I’ve had the new Amazon Kindle in my possession for over a month now and have still managed not to spend a cent on ebooks or any other content, yet I use it every day. Initially I had signed up to the Irish Times subscription free trial, but quickly realised that paying €16 per month for content that was free online was a little silly.

Thanks to the online application Instapaper (works in your browser via a bookmarklet – even works with Safari for iPhone and the Twitter for iPhone app) instead I am able to queue up articles I wish to read later in a Kindle friendly format. This applies to all the online content I come across and many of the industry specific blogs I am subscribed to publish very long articles that I usually don’t have time to read during the work day (or go cross eyed trying to read them on my computer screen).

The Kindle friendly file you end up with is split into sections (one for each article) and can even handle images, and hyperlinks – so if you’re reading an article that mentions a secondary associated article you can click that link and the Kindle browser will open, you can even switch to “Article Mode” in this browser, and the Kindle will autofocus on the text content for you. Though I’m certainly not blown away by the “experimental” browser, it’s obvious that surfing the web is not something the Kindle was designed for.

With Instapaper I queue up blog posts, newspaper articles and more and then at the end of the day (or sometimes at lunchtime) I download the Kindle friendly file, transfer it to the Kindle using the USB cable and then have a great read, with no distractions, almost like having a highly personalised magazine in front of me. Admittedly it’s very relaxing, and I have no desire to tweet or check my email, so I’m not skimming anymore, instead I absorb the information I’m reading and feel like I’m really getting worth out of the content and not wasting my time.

Kindle vs iPad?

I’m doubtful it would be the same experience with something like the iPad, because reading on the Kindle is an absolute pleasure. I certainly don’t get as tired as quickly when reading on the Kindle in comparison to trying to read a long document on the iPhone or laptop. However, for those of you without a Kindle but with an iPhone there is the Instapaper app for iPhone which makes reading on your iPhone screen that much easier, there is an iPad version of Instapaper too, but I’ll be sticking to my Kindle!

The e-ink screen on the Kindle is incredibly close to reading on paper, but the key factor in how good the Kindle is to read on is the fact that it’s not backlit, so there is no glare when the sun shines on the screen and it won’t keep you awake at night. I’ve written here before about how the bright light of electronic screens suppresses the production of our sleep hormone melatonin, thus making them unsuitable for bedtime use. The readability of the Kindle in low lighting is comparable to that of a paper book, you will certainly need a book light if you plan on reading in low light, but this is preferable to the inability to sleep after using one.

The other great thing about the Kindle is how it’s cut down on paper/printing costs, instead of printing out long drafts of work documents they’re read on the Kindle and I write my feedback into my moleskin. Overall, I feel that it has increased my productivity and I’ve even started reading for pleasure again, by picking up a number of free classic books in ebook format via the Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg website.

A simple picture exchange system developed by and for non-verbal people allowing the user to communicate their needs by building sentences from relevant images. It can be customised by the individual using their picture and photo vocabulary with the user taking photos and saving pictures to the app.

The application works in real time and allows the user to select their preferences, then rotate the device to present a full sized sentence to the listener – who will read it with them and respond to their request.

The beauty of Grace is that it ensures the interaction of the user with the listener, and mutual understanding of the user’s real needs help to increase communication opportunities and build trust.

The Grace app helps children with autism better develop their communications skills and is available in the App Store worldwide. It was developed by Lisa Domican in conjunction with software developer Steve Troughton-Smith, and with the support of O2 Ireland. The lovely Lisa has blogged about the development of the app and also about the benefits it has brought to her own children which is a great way to demonstrate the importance of such an app. The Grace App is now even available on the iPad, which is fantastic for anyone with motor problems, such as stroke victims.

If you have an old iPhone/iPod Touch or are thinking of upgrading, please consider donating your old iPhone/iPod Touch to a child with autism by contacting Lisa via email: hammiesaysATgmailDOTcom

You can also contact the Irish Autism Action charity direct about iPhone/iPod Touch donation, or you can donate to them directly via the I Want My Iphone for Autisim MyCharity.ie page.

You can learn more about Autism Action on their Blog Award winning group blog.

During this experiment I also had to discontinue using the Meteor network due the 2G to 3G handover problem (there’s a neat little video demonstrating this here) which left with me with no signal far too many times, but the phone worked perfect on O2. Hoping Meteor can fix that issue promptly, as many other HTC users are reporting this issue in the customer forums.

Day 4 With my Android

Day 4 was the day that I really started missing the iPod part of my iPhone, I especially wanted my podcasts back so I attempted to import/export files from the phone. It didn’t go too well. I had no MicroSD card adapter and Windows 7 just plain refused to recognise the SD card inside the phone. There are a few workarounds for this, for instance Google Voice is a great podcast utility for Android, but personally I like to manage things from my desktop (even if iTunes is still a bit rubbish).

I’m also really surprised that a phone of this calibre (and hefty price tag) comes with so little internal memory (384MB). Although, a 2GB SD card came with it, which is more than enough if you’re not going to use the phone as an MP3 player and you can of course upgrade that to a maximum 32GB if you have another €100 lying around. Speaking of music though, the FM Radio reception was exceptionally good, a feature I always miss on the iPhone.

The over-complexity I mentioned refers to the Android operating system. At first I was won over by the ability to multitask and was especially impressed by the taskbar like notification area. Overall I feel that the Android matches more of a desktop like environment than any other phone I’ve used, however, after only a few days I realised this was overly tiring and irksome on a smaller scale and without a physical keyboard. Managing software, settings, and files quickly became a chore. Also, typing on the HTC Legend did not become a forte of mine, I’m not sure if the responsiveness of the touchscreen on the iPhone has ruined me for all other touchscreen devices but I certainly couldn’t get used to the keyboard on the Legend.

Despite the fact that the HTC Legend and I didn’t work out, we’ve parted quite amicably. I still think it’s an extremely well built smartphone, very sturdy, sleek and fits better in the pocket that the iPhone. The physical keys underneath the touchscreen are very usable (though the optical navigation key is fairly useless). The call clarity is crystal clear. You can customise and personalise it to you hearts content. There are thousands of apps available that don’t have to go through the ridiculously moral Apple iTunes app store approval system.

As an alternative to an iPhone it is an extremely strong one, but as I’ve discovered, I quite like the simplicity of the iPhone and won’t be parting with mine anytime soon.

I will however be putting up the HTC Legend up on eBay in the coming days, and donating the proceeds to a really worthy cause that I’ll be writing about in my next blog post.

Only last week I had tweeted about how I really wanted to try out an Android handset to do a compare and contrast against the iPhone. I usually change my phone on a yearly basis, and my iPhone 3G is nearing its first birthday, so trying out an alternative is a great way for me to discover if I should stick with Apple or not.

Before I got my iPhone a year ago I had always been a huge Nokia fan, what changed my mind was trying out Jen’s iPhone (she’s an avid Apple fan, so of course she had one months before me) as I was simply blown away by the web browsing experience, something that previous Nokia smartphones (running the Symbian operating system) I had owned simply didn’t compare to.

First Impressions of Android

My first impression of the Android operating system is that it has definite similarities to Symbian – it’s highly customisable (like crazy customizable, it’s incredible), it’s more like a desktop environment where you are able to do things like create folders and install widgets, and you can run multiple applications at the same time. It’s also very much unlike Symbian because it runs exceptionally smoothly (at least on the HTC Legend), applications open lightening fast and it’s open source software so there are thousands of apps available for free in the Android market.

The big difference between my iPhone 3G and the HTC Legend is of course the ability to have multiple apps running, and it’s no surprise that yesterday Apple announced the ability to multitask in the next iPhone 3GS update (in fact it’s taken many of the great features of Android and applied them to OS 4), but the differences between Android and the iPhone don’t just end there.

Out of the box the HTC Legend just works. No connecting it to a computer, no software updates needed, no need to go register an account to start downloading new apps. The Android market is awash with amazing free apps that do amazing things – unlike the abundance of novelty junk you find in the iPhone App Store.

This is only my first day using the phone so expect more comparisons to come in a later blog post. Admittedly today I do miss some of my most used iPhone apps – like Tweetie, but I guess I just have to find the right collection of Apps for the HTC Legend to make it perfect for me.

