OK, I usually don’t rant on my blog, and don’t approve of blogs that rant all the time - but in this case, I can’t resist.
Lately, I’ve had people send me Word documents that ended in .docx and have had a LOT of trouble opening them and have had to send them back and forth trying to get them to save in different formats and whatnot so that I could view them thinking they were using some archaic version of Word - harking back to the old days when Mac and PC files were not compatible when today they are perfectly compatible. Well, this week I upgraded to Office for Mac 2008 and discover the problem is STUPID MICROSOFT and these friends of mine were not using some old outdated version but the latest stupidity of the so-called cutting edge computer company. I went to save a document and the default is this lame .docx which means that if I need to send the file to anyone who hasn’t upgraded they won’t be able to open it. HOW DUMB IS THAT? So now every time I save a document I have to manually ask to save it as a .doc so the rest of the world can read the file and not the few who have the latest version of Office or someone will think I’m using some old outdated version of Word when I send them this mysterious .docx file.
Fine, upgrade Office, it was long overdue - but WHY change the file extension? That is just plain stupid if not cruel and unusual punishment. Stupidity like that was why I switched to Mac from the PC world. Too bad when it comes to word processing I still have to live in that backwards thinking universe.
OK, rant is over. Ix willx justx havex tox getx usedx tox havingx anx xx addedx tox thex endx ofx everythingx I guessx.
(I think Microsoft was just jealous of the Mac’s OS “X”)
If you have a Mac, you’re in luck! Thanks to Super Mac Expert Chad Gilchrist (and fellow Mac Nerd) you can have your on handy dandy Mac Widget and see my new blog posts via a custom widget! Thanks Chad!
Another reason to buy anything Apple makes - they stand behind their products. I had a weird issue with my iPhone (I won’t bore you with the technical problems) and called Apple Care. When they were unable to resolve it over the phone, I made an appointment with the Apple Genius bar. They worked on it for an hour and couldn’t solve it. (So it wasn’t just me!) So what did they do? Blame me like always happened with my Palm Pilot or some other software (like nearly every PC tech support used to do to me) they simply gave me a BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW iPHONE! Yup, I walked out with a new phone!
They even let me stay 30 minutes past closing to help me. Their current window display is a bunch of cut-out Apple employees looking eager to help. On my way out I tried to stand there and blend in so I could stay overnight and play with all the Apple stuff - but in my red jacket I was quickly discovered and showed the door. But not before one of the employees agreed to pose for the picture below, since they DID blend right in!
(Click for Larger Image)
So, can you spot the REAL EMPLOYEE? If you need help, you can view the image larger. If you really can’t figure it out. Here the same picture without the real employee (but only look as a last resort!)
Yes, it’s true. I waited in line for an operating system. But then again, this was not just any operating system… it is an Apple Operating System, something truly worth looking forward to, every time. Originally, I wasn’t going to wait in line for Leopard like I did for my iPhone, but as it turned out, I was doing training our youngest Kidology Team Member and decided it would be fun to do with him, so we went and got in line!
Chad and Karl - Mac Nerds, and Proud of it!
We got in line with several hundred other Mac fanatics… many busy on their iPhones, and were happy to see we were close enough to get the free t-shirt!
Me with my free Apple Mac T-Shirt!
The Apple Store employees are a hoot. Literally! They cheered for each group of 10 that were allowed in forming two lines that you passed through to enter. You kinda felt like Moses walking through the Red Sea. The enthusiasm was a little silly - but it made it a fun event. Come, on! Who would cheer for the lastest version of Windows… that’s more like, “Well, OK, I guess I should upgrade, the version I have stinks and is riddled with problems, maybe the new one will be better, at least for a little while. How much is it gonna cost me? Sigh. Ho Hum. A new Windows operating system.” But with a Mac, you just know it will be loaded with cool practical stuff that actually does what it claims.
Happy Mac Fanatics!
Soon we were back at Chad’s installing our beautiful new operating system. Chad’s installed in just under 1.5 hours. I did a full erase and install to get a clean start with the new OS and mine installed in under an hour. But of course, then I had to re-install my software, and restore Mail, Calendar, Address Book, Bookmarks, Preferences, Music, Pictures, data, etc. But after all the stuff I install and uninstall, I like to use an OS upgrade as an opportunity to start with a clean “out of the box” machine.
