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No. of iPhone-related Injuries: 1
14 Jul2010
I’ve been playing around with an iPhone 4 for almost a week now. From someone who has been using a first-generation iPod touch for the past three years, the iPhone 4 is a huge departure. I moved back stateside a few weeks ago, so I decided now would be the perfect time to take the plunge and finally get an iPhone. Ordering through AT&T Premier was, in the grand scheme of things, a pretty painless experience. Save for a few hour-long hold times (understandable, given the immense volume of iPhone orders AT&T was processing the last few weeks of June), the entire process went smoothly, from order to FedEx truck in a little over a week. Considering the original AT&T and Apple Store estimate of three weeks, I was, to say the least, pleased. To be honest, back when the iPhone 4 was first announced in June, I failed to see what was so fascinating about the latest iPhone. I saw the “minor” changes in iOS4 and didn’t think it would be all that different from the iPhone 3Gs, or even to my iPod touch. Shows how little I knew.
I synced my iPhone 4 for the first time. Same old, same old, I figured. I synced my music, my contacts, my apps — just like I had with my trusty iPod touch from 2008. When it finally finished syncing, I slid the slider for the first time. It felt like a completely new interface. Sure, it’s still the same old home screen layout — icons, dock, pages. Perhaps it was the crispness of the new Retina display, or the ability to change the home screen background image, or the app folders. In any case, it felt completely different from the iPod touch OS I was used to. The iPhone 4 was much zippier, thanks to its A4 processor, and felt more robust than its younger sibling. How was I missing out on this for the past three years?
Amidst the excitement of acquainting myself with my new toy, I could not help but read about the controversy surrounding the “grip of death.” In all honesty, I put my hand on the left hand corner of my phone and indeed there was a significant drop in bars in the span of a few seconds. Be that as it may, it is 1) not hard to change your hand position — and I’m a lefty 2) the claims of it being a crippling aspect of the iPhone 4 are greatly exaggerated. I have dropped calls, yes, but that is not because of the iPhone, but rather because of the spotty AT&T reception I have in my house. My consensus is: if Apple issues a recall, I’d be more than willing to swap my iPhone for a non-faulty one. If they don’t, I still wouldn’t complain. I’ll just get a case and be on my way. As a phone, the iPhone 4’s been great.
One feature of the iPhone that I loved more than I expected to was FaceTime. Originally, I failed to see the appeal of it since video calling had already been done before. I’ve tried using it, but other phones I’ve tried were all way too complicated. With FaceTime, however, the process was simple, straight-forward, and enjoyable. I thought of all the possibilities that were now available with FaceTime. On Gizmodo, there was an article on using FaceTime over in-flight WiFi, which if it lasts, would up the current standards of mobile communication.
I’m sure my opinion of the iPhone will change as I get more familiar with it. As of now, with its array of apps, dead-simple interface, and sleek design, I think I’m going to enjoy using it for a long time — that is, until the iPhone 5 comes out. Kidding. Maybe.
- In: Tech
Note to self
4 Apr2010
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 1
James 4:13-15 (King James Version)
- In: Self
Final Stretch
28 Mar2010
Spring Break 2010 is over. I had a lot of fun in Bali, relaxing for the first time in nearly four years without having to think (much) about school. On my last night there, I had dinner by the ocean and was able to capture the last dregs of sunlight fade into the clouds. Since my toe was still infected, I couldn’t go swim in the water or get it wet for long, so I was beached.
While there, I was shocked (surprised?) to find that people spoke a lot of Mandarin there. In fact, when speaking to me, the locals used Mandarin as opposed to English as the de facto tourist language. Part of me felt resentment as I slowly began to realize that China was really starting to take a greater role in the world. Well, most of me felt that way. I know it’s really lame, but China to me represents communism, suppression of human rights, workers’ rights violations, pollution, weird new middle class, tainted milk and lead-lined toys. Seeing that seemingly replace the free “Anglophone” world almost made me fearful. Or maybe it’s just because my Mandarin is kind of bad and I didn’t feel comfortable speaking it all the time. Whatever it was, it creeped me out.
On another note, graduation is in exactly 2 months and 1 day. It’s kind of surreal since it feels like just yesterday when I was just starting my freshman year, but at the same time it’s moving too slowly and I want to just graduate already without having to deal with AP and IB exams and the like. With that said, I might as well go sleep now. The more I sleep, the faster until graduation, right?
