Random thought exchange

After a long debate with myself, I figured it was time to take the plunge and move my email to “the cloud”. So far I’ve been running it for a few days now, and I like it. I tried it a year or so ago, but I ended up reverting back.

My thoughts (in no particular order)

1. I tried to copy the emails from my computer over to GMail, but it was setting all the dates to the day that I I have all my previous email stored on my computer, so I can reference it whenever I want.
2. GMail supports my own personal domains – so I can send and receive without people noticing.
   1. I find it offensive when Internet professionals and businesses use @hotmail.com or @gmail.com email addresses when they have their own domain.
3. I can still send and receive how I want from my iPhone.
4. I have IMAP configured, so I can still do anything I want with my folders, or as GMail likes to call them… “labels”.
5. I can access my email any time from anywhere, Internet connection permitting.
6. The spam filters are MUCH better than what Microsoft has done in Entourage. So far it hasn’t filtered any legitimate email to my spam box, which is always nice.
   1. I have many server rules setup to wipe out a ton of spam before anything has a chance to make it to my inbox.
7. Google Docs! It’s awesome, and now I can save attachments to that.
8. Viewing online of documents. No more needing to open the document in the application. I can view it in a webpage and save time. Yes dad, that means that all of those “amazing photograph” emails with 20MB powerpoints won’t be AS annoying – but please try to refrain from sending them anyways!  
9. I will not tell anyone my GMail address. I do not want to get email to it. If you want to know why, read point 2.1.

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I’ve been working on the blog a bit in the background – some functional and technical things that I wanted to change, and have slowly been resolving.

One of the items on my list has been to figure out a way to get my automated Twitter “life stream” hidden from the blog homepage. I figure, if someone wants to see my Twitter posts, they’ll either look at my Twitter page, or look at the Twitter category in my blog. I think it’s more important to showcase and highlight my actual posts instead. Plus, on my homepage I have the most recent tweets displayed.

I was going to script something to do it, but instead I came across the plugin “Simply Exclude” by CodeHooligans.

I’m quite impressed. After installing the plugin, within 1-minute I had the Twitter category removed from my homepage. No coding or scripting needed!

The only glitch is that if you tag a post in multiple categories, and one of those categories is excluded, it too will come off the homepage. Maybe this is something that will be fixed in the next version.

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We never really liked what Primont Homes had done in our family room. They created a bulkhead for the vents, but on the left-side of the fireplace it was about 11″, and on the right-side it was about 27″. It never really made any sense, and it always looked off. In addition, the fireplace was about 24″ deep, and stuck out of the wall like a sore thumb.

For about 2-years Rosalee and I debated what we should do in the family room to make it look more polished. We drew up at least half a dozen ideas, and we finally figured out exactly what we wanted to do. Our initial idea was to build cabinets on both sides of the fireplace, and then bookshelf the other wall. But then we moved the television off the fireplace and put it on a folding table along the other wall. We lived with it there for about 4-months and decided that we liked that layout much better. The TV wasn’t so high, and we were utilizing the floor space better. It also allowed us more room to play Wii!

So we were off to find two things. 1, a person to build what we wanted; and 2, a nicer tv stand than a folding table.

I was in contact with Black Diamond Construction (Facebook fan page) regarding landscaping and patio, and found out that Colin, the owner, also does home renovation projects. We hired him to do the construction, and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. He took our vision, and made it happen. The framing and drywall that Primont Homes had done was uneven. Colin had to do a lot of repair and fixing to get the shelving to look right.

Colin built the shelves off-site, brought them in and attached them, then did a lot of framing to make both sides of the wall the same width, then he did the drywall and a ton of plastering to be able to bring the wall on the left-side out to the same depth. Applied the trim, and then painted.

The work kicked up quite a bit of dust, but we’ve since cleaned all that up.

As this was going on, Rosalee and I started the search for the perfect media console. We ended up at The Country Store near Bayview and Eglinton. They have a company they contract in northern Ontario that custom manufactures furniture. We were happy with one of the styles they had in their showroom, and ordered it. They told us 4-6 weeks, and it turned out to take about 12 weeks. Having said that, we’re VERY happy with the unit we ordered.

