Work woke me up real early. Work kept me up real late. Other than that, I hung with the fam and watched football.
I downloaded the Priceline app. I will be deleting the Priceline app as it is pretty craptacular. I got the Paypal app which was much more useful. I also, at a friend's suggestion, started an AppShopper.com account. There I can list the apps I've bought and put apps on my wish list. The site will inform me when the price changes on the wish list apps. It can also tell you when apps are updated, but that just seemed needless as the phone will let you know when the app has been updated.
Ok, that's it for today. True to the title of this blog post, I have 4 hours to get some sort of rest, pending He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops doesn't continue to holler every 15 minutes...
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 15: Ramblin' Gamblin' Helluva Engineer!
My alma mater, Georgia Tech, beat undefeated #5 Clemson today. The rest of this post is just fluff.
Woke up early, went to do a computer repair job, which was actually an easy one that just took a lot of time. One of my clients decided she did not want to patch her almost decade old computer anymore and bought a new one, so I just set the new one up and transferred data. Do you know how long it takes to move 11 GB using a USB 1.0 connection? Way too long. Oh, one last Waze comment. You can't do via points. I find myself doing via points all the time, so I'll still need another navigation app.
Got home, took a nap, and woke up in time to see Duke almost upset Virginia Tech, which would have been sweet. A commercial about the ACC app prompted me to download it, only to be disappointed that they want $8 for streaming live games. It doesn't do anything that the ESPN app doesn't do, so it'll be getting the boot soon. Saw UGA come back against Florida, that was a bit sad. Went recycling by the Dekalb Farmer's Market, and had "Siri" call the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Decatur so I could order a pizza for dinner. Got home, ate dinner, put the boys to bed and watched the best game Tech has played all season. They've had statistically better games, but those were against high school teams in disguise. I also used the RedLaser app to scan the QR code on the GoDaddy commercial off my plasma. Not sure if I should tout the phone or the plasma but it worked with no problems. By the way, the extra GoDaddy footage is not worth it.
I'm having a problem with "Siri." She won't pronounce my wife's name right, even though I've filled in the phonetic first name field. Not sure why that is. I did figure out though that if I update my contact info and put her in the spouse field, that I can tell "Siri" to "tell my wife" and not worry about the pronunciaton, at least until she reads it back to me.
I think I'm going to bed. This was a very emotional evening, especially after the refs missed a blatant offsides call which cause a turnover which switched the momentum in Clemson's favor. Forutnately we played well three quarters instead of our usual one half. I'll leave you with my modified Clemson chat, which I made up after going to a game a while back and sitting with some obnoxious Clemson fans who kept doing the chant over and over again. Fortunately they lost, and this is what I sang back to their disgust:
C-L-E-M-S-O-N!
S-T-I-N-K-S!
Lose Tigers! Lose Tigers! Lose! Lose! Lose!
<insert Ric Flair WOOOOOOO! here>
PS - replace "Stinks" with "Tigers" and "Lose" with "Fight" and you get the actual chant.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 14: A little Waze, a little ass kicking
I was feeling very unmotivated at work today. It was just two of us at Wings Friday, so I switched up and got some lemon pepper wings today.
It was a good change of pace. By the end of the day I had actually accomplished a good bit. I'm still going to log on after this and attempt to get a bit more done though.
I lied about Waze. I said it didn't do TTS and it definitely pronounced the street and highway names today. I believe I also discovered that there are multiple servers doing different things for Waze. There appears to be a server for the map tiles, one for the social networking/road conditions/traffic, and one for routing. The first two seem to work ok, but they aren't pushing that much data in reality. The routing server appears to get bogged down, and will take a long time to get you a route if, for example, you try to get a route in a major city during rush hour. Luckily my route was home, but it just sat there and spun until I was almost halfway home before it finally loaded the route. One of the interesting things about Waze is the ability to create roads on the map that don't exist. I'm going to attempt to create the parking lot at my job and see if it works. Since I see no ads, I'm assuming Waze makes their money by selling their maps and possibly traffic info to the big guys. But I digress. If you can live with potentially not being able to get a route at peak times, then Waze is great. Otherwise pay $10 for an app with a little more reliability, or $50 for an app with the maps already on your phone.
I did my first Nike Training Club workout at home. If you haven't used this app, it basically mimics my life in that a woman commands me to do stuff, and I do it whether I like it or not. Because I'm not the smartest dude out there, I chose the Intermediate (AKA the hardest) setting for the workout I was doing. I also don't have the proper equiment. You need a medicine ball. I have a soccer ball. You need light weights. I only have one 25 lbs. dumbbell (why I only have one is a long story I may or may not cover in the future). The other reason is I want one of those Bowflex SelectTech dumbbell sets, but I refuse to pay more than $200 and even used they're commanding $300 or more. Anyway, my ass was thoroughly kicked. The workouts are very quick paced. You switch excerices very quickly. Obviously at the harder levels, your breaks are less. The one thing I noticed today though that I hadn't noticed when doing these at work, is that I think this program is geared toward women. I still got a good cardio workout, and the extra weight made it even more challenging. I'd been slacking on getting the 4 - 5 workouts a week I want, and I think this may motivate me to acheive that.
Does anyone know how to attach a picture to an email without having to start the email from the Photos app? I had an email all typed out and could not figure out a way to attach a picture. I had to cut the paragraph I wrote, go to the Photos app, open the picture, pick the option to email it, and then an email opened with the picture that I could then paste my words to. Does this also mean I cannot attached random files? On a slightly different note I need a document editing suite. Any suggestions?
Aight, time to get some work done. I also have a computer repair appointment in the morning. Maybe I should go to bed instead. Time to flip a coin...
It was a good change of pace. By the end of the day I had actually accomplished a good bit. I'm still going to log on after this and attempt to get a bit more done though.
I lied about Waze. I said it didn't do TTS and it definitely pronounced the street and highway names today. I believe I also discovered that there are multiple servers doing different things for Waze. There appears to be a server for the map tiles, one for the social networking/road conditions/traffic, and one for routing. The first two seem to work ok, but they aren't pushing that much data in reality. The routing server appears to get bogged down, and will take a long time to get you a route if, for example, you try to get a route in a major city during rush hour. Luckily my route was home, but it just sat there and spun until I was almost halfway home before it finally loaded the route. One of the interesting things about Waze is the ability to create roads on the map that don't exist. I'm going to attempt to create the parking lot at my job and see if it works. Since I see no ads, I'm assuming Waze makes their money by selling their maps and possibly traffic info to the big guys. But I digress. If you can live with potentially not being able to get a route at peak times, then Waze is great. Otherwise pay $10 for an app with a little more reliability, or $50 for an app with the maps already on your phone.
I did my first Nike Training Club workout at home. If you haven't used this app, it basically mimics my life in that a woman commands me to do stuff, and I do it whether I like it or not. Because I'm not the smartest dude out there, I chose the Intermediate (AKA the hardest) setting for the workout I was doing. I also don't have the proper equiment. You need a medicine ball. I have a soccer ball. You need light weights. I only have one 25 lbs. dumbbell (why I only have one is a long story I may or may not cover in the future). The other reason is I want one of those Bowflex SelectTech dumbbell sets, but I refuse to pay more than $200 and even used they're commanding $300 or more. Anyway, my ass was thoroughly kicked. The workouts are very quick paced. You switch excerices very quickly. Obviously at the harder levels, your breaks are less. The one thing I noticed today though that I hadn't noticed when doing these at work, is that I think this program is geared toward women. I still got a good cardio workout, and the extra weight made it even more challenging. I'd been slacking on getting the 4 - 5 workouts a week I want, and I think this may motivate me to acheive that.
Does anyone know how to attach a picture to an email without having to start the email from the Photos app? I had an email all typed out and could not figure out a way to attach a picture. I had to cut the paragraph I wrote, go to the Photos app, open the picture, pick the option to email it, and then an email opened with the picture that I could then paste my words to. Does this also mean I cannot attached random files? On a slightly different note I need a document editing suite. Any suggestions?
Aight, time to get some work done. I also have a computer repair appointment in the morning. Maybe I should go to bed instead. Time to flip a coin...
Friday, October 28, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 13: Decision Day
Work is killing me. Luckily, it appears our open position may be filled soon. My fingers are crossed as this working working working day and night is getting old.
