A Little Update, More On The Way August 31, 2007
Posted by Zach in Life.add a comment
Ah, hey everyone, again I apologize for the lack of updates, been a little overwhelmed the past few days. School started Thursday, and that hasn’t exactly been a great experience. Awkward encounters with the ex-girlfriend, even more awkward teachers, and tough classes make for an interesting couple of days. But I will be back up soon with a review and look at the iPhone bluetooth headset from good ‘ol Apple and more. Later.
Unlocks, Crashes and Jail?! All On Your iPhone. August 28, 2007
Posted by Zach in Apple, Tech, iPhone.add a comment
Good morning everyone, been a little while since my last update, yet again. Have been very busy in preparation which starts on Thursday, and I am not looking forward to it in the slightest. But, I’ve got my cup of coffee and some news on the iPhone, so I am good to go for now.
By now you’ve all heard about all of these recent claims of iPhone unlocking goodness. One teenager, George Hotz of New Jersey, even traded three unlocked 8G iPhones for a Nissan 350Z. Not a bad deal for George, who spent almost eight hours a day trying to unlock his iPhone. And still even more reports of unlocks have been rolling in, some out of Israel, and all over the world. There has even been a $100,000 dollar offer from an anonymous source wishing to sell the iPhones online. So, this all sounds nice, new service providers, money being made by hard working kids and hackers, but what does this mean for us and them?
Well, we can’t really be certain, but let’s look at what we have here. AT&T and Apple have been locked in with a contract ever since the first Motorola ROKR came out, and failed miserably. Now that the all mighty iPhone has been released one would think that Apple intends to keep that bond completely and totally exclusive. Of course, there’s no way that could hold, too many people have too much time to break the barriers, and make money. How do the iPhone unlocks help us? Well, in time you probably will have a simple solution to unlocking your iPhone for free. Or, you could just pay to buy one already unlocked or to have it unlocked in due time. Personally I do not see any reason for it as I have actually had no problems with AT&T and their service, even whilst traveling. Now, sites such uniquephones.com have already started the race to selling unlocked phones, but they’ve hit a road block comprised of lawyers.
Come on people-as if AT&T would just let this all happen, especially with Mr.Jobs backing them. Apparently uniquephones.com and other sites claiming to be providing the unlocked phone have received calls and messages from lawyers claiming to represent AT&T. The uniquephones.com blog says, “Until an assessment is made of the potential of legal action, Uniquephones is unable to release the unlocking software for sale.” Hm, so I guess, no unlocking then? Well, we’ll all just have to wait and see, because Apple and AT&T do not want this happening and their lawyers will be very busy in the coming weeks, but it would come as little surprise if unlocked iPhones start seeing the light of day, and they probably will see it very soon.
And, in other news, my iPhone has crashed yet again, resulting in a system restore. Thankfully this time I was able to retrieve all of my contacts, text messages, and the like. I had the problem after installing the installer.app, and my iPhone just went into recovery mode after a sync. Ah, well.
We Superbad August 24, 2007
Posted by Zach in Life, Sports, Travel, iPhone.add a comment
Hey everyone, been a little while since my last update, so here’s what’s been going. I’m home now, back in Connecticut. I had a great time in the Pacific Northwest and Las Vegas and I miss it already (especially considering that school starts a week from yesterday). So what do I do? Well, I spend all my time with friends, so that’s why I have not been able to update. Past couple of days have been lacking in sleep but chock full of insanity. Yesterday was really spent just hanging around my neighborhood catching up with people, and today, today was the day I finally got to see Superbad.
If you are a fan of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, or anything that is guaranteed to get you to laugh, you need to see Superbad. The movie was created by Seth Rogan (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin) and it is brilliant. There’s plenty of summaries of the movie out there, and the previews have been airing for a while now, so I won’t bore you with that. The movie has been out since August 17, and I was unable to see it on vacation, so I was thrilled to get the chance when I got home. It’s a great movie though, it’s nasty, it’s outrageous, it’s teenagers being teenagers. And, it really works. See it!
Well, I’m going to keep it brief, I’ve got a lot to do, including more packing. Once again I am leaving, this time for Maryland. I’m shooting down there tomorrow to see an Orioles game with some friends, really looking forward to that. I’ve been to the park at Camden Yards on a school trip, but have never seen a game. We’ll see what happens with that. Sunday I will be helping my friends brothers move into the University of Maryland, so I probably won’t be around at all this weekend. But, I will definitely update my Twitter page with the latest.
And as to my previous article about my iPhone update issue, oh what fun that was. I had to re-input all of my contacts because I never actually save my contacts in Outlook or anything, I’m not a fan, and I do not sync my iPhone with my Macbook. It was a painstaking process, but what can you do? I hope no one else had the same issues I did with the new update, but let me know if you did.
Later!
Youtube, Now With Added Ads?! August 22, 2007
Posted by Zach in Tech, Video, Youtube.add a comment
As if Youtube hasn’t been successful enough, come on people, Google bought the site! What more could you ask for? How about ads appearing at the bottom of every video from now on? Youtube is now making a move common on other video focused sites by placing eye catching (though semi transparent) ads at the bottom of their videos 15 seconds into whatever it is that you may be watching. Clicking on the ad pauses your video and plays an ad video in the same window. Now, I know it is not a big deal, and unlike some people, I really don’t think that Youtube is the only source out there. Still, I am surprised by this move, I thought Youtube would stick to the few ads on the home page, and lots of front page clips promoting upcoming movies and such without really obstructing their videos. What are your thoughts on this move? Does it matter?
What A Terrible Thing To Come Home To, A Failed iPhone Restore August 22, 2007
Posted by Zach in Apple, Life, iPhone.2 comments
(Image courtesy of Apple Inc.)
