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iPhone 3G problems..

2008-08-23T15:37:00Z

I just ready an article that was written by a Windows user that has chosen not to switch to a Mac because of the problems he’s encountered with the iPhone 3G. His arguments against the iPhone is very warranted. I didn’t have a first generation iPhone and when I got my 3G, I was really excited, but still have been very frustrated with a lot of the little problems.

Calls drop all the time (although, I don’t think I’ve dropped more than 1 call since I updated to 2.0.2 almost a week ago). The GPS is flaky at times and takes it’s sweet time finding a signal. The 3G signal is spotty at best. The keyboard lag was a TERRIBLE inconvenience when I first got the phone (again, most of the lag there has been resolved for me with the 2 updates released).

I don’t blame him for being upset with how Apple has handled all of this. They bit off WAY more than they could chew when releasing the iPhone 2.0 software, App Store and MobileMe all at the same time. I would love to see an official statement by Apple that says “Hey, we screwed up, we’re very sorry but we hope to have all this resolved very soon”. Something like that.

All these things are very understandable and even a Mac user like myself is very frustrated with the bugs and how they are being handled. What I don’t get is his declaration that he does not wish to give a Mac a shot any more just because of a new software’s initial bugs.

I bought my MacBook Pro when MacOSX 10.4 Tiger was in it’s late stages. The bugs were pretty squashed at this time so I was very happy with it. I upgraded to leopard around Christmas time last year and was, again, very happy with the new OS but ran into some small bugs that annoyed me a little bit. These have been mostly fixed by now. Windows XP and Vista both had the same problems with they were released. Vista is still suffering.

The iPhone 2.0 software wasn’t a small update to the OS. As much as things look very much just like the 1.0 version, the update is a lot more like the upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 in MacOSX. Bugs are almost guaranteed. It sucks that most of the bugs showed up in the most frustrating places but the phone has been out for a month now and the 2 updates that have been released in this last month seem to have cleared up a lot of the major problems. With 2.1 just around the corner, I can comfortably assume that all the major bugs will be gone and there will be Apple nirvana again in my life.

So with that, Mr. Adam Frucci, I implore you to still give an Apple laptop a shot. The Operating system has been around a while and has been quite perfected. Apple computers really do ‘just work’ just like the iPhone 3G will ‘just work’ in the very near future. So give it ago! Like you said already, do you really want to move to Vista? Blech!

iPhone 3G review. Inital Impressions.

2008-07-12T16:10:00Z

If you read my last article about the iPhone 3G, you’d understand that I haven’t had a WHOLE lot of time to play around with it just yet. I have had enough time to form some pretty good first impressions about it though, and I’d figure I’d give my thoughts on the iPhone 3G from the perspective of someone who never had the first iPhone.

The first thing I noticed when I picked up the phone was how heavy it felt in comparison to how heavy it looks. They pack this phone with quite a bit cause it feels really solid. I was told by someone at work that they thought the iPhone 3G actually felt lighter than the old iPhone, but in my comparison (one in each hand) I didn’t notice much difference. I might have just been tired. I just know that the iPhone feels like it will last a while. The phone also does feel really good in your hand when you hold it.

The battery life kind of stinks. Again, no scientific tests here. Just me using the phone. I used it about an hour or an hour and a half this morning and saw the battery fall about a quarter. I’m sure I’ll live. I’m not away from a computer or USB jack long enough to not be able to just charge her up when she starts running low, but it’s something to think about. I think I’m lucky in that my home is the 1 dead spot as far as 3G is concerned in my area, so I don’t have to worry about that sucking up battery life while I’m at home.

The GPS is pretty neat. On my way to work yesterday, I opened up the Map application and followed my little dot as I drove to work. It worked pretty well. Every once and a while, the dot that was supposed to be me would turn a transparent blue tint and it seemed that during this time, the movement was a little more choppy, but it still worked very well. I also jumped in to a few of the applications that use the location aware API’s and didn’t find any problems with finding where I was. I tried out the Map at work last night too, but (as I expected) didn’t get a GPS lock (or any lock). This isn’t surprising to me at all because my whole work is an AT&T dead zone. We’re kind of in a basement.

