I Don't Hate My iPhone

My online reading habits lean toward technology. I read a lot of blogs and newsfeeds, keeping up with what I find interesting. One way to get me to read an article is to mention the iPhone. Lately, there seems to be a lot of hate for the iPhone. I’m not really sure why.

I Just Like It My day is often filled with music. The first music-media-capable phone I bought was the LG Chocolate. Big mistake. From what I recall of the Chocolate fiasco, syncing and playing music was awkward. The music UI was also clunky. But worst of all, the touch-sensitive controls of the phone quickly turned into a nightmare. I grew to hate this phone. It would often dial phone numbers on its own. At first, my wife thought I was crazy until her LG Chocolate started to do the same.

When the iPhone became available, I wanted one immediately, but the cost initial cost made it prohibitive. When the price dropped, I was able to get an iPhone. I haven’t looked back since. It does what I need it to do: (1) make calls, and (2) play my music. The immediately added bonuses were visual voicemail, email access, easy texting, and calendaring.

I didn’t find the initial web apps interesting or useful for that matter. I never thought about how much I would enjoy or need natively running apps until they came out. When I upgraded to the iPhone 3GS, the phone even became more useful. (I upgraded from the first generation, so we never experienced 3G speeds before.) Apps are now something I think I cannot do without.

Rejection and Upgrades

Apple receives plenty of flack for rejecting apps. High-profile rejections include Google Voice, Someecards and Ninjawords. I admit I understand the appeal of Google Voice, and I did try the GV Mobile app when it was available in the App Store. But not having a native app for Google Voice isn’t a deal breaker for me. I’m of the opinion that any added functionality to my iPhone is icing on the cake. If Apple chooses to reject an app - according to their rules - then so be it. Hey, it’s their playground. they can do what they want. Sure, I own the iPhone, and I should decide what I can put on my iPhone or not. And I do. I put on my iPhone whatever is available in the App Store.

Another problem cropping up is upgrading apps you’ve purchased. This problem is starting with the ever popular Tweetie app. I paid happily paid for Tweetie, and if I feel the features of the 2.0 version coming out are things that I would like, I will happily pay $3 to upgrade. Should it be cheaper to upgrade like regular computer software? I don’t know. Three bucks don’t seem like a lot to part with, for an application you - theoretically - use often.

It’s the Network

I don’t dislike AT&T as much as most people. I’ve had a few phone connection issues, mostly when traveling up to San Francisco. When my wife commutes home, she experiences at least two dropped calls while traveling on 280 South.

I also think the month-to-month cost of an iPhone is too high. You pay for the phone plan, plus $30 for an Unlimited Data Plan, and at least another $5 to have 200 text messages. I feel nickel-and-dimed at times with AT&T. I’m sure other cell phone carriers would charge similarly, but since AT&T is the only carrier that has the iPhone, the extra charges feel more obvious.

In The End

The iPhone is the best cell phone I’ve had, with the exception of my first cell phone. I have very fond memories of that Nokia, seeing how it saved me from being stranded several times. Even after reading all these iPhone-bashing stories, I’m still not looking to change phones or carriers. I think I just need to stay away from reading those stories - and the comments that follow the story.

Go Free When Possible

Rethinking

I am rethinking this new blog thing. Yes, it only took me two months to start rethinking this endeavor. What started me thinking was Nick Cernis’ well-written post called “Rise of the Tablog”. I discovered this via Merlin Mann on Tumblr. It got me rethinking why I blog.

The answer is the same: I enjoy writing - when I can. I want to put my thoughts down on a variety of subjects. I never enjoyed using pen and paper because my penmanship is horrible. My tool of choice has either been a typewriter or a computer. Sure, I don’t necessarily need to publish what I write on a blog, but I enjoy it. It’s something I’ve been doing since 1999. Plus I find putting what I write on a blog more liberating, even now more so since I don’t have comments enabled. If someone reads it, then great. If not, then so be it.

When I started this new blog, I had hoped to write more. I set a low goal of 500 words on any subject, with the hopes of posting once a week. I’ve done ok, posting almost every Thursday. But I really had hoped that I would write more often than I have. I’m sure it will come with more thought, time, and effort.

