The Life and Blog of MacGeek Pro

Macolantern-Leopard Edition

Originally uploaded by chrisdejabet

The time has come again to unleash the Macolantern, my annual October desktop image! Downloadable here.

I posted this on Flickr last year, but that was when I was running Tiger. So here is the Leopard version. :)

Happy October!

You may remember July 11, the day I bought my beloved iPhone 3G, as the day Apple had a lot of applesauce all over its face. The company had a really, really bad day. 

Between the simultaneous launch of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 Software, the App Store, and MobileMe, quality control went into a tailspin and smoked the Earth, leaving a stinky, black crater. iPhone activations were slow, the App Store was full of buggy apps created on a beta SDK, MobileMe was a complete mess (and its features are still incomplete), and the iPhone 2.0 Software was extremely glitchy.

Compared to the original iPhone launch a year prior, the iPhone 2.0 felt poorly designed. Many, including myself, think Apple just bit off more than it could chew, and when the dealine hit, Apple choked. 

One week ago, Apple released the iPhone 2.1 Software. When I wrote my first review of my iPhone, I waited a month, hoping things would get much better. Well, I only needed a week with iPhone 2.1 to know my verdict. This is what Apple should have released on July 11. 

The iPhone works much better as a phone. Granted, I didn’t have dropped calls prior to 2.1, but I often had noise interference—which is now gone. Bug fixes? Heck yes! Scrolling long lists (like playlists or contacts) is completely smooth now. My apps (even 3rd party) either don’t or rarely crash anymore. In the past week, I have only had one app crash, and I am pretty sure it did so because I tried forcing it to do more than it was capable of. 

Here’s the unexpected fix, at least in my opinion: Improved battery life. My battery life was pretty good before 2.1. It was better than my old Motorola RAZR. And the iPhone even does web browsing! After 2.1, though, my battery life became outstanding! I’m very impressed. I no longer feel like I have to give my iPhone a quick charge in the early evening.

I still think Apple rushed the 2.0 software out the door before it was ready. 2.1 is the caliber I expect of Apple, and I expected it on July 11. iPhone 2.0 wasn’t completely terrible, but it definitely didn’t have the “Apple Polish” I’ve come to know and love throughout the years. 

Now the iPhone lives up to being the best mobile phone ever created.

In my previous post, I pondered the question of whether or not my AT&T service on my iPhone would last during our trip to South Dakota, where AT&T doesn’t have a great deal of an official presence. I really didn’t expect anything stellar after getting too far north of Sioux City. However, I was fairly surprised. Here’s an updated coverage map showing my results.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

I actually had full AT&T coverage with the EDGE data network all the way up into Sioux Falls, SD. Once we got 20 miles west of Sioux Falls, though, the data network disappeared. Also, cell reception got pretty spotty all along I-90. However, the spotty cell coverage didn’t surprise me, as there are tons of hills and valleys, and I’ve always had problems with cell phones on I-90. Seriously, it’s rural South Dakota. 

When in Mitchell and Chamberlain, SD, I had a new kind of data service that I hadn’t seen before: GPRS. Turns out it is pretty much the first generation of data network, whereas EDGE is the second generation. GPRS makes EDGE—which is slow and horrible—look like warp freaking speed. Unfortunately, GPRS is what I was stuck with in Pierre all weekend, too, when I wasn’t near Wi-Fi.

However, as far as making and receiving phone calls back home, not a problem. Pierre had sufficient partner coverage that I usually had at least two bars, but usually had 4 or 5.

My dad says he has heard rumors that AT&T is moving into South Dakota, since Verizon is acquiring Alltel, the only other significant carrier in the state. I hope he is right.

All of you know I have an iPhone. I mean, seriously, how could I not? Well, the sole US carrier of the iPhone is AT&T, which you should know unless you have been under a rock for the year and a half. I get great service from AT&T in the Lincoln/Omaha area, where I live. I definitely see more reception bars than my previous carrier.

Now, AT&T’s motto is “More Bars in More Places.” Well, readers, I am going to put it to the test! We’re preparing to leave for our hometown, Pierre, SD, for the holiday weekend. South Dakota has very little actual AT&T coverage, however they appear to have “partner coverage” just about anywhere I would find myself going in SD. For reference, please see the diagram below.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

As you can see, I will certainly find out whether or not AT&T has “More Bars in More Places.” My other question is whether or not my data plan will be available in SD. It isn’t as good as Wi-Fi, but let’s face it, free Wi-Fi is getting harder to find, and I have a twitter addiction to feed!