I called this post "Decision Day" because tomorrow would be the last day I could return this thing without a severe penalty. I'm not returning it. First off, I do actually like it. While there is stuff I wish I could change about it, the pros far outweigh the cons. I could have gone Android and probably felt the same way, since HPalm basically all but abandoned the webOS platform. I think I said this before, but an Android phone would have probably prompted me to put a custom ROM on it and mess with it. I kind of like that I can't really do that with this one. I could jailbreak it, and I may do it in the future, but it works as is now. The only reason I'd jailbreak is to enable tethering. Also, Apple has a good record of supporting older hardware. Since I'll have this for two years (unless the iPhone 5 is so ridiculously advanced that my cheap ass will potentially take a loss to get it), I need to make sure that software updates will keep me current. iOS5 is being rolled out to 3Gs models. Android is fractured as hell. I think I read a Nexus One (which came out about the same time as a 3Gs) is not getting Ice Cream Sandwich. Then there is the dependence on the phone manufacturers and the carrier after Google releases the update to get it to your phone. One less hop with the iPhone.
Other than those reasons, I spent $30 on the case, bought $8 worth of apps, have $20 worth of chargers coming, and Sprint would charge me $35 to take it back. It'll stay here.
Didn't do anything new today, just recommended some case choices to a coworker who should be getting hers shortly.
Aight, sorry for the boring update. I'll do better tomorrow. I make no guarantees though...
I called this post "Decision Day" because tomorrow would be the last day I could return this thing without a severe penalty. I'm not returning it. First off, I do actually like it. While there is stuff I wish I could change about it, the pros far outweigh the cons. I could have gone Android and probably felt the same way, since HPalm basically all but abandoned the webOS platform. I think I said this before, but an Android phone would have probably prompted me to put a custom ROM on it and mess with it. I kind of like that I can't really do that with this one. I could jailbreak it, and I may do it in the future, but it works as is now. The only reason I'd jailbreak is to enable tethering. Also, Apple has a good record of supporting older hardware. Since I'll have this for two years (unless the iPhone 5 is so ridiculously advanced that my cheap ass will potentially take a loss to get it), I need to make sure that software updates will keep me current. iOS5 is being rolled out to 3Gs models. Android is fractured as hell. I think I read a Nexus One (which came out about the same time as a 3Gs) is not getting Ice Cream Sandwich. Then there is the dependence on the phone manufacturers and the carrier after Google releases the update to get it to your phone. One less hop with the iPhone.
Other than those reasons, I spent $30 on the case, bought $8 worth of apps, have $20 worth of chargers coming, and Sprint would charge me $35 to take it back. It'll stay here.
Didn't do anything new today, just recommended some case choices to a coworker who should be getting hers shortly.
Aight, sorry for the boring update. I'll do better tomorrow. I make no guarantees though...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 12: Word to the Waze
This was a typical Wednesday: Get Isandro up and ready for school, get him to school mad late, Starbucks, finish the drive to work while on conference calls, gym, hectic rest of day, traffic, get home, feed the boys and give them baths, put them in bed, hang out with wifey, sit in bed and type to blog. Nothing special other than the smiles on my boys' snotty nose faces (seems big brother may have had more than allergies).
I'm starting to think about Friday and whether I conclude the iPhone posts or if I will try to make it to 30 days. While I think making it to 30 days would be cool in a nerd type of way, I'm not sure I have that much material. I also should have started the blog at Day 0 so "Phone Decision 2011" would have been on Day 14 instead of Day 15. If it doesn't ruin people's comments, I'll fix it. But if you can't already tell, the phone is a keeper.
Before I do the review on the Waze app, I also downloaded Craigslist! which is currently free in the App Store. I thought it would be crappy but it is a feature packed app that was easy to use. I also used FaceTime for the first time. The lucky recipient of my first FaceTime call was...drum roll please...myself. Well actually my wife's iPod Touch, but she refuses to participate in my video chat tests when she's sitting right beside me. Spoilsport! The call was good but both iDevices were on the same wifi connection so that wasn't a good test. I'll have to find someone a little farther away, preferably ridicule free. I also figured out how to get "Siri" to send a message in one command (Tell blah blah blah). That was cool, but I'm still working on the enunciation part. The things she thinks I said may land me on an FBI watch list.
So into Waze. My best description of it would it be that Waze is the bastard child that resulted from Facebook and Garmin having a one night stand. I have far from figured out all its features, and I've got most or all of the social networking featured turned off. But basically it's a map program run by the people. It gets it's traffic from other Waze users who passively send their locations and speeds to the server so that when the next person taking that route comes along, Waze will know whether to have you take the same route or calculate an alternate route. You can also notate various traffic conditions like traffic, accidents, construction, police locations, etc. Then there is the social part. You can see where other Waze users have been and ping them. This reminds me of AOL chat rooms back in the day where you look for a girl in the room and try to get her to talk to you one on one in hopes of cybersex. Not that I've ever done that...recently. I don't see why I'd ping a fellow driver stuck in traffic. There's some point system I have yet to figure out. You can connect your account to FB, Twitter and Foursquare if I recall. I'm sure I'm missing some features but you get the idea.
The route from home to preschool worked out well. Waze avoided a highway that was barely moving, and took me a route that I hadn't thought of taking. It does turn-by-turn directions but no TTS which means no street names. Not a huge deal. Going home was where it got interesting.
I normally take one of two routes home. One is longer but traffic is only bad in one spot rather than the other option which is alway grid locked. Waze took me through a third route which was a different way of doing the first suggestion. What Waze (or the people who should have Waze running) didn't realize that the on ramp to the different way is always jam packed at rush hour. After I modified the route by driving past the on ramp and continuing the down the path of the first route which was not a bad ride today. My verdict is that for a free app, it does pretty well. Just be cautious of traffic causing weird routes.
Ok getting sleepy fast. Battle for tonight is multitasking. I'm pretty sure I already did this battle, but I had an issue this morning that made this Come up again. The Pre wins. Again. I could give you a million scenarios where multitasking is needed and you could probably prove I didn't really need it. However my example today was getting dressed in the dark. I used to be able to start the LED light and then check the weather while still being able to see what articles of clothing I needed to grab. No so much with this one trick at a time pony.
I've literally fallen asleep and mistyped the hell out of some words. Hopefully I caught them all. Later...
I'm starting to think about Friday and whether I conclude the iPhone posts or if I will try to make it to 30 days. While I think making it to 30 days would be cool in a nerd type of way, I'm not sure I have that much material. I also should have started the blog at Day 0 so "Phone Decision 2011" would have been on Day 14 instead of Day 15. If it doesn't ruin people's comments, I'll fix it. But if you can't already tell, the phone is a keeper.
Before I do the review on the Waze app, I also downloaded Craigslist! which is currently free in the App Store. I thought it would be crappy but it is a feature packed app that was easy to use. I also used FaceTime for the first time. The lucky recipient of my first FaceTime call was...drum roll please...myself. Well actually my wife's iPod Touch, but she refuses to participate in my video chat tests when she's sitting right beside me. Spoilsport! The call was good but both iDevices were on the same wifi connection so that wasn't a good test. I'll have to find someone a little farther away, preferably ridicule free. I also figured out how to get "Siri" to send a message in one command (Tell
So into Waze. My best description of it would it be that Waze is the bastard child that resulted from Facebook and Garmin having a one night stand. I have far from figured out all its features, and I've got most or all of the social networking featured turned off. But basically it's a map program run by the people. It gets it's traffic from other Waze users who passively send their locations and speeds to the server so that when the next person taking that route comes along, Waze will know whether to have you take the same route or calculate an alternate route. You can also notate various traffic conditions like traffic, accidents, construction, police locations, etc. Then there is the social part. You can see where other Waze users have been and ping them. This reminds me of AOL chat rooms back in the day where you look for a girl in the room and try to get her to talk to you one on one in hopes of cybersex. Not that I've ever done that...recently. I don't see why I'd ping a fellow driver stuck in traffic. There's some point system I have yet to figure out. You can connect your account to FB, Twitter and Foursquare if I recall. I'm sure I'm missing some features but you get the idea.
The route from home to preschool worked out well. Waze avoided a highway that was barely moving, and took me a route that I hadn't thought of taking. It does turn-by-turn directions but no TTS which means no street names. Not a huge deal. Going home was where it got interesting.
I normally take one of two routes home. One is longer but traffic is only bad in one spot rather than the other option which is alway grid locked. Waze took me through a third route which was a different way of doing the first suggestion. What Waze (or the people who should have Waze running) didn't realize that the on ramp to the different way is always jam packed at rush hour. After I modified the route by driving past the on ramp and continuing the down the path of the first route which was not a bad ride today. My verdict is that for a free app, it does pretty well. Just be cautious of traffic causing weird routes.
Ok getting sleepy fast. Battle for tonight is multitasking. I'm pretty sure I already did this battle, but I had an issue this morning that made this Come up again. The Pre wins. Again. I could give you a million scenarios where multitasking is needed and you could probably prove I didn't really need it. However my example today was getting dressed in the dark. I used to be able to start the LED light and then check the weather while still being able to see what articles of clothing I needed to grab. No so much with this one trick at a time pony.
I've literally fallen asleep and mistyped the hell out of some words. Hopefully I caught them all. Later...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 11: Free Nav!
