This is rather a small concern with the iPhone, but it baffles me as to why it exists: unlike your iPod, you will not be able to use regular headphones on the iPhone, at least this model. It only takes the tiny earbuds that come with it, so far as I know. It won’t even work with the earbuds that come with an iPod.
Hopefully Apple, or somebody, will release regular headphones that fit in the iPhone’s headset jack. Where’s there’s a demand, the market steps in and fills it.
Okay, the title of the post says it all. I’m sure a lot of iPhone owners are looking for IM programs — you’re not going to find much that works well. However, there is one thing I’ve tried that seems to work very well. It’s not an app, it’s a web page (since the iPhone can handle javascript).
Got to http://www.flickim.com. Follow the instructions and you’ll be IMing with AOL Instant Messenger in no time at all.
Hope this helps a few folks!
Um, right. Like the title says, happy birthday to me. July 24th, 1975, saw the introduction of the first Nexus-6 Kip-model Replicants.
Wow. It feels really weird to turn…oh hells no I’m not telling you how old I am. :p
I have to make a shameless plug here. Sally Tognarelli, a good friend of mine from back in “the day”, as we used to say, has changed her stage name to Sally Morgan (too many people would screw up Tognarelli on marquees and such). She’s a singer, and she has the voice of an angel. I’ve linked to her new site on the sidebar, which contains some of the tunes off the CD she just finished. I strongly urge you to go visit her at www.sallymorgan.net and listen for yourself.
She’s also one of the world’s nicest people, and one of the world’s prettiest girls, although that all comes second to that sublime voice.
Go. Go now to www.sallymorgan.net and see for yourself.
She’s currently touring the country with her boyfriend (what a lucky bastard!) — check and see if she’s performing anywhere near you.
Now, go to www.sallymorgan.net. The Kip hath spoken.
Ah. I received my big birthday present early this year. Now, just so y’all know I’m not spoiled silly, I kicked in $450 towards what I got — which is, obviously, if ya read the dang title, an iPhone.
Here are my first impressions after playing with it for a day or so.
First, it’s like all Apple products. Sleek, beautiful, well-designed, and horridly overpriced. Then again, this is a new kind of phone…if you can even call it a phone.
First, the great parts.
The number one thing I love about this phone is that Apple has finally delivered a working, easy-to-use, full-featured web browser. Browsing the web on the iPhone is a snap, given its zoom-in capabilities and everything. It’s quite something to behold.
The higher-end model holds 8 gigs (that’s the only thing that makes it higher end) versus 4 gigs for the lower-end model. But if you’re going to get an iPhone, get the dang higher-end one and do things right.
The iPod mode of the device works like a charm, although it only has, at most, 8 gigs of storage (which is fine for me but I know a lot of people with 20 gig iPods who have filled them all up already).
Emailing works equally as well. Navigating between modes is a snap. Setup is easy. Learning the whole thing is a snap — like all Apple products, it’s scarily intuitive.
Despite complaints about AT&T service, it’s been just fine for me. No dropped calls yet. Although I wish Apple had allowed us some choice in our carriers, I would have certainly preferred Verizon. You have 30 days to test your AT&T service and cancel without a fee. After that — it’s $117 to cancel service (ouch, I know).
It’s a slim phone, and it looks like it might not be such a great shape to use as a phone, but it works just fine. Sound quality is excellent. The earbuds are, well, typical earbuds, but there is a built-in speaker that doesn’t do a half bad job.
Everything works through iTunes, and works simply. It’s great.
Now, some of the downsides.
The “virtual keyboard”, while not that bad, takes some getting used to. The auto-complete function helps a great deal. You’re not going to be writing a novel on this thing, but then again, it’s not really meant for that. You’ll get used to the keyboard if you get one and you’ll eventually be doing just great with it, though.
There is no speed-dial per se, although you can add contacts to a list of favorites and do “one-touch” calling — sort of. It takes more than one touch, more like four or so. There is also no voice-dial ability, which is a shame.
And, of course, like almost every Apple product, it’s overpriced. The price will drop, certainly, and I urge those of you less obsessed with gadgets than myself to wait and pick it up after it’s gone down $100 or so. Plus by that time they’ll have a newer model out and — although I have yet to run into any bugs (*knocks on wood*) that will undoubtedly be a more stable product. I believe the next model is coming out near Christmas (big surprise there).
Like every other Apple product, another big downside is their incomprehensible stance on proprietary software. You’re not going to be able to download great apps right away; you’re going to have to wait for people and apps to meet Apple’s approval. Not necessarily a bad thing, but certainly annoying.
It could also stand to have its max volume set a little higher.
Now, finally, the big one: you can only get service through AT&T. So far, my calls have gone through smoothly without a hitch or a drop (*knocks on wood again*). Even if you love AT&T’s service (which not too many people seem to, if you read the posts across the web) you have to admit that Apple could have done a lot better by offering service from a few different companies, especially Verizon, which is a perennial fan favorite (and the make of my last cell, which worked perfectly fine — I’ve had the most trouble with Sprint service). I heard that Apple originally presented the idea to Verizon and Verizon turned it down — why, I have no idea.
These are minor complaints, though. You’ll either love or hate the iPhone. Personally, I think it’s surprising how much it lives up to the hype. It really is a brand-new sort of thing, a phone/PDA the likes of which you’ve never seen before. Me, I love it. But it’s not for everybody and yeah, it’s got that big-boy adult toy-like feel. But who cares? We all know that whoever dies with the most toys wins, guys!
Bottom line: if you’re a gadget freak and an Apple fan, go get one. If you’re satisfied with your current smartphone, wait until the price drops and they release a second model. If you only use your phone to make calls and don’t care about anything else, this is definitely not for you, despite the fact that the phone aspect of the iPhone does work very well.
