Church work yesterday was quite a lovely time.

And today I did as little as possible - just as I had hoped.

Got up late - had lunch at Rhodes - had coffee and talked about plans for semester two at bollege - did a little bit of video work for dinner celebration at church tomorrow night and now I am about to head out to grab some dinner on the way to show off my video work so far.

Tomorrow will be spent finalising the video editting and otherwise having a lazy day before doing sound at the celebration dinner at church. Sunday will, of course involved church. I am leading in the morning and playing bass at night and then Monday is school work day.

And Semester Two begins.

People will slowly be returning over the next few days and when I return on Monday after work the place will be full again. It will be cool - after a few days I will be used to having all these people around again and loving it.

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Went into school work today to do nerdy stuff. We had planned to set the servers working and play xbos while they laboured - but - not surprisingly - things didn't go actually as planned and we had to work while the servers laboured. Oh well. Got most of the things done that needed to and that was what it was all about.

Off to church tomorrow and then Friday is a no work day - the last one before lectures and school restarts next week. Not sure what I will do - as little as possible probably.

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Didn't get up to much today.

Went out to lunch and bought some stuff for college for second semester.
Finally got a notepad to take notes in, didn't bother for 2nd semester last year or 1st semester this year - but thought it might not hurt to be a little bit organised for this last semester.

Got some cheap pens and also a new stapler - the old one is finally not working after about 20 years of faithful service.

Yay for stationery!

And that is Tuesday. Tomorrow I head into school work - mostly to play xbox while the servers do stuff for us before I swan in and do some fully sik scripting to finish off the job. Mind you if the server work hasn't finished then I swan home and do it from there instead.

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Headed into the city today - was going to visit Optus and ask a question and head to Apple Store to buy an iPhone cover. I forgot the paperwork for my Optus Question so I will just have to call tomorrow. I bought an iPhone cover.

There were people lining up for iPhones. At the Apple Store [flickr] there were about 30 people for the Optus line and about 2 in the Telstra and Voda lines. Hmm. The Optus Store on George Street, which I passed a few times, seem to constantly have a line of 10 to 15 people lined up outside waiting to get an iPhone. Amazing.

I had lunch at Australia Square food court - confused, as I am everytime, that Australia Square has a cylindrical building built upon it. Once I had lunch I headed off to Hyde Park. Just thought it would be nice to sit in the sun and use my iPhone. I hadn't thought through that Hyde Park would, of course, have been abducted by WYD'08. [flickr] So there were a lot of people around. I eventually found a store that sold Coke and just wandered about. I headed over to the ANZAC memorial which I had never looked in before. I switched to some Bach on my iPhone and it helped set the tone.

As I was searching for coke - which I bought from a fruit stand [ironic] - I stopped at a set of lights to cross the road and leant upon a box that was sticking up housing some essential service. And as I stood up to go noticed it had words upon it

[flickr]

Don't know what they mean, how they are linked, but I liked the combination of words. Their enigmatic quality from their seemingly disconnectedness which had still somehow sparked someone to combine them into a single list was totally compelling - even now I have been staring at it wondering what prompted the list.

And that was my day. Was a lovely day to go walking around. A nice buzz in the air from the pilgrims and the sun and the slightly warmer day.

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That's a tag cloud - of the last ten days of posts.
I need to expand my vocab!

made by wordle

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I feel strange - not sure if it is not enough people due to holiday time - weird hours due to iPhone time - feeling a bit relaxed at church - possible change - seeing robbie who is very far away - uncertainty about the future. Or just up too late after a big day.

Not even sure I can describe the feeling.

Anyway - this was just a short post to clear that monster iPhone post off the bloggbog page.

One week before lectures resume *sigh*
I played bass tonight - unexpectedly - did ok.

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My iPhone by Brendan age 37 and a half.

So Friday was iPhone day - I waited in line for one - froze for one - slept after setting it up to sync - woke up and played with one - slept some more trying to recover from the lack of sleep - woke up and played some more with on - flattened the battery and recharged it - played with it some more. Slept.

And suddenly it was Saturday.

Friday got Lost in the iPhone Frenzy.

Is it hype? sure there is some of that.
Is it more than hype? ...
that is what this post is about ..

Back in the day I had an XDAII it ran windows mobile - an early version. It was big and clunky and slow and crashed a lot and was slow and crashed and basically made me vow never to have a so-called smartphone again. And then Apple released the iPhone.