Cost per Post

Since I don’t write often (yet), it is difficult to continually justify having this blog on a web hosting service. There are many reasons why I wanted to use a web hosting service instead of WordPress.com or Tumblr. One reason is having full control of not just my content but the whole website. I have been using Laughing Squid as the web host. I’ve always wanted to try their service and it has been great. I also like that they are local to me. But in this economy, even their least expensive plan of $8 a month is difficult to justify four blog posts a month. After all, I could use that $8 for two Venti Mochas, which can fuel my brain for the day.

Where and Why

And so I have moved the content I generated over to this Tumblr account. Why Tumblr and not Wordpress.com?

As part of this rethinking process, I also wanted to decide where would be the best home for what I wanted to do now. It would seem Wordpress.com would be a natural choice since I use the WordPress CMS for the hosted website. But when I’m on Wordpress.com I realize how much “I can’t do” as far as customization or other tweaks that I can do with a hosted version of WordPress. This annoys me. I’m comfortable with what Tumblr can provide. Clean and simple. But the ‘Tumblarity’ score really bothers me. I need to not pay attention to that sidebar. I’ll hopefully get past this annoyance.

So right now I have two active Tumblr accounts. One is used for reblogged content, and the other is for content I (hopefully) actually create. I can envision these merging (Why have separate accounts?). But at this point, reblogging is an effortless task I prefer to keep separate. I would really like to have an account where I can post a long rant on a subject and not have it seem out of place with the rest of the posts. At this point, it makes sense to me to have two separate accounts for this.

Missing Link List #4

So much read this week:

Paolo Nutini at the Fox Theater in Oakland

Paolo Nutini - Candy from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.

This past weekend, we attended our first concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. The theater opened earlier this year. It’s located down the street from The Paramount, a theater we have been to too often. There is no dedicated parking for the show, but there are several parking lots listed on their website. We easily parked in a lot just down the street.

We passed by The Den at the Fox, a lounge connected to the theater. They offer drinks and some food, but we didn’t have time to look into it there. When we entered the theater, an usher promptly greeted us. Our tickets were for loge seating. But the usher told us we could also access the standing general admissions area on the floor. If we had a Visa Signature card, we could be seated in the limited seating area on the first floor. We opted to take our seats in the lodge. The lodge seating is unusual. The seats are grouped in pairs, with ample space between the next coupled seats. We were in the first row of the lodge, our view partially blocked by the railing, but still a decent view of the performers. The layout of the Fox is very similar to the Warfield in San Francisco, but the Fox is quite larger.

We were seated during the middle of the opening act, Anya Marina. She was roaring through her set, rocking with her electric guitar. She was very crowd friendly, talking and often interacting with the crowd between songs. At one point she asked if the crowd was an “all ages” crowd because she wanted to explain the origin of a song she wrote. The actual meaning of the song could only be described with profanity, which she chose not to utter. Later in her performance, she noticed a Brazilian flag in the standing audience. She asked the pair of Brazilian girls who were holding the flag if it’s true they like anal sex - meaning if Brazilian girls do. (I guess she never got the answer to the “all ages” question.) One of the most interesting songs she did was a cover of T.I.’s “You Can Have Whatever You Like”.

Paolo Nutini came out next. His set was a good mixture of songs from his first album, These Streets, and his latest album, Sunny Side Up. We were very familiar with songs from These Streets and were happy to hear them live. We haven’t listened to his latest album, so they rang as new to our ears and were harder to get into. But Paolo performs with such enthusiasm and passion. It would be difficult not to enjoy his performance.

The big letdown at the Fox was the sound. I don’t have golden ears, and rarely notice the bad sound at a concert, but from where we were sitting the vocals sounded muddled for both performers. At times it is hard to make out any lyrics at all, let alone the blend of instruments. I’m not sure if the sound sitting in the center lodge or on the floor would be better. I’ll need to go to another concert to find that out.

Overall it was a good first-time experience at The Fox. It looks as if several performances are coming up that we’d be interested in attending.

Missing Link List #3

This week’s Missing Link List includes:

  • 33 things you should stay away from.
  • Did you know Apple released a new iPod Nano this week?
  • You do have superpowers. You just don’t know you do.
  • If you’re in trouble, don’t forget to update your Facebook status.
  • An update for Snow Leopard already?

