iPhone Wednesday, May 28 2008

So it seems that the only thing that I post on here about is the iPhone. This particular post is meant to copy Hayden and post from iphone. As a fellow guy that loves little devices, I too can’t wait for the new iphone. I am curious what my boy plans on doing with his old iphone. I guess we will not be the only ones with two iPhones in the family. This little device is decisively the coolest one I have come across. If the new one adds half of what people are asking for, for me it will stan alone. Luckily, my birthday is tomorrow so hopefully I will get some funds to make this dream possible. It will be very interesting to see what additions are added to the new device. You can refer to my previous post for what I am looking for. As a note to any iphone users, make sure to type with your phone sideways when you can. It does not allow this in every mode, but it does in safari and it makes it so much faster.

Cheers

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Chinese Democracy and Dr. Pepper Thursday, Apr 3 2008

So what do these have in common, I will tell you.

First off if you are not familiar, Chinese Democracy is actually the supposed forthcoming Guns ‘n Roses album, not a revision of China’s politics. This album has been in the recording production phase for over a decade and is at the top of the list of most expensive recordings at a reported 13 Million (what a waste). It has been slated to be release on various dates (the most recent being March 6th, 2007) but never has been released. Who really knows if this is ever going to be released, probably not even Axl.

Ok so as to the Dr. Pepper part, I recently heard on the radio that the company has said that if the album is released in the year 2008 that it will provide a free Dr. Pepper for everyone in the country. This offer will exclude Axl as well as one of his more recent guitarists Buckhead (who has really got some issues but is a very technically good guitar player).

If this album ever did come out I would be very interested to hear it, but until that time I would not suggest thinking about it too much.

peace

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So Disappointing… Thursday, Apr 3 2008

So with the forthcoming New Kids on the Block reunion that the girls in my office made me aware of we turned some of their ’songs’ on.  My brutally terrible confession is that I used to listen to this stuff.  Listening to it now I can’t fathom how anyone really listened to it, but I was in that category, so my head is about to explode.  It really is, we will say, not good.  Others in the office agree that it is quite amazing that we used to listen to this stuff.

Lets just say I am very disappointed with myself…

Sorry if you are a really big fan and have been waiting for this reunion with eager anticipation.

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Good Music? Tuesday, Mar 25 2008

Seems like not much in the good music category comes out these days. Is this true, am I missing it. I mean I don’t really get much new music on the radio, so maybe I am missing it.

I say this because only a few albums that I like have been released in the past few years. Pearl Jam and U2’s last albums where good, Foo Fighters last was good as well. Past that I can count on Joe Bonamassa and Gov’t Mule to turn out some good discs, but that is about it. Metallica is a band I really like but their last album was trash. For me it seems that the bands I like are either dead or not putting out new stuff.

This brings me to the point of the post.  Every once in a while.  Like every five years or so. You can count on the Counting Crows to release a new album.  This time around it was more like 6 years, but the time has come.  As I listen to the new album and am over half way through a first listen, I am thankful that they still are solid and true for about 25-30 songs a decade.

First half of the new cd is great.  Course it is the more upbeat rock half of this A side, B side formated album.  Titled “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” the first 6 are not fabulous, but what you would expect if you like the Crows.  The next 8 are slower and more acoustic but again just what you might want out of these guys.

Question:  Does anybody know of the new bands that are putting out music that I would like?  Dead guys don’t put out much music, and waiting for Metallica or U2 to release a new album is starting to be like waiting for the Crows to do so.

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Subscription Music Service Thursday, Mar 20 2008

So, I have really looked at the music subscription idea, and now think that I really like it. It was brought up because my boss got a Zune mp3 player. With it he subscribed to the Zune Marketplace and for $15 a month can download and listen to almost anything. They only limit is the capacity of the Zune, but you can switch what you have around.

The only downfall is that if you stop your subscription you have no music, unless you download by song for 99 cents. For me this would be great, because I listen to so much music and always want to try out new stuff, but can’t buy everything I want to try. I end up with cds that aren’t that great and don’t own many cds that are great.

Part of the recent fuss in this area is that rumors have again cropped up concerning iTunes moving to this kind of model. They are in no rush as they have so many sales from their current model, but if this new model continues to grow Apple will have to do something. When you consider how much of the market share is held by iPod, it is no wonder that music subscription services are not popular. Jobs says people want to own music, making this model less desirable, but I disagree. As a former music thief, I would love to legally have all the music I used to have access to.

I also did the math, and for someone that has a lot of cds or someone that likes to have new cds but does not really listen to them after a few months, this really is a deal. I would be able to have all the music that I currently have plus as much as I can fit on my iPod or computer, plus it would all constantly be able to be rotated, all for less than I have spent on music over the last 15 years. This counting all the cds I own at about $12 a piece, discounting if they were gifts or received for free.

Anyway, I find it to be similar to doing blockbuster online or netflix and although you normally watch a movie only once and then don’t need access to it again, I think this would be popular if done well.  The recent rumors that I mentioned had to do with rumored talks that Apple is having about either a premium priced iPod that has access to all of iTunes for the life of the device or a subscription based music plan introduced only for iPhone.

Random fact, my first cd was Boyz II Men: II, my next purchase will be this Tuesday as I will pick up the Counting Crows new album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings.

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Living in America Monday, Mar 10 2008

Check this out.

Do you know I lost 30 pounds in two months while in Russia. Not that there is anything special about Russian air, its just not America.

Our whole perception is way off, that is the sad part. Like if told you I was overweight you would argue with me, but I am and that is a measurable fact.

