Current Tech Blog

Yeah, just watch the video and you’ll see what all my fuss is about.

The transcripts only get worse from there, btw. I used my own voice thinking somehow it would work more accurately? Yeeeeeah NO.

The link to my full story on current.com/tech is here.

Once you get done laughing at my misfortune, you might like to watch me create an award from thin air and present it to a deserving website. I DON’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP, PEOPLE.

So yesterday at Candlestick Park my iPhone got swiped. And I was having such a good day, too (Niners won, and SF fans know that doesn’t happen that often!).

After panicking for a while, I called AT&T to figure out what my options were. Unfortunately, since I hadn’t opted into paying extra for MobileMe with my first iPhone, I couldn’t track it down or wipe it remotely. AT&T could shut off my service, but that’s about it. And if for any reason someone was closely watching me type out my passcode to unlock my phone the few times I used it from my seat at the game, they’d have access to a lot of things. A LOT OF THINGS. That iPhone was my computer away from the computer.

I knew I’d make myself crazy obsessing over possible identity theft (or just some creep reading my Gmail archive), so I did what I had to do: I drove directly to the downtown San Francisco Apple store to buy myself a new 3GS, the same phone I scoffed at upgrading to mere months ago because the upgrade price was something crazy like $400. Which is exactly what I had to pay yesterday, because of some subsidized unit/contract B.S. that’s been explained in great detail to me but is still dumb and stupid and expensive.

And then today I’m reading Gizmodo, one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs, and I read about how iPhone carrier AT&T is going to charge people like me to fix its crappy network that doesn’t really work that well in my house. And that just makes me really mad and disappointed and I’m painfully aware that this I got myself into this mess by not keeping a better eye on my iPhone at the game yesterday, but I’m just tired of feeling like I’m being gauged at every corner, you know?

As an iPhone user and Flickr lover, I’ve been waiting a long time for Yahoo! to give me a Flickr app that helped me organize my photos more easily. Well, it’s here, and it’s free, so I decided to highlight the good stuff for all of you in this video. Enjoy!

Here’s my full story on Current Tech.

Getty Images

I’m one of those lucky people who have an iPhone. It’s a 3G, and I got it as an unexpected Christmas gift from an extremely generous friend in December 08, which means it’s still nice and pretty and mostly unscratched. It also means that I’m well under the minimum time period with my AT&T plan to be able to get a new iPhone 3G S for under $499.

When I first realized that the subsidized 3G S price did not apply to me and that I would not be upgrading any time soon, I was totally pissed, as were many other folks. I’m a valued customer, and this is how you repay me? Then I read a few articles that explained what was really going on, and I decided to change my attitude. I already have a really great phone (which in my case was free of charge, for eff’s sake), and besides, I *do* get to enjoy iPhone’s 3.0 software, which starting pushing out to all iPhone users today.

Here’s a rundown of pretty much EVERYTHING you can do with 3.0. It’s a very thorough list and definitely worth reading in detail. I’m having a blast trying all the new features out on my v3. It’s just like a new phone! Well, if I ignore the scratches.

But here’s one of the coolest new features of all: push notificiation service for apps. At first I couldn’t find any official literature on it at all… turns out it’s just buried inside the developer center. So, what does this mean for users like me? Well, let’s say I don’t have the AIM app launched. Before today, nobody would be able to IM me until I had the app launched, and if I left the app, I’d be cut off again. Now, developers of the AIM app have the opportunