Getting tired of my iphone…

I know it is almost blasphemous to think it let alone say it. But I’m starting to get really fed up with my Iphone. Actually, I love the phone still, but I don’t know if I can take much more of the crappy service. It’s really starting to annoy me. Lately I’ve just been in places where I needed to make calls or send a text or email and I can’t because of no service.

When my contract is up…I think I’m making the jump back to Verizon if things don’t change.

Which makes me very nervous. My wife just got another phone (yes again) it’s an LG dare. Not a bad phone, but not anything like my iphone. I’ve also played with a Blackberry storm, a few WinMo devices. I’m sorry to say this but after +1 years no one has come out with a viable alternative to the Iphone. It just goes to show how truly amazing a job Apple did when putting together the Iphone.

So 1 year from now when my contract is up, I hope there’s a few phones out there to choose from.

What’s important to me is this…

1.) Phone use, availability, reception. I have to be able to make and receive phone calls, email and texts anywhere.

2.) Easy access/integration to your music, movies and pictures. Managing the Iphone through Itunes is a breeze. Plus there’s no problems using it on a mac (for obvious reasons) I’d even be willing to install a VM of Windows on my Macbook if I had a good phone alternative. That’s how frustrated I am.

3.) Ability to surf the internet in a similar experience to computing. Browings the internet on the Iphone is amazing, I’d hate to do it any other way.

The app store is great, I love it… but I could easily do without it if I had a phone that just did all the things I wanted it to. We’ll see. I’m not going to do anything for about a year…except pray for more towers.

AT&T (I mean God) are you listening.

Little things that annoy me…

So I’m not much of a complainer. But I’ve got just 3 little things that are really annoying me today. And I’ll put them in order of annoyance.

1. Networks not sticking to their programming schedules. (Namely – NBC)

I hate it when you’re watching you’re favorite TV show (Which you’ve DVR’d to skip commercials) and it gets to the very end of the show…right before the big cliff hanger/reveal point…and the recording stops. Because the hour is up, because the network doesn’t follow their programming schedule and instead of a show ending at 10:00pm, it ends at say 10:01pm. It’s happened to me the last two weeks while watching Heroes. I was mad last week. Last night I was furious. More at myself, because I forgot to extend the stop time to 10:05. So I’ve corrected that issue. But that’s so annoying. And no, You can’t just do that by default. I’ve tried before. Because if you do that for every show your DVR will not record programs because of conflicts. You can only record 2 shows at a time and it doesn’t know how to handle overlaps.

It makes me wonder if it’s an intentional thing, to mess us time shifters up?

#2 – Multi-media Messages on the iphone

I love my iphone. Couldn’t be happier with it in general, sure they could do a few more things (i.e. Add cut and paste, have a better camera, add video support to the camera) but all in all it does a good job. Except for one feature, that should be so simple to correct. In fact, lesser phones handle it with no problem why can’t the iphone. And that’s handling Picture/multi-media messages.
When my wife (On verizon) takes a picture from her phone and sends it to me. I cannot simply click on the message and view the picture. Nope, that would be way to easy. I have to go to an at&t website. Type in a username and password (Which I can’t remember without writing down – because it doesn’t automatically enter itself when I click on the link and it couldn’t be some easy pass phrase to remember). So once I view the picture, if I even can. I can’t do anything with it at that point. Can’t save it to my phone. Can’t easily save it on my computer.

Come on. There’s got to be an easier way to get it done.

#3 – Losing all your progress on COD 5. (#3.5 – Not being able to change split screen settings)

I just got the new COD 5 video game for my xbox 360. Which if you like the COD franchise you will completely love. It’s a great game, for a single player campaign or online play. But there’s a couple of multi-player options that just really get under my skin. First, the split screen is not a split screen. It’s an offset screen, in 4:3 format staggard next to each other. I’ve never seen anything like it, I hate it. And sure it’s a neat idea, but they should’ve included the option to change it to the traditional split screen that everyone’s accustomed to. Second, Imagine playing a game for the first time with your friend or son. You play Co-Op Mode and you beat the first three levels. About 1.5 hrs.worth of play time. You’re excited, you’re happy, you’re in love with the game. You fire it up a few hours later to continue you’re campaign to realize it did not save your progress. You’re Pissed… At yourself mostly, because you didn’t save. But then when you try to figure out how to save you realize, saving is not an option. You can’t believe it, so you do a quick search online to figure it out and you discover that there is no way to save your progress in Co-op mode. You can only save your progress in the single player campaign mode.

That is stupid. Unbelievable. Makes you not even want to play the campaign mode, because you’ve played the first level 3 times already on Co-op.

