http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/90145/in-flight-cell-ban-bill-making-its-way-through-us-congress.html

The discussion of cell phones on airplanes has been going on for a while now. What I find interesting is that the only real argument I hear against allowing cell phone use on planes has NOTHING to do with technology or federal regulations; it has to do with behavior. I find it odd that this debate only seems to center around one emotionally charged reason. Most people I know oppose allowing cell phone use on planes for only one reason: “I don’t want to be sitting next to that self-important sumbitch who has to talk loud into his phone the entire flight!”

Granted, *other people* sure can be annoying with cell phones. I can remember one flight I took to Norfolk from Philly. As we were boarding the plane, one woman a couple of rows back from me started making calls, apparently to people whom she would be seeing in Norfolk. Three phone calls were centered around the endless repetition of “No, we’re on the plane. Yes, we’re on the plane. We’re on the plane! No, we’re sitting on the plane right now!” Seriously, that’s all she kept saying as she went through three phone calls. Would you really want to spend time with somebody too stupid to comprehend that you’re on the plane right now? But is that really a good enough reason to continue to ban the use of cell phones in flight? I’ve never seen any actual proof that the use of cell phones or “portable electronic devices” actually causes any problems with aircraft communication devices. I remember back in the early 80’s when my family flew on an Air Force C-5 from Ramstein to Dover that I couldn’t use my first generation Sony Walkman at all because it would “screw with the plane’s communications and navigation systems.” The Mythbusters set out to test this, but could only test on ground as the FAA wouldn’t relax the laws for one TV show. Their on-ground tests with a variety of cell phones showed no interference with the plane’s instrumentation.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind being able to use my phone, at least, it would be nice to use my data connection inflight. I can’t think of many calls that can’t wait until I get on the ground, but it sure would be nice to have Internet access while flying.

What about you? Can you think of any reason beside “I don’t want to sit next to the sumbitch talking on his phone!” why allowing cell phone use in flight would be a bad idea that should continue to be outlawed?

I just finished a survey put on by Plaxo asking questions about a possible “photo sharing service.” I answered as honestly as I could, that is, I don’t care, probably won’t care next week, and definitely am not likely to care in the next month. If Plaxo offered the service, I would be “highly unlikely” to use it.

Do you ever feel like you’re on the wrong end of a paradigm? I subscribe to quite a few technology blogs through Google Reader, and it does seem that most sites these days are jumping over themselves to offer “photo sharing” services. I put quotes around the words simply to indicate how little the subject interests me.

Want to know what would get me really excited? Something like Apple’s Mobile Me, with two conditions.

1. it works, and is designed more for Windows Mobile than for the iPhone,

and

1. it syncs Outlook tasks.
2. Oh, yeah, being free (or substantially less than Mobile Me’s $99 up front for a year price) would be nice too.

Here’s what I envision: something like Microsoft Exchange, which is prohibitively expensive for a single user like myself. I’d just like the ability to synchronize my ActiveSync items between my Pocket PC Phone and my laptop and maybe another desktop computer without having to pay a buttload or go with a service like Mobile Me that at present seems like a good reason for Apple to issue an apology to Microsoft for years of flack. Hey, Apple, it sure is hard to deploy and support a service that a lot of people actually use, isn’t it? Anyway, I’d like to sync my stuff without needing my cradle and needing my Pocket PC and laptop in the same room.

I’d also like an easier way to update my blog from my Pocket PC. At this point, I can’t input the CAPTCHA from Pocket Internet Explorer, so I can’t post to my blog at all unless I’m at my laptop.

Thus endeth the rant.

Do you care about or plan to use a photo sharing service that Plaxo may roll out? I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, I'm just saying I don't really care right now.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has a post about the top five iPhone gripes. Part of me is falling under the spell of the “Reality Distortion Field” while another part of my looks at the iPhone and realizes that my Pocket PC phone can already do most of what the iPhone does, in many cases better.

After years of Apple fans bashing Microsoft foul-ups, I’m intrigued to see Apple running into problems with a major release.

I’ve heard many times over the last year since the original iPhone was released that “AT&T will always be the iPhone’s Achilles Heal.” I think I agree with that statement, outside of the iPhone’s own limitations. I’ve been with AT&T for a long time, and to be honest, the only thing that has kept me with them is the fear that no other carrier is any better. My phone signal goes in an out like the tides. No kidding, I can be sitting in the same spot and go from five bars to no signal and back to five bars again several times within a few minutes. Call quality isn’t that great. My wife frequently doesn’t get calls from people, and voice mails will show up suddenly two weeks or more after they were left. We’ve complained about this many times in the last three years, and she’s been through five phones with the exact same problem. The problem seems to have eased the last time they replaced her phone, but it’s still there. Once again, I doubt any other carrier is any better. I hear T-Mobile’s coverage isn’t good, but everybody loves their customer service. I’ve never met anybody who complained about T-mobile’s customer service. Even Consumer Reports reflected this in their phone issue approx October 2007.

