I’m really enjoying my iPhone 4s. It’s noticeably faster than my 4 and the new camera is a huge leap forward. I’m also having a good time with the voice control, Siri. And for the record, Kayce told me to tell my phone I like it. Siri’s response was classic.
So, it’s summer. News to everyone, I know… Like the rest of you, we will be traveling a bit. As most of you know, I have a hard time cutting my digital cord, so I was researching option for mobile Internet. I looked at a pc card, $60.00/month, of course, I’d only use it one month. But the best option to me, seemed to be adding the tethering option to my iPhone data plan. For those who don’t know, tethering is using your cell phone’s data connection to get your computer online. Like a cell modem, of sorts. So, instead of an extra $60, I would just add $20 for the month. Well, not so fast. And for those of you who think you can just enable that feature, you can’t. AT&T has to turn it on (unless you jailbreak your phone, that’s another post)… So, I called.
“Hey, I need to add tethering to my iPhone data package.”
“No problem ma’am (yeah…) I can help you with that.”
“That will be the 2GB data plan for $25 + $20 for tethering, pro-rated…” blah blah blah
“whoa, sir (pretty sure it was a lady), I have an unlimited data plan. Will I lose the unlimited plan if I add tethering?”
“yes sir (I must sound more manly when I’m irritated)”
Insert-we don’t really want people making any meaningful use of our services.
“well, that doesn’t really seem fair. That I have to give up my unlimited plan jut to add tethering.”
“well, it isn’t fair that you get to tether with unlimited usage for the same price (referring to the $20).”
“it’s perfectly fair, I’ve been a customer for almost a decade now, and I’ve had my plan for 3 years. If they wanted unlimited data, they should have got on the boat sooner.”
“sorry.”
“thanks.”
Why is the 2GB package a big deal, you ask? That seems like plenty of data you say… Well, consider the overage charges on 7.8GB of data on a 2GB plan. That’s how much data I used last month I haven’t done the math, but I’m sure the bill would be over $500.00. No happening. I’m a heavy user. Not just for fun, either. A lot of my data is from remote accessing my servers at work. That’s a big chunk of my usage.
So, now I’m back at square one… I can still jailbreak and enable it myself… It looks the same to AT&T. They can’t tell if it’s my phone or my computer connected through my phone. Or just live without. I’m sure I’ll figure something out, I love a good fight with “the man” (or woman, it hard to tell over the phone…)
Ah, that new phone smell...
Well, here it is. My review of the iPhone 4. Let’s start is good inverted pyramid style and tell you I’m going to keep it. It’s really great in most areas, the resolution of the LCD, the addition of the front facing camera, the upgrade of the rear camera (now with flash), battery life,  and several other things. The cons, however, are not just little cons. They are very annoying cons. Most of which you have probably either witnessed yourself or heard about. The anntennea problem, the proximity senor problem, and my lagging operating system issues. These are very annoying!Â
UPDATE: I completely forgot to mention the purpose of this app! It’s an alarm clock! By monitoring your sleep cycles, or your relative state of deep sleep, it will attempt to wake you up when you are at your lightest sleep state the closest to your requested wake time. Make sense? Well, it works. When I use this app, I wake up more rested because I’m not dragging myself out of a deep sleep, but a relatively light one. Neat, huh?
One of my favorite apps is the Sleep Cycle app. I’ve talked about before, but I thought I’d mention it again. It’s not really “scientific”, but it’s pretty clever. Making use of the iphone’s built in accelerometer, the app detects movement throughout the night and translates that into your sleep state. Clever, right? It’s pretty accurate if you can get the placement if the phone correct. Check out my sleep cycles this week, along with some screen shots of the app. Here is the link to sleep cycle in the app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleep-cycle-alarm-clock/id320606217?mt=8
Below are my cycles starting Monday-Tuesday. You’ll notice some have almost flat lines in the middle of the night where I appear to be awake. That’s pretty much true. Those are the times when one (or both) of the boys joined us. Not my best sleep.
