Many folks have wondered when I would cave in and get an iPhone. Oddly, some people *assumed* I got one on day 1. So let's get something straight - I'm not *that* crazy.

That said, the appeal of a handheld device that I could use to browse the web and check email over WiFi at home and when out really got me. Add the fact that I heard that as a *phone*, the iPhone was excellent finally convinced me to shell out more dollars than I should have for the iPhone, protective shield for the screen, and a holster case.

I have not been disappointed with the phone (two exceptions which I'll discuss later).

First, the phone does just look cool. You think it's big, and maybe compared to my Nokia 6126, it is. But not offensively so. The screen is the most readable thing I've used in a long time. Intuitive interface. And the thing has, to me, the best sound quality for phone calls over any phone I've owned in the last 4 years at least. It also holds calls my 6126 used to have problems with, and I thought the 6126 did a great job. I live in a notoriously bad signal area (because all cellular towers tend to point away from my house). This phone makes cell usage usable in the house.

It paired up easily with my Nokia BH-900 headset. Works great. No complaints there. I was somewhat relieved about that - I like my BH-900 very much and I really didn't have the money for a new Jawbone headset (even though I hear those are great too).

As an iPod, I like it very much. I never thought I'd find a use for the YouTube program, but it has come in handy. And of course, because it's an Apple product, it syncs perfectly with my Mac. Movies are also a bit nicer to watch on this device than on my previous iPod. You just have to remember, though, that this is also your phone so if you kill the battery watching a movie, your cell phone is off too.

Battery life is pretty good - 3 days easily without charging unless I'm heavily into email or movie watching....

There are two irritants. The first is ringtones and Apple's somewhat heavy-handed tactics to drum up business from the iTunes Music Store. I have a series of old MIDI ringtones (converted to MP3) that I am just used to. And want to continue using. And find it just very difficult to do so. If Apple offered these goofy ringtones that I like on iTMS, well, I'd probably buy them. But they don't and they go out of their way to keep me from using them. Fortunately, there's iToner which has allowed me to install a bunch of my old MIDI ringtones.

The second is a little more esoteric. iPhone mail refuses to display email messages which were forwarded as an attachment. If someone takes a client like Thunderbird, selects a message and forwards that message as an attachment, the message shows up on the iPhone as an icon named "mime-attachment". The issue is that iPhone mail appears to not understand message/rfc822 message types. This is exceedingly frustrating for me and I have filed a bug with Apple.

I am hopeful that Apple will open up the iPhone to developers. This may sound silly, but it would be nice to get a game of solitaire on this thing....

People have also complained about being limited to using EDGE only instead of WCDMA or "3G". For me, this isn't so much an issue - when I'm surfing or reading email, it's usually from on a WiFi network. If I'm truly out and about, I'm usually only checking mail or trying to do a few specific things (like check flight arrivals) which really aren't bandwidth intensive. I also do wish Apple would get a Flash viewer on the iPhone as well - if only so some websites don't come up completely blank (that said, that's poor coding to me anyways, but...)

8 out of 10. This is the only first generation Apple product that I can say that so far I've been this happy with.

Tags: Technology

The last couple of weeks at home have marked the return of something we've been lacking for a while in Maryland - rain. It's great that we are finally getting some. We sure do need it.

Unfortunately, this has triggered an issue in our 2006 Ford Freestyle - rain leaking into the passenger compartment. We've had this intermittent problem of water mysteriously showing up on the front dashboard of the car occasionally, but in this case, we soaked a good chunk of the rear cargo area, with the water coming out where the seat belts for the 3rd row come out of the headliner in the ceiling on the driver side.

This was frustrating beyond average since the theme of this particular car has been "water leaks". Previously, we had water soaking the floor of the second row seats on the passenger side due to a badly aligned gasket in the firewall that allowed water from the A/C unit to leak in (taking it in for a water leak in the middle of the summer with no rain was fun). Then another plug worked its way loose and we leaked again several months later into the same spot.

I took it in last week, where our local Ford dealer performed a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) for the water leak which sounded like what we had been describing. Seems like there are some problems with the way the drain hoses for the sunroof were positioned. Anyway, fix performed, got the car back and things seemed good. Until earlier this week when it rained again. Good news - it didn't leak out the driver side. Bad news - it leaked out the passenger side.

Grrrr.....

Called the dealer again. Referenced the first call and they promptly (without any arm twisting) set me up with a loaner car and an appointment the next day. Returned fixed and tested - we'll see what happens.

It's odd how cards seem to develop themes for annoyances. My wife once had a car that seemed to be some sort of stealth car - because people kept rear ending it for some reason. Another car had a habit of hitting odd objects (like parking lot posts, dogs in the road, etc.). My wife's current car has had the record for "things that should never break, but have" like 12V outlets falling to the floor, CD player that refuses to play track 1, etc. It really does make you wonder that as cars become more complicated, they seem to be getting a lot harder to build correctly.

So in my previous entry, I talked about a reported 1954 article from Popular Mechanics about the future of the home computer.

Turns out, as pointed out by my friend Fourth Breakfast, I was duped. It's a fake picture. See the referenced note about this picture at http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

I don't tend to fall for these too often, but every once in a while, it happens. And here I was thinking that big wheel was to open the beer fridge...

Still, I don't want one of those consoles in my house for the same reasons I wrote before!

Tags: Technology

A friend of mine recently forwarded me the picture below (with caption). It's from a 1954 issue of Popular Mechanics.



If you can't read the caption, it says "Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 30 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve those problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran (sic) language, the computer will be easy to use."

There are times I think my laptop is too big. Then I look at this and stop complaining. Think of how much *power* that thing would consume.

Then again, for those that have seen my basement, I already consume plenty of power as it is on computing devices...

Tags: Technology