So what’s something that’s been annoying you? It’s ok, you need to vent and I will happily give you the space.

Yeah for me…

I just beat all 15 levels of Cannon Game on my Iphone.  Fun stuff.

Control my computer through my Iphone

Ok… I feel a little slow here on this one. But I played around with something today that I think was really cool.

I downloaded an app on my Iphone (VNC Lite) and now I can have remote control of my laptop through my iphone. The app isn’t bad, especially for a free one. It’s pretty amazing how that all works. I see my entire computer and have complete control on the phone. I tried it first over the Edge network then over wifi. Obviously the wifi worked better, but edge wasn’t terrible.

I’m feeling a little slow, because VNC isn’t that new. It’s just that I really haven’t had any use for it so I never looked into it. As I left for work this morning I said to myself, “Self, I’d sure like to check in on something my computers doing today while I’m at work. I wonder if I can do that on my phone?” So I found out I could.

This is going to help me out in another big area as well. Tech support for my family. It’s frustrating when they call for help and I can’t really help them because I can’t see what’s on their screen. So now I’m going to have them all install VNC servers on their machines and should be able to do the work for them. I’m pretty geeked about that.

Blogging from my iphone

Just downloaded the worspress app for the iphone and I’m trying it out. So far so good. I think I can even add photos from my phone. (if it worked like I’m hoping you’re looking at a pretty lame picture below). This may take my blogging in a whole new direction.

New iphone Case

So I’ve had my iphone now for about a month.  I’m still loving it of course.  But in that time I’ve struggled with the idea of having a case or not.  Wisdom says that if you spend $500 on a device you ought to find a way to protect it, but I never found a case that worked for me.  And let’s be honest we’ve all dropped our ordinary phones before.  I just got tired of being nervous every time I pulled my iphone in and out my pocket so last week I set out on a desperate search to find the perfect iphone case for me.

So the things I was looking for 1.) full protection – I wanted something to cover the screen, that’s really the only thing I’m worried about.  Don’t get me wrong…I don’t want my casing all dinged up, but if it gets a ding it’s not unusable.  If the glass screen breaks, cracks, chips…you’re screwed.  And your beautiful little device just isn’t the same.  The problem is that most cases don’t cover the screen because doing so would disable the touch control use.  The only option I saw available at this point was the static stick on film, but I’m sorry those just don’t work for me, they get all bubbly and take away the whole feeling good about using your phone appeal to me.  There were also removable covers, but if I have to take a cover on or off everytime I use…I just won’t and that would defeat the purpose.   2.) Simple Design – I wanted something that was simple, not colorful, not bulky, nothing that pimps out the phone.  Clear was prefered.

At first I couldn’t find anything.  I finally came across a case that sounded interesting.  The Xylo T2.  I came close to buying it, but it was like $35 and I could not find a single review of it anywhere I looked so I had no idea if it would work or not.  I didn’t want to take the risk of throwing away about $40 so I kept on looking.  Still nothing…  In an effort of last resort I turned to Youtube.  If you’re looking for anything chances are it’s on Youtube.  Youtube is the best search engine now if you ask me.  So wouldn’t you know I found a video about a case mate case, called Naked Case.  Looked cool.  I went to the website to find it, it wasn’t listed anywhere.  I did a search somewhere and found it on their site.  It regularly list for $35 but they were selling them for $10 + $3 shipping to a limited amount of people to try so I bought one.  It arrived yesterday, and so far so good.  I love it.  The entire phone is protected…the touch screen still works.  It’s everything I wanted.

Weird….While writing the post I’ve tried to go to case-mate.com and find a link of the case, but I can’t find one.  I can’t even find a search option on their page.  I read here that they only offered them to 150 customers.  Maybe I was just lucky…well that’s a first.

Anyway…so far so good.  I love the case.  I’ll keep you posted as I go if I notice any shortcomings.  But for $13 I’m ecstatic and think I’ve found just the right case for me.

Iphone Field Test – Day 1

OK…I was out of the office the last two days.  Doing a Iphone field test (actually, I did have to do a little work, but it gave me  chance to test the phone out).

Intial thoughts….

Yeah, I love it.  Accessing my email was a snap.  No problems receiving messages.  I’m going to have to be careful though or I’ll become an addict like my fellow crackberry users.  I was listening to a person talk about technological addictions (on my Iphone of course) and he said because of the immediate positive stimuli of things like checking email, etc… it can be become a very addictive behavior.

I agree…I just had to check my email and even respond to one while I was on the road.  (Just because I could…and boy did it feel awesome).  I will try to tempr this “jones’n” in the future.