Signal seems to be very decent. Like I said earlier, my house isn’t covered in 3G, but on my trip to and from work, everything in between there (before I got into work) was all 3G. Full bars and everything. Also mentioned earlier is that my work is an AT&T dead zone. I use that term loosely because it’s not completely dead. Just mostly. My old Sony Ericsson had a ton of places where I couldn’t get a signal at all, but I was actually impressed that I was able to maintain at least 1 bar pretty much everywhere at work.

I haven’t taken many pictures with my new iPhone yet, but I’ve taken/seen pictures from other iPhones and it doesn’t look any different here.

The UI is pretty damned nice. Mind you, this is still a first impression so “pretty damned nice” could be a lot better if I was more “used to” it. But even saying that, it’s becoming very easy to get “used to”. I’ve already gotten down the process of hitting the home button quite a bit. Typing has come a lot easier than I thought it would be. Actually extremely easy. I even got the 2 thumbs a try and was able to type pretty well. Made more mistakes that way though so I’m going to perfect the 1 finger first. Everything is just very intuitive and ‘just works’ the way it should. The only surprises are things that you have to think about them even being there. Like the proximity sensor that turns off the screen when you have the phone to your ear. The only reason I even noticed it at all was because I took the phone away from my head pretty quick and noticed it was totally black for about a quarter of a second and then just sprung back to life. Just like it should have.

I could go on forever but this is supposed to be a ‘first impression’ post so I’ll cut it a little short to give my self some more time to play. When I get it all down and get more time with all the features and applications, I’m sure I’ll have a few more iPhone 3G posts in the near future.. Bottom line, here? Get one.

iPhone 3G post, what else!?

2008-07-12T15:59:00Z

It’s the day after the iPhone 3G launch and I have an iPhone 3G. The task of actually obtaining one wasn’t quite as simple as that sentence, though. I decided to not sleep yesterday. I figured I could leave the house by about 6:40 to get to the Oak Brook Center Apple Store by 7am which should be fine. There was a line, of course, but I figured.. maybe 2 hours after they open, I should have a phone. Sadly, this was assuming everything went according to plan. We had some pretty good rain the evening before launch and I guess the Oak Brook Mall lost power which reset all of Apples POS systems for actually doing the activation and transactions. After standing there until about 9am, I decided to try my luck elsewhere. An AT&T store was right down the street so I went there and saw maybe 50 or 60 people in line. Throughout this line, the AT&T people kept us up to date (kind of) on the stock of certain models of the iPhone and I even got a pretty solid confirmation that by time my place came up in line, they would definitely have the white 16GB version left. 11am starts to creep up on us and I’m 3 people away from the door… Sold out. Awesome. There’s no real exciting end of the story. I called a couple AT&T stores and quickly found out that those weren’t the places to be going for and iPhone today. I went back to the Oak Brook mall and figured I’d concede my once ‘OK’ place in line and have to wait a little longer.. Except that the people who were originally standing around where I was in line when I had left 2 hours ago, hadn’t moved more than about 10 feet. Their systems were obviously still down. So to the Woodfield Mall Apple Store I went after calling and getting a confirmation that they didn’t expect to sell out of iPhone’s at all yesterday. I got there around noon and finally left at almost 4:30pm. Just in time to run home, throw on my work clothes and head BACK to Woodfield Mall for work. I was quite tired.

Low level caching for Rails 2.1

2008-07-06T08:04:00Z

Rails has allowed you to do things like page caching and fragment caching for a while now but with Rails 2.1, they added a new cool feature for doing some more lower level things with cache. You can now cache pretty much anything you want, any way you want. It’s easy as pie too!