I will be sure to report back with my findings either during or shortly after my vacation. Ciao!

A lot is going on for me in the next week. Most importantly, my wife and I are expecting our baby pretty much any day now. He’s officially due on Thursday the 17th. Next, our first wedding anniversary is on Monday the 14th. We’re hoping Baby will allow us to enjoy that day outside of the hospital. Ideally, anytime between Tuesday and Thursday is a great time for him to arrive (our doctor goes on vacation the 18th thru the 21st!).

I guess the last big event for me priority-wise, although it could be the first to occur, is the launch of the iPhone 3G on Friday the 11th. Yes, I will be in line. Karen and I had considered not switching over to AT&T yet, but one of us needs a Nebraska phone number. We agreed it should be me, since she will be home mostly with the baby and more or less just chats with family. So right now, I’m getting the iPhone on Friday. Karen is going to stay on Verizon for a few more months until we get our finances after baby sorted, then we’ll go up to a FamilyTalk plan and get her an AT&T phone. Strangely, she doesn’t seem too interested in an iPhone. :\

With the Baby being the featured event, and me being as geeky as I am, I have a few cool preparations made. Recently, Apple announced the MobileMe service, which allows wireless, untethered syncing of email, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks across all of your Macs, PCs, and your iPhone or iPod touch. We are all ready for MobileMe, mainly to keep our accounts on each others computers synced, and also for my iPhone to maintain synchronicity at all times with my MacBook. Another sweet feature is a drop-dead easy, and I mean stupidly easy, Web Gallery for photos.

The plan goes like this:

1. I have a Web Gallery for the baby set up already. Right now some ultrasound pictures and a preggy picture of Karen are in there. When he is born, all I have to do is snap a picture of him with my iPhone, and it will upload in mere seconds to the Web Gallery.
2. I have a mass email pre-drafted in my email account. It has all the addresses already put in, and the message is typed out with placeholders for the baby’s vital statistics, such as time of birth, length, weight, etc. This email also has a link to the Web Gallery in it.
3. After I get the photo uploaded, I can open the Mail program on the iPhone, fill in the placeholders on the draft, and hit send. Boom! In mere moments everyone we know will have been notified of our baby’s birth (and his name for those non-family members) and will get to see a picture!

Now, if he happens to arrive before Friday, process will be a bit more difficult and longer, as I will have to take the picture with a camera, transfer it to the MacBook, go down to the hospital’s cafeteria to hop on their wi-fi, then upload the picture to MobileMe, then send out the email from the MacBook. Yeah.

Pfffft! I would much rather stay by Karen’s and the baby’s side instead of trekking to the cafeteria! I think my wife and child would prefer to have me there, too.

Hopefully this plan can be executed according to…plan. :) If it isn’t, oh the well, the email will be sent in due time. But wow, how geeky and cool of a story could this be? 

We’re getting super-excited to meet our little boy. I’ll make sure to send out an email on Friday with my updated phone number, and my MobileMe e-mail address so you can whitelist it from your spam folders. After the birth email comes out, feel free to call my iPhone (if I have it by then). If you are family, I will definitely answer if I am able to do so. If you’re in the friends category, I’ll try to answer, but don’t be surprised if I let it go to voicemail.

State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska (NE)

Originally uploaded by bobindrums

We made it to Lincoln! We are now residents of a new state. We made great time in getting here and also in unloading the U-Haul. Now, we’re just going to take our time in getting unpacked.

Come Tuesday, I am going to start hitting the job hunt like it’s nobody’s business. Pun intended.

Well, it’s late, so I am going to settle into our new apartment. I’ll try to get pictures posted to flickr soon. However, I might wait to do so until we clear some of the boxes out!

Today has been a good day. Nay, it has been a great day! Today I banished Microsoft from my MacBook. For the past couple of months, my copy of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac has been acting slower and fussier than normal. I figured it was because of my upgrade to Mac OS X Leopard, and the fact the Office 2004 runs in the Rosetta emulation layer, as it isn’t a Universal Binary for Intel Macs. Well, for the past week, neither Word, Excel, nor PowerPoint would even load past the splash screen.

Now, I could go and buy Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, as it should run more swimmingly than not on my Intel MacBook. But…well…it’s $150. And I have been using iWork, Apple’s office suite solution. It has comparable apps to Mr. Softy, called Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Pages and Keynote are veterans and are very well developed. Numbers is new in the latest version of iWork, and approaches spreadsheets in a whole new way. The best part, is that iWork can read the new Office XML format, something that my Office 2004 couldn’t do. 

Long story short, I was fed up with Office 2004 taking up hard drive space if it’s going to be completely and utterly useless. Therefore, I nuked it off my hard drive. Gone. Kaput. Heck, I even threw the new Messenger 7 for Mac in the trash, too. Say hello to a wonderful Apple experience in iWork. For the MSN Messenger needs, I’ll use Adium. 

Here’s to a Microsoft-free life. Mr. Softy, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Disclaimer: I still love my XBox 360. It doesn’t feel like a Microsoft product. Though it has been neglected since Mario Kart Wii came out. The 360 is the one and only thing Microsoft has done right. Other than the 360, though, Microsoft is gone. I wash my hands of it.

It is no secret that social networks are the “in” thing. Social networks keep you in touch with other people. Mainly, I think they serve as a way to give new insight into the people you know. Facebook and MySpace probably the most well-known networks. I don’t use MySpace, mainly because it is just a jumbled mess of crap cluttered. Since the advent of Facebook Apps, Facebook has a slight tendency to be a little cluttered, as well, but not nearly as flagrant as MySpace.

As you know from my previous post about Facebook, I use it mainly as a way to keep tabs on current and old friends. However, the type and amount of information presented by Facebook gives me the larger bullet points of events in friends’ lives. It isn’t all that personal.

Flickr is a photo (and now video!) sharing site and is probably my favorite social network of all time. That’s a little biased though, as I love photography. Also, I can’t say I know (as in actually have met) too many of the people I keep in touch with on Flickr, because very few of my “real life” friends or my family actually use it. I like Flickr because photography is something I enjoy and the site allows me to find people who have similar photography styles and interest, while also exposing me to different styles of photography.

Recently, though, I have come across a new (well, new to me, at least) type of social networking. And that is the micro-blog. There are many, and the one that reigns supreme is Twitter.  Now, I could write a few sentences trying to explain, but the video embedded just below does just such a darn good job of it.

See? Wasn’t that a great video explanation? Twitter is incredibly fun. I find myself tweeting (we call posts on twitter “tweets.” Keep up with the lingo) just about everything. I say Good morning when I awaken, I announce when I am hungry and going to find food, and I tell everyone what I’m watching on tv. Hmm, I just remembered that I taped Battlestar Galactica last night and haven’t watched it yet. See, I could tweet that.

I encourage you to give Twitter a shot. It’s cool. If you join, Follow me.

P.S. If you join I highly recommend downloading and using a desktop client. I use Twitterrific for the Mac, but there are Mac/Windows clients such as twhirl.

It’s no secret, folks, I am a huge Facebook creeper. Sadly, one of the first things I do, before I even fully get out of bed is to grab my iPod touch off the nightstand, slide the unlock slider, tap Mail, then tap on my convenient Facebook icon on my home screen.

I can’t explain my addiction, but I just love knowing what’s going on with people I know. Honestly, Facebook has kept me in touch with many people from ym past who would otherwise be a faint memory by now. Who needs a 10-year high school reunion when you have Facebook everyday?

Also, I must say, I love that many of my friends use Facebook to communicate with me rather than instant messenger. Mainly, I have that sentiment because the instant messenger that most of my friends use in Microsoft’s very Mac-unfriendly messenger. If the majority of my friends used AIM or Skype, I’d be happy to use IM more, because there are great mac clients out there.

However, one caveat of Facebook is the apps. I loathe the apps. I loathe the many requests for Warbook and Triumph that I get (Yes, I have marked them as spam now and no longer receive those). I do have a couple apps, but the ones I have require little to no daily attention from me. I don’t want to play scrabble for you, I just want to read you wall and flip through your pictures and wish you a happy birthday.

Oh! And isn’t Facebook great for reminding you about birthdays! I love it!

Ok, I think I am done now. I was just thinking about how I love Facebook (mostly) and also remembered I needed to write a blog article. So there. Happy? Good.

I just haven’t had the creative spark to write this week. I’ve been wanting to go take pictures around town, but it is dark by the time I get home from work, and it’s just plain freaking cold outside. I’m ready for Spring. I am soooo sick of being inside my apartment. I’m pretty sure my wife would concur.

In other news, my parents are visiting this weekend, which I am pretty excited about. We haven’t seen them since Christmas, and it will be nice to have company. We’re going to a hockey game down in Sioux City with them, so I’ll see if I can get some neat shots with the camera.  I think one of my goals will be to get a good shot of my parents. Like, a candid one. That would be nice.

Okay, well, that is all I have for right now, I think. Hopefully I’ll receive some inspiration to jot down words soon.