One problem with the email I found out today was that my emails sent from the iphone (on my corporate account that is) did not go through.  Our server blocked them as spam because the iphone was spoofing my corporate account.  I think they’re going to work on it and get it corrected for me.  Then I’ll be awesome.

Battery life the first day was a worry.  It didn’t even make it through the day and I tried to use it as much as I used my touch.  (listen to music, podcasts in the car to and from work, listen to music at work, watch a movie at lunch).  It was the intial charge out of the box though and I had the wi-fi on all day by accident.  So I’m thinking those factors contributed to sucking the juice out a lot.  Apple has some stuff out to help your battery life, so I followed those settings.  We’ll see how it goes.  I don’t expect a problem.  I think I could get 2-2 1/2 days out of my touch.  I’d be happy with 2 out the iphone, I’d be willing to even live with a nightly charge if I had to.  Though I would get really tired of having it die out on me.

Yesterday’s battery life was fine.  I only used up about 1/4 of the charge and I used it all day, phone calls, emails, ipod listening.  I”m back in the office today, so we’ll see how it does on it’s second day of charge and in an area with sporadic connectivity.

I’ve only had like 4 calls since I’ve got the phone so I haven’t had much practice with that yet.  No issues with it so far though the interface is very simple and easy to understand.

I got a chance to use the voicmail today and I was pleasantly surprised.  When I tapped on the voicmail…much like email it just opened up the message and played it.  Very nice.

I like the mic on the headphones.  I haven’t had a chance to talk on the phone with it yet so I’m curious about that.  I loved that you could skip songs by clicking it a few times.  One of my gripes about the touch was that you always had to wake it up and unlock it to adjust the volume or skip a song.  With the iphone you can just click the mic to skip songs or adjust the volume with the outside buttons.  Very nice…again.

A big positive of the iphone is the internal speakers.  It makes random use more likely.  If i’ve got to pull out my headphones and put them in to watch a clip on youtube or whatever I just didn’t do it with my touch.

I like the idea about the ringer off/on button on the outside.

My one complaint so far… the recess on the headphone input jack.  I couldn’t plug the phone into speakers I use at work or my auxillary cable in my car radio.  I was able to cut around the car auxillary cable and get it to work.  But that’s just stupid.  The touch isn’t like that and it works fine.

One more thing…I liked the fact that the touch has the headphone jack on the bottom.  It was weird at first, but I really grew accustomed to that and actually prefer it now.

The worst day ever…

So I woke up this morning with an extra skip in my step.  I couldn’t wait to get to work and get going on another week.  Why the unusual optimism?  Well I purchased an iphone this weekend and I just couldn’t wait to get to work to start showing it off and working with all it’s iphone goodness.  I spent the better part of day wrestling with the decision and when I finally made the plunge I spent the rest of it setting it up.  Today was supposed to be the first day of a better life.

Imagine my horror when sitting at my desk I tried to call my new number and listen to my new ring tones that I spent an hour working on last night creating…nothing…straight to voice mail.

Oh…there must be something wrong I thought.  I must have it set incorrectly…something must be turned off.

So I did a quick check…didn’t see anything wrong.  I dialed up a number on the iphone to see if I could make a call out.  Nothing…call won’t go through.  I look at the signal strength and to my utter amazement, no bars.  Oh, the horror and then those two dreaded words appeared, taunting me, mocking me…NO SERVICE.  What have i done to deserve this.

I walk around the building a little in a frantic search, like a diviner holding out his forked stick searching for illusive treasure.  Every now and then I pick up a signal.  At one spot, on the east side of the building standing in front of the windows, with the phone tilted at a 53 degree angle, standing on one leg with my left index finger on my nose I got 4 bars.  I was ecstatic!!!  My mind began concocting all sorts of clever reasons why I needed to have my cubicle moved to this precise spot in the building.   But who am I kidding….that would never work.  And I couldn’t get any work accomplished standing on one leg with my left index finger on my nose anyway.

I make my way back to my desk…the walk of shame…through the throngs of people that keep saying “Oh!  Is that an Iphone” I can see their eyes beginning to gloss over as they begin to ask me if they can see it…touch it.

“Yes, it is I reply but it doesn’t work.  Can’t get a signal.”

I can see it in their face.  Without saying a word I realize they understand my pain.  And in some sick and twisted way….maybe they too realize that their dreams of better life a brighter future have also been crushed.  With a solemn nod, they turn and go there way.  And I go mine.  Back to the shackles of ordinary life, ordinary cell phones.

This is the worst day ever.

I’m going to have to go back to AT&T and turn in my iphone tonight.

The worst day ever!!!