What I have enjoyed about it so far though is the 5megapixel camera – the autofocus, a light flash and ISO settings make a big difference, I also love the radio (that actually works – unlike iPhone FM radio apps like Wunderadio that need a consistent 3G signal to run), and the ease at which you switch between apps – there’s practically no lag on this phone either, it’s so fast and it’s a joy to use. I thought I would dislike the physical keys underneath the touchscreen, after getting so used to just the one on the iPhone, but I actually really like them. The menu, back and search buttons all have corresponding actions within each app, them being there means it frees up a lot of screen space, especially when surfing the net. I am however finding it a little hard getting used to the touchscreen keyboard, but as with anything new I probably just need some practice.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing the outcome of this phone experiment, as I’ll be making myself use the HTC Legend for at least a week to make a truly informed decision about my next phone (it’s possible that I’ll stick with the HTC Legend itself). It’s just a pity I’m having some connectivity issues with Meteor, in the first day alone, three times I’ve had to force disconnection and reconnection of the phone from the network because of a loss of any signal, data or phone. I’m hoping they resolve this issue soon or I might have to unlock the phone and put my O2 sim into it.

These days technology like the iPhone helps us to track our own personal habits, Twitter gives us an insight into popular topics and analytics give us fascinating web usage statistics. Whilst technology has greatly enhanced our ability to collect interesting data about human behaviour, it’s important to realise that using such data to make conclusions about why we behave in such a way is unwise without investigating the differences between causality and correlation. Take for example the problematic question of whether the Internet is addictive or if addicts use the Internet.

The Relationship Between Psychology and Technology

Only thorough psychological research can investigate the motivations behind our behaviour. All of the modern day branches of psychology are governed by extremely strict rules that ensure that only legitimate and ethical research is conducted and published, and said research employs extensive statistical analyses on data derived from various methods including interviews, questionnaires, experiments, etc.

It is for these reasons that I believe that the relationship between psychology and technology needs to be much stronger. If we use psychology to understand and explain our interactions with technology today, we can help our future selves by using this information to make technology more accessible, usable and helpful for everyone.

There is absolutely no escaping the fact that one day you will be old. Most people regard getting older to be a physical decline, a frailty of the body, without considering the cognitive and social changes that occur as you age. It is for this reason that I take an interest in Irish research centres like the NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology and the CASALA Centre (soon to open in Dundalk IT) who aim to improve future technologies by conducting cognitive and social psychological research with older adults and people with disabilities.

In today’s Irish Times an article describes the recent Business of Ageing conference held in Dublin, highlights some of the fantastic assisted living technologies being developed here in Ireland and suggests this country could be a leader in developing technology for older adults.

Let’s hope this prediction comes true. Not only would I love to work in this area of research and development, I for one would like to continue being an early adopter of new technologies. I would be incredibly angry if, as I got older technology slipped out of my reach, the way the majority of older adults are excluded today.

I was replying to a Google Latitude friend request at lunchtime and realised something pretty interesting. I can update my Buzz status from within the mobile versions of many of the Google webapps, including Gmail, Gtalk, Docs, Calendar, Tasks, and of course Latitude. It’s just a real pity that it’s currently missing from the Google service I use most regularly on my iPhone – Google Reader. Except that I can of course share items I read on Google Reader to Buzz, along with or without a comment.

If Google roll out this little feature across all of the mobile versions of their products they’ll be bringing a tiny bit of multi-tasking to the iPhone. Being able to update your status from within the webpage you’re on (and not having to go through the process of either switching between Safari pages, or closing Safari and going into Tweetie and then back to Safari again – both relatively  slow processes on the iPhone) is something very interesting. This will bring a little bit more of the desktop browsing experience to your iPhone and will work great on the iPad. Also, the little colourful icon always on the top of your webpage is a great reminder of the service you’re forgetting to play with.

It will take time to see if Google Buzz pays off, but for now I hope someone takes this little iPhone webapp multitasking work-around and implements it for Twitter, or someone in Facebook realises how nice it would be to be able to update your status from any page within the site.

The Logitech Touch Mouse app links your iPhone or iPod Touch and your Mac or PC using your wireless network, allowing you to use the touchscreen as a mouse pointer and keyboard. All you need to do is download the app itself as well Logitech Touch Mouse Server (it sounds more complicated then it actually is) the associated piece of software for your computer. Then you simply link the two by inputting your computer’s IP address into the app on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You don’t even have to worry about figuring out your IP address as the Logitech Touch Mouse Server software will find it for you.