Thankfully it started in the US and I didn't have to decide then to get one.

Then they released it here.

This release was for an upgraded - a little bit thinner a little bit lighter 3G model. My own phone has had SIM issues, and my NANO is crashing - which I think is due to a small crack on the circuit board cos it only seems to happen when I am walking - ie it's being shaked around.

The plan was going to be similar to my monthly spend - and I would get a new phone and a new iPod - and it was an iPhone from APPLE - so as if I wouldn't get one. But anyone having justified to myself the phone I got one in the early hours of Friday morning.

I was worried though - it was a smart phone - big and bulky - I had used Robbie's iPhone 1.0 and my fingers were a bit too big it seemed - and they would be slow, wouldn't they?? and they would feel bulky in my pocket. And heavy. I got one anyway - surely Apple could get it right.

I knew it's short comings - one 2MB camera [which I was used to] - no copy and paste [which I know I going to miss - my k610i did that very well] - erm yeah - that would be it - oh it was big and bulky.

So after about 24 hours of use - what is the verdict.

NICE! Very nice. Very Happy with it.

So, The Cons first ...
- it is a bit slow - compared to my laptop that is - not to a phone - and who would compare it to a phone - it's not - it's a handheld computer.
- typing is slowly getting better - I doubt I will be able to do the two thumb thing, though it is my goal - but I am do fine with the one thumb and it is self correcting - you learn very quickly
- sometimes APPs just quit back to the main menu without any feedback - not sure what's doing hopefully the secret diagnostic upload I agreed to on my second sync will send helpful messages about that to Apple and iPhone 2.1 software will fix that.
- the GPS got lost - once - decided I was in Melbourne - a power cycle fixed that - but see in the pros about the aGPS and how good it is.
- the wifi experience is a bit too obscured - yes it is good that it just works but it would be nice to know more about what is going on - also would be nice to have a one button on/off rather than going into a sub menu to turn it on and off.
- not very phone like - so I have to relearn some things and change my expectations to match - making a call requires more thinking than a phone - ie it requires some thinking - not so much a phone with an iPod but an iPod with a Phone.
- sometimes the touch screen seems to be inconsistent - hard taps don't always register - but again I am being trained by the device and learning new tricks all the time.
- working out the speaker on the headphones is taking a while - you can do clicking magic to control phone calls and song playback but I need to read the instructions again cos it isn't quite working as I expected.
- the location of the speaker in the iPhone which is used to hear calls has a very small angle where it works so I have to fiddle a bit to get the phone lined up.
- no video calls - I have made two in all my life - they were to the person sitting next me when I first got new phones that did video calls - never made one since
- no MMS - I have sent three - two to myself as tests and one other that actually worked where both I could send it and the person could receive it. The only reason I will miss both MMS and Video Call is cos I rekon the iPhone would have finally done them both properly and I would have actually used it with people I know - that is the ONLY reason I am missing MMS. Doubt I would still use Video but yeah MMS I miss cos I rekon it would work. But see below you can send and share images.
- can't seem to be able to find a home button in the web browser or tell it to load a fresh page when invoked. maybe I need to look harder.

