Sudden and Accute Toy Fascination

 (dis)continutity  1 Response »
Jun 012009
 
G1 Android Phone

G1 Android Phone

I’m not sure what the cause is, but I’ve developed a recent fascination with yet another toy I do not have. My toy-lust is legendary, at least in my household and I frequently have difficulty restraining myself in their acquisition. This compulsion to acquire and tinker with bits of hardware is of course partially linked to my nerd history, but it has grown more eclectic with age. While I could explain away some of my desire for these objects with a particular lack during adolescence, it doesn’t really help me to understand what now draws me towards objects that I can tinker with.

Thus enters the new fascination, which comes at a time when I more than enough work to complete without this new distraction to enter my life. “How to Ditch Your iPhone for Android (by Unlocking a G1),” combined with “Unlock Your Google Phone” had me intrigued enough that I had this page up thinking about all the reasons why I needed to have yet another device to litter my work space.

Of course I’ve had a day or two to mull on it and I haven’t hit the “Add to Cart” button quite yet. It has nothing to do with any lack of love for my iPhone, simply that my device hacking compulsion was triggered quite against my will during a late night surfing session this weekend. You wait right there Google phone. I’ll be back again I’m sure.

Extending the Battery Life of my iPhone 3G

 (dis)continutity  1 Response »
Jul 292008
 

I love my iPhone 3G. Sure, I’ve got some gripes about Apple policies and the current state of the iPhone SDK, iPhone OS, and iPhone NDA, but it probably one of the most single useful gadgets I’ve ever owned. The only real downside to it is that I feel like I’ve got it plugged into my Mac ALL THE TIME. Not because I’m an iTunes junkie mind you, but because it was always running out of battery power. Now, just for the record, before my iPhone I was using a Motorola RAZR V3, which doesn’t have great battery life, but nor is it a total slacker.

So I started trying to determine what was eating up so much battery. Continue reading »

On Being a Good Consumer and (Sorta) Failing

 (dis)continutity  No Responses »
Jul 152008
 

Well, I have no idea how MANY iPhone 3Gs Apple sold yesterday (I know now that 1 Million is the proper number), but I was one of the folks who bought one. Now before you go getting all anti-consumer on me and telling me how it’s evil white boys like me who are bringing down society. This has been a planned purchase for a while. Not only that, my lovely Mother-in-Law gifted me the iPhone for my graduation present. She listened to my iPhone ranting and granted my wish. I love the iPhone UI and I said as soon as it had 3G and GPS, I’d get one, no matter the price. Thankfully (as you’ll see below) it wasn’t that expensive. Well, like the folks in NYC, Boston, and other municipalities, I was out bright and early yesterday hoping to get one. I arrived at the Albany Crossgates Mall at about 5AM. I was under the impression that I would have no difficulties getting my phone from the Apple Store there, having called on several occasions to make sure that they could handle people like me, those “non-upgrade eligible customers” who would be forced to pay $499 (the original price for the 16GB iPhone) rather than $299. I had been assured I would be fine.

I talked to the folks around me. Watched Harry Potter (yes, I’m a dork) on my PSP and read from 5AM to around 7AM. About this time I took up the sport of watching the hired police officers and security guards set up an airport style snaking line barricade system. Eventually they even very successfully cut off the line and moved those people into the snaking “s”. By 7:30AM Apple Store employees were going around handing out water (coffee would have been nice), pamphlets, and making sure we had our IDs, etc.

At 8AM the first 13 of us (I guess it was supposed to be 15, but a few employees were getting into gear) were filed into the store. I was number 11. “Sweet,” I thought to myself as I went in, “I bet I’ll even be out of here by 8:30AM.” I suspect it was that thought that altered my trajectory into user/consumer hell. Continue reading »