Well I’ve had a busy day. Between getting my new iPhone (which could’ve eaten up my whole day on its own), music camp, AC repairman at home, network issues at work, remodeling at work, and a billion other little things all on top of my regular duties, I’m wore out! I’ve been working with some of the ministers on remodeling going on in their ministry areas to make sure the electricians get the power to places they will need it, whether they know they will yet or not. It’s a part of my job I enjoy. I’ve learned a lot in my 7 years about construction and building. It’s fun. I can read some blueprints! I’ve got to install some 46 inch TVs when the remodel is done and get satellite hooked to them. All fun things!
What’s nor fun is the 78 degree temps our house had been reaching. It’s so hot!! The AC guy came today and got it working much better. Yeah for Dawson & Dawson!
Parkers head wound is healing well. I won’t post a picture. Believe me. Be glad.
There’s a network switch dying at work. Fun times. We are loosing a port every few days.
And the best part of my week… My iPhone 4 arrived today. I didn’t think it would since the fedex tracking was showing it in Memphis. But as Kayce was leaving the truck pulled up. Woo hoo. I’ve spent a good hunk of my day playing with this thing, I won’t lie. It’s so nice! Crystal clear screen. I had a hard time seeing the pixels under magnification!! Not like the 3GS. I could count then with my naked eye! I’m still playing around with it. But more than anything… I’m so happy to have a working power/hold button again. Mine hasn’t worked since my leap into the lake about a year ago. I shorted the motherboard when I turned it off while it was wet. Oh well.
But the best part if my week… As always coming home to stuff like this…
I am one of the lucky few who recieved an email this morning that my iPhone 4 will be arriving a day early. That is to say, I will have my iPhone 4 the day BEFORE launch day!! Excited… That’s an understatement. Tomorrow is going to be a great day! Well, every day is a great day, but tomorrow will be fun and great, too! WOO HOO! Ok, enough bragging.Â
I installed iPhone iOS4 yestarday. It took awhile, I had several issues. The upgrade hung just as it was about to finish and I then my phone went into restore mode, and I couldn’t get it to restore either. I tried several times, but it kept getting hung up. It was a 1002 error, if I remember correctly. After reading Apple’s help documentation, I followed their reccomendations and it worked. It turned out hooking my iPhone into the Dock for Dell Latitude instead of into the laptop itself was causing some issue. I just un-docked my laptop so that the iPhone was the only USB device attached and voila! It worked fine. iOS4 is running pretty well on my 3GS. I’m enjoying the multitaksing with Pandora. I really haven’t hit upon anything else that impresses me about the multitasking. Of course, apps launch alitle faster, but nothing all that great. The folders are awesome!! Although, I’m having issue catagorizing all of my apps. I’ve found I have a lot more kids games on my phone than I previously thought. But at least I’m down to 4 pages instead of 9!!Â
Again, can’t wait to get my hands on the new iPhone 4. I already know I’m going to need a tiny torex driver to take it apart, but that shouldn’t slow me down too much! If I can make through the first week with it and NOT jump in a lake with it in my pocket, I’ll be happy!
This weekend has been interesting to say the least. I worked late on Thursday and Friday getting ready for VBS on Monday. Friday, while I’m finishing up, I get a call from Kayce that our neighbors dog has gotten out and has them trapped in the house. So, I leave and come home to find the dog wandering around our yard. Our neighbor happened to hear her barking at my car as I pulled in, and came out to check on her. So, crisis averted. Althought, smokey, our cat, was alittle shaken by the whole thing.Â
Saturday, Parker had teeball at one had to have been the hottest part of the day. We were all dying. Later than evening we enjoyed seeing The Roxy’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.. The kids all did a fantastic job. Parker really enjoyed it. Unfortunetly, our evening didn’t end so well. As soon as we left the theatre Parker goes running down the side walk and into an intersection. Thanksfully, downtown roads are too crazy busy in the evenings, so no harm… Well, no physical harm. Parker was punished for that little stunt, but more so for his general disobieence that evening. He was quite cranky and very disrespectful. Which is usually a sign he’s too tired. We should’ve known something was wrong.Â
Because in the middle of the night, he starts getting sick. He’s had an “upset stomach” all night, and most of the day today. It’s been a grand time. Kayce and I got very little sleep, plus, I had planned on being at FBC all morning to help out and to finish the VBS setup for Monday morning. Crazy day. I didn’t get home until after 3pm this afternoon. Parker is still sick. We are all tired. Such is life, I guess.
