Monday, July 14, 2008

The new iPhone 3G

Yes, I got one... I got the last one in the store on Sunday and was very happy with it until today. It's not all sunshine and roses, and as a bit of an Apple fanboy, that is a little disappointing.

The new software is great. The app store has some fantastic stuff on it, including Things, my favorite GTD app which I can't live without at this point. I did download some dorky stuff too, like iBeer... Just to pass the time.

But today, I activated my Exchange account in work and it wiped out all my personal contacts and calendar as I set them to Push mode. So it seems that you CANNOT have a personal calendar and personal contacts on one computer, and then activate Exchange for work. This is annoying as I have a personal address book and a non-work calendar in addition to my work stuff.

Not only that, but the sync also got the time zones messed up so it screwed up my master home calendar and dropped a couple of appointments, so I don't know what the hell is going on with that. I'll have to spend more time working on that tomorrow. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of a workaround. I really just wanted the exchange calendar to be an additional calendar on the device in the same way that the Entourage calendar is in iCal.

In addition, the battery life is REALLY bad when compared to the old one. I know the 3G kills the battery, but it should last longer than a half a day. I'm going to charge the hell out of it tonight and see how it does tomorrow.

Plus, the phone is wider and therefore, doesn't fit into the docking cradle of the old phone so you have to spend more money on a new one. Nickel and dimed....

So, for me, the upgrade to the new device is a bit of a frustrating experience. The exchange integration is VERY slick, but kills your personal stuff, which is NOT what I expected, but the app store is a wonderful source of great creativity and cool things to add to the phone.

I'll gripe more I'm sure as I try and get this calendar and contacts mess sorted out.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

European Car Design

Another non-mobile related post, but with the lines so long outside the Apple Store, I can't really write about my new iPhone as I don't have one yet, so lets try something a little different

I was in the UK last week for the first time in nearly 3 years and I noticed a number of significant changes while I was there. Firstly, there were tall white elegant windmills dotted around the countryside and I thought they looked great. Wondering how long before they get across here.

Secondly, the weather. It rained the whole time I was there, but I won't bore you with that, but as my dad put it "How miserable is this?"

The third thing I noticed was the proliferation of small city cars. I'm a bit of car nut myself, but I was shocked at the numbers of these things running around (and having seen the price of petrol over there, it makes a lot of sense). The thing that struck me the most was how wonderfully designed they were. We now have the Smart car over here in the US, and there are a few of them running around, but I particularly liked the Citroen and Peugeot small cars. The C1 and C2 from Citroen are wonderful little things. The C1, the Peugeot 107 and a Toyota were all designed jointly, but its a great looking little car. Big wide mouth, cat looking headlights and very vertical rear on the car. It just looked great, and for the price, looks like a good deal. It makes the new Mini Cooper look very over priced.

Then there was the Renault Modus, the Peugeot 1007 with the sliding doors and my favorite of the lot, the new Fiat 500. What a little gem that is. The interior is a thing of beauty. I would love to see one of those on the road over here.

Its about time the US population realized that big cars are not required all the time and that these small city cars are the answer to the short to medium commute to work, where most people spend their time.