Renowned photographer Chase Jarvis is featured in an interview on SilberStudios.tv, Marc Silber’s photography site.  In it, Chase talks photo tips, and also gets a chance to show his new book, “The Best Camera”, his new iPhone app, which he developed with the assistance of some of my friends in the industry; and, about a third of the way in, there’s a glimpse of the website http://thebestcamera.com.  I played a very small part in bringing that website live with some creative client-side Javascript/Ajax/CSS work.

If you’re a photography buff you might want to check it out, and bookmark Marc’s site for future reference as well.

http://www.silberstudios.tv/msps/chase-jarvis-best-camera-tips/

(h/t @scobleizer)

On Tuesday, I purchased an AT&T Sierra Wireless 881 USB Air Card to use in my laptop.  I needed to be more mobile than I already am, what with the fact that the mojitos are usually served outdoors on the patio during the summer months.

Today I returned that steaming hunk of junk.  I spent many hours trying to get it to work, including one on the phone with a mostly clueless AT&T tech who told me at one point that “you know more than me” about the networking troubleshooting.

I couldn’t get to any internet sites; ping barfed with a 1231 error, and zero data packets of any sort were sent or received.  I tried upgrading the AT&T Communication Manager software direct from the AT&T support site, and even tried the Sierra Wireless 3G Watcher software.

So, when I returned the 881U, I got a GT Ultra Express card in its place, for $50 more.  I figured that Sierra Wireless was the culprit here and that moving to a different manufacturer might work out well.

I was right.  The GT Ultra Express works beautifully.  It’s an Express Card card, so it’s much lower profile than the monstrous 881U, and it works like a champ.  Initial bandwidth tests to Speakeasy show a download speed of 1639 kbps and an upload speed of 636 kbps, which is right in the advertised range and definitely acceptable for my needs.

So – for those of you choosing between the Sierra Wireless cards and the Option Wireless cards available from AT&T, definitely consider the Option Wireless ones, particularly the GT Ultra Express.  The difference is night and day!

I’ve spent 73.6 minutes over the last two days looking at various ways to get a photo from my iPhone onto Twitter. As such, these results are definitive, final and no amount of comment spam will move you up on the list!

• TwitPic

Pros: Simple. E-mail your photo direct from your iPhone camera app; photo appears in tweet within minutes. Cons: None that I could find.

• Twitxr

Pros: As simple as TwitPic. Cons: Terrible, terrible name. How do you pronounce it again? Also, it seems like there’s too much emphasis on the Twitxr website, and not on the integration.

• Utterz

Pros: This appears to be the swiss army knife of photo-to-social-networking services. Cons: Too complex: Disqualified.

• Twittergram Flickr to Twitter

Pros: Super-simple – once you get your iPhone-to-Flickr support set up. Cons: Isn’t this Dave Winer’s thing?

• Flickr2Twitter / rss2Twitter

Pros: Indirect integration with Flickr, which is nice. Cons: slightly complex setup steps. This is essentially the same concept as Winer’s Flickr-to-Twitter mentioned above, with you doing more of the work.

• Natuba

Pros: Simple. Cons: No Twitter integration. Disqualified.

• SnapFoo

Pros: Simple, plus has some anti-spoofing measures. Cons: Some of their bio pictures look like ones you might get from marryaprisoner.com.

• Mobicue

Pros: They’ve hired a graphic designer. Cons: They didn’t hire a UX person. Disqualified.

CONCLUSION: Go with TwitPic for now if all you want/need is iPhone-to-Twitter support. If you want to use Flickr as your storage mechanism, use Twittergram or roll your own mechanism based on the same concept.

I gave up yesterday and purchased an iPhone from the Apple Store in University Village.

When I say “gave up” what I really mean is that “one of my kids cracked the LCD screen on my AT&T Tilt“, which isn’t a warranty item.  So I had to get a new phone anyway.  I didn’t want to have to beg some teenager at AT&T for a refurb replacement for the low, low price of only 50% off, so I indulged and upgraded to the phone I really wanted since Christmas, when Santa Claus brought one for my wife.