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SDK and more Thursday, Mar 6 2008

So apple had its little powwow today with, I think, some pretty good results.  Seems that third party development will be fairly open.  They will just keep certain programs out but charge what the developer wants for programs.  This means some will be free.  The best and most wanted program for me is an instant message client and aol joined the powwow to say aim is already developed.  Games should be pretty cool as well.  Even Skype will be allowed it will just have to run over the wifi not the network internet.  So pretty open, everything has to go through a new apps store but seems like this will be good anyway.

Just need to fix the headphone jack and get 3G running and I will be very happy with my future iphone purchase.

They also talked about enterprise usage and it seems it will soon be able to replace the blackberry devices and probably be better.

On a related note, it came out yesterday that Jobs said Flash is not ready for the iPhone and Adobe responded by saying that iPhone is not fully ready for the internet without Flash.  Funny bickering, you got to think that eventually Flash will be on the iPhone.

Only bad news is that the  apps store will not open till late June.   Oh well.

Blogs two days apart, what the heck, too bad they are boring!!

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iPhone Tuesday, Mar 4 2008

So, back when Mr. Jobs released the iPhone he predicted slash set a goal of 10 Million sold in 2008. This is a very interesting situation for the iPhone. First I find it interesting that they publicly announce such goals. Second, they are the only ones that really know the numbers, so it would be easy to ‘meet’ the goal without really meeting the goal. Third, since holiday sales paces would have to be beat each quarter this year, they have their work cut out for them. This could be good or bad. Thought is that the SDK release, expected this month, price drops in the coming months, and a new version of the phone with G3 this summer would be a good way to fuel sales. Being that it was leaked that a G3 phone would be out this year, seems to be the case that they will be forced to release one. The good is that it will come out as soon as possible. The bad is that it could get rushed.

I plan on getting one of these things when I can. Having one in the family I can give a fair review of it, and although it has some problems, it is awesome. Being that I love tech devises this probably my favorite. Thing that is crazy is that it has the potential to be so much better as well.

Here is a wish list that I have put together, all of which seem very possible. Some are hardware related so hopefully that will be fixed in June. Others are software issues that could be fixed by the end of the week with the potential SDK release. Also I am happy to say that some items from this list have already been eliminated by software release, this never happens with my current phone as its problems will always stay the same.

1. Regular Headphone jack, the current one is recessed and does not allow for headphones other than the ones that come with it. This is stupid

2. Instant Messages, this is obvious but with the money made by text messages will have to be third party developed, ichat would be nice though.

3. Speed Dial System, with my current phone I can dial frequent dialed numbers without looking by just holding a number key, the current iphone system is ok but not the best

4. Mp3 ringtones, fixed already

5. G3, hardward issue that is promised already, hopefully the headphone jack will also be fixed

6. 3rd Party Apps, coming this week, we will see if they do this well soon

7. Java and Flash, supposedly they have been in a fight with these companies already, this is really needed, if it is added the web browsing will really smash the smart phone competition

8. Replaceable Battery, not a issue yet but when batteries start dieing it will be, course it would also be nice to have an extra to slip in when you can’t get to the wall or car jack, sucks when your devise that does everything dies

9. Better Camera, already one of the best on a phone but could be better

10. Longer Battery Life, this is simple, love for it to be solar powered and never die, but that won’t happen

11. Cut and Paste, especially needed from one program to another. like if you want to but an address in an email into maps.

12. Text photos, seems like this should be added any day, its silly when such an advanced device does not do what every other cell phone can

13. Voice Dial, part two of what all phones seem to have that iphone does not.

14. Bluetooth iTunes, you can talk to people with bluetooth, but unless I just can’t figure it out you can’t listen to music through it, seems simple enough to fix.

15. Video record, with a big hard drive for a phone and a camera, this again seems like a no brainer, probably not something to be used a ton, but it would be nice to have.

Lastly, you can always up the hard drive capacity, lower the price, and make it thinner and lighter.

If you read that whole thing, that is amazing!

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Blog Friday, Feb 29 2008

So here is a new blog post. As always, or most always, my content in this blog will concern the fact that I don’t blog often. Every time I log in I notice that it has been awhile since I posted anything, and so inevitably I write about how I have not written in a while. This I feel to be fairly silly.

Either way I was thinking about it while driving the other day and came to realize that I keep up with every other blogs, and wondered why I don’t write my own.

The answer is simple. It did not take much to realize that I like to read much more than I like to write. I don’t normally sit down on a nice evening and start to write, but I might sit down for a nice read here and there. Come to think of it I have read a fair amount of books in my day but never have I written one. Not a single book! I was at one time in my life forced to write, and during college probably turned out about 50 pages a semester, but even if you put all that together it would not make for a very cohesive book, nor would it be very interesting at all.

So thats about it, I don’t really enjoy writing, and so I guess this blog may very infrequently be updated. Which is the great part about readers, as you don’t have to keep checking on me if you in fact still have a subscription to this blog.

On a second to last note, I think you will verify that I like to talk more than listen. It is interesting how the medium changes the preference, don’t you think.

And on a final note, Lost was top notch last night.

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Strike Wednesday, Feb 13 2008

So finally the strike is over for the writers guild.  That is good, news unfortunatly looks like there will still be some delays.  I read that the office will be back with 6-10 shows in April or May.  Heroes will have to wait until fall as will a few other shows.

Lost is going on now but I am a bit confused.  Reports say that 5 more shows are being put into production.  Adding this to the 8 that they have now only makes 13 episodes.  This was planned as a short season like all following seasons but I thought it was supposed to be 17?  So when are these other 4 episodes going to air, seems like a funny way to break up a show 13 then 4 more.

Considering there are only a few shows that I will own the DVDs for it kind of sucks that two of them are currently getting messed up as a result of this strike.  I am pretty sure that I support the reasons for the strike though.  So what are you going to do.  As long as the plot of Lost does not get messed with and as long as  the Office says funny I guess I will be happy.

Got to go…

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