But if you’re a gadget-freak like me? Hey, I spent all last night into the wee wee hours of the morning fiddling with it — and then I dreamed about it all night (no joke). Get it. You won’t regret it. The casual user should, however, as I have said, simply wait for a price drop and a second model.
Anyway you look at it, though, Apple has dropped a bomb on the smartphone community; one which is going to change the dynamics of things for a long time to come.
A’ight. I gotta write this, just for the search engines, because so many people screw up my name. For the record, again, my name is Kip Lange, with an E, but a lot of people think there’s no E, so, again, for the search engines — Kip Lang, Kip Lang, Kip Lang. Oh yes.
The same Kip Lange (or Kip Lang) who went to Wellesley High School, same one who went to UC Berkeley, same one who’s back in Wellesley at the moment. Kip Lange, damn you people. Damn you for making me say “Kip Lang” over and over again.
Sigh. Kip Lange. But really Kip Lange.
Okay, folks, even I get caught up in the 1080p hype these days. But, as always, don’t believe the hype. Here’s what I’ve learned in the seven months since I’ve owned my truly excellent 720p Panasonic.
There’s no doubt that 1080p is “better”. It’s simple math. It has more pixels, so you can cram more graphics in, smooth graphics out more, and such. That’s the bottom line. 1080p is — technically — better.
But that’s where the clarity of the subject ends. First, consider that most 1080p TVs are a good $1000-$2000 more expensive than a 720p set (excluding Westinghouse, a brand I simply do not trust). Now we get into the nitty-gritty. No television station broadcasts in 1080p. That means that when you’re watching your hi-definition TV broadcasts, your 1080p TV will simply “upscale” or “upconvert” a 720p image to 1080p — meaning it will stretch it to fit the screen. The broadcast will still be in 720p. So scratch 1080p if you’re just going to be watching standard HDTV broadcasts on cable.
When does 1080p come into play? Video games and Blu-Ray movies. I own a PS3, and some of the PS3 titles are beginning to come out in 1080p. I can only run them in 720p. And my PS3 is a Blu-Ray DVD player as well, which broadcasts in 1080p — so I’m losing out, right?
No. Anyone knowledgeable in the field will be quick to point out to you that 1080p is really only for television sets over 50″. If you have a 40″ set, and you’re in true 1080p (not upconverted 720p), and you sit, say, around six feet away from the television, you are not going to notice a difference. Sure, if you look hard enough, you might be able to spot it. But it simply isn’t noticeable enough to be worth an extra grand or two.
So what do you do if you’re in my situation? You have a next-gen console gaming system (an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3), you have a Blu-Ray DVD player (which will only play in 720p, obviously, on a 720p set) or you have Blu-Ray built into your Playstation 3, your TV is less than 50″, and you’re not made of money. What should you do?
You should buy a 720p plasma set. Plasma is still the best picture quality in HDTVs, bar none, and the few 1080p plasmas that are out are insanely expensive. You will not notice a difference, I promise you. If you want to test my theory out, go to your local electronics store. Do not let them show you a regular TV broadcast on a 720p set and a 1080p set. There’s no difference. You have to ask them to hook up a Blu-Ray player or a next-gen system playing a 1080p title on both screens. Then stand about six feet away and see if you can really notice a difference.
If you can, and if you just happen to have two grand floating around that you “just don’t know what to do with”, and you absolutely have to have the best gadget on the market, go ahead and buy the 1080p set. If you’re a middle-class consumer who’s jumping into the market because these sets are finally affordable, buy your 720p and never look back. There’s nothing to worry about. You won’t notice the difference. If you have a Blu-Ray player, it will downscale the HD movies to 720p — which is still better than the “Standard TV” 480p.
When the 1080p sets drop, and you’re buying one over 50″, go ahead and get that 1080p set. Of course, by that time, a new resolution will have taken over. Ask any PC gamer — 1080 pixels to them is nada, they’re looking for a monitor that can do 1200 pixels — 1080 is, to them, stone age engineering (so never hook your computer up to a 720p set).
Just rest easy if you have 720p and you’re under 50 inches. I know all the hype there is surrounding 1080p, but if you do a careful search on the Internet, you will find the technical experts telling you exactly what I am. In fact, when 1080p was first introduced at places like the Consumer Electronics Show, executives were quick to point out that it really was only worth it if you had a TV larger than 50″.
So sleep easy with your kickass 720p plasma set (I recommend plasma because there are no viewing angles, the colors are amazing, and it can reproduce true blacks with great ease — something that you will find makes a bigger difference than scaling up to 1080p).
Okay?
That’s all I really wanted to say. One more time:
Fuck you, David Chase.
Fucker.
Well, I gotta say, Sony may have screwed some things up in terms of launching the PS3, but since it’s been out, they’ve been doing a breakneck job of getting up to speed. Most of the third party games have been ported over by now, the library is picking up speed, and the first PS3-only games are starting to build up.
Now, as for Firmware Update 1.80 — available as of today, Thursday, May 24th — get it. Get it now. Why?
The 1.80 update is able to “upscale” regular (non blu-ray) DVDs and PS2/PS1 games to high definition. Okay, obviously, it’s not “true” HD, but I must admit, Sony has done a good job. I fired up my PS2 version of Madden 2007 to check it out, and it looks great.
In addition, “Remote Play” for PSP users has finally been implemented bigtime, and you can now port information and such from a computer or similar device. Well, you could before, sort of, but now it’s much easier.
Major points to Sony on this one.
Someone wrote that Kurt Vonnegut is dead and I should write something. Okay. Here:
Kurt Vonnegut is dead.
I never cared for Vonnegut. I found his writing to be turgid, and even Slaughterhouse-Five bored the crap out of me.
So he’s dead. Whatever. Move along.