Most of you have heard the announcement by now, unless you have been isolating yourself from the rest of the world this past week. Monday, Apple unveiled the next edition of their iPhone, the smartphone-on-steroids that they unleashed upon the world last year. They’ve christened their newest offering as the iPhone 3G, due to the added capability of operating on the faster 3G networks that AT&T is hastily installing throughout the US. Personally, I much prefer to call it the iPhone v1.5, since most of the actual hardware underwent minor revision besides the 3G chipset. Nevertheless, Apple had major success with their “trial run” of the first iPhone, and now they’re set to steamroll the competition with their new phone and the new, subsidized price, thanks to their AT&T partnership.

As most of you know, I love Apple’s products. We have their computers and their iPod media players, of course. (I absolutely loooooove my iPod!!) However, I’ve seldom ever been a first-adopter of any new device or technology. Call me the cautious cat, but I was justified in my reasoning for that when I bought my current computer, the first-edition of the iMac G5. It works great, but it did have some issues which led to a recall notice that I did put into use when it started smoking one fine day. Which leads me to the reasons why I didn’t buy the first iPhone: One, I wanted to be as patient as possible to see what problems people had with the device. Two, my contract with Sprint hadn’t run its course yet. Three, the onboard memory was paltry for my needs when it first came out. Finally, number Four… the price was hard to swallow, even when they lowered it by $200 to $399.

Now that the iPhone has been put through its paces, with rave reviews by so many people (some lovingly called it the iOhMyGodPhone!), and given a performance overhaul, I think… no, I KNOW I will be getting the iPhone on July 11th, or sometime after that. I’ve done lots of thinking and research in making the decision, especially since it involves a contract with AT&T. I don’t enter contracts lightly; before Sprint, we shopped at several carriers and asked many questions. This leads me to the reasons for getting the new iPhone…

Price and Service – The new subsidized price of $299 for the 16GB ($199 for the 8GB) is great. The only downside behind the subsidizing is the forcing of an AT&T contract. You simply can’t just buy an iPhone anywhere and hope to unlock it for use on another carrier. You can only buy it at a Apple store or an AT&T store, with the condition that it’s activated right then and there. That being said, I looked at their pricing plans and weighed my options. Even though I’ll most likely be paying $25 more a month compared to my current service (Edit: hooray for corporate discounts!!), to me this is justified by the added services I’ll be getting, such as visual voicemail and 3G data speeds (there is more, of course!). For me, the down versus the upsides are pretty much on an even keel. The 3G service even extends out past my home’s community, which is surprising considering the techno-backwards nature of the Avondale, AZ area.

The Device and OS – The new iPhone has all the neato things most of you have read about, plus some new features. The GPS ability just might clear the subscription cost by itself! There are times I’ve wanted to read or write email from my work or when I’m out and about. The improved email features, including “push” email, will definitely be an asset for me, not to mention the fact that you can now add appointments to the device’s iCal app directly (a feature that was added in their first iPhone OS overhaul). Believe me, checking email and adding calendar events to my current phone (LG PM-325) is a royal pain and I don’t like doing these things often because of that. Also, developers are now invited to write third-party applications for the iPhone, which will be made available through Apple’s App Store. 70% of these apps are confirmed to be free of charge! I know I’ll be looking out for some killer apps to enhance my use of the device¹. I could go on and on about the rest of its feature set; you’ll just have to check out the rest for yourself.

Convenience Factor – Though I love my iPod, it will be nice to not have to carry two devices around anymore. Right now, I sometimes have three things on my belt: iPod, cell phone and a Leatherman multi-tool. I’m starting to look like a Batman-wannabe! I’m surprised that no one at my work has said as much. Even though I won’t carry my entire music library with me on the iPhone due to storage limits (I want to have at least a couple of vids or movies on it!), I only need my favorite and new albums with me and that will suffice. For lengthy trips, I’ll definitely pack the iPod for extended media play. I’ve wanted to have a phone that can also play music, but none of the other phones capable of doing so appealed to me. I guess the iPod’s ease-of-use spoiled me. One more thing that I almost forgot to mention is that the iPhone will be set to work with Apple’s newest service, MobileMe, which is replacing their .mac service. I looked at the new service and I’m seriously considering it as a replacement for my PowWeb subscription (more easier to use features for the same price I’m paying now).