- In: Random Musings| School| Self| Vacation
Valentine’s Day
20 Feb2010
Very rarely after watching a movie do I feel regret. Valentine’s Day did it for me. It was not because it wasn’t entertaining; it was entertaining. But it was entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
I admit I was rather forced to watch this movie, although I didn’t put up much of a fight. It has Taylor Swift in it, how bad can it be? Wrong. It was terrible. And Taylor Swift made it just a bit worse. But I digress… I thought the movie was going to go a bit deeper than the clichéd boy meets girl, girl’s a phone sex operator (or guy’s already married and is cheating, or girl says yes to getting married but later says no, or guy who’s love with his best friend, or girl who’s not ready to have sex, or elderly woman admits to infidelity, or little boy in love with girl, or guy who comes out of the closet), but alas, it didn’t. And the length of the damn thing. 2 hours! Although 2 hours was not enough time to cover each of the individual stories without each story looking like a breaking news clip, 2 hours was enough time to catch my attention and throw it away.
The way the story was set up is akin to 2006’s Crash. You know, the one about racism in L.A.? All the stories are interconnected somehow, and at the end they all come together, but for what? In Crash, it’s to show that racism affects everyone. In Valentine’s Day, however, they seem to come together just for the hell of it. And that kind of apathy is kind of how I felt at the end of the movie.
- In: Movies
Predictions on the iPad
31 Jan2010
Last Wednesday rolled around rather uneventfully. After the previous track record of the iPhone 3GS, the MacBook Pro unibody, and the iPodtouch 3G (third generation) announcements, I’ve been pretty much bored by the recent string of Apple keynotes. Instead of having iPad force me to rethink that notion, it only solidified it some more. Admittedly, there was a lot of hype for the iPad, but I did not buy into it much. Not sure as to what to expect, I planned on a full-fledged Mac, or at least some form of Mac OS X on it (not iPhone OS) that would make it at least as useful as a laptop, but with the usual Apple ingenuity.
However, when the announcement came out and all I saw was an over-sized iPod touch, I was, needless to say, underwhelmed. And that’s an understatement. Now that isn’t to say I don’t want one — I do, but mainly because of my lust for shiny gadgets. And I should probably pick one of these up fast, because honestly, I don’t expect them to be around for much longer. Maybe it won’t go the way of the Apple TV that quickly, but if Apple doesn’t change the purpose of the iPad, it may go the way of the Newton — a long, sad, and embarrassing existence. Now why do I say this? There are a few reasons why I predict the iPad (and the tablet category in general) will fail:
- Let’s take a look at the Tablet industry in general. Tablets have been done before. Granted, not in the same manner as the new iPad, but they’ve been done. Sure, they’ve had a mildly successful run, but they didn’t turn out to be the answer the computing industry was looking for, as Bill Gates predicted a few years back. Specifically focusing on the iPad, it’s been done before. By the same company. Does the iPhone ring a bell? What does the iPad do that the iPhone can’t (except for a few unfocused apps that Apple has developed solely, so far at least, for the iPad)? Nothing? Well there’s the problem.
- What category does the iPad fall into? Steve Jobs tried answering this question in the keynote, calling it a third middle device in between a smartphone and a laptop. Call it Apple’s answer to a netbook — just don’t call it a netbook. However, the problem is that this middle device is intrinsically the same thing as the smartphone, or worse, as another product they have — the iPod touch. Sans the portability. In Jobs’ keynote, he doesn’t target a specific audience, but rather describes a variety of apps that could potentially hook people from different demographics. iWork for businesspeople. eBook readers for book worms and housewives. Games for the teens and twentysomethings. None of these are compelling enough to warrant a complete device, let alone an entire category.
- The iPad is too much like the iPhone. I’ve probably already beaten this to death, but I’ll put the nail in the coffin. How is the iPad different from the iPhone? So it has a larger screen. And it has customizable backgrounds. Hell, even the interface is the same, who are we kidding here? Not to mention the name is similar to an existing product — the iPod. What the iPad is is a confusing product, with no distinct identity at the moment, and fills a nonexistent need, and worse yet doesn’t create one.
Will my predictions come true? It’s tough to say at the moment, but if Apple doesn’t step up to the task of truly convincing us that tablets are the future, I’m convinced that the iPad will go down as Apple’s biggest bust since the Newton.
