u l t r a m o o k i e

Recently, my wife and I decided to put all the phones connected to the landline into “no ring” mode.  We turned on the answering machine and am filtering calls.  We were so tired of getting political calls and other miscellaneous calls — some asshole has or keeps using our number for filing things and we [...]

Recently, my wife and I decided to put all the phones connected to the landline into “no ring” mode.  We turned on the answering machine and am filtering calls.  We were so tired of getting political calls and other miscellaneous calls — some asshole has or keeps using our number for filing things and we get all of the calls from the debt collection agencies.

Everyone whom is important to us has our respective mobile phone numbers, so we have told them to just call us on our mobiles.  It’s better that way.  Do we still need our landline?  Yea, for faxing and for the satellite receiver.  Plus, that phone number is the one we use on forms and stuff.

Do you have a landline?  Why or why not?

Here’s the super secret iPhone 2.0 strategy.  I got it from Steve* himself.
Promise all sorts of new features before iPhone 2.0 software is available.  Fanboys go wild.
Rush iPhone 2.0 software out the door, when it is really not ready — it’s buggy as hell, crashes, and is slow.  People have to reboot their iPhones every [...]

Here’s the super secret iPhone 2.0 strategy.  I got it from Steve* himself.

Promise all sorts of new features before iPhone 2.0 software is available.  Fanboys go wild.

Rush iPhone 2.0 software out the door, when it is really not ready — it’s buggy as hell, crashes, and is slow.  People have to reboot their iPhones every day to keep it running — hey, just like Windows.  Fanboys rejoice as they have new software.  Fanboys go out and defend this shitty software because…well, they are Apple fanboys and Steve Jobs is their diety…and they must defend their diety.

Every few weeks bump the revision number of the software, but really don’t fix anything.  In the release notes, be as vague as possible — say something like, “Bug Fixes”.  Fanboys install, get the placebo effect, and go wild.  Fanboys cheer and are happy that Apple “fixed” something — when secretly, all Apple did was bump the VERSION_NUMBER constant in one of the header files and recompile the whole thing.

Meanwhile, try as hard as possible to fix the iPhone 2.0 software and get what would have been the real release out the door — you know, like any respectable software developer would:  Release a tested and fixed software sans any major bugs.

Thanks Apple for your backasswards way of releasing the iPhone 2.0 software.  I really wish I had stuck with 1.1.4 and waited things out.  Apple you’re becoming more and more like Microsoft.  With the iPhone 2.0 software, I kept thinking to myself:  “Crap, I should have waited for Service Pack 1 before I upgraded.“  Ironic, huh?

*Steve “Mookie” Kong, that is.

This will probably slip through the news since there’s this consistent Viagra driven love for Apple.  But, for those of you interested (from the Wall Street Journal):
Apple raised hackles in computer-privacy and security circles when an independent engineer discovered code inside the iPhone that suggested iPhones routinely check an Apple Web site that could, in [...]

This will probably slip through the news since there’s this consistent Viagra driven love for Apple.  But, for those of you interested (from the Wall Street Journal):

Apple raised hackles in computer-privacy and security circles when an independent engineer discovered code inside the iPhone that suggested iPhones routinely check an Apple Web site that could, in theory trigger the removal of the undesirable software from the devices.

Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — one that stole users’ personal data, for example — to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store.

I guess Uncle Steve is really trying to tell people that All Your Ifones Belong To Him.

Almost a year ago, Apple released the iPhone.  Everyone clamored to get one and then everyone hopped on iTunes to activate it.  Surely enough, the activation servers were overwhelmed.  For hours and hours, happy new iPhone owners quickly turned to angry customers.  You’d figure that Apple would have learned their lesson about capacity planning when [...]

Almost a year ago, Apple released the iPhone.  Everyone clamored to get one and then everyone hopped on iTunes to activate it.  Surely enough, the activation servers were overwhelmed.  For hours and hours, happy new iPhone owners quickly turned to angry customers.  You’d figure that Apple would have learned their lesson about capacity planning when it comes to large launches.  Nope.  Apple screwed the pooch again with the iPhone 3G launch.

Why do we make mistakes?  So that we can learn from them and not make the same mistakes twice.  If you do make the same mistake twice, you’re kind of stupid.  Therefore, Apple is stupid?

Anyways, I upgraded Eileen and my “Original” iPhones to the iPhone 2.0 software and downloaded a bunch of apps from the App Store.  Very cool software, there are some stability issues, but still this is close to what the iPhone should have been when it originally launched.  Minus the 3G and GPS, I’m happy enough with my original iPhone and don’t see any real reason to “upgrade” (or in AT&T’s words “extend my contract”).

