So, what makes Apple think this is okay? To be honest, I’m not sure. Mail.app is a special application which treats multiple email account with the respect they deserve, granting the user the ability work with all email as if it were one giant account. It does this because it applies simple smarts which any one of the hundreds of email clients which have ever come out could have applied at any time and chose not to. Every email account has an Inbox, a Sent folder, a Drafts folder, and a Trash folder. Does it not make sense to combine the contents of all accounts into one folder called Inbox? Of course it does.

Does anyone else do it? No.

I hear all of your Windows folk out there screaming your heads off about how Outlook does this, but I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. Not the same way. I’m no Apple-only nerd who touched a Windows 95 in DOS mode back in 1996 and consider myself in the know. I’ve been actively working with Windows and Microsoft technology based servers for years. I’m very, VERY familiar with this kind of stuff, and Apple walks through it like a hot coals walker handles temperate pavement. What Apple doesn’t do, however, is reliability.

I’ve had my issues, but I’m not the only one. Right now I can’t send mail. I even went through the trouble of setting up a single outgoing account for all messages since late last year Mail.app couldn’t remember how to login to several different accounts at the same time (if you tell me that having more than one account is breaking it, I’ll freak… comprende vous?). Its so bad that I’m actually using Entourage, which is a horrible kludge of an application. One of the issues that amazes me, though, is that when Mail.app is thinking hard to cause the spinning beachball to appear, all you need to do is click a half dozen times in the window to crash it.

Like I said, though. I’m not the only one. I have reports from people very close to me as well as dozens of strangers and semi-acquaintances that they are also having issues with Mail.app. They have lost mail, watched Mail.app practically eat itself, crash over and over again, and many other unpleasant behaviors. Why Apple continues to allow this is beyond me, especially when Steve Jobs and Co. are so rabid about user experience. If Apple could just make it work, make it more responsive, stop it from crashing and eating email, fix up the SMTP (postfix or sendmail, anyone?), and make the filters easier to create a manage (TIP TO APPLE: Don’t put it in the freaking Preferences panel and add a Create Filter From Message button!!!).

I’m just saying!

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Now, as to the podcast, I’m running that Chupacabra down ASAP, likely tomorrow. To tide you over, Arlen Specter, Mr. Centrist Republican himself, has ditched the extreme Right to adopt lodgings with the Communist, Stalin-loving Democrats. BTW, I’m a dem.

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The HBM-770 is just like every other Bluetooth headset, as I’ve said before. It has a power button, a charging port, volume controls, and you can plug it in the charge. It sits on your ear using a large loop (See image left). which starts behind the microphone and causes it to gently rest on your ear. Its the in-ear piece which defines how it sits on the side of your head, which really seems to work for me.

The speaker horn (that’s what I’m calling it… deal) sticks out a ways and rests very lightly in your ear canal. Its so light overall that there are times when I forget I’m wearing it and put my hand to my head to check. To switch the side of your head you want to headset on, you just flip the ear hoop. You don’t have to pull it out or swap it with another one. Its also nice that this one doesn’t need to invade your ear canal in order to work. I don’t think it has significant noise cancellation, but a good, loud handset makes up for that. 

I’m actually rather amazed its so light. They actually crammed the standard LG handset charger port onto this thing, which is real overkill to me, and had they not, it could have been a few grams lighter. It might have even floated. That’s fantastic since I have managed to alienate every headset I’ve ever received. It hurts the back of my ear. It hurts the front of my ear. It has too many pieces. It goes in too far. It doesn’t go in far enough. Mostly, though, they’ve never been loud enough. 

This is loud and clear, which means I can actually hear conversations instead of guessing what someone is saying to me. Even the operational tones the headset makes are useful. I can easily identify each noise that its making without the need to consult a manual or query the phone. Its simple, clean, and without drama of any kind. I like it. Hell, it even turns on and off smartly. When its off, touch the power button for a second and it comes on. When its on, hold it for 3 seconds and it turns off. There are no incantations, certifications, or teams of professionals required to operate it. 

