Degutis Insights

iPhone 4 – My First 24 hours or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Al — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:00:01 +0000

Here’s a summary of my experiences, good and bad, with the iPhone 4 after using it for 24 hours.

Good

Fast. A hell of a lot faster than my iPhone 3G
Great display. Debates aside, holding it up next to my iPhone 3G the iPhone 4 display is amazing
Better camera with good video. First photos: http://post.ly/kY8M
Ability to choose the image size/resolution when emailing photos, including full size
Folders! I can get to all of my favorite apps from the first home screen
Direct access to inboxes. Not the unified inbox option, which I don’t want, but a direct way to get to any accounts inbox. The only way I can use the unified inbox is if I can choose which accounts to include instead of including all of them.
Backup during syncing to iTunes is a lot faster.

Bad

Glass on the front and back means more smudges.
Emailing videos compresses them. I need to find a way to easily (over the air) move videos around to my iPad, Macbook Pro and online.

Ugly

I cannot get my two A2DP Bluetooth devices (Jabra Stone earpiece and Kensington headset) to be seen by the iPhone 4. Apple, Bluetooth keyboard support is nice but how about getting A2DP working.
Reports are coming out that holding the iPhone by it’s new antenna, you know… the edge of the phone, causes the signal to drop. IMy tests show that there is an issue with this. I immediately ordered one of those expensive rubber bands (aka Bumpers) which I’m hoping will address the problem. Seems like they should have included a “Bumper” with the phone.
[Update:] the problem seems intermittent. I tried showing off the issue to a half dozen different coworkers this morning and the signal was fine. I made sure I had the palm of my left hand overlap the two antennae (the alleged cause of the problem) but the signal never dropped.

Unknown

Battery life. I’ve read reports of people getting good battery life, in one account up to 38 hours under “heavy use.” Since I live in an area that has crappy Internet, thus WiFi at home isn’t a great option, is out in the boonies, and is surrounded by trees, the phone is constantly going in and out of 3G service. More importantly, the phone is expending battery power to find and connect to the 3G network frequently. During my full day of testing which included shooting videos and trying to email those videos and full size photos over the constantly alternating Edge/3G network, I got 12 hours of battery life. Definitely an improvement over my iPhone 3G and I’d expect it to be better under typical use.
Using the provided headset, since my Jabra Stone doesn’t work with it yet, Judy said the call quality was a lot better. I haven’t tested it with just the phone by itself to see if the second mic really helps with noise reduction.
FaceTime. I’m still waiting for someone I know to get the iPhone 4 so I can test FaceTime with them. A local (i.e. Chicagoan) contacted me on Twitter last night to see if I wanted to try FaceTime, but I was on my slow WiFi at home so it wasn’t worth trying it.

Facebook is scary – serious privacy concern

Al — Sat, 15 May 2010 03:55:55 +0000

I created a brand new account in Facebook, tying it to an email address that was never used in Facebook. The second screen of the registration process (Find Friends) is a filled with a list of people that I have corresponded with from that previously private email address. HOW THE HELL DID IT KNOW I CORRESPOND WITH THESE PEOPLE? HOW DID IT GENERATE THIS LIST OF PRIVATE CONTACTS?

If you don’t see me on Facebook after today, don’t be surprised.

Daniel Say – December 25, 2009

Al — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:00:11 +0000

Whoever has the most presents, wins God’s birthday.

~ Daniel

Sledding 2009

Al — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:00:47 +0000

Threatening Spam

Al — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:49:08 +0000

A coworker received his disturbing spam email the day before Thanksgiving.

________________________________________
From: w5wade@eastlink.ca [w5wade@eastlink.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:11 AM
Subject: Keep very secretxxx

This is Scot, head MZP Squad. I wish to let you know that i have been paid by a client to assasinate you at convenience. I have never met you before, but they gave me the full description of your identity

The reason why they want you dead was never not disclosed to me. My guys are now contantly watching you waiting for my
instruction to terminate you at convenience.

THIS IS MY MESSAGE:
Listen very well, the Police cannot do much to help you out in this right now because you are being watched,any such attempt is very risky and can push us to terminate your life without any other option.

We DON NOT want any trace whatsoever. So, you are advise to send your reply within 48hrs to: johnsonp46163@msn.com

WARNING: Like you have been told, any attempted attempt to involve third party will be too bad

Bye for now

Obviously, she was disturbed by the message. Who wouldn’t be. As best as I can tell, the goal of the message is to solicit an email response to verify that your email address is valid and then the flood gates (of spam) are open. If you receive this email, or something similar, just delete it.

Nintendo Wii Price Drop

Al — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:30:33 +0000

Nintendo has dropped the price of the Wii by $50 to $199.99. We’ve enjoyed playing various games on the Wii. There are games for everyone in the family, from the preschoolers to the grandparents. One of my favorite games to play is the Soccer Practice which comes with the Wii Fit Balance Board (sold separately). I do poorly because I crack up when I get hit in the head with a soccer shoe.

The Nintendo Wii is for the causal gamers, which makes it perfect for family game night.

Buy a Nintendo Wii for the family.

Install Snow Leopard for only $70

Al — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:24:58 +0000

Install the $30 Snow Leopard upgrade for an extra $40. Seriously?

iPhone MMS Launch Party

Al — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:00:38 +0000

We’re having a party!

It’s time to celebrate MMS on the iPhone here in the United States of America. Thank you AT&T for bringing this innovative new feature (well it’s not that new considering it was launched in 2002) to the iPhone.

We have an iPhone cake and lots of alcohol.

Be sure to drink heavily, errr, I mean party heartily and then send some photos via MMS (drunken MMS ar the best).

Celebrating our 11th anniversary – Part 2

Al — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:32:50 +0000

For our formal anniversary dinner, we took a train ride. Not on any old train, but on an old electric train. We didn’t take the train to get to our dinner destination; dinner was on the train. The train departed from the East Troy Electric Railway and Train Museum in East Troy, Wisconsin which features award-winning dinner train service on the railroad’s Art Deco diner twins, Ravenswood and Beverly Shores. We dined on the Beverly Shores (#24), which was built in 1927, rebuilt in the 1940′s and restored in 1995.

The train ride was two hours long and stopped at Phantom Lake, where we caught the sunset, before it returned to the train museum.

Photos below (or go to www.degutis.com/blog)

Celebrating our 11th anniversary – Part 1

Al — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:16:30 +0000

We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on September 13, 2009. Since we had plans to go out for a formal anniversary dinner on Saturday the 19th, we decided to do something we haven’t done in 7 years or more. We went canoeing.

While on the Kishwaukee River (“The Kish”) it dawned on me that canoeing on our anniversary was apropos.

Canoeing, like a marriage, takes teamwork. One person can do all the paddling, but that wears a person down quickly. Sharing the work not only eases the burden, but can also speed things along.

Canoeing also requires a coordinated effort. If both people paddle on the same side of the canoe, it will veer to the other side. Getting to the destination requires teamwork.

Here are some photos from our canoe trip. Unfortunately, not pictured is the eagle that flew overhead.