Category Archives: Apple

Another toy for my wish list

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Finger DrumsSince I’ve spent all my saved pennies on my most recent “toy” I’ll have to refrain from getting this at least for now. This would be a great addition to my desk at work and I’m sure there are many who would visit just for a quick solo. There are also plenty of opportunities for a well-placed rim-shot, too.

Click on the image to the right to go to ThinkGeek. They even have a movie showing it in use.

Update:When I was young, I visited my grandparents house and discovered a drum set in the garage that used to be my uncle’s. In the process of making a play for them, my uncle got a renewed interest in the hobby and decided to dust them off for himself. I remember being disappointed but I can’t hold it against him. My parents saw this post and decided to order the Finger Drums for me which showed up last Friday. They’re in my office at work. Not the same as a full set, but the do take up a lot less space. Thanks Mom & Dad!

A lot of geek in a small package

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Through the generous donation of time from my dear friend, Kristin, I was able to purchase an iPhone this past Saturday morning. I have to say that I’m quite pleased. Sure, I could have stuck with my current phone, but the fact is that the commercials are accurate. The device works as they say it does. I truly have a full web browser, functional email, impressive iPod, and a functional PIM all about the size of a deck of cards. I am still getting accustomed to how everything works and there are some minor nitpicks, but I think I will be quite pleased for the foreseable future.

Confused about Kristin’s involvement? Well, since the iPhone was released just over a week ago, supplies have been somewhat limited. Apple was kind enough to identify every night which of their retail stores will have some in the morning. Since the only reasonably close Apple stores are in San Diego (UTC and Fashion Valley), Kristin offered to get there early in case supplies are limited as she lives much closer. I argued with her that such an offer was unnecessary but since she insisted that she would enjoy the time away from the house to read, it would have been rude of me to decline.

All-in-all, I have a cool gadget and an even cooler friend.

No, I haven’t gotten one, yet.

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Since I’ve been essentially “off-net” for the last 10 days, I haven’t been following all of the iPhone hype leading up to it’s launch two days ago. I’ve been trying to get caught-up on feeds and, so far, I haven’t seen anything that I would classify as a “fatal flaw” with it which was my main reason for not buying one from the start. Well, that and the fact I was going to be in Canada at the time.

The one thing that I think is unfortunate, is that it doesn’t support video out from the headphone jack like the current generation of iPod with Video. My biggest concern now, which I haven’t yet determined, is whether it works with my iPod integration in my car. I wouldn’t have thought it would be a problem as they kept saying “it’s an iPod”, but it’s being reported that not all iPod accessories work properly with the iPhone.

Fortunately, my friend was going to purchase one at launch and if he has (I haven’t talked to him yet), it will take only 30 seconds to find out. Perhaps, the next you hear from me, it’ll be about my new toy.

A better browser for your cell phone

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While I wait for the upcoming iPhone, which I am likely (but not definitely) getting, I have been playing with implementing similar functionality in my existing phone. I’ve previously written about it if you want some details.

Opera Software has released a new beta of their very impressive Opera Mini. This new beta adds a full page view scaled to the phone’s display. No longer do you have to view web pages in a very tweaked format. You can scroll around and zoom in on any part of the page to read the content. It’s also quite fast.

It’s free and supports most cell phones that support most cell phones. Here’s a list of supported models.

Waiting for the iPhone

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As an admitted Apple fan, I, like many, am waiting for next month’s release of Apple’s iPhone. Since I have some concerns about the features, contract requirements, and price, I’m not certain that I will be getting one, but it is certainly a possibility. I’ll have to see what the initial reviews are and see if I can get my hands on one for

While I’ve been waiting, I decided to see how capable my current phone is. Surprisingly, quite a bit. I have a Sony Ericsson S710a which I got about two years ago and only used it for voice as I never saw the need for paying for a data plan and would rather call someone than “text” them.

The goals I was shooting for was to as closely emulate my “Internet presence” that I can obtain on my computer via my phone. That includes having a respectable browser, access to my mail server (via imap), and IM (AIM or Google Talk) availability.

The first step was to add data to my wireless service. AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireles, formerly AT&T Wireless) has a MediaMAX 200 service which includes unlimited gprs/EDGE data and 200 sms messages a month for $19.99. Not too bad and I’m surely going to get my money’s worth this first month. I can scale it back later if I will be using less.

Next, the browser. Opera Mini is a free java browser by Opera Software. It’s a decent browser and while I kinda wish it rendered the full page rather than thinning down the page for display, it is probably the better way to go to improve speed and reduce the amount of data transferred.

Email support also worked out. The built-in email program supports imap and even can do SSL (encrypted) connections. The only down-side was that server certificates have to be smaller and the 4096 bit cert I got from CAcert for my imap server couldn’t be imported into my phone so I ended up generating a 1024 bit self-signed cert which did work. After importing, the phone can see my inbox and can even check mail on a schedule, but I’ll keep that disabled.

Lastly is instant messaging. The phone has an AIM client built in and while it looks reasonable, I don’t like it and am trying to find a Java client that supports Jabber (Google Talk) as well as AIM and uses the data network rather than SMS messages (which is metered with the current plan).

I think I still will end up getting an iPhone but I certainly am having fun seeing how functional a device that I used to just take and make calls on can be.

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