Rails.cache.fetch("my_caches_name", {:expires_in => 5.minutes}) { download_xml_file_from_web }

I’m using the above example in an application to cache an xml file from another website for 5 minutes. The expires_in option is only for if your using memcached as your cache store which I setup below in my config/development.rb..

config.cache_store = :mem_cache_store, '123.45.6.78:11211', {:namespace => 'myapp_cache'}

It’s that easy. I’m loving it. You can play around with the various settings. You can use a file store, memory store (which I think is default but won’t work well with multiple mongrels), drb store or the (imho, best option) memcached. There are other methods for Rails.cache that you can find here# in the documentation… Enjoy!

CyberSearch Firefox Addon

2008-07-03T03:34:00Z

I just installed a really great Addon called CyberSearch for Firefox 3. Firefox 3 has what they call the “AwesomeBar” where you type an address and it searches your history for the most relevant pages in a dropdown menu. CyberSearch adds on to this ‘awesome’ functionality by adding real time search results as well. By typing a simple keyword followed by a search term, your awesome bar is populated with the results from that search. It’s very customizable and seems to work very well. I’m one to keep my FireFox installation pretty clean and don’t install a lot of Addons, but this one is here to stay.

P.S. CyberSearch is an experimental addon, which means you’ll need to create/login to a free account at the mozilla addons page to install it.

Safari Single Window Mode! (And the Secrets prefPane)

2008-06-30T07:40:00Z

I just found the hidden preference for Safari 3.1 that enables Single Window Mode!! This is the first step Apple has taken to actually making Safari my main browser. Before 3.1, there was no way to make links that opened up in new windows open up in a new tab instead (Firefox has had this type of option for a loooonnnggg time). Apple has added a hidden option to Safari as of version 3.1 that lets you do away with the 100 windows you’d normally have open while browsing with Safari and keep it all in nice and clean tabs. Try this in your terminal…

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

After that, you should notice all links that would normally pop a new window up, now open in a new tab instead. I actually found this while I was bored and going through the Secrets preference pane. If you haven’t tried this out yet and are a little ballsy (i.e. know what your doing) give it a go. It gives you a VERY long list of hidden features in various Apple and 3rd party apps on your system. Sometimes you even find a gem you weren’t expecting. x=)

Colloquy with CTCP sounds!

2008-06-25T08:59:00Z

I’ve had my mac for almost a full year now. I honestly don’t remember exactly when I got it but I think it was near the end of June or the beginning of July last year. Coming from Linux and Windows meant I had some choices to make about certain applications I was going to use. One of those choices was Colloquy for IRC. One feature I missed from mIRC and XChat was the ability to accept ctcp SOUND requests to play a sound. My friends and I use this in our own channel as an alert system. A trigger is typed that makes a bot send a ctcp SOUND request to the channel with a filename. We each have these sounds locally installed on our computers so we hear the sound after the request is made.

Today I decided to do something about Colloquy’s lack of sound so I started researching some scripting languages supports by the IRC client. I came across F-Script as a cocoa scripting language based on SmallTalk. Since I’ve always wanted to learn SmallTalk, I gave it a go. After a little bit of time, I was able to figure something out to enable sound requests to play sounds from Colloquy!

You can grab the plugin here (right click and save) and throw it in your ~/Library/Application Support/Colloquy/PlugIns directory. Type /fscript load sounds and it should be ready to roll! When a ctcp SOUND request is received, this script will try and find the file in your Sounds folder (i.e. ~/Library/Sounds) and play it automatically for you.

Firefox 3 Download Day!

2008-06-17T18:21:00Z

Firefox 3 is being released today. It’s technically ‘out’, but the getfirefox.com servers are being brutalized so I thought I’d take this moment to pimp my plurk page and share download links that you should be able to nab it from…

P.S. Don’t forget, just in case downloads from those links don’t count towards the Guiness Book of World Records, head to getfirefox.com later when the servers relax a little and download it again.

Plurk the new Twitter??