My Ratings Scale Revisited

A few months back I decided to change the way I rate movie reviews. Previously I used the old standard of assigning a letter grade to a movie. I then moved to a liked it slash didn’t like it scale. I didn’t find much flexibility in that rating system. Now, I’m moving the real-world scale I use when asked about a movie. The scale, which I am sure is used elsewhere, is based on how much you are willing to pay to see a movie. The scale is as follows:

  • Full Admission - Willing to pay for a full-price theater ticket, especially on a crowded Friday night.
  • Matinee - Must see the movie in a theater, but do it as cheap as possible.
  • Rental (DVD, Blu-ray, whatever media you choose) - See it right when it hits the retail market.
  • Cable TV - You can wait until it shows up on cable to watch.

I’m sure there are other ratings that can be placed in there (e.g. cheap theaters, broadcast television) but I don’t find those ideal situations to watch most movies. Plus I don’t have a cheap theater near me and broadcast television has too many commercials to suffer through. Here are a few samples of movies I’ve reviewed and how I would rate them on this new scale:

  • Full Admission - 300, The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Juno
  • Matinee - Quantum of Solace, Grand Torino, Knocked Up
  • Rental - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Transformers
  • Cable TV - Nights in Rodanthe, Spider-Man 3

Let’s see how this scale works for me.

Underneath It All

I am not really a handyman, but for the past several months I’ve had the urge to fix. I’ve attempted to fix things that I normally wouldn’t think twice about hiring someone else to repair. For example, I replaced a car battery, changed our front and back door locks, and fixed a leaky faucet. I know, I know, I’m not rebuilding a car engine, but for someone like myself who is not mechanically inclined, these are quite surprising feats.

As I’ve mentioned before on Janella.com, we bought a new washer and in dryer. They both initially worked great, but the dryer stopped doing a great job in drying several weeks ago. By going through the troubleshooting steps in the manual, we figured out the problem was with the dryer exhaust hose. The hose connects from the back of the dryer, runs underneath the house, and exits through the side of the house.

No Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock here. Lucky me, I get to go under the house! The last time I was under house was four years ago. It was an unpleasant experience. I think I may still have a few scrapes from that last adventure. As a kid, going under the house was fun. When we had plumbing problems that required someone to go under and check on “the pipes”, I readily volunteered. Of course I was much smaller and slimmer back then. But now as a larger and more phobia-straddled adult, going under the house is not much fun. It was also once fun to climb up to the roof of the house to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. Now the only reason I go up on the roof is to clean the gutters before the next rainfall.

For this trip down below, I was intent on being prepared or as best prepared as possible. I bought a pair of coveralls at Sears (on sale!). I also bought a pair of hardy knee pads at Lowe’s, in hopes of counteracting any beating my knees might encounter. In hindsight I should have also purchased gloves, as my hands can take quite a thrashing under the house as well.

To make a long story short, with my wife’s help, we were able to replace the dryer hose and fix the problem. The dryer once again works as advertised! I know it’s not rocket science, but it just goes to show that all it takes is a little research and hard work to fix certain problems around the house. I’m not sure where this “urge to fix” has come from - perhaps from all the DYI shows on television. But with the help of the Internet, with all of its self-help websites and videos, you can do almost do anything. I don’t think I’d tackle rewiring the house, but as for the smaller jobs, leave them to me.

Starting a New Blog

I’m starting a new blog. The domain name, alex-is.com, wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t even my second or third. I wanted the domain name to be short and related to me or a hobby of mine. The name was inspired by the status updates you make on Facebook or Twitter. For example, when updating my Facebook status via the iPhone it starts with “Alex”, then you often use a verb such as “is”. Hence alex-is.com.

What to write on an iPhone?

Why start a new blog?

I have nothing against my previous blog I had at janella.com. But that domain name was a gift for my wife. Long story short - she disliked her @yahoo.com email address. I thought a personal custom email address would be a great gift. It has been and continues to be, used more for email than for web content. But I co-opted the website portion for my own purposes.

I blogged there regularly. But I have run into a little writer’s block as of late. I am uncertain of the cause, but I believe part of the problem stems from a revelation I had the other week that I’ve been unknowingly blogging for two. While the posts there were ascribed to me, I always felt I was speaking for both of us. This was not necessarily a bad thing, but my wife has never agreed to blog. As far as I know, she has no such desire to do so.

