It's all good
January 25th, 2010 | 
Author: There is a lot of excitement our there in the world of mobile devices this week.
The Palm Pre just arrived on Verizon (shame, because if they had managed to get it there before the Droid, I would have been all over it, I am a huge fan and am still trying to figure out how to justify having two phones!)
Now, everyone is holding their breath to see what will happen on Wednesday with Apples big announcement, the possibility of a matching one from Verizon and more. Rumours include the long awaited Applet Tablet (iTablet, iSlate, or whatever they are going to call it), Apple and Verizon working together, and much more.
My favourite place to keep up is Boy Genius Report. Go check it our to find out more.
The good news in all this (other than Justin having more and better toys to play with) is that all of these advances make it quicker, easier, and cheaper to use Therap on the go and completely vindicate our initial vision of a web-based, browser based, cloud based system. We had that vision when many people said there wouldn’t be computers in group homes and most of our customers were on dial-up connections!
Whenever people have asked us about mobile access, we have always said that mobile browsers would catch up and be the way to go.
Once again, it looks like we are being proved right.
:: Justin ::
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Spending a weekend with a Droid
So, I have now spent almost a whole weekend with my latest toy, the Verizon Motorola Droid, (click on the picture above to read a full review at Boy Genius Report)
As a point of reference, I also spent a few months with an iPod Touch (effectively an iPhone without the phone bit).
In summary, I love this thing! It is definitely not as simple to learn and use as an iPhone, but that is because there is so much more that you can do with it.
I love the way that it integrates with Google apps. Within a few minutes of turning it on for the first time I had my email, contacts, and calendar all on board and easy to access.
The navigator is amazing. Yesterday I had to drop of a package at Fed Ex (funny story, Calum broke a cymbal under warranty. They asked how it broke – answer: hit it with a drum stick!). All I had to do was pick up my phone and speak into it “navigate to Fed Ex”. Up comes a list of Fed Ex locations, choose the closest and it gets me there. Along the way displaying live traffic and it I want, the satellite or Street View images of my travel!
The keyboard is ok, but will take a little getting used to. I have to say though that I really like the onscreen one and find it better to use than the iPhone one.
My only real disappointment has been the camera which I haven’t manager to get any decent photos with (I do have some great videos though).
And, best of all, Therap works beautifully!
:: Justin ::
Who's the coolest kid in town?
As many of you may know, I am a lover of toys and gadgets. I am now working hard to give Siraya the same obsession. She’s a huge music fan and extremely fussy about what she listens to. Interestingly, her favorites change over time and there’s no telling when The Singing Kettle just won’t cut it any more and you have to move onto Joseph or an Australian singing about kangaroos on Old MacDonald’s Farm!
Given this obvious display of choice making (and the fact that she never goes anywhere without her Ipod – just like any other self-respecting 2 year old!) we thought this would be a great time to start playing with switches. After a bit of searching, I found just what I was looking for, an adaptive iPod remote from RJ Cooper. What is especially nice about the remote is that we can plug a switch (like the Big Red Switch in the picture) into the back to act as any one of the buttons so Siraya can learn by just concentrating on one button.
Once we’ve worked this one out, we’ll move on to Guitar Hero!
:: Justin ::
Therap on an iPod Touch
I have resisted getting myself an iPhone, partially because I like being on Verizon, and partly because I am holding out for a Palm Pre. However after a number of discussions about using Therap on mobile devices I picked up an iPod Touch to do some testing. An iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone and camera (it picks up the internet over . I tried to convince my kids that I had to get it to conduct some serious Therap research, but I am not sure that they believe me!
As many of you may know, I am not really a huge Mac fan, I tried using one and just found nothing obvious about the interface (it took me forever to install Firefox and I still didn’t get it right). Now a lot of this may be due to years of indoctrination on Windows, but I don’t think so. If I didn’t like the look of Windows 7 so much I would give serious consideration to a permanent move to Ubuntu, the latest version of which is gorgeous.
Either way, the iPod Touch/iPhone is just wonderful as an interface. It is increadiby intuitive and lots of fun. It also runs Therap really well. It is probably the first mobile device smaller than a netbook that I would be comfortable doing a reasonable amount of documentation on. It also works with almost all of Therap’s functionality.
If you have used Therap on your phone or mobile device, I’d like to know what you think.
:: Justin ::
Blogging from my iPod
My latest piece of technology is an ipod touch (basically an iPhone without the phone). It really is a remarkable piece of technology and I am particularly fond of the Apps (I am writing this on the WordPress app as I watch the Mets and wait for 8.1)
It’s also really good at running Therap!
::Justin ::
Will Palm be cool again?
I have been a fan of the Palm operating system for a long time and have used a number of Palm dvices over the years (my current phone – which I love – is a Treo 700p).
The whole interface though is definitely showing its age and there have been rumours surrounding Palm 2.0 or Nova for some time.
Now it is amost here!
The will be announcing it on January 8th (not sure when it will be available) and to prove how cool they are, they have  competition using an XKCD cartoon:
and follow up with Hitchhikers Guide references.
Good signs, I can’t wait!
:: Justin ::
When one screen just isn't enough!
One of the things I have tried recently (based on the advice of my friend Keith) is using more than one monitor at once!
It’s actually really cool. I have always like big screens and small text so that I can see lots of stuff and have multiple windows open at once.
Well, this just gives me even more screen real estate, all I do is scroll or drag things of the left hand side of my laptop screen and they end up on the monitor (this is a nice big on we use for conferences and stuff).
On top of all this, Windows Vista actually handles the transitions between when I have an extra monitor plugged in and when I don’t really well.
:: Justin ::
Happy Birthday Iona!
It’s a strange and somewhat scary thing to look back over the years since Iona was born and see just how far we have all come since then (I for one was very excited about my new Amiga 500!).
Most impressive is how far Iona has come and the potential for where she has to go from here.
Happy Birthday Iona!
Love you
:: Dad
