McKooter.com

iPhone OS 3.0

Today I got ahold of a GM (Gold Master) copy of iPhone OS 3.0 today. Don’t ask where I got a copy of it, but it was supposed to be released to developers only. The firmware itself does not require a Developer Liscence so it was easy to install. I’ve played with it a bit here since installing a few hours ago, and here are my thoughts:

Its not really different, it has a few more features but in reality its very close to the same thing, this is odd coming from Apple who has taken their OSX Operating System and used version numbers appropriately, OSX is OS 10, this is something that was initially released (for desktop) in 2001 (they released OSX Server in 1999). With this operating system they have managed to stay with version 10 (for desktops) for over 8 years! At WWDC 2009 they announced Snow Leopard which is only version 10.6, and features great changes.

The point of all this OSX talk (which I do not use, I am a windows/linux man) is that somehow they have released iPhone os 3 without really changing much, which is unlinke them, hence the OSX talk.

Regardless here are my specific observations:

• Landscape text/email is very nice, but long overdue
• Copy & Paste is also very nice, and also very overdue
• The spotlight (left of main icons page) search function is nice, I really do enjoy it, haven’t needed to use it, but i feel that its something that when i need it I will realize how much i truly needed the feature.
• The search from within Mail, Calendar, iPod is really just an extension of the Spotlight feature IMO
• They say we can have tethering soon! (but AT&T is slow and im sure they will charge a ton for it)
• MMS Support!! ….. …. … wait, no, again AT&T, they wont have it available until the end of the summer. I know it really is an advanced technology, besides the fact that nearly every other phone on the market has had it for the past 5+ years!
• New stocks application… really, i don’t care, some may, but i don’t
• Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)  is a nice addition, but being that I don’t own any stereo bluetooth devices it dosent apply to me, im not really sure how many people NEED stereo anyway, i understand its helpful, but I mainly use my iPhone as a phone, and there is no stereo mic on any phone (that i know of) so who cares (only an opinion)
• Synces with Lotus Notes! (dont use it so i dont care)
• Safari autologin/autocomplete (nice feature)
• Parental Controls will be nice, makes it so that the AppStore dosent have to be rated G at all times, I dont really want a porn app or anything, but i feel that censorship can be hurtful
• Voice memo is a very nice application, its nice to have 1st party support for such thing, but after looking at it for a few seconds the only feature it provides that you cannot get else where is that its made by apple. there are plenty of 3rd party voice apps out there and many of them provide more features
• Apparently i have an app to send and recieve files from other iphones, i dont know where it is and dont care, no one i know has an iphone or an ipod touch so it wont help me
• Push Notifications: dont have anything to test it with as this os isnt released so I dont know of any applications that take advantage of it (i think espn does but i havent figured that part out yet). Also keep in mind, this isnt an addition to os 3.0, well it is, but we were promised it at 2.0 as well, they seem to have it implemented now, but its not like its something that was dreamed up since 2.0 was released

now the above just sounds like me bitching about my new iphone os. And while I am for the most part, im quite happy that I have copy/paste, the idea of push notifications, mms (eventually), landscape keyboards, search features, etc. but lets be honest, releasing a major version number is a bit unrealistic for what i see.
Lets take a look at version number formatting:

x.x.x (i.e 1.1.5)

first number is major, second is minor, and third is ultra minor (bugfixes). This is a minor revision, not a major one, in my opinion a major revision includes some major graphical changes and more advanced features.

from what i understand the new os allows for far more api’s as well as loosened rules from apple, hell at WWDC they announced a tomtom application (this i cant wait for). But the new features are things that are dependant on app developers, this is great but I wont be able to see the true impact that is has untill people start using these new apis and features.

Okay, for a bit more on my opinion, its the iPhone 3gs, this is the new phone which looks identical (bad idea), but has more features, and better hardware (we dont know much about it yet). Well these features would be great to have if they were something that wasnt available on the current 3g, now not all of them would be available, but many would.