Avatar…?!?!
23 Jan2010
After watching Avatar, only one question popped into my head: “WTF??????????????????????????????????”
Okay, I don’t really care if the story is “exactly identical” to Pocahontas or whatever, since I don’t even remember the story of Pocahontas that well. First off — the Na’vi people…James Cameron and the crew had an ENTIRE alien race to work with. A completely foreign culture. And instead of doing something new, they make them BASICALLY Native American people. Bow and arrows…feathers…hair braids…the heavy emphasis on oneness with the earth…
Then, the story line. Oh my god…I felt like I was watching the “Earth Song” from This Is It…cept with blue people! “The sky people…come from a place where there is no green.” Maybe it’s just because I’m not much of an environmentalist? Throughout the movie I felt no connection or sympathy towards the Na’vi. Or towards the humans, either. I mean, sure, I felt kinda bad that the Na’vi were having their land destroyed, but really…so what? Maybe I’m just a heartless a-hole. Oh yeah, and the alien sex? Was that even necessary?! “I can..see through you.” Maybe if they made the blue people a bit hotter it’d be more believable. What type of normal hot-blooded male would find those blue aliens hot, or even attractive? I hear James Cameron wanted to make it more graphic, but hey: woulda, coulda, shoulda.
The only redeeming quality of Avatar was the multitude of explosions. And they were big. Especially on IMAX 3D. That was amazing. The scene where they cut down the tree? Genius. The millions of dollars were clearly well spent. Should’ve spent some more on that script, on the other hand…
Do I recommend Avatar? Not really, but if you don’t care about the storyline or the dialogue and only want to see it for the explosions, sure. Actually, I take that back. Don’t widen the gap in box office success between Star Wars and Avatar. Don’t continue the atrocity. Star Wars was a FREAKING classic!!!! Avatar on the other hand? Are the American people retarded? STOP WATCHING AVATAR!!!
- In: Movies| Uncategorized
Snapshot
17 Jan2010
Ever I since I started this blog, I haven’t really documented stuff that’s been happening in my life. Maybe it’s because I feel that nothing significant ever happens to me. Or just that when they do, blogging it isn’t the first thing that comes into my mind. In any case, I’ve decided to give a snapshot of what life is like on this date, January 17, 2010.
A few days ago, I was involved in a public bus accident. I was about to get off at my stop when, all of a sudden, the bus comes to a screeching halt. Now in Taiwan, this is not uncommon. Public buses drivers slam on the brakes like there’s no tomorrow pretty much every time I ride the bus. But this time, they braked especially hard. Apparently some senior citizens flew around on the bus like clothes in a washer, but I didn’t notice. I got off the bus and looked at the damage. Four cars. Niiiiice. And then I walked away (Not very eventful, no?).
I’m in day 4 of treatment for my toe infection. After years of constant toe stubbing, my toe has decided to screw me over with an infection. And it hurts like a bitch. Hopefully in 2 or 3 days it’ll be back to normal, but at the moment it’s not too promising. It’s still red, bleeding, and still hurts like a bitch. Hell, I can hardly walk. Again, not very eventful.
With schoolwork largely out of the way as a second semester senior, I’ve taken it upon myself to watch a bunch of movies I haven’t been able to watch normally. In the past few days, I’ve watched Abre los ojos, [REC], You Only Live Twice, Being John Malkovich, and right after I press “Publish,” I’ll be watching The Hurt Locker. I tried watching Avatar on 3D IMAX yesterday, but little did I know that the tickets would be sold out. And I thought Taiwanese people didn’t watch movies! Or at least that’s what I inferred after watching This Is It in a half-empty theater during the first-showing. Shows how much I know.
I’ve also been having these crazy dreams lately. But of course, I’ve been having so many that I can’t really separate them from each other. But I recall…getting shot by a Yakuza gang…that was strange. I’m racking my brain to try to remember some more, but alas, I cannot (UGHHH THIS IS KILLING ME!!!).
And at the moment, I’ve been playing the Jason Mraz: Live at Java Joe’s album on repeat. I never liked Jason Mraz too much, but after listening to his early live albums, I’ve gained a newfound respect for his music.
I’m pretty much too lazy to come up with anything substantial to blog about, so this is the best I can do for now. Bear with me.
- In: Random Musings| Self