Mentoring sometimes means sharing Mac tips!
By the way, I gotta tell ya, I was meeting with Chad to train him on some projects, but I love young people because I left learning a ton too… (like try this: apple-option 8 and then use apple-option + or - to zoom in or out on your screen, and move the mouse around! Just do apple-option-8 again to go back to normal!)
If you don’t have a Mac, you know I recommend it… and I won’t even go there now. If you do have a Mac, Leopard is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
It’s outtathisworld!
UP-DATE: (sent to me by Chad)
If Microsoft had designed the iPod packaging. (This is too funny and too true)
July 11, 2007 at 11:18 pm · Filed under Family, Luke, Mac
Yes, this is Luke with his laptop… granted, an old dead one, but he loves to sit and play with it… I wonder who is trying to be like? (picture is months old, fyi)
Well, tonight as I was putting him to bed, I told him the following bedtime story, and thought others might like it as well, this is the short blog version. His version was drawn out and had the benefit of character voices! ENJOY!
The Tale of the Three Little Piggy’s and Big Bad Wolf Hacker
Once upon a time there were three little pigs who all worked in the Internet industry. One day, they heard a rumor that a terrible hacker, known only as the Big Bad Wolf Hacker, was sending out a virus that could do critical damage to a personal computer! The three little piggies were scared!
“I’ll download a free virus protection tool!” said the first little piggy.
“I’ll install Norton Anti-Virus!” said the second little piggy.
“I’ll buy a Mac” said the third little piggy.
And sure enough the Big Bad Wolf Hacker hacked and he hacked and he broke into the first little piggy’s computer and deleted all kinds of important files! The devastated piggie ran to his friends house, but just as he got there he heard his cries! Yes, the Big Bad Wolf Hacker had hacked, and and he hacked, and to got access to the second little piggy’s computer, and not only did he delete critcial files and steal important data, but he installed spyware and adware and slowed the computer way down. They ran together to the third little piggy’s house and as they entered they heard laughter! He was busy making a video in iMovie, burning it to a DVD with iDVD while listening to music in iTunes and surfing the Internet, and although the Big Bad Wolf Hacker hacked and he hacked and he hacked, but he just couldn’t hack into the Mac, so he tried to climb into the house to install a virus manually (even though he would need the administrative password to do so) but as he climbed in the chimney, he fell into a boiling pot of stew, and the three little piggy’s ate until they were full all playing on the Mac into the wee hours of the night, because, well, Macs just work, and they never get viruses, or spyware, or adware, not by the hair of their chinny chin chins. And they lived happily ever after.
The End.
Luke playing on a PC that the Big Bad Wolf trashed!
Reviewing the iPhone will be an ongoing process, so rather than post multiple posts, I will just keep updating this post when I have new information, feedback, or gripes. So far, I am so incredibly impressed, I know that some will ignore my review as being too positively biased… but I will try hard to find bad things to keep the skeptics and Mac haters happy, as much as I can. As I have often said to my Mac-attack friends, I am a big Mac fan, but I am an honest one. I have ripped on my Mac online, so I don’t only say the positive - it’s just that there just is so much more positive than negative. And that is the truth.
REVIEW OF FEATURES: (will update)
TEXT MESSAGING: Not only does it look sweeeeet, and typing easy with the intelligent keyboard, looking people up is a snap, but there is a COOL feature. If you get a Text Message, and the phone is off. Not only will it notify you that you have a message, but it will simply give you the message and the sender in a pop-up so that you can see the message even without unlocking the phone and going to the SMS area to read it. If someone is sending you a quick answer, with a glance you can see the message and you are done.
CALENDAR: Scrolling through events is easy and visually wonderful. Day and month views are great too. Setting reminders and alarms is nice, especially the secondary alarm. For an appointment to meet a friend this week at a movie at 4:45pm, I set a reminder for 3:45 and a secondary at 4:00pm - the first I was in the middle of a conversation and hit ‘ignore’ - but on the second one, dismissed myself to make the appointment. That was cool.
PHOTOS: Man, this is amazing. The images seems a clear as a monitor. You can flip through with a flick of a finger, and the image rotates ALL FOUR ways if you turn your iPhone this way or that. Zoom in, or e-mail the picture you just took in seconds. I sync my favorite albums on my laptop, as well as “Last Roll” so I always have the last roll I imported with me.