• The camera was increased from 2MP to 3MP, and the new camera has autofocus (not sure if its hardware that does the focus ( i assume it is). Tap to focus (again based on the last feature). And video recording, (we already know the 3g can do it, its not the best quality, but cycorder has proven its possible.
• Improved performance, this is impressive, faster loads (up to 4x) and more space, this is definatley a positive
• Voice control: why can this not be included for iphone 3g? its just processing your voice, lame that you have to buy a new phone to get the feature that would work on the current iphone
• Compass is nice though, it is a phisical chip that finds your location, very helpful with gps data
• gps, is this improved? i hope so, the gps in my 3g is not impressive, its assisted gps, which is not as good as dedicated gps

so my thoughts on the new iphone 3gs are that while its a hardware improvement, I dont feel the need for it, it should have more features than improved hardware (processor) and a compass chip. But it is nicer technically.

So to wrap up my whole thoughts on the os and the new phone, they are improvements, maybe not quite what I was expecting from apple who uses version numbers sparingly on their desktop os.
Dont think that I dont appreciate what I have been given though, just my thoughts on my iphone and what i expected and what i got. As I read back on this post it seems like I am not happy with my iPhone, I really thought I was, but it seems that I am not. Lets just wait to see what the developers can come up with for new applications via the new api’s. This is really what I enjoy about my iPhone anyway, the APPS! I will try to make a new post in a few months once there are more applications that use the new features, etc.

I don’t know exactly why, but I have this new hatred for blackberry’s. In all honesty I don’t mind the actual phone, what I hate is that people think it is a common noun, and not a proper noun.

Let me explain what I mean by this. I work in an office environment, this means that I get phone calls from some upper management at times, (if you need to know I work at a bank) although this isnt really related to my work, just work got me running on this subject recently.

Your cell phone shouldnt be referred to as a “BlackBerry”! I get these calls from people from time to time, and i hear it on the tv/radio, people mention: “Have them call me on my BlackBerry”, or “I got a call on my BlackBerry”; I feel that people with BlackBerry(TM) phones are too quick to let everyone they know what brand of phone they have. Ill be honest, i have an iphone, no i dont hate blackberry(tm)’s, actually I have thought about switching to a BlackBerry(TM) Bold or maybe even something that runs Android (TMobile G1, often refferred to as the google phone). The reason I stay with my current phone is the apps, apple has the apps. BUT, im getting off topic, my rant is that people want to tell you if they have a blackberry(tm)! They never say “have them call me on my cell”, but they say “have them call me on my blackberry”.

Ive noticed that a few products have merged there way to proper nouns/verbs, like photoshop, people will say that a picture has been photoshopped, its wrong, but atleast you know what they mean, hell if they used software that wasnt photoshop to make the image nice, you would still say its photoshopped, its become a proper verb. Also people talk about bandaids, and krazy glue; now chances are the band-aid your put on and the crazy glue you use are not Band-Air Brand, or Krazy Glue Brand, but they have become PROPER NOUNS. But Blackberry’s cannot and will not become proper nouns, I cannot tell people to call me on my blackberry, why?, because i dont own a blackberry and anyone who see’s my phone will just wonder why i asked people to call me on the brand of phone that I don’t have…

I feel its just pretencious, you are just trying to let people know what type of phone you have. There is no one on the planet who says: “Just have them call me on my Motorola”, people just say cell instead of the manufacturer in those cases. Hell I own an iPhone! In my opinion its one of the best phones on the market, but  I have never said: “Let him know to call me on my iPhone”, somehow that does not work, and let’s be honest, iPhones are a major phone in todays market.

Why do people do this, and how can we stop it?!

p.s. this is just a personal rant, some may agree, some may not, but I love that I have a blog that no one reads, that way i can rant and dont care if anyone listens

*I refer to blackbery’s as BlackBerry(tm) with the ™ many times in this article because its a product and not a proper noun!

I will try to write more posts here soon, I neglect this site so many times because i know no one reads it,

I am looking to get another writer on to make sure that we have new posts, I have a few ideas, if you know me and think you can add a post here and there, let me know

Ill post very soon, maybe even a new design if i get randy

//McK

I for a long while have been a fan of Pidgin for all my instant message needs. Running seperate im applications is just not feasable anymore, they are all so bloated and I like to be able to have all of them at my disposal without installing AIM, YahooIM, MSN, ICQ, Gtalk, etc.

