I’m in the final countdown for my Kindle 2 to arrive. The original Kindle was “ok,” but the snowspeeder like design and the pokey page change refresh rate was a definite put-off. As an avid book reader, I’ve been waiting for an e-reader with a “good enough” e-Ink based display and a relatively smooth e-book buying/download experience. Amazon has most of that covered now with their Kindle 2 and their holistic buying experience (you can purchase via Amazon.com and on the Kindle 2 itself via 3G / EVDO on Sprint’s network, which by-the-way is free - no wireless fees). The new Kindle 2 also gets a 20% faster e-ink display with 16 shades of gray vs the old Kindle’s 4 shades. It should arrive by Wed, Feb 25th (at least that’s what Amazon.com tells me). I really can’t wait.



Proof of my eagerness? I already ordered the following e-books:

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
• The Shaolin Way by Steve DeMasco
• American Shaolin by Matthew Polly
• UR by Stephen King
• Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
• A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

And a subscription to the MIT Technology Review: The Authority on the Future of Technology

More Proof? I also pre-ordered an Oberon Design Cover for the Kindle2. Unfortunately, it won’t arrive until the 3rd or 4th week of March. The design I ordered was the “Creekbed Maple” shown below:


Read More...

Tags: kindle, kindle 2, amazon, amazon.com, books, gadgets, e-ink

My Wife and I have been busy with our XBOX360 lately. It’s kinda funny because we barely touched the thing in over 6 months then suddenly it’s getting a full-on workout. The last set of games we played on it were Mass Effect, and Force Unleashed (me) and Guitar Hero 3 (Her). I really didn’t get too much into Mass Effect even though it was typically my kind of game. Force Unleashed was good, but way short and even replaying it twice didn’t take more than a week. Burnout Paradise was ok as well, but that started getting stale. Like I said though, the console had been gathering dust... until last weekend. That’s when we got Rockband 2 and Fable 2. The Rockband 2 Special Edition was a much awaited birthday present for my wife while Fable 2 was from a “deal I couldn’t refuse.”



This is my wife’s character in Rockband 2. She’s been killing on the drums lately but has delved into the mic on occasion. Right now (at this moment) she’s getting used to the guitar. There are definite differences in feel between Guitar Hero 3 and Rockband 2’s guitar (or so she tells me... I’m totally lacking skill in rhythm games).





And... this is my current character in Fable 2. Yes, she’s female. And yes, those are “interesting” clothes she’s wearing. Fable 2 is definitely going to be a replayable game for me, and since I had a guy as my character last time around in Fable 1, I thought I’d go with a female character this time. My plan: Female - Good Hero, then next round a Male - Evil Hero, then I’d change things again and swap out the alignments if I was still playing the game at that point. Note: with the adult humor, sex, violence, and sex AGAIN in this game, it definitely earns its M for Mature rating. A few nitpicks: I wish there was more offline/interaction with the web akin to the way Halo3 works with Bungie.net. Yes, you can continue to earn (at a reduced rate) money from rent and shops you own while not playing the game and you can get some stuff by playing the online flash game & puppetshow, but I’d also like to be able to view character stats, take in-game screenshots/videos (I used my EyeTV to capture the ones here on my MacbookAir) and compare achievements and trophies with my friends. I guess Halo3 spoiled me with the interactive web stuff.

One thing is for sure, we’ve probably used our XBOX360 more in the last week than we have all year. Its at the point where we actually take shifts playing so we both get our groove on (so to speak). Anyone else out there getting as addicted to these two great games as we are? Read More...

Tags: Rockband, xbox 360, fable2, fable, Rockband2, games

Behold, I bring you the BRAND NEW trailer to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:



Read More...

Tags: movie, trailer, harry potter, half blood prince

I’m selling some more stuff on eBay. This time I thought I’d try a 3 Day auction:

Canon Rebel XTi / 400D Black SLR Body and Battery Grip
Gefen 4:1 HDTV HDMI/DVI Digital Video / Audio switch

I need to look around the apartment and see if there’s anything else I need to sell. I’m sure I’ll find something.
Read More...

