The Email Solution

Previously I wrote about my challenges finding the perfect email solution after getting an iPhone and discovering that using POP3 sucks.

For the past several months, I've had my Gmail address forward everything to my .Mac address, which I used as my only address.  This way I had an IMAP account and could manage my mail from my iPhone, Mail.app, or through .Mac webmail and keep everything in sync.  I still used my Gmail address as my main address because I didn't want to go through the hassle of switching (I still get email at my old Yahoo account) and Gmail has a great spam filter.  The major drawback to this approach is that .Mac webmail isn't all that great, and I end up using it quite a bit since Mail.app doesn't work through a number of firewalls.

Then Google added IMAP support to Gmail and I was presented with a new option.  While it's true that I don't have simple syncing of my address book, I hardly find it necessary since Gmail automatically adds email addresses to my contacts.  I still prefer to use Mail.app whenever I can, but I feel like I have the best solution for email in any scenario.

From a business perspective I can see why Google decided to give free IMAP support, because users like me will be exposed to ads whenever we use the web interface even if it isn't the only means we use to check email, and it keeps us from looking for different solutions.

iPhone users can take advantage of free Push IMAP from Yahoo, but when using a computer you're limited to using the webmail interface or using POP3.  I definitely think that Gmail is the best choice.

Leopard First Impressions

Leopard arrived on my doorstep at 10 am this morning.  This was far more convenient than going to a retail store at 6:00 where there will probably be crowds (though the crowds will be rewarded with free t-shirts).

I'm working from home today, so I waited until lunch to let the installation run.  I had been tempted to go through the pain of a clean install, but opted instead to do an upgrade.  The whole process took a little over an hour and went very smoothly.

After booting it up, I was presented with the new desktop I had seen before in so many screenshots.  I moved the Dock to the bottom of the screen to enjoy the 3-D look (I usually have it positioned on the side where it effectively takes up less space, but in Leopard the Dock only does the 3-D thing on the bottom).

The feature that I was most excited about was Spaces, and it doesn't disappoint.  I used to be a heavy Linux user and was a fan of virtual desktops.  Spaces is a big step forward from what I've used before in that it seems well integrated with the OS and is very Mac-like (switching between spaces slides you from one desktop to the next). Spaces partially obsoletes the need for one of my favorite Mac features, Expose.  When you open a bunch of windows (something I do often), Expose is an awesome way to switch between them, but with Spaces I doubt I'll ever have too many open in a single space at once.  I replaced the "All Windows" Expose with Spaces as my upper left hot corner and my Mighty Mouse squeeze button, though I imagine I'll still get some use out of the "Application Windows" Expose feature which is my upper right hot corner.

For the first hour or so of using Leopard, I was concerned that it was causing my system to run much slower than it did with Tiger, but I believe the source of the sluggishness was the Spotlight indexing.  After it completed everything seem to work at a normal pace.

Speaking of Spotlight, the improvements made here may stop me from using Quicksilver. After I started using it I immediately became a fan of how easy Quicksilver makes launching applications, but now Spotlight quickly brings matching applications to the top of my search results and highlights the top one by default.  It still isn't quite as slick as Quicksilver, which will learn from your search patterns to bring the best match to the top and has all sorts of plugins, but the new Spotlight will do the trick 90% of the time for me and eliminates an application that used to run constantly.

I still haven't used Leopard marquee feature, Time Machine.  I think I'll need to get a new external hard drive so that I can have one dedicated to Time Machine and one dedicated to additional storage, because my 250 GB drive is already filling up fast.

One of my few disappointments is that I was hoping I could now set birthday reminders in my birthday calendar (which automatically shows birthdays from your Address Book).  Also Mail's new To-Do lists and Notes do not sync with the iPhone, but I'm willing to bet that that feature is on its way soon.

I'm looking forward to finding other cool changes have been made.  So far, Leopard seems to be worth the wait.

Going on a Safari

I've been a very satisfied Firefox user for about three and a half years (I started using it when it was called Firebird).  Before that I typically used Mozilla because I found IE's lack of tabbed browsing to be intolerable.

However I've tentatively switched to Safari full time recently.  Specifically I'm using the new Safari 3.0 beta.  Why would I do such a thing after being so happy with the more widely used and open source Firefox?

Well the main reason is that I've been using my MacBook Pro for work and running Windows Server 2003 under Parallels.  I get a lot of second looks carrying a Mac at Microsoft (I'm on a vendor contract there).  Safari seems to be less hungry for CPU and memory, which are precious when running two OSs.  Plus, it is noticeably faster when loading most web pages.

My previous attempts to use Safari ended quickly because I missed Firefox's type-ahead find and Google search auto-completion, but Safari 3.0 adds find functionality that is even better (it dims the page and highlights the search text in orange as you type) and the Inquisitor plugin gets me the search-box completion.  Plus Safari's bookmarks sync with my iPhone and .Mac account and passwords are stored in Keychain (one of the Mac's best apps that most people don't know about).  I still miss Firefox's session restore and a few of the plugins, but those don't affect me on a daily basis.

It seems that I'm constantly becoming more and more dependent on Apple's software (most recently iWeb and .Mac), which gives me a little pause, but they just meet my needs so well.

iPhone Email Woes

Using Gmail on the iPhone, or any POP3 email service, sucks.

When I receive a new email, it shows up on both Gmail and my iPhone, and I have to mark it as read in both places since there isn't any synchronization. It is irritating to have to manage email in two places, plus on the iPhone this can be a pain since you have to actually load the email to mark it as read, which can be slow.

Another quirk is that whenever I send an email, my sent message shows up as a new unread message, though I've heard there is a workaround for this issue.

I've been a loyal Gmail user and advocate for two years now, and it is hard to imagine giving it up. I really love the tagging and archiving of messages, super-fast searching, and the way subjects are organized into threads.

In order to really enjoy email on the iPhone, you need an IMAP provider. I don't know that Gmail could offer IMAP even if they wanted to due to the fact that tags are used instead of folders.

Here are my options as I currently see them:

1. Continue to use Gmail and just live with the annoyances. I'll still get to enjoy the awesome Web experience and stay loyal to Google (plus not have to change email addresses).
2. Get a new Yahoo address. I used to use Yahoo and still have that address, but it has become buried in spam, so I would need a new one. This would have the advantage of push integration with the iPhone and IMAP support. The drawbacks are that I would have to sync my address book from time to time (I keep contacts in my Mac's Address Book, which syncs perfectly with the iPhone) and Yahoo's Web interface is covered with annoying ads (Gmail's ads are very unobtrusive), though I think for a small fee I could eliminate these.
   
3. Begin using my .Mac account as my primary email service. This option will allow me to use IMAP (I don't believe there is push integration with the iPhone, but I would be surprised if this wasn't in the works), sync my address book automatically with the Web interface, and use IMAP with Mail.app (not sure if Yahoo allows this). The drawback of this option is the fact that my email address is now tied to an expensive service with only 500 MB of disk space.

If I do choose to change my email address, I think I'll give everyone an address that forwards to the new service in order to hedge my bets. Plus it would be nice to use my domain for email.

iPhone: Mission Accomplished

Leading up to the week of the iPhone's release, I knew I would get one, but I planned on picking it up sometime after the launch in order to avoid the lines. Then in the days leading up to the release (June 29th, or iPhone Day) Apple wisely dribbled out a series of press releases to generate additional hype, which I and a number of people I know fell victim to. The thought of not having one in my hands on Saturday became very unappealing.

My father was gracious enough to offer to hold a place in line for me early Friday morning until I could relieve him. As a result I was first in line at the Issaquah AT&T store. I spent most of the day sitting in a lawn chair working. I was able to a Wi-Fi signal from the nearby Starbucks and brought two laptops since I had no means of charging either once the batteries gave out.

The other squatters were very friendly as well as the store employees who would come talk to us periodically. The security detail seemed unnecessary; what could happen in Issaquah? There were no problems leaving the line to go to the bathroom or get some snacks. It began to rain on us that afternoon, but no one was going anywhere.

Becky brought the kids over for lunch, and then returned just before the doors opened. She had spent the past six months rolling her eyes whenever I mentioned the iPhone, but was very supportive when it came time for me to actually pick one up, perhaps because she figured I'd finally shut up about it.

When 6:00 rolled around, everyone in line clapped as I went inside, shaking the employees' hands and having my picture taken. For about five minutes my place in line made me a minor celebrity (thanks Dad!).

So far the device seems to be worthy of the anticipation, but I'll write more after I've used it for a while.

A New Purpose

So if you've managed to visit this sight in the past few months, you'll notice this blog has been seriously neglected. Actually I've moved the family blog to iWeb, and you can see the new family website at www.hovenkotter.com.

However I don't plan on abandoning this blog. I'm thinking about starting to blog about non-family related topics that interest me, and using this blog for that. It won't be every day, since I don't think I can come up with interesting things that often, but I think I can write up something compelling from time to time.

Please check back here from time to time for updates.

Going Commercial?

If you look at the URL for this page you will notice that I recently bought the hovenkotter.com domain. My old domain, hovenkotter.net now forwards to this one.

The reason I originally used .net is because I thought it was more of a general purpose TLD whereas .com is meant for commercial entities. As it turns out .net was actually meant for network infrastructures, though it is now unrestricted. The TLD that is really meant for sites like this is .name, but I've never heard of anyone else using that one. While I don't have any commercial plans for this page, .com has become the default address of the Internet, and the easiest domain to remember is also the best domain in my book.

I am a regular listener of Diggnation, and Go Daddy has long been a sponsor of that podcast, so I figured I'd try them out. So far I've been pretty impressed with their tools and service.

Now I just have to work on getting my Google ranking up again.