You might also notice that we removed the ceiling fixture and put in pot-lights. We did that about 16-months ago through Alex Moldings. As well, the 2 chairs in the original photo are now in our living room, and we bought the new chairs from HomeSense. We also took down the paper “blinds” and put up California Shutters from Jeffrey Paul Home Improvement Co. (416.436.3926, jeffsap@aci.on.ca).

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Apple launched their iPhone 4 in Canada on July 30, despite the apparent “antenna-gate” issue. I’ve been very excited and couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to try it out and use. I currently have an iPhone 3G 16GB, and I love it, now that I’ve been able to speed it up with the iOS 4.0.1 update – hint, disable some of the areas that spotlight searches in.

The problems

1. I was at work on launch day, so I was unable to be one of the people drawn in so much by the marketing that I was camping out at the Apple stores;
2. The local Rogers stores only received 3-5 units of the 32GB version;
3. Apple was (and still is) selling unlocked iPhone 4′s, as well as performing hardware upgrades for those folks who are on Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Telus;
4. Apple had technical issues with connecting to the Rogers/Fido systems to perform hardware upgrades (HUP). This delay lead to the Apple store taking up to 2 hours to activate a phone – this was only an issue if you were HUPing, unlocked iPhones were processed in minutes;
5. Rogers is not letting their customers HUP online or over the phone. They’re directing all customers to go in to a Rogers location or Apple store, despite their competition allowing the aforementioned methods; and
6. Apple seems to be hoarding the iPhones for their sale. Smart move from a financial standpoint, as they seemingly don’t have to give a cut to the carriers for their part in the sale. It also allows them to up-sell AppleCare warranty, and possibly get additional sales on peripherals, computers, etc, etc.

Is antenna-gate a real issue in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)?

From the few chosen ones whom I’ve spoken with that have obtained the holy grail of cell phones, is NO. They’re able to get the “bars” to go from 4 or 5 down to 2 by strangling the phone with a “death grip” without a case or “bumper” on the phone, so I’m not worried. Once I get my hands on my very own, I’ll be able to test and know for sure. I’ll provide an update at that time.

Rumor has it, that majority of the problems in the USA are due to the poor quality of the AT&T network.

Why do I want one, and why 32GB?

1. I’m getting awfully close to filling my 16GB. The only reason it’s not full, is that I haven’t loaded all my music, and yes, there’s some that I’d like to listen to that I don’t have on there;
2. With 720p HD video, I’d like to not be worried about not being able to record what I want when I want – HD video requires a lot more space than regular video – not that my 3G can do video natively, a 3rd party app is needed;
3. 5MP camera – ok, I have a high-end DSLR for real photos, but if I’m out somewhere and want to take a picture, it’s nice to know I have a bunch of space for it;
4. Apps! There are some apps that run as fast as molasses, even on OS 3.x.  The new processor is going to make them run amazingly; and
5. Retina display! Wow, once you see it in person…  that’s all I can say.

Rumors

There’s a rumor circulating the Internet that Apple is going to release a CDMA version (no, that won’t work on the Rogers network, as they’re GSM) that’s going to have a metal rear face to the phone, and the antenna is going to be linked in to that, instead of part of the ring around the edge of the iPhone 4.  For the sake of calling it something, I’m going to dub it iPhone 4.1.  According to the rumor, it’s due to be released in Q1 2011, that’s just 5-months away. But as I mentioned earlier, in the GTA the antenna “issue” seems to be null.

Perhaps this is why there’s a delay in the white iPhone 4. Maybe Apple is holding off for version 4.1.

In the press conference Steve Jobs hosted at the Apple HQ on July 16, Steve mentions that they will re-evaluate the antenna issue towards the end of September.  That might fall right in line with an announcement about an updated revision to the hardware.

Conclusion – for now

I’ve already renegotiated my plan with Rogers for the next 3-years. I’m getting an amazing deal and awesome features. I don’t mind locking in for 3-years, as it will save me about $500 on the phone just based on retail vs. HUP pricing. As long as Rogers keeps their existing coverage and quality of service (QOS) I’m more than happy.

Now all I need is to get my hands on a iPhone 4 32GB. Anyone have any leads?

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Back story: About 2-years ago I switched providers (from Bell to Rogers), so that I can get the iPhone 3G. I love it, but there are some downfalls to it. First would be the lack of video recording without any add-on apps. The second would be the basic capability that most phones have – voice recognition. My old Samsung A900 even had that.

So when iOS4 was released a few weeks back I did the upgrade right away. I enjoy testing out the latest hardware and software, so I figured what they heck… why not?

