PSP Go! at Target in Buckhead...

About to see if they will sell me one a day early... :)

Update: No love; the register rings up 'No Sale until 10/1/09' at Target.

Maybe I will five BestBuy a try...

New Things For Me

• Replaced LiveMesh folder sync with Live Sync
• Fieldrunners for the iPhone may be able to replace RoboDefense for the G1
• Considering a Popcorn C200 as an upgrade for my A100
• Testing PlayOn and TVersity Pro for streaming NetFlix, Hulu and YouTube to DLNA devices (such as Popcorn Hour or xBox 360)
  • Found some ‘classic’ episodes on Hulu: ExoSquad, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, He Man, etc.
• Seriously considering a FitBit when they come out in late October
• Picked up a Nike+ Sensor for use with my iPhone- and cut a hole out in the bottom of one of my New Balance shoes to make it fit!

PSP Go at SonyStyle

Demo units are out; analog stck feels pretty tight.

Bruce

Antec Cases

I didn't know Antec made a pATX case (with power supply)...

Contract Free iPhone 3GS

A week or so back, I purchased a shiny, new iPod Touch 64GB.  I was deciding between the iPod Touch and the Zune HD and the Touch won out for A2DP support (but no AVRCP?!?).  The App store is addictive, and I came across several apps that would be awesome when used with the iPhone GPS and camera.  Long story short, I returned the iPod Touch (to the Apple store) and picked up a contract free iPhone 32GB from BestBuy.  I had looked at the $299 + cancel contract in 31 days, but AT&T wanted a $500 deposit for me to open an account with them; c’mon AT&T- my credit history isn’t THAT bad…

After getting the iPhone home, I popped in an AT&T SIM from another phone and I was able to activate the phone.  The phone and SMS messaging worked properly- but not the data plan.  If I tried to check e-mail or browse the web via 3G I received a message “Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service”

I could use WiFi for most of the services (and use my G1 with WiFi Tethering for a mobile WiFi solution) so I decided to wait until a jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS with 3.1 firmware is released.

Another co-worker had a similar issue with a jailbroken 3.0 phone, so I decided to do some research and stumbled on a blog that offered a solution by changing the APN.

Two solutions are offered: download the iPhone Configuration Utility or open a website on your iPhone to create a custom APN.  If you use the former option, you will need to email the resulting  ‘.mobileconfig file’ message to your iphone and click the attachment to install.  Visiting the UnlockIt website on the iPhone prompts with a Custom APN screen.

   

If you are using AT&T, just pull down AT&T in the list and it will populate the other items.  Click ‘Create Profile’ and a ‘.mobileconfig’ file will be created and downloaded to the iPhone.  The ‘Install Profile’ screen will appear after the file is downloaded; clicking ‘install’ updates the carrier APN and a normal AT&T data plan is usable again!

A new ‘Profile’ option appears under General settings- allowing you to remove the custom APN configuration if desired at a later time.

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be AT&T’s rollout of MMS for the iPhone in the US- and most likely firmware 3.1.1. I will wait to see if the updates break the APN fix!

Apple App Store

I picked up an iPod touch as I have been wanting to play with the App Store for a while now.  The last time I played with the App store was at least a year ago on a 1st Gen iPhone and it was not a pleasant experience.

The experience has improved- somewhat…  It is still impossible to find anything useful in the barrage of crap and duplicates that are hosted by the App store.

What amazes me on both the Apple and the Google App stores is the complete inability to search for something I want- unless I know the EXACT name of the application.  For example:

In iTunes, I would like to find a free application for synchronizing Google contacts/calendar.   I do a search for ‘Google’ and I get a response of 200+ apps.  First issue is there is no way to sort them as free/paid.  After that, I would like to sort by ‘rating’, but that is also not an option… 

The Google App store has the same issue; searching for an App returns a blind list of applications that contain a keyword- no way to filter or sort the results.

To be fair, the iTunes store does offer a ‘browse’ option that provides a grid view of the Apps with pricing & ratings- but still no keyword filter (unless I am missing something?):

Windows 7 Connectivity Issue

I formatted my system and installed the RTM (build 7600) of Windows 7; all worked great.  I went about installing my necessary applications (Firefox, NewsLeecher, etc) and all seemed to be good.

A few days ago I rebooted- and I was unable to connect to the internet.  My tray icon indicated there was a network issue and a quick IPCONFIG revealed that I had two gateway addresses:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : OuterNET
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.10.100
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.10.1
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0

I thought that was a bit strange…

I disabled and re-enabled my network connection and the problem ceased.  However, when i rebooted again, I had the same issue. 