I can’t help it, but if you need a simple, plain Bluetooth headset, there is no other choice but the LG HBM-770. It beats the pants off of anything else out there for me. Even the Jawbone. Sure, the Jawbone looks fantastic and has that wicked noise cancellation technology which can delete lawnmowers from a conversation, but it doesn’t work for me. So, for US$80 list, I cannot and will not beat this thing with a stick of any kind. I’ve found my headset soul mate. Feel free to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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The key to the functionality of the Pulse is manifold, but it can be counted down to the infrared camera perched under the nib (I’m old, so look it up), the voice recording capabilities, and the special paper the pens use in order to work their magic. Now don’t go groaning over the fact that you have to buy special paper. Have you seen what a simple notepad costs at Barnes & Noble these days? Shocking to the point where you’ll think that paying $20 for a 200 sheet notebook which enables the power of the Pulse is a steal and a half. Combine that with the fact that the most recent Windows version of the software can print blank pages, and you’re on easy street.

So, how do the camera, recorder, and paper work to together to make this powerful combo I speak of? That’s a more complicated question, but there are answers. I am, however, going to quickly describe the Pulse and what the package comes with. First, there’s the pen, of course. Its a large pen, but not much larger than the big, thick, expensive pens which you can buy that don’t do anything the Pulse does. In the box there is a 200 page starter notebook (8.5″ x 11″, college ruled), a nicely small and portable USB magnetic dock, a pair of stereo headphones with a microphone in each earpiece, a lanyard for the headphones, a set of replacement ink cartridges and a stylus tip (nice touch!), and a crappy faux leather case (What happened!?). Take a gander at the image below:

The pen has a display embedded in the side of it. Nicely, there are several options for how you can use the pen, and one of them is to change the orientation of the screen depending on what hand you use (I’m a lefty… deal). That grill you can see under the screen is a speaker and on the top end of the pen is the headphone/microphone jack. I’ll get to the headphones later. They’re super neat. 

Now, whenever the pen is on and you write on the special paper (check out the image), the pen stores everything you write in its memory. I have the 1GB version, though there’s also a 2GB model. So, as long as the pen is on it records what you write. Now for the voice recording. If you tap on the Record button which are conveniently located on the bottom edge of every page then the Pulse starts to record, just like a standard voice recorder. Here’s where the neat trick comes into play though: as you write, the Pulse keeps track of what you are writing and tags the audio recorded to that writing. 

When you’re done taking notes, you click the Stop button. Here’s the next neato trick: While the Pulse is not recording, you can tap on any of your notes and it will play back the audio recorded for that segment. Pretty slick, eh! The trick I’ve learned already is to just write a keyword as I’m recording instead of trying to keep up and missing stuff. If I have a question, I’ll write down a snippet to remind me of the question and then carry on with my conversation. Fraking brilliant! The other controls on the pages allow you to control volume, speed, jumping forward and backward to tracks, and making bookmarks. 

Using the headphones also sports a neat trick. The jack right into the end of the Pulse so you can listen to the recorded audio in stereo. Why? Sure, the built-in mic only records in mono, but when you jack in those wicked headphones, the Pulse records in stereo. That’s why there is a microphone in each earbud. Trust me when I tell you that this is remarkably helpful. Say, for instance, you’re sitting at a table talking with 4 or 5 people. Wearing the headphones (or wearing them down on your neck using the lanyard) lets the Pulse record your environment the same way you hear. When you play this stereo sound back later, you hear the direction people are speaking from. I find it a fantastic way to recall how the conversation was going since I can visualize the meeting. 

Once you’ve collected stuff on your new pen, its time to get that data onto your desktop. LiveScribe nicely offers both Windows and Mac OS X versions of the desktop client, though the Mac version has some catching up to do. For one thing, with the Windows version you can print your own paper. Not so on the Mac. Shame! Interestingly, the box doesn’t come with a CD in it, but when you do download the client for your operating system at least you’re getting the latest version. Once its installed, all you need to do is plug in the dock and place the pen into it. It connects and moves everything from the pen to the desktop client. Once there, everything which has a voice recording attached to it is highlighted in green. 

Now, if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. Say, for example, that you’ve been taking notes for a few months now and you’ve been asked by a colleague or classmate for a note you made back in some project meeting or lecture. All you need to do is load up LiveScribeDesktop and search for the keywords. The software is so smart that it can actually parse your handwriting and show you which pages any hits are on. No kidding! This thing is so smart that it can tell which notebook you are in and which page you’re turned to. Very, very cool indeed. 