Tags: eBay, auction, canon, gefen, hdmi, dvi, toslink, video, audio, camera, Slr

I’m selling the following items on eBay if anyone is interested. This is the first time I’m trying to sell stuff, so I don’t have a very high Feedback rating. I’ve only previously bought items on eBay and even then, it was a long time ago.

• 2x 1st Generation iPhones - Unlocked and Jailbroken 2.1 Firmware (get them here and here)- these were the ones my wife and I got on the original iPhone launch day when we stood in line in front of the AT&T store on Rt 3 near Clifton. They are fully Jailbroken and Unlocked using the latest Pwnage Tool and have the mostly bug free 2.1 Firmware. Auction Ends just after 7pm Wednesday October 1st.

• Epson P-5000 (get it here)- this is a multimedia viewer that’s ideal for the Pro Photographers out there. It takes SD/SDHC as well as CF cards and stores/views photos in JPEG or RAW with its 80GB HD. I don’t really need it anymore since I use my Macbook Air to transfer photos as needed for long trips. Auction ends just after 7:30pm Wednesday October 1st.

Read More...

Tags: eBay, iphone, apple, epson, p-5000, auction

In all the hoopla regarding the latest 2.1 firmware upgrade to the iPhone (fixes many of the lingering issues I still had since previous posts on the subject), one piece of iPhone news may have been overlooked. Laminar Research, the developers of the popular and highly accurate Flight Simulator for the Mac, PC, and Linux, have released a version of X-Plane 9 for the iPhone. Their Flight Simulators on the bigger platforms are so accurate and well liked by the Aviation community that the FAA even allows its use for logging flight time towards certification.



I downloaded and tried the simulator out. Although limited in many aspects regarding terrain range and instrument simulation (relying instead on a HUD), the simulation itself is fairly solid for a mobile App. The graphics are quite nice for the iPhone, especially the external flyby views. Controls utilize the Accelerometer and some on-screen sliders and buttons for Throttle, Flaps, Landing Gear and Brakes. You also have your choice of various planes and high level of control over the weather and time of day.

Per Austin Meyer, the creator of X-Plane:
The iPhone is not QUITE as powerful as a Quad-Core desktop, so I had to really scale it down to a perfect little ’slice’ of X-Plane.

You can choose from the Cirrus Jet, Columbia-400, Cessna 182, and Piaggo Avanti, with flight physics that are about 95% as accurate as X-Plane for desktop, so the flight modeling is really just amazing for a little device of this size.. really just stunning.

I’m surprised that the launch of this Flight Simulator on the iPhone hasn’t garnered more attention. I didn’t see it on the Apps, Games, or Entertainment pages of the iTunes Store yet, so it may still be below the RADAR (so to speak), but you can find it by following this link to get it from the App store. It goes for $9.99.
Read More...

Tags: iphone, games, gadgets, flight simulator, simulation, x-plane, apple, apps

I was in Manhattan, NYC yesterday because my wife had to work. She’s Assistant Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities at The New School and Saturday the university had Parent Sessions prior to the beginning of the school year. Code of conduct, etc. blah blah.... I’m really here to talk about the 3G reception problems NYC has been having recently.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my 3G reception (voice and data) has been fine after my full restore with the 2.02 firmware and no backup, at least in New Jersey. Even with a smidgen of a single bar, I’ve been able to transfer data over 3G faster than Edge and Voice has been crystal clear. The same holds true for Voice in NYC. I actually had at least four bars outside with 3G and Voice was crystal clear. Inside, only a single dot, but voice communications were fine. Data is where everything fell apart though. I could not transfer anything in any internet capable App (Safari, Mail, Google Maps, Twitterific, etc.). Data transmission wasn’t just slow, it was non-existant! Switching to Edge restored data functionality at a somewhat good clip. WiFi of course was the way to go for wherever I had a connection.