I’m home! And completely messed up from time zone hopping, but oh well. So, after landing in Newark this morning I checked out some news on my iPhone and saw that the new update is available. When I got home and got settled I plugged my iphone in to charge. Now I use iFuntastic to hack my iPhone, solely for the ringtones, and was not at all surprised when I was told I would need to restore my iPhone (that’s what happened to me during the last update). So I prepared and saved all my files and such. I restore it, and it takes me to the screen asking if I would like to start a new iPhone account or sync it with my original one. I of course said sink with my last update (which on my home PC was 8/18). Well, itunes then crashed, and when I started it up again my iPhone started syncing. I panicked and stopped the sink, and once again restored the iPhone. This time, when I got to the option of selecting a date, it was set to the sync that itunes JUST performed. So now, my iPhone is back to square one, no contacts, bookmarks, anything. I’m really dissapointed, but what can you do? I tried digging around for an old sync, but had no luck. Within a few hours I had my contacts and all back on as well as my music and such, but still, really dissapointing. Anyone else having similar problems? A friend of mine had to restore his (unhacked) iPhone for the last update. Hm.
Links, Flying Spurs, Mello, A Good Last Day In Vegas August 21, 2007
Posted by Zach in Cars, Life, Travel.add a comment
Ah, it’s my last day here in Vegas and I’m gonna miss it. I’m ready to head home though, but I certainly made use of my last day. To begin I went out and played 18 holes at Steven Wynn’s famous golfcourse here in Vegas. This was my second time playing at the $500 per round course (we had our round comp’d) and it really is quite an experience. If you ever get the chance to play at the course, take it, it’s really quite amazing. It literally is an amazing first class golf course smack dab in the middle of the Vegas strip. It’s unlike anything you will probably ever see. You walk in, check in, then the incredibly kind staff takes you to the locker room, lets you rent clubs, and basically aids you with whatever you may need. Before heading out they cleaned my golf shoes, re-laced them, and got us water and drinks. You really do get the service that you pay for at the course. Because of the high price, its easy to get tee times and there usually are very few people playing at one time. And, the best part is you get a caddy to ride on the back of your golf cart and help you out. Our caddy today was a really nice guy, name’s Alexio (sorry if I spelt that wrong!). He was a great help, and had good excuses for whenever I messed up a shot (and that was often). My personal favorite would have to be, “Oh you just had a terrible lie, that’s all” when of course I had a perfect lie. So even though I didn’t play well, I shot a 109 in 18, it was a good time. And, Alexio was good for conversation, because he too is a Mac and iPhone fan. So that lightened the mood when I was basically hitting the ball every direction but straight. Sure, just talk about blogging after you slice a shot, perfect cure. So yeah, that was a pretty good start to the day. We finished 18 in about four hours, finishing up around 2PM, not bad. Especially considering that Alexio was telling us stories of groups that took seven and a half hours to play 15 holes of golf. Can you imagine? Why even bother playing?! I don’t get it, but whatever. Good start. (more…)
And You Thought iJustine’s 300 Page Bill Was Bad, Check Out This iPhone Bill! August 20, 2007
Posted by Zach in Apple, iPhone.add a comment
Can you believe this? This video is starting to pop up here and there featuring a self made video of course mocking the iPhone commercials. “This is your email” blah blah blah. But, what’s the twist? Somebody complaining about a lack of a copy and paste feature? No. Hot on the heels of iJustine’s (Support her) famous 300 page AT&T bill somebody has created a video detailing their data charges while roaming in Europe. The final cost? $4190. Absolutely ridiculous huh? All things considered though it’s actually a fairly well done video. Man these bills are brutal though. According to the good people over at Gizmodo (Here) the $25 monthly fee from AT&T only warrants 20MB of data while overseas. Absolutely crazy.
Sleep, Spam, Haircut, and More Room Service August 19, 2007
Posted by Zach in Travel.add a comment
Ah, another day completed in Las Vegas, and it was yet another good one. So following my late morning search for WiFi (a failure) at the Wynn hotel and casino, I had a great day. With the help of two cups of coffee from the Wynn’s coffee shop, I did alright considering three hours of sleep, if that. Like I said in my last post, had a good lunch followed by an awkward elevator ride with Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. Saw those guys a few more times over the course of the day, so that was pretty cool. So after that we just hung out in the room for a while, watched the Giants and Ravens preseason football game. I really don’t know how the Giants managed to win. Sadly, they’re going to have one rough season I think. Oh well, what can you do? (You can fire Tom Coughlin!) We’ll see how it all plays out once the regular season starts. So, before the end of the game I went downstairs to get a haircut. As you can see in my welcome page pic, my hair was long. I wanted to get something different from my typical plain long hair or buzzcut, and you can see the damage above. I find myself in the habit of flicking the hair out of my eyes even though it’s no longer there. I must look like a complete idiot.
WiFi Where? And Awkward Elevator Rides. August 19, 2007
Posted by Zach in Travel, WiFi and Internet.add a comment
I’m currently running around the Wynn Las Vegas looking for a WiFi connection, no luck so far. Nothing in the coffee shop and nothing in the VIP lounge. Come on people, no WiFi in a coffee shop? I’m already paying for internet access in the room, just give me a little bit of freedom here. Guess this will be up when I actually find a signal. Be warned, Wynn coffee shop is without WiFi =(
So following my search for wifi I went to lunch with the family. A deli at the Wynn, good burgers and such. So from there we headed back to the room and who did we wind up waiting for the elevator with? Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. That was one awkward elevator ride. Surrounded by insanely tall NBA all stars…
Very cool regardless. More later!