I’ve come to this realization not through anything she has said or done, but by simply reflecting on how much I enjoy writing about what I do or have done. As with many unfocused personal blogs, I’ve chosen to write on a variety of subjects, like the movie or television show I just watched, the trip we just took, or how much I hate the neighbor’s barking dog. I chose to be transparent about my daily activities. I don’t believe I ever asked her if she wished to do the same.

When I first realized this, I tried to change the style of how I blogged on janella.com. But I kept hitting a wall. It’s because that site will always be associated with both of us. I came back to the thought of creating a new separate website, under a different banner, in the hopes it would free up this writer’s block. And so, I think starting my own domain name would shrug off the impediment I feel. After all, as I’ve said before, janella.com was a gift for my wife.

Janella.com has been through many iterations over the years, pointing to various types of pages and services. Currently, it’s pointed to all the photos we have taken in recent years. I think it will remain as such.

What Will I Blog About?

Same subjects as before: news, movies, television, technology, photography, and whatever subjects I care to comment on. I’ll try to stay away from subjects involving family and friends, deciding to keep this part of my life private. But it will be difficult to stay away from that subject since it is a large and important part of my life. I’ll definitely stay away from anything concerning work - that’s one hot potato I’ll always avoid - with the exception of job searching, a subject I’ve written about previously.

I would like to steer clear from reblogging as much as possible. I’d prefer to use my tumblr for this function. But you never know. Reblogged media may creep in. If I reblog, I want to provide some of my own commentaries, as opposed to simply republishing material without thought.

Ideally, I would like to make a blog post at least once a week. This desire is a goal. Let’s see how real it turns out to be.

My Short Review of iPhone 3GS

I’ve had the iPhone 3GS for over a week. Here are a few thoughts on how I feel about the phone.

Background

I bought the iPhone 2G back in September 2007, just after the price drop was announced. I was on Verizon, a carrier I much enjoyed being on. But the last phone I had Verizon was an LG Chocolate, a phone that didn’t live up to expectations. I was hoping it would turn out to be a good music playing phone because I was tired of lugging my iPod and phone around in my pocket. All it ended up being was a frustrating piece of equipment.

I figured a smartphone would be a good choice, but Blackberry phones seemed a bit too much.  The only other phone Verizon offered was the Motorola Q. A friend of mine had the Motorola Q. All she could say is it would crash often, even while on a call. Nice.

Now, I count myself as one of those people who are part of the halo effect. I received an iPod as a gift in 2005. Later that year I bought a 12” PowerBook. After few more iPod upgrades I bought an iMac.  Why not an iPhone?Initially I balked at the price.  It was way too much for a phone.  But when it dropped a couple of hundred dollars, well, I got the go ahead to get it.

My Thoughts on the iPhone 3GS

I was able to use the phone out of the box as it was fully charged.  Compared to the 2G, the phone feels smaller and lighter. The infamous oleophobic polymer screen adds to the experience.  Your finger seems to glide across the screen.

The recent OS upgrade to 3.0 has made the phone even better.  I don’t think I’ve ever owned a phone where the upgrades have made the phone more useful.  Sure, some of the features were available on other phones long ago (e.g. voice commands), but they are now on the iPhone and they are even more useful.  For example, the voice commands can control the music player.

It’s nice to have GPS, and coupled with the compass and Google Maps, for me it’s a killer combination.  I was able to use this in San Francisco this past weekend.  It helped me navigate around the city when I was unsure how to get to several places.  I can’t wait for easier turn-by-turn, such as that to be offered by TomTom.

Video on the iPhone 3GS is fair, better in bright light then in dim.  But it’s pretty neat when you can edit video on the phone and upload it right to YouTube.  They should add direct upload to other services, such as Flickr.

Battery life is good.  I average about a day-and-a-half.  The battery meter is now includes a percentage measurement.  I use the iPhone mostly like this:

  • 40% iPod
  • 30% web surfing (including accessing apps such as Facebook, Yelp, etc.)
  • 20% checking and reading email
  • 5% taking photos or video
  • 5% GPS and maps

My only negatives about the iPhone is with AT&T.  Do I regret the move to AT&T? No, not really.  Coverage is decent where I am at.  Oh, yeah, a few calls are dropped in some areas, but for the most part it’s good.  The only complaint I have about AT&T is the apparent charge for everything under the sun (e.g. text messages, data plan). But it’s part of the package, so it’s part of the pain to put up with.  The data plan for 3G and 3GS is $30. If you want 200 text messages it’s another $5.

