Computers
Why the iPhone, Though a Cool Gadget, is Ultimately a Joke
Jun 9th
I bought an iPhone about 2 months ago. I had never touched one before, I had never seen anything but some online videos and some information about the phone. My old phone was crap, had no features, couldn’t connect to the internet, and it got shitty reception in the area of my new apartment. So, I knew I had to get a phone. I thought, since I saw refurbished iPhones for $99, I’d pick one up. I like it. I like it a lot. I can do all sorts of things I could never imagine doing with my old phone.
I wanted to go with a Rhapsody-capable phone from Verizon, as I have a Rhapsody music account, and I could listen to my music anywhere. You can do the same thing with the iPhone, but iTunes is crap- when software can turn deleting music into a confusing ordeal in itself, you know you have a loser on your hands. When I sync my phone, videos and songs I deleted before get added back on. It’s an annoyance to go in and uncheck everything you don’t want synced- a nice windows-like folder layout that would, I dunno, simply show the contents of my iPhone’s storage would be MUCH too easy. (ugh)
The iPhone’s application store is nice, and it’s something you can’t get on a lot of phones. People are more apt to create all sorts of applications for this phone as opposed to many others on the market. That’s a plus.
The announcement of the new iPhone today is- well, it’s a joke. It’s an offensive joke that angers me. Steve Jobs is a not only a weird looking turtlenecked geek, he’s also a jackass. What does the new iPhone offer for $800? Well, you can record video now. Well, my $15 phone from before recorded video all day long! It can also send picture messages. My $15 phone could do that as well! They will eventually roll out the 7.2gb network that will more than double the current 3g speed. Okay, fine. But after looking over the reports today, it seems the two biggest changes are the video recording and the MMS. Apple truly has some chutzpah. Jobs and his pals decide- what the hell, let’s release a NEW iPhone, charge $800 for it, and it’ll merely do what the ORIGINAL IPHONE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!! Are you f’in kidding me turtleneck boy?!
And AT&T is no better. The monthly plans for the iPhone are absurd. I pay nearly $87 for the cheapest plan (450 anytime mins and 5, 000 nights and weekends), with the iPhone you MUST pay for a $30 data plan, and I pay $5 for 200 text messages a month. Yes, you heard that right, text messages, in the eyes of AT&T aren’t considered “data.” You get “unlimited data,” except if the data comes in the form of a text message. Even though a text message is NOTHING BUT DATA! Yes, it is, indeed, a lowlife move that is meant to do one thing- rip the consumer off. Unlimited texting for the iPhone through AT&T is $20 a month. That means their cheapest plan with the least amount of mins, the data, and the unlimited texting will run you nearly $100 a month. Imagine if you talked on the phone a lot and were forced into paying $20-40 more per month for more minutes. $140 a month for a cell phone? Ridiculous. Especially since bandwidth and cellular network prices are going down overall!
Like I said, I like my iPhone. But, I don’t doubt I’d also like any number of other phones out there. Apple is, for the most part, clueless…which is why they will never have the market share that Microsoft, for example, enjoys. Try buying a mac laptop…when you realize you can buy any number of MS-based laptops for $500 yet a macbook will cost you three times as much, you get an idea why Apple will never come close to MS. Who wants to pay three times as much for basically the same thing just to have the desktop completely backwards? Wanna close a window? Forget clicking one X, this is a mac, you’ve gotta do ten things from left to right to get it closed! Aren’t we Apple guys clever? (ick)
So, is the iPhone utlimately a great phone? I’d say, ‘no.’ It’s a good phone, but if it takes 3 tries just to get the basics right (basics that even free phones have built in), you’re either dealing with a product that isn’t all it’s cracked up to be or pure greed on the part of a confused company that tries so desperately to be “different.” Or maybe it’s a bit of both. Maybe I’m the idiot for buying an iPhone to begin with?
ABC.Com- Watch Full Episodes of Your Favorite Shows (Or Don’t)
Nov 17th
I have tried to watch episodes of ABC shows on ABC.com’s full episode player. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to do so, on any computer I’ve tried. I’ve seen tons of posts from other people who cannot get the player to work either.
Yet, if I go to Hulu, I can watch episodes of NBC shows fine. The player works right away, I get no problems, and it’s a great experience.
This leads to one conclusion- even if you have millions of dollars at your disposal, you can completely screw up any project. Maybe the tech guys over at ABC could fix this problem sometime…maybe this decade? It’s odd when a tiny site with no tech genius behind the wheel can offer up thousands of videos without issue, yet one of the largest TV operations in the country employing hundreds if not thousands of technical wizards can’t offer up a single video.
