iBlog

Posted by Nathan Strum, 02 July 2009 · 3,204 views

So I've finally joined the rest of the world, and got myself an iPhone. Of course the first appropriately nerdy thing to do with it (after using its GPS to plan an alternate route around the traffic to get home from Northridge), was to type an entire blog entry with it. I must say I'm rather surprised at how well the virtual keyboard works - especially in landscape mode and in no small part thanks to its on-the-fly auto-correct feature*. Of course I could type way faster than this on a real keyboard any day of the week, but all things considered I don't really see myself missing a physical keyboard for the amount of typing I'm likely to do. I appreciate Apple's approach to keeping the screen multi-functional instead of eating up extra space with a bunch of buttons.

Even two weeks after its release, I still had to wait in line for over an hour at the Apple store in Northridge to buy the thing (I blame AT&T and their convoluted sign-up process for the delay). Also, AT&T is to be blamed for me having to drive down to Northridge in the first place, since their local store (less than a couple of miles from me) was all sold out. Again.

Anyway, I've now got my first cellphone, a GPS, a replacement for my recently-deceased iPod, and a whole host of other things all-in-one. But the most amazing thing about this little gadget? It actually has more memory, storage, and a faster CPU than what came with the previous Mac I owned (bought in '96). Now that's progress!

*As a side note, the iPhone doesn't seem to understand "it's" isn't always typed with an apostrophe. :roll:

(Also, I'd kill for some virtual arrow keys in the onscreen keyboard.)

Nathan Strum
Aug 13 2009 12:32 PM

batari, on Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:10 AM, said:

YouTube seems to use at least two different video formats for the iPhone. There is a substantial difference in quality depending on whether you connect with WiFi or Edge (and possibly 3G.) Over Edge, video also doesn't fill the screen, either.

I've noticed that in the MLB app. The WiFi video is nice and clean. The 3G is... watchable. :ponder:

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Nathan Strum
Aug 19 2009 12:36 PM

batari, on Sat Jul 4, 2009 12:38 PM, said:

Yesterday I went for a hike and got kind of lost, so I pulled out the iPhone to search for a trail map. It actually connected to the internet, but only after a half hour of trying. I guess I will get a new iPhone sooner rather than later, as this is really annoying. I wouldn't have minded so much had there not been mosquitoes out in droves.

You need this next time (or one of the dozen other apps like it). :ponder:

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Nathan Strum
Aug 22 2009 5:16 PM

Why oh why isn't this an iPhone app yet? (It doesn't work in Safari on the iPhone since it's Flash-based.)

Posted Image

More to the point, why doesn't every pizza chain have this indispensable, life-changing technology?

Oh, and I picked up Snood for the iPhone (something I got hooked on years ago on the Mac). Yet-another giant time-suck I probably didn't really need.

(And Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble is reportedly on the way from Taito... :ponder:

)

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SpiceWare
Aug 22 2009 8:38 PM

That's pretty cool. Haven't had Domino's Pizza in a long time. I see they finally opened one near me, will have to try it next time I order pizza for delivery.

I normally go down the street to Candelari's. When I took my folks there they said it was the best pizza they'd ever had, and they've lived just outside of both NYC and Chicago.

We normally get a King Mike's - Candelari's Original Italian Sausage, Candelari's Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Sausage, pesto sauce, roasted garlic, bacon, portobello mushrooms and feta cheese.

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Nathan Strum
Aug 22 2009 9:06 PM

Generally, I'll get Round Table if I'm in the mood for pizza, but they don't deliver to my place, and it's about a 40-minute round trip to go get one. If I'm feeling lazy and don't want to go out, I get Domino's. (While Round Table is generally better, they tend to be a bit inconsistent, while Domino's is pretty-much the same every time.)

