iPod/iPhone 2.0

Well, I figured I’d better write a post. It’s been a little while!

I’ve been using the 2.0 firmware on my iPod touch now for a couple weeks. So far things have been going really smoothly. The enterprise WPA works beautifully at my university, although setup wasn’t that fun (instructions here). Stability at first was a bit of an issue. Some of the apps kept crashing (it was actually less stable than my jailbroken iPod). In fact, sometimes an app would freeze up and make my music skip.

Some of the apps are great, some are not. The Facebook app is pretty decent, at least now you can view people’s walls. The Lastfm app would be a lot better, however, Apple doesn’t allow background processes, so unfortunately it doesn’t support scrobbling. As expected, Super Monkey Ball delivers and is really great, but is also very challenging! A fun little game is JirboBreak, which is just a breakout clone. The NYTimes app is pretty good, although a bit unstable at times. Tap Tap Revenge is great, it’s like guitar hero type deal for the iPod/iPhone. There’s a wordpress app, which I haven’t had a chance to use yet, and the best is the Remote App. Remote lets you use your iPod/iPhone as a (ed:) [G.D.] flickerbox for iTunes, allowing you to browse your music and change the volume, scrub, and pause tracks. Very useful for parties.

Exchange support is here, however, I don’t (yet) have any use for it. One thing iPod touch users will like is the beeping on mail. As soon as it gets new mail, it’ll beep at you, alerting you of your new mail. It doesn’t seem to be as quick on the draw as before, and doesn’t always tell me if I have new mail. I’m not sure what the issue is, but I wish it would tell me every time!

Push notifications aren’t anything really interesting. Mail checking can only be set in 15 minute increments. Since all my accounts are IMAP, they only support fetch anyways. I’d rather have 5 minute increments for mail checking, but I guess 15 minutes is fine.

The only thing I want back from my jailbroken iPod was Lastfm scrobbling support. I’m hoping someone will find a way to make this work, but until then, I guess I’ll just have to live without it.

Video Games Live: The concert that could, and still can. :-)

Next week in San Diego, I will be in attendance at a concert that I have once attended with Biohazard in Hollywood, known as Video Games Live. The beauty of the concert is that they spare no expense in bringing in game themes (old and new console and even computer!) and playing them in orchestrated awesomeness.

The last time I was there, I went to the pre-show festival and observed game tournaments for not yet released games were being held (Can’t remember which one for sure, I think it was guitar hero series, though.) and lots of merchandise was being sold. moving right along, autographs were signed (I had no idea who most of them were until I read their name badges and job description. Then it would hit me who they were and, boy, I was impressed.) and, After a long line, my book was ran out of autograph space, so… off to be seated! Highlights of the evening were B.T., An arcade tribute medley, and a Lucas Games medley of their classic DOS games, along with a lot of great console game music and the announcement of HALO 3.

At this upcoming concert, it will be held two days after the release of VGL’s first soundtrack cd, so that will likely be there (with the Myst and Tetris goodness included.) along with more pre-show awesomeness. I can hardly wait, and if you need me, I’ll be in the champaign seating drinking wine and will be on DS PictoChat.

To good times and drunken PictoChat. (Wave)

Shadow

SVN or git?

I’m starting a new project, and while it’s not very complex (ie I likely don’t need to use anything really special), I’d like to use a version control system. Right now, I know very little about how to use them. But I know at some point in my career (and likely soon!) I will need to know how to use such a tool to its fullest extent.

I’m going to go out of my way and assume most of you will say SVN because it’s what you know already, and that’s fine, too. Git is relatively knew and not fully understood, I think, but it’s becoming incredibly popular and I’ve heard great things about it.

So which is it?

Upgrading to 2.6 Friday

Hello all, the blog will be down for part of tomorrow (Friday, July 18th, 2008) for about a half an hour while I upgrade to the new version of wordpress. I’ll be opening registrations again after that.

I am… Revived…

Well, more like startled into the waking world by my stupid phone, but I’m not going there. Where I will go, however, is somewhere that is slightly old and new at the same time, and something that should have been thought of sooner.

I have to admit, the second link, while not perfect, is an awesome concept, especially when you think of MS, Sony, or Nintendo and their anti-user gaming policies (Heck, I didn’t even know I had to agree to an EULA, just to use a Nintendo Wii, internet or not!). Also, while not on the site as best as I can tell, Google searches reveal that Good Old Games is trying to negotiate the right to distribute Lucas Arts’ old games including the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandano, X-Wing, and TIE Fighter, just to name a few. (Are you reading this, Biohazard?)

The first link is my favorite game (Chrono Trigger) being brought back in all its glory, except now I can play it in the car (without a clunky SNES, miniature TV, inverter and related accessories.) and it is an awesome game in general. I’m quite excited that it is coming back, and have high hopes (even though those will probably die when it’s done) about this game.

Later!

Apple to Limit iPhones to Canada?

Written on another blog is news that Apple, king of the new mobile market, and creator of the iPhone, has bitchslapped Rogers, Canada’s only real GSM carrier across the face.

Rumour has it that Apple, who is dissatisfied with Roger’s data plans, is limited shipments of iPhones. Numbers have not been mentioned, but apparently the numbers have been “significantly reduced,” and apparently it’s been confirmed that the extra units are going to Europe. There are some other interesting tidbits, and I encourage you to RTFA.

In other similarly related news, Bell and Telus are supposed to start charging users for incoming text messages if they’re not on a texting plan $0.15 per text. Users that go over their current plan, or do not have a plan, already get charged $0.15 per text. There are several facebook groups dedicated to the issue, and a petition at the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Canada. Bell and Telus have released new texting plans, as follows:

• $5/mo, 250 outgoing, unlimited incoming
• $10/mo, 2500 outgoing, unlimited incoming
• $15/mo, unlimited outgoing, unlimited incoming

There’s an internal PDF document with steps on how to deal with the matter here