There are some other gee willikers things the Pulse can do, but they really don’t add to the functionality except for the calculator. The nice thing that the developers have allowed for is adding new features through software updates. In fact, for the first month I had this thing I received no less that 10 updates to the pen software. Its pretty amazing that the Pulse sports a 150MHz ARM9 processor and a 300mAh LiIon rechargeable battery and crams ups to 2GB of storage space into such a cool pen. 

Simply put, if you pair the Pulse up with an iPhone, BlackBerry, or one of the new Palm Pre devices, you are set to go laptop free. I’m not kidding. The only thing that LiveScribe is missing is some more options in paper products. They have the big college-ruled notebooks and some largish bound notebooks with lines or no lines, but there are no notebooks or calendar books. I’d love to see a notebook which is as long as the Pulse, 3-4″ wide, unlined, with a barrel on the spine into which you can slide the Pulse while you’re not working with it. That and I’d really like to see an integrated calendar management tool. Maybe even synching it up to Windows or Mac OS X. Now that would rock. 

Now that I’ve turned you all on to the Pulse, I would like to inform you that you can have your own right now. You can head on over to LiveScribe’s web site and order one there or you can swing over to your local Target and get it there. The 1GB model runs for US$150 while the 2GB model runs for US$200. The reality is that this is just one of the single coolest gadgets available on the planet and I can only see it getting better and better.

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Its my bet that even if Microsoft does manage to make Internet Explorer that the underlying systems which renders HTML and associated code for the IE web browser won’t be going anywhere. Sure, you may be able to remove IE and not see it anywhere on the system, but it will be there. There’s no question about that. Windows Vista and Windows 7 employ a new UI system which renders dialogs instead of by calling the larger traditional UI assets and components of older systems. Of course, transforming an OS interface into what is essentially a web browser was supposed to be a means by which Microsoft could reduce the size of the overall system, but, as we all know, Vista and Windows 7 are the largest versions of Windows in the companies long history. Another guess I have is that, even if Microsoft is able to make IE vanish, that you will still be able to open a Windows Explorer window, type in an URL, and get somewhere on the intarwebs.

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The reason this is cool is because it allows you to use Google’s most used features without being online, but what it affords Google is far more comprehensive. Gears technology allows Google to pre-define and work out the kinks on keeping its mess of services synched up correctly with local applications. Sure, for now that’s web browsers and web pages, but there’s no limitation anywhere which states that the sync target isn’t an application instead of a browser. This suggests that its the synching which is more important to Google than the offline usage aspect, though that’s a feature which should not be discounted. It will be some time before everyone is always online, so offline access is critical to Google’s success.

Google’s also got another trick up its sleeve which it hasn’t seen fit to shine a spotlight on. You thought that the Google Phone, T-Mobile’s G1 Android phone, was cool. Wait until you see Grand Central. Grand Central is an access provider which Google bought last year and has not yet publicized significantly. In fact, its still in private beta and there are no signs that it will be coming out of the closet any time soon. What does Grand Central do? Its a single point of contact system which focuses around a phone number. The service gives you a number and you can add any number of phones to that service. Once added, you can control when and how people reach you and when and how the phones connected react. 

Its not clear what Google plans for Grand Central and how it might fit into the grand scheme of things, but it is a compelling additional notch in Google’s already battle-tested belt. Grand Central could very well be a component of an everything or nothing play which leaves all other contenders on the field. Take Picasa, Google Gears, a desktop application compatible with Mac and Windows, Google Sync, and Grand Central and you have an all-in-one data powerhouse which can handle your internet access, search, email, contacts, agenda, images, feeds, voice mail, phone calls, and back it all up while offering you ubiquitous access. Its not hard, then, to imagine a cheap netbook with 3G network access or tethered to a Google/Android phone (more are coming, I assure you) and a Google-specific Linux distro designed to take advantage of all of these features. 