And the PROs - all the good stuff ...
+ oh my - it is fast - compared to a phone trying to do that stuff my iPhone is doing it is tops
+ the APP store - addiction city - there will only be more tops apps coming out - not sure what I will do about that, yes you can't have more than one running but the battery can drain quick enough without multiple apps fighting over the CPU and Radio
+ battery life - haven't timed it yet - but I seem to be able to do a lot of browsing and stuff before it goes flat
+ video play back is pretty good - and we are all used to watching iPhone sized videos on the web so that isn't an issue.
+ GPS - very accurate - today I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for some NRMA HELP and it had me located down to 1 m I rekon - on the correct side of the street and either dead on target or just a bit out - freaky - during our drive home from buying the iPhone it kept up well - only got lost once when we were in the Lane Cove Tunnel - otherwise it was as good as GPS of the car I was in.
+ the Maps App is awesome - not turn by turn by the directions given are fantastic - so you can get your trip sorted out before hand and then away you go. Would be nice to decide tolls or not but whatever - maybe in an upgrade. And there is a rumored app to make turn-by-turn possible - we shall see.
+ web browsing is lovely - so good to have in my hand almost 100% the same experience as on my laptop - no flash might suck but not so far.
+ apps are good!! looking forward to more of them and the updates of the ones I have
+ finally able to get all my music on an iPod
+ nice sound either from the iPhone or the headphones or both - it sounds richer and clearer than my NANO.
+ you can take screen shots - hold down home and then click the on/off button and the screen will flash and a PNG will be added to your camera roll [like OS X the screen shots are PNG not JPG]
+ the mic on the headphones is a clicky thing that lets you control playback and calls - nice - and the mic actually works
+ phone calls sound clear in the headphones.
+ looks amazing
+ thin and rounded mens it isn't too bulky in my pockets
+ games are fun :)
+ the screen is amazing - looks great - bright - contrasty - deep colours - rich experience
+ instead of MMS you have the net and a number of apps that allow you to take and post camera images to various image sites - twitterpic, flickr, photobucket, typepad. That is just at launch. So I can take an image and post it on Flickr and then tweet about it to my friends - I have to use two apps for that - but hopefully there will be a program that does it all.
+ it doesn't look like crap cos it isn't by or for Windows. Bottom line Apple do pretty the best of them all. The most exquisite graphics are the ones for recharging when the phone has been 'locked' glorious I tell you.
+ sync - works flawlessly - the iTunes interface for the sync setup looks horrible though - the one thing about the whole experience that is not lovingly designed
+ easy to buy apps for it. far too easy
+ wifi access and control is very very easy [I rekon too easy but it is a real plus]
+ I can already type as quick as I used to on my phone.
+ it has a keyboard - that doesn't slide or have tiny buttons that stick out - that take away screen space or make the iPhone bulky
+ it feels solid and robust - the XDAII always felt like it was made out of plastic - cheap plastic. The only bit that feels a bit dodgy was the mute switch on the outside - but I think it was designed to be hard to move.
+ mute switch is tops beats having to open and navigate or press combo buttons
+ industrial design at its best - I got a black one.
+ the web browser is pretty good - a bit slow even on wi-fi sometimes but you quickly learn the rhythm of it - in fact the browser speed is probably the only thing that is slower than expected. Even on wi-fi. And it sync bookmarks with safari - that is awesome.


I'm very happy with it.
Very happy indeed.

It's not for everyone but it is for me :D

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As per my previous post I'm currently waiting in line with mattyl wondering if it'll be 2pm or later before i'll get my iPhone. the fun has worn off. now it's just waiting ...

update: at about 3:40am we got into the store. I'm home now - I am so cold - cold to the bone - think I will grab a warm glass of milk to send me to sleep - the first sync of my phone is being done right now - grabbed a few free apps from the App Store - Twitterific was, of course, my first download. More tomorrow - at some stage - when I finally wake up.

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So, tomorrow the iPhone 3G lands in Australia and all around the world.

From Midnight tonight the iPhone will be on sale - Optus Sydney store is having a special opening for existing customers to buy a shiney brand new iPhone 3G first. No doubt people will turn up early and join a queue and stand in the forecast 6 degrees of cold to buy a phone that they could buy over the phone, online, or even tomorrow at normal times.

Optus has managed to come up with what I rekon are the best deals especially for data. So, although they don't have the best coverage over all, right now, where I am and probably will be for the next year, they do have tops coverage so they will be the telco for me.

And as for those crazy people shivering their butts off to buy at midnight that which could be bought just as easily and sensibly tomorrow during the day ... I'll be one of them :D

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Another nice day today.

I slipped into the city and picked up the laptop of MattyA that I had dropped off two weeks ago to get fixed. Then I enjoyed being anonymous amongst all the people of Sydney. To be honest that is what I like about Sydney - I like that there are so many people about - but I don't know any of them.

Well, I know some of them, but I didn't run into any of them.

I caught the bus in and out - not such a bad thing that middle of the morning bus in and the middle afternoon bus home. Not so sure peak hour would be so lovely - but I like being driven into the city and the bits I wanted are pretty close together so it is all good. And much nicer than a train in my opinion - especially like being able to say hi and thanks to the driver - who is happy to say hi and thanks back.

Something else I like about Sydney is that everyone seems younger in Sydney these days :) of course it's just that I am older now- but yeah - the city seems full of young people [twenty somethings] and that's nice.

Twas a night of ABC01 watching tonight - which I enjoyed greatly, now it is time for bed so that I am able to get up tomorrow morning at work time and go to church to do some work.

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