Well, I think I’ve detailed my reasons enough for acquiring the iPhone. It was also good to put it down in writing here so I can justify my reasonings to myself. I’m glad I waited this long for the good stuff and I think the investment will be worth it in the long run.

Cheers!

¹ Notice I stopped calling the iPhone a “phone”, but rather a “device”. Many publications are actually calling the iPhone the first successful handheld computer with a desktop-class OS.

First, I’d like to thank all my readers out there, no matter how frequent their visitations. This blog, as of the last post, passed the 400 post mark! I couldn’t have achieved that without the support of all of you. Thank you! So I guess you all will stick around for the 500th post, eh?

Second, I need to vent my frustration with one aspect of cubing. Ready? Here goes…

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things like this are really aggravating. This is the third time that my 5×5x5 Rubik’s Professor cube went completely discombobulated on me. None of the pieces themselves are broken, like with what happened to my first 4×4x4 Rubik’s Revenge, but it’s extremely time-consuming to put it back together. In the picture you can see everything grouped: outer edge, outer center, inner center, corner and inner edge pieces and the core in the middle. After the picture was taken for this entry, I boxed up the pieces and put it underneath the bed. Before I did that, though, I placed an order on this eBay page for a 4×4x4 and 5×5x5 Eastsheen cube set. Eastsheen is a “chinese knock-off” variant of the Rubik’s brand that is purported to be much more stable and durable than the Rubik’s brand. I wonder why the company that makes Rubik’s brand simply didn’t adopt the manufacturing specs for these; they seem better constructed, from what I’ve seen.

I only ordered the 4×4x4 cube because I know that what happened to my last Rubik’s 4×4 will certainly happen to my current one in due time.

Well, wish me luck with these when they come in. I’ll post pics and reviews when I get the chance!

One more thing: Christine and I are shopping around for a new cellular contract, because our Sprint contracts are up in May. In light of a recent windfall, and Apple’s SDK announcement, you might see an awesome cellphone review in a couple of months! Stay tuned, and cheers!!

I have to give a tip ‘o the hat to Chris Pirillo, egomaniacal geek that he is, for pointing this app out.

Click on the thumbnail to embiggen the image of my new desktop (wallpaper, for you Windows sufferers users!). I created that while using this awesome fractal-generating app called Oxidizer. It’s an open source project on Sourceforge.com and, so far, it’s only available for OS X. Be warned, though; you will definitely need some muscular processing speed to render any thumbnail samples generated by Oxidizer to full size images within a decent timeframe.

Case in point: Chris Pirillo demonstrated this app on his quad-dual-core Mac Pro machine. That’s 8 processor cores, compared to my lone PPC 1.8 Ghz G5 processor. It took him all of 37 seconds to generate an over-2000px wide image. It took me seven freakin’ hours to generate this image you see in the post to 1680×1050px resolution!! Oh, by the way, this thing does fractal morphing animations as well. So, yup, definitely think twice before doing any serious stuff with this app if you have a underpowered (read: over 2 years old) computer.

If you want to use this image for your own (legal) purposes, click here to download it in 1680×1050 widescreen goodness. (567 Kb download)

Cheers!

50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Apple’s Mac OS X ~ Chris Pirillo

I highly recommend this article for any Windows user who wonders why more people are switching to the Mac OS. Or is wondering why they themselves should make the switch.

This, by far, is one of the best “switcher” articles I have read lately. The piece is even more grounded than other PC-to-Mac articles for a couple of reasons. One, Chris Pirillo is a noted tech writer and reviewer who has done more than his fair share of working with and troubleshooting the Windows OS. Two, because of this, he has written the article with a completely unbiased standpoint. He’s had the opportunity to slowly slide into the world of the Mac OS over the past year or so and, just recently, he took the plunge and got himself a Mac Pro (the roaring beast of all Macs!).

Enjoy!

… And just take one guess as to which one won the battle…

My iPhone After Semi Ran Over It on Flickr – Photo Sharing

I posted this on my Tumblelog, but afterwards, I felt this was noteworthy enough to post here as well. Click the link and read the whole explanation (in the comments) and the person’s thoughts on the experience. This shows me yet ANOTHER reason to get an iPhone! I know my beloved LG PM-325 has taken a few tumbles, but I sure wouldn’t bet against a vehicle squishing it like a juicy techno-bug.

Cheers and happy reading!