Within 2 hours I had it loaded, and all my music and apps synchronized back on to it.

I immediately set up folders for my apps.  For the past year I’ve had my “screens” setup so that all my apps were arranged logically. I had a screen for navigation/car items, a screen for utilities, a screen for social media, two screens for games, and a screen for web links. So setting up the folders was great for me, because now I don’t have to flick through all the screens to get to the last one. I have all my folders on one screen.

I then realized that my camera now has a zoom function.  Great!

That’s pretty much where the good ends.

Within 10-minutes of using the phone, I had at least 5 apps crash and quit on me. And yes, that even includes the Maps app and App store apps that Apple ships with the os and phone.

So I shut down the phone, boot it back up, and the same problems persist. So I load up iTunes, and make sure I have the latest version of the apps. Sure enough there are a few that have updates, and those say iOS4 tested. Wonderful.  I load those on, and they work well, but the App Store app still crashes intermittantly.

The following days and weeks – up until now – have had many app updates. I would imagine that nearly all the apps loaded on my phone are now updated. There are a few that aren’t, like iFuel Lite, but I would imagine the developers are working on that – at least I’m hoping they are.

So what’s my real gripe?

I’m annoyed at how slow and laggy the phone seems now. It’s just chugging along.

This past weekend, I was at the Toronto Eaton Centre, and I figured why not go in to the Apple Store and chat with a “genius”.

I make an appointment on their computer system, and wait about an hour.

They hook my phone up to their computer, and within a minute or two he tells me that the problem is with some of the apps. He says there are 8 apps that have “bad data” on the phone. I ask him if he can write them down for me so I can uninstall the apps and reload them. He tells me that what I need to do is restore the phone software, and set it up as a new phone. Then go in to the app store on the phone, and download all the apps again through the phone – not through iTunes.

He said that just wiping the app doesn’t remove the data files and preference files. For all I know, the problem lies in the apps that I don’t even have on the phone any more.

I thought that once you deleted an app from the phone, all the prefs would get wiped out with it. I’ve had experience where I decided to delete an app, and then a few days later load it back on, and I needed to setup all the preferences and settings again.

Anyways, I’m wondering if anyone knows what app Apple uses to diagnose iPhones? All I could find is the “secret” iPhone Configuration Utility on the Apple site. I have yet to run it, but I doubt that’s what they used.

I’m wondering if I should even bother restoring, since the rumor is that the iPhone 4 will be hitting the Canadian market on July 23, 2010, and I just so happen to have that day booked off work… so I think I might attempt to get one on launch day.

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There are a ton of rumours out there about what Apple is going to “release” on Monday at WWDC.

Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together…

• New iPhone ;
  • Video chat capabilities;
  • Front and rear-facing cameras;
  • Removable/replaceable battery;
  • Possible multi-touch gestures on rear case; and
  • Released for sale at the end of June or beginning of July 2010.
• Either free or tiered MobileMe accounts;
• iTunes move to “the cloud”;
• Hardware upgrade to the Mac Mini;
  • HDMI;
  • Upgraded faster processor; and
  • Drop in price.
• Hardware upgrade to the MacBook Air;
  • Upgraded faster processor; and
  • Drop in price.
• Hardware upgrade to Mac Pro;
  • Upgraded faster processor; and
  • Drop in price.
• OSX 10.7 briefing;
• Update on iPad hardware, accessories, and app sales; and
• Update on Books sales.

I, for one, am hoping that the iPhone gen 4 is released!  I’m still using my 3G 16GB, and would like more space.  I was close to upgrading to the 3GS shortly after it was released, but I decided that there wasn’t enough changes to make it worth while.

If all the Gizmodo photos of the “found” 4th Gen iPhone are legit, not only are most of the rumours confirmed about the hardware modifications made, but this will be worth doing the upgrade.

It’s going to be interesting…  to say the least!

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The Canadian women’s hockey team has won gold three olympics in a row, by beating the USA team 2-0. Congrats ladies!

The Canadian flag is raised as the women's team strikes gold. Again.

The team posing for a victory photo

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Is this perhaps the worst leak out there? There’s a video on YouTube with what appears to be an Apple Tablet, despite the name on the top of it as TimeInc.

Perhaps this is one of the video demos from today’s Apple release?

You be the judge!

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