Overall, I am happy to still be using an iPhone.

(Considering an iPhone?  You may want to read the Techcrunch article The iPhone 3GS: Should You Get It? It’s a good read.)

My Short Review of Dane Cook at HP Pavilion

Dan Cook at San Jose Event Center

I’m not a big Dane Cook fan.  If someone was playing his CD or DVD I would listen or watch. But watching him live in concert is a different story.  I had no set expectations in seeing him in concert.  Unfortunately, his concert at the HP Pavilion was fair to middling at best.  He lacked any real energy or (fake) spontaneity, relying solely on his charm to push him through the night.  For me, the opening acts garnered more bellyful laughs.

Timothy Finn does a good review of Dane Cook’s concert earlier this year. It sums up the experience pretty well. Would I pay to see Dane Cook again?  Probably.  Would I spend as much? Probably not.

(photo via sjsharktank)

My Short Review of Taken

You don’t know what I’m capable of.

Liam Neeson does his best Jason Bourne in this action movie. Neeson is an ex-Preventer who must now use his skills to save his daughter. The movie moves along in a good clip. The violence can get intense at times, but the payoff works.

Rating: Matinee

Data Corruption or Compromise?

Damn! Somehow, someway my main blog was compromised. I’m not sure if it was on the server level or if my password was somehow guessed. I don’t think it’s the latter.  I tend to randomly generate my passwords and even I don’t remember them. I’ve reverted was was once the main blog back to Wordpress.com.  If Wordpress.com account becomes compromised, well, that would be a surprise.

Once again I find myself with only a few opportunties to truly blog. And so I’ve decided to revert back to a tumblr account. Newer posts I make will be here.

My Short Review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine

It’s Wolverine, bub!

First off, I hated the title of this film.  It’s more suited as a comic book title than a film title.  I think they could have gotten away with Wolverine.  Non-fanboys would have known who Wolverine was, at least I think. I know he’s no Superman or Batman, but the target audience knows who Wolverine is. Well, onto the film itself.

As an origins story, it provided pretty minimal grit to understanding the man who is Wolverine in all the X-Men films. The story starts off with James / Logan as a boy and by the end of the opening credits he’s a man.  The opening credits helped the film along similar to Watchmen, covering enough history to get to a fair starting point for the story.  Well, what there is of a story.

I found the story weak and confusing at times. There are too many characters and story points to be compressed within the 107 minutes of the film. You can’t grasp any sense of who these characters are and why you should hate or care for them. It’s cool to see Gambit and Deadpool on the big screen, but it’d just as interesting to play them in a video game then watch them in this film again.

The fight scenes were on par with other X-Men films.  But oddly the special effects seem to be worse.  I would say the original X-Men film had better special effects than some of the scenes in this film. If you can wait for this film to come out on DVD, I’d say do so.  It should be out by the end of the year.

Rating: Rental

My Short Review of Star Trek

The crew of the Enterprise 2009

I tried to set my expectations low for this movie, hoping it would be good. Looking back I didn’t need to do this, as the movie succeeds on many levels.  This incarnation of Star Trek is accessible to both those familiar with and those new to Star Trek.  The story involves time travel - of course, it does, it’s Star Trek and J.J. Abrams - Romulans, Vulcans, and everything else in between.  I think the only thing that was missing was a Klingon.

The casting worked brilliantly, even having Winona Ryder as Spock’s mom worked.  The special effects helped, not hindered, the story’s progression.  There were two things that annoyed me: (1) the amount of lens flares in the movie, and (2) Pavel Chekov’s accent. The latter annoyed me only because of the number of lines Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov, had to speak.  I would have preferred more lines from Simon Pegg, who plays the lovable Scotty.

Rating: Full Admission

Marely & Me - My Short Review

Puppies. Evil puppies.

Puppies. Evil puppies.

This is another one of those feel-good movies.  But if you know your dog movies, then you know what’ll happen. Yeah, it happens, but not after Marely gets a hold of your heart. Wow, did I just write that? If you’ve seen the trailer, then you’ve pretty much seen the whole movie. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson are likable, but their characters, and the story, really don’t go anywhere. The movie won’t rot your brain, but it won’t stimulate it either.

Rating: Cable TV