I got my iPhone!... but not without problems...

I got up at 5AM this morning, and was at the Apple store by 5:45. I waited in line up through the store opening at 8AM. I waited to talk to an Apple employee for another 45 minutes. That was when the real waiting began. Through a combination of wacky iTunes servers being down and Kari's AT&T corporate discount causing havoc, it definitely was not a smooth process for me to get this phone. But get it, I did, and the first thing I did was make a video of my unboxing experience.

Everything is fully operational now, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! Check out this video to hear the full story, though.

The new iPhone is REAL!! (but not here yet)

Anyone who reads my blog, even in passing, has to notice that I am a big fan of Apple's iPhone. Over the last 6 months or so, I have become absolutely obsessed with it. I decided in March that when the next generation iPhone came out, I would do whatever I could to get one. Since then, I've been putting away my nickels and dimes to cover not only the cost of the new phone and a few needed accessories, but also the Early Termination Fee (ETF) that I'll have to fork over to Verizon. I have saved what I thought would be enough, but I couldn't know for sure until they announced the new details.

So it should come as no surprised that I followed yesterday's announcement of the updated iPhone by Apple VERY closely. Needless to say, I was blown away. Not as much by the specs, most of which were pretty well-known by the rumor mill (3G wireless technology, GPS, Exchange/MobileMe integration, etc.), and not by the form factor, which while appealing does not seem to be quite as cool as the first iPhone. Rather, I was blown away by the price: $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model. That is MUCH less that I thought it would be. I couldn't believe this when I heard it. I knew there had to be a catch... and there was.

The new iPhone will not be available until JULY 11. That's right. July. Not June. July.

That really bummed me out. Did I mention that my obsession had been going on for months now? When I found this out, I emailed Kari:

Good news: $299 for the top model (16GB)

Bad News: Release date July 11

My Calendar is marked.

Her reply:

What about all those boxes being shipped?

What about Father's day presents!

I have to hear you pine and lust for another MONTH?

So, yeah. It's going to be a rough month to come.

But I guess I might enjoy learning more about it, feeding my obsession with a fervor never expressed before. To start, I could list all of the things I love about the device, but I think it would be easier and faster to list all of the things I DON'T like about it. Here is the comprehensive list:

1. No cut-and-paste: Why is this so difficult? While I can't imagine this being a big deal to me overall in the long run, I could certainly see how it might be an inconvenience at times. DEALBREAKER? NOT REALLY
2. No video recording: Granted, I know next to nothing about what it takes to turn a camera phone into a video phone, but my thinking is that if my LG VX9900 can do video, why can't the iPhone? Potentially, this could be fixed by a third-party application to come, but it really should be integrated into the firmware by Apple. Again, though, I don't use video-on-the-go very often, so I might not miss it. DEALBREAKER? NOPE
3. No document editing: Although Apple announced full ability to view iWork and Microsoft Office documents, it did not allow users to be able to edit those documents on the iPhone. Nor did they provide an easy way to port Keynote or PowerPoint presentations to a projector or monitor. This would have been a much bigger deal for me 2+ years ago when I was still working on my doctorate and needed to edit documents on the go. Now? It would be nice, but DEALBREAKER? NOT EVEN CLOSE
4. Storage max out at 16GB: This is definitely the hardest one to swallow. I really thought they would come out with a 32GB model, which would have been perfect for me. My current iPod is a 30GB 5G iPod with video. For me to completely replace my iPod with the iPhone, I will need to find a way to cut the amount of media I have on me by more than half. (I'll need to save some room for apps and available storage for on-the-go downloads.) This will be difficult, especially considering that my music collection alone is around 18GB. Although this comes the closest to giving me pause about a purchase, ultimately DEALBREAKER? *gulp*... no...

As you can see, that's a relatively short list, and I cannot find a true dealbreaker in the bunch. Although other bloggers and fans have found a number of other flaws with the World's Most Complete Phone/Gadget, none of the other criticisms are in the least bit relevant to me.

As iDay (July 11) approaches, you can expect to see more iPhone related posts to help me feed my obsession.

[Update]: I can't believe that I forgot this, but I actually have one other problem with the iPhone.

5. No voice dialing: This is a feature that I never used on my phone until a year ago. That's when I started commuting 1 hour away once a week. Voice dialing became important for me to use in the car, and given the iPhone's UI, I would think it would be even more important. The only reason I can think of not including this is that the voice recognition technology for phones is not at the level that Apple expects for its products, and I can understand that. The voice dialing on my LG VX9900 only works about 50% of the time, and is VERY frustrating the other 50%. Although I will miss this feature, I'm sure I can learn to live without it. DEALBREAKER? I don't think so.
   

Tweet me up!

Some of you may not know that I actually post many times a day to one of my blogs. It's not this one, obviously, but rather my Twitter account. A while back I wrote here about Twitter when I first opened my account. After a period of ambivalence, I started to really embrace the service to the point that I now post around a half dozen times a day or so. I try to post each time something interesting happens, I have an interesting (to me) thought, or when I something new.

I have really enjoyed this because it allows me to maintain a public, short-attention-span diary of what I'm experiencing. Now, I'm not narcissistic enough to believe that anyone but me would even care about those sorts of minutia regarding my life. Rather, I just enjoy being able to document my life for my own purposes. Not that I go back and review it regularly, but it's interesting to write something (in 140-character chunks, no less) that I know may be around indefinitely.

