Mousing around

On my website, Geekgirl’s Plain English Computing, I have a whole section devoted to people who are completely new at the computing game. These days, this consists largely of the older generations, but there are others who qualify, too.

It’s been a while since I updated these articles, but I have now started to do so. The first article I’ve freshened up is Basic Mousing Technique. If you are still trying to get your mousing technique perfected - or you know someone who needs to - it’s worth a read. I also explain mousing terminology, such as “drag and drop”, “Ctrl+clicking” and so on.

As I said, it’s very basic, but we all needed to start somewhere.

Mophie Juice Pack Air: The sky is falling!

The Air (top) with its predecessor.When Apple released its thinnest, lightest MacBook, even those who weren’t impressed with its specifications could find nothing to fault in its moniker. The MacBook Air was, undeniably, a miracle of minimalism. The same cannot be said for the Mophie Juice Pack Air.

The Juice Pack Air is the latest in Mophie’s line of cleverly designed batteries for the iPhone. It shares with its predecessor - the Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G - the ability to almost double the lifetime of your iPhone’s battery while doing double-duty as a protective case. It’s a lovely bit of technology.

But Air? Even as someone who endures the smothering, swamp-heavy atmosphere of New Orleans, I find that designation hard to swallow.

I had high hopes - after all, one of the few drawbacks of the Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G is the way it bulks up the iPhone (see my earlier review), so a slimmer Juice Pack would almost be perfect. But as the specs below show, the Air is a tad longer and wider than the previous Juice Pack and just a whisker slimmer. That’s not slim enough. When you slip it on your iPhone, that sleek sexy device transforms into something of a chubby throwback.

What’s great about the Air

Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s lots to like about the little plump Air. It encases the whole of the back and sides of your iPhone, so it provides a lot of protection without obscuring the camera lens, microphone or any essential switch or connector. It delivers the promised extra battery life, which makes daily life with your iPhone much easier. And the fact that Mophie shoehorns a life-doubling battery into a package which, although chubby, is still remarkably small, is a wonder. It’s $20 cheaper than its predecessor, too.

The Air piggybacking its predecessor (the green strips on the side are my mods).What’s not so great

Unfortunately, it also feels twenty bucks cheaper. Its shiny black plastic doesn’t have the non-slip sensuousness of the more expensive Juice Pack. Nor does it look as good, especially once you put your fingermarks all over it. And it can be a real pain extracting the phone from the Juice Pack when you want to lighten your load. That’s a real shame, because one of the big appeals of the Juice Pack is its smart battery technology which lets you drain the Juice Pack first before using any of your iPhone’s power. With my old Juice Pack, as soon as it was drained, I’d slip it off and carry the unencumbered iPhone with me. Doing that with the new Juice Pack isn’t as easy. At least you can charge and update your iPhone while it’s still encased in the Air thanks to its Micro USB connector.

The bottom line is either Juice Pack is an alluring option if you don’t mind bulking up the iPhone a bit in order to double your battery life. Plus, you get a protective case into the bargain.

But if you already own a Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G, there’s no need to lust after the Air. The Air is a downgrade on all fronts and its 0.34 ounce, 0.05 inch advantage in weight and size translates into almost nothing in the hand.

As someone who owns both, I think I’ll stick with the original Juice Pack. It has its own drawbacks (such as insets in the case that tend to peel off), but the ability to quickly slip it off the phone, its greater power and its lovely non-slip texture are winners for me.

Anyone want a Mophie Juice Pack Air, going cheap?

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Feature	3G	Air
Standby Time	350 hours	270 hours
Talk time on 3G	6 hours	4.5 hours
Talk time on 2G	12 hours	9 hours
Internet use on 3G	6 hours	4.5 hours
Internet use on wi-fi	7 hours	5.4 hours
Audio playback	28 hours	20 hours
Video playback	8 hours	6 hours
Length	4.8”	4.9”
Width	2.5”	2.59”
Depth	0.8”	0.75”
Weight	3 ounces	2.66 ounces
Battery capacity	1800 mAh	1300 mAh
Connector	Mini USB	Micro USB
Price	$99.95	$79.95

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On Ada Lovelace Day: A tribute to WIT

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the woman who first conceived of general-purpose computing and who is regarded as the first programmer. On this day, bloggers from around the world are writing about women in technology who inspire them.

On Ada Lovelace Day, I’m writing about a group of women called Women In Technology. This small group formed in Sydney in the early ’80s. WIT’s core consisted of a couple of engineers, two astrophysicists, a nuclear physicist, a microbiologist and a computer programmer (me).

We came together to provide support to one another, share ideas, and figure out ways to get more women involved in technical professions. At work, each of us was the sole female representative of our profession, which made for a great deal of isolation as well as the opportunity to define women’s roles in those professions.

Ada Lovelace, born 1815The isolation at work was reinforced by the social isolation of being a woman in a tech field. When someone would say “What do you do?” and we’d say “I work with computers” or “I study microwave radiation” we’d encounter a glassy eyed look and a prompt end to the conversation. This was back before the IBM PC made its appearance in Australia, when computers were regarded by many women as “toys for the boys”, when there were no sexy or cool tags such as “technobabes” or “geekgirls”.

WIT met for just a couple of years and we spent most of that time talking tech with abandon. Our one big public foray was a seminar on women in technology, which attracted hundreds of participants. I coded a sign-in application in the (wildly buggy) dBASE II. On arrival, we had each woman sit down at a computer and fill in her details. Almost without exception, this was the participant’s first experience with a personal computer. What a difference a quarter of a century makes.

The original WIT is long gone. Today there is a larger, more expansive organisation with the same name (WiT, formed in Queensland in 1997) and a number of other organisations, major programs and awards for women in technology, including Google’s Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship.

Although we may be past the days of women being isolated pioneers in their chosen technological fields, we have a long, long way to go before women’s participation and influence is where it should be. If you’re a young woman contemplating a dive into a technological career, gather some inspiration this Ada Lovelace Day by seeking out blogs tagged ALD09post or visit the Ada Lovelace Day site. You’ll meet a remarkable group of women who not only relish their geekgirl status but who are leading the way in technology for everyone.