Apple's iPhone…
so I watched as it was unveiled earlier today and I was so excited. It is amazing. I have rocked the nokia 3650 for years, and recently I have been rocking the moto v878, which is lame, but small and works fine, enough, for a phone. I have been in the market for a new phone for a while, but I was waiting to see the apple offering. The Nokia N series was the ones I had been eyeing, but I really want wifi on the next phone I get.
I knew that the apple phone was going to be cool, but I didn't imagine it would be this cool. I was sitting there ready to order it up on the spot until they got to the 'cingular' part. I REALLY don't want to dump tmobile. seriously. weak. Why does it need to be exclusive? I hate that. The only thing they need it for is the visual voicemail, which is fine, but as far as I can imagine, it is a pretty layer over IMAP email. I mean, it is cool, but I am not THAT impressed with it. But as a friend pointed out, if you had to screen LOTS of voicemail, it would be nice. I don't get that much voicemail. or rather, I just don't ever listen to it.
But yeah, I keep coming back to the iPhone. I keep checking plans on cingular's site. I keep looking at the Nokia N Series. And I keep coming back to one thing:
All the other phones suddenly suck.
Seriously. I mean the iPhone's interface is SO nice, that even the best Symbian stuff is lame. Let alone the motorola clunky menu system. Palm OS is still stuck in 1996. And I won't run a Win based phone, not that I think it is a great interface either. The transitions are amazing. It is like a fancy flash website that is done CORRECTLY. The touch screen interface should pan well, since Apple cares enough about that to not mess around. The screen quality in terms of pixels per inch is supposedly insane.
And what can I do? Seriously, switching to cingular is my current option. OR... they are saying release in the US in june, so lets say that is q3. Europe, q4. I doubt that there will be a europe exclusive carrier, since europe doesn't really work that way. So I would wager there will be a carrier agnostic version by next xmas/early 2008. I guess I could wait for that. And in all honesty, we are taking about an extra 3-4 month wait, I can do that.
But man. The other phone builders need to get their rear in gear. Even the best nokia hardware is going to suck unless there is a major software update.
I must have watched the iPhone minisite videos 5 times already. I am impressed. I want one sooooo bad.
Interesting iTunes articles…
I have often wondered more about the way iTunes does stuff, but I don't have the time that the authors of these 2 articles do...
How Much Does iTunes Like My Five-Star Songs?
I will admit these came a from a /. story.
xbox…
so I hacked my xbox. Yes, it allows me to play xbox games without buying them. Eh. I don't spend that much time gaming, although I am sure Rebecca would argue. And I do buy games if I actually play them. But there are cooler parts.
The first cooler part is the xbox media center, XBMC. It it basically a fancy media launchpad. Videos I have downloaded or have on disc. MP3s. Pictures. I can load all those on the xbox or access my computers on the network from the xbox and watch those on the big screen. Slick. No more watching dumb videos on the laptop. Now I can watch dumb videos on the big screen easily. I could have hooked up the laptop to the projector, but that is too much work.
The second cooler part is emulators. All the old video games I had played as a kid I can get running on the xbox. It rules. Of course I only play games I own. But it is fun to relive those old games. It really drives home how much video games have changed in such a short period of time. Play mario brothers. Then play GTA:San Andreas and the level of involvement is so much more. The free roaming ability, the non player characters, the options for the user. It is great, and is much more enjoyable then constantly running to the right side of the screen. They are more complex, and some would argue unnecessarily violent, but that is a conversation for anther time. Lets agree they are WAY more kick ass today.
So I would recommend all you xbox owners, breath some new life into your xbox. Order up a chip and play around. It is pretty cool.
grumble grumble grumble…
so not that anything HORRIBLE is happening... but it is turning into an annoying day...
first... while attempting to repair my mom's iMac, I find that the hard drive is not readable. For those who don't know... her iMac was working fine... then half of the town lost their power. Then the power came back on, but her iMac won't work. I have tried everything, couldn't boot it up... Not that I have lost any of MY data, it is still frustrating... We got her a new iMac (20inch iMac G5) and it is very nice. Now she may start backing up on DVDs and this can be alleviated.
Then I stayed home waiting for the couch to be delivered. I cleaned the house a bit, organized stuff, etc. Got ready for the couch... they showed up around 1:20 or so, and low and behold the couch won't fit up the stairway. Damnit.
So I have a clean living room and a couch I like, just no way to get it up there. I have some thoughts on how to remedy this. It involves removing walls. We shall see.
So now I am at back at work... Get some shit done, then go check out a garage space with dylan tonight before my parents get into town...
word.