Time For An Upgrade

You may remember this post from a long while back in which I mentioned finally getting an iPhone. Well, it's time for round 2 since I just picked up the most recent model, the iPhone 4. My old phone was great and I used it for everything, it was just a tad slow. For instance if I was driving down the road and saw something funny and wanted to try and take a quick picture, 8 times out of 10 I would miss the opportunity cause the phone couldn't launch the camera fast enough. Tagging songs I heard on the radio was also a bit hit or miss. 

As awesome as that phone was [and is] it was simply time to upgrade. So I called the local Apple store to check on what they had in stock, and sure enough they had the 32Gb model. So I stopped by on my way home from work and picked up the new one. My old contract hadn't yet expired, but I was well within the upgrade timeframe. Also I'm selling my old one for a pretty decent chunk of change, which will subsidize the price of the new one considerably. I thought about keeping it to use as an ipod touch since it'll still have wifi capability to surf the net, play games, movies, music, etc, but that's just one more thing laying around that I don't really need. So off it goes to it's new owner sometime this afternoon.

The new one is blazingly fast [especially compared to the 3g model] and the screen is really nice to look at. Now I'm just waiting on my free case from Apple. :) Here's a couple random pictures and screen shots, if you have the ability to upgrade, I highly recommend it. Enjoy.

Packaging: 3g on the left, 4 on the right.

Home screen shot, notice all the folders Apple now let's you create. [Perviously you had to jailbreak your phone to gain access to a feature like this.]

Here's what's in one of my 'games' folders. And yes, Angry Birds

is all it's cracked up to be. Best $0.99 I ever spent.

New Computer

Remember this post I made back in January?? Well, yesterday was the day I made it happen. I just picked up a 27" iMac with the i7 quad-core processor [the fastest one they make] with 8Gb of memory [a lot], a 1 terabyte hard drive [a lot], and their best graphics card. The thing is saweeeet! 

I actually found it barely used on craigslist for a steal of a price. I saved almost $700 over what it would have cost to buy from the Apple store configured in the exact same way. Not too shabby! Yesterday evening was spent transferring files, re-installing programs, and getting the new computer set up how I want it. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with my Macbook Pro now. More than likely, I'll wipe it clean once I have the new one entirely set up, and keep it around as a spare or to take on vacations with. Anyway, here's a quick picture of the new one on my desk at home, with the laptop sitting in front. Quite the difference in screen size wouldn't ya say??

De-Bunking, Wannabe De-Bunkers

Alright, I should let you know first off that this post is going to be a little bit of a rant, and it deals with Apple's new iPhone, and the people that try and make it seem like it's not all that great. Ready? Let's begin!

As many of you already know, Apple recently officially released their new iPhone 4, and as of yesterday the first models started landing in the hands of consumers who had pre-ordered them, with the official launch coming today and long lines forming outside of Apple stores across the country. Don't be surprised to hear a lot of news about the phone today.

So I get to work this morning and fire up the computer, and hop online, and the first article I see on Yahoo's page is about 5 big problems the new phone has and why you shouldn't buy one. I was curious so I started reading. [Here's the article] I got about half way through the authors first "point" and felt he immediately lost any and all credit he may have once had. I encourage you to read the entire article, because I'm going to go through this point by point. Go grab a cup of nice cold water and we'll continue.

Apple's New iPhone: Super Secret Preview

Apparently someone from Apple lost what is to be believed as the new iPhone at a bar, and the early version of the phone made it's way over to the tech wizards at Gizmodo. You can read their early review of it here, and for some visual stimulation, you can check out the video below. It's safe to say that Apple isn't too pleased about this, and I'd be willing to bet someone just got fired. But if it is released this summer, I may have to go and pick it up....if I'm into the upgrade period on my current phone. [Anyone potentially in the market to upgrade their Zach Morris phone to a 3G?] At any rate, time shall soon tell! [gizmodo]

[new iPhone]

iPhone: Jailbroken

It was just over a year ago that I broke down and got the iPhone. Well, last night I broke down once again and decided to finally jailbreak my iPhone. I hadn't done it before because the process was a bit more time consuming, but not anymore. I used blackra1n to jailbreak it, and it took all of maybe 3 minutes. It's also safe to say it's been a total productivity killer today at work. All I've been doing is playing with all the new features you can install and customize. So far I've changed the system font a couple times, changed my text message tone to Barney Stinson saying "Suit Up!" and my email notification now has David Letterman telling me "Hey there Skippy, you've got mail!"

I've also added folders so that I can keep my various types of apps organized, which is great because now I don't have to flip through 6 pages of apps to get to one at the end. Also, as you can see in the photos, I changed the background from plain black behind the apps to a video clips from the movie 'Cars' -- pretty crazy. Anyway, there's a lot more to be done, and I'm only scratching the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the phone is capable of now. Here's a couple screen shots:

I Hate Love You Apple

.....Okay not really, in fact I love you. But I do hate love you because you make awesome products and put actual thought into improving your products rather than seeing what someone else does, and imitate it a year later. I also hate you because I tend to want your nicest stuff. Why do you have to make things really really ridiculously good looking?!

Okay I should just get to the point of this post. I want one of the new iMac's. They're spectacular, and I want one to be sitting on my desk at home. I have a MacBook Pro that I got over 3 years ago, and it's been absolutely fantastic. I've never had a single problem with it, it's fast, and it just plain works [all of which make the price tag on apple products totally worth it.] Problem is, I've expanded my skill set since I got it, and some of the stuff I want to do requires a slightly faster processor, more memory [I've topped it out], and a bigger screen [just makes life a lot easier when you've got multiple art boards, programs, projects, and timelines open at once.]

I have a friend who's significant other works for a company that rhymes with 'Snapple', and she might be able to hook me up with a super killer deal on a new desktop [I'd choose one of the new iMac's] and I've been very tempted to bite the bullet, and get another computer, and wipe my laptop clean and use it strictly for travel. Now how do I decide between the 21.5" or 27" version? Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Duallies!

When most people hear the term 'Duallies' they think of trucks that have more than two wheels on an axle. I used to, until now! :) Check out my new work setup (and sweet cubicle). I'm a fan. Now I just need to work on getting at least one of these bad boys for my laptop at home!

Update

Okay, so it's been a while since I've added anything to the blog, but it's been a pretty crazy start to 2009 for me so far! I've been out of town a good deal and I have a bunch of good stuff to share, I just need to organize all my pictures and I'll put some stuff up soon.

In other (shorter) news. I bit the bullet last night, joined the masses, and got the iPhone. My roommate has one and it came in very handy on a recent trip, so when I finally got done with my recent travels I checked my at&t account online, and sure enough I was eligable for an upgrade. I had a $100 visa gift card, so that took a good chunk out of the price of the phone itself. Anyways I'm still figuring a lot of it out, and trying to look up all the cool apps and stuff, but the only thing I can say so far is that this thing is saweeet! Oh and my sister is psyched cause she wants my old phone. Here's a little screen shot of my phone I figured out you could do!