So I didn't discover this until after I made it home, but there is a free non carrier specific turn-by-turn navigation option for the iPhone. It's called Waze. I'm going to download it right after this post and see how it does on the way to Isandro's school, my job, and home, and report back to you. If it works well, that will be money back in the hands of the strippers who work hard for it.
The trip home from Asheville was pretty good. We actually left at the time we said we were going to leave for the first time EVER. I should have bought a lottery ticket. Both kids acted well, we stopped for Zaxby's and took 20 min rather than our usual hour long stop, and my wife allowed the truck to pass the outlet mall without stopping, since we were trying to get her to work on time (which we did successfully) and since we stopped on the way up if you recall. When we got to the house, my wife did a jump out of the truck while it was moving in a dive like position that allowed her to fly through her car window, push the automatic start, and then zoom off. I may have done a little embellishing to that part of the story. I put He-Who-Sleeps-Through-Natural-Diasters in bed for a nap as he had just fallen asleep and He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops and I hung out. By hanging out I mean he looks for something to chew on while I tell him "not for the mouth" in the two languages I know to no avail. I'm pretty sure both my child were or will be billy goats in their past or future lives. The baby headed to nap just in time for the oldest to wake up, so he and I spent some quality time as well playing catch and watching "Peep and the Big Wide World" which is his favorite show. The short cartoon at the end called "Pocoyo" normally has me in tears from laughing so hard for some reason. More playing with both boys, a visit from Grammie, dinner and bedtime ended the day. Not looking forward to work tomorrow at all. I didn't do nearly enough work on my days off. I see the irony in that statement, don't judge me.
Did I do customizations as a battle theme yet? I don't feel like going to check, so customizations it is. The Pre wins with a more easily modifiable OS and being able to do the mods with no fear of your warranty being rendered invalid (although I don't think it's the case anymore with Apple, but I could have made that up). It also gets extra points for the webOS Doctor, which short of a physical catastrophe would bring the Pre back to an out of the box state, so you could experiment at will.
Enough one finger typing for today. I think I'm behind watching Hung so I'll catch up before I stare at the back of my eyelids. Hasta mañana...
The trip home from Asheville was pretty good. We actually left at the time we said we were going to leave for the first time EVER. I should have bought a lottery ticket. Both kids acted well, we stopped for Zaxby's and took 20 min rather than our usual hour long stop, and my wife allowed the truck to pass the outlet mall without stopping, since we were trying to get her to work on time (which we did successfully) and since we stopped on the way up if you recall. When we got to the house, my wife did a jump out of the truck while it was moving in a dive like position that allowed her to fly through her car window, push the automatic start, and then zoom off. I may have done a little embellishing to that part of the story. I put He-Who-Sleeps-Through-Natural-Diasters in bed for a nap as he had just fallen asleep and He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops and I hung out. By hanging out I mean he looks for something to chew on while I tell him "not for the mouth" in the two languages I know to no avail. I'm pretty sure both my child were or will be billy goats in their past or future lives. The baby headed to nap just in time for the oldest to wake up, so he and I spent some quality time as well playing catch and watching "Peep and the Big Wide World" which is his favorite show. The short cartoon at the end called "Pocoyo" normally has me in tears from laughing so hard for some reason. More playing with both boys, a visit from Grammie, dinner and bedtime ended the day. Not looking forward to work tomorrow at all. I didn't do nearly enough work on my days off. I see the irony in that statement, don't judge me.
Did I do customizations as a battle theme yet? I don't feel like going to check, so customizations it is. The Pre wins with a more easily modifiable OS and being able to do the mods with no fear of your warranty being rendered invalid (although I don't think it's the case anymore with Apple, but I could have made that up). It also gets extra points for the webOS Doctor, which short of a physical catastrophe would bring the Pre back to an out of the box state, so you could experiment at will.
Enough one finger typing for today. I think I'm behind watching Hung so I'll catch up before I stare at the back of my eyelids. Hasta mañana...
Monday, October 24, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 10: A little rest, a little food, a lot of nature
The day started off nice enough: a little four person cuddlefest, some hanging out in our pajamas, some working on my day off, some tv time, and then a nap for the youngest one before we ventured out for some food. Today we went to Sunny Point Cafe & Bakery. If you live in Atlanta, think The Flying Biscuit's fraternal twin. I thought it was good, but my wife wasn't so impressed. Isandro liked his and Fernando eats whatever you put in frint of him, so he murdered some pieces of biscuit and fruit.
We then went to the North Carolina Arboretum. I'm not much of a nature person, but that was a beautiful place. We walked through their gardens and along a 3/4 mile trail. We will definitely come back to take another trail. The only bummer to the day was that Isandro appears to be allergic to something in the air around here, as his eyes and nose were running non stop. The boys' lack of sleep has apparently caught up to them as both were out by 8 PM.
The phone had its first drop today. It happened at the restaurant. It was about a two foot drop off my lap into a concrete floor. The case protected it as designed even though it wasn't that far of a drop.
No new apps today. Just a lot of Maps, Good, and UrbanSpoon. I contemplated getting TeleNav but again couldn't part with the $10. "Siri" set a reminder for me. If there is one thing "Siri" is going to do to the world, she's going to force us to enunciate. Apparently when I say "Wells Fargo" it sounds like "embargo."
I don't really have a battle theme today because nothing came up. I'll make up a quick battle: build quality. The iPhone wins this one. A good friend of mine described the Pre as a plastic toy, and I could never argue that point. While this glass on both sides frightens me a little, I don't think it's that delicate or Apple would have been run out of town already.
Ok it not quite midnight so I'm going to take advantage of everyone being asleep and go to sleep myself. I'll leave you with a pic of the fam using the front cam. We're sitting on my tailgate as we finished walking around the Arboretum. You can see Isandro is all smiles even though his eyes are clearly showing otherwise. The Benadryl is working its magic as I type...
We then went to the North Carolina Arboretum. I'm not much of a nature person, but that was a beautiful place. We walked through their gardens and along a 3/4 mile trail. We will definitely come back to take another trail. The only bummer to the day was that Isandro appears to be allergic to something in the air around here, as his eyes and nose were running non stop. The boys' lack of sleep has apparently caught up to them as both were out by 8 PM.
The phone had its first drop today. It happened at the restaurant. It was about a two foot drop off my lap into a concrete floor. The case protected it as designed even though it wasn't that far of a drop.
No new apps today. Just a lot of Maps, Good, and UrbanSpoon. I contemplated getting TeleNav but again couldn't part with the $10. "Siri" set a reminder for me. If there is one thing "Siri" is going to do to the world, she's going to force us to enunciate. Apparently when I say "Wells Fargo" it sounds like "embargo."
I don't really have a battle theme today because nothing came up. I'll make up a quick battle: build quality. The iPhone wins this one. A good friend of mine described the Pre as a plastic toy, and I could never argue that point. While this glass on both sides frightens me a little, I don't think it's that delicate or Apple would have been run out of town already.
Ok it not quite midnight so I'm going to take advantage of everyone being asleep and go to sleep myself. I'll leave you with a pic of the fam using the front cam. We're sitting on my tailgate as we finished walking around the Arboretum. You can see Isandro is all smiles even though his eyes are clearly showing otherwise. The Benadryl is working its magic as I type...
iPhone 4s Day 9: Yarn-apalooza and good eats
Another long but good day. We spent most of the day an the fiber festival, where Isandro marveled at all things knitting and Fernando rode in style on my back (see picture somewhere on this post, stupid app). We also checked out alpacas, llamas, and sheep. The sheep were extra ornery this year so we didn't stay long. We couldn't find any goats or rabbits either this year. No big loss, two less smelly animals to check out.
I experienced my first random reboot today. We were going to eat at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in downtown Asheville and we had to park a little ways down from the restaurant, so I pulled out my phone and started up Google Maps to do a pedestrian route. In the middle of the route, the screen goes black and the Apple logo shows up. I won't complain too much, since I can't count the number of reboots I had with my Pre in the first 10 days. Fortunately my wife remembered where the restaurant was so we got there to find out there was a 90 minute wait. We promptly walked back to the truck and went to the Tupelo Honey Cafe South, which was a lot closer to the town house anyhow. We wanted to see downtown Asheville and we got to do that, just a lot quicker. By the way, the food at that restaurant was FANTASTIC. We will definitely visit it again the next time we're in town.
With the amount of navigating I did today, the battle today is about navigation. The Pre wins this one, but only because Palm was nice enough to let Sprint put their own turn-by-turn navigation app on it. I'm guessing Apple said hell no. I think Android devices have turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps. Apple wants you to follow a dot on the Maps app or pay the equivalent of 5 lap dances for TomTom. It appears I can also get TeleNav for a 1 lap dance a year subscription. I will probably wait and see if Sprint creates a free app like AT&T did.