CAMERA: Obviously, with no flash, it is best outdoors or in a well lit room, but it takes nice pictures at 2 mega-pixels. The shutter is slow, so blurs are easy to get:
HERE ARE SOME PICS TAKEN WITH THE iPHONE WITH COMMENTS: (click images for larger view)
Takes nice outdoor pictures.
Shutter is slow, so fast moving objects can get distorted.
The button to take the picture is visual on screen, not a “real” physical button, so it is very touchy (pun intended) and accidental pictures are common, and if you aren’t very careful, you push the iPhone when you push the button, and get a blurry picture, so you really have to concentrate on lightly touching, not pushing the button, keeping your finger close the button so you won’t tap, but not so close it senses your finger and takes a picture. Not dificult, but takes more concentration than a camera with a physical button. The location of the button so low on the screen makes it a little uncomfortable to hold and click, but that’s minor.
Lighting can be a bear, even in the sunshine, without a flash to fill in, but easily fixed in iPhoto - here is a picture as the iPhone took it (above) and here it is after iPhoto lightened it in one easy click:
YouTube: Wow, this is a time waster. Fun, but you could quickly lose a lot of time watching videos, but hey, if you are stuck somewhere, its like having a TV you can turn on and search for something fun.
Positive: you can easily and quickly find and watch YouTube videos on your iPhone and bookmark the ones you really like.
Negative: the audio doesn’t seem to always match the video, but I’m not sure if that is an iPhone issue, or YouTube issues, as I don’t use YouTube much even on a computer. The search also seems limited, I searched for “Conan Late Night ILM” on the iPhone (after a friend recommended it) and it said no results on the iPhone, but on YouTube it comes right up.
It also makes me nervous having so many kids with iPhones, as the content is often a concern - but then, I know kids are online viewing YouTube, it is a fact of culture, but now kids can watch stuff on their phone when no one is around to filter or supervise.
YOUTUBE UPDATE: (from Apple article) To achieve higher video quality and longer battery life on mobile devices, YouTube has begun encoding their videos in the advanced H.264 format, and iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the H.264-encoded videos. Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until their full catalog of videos is available in the H.264 format this fall.
STOCKS: Looks cool. Google is selling at 530.38 (up 7.68) and Apple at 121.26 (down .78!) but that’s all I can tell you, not a feature I’ll be using unless I have stock someday! I only have time to invest in my family and the Kingdom.
MAPS: Simply incredible - and screaming fast! Put in your address and see your house from space, and zoom back to the whole earth. Then zoom into the middle a Africa and look for some huts if you want. I showed my gramma the Great Wall of China this evening. When I showed her how I could zoom into her house she said she will have nightmares tonight! Downside is, it only saves the places you typed in, you can’t navigate to somewhere and then bookmark that location. That is a little frustrating. But basically, it is Google Earth on your phone, and no slower than on the computer. This is the best thing to show kids. My nephew wanted to wave and see himself from space!
WEATHER: easy, simple, sharp and updates within seconds of going to view it. Six day forcast at your fingertips any time. not bad.
CLOCK: World time with the ability to have multiple times, I have Chicago, Manila and Melbourne on mine. If that wasn’t cool enough, it adds Alarms, Stop Watch, and even a count down timer and of course, choose your alarm sound from the ring tones. (too bad you can’t pick a song in your iPod music!)
CALCULATOR: simple, so surprises or perks… M+,M- and MR/MC is as fancy as it gets. Oh, well.
NOTES: These note pads look neat, yellow lined pads. (Text doesn’t line up with the lines) The font is friendly and casual. But no formatting at all, and your notes are displayed most recent (or recently edited) at the top. I wish I could rearrange the order of the notes. If all you need to do is write a note, this works. The only real “feature” is a nice one though, click and it will open as an email ready to send to yourself or someone, so you don’t have to copy and paste into an email. (which is good, since you can’t copy and paste anything - see CONS)
SETTINGS: You simply have to poke around in here, lots of features and settings, I’m still experimenting!
