July 31st, 2007
The WWDC video about designing web pages for the iPhone is a free download on iTunes. Pretty interesting accompaniment to the web page.
Whenever I go downtown, I feel like an Ex-Con casing the joint
Blogging from another mountaintop
July 25th, 2007iPhone and I made it up Hallett Peak at 12,713 feet. My brother Brian led the way!
Blogging from a mountaintop
July 23rd, 2007There’s no wifi on top of Eagle Cliff, but EDGE works. Goooo iPhone. 8,906 feet.
Caloo Calay
July 11th, 2007Fresh in my rediscovery of all this crazy internet goodness that I’ve been paying for since I upgraded my account one February night in Phnom Penh (to hold more pictures from my trip to Asia and since then I’ve never gotten up the will to figure out how to export my annotized photos). Well in light of that, I took a look at some of my uncles’ email addresses tonight.
Since I finally have a cell phone that syncs with my computer’s address book, keeping it up to date is important. But look! These some of my uncles have registered their own names as domain names! So has my friend Jesse Legg. It always struck me as kind of ostentatious. Maybe I just had a fantasy of running a popular website where rubes would beg and bribe me for access. As it is, everyone has left me and I’m down to offering free blog hosting to my brother and girlfriend. Nevertheless, comeuppance.org has been mine for 4 years (portugese forum hijacking and all). Mcgrane.net was mine for about a year, at my dad’s request, but then it lapsed. McGrane.com looks like a cult or a class on Successmanship. Seriously.
Nevertheless….
I’m sure I must have checked out paulmcgrane.com sometime in the past. There’s a famous Irish football player with my name. But tonight it didn’t resolve to anything. So I rolled the dice. And now I own my own domain name! I mean another one. This time one that matches my real name.
If you click on http://paulmcgrane.com it should reload this very page. Awesome.
Visual VoiceMail
July 9th, 2007One of the best things about an iPhone is the Visual Voicemail. It would have saved Jesse’s acquaintance way back then.
All your voicemails are downloaded to the phone as audio files and you can play any one of them whenever you want.
It’s already handy for me since the previous owner of my new cell phone number seems to have been dodging a wide variety of creditors. They call me every day.
If you’re reading on an iPhone, this link will call them back!
Otherwise it will show up like a bad thing. An error, the kids call it. It’s kind of interesting (to me) that for all the “integration” Apple had to do to make web pages “behave” “like” “real” web “apps”, the only URL stuff they had to invent out of the blue was for phone numbers.
If you click on an email address on an iPhone, of course it goes to the mail program. If you click on a normally formatted Google Maps or YouTube URL, it uses its own programs to handle that instead of Safari! Cunning.
A walk to remember
July 8th, 2007Brian — my brother — and I aspire to climb Long’s Peak when we travel to Rocky Mountain National Park later this month. I have been jogging with my iPod and Nike+ shoes but after I sent Brian an old iPod nano in the mail, he got in on the Nike+ thing too. Oh what a mistake.
He used the website to challenge me.
Who can run the most distance in 10 days? Probably he, but I told him I had a trick up my sleeve. One day I would walk from our apartment in north Austin to the mall where Holland works in south Austin. Easiest threat in the world!
I’ve been run/walking 2.5 to 3 miles whenever I go out, and although by the end I can’t run any more, I feel I could keep walking if I had to and if it were cooler.
It’s 12 miles by Google Maps if you stick to the MoPac Expressway. This I probably could not do since it’s basically an interstate and doesn’t allow pedestrians.
I devised an alternate route along Capital Of Texas Highway. (When you live in Austin, it’s easy to forget it’s the capital of this hideous state, even when streets are named like that).
I sent my brother a map screenshot, touting my route:
Even if I spent the rest of the week in traction, I would certainly best him! That way it’s nearly 18 miles. (I thought 14 for some reason for a while).
It has rained nearly every other day in Austin since I moved here. The locals don’t know what god is frowning upon them. Maybe it’s me?
I finally decided I had to go on Friday. But I realized I’d grow tired and smog-choked on the early part of my journey unless I started a little farther from home. I drove down to the other Apple store in town and parked at The Domain. From there I set off on a journey I reckoned would take 6 hours and about 14 miles. I had three power-ish bars, a banana, and two large bottles of water. I began playing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the audiobook, on my 60GB iPod. It was 4 o’clock. (daytime is very hot in Texas in the summer)
It was tedious going for a while, with no sidewalks along major roads, until you come to the stoplights where they do have pedestrian signals. Where are these pedestrians supposed to come from?
After what seemed like longer than it should, I finally got onto Loop 360, aka Capital of Texas Highway. Despite its name, it’s sort of an urban-country highway that loops around the Hill Country west of town. Wilderness studded with apartment complexes and Banks of America, if you catch my meaning. From here it’s a straight shoot down to the Mall. Also despite its name, it is not a 360 degree loop. It’s not even 180.
As Holland says, everyone in Texas thinks they’re Lance Armstrong. This is a popular road to bike on. I also came across some joggers (who seemed to be near death) and one power walker. None was equipped like me, with a full backpack of provisions. So either they are hardier than I, or on a shorter trek. Probably both.
It was a cloudy day in Texas. Then again, it often is in my limited experience. (But the locals think the Rapture is coming).
I took only a couple striking photos of the limestone cliffs along the highway against the blue-ing sky.
I crossed the Pennyback Bridge where it said “No Diving” so I didn’t.
Against the hill up ahead I could see a clear divide between dry pavement and wet pavement. In the West, you can see storms. (it’s harder to see in the picture; but I clearly saw a moist/wet demarcation just before that left turn to nowhere)
But what the hell was I going to do? Turn back?
At this point according to my iPod, I was about 6.5 miles in and there wasn’t much back the way I came except mansions on cliffs that won’t let in little boys who are being prowled on their way home from school.
I walked up the hill and the rain began. But it wasn’t so bad. Refreshing, even.
As I went on, it turned into the sort of torrential downpour that Texans are growing accustomed to this year. In the middle of nowhere I passed a newly constructed strip mall with a bank and a Chilli’s. I considered pausing to wait out the rain or just get soused.
But I can get soused anywhere! I’m here to walk to the mall! (god help me)
I kept going.
It was really raining. I began to worry about all the electronics in my cargo pockets.
Lower left pocket: iPod nano and Nike+iPod receiver
Upper Left pocket: 60GB iPod video playing a tale of depravity and treason, also, iPhone
Upper right pocket: wallet and sunglasses
lower right pocket: digital camera
My kingdom for a ziploc!
I dumped them all into my backpack but it’s so old I don’t know if it will provide much protection. Also, it turns out, it was full of mud. My stylish cowboy hat was most likely funneling buckets of water right down onto the zippers.
Just then a beige Toyota pulled over with its right window rolled down and an identically beige umbrella pushed out.
“Are you sure?” I asked wetly and politely.
“Take it,” he said.
So I did. That was nice.
The lightning and thunder struck ever louder and nearer, but now I had a 3 foot aluminum pole resting comfortably between my shoulder and skull. Is there any better conductor than Aluminum? Of course there is, but it must be super-cooled.
I was having a hard time concentrating on the audio portion of my Stories of Drunken Depravity when my own tale of Drenchèd Despair was raging so loudly. I was as soaked as if I had just climbed out of (or was still in) a swimming pool.
Lousy Texas Driving saved me, as a black SUV rolled over into the median about 100 yards in front of me. How exciting!
It was remarkably quiet. Just a quick whine of tires and whump whump it’s on its back. I was sorely tempted to take a picture of the dirt and grass stuck in all the tires, but I was afraid of the rain.
I began running but the Good Samaritans In Cars were faster. By the time I was abreast, it looked like the driver was shaken but fine. Many more accidents would no doubt spawn on the slickened road as rubberneckers drove past. I began to wonder if hiking along a highway was the safest thing I might do.
On I went. My crazy running shoes (designed by me on Nike.com as a gift from Holland) became totally waterlogged. I worried for the brave little accelerometer secreted, like Anne Frank, under the left sole.
When a small red Ford pickup pulled over and offered me a ride, I figured crazy is good, but this is crazy enough.
Tom was his name, and he wore a cowboy hat just like me. Jesus Christ, is Texas for real?
Turns out he works for a staffing company in Round Rock and he found the hat at work, but it fits so heyyyyy!
[laugh out loud here with your author]
He (mind you he was 40-something) was driving to his girlfriend’s house in Bee Caves. Since that’s the name of a town around here. I’ve even been there!
He wasn’t sure if I even would want a ride when he pulled over, but I explained I was training to hike the 4 lane highway up Long’s Peak in a few weeks. We made small talk about how rainy it has been and how Texans find it so hard to drive in the rain. We passed two more wrecks on the way to the Mall.
I walked into Nordstrom up an umbrella but down an iPod, it would seem. After I got a cup of their magnificent coffee, I set all my devices out on the table to survey their damage.
The nano, camera, and iPhone seem ok. The big iPod has gone up to the great iTunes Store in the sky. Maybe American Express will replace it.
I wondered if my shoe sensor had given out, but upon comparing my recollection with Google maps, I think it survived. It still works anyway.
For all my bluster, I made it only 8.72 miles. I had bad blisters and I was thoroughly soaked so I had to buy new clothes on clearance at The Gap (hurrah! I haven’t bought new clothes in a long time, since Apple used to clothe me).
I waited for Holland to take me home.
Here is a view from Google Earth of my progress from the parking lot by Macy’s at The Domain to around where I think Tom picked me up. The Barton Creek Mall is the gray section on the extreme left. I have traced my path with the white line and red waypoints. The view is toward the west.
What is an iPhone?
July 7th, 2007After a week with an iPhone I think the crux of it is this is a phone I am happy to have. I am eager to bring it with me wherever I go. Unlike my previous two phones (and all others I have shopped for) where the best you could say was that they could make a phone call from the highway.
Another interesting thing is I have abandoned the case I bought last Friday. It was too bulky and pointless. I might get a small rubber holder instead. But is this the first iPod that needs no case? And if a case protects only the back, what’s the point?
iPhone games
July 3rd, 2007Here’s a fun iPhone game. Brick Shooter. All DHTML and javascript. You can play in any web browser, of course, but it gets the job done.
Sideways
July 1st, 2007
From the side the advance is even more striking. This thing is nearly slimmer than my 2GB Nano but it can also direct me to an all night diner.
When you use an iPhone, it seems like the screen is so much larger than the thickness of the machine that there must be more to it … somewhere else. Somewhere else on a magical or digital plane. This is a little true since it is a Wi-Fi cell phone dealie. But it’s also that it reminds me of nothing so much as a Star Trek TNG PADD.
The comparison might not be super-fair. That first item in the picture is the remote to the Hi-Fi (but it looks more in keeping than any of the other items doesn’t it?)
My big iPod is an old 60GB, which is pretty thick although it’s not the thickest iPod ever. And it does have a clear plastic case on it. So does the nano.
And my old phone is a piece of junk LG VX6000. It was supposed to be a good phone when I got it 3 years ago, but it has been disappointing. Hard to use, easy to switch off the ringer in the pocket, impossible to sync to a computer, bad picture quality, poor battery life.
When my original contract ran out a year ago I began wondering if I’d have to wait until Apple made a phone so I’d have something worth having. Well I made it.
The LG does have a louder earpiece speaker, which can be handy on a noisy street. It is also incredibly durable. I have had it in my pocket for years, and dropped it many times, as you can see. The iPhone may live up to this durability but it will have to earn it.
I did buy a case for the iPhone but I am considering returning it. It’s a clear plastic dealie that has a belt clip. But the clip is not very snug and of course all the iPhone cases don’t protect the screen. How could they since that’s the phone’s user interface? Yet the screen seems durable enough not to need protection. And in that case, why bother protecting the metal back of the phone, which feels oh so luscious on the fingertips, by the way.
The iPhone inspires a kind of digital monogamy. Or is it true love? It’s not that I don’t ever want to use another phone again. I don’t want to use another computer again. I don’t want to bother with another digital camera, remote control, anything, that doesn’t work this way. (can you tell I’m also fed up with my not very old Kodak digital camera?)
It will be amazing to everyone how much you can expand the market for a $500 cell phone just by making one people will want to buy.
