When it comes to phones, I tried to keep up as well. Back in ’96 I was workin with a job shop that made it’s own deliveries. With pickups called into the office, we felt it necessary to have the newest thing in communications. At the time it was this real cellular phone weighing about 10lbs. It was shorter than a loaf of bread and had the handset you’d find on the old rotary dialers, with the spiral cord. If I remember correctly, charges were a buck a minute. Needless to say we used it sparingly.

Then I had one of those brick type cellulars that you could hold in one hand but would be a workout for any call over 5 minutes.

But the world of cellular shrank after that, so to speak. Phones became pocketsized. Of course, that still meant it was about 5 – 7 inches long, maybe an inch thick, but boy you would be 1 of 10 around with it. You were cool.

Then the flip phones showed up. Half the size and thickness. Weren’t those great. You could have one in your pocket and no one would really notice.

But still, those phones really did one thing…make phone calls. Sure some would hold up to 100 names and numbers. Some had a calendar. Maybe some even had a game or two. Remember breakout on the Motorola 5150 phone?

Fast forward to today and you have phones you could hide in a closed fist. A big fist but still. Phones have mega organizers, cameras, play music, get and send email and yes, make phone calls. They have more computing power than the first computer I used nearly 24 years ago and probably the first Mac I used 4 years later.

Ahh, those were the days. I’ve got half the pixels on my iPhone as I did on that first Mac Plus. I definitely have more colors. If you consider a monochrome screen color.

But what really makes these phones today so awesome, IMHO, is the extensibility. You can download apps to give your phone more things to do. How cool is that?

When I bought the first gen iPhone last year, I had been using Treos for a couple years, 600, 650 and then the 680. Like I said, I try keeping up with technology.

I loved the Palm Treos. That was the first time you had a developer world behind it pumping out app after app after app. I had to think long and hard before I made the decision to go iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Mac guy. I make half my living working on a Mac. I’ve had just about all the models too. Heck, I still have a working Apple Newton 120, the original iBook with the handle, a wall street PowerBook and a dual processor G4 tower, besides the 17″ dual core 2 MacBook Pro. I love Macs. But man, my Treo apps. What am I gonna do without them.

But I gave in. I dropped the full amount for the 1st Gen iPhone. Thanks for the $100 Apple store GC Steve. I was the BMOC around the office. I was cool again. My apps…whaaaaa! Don’t get me started on those “web” apps. Yeah right, on Edge? Give me a break.

So here we are, about a year later and we got apps on the iPhone…yayyyyyyy! I’ve got my SplashID back, that I oh so missed. I’ve got my Facebook app, direct connect Twitter app, my iTunes remote controller, my own radio station programming, and eReader for all those pdbs I’ve bought. I know where my friends are, they know where I am. I can find 100 restaurants within the 25 mile radius that surrounds me. I’ve got my Koi Pond and Cowbell. And yes, I’ve got PhoneSaber.

Everyday I’m trying out something for free from the app store. Not all make the A-list but I do it because I can.

The apps for me push the iPhone to the top of the list amongst the players. Aside from the fact that I can do all my email, play music, organize my life, map my route, surf the web, check the weather, keep an eye on Apple stock and of course, make a phone call. Oh yeah, did I mention 3G?

There is not a device with as many features, so much extensibility, and the ability to turn heads. And it just feels good in my hand.

Well, it might sound like I work for Apple, but I don’t. I’m just a tech guy that has fallen in love, again, with tech outta Cupertino. Thanks Steve.

Till next time, fly free, fly straight.

[ t ]

First thing I notice, my fingers are gonna get tired. Sure I text, email and surf on the iPhone, but I imagine there will be some long ones here.

So the set up:
New 3G iPhone. Had the 2G since it first came out last year. Held out on getting the 3G for about a month. But being the Mac guy and gear head that I am, finally gave in.

Went down to the AT&T store. They had the white 16Gig available. 16 I wanted, color didn’t matter. Was going to case it anyway. Had the Vaja Silver case for the 2G that I was going to use. Found out that the 2G case was too small for the 3G. Too bad. It was $300. Oh well. Settled on the Contour iHardskin in black. It was only $30. Has a nice feel to it. The Vaja was great but it did make the iPhone seem really thick. The hardskin is nice. Guess it will really mean something if I ever drop this one. The Vaja survived falling more than twice.

Anyway, the 3G was set up by AT&T. The 2G you did yourself with iTunes. Took about 20 minutes and I was up and running. So first experience was good.

I was attending the SES conference in SJ at the time so the next day I got to use it often. Mostly with my business email over wi-fi and 3G when outside. Again, another good experience.

The conference was over the next day so I was back in the office. It was then that I realized that I didn’t have any external sound. I found the kb note on Apple’s support site. The troubleshooting steps didn’t fix it. So I took it down to the local Apple store. We have 2 close by which is very convenient. The genius there verified no sound and poof, I walked out with a working iPhone.

Apple gear is not always perfect but support has always been very good to me.

Got home and after some time did what you’d figure was the right thing, I sync’d it with my Mac. Well, iTunes said the iPhone needed to be restored before it could be used with iTunes. Ok, click restore. DOH! Error. Attempted again, same error, (6). And now the iPhone was hosed.

So I jumped on the bike, HD, and sped off to the Apple store. Got on standby with support but only waited 5 minutes.

So what happens when the genius took a look? It restores and comes back online. Oh great, ah wha ta goo siam. The genius told me he has seen that before. Told me to trash the iTunes app and reinstall. So I get back home and do as I’m told. Voilà! Success.

I’m back in business with back up from the 2G.

What I’ve been doing is running through the Apple App store regularly, since before the 3G came out and reading the reviews on all the hot apps. I saw the WordPress app and thought, why not. So here we are.

And I’m done for the first post. Thanks for sitting through till the end. I hope to make this a regular scheduled stop during my days. Hopefully, there’s a lesson learned, a joke told or insight sighted. For sure there will be typos on this tiny keypad.

Till next time, fly free, fly straight.

[ t ]