5 posts tagged “iphone 3g”
Parties, dinners, pageants and more. How does technology help you survive the hustle and bustle of the holidays?
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If I get invited somewhere I've never been, Google Maps on my iPhone shows me the way. If I get bored, Facebook and NetNewsWire on my iPhone give me something to do. If I want to take a photo, my iPhone lets me snap one without carrying several devices. iPhone iPhone iPhone. Sorry, but that, my laptop and my Xbox 360 are my favourite widgets right now.
Why are you loyal to certain brands/stores? What keeps you coming back?
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I would say Apple gets more of my money than anyone else. It almost wasn't to be.
I used my first Mac back in 1996 - I think it was a Performa 6300 - for work and wasn't all that impressed. The classic Mac OS (version 7 I think was the latest one) was extremely slow, I think we only used it for Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark Express.
When the iPod got popular, I refused to buy into it. Partially because what is popular in consumer electronics isn't always what is best, and also because at the time I used a PC for which Creative's software integration was second to none. I got their Zen Jukebox Xtra.
It was around the same time that, recording my own songs as a hobby, I started hearing about Mac exclusives Garageband and Logic Express being worth my attention. Not wanting to spend too much on a system I may not use, I went for the low end Mac mini system.
It was this that kick-started my love affair with Apple.
My Zen Jukebox Xtra started to show a few weird behavioural traits as I filled it - it, being hard drive based, skipped and went crazy if I walked too fast. I decided to get a flash memory MP3 player for my daily commute, and now using a Mac, an iPod Nano was the best choice. Plus Jess had one and loved it.
I have bought...
- A 1.42GHz PPC Mac mini
- A 4GB iPod Nano
- A 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
- An 80GB iPod Classic
- A 16GB iPhone 3G
- A 500GB Time Capsule
- Numerous accessories and programs
... and been extremely happy with all of them. They might cost slightly more than their rivals in some cases, but the build quality of their hardware is superb, and their software is designed for people who don't want to dick around during set up or hunt for options in obscure menus to do simple things.
I do think the "They just work" mantra is a little inaccurate, as I have still had issues, but having used every version of Windows since 3.1, as well as different distributions of Linux, I feel I have a good grounds for comparison when I say Mac OS X is the best consumer OS out there.
Other than Apple, my spending habits are as you'd expect of a 28 year old guy with a decent job and no kids - my clothes all come from GAP, Old Navy and band merchandise stands; I drink Starbucks; I eat a lot of Subway and Chipotle; I get a lot of my entertainment items from Amazon.com. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
Just over a week since we waited in line to order them, Jess and I finally got our iPhone 3Gs. Or rather, I went and got them while she got her hair cut as I was so impatient.
Within the space of half an hour, the sales assistant at the AT&T store had set up our account, transfered our numbers from T-Mobile and activated the phones, then I was out the door and shuffling home as fast as I could to play with mine.
I think I was playing for like five hours, before taking a nap.
For all the hype, for all the waiting, I am actually impressed. It effectively renders FOUR of my existing devices obsolete. It plays music every bit as well as my iPod (being, essentially, the latest generation). It can make calls, send text messages, take photos and do almost everything a phone can (MMS remains oddly absent). I can play games that look better than anything on my Nintendo DS, albeit with more limited control options. And, oddly, I feel it's going to reduce my time on my laptop, too - between the built-in apps and those you can already download from the new app store, I can surf, email, blog, manage photos, watch YouTube videos and generally piddle away time.
And in case you want to know, the applications downloaded so far...
- AIM
- Aqua Forest
- De Blob
- Facebook
- Last.fm
- MySpace Mobile
- NetNewsWire
- Remote
- Super Monkey Ball
Are you going to be amongst the first people to buy the iPhone 3G? If so, when do you plan on picking yours up and which one will you be purchasing?
I am ashamed to say, I was one of "those" people. You know, those people you see standing in lines that stretch around corners waiting for some hot new technology item to go on sale. Those people about whom you think: "Doesn't that loser have a job?" Yes, that was me, today.
I turned up at my local AT&T store at 7am. I thought, given last night's thunderstorms, the line would be short. It was about 50-60 people deep... and grew much larger after I got there. Jess showed up shortly after me, and kept ducking out of the line to get coffee or pee, but I held strong.
Some time around 9.50am, we got to the corner of the alley and the street the store was on and found out all three versions of the phone had sold out, but that we could still go in and order the phones to be delivered at some time in the near future. So we did that. I ordered a black 16GB, Jess a white 16GB. So this year's bonus bought us both iPhones.
Sure, it's just a phone, not some life-saving, life-affirming big deal. It probably didn't warrant standing in line for three hours when I could have stayed in bed a little longer and gotten to work on time. Still, I worked hard for that bonus, I want something nice from it.
It's crazy times right now. Lots happening. After the surprise birthday party last week, we were somehow more manic this week.
On Thursday, Jess and I got out of work early, went to see WALL-E and had dinner together. Afterwards, we met co-workers at a bar as it was the day of Laura's birthday. They had been there since they got out of work, so we were by far the most sober people there. Until Lindsay's Doug showed up. Poor guy. We ducked out of there early.
I... can't actually remember what we did during the day on Friday. I do know we got lunch and did a bunch of shopping at Target, but other than that, I think we bummed around. At 7pm, we met up with Laura with a mini-picnic then went to the harbour. Lindsay and Doug met us there and we all sat on the waterfront to have our picnic. Eric and Mitchell showed up shortly after, just in time to watch all the fireworks going off along the lake.
We dumped shit off at home, then went to a nearby bar for a couple of drinks.
On Saturday, we had a ton of errands to run. We paid our economic stimulus cheque into our bank account, went through the pre-approval process at AT&T (ahead of the iPhone 3G release on Friday!), then Jess went to the dentist while I took a faulty item back to Target. We were going to go to a barbeque, but after having a long nap, we just went to our favourite Mexican place and chilled out.
Today, we went for lunch and did more shopping. We needed more sporty clothing as we've been asked to fill in on my office softball team. Yes, me, playing sport. I know, right? Anyway, we got all of that stuff, got it home then got ready for our first softball practice. There were only a handful of people there, but we got a good go of it. Neither of us was as bad as we expected - I connected with the ball a lot, and wasn't a total washout at catching. Bowling (sorry, pitching), however, was another matter.
This week is going to continue the activity. We're taking tomorrow off as we have a lot of chores to do. We have Wolf Parade on... Tuesday? I can't remember. I need to listen to their new CD more. Hopefully this means we get to see The Josie after what seems like forever. Thursday is the Big Kahuna - my green card interview. After aeons, it's finally a reality. Jess is currently wading through a file of paperwork the size of Alaska so we're ready. Then Friday is possibly iPhone day, if they have enough in stock.
Busy busy busy.
On an unrelated note, one of my favourite albums of last year - Heresy & The Hotel Choir by Maritime - came with a bonus 7" featuring two songs. One of those songs was called 'Boy From School', and was pretty awesome...
It turns out, it was a cover of a Hot Chip song...
Which was also covered by Portastatic...
