Come on.

Admit it.

When you saw Gizmodo’s photos of iPhone 4 this week, you thought it. “Way to go Gizmodo!”

Part of me wants to applaud Gizmodo for doing the Lois Lane thing and getting that story no matter what it took. I’m generally okay with checkbook journalism, as long as no one breaks the law in the process of the acquisition of the story.

Part of me, the Apple fangirl in me perhaps, or perhaps its the part that’s related to Dudley Do Right, or perhaps it’s just my common sense talking, thinks that Gizmodo is about to be in a heap of trouble of the legal sort. They paid 5,000$ for a device that they knew belonged to Apple. They paid it, in spite of the fact that they knew the device had not been legitimately acquired from Apple. Appleinsider is already taking Gizmodo to task under California law, which sounds like it wouldn’t matter what Gizmodo did, or even if they knew it or not, they still broke the law.… [Read More]

Gizmodo’s Checkbook Journalism.

Apple released its iPad on Saturday. Already CNET.com is declaring that HP’s slate will be an ‘iPad Killer’. I find this funny because iPad hasn’t had time to establish itself, let alone sort out what market it is being sold to and yet, CNET is certain of the powerhouse that iPad will become. So much so, that they feel the need to start bestowing titles upon competing devices as though iPad is already dominating a market that barely even exists.

Admittedly, in the mobile device world, 300,000 units sold on opening day is nothing to spit at, but it hardly compares to the avalanche of iPhones that Apple has sold. You may not know someone that has an iPad. But odds are very good that if you don’t own an iPhone, you know at least one person who does.

Think about that for a minute.

No, I mean it. Really think about the implications of that.… [Read More]

So Easy.

I have long known that Mac users and PC users speak a different language.

There’s a fundamental difference between how PC users use their machines and how Mac users do it. The biggest one being that backups and restores are absolutely no problem over here. I still have no idea how one accomplishes this under Windows without copying over massive groups of files, by hand. In fact… now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to do it under Windows without spending any money on third party software and if that’s the case, that makes me really, really sad.

Apple, may I say again, that Time Machine… simply rocks.

Over a year later and I have had absolutely no problems with my Macbook. I have never had to restore anything from Time Machine, except that one time when I accidentally deleted a file. It was super easy to get it back.… [Read More]

Cheap Shoes

This morning, I realized a little late that the State of the Union Address was today. For those of you that follow me on twitter, you might have noticed my tweet somewhere around 9 am this morning that read as follows: “LOL! comment on engadget: “I’m more excited about Job’s state of the union address than Obama’s… What does that say about us?” This was promptly picked up by the Obama twitter bot. The reality is that I realized that the state of the union address was today when I read that comment on Engadget.

In reality, I could care less about the State of the Union Address. Today, my attention was fully focused on Steve Jobs.

It was the only thing that I cared about.

When Jobs walked out on that stage and started talking about all the company updates this morning, I was disappointed. I wanted him to just get on with the show.… [Read More]

Apple Releases iPad!

Well… it had to happen sooner or later. I think I have posted one of these before, but it needs an update and I have a few folks on twitter asking me the question: What are your favorite apps?

Well, here they are. These are the apps I can’t live without. Post yours in the comments! I’m always interested in looking for a new app!

1. Twittelator Pro

I used the free version of twittelator for a long time and I really haven’t found anything in terms of iPhone software that is as quick and easy to use, isn’t a slow loading space hog that’s bogged down with ads and what have you and I love that I can customize this app to look differently depending on my mood or to make it easier to read in certain room lighting. Not a single day goes by that I don’t open and use Twittelator on my iPhone.… [Read More]

My Ten Essential iPhone Apps

The Pre is hitting shelves at Sprint stores on June 6th.

Yes, I really did say Sprint. Sprint, with its shrinking customer network. Sprint with its crappier than Verizon customer service. Sprint, with its “cheap” calling plans. Sprint with its cellular coverage that is so poor that it’s the reason that Verizon, AT&T and T Mobile are the taking the carrier world by storm in North America. Sprint had its chance. I’m surprised they’re still in business and admit it, so are you.

Perhaps it is some kind of poetic justice, or perhaps even irony, that a company that is seeing itself fall on hard times, is aiding a once great tech giant that also finds itself awaiting its death knell. Now, that said, I don’t know that the Pre will be the end of Palm, but I don’t think it’s going to save the company either.

Let’s start with the bare bones facts.… [Read More]

Palm Pre: iPhone Killer or Dud in the Making?

Shopping for a case for my iPhone 3g has been a nightmare. I really enjoyed my case for my previous gen iPhone, the Inno case by Seidio. That case had everything I wanted. It was a hard sided case with a grippy texture to it so that the phone didn’t slip out of my hands. It was felt lined on the inside, so it didn’t chew up my phone and it fit around the bezel of the phone so that it could be used without peeling up a screen protector.

I know that’s a tall order for a case, but Seidio performed the job beautifully and then they brought out the Inno II for the iPhone 3g, which I honestly don’t like as much. There’s a hole in the back of the case to expose the apple on the back of the phone, which to me just screams dust and scratch magnet, and then there’s the fact that they’ve introduced new colors and I’m not really a fan of any of them.… [Read More]

Smartphone Experts HD Skin Case

It’s not hard to notice that the local news media outlets and their outdated websites has become one of my pet peeves. I suppose I should be a bit more honest about why this is a pet peeve of mine though. You see, it really boils down to the fact that I have a satellite dish and they charge extra for access to local TV stations, and signal for the local TV stations where I live is laughable. I suppose that’s the way of things when you live on the side of a mountain, but you would think that these things would improve with time as technology advanced. Here, they don’t. I’ve lived in this town for over a decade and I have never lived in a part of town where you could get good local television signal. When I first moved here, cable didn’t offer the local stations as part of any of their packages and then, when they did add them, you had to pay extra for them.… [Read More]

The Internet Should be Platformless

I just got word that Bandai Namco released i Love Katamari for the iPhone on the App store.

It’s 7.99$ and the word on the ground is, the thing was optimized for the iPod Touch, which has a faster processor than the iPhone, but still… Katamari crack for iPhone lovers!!! WOOHOO!

I might have to go drop 8$ on this ridiculous little game.… [Read More]

i Love Katamari!

Update: Sheryl @ stardust global ventures has a similar post, with similar thoughts on Spokane’s Local Media Web. She found it ironic that she and I had the same ideas, while not having ever crossed paths, and I have to say, I agree. Give her article a read!

Tonight, I was browsing happily from my iPhone. This is quite possibly the neatest feature of my iPhone for me. I love the ability to browse the web, and I really appreciate that most national news sites that I visit, such as Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and CBS News all have iPhone friendly websites. These sites auto-detect that I’m surfing from an iPhone and load up a less graphics intensive version of the site that is easier to read on my iPhone and I assume that these sites work similarly with Blackberries and other mobile web browsing devices. I enjoy this feature so much that this very blog is set up to auto-detect iPhone users when they visit the site.… [Read More]

Spokane News Web Lives in the Dark Ages