AT&T on Thin Ice

This is what I'm thinking when I see their new navigator app selling for a whopping $10 a month. This is a little outrageous and further encourages people to jailbreak their phones to access great free tools like xGPS. The amount of money and development might not be the same for both but need I repeat myself, xGPS is free. I have seen xGPS in use and it does a great job utilizing voice prompted guidance and Google Maps to get you where you need to go. It's a great setup if you're looking for an alternative to paying AT&T for something that you can have for free. Take a page from Verizon. They already include a preloaded software bundle which includes VZ Navigator.

New Horizons - Apple Releases Barrage

June 2009 marks a big month for Apple as they release the new iPhone 3GS. Powered by the new OS version 3 the new iPhone is primed to take over the smartphone market. With its amped up speed, a larger available hard drive , and a blazing new processor the iPhone 3GS is going to be the phone to have. It has already made all of us 3G owners a bit covetous.

I got my 3G back in February and I knew then stopping the speed of technology is about as useless as blocking a freight train so with that said I still jumped in and bought my 3G. Now comes the insane part. Do I try and sell it or pony up the heavy costs of upgrading to the new phone? Or just be happy with what I have until my contract is up? I think the latter is the smartest choice. Boy, I feel better having worked out my issues without therapy.

The new iPhones are set to hit the AT&T and Apple stores June 19th. I assume Walmart is included in there too. Heaven forbid Walmart not have a piece of the pie. You can bet there will be lineups too. This is a significant upgrade to the iPhone for sure. The new OS3 is also a very big update set for wide release on June 17. I can't wait.

AT&T App Comes to the IPhone

Could this have not honestly come any sooner? This was one of those issues I had since having the iPhone. I always liked the idea of paying your bill online and I did it once using Safari to connect to my account. But having to zoom in closer, move around the screen, and fiddle with all that I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a slick iPhone interface to use. Well AT&T has just launched the myWireless app for the iPhone and it is slicker than snot. I really like the simple features and abilities to add or remove features from my plan. It's real easy to pay the bill and now I only log into my online account to print off a copy of my bill. That's it. I rate this app an "A" for sure.

iPhone OS 3.0

First off, I want to appologize for not keeping up with this blog. Shame on me. I have had some busy times of late keeping me from much of any free time. I wanted to blog on the subject of this new iPhone operating system that is coming out for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple has finally figured out that they needed to include some very standard utilities that should have been there from the beginning. Cut, Copy, & Paste. It's about time! How often have you wanted to copy something as simple as a web link and paste it directly into an email? Now we can. That's a beautiful thing.

The new features are really too many to discuss here, but notable mentiones go to voice memo, the new Spotlight app which allows you to search for something across the entire phone. New enhancements to landscape mode keyboard, stereo blutooth, and finally MMS. It was unbelievable to me that this is was not something included in the first iPhone but they finally bring it to the new OS. One gripe I still have that I wished could be resolved soon is enabling Flash player for the iPhone. We are missing out on a lot of rich web content because of this shortcoming by the Apple developers. C'mon, this is not rocket science, it's just a flash player. Get over yourselves, figure out the logistics of it and bring it to the iPhone.

Google App

This is one of those rare apps that is densely packed with incredible features that makes itself worth it's weight in gold. And it's free! Everything from the news feeds to the RSS feeder which has just about every topic under the sun. I grabbed the iPhone article feed and just about every day I have a couple hundred articles from various sources to read. I love this app. I am also able to read quickly through news headlines (as I am quite the news junkie) and can afterwords custom search various news topics like US, World, Health, etc. I spend a lot of time commuting and I am never wondering what I want to do on the iPhone. This makes the trip go a whole lot quicker.

Voice-Prompted GPS Navigation

Yes it's finally available for the iPhone. Well, kind of. It was just announced yesterday that xWaves, the company that brought xGPS to the jailbroken iPhone, will be releasing an update that includes voice guided turn-by-turn directions. This will ultimately turn the iPhone into a full fledged GPS navigation device. I have read the articles and seen the videos for this app and it looks pretty dang cool. It will most definitly not make it into the app store and most likely will only stay available for jailbroken iPhones. This should light a fire under the rear ends of companies like Garman and Tom Tom to hurry up with apps of their own. Apple needs to cash in on this somehow.