NOW, THE BIG FOUR:
PHONE: I heard lots of negative about AT&T, but other than having to change my cell phone number after eight years, I find nothing to complain about. My calls are clearer, my signal stronger, and merging two calls is a snap. I can stay on the phone and still use all the other features. (I was on Verizon)
My bluetooth works perfectly, and connects instantly. (My family and friends hated my bluetooth - my wife says my greeting was, “hi, this is karl, hang on, I’m trying to get my bluetooth to connect) Now if I have the headset on, it pops up three choices: HEADSET, iPHONE, SPEAKER, and if I choose headset, it is just there, instantly in my ear!
The EDGE network, while slower than the G3, is SCREAMING FASTER than what I had on Verizon on my Treo, so I feel like it is light years ahead of what I had before. If G3 is faster, I’ll be impressed, because this is fast! I got no signal in an elevator in the center of a building, but other than that, I’ve had to signal issues, and since it dropped AT&T and automatically connected to any trusted WI-HI networks, at home and work and many other places, it is on the wireless Internet anyway.
MAIL: This is my favorite! View, read, delete, respond as quickly and as easily as on the laptop. Typing is a little slower, but I expect it to get faster as I get used to it. And I set my settings to delete from server if I delete from Inbox on iPhone, meaning it will never end up on my laptop, so I can do email when I am out, and won’t have to delete twice. If it is something I need to do on laptop, just leave it alone on iPhone and it will come into laptop. And you can limit your mail to 25, 50, 75, 100 or 200 messages so they will disappear as time goes on with the ‘real’ messages being on your computer. But nice to have that reference with you. I won’t have to take my 17″ laptop with me so much now.
SAFARI: FINALLY the actual real Internet on your phone. Zoom, rotate, and surf easily. Have multiple windows open, and keep them open all day if you want. There is no flash player so Kidology.org header doesn’t appear or the welcome screen to my novel site, or other flash sites, but that is minor, and usually not needed. I can blog, and log into admin sites as well. Still need to see if I can blog a picture using the iPhone. If I can do that, I will really be excited for the reporting I’ll be able to do on the road.
iPOD: This just rocks. For one thing, finally an iPod with built in speakers! And if you have an iPod, you just have a cooler one now. I have 984 songs and 23 videos (two are full length movies, and a few TV shows).
================== CONS (what I don’t like)
NO TASKS. My biggest disappointment with the iPhone is that they completely left out any tasks, or to-do lists. I LOVED that on my Palm and it is a part of iCal, so I don’t get why that was left off. My guess is because it has to work PC and Mac, and I know my Mac and Palm struggled with syncing tasks. I am really hoping a widgit or third party solution comes soon. In the meantime, I am using the web-based TaskAnyone.com and finding it very helpful, and easy enough to do on the iPhone.
NO COPY / PASTE This is a huge oversight in my opinion, many tasks take longer because you can’t copy and paste. Palm had shortcuts which were awesome and you could make them anything you wanted. They need to find a creative way to allow users to have their own keyboard short cuts and copy/paste is really needed!
NOTES: They need to beef this up. I’d like to be able to change the order of the Notes just like you can the order of your Favorites in Phone.
TWO / THREE CLICKS TO DO A PERIOD - I wish period and comma were on the main keyboard, but you have to hit symbol key, then period/comma, and then symbol key to get back to typing, so a period is three clicks. UPDATE: if you hit space after a period/comma it goes back to ABC automatically, but it is still a paid do to puncuation. They should just make the space bar smaller and put period and comma on the main screen.
DOESN’T WORK WITH ALL iPOD SPEAKER SYSTEMS. The iPhone does not work on my car iPod player (that goes through the radio), at all, even though it will dock and charge, just won’t play above a marely audible level. Also, it gets a “this isn’t supposed to work with this” message in the one in my bathroom, but works fine after I put it in airplane mode. (at it’s suggestion)
RESOLVED ISSUES: (will update)
NO CAPS LOCK - found a way to enable it in Settings.
Oh, and let me end with this. Someone posted a picture of a smashed iPhone on Kidology (with the screen still working, fyi) - but I must tell you this, at a picnic this week, I took my iPhone off and put it on the blanket with my keys, etc. to protect it, and later an upper elementary boy stepped on it hard, and it didn’t hurt it a bit. (the boy, therefore, was allowed to live) So, it is a pretty durable device! Not that I want to test that, but I was impressed!
