Apple Apostle – Applostle, If You’re Nasty

R got me an iPhone last week for our second anniversary.

Holy crap.

I should have listened to Dan during all those podcast debates; this thing, on which I am writing this WordPress blog, is F-ING awesome. Seriously. It’s even smart enough to correct for my sausage fingers, which was always my main argument for sticking to Blackberry devices.

Dan was right. Now that I have one, I see how superior it is to any other phone in the world. Not that Blackberry and Android-based phones are horrible… It’s just that this thing is near-perfect.

Why near-perfect? Battery life & lack of a caps lock option come to mind. And I accidentally hit the backspace key way too often because of its proximity to the m key – did so twice just trying to type proximity. I think they should have kept it well away from ALL of the Wheel of Fortune letters (r s t l n e and n’s neighbor m). And what the hell is up with no Spell Check? And no custom dictionary!?! That tastes like Communism.

Small grapes though. In almost all ways, I frikkin’ love this thing for all the myriad reasons you could love a “phone”. And so far I don’t honestly have any gripes with AT&T’s service (aside from the exorbitant cost). Hasn’t dropped any of my calls, and in the places where I want it, the 3G is available. (To save battery, I turn this off a lot, which I wish didn’t take 4 gestures from the home screen to do-simple shortcut code in the next update to the OS would be welcome.)

So now I walk around with access to pretty much every piece of digital media I own, the ability to create content with various apps like WordPress, and can get to new material/media – all in a sleek & consistent format. Blackberry’s formats look simply gross by comparison, mainly due to their more universal/open approach, which is both virtuous & unambitious. There are lots of reasons to stay open & unlocked, but developers are still making far more iPhone apps than are showing up in Blackberry’s app world. In reality, the sex appeal of iPhone apps simply outweighs the ability to code in whatever open languages RIM enables.

It’s official. I’m an Apple apostle. An Applostle, if you’re nasty.

Posted in anniversary, awesome, podcast, R, Small Wonder, wired | 2 Comments »

Lesson #3

Jim Gray may be dead. He may not be dead; he may be in Margaritaville, consuming cheeseburgers in paradise on a daily basis. The story of his life, though, and the story of the search that his many, many friends & former colleagues undertook, are stories just waiting to be lyricized. There’s a Don McLean of the tech sector out there somewhere… let me know if you hear news about the ditty that’s sure to come.

You read about stuff like this only occasionally, and it makes you a little sad, and a little glad. Sad because, with all the technology the world has to offer (some of which was developed / fostered by Jim Gray’s work), people still find a way to get lost at sea. Glad because, with all the technology the world has to offer, people CAN still find a way to ‘get lost at sea’. There is a value in being able to get off the grid; you’re sure his wife would not agree in Jim’s case, but of all the people this has happened to, you would guess that Jim would see that value very readily.

Today’s your first day off as you’re in between jobs. Aside from blogging, you’re off the grid. And if no one’s reading, you may as well be cutting down trees in the forest. In either case, see the value in it.

If Jim Gray is out there, wish him well. Also wish him the wisdom to get in touch with his family, one way or another, to provide closure. Simultaneously dealing with the possibilities of his continued life or his months-old demise will be debilitating.

Read more at wired.com.

Posted in lost, off-grid, wired | 2 Comments »