I have a few times run OSX on my pc as well (OSx86) and got Adium, and I must say I fell for all the stupid themes for the chat windows. Of course primarily I run windows, and  sometimes into Ubuntu Linux, but osx as a primary source of computing just dosent work for me.

Recently I ran accross a new im app called Digsby, it feels so much like Adium, and the chat skins are a direct rip off (assuming they arent from the same people). Also digsby incorporates my email and social sites (Myspace, Facebook) right into the im app. I dont have to check them individually anymore, they are included. Side note: My facebook actually dosent work so well. for some reason it seems to ask me to re-authorize every day, even though I gave it full permission once already. Ill reactivate it again and see what happens.

Theres one thing about digsby that really scares me. When installing it asks about installing all this other crap, now from what I can see if you elect not to include the “extras”. Just now I ran through the install again, and well… theres 6 offers that are hazardous to your health. Heres screenshots of all of them:

Well, it dosent take a genius to see that these are toolbars and other “sketchy” programs. So this makes me afraid of where the developers are heading with this. Its not open source, and they are already including not one, but six “offers” with their software. So far it seems to me that if you decline all these offers you are safe. But this is “now” and who knows what is coming in the future.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that developers should get paid for their hard work, but I do belive in honest practices. So far this is honest, it offers you something, and there is a definate Accept or Decline response. The fear is that it will end up more like other programs and it will just be a checkbox that is checked by default in the future.

Besides the fear of spyware creeping into my new IM app (and the facebook weirdness) I must say that this im application is the best I have seen in a while. I love the themes for both the application and the conversations. There seems to be the ability for 3rd party skins as well. Also it has popups that you can define to notify you of new events, while most IM apps have these, Digsby intruduces a text box in the popup so you can chat right from the status notifier. This feature itself dosent seem extremely useful for myself as I have two monitors and leave my chat on the left one, but if Digsby is minimized and someone just asks you a question I can see this being usefull. Digsby dosen’t include skype but I prefer to use the real skype anyway as its features are a bit different than the standard IM application. Digsby is currently only for windows, but they appear to have plans for Linux and OSX soon.

I will keep my eye on digsby and see how trustworthy their sponsorship packaging is in the future. But for now all apears safe on my end. You may want to give it a try!

Okay, its christmas, (not the “holidays” but its christmas (for me)). So I got as would be expected a few gift cards to wal-mart, as did my cousin. And today he got a PS3. I love my ps3 but its well known that you need internet to make it worth while. Tomorrow we plan to goto wal-mart and look for stuff to spend our wonderful fake cash on. He needs a wireless router, so tonight i decided to look online for a router for him, to get an idea of what was available before I went and guess what I found? Open source costs money apparently!

Here is a screenshot of the walmart.com website, from the wireless router section:

Now look, there are two of the WRT54G routers, one is $39.97, and the other is called WRT54G”T” (for $69.97) and is, and I quote: “Linux Open Source Edition”. So lets get this straight: If I want “open source” I need to give you an extra $30.00 (75.05629%)??  I fail to see the major advantage of open source on this router.. Now I would like to see what the “open source” os is on this router. I’ve never had one of these, or seen one, but im guessing is something that is far inferior to DD-WRT and costs 75% more than the origional WRT54G.

Is this just another way for linksys to offer us something that we don’t need to pay for? How much could it cost to put an “OPEN SOURCE” firmware on a already built hardware and print a few “L” ’s  on the end of the model numbers?

Update: in looking at the above image, I have noticed that the products also feature the product being shot at two different angles, the WRT54G is shot from the right while the WRT54GT is shot from the left. Maybe this is where the extra $30.00 goes…

Well, somehow the last database got completely screwed, I could have recovered the posts, but… it would have been a pain in the ass, and I hadn’t written much.

I got hacked, due to one of my completely unsecure scripts, luckily I don’t plan on hosting my own scripts, or releasing them anymore, due to my complete ignorance in security . Well we will see…

Anyway, this is mckooter.com , its a blog now, I will try to post a new article atleast once a week. Preferably I would like to post every 2-3 days. I am not a writer though, so you will find many gramatical and spelling errors (if firefox had spellcheck in this wysiwyg box I wouldn’t have the spelling).

So stay tuned. this one should stay, assuming everything goes well.