Of course that’s just people calling AppleCare. I would like to know the number of people calling AT&T or Best Buy. Its all in the numbers you pick to report.

via – AppleInsider

The Droid X comes loaded with several nonstandard applications for Google’s Android, most of which cannot be removed. Among the phone’s so-called junkware is a Blockbuster video app and a demo for an Electronic Arts game called Need for Speed: Shift. The software from the struggling movie retail chain includes a store locator and a section to download mobile movies from Blockbuster’s catalog. This app cannot be uninstalled from the phone’s software library using any traditional means. Users can delete it from the home screen, but it lives on — permanently part of the software embedded on the device.

link: ‘Junkware’ comes standard on Verizon, T-Mobile smart phones | Technology | Los Angeles Times

Where to start. There is always a way to uninstall with Android but Mark doesn’t want to point that out so he just says the “app cannot be uninstalled from the phone’s software library using any traditional means“. Also there are apps on the iPhone that you can not uninstall using traditional means or any other way. Are those apps junkware? Later on Mark adds this…

The EA racing game, which provides limited functionality and a large button on the introduction screen urging players to buy the full version, can be removed.

Mark seems to forget that the EA game is a demo so it has, shocker, limited functionality. Just like every demo for every game ever made. Even free versions of games for the iPhone that also have a paid version have limited functionality. And EA must be a evil company for putting a button in there demo app for people to buy the full game because that never happens in iPhone apps.

Today is the day that Apple released it’s new “magical and revolutionary product” the iPad. A 9.7 inch Multi-Touch tablet or as some call it a really big iPod Touch. People have been waiting in lines for a few days to be the first to pay what will be the highest price point for this new product. I will not be one of the few million that will get a iPad, at least not this version.

The problems I have with the iPad are many. First is that it is a new untested product and there are already some things that people are finding out that make you say What the Hell? Another is, like all Apple products, the first version always cost the most. Remember the first gen. iPhones? Also there is going to be a iPad with a camera and it will for sure have a bigger hard drive. So why spend the money now when I can wait a year and get a much better, much more tested product for close to the same cost as today?

But my biggest problem with the iPad, and it seems to be the direction that Apple is heading, is the eco-system that you have to buy into. With the iPhone I was willing to do just that because there was nothing as good. It was so far better then any phone out at the time I didn’t mind Apple having full control over anything that you could put on it. I don’t fell that same way about the iPad because it is a niche product and it doesn’t fill any gap in my life. My MacBook does everything that I need it to do and I don’t have to wait for Apple to approve some app and get it into iTunes to do some work. As it is now you are paying for a product and then told what you can and can’t do with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple products. I have more then enough stuff with a Apple logo on it and I do because they are very well made and easy to use. But when Apple starts telling me what I can and can’t do with the product I just paid for, I have a big problem with that. It is a very strange world we live in when Microsoft is a more open company than Apple.

Apple’s iPad videos on YouTube.

I have never really had a problem with AT&T as far as service go’s. Never had a drop call and the data speed has been good. So when I got a email and a text that said I had no data plan with my iPhone, needless to say I was somewhat confused. I have only had my iPhone 3G for over a year now and had the first gen iPhone before that and as most of you know, you can not walk out of the AT&T store with a iPhone that doesn’t have a data plan.

So here is the story. I called to see what was going on and was told what the email already said. My iPhone had no data plan and that it would now be added at $10 more a month. I asked how is it that I have been getting email and using apps for the past year and have no data plan? Seems it came down to when I got the 3G at the store. The guy that was setting everything up somehow didn’t put in my account that I was upgrading my phone. What I was told is that with the first gen iPhone the data plan was $20 a month and unlimited text was another $20. With the 3G data is $30 a month. I checked my last statement and it showed I was paying the $20/$20.

There are two problems with AT&T not knowing what phone I was on when they should. The first is the lady I talk to today said that it could of been when I got the 3G that the sim card was used from first gen and that is why I was still only paying $20 for data. This is not true because at the store, when the guy was setting up my phone, I ask if I could use the same sim card and he said I couldn’t and I watched him take the sim out of the 3G and enter something into his computer. The second is that for as long as I can remember when I log into AT&T’s site to pay my bill it shows a picture of the 3G and says I have a 3G. So one way or another they should know what phone I am using.

What I was told was that they just did some sort of audit and that is how this got started so I am sure I am not the only person getting the “You don’t have a data plan and we need more money” email. I did ask if I could end my contact without paying the early termination fee since they were changing the price. Didn’t work.

I love the iPhone and use it every day. But I am over it. For the past few years there was nothing that was anywhere near as good but lately that’s starting to change. I love Apple products and most of my data is with Google. So now I am being torn in two. And as much as I love Apple, I hate the box your in when you get anything they make. So the Nexus One is looking very good to me. Just have to wait and see if Verizon messes it up when they get it. Lets hope not.

UPDATE (1-14-2010) – I got a email from AT&T that linked me to a PDF file outlining the changes in my account. The funny thing was the name of the PDF file. In case you don’t remember, Cingular got the iPhone. AT&T got it after they took over Cingular. Seems everyone forgets that. Something tells me that Apple would of been better with Cingular.

