Tupelo Geek

        Well it’s been several hours and I’m home from work. As many of you have heard by now, Michael Jackson died today at age 50 from an apparent heart attack in Los Angeles.
        We also lost Farrah Fawcett today a 70’s icon. But being that I was a child of the 1980’s Michael Jackson was a huge part of my pop culture exposure. We had cable around 1983 which was about the time MTV came along and so did Michael Jackson’s adult career.
        Anyone from my generation can recall MTV playing Thriller over and over again. Say what you will about his strange behavior in his last years but music wise the man was a genius for his time. He understood the concept of the music video better than MTV did and how it could be used to sale albums and he mastered the art of the music video more than any other artist of the time yes, even more than Madonna.
        He also understood how music can be used to help others. He got together with Lionel Richie and they came up with “We are the World” to help with Ethiopian relief. Yes, I bought the record too.
        Of course there there were the dance moves. Say what you will the man could dance, could have done without the crotch grabbing but the moonwalk was so cool and even though others could do it, there was something special about MJ’s moonwalk with the black loafers and white socks.
        The man had talent and vision but he also had his demons to deal with. As I grew older and saw how he changed in the 90’s and into this decade, I came to view him more in a Howard Hughes, Elvis Presley way. It seems morbid to say but I never saw Michael dying as an old man in his 80’s but dying way too young and sadly now my thought has become true on the matter. Now we will just have memories of a remarkable career. He was successfully able to make the jump from a child performer into an adult one and that is very hard to do. RIP Michael!

Found this on Wikipedia when he refused to sign the faith based license plates bill.

“It is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives his life.”

Really governor? Just what faith were you practicing in Argentina?

Hey all, time for another issue of Triple T. This one is going to be iPhone 3G S specific.

The Arrival

My wife signed for the phone from FedEx it arrived about 30 mins after I went to work. She sent me a text to let me know it had arrived. On my lunch break I went home as I usually do where my wife had placed a pair of scissors next to the container holding the iPhone. She knew I would want to tear into the box right away which I did.

The Activation

I took the phone out and plugged it into the MacBook. The first part was activating it via AT&T which went trouble free as I had already setup my plan when I ordered it from the Apple Store online. Next was the Apple part of the activation which was just syncing and restoring from the backup from my old iPhone. During this time I managed to eat dinner with my wife as I let it do it’s own thing. My phone # transfer to the new iPhone took less than half an hour and it was ready to head out with me when I went back to work. So I put the new old iPhone which as of this point is nothing more than an 8GB iPod touch at least until Kristen activates it to use for her mobile phone.

Features

First thing that caught my eye was the Compass. You probably wouldn’t think much of it but wow is this thing accurate I turned and faced every direction and this thing is spot on accurate! On my way to work at a red light I decided to use Voice Control to play some music but it found nothing. Than I realized when I was syncing it in order to save time I didn’t have any music put on it yet. Once I was back home though I synced it and clicked on everything in iTunes All Songs, All videos,Al movies, all everything. It’s the 32GB model and it can hold my music,video, and photo library in it’s entirety.

Push Notification

For the first couple of days it was hard to find an app that I regularly use that supports Push. So I downloaded the AP app as my friend Dave mentions he uses and it supports push. I now get breaking alerts on my phone now. There is also a weather alert app which if you live in the South or Midwest is very handy. Than last night AIM and BeeJive’s apps were updated for Push. I don’t use BeeJive but AIM I do and Dave was the first person to send me an IM that was pushed to my home screen on the iPhone (thanks dude!). Still hoping for more apps to support Push like Yahoo Messenger and maybe Facebook depending on if you can specify what you want for alerts (comments, wall posts, etc.) One thing I did notice is the the final scores of the Angel games are now popping back in now since I upgraded. For a while they were not showing up on the old one. Also look forward to the ESPN Scores app supporting Push as was demoed at the WWDC.

Camera

The camera is now a 3MP over a 2 in the previous model. That’s cool for a phone camera but for low light it is very grainy in quality. In good light it is a good camera. But it can shoot video now on the 3G S and this is really cool. Being what has gone on in Iran this past week with more people having video capable phones it will make things harder for dictators to censor. But this could be a blog post onto itself (check my previous blog post for my thoughts there). Needless to say I have been enjoying shooting video of our little man. It even has the ability to upload directly to YouTube, MobileMe, or MMS (unless of course you live in the the US…thanks AT&T…NOT!). You can also email your videos too.

The 3G part

Being that I live in a town that AT&T has not installed 3G service in yet (thanks AT&T…NOT!!) I have not experienced 3G yet, but next week the 3 of us are headed to Hattiesburg, MS. which does have 3G so I will be able to judge on the speed difference than. You do have the ability though to turn off and on 3G in the settings which will save battery life when you live in a town on the EDGE.

The Screen

The screen is great! I’ve been using it for 5 days now and it is smudge free. Whatever coating they are using now is solid and fantastic.

Buying Advice

If you already have the 3G model the only thing you will be missing is the video capability. If you can live without that than the 3.0 update pretty much gives you everything the 3G S offers. If however you are an iPhone EDGE owner than I would highly recommend getting it. You don’t have any of the early upgrade high premium price issues from AT&T and the storage capability is quite larger than the original models. I had the first generation model so I was due for an upgrade and I am quite happy with the 3G S.

Fathers Day

Had my first Fathers Day yesterday as a dad. Felt great to say “Happy Fathers Day” to my dad and for him to say “same to you” and for my friend Dave and his sister to leave me voicemail’s wishing me a Happy Fathers Day as well. I had to work yesterday but I did have some decent time with the little man before going to work and on my break.

Iran

Lots going on there. This could be the first revolution of the Twitter/Facebook/YouTube age. It’s inspiring to see people willing to see people give it their all for freedom. I just hope the Obama administration has the spine to back them up in their pursuit of freedom. It sends the wrong message when your campaign is based on “”Hope & Change“ but than say ”not for you Iranians though.“ I would like to gauge my fellow blogging friends on both sides of the political aisle on an interest in setting up one day were we all blog about ”why we believe in freedom in Iran“. Something where we use the same title for our blog post ”Freedom in Iran Now“ or something like that. If you have any interest in doing that let me know. Oh and if your not doing so already, you can follow me on Twitter & Facebook.

iPhone 3G S

Stay tuned for my post tomorrow on my full initial review of my new iPhone.

Wrap up

Guess that is all for today. Anything else I forgot I will post in a Wednesday Ramblings blog.

Hey all, welcome to another Triple T. Here is what is on my mind this week with technology.

iPhone 3G S

Yes, I gave in and bought me one. I should have it by Friday. I got the 32GB model so I can put my whole music and photo library on it making it my default music device as well although I will keep my 16gig nano for walks and bed time listening.

Nambu

I just heard about this app today so I am now just starting to play with it. Basically it does a lot of what TweetDeck does but it will soon support Facebook so you could read status updates from Twitter and Facebook on one app. Pretty cool. Check it out here, it is in Beta right now.

SweetFM

If your into listening to LastFM or Pandora than you will love this app. You can actually pause the music and resume something you cannot do on LasFM currently.

Well that is all I have this week. Once I get the new iPhone stay tuned for my initial review on it and also tomorrow is iPhone OS 3.0 day so I will be having some fun with my current EDGE based iPhone. Be back next week or sooner.

A quick note if there is not a Monday Musing there will be a Wednesday Rambling, or some weeks there may be both depending on what is happening in the world.

DC Holocaust Museum shooting

Sadly the security guard has died. Apparently this was the act of some twisted, deranged white supremacist.

New GM chairman knows nothing about cars

Nothing surprises me anymore from this administration. After all we have a Treasury secretary that failed to pay taxes and a President who’s only previous executive experience was running a community organization. But now we have the biggest auto maker in the planet bankrupt and being owned by well us tax payers and the chairman knows nothing about cars (his words not mine). Are you freaking kidding me? I mean does Obama know what he’s doing or is he just throwing stuff on the wall and hope it sticks. Mr. President even dog excrement will stick for a while but the smell of it is horrible and so is this GM plan.

USC coach Tim Floyd resigns

He says he lacks the enthusiasm to coach right now. Yeah I guess if I paid off a top recruit to come play at my school and the NCAA found out and was about to drop the death penalty on the b-ball program, I would probably quit too. But with a resumé like that, I’m sure he can get a job in the Obama Administration. But this leads me to my next thought. How come the NCAA will look into the SC b-ball program but ignore the football program issues ie Reggie Bush? I’m guessing it is due to money…money…and money. SC playing in a BCS bowl game brings in a ton of money to the NCAA, SC in a basketball tournament…meh.

Christian night club owner vs local paper

This one is interesting. The owner of a Christian nightclub in town has been evicted because he didn’t pay his rent. So what does he do? Complain about the local paper’s coverage of the news. Hey moron, if you pay your rent and act like a responsible business owner none of this happens! How pathetic that you have to go after the local newspaper thinking they are bias. This isn’t the NY TImes here it’s a local paper owned by local people that still do what papers should do, cover both sides. The paper made every attempt to get your side but you chose to treat them as a hostile. You dug your own hole on this one! Pay your bills next time!