And I’m still impressed as hell with the iPhone’s usability.  It’s so stunning an experience that it makes me wonder why iTunes is such a relative dog from a UX standpoint.  Different teams, I guess.

A quirk:: my nice Shure headphones won’t fit correctly into the iPhone’s headset jack.  It’s a 2.5 mm opening, but it’s recessed enough that it won’t fit snugly.  I paid $10 for a Monster extender that will adapt my short plug *cough* to the deeper recess on the iPhone.

I’ve already found a great Twitter client, iTweet.  I tried Hahlo based on some web recommends and found it to be confusing.  iTweet is a nicer experience.  Over EDGE it still performs well enough to be a constant companion.

Next steps: figure out how to tether for my demanding moble-worker lifestyle (hah!), and how to get Google Apps set up on my e-mail client.

Today is not my day for connectivity.  I’m at a Starbucks down on Eastlake and although T-Mobile reports everything is fine, it seems like half the internet is shut off to me.  My $29.99 T-Mobile account only is useful on those one or two days a month when I actually log in from a Starbucks.

Luckily I can get on WordPress.com and complain!

Nikki Barton notes correctly that we need to really start thinking about designing for the mobile web.  Have you?  I sure haven’t (yet).

(h/t Kevin Marks via Chris Messina)

I’ve had my AT&T Tilt for just over a month now.  Today was the first time it hung.  I used to have to reset my Cingular 8125 every so often, so I wasn’t THAT surprised, but since this device has been so flawless so far I have to admit I was a little taken aback.

Slipped off the battery cover, took out and replaced the battery, and all is well.  So far.

I’ve just finished setting up an iPhone for my wife, which I Santa Claus delivered on Christmas Day. I had been only half-following the iPhone hype since the summertime, convinced that the Windows Mobile phones, such as my newish AT&T Tilt, were superior.

I was wrong.

The iPhone is the most incredible piece of electronics I’ve ever seen. It’s sleek, fast, feature-rich, and the usability — well, let’s just say that I’ve never seen a more intuitive, friendly device in my lifetime. Most people would sooner have trouble figuring out a Pong paddle than with the iPhone.

My AT&T Tilt, while a superior phone in the Windows Mobile world, comes off like a chump. I can’t think of a single place where the Tilt is the clear winner.

In particular:

• Networking is a SNAP.
• E-mail configuration is a SNAP.
• Keyboard typing is immensely helped by the instant-feedback feature.
• The web-browsing experience is AMAZING.
• Contact management features are FANTASTIC.
• Navigation (with gestures and only one hard button) is SUPERB.

I’m wondering how long it will be before I sell my Tilt and get an iPhone. Seriously, I have no need for my Tilt that the iPhone doesn’t fill.

• Remote Desktop? That’s such a drag on Windows Mobile that I don’t even use it anyway.
• Office Mobile? Don’t use it.
• OneNote for Windows Mobile? Too constrained to be useful.
• Do I miss not having a stylus?  Not so far.  With the advances in gestures, I can’t think of why I would miss it.

I’m very simply blown away. Great job Apple!

This was a nice surprise in my inbox this morning – an e-mail from Handango, inviting me to get a free Windows Mobile application. I was a bit skeptical, thinking it was for a limited-functionality or trial-version software. As best as I can tell after I downloaded and installed the award-winning Pocket Informant 2007 from WebIS, it’s a full-featured application. This normally sells for $34.95 on Handango.com. If I like it, wonderful! And if not, it was just a few minutes to try out.

I’ve been using Google Reader a lot lately on my new AT&T Tilt.  The tilt function really does help with lengthy browser sessions — it’s much more ergonomic than the 8125/8525 “flat” configuration.  I’ve been using the keyboard to do quick navigations, using the “fn lock” capability to get to the numbers on the keyboard – press the Fn key twice.  The Tilt has a nice amber status light to let you know that Fn is on.

However, the # (pound/hash) key doesn’t work.  I’ve checked to see if this is a problem with the keyboard mapping fix I had to apply to the cooked ROM, but it’s not that — it may be a problem with Mobile IE, or something else entirely I haven’t yet figured out.