BUGS/CRASHES/ETC.
Here I will log actual problems that I experience with my iPhone:
# = number of times this has happened.
3 / Google Maps “Crash” - not sure if it is a crash, interuption in wireless service, or what, but sometimes when you are in the middle of map surfing the iPhone just suddenly returns to the main menu. The first time I thought I must have bumped something, but the next few times I could tell I didn’t. And it doesn’t ‘remember’ where you were, so if you want to return to that place, you have to start over. Rating: annoying
1 / Safari Crashing /Freeze - one occurance, but happens 3 times. I was loading my blog to show my wife my iPhone review, and ironically, the page would get 80% loaded and then go to home screen. On my fourth attempt, it froze, but restarting the iPhone fixed it. (hold down both buttons for 6-7 seconds, like resetting an iPod) Then the page loaded quickly. My Wi-Fi was on one bar at home, so it might have been a slow connection? Rating: concerning
1 / Freeze and Scorch! - This was new. I plugged it into the syncing/charging cable and attached to the computer to sync and charge, and then set it down and forgot about it. After blogging (the one above this one!) I picked up the phone and about burned my hand! It had frozen, screen still on, and was HOT. A reset did the trick, but ouch, it was overheated big time. Possible causes, it was playing music when I plugged it in, I was curious if the music would stop, it didn’t at first, but then I got distracted, so I’m not sure how long the music played. (Actually, I stepped away for a bit.) After the reset, there was a 20% battery warning pop-up. Maybe that popped up when I plugged in with music playing? Anywy, just reported when things go weird. Rating:Ouch
So far, these are not alarming - it is a computer, and they are prone to need a reboot occasionally. It seems “go to home screen” is it’s default, which beats a freeze or error message. Kinda funny, because it makes you first assume human error.
June 29, 2007 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Mac, iPhone
Well, I am finally home, and my iPhone is all set up! My new cell phone number is…. ha! (yeah right!) But if you know my old one, call and I’ll give ya the new one.
At 6pm they took down the black window coverings so you could see giant iPhones hanging in the windows with a countdown. After 6pm they were full screen demos. I want to know how to get one of these for a desk monitor when the promotion is done. Maybe I need to get a job at an Apple Store just long enough to get one of these for home!
Luke even got in line with me for awhile, but not for long. As a new walker, he wanted to roam the mall with mom chasing behind.
There were security guys everywhere! I don’t know if they thought there would be mob action or what, but they were on patrol. I think this was a big deal for mall security. But they did a good job of keepin’ the peace!
This dude took his job very seriously. Many people tried to get a smile out of him, but he was stone cold serious with this “Just try and jump that line buddy and I will Rodney King you!” This guy is on his way to being a state trooper, but I hope he never pulls me over! But eventually, I got through the intimidating line of storm troopers and got inside…
Here is Greg presenting me with my iPhone!
GREG! If you do actually come to my blog and read this, leave a comment, you are famous now!
When I caught up to Luke and mom I saw Luke window shopping (pacing) so I surprised him by sneaking into the store. See his delight when he spotted Daddy’s iPhone!?
REVIEW PART ONE: I plan to do a review soon, but I want to actually experience the phone a bit first, but I will start by saying the activation process is easier than promised, and took under one minute. Syncing was a cinch too - and I already have all my addresses, contacts, 4GB of music, both volumes of Clone Wars (for Luke), tons of pictures (like last import automatically), Podcasts I’ve not yet listened to or watched, and one movie.
I called Sara for my maiden call and easily called my sister at the same time, and merged the calls for a crystal clear conference call and listened to them talk to each other on the speaker phone.
I went to the web and it spotted my home Wi-Fi and was on in seconds, and after entering my POP e-mail infomation, I am not exaggerating to say that in SECONDS all of the messages in my inbox on my laptop appeared in my inbox on the phone. I set weather to Wauconda and got a five day forcast in seconds, and then google mapped my address in Maps and in seconds was looking at my house from space. Almost creepy fast! So far, NO iGLITCHES… just an amazing phone! I will review in more detail after I use it for some ‘real life’ work (and play).
OK, I usually don’t rant on my blog, and don’t approve of blogs that rant all the time - but in this case, I can’t resist.
System Requirements:
