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As I memtioned on my post on Moday, I mentioned that I will provide everyone with a list of services that allow you to get the services that Mobileme provides for $99/year for either free or much less. Another benifit of my list will be that these services do what  they are supposed to and syncronization is somewhat more reliable. So here is my list to save you money instead of getting Mobileme.

1. Web Storage- Adrive gives their users 50 GB of web storage for free! That is a big step-up from paying for 20 GB!
2. Email- Gmail, setup IMAP for all your devices, and you have mail that works just like Mobileme but is free and has more features and more storage space! (7 GB instead of 5 GB)
3. Contacts- Gmail contacts is a great contacts manager and covers the contacts  element of MobileMe
4. Calendar- Google Calendar is another great service provided by Google and if you set it up on your devices you can sync it to all your devices as well if not better than MobileMe.
5. Photo Gallery- Sharing pictures is really a no-brainer, Flickr is the defacto photo sharing site and because of that I am recommending that as a replacement of MobileMe’s photo sharing feature.
6. Website- There are a vast list of free services for making your own website for free, I reccommend Google Sites because it is great for the inexperienced web developers.

I have just listed servics that you can get for free instead of having to shell out $99 every year! I think this is a much better option for people to get Exchange-like services for everyday life.  I know that I went very pro-Google but, that is because I uses Google serivces everyday and use that for personal information and know how easy it is!

Anymore, I seldom watch my favorite television shows when they actually air on cable for the first time. This is for two reasons: first, I have recently cut back on how many shows that I watch but also,  I have began watching the shows over the internet from the network’s websites and other joint ventures like the one I am going to talk about today. As I mentioned in a prior post,  I love for buying shows off the Unbox On-Demand Video Store from Amazon, but, I also like save money watching by watching TV shows from Hulu, which is a joint-venture between several production companies. This service allows people to stream TV shows and movies for free with only brief advertisements. This is a great service,  because no one wants to pay for every single episode they want to watch in most cases just once, plus the shows can be watched anytime they want, although shows do “expire” at some point but, for the most part shows usually stay up for the whole season. Another advantage of watching shows on Hulu is you actually save time, a 30 minute show is only 23 minutes on Hulu and allows you to enjoy your shows more together instead of having four  2-minute commercial breaks breakingup the show making it more much more disjointed and harder to follow.

This is a great way to try out new shows that you might be interested in or are unable to sit down and watch because of your busy schdule. Hulu allows the viewers to pick the time that is best to watch and enjoy the show at their lesiure. Also, by watching on your own computer screen, you get a better quality image because it is usually higher resolution than a television. I believe that as more and more networks put their shows online, the new generation will begin to not pay for a cable television subscription and will instead watch as many free shows on Hulu as possible and then buy shows their either really like or cannot get on Hulu. I believe that this is the future of Television and between the shift of regular networks putting their content online and the further development of Internet-based video networks cable will cease to exist

In this highly computerized world I truly do not see the point of a person having a landline phone number. Anymore, everyone has a cellular phone that they carry around with them anywhere. Plus, if they want a phone line that they can have at  home Skype is a great option as are many voice-over-IP or VOIP solutions could be a great replacement. Not only can you access you VoIP from anywhere over the Internet but, you can also save a lot of money, Skype out, or making a call from VOIP to a regular phone number is $2.99 a month for UNLIMITED calls to the US and Canada and for Unlimited calls worldwide that is only $9.99/year. Plus to get a phone number coming in to your computer for receiving calls is $60/year. That is only $96/year and you can take that number anywhere you go and if you want to call unlimited internationally, then it is still about $180/year. That is still probably a major savings over your regular phone bill and can go anywhere!

The one disadvantage, is that you cannot make emergency service calls but, cell phones are. Plus, you are now relying that your Internet service is not down when you need to make the crucial business call. Also if you have a cell phone, then you can take your phone with you anywhere.

I believe that, landlines will evolve into VOIP and will then make the move to primary use of cell phones and then when worldwide WiFi is developed cell phones will switch to VOIP-based cell phones. I believe that these evolutions have already begun and will take full-spring in the next 5 years and then the second revision will come about in another 3-5 years depending on the availability of an omnipotent WiFi network.

The concept of “Cloud Computing” has been floating around the internet for the past few years and I have mentioned it several time and posted about it several times but, realized that I haven’t addressed what  Cloud Computing is and what changes it will make to computing in general. Cloud Computing the concept of running applications and storing data on third-party systems apposed to storing data on computers physically accessed by the user and installing applications on those machines.

The benifit of this is that if the user has multiple computers, as many do, they have to transport their data between systems nor do you have to install, update application and in some cases, pay for licenses for all their machines. This also requires that the user would have to take their machine with them when they travel or go to school or work. With cloud computing people could use their documents from anywhere with an internet connection. This also opens the capabilities of collaboration and working with people who could be across town or across the globe and work together. There are some prime examples of this one being: Google Docs and Spreadsheets another great example is Projectpath which allows people to collaborate on work from anywhere.

There are still some disadvantages to going Cloud only, first of all, you need an internet connection which means if you are in Sticksville you loose acess to all you applications and data because a worldwide wifi connection does not exist yet and until then, backup applications and copies of data is a necessity. Another problem, is that the web-based applications are not as fully developed as local applications. The reason is that  web programing languages are not as well developed as local languages and cannot have as many features as the local applications meaning that if you need some of the more advanced features of the local application equivilents then, your choice is easy to stick to the local application. However, most users do not use all the features any given application has to offer because there is almost never a need for all the features. However, with the added collaboration it is a very useful tool when working in groups.

This is not the last mention that I will not make of Cloud Computing I will post, I plan to post frequently about cloud computing because I really think that in the next few years, Cloud Computing will blossom into a mainstream use and will be widely used soon. I think that as a blogger it is my responsibility to bring these services to the attention of the public and introduce them to a whole new wave of technology.

A few months ago,  Apple had relaunched it’s .Mac service as a MobileMe and has graciously christened it “Exchange for the rest of us”. The idea is getting enterprise-like Exchange features without going through the work and expense of setting it up and managing it! I signed-up for a trial account and would like to post my thoughts about it and to help anyone considering to sign-up for this service to determine whether or not they would really want to get it. First off, I would like to say anyone who knows me well or has read my copious amounts of Apple-related blogs, knows me as a Bona Fide Apple Fanboy and this review will totally go against that  although, this is not intentional, I am writing this post to  save people from signing up for a service that they might regret spending their money on. With that said, I will go ahead and write my thoughts on Apple’s Mobile Me Service.

I would like to list the service you would get if you decide to sign-up for Mobile Me:

1. Web Storage- You get 20 GB of storage which is good for backing up files and sharing media or hosting a website. However, you can sign up for Amazon S3 account and pay just $3/Month or $0.15 per Gigabyte and you can expand that and not get cut off at 20 GB making it a much more useful service.
2. Mail- You get a 5 GB email account with the username of your choice @me.com. The exchange part of this service is that the email pushes to all your devices like your iPhone, iPod Touch, computer mail client, and webmail. I will write further on this “Push” service and it’s reliability.
3. Address Book- You also have a Push address book where you can add contacts from anywhere and it “Instantly” synchronizes with all your devices.
4. Calendar- It also synchronizes your events calendar with all your devices as well “instantly”.
5. Photo Gallery-  Share your photos online once again, you could get free flickr or if you want unlimited picture uploads, get Flickr Pro for $25/Years!
6. Iweb- A service that allows Mac users to use iWeb of the iLife Suite and publish websites with ease. Once again, using a higher quality web service like my amazing host 1and1 which is a much more professional host and allows the developer to do virtually anything with plans starting for only $3/month.

In concept, MobileMe is a great concept cloud computing solution however, the “Push” services are some what unreliable and have given early adopters issues. I also have tried to use their web applications and they are extremely slow in comparison to Google’s apps, which are FREE, and is ridiculous in my opinion to pay for web apps which I live in daily that are slow and lagging. I also think that to be a  complete web suite it needs a task list application like Remember the Milk with sync capabilities that actually works. If a service doesn’t work 99.9% of the time, then it is not worth paying the service fee. I do believe that in a few months, Apple will finally kick out all the bugs and make it a good Cloud Computing service but, I think that most of it’s services can be obtained for either free or for a smaller fee. In fact, I will write a blog post later this week on how to save the $99/Year from MobileMe and I expect a cut of the savings!  So, check Gdovin.net everyday this week to find that post. Until then, reconsider getting Mobileme it is not worth the price especially since I will be writing a post about how to get the services for much less in a few days!

Many people have fallen for Apple’s iPod Touch which is the iPhone without the phone. It gives people the option to have all the features the iPod Touch has to offer without having to get an AT&T contract or going through the process of canceling your current cell phone plan. The only thing the iphone has that the iPod Touch doesn’t is 3G Internet, phone capability, and a fully plastic case.  Personally, I had wanted to get an iPod Touch as a replacement Media player until I realized that my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet can actually do almost everything the iPod Touch does and more for less money.

The fact is the N800 isn’t a iPod Touch, it doesn’t have the sleek UI or design but it has a lot more options and  is way more open. The Nokia N800 starts around $200 and comes with a 2 GB internal memory card and 2 GBs of RAM. The N800 also has an additional SD card slot easily accessable and great for transfering files and storing media files.  Plus, application on the iPod Touch must be acquired through the official Apps Store and have to be approved by Apple before going on the market. The applications for Maemo can be acquired either through repositories and installed through there or they can be downloaded as a .deb, install, or source code file from any website and installed on your device. Of course they aren’t guaranteed to work but, you will just have to go through some trial and error testing. Then for storage you can go to Newegg, Amazon or any other retailer and buy a SD memory card and simply fill it with your media files and what ever other data you would like to have on your device. I was able to find a 16 GB SDHC card for $30 on Newegg and that combind with the cost of my N800 makes it $230 while an iPod Touch of that capacity is $299.

Also realize, that with the N800 you can do almost anything you want with your N800 as far as installing software and lets you do what you want with it. I was also considering comparing this to the iPhone but the fact is, that the N800 does not have a cell phone or 3G Internet although it does have Voice Over IP like Skype and Gizmo that lets you make calls to landlines over the Internet for a small fee.  But it still is relying on Wifi being available so it is still not able to compete. All-in-all before spending on a iPod Touch think about the N800 as an option it could do everything the iPod Touch does and can be used for almost anything you can imagine.

Apple has recieved a lot of hate for locking down their Application store to only applications they approve to run on their iPhone. This allows Apple to lock out any application that is malicious, competes with Apple’s services, breaks any laws or anything Apple just plain doesn’t like. On the other hand, the HTC Dream G1 lets anyone write an application and allows it to put on their phone.  Windows Mobile devices and Nokia’s Internet Tablet allow you to download software from any website and install it on your device and letting you do what you want with your device whether tht is just using the pre-installed apps or writing your own application and running that on your device. There are arguments in favor of both methods and Apple has been disliked for enforcing their strict policies that restrict iPhone users from installing Voice over IP applications like Skype on their iPhones.  On the other hand, people could install all sorts of weird applications on their Windows Mobile device, like I did with my Dell Axim X50 pocket PC, and have applications that don’t work or could corrupt your device breaking features or just bricking your device.  I will round-up all the advantages and disadvantages of having an open system and will then suggest what the best system is.

Advantages:

1. Install what ever you want and do what you wish with your device- At the end of the day you own that device and you really should be able to install anything, within the limitation of the laws, on that device because it is your property and bought it to use it for what you want it for.
2. Choice- If the service provider is filtering which applications can and cannot be installed on your device.  So as an example, if the Gphone would only allow Google Talk and you are a heavy skype user that would force you to either adopt a new service or just stop you from using your phone for VOIP.
3. Options- Finally, keeping your options open is always a good thing. Apple is not allowing certain categories of applications be allowed to  on their device and I really like having the option of doing almost anything on my device.

Disadvantages:

1. Malicious Applications- If you are installing applications on your devices whether it be a computer, handheld computer, or a cell phone people could try to purposly sabbotage you and write a application to break your device.
2. Unmaintained Applications- Some people might right an application with the highest quality in mind but, they are just not an accomplished enough programmer to make it work right or they just give up and leave any users stuck with a half done application. The application may just not work right or could mess up your device and by closing the system the provider can weed out the bad applications.

Solutions:

In the end opening up to any software gives the user the freedoms they really have the legal right to in buying a device. While I do agree that applications should be filtered for quality assurance reasons only  for the best interest of the consumer not the company, the best method I have come across is the method of approval for Mozilla Firefox add-ons. They way it works is anyone can develop and add-on for free and submit it. Then the community can test a pre-release version and people would have to agree specially to use an addon that is not fully developed. I think if Apple were to adopt this and let peope install what they want then, they will probly gain even more users because the users have more options on what they can use their iPhone for.

I also would like Maemo and other open platforms to adopt this because, I hate it when applications suddenly stop working or crash after an update.  Also, for saftey and  preventing acidentally installing malicious applications you should always read comments made by other users of the application to see if they have any complaints. Also, make sure that it is not some random person’s website and make sure the site seems legitimate and it not some scam to ruin your device and steal your data.

Two of my good friends, Michael Plasmeier and Reed, both recently bought Tablet PCs for using in school for note-taking and they both think it is the best thing since sliced bread. I personally think that Tablet PCs are just a passing trend and will fade away in the near future. The reason is for several reasons and I have used the tablet PCs and have several complaints about the way it works despite of the “coolness factor” and that it is not something that is really worth while for continuing to produce.

First, I would like to  explain what a tablet PC is and what it  is used for in general, I would also like to point out what it is useful for.  A tablet PC is a  type of laptop that you can use a stylus to control the computer to write and control the computer in general.  Some  Tablets, usually the cheaper ones accept any touch input while “smarter” ones only accept input from a specific stylus which is a pain because if you break or loose your stylus you need to pay a lot of money to replace your stylus and can’t use your touch screen until you get a new one. There are advantages with using a tablet, it is great for people who do math or chemical equations because you can draw them in and not have to use specialized software or anything to write formulas. Another good part is that it makes photoshop and other digital artistry more like real art because you can use the tablet and draw on the screen and apply filters simply and it really feels like you are drawling. Another kind of cool thing is the screen can turn and flip down and close it flat which makes drawling much easier.

Now, for the problems, first of all the conversion of drawn on writing to typed text is extremely slow and really for most writing I do not see the merit of using the tablet when typing is so much easier and can get the work done faster.  Tablets also have a general $300 price difference from regular laptops and that extra cost does not give much more features. Also, the stylus is a pain because you lose it or break it you lose the extra features you paid the premium for and now you need to spend more for a new stylus forcing you to spend even more money! Meanwhile, if you were to get a regular non-tablet laptop you would not  have that problem and save the initial $300 extra.  Reed broke his stylus and he had to pay $50 to get a 2 pack of replacement styluses which is ridiculous for a piece of plastic with a little technology in it. Also,  if the laptop screen breaks, which happens with the majority of laptops at one point,  it will cost much more to replace because of the extra touch capabilities.

All in all, I think if you want to get a touch device or art tablet a USB tablet for less than $100 is a good option and then you can move it to any computer you use and if it breaks and you need a tablet because you are a professional artist. Tablets are going to be replaced by better developed ultra-portable laptops because they can do the majority of the features and paired with a  external tablet it can be a good replacement andthen combind that with cloud computing for a winning combination.

On Wednesday,  the HTC G1 smartphone will become available. This phone is probably better known as Google Phone but,  it really isn’t because Google only designed the phone’s operating system called Android, which will be availible on many other phones in the future.  This new phone is probably one of the first smartphones that is a true challenger to  Apple’s iPhone in both software and hardware. The HTC G1 has some features that the iPhone does not have built in like a hardware keyboard. The Android OS is also more open and has more features like Google applications built-in to the operating system like Gmail, Google Contacts and Google calendar. Being the Googleholic that I am I think that if they made Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Reader a feature of the phone that I would definitly get it.

In hardware, the G1 has a lot more buttons than the iPhone which I originally thought wasn’t much of an issue but, the plastic buttons get in the way if you don’t need to use that phone for that specific use. For example:  the pickup button and call hangup buttons should be on the touchscreen because, they are only used for when making and ending phone calls and usually just gets in the way otherwise.  The G1 also has a trackball which I do not see the point of  because the G1 has a touchscreen as far as I can tell there is no point of using the trackball.  The touchscreen does have a multi-touch interface like the iPhone but, it is really not a necessity and it will not appear on any non-iphones because Apple owns the patents to the technology and I truly doubt that they will share it. Multitouch makes zooming in and out and other things easier but it is not really a killer function. The G1 has a lot of hardware that the iPhone has built in: GPS, Wifi,, Bluetooth (not stereo), 3G support, and much more.  But, don’t forget that the G1 has a full hardware QWERTY keyboard which is one thing Apple sworn never to add and makes typing much easier of email, text messaging and SMS.  Unfortunatly, it also has the enbeded headphone jack like the original iPhone which forces users to buy the proprietory HTC headphones. This is rediculous stupid because Apple switched to a flush headphone jack and I think it is a total mistake to make you get a HTC headphones instead of just using your own favorite pair of headphones.

