So, how do you really feel about your iPhone?

Over a year ago, I posted my reaction to the newly announced iPhone. I was incorrect in a couple of the details (GPS and pricing) at the time, as well as about when my Sprint contract was up (it was actually a year longer than I thought). So, sadly, I skipped version 1.

But no more. Version 2 is out, and Uberjam and I were first in line to get one (well, OK, 39th in line, but close enough). Behold:

It really is awesome - I feel like I'm living in the future. :) The attention to detail in this UI goes beyond anything I've ever seen. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn great. Here are the ups and downs:

Ups:

• I've found myself listening to a TON more music than I was before, simply because I don't have to worry about listening for the phone. When you're listening to music and you get a call, the music automatically fades out and pauses so you can answer the call. Then, when you're done, it automatically un-pauses and fades back up. That's a small thing, but it makes me more likely to be listening to music all day long, b/c it really doesn't get in the way.
  
• The headphones have a mic (so you can talk on the phone without taking them out) and a little squeeze control to pause your music or skip to the next track. That's really nice when you're running or something, no fumbling with the controls.
  
• There are a ton of apps in the app store, many free; and you can also basically elevate iPhone web apps to nearly full app status by putting an icon on the home screen, which means that many more are already available (google cal, bloglines, remember the milk, etc.)
  
• Syncs to google contacts, which is huge for me. I wrote an export from my self-created contacts database (with thousands of listings - basically, everybody I've ever met in my life) into Google, and from there it just syncs to the iPhone when you dock it.
  
• GPS will (theoretically) enable very cool new friend locating & sharing apps. I look forward to trying this at ACL, SXSW, etc. Time will tell which of the location apps (Loopt, Whirl, etc.) will be the platform of choice.

Downs:

• BATTERY. The battery does not last long enough on this thing, even from day one. I'm having to recharge at least once in the middle of every day. That's not acceptable - at a minimum, it needs to be able to go full tilt for a whole day and recharge at night. Fail on that, Apple.
  
• No 3rd party push notifications, YET - though that's supposed to be coming in the fall with the next version of the SDK. That means that for now, it can't give me push notifications of new emails - but honestly, that's OK. I don't really need to be pinged by every email.
  
• No ability (that I've found) to use different outgoing aliases for emails.
  
• A few apps that aren't there that I wish were: Google cal sync to iphone cal, native Flickr uploader, remote terminal / ssh app. But I'm sure they'll come soon, with many I haven't even thought of yet.
  
• Sometimes the GPS just doesn't seem to work, even when I'm outside on a clear day. What's up with that? At the very least, I'd like it to give a status screen with more info, besides just waiting with no indication of whether it's getting a signal, etc.

On balance, definitely psyched about it.

And now I promise not to talk about my iPhone anymore.

Across The Pond

So, Uberjam and I recently returned from a quick vacation overseas, to visit our good friends Mo & James in London. It was a fantastic time. Here are a few highlights:

Drinking shandies on the pebble beach in Brighton:

Seeing "Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Globe theater:

Traipsing around Paris:

Having a few pints at London's coolest ancient-underground-labyrnth-cum-trendy-new-bar, Shunt:

Riding in the London critical mass (here's our route, as well as a photoset by a Londoner with several shots of us in it):

Plus many other adventures with some of the most excellent folks on earth. Lots (loads) more photos here on Flickr. (JAM's got some too on her Flickr page.)

Good times! Can't wait to travel again, it is good for the soul. (If, perhaps, a little rough on the wallet, with the exchange rate being rubbish at the moment).

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords

So: my semester is done. I think it came out well, though we'll wait for the grades to say for sure. Since the end of the semester, I have:

• Gotten all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy (plus another 10 as Luigi)
  
• Recorded a full length album with Black Joe Lewis
  
• Taken pictures of our new house, which is now framed
  
• Caught up on all my emails and feeds, and all the other work I'd been shirking during crunch time
  
• Made a couple other changes (???)

Now, the wife and I are preparing for a vacation in sunny old London, starting late next week. Lo and behold, Google Maps has taken it up another couple notches since last I looked, and is now totally usable as a one-stop vacation planner:

• You can create your own maps with placemarks, shapes & notes, and collaborate on them with other people
  
• You can turn on a Wikipedia layer that shows geo-located wikipedia links for anything on the map area
  
• Not to mention all the other layers that you can turn on now in Google Maps, for restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

Here's the neighborhood we're starting in. Any suggestions?

View Larger Map

Food vs. nutrition: Michael Pollan @ Google

This is a fantastic video lecture by Michael Pollan (who wrote the Omnivore's Dilemma).

The Home Stretch

I've got about 10 days of productive work left before the end of the semester, so I'm battening down hard at the moment. In celebration thereof, here are a few procrastinatory web goodies:

TV = 2000 Wikipedias a year: Looking at how much time people spend watching TV in units of "wikipedias" - that is, the estimate of how much human effort has gone into wikipedia (around 100 million hours). How many wikipedias are spent watching TV each year? 2000.

A good quote from an article on SuperMemo:

Given the chance to observe our behaviors, computers can run simulations, modeling different versions of our path through the world. By tuning these models for top performance, computers will give us rules to live by. They will be able to tell us when to wake, sleep, learn, and exercise; they will cue us to remember what we've read, help us track whom we've met, and remind us of our goals. Computers, in Wozniak's scheme, will increase our intellectual capacity and enhance our rational self-control.

I welcome our new robot overlords.

Paul Graham considers whether benevolence might be the wellspring of corporate profit:

"Don't be evil" may be the most valuable thing Paul Buchheit made for Google, because it may turn out to be an elixir of corporate youth. I'm sure they find it constraining, but think how valuable it will be if it saves them from lapsing into the fatal laziness that afflicted Microsoft and IBM.

Another good quote: "truth = statelessness":

Being good is a particularly useful strategy for making decisions in complex situations because it's stateless. It's like telling the truth. The trouble with lying is that you have to remember everything you've said in the past to make sure you don't contradict yourself. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything, and that's a really useful property in domains where things happen fast.

Here's a cool artwork / game where you can see the code that's running the game and interact with it while the game is running: The Naked Game (Don't worry, SFW).

Ok, back to trying to get my last 9 stars in Mario Galaxy working on my Data Mining and Software Validation projects.

ps - Here are some pictures of the newly poured foundation of our house: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Goings On

Been quiet on this blog for a couple months, eh? Well, as they say, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. :) Not that I have anything particularly un-nice to say, I've just been busy ...

What's new? Last weekend, Jill and I went to the wedding of our good friends of many years, Emily & Matt. We went to Balcones Springs, which was amazingly beautiful

More photos here. They allow dogs, which Mr. Emmet was very excited about:

I'm now entering the last month of classes (just finished my last mid-term, and now I have two projects left to go), so don't expect to hear much out of me until mid-May. Not that you did anyway. :)

Yes We Can

So, I've been reading Obama's book, and I have to say: I will be pretty excited when he is elected president. He's a smart, inspiring person who tends to bring people together, which is exactly what we need. This video captures the feeling pretty well:

Can you imagine such an honest, heart-felt video starring a speech by Senator Clinton? I can't.

Also, the white house is not a time share. :)