In further research on the Apple Forums and on other forums online, I found that this was a shared experience across NYC for the past week. Many have said that they had fine data transmission until about August 18 or maybe a little earlier. At that point it was spotty, non-existant, or only seemed fine late in the evening. Much has been said about 3G dense areas and corresponding saturation of 3G data causing outtages in many cities. I experienced this first hand yesterday in NYC. A few blamed this on the iPhone and Apple, but my experience (and that of many other people) show that 3G data is fine outside the confines of population centers. Some forum entries have AT&T customer service responses showing this to be a problem on their network specific to these population centers and that they are building out the Hardware in the areas affected. Let’s hope they get the situation fixed soon. Whatever the case, this is DEFINITELY not just an iPhone 3G software problem. AT&T must get their 3G network up to snuff in one of the largest markets in the world before the iPhone gets further bad (and undeserved) press.

UPDATE: Follow the link for more proof that the iPhone 3G data problems are Network related and not Hardware related at AppleInsider.
Read More...

Tags: 3G, data, reception, voice, iphone, apple, firmware, Update, new york, nyc, new jersey, manhattan, newschool

My wife and I picked up the iPhone 3G (she went black and I went white). There was a long line to get it at 8AM at the mall on a Saturday, a full month after the launch, with about 60 people ahead of us. However, like many people out there, we’ve encountered some problems.

My reception has been fine, but my wife’s iPhone had weak 3G reception in NY where she works. We’ve also encountered various issues with App updates via iTunes after upgrading to 7.7.1. Clearing out the iTunes App Section and re-downloaded the apps we had helped with that issue. We were both on 2.01 firmware, so when 2.02 came out, we eagerly updated. That firmware upgrade actually helped with the 3G reception issues for my wife in the City, but we started encountering issues with Syncing Apps purchased on the iPhone back to iTunes and downloading updates to our apps from the iPhone AppStore. I encountered errors that said that downloads/updates have failed and that they would be available the next time I synced my phone with iTunes. Checking for Purchases from iTunes allowed us to download the updates and sync them back to the iPhone, but not being able to update via the iPhone and not being able to transfer Apps purchased on the iPhone back into iTunes (the transfers look like they start, but then they fail without an error) was becoming a major pain.

After searching the web and various forums for days, I found the solution. The problem seemed to be that we restored from a backup made on our old iPhones to the new iPhone 3Gs we upgraded to. The Solution? I had to fully restore my iPhone to Factory level without utilizing a backup and build off a fresh version of the 2.02 (latest) Firmware. The process was painfully long: first restoring the iPhone to scratch, then building it up slowly with my Apps, Settings, Photos, Music/Videos, Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, MobileMe Settings, Ringtone settings, Settings for each App that took forever to move over, re-downloading my eReader books, etc... and on...and on...


But when I was done, and all my Apps were back in their proper places... TADA!!! My phone was fixed!!!

I was now able to:

• Sync iPhone AppStore purchases back to iTunes
• Download updates from the iPhone AppStore successfully
• have GPS come up MUCH quicker than before (satellite acquisition was much faster)
• have no 3G issues (so far)
• have no lag for Contacts screen loading from MobileMe
• have no lag for onscreen keyboard anymore

I thought I would have to wait for another Firmware or iTunes update, but now everything is pretty much perfect. The process was tedious but well worth it!

Read More...

