First impressions of the Garmin Training Center for the Mac

Last January, Garmin announced that they'd have a Training Center version for the Mac. That was one of the reasons I bought my Forerunner 305. Last week, they delivered (a little late). I saw a few screenshots before Macworld on the Garmin blog and posted a comment that it looked very un-Mac like just from the 3 screenshots I saw; Garmin didn't approve my comment. I guess the truth hurts.

I picked up a CD at Macworld (they're not making it available until later this month for download due to localization issues or some such nonsense; they deliver their other software as fully localized or English only; I just checked the page for the iQue 3600 and there is an English-only and an EFIGS-English, French, Italian, German, Spanish version). I loaded up the software on Sunday and my first impression was not very good. Brushed metal has to go and the main screen just doesn't look right; there is a lot of space around it. It would have been better to put the information (profile information) in preferences. The application has no drag and drop onto the icon to import files (I downloaded stuff from my MotionBased account) even though there is an import menu item. Heh folks, that is about 5 minutes of code to put it in; just add a Cocoa method:

- (BOOL)application:(NSApplication *)theApplication openFile:(NSString *)filename

And add tcx as a file extension to the info.plist file.

Next, I can't edit any of my activities. The ones I import are all coming in as Skiing instead of running. I can't sort the columns (clicking on a column highlights it), I can't turn off columns. I can, however, reorganize the columns. If I choose the Close menu item, the app quits. If I click in the column title for Activities, the sort arrow changes, but does nothing.

Right now I can't use all the maps I have for my iQue 3600, so I get a totally useless map view in the center of the screen that I can't collapse.

So, I have no idea what took Garmin so long to do this. Their program didn't take a rocket scientist to write. My first pass of ReceiptWallet took 2 weeks of almost full time work and then about another month of part time tweaking to release a solid 1.0 product. If Garmin has more than 1 person working on this full time, they should call me to fix it! The MotionBased folks said that they got the USB code for talking to the device from the Training Center developers last March (or so) to get MotionBased working on the Mac, so that leads me to believe that Garmin spent 9+ months on the user interface. Ouch.

For now, I'll stick with MotionBased; I renewed my subscription last month and it is significantly more full featured that Training Center. Granted, MotionBased is not free, but I would have paid something for a good Mac Training Center.

My take on Macworld

Now that Macworld is over and everyone and his dog has blogged about the good, the bad, and the ugly, I've decided to post my reactions. I had a chance to watch the keynote yesterday (no time last week as I was working a booth) and the one thing that came to my mind was iSnooze. So Apple announced AppleTV and the iPhone. I have no interest in the AppleTV as we don't watch many movies and any TV shows we watch, we just record on our TiVo. If I want to show pictures on my TV, I just turn on the TiVo desktop software and presto, I have it; I don't want to stream music to my TV as I just use my Squeezebox. So, the AppleTV buys me nothing (at least nothing I can see right now).

The iPhone is interesting (at first I really didn't like it). However, I don't think it is for me for a number of reasons: no tactile feel, GSM only (for now), and no flip cover to protect the screen. When I was at QUALCOMM working on the pDQ phone (the first Palm OS based smartphone), we said it had to be a phone first, a PDA second and that's why it had a keypad that flipped over the screen so you could dial. The Treo, to me, seems like a PDA first, a phone second as I've never been impressed with the phone quality. My Motorola RAZR is a very nice phone; voice quality is the best I've heard in a phone. That leads me to the iPhone. It looks to me like an iPod first, a phone second (or maybe third after the Internet stuff). Of course, it will probably sell well and I may change my mind later, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Why was the keynote iSnooze? It was a Macworld keynote and there wasn't any discernible mention of the Macintosh. I didn't expect Leopard to be ready, but I hoped to see another feature or two revealed. No new Macs were introduced and I really would have been quite happen with an iLife '07. One small feature in that probably would have impressed me more than the iPhone.

As for the rest of the show, it takes a lot to impress me. Nothing stood out. I visited the Garmin booth and picked up a copy of the Training Center for the Mac (my impressions of that in another post) and liked the Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners, so much so that their $150 off (rebate and coupon) got me to order one. It should work quite well with ReceiptWallet.

Maybe next year if I set my expectations real low, the slightest cool thing will get me excited.

One of the worst products of the decade?

The other day, my wife and I were watching CNET's video blog on TiVo and they had the top 5 worst products of the last decade. Number 4 on the list was PocketMail. This really pains me; PocketMail is/was a device/service that allowed you to send and receive email by putting the device up to a phone and dialing a toll free number. This worked quite well before wireless data was relatively inexpensive and ubiquitous. It also appeals to RV owners who drive around the country and may not have access to good cell phone coverage and want to keep in touch. So, I really believed in the product, but what really hurts is that I worked on the Backflip with was the PocketMail device that clipped onto a Palm OS device. So, I was involved in what CNET considers one of the worst products in the last decade. How does that make me feel?

Too good to be true?

The other day my wife and I went into the Sprint store to get her a new Motorola RAZR to replace her aging phone. The main feature is Bluetooth to use with the car kit. The salesman was real nice and unlike my last experience, I was willing to agree to the 2 year contract to get the reduced price on the phone. He asked where we worked and I told him that I was self employed and my wife worked for the school district; he asked to see if he could give us discounts. Hmmmm...he offered us 4 additional lines for the same base cost (because he'd slash 4 of our lines from $20/month to $10/month and add 4 more @ $10/month) and then he could give us a 15% discount per month. I normally wouldn't bite, but he assured me that it wouldn't affect my plan; he also said that my plan was very, very good, so that was reassurance that he knew how valuable my plan is. We'll see in a month or two the net result. I also have 4 crappy phones sitting on my shelf with activated lines that I have no plans on touching.