I just downloaded the WordPress application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It was painless to setup and seems to work really well. One thing I would already like to see is automatic completion for tags. Other than that, A+!
I upgraded the WordPress installation that runs this weblog to version 2.6 today from my new iPhone while waiting for an iced tea at Starbucks! I used the InstantUpgrade plugin for WordPress that I installed to upgrade to version 2.5 a while ago and it seems to work very well.
I have had my new iPhone 3G for a little over a week now and I absolutely love it. As some people have noted, the OS on the phone does seem a tad glitchy. I think Apple may have rushed the SDK enabled OS out the door. That being said, I fully expect any minor issues to be fixed with simple software updates. Enough about the issues, on to what makes it the best phone I have ever had…
The iPhone 3G is the best phone that I have ever had. Now, I am not much of a gadget junky, so I have only owned a few smart phones, and that name was a complete misnomer for them. My first foray into the smart phone world was around 2003 with the Motorola MPX220. This phone worked well enough as a phone, but the limitations of the “smart” aspects of the phone left me wishing I hadn’t spent so much money on it. In fact, the phone completely turned me off to the whole smart phone scene. While the phone hinted at the glorious future of a workable mobile computing platform in a phone, it delivered none of it.
My next adventure in smart phone land began in 2007 when my employer decided to provide a number of us with a Nextel/BlackBerry 7100i. This is perhaps the worst phone I have ever seen. It is large and bulky and quite simply doesn’t work. If the phone isn’t answered within the first nano-second of a ring, it goes to voicemail. The email functionality via a corporate BlackBerry server again leaves me wishing for more. When an email is deleted on my desktop, it still shows up on my BlackBerry. The synchronization does not work as well I would like. Also, the web browser is decent, but certainly not perfect. Oh, and it has PTT which is perhaps the single largest hindrance to communication that mankind has ever invented. Why, when it is completely possible to engage in a duplex conversation would anyone opt for simplex? The phone does have a couple of nice features though. It has a good speakerphone and the battery lasts forever, probably due to it’s massive size.
So, on to the iPhone and why it is so nice. First off, the “phone” is rock solid. Calls are clear and the sound quality is really good. I think any smart phone needs to focus on being a phone first and “smart” second. I carry this thing around with me because it is a phone, not because I can read my email on it. “Smart” is a bonus, the phone is a necessity. That being said, the “smart” in the iPhone is really smart, genius level smart. The UI is very intuitive, Apple must have poured money into the development of the UI on this phone.
Perhaps the single greatest feature of the iPhone is also the one that I think about the least, the touch screen. So much of my time is spent focusing on the content being presented that I quite frankly ignore the technological marvel that is the iPhone’s touch screen. Actually, until I began writing this, I hadn’t given the touch screen a second thought. That is truly the hallmark of a great design, I don’t ever think about it. Since the moment I bought it, I have swiped, typed, pinched, scrolled and cursored my way across that screen a million times without ever thinking about the way it works. It works so well, it is so intuitive and natural to use that I simply forget about it while using it.
The last thing that I will write about in this installment are the applications on the iPhone. The whole iPhone and Apple community were up in arms over the lack of native application development support on the original iPhone, so Apple began working on an SDK equipped version of the OS for the second generation of the iPhone. While Apple certainly has delivered, I am not so sure that they wanted to do this. When the first generation iPhone was released, Steve Jobs touted the phones fully functional web browser as the sole target for iPhone development. I think this was a brilliant move and, while not sad to see native applications, I do think that the existence of the SDK will detract from the web based development on the iPhone. Of the few applications I have downloaded so far (Last.fm, Sudoku and Twitterific) I only really use Soduku. I do however use the web applications I have added many times a day. I currently have Digg, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Hahlo on my main screen. These “web apps” work flawlessly and I am truly impressed with them. I think that Apple was correct with their 3rd party development strategy for the first generation iPhone. Limiting development to web apps, while certainly constraining was also the way of the future. I hope that the existence of the SDK doesn’t mean that web app developers will lose momentum.
via: CNN
OBAMA: You know, my job is to make sure that, here in the United States, the American people feel confident that I’m going to be advocating for their interests, that I’m going to keep them safe.
The way to do that though, I believe, is to make sure that we’re paying attention to the rest of the world, their hopes, their aspirations, as well, and that we’re leading with our values and ideals, and not just with our military.
With all recent news regarding the impending mortgage crisis, especially the FDIC takeover of IndyMac Banc Corp., I think it is time to stop bailing out large corporations and simply let them fail.
If “we the people” keep bailing out these large corporations, then the large corporations will never need to exercise restraint. They will be able to make enormous profits off of us by making foolhardy business decisions knowing full well that should things turn out badly, the people that they just raped will offer up their hard earned tax dollars to shore up the corporation so they can do it all over again. We need to end this vicious cycle now.
If we bail out anyone, it should be ourselves. I say, take whatever money we are planning on using to bail out the large mortgage lenders and secure the sale of the their loans to more solvent banks. I don’t think we should be helping out the banks, we should be helping the people. We should restructure and underwrite the loans that are failing and offer them up for sale to banks that aren’t failing. This way, we avoid the looming crises and people don’t lose their homes.
Of course, this will only be a temporary solution. A more permanent solution is to regulate the mortgage market so that sub-prime loans can not happen.
The New York Times is reporting that Toyota is planning to stop production of it’s Tundra truck and Sequoia SUV for three months this year to adjust for decreasing demand (Toyota Scales Back Production of Big Vehicles). They have also decided to re-purpose a new plant in Mississippi to manufacture their hybrid Prius instead of trucks.
I think this is a fantastic move for Toyota who, in my opinion, misjudged the market when the revised their truck lineup to make the Tundra and Tacoma trucks larger. This is especially true of the Tacoma, I owned a 2004 Toyota Tacoma and absolutely loved that truck. I thought it was sized perfectly. The new Tacoma is larger, but doesn’t really add any more utility. It seems as though Toyota made the truck larger for the sake of making it larger. I would have preferred that they focused on making the existing truck better, not just bigger.
Netflix has acquiesced to the pleadings and demands of their customers and sent out a notice that they will NOT be doing away with multiple queues. Yay! I was seriously concerned about this. I was worried that I may need to cancel my account, even though I truly enjoy the service. Good job Netflix, how about next time, you just don’t decide to cancel aspects of your service on a whim.
It is really hot in Southern California. The “record breaking heat” kind of hot.
Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!
You may have noticed some new graphics on the site, specifically the following in the upper left corner:
Up until this point, I have remained fairly silent regarding my thoughts about who should be our next President. I was very interested in the campaign of Ron Paul, unfortunately he has not received the Republican Party’s nomination.
I won’t spend a great deal of time here talking about why I think Barack Obama is the best choice, but I will say that I do think he is the best choice.
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