What makes twitter really cool, however, is that it has such a simple API that many other applications, websites, and services can easily integrate Twitter into what they can offer. For instance, when I post a public video to Viddler, Viddler automatically posts a link to the video on my Twitter account. The same is true when I post a mobile photo to Flickr through the use of TwitterGram. One of the cooler integrations, however, is that I can set Facebook to use my latest Twitter post (or tweets, as they're known) as my current Facebook status. And because I can tweet from the web, numerous desktop clients, IM, and SMS, I can post anything from almost anywhere. There are also reply, direct message, and privacy functions, which theoretically could be used to expand the possibilities much further, but I haven't had a chance to fully explore these. One notable example, however, is one programmer's use of a private twitter account (and some fancy-schmancy curl scripts) to create an iPhone lo-jack system for finding a lost iPhone.

My purposes, however, are much simpler: I just want to keep track of what I'm doing! So along those lines, I thought I might start posting a Twitter Digest on this blog periodically. It's just a summary of all of my tweets during the previous 24-hour period. So here's the digest for yesterday, June 5, 2008. (BTW, if anyone out there reading this already has a twitter account, let me know and I'll follow you.)

Twitter Digest for June 5, 2008:

• Making the most of another no-show by Installing OpenPandora. Good use of my time, right?
• The lengths that people go to avoid talking about the problem amazes me, especially when they COME to therapy to talk about their problems.
• Came home for lunch today for no reason and feeling guilty for wasting the gas needed for the 7 minute drive.
• @cdevroe Here you go. http://is.gd/rCl
• Already had too many cancellations this week. The summer client dropoff has officially begun!
• @ecc1977 Absolutely! A Facebook app for GFF would be a great idea. I'd use it.
• Looking for a good twitter client for Windows to use at work. Methinks I'll give Twhirl a whirl.
• I am really up too late. I need to go to bed. **anticipating my own worthlessness tomorrow**
• After the LAST t-ball practice of the season, trying to pretend we can have a clean house with 2 small children.

My obsession

I have become obsessed as of late. I can hardly think of anything else. I can hardly type this blog post without thinking about ways to fulfill my deepest obsessions. I don't know what to do. I bother Kari with talk of my obsession constantly. She is distraught; she feels that I have neglected her and the kids to maintain my obsession. Perhaps I have. I'm sure I have...

But I don't know what else to do. I am tormented. Watch this video to understand what I mean.

Twitter

Okay, so I guess it's pretty obvious that I only write on my blog when I have nothing better to do. Well, I guess that might start to happen more often now. I have recently started working the night shift on weekends at a local hotel. It's mainly just for some extra money, and since I usually work the overnight shift, it's easy, and I'm still around to see my family.

So that is where I am now. I would usually have a book or something to pass the time on nights like this (virtually all of the regular work is done, and almost all of the guests are checked in), but I decided not to bring the book tonight. So here I am, posting on the blog that surely gets lonely in between visits and posts, but that's surely to change now.

Anyway, for a while now, I've been meaning to blog about twitter.com. For those who don't know, twitter is kind of like a blog with ADHD. It's just short snippets of information about what the blogger is currently up to or thinking about. It's very easy to follow the posts of others via SMS, IM, or RSS. The best part is that there are numerous methods that you can update it, like through the web, widgets, IM, or SMS. I also like the fact that there's no need to go into great detail; just type the brief thought and move on. If you want to check out my twitter, go to twitter.com/jasonact.

Also, I've begun tracking my music listening habits on Last.fm. The best thing about that site is that it requires no effort on my part. It automatically updates as I listen to music either through iTunes or with my iPod. You can check out my last.fm page here.

That sneaky little viddler

I recently found this website that is essentially a blog engine designed exclusively for videos. It makes it very easy to record, upload, and even leave timed comments and tags. There's also a social networking aspect to the videos because they are so easy to interact with. Actually, that's one aspect that I didn't think I would care for, but I find that I really like it. It really can build community in a virtual world, only this seems a bit more real because there is actual video to respond to, and not just text.

Well, it's much too late, and I should have been asleep an hour ago. Tomorrow is going to be rough. I hope to post more often in the next few weeks. Here's an embed of my latest Viddler entry:

Oh... My... Gosh...

Okay. I'll be brutally honest. I really didn't understand what all of the hype surrounding the uber-rumored Apple iPhone was all about. Okay -- a combination iPod and cell phone sounds neat, but so what? I have an iPod; I have a cell phone. How beneficial could the combination be? It really was not very appealing to me.

Oh me of little faith. Steve Jobs unveiled the real Apple iPhone today, and oh... my... gosh... It is probably the coolest device I have ever seen, and yes, I am including the iPod, and the PDA. It has almost no buttons (only a small "home" button), and the controls are done entirely by touchscreen, a feature they call "Multi-touch" for the way they have revolutionized it. It combines a full, widescreen iPod with a cell phone (with Cingular as carrier), which makes calls, teleconferences, and integrates web features so seamlessly that it leaves preexisting devices in the dust. It also includes a FULL web browser and HTML email, two features drastically missing from smartphones of today. It also includes Google Maps. To get the full effect of the iPhone, I think you really need to watch Steve's keynote address at MacWorld 2007. He describes and completely demonstrates the incredible innovations and jaw-dropping features that they included. (You can watch the whole keynote or just the iPhone introduction.)

Of course, I'll be watching the major tech sites for their on-hands review to see if it really measures up to what we saw in the keynote. Ultimately, however, I think this will revolutionize the cell phone industry. It's already driven Apple's stock price way up and made the stock prices of Palm and RIM (makers of the Blackberry) way down. Of course the major cries are about the price: $499 for the 4GB version and $599 for the 5GB version. Talk about a premium. That's expensive. Expensive enough that I don't see myself getting one for a few years at least, desipte the copious amounts of drool. But that was the same knock against the iPod when it debuted in 2001. Now, it has left all other media players in the dust. I am fairly confident that the same may happen with the iPhone. I only wish I could get my hands on one.