I am hoping the copyright office will allow people to continue the practice of jailbreaking phones because I agree in principle why it should be allowed. With that said, I will wait to see the outcome of that exemption request and wait to jailbreak my phone. In the meantime I suppose I will just have to use Google Maps like everyone else who has decided to keep their phones all locked up tight until there is a decision made. Hopefully that is not long!

iPhone News

For those that it may interest, the EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) has made an exemption request to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of the Copyright Office suggesting that jailbreaking an iPhone should be legal. In its request, the EFF has asked that an explicit exemption for the jailbreaking of cellular phone handsets in order to remove any threat of jailbreaking possibly becoming a copyright crime. The EFF cited the iPhone as an example. Apple countered with the argument that jailbreaking the iPhone is an infringement of their copyright and should be illegal.

My opinion is that jailbreaking a phone is not illegal. It simply allows its users more control of what they can have on their iPhone. It's kind of like buying a car. GM is not going to tell you that you can't replace a part that is made generically and not still warrant the car. Obviously GM will not warrant a generic part but that is not the issue here. GM still warrants the car against defects etc. against any of its own manufactured parts. The rest of the car is still under warranty.

Much like my car example, Apple should look at this logically and see that this is not a copyright issue, it's a usability issue. The user ought to have the right to choose what they want to have on their phones. If not then perhaps they should look at loosening up the restrictions on what makes it into the app store.

Feelin' the Love

Yes, I have become attached to the iPhone. I never thought it was possible to love a phone. I have had such horrible luck with phones up until now that I had grown accustomed to it. I just gave my daughter my old phone to put her service on becuase her pink LG Chocolate was breaking apart on her. That's what sending 400 texts a day will do. Don't look at me, blame my wife for letting her. I tried to post restrictions but I tend to get out-voted. She is now the proud owner of a new LG EnV2. I couldn't stand the stupid thing. Prior to that I had a Verizon Smart Phone PDA. It was garbage. The reception was bad and the apps loaded slow. The only useful thing on there was Bubble Breaker. I had the Blackberry 8800 World Edition for 30 days prior to that and I actually liked that phone. Good antenna, great to have email, very bright screen which lit up brighter when it sensed it was in sunlight. I would have kept the Blackberry but at the time I didn't want to add the $59 data plan on to my bill so I elected to go with the Smart Phone PDA which at the time didn't require a data plan. I couldn't do much with it but I could sync Outlook contacts and appointments, and run Word.

The last post I wrote I talked about an app that I would like to find that tells you what is going on around you using your GPS location. I found a great one called Citysearch. At the bottom of the phone is a button you can tap called "Nearby". This uses your GPS location to find what is around you including restaurants, shopping, and even bars. This was the answer I was looking for becuase it further allows you to make better decisions on what to do. They have editorials, reviews, contact information, and sometimes photos, or links to their sites. Best of all this app is free in the iTunes App store. Other similar apps that are also free that I tried were Yelp! (which is good), and a couple of others I tried like "Places", and "Where" which are good apps too and offer similar features but have some differences to them.

The Firstlings

In my many hours of searching and reviewing all things iPhone I came across websites toting the line, "Best iPhone Apps" or something like it. I quickly made a list of very cool apps that I wanted to install right away. One of these was Pandora. An amazing app that let's you type in a band name, artist, or genre of music and it provides you with an unending list of music you can listen to that is all similar. I typed in "The Sounds" and started listening to "Hurt You". Before I new it, the song ended and the Yeah Yeah's began with a song from that group. I must say this is simply amazing. I have endless music to listen to and try. All for free! What's great about this is that I could be listening to something I know and like and then Pandora will mix something else in that I have not heard of. From there I can go and buy that song or album in iTunes.

Another great app I stumbled upon is Shazaam. For those who don't know what this app does I am about to reveal to you a solution to a problem that has faced us all at one time or another. Have you ever found yourself listening to the radio and hearing a song that is new to you and you just don't know who it is? Along comes Shazaam, an intutive app that "listens" to the music coming out of a radio, or television. It then analyzes the song and promtly tells you who it is. From there you can immediately connect to iTunes and download it to your iPhone. Perhaps two of the greatest apps out there.