I did a little research and found that some users having similar issues that were caused by the Bonjour service that is installed with Adobe CS3.  I did not see such a service installed, but there is one labeled ‘##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##’.

When I opened the properties for this service, it reveals that it is the Bonjour service that others have had issue with:

I set the service to ‘disabled’ and rebooted; the issue has not returned.

Formal instructions for removing the service can be found in the Adobe forums.

Two MP3 Player Epic Fails in One Month

Today Apple announced the newest additions to the iPod family- most notably an iPod touch with GL ES support (and a 50% faster CPU) with up to 64GB of storage and a new iPod Nano that can shoot VGA resolution video; however they failed to add the camera into the iPod Touch! The 64GB of storage is a massive amount of flash memory- but it comes with the requirement to use the bloated Apple iTunes to organize applications/movies/etc. (Don’t get me wrong: I once was an iTunes zealot- back in the days of v6- but the current implementation of iTunes on Windows reminds me of Windows Vista). The OS is updated to v3.1 to add ‘Genius’ and ‘gaming features’- but both of these are useless on an Media player (unless they are going to release an Apple Bluetooth gamepad?)

A few weeks ago, details for the Microsoft Zune HD were released: it features an awesome looking 3.3” OLED touch screen (480x252) and utilizes the nVidia Tegra chip to allows the player to output 720p video to an external monitor/TV (and enables the option for 3D rendering for the upcoming ‘app store’). The player also features WiFi (for web browsing, wireless sync, online purchases) and an FM Radio, but fails to include a Bluetooth radio- which kills all chances of A2DP wireless audio… (and no camera was expected)

Here is a basic cross-comparison of features that I was looking at:

	iPod Touch 64GB	Zune HD
Memory:	64GB	32GB
Screen Size:	3.5”	3.3”
Resolution:	480x320	480x272
OLED:	No	Yes
WiFi:	Yes	Yes
A2DP:	Yes	No
Camera:	No	No
Apps:	Yes	Yes*
HD Output:	No	Yes
Web Browser:	Yes	Yes
iPod Car Dock Connector:	Yes	No
Wireless Sync:	No	Yes
Price:	$399	$279

*Apps forthcoming- possible Windows Mobile 6.0 compatibility?

The iPod Touch seems to win by 8 to 7 on features, but this comes at a price of $120 more than the Zune HD.

I was considering upgrading my aging iPod Classic 60GB, but both of the new offerings have fallen short of what I think they need to contain for the price points they are asking. I need to decide if one is ‘good enough’ to replace my current (working) 60GB iPod (and part with $300-$400) or if I should just wait until the next generation rolls around…

Update: I eventually went with the iPod Touch 64GB and I am now hooked on the App store. I wanted camera and GPS functionality, so I returned the iPod Touch and purchased an iPhone (no contract); now I am just waiting for a jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS with FW 3.1! :)

Dragon*Con 2009

The annual Dragon*Con convention kicked off today in downtown Atlanta, GA. It has been pretty good so far; good panels and some great costumes. But it already seems a bit busy- and this isn’t even the weekend- and I have a feeling I am going to be dreading some of the panel lines by tomorrow.

I will be posting twitter updates and I occasionally will be uploading pictures to my Flickr account- so check back if you want to see what is happening at ‘The Con’.

On another note- the Seidio 1400mAh Extended Battery for the G1 cannot cut it for a full day at the con; It was completely dead by 3:30pm and I went to the car and charged it to 50%- it was dead again by 8:00pm… I am taking two 2300mAh G1 extended batteries tomorrow- in addition to the 1400mAh (as a 3rd tier backup battery).

Outlook Sync with Google

I have been searching for the past few weeks for the best way to synchronize Outlook with Google (so everything matches in my G1).

There is a free Calendar Sync from Google, but it only does the primary calendar and it does not do contacts or tasks.

I found a post about CompanionLink; albeit it is a bit expensive ($40), it does appear to do exactly what I am looking for….

Mysterious Universe has Returned

My all-time favorite podcast has returned: Mysterious Universe. This podcast covers recent weekly paranormal/weird science event. It can range from UFOs to Yeti to Ghosts; pretty interesting stuff.

It has been on an extended hiatus for the past year or so. I am very happy to see it has returned! :)