If prices of netbooks aren’t compelling now, wait until you get a deal which includes unlimited wireless internet. My guess is that the sweet spot will be US$99-250 for MIDs to 10-11″ netbooks. Does this mean that Google’s taking over the world as we know it? Yes and no, depending on who you talk to. If you ask the nuts, sure. Google’s been trying to wrest freedom from our already tenuous grasp since day one. If you ask me (and you are reading this), then the answer is no… with concessions. Google is very clever. It will pretty much own the internet in 10 years, but not alone. It will be owned by a largely loosely compiled group of open source advocates who have been eyeing this prize since Steve Ballmer started gloating about Microsoft’s position years ago. 

More specifically, with the way that Google has positioned how it uses and leverages technology, there will be a number of sources for Google’s almost assured dominance, and this is clever because it almost completely bypasses Anti-Trust. Android is Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) so, technically, Google doesn’t own it. Email is ubiquitous, and Google makes no claims that its Gmail or nothing. In fact, Google has been opening Gmail up further and further since it started, making it pretty damned compelling. Docs: There’s no real competition, but Google’s not exactly vying to stop it, either. The same goes for Calendar, Sync, and Picasa. When you buy a WinMo phone, it won’t work with anything but Outlook on Windows. Hmm. Everything from Google works everywhere. If you were Anti-Trust, who’d you look at first?

So, as Sherlock Holmes used to say (despite the fact that he is a fictional character), “The game is afoot.” Google isn’t playing, either. They’re in this to win. They’re already one of the world’s largest companies in what is most assuredly a record breaking time. I can assure you with every fiber of my being that there’s no way in hell (or Los Angeles, if you like) that Google’s going to willingly give up that growth and power position, recession be damned. Mark my words, though. In the next year or so we’ll start hearing about desktop applications, and then you’ll know that I saw the future as clear as day… or at least that I guessed well

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• iBclean – a complete set of toiletries including the iFoof, iBrush, iPit, iPick, and iWipe systems. All devices feature a specialized version of Mac OS X and have accelerometers for position and action detection functions.
• AppleVHS – a special version of the AppleTV deck which supports playback and upcoding of VHS video cassettes.
• iPlunge – This bathroom tool sports an ergonomic handle, a 4200 mAh LiIon battery pack, and the optional iScrub toilet brush. The iPlunge can root out 150 gallons a minute and store 4,000 songs.
• iChair – There is little known about this product as Apple refuses to comment on unannounced products, but from what The Dojo iTeam can tell, it emits a Jobs Field which causes people within range to have absolute faith in Apple products. It also has adjustable height and lumbar support.
• iGuy/iGal – These complementary products offer companionship, download support, Apple’s new iHug technology, storage for 25,000 to 100,000 songs, and can operate for 12 hours before requiring a charge. You can add the optional iPerambulate system which was developed in conjunction with iRobot and adds Roomba functionality.
• iGuess – This Apple-shaped device predicts the future. Just pick it up, give it a shake to activate the accelerometer driven start function, and ask it a question. Turn it over for the answer and be in the know at any time.

That should do it. If any of these products are actually announced, I can easily say I didn’t have any insider information. I just used my iGuess. <WINK>

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First, however, the good news. If you thought that the original Jawbone was a revelation in Bluetooth headsets, you’d be right. However, after I was consistenly unable to make it work for me and remained relegated to the bench while watching my wife enjoy every minute of it, I had to consider the possibility that my head and/or ears are mishapen. To my great relief it turned out that others had similar problems. The Jawbone was designed for a particular kind of head, and mine wasn’t one of them.

Instead of railing at the poor, defenseless Bluetooth headset, I opted to not review it and wait, instead, for the Jawbone 2. It turned out that it was only a few months away (my review Jawbone came very late) and just a couple of weeks ago I received my Jawbone 2. I again marvelled at the superior industrial design, how it was so much smaller than the original, at the quality and sveltness of the new, more compact ear hoops, and that super-neato box it all comes in. I was immediately smitten.

The eye can lie, though. I opened it all up and followed the instructions. I bound it to my Palm Centro. I tried various ear bits and hoops in different combinations and on each ear. Again, however, I was foiled. It wasn’t fitting my head and, because of that, I couldn’t hear anything and people couldn’t understand a word I was saying. I thought that, at last, I knew that I was not destined to use Bluetooth. Then, one day, I spoke to a fellow nerd and he said that some people wore them without the ear hoops.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but the next day as I was trying to get onto the 10 West-bound I recalled the thought and pulled off the offending dealy and promptly shoved the Jawbone into my ear canal. Suddenly, everything was clear and it worked and it stopped noise from going in and out and, even with my windows down and the radio up, I could hold conversations. Finally, the dream which had been promised in the promotional video was available to me!