Rocking chairs

Finally I helped my folks move some furniture from my late grandmother’s house which sold recently to their place. Mom asked Kristen and I if there was anything we wanted that was not in the will. So we chose 2 rocking chairs. These are going to be great when we rock little man to sleep in his bedroom. Up until now we have only had the recliner in the living room in front of the big TV and all his toys,that rocked. Now with a rocking chair in his room there will be less stimuli for him and he should fall asleep faster. They are a welcome addition to the home.

Ok I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to blog so lets get right down to it.

MacBook Pro’s

Updated across the board and the MacBook is now part of the MacBook Pro family. So if there is a Pro version does that mean the rumored netbook will be the new MacBook?

Snow Leopard

More details released today on that. Exchange support for iCal, Mail, and Address Book. Redesigned QuickTime and a ton of other stuff. Bottom line if your a Leopard user it’s only going to set you back $29 on the upgrade ($49 for family pack). Oh yeah, and it’s going to beat out Windows 7 (lame name btw) by a month!

iPhone OS 3.0

Lot of cool stuff coming out 6/17. Check more details here. Cool thing that stood out, tethering…unless your in the US with AT&T (have I mentioned how much I think AT&T sucks?)

iPhone 3G S

2 models 16 and 32 GB ($199 & $299 US) June 19th and it shoots video now with the updated 3 MP camera. Yeah it’s not digital but who cares if you see something happen that is noteworthy, you can capture it and upload it to YouTube right from your phone. Also MMS finally…unless your in the US with AT&T in which case end of August or September (have I mentioned how much I…oh…never mind). All that being said being that I have a first generation iPhone this is a worthy upgrade for me even when AT&T’s shortcomings.

Final thoughts

Apple would be better served if they ditch their exclusivity deal with the blue stripped Death Star. I have a brother-in-law that loves everything about the iPhone BUT the carrier. He is a loyal Sprint customer because of their international coverage. AT&T maybe great for domestic coverage but so is Southwest Airlines but you can’t fly on Southwest to Rome! This is America, we used to be known for a competitive marketplace. Apple would sell a gigaton more of iPhones if they had agreements with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. AT&T, you need to learn how to play nice in the sandbox!

I couldn’t pass this up. Comment with your own captions.

“You call this Bling? Please I’ve seen better in SouthSide Chicago pawn shops!”

With the news of the GM bankruptcy this song is very timely.

I’m sitting here at Joe Joe’s which I do love it’s always a treat here. But I have to admit today I’m here for the internet more than anything (as I enjoy my chocolate chip cookie and Pure Caramel latte). You see once again Comcast=FAIL! I have been without internet for 5 hours now at home and I have a service call setup for tomorrow to see what is causing my internet to go out on a weekly basis on me and I have to admit I’m getting pretty ticked about it. They have one chance to fix this and if not my next call is to AT&T and ordering their DSL. I use to tell people that asked me “Cable or DSL” and I say cable. Now I will qualify the question with “who’s the cable operator?” because if it’s Comcast I’m going to tell them to go DSL even if the speed is not as fast. I’ll take a slower speed if it means it’s a consistent connection. Get your act together Comcast or you can say goodbye to my $60 a month!

I was reading ESPN and came across this story. Now Ed Roski is an L.A. based billionaire real estate guy who owns a chunk of the L.A. Lakers and Kings hockey team. He also has a planned football stadium and has been looking for a team to take him up on the offer at said stadium. The Rams, once owned by a woman who’s name I will not mention and who’s character I will refrain from speaking negatively on because you shouldn’t speak ill of the deceased, for a majority of their franchise history were in L.A. In-fact they were in L.A. long before the Dodgers and Lakers came to town. If Roski can purchase the 60% of the franchise that will be up for sale and return the team to Southern California he will restore a historic identity once again. Come on Ed bring my Rams home to L.A. where they should be!

Wow, he is risking his career in Obama loving left wing Hollywood.

Welcome to another edition of Triple T. Here are this week’s news items.

A camera on an iPod nano?

Interesting tidbit here about a next generation iPod nano with a built in camera.

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Psystar files for Chapter 11

The Mac clone maker has filed for bankruptcy protection. This came after they got a delay in the Apple suit.

A Mac tablet in 2010?

Yet another source, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says a Mac tablet is indeed in the works for 2010.

Watch your DVR on your PC.

DirecTV has a new program that allows you to watch your DVR recordings on your PC. Unfortunately it does not support Mac (BOO!!). Hopefully they will come out with a Mac version and realize we are living in 2009 and not 1999.

That will do it for another edition of Triple T. Feel free to leave comments you may have. See you next week!