Tags: iphone, 3G, bugs, issues, problems, solved, solutions, restore, transfer, apps, itunes, firmware, apple, att

UPDATED with new Apps and notes:

So I’ve updated my first gen iPhone using the “not-quite-officially-released” iPhone Firmware 2.0 and have downloaded my first batch of apps. Here’s my list so far:

• Apple Remote - iTunes and AppleTV Remote
• AIM - AOL Instant Messenger
• NetNewsWire - My preferred syncing RSS Reading system
• Tipulator - Easy to use Tip Calculator (with Rounding and Splitting functions)
• Urbanspoon - Random Restaurant finder based on location (Magic 8 Ball style shaking)
• Twitterific - My preferred Twitter app
• midomi - Music Recognition App (whistle, hum, sing, or type music and it will tell you name, artist, iTunes link, YouTube link, and other info)
• Bloomberg - Basically a mini free Bloomberg Terminal on the iPhone (We at CNBC haven’t made an iPhone app, YET)
• Mobile News - Associated Press News App
• WeatherBug - Weather Alerts, Radar, Camera’s based on 3 set locations.
• SmugShot - Take Location Tagged photos and upload to SmugMug
• Facebook - Facebook on the go (don’t really know what this has over Mobile Facebook)
• eReader - Buy and read eReader and FictionWise books

Games:

• SuperMonkeyBall - Game - just what the title says
• Enigmo - Game - Nice little liquid based puzzler
• Aurora Feint - Role Playing meets Puzzle Gaming (FREE!!!)
• MotionX Poker - Accelerator enhanced 3D Dice & Poker game
• Tap Tap Revenge - Think Guitar Hero with a little Dance Dance Rev thrown in.
• AquaForest - Physics based accelerator casual game/toy.
• PhoneSaber - Lightsaber sounds and accelerator motion detection... nuff said.

My first thoughts on these and the iPhone 2.0 firmware:

• I needed to do a little tweaking/setup to get the MobileMe syncing over-the-air on my iPhone. Not hard, but not automatic either.
• I did the update from my Macbook Air since I wasn’t home. Usually I sync my phone with my MacPro. Even though I did a pre-update sync, it didn’t ask me to backup my data so I (temporarily) lost all my photos, wallpapers, ringtones, music, and videos. When I get home and resync it with my desktop, all should be well, but for now I have a pretty “bare” iPhone. Update - Syncing with the MacPro went without a hitch...everything’s back!
• New Contact Icon from home screen. I don’t have to dig into the Phone App to get to my contacts anymore.
• Twitterific supports photos, location tagging, and some other nice features, but as far as I can tell you can’t set it to view only people you follow (unlike the Mac version). Update - after reloading my apps from iTunes on my MacPro I can view just who I follow now. Weird it didn’t work like that before (I was getting both followed and Public timelines all at once before).
• Can’t tell if Bloomberg has Real-Time-Quotes. Will have to wait until market opens tomorrow to test that out.
• NetNewsWire looks “ok” but seems slower to update than the iPhone Web version. The web version seems to also have a few features that the App doesn’t. Hope they update this soon.
• I “thought/heard” that the Associated Press MobileNews App would allow citizen reporters to send in photos and reports from “on-the-scene.” I can’t find that feature anywhere in the actual app, it’s just an offline reader/aggregator. So either I imagined it (most likely case) or this is a “future feature.” Update- There IS a way to have “citizen reporting” in MobileNews. When you read a story, you can comment and send in Photos from the field associated with the story. With the photo you give your info so that they can attribute the photo to you if they use it for future updates to their stories. This is a KILLER FEATURE!!!
• Aurora Feint is the BEST free game so far on the Appstore.
• MotionX Poker has great reviews, haven’t really played much yet but it seems really polished.

• Lots of functionality and cool stuff out there already... I wonder what the App store will look like in a month, or 6 months???

Read More...

Tags: iphone, ipod, apple

The former planet Pluto which was demoted to “Dwarf Planet” status just two years ago has received a new moniker. Pluto and similar round cosmic objects that aren’t up to snuff in the Planetary scale are now deemed “Plutoids”. Mickey Mouse was not available for comment, but the poor pup has always been the “forgotten” Disney mainstay. I mean if Goofy was given the ability to talk and walk upright, why not Pluto? Now he’s classified with a name that rhymes with Hemoroids.

Info from: Space.com Read More...

Tags: space, pluto, planet, plutoid, dwarf planet, demoted, cosmos, astronomy