Aight, time to turn my out of office message on for a couple days even though, like right now, I'm still working. It just means no one can officially bother me. Holla!
I experienced my first random reboot today. We were going to eat at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in downtown Asheville and we had to park a little ways down from the restaurant, so I pulled out my phone and started up Google Maps to do a pedestrian route. In the middle of the route, the screen goes black and the Apple logo shows up. I won't complain too much, since I can't count the number of reboots I had with my Pre in the first 10 days. Fortunately my wife remembered where the restaurant was so we got there to find out there was a 90 minute wait. We promptly walked back to the truck and went to the Tupelo Honey Cafe South, which was a lot closer to the town house anyhow. We wanted to see downtown Asheville and we got to do that, just a lot quicker. By the way, the food at that restaurant was FANTASTIC. We will definitely visit it again the next time we're in town.
With the amount of navigating I did today, the battle today is about navigation. The Pre wins this one, but only because Palm was nice enough to let Sprint put their own turn-by-turn navigation app on it. I'm guessing Apple said hell no. I think Android devices have turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps. Apple wants you to follow a dot on the Maps app or pay the equivalent of 5 lap dances for TomTom. It appears I can also get TeleNav for a 1 lap dance a year subscription. I will probably wait and see if Sprint creates a free app like AT&T did.
Aight, time to turn my out of office message on for a couple days even though, like right now, I'm still working. It just means no one can officially bother me. Holla!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 8: Cashville, NC
It's actually Asheville, but I bet if there were any rappers from here, they'd call it that. We were supposed to be on the road at 10, and we didn't leave until 11:30. We stopped at the outlet mall on I-85 and spent 3 hours doing some clothes shopping for the boys and I got a few new kicks from the Nike outlet. But needless to say, we didn't make it to the primary destination for the day, which was SAFF.
In case you're curious, SAFF stands for the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival. I like to call it FiberCon or Yarn-apalooza. My wife is an avid knitter and I equate this festival to a BCS game for them. It's not the SuperBowl but it's pretty big. Not to worry, there is still tomorrow.
We rented a little town home which I will hopefully be able to upload properly with this Blogger app. It's real nice and the boys have their own room which has been a slight adventure so far this evening (Isandro is still awake but being quiet after being threatened with bodily harm if he wakes his brother up).
I downloaded RoadTrip Lite to calculate my gas mileage. I will probably get the full featured version at some point so I can track my maintenance as well, but I couldn't part with the $5 for it. It's interesting how I can easily give a stripper money for what is in reality no return, but I hesitate to spend money on apps. Oh well, I'll do it at some point. I used UrbanSpoon to find the restaurant she had wanted us to go to (and see that 91% of people liked it). We used my wife's iPod to do the constellation searching with the SkyView app. That was cool once we used the compass on my iPhone to face in the correct direction. I used "Siri" to define a word for the first time, that worked out well once I pronounced the word in a way she could understand. She completely botched a text message today though. Luckily it wasn't anything offensive. At some point today I asked her to show me her titties and she pretended she did not know what I meant. However she was quick to say "thank you" when I called her awesome. Go figure.
Ok, the Pre vs iPhone battle today is GPS. iPhone is the victor here. The accuracy and time to acquire a good signal is way better in the iPhone. There are way more apps to take advantage of location services. In fact, the only plus the Pre has is turn-by-turn navigation, which while not the greatest, is better than staring at Google Maps and consequently missing turns.
That's the update for today. Tomorrow will be filled with tales of touching fur..
.
In case you're curious, SAFF stands for the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival. I like to call it FiberCon or Yarn-apalooza. My wife is an avid knitter and I equate this festival to a BCS game for them. It's not the SuperBowl but it's pretty big. Not to worry, there is still tomorrow.
We rented a little town home which I will hopefully be able to upload properly with this Blogger app. It's real nice and the boys have their own room which has been a slight adventure so far this evening (Isandro is still awake but being quiet after being threatened with bodily harm if he wakes his brother up).
I downloaded RoadTrip Lite to calculate my gas mileage. I will probably get the full featured version at some point so I can track my maintenance as well, but I couldn't part with the $5 for it. It's interesting how I can easily give a stripper money for what is in reality no return, but I hesitate to spend money on apps. Oh well, I'll do it at some point. I used UrbanSpoon to find the restaurant she had wanted us to go to (and see that 91% of people liked it). We used my wife's iPod to do the constellation searching with the SkyView app. That was cool once we used the compass on my iPhone to face in the correct direction. I used "Siri" to define a word for the first time, that worked out well once I pronounced the word in a way she could understand. She completely botched a text message today though. Luckily it wasn't anything offensive. At some point today I asked her to show me her titties and she pretended she did not know what I meant. However she was quick to say "thank you" when I called her awesome. Go figure.
Ok, the Pre vs iPhone battle today is GPS. iPhone is the victor here. The accuracy and time to acquire a good signal is way better in the iPhone. There are way more apps to take advantage of location services. In fact, the only plus the Pre has is turn-by-turn navigation, which while not the greatest, is better than staring at Google Maps and consequently missing turns.
That's the update for today. Tomorrow will be filled with tales of touching fur..
.
iPhone 4s Day 7: Nada mucho
Nothing much happening today. Trying to minimize the amount of work I'm going to have to do this weekend and on the two days I'm taking off. Wings Friday was good except the coworker that places the order got too many wings. Luckily I have better self control these days.
No apps downloaded today but I finally opened Netflix. Picture quality is pretty spectacular for a small screen. I also opened the Mint.com app for the first time as well so I could attempt to pass out from the state of my finances.
I'm taking the phone on its first road trip this weekend so I'll get to see how it does on the road and in a little bit of wilderness.
I don't really have a battle topic today. I must be tired. So I'll go to bed. Hopefully I'll have more to say tomorrow.
No apps downloaded today but I finally opened Netflix. Picture quality is pretty spectacular for a small screen. I also opened the Mint.com app for the first time as well so I could attempt to pass out from the state of my finances.
I'm taking the phone on its first road trip this weekend so I'll get to see how it does on the road and in a little bit of wilderness.
I don't really have a battle topic today. I must be tired. So I'll go to bed. Hopefully I'll have more to say tomorrow.
Friday, October 21, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 6: My first real annoyance
Today was a slow day iPhone-wise. Busy as hell work-wise. This is my other work from home day, so the boys and I did our usual hanging out, minus the time Isandro went to a pizza party at his preschool.
I downloaded a few apps: Google Search, Groupon, ScoutMob, Where, and LivingSocial. I erased my Pre today and turned it into a wifi only device. I miss a physical keyboard, but I'm getting used to this thing. I do wish my default keyboard was the one that pops up when you input an email address so that the period key would be available without switching to the number/symbol keyboard. I wonder if that's an option somewhere.
For the people reading this that own iPhones, I have a question: how do you organize your apps? I've thought of a few ways but what I think I've settled on is two, maybe three pages, the first page having my most used apps with a few groupings for social networking apps, music apps, sports apps, and game apps, and the second page have a bunch of groupings (currently I have finance, entertainment, shopping, travel, books, and utilities groupings) as well as any apps that don't fit in a category yet. At the bottom I have the Phone, Messaging, Safari, and Good apps. I might trade Safari for the Email app, not sure yet. But that's what I've got now. I'd love to hear how you all do it. You can tell me about the app organization too.
So now for my annoyance with the iPhone that will also lead into the Pre vs iPhone battle of the day. I'm watching Hung on HBO Go and my battery hits 20%. I get the pop up notification that my battery is dying, but the notification STOPS MY SHOW! I'm bitching about this to my wife (who owns an iPod Touch) and she has an app that plays ambient sounds and if someone plays their turn on Words With Friends, her sounds stop. She has apparently just gotten used to it. I am outraged. My Pre would pop up a banner at the bottom about my battery, but it would stop nothing to tell me that. Hopefully there is a setting to modify this behavior because that is annoying as hell. Remember Steve Jobs' response to the antenna issue? "You're holding the phone wrong." I feel like his answer to this would have been "keep your battery charged...dumbass." I don't think I could argue that, at least the battery charged part. But the Pre wins this one, although I do like the pull down notification center. I feel like the mini icons across the bottom that the Pre had let you know what you were being notified about without having an extra step. The notification badges on the app icons are cool too, but if you're not on the page with that app, you could miss that as well.
That's about it. I heard about another person I know going through a separation and/or divorce. That would be the 4th one in a month's time. It kind of bummed me out for a bit today. Anyone who tells you marriage is easy hasn't been married very long. I hope it all works out for them. Ok that's it for real. I can still get 6 hours of sleep if I stop now.
I downloaded a few apps: Google Search, Groupon, ScoutMob, Where, and LivingSocial. I erased my Pre today and turned it into a wifi only device. I miss a physical keyboard, but I'm getting used to this thing. I do wish my default keyboard was the one that pops up when you input an email address so that the period key would be available without switching to the number/symbol keyboard. I wonder if that's an option somewhere.
For the people reading this that own iPhones, I have a question: how do you organize your apps? I've thought of a few ways but what I think I've settled on is two, maybe three pages, the first page having my most used apps with a few groupings for social networking apps, music apps, sports apps, and game apps, and the second page have a bunch of groupings (currently I have finance, entertainment, shopping, travel, books, and utilities groupings) as well as any apps that don't fit in a category yet. At the bottom I have the Phone, Messaging, Safari, and Good apps. I might trade Safari for the Email app, not sure yet. But that's what I've got now. I'd love to hear how you all do it. You can tell me about the app organization too.
So now for my annoyance with the iPhone that will also lead into the Pre vs iPhone battle of the day. I'm watching Hung on HBO Go and my battery hits 20%. I get the pop up notification that my battery is dying, but the notification STOPS MY SHOW! I'm bitching about this to my wife (who owns an iPod Touch) and she has an app that plays ambient sounds and if someone plays their turn on Words With Friends, her sounds stop. She has apparently just gotten used to it. I am outraged. My Pre would pop up a banner at the bottom about my battery, but it would stop nothing to tell me that. Hopefully there is a setting to modify this behavior because that is annoying as hell. Remember Steve Jobs' response to the antenna issue? "You're holding the phone wrong." I feel like his answer to this would have been "keep your battery charged...dumbass." I don't think I could argue that, at least the battery charged part. But the Pre wins this one, although I do like the pull down notification center. I feel like the mini icons across the bottom that the Pre had let you know what you were being notified about without having an extra step. The notification badges on the app icons are cool too, but if you're not on the page with that app, you could miss that as well.
That's about it. I heard about another person I know going through a separation and/or divorce. That would be the 4th one in a month's time. It kind of bummed me out for a bit today. Anyone who tells you marriage is easy hasn't been married very long. I hope it all works out for them. Ok that's it for real. I can still get 6 hours of sleep if I stop now.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 5: More apps, more "Siri" & a lesson learned
Another short update. I got Isandro to school way late today. Part Isandro eating slower than hell, part an accident on 285. Please allow me a moment to rant: if you get into an accident and nobody is injured PLEASE MOVE YOUR FUCKING CAR OUT OF TRAFFIC. I believe that is Georgia law but I could be making that up because of the fender bender that added 20 min to Isandro and my commute.
Sorry, one more rant. I take the scenic route from Starbucks to my job (for reasons I will not divulge as I think you still like me) and I pass through one of the richer neighborhoods in the city. There is the world's worst dead spot for Sprint in that area so I normally forget when I'm on conference calls and get dropped every time. On Monday I did not have a call but I looked at the bars on the phone and they went down but not away like they did on the Pre. Today I had a call and it dropped even though there was a bar left. Some of you may recall way back when Apple got in trouble because their signal strength algorithm wasn't the most truthful depiction of what was really going on? Mark this down, I called it first!
I used my Starbucks app to get my coffee today. Worked like a charm. Work was crazy busy today so no playing with the phone until I got off. I paid for two apps (Flashlight and Alarm Clock) and downloaded a boatload more (Shazam and SoundHound: music identifying software, IMDB, UrbanSpoon: restaurant locator, CNBC RT: stock ticker, Flixster, Amazon and Target). Ok, it seemed like a bunch more before I typed it out, my apologies for getting your hopes up.
"Siri" and I are becoming text sending bandits. She still won't tell me where she lives and just wants to be friends though. I won't give up yet, as one of my theories in life is that a person can only say no a finite number of times before they're like "ok, just this once." Not sure if that applies to AI though...
Almost forgot the lesson learned. Double tapping the Home button gives you all the apps you've opened recently. Not really news, but what I didn't know is that having programs down there, while making it faster to launch them, are actively eating up resources, and consequently battery. If you press and hold one of the icons for a couple seconds, they will start to do that shaky thing and will have red "x" badges on the top left corner of the icon. Hit the red x to close the app and save battery. You can thank me later, preferably with alcohol.
Today's Pre vs iPhone battle will be speed. iPhone wins. Imagine Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley. Even when my Pre was over-clocked, it wasn't as smooth as this.
Aight, tomorrow will be here in 4 hours. I'm out!
Sorry, one more rant. I take the scenic route from Starbucks to my job (for reasons I will not divulge as I think you still like me) and I pass through one of the richer neighborhoods in the city. There is the world's worst dead spot for Sprint in that area so I normally forget when I'm on conference calls and get dropped every time. On Monday I did not have a call but I looked at the bars on the phone and they went down but not away like they did on the Pre. Today I had a call and it dropped even though there was a bar left. Some of you may recall way back when Apple got in trouble because their signal strength algorithm wasn't the most truthful depiction of what was really going on? Mark this down, I called it first!
I used my Starbucks app to get my coffee today. Worked like a charm. Work was crazy busy today so no playing with the phone until I got off. I paid for two apps (Flashlight and Alarm Clock) and downloaded a boatload more (Shazam and SoundHound: music identifying software, IMDB, UrbanSpoon: restaurant locator, CNBC RT: stock ticker, Flixster, Amazon and Target). Ok, it seemed like a bunch more before I typed it out, my apologies for getting your hopes up.
"Siri" and I are becoming text sending bandits. She still won't tell me where she lives and just wants to be friends though. I won't give up yet, as one of my theories in life is that a person can only say no a finite number of times before they're like "ok, just this once." Not sure if that applies to AI though...
Almost forgot the lesson learned. Double tapping the Home button gives you all the apps you've opened recently. Not really news, but what I didn't know is that having programs down there, while making it faster to launch them, are actively eating up resources, and consequently battery. If you press and hold one of the icons for a couple seconds, they will start to do that shaky thing and will have red "x" badges on the top left corner of the icon. Hit the red x to close the app and save battery. You can thank me later, preferably with alcohol.
Today's Pre vs iPhone battle will be speed. iPhone wins. Imagine Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley. Even when my Pre was over-clocked, it wasn't as smooth as this.
Aight, tomorrow will be here in 4 hours. I'm out!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 4: No Rest For The Wicked
Not a big update today. Today's is one of my work from home days, so in between conference calls, emails, and script writing, I get to mess with the boys a good deal. Work has been extra busy though. I have three projects and two major system configuration changes going on. So by the way, if you know anyone in need of a job, and they have experience with Hyperion HFM/FDM installations and/or maintaining the backend of those apps, holla at me.
The phone has been good. Downloaded a QR code reader app, which was a sore point with my Pre and its inability to read them. Got OpenTable for those easy restaurant reservations. Most of the people reading this know me, but if you don't, I love to eat everything. Take that however you want to, and it's probably still true. The only real benefit between OpenTable and just calling the restaurant is that the restaurant gets a printout with your name, so I'm greeted as "Mr. Hinds" when I get there which is cool to me. My wife gets a little upset because I guess servers are taught not to assume she is Mrs. Hinds. I'll start putting in the special instructions that my wife and I are coming, maybe that will solve that. Got HBO Go as well and started catching up on Hung, which is my current favorite HBO show. Used Pandora for the first time. Nothing different from the webOS version. I know you wouldn't expect this from me, but "Pumped Up Kicks" radio was what I was listening to. I downloaded Fandango, but I am curious as to why AMC doesn't have an app so I can put my AMC Stubs member number in there. I still have to do it with a web browser. A couple apps I've downloaded and haven't used yet are the Nike Training Club and Netflix apps. I have seen the NTC in action in the gym at my job, just haven't had time to do it at home. Not sure why I haven't opened the Netflix app yet. My next app search will be for a Tabata timer app. I think I found one, just waiting for the developer to respond to my question about one of the features. I also haven't put any music on it. I'll get on that soon. "Siri" has become my go-to girl for sending text messages, since she won't give me any other type of pleasure.
I had someone give me a long list of apps to look at, maybe this weekend I'll get to it. It's almost 3 AM, so I'm going to go to bed now. Blame my job for the late post. Pre vs iPhone comparison today is size. Get your mind out of the gutter before we continue this discussion. I was certain I would hate the size of the iPhone. It's actually not that bad. I know my hands are probably slightly larger than average, but I can more than comfortably use the iPhone with one hand, which was what I was worried about leaving the Pre. I guess bigger can be better...
The phone has been good. Downloaded a QR code reader app, which was a sore point with my Pre and its inability to read them. Got OpenTable for those easy restaurant reservations. Most of the people reading this know me, but if you don't, I love to eat everything. Take that however you want to, and it's probably still true. The only real benefit between OpenTable and just calling the restaurant is that the restaurant gets a printout with your name, so I'm greeted as "Mr. Hinds" when I get there which is cool to me. My wife gets a little upset because I guess servers are taught not to assume she is Mrs. Hinds. I'll start putting in the special instructions that my wife and I are coming, maybe that will solve that. Got HBO Go as well and started catching up on Hung, which is my current favorite HBO show. Used Pandora for the first time. Nothing different from the webOS version. I know you wouldn't expect this from me, but "Pumped Up Kicks" radio was what I was listening to. I downloaded Fandango, but I am curious as to why AMC doesn't have an app so I can put my AMC Stubs member number in there. I still have to do it with a web browser. A couple apps I've downloaded and haven't used yet are the Nike Training Club and Netflix apps. I have seen the NTC in action in the gym at my job, just haven't had time to do it at home. Not sure why I haven't opened the Netflix app yet. My next app search will be for a Tabata timer app. I think I found one, just waiting for the developer to respond to my question about one of the features. I also haven't put any music on it. I'll get on that soon. "Siri" has become my go-to girl for sending text messages, since she won't give me any other type of pleasure.
I had someone give me a long list of apps to look at, maybe this weekend I'll get to it. It's almost 3 AM, so I'm going to go to bed now. Blame my job for the late post. Pre vs iPhone comparison today is size. Get your mind out of the gutter before we continue this discussion. I was certain I would hate the size of the iPhone. It's actually not that bad. I know my hands are probably slightly larger than average, but I can more than comfortably use the iPhone with one hand, which was what I was worried about leaving the Pre. I guess bigger can be better...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 3: Good Times and Naughty "Siri"
I did not get Isandro to school on time. Mostly my fault, but partially the lady who wasn't paying attention and rear ended (more like up-ended) the car in front of her on Covington Hwy. Oh well. I tried a new coffee at Starbucks at the behest of a couple of the barristas who decided that me only getting white chocolate mochas was not cool. So I got a salted caramel white chocolate mocha, which if you like sweet coffee, imagine drinking kettle corn flavored coffee. They made a convert of me. While I was there, I downloaded the Starbucks app. It is pretty cool in that the next time I'm there I should be able to show them my phone instead of pulling out my Starbucks card for payment. It also has a store finder which I hope is more accurate than Google Maps which has lead me to a defunct Starbucks on more than one occasion.
Anywho, I've purchased my second paid app, which was Feeddler. It's an RSS feed reader, and the most expensive app I've bought to date on any mobile platform ($5). It claims to be the best RSS reader, which since I don't plan on buying another RSS reader, I'll never know, but it is working as expected. It would be nice if some of the people I'm following would post some new stuff so I can see how it renders their posts (hint hint).
The other app I installed today was Good for Enterprise. I haven't had mobile access to my work email in over two years since Good never put out a version that supported the Pre and my company would rather pay for Good servers than get M$ Exchange ActiveSync working for free. Yes I did suggest that when they had a contest for money saving ideas and I'm still a little bitter it wasn't selected. While I understand that getting work emails when not at work sounds silly, I like being able to sift through the ridiculous amounts of email I get without being at my laptop and it also allows me to have a heads up with stuff happening before I get in. It too works as expected and actually saves me from buying a conference call dialer app, so I'll put that dollar to another app, most likely a flashlight or alarm clock app.
A friend told me I should try talking dirty to "Siri" and see the funny responses I get back. I'll spare you (and myself) the embarrassment of recounting my attempt to have phone sex with artificial intelligence, but the funniest one was when I asked her what she was wearing to which "Siri" replied "why does everyone ask me that?"
I also got a request to list the apps I've gotten so far. It was easier for me to take screen shots, so I'll do that and point out a few of them.
The first one to note is the Blogger app, from which this entire post was written. If you have a long post like this one, just wait until you are near a computer. I also don't know where the screen shots will end up. The Xfinity TV app would replace the crappy remote the cable box came with if I could have it start recorded shows. Looking at the tv guide and changing the channel on the app is way better than doing it with the remote. I have yet to try the Netfix app. Might give it a whirl if I ever finish this post. I haven't tried video chatting on Skype so I'm not sure what the video quality is like. The FB app and the FB Messenger app should be one app. Same goes for the ING Direct and the Free ATM apps.
Ok, tired of typing on this keyboard although I do feel this was good practice. My Pre vs iPhone thought of the day is programs running in the background. I feel like the iPhone does more of a save state when an app is in the background whereas the Pre had apps that were actually working in the background. Not the end of the world, just have to get used to it. That also could have been part of the Pre's battery life issues now that I think if it. Give and take they say...
Anywho, I've purchased my second paid app, which was Feeddler. It's an RSS feed reader, and the most expensive app I've bought to date on any mobile platform ($5). It claims to be the best RSS reader, which since I don't plan on buying another RSS reader, I'll never know, but it is working as expected. It would be nice if some of the people I'm following would post some new stuff so I can see how it renders their posts (hint hint).
The other app I installed today was Good for Enterprise. I haven't had mobile access to my work email in over two years since Good never put out a version that supported the Pre and my company would rather pay for Good servers than get M$ Exchange ActiveSync working for free. Yes I did suggest that when they had a contest for money saving ideas and I'm still a little bitter it wasn't selected. While I understand that getting work emails when not at work sounds silly, I like being able to sift through the ridiculous amounts of email I get without being at my laptop and it also allows me to have a heads up with stuff happening before I get in. It too works as expected and actually saves me from buying a conference call dialer app, so I'll put that dollar to another app, most likely a flashlight or alarm clock app.
A friend told me I should try talking dirty to "Siri" and see the funny responses I get back. I'll spare you (and myself) the embarrassment of recounting my attempt to have phone sex with artificial intelligence, but the funniest one was when I asked her what she was wearing to which "Siri" replied "why does everyone ask me that?"
I also got a request to list the apps I've gotten so far. It was easier for me to take screen shots, so I'll do that and point out a few of them.
The first one to note is the Blogger app, from which this entire post was written. If you have a long post like this one, just wait until you are near a computer. I also don't know where the screen shots will end up. The Xfinity TV app would replace the crappy remote the cable box came with if I could have it start recorded shows. Looking at the tv guide and changing the channel on the app is way better than doing it with the remote. I have yet to try the Netfix app. Might give it a whirl if I ever finish this post. I haven't tried video chatting on Skype so I'm not sure what the video quality is like. The FB app and the FB Messenger app should be one app. Same goes for the ING Direct and the Free ATM apps.
Ok, tired of typing on this keyboard although I do feel this was good practice. My Pre vs iPhone thought of the day is programs running in the background. I feel like the iPhone does more of a save state when an app is in the background whereas the Pre had apps that were actually working in the background. Not the end of the world, just have to get used to it. That also could have been part of the Pre's battery life issues now that I think if it. Give and take they say...
Monday, October 17, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 2: Siri, "Siri," and some WWF
I really didn't do a lot of new stuff today. The first reason was the 4 hours of sleep I got before the boys woke up. I also woke up with a headache and some "stomach" issues, even though I only had one beer and no food out of the ordinary. I was supposed to have a couple computer repair jobs, but I couldn't get a hold of the one that was supposed to be the early morning appointment, so I just had one in the afternoon. My darling wife allotted me an hour and a half nap before the computer appointment (even though I asked for only an hour and ended up being late), but I apparently needed it. So one protein bar, one 5 Hour Energy, and a 20 minute drive later, I'm at the afternoon computer repair job.
While I'm waiting for the computer to do its thing (BIOS update, M$ Office install, Java, couple other little things), I download my first paid app, Words With Friends. If you've been playing WWF with me, I've been playing via the Facebook app, which wouldn't be bad if the ads weren't so intrusive. I wasn't sure if the free version's ads were that bad, but just in case, I paid the dollar to ensure I wouldn't have to suffer on my phone as well. So I did that while also using the ESPN FFL11 app to check on my fantasy team. I used to check via the mobile browser version, but this app is much nicer. I am currently 10 points ahead, and my opponent has Santonio Holmes left tomorrow, which has me a little worried, but maybe Miami can rattle Sanchez, who after watching him against the Ravens a couple weeks ago, I have deemed to be a wuss. Hit him once and he's throwing while trying to duck the rest of the game. Doesn't make for accurate passing.
I finish up the computer job and I'm walking to my truck when I decide to try "Siri" again. Before you ask me any ridiculous questions, I am doing this from memory, so "Siri" probably didn't say exactly these things...but they're close. I have my Jawbone in, and get "Siri" started by pressing the Home button. It beeps, and I say "send a text." It comes back moments later and says "what is the message?" I say "On the way home. Do you need anything?" It comes back and shows me what I've said (minus the period) and responds "is this correct?" I say "yes" and "Siri" then goes "who do you want to send it to?" I tell it my wife's name, which it responds by showing me her cell number and asking if that is correct, to which I say yes, and a few seconds later, I hear the bubble sound that signifies I've sent a text. I will neither confirm or deny that I got a little "excited" with the results of my first successful "Siri" encounter. I also believe that the NoiseAssassin on my Jawbone is not working as it should, so I'm going to check and see if it's still under warranty.
So later that evening, we are go to Siri's birthday dinner with the boys and my in-laws. It is at Cafe Istanbul, which is in Decatur and serves, if you haven't already guessed, Turkish cuisine. It's an interesting place, where you sit on the floor to eat, it's very dark and hookahs are in use. The iPhone come in play a couple times in this part of the story. The first was to get directions to the place. I knew the general vicinity of where it was, but not exactly where, so I employ "Siri" again. I tell her "get me directions to Cafe Istanbul" and she replies with "ok, I will get you directions to Avondale Pizza Cafe." Avondale Pizza Cafe is in my contacts, and "Siri" interpreted Cafe Istanbul as "cafe it's where." Slight fail, no problem, let's try again. The second time I tell "Siri" to "search for Cafe Istanbul" hoping for a Google search. I try to say Istanbul a little faster and while "Siri" got the Google search part of the query right, this time she thought it was "Cafe Original." It's starting to feel like a facepalm moment, but I try one more time, and lo and behold, she gets it this time, and up pops Google Maps and leads me right to the place. There is hope for "Siri" yet. The second time was in the dark ass restaurant, where they expect you to be able to read a menu. One of the free apps I had downloaded yesterday was a flashlight app (an LED one) and that worked beautifully. I may pay for another one where it is just an on/off switch and no ads. The free one I have has ads and a bar that you can adjust to make it a variable speed strobe light, which for the life of me I can't figure out why you would do that unless you wanted to trigger an epileptic seizure in some poor soul. The side note to this story is that my youngest son has good taste in belly dancers. I'm sure it was her hand cymbal thingys and beads on her hips, but he was mesmerized and provided a good laugh for everyone at the table.
I think that was it for the day. I don't think I did many iPhone to Pre comparisons today, so I'll close out with a few:
While I'm waiting for the computer to do its thing (BIOS update, M$ Office install, Java, couple other little things), I download my first paid app, Words With Friends. If you've been playing WWF with me, I've been playing via the Facebook app, which wouldn't be bad if the ads weren't so intrusive. I wasn't sure if the free version's ads were that bad, but just in case, I paid the dollar to ensure I wouldn't have to suffer on my phone as well. So I did that while also using the ESPN FFL11 app to check on my fantasy team. I used to check via the mobile browser version, but this app is much nicer. I am currently 10 points ahead, and my opponent has Santonio Holmes left tomorrow, which has me a little worried, but maybe Miami can rattle Sanchez, who after watching him against the Ravens a couple weeks ago, I have deemed to be a wuss. Hit him once and he's throwing while trying to duck the rest of the game. Doesn't make for accurate passing.
I finish up the computer job and I'm walking to my truck when I decide to try "Siri" again. Before you ask me any ridiculous questions, I am doing this from memory, so "Siri" probably didn't say exactly these things...but they're close. I have my Jawbone in, and get "Siri" started by pressing the Home button. It beeps, and I say "send a text." It comes back moments later and says "what is the message?" I say "On the way home. Do you need anything?" It comes back and shows me what I've said (minus the period) and responds "is this correct?" I say "yes" and "Siri" then goes "who do you want to send it to?" I tell it my wife's name, which it responds by showing me her cell number and asking if that is correct, to which I say yes, and a few seconds later, I hear the bubble sound that signifies I've sent a text. I will neither confirm or deny that I got a little "excited" with the results of my first successful "Siri" encounter. I also believe that the NoiseAssassin on my Jawbone is not working as it should, so I'm going to check and see if it's still under warranty.
So later that evening, we are go to Siri's birthday dinner with the boys and my in-laws. It is at Cafe Istanbul, which is in Decatur and serves, if you haven't already guessed, Turkish cuisine. It's an interesting place, where you sit on the floor to eat, it's very dark and hookahs are in use. The iPhone come in play a couple times in this part of the story. The first was to get directions to the place. I knew the general vicinity of where it was, but not exactly where, so I employ "Siri" again. I tell her "get me directions to Cafe Istanbul" and she replies with "ok, I will get you directions to Avondale Pizza Cafe." Avondale Pizza Cafe is in my contacts, and "Siri" interpreted Cafe Istanbul as "cafe it's where." Slight fail, no problem, let's try again. The second time I tell "Siri" to "search for Cafe Istanbul" hoping for a Google search. I try to say Istanbul a little faster and while "Siri" got the Google search part of the query right, this time she thought it was "Cafe Original." It's starting to feel like a facepalm moment, but I try one more time, and lo and behold, she gets it this time, and up pops Google Maps and leads me right to the place. There is hope for "Siri" yet. The second time was in the dark ass restaurant, where they expect you to be able to read a menu. One of the free apps I had downloaded yesterday was a flashlight app (an LED one) and that worked beautifully. I may pay for another one where it is just an on/off switch and no ads. The free one I have has ads and a bar that you can adjust to make it a variable speed strobe light, which for the life of me I can't figure out why you would do that unless you wanted to trigger an epileptic seizure in some poor soul. The side note to this story is that my youngest son has good taste in belly dancers. I'm sure it was her hand cymbal thingys and beads on her hips, but he was mesmerized and provided a good laugh for everyone at the table.
I think that was it for the day. I don't think I did many iPhone to Pre comparisons today, so I'll close out with a few:
- The default Messaging app on the Pre beats the iPhone one like a red-headed stepchild. If anyone knows of an app that will combine SMS, MMS and IMs from one contact in one threaded view, let me know. The Pre did that on its own.
- I have engaged in a few group messages on the iPhone and am now glad that when I respond, I'm responding to everyone instead of just the sender when I was on my Pre.
- The active task switching/multitasking/whatever you want to call it is comparable on both. I feel the Pre method is a little more elegant and quicker, but it can be done on an iPhone, although I fear for the Home button with the amount of double tapping I'm going to be doing.
- I miss being able to play a YouTube video (or any video for that matter) and have it play in the background while I'm doing something else. Reason being is that if I'm listening to a song with a static picture or I just need to hear the video rather than see it, I can do something else. Doesn't appear to be possible on the iPhone.
Aight, it's almost 12:30 AM. Let's see if I can get Isandro to school on time two times in a row...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 1: App-alooza, crazy battery life & Siri vs "Siri"
As I predicted, at 2 AM I got upstairs and attempted to download some apps. The App Store kept telling me I needed to verify my account before being able to download, but it kept saying that it sent it to a mac.com email address that I must have set up ages ago. In my sleepiness, I didn't realize that the mac.com address is just my account name and the verifications went to my Hotmail account. Now before you go ape-shit over the fact that Hotmail is still my primary email provider, my major change in mobile OS is probably going to jumpstart the move to Gmail as the primary. The other thing is that apparently since I have this mac.com address as my account name, it cannot be changed. I could create a new App Store account, but I figure as long as I don't continue to freak out when I see the mac.com address, I'll be ok.
Fast forward to 8 AM and I've verified my account and the app downloading begins. The first app to be downloaded was Facebook, followed by Twitter. After poking around with them for a bit, I get my first phone call, from Siri. Now the explanation. My sister-in-law's nickname is Siri. So from here on out, when you see Siri, it's a live human being who calls me when she is lost going somewhere, which is about once every other month or so. When you see "Siri" it's the supposedly wonderful AI interface. I say "supposedly" because I have yet to get an answer from her, but I'll cover that later. While I'm talking to Siri (whose call was very clear on speakerphone, since the screen protection covered the earpiece), I hear Fernando, my 9 month old, who is also known as He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops, starting to stir. My 4 year old, Isandro, has taken a liking to a book with Native American legends in them, and every character seems to get a new name by the end, so after reading the stories for the hundredth time, my boys got new Native American-esque names as well. I took this opportunity to take my first pictures with the phone, whose Camera app loads and snaps faster than my Pre just loading its Camera app. So I introduce to you He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops:
Please excuse the tears. He is very emotional when he realizes he's trapped in his crib. Unfortunately the crappy screen protection covers the lens and the flash, so my first pictures probably didn't come out as nicely as they could have. Actually any pics with flash did not come out at all. So after I change the world's worst smelling diaper and get him out of his pajamas, we go to see He-Who-Sleeps-Through-Natural-Disasters:
He finally wakes up after Fernando finishes his inspection of his brother's room and shouts his approval as only a baby can. We eat some breakfast and decide to go out to the Avondale Estates Art Alliance AutumnFest. While out there, I'm downloading every app imaginable. Every one of my financial institutions had an app (a couple were missing in the Android Market, and the Pre only had one app). I downloaded ESPN apps, Comcast apps, Netflix, Google apps, and every other free and potentially useful app I could find. I took a few pictures while out there. Here is one:
We finish with the art festival, we go home, the boys take a nap, and I continue my app downloading. My phone case and real screen protectors arrived as well, which was a little surprise. Here is the case I got. Fits nicely and makes me a little less paranoid. I've started watching the Georgia Tech game and at around 6 PM, I get the 20% battery left message. Mind you, I've been going almost non-stop on this thing downloading, surfing and making phone calls. My Pre would have died twice by now. Oh I forgot about pairing my Jawbone Icon with it. Pairing wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but what was cool was that there is a Bluetooth earpiece icon in the top bar with a battery meter in it.
So I thought I would get to tinker with the phone some more, but it was Siri's birthday, so we went out to dinner and then a club and now it's 4 AM. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. My final complaint for Day 2 is: If you are going to sell a product that you know will sell out, and your most innovative feature requires connecting to a server, then you should make sure you have the bandwidth and/or resources to accommodate it so that "Siri" won't keep telling me how she can't connect. Biatch!
Tomorrow comes a paid app or two pending I get time.
Fast forward to 8 AM and I've verified my account and the app downloading begins. The first app to be downloaded was Facebook, followed by Twitter. After poking around with them for a bit, I get my first phone call, from Siri. Now the explanation. My sister-in-law's nickname is Siri. So from here on out, when you see Siri, it's a live human being who calls me when she is lost going somewhere, which is about once every other month or so. When you see "Siri" it's the supposedly wonderful AI interface. I say "supposedly" because I have yet to get an answer from her, but I'll cover that later. While I'm talking to Siri (whose call was very clear on speakerphone, since the screen protection covered the earpiece), I hear Fernando, my 9 month old, who is also known as He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops, starting to stir. My 4 year old, Isandro, has taken a liking to a book with Native American legends in them, and every character seems to get a new name by the end, so after reading the stories for the hundredth time, my boys got new Native American-esque names as well. I took this opportunity to take my first pictures with the phone, whose Camera app loads and snaps faster than my Pre just loading its Camera app. So I introduce to you He-Who-Wakes-When-Pin-Drops:
Please excuse the tears. He is very emotional when he realizes he's trapped in his crib. Unfortunately the crappy screen protection covers the lens and the flash, so my first pictures probably didn't come out as nicely as they could have. Actually any pics with flash did not come out at all. So after I change the world's worst smelling diaper and get him out of his pajamas, we go to see He-Who-Sleeps-Through-Natural-Disasters:
He finally wakes up after Fernando finishes his inspection of his brother's room and shouts his approval as only a baby can. We eat some breakfast and decide to go out to the Avondale Estates Art Alliance AutumnFest. While out there, I'm downloading every app imaginable. Every one of my financial institutions had an app (a couple were missing in the Android Market, and the Pre only had one app). I downloaded ESPN apps, Comcast apps, Netflix, Google apps, and every other free and potentially useful app I could find. I took a few pictures while out there. Here is one:
We finish with the art festival, we go home, the boys take a nap, and I continue my app downloading. My phone case and real screen protectors arrived as well, which was a little surprise. Here is the case I got. Fits nicely and makes me a little less paranoid. I've started watching the Georgia Tech game and at around 6 PM, I get the 20% battery left message. Mind you, I've been going almost non-stop on this thing downloading, surfing and making phone calls. My Pre would have died twice by now. Oh I forgot about pairing my Jawbone Icon with it. Pairing wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but what was cool was that there is a Bluetooth earpiece icon in the top bar with a battery meter in it.
So I thought I would get to tinker with the phone some more, but it was Siri's birthday, so we went out to dinner and then a club and now it's 4 AM. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. My final complaint for Day 2 is: If you are going to sell a product that you know will sell out, and your most innovative feature requires connecting to a server, then you should make sure you have the bandwidth and/or resources to accommodate it so that "Siri" won't keep telling me how she can't connect. Biatch!
Tomorrow comes a paid app or two pending I get time.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
iPhone 4s Day 0: Unboxing, Setup & No Service Yet
I'll start off by saying that yesterday started out wonderfully. I checked UPS tracking and the box was in Doraville, which is UPS' main hub in my area, and was out for delivery before I left home. I got my son to preschool on time, which never happens. I go to Starbucks and it's Starbucks' birthday, so I get to sample coffee and eat cake. Traffic is light. Wings Friday (the one day a week I go to lunch here with coworkers instead of working out, and pig out on buffalo wings) was good as usual. Then around 3 PM things started to sour. The consultant I was working with had an issue arise on an account much bigger than ours, so he had to work it. That took almost 3 hours. The package was delivered to the house around 5:30, but I didn't get home until 7:30. Then I spent some time with the boys before putting them to bed. My wife wanted a calzone for dinner so I went out about 9:15 to get that. En route to the pizza place, I get a call from work. When I get back home, I spend the next about 3 hours working an issue. But in the middle of the work issue, I couldn't take the pressure anymore and started the unveiling.
So we start out with a slightly beat up box:
Then we get to the prize, whose box was much smaller than the outer box made it out to be.
The box is opened! The Palm Pre box was packaged similarly. Must be a Cali thing. I went with the black 32 GB. After the browning of the last set of white iPhones, I didn't want to take a chance on them even though I'm sure they've worked that out.
The iPhone next to the soon-to-be-retired Palm Pre. Please pardon the chandelier lights. The Palm is a lot thicker, but a lot shorter. The length of the iPhone bothers me, but apparently the mantra is "you'll get used to it."
The rest of packaging. Note to self: Buy 3 extra wall chargers and a car charger.
All this unpackaging was making me thirsty so...
And it being turned on for the first time. And yes, the crappy screen protection that comes on the phone is staying on there until my real screen protectors and case come, which is hopefully early next week.
So I go through the initial setup, which is pretty simple and painless. It lets me do everything through wifi, which was good since I was still working the work issue and needed a cell phone. This thing is pretty damn fast, but in reality, I haven't done anything yet. My Pre, even when overclocked, still had moments of stuttering and slow rendering. I set up my emails and contacts, which brought me to my first "issue" which was all my contacts being in Google. I couldn't figure out why I would set up my Gmail account and it would not give me an option to sync contacts. A quick Google search showed that I had to set my Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account in order to get my contacts to sync. That honestly seems like Apple saying "eff you" to Google, but whatever, it works. My Pre wins this battle with its Synergy syncing of all my contact info.
So I'm finally done with work, so I get on Sprint to activate the phone, which is also simple. However, it takes an hour to finally activate. So now it is almost 2 AM, but I have a fully activated and functional iPhone 4s on Sprint. So I'm going to go to bed, and probably mess around some more which probably puts my actual bed time at more like 3 AM. So I'll leave this Day 1 post with this one last issue, which is:
THE VIRTUAL KEYBOARD SUCKS GINORMOUS DONKEY BALLS!!!
"You'll get used to it..."
So we start out with a slightly beat up box:
Then we get to the prize, whose box was much smaller than the outer box made it out to be.
The box is opened! The Palm Pre box was packaged similarly. Must be a Cali thing. I went with the black 32 GB. After the browning of the last set of white iPhones, I didn't want to take a chance on them even though I'm sure they've worked that out.
The iPhone next to the soon-to-be-retired Palm Pre. Please pardon the chandelier lights. The Palm is a lot thicker, but a lot shorter. The length of the iPhone bothers me, but apparently the mantra is "you'll get used to it."
The rest of packaging. Note to self: Buy 3 extra wall chargers and a car charger.
All this unpackaging was making me thirsty so...
And it being turned on for the first time. And yes, the crappy screen protection that comes on the phone is staying on there until my real screen protectors and case come, which is hopefully early next week.
So I go through the initial setup, which is pretty simple and painless. It lets me do everything through wifi, which was good since I was still working the work issue and needed a cell phone. This thing is pretty damn fast, but in reality, I haven't done anything yet. My Pre, even when overclocked, still had moments of stuttering and slow rendering. I set up my emails and contacts, which brought me to my first "issue" which was all my contacts being in Google. I couldn't figure out why I would set up my Gmail account and it would not give me an option to sync contacts. A quick Google search showed that I had to set my Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account in order to get my contacts to sync. That honestly seems like Apple saying "eff you" to Google, but whatever, it works. My Pre wins this battle with its Synergy syncing of all my contact info.
So I'm finally done with work, so I get on Sprint to activate the phone, which is also simple. However, it takes an hour to finally activate. So now it is almost 2 AM, but I have a fully activated and functional iPhone 4s on Sprint. So I'm going to go to bed, and probably mess around some more which probably puts my actual bed time at more like 3 AM. So I'll leave this Day 1 post with this one last issue, which is:
THE VIRTUAL KEYBOARD SUCKS GINORMOUS DONKEY BALLS!!!
"You'll get used to it..."
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