iPhone 2.1 … my opinions on the download

Last week Apple made available the latest firmware update for the iPhone, 2.1.

The update was supposed to fix a lot of the bugs and problems that users have had over the past few months, many of which I have discussed on this blog.

I was a little hesitant about downloading, since the last update, 2.0.2 actually made my iPhone perform worse than before.

I am extremely impressed & very happy to update that almost all of the issues have been fixed and some other things which I didn’t even have complaints about were enhanced.

#1. The GPS now works!!! The pins drops immediately every time. Every once in a while it still thinks I’m in Pittsburgh, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I’m in my house on my wifi connection.

#2. The battery life has been drastically extended. Usually by the end of the day, I was almost out of charge. Now I still have about 75% of the battery life at the end of the night. WOW.

#3. Apps download faster. When I first got the iPhone in July, it seemed like the apps downloaded really fast.  Recently it seemed to take forever, especially with Ambiance and aSleep. Now the apps seem to zip right onto the phone in seconds.

#4. More bars and better reception. Since the upgrade, applications like Pandora and Simplify work much better. I don’t use the phone for actual phone calls very much, but I haven’t had any issue with dropped calls.

#5. This may seem small, but when you update an app, you no longer have to move it back to it’s original spot. It now stays in the same slot and doesn’t move to the last page anymore.

I do have a few complaints though. You still can’t manually manage photos. The only way to get photos on my iPhone is through a sync and that always ends up screwing around with and erasing my apps. Apple really needs to address this in their next update.

I was also hoping for a first party version of Simplify.

My last complaint is the price. The update for my iPhone is free, but they want me to pay $10 to update my iPod Touch. I’ve already been charged $10 twice already to update the touch and I will not pay for it again. Charging for a bug fix is ridiculous. Apple should know better.

Bicep Bands

Yesterday afternoon I was watching my Eagles beat up on the Steelers and I noticed something that I’ve been seeing a lot this NFL season.

What are those 1″ black and white bands that some players are wearing right above their elbows? I can not figure out what their purpose or function is.

Are they designed to stop sweat? Do they provide some type of support to the elbow? Are they strictly cosmetic, made to make the player look cool?

I did a little research on the internet and discovered that they are officially called “bicep bands”. I only found them for sale from Nike. I could not find the official NFL shield version for sale anywhere.

As for their purpose, no on knows for sure. I’ve seen mixed opinions, but most believe that they are supposed to stop sweat and are worn high so they won’t interfere with the players gloves.  Others admit that they are purely a fashion statement.

I really don’t care what their purpose really is …. I think I’m going to buy a pair.  They are only $7 and that way I can also look cool like the Eagles.

Apple Mighty Mouse Scrolling Problems

For the past several months, my wireless mouse for my iMac has lost the ability to scroll a web page down. It would scroll up and side to side fine, just not down.

When this has happened in the past, I’ve just restarted my computer and it worked fine. Today, I restarted the iMac, but the wheel would still not pull the page down.

First I went to Apple.com support, but couldn’t find any help with this specific issue. I did a little more research and found others who had the same problem at macosxhints.com.

So here’s the breakdown of how to fix the problem.  First, you can try to blow compressed air around the scroll ball.  This is probably the best solution, but I don’t have a can laying around my house.

Another solution, and I can’t believe this actually worked, is to just push down on the ball really hard and roll it.  In theory, this dislodges any gunk that may have clogged up the axis.  This worked for me and my mouse is now once again scrolling in all directions.

Now I am going to have to somehow clean out the inside, but have no idea how to.  People have written that they’ve rolled the ball over tape or just cleaned the ball with an alcohol swab.  Apple really should have made the mouse easier to disassemble and clean.

Sarah Palin – What was McCain Thinking?

I’ve made it no secret over the past few months that I will be voting Democrat in this fall’s presidential election. I was a really big supporter of Hillary and now that Obama has received the nomination, that support will shift to him.

I must admit that the selection of Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate did not make me very happy. Even being a former resident of Delaware, I can’t seem to get excited over the selection of Biden. I was very disappointed that Hillary was not given the nod instead.

I guess this is why John McCain has made the perplexing choice of Sarah Palin, Gov. of Alaska, as his VP candidate – To steal some of the former Clinton supporters to his camp.

On the exterior, it seems like an aggressive, but smart move. The whole theme of this election is about change and getting some new faces with new ideas into the mix. Once you dig a little deeper, and you know the US media will, this choice of Palin seems to be the biggest mistake McCain could have ever made. If McCain ever had a shot to win, this just killed it.

Since the announcement a few days ago, it has come out that she has lied about about opposing the Bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island. She has used her power as Gov. to remove the head of Public Safety for not firing her sister’s ex-husband after she request him to. It has also just come to light that her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant.

So, in the first few days, she’s lied about saying “Thanks but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere, and withheld information from the campaign she’s supposedly trying to help, that could be devastating to McCain.

Here’s more on Gov. Palin:

1) She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power.
2) She strongly supports big oil (her husband works for oil company BP).
3) She has no federal or international experience. Prior to being governor (for less than two years) she was only the mayor of a small Alaskan town!
4) She believes global warming is a farce and is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species.
5) She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and anywhere else big oil wants.
6) She supports Pebble Mine which will destroy the richest salmon run in the world.
7) She is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

Did anyone in John McCain’s camp do any kind of background check on this woman?  She is barely prepared to be Gov. of Alaska. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?  The VP debate is going to be a joke.  Biden will DESTROY her!!

As a now Obama supporter , all I have to say is: Thank you John McCain.  You probably just cost yourself the presidency.

Free Rice

If you’ve been on the internet in the past year, you have likely come across Free Rice, the online vocabulary building game that donates 20 grains of rice to the World Food Program for each word correctly defined.

The site went viral after it’s launch last year. To date, 42 billion grains of rice have been donated through the site by sponsors who advertise on the Free Rice homepage.

It’s a win-win: users build their vocab, the hungry get fed.  According to Free Rice, there are 50 levels of difficulty; however, it is rare for people to advance past level 48. 

Since launching on October 7, FreeRice generated enough rice to feed more than one million people.  

Not a bad way to find out that “saponify” means “make into soap.”