I’ll definitely get some use out of this. I always have my iPhone in my pocket, and being able to control my PC using it is a nice feature that I was never bothered to try out because I would have had to pay for it. Granted I already have a remote and wireless mouse/keyboard, but the iPhone, like I said, is already always in my pocket, giving it another function certainly appeals to me.

It works perfectly for me running 64bit Windows 7 Pro and an iPhone 3G.

Sleep Cycle is an app that turns you iPhone into a bio-alarm clock. Using the accelerometer built into the iPhone it reads specific movements common during sleep and wakes you up when you are sleeping lightly, aiming to give you a more refreshing awakening. Haven’t we all felt the frustration of being woken up during an especially interesting dream, and then felt dreadful for the day because of it?

This type of movement based bio-alarm clock has been around for awhile. You often find them as glorified watches with internal accelerometers, or overcomplicated devices that require placing motion detecting electrodes under your pillow case. The reason bio-alarm clocks work is due to the extensive sleep research that tells us how our body moves or doesn’t move during sleep.

How Does It Work?

Software like Sleep Cycle looks out for the right breathing patterns or muscle activity to determine what stage of sleep we are at. For example, during the REM stage of sleep (when we are dreaming) your body is essentially paralysed, this stops your body from acting out and hurting itself during a dream, but during light sleep your muscles will occasionally twitch. Another example is how during the deepest stage of sleep your breathing becomes rhythmic, but during REM sleep your breathing is rapid and shallow. These are distinct and measurable differences and are the biological indicators that bio-alarm clocks are looking out for.

The Sleep Cycle app on the iPhone doesn’t just wake you up though; it also produces a graph of your sleep pattern, so you get a general idea of how restful your sleep was. These graphs are more of a novelty than anything else and though I wouldn’t recommend you use them to make inferences about how healthy your sleeping behaviour is, it could provide you with a valuable insight when paired with keeping track of your routines, helping you to figure out what works best for you for a good night’s sleep.

Wanting to push the application to it’s limits (a.k.a break it) I started experimenting with taking photos of people, to see how much everyone was “worth” – thus turning the search into a game of Top Trumps for Faces using Amazon Remembers. Some of the search results were pretty interesting. For example, my lovely girlfriend in her dressing gown was listed as a “Dark Grey Wool Womens Winter Coat” retailing at £49.99, whereas I was listed as a “Wooden Nose shaped Spectacles holder” retailing at £9.99 which meant she was worth far more than me, so I totally lost the game! However, it was a win all round because that made us both LOL ourselves silly.

Hopefully one of these days I’ll find someone with a lower Amazon Remembers face value than myself, I tried it on my Dad and it found a “Russell Collection Long Sleeve Easycare Fitted Shirt” retailing at £17.99, doh!

I would argue that the key to using free iPhone apps as an effective brand awareness exercise, or as a way to drive physical sales, is not novelty usage.

Take for example the new app from the photography accessories company Joby, who primarily sell Gorillapods – flexible tripods for cameras. They now offer these tripods for mobile devices and with the launch of their new range they’ve made a free app to accompany these accessories. The Gorillacam app has an array of features you’d expect to pay for. It’s certainly not a one trick pony. It has a shot timer, time lapse, rapid-shot mode and a bubble level. There’s this great “press anywhere” mode too, that lets you press the touchscreen anywhere in order to take a photo. This app makes self portraits and photos with your friends really easy, something that’s virtually impossible with the standard iPhone camera app.

I can see myself using the Gorillacam app over and over again. I’ve already placed it beside my other camera apps – apps which I willingly paid for. I would have paid for the GorillaCam app too. I didn’t have to pay for it and in exchange I’ll be seeing the brandname Joby over and over again. I’ll also be constantly reminded of how if I bought a Gorillapod for my iPhone, I could fully utilize the brilliant features of this free app.

I may have initially been triggered with a desire for a sausage sandwich or a can of Coke, but with no motivation to use either app over and over again, the trigger was never reinforced again. With Gorillacam, I’ll be reminded of my interest in their products every time I happily use that free app.

Now that is an effective free, branded, iPhone app.