Now as far as software, the Android operating system has built-in Google applications, Amazon Mp3 store, an alarm clock, a web browser,based on Chrome browser , Google calendar, a camera application for taking pictures,  your Gmail contacts, a phone dialer (it is a phone remember), an email application,  which I don’t understand why they build that in  inaddition to Gmail which you can just use Gmail for all your email accounts!  Other applications included is an Instant messaging based on Google Talk, Google Maps, text messaging and a music player.  The G1 also has a marketplace which is a store to download new applications allows you to post applications and get them without the limitations like the iPhone’s app store  which only allows applications that do not compete with services that Apple provides and does not do anything Apple does not want to allow to run on their phone. Google does developer contact information so if the application is breaking laws or causing problems T-mobile can contact the programmer andfix the problem.

Things I do not like is the G1 does not support Google Docs or Google Reader as of yet which would really make it a killer phone. The interface is not nearly as slick and elegant as the iPhone but, is more open to developers and better for users because they can install any Application they want on their phone. The G1 also does not have a video player which is a major part of the media player function but, it is nice that you can buy your music through  Amazon’s DRM-free store.

On the bright side, you get google street view and most of your google applications anywhere and you have a lot more freedom than the iphone as far as customization and applications. In the future, I think the Android OS will become even more advanced and can be a full blown iphone killer if the UI is developed better and made more slick and adds Docs and Google Reader I think the G1 may be a better option for a phone.

The HTC G1 will be $179 with a 2-year Tmobile contract, which I am not fond of but, if you have a contract with another provider and you want a Google phone then, you can just wait for an Android phone to come to your provider, that is if you are happy with your provider or you can just wait till your contract expires and switch to a cell phone service who has the phone. Personally in writing this I have become interested and might consider getting on of these phones especially if they add Google Docs and Reader. This is perfect for nerds but, not really for average users because the OS is still a little too complicated for the mainstream.

At Apple’s notebook event on Tuesday Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, was asked about the addition of the new Bluray technology being included in their computers and while Jobs said Apple was waiting for licencing to become more affordable he mentioned that Apple already provides a great way to get high-definition movies via the iTunes store. I could not agree more, optical disk drives have become much less necessary now more than ever because the fast internet connections have become much more affordable to consumers. This allows services like iTunes and Unbox to provide movies to the consumers at much lower prices and at a much higher convenience.  In addition, larger and faster hard drives allows people to have their movies on their hard drives and have them with them anywhere or watch on the internet in a flash player accessible anywhere! As for software, a lot of software disks are only needed when it is being installed and a lot of people are beginning to use web-based applications that can be accessed on any computer and does not need to be installed on local machines. The one type of applications that usually require the disk to be in the disk drive while being used is video games and as computer capacities get larger, more games will be disk-free. My idea for the best method of distributing software, is developing a web-based store (Similar to Amazon and iTunes) and buy installers from there and completely taking optical media out of the equation. This solution would require an authentication process to limit users from installing applications on as many computers as they want thus, stealing from the company who worked to program the application. In my plan the store would also keep track of what applications you purchased and how many licences you bought so that you can authorize an de-authorize computers from a web control panel and if you need to reinstall an application you can re-acquire the application from the website with ease.  As for burning CDs and DVDs, I do that so in frequently it  has become something I seldom do in my lifestyle.  Burning CDs to play in your car or stereo isn’t practical now that most cars and stereos have MP3 player adaptors and DVDs are really not necessary now that devices exist that let you stream files from your computer files to be played on your large screen  TV.  I believe that Bluray will not be widely adopted and instead people will begin to use digital purchases more regularly and make it more valuable for the movie industry to get their movies available for digital download and same goes for music, television shows and software. I am predicting that in the next few years people will not be getting optical disk drives  and will begin to live disk free. Another advantage is you won’t have to store those disks and work to find them when you have to reinstall applications.