Tags: StarWars, Force Unleashed, iPhone, Apple, App Store

Well luckily that’s all been worked out.  Anyone who has downloaded the free New York Times app and been immediately disappointed by the performance and quality of it have probably noticed the App Store icon on the home screen showing a little number badge on top of it.

If you go to the App Store and follow that notification a similar badge appears in the updates section, allowing you to download the new version of whatever application needs updating.  If you are away from your sync computer, it will install and prompt you to copy the new version over to your sync computer when the phone is connected.  Very slick. 

Nothing like a little som’n som’m to look forward too every now and again.

Tags: AppStore, itunes, iPhone, iPod Touch, updates

The cats in Cupertino decreed that the new 3G iPhone could only be bought in Apple and AT&T stores starting at 8a on Friday. Guaranteed lines of zealots at the Apple stores…prompting me to think that I’d be safe arriving an hour early to an AT&T store mere miles from an Apple store. Not so much. At 7a there were 35 people in front of me…and every single fuck around me had an EDGE iPhone. I’m not exaggerating. Every goddamn person had a 1-year old, perfect-working-condition iPhone.

Now…I’m moving up from a Samsung a900 on Sprint, so the iPhone is whole milk to me. But I’ve spent some time with the EDGE iPhone and don’t find it to be incredibly handicapped compared to the 3G. The web access is faster, but all iPhones will get the 2.0 software…so we’ll be on a nearly-level playing field from what I can see. The most obvious advantage being that my phone was “only” $199, whereas the earliest adopters got horn-fucked last year.

Back to the lines. AT&T had deployed some Zealot Wranglers to keep the natives in czech, trained in the fine art of counter-intel. The agent for our portion of line was particularly vicious…claiming illogically that she was incapable of counting how many iPhones were available for purchase and beckoning everyone to eschew their jobs and stay in line no matter what happened. Luckily I was able to forward the trouble phone to my cell and remain away from the office until I had blown my wad…others were not so lucky. Two seething and sweaty IT pro’s in line behind me couldn’t handle the pressure and rolled out of the firing line mere minutes before I secured my prize.

With regards to the process, Apple screwed the pooch in my opinion. Last year some anti-zealots hacked their phones and whatever…so this year’s plan was to activate at the store on purchase. That plan will probably be fine after a few weeks…no so much on Friday. The entire central time zone was struggling to activate through iTunes starting at 8a. Case in point, it took the first guy in line over 30 minutes to reemerge with his activated phone. Luckily for us, the AT&T order-takers quickly decided to dump the activate procedure and I got my phone activation-free. And thus the activation process took about 3 minutes later on in the day.

So…you’re saying “MJS, how’s the fuckin phone?”

Pretty goddamn swell. I tried to give it a well rounded rinse over the weekend: making some long-distance calls, listening to a podcast (thousand cuts, y’all), watching a trailer, downloading some free apps from the new apps store, using google maps to find a Panera Bread, etc. Good shit. About half of my interweb browsing was done via my home wifi, but I was most impressed by how quickly the phone hopped from wifi to 3G to Edge when the signal strength demanded it. Definitely some quality there.

I’m impressed so far, and I’m certainly finding every reason to use the thing. However, I vow not to become the asshat zealot that will whip out the phone to counter a pilot when he claims our plane is delayed due to weather. Fuck him.

Video tutorial: unlock iphone

With this single move you can download and purchase a shit tonne of goddamn applications.  Free apps include (finally) AIM, Facebook App, MySpace Mobile App, eBay App, IGN Game reviews, NetNewsWire, Evernote, and all sorts of little games and productivity applications. 

Pay software includes, Bejeweled, Super Monkey Ball, OmniFocus, Band, and christ there’s too much to name.  Seriously, tomorrow is going to kick all forms of ass when the 2.0 software is avaiable.

Or you could just download the 2.0 iPhone update yourself, right now.

Of couse, I can’t guarantee that that update will work properly, and it is known that updating your iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 software will wipe the phone and attempt to restore from a backup created just before the wipe.  The backup checks what is available and authorized in your iTunes library for the restore so make sure (if you do this) to update using your main iTunes library.

This program is an example of why the App store and iPhone combo is going to be awesome.

Tags: iPhone, iPod, iPod touch, iTunes, Apple, App Store, iPhone 2.0

So yeah, apparently that whole attempt to “streamline operations” back in April didn’t go over so well, as Syntax-Brillian — you know, that firm neck deep in panel partnerships and responsible for Olevia HDTVs — has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

And so another bargin-bin HDTV manufacturer bites the dust.  Hopefully that company that’s assuming their debt continues the brand, but I doubt it. 

Tags: Syntax-Brillian, Olevia, HDTV, Bankruptcy

Tags: ps3, GTAIV, glitches, Video Games