leave the lappy in the bag

I like having a phone smart and feature rich enough that I can leave my laptop on it’s bag most nights. Being able to stay on top of emails, calls, as well as other social Internet services is priceless.

The phone doesn’t meet 100% of my daily Internet needs, but it’s enough that I don’t feel completely tethered to a real machine. I don’t mind being obsessed with a machine that fits in my pocket. Especially when my last four “smartphones” were pretty dumb in comparison.

Now if ATT could just make their 3G network both fast and reliable.

My phone’s browser teaches me stuff

Turned on safari’s debug console to find errors and I found a cool feature. Safari’s debug console reports tips as well as errors.

Never had that in a phone.

iPhone = iCrash

I’ve had an iPhone for under two weeks and I’m about to name it crash bandicoot. Every app I use crashes more and more each day.

At first I wrote it off as a safari problem, but every app crashed now. Fortunately it’s random, and not constant. Tonight I’ve had the following apps crash : pandora, safari, app store, and twinkle.

I’m hoping to finish this post before seeing the all too familiar black screen of crash.

Can your phone take screenshots?

Name that tune

If you don’t have Shazzam installed yet, go to the App Store and get it. Shazzam takes a 10 second sample of a song and returns all the information available. Song name, all the expected metadata, plus links to iTunes, YouTube, album art, and sharing options.

I had a call in service like this years ago, but it wasn’t free and you only got song and artist info. Shazzam is going to be the perfect tool for helping me fix all the messed up ID3 tags in my music library.

I’ve only tested it next to my stereo, so I need to test it in public. I’ll be keeping this app for a while.

blogging on hold

I am currently on speakerphone and writing this at the same time. Never owned a phone that could do this.

iPhone FTW

Let the phone check email

Today’s productivity helper is to let the phone check email. I use Gmail for all accounts, so I have to stop what I’m doing to check email. This doesn’t sound like a big deal but it’s the tangeant factor that gets me. New email or not, chances are I’m going to stop thinking about work, and that’s a roadblock.

Now I just use the iPhone’s push capability to check Gmail each hour. I realize there are plenty of desktop email solutions, but that would take resources from my machine. This setup makes use of my data plan, as well as let me know exactly when email waiting for me.

Plus I really dig hearing the phone beep and vibrate every so often. In fact I love getting that notification at any time, not just during business hours. Just one more thing I can stop thinking about.

I just wonder how long until the iBurnout sets in.

Awesome ringtones

The iPhone is the first mobile phone I’ve had that comes loaded with awesome ringtones. Usually phones come with crappy midi files, or weird song loops.

Here is part of the ringtone list. I don’t have a favorite, but I am enjoying digital.

Vibrate and Ring reunited!!!

Today I learned the iphone can vibrate
and ring at the same time. This is a feature I’ve been missing on my last four phones. That was the price I payed for not sticking with Nokia.

I officially love my new “phone”. Here is the screen that holds this cherished feature of mine.