On the upside… WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference) is tomorrow. This is the day when Apple announces, among other things, THE NEW iPHONE!!! I’m pumped! I don’t think they have it setup yet, but http://www.engadget.com/ has the best live blog from these events. I love the comments they throw in. So, check out tomorrow’s announcements at 12pm CDT. I will be!
Also, this is the week I’ll be teaching a workshop on Microsoft Publisher over at APSU. This is going to be interesting. It’s been a long, LONG, time since I’ve taught anything like this. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it goes. Hopefully, I won’t crash and burn.Â
So, that was our weekend, and some of our upcoming week. All I can say is, I can’t for vacation this year!! HA!
Steve Job's at D8 (from engadget.com)
I was reading through engadget’s live blog of Steve Job’s interview from D8 and something caught my attention. Check out this excerpt:
6:54PM Steve: Well it wasn’t like this. Now it’s huge. And also, when you bought a phone the carrier dictated what you had on the phone. iPhone was the first phone where we said you worry about the network, we’ll worry about the phone/.Walt: How are they doing on that network?
6:54PM Steve: Pretty good actually. Remember, they’re handling WAY MORE data traffic than all of their other competitors combined.Â(excerpt from engadget’s live blog of Steve Job’s interview from D8)
iPhone minus the screen
Since I bought my second iPhone, the 3Gs, and jumped in the lake with it in my pocket, I have had folks asking me to fix their phones. I don’t mind. I do enjoy taking these little things apart. But more than that I enjoy helping people and fixing things. Just for your information, if you have an iPhone and need repair, give me a call or shoot me an email. I can probably tell you what’s wrong and what part to order. I order from www.etechparts.com. They are located in Kansas and have been super great to me. If you want to order the part, I’ll install it for free. I just like to do it. Like I said, it’s a hobby.
In the past few months, I’ve repaired all three versions of the iPhone. I’ve replaced the battery in a 1st generation iPhone, which, by the way, has to be SOLDERED to the mainboard!! That was fun. I’ve replaced a cracked touch glass on a 2nd Generation iPhone (3G), as well as a mute button. One of the touch glasses I replaced did stop working recently, but etechparts.com is going to exchange it, so no problems. It happens. And I’ve replaced the ribbon cable of an iPhone 3Gs. The cable that has the power button, headphone jack, mute switch, and volume control on it. It was a tough one. Lots of little adhesive strips to put on, but it works!Â
Long story short, got an iPhone that needs help, or a friend of a friend who does. Send them over. I enjoy helping when I can.
I found and downloaded a new app last night. It’s an alarm clock that uses the iPhone’s acceleromator to sense movement. Basically, you put start the app and then lay the iPhone on the corner of your matress nearest your head. As you move in the night the phone registers it and analyzes the movement patterns to determine how “deep” in sleep you are. It seemed to work pretty well. The point… To wake you up during the lightest period of sleep nearest your set alarm time. This is suppossed to wake you up easier and more pleasantly. We’ll see. It didn’t work last night, due partly to the boys both ending up in the bed with us. That’s alot of extra tossing and turning. Anyway. Here is my sleep cycles from last night. You’ll notice about 4am I appear to be awake. That’s right, Kayce and I woke up to see if school was closed (it was). So, it registered that pretty well. If you have an iPhone, its a 0.99 cent app. Here’s a link to check it out, it’s called Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock.
