How Do We Share The Love?

2010-02-04T16:45:00-05:00

I know some people are going to take this the wrong way. I’m completely prepared for this. But, as the days go by this topic weighs on my mind every day so here it goes.

In the days following the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti, I was amazed at the herculean efforts to give medical aid, raise funds, and send military personnel to the island that lay in shambles. It made me feel good in my heart that so many people were coming to the aid of the Haitian people. I even tried to do my part by helping with the relief effort in the Power & Light District.

As much as I was proud that Americans stepped up to the plate to help it made me start to wonder. Why doesn’t this happen right here at home? With all of the Super Bowl festivities in full swing, I began to remember the images of a New Orleans that lay in waste following Katrina.

It took FEMA over 5 days to get water to the Superdome right here in the United States. We’ve all seen the images of people with signs saying, “Please Help Us!” The national guard issued evacuation warnings even though the 2000 census would have alerted them to the fact that many of those people had no way to evacuate. It was a terrible scene that I hope that we don’t ever forget.

In the days that followed there were several scandals. Supplies that were earmarked for victims remained in warehouses for months and then were given away to charities with no link to Katrina victims. The media and other referred to displaced victims as “refugees” as if these people were somehow not Americans who had just suffered through a horrible disaster. And worst yet, there was a growing sentiment that the victims weren’t people that had lost jobs, homes, and family members, but people that were just looking for a handout.

Years have passed since Katrina and there are still many neighborhoods that haven’t been rebuilt and people that haven’t been able to go HOME. But yet, one of the most disturbing things is that not many people are surprised by this, or even care.

The remarkable run by the New Orleans Saints has brought this issue back to the forefront. It was truly remarkable to see the streets of The French Quarter after the Saints punched their ticket to the Super Bowl by beating the Minnesota Vikings. The crowds erupted in to pandemonium, and filled the streets without incident.

The people who are in New Orleans today have a revived sense of belonging and are working to ensure that long proud city of the bayou maintains the culture that it is known for throughout the world. The music is there, the food is there, the party and drinks are there for sure. And, there are people making their way back to a New Orleans of renewed vision.

However, these proud Americans still need help. My hope is that one day we will do unto those in this country as we do unto those on foreign soil that need help. There are people that don’t live in the mainstream areas in New Orleans that still live in sub-standard housing and conditions. Why shouldn’t we strive to help these people also?

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that we need to help those in foreign countries in their time of need. But I also think that we should save some of the love for home.

So as Valentine’s Day approaches I’m sending out some love to those who help others near and far. I hope that you will remember some of this next time we have people here in the US that need a helping hand.

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Palm Pre v iPhone

2009-08-17T15:15:00-05:00

This Week - Palm Pre v iPhone

Which Should You Choose???

CES 2009 brought us a new player in the smartphone upper-echelon. Let's drill down and see how the Palm Pre compares with the iPhone and Android's G1.

1. Multitouch touchscreen/gesture control: All three are capacitive, only the Pre and iPhone have multitouch. The Pre's glowy little "gesture area" has dropped the touchable real estate all the way down tto the bottom of the phone, which is great for being able to navigate with one hand and not interfere with the screen at all. The wavey dock you bring up from the bottom looks awesome, but can you use it out of the box without a second thought or page through the manual? That's my question. Advantage: iPhone/Pre tossup.

2. Multitasking: One of the beefiest of our beefs with the iPhone SDK is its insistence on Apps running one at a time. The G1's notifications drawer was definitely a step in the right direction, but the Pre's interface is the first smartphone OS that was built with multitasking as a core design element. Resembling the Xbox's old Blades, or a less-jarring OS X Expose even, the Pre's "Cards" interface always places you in the context of every app running for fast switching, and notifications from other apps don't pull you away completely from the task at hand. Multitasking is hugely important on a phone, and it's a good sign that Palm recognizes. Advantage: Pre

3. Hardware: Adrian says:

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I'm not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it's a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don't like the black space on the sides of the screen.

A phone with a built-in QWERTY still hasn't touched the iPhone in terms of sleekness and pure sex. And it might still be a while. Advantage: iPhone

4. Development platform: The Pre's "Web OS" sure sounds nice—all developers need to know is JavaScript, HTML and CSS? Sounds good in theory, but building a mobile app will never be as easy as cranking out a new theme for your Tumblr. Palm's stressing ease of development, though, so it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Apple's solid, familiar-to-devs OS X-based SDK and Android's fully open source approach. Advantage: Pre? If it's straight-up JavaScript, that's a lot of programmers ready to go. Note: we had iPhone here before, but we've switched with a qualification. Developer community still goes to iPhone for volume.

5. Web Integration: The Pre subtly integrates the internet into the phone at every opportunity, and it's awesome. Contacts get pulled in from Facebook, Gmail, IM and and scanned for dupes; the messaging app shows your last several emails, IMs and SMS with that contact in a single window. Really, really smart stuff. Advantage: Pre

6. App Store/developer community: A smartphone is only as good as the software it runs. On the Pre, Palm is still keeping application delivery details like pricing behind the curtain, but they did say the app delivery will be entirely handled by the phone (without a desktop app), which is a shame. They're saying that they're not going to duplicate Apple's Hobbesian app approval black box mistake, which Android has also hasn't fallen for, but there will be an approval process based on "security and stability." But as we know with Android, a dev community needs enough devices in the hands of consumers to reach critical mass, which the Pre will have to match. Advantage: iPhone, even with the black box, but Android and Pre's more open stances are reassuring.

7. Wireless charger: We've seen wireless charger tech for years at CES, but it's taken this long for a major consumer gadget to come bundled with its own wireless charger in the box. Whoops, it's not in the box, sold separately for unknown $$. But still: Bravo. Advantage: Pre

8. The Network: Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, gave our coast-to-coast 3G test a shout out in his press conference. Of course he did: Sprint won (in download speeds). Sprint was the only major carrier without a powerful, hype-catching smartphone choice, and now they have one. The Pre is a data-centric phone with a network we've proven to be strong in a large swatch of the country—that's a good combo. But would you switch to Sprint for the Pre? Ugh. Advantage: Not cut and dry for everyone, but we stand by our numbers: Sprint is the best 3G network in our tests.

9. Physical keyboard: It's preference, but one held by a large swathe of the gadget buying public: physical QWERTY keypads are still the mainstream input of choice. Touch is getting better all the time, but a lot of people still want physical keyboards. But better yet is the ability to choose; unfortunately, the Pre doesn't have a soft onscreen keyboard, and its slide-out is the same meh QWERTY from the Treo Pro. Advantage: It's preference, but on me, the iPhone's soft keyboard can't be beat.

10. Camera: The Pre has an LED Flash for its 3MP camera, something both the iPhone and G1 lack. Flash cellphone photos are ugly, but for a lot of people, they're good enough. So credit for throwing it in. Advantage: Pre

11. Battery: Apple's still an outlier with their non-removable battery; like the G1's, the Pre's comes out for a spare swap too. We've heard Apple's reasons for this a million times, we know the drill, but removable batteries will never stop being handy. Advantage: Pre

12. Copy & Paste: Yep, Pre's got it. iPhone still doesn't. Advantage: Pre/G1

13. Browser: All three use a browser based on WebKit, which has become the standard for the mobile web. We couldn't put it through our Mobile Browser Battlemodo ringer obviously, but what we saw looked great, and it's the only other mobile browser besides the iPhone that supports multitouch zooming. Advantage: iPhone/Pre

So there you have it. We're excited. Are you?

EventKC.com Blog

How Do We Share The Love?

Palm Pre v iPhone