iPhone 3GS - So far, so good
I wanted to give folks a quick update on my experience with the new iPhone 3GS. With the expensive (for some) upgrade price, I know people aren't sure if it is worth the upgrade. Here is what I've found so far. First though - note that I had a first generation iPhone. What seems really great for me may not be so great for folks already on a 3G phone.
1) Network Speed I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but, I had heard that 3G wasn't "too big" of a jump over Edge. Maybe it isn't, but it certainly feels a heck of a lot zippier. The main applications I use with a lot of network activity are Twitterific, Maps, and Safari. All of them run much faster now. I was particularly surprised by Maps. I had it tracking my car and it updated our position in real time. (I wasn't driving. :) I was also impressed by the directions. I hadn't used it before, but I can see using it a lot more now that I know how it works.
Unfortunately, the main site I use for mail, GMail, has recently taken a step back in functionality. A few weeks ago they changed things up a bit, and since then, I've seen some odd behavior. Sometimes simple mail messages just refuse to load. Sometimes the entire web site refuses to load. This isn't 3GS issue, but whatever they did recently seems to have made things a bit flakey. When it works, it works great.
2) Application Speed This seems to be a bit hit and miss, and probably depends a lot more on the application's code base then anything else. Peggle (darn good addictive game) loaded up 10X faster than it normally did. Other applications seem a bit faster, but in general, I'd say things feel about 2X faster. 2X faster is nice - real nice, just don't expect the same boost over everything. The camera is nicer - but I still wish it ran faster.
3) Compass It works. Meh. If I get lost, I'll appreciate it.
4) Video It works, and works well. I was surprised with how nicely it handled offering to upload the video to YouTube. The whole conversion and upload process took about 3 minutes. The quality isn't great, but I'll have my iPhone around a lot more than my Flip camera (and the quality seems about the same).
5) Battery Life I don't know about others, but this seems to be the biggest disappointment. I haven't done any scientific testing, but it just seems like it hasn't improved at all. Whereas everything else seems nicer, faster, shinier, the battery seems to be the exact same as before. My real "test" for this was my last flight to California. I watched video for a good chunk of the trip like I normally do ("Last Man on Earth", good Vincent Price film, and the last 40 minutes of the Dark Knight) and the battery seemed just as drained as it normally is (around 45%). I expected a lot more here.
6) Misc Not that it's important, but the speaker is way loud. Loud as in the first time I got a text message I jumped about five feet. I guess that's good, but I've always relied on vibrate to notice incoming calls.
So overall, I'm very happy with the upgrade. I was lucky enough to get a good price for it (299), and I probably would have paid a bit more too (although as a consultant I can write it off as a business expense).
p.s. Some "apps" that I really need to pick up but haven't yet - Wolfenstein3D and Space Ace. Anyone tried them yet?
Will you go 3 oh?
Last year I blogged about my experience upgrading my iPhone to 2.0. Little did I know that within a few hours I'd have a few hundred comments. It ended up being the most commented blog entry on my blog (972, almost 1k!) and my 6th most visited entry over all.
So given that the upgrade was a bit... rough last time - who is going to hold off doing the upgrade this time? I know I'm not going to wait. Working at home, even if my phone bricks, it isn't the end of the world.
Is this too much? (Change to Contact form)
My buddy Todd Sharp pointed out something interesting to me today - the contact form on Ben Nadel's blog. Ben added a simple checkbox to let folks using the contact form signify if they are willing to hire him for professional services. I thought this was a good idea, and I've done something similar on my contact form.
I think the language I've added is fair. I definitely want to do my best to help readers. This isn't entirely a selfless move on my part. The questions that come in can many times be turned into great blog articles. At times though, the questions I get can be rather involved. I try to push back when that happens. Also, there are times when I simply can't respond for hours, days, even weeks. If a person has a question and they are willing to pay, I thought the checkbox might be a nice way for them to let me know.
So... what do you guys think? If you didn't know me from Adam and saw the form as it is now, would it scare you off? Be honest, I can take it. (Ok, I can't, I've got the ego of a 12 year old kid, but I'll pretend.)
School's Out
Ok, so this is way off topic, but I wanted to share for all the old timers, like myself, out there. Today is my eldest child's last day of school (the younger two had their last day on Friday). While talking to my son I remembered an episode of the Muppets with Alice Cooper singing School's Out. I wasn't surprised at all to find it on YouTube...