I am a major hockey fan and I would be remiss if I didn't have an app that I could use to follow my beloved team, The Toronto Maple Leafs. Now I can get up to the minute news, scores, schedules and news at the trade deadline. The schedule tells you when and on what chanel they are playing on. From there I can go to the DirectTV app and set up the timer from my iPhone and it be recording when I get home. Who watches anything live anymore?

I need to find an app that uses GPS to determine where you are and what restaurants, bars, events, etc. are going on around you. I know it has to be out there. Afterall there are over 15,000 apps written at this point. I'll find it and let you know!

The Day Arrives

Well it has been several days since my last post. I have been frustrated, needless to say, at my own futile attempts to pick up the iPhone. For several reasons this was never able to materialize...until now! It has arrived. By that I mean I went and picked it up. I have clients that pay me additional money outside of the work I do full-time. I had put in extra hours the week before a scheduled paycheck and tacked those hours on to be paid for. With those few hours I was able to convince myself that it was time. My bills are up to date and now I have a little extra. It's time to treat myself.

I just happened to be in Wal-Mart to get a few other things and decided just to get it there. When I arrived at the counter and mentioned to the sales person that I would like an iPhone, I got "The Look". It was a look of insane jelousy and envy. A look of "Why are you so lucky?" I politely smiled and shrugged off the jokes sputtered my way. As some of the other Wal-Mart workers caught wind of the iPhone sale they slowly began to crowd around getting a glimpse of the phone like it was the Christ child. I admit I was a little annoyed at the attention but amused at the same time.

The process took about 15 mintutes to complete by the time they ran my credit, chose a new number, and typed in all the information. After the process was completed two workers went to retreive the phone. Like commanders turning the missle keys to launch the nukes these two wierdos pull out the iPhone together. As the one worker finished my account setup the other began to open the iPhone. I froze in place as I stood there helpless as the worker explained to me that they need to register it with iTunes at the store now and test that it's working. I was miffed. I hate when someone else touches a phone before I do. Call it crazy but I don't want your greasy fingers all over my new phone.

Ironically you would think by the end of the day I would have mastered the iPhone, downloading apps, playing games, listening to music, and finding a restaurant to go to. WELL, I didn't play at all. I decided to charge it fully before I did anything else. It nearly killed me but I knew it was important to give the battery that first hard charge.

The Torture

I have been a devoted Verizon customer for about 5 years now and for the last 2 years my reception at work has been terrible. I get more dropped calls than I care to admit to. I have a friend who has AT&T in my office as well as my boss (who has the 1st generation iPhone) and they say reception is amazing. So I am crossing my fingers on that one since during my research the iPhone 3G came out with all kinds of reception and battery problems. I understand though that this has been fixed with an update. Recent reviews corroborate this fact.

I am however, being tortured at this moment because I have to wait longer than I thought for my iPhone. I started this blog in hopes that I would be getting one this past weekend. Unfortunately, I have to wait until at least the end of the month if not into February. Being an adult sucks sometimes when you are confronted with bills that you have to pay that you were not expecting. So now I am forced to be responsible and pay off emergency debt before I can have what I want. I am sure there are people out there that can sympathize with me or at least understand things come up. I only hope this doesn't drag on. I am reminded of a good saying, "All good things come to those who wait." I just don't want to.

The Anticipation

I started this blog for two reasons. The first reason is because I am excited about getting an iPhone. I have gone through the typical geeky rituals of researching and getting reviews of the phone. I have wanted the iPhone for a few months now and I have just barely started to get to the point of pining for it. Week after week I tell myself to "just go get it" but something invariably comes up. Oh right, it's my Verizon contract. I found a way around the steep cancellation fee though. Simply get the active only status. Basically, I can't make calls or use any service but it only costs $10 a month and since I have only till August 2009 that means I would only owe $70 or $80 instead of $175 to get out.

The second reason for this blog is because during my many hours of internet researching for anything iPhone related, I realised that the iPhone experience is different for everyone. Not only that but I found little help from those living in Utah and their iPhone experiences.

I hope to accomplish something that will not only help me to learn more about the iPhone experience and share that with others, but to help other Utahn's see things from a similar perspective "experience-wise". I will blog on new apps that I have added. Experiences with the AT&T 3G network in many different areas of Utah, iPhone News, etc.

This may be odd to some since this blog is about to begin when the blogger (me) doesn't even have one yet. Well it's a foregone conclusion that I will get one but I want to litterally share this experience from the beginning.