Andrew Hale: IT Talk & Other Topics

I've had a case on my phone for years. My Palm Centro and Pre were deemed tough enough to go caseless, but when my devices started coming with glass screens, on went a case. As the devices got more premium, the level of protection I wanted from my cases increased. For proof, at one point, I had the Otterbox Defender and then some Military-grade Pelican Voyager case on my iPhone 5. When I bought a new phone last year, I decided that I wanted to go for less case. The only protection I had on my iPhone 7 Plus was a tempered glass screen protector and Apple's leather case. The screen-protector + slim case combo has thus far served my phone well. However, some drops had taken their toll on the screen protector. I faced the decision to either buy another tempered glass protector or go with a TPU protector.

As much as I enjoy my iOS devices, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Palm, specifically WebOS. My first smartphone was a Palm Centro. The Centro was a blocky, modern redesign of what was essentially a Treo 650 and it ran Palm's aging PalmOS operating system. I chose the Palm over the Blackberry Curve and Motorola Q (running Windows Mobile), because PalmOS was more "hackable". When Palm changed the game, I fell in love with the Pre, and their new WebOS. I was originally going to write a quick bit tossing in my $0.02 about the ever-raging Android vs iOS debate, but writing a mobile phone history lesson seems like a more productive use of my time. Some trademark features of WebOS live on in current iterations of iOS and Android so I'll talk about those afterwards.

I know the title doesn't sound like that of an iPhone review but the iOS experience really is a walled garden of sorts. The reason for this is largely because Apple plays a large role in deciding how their devices should an shouldn't be used. This isn't a new concept. AOL did it in their hay-day. They started their business with revenue-sharing agreements with specific information providers in their subscriber-only space. Facebook does it too, requiring you to login to their site before you can view profiles, play games, etc. This isn't to say that a walled garden approach is particularly bad. In the case of Apple, it's actually pretty good. If you want to do something with your phone that Apple decides shouldn't be done with it, tough cookies. However, for most intents and purposes, the iPhone just works and works great.

Recently, a co-worker found my blog, read some bits, and gave me feedback on it. Mind you I don't do this for any kind of promotional reasons or because I have to. I have a gift for gab and I'm not the worst writer so I essentially do this for me. He mentioned that he liked the posts I've done but that I don't have a lot of pictures. He likes pictures. To be honest, I don't post a lot of pictures because my cell-phone sucks.