Keep watching this at least until the point were Alice rips off his cap and gown and parades around in a red devil suit with a tail. Is it just me, or is kids programming today just a little bit boring? Of course, my kids didn't care for the video at all. Jaded at such a young age. -sigh-
Is this surveillance overkill?
A few weeks ago I noticed a few utility trucks working at an intersection I drive through quite often. I thought maybe it was related to the fiber optic push the city is making (way cool, super high speed acces, more info at LUSFiber.org), or perhaps red light cameras...
Click to enlarge:
As time went on though, and work continued, I realized it was definitely red light camera related. What surprised me, and soon shocked me, was how intensive the camera setup became. It got to a point where I couldn't count the total number of cameras at this one intersection.
Now, let me be clear on something. I'm pro-red light cameras. I'm pro-speed vans. Frankly the argument that they invade your privacy is bunk. Outside, on a public road, in a multi-ton car? No, that's not private. I do know there are concerns that private companies are running them, but in my mind, if it lets the cops focus more on violent criminals, and slows people down, I'm all for it.
But I have to say - when I drive through this intersection now I feel like I'm in a prison, or in the middle of 1984. It's just... awe-inspiring the amount of camera "stalks" that are now set up. Check it out (and click to enlarge):
The street in question does suffer from speeder, but more so about 2 blocks down. This area is relatively stable as far as I know. In all my time on the road I've yet to see one accident. So what do folks think? Have you ever seen an intersection like this in your town? Is it overkill?
Another RIAForge Milestone
You may have seen this on Twitter last night, but just in case, I wanted to share that RIAForge has hit another milestone: 500,000 downloads. 500,220 to be exact. Woot.
I Heart Amazon Referrals
So last night I blogged an Amazon Affiliate link (http://snurl.com/h4kux) for the very excellent Learning jQuery 1.3. (I'll try to get my review up this week.) I decided to take a quick look at my Amazon stats to see if anyone had purchased it. Turns out someone had, which is cool. I now have (or will have) 2.13 in my pocket. I think Amazon has a pretty good deal here for bloggers (or actually, Twitters, emailers, whatever, it works!)
But then I noticed something... a bit unusual. Apparently I also got referral money for...
Himalayan Institute Original Neti Pot Complete Sinus Cleansing System Starter Kit - I'm not quite sure what that is, but any product with that many names in it has to be more advanced then the Space Shuttle.
But wait - it gets better. The next link I noticed?
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment - Wow. Um, ok. Personally I probably have an easier time with machines than humans, but I've probably got a touch of Aspergers.
And then it got even better. The coup de grace. The ultimate WTF did that come from...
The Guide to Becoming the Sensuous Black Woman (And Drive Your Man Wild In and Out of Bed!)
Hey, I'm not sure who ordered this, or whether or not I'm seriously misunderstanding my readership, but whoever it was, thanks for the 90 cents. I'm not quite sure how someone becomes the Sensuous Black Woman. I would have assumed there would be more than one. But maybe it's some Highlander thing us geeks aren't aware of?
Quick sanity check...
When I started blogging at InsideRIA a month or so ago, I promised to post link lists every weekend or so. I never did. Now that I'm also blogging at Alagad, do folks follow me there as well? I typically do a quick Twit for every blog post, but, just wondering if I should make a habit of posting the list of external links here every weekend?
On doors closing (and hopefully opening)
Sean blogged last night about the end of his time at Broadchoice. Unfortunately, I too have to make the same announcement. Yesterday was my last day as a Broadchoice employee.
I guess I can say I've been pretty lucky. While at Broadchoice I got to work with an amazing team of people and I've been able to get comfortable with some new technologies (Railo, Hibernate, AIR, Groovy, jQuery, Transfer, Spring). My Flex skills, especially, finally got the kick up that I've needed for quite some time.
My immediate plans are to continue working for Alagad on a part time basis while beginning my search for full time employment. I've done the contractor thing before, and while it can be fun to jump from job to job, I'm really hoping to find an opportunity with a company where I can focus my skills.
I thought I wanted to say more here - but - I think I'm just going to wrap up. Time to get ready for my flight back home.
A new month, a new beginning...
Every day is a chance to start anew. Every day is a new beginning. While trite, the previous sayings are quite true, and on this first day of April I have decided to take them to heart. I have looked at my life and have come to the realization that I'm making some pretty big mistakes. These mistakes don't just impact me, but others. I have a small following here on this blog, and my other sites, and frankly, I worry I may have led folks astray. I must do something about it or I will never forgive myself. It is, as I said above, time to begin anew. It is time to get SERIOUS and stop joking around. With that in mind, I promise to...