I’m watching videos and reading information on HE (High Efficiency) detergents. We just purchased a new HE washer – waiting for it be delivered soon. You can watch two more videos on HE information here and here. We were hoping to get a front-loading washer, but space limitations forced us to get a top-loading HE washer.  I think it’ll work out great.

I’ve had the iPhone 3GS for over a week. Here are a few thoughts on how I feel about the phone.

Background

I bought the iPhone 2G back in September 2007, just after the price drop was announced. I was on Verizon, a carrier I much enjoyed being on. But the last phone I had Verizon was an LG Chocolate, a phone that didn’t live up to expectations. I was hoping it would turn out to be a good music playing phone because I was tired of lugging my iPod and phone around in my pocket. All it ended up being was a frustrating piece of equipment.

I figured a smartphone would be a good choice, but Blackberry phones seemed a bit too much.  The only other phone Verizon offered was the Motorola Q. A friend of mine had the Motorola Q. All she could say is it would crash often, even while on a call. Nice.

Now, I count myself as one of those people who are part of the halo effect. I received an iPod as a gift in 2005.  Later that year I bought a 12” PowerBook. After few more iPod upgrades I bought an iMac.  Why not an iPhone?Initially I balked at the price.  It was way too much for a phone.  But when it dropped a couple of hundred dollars, well, I got the go ahead to get it.

My Thoughts on the iPhone 3GS

I was able to use the phone out of the box as it was fully charged.  Compared to the 2G, the phone feels smaller and lighter. The infamous oleophobic polymer screen adds to the experience.  Your finger seems to glide across the screen.

The recent OS upgrade to 3.0 has made the phone even better.  I don’t think I’ve ever owned a phone where the upgrades have made the phone more useful.  Sure, some of the features were available on other phones long ago (e.g. voice commands), but they are now on the iPhone and they are even more useful.  For example, the voice commands can control the music player.

It’s nice to have GPS, and coupled with the compass and Google Maps, for me it’s a killer combination.  I was able to use this in San Francisco this past weekend.  It helped me navigate around the city when I was unsure how to get to several places.  I can’t wait for easier turn-by-turn, such as that to be offered by TomTom.

Video on the iPhone 3GS is fair, better in bright light then in dim.  But it’s pretty neat when you can edit video on the phone and upload it right to YouTube.  They should add direct upload to other services, such as Flickr.

Battery life is good.  I average about a day-and-a-half.  The battery meter is now includes a percentage measurement.  I use the iPhone mostly like this:

• 40% iPod
• 30% web surfing (including accessing apps such as Facebook, Yelp, etc.)
• 20% checking and reading email
• 5% taking photos or video
• 5% GPS and maps

My only negatives about the iPhone is with AT&T.  Do I regret the move to AT&T? No, not really.  Coverage is decent where I am at.  Oh, yeah, a few calls are dropped in some areas, but for the most part it’s good.  The only complaint I have about AT&T is the apparent charge for everything under the sun (e.g. text messages, data plan).  But it’s part of the package, so it’s part of the pain to put up with.  The data plan for 3G and 3GS is $30.  If you want 200 text messages it’s another $5.

Overall, I am happy to still be using an iPhone.

(Considering an iPhone?  You may want to read the Techcrunch article The iPhone 3GS: Should You Get It? It’s a good read.)

Reserve your iPhone 3GS Online
I just reserved our iPhone 3G S for pickup at an Apple Store next Friday. Reserving and buying are two different things, but I’m thinking we’ll end up gettting it. We still have the original 2G version, so our upgrade pricing wasn’t bad.  I’ll be happy with the hopefully improved camera and expected bump in overall speed.

My Short Review of Dane Cook at HP Pavilion

I’m not a big Dane Cook fan.  If someone was playing his CD or DVD I would listen or watch. But watching him live in concert is a different story.  I had no set expectations in seeing him in concert.  Unfortunately, his concert at the HP Pavilion was fair to middling at best.  He lacked any real energy or (fake) spontaneity, relying solely on his charm to push him through the night.  For me, the opening acts garnered more bellyful laughs.

Timothy Finn does a good review of Dane Cook’s concert earlier this year. It sums up the experience pretty well.  Would I pay to see Dane Cook again?  Probably.  Would I spend as much? Probably not.

(photo via sjsharktank)

Palm Pre

The reviews are starting to come in on the Palm Pre. Reviews from Engadget, Gizmodo, Walt Mossberg. and David Pogue.  All the reviews seem positive for the most part. I don’t think I’ll be swayed to leave my iPhone though.  I hate Sprint more than any other cellphone carrier I’ve ever had.

Twitter Your Way to Getting Robbed

I was in a seminar about twitter a few weeks ago. One person about the safety of tweeting, such as mentioning you are at a restaurant or traveling and not at home. The answer the presenter gave was “you don’t have to share everything”.

Common sense people.  Common sense.

mashable:

Going out of town? Most of us who tweet have been known to share that little tidbit of news with our followers, especially if that out of town journey is to a conference or event where we’re…

My Short Review of Taken

Liam Neeson does his best Jason Bourne in this action movie. Neeson is an ex-Preventer who must now use his skills to save his daughter. The movie moves along at a good clip. The violence can get intense at time, but the payoff works.

Rating: Matinee

Damn! Somehow, someway my main blog was compromised. I’m not sure if it was on the server level or if my password was somehow guessed. I don’t think it’s the latter.  I tend to randomly generate my passwords and even I don’t remember them. I’ve reverted was was once the main blog back to WordPress.com.  If WordPress.com account becomes compromised, well, that would be a surprise.

Once again I find myself with only a few opportunties to truly blog. And so I’ve decided to revert back to a tumblr account. Newer posts I make will be here.

We visited the California Academy of Sciences last week. I cobbled all the videos we took, and a few photos, and edited them in iMovie 09. I then added a track using YouTube’s AudioSwap. You can also watch the video on Vimeo, but the soundtrack is different. Watch it in HD for best picture.

It's Wolverine, bub

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

First off, I hated the title of this film. It’s more suited as a comic book title then a film title. I think they could have gotten away with Wolverine. Non-fanboys would have known who Wolverine was, at least I think. I know he’s no Superman or Batman, but the target audience knows who Wolverine is. Well, onto the film itself.

As an origins story, it provided pretty minimal grit to understanding the man who is Wolverine in all the X-Men films. The story starts off with James / Logan as a boy and by the end of the opening credits he’s a man. The opening credits helped the film along similar to Watchmen, covering enough history to get to a fair starting point for the story. Well, what there is of a story.

I found the story weak and confusing at times. There are too many characters and story points to be compressed within the 107 minute for the film. You can’t grasp any sense of who these characters are and why you should hate or care for them. It’s cool to see Gambit and Deadpool on the big screen, but it’d just as interesting to play them in a video game then watch them in this film again.

The fight scenes were on par with other X-Men films. But oddly the special effects seem to be worse. I would say the original X-Men film had better special effects than some of the scenes in this film. If you can wait for this film to come out on DVD, I’d say do so. It should be out by the end of the year.

Rating: Rental