Resting my new running 'tools.'
Well, I just completed my first run with no shoes on. I did a mile, just because it was feeling so good. I really should have gone less. Actually I should have just walked but it felt so free to be running with just my bare feet hitting the pavement.
I’m reading “Born to Run” and if you’re into running at all you need to check this book out. There are so many interesting things in this book & it’s one of my inspirations to try barefoot running.
iPhone 4 by Flickr user bfgreen
Chances are, you want an iPhone. If you don’t have one, then you are either locked into another providers plan or the cost of the phone with data plan is just too much. I totally understand that. The worst part is, the iPhone is so amazing (in my book) and the cost of ownership is so high, the features make it hard to turn down.
Well, I think I’ve come up with an alternative for you. A way for you to get some “iLove” without having to have a contract for the iPhone. Long story short, my idea is going to end up having you carry both a cell phone AND an iPod Touch so it’s not really as simple as just having an all in one iPhone but in my mind, it can be a close 2nd alternative that’s relatively cheap.
Here is the first in a series showing my iPhone home screen. Not really sure how you’ll benefit from it but it should be a bit interesting at least.
Current iPhone Home Screen
I’m the kind of person that enjoys seeing others houses because I think a change of scenery grows new ideas.
I like to keep my home screen filled with the apps I’ll use the most as well as some of the more graphically pleasing apps. The icons on the main screen need to pass my “app appeal” test and it’s more important now that I have an iPhone 4 with retina display!
What’s on your iPhone home screen? As you can see, I have a lovely picture of my smokin’ hot wife! But I have seen some cool wallpapers. A friend of mine has a Pac-Man scheme that goes around all the app icons, pretty creative.
Wall Charger & Sparq 2.0
I recently got a 40% off coupon from Zagg.com and while browsing their site for something to use it on, I saw the Sparq. It’s a portable battery pack for recharging any electronic device through USB. It promises to do some pretty awesome things such as recharge an iPhone from 0 – 100% 4 times! It can also take an iPad from 0 – 60% battery in the same time it takes a wall charger to do it. Those are pretty impressive stats.
Instead of doing the normal test of recharges and seeing long it lasts that way, I thought it would be fun to see how long I could use just the Sparq 2.0 to charge my iPhone. Would it last a few days? A week? Longer?! I don’t know!
I use my iPhone for almost everything and I use it a lot. I read on it, watch videos on it, play games on it, work on it… It’s easy for me to drain the battery once a day if I’m really cranking away on it.
For this test, I won’t be doing anything different that I usually do. This is going to be a real world test. I’ll try and keep track of what I do but since I honestly do so much on it and my “schedule” changes all the time so I may just give an overall review of use.
I’d love to hear what you use if you have some sort of battery backup! Do a test of your own and tell me about it!
*Oh, enter you’re own email address here for a coupon code good on Zagg.com, you could get up to 50% off!
[Update]
Short Version: Sunday AM to Tuesday PM (3 days)
Long Version: Living off of the Sparq exclusively lasted for longer than I thought. It survived all the way from Sunday morning to Tuesday night. That may not sound like a long time but remember, I was using my iPhone a lot.
I got a new iPhone game, Archetype, and I played it throughout the whole test period. You can play online via wifi, 3G or locally over Bluetooth and all of those will drain the battery pretty quick.
Other than that new game, I was using my iPhone over both wifi & 3G to check and update Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr… everything! Having to recharge multiple times a day but not from 0%, just when I got around 50% or so.
Conclusion? I feel confident that if used right, you would last a whole week off just the Sparq 2.0. How do you do that?
I’m one of the ‘heavier’ iPhone users that I know and if I can get it to last under such hard use for those 3 days, I’m impressed and I would recommend to anyone needing to charge a USB powered device.
If you have an iPhone 4 and love flight simulators then you will be pleased to know that there is a new X-Plane app [almost] made just for the iPhone 4.
I say almost because it is more like the iPad version than an app made to fit the low screen “real estate” of the iPhone. But it’s still an amazing app! So much detail and all the planes built into just one app.
To read some background on it, you should really read this blog post over at the X-Plane 10 Blog.
Here are some screenshots to show the difference in quality but they really don’t do it justice! Both are using the Cessna 172 on the LOWI 08 Austria runway.
iPhone 4 with original X-Plan app (had to be two screenshots because the other app shows the front view AND the dash)
iPhone 4 with X-Plane HDEF app
Here are some comments that I posted on the original blog post:
- The icon isn’t retina display ready (not a huge deal but you can really notice it on the iPhone 4′s display)
- The resolution is so high that some things are not readable unless you look very very closely. (Examples: Menu bar – “Map/Region/Plane/etc. // The switches in cockpit view. // Sometimes the controls will “uncalibrate” in midlight (but might just be me). // The throttle, flaps, gear, brake buttons are smaller and harder to manipulate)
Overall, it’s an amazing app! All the planes, scenery, scenarios… all incredible! But when I first played it (even before reading this blog post) I immediately thought it looked just like the iPad version but shrunk down. So it’s not truly optimized for the iPhone’s small display (real estate is a premium).
What I would LOVE to see in an update of this iPhone 4 specific app would be a fix to the things I mentioned above but also take use of the iPhone 4′s new gyroscope. A rotate left or right should move the ailerons while a push or pull of the sides on the iPhone should translate into rudder.
Tomorrow is going to be the hottest July 7th in Washington DC ever! The current high for that date is 99F in 1991, but tomorrow it’s supposed to reach 101F!
My plan is to run from work to the Washington Monument and back. It’s about a 4 mile round trip and I haven’t been running in a while so this is going to be extra tough on me.
Peter Shankman put a note on his Facebook saying:
Thinking about doing the Central Park Loop Run today around 2pm just because it’s a record-setting heat. I know that seems crazy, but if we DO set a record, how cool to be able to say “Yeah, I was running when we set that record…”
I read that and instantly got excited. If you read the comment thread on Peter’s Facebook page, you’ll notice that a lot of people are urging him to not do this. Yes, safety is undoubtedly their reason but what I see are a lot of naysayers.
Ok, I guess they aren’t really “naysaying” but when I hear someone say I can’t do something it only fires me up a ton more! When I told a few coworkers my plan and offered an invite, they all turned me down and told me not run. But there is something about this one little crazy goal that I just really feel I have to conquer, just to know “I did it.”
Now, I know that’s it dangerous and a 4 mile run in this heat and humidity is dangerous but I’m going to take it easy and if I feel like I’m going downhill, I’m going to have tons of water as well as my SmartTrip card for the Metro and money for a taxi.
So come tomorrow, I’m loading the Camelbak up with ice and water, updating the iPhone with some motivating music and I plan on getting all the way to the Washington Monument and back. I hope my mom doesn’t read this because she probably won’t approve…
Wish me luck!
**Update**
I did it! Check out the run:
I wasn’t trying to Google myself but when I did put my name in Google I saw a new link I haven’t seen before. It was to a site called ‘Future of the Internet’ and I was Topics and Links of the Week.
Mike Petrucci’s AppMakr Saga. Mike Petrucci decided to use AppMakr to put together an app aggregating his Twitter, blog, etc, feeds…only to have Apple reject it because it wasn’t of general interest. That’s a big difference between iPhone apps and, say, web apps (blogger has definitely never rejected someone for being of limited interest). It’ll be interesting to see what line Apple decides to take on this, and how AppMakr and similar companies push them.
Here is the direct link to the page for you see yourself: pssst, click –> here
If you were interested on the backstory, it’s so far in 3 parts but I should probably make a new update as a lot has changed but in a good way.
But really, AppMakr didn’t just say “sorry” and move on, they said “sorry, lets work together on fixing this so it doesn’t happen again” and THAT’S what I call awesomeness.
Well, I’ve had just about a full day to tinker and play with the new operating system on my iPhone 3GS and I have some thoughts.
There is a lot that I like but if I had to pick just one thing to have because I find it the most useful, it would be ‘folders.’
But let me list the features I liked and the ones I didn’t.
Positives :
- Super fast camera! It almost takes the pic faster than the shutter sound can go off!
- Folders has saved my life. I went from a full 11 pages to 5.
- Wallpaper is a nice addition and I didn’t find even a portrait to be too busy. But that’s a personal preference.
- I love the new “places” feature in the camera roll. I can view the pics I took with my iPhone camera on a map which sometimes makes it easier to find specific pictures.
- With the new screen rotation lock, I’m sure emailing and tweeting from bed will be much easier!
- You can now adjust your spotlight searching. I want apps to have a higher priority than emails and notes just under apps.
- Real spellcheck! Even has the little squiggly red underline thing. Very easy to use.
- One of the most fun surprises was that my Bluetooth keyboard would pair and let me type a note or email etc. Felt like a real laptop!
- When shooting a video, you can now touch to focus and change the auto iris.
Negatives :
- Still no way to add image in email while composing. Well, no easy way. One way is to be in the email, double click the home button, go to pics, click and hold to copy pic, double click home button, back to email and paste. I recommend it should behave like Tweetie, I mean Twitter for iPhone.
- I want the entire screen (apps and all) to rotate when i rotate the device. Like the iPad.
Notes:
- Swiping from page to page feels fluid sometimes but choppy other times.
- Still getting used to using a centralized inbox but they have all the mailboxes separate of you want them like the old way.
- I like how iBooks highlights and you can email a note but I want to be able to email those notes. And even have a “lending” feature so I can share iBooks with friends.
- Multitasking works well although I got used to the double press of my home button being quick access to my camera but now it’s used to access multitasking.
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Yeah, I know this is the post that came with the theme but I’m gonna leave it. at least for just a little bit. Testing some stuff.
I feel like a lot people look up to me. Well maybe not look up to but find me interesting. If we’ve met face to face for any amount of time, you probably thought I was a crazy kooky off the wall guy.
Here are the stages of knowing me:
Step 1: We meet and I’m as cool as I can be. Nothing explosive, just funny at times.
Step 2: Goofy & random but still smooth. Sometimes I’ll come out of my shell but only if I’ve had a Red Bull.
Step 3: Full blown caffeinated tornado! I like to stay relevant and clever but a lot of times I just come off as random.
Those are the three stages to knowing me.
There are those that have asked me if I were one of the “cool kids” in school. I laugh when I hear that. Couldn’t be farther from the truth!
While liked, I was never officially “cool.” I’m just super shy at first and have no idea if I’m supposed to talk to people, nod at them, shake their hand, hug them, or fist bump! So in the past I just would gently avoid them. I wanted to say hi but didn’t know what was the best way to do it!
So keep that in mind if we meet. I’m way cooler by our third date! I’m learning to relax and just be myself off the bat but it’s taking some time.
Please don’t think I have a low self esteem, I just don’t want you to be put off because I act like I know what I’m doing all the time! Well, I mean, I’m ‘always’ right and I know more than most of you combined (fightin’ words right there!) but that’s no reason not to be friends.
I look forward to meeting you and getting to know you. Let’s go grab a coffee some time! I promise I won’t be crazy [at first]!
