iPhone 4- Getting Closer!

My ‘launch day’ iPhone 4 from AT&T is getting close; it made it from Fort Worth, TX to Memphis, TN- now it just needs to make it to Atlanta, GA tomorrow:

I would think that since AT&T screwed up thousands of orders that they would have the courtesy to ship out iPhones via priority overnight instead of standard overnight (i.e. no Saturday delivery with standard).

Another interesting bit is that AT&T has not yet charged my credit card for my iPhone 4.  They did a hold for $299 the day after I ordered, but this fell off after a few days.  I am guessing this should appear on my bank statement on Monday. 

iPhone 4 Finally Shipped!

I just received my shipping notification.

I ordered a 32GB iPhone 4 at 2:30pm EST on 06/15/2010 via AT&T’s website. 

My order number is in the 505161xxxx range.

My order was 'In Progress' until I received a 'Your AT&T Order Has Shipped' email at 3:41pm EST.

Tracking information indicates it was shipped FedEx standard overnight. 

Estimated delivery is Jun 28, 2010 by 3:00 PM

Wow- only 4 days late... 

I will NEVER pre-order via AT&T again.

No iPhone 4!

My AT&T pre-order status for the iPhone has remained unchanged since 06/15; it still sits as ‘In Progress’ with no further information.  But at least I am not alone with my status; over 220 responses to a post in AT&T’s forums indicate similar issues. The sad part is from the posts it doesn’t sound like AT&T is shipping on a first-come/first-severed method- rather someone compared it to ‘pulling names from a hat’. 

On the lighter side, I found a free app called LineSnob that allows people to check & update lines- most notable the local Apple store lines!  The line at the local Apple store was amazing; a co-worker joined the ‘reserved’ line at 8:00am and was finally picking up his phone at about 4:00pm…  I chose not to join this as I hate lines and have slightly better things to do than wait in one for 8 hours.

Other interesting iPhone apps that I stumbled upon today are RedLaser- which is now free -and Farmville for the iPhone has finally arrived. 

iPhone 4 Delays?

On June 15th, I (along with a small multitude of other people) woke up early to pre-order an iPhone 4.  The Apple servers were slammed and having issues for most of the morning (I tried for about an hour) so I delayed my attempt at a reservation until I made it into work.

The Apple ordering system did not get any better.  I eventually tried the AT&T pre-ordering server and found it to be a bit more reliable.  I was finally able to order a iPhone from the AT&T system at 2:30pm EST and received a confirmation shortly thereafter:

All seemed like I would receive my new iPhone on launch day via overnight delivery from AT&T.

On Monday, I started checking the status of my order to see how it was progressing; it was not:

I began checking the AT&T update site religiously for the next few days and still no progress on my order.

In the AT&T forums, I am now hearing of a shortage of 32GB phones and a possible delayed delivery- so it is possible that I may not see an iPhone delivery until next week sometime…

C’mon guys- if you can’t handle the volume, you shouldn’t be promising delivery for launch day. 

I also reserved an iPhone 4 32GB with the Apple store across the street from my office; if my iPhone order doesn’t change by tomorrow morning I may take my chances with the Apple store line and cancel my AT&T order (but AT&T does neglect to include information on how to do this in their pre-order email).

With all the talk of loss of phone signal when touching the metal on the case and some defective retina screens, I am starting to wonder if I should cancel my iPhone 4 order and wait a few weeks/months while they iron out all the bugs…

Besides- I plan on cancelling the phone after 1 month paying the ETF ($325!)- but this works out about the same as buying a 32GB phone out-right for $699.  By that time, I should have my SIM cutter in (or be practiced from cutting up old SIMs with an Xacto knife).

Tron Legacy

Holy crap; I cannot wait for this movie to come out:

If I could buy iMax tickets for December 17th right now, I would buy three (to have empty adjacent seats).

Sony PS3 Remote Play for non-Sony Systems

A developer has created a package that will allow use of the Sony Remote Play Software for the PS3 on any PC (i.e. a non-Vaio system).  More info here: http://www.sonyinsider.com/2010/06/18/remote-play-software-with-ps3/

Setup instructions are included in the zip file- along with a download link for the Remote Play Software: http://tinyurl.com/sonyvrp

You will need to pair your system with the PS3- so you will need to have access to the PS3 to initially set this up.

New Programs/Apps

Backupify – A web application for backing up Facebook, Blogger, Flicker, etc.  Free for under 2GB of storage.

Digital Volcano Duplicate Cleaner – A free and fast program for finding duplicate files.  Works very well on images- I found 830 duplicates in my 24,194 images.  Just make sure to uncheck ‘Install Bing toolbar’ on install.

Shipped-ROMs – A site with a large archive of HTC and Blackberry ROMs- some for devices not yet shipping…  This may be handy since I have rooted my HTC Incredible and I awaiting new custom ROMs to appear in XDA-Developers (along with a custom recovery image loader).

Insignia Infocast at Best Buy

It looks a little better than the Sony Dash and it is $30 cheaper- but
will it play NetFlix? And is the response as sluggish as the Dash?
(and is it resistive or capacitive touch-screen?)

Bazinga!

I upgraded my video card to a Radeon HD5850 (from a GTX285) and I am finally able to create a desktop in World of WarCraft that spans across both monitors:

 
(click for a full sized image)

Next step- a third 24” monitor so my character isn’t in the dead-center where the bezels meet…  D’oh!