Stuff overload

Have you ever tried to do so much stuff that you don't get any of it done? It's almost worse than not trying to do anything at all.

Yeah, that's me right now.

RIP Steve Jobs

Yeah... So that happened. I'm not really sure what to say.

Except I'm probably going to have a hard time following up that act.

"What did you do to improve the world?"

Steve:

"Oh, just changed it entirely. Couple of computers, a music player, a phone, a tablet. It's all good."

Me:

"...working on it, brb"

I'm sorry, were you expecting an iPhone 5?

You mad, bro? So, yeah, that just happened. The fifth-generation iPhone is--tada--the iPhone 4S, an evolution of the iPhone 4. It doesn't slice bread, but you can probably ask it the meaning of life and it will tell you.

I saw a lot of hate spewed out across the live blogs, comments on Engadget and MacRumors etc., and the Twitter. A lot of people failed to manage their expectations. The iPhone 4 sells like hotcakes, and so do the cases and accessories that fit it, so why would Apple change that? I know yesterday I told them to do just that, but for them to do so amidst booming sales doesn't make sense. People who will upgrade to the iPhone 4S will get a nice speed bump, a hell of a camera, a world of goodies that already work with the iPhone 4 to choose from, and will live happily ever after. People who aren't impressed will pass on that, and will live happily ever after. It's the same story every year.

They managed to cram CDMA and GSM/HSPA, a faster processor, more capacity, a better camera, AND the same/better battery life into the same small enclosure. Of course, iTunes still needs to be thrown out like the garbage that it is, and that silly 3G 20mb download restriction needs to be stabbed thoroughly, among other things. They're not perfect. But ignore the brand hate for a moment and just admire it for what it is and what it has done. The iPhone changed communications and information access for the better. I now exclusively use mine as my instant messenger, quick "let me google that for you" lookup of just about anything, podcast collector & player, and time waster (Angry Birds anyone?). I still don't keep up on Facebook like a good honest Facebookian should. But in any case, I have it all everywhere I go with me now. Try to imagine what it would be like if we were still tethered to a keyboard that's wired to a tower that's sitting on our floor next to the cable modem in order to do computer-like things.

I don't care what logo is on the stuff I use (as much as you might think I'm an Apple fanboy), but no one can deny that Apple brought it on. Their devices and interfaces have yet to be matched in many ways. I'd happily switch to my Android if it stopped hanging & rebooting, missing calls, and failing to play my music and stuff. Palm/HP failed miserably, sadly. Windows Phone 7 looks promising, I think it'll be worth a try.

Bottom line, the iPhone 4S has new, faster innards. It has features the old one doesn't have. It still has good battery life. Marvel at the mind-boggling technology that allows you to have a supercomputer in your pocket. I certainly will.

"But...but..fury... I wanted them to give it a bigger screen! And--and a thin aluminum case design! And a keyboard. Oooh, ooh, and an SD card slot so I'm not limited in how much content I can put on there!"

I think they call that a MacBook Air.

iPhone 5 - ridiculous rumor edition

Today is keynote day.

Obviously, since the invite has 4 icons on it, like the home screen of the 6th generation iPod nano, this will be an iPhone nano.

There will be 8 buttons, because Steve Jobs is no longer at the helm, and you will press at least 3 of them in any attempt to pull it out of your pocket or find which side is the one that has the power button.

Since the phone icon has a red 1 badge on it, this clearly means the phone will have enough battery for 1 phone call, and since AT&T drops all your calls up in here anyway, that ain't saying much.

Oh, and the maps icon isn't actually at Infinite Loop in Cupertino. It's in spaaaaaace. At the space station Steve has built to take us all back to his home planet. (what, you think he actually waited for Cupertino's blessing to start building it?)

In all seriousness, I don't expect as much of a jump as from the 3G to 3GS or 3GS to 4. More like from the iPad to the iPad 2. Thinner, lighter, faster, and able to slice food with its sharp edges. The keynote will have a couple of blunders (maybe a wifi breakdown or two), a dozen developers coming out and talking about how amazing they are, and then maybe a song (since this is also supposed to be the iPod event).

Am I the only one who thinks Apple needs to upend their own table and reinvent the phone...again? It's all gotten just a little too predictable and, dare I say it, ho hum. They raised their bar so high with the first one that anything less than such a raise is now merely evolutionary, and maybe in some ways a little disappointing.

Weight loss progress update

I'm down about 50 pounds. I'm not quite sure what my goal weight is; when I reach it I'll let you know. :P I felt pretty good last time I was at 235, so I'll shoot for that and see how it goes.

I was on vacation recently and managed to stay mostly low carb. I had some taters in a stew a couple times, and breaded fish for dinner a couple times, overall not nearly as bad as I thought I was gonna get.

I feel pretty good. I am cooking home made mushroom & swiss burgers for dinner lately and finding that I'm not hungry for all of it, so I end up reheating it for breakfast and getting a good boost of energy instead of the usual cardboard bar & "energy" shot breakfast I got used to.

One of these days I plan on learning to swim, because I just got a waterproof case for my iPhone. :P

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