most of the developers. And testing teams need full & dedicated access too. Fortunately VM's have made this task a lot easier.

Mobile Internet with your Cable bill?

So the big news/rumor of the day is the possible investment by cable co's (Time Warner & Comcast) in the Sprint + Clearwire WiMAX venture. The said deadline is the CTIA show in Vegas from Apr 1-3.

So what could this mean for consumers?
People who signup for an Internet service from cable companies get the option of a mobile service also that allows them to use their laptops and WiMAX mobiles anywhere. The home network is connected via the standard cable modem for really high-speed service (~ 5 Mbps), with the lowest latency and no battery life concerns. Mobile/portable devices access the WiMAX network (~ 1 to 2 Mbps) seamlessly, at home and outside. WiMAX femtocells could also be a future offering to quickly improve coverage by using a provisioned part of the cable network bandwidth.

What packages+pricing could be offered?
Cable Internet: $45
Mobile Internet: $25
Mobile VoIP: $15 all you can eat
Total: $75 to $85

Mobile VoIP is the operator's own VoIP service for those who want better quality/SLA than Skype which is likely to go under Best Effort (BE) traffic on a WiMAX traffic versus operator VoIP on ertPS (enhanced real-time Polling Service).

What would be interesting to see is how they would 'throttle' or 'shape' the traffic based on demand and match it with WiMAX QoS classes. Cable companies have been aggressively trying to limit bandwidth hogs and they definitely want to do this on an 'open-garden' wireless network. On an open device it will be impractical to forcefully tag each user installed application with a specific QoS class. Carrier apps like VoIP and carrier offered services will have pre-assigned classes. Will this be necessarily at higher classes than user/3rd party apps and how will it interplay with net-neutrality 'rules'?

Option 1: All applications go through a BREW/Nokia/Apple iPhone style signing & certification requirement. All signed applications are allocated a specific QoS class that cannot be changed by users. Unsigned applications are always forced to be Best Effort by the device.

Option 2: Free for all. Let applications and users decide.

Obviously, this is all water under the bridge (eh?), Sprint has probably decided on their model already. I notice inklings of extending/replicating the Sprint Dev./Partnership program (for EVDO & Nextel LBS) for WiMAX. Sprint execs have already talked about 'open' access, but no SLA guarantees at this point.

But the most important thing will be to keep the plans simple and make great devices available. I can't imagine having to deal with the day+night/weekend minutes plan in the data world.

WiMAX does offer some interesting options for dynamic network management & business models:
- allocate more 'streams/sessions' for VoIP at peak times (8 to 10 am, 4 to 7 pm)
- in emergencies, first responders can have higher priority access and normal users get best effort web & text service that does not tax the air interface
- allow signed app. service providers to bid for better QoS or atleast pay more for better QoS
- ESPN and mlb.com pay for a signed app. that delivers better quality (even Skype could), while YouTube is okay with best effort
-

Ofcourse this kind of dynamic network management would require lots of additional standards or one carrier on a large enough network (Sprint + Clearwire with a nationwide footprint).