2008-06-05T07:35:00Z

With twitter’s very simple UI and constant downtime, it was only a matter of time before a new micro-blogging service came to fruition. I know there’s Jaiku and Pownce and probably a dozen other sites that do almost the same thing but Plurk’s simple, but fun UI as well as their quirky and weird sense of humor has led me to start ‘plurking’ some more. It just feels more fun to play and ‘plurk’ than it ever did to tweet. Go check it out. Signup it super quick so there’s very little time between you and some plurking fun! x=)

GTA IV: What Could Be Next??

2008-05-15T08:54:00Z

I might add a few more Mini Reviews if I come across something interesting while playing and remember to blog about it, but for now, I’d like to do my ‘wish list’ for the future. I’ve beaten the story but I’m by no means done with GTA IV. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in about what I’d love to see in the next few iterations of GTA. One of the things I’ve been most excited about GTA IV is that when looking back at GTA III, each successor (Vice City and San Andreas) out did GTA III in size and features and I’m pretty certain that the successors to GTA IV will do the same.

Number One. Chicago! Maybe I’m a little biased, but I’d LOVE to see a game set in a Chicago-esque city. Although I list this as ‘number one’, my list is really in no specific order. I just think Chicago should be in the running for city’s remade for GTA. It’s big. It’s got history. It’s got diversity. It’s got everything you need for a good game. If they could pull out and maybe expand into Chicago’s suburbs a little bit too, that would be great!

Number Two. More indoors! There’s a lot to do in Liberty City this time around. I won’t be done ‘doing’ everything for quite some time, but I’d still love to see more. The problem is, there’s so much to do, that GTA IV makes you feel like you can do everything. So your experience is slapped in the face when you run into a doorway that doesn’t open. It’s great that I can go to Burger Shot or Cluck’n’Bell to get some health and a gross sandwich, but why can’t I go inside the restaurants I take my dates and have a meal that advances the clock 30 minutes and costs a little more? I think it would be asking a lot to have the ability to go inside EVERY building, especially since building are locked in real life. But it sure would be cool. x=P

Number Three. More clothes! I need to break the More category into a few numbers. More clothes would be awesome. There are only 4 places to buy clothes in Liberty City. That’s kinda cheap considering the size of the city.

Number Four. More Attractions! Rockstar wet my appetite with comedy and cabaret shows but i would have LOVED to see more. I’m not totally certain how the schedules worked but I’m pretty sure that after you saw a comedy show, the next comic would appear there the next day. I think it would be cool to have a real schedule. Maybe check show times online. And definitely more acts. And maybe throw in some plays or even some longer content. I’d sit and watch a 20-30 minute play if it was as humorous and well put together as the rest of the city.

Number Five. More weapons. I don’t know if it was just me, but it seemed like the weapons were limited this time around. Maybe I just never saw/found one (very possible) but a silenced handgun would have been awesome! Trying to kill pigeons is really hard when every time you shoot one, you have cops on your ass because they heard the gun. Not a HUGE amount of new weapons is needed, just a couple.

Number Six. Date visible? Besides the mini-games and shows, your dates involve you entering and then exiting the place you want to go. Maybe offering a ‘skip’ button but showing the date would be cool. Sitting at the bar where you overhear more conversation. Dancing or drinking at the club (BTW, more clubs?!). Those types of things. The dialog that happened on dates and hangouts with your friends were great but it would have been cool if there was a little more and it was combined with the actual date. Again, a ‘skip’ button would be required cause I don’t want to sit through EVERY date.

Number Seven. Speaking of Mini-Games. What’s up with not being able to play a game of pool with your buddy in multiplayer mode?? I figured this was a no-brainer until I tried to get to any of the activities I liked to do in single player during multiplayer. The whole city is open to you in multiplayer to fight in, but what if you don’t want to fight? I like cruising around with my friend and if we had the opportunity, going to the comedy club or playing some pool sometimes.