It was then, however, that I realized a few things about the price one must pay for such perfection. First and foremost, I lost the ability to hear anything from the ear into which the Jawbone 2 was inserted. I hear reasonably well, but I have a processing defect which makes it hard for me to discerne two or more sources of sound when they are competing with each other. Most people, it seems, are able to focus on one sound and push away the others. I cannot. With the Jawbone 2 blocking my ear canal, my other ear (the right) needed to hear everything else.

This did not go over well with me. I’m a music person. I prefer to have music with me all the time, especially when I’m driving. Now, this little, black communications device was taking away my music. In order to be on the phone or to have it available I would need to wittingly reduce my hearing range to less than half. Hearing works in much the same way that opening your eyes under water in a swimming pool. If you go under and look, you can see okay, but not great. If you wear goggles, you see perfect, but when you take them off, your vision is now worse than the first time.

I take the Jawbone 2 out of my ear, and now the music sounds weird, even when I turn it up loud. Is this the fault of Aliph? Probably not. I can’t imagine their engineers were laughing one day about how they would be the ruination of music. I’m sure there was an earnest effort to make something which had always been sucky, better. I believe they did do that, but sadly at the cost of my ability to enjoy music on the road. This likely means that I won’t be using it and it will go to my wife, who has been eyeing it with hunger.

If I had any other issues with the Jawbone 2, it would be the buttons. Now they are too easy to click and I’m confused by how they work. I’m also a little surprised that, despite the general loathing of power and status LEDs of Bluetooth headsets, that Aliph designed in a way to turn it off. How, then, would you know whether it was on or not? I thought that the white LED instead of Obnoxious Blue™ was a huge step in the right direction. Really, though, I just prefer to use my handset as the remote control. It works for me.

All in all, though, the Jawbone 2 is a fine, quality product which does exactly what it says it will, as long as you’re willing to put up with the loss of hearing. I’m quite sure that there are lots of people out there who are willing to do so, and I’ve seen it in the number of Jawbone 2 devices I see on Angelinos. The headset is available now for US$129.99. If it works for you, it will be one of the best buys you ever make.

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I don’t see this as a credible prediction. Sure, there’s the iPhone and the new MacBook and MacBook Pro models with the multi-touch, but I think that’s about where its going to go. My first thought behind this theory of mine is that people won’t want to take the trouble. To get to a leptop touchscreen you have to lean over it, which is generally uncomfortable. I don’t know many people who keep their lappy right up in their face, either. Its just not ergonomic, and you end up smudging your screen, and nobody likes to smudge up their glossy lappy display.

Second on the list is that Microsoft is already doing it. In order to assuage people about their future, Microsoft has already unveiled Windows 7 and announced that their Surface PC’s multi-touch technology will be a keystone feature in the OS due in 2010. They even demonstrated it on a laptop. How ridiculous can you get?! The Surface PC is already a joke, and many pundits have called it a giant iPhone. Its really nothing more than a marketing piece which customers like Sprint want in some of their stores to promote goods. That’s not a good basis for a consumer-oriented technology.

Third and last on my list is the lack of functionality. There’s really not all that much you can do with multi-touch unless you start using guestures, which is really what multi-touch is. There are a ot more combination potentials with two or more fingers, but who in the hell is going to remember them all enough to warrant using the touchscreen most of the time. Then there’s typing, which is kind of a staple of data entry. This leads us back around to the tablet concept, and I just don’t see Apple doing that. Microsoft’s own tablet market sucks wind, so why should Apple think that an Apple logo would make it any better.

One technology which is making strides which most people haven’t really noticed all that much is voice recognition, the only thing which will, in my opinion, effectively supplant keyboard and mouse interaction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Its all Star Trek sounding, but reality has shown that Star Trek really has had an influece on what scientists have been able to create, and touchscreens just aren’t there. I doubt that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, had a portal into the future, but I think he got it right when he figured on voice control.

Of course, I could be wrong.

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