By the way, if you were one of the people that installed the unofficial 2.0 firmware yesterday on your original iPhone, you’d probably want to install the official one.  It is rumored that the one distributed yesterday (which carries a different filename and filesize from the official one) was a debug version for the iPhone 3G — that’s why you’re probably experiencing slowness or sluggishness on your iPhone.  You can either download the firmware directly or just use the “Check for Updates” button.

The iPhone 2 has been announced.  Apple fanbois have thier credit cards out and their iPhone 1s on Ebay.  I’m sure the iPhone 2s will fly off the AT&T shelves, so whatever I am going to write here will not matter — and Apple fanbois can refrain from posting their comments, thank you very much.

Plastic [...]

The iPhone 2 has been announced.  Apple fanbois have thier credit cards out and their iPhone 1s on Ebay.  I’m sure the iPhone 2s will fly off the AT&T shelves, so whatever I am going to write here will not matter — and Apple fanbois can refrain from posting their comments, thank you very much.

• Plastic backing:  Ugh.  It’s so iBook!
• Same crappy camera:  Still no video recording.
• 3G:  The original iPhone should have come with it to begin with.
• GPS:  Same as above.
• iPhone 2.0 software:  Thank you Apple for releasing it for free for current iPhone owners.  I’m sure the same sentiment is not shared by your iPod touch users, whom you continue to screw over.
• The pricing switcharoo:  $199 is $200 less than the original iPhone.  But, the data plan costs $10 more per month — whether you are in AT&T’s 3G coverage or not.  That means by the end of your contract, you’ll have paid $40 more than a person with the original iPhone.  Not to mention, there are no text messages included with the more expensive plan.  If you want to get the 200 text messages that are included with the original iPhone’s data plan, add $5 a month.

Overall, I was not particularly excited by the new iPhone.  Sure, it’s nice to have the extra speed.  Sure, the real GPS is nice.  But, want to pay more just to get those two features?  No.  The biggest thing that turns me off about the iPhone 2 is the plastic back — it really cheapens the look of the phone.  Basically, the iPhone went from sleek MacBook Pro aluminum backing to cheap entry-level MacBook plastic backing — complete with your choice of black or white plastic.  I wonder if Apple will charge more for the black plastic iPhone — like how they charge more for the black MacBook.

I know this happened on my wife’s iPhone and this recently happened to my iPhone (again).  The email address auto-complete started to fail.  It used to be: I click in the To: field and type “e” and my wife’s name and email address would pop up.  Just a few days ago, this stopped working — [...]

I know this happened on my wife’s iPhone and this recently happened to my iPhone (again).  The email address auto-complete started to fail.  It used to be: I click in the To: field and type “e” and my wife’s name and email address would pop up.  Just a few days ago, this stopped working — very annoying.  I tried clearing the user dictionary, but that didn’t work.  I tried a reset and that didn’t work.  I tried restoring my iPhone and then restoring my settings — that didn’t work.  The only thing that worked?  Restoring my iPhone to factory without restoring from a backup.  Very annoying!  Apple needs to create a way of letting users “forget” or reset the auto-completed address cache.  Auto-complete is very useful, but it shouldn’t take a complete restore of the iPhone in order to make it work again!

For one split second, my iPhone was falling to the ground.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Then, whammo, it hit the metal part of a chair and flopped to the floor. When I picked it up, I saw that my Sena slipcase had protected everything except for the top and now my iPhone has a small dent in the aluminum.
Sigh.
Eileen [...]

For one split second, my iPhone was falling to the ground.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

Then, whammo, it hit the metal part of a chair and flopped to the floor. When I picked it up, I saw that my Sena slipcase had protected everything except for the top and now my iPhone has a small dent in the aluminum.

Sigh.

Eileen let me get an Agent 18 EcoShield so that I can better protect my iPhone (and for me to secretly cover up that dent, which will always bug me).  The thing fits really (I mean really) tight with the iPhone.  Taking off the top portion takes a lot of effort.  And it feels like the case will definitely take most of the hits (except to the screen) for the iPhone.  And the nice thing is that it doesn’t seem to add much bulk to the iPhone.

I guess in the end, mobile phones are used daily and will eventually slip and fall — and get nicked, dented, and otherwise scratched. I just wish it didn’t happen so soon to my iPhone.

At least now I can add a Badtz Maru sticker to the back of my iPhone! Huzzah!