resistance to persistence

Here’s a cool little app I found for all the photographers also taking notes on their iPhones. Strobox allows you to quickly drag and drop the standard lighting setup icons around your screen. Good if you don’t have your notebook handy and need a reference. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like you can put notes on camera or light settings but maybe that will be added in future upgrades. But I can’t complain much since afterall this app is free. Search for Strobox in the App Store.

i’ve been thinking about this more today…i was disappointed that my 3G iPhone didn’t get video in the update. Video recording is only available in the new 3Gs version. Which didn’t make sense. The 3G is capable of recording video. Even the previous initial iPhone version can do video if you have it jailbroken. And that’s not something I want to do. But I do want the video – it’s purely a software issue, so that’s why i was surprised it wasn’t in the update.

likewise with the voice controlled dialing. it’s not a feature i really want, nor need. i’ve got some 3rd party apps that can already do this on my phone. but that’s really a software issue as well.

checking the comparison between the 3G & 3Gs models, you see that video recording, voice control and the digital compass are features which set the 3Gs ahead.

So why would these features not be available in the 3G? Hype & sales. Apple wants you to definitely consider the 3Gs over the 3G if you’re a new buyer. They want the 3Gs to sell more than last year’s 3G opening sales. And if you can get a 16Gb 3G for $100 less than the 3Gs with all the same software, you’re going to buy the 3G for sure. So Apple will cripple the software on the 3G in the short term (likely a quarter), then after the first big sales figures are in, they’ll give all the 3G owners a present and we’ll get the video and voice control capabilities like the faster 3Gs.

So, I’ll just sit back, bide my time and wait it out – unless a 3rd party app beats Apple to the punch (I’m sure people are working on it). In the meantime, I’ll just be thankful we got tethering & MMS messaging up here in Canada, which shockingly AT&T has dropped the ball on. I’m amazed Canada has more phone advantages than the US for once. Except for pricing. That’ll never change.

A cool visualization of this year’s web trends leaders. View it large – really large on flickr.

found via swiss-miss

i’m normally not such a big microsoft fan, but this inspiration video has some amazing “out of the box” technical ideas and designs that i’d love to see come to life. 10 years is too soon, but it’s definitely inspiring if some of these ideas and interactions have even the possibility of happening. take a watch and see how exciting the future could be.

found via accordion guy

Another joy of the iPhone. So since my last post I tracked an iPhone down. I was calling everywhere and a local rogers video had just gotten a shipment of 2 in. I drove as fast as I could legally get there and snatched it up. Within 2 minutes the last one was gone by a guy who just happened to walk on and ask. And I’ve been loving every minute of my tech gadget fun. I’ll post more of a review later.

The main point of this post is that it was completely done on my phone – and quickly too. Wordpress (my blogging software) has an iPhone application so I can write blog posts on my phone. This is great. I’d always been wanting to tap out a post when I have idle time and now it’s possible. It’s usually as I’m walking around that I think of post ideas and I forget them by the time I get in front of a computer. Now I can write one anywhere I have my phone.

So hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot more content on this blog in the future.

i’m still searching for an iPhone. I missed the launch on 7/11 since I had some repair guys at the house and couldn’t go line up. now I’ve been on the hunt for phones. everywhere i went, they were sold out and didn’t know when they’d be getting any more. it’s now 6 days after the launch and i still can’t find a 16gb iPhone. i’ve found a couple 8gb phones, but the 16gb are a hot commodity and in limited stock. hopefully i can catch a break and find one soon. got any tips on where to find one?

evernote keeps your visual memories on all your computers

i started using evernote a few years ago. at the time, it was only on the pc. recently, they’ve added support for mac, phones and a web interface. now they even sync your notes across the internet so anything you add on one machine will end up on all your other locations. this is great for me – if I come across something on my work pc, I can add it to evernote and it’ll end up on my mac at home. they have a free service where you can use up to 40MB/month. if you want more, you can pay $5/month.

So what is Evernote?

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

You can directly “clip” (like copy & paste) from Outlook, Firefox, Internet Explorer into Evernote. Or any copy & paste can become a note in Evernote.

For example, say I read an article on my lunchbreak at work and I want to store it for reference later. Bookmarks are lame. Printing kills trees. Evernote stores it as a note you can read later. I use it for photos ideas I come across, great articles I want to reread later, tutorials, etc. And now with the new syncing ability, I can review it on my home computer later that evening.

You can tag your notes with keywords for searching and sorting. And now, Evernote even has visual character recognition. Take a photo of a business card using your webcam, add it to Evernote and it will recognize the text in the photo. So later, when you need to find that business card for “John Smith”, just type a search for it and Evernote will “read” it off the business card photo. Very cool.

lots of cool features, and finally a way to store all the interesting articles I come across

Canada gets some phone equality

i was giddy when the announcement was made – iPhone is coming to Canada. And July 11 will be the payoff. I’ll definitely be at Rogers that morning getting an update. The only remaining question is the data plans. There’s lots of rumors that the plans will be close to what is offered in the US, which will be a huge change after seeing not even close to equivalent data rates. Imagine if gas cost $5/gallon (not too hard with today’s rates) in the US, in Canada it would be something like $40/gallon in Canada. You’d see a lot of empty streets and highways. And that’s what it’s been in Canada – people just can’t afford to use wireless internet on their phones. Hopefully that will be changed in the next couple weeks and Canada’s wireless services will take off.

One thing I’m looking forward to is having Google Maps on my phone. I had been contemplating getting a GPS for the car. With Google Maps, I’ll at least be able to get an idea of where to go, without the turn by turn voice navigation.

And now I’ll have one less thing filling up my pockets. I’ve been carrying around my large 20Gb classic ipod (circa Feb 2005 after my 40Gb died) and a Nokia 6682 (no small phone either). I like the Nokia because it has my calendar and all my contacts in there which I couldn’t do with other phones. I need a smartphone. the iPhone is like Reese’s peanut butter cups. “You’ve got your phone in my music.” “No, you’ve got your music in my phone.”

A few things I’ll need to look into

• How to sync my work Outlook Calendar with my home Mac – I think there’s a solution available using Google Calendar as an intermediate.
• Cool new apps to install – What are the best apps? I’ll definitely need a game for idle time, some sort of todo list, a notepad, something to jot out blog posts. What else? Any recommendations?
• A case/cover – I’ve got a silicon cover for my iPod and I like the fact that it doesn’t slide around when I put it down on the car console, etc. Offers a bit of bounce to keep it protected for those rare times when i’ve dropped it.

Will you be upgrading to an iPhone?