Slinkies Make Me Smile July 8, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Squirrels, Picture of the Day , 2commentsI know I already have a Picture of the Day, but it’s one of those days where the rules don’t matter.
Blank Pamphlets July 8, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Squirrels, Picture of the Day , add a commentI never get these types knocking on my door.
Happy Anniversary July 7, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : PRWeb, Insider, Castle , 3commentsAfter taking my previous company as far as I could (our paths had been moving in separate directions), I decided in 2005 it was time to move onto more creative work. David had been trying to hire me for several years, but at the time, I was content at my current post. In June of that year, though, I got ahold of him via instant message, and we decided to meet up.
PRWeb was much smaller then, but there were many new hires and shuffling going about. Joel Baker, Cari Lyle, Thomas Pratt and Poem Pitzer were hired around the same time. The entire staff resided in the Alder Street building back then. My office was right next to the cubicles, which housed the constant banter of Paolo and Karla as they talked through and over the cubicle walls. I shared the office with my predecessor Scott, whose biggest contribution while I was there was teaching me “armadillo mode” as he called it. An emotional protective stance to deal with one member of the staff at that time which was….how shall we say, not entirely near the shed, completely rusted and a definite tool.
Lots of changes were happening and it was an exciting time to be part of a rapidly growing industry leading company.
Join me in a drink to the success of PRWeb and my part in it.
iPhone: Sexiness Redefined July 4, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Puter Stuff, OSX, iPhone , 2commentsSunday July 1st I ended up at an Apple store and picked up a 4GB iPhone along with a carrying case. The 8GB were sold out and frankly I couldn’t wait to have a sexy new toy in my hand.
Activation was a breeze, although I did have to download the latest iTunes via a shoddy wifi connection first. Via iTunes I selected my monthly rate plan (unlimited Internet yesss!), supplied my billing information and was promptly issued a new phone number and the phone was now available to use.
Syncing:
- After activating the phone the sync up was very similar to syncing an iPod or AppleTV. A list of options of what to sync was listed along with how much space was on the device and so on.
- I selected which of my zillion email accounts I wanted on the phone, including my gmail account. All of the settings from SSL, authentication, port numbers and so forth were automatically imported once the sync was complete.
- Contacts with all their various notes, addresses and emails, bookmarks, remote webdav calendars, music and cover art were all effortlessly copied over.
Uber Geek Usage Review
I’m dividing this section up into problem areas where a software update could fix these things should Apple decide to and those items which are just (80’s vernacular) sooo choice.
Needs Fixens:
- There’s no way to search through an email account or folder by any means. I receive a ton of email and often only remember a few keywords. Spotlight has evidently spoiled me.
- The frequency at which email accounts can automatically be checked are 15, 30 and 60 minutes, by the unit polling the remote accounts. No push mechanism exists because unlike RIMs Blackberry, email is directly accessed in a similar manner as how your desktop email client retrieves and checks for email. (Note: Yahoo Mail has push, but I only have a Yahoo email account for spam.)
- There’s no way to set an audio or visual alert per contact for all communications. Yes you can set a ring tone for a contact. For example on my Blackberry I can be notified that any email or call from this contact or group of contacts happens regardless if I’ve set the phone to Quiet, Off, Vibrate Only, etc.
- You can jump to a letter of the alphabet but not search contacts.
- Contacts really should be a button on the home page in addition to its current spot in the phone module.
- There’s no way to copy and paste in any of the applications.
- There’s not much in the way of customization that’s available and you can’t download or install any applications. This is also true of email attachments or pictures. No way to save them to the photo library. I’d really love if I could install iTerm so that it behaved much in the same way as the tabs do in Safari.
- It would be nice if email supported landscape mode.
- Flash support is needed.
- I’d like to be able to share my phones EDGE connection with my Macbook Pro.
Sooo Choice:
- Auto detecting, joining of free and any wifi networks you’ve already authenticated to previously. The downside to this of course is if you’re like me and are using WPA2 encryption with a key that’s longer than my arm, and no way to copy/paste and unable to see exactly what you’re entering. Well lets just say it took about 10 tries to get it right. But now that I have it, I’m browsing the web, watching YouTube et al from my phone via my multi-base Airport Express powered broadband wireless network at home.
- Visual Voicemail is pretty trick, it lists the person and date-time. Click play or pause to listen, you can scroll through all of them with a flick of the finger.
- Landscape mode when browsing is pretty neat, Safari supports tabs in a unique way that’s actually pretty cool. Zooming out to allow you to scroll through all of your open tabs.
- Supports PPTP VPNs. (Yes IPSec would be preferered, but PPTP plus SSH will do in a pinch.)
- The ability to shrink and expand pictures and pages with the multi-touch is just as cool as the commercials.
- The speed and refresh rate is impressive.
Many people are posting complaints about some pretty frivolous things. I think at heart most people that are finding “faults” about the iPhone are doing so to attack the marketing hype of the iPhone being a “revolutionary device”. The iPhone will not be for everyone, but I’d like to address a few specifics.
- The camera is only 2 megapixel while some others are 5, it also can’t record video clips. - Buy a real camera you sissies, if you’re using your phone as your primary camera you have some serious issues. I don’t even believe that any US made phones have 5 megapixels.
- Not able to swap out the battery. - I’ve never purchased an auxiliary battery for any phone I’ve owned. I charge mine every night and whenever convenient to do so, including at airports and elsewhere. By holding down the On/Off button and the menu button for a few seconds together, will reset the phone if needed. (More iPhone usage tips here.)
- No expansion slot, the max is 8gigs. It’s not a laptop replacement people get over it, no other phone that I know of is 8 gigs. (An SD memory card slot would be nice for transferring files though.)
- No 3G network, it would be nice, but my 8700c Blackberry only had EDGE too.
- Not being able to use it as a modem, I couldn’t do that with my 8700c Blackberry either.
- It cannot do several other things some other phones can, which is a little silly to expect this phone to be an end-all-be-all phone for everyone. I dismiss that complaint, buy the phone that best suits you.
- Not having the ability to have a song from your mp3 collection as a ring-tone, no instant message application, and a few other beefs I also deem somewhat silly. Unlike most phones this will be able to handle software upgrades and additional applications as they come out in a convenient manner via iTunes which runs on Windows and Macs. (You cannot use it with a 64bit Windows box, which isn’t a problem for me.)
- No Fash or Java support, while I would like Flash support and it’s likely coming, my other phones didn’t support Flash or Java either. ( I also hate Java applets btw. )
There’s a ton of features that are pretty cool and if you get a chance to stop by an Apple store they have them on display to play with. I’m sure those items which myself and others are complaining about can be addressed with a few software updates, which Apple is no doubt already working on. I’ve been a long time AT&T/Cingular user and have had no problems with coverage to all the places in the nation that I’ve traveled, the EDGE network connectivity isn’t as beefy as some, but is adequate for most uses while on the road where wifi isn’t available. Overall I’m really happy with the iPhone over any other mobile phone I’ve used. I’m sure there’s other phones out there that are better suited to specific lifestyles, price ranges, and required personal or business features. For me, the iPhone is a good fit for my life style, I can afford it and it has enough features for me to use it until I’m able to get a connection with my Macbook Pro and do some real work. The limitations that do exist will hopefully be addressed in an upcoming software update.