If you haven’t noticed a trend here, it’s MORE! You did everything so great this time around the only way to go is to add MORE of what you’ve already perfected! With a game as great as GTA IV, it’s going to be hard to top but if anyone can do it, I know Rockstar North can! /me counts down till 2010 when I’ll probably have to wait till for this game to come..

Firefox in MacOSX : Tabstop all controls in a web form

2008-05-15T07:25:00Z

I (almost) exclusively use Firefox on my Mac and I think I’ve been pretty much using the 3.0 beta for almost the whole time I’ve had my macbook. What I found odd, is when in a web form, tab always skipped over things like check boxes and dropdowns. I had always thought this was a problem with Firefox 3 but could never find a solution until now. So anyone else who uses a Mac and has been confused about why your tab key only stops at text boxes and buttons in a form, do this. Go to your System Preferences and select Keyboard and Mouse. In the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, switch the option on the bottom to All Controls and you should have ‘normal’ functionality out of your tab key again. I’m not exactly sure why this is defaulted like this in OSX. shrug Seems kind of silly.

GTA IV: Mini Review 10: Complete

2008-05-15T07:15:00Z

Not 100% yet, but I’ve finished the story with both endings. Wonderfully done. I laughed. I cried (almost!). I actually FELT things while playing the game. There’s not much I can say about it without giving away anything so I’ll just say that 35 hours later, I still want to play more GTA IV.

GTA IV: Mini Review 9: AdSense

2008-05-08T07:12:00Z

Since I started my GTA IV Mini Review’s, all my AdSense ad’s have changed to thing like “Police Ringtones!” and “Become a Police Officer”.. or other various non-related ads. I’ve seen some AAA ad’s, some ads for car safety. Even a Honda ad or two. Way to target, google! Way to target!

GTA IV: Mini Review 8: The Story

2008-05-08T07:04:00Z

I’ve really started to get into the story. My stats say I’m at about 45% right now and I’m not sure how much it will be when I complete the story this time (There are supposed to be 2 different endings, plus all the random side missions and stuff) but I really don’t care how long I have left right now. Each mission I do makes me want to start a new one to see the next piece of the puzzle. The characters have been built so well. I love some of them. Hate others. Don’t really care about others. Some people I tolerate because I need their friendship to hold up so I can use their ‘special gift’ but would just as soon shoot them in the head if I was in a weird mood. Everything was so well thought out. I also finally got far enough that the story has taken over and I’m not as inclined to get side tracked doing some other random shit. I’m loving it. That is all. I can’t say much else about it without giving stuff away so I’ll just say that I love it.

GTA IV: Mini Review 7: Drunk Driving 2

2008-05-06T17:02:00Z

So, it seems that MADD is upset about GTA IV’s drunk driving simulation. Obviously (and it figures) they have yet to actually ‘play’ GTA IV and are just raising a stink because someone told them solely that the act of drunk driving was available in the game. I understand that people are upset at this game because of the franchises history and because most people are morons and don’t do any actual research before the shit hits the fan, but it just bothers me so. If MADD was to actually PLAY the game and experience the drunk driving portion they would come across 2 revelations. The first would be that drunk driving pretty much sucks. Depending on how drunk you are, of course. But I’ll definitely have to take back my post about drunk driving being awesome. After the first time or 2, it’s just not that fun. The second thing about it is that they were probably never told that you can just hail a god damned taxi to get where ever you want to go when your drunk as well. I’m 99% certain no one has come out to tell them this. People who don’t play don’t get that a ‘sandbox game’ like GTA IV is only really as evil as the person playing it. You have lots of options, but that’s all they are. Options. This has been rehashed over and over again so I won’t bore anyone any more. But let’s just give the game a rest and if your going to come out and attack the game, play it first. Find some things that just happen and that you have no control over that you don’t like. Don’t shoot someone random pedestrian in the head with your pistol just to see the blood splatter on the wall and then complain that it’s possible to do that in the game. You did it.