Around here, the best non-chain pizza is Vincenzo's, but that pales to my favorite - Spiro's. However, Seattle is a little bit far to go. Even for pizza. :ponder:

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SpiceWare
Aug 23 2009 5:15 AM

Those sound good too. a 28" pizza

that should be here in Texas :ponder:

I'm just outside of Candelari's delivery range, but it's only 6-7 minutes away. I go there a 2-3 times a month for their lunch buffet (and I tend not to care for buffets).

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Nathan Strum
Sep 15 2009 2:13 AM

I'm a little concerned... I saw this on my pizza tracker tonight:

Posted Image

Does that mean they licked it or something?

And does that count as a topping? Do I have to pay extra for that?

Sometimes too much information isn't necessarily a good thing... :ponder:

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SpiceWare
Sep 15 2009 9:31 AM

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SpiceWare
Sep 16 2009 2:30 PM

While not an app, Domino's updated their website to work on the iPhone

http://macdailynews....comments/22448/

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Nathan Strum
Sep 28 2009 4:57 PM

Haven't tried that yet (had Round Table last time), but did download a couple more iApps... GeoDefense Swarm (an excellent sequel to the already-addictive GeoDefense), and Alias SketchBook, which is the best drawing program I've seen on the iPhone yet.

Not that I've drawn anything worth keeping with it. :ponder:

But I'm still not used to drawing with my finger.

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Nathan Strum
Sep 30 2009 6:24 AM

I don't have one of these... but I think it's one of the most clever ideas for an iPhone case I've ever seen. I love the fact that its mouth is wide open, and the touchscreen is inside it. Brilliant!

Posted Image

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Nathan Strum
Oct 3 2009 7:20 AM

Whoa.

I just tried out RedLaser, thinking the reviews were too good to be true... but it actually works! It turns your iPhone into a barcode scanner! Using the camera, you line up a barcode in the brackets, and it automatically scans it, then checks online for what the product is, and what prices are available for it. (The idea being you take this shopping with you, to see how much cheaper you can find stuff elsewhere. I'm sure stores love this.

) On Wi-Fi, the whole thing is nearly instantaneous.

I've been walking around my apartment, scanning stuff, trying to stump it, and it's remarkably good. It had trouble scanning a couple of odd barcodes, but it did manage to get their numbers correct, even though it couldn't find specific products associated with a few of them (it checks online at Google and Amazon, so if an item isn't in their databases, it can't identify them). Even if it didn't know a product, it would usually associate a company with it. A few products it just couldn't locate online, which didn't surprise me since I threw some pretty obscure CDs at it which haven't been available in years.

CDs, DVDs, food items, books... it's managed to identify better than 90% of what I've thrown at it. (I've resisted the temptation to dig out my LPs... so far.

)

The biggest surprise? It correctly identified Ms. Pac-Man for the 2600!

This is a way cool app.

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Nathan Strum
Nov 17 2009 12:04 AM

Some more iApps I've downloaded:

Food Network - watch episodes of your favorite shows. Unless of course, you don't like shows about food.
iRadioSuite - listen to internet radio stations, including Big R Radio, which has a great 70's Hits station.
Wolfenstein 3D Lite - freebie version of the classic first-person-shooter. Only three levels, but hey, it's free. Maybe I'll splurge and spend the $1.99 on the full version.
Asphalt 5 - much, much better than Asphalt 4. A caveat though - all of the reviews complaining about the Cop Chase levels being too hard were right. Once all you've got left are those, the game grinds to a halt since it's impossible to get past them. According to the product page, an update to fix that is on the way. Still not as good as Need For Speed Undercover, but very good. Kind of pricey at $6.99 though. And it really sucks up the battery life.

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Nathan Strum
Nov 17 2009 3:01 PM

Just picked up Star Wars: Trench Run. I've only played it a little bit in "Arcade" mode, but I can already tell you - it's just as much fun as you'd hope it would be. A lot of games of this type (notably Star Wars games - regardless of platform) tend to disappoint, but this just "feels" right. It manages to capture a lot of the feel of the Atari arcade game, yet with modern 3D graphics. It probably doesn't offer much depth (I have yet to try "Mission" mode), but for a quick pick-up-and-play Star Wars game, it's perfect.

In other iPhone news... I think this commercial is just hysterical:

Yes... I think the iPhone is awesome, and am a big supporter of Apple, so on the one hand, I kind of hate to see the iPhone getting dissed. But what makes it work is that even the iPhone is sad about being on AT&T.

The point of fact is: AT&T had it coming to them - I can't even get 3G service in my office at work. Now AT&T is suing Verizon over these ads because they're "misleading". Nonsense. Most people shopping for a smart phone at this point (especially those likely to buy an iPhone) are going to know that a lack of 3G doesn't mean it won't work - it just means internet access is slower when you're not on Wi-Fi. As someone already pointed out, maybe AT&T should spend less time suing, and more time improving their 3G network.

This is just good, solid, competitive advertising, and AT&T just got "pwned", as the kids would say.

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SpiceWare
Nov 17 2009 4:57 PM

Thanks for the heads up on the Star Wars game, pretty slick. Only thing that threw me off was the screen is rotated the opposite way of all my other apps.

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Nathan Strum
Nov 17 2009 6:47 PM

Yeah, I noticed that right away too. Weird.

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EricBall
Nov 18 2009 1:14 PM

Another game to check out is Civilization Revolution. It's a port of the DS version of the game. Manual here: http://downloads.2kg...d_DS_Manual.zip

I hang around forums.civfanatics.com 'cause I have the PS3 version. (Identical save the graphics & controls.)

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Nathan Strum
Nov 29 2009 4:58 PM

I recently tried out Remote Tap (allows you to remotely control your Mac with your iPhone), but it responds so slowly, it's borderline useless. However... that could in part be attributed to my iMac which often responds so slowly, it's borderline useless. This came after a bad technology day at work that saw me spending nearly eight hours in the server room, and wishing I could have accessed my office Mac remotely while waiting for the server to do its thing. Eh. Five bucks. Maybe it'll work better with a new iMac.

Elsewhere in iPhone-dom, is something I saw in a Kohl's flyer this weekend:

Posted Image

So now they're making completely-unrelated knock-off products that look like the iPhone. It's the iMac all over again. Just smaller.

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Nathan Strum
Dec 8 2009 3:04 PM

Just splurged and picked up three more apps:

Solebon Solitaire (Because I think I've played their free version enough to justify the $1.99.)
Tetris (Atari2600land has a very nice homebrew version in development, and that rekindled my interest in playing it.)
The Moron Test (I assumed it to be just some dumb joke, but there were so many good reviews, I had to check it out. Turns out, it's a very fun and clever game.)

Also available now is a version of Dragon's Lair - using the original game's animation. It's tempting... but I never really got into Dragon's Lair all that much. (Apparently, Space Ace has been available for some time.)

Now if Atari (or someone) were to port Rampart or Quantum to the iPhone - I'd buy those in a heartbeat.

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Nathan Strum
Dec 20 2009 6:46 PM

And some more...

Virual Pool Online - an excellent pool simulation. How excellent? I'm just as lousy at this as I am at real pool.
Driver - The PS1 classic comes to the iPhone, with better graphics. I'm still getting used to the steering controls on this one, but it looks to be a pretty good port. Supposedly, all of the levels are there (although some people are already complaining it's too hard, but the original Driver was pretty tough, too).
Labyrinth 2 - I never bought the original, but the reviews were so good with the sequel, I decided to try it out. I'm glad I did, it's very addicting.
IMDb - A handy, free app that lets me look up useless information about movies anywhere. Now if Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Mojo would just follow suit...

Up next will have to be Need for Speed: Shift. That looks amazing, and the first NFS iPhone game is still one of the best driving games for the system.

I've also gone back and revisited Asphalt 4 some while I was waiting for the Asphalt 5 update (to fix the Cop Chase difficulty). It's a better game than I remember, but Asphalt 5 is still far superior. I'll go ahead and finish 4 though, even though 5 has now been updated, and the difficulty has been evened out a bit.