Photoshop(ped): Haunted History Of Halloween DVD Box Cover
Oct 19th
I’ve been working in Photoshop outside my class work again. This here is pretty basic stuff, but I notice the History Channel special, The Haunted History of Halloween airs this week and next (over several showings). I wanted to record it to DVD then create a DVD label for the box cover. I have finished the front cover and will work on the back cover and the spine soon.
I will import the front cover into a wraparound DVD cover tutorial I found here. The dimenions that site gives are a bit off from mine, and I didn’t take into consideration the bleed (frankly, I’m not entire certain what that all means, as I haven’t looked into that process indepth yet). But, it should fit fairl well, I think. To get my dimensions, I simply measured a DVD at home and got 5.377 x 7.377. Hope this helps for anyone wanting to make their own DVD covers.
Below are (1) the original actual DVD cover (which I based the basic layout on), (2) my draft version, (3) my final version with the text “THE HISTORY CHANNEL” changed from Times New Roman to Charlemagne. Changine the font sort of officially changes the whole logo itself, as that font is part of their branding, but it’s for my own use and I wasn’t going for exact.
Click on any of the pics for full-sized versions…
Website Issues/ PC Issues/ Possible New Website
Jul 5th
Apologies for the issues with the website. The pages and sections that use sql have been very slow lately. Off and on for months. My host has had nonstop complaints lately. I’m looking into a new host, so hopefully that will resolve any issues.
I’m also planning on opening a new horror genre website. Covering horror movies, books, magazines, comics, TV, etc. I’ve always been a big fan of horror movies and books (Stephen King was a childhood favorite)…so, we’ll see about that. I wanted to start a local blog, but not sure if that’s going to pan out or not.
For now- I’m starting on the PC here. I’m working on transferring all my files over to the 160gb hard drive I bought at Wal-Mart tonight. I will do that and format the drive, do a fresh install of windows…maybe I can get my friggin tv tuner card to work in the process. It’s gong well…so far I have nearly all the files off my PC and have saved all the settings I need for various programs.
I’m off to bed for now though…
The Sheer Absurdity of the iPhone
Jul 4th
The iPhone. Oh my gosh, it’s here, it’s here! The hype on this thing is astounding.
I personally think it’s all pretty absurd. A phone for $600?! Does any normal person on the planet need a phone that costs $600 simply because it has a small hard drive ipod built in (as long as you have the $100 contract active!) and a touch screen?
There were people camped outside the AT&T store the day it came out to get their phone! Some local guy who basically begs for publicity started his ‘camp out’ at 6AM while the store was open (the store was open until 6PM, when they closed to ready the stuff, then reopened into the night.) Can I offer you a life, sir?
From what I’m reading, it will cost nearly $100 to replace the battery if you need to (you have to send it to Apple and pay a large fee and shipping charges.) Sounds good for the phone that is over half a grand!
Seems you also have to backup all of your data before shipping it out to Apple. Heaven forbid the $600 phone actually backup the data itself! That and all of this means you will be without a phone for 3-5 days! Wait, where’s my $600 phone?
I should mention, my phone (the samsung t-509) works just fine. It makes calls, sends texts, has various ringtones, alarms, calendar options, net access, a camera, a voice recorder, etc. It was free with my 1 year contract. The phone plan with unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited calling within my 5faves, and 400 monthly text messages is $50. That is too much for what you get in my view to begin with. Net access is an extra $20 a month, I think. Pricey in my book, but nothing close to what you will pay for the iPhone for some added, and somewhat useless bonus features.
Then there’s the cancellation fee of $185 according to the Boston Globe.
The top tier plan, from what I can figure from researching the issue, is $220. The complaint many seem to have with this is that even at this price, you don’t get unlimited text messaging. You pay $220 for unlimted internet and phone, but only 200 text messages! For extra texts, you have to pay at least $20 for only 200 more messages. $40 more a month for unlimited. Unlimited texting from tmobile is $15, just to compare.
If you wanted an internet PC, this might make sense. Well, probably not even then…as my cable connection running at over 10Mbps download is only $39 a month! Even after the higher price- you have to deal with the issue that iPhone runs on the EDGE network. It’s old, and it’s very slow.
Here are some complaints from various media outlets who say using the iPhone to get online makes them yearn for a dial up connection!
When it comes to basic features, the iPhone is missing some rudimentary options. You cannot even send pictures via texting. This has to be done via E-Mail. Remember, this is a $600 phone that can’t do with most free phones (free with a 1 yr contract) can do with ease.
I’m just not seeing the appeal here. At all.
Now, I’m all for new tech. I’m all for new features added to old tech that can make things better and easier or both. I don’t see how the iPhone can do that…and especially not at this absurd price. The phone itself costs way too much. The plans cost way too much. The internet speed (which is the only thing this phone seems really good at- connecting to the net in a nice format with unlimited data) is slow as a snail.
Hopefully most people will have the sense to blow past the hype and wait for a device that doesn’t literally cost an arm and a leg. I’m sure Apple will take body parts in lieu of payment, right?
HERE ARE MORE ISSUES from the site engadgetmobile
The mobile version of OS X or whatever it is the iPhone runs takes up 700MB of the device’s capacity. Damn son!
There’s no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
Sorry, music can’t be used as a ringtone — even if it’s just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.
Adobe Flash support is officially out. It’s just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support. Sorry everybody, that’s that.
It will take snaps, but won’t record video. How can Apple love YouTube as much as it does and not realize cellphone-shot movies make up a sizeable chunk of the crazy crap you find on there?
Even Technology Couldn’t Save James Kim
Dec 8th
I find it ironic that James Kim, the CNET.com editor who was found dead, after he and his family got stranded in snow on a back road in the rugged Oregon countryside, had 2 cell phones and 3 laptops with him. A tech guru who had some technology with him, but it couldn’t do a thing to save his life.
I don’t know the deal with all of this, but I assume they couldn’t get cell service because of no towers in the area? And the laptops, if they had wireless net access, would have worked on the same sort of system?
I found it odd that they decided to trek out into the backroads to begin with. Especially since their sudden trek into the area seemed like a spur of the moment idea. Or did they get lost? The stories I’ve read don’t say too much about the details. It seems odd to me that someone would get lost, find themselves in a very snowy area, yet keep going. Or are there details I’m missing? If I find a backroad that is filled with snow, I immediately turn around and get back on the main road.
Furthermore, and more to the point- what’s the deal with cell phones in the US that refuse to work in certain areas? Do companies see no need for towers in areas that aren’t crammed with people using wireless service? And what about wireless internet? Did they have this? Was it an issue of being out of the area of access? This is Oregon, not the Outback! It just seems odd to me.
GPS works with satellites, so they wouldn’t have been out of range if they had this technology as far I know. The stories mentioned they didn’t have GPS, so this is hypothetical to begin with.
Technology is great. It can help you connect to people across the globe. But sometimes it can’t even allow you to make a simple telephone call from within the continental United States. Tech has its limits…James Kim is proof of that,
New PC
Oct 1st
I bought a new PC the other day. Well, it wasn’t new…it was used. A local business was selling some of their PC’s with XP Professional loaded on them. It’s an IBM, 2.4Ghz pentium, 40 GB hard drive, 512 MB of ram…not too shabby for $115. It has open slots for 1GB max RAM and I can always add an external hard drive, DVD burner, whatever. Just a cd rom drive, as it’s for business use.
I picked up a KVM switch to use the one monitor and one keyboard…I’m noticing when I type fast, and especially when I change case- it tends to slow down a bit, and I have to watch my typing carefully. That’s a bit annoying, but no problems outside of that. It’s nice- I can have Real Rhapsody running on one PC, playing music…while I chat and surf the net with the other PC- not causing any issues with slowdowns with the music stream. The cable modem is running around 2MB from all the tests I ran, so that should be plenty of bandwidth between the two machines. I was going to set up a network- I did so, but only in the most simple manner…no sharing files or the printer or anything.
Tried to install the USB tv connection device on the second PC, but it didn’t take…won’t install. Maybe because of XP Professional. Not sure. I have the original PC with the TV tuner card with the digital cable DVR box hooked up and the secondary coax. connection to use when the DVR is being used and I want to record straight from the cable connection.
I took the old speakers I have and hooked one of them up to the new PC. The second speaker won’t run for some reason…no sound at all unless it’s cranked up to full volume. The new PC is clean, only a handful of programs, no bitrot- so that’s nice. I’d clean this machine, but it’s full (120 GB hard drive) with literally hundreds of thousads of files scattered all over it. Too much work right now.
Well. That’s it for now…I’m off to bed. Might try to write more this week. Too few posts, too much work…been staying late consistently at work, even when I really need not do so, and I’ve been running camera for some of the live shows- which has been fun…as some new experiences are. Anyway- will try to update more. Who knows. Off for now…
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