So the iPhone 3.0 update came out last week and I have been looking forward to it since it was first announced months ago. That was till the WWDC keynote where Apple said MMS was going to work on day one from about every one but AT&T. That put AT&T down there with Sprint in my book but lets look at the other stuff that the 3.0 update brings to the iPhone.

Cut, Copy & Paste – This is by far the most long awaited feature. There is not really much to say other than it does what it says. But I would say that this should of been in from the start or at least in the 2.0 update.

Landscape Keyboard – Again this is something that should of been in phone from the start but since it wasn’t and the iPhone is my first smart phone I had no idea what I was missing. I can say now that I love landscape keyboard and if I every get something other than a iPhone its going to have it.

Spotlight Search – For me, I have no real use for this since I don’t have a lot of notes and I don’t get a ton of email. But for people using the iPhone for work or people that get a lot of email, Spotlight Search must be a god send. Plus being able to search in apps is great.

Voice Memos – Once again something that I have very little or no use for. Its a new app that does just what it says, recored voice memos. You can then send them in a email or MMS (unless your on AT&T of course).

Internet Tethering – This lets you use your iPhone as a modem for your computer. Once again this doesn’t work if your on AT&T but when it does there a strong chance that if you want to use Internet Tethering it going to cost you extra.

Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe – This only works if you have a MobileMe account (I do) but I think this is the best part of the 3.0 update. When you log in to MobileMe you go your account page and you can see on a Google map where your phone is. Then you can send a message to the phone and the phone will display it and make a sound for two minutes straight. If you get no reply to your message you can then wipe the phone clean from MobileMe.

There are a lot of people that don’t like MobileMe for one reason or another. I have had no problems with it and find it very useful for keeping my contacts and calendar synced between my iPhone and my MacBook. I was starting to think about using Google to keep everything synced because its free but with Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe in MobileMe now I am not moving anything.

All the stuff above works on the iPhone 3G. Apple launched a new iPhone called the 3G S (the S means speed). This new phone has a better camera and can record video, the 3G cannot. But not only will the 3G S record video you can also trim your video on the phone. You can then send that video to YouTube, MobileMe, send it a email or send it in a MMS (unless your on AT&T).

The 3G S also has something that should of been in from the start and that is Voice Control. It works just like you think it should but being a Apple product they took it a little further and added Voice Control to the iPod part of the iPhone.

One of the new apps in the 3G S that I would love to have is the built-in digital compass. This would be very handy to have while driving because with the 3G phone the map is pointing north at all times. On the 3G S with the built-in digital compass the map will rotate depending on the direction that you are heading. Very handy.

So I have mix felling about the 3.0 update. Most of it should of been in the phone from the start but at the same time I am glad there here now. Other then the MMS crap AT&T is pulling. Then there is the new 3G S iPhone. There is enough added to the phone that makes me wants to get one plus it faster. But that also means a new 2 year contact and $200 and I am not sure I want to stay with AT&T that long.

So what do you think of the 3.0 update? Did you get the new 3G S iPhone?

Since I have been using my iPhone I have only paid for about 4 apps. I think this has more to do with paying for something with out being able to try it first. Its like buying a house without stepping inside at all. Even with most apps just costing $.99 I still find it hard to just give my money away blindly. But for some reason I did that for the app TimeLapse (iTunes link). It does just what it says and takes pictures so you can make a time lapse movie.

There are all the options you should need to make a time lapse movies. You can pick the number of pictures to take from 1 to 9999. You can have it take the pictures as fast as it can (during my test it was about one every 8 to 10 seconds) and set the size of the photos from large to small.

Once you have your photos you can import them into iPhoto and use iMovie to make your time lapse movie such as the one below. Now this is a pretty simple app but it does just what it says and for $.99 its not bad. But if you are going to use this be sure to turn your sound off or your going to hear the camera sound over and over.

About a year and a half ago I wrote a post about how much I hated Vista. It seems that alot of people agreed because there is now 55 comments on that post and its the most viewed post on my site. But since then I have been using Vista full time and my option of it has changed somewhat. I still think that it sucks but not as bad as I use to think.

I have Mint installed on this site just to see what everyone is looking at. So here are some stats. Of course the number one most viewed post is Vista = Shit on a Stick followed by a post I made about getting the Red Rings of Death. The top referrers I get are from search engines with the words Vista and Shit in them. And as a side note, the most used browser used is Firefox. But stats aren’t everything.

A few weeks ago I got my first Mac. Its one of the new MacBook’s that Steve Job’s announced during his last keynote. Since I have never really used a Mac as my main system, it takes some getting use to but the learning curve is not that bad. And since I been using my MacBook I haven’t even booted my PC at all. I bring this up because of the 55 comments on the other post. To all the people that didn’t like Vista as much as me I would take a serious look at the new MacBook’s and the iMac’s.

Now I do think that Vista has gotten better snice my other post but not enought for me to keep using it. The biggest reason that I was using windows before was for gaming. But since I got a 360 I haven’t played any games on my PC. So with that reason gone I swiched to a Mac. But one thing that makes me laugh now is Windows 7 coming out next year. Its as if Microsoft themself are saying don’t but Vista because who is going to buy it now when a new version is coming out in a year.

On Friday Apple released the 2.0 update for the iPhone and open the App store in iTunes. With the launch of the App store there are over 500 Apps to load on your phone and more to come. I have been downloading and playing with a lot of them over the weekend and some are really good and some make make you ask what the hell were they thinking.

2.0 Update

Not a lot has really changed with the 2.0 update for the Edge phones. There is the stuff that every one already knows like the Scientific Calculator, the support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and of course support for MobileMe. You can now save pictures from Safari to your phone by just holding your finger on the image for a few seconds.

What really stands out for me are the things that I wished the iPhone had from the start that I posted about before. The syncing of the calender can now be done with MobileMe. You can now get a better weather app then the default on in the App Store and there are a few to do apps you can get so Notes seems kind of pointless now.

Here is one that I don’t understand why it didn’t make it in. You can not sync your podcast from iTunes to the phone over your own Wi-Fi. But Apple themselves released an app called Remote that allows you stream music from iTunes to your phone. If anyone can make a app for syncing podcasts over Wi-Fi please do. I would even pay for it.

Another thing that really needs to be added is support for MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service). Why the so called most advance phone out there can not do MMS make no sense to me. Even if it was only on the 3G phone would be fine to me. Its just another reason to update.

Apps and the App Store

The reason that I jailbroke my phone a few months ago was just for the apps that people were making. The only reason now to do so is to use the iPhone on other networks. There are just about any app you can thing of out now and some of the best ones are still free.

If your a Twitter freak you can get Twitterrific free or there is a pay version with no ads but the one that I like best is Twittelator. Twitterrific seems to run slow on my EDGE phone and the free version has ads. They can add pictures to your update with twitpic.com and both can add your location. But for some reason when adding a picture with Twitterrific I lose the keyboard and taking and uploading it. Plus it has crashed my phone a few times.

Some of the other ones that you should check out are YPmobile. It is yellowpages.com app that uses your location to help you find what you tell it to search for. If you want a free game there is Cube Runner. If you want to share anything with a bunch of social sites there is ShoZu. If you like me and live in a area where the weather can change in minutes you need the WeatherBug app.

Some of the app are just using there site and running it through the app like Google. When searching for something with the Google app it just brings up the Google search results page without launching Safari. Not really a big deal but they didn’t think about the Edge users still out there. If they did it would bring up the mobile version of there site. So I am just staying with google.com/m for now.

The Facebook app is also disappointing. It is using the default iPhone images for just about everything from the background to the title bar. And for some reason you can not read the wall for anyone with the app. The mobile version of there site at iphone.facebook.com is so much better.

Mobile Flickr is another one that missed the mark. It has the basics that you would want are there like finding people photos, upload photos, tag them and so on but they want you to pay $2.99 for it. There are other apps that will allow you to much of the same things for free ShoZu. If your a pro user of Flickr you should get Mobile Flickr for free.

If your a Edge user there is not much in the 2.0 update other than the App Store and I fell that there is still a ton of things that Apple can do to make the iPhone so much better. So what are your thoughts on the new update?

This is something that has happen to me a few times. You go to look for a file (in my case a podcast) only to find that it is missing. Just gone for no real reason because I know that I didn’t delete it. Guess it just got bored and left.

The good thing for me is that its just a podcast and not something that I have payed for like some other people have had happen. But what is the reason because there has to be one. Files just don’t disappear by them self. Does iTunes just pick random crap and say “You don’t need this”. Or is there something really wrong in the program?

In my case it was from the podcast You Look Nice Today Ep. 3a. I know for a fact it was there because I remember clicking on the get button and then syncing it to my iPod and iPhone. As you can see below its still on my iPhone. So whats going on Apple? Is just because I am on a Windows system or does your program and a major flaw?

Anything like this happen to you?

Here is something that happen to me today where I was glad that I had the iPhone with me.

Friday I went to Blockbuster to rent Call of Duty 4 so I could play it over the weekend (great game BTW). When I went to check it out the little card machine was showing some sort of error message. I told the girl that was there, think it was her first week there or something, and she had to call someone to tell her how to fix them. Turns out that every system had to be rebooted. She does that and I check out my game.

Yesterday I was looking online at my account and saw that there were three charges for $5.35 from Blockbuster on the same day. So today I stop by Blockbuster with my receipt to show them that I only rented one game. But before I went into the store I got out my iPhone and checked my account to make sure the charges were still there. They were so I go inside and tell the women there what happen. She tells me, after looking at my account history, that it only shows one charge for $5.35. Thats when I take out my phone and show her the three charges. After looking for a few seconds she then starts to give me a refund.

But the funny thing about it all was when she was doing what ever she had to do for my refund she got out a calculator to add up 5.35 times two.