One AT&T flaw I expected was overwhelmed activation servers. I can’t tell you how many times I try to log into AT&T to check my minutes or how much data I’ve used, only to find the entire website or even a small portion of it (like data usage) unavailable. For a world class telecommunications company, AT&T really doesn’t impress me.

TWIT Live.TV

Leo LaPorte is apparently going to broadcast around the clock as the iPhone goes on sale around the world, starting in New Zealand and concluding 24 hours later in Honolulu. I have his feed running right now. I wouldn’t have known about this had I not checked my Google Reader feeds. I’ll probably only listen in for a few minutes, but I heard him say “Alex Lindsey will be stopping by around 4 in the morning," which will be 7AM here, by which time I should be settled into work and finished with my first cup of coffee. I doubt I can get his site at work through the proxy though.

In any case, if you’re interested in such ambitious coverage of what may be exciting but will eventually go down in history as a fairly trivial event, tune into the link.

I had to make a quick road trip over the weekend. I got news about my grandmother on Saturday afternoon, and we decided to alter our weekend plans and shoot up to Buffalo for a short visit. I was given my Father's Day present early, a Nintendo Wii. It's still in the box at home. The rest of my Father's Day was pretty uneventful, enough that I pretty much forgot it. We left our house around 5:30 PM Saturday. The GPS led us astray. I wondered why we weren't taking the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, when my wife took the thing and found that somehow "avoid toll roads" was checked. We lost a good hour of time and went about 60 miles off course. We rolled into Buffalo about 2:15 AM Sunday morning. I still have no idea why "avoid toll roads" would have been checked. I would have checked it earlier, but my wife yells at me too much for "playing with the GPS" while I'm driving.

While in Buffalo, we took the kids to Niagra Falls, since they see it in the Little Einsteins video they watch incessantly. We went to see my grandmother and spent some time with her neighbors, wonderful people who have watched over her and taken care of her for years. We left Monday morning, and stopped for dinner in Plymouth Meeting to sit out traffic on Philadelphia's Schuylkill Expressway. I hate Philly traffic. I wouldn't mind moving to Buffalo. We like my grandmother's area. The cold wouldn't bother me. I'd welcome it.

While driving, we noticed a lot of people talking on cell phones. One girl driving a Corolla that we passed going down I-81 in New York was texting heavily while driving. In fact, we had to pass her on the right because she was so busy texting, she didn't notice all the cars flying up on her in the left lane, then flying around to the right to get back around her at realistic highway speeds. While coming up on trucks, we could often see the drivers in their side-view mirrors. I was amazed at how many truckers were talking on cell phones without hands-free devices. I saw this article on MSN about how drivers are ignoring the laws. New Jersey has some pretty stiff cell phone/driving laws, yet 1 out of every 2 drivers I see on the road here is TALKING ON A CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING. I don't agree with these laws, but if we're going to have them, why not enforce them? Nobody but me takes them seriously. Since I lost my headset, I won't answer my phone while I'm driving. If it's an important call, I'll put it on speaker. If my wife is with me, I make (kindly ask) her to take the call for me. Nobody else her seems to take the law seriously though. Why not enforce it with hefty fines and maybe give us a break on our "highest in the nation" property taxes?

During the trip, my wife had to use my Pocket PC a couple of times to look something up on the internet. While I talked her through it, I tried to pitch to her how much easier it would be if she'd led me get an iPhone, or better yet, if we both had iPhones. She's much more disciplined than I am though, at least when it comes to buying an iPhone.

We spent a buttload of money on gas for this trip. Here is a piece I came across at how we can thank Al Gore for that. Don't forget: follow the money. There is a LOT of money to be made on "green tech" and global warming speeches. When I see Gore move out of his huge mansion into a tent in the woods and ride a bike to his global warming conferences, I'll consider that he's doing it for reasons other than it pays really good and makes him really popular.

Anyway, I'm tired and cranky and I should quit while I'm ahead.

Daniel Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, poked a little fun at a possible drop in Garmin sales. That got me to wondering if the iPhone with an integrated GPS really would have an affect on sales of other units. My wife bought a Magellan Maestro 3100 last year. I call it "Nagging GPS Lady", for the female voice that keeps telling to to turn when I either miss a turn or think I know a better route than the GPS recommends. I still enjoy that GPS. I've had GPS capability on my Pocket PCs for several years, and my current phone has a built-in GPS. Still, I keep my wife's unit locked in my car "in case I need it."

I can't predict the future, and I don't think I'd try, but I still think a regular GPS would be a great asset next to an iPhone. I'm sure somebody will make a car mount for the iPhone if one doesn't exist already, but I'm not sure how well it would work as a stand alone unit to drive with. I'm sure it's fine if you're walking around and trying to find a Starbucks, but how well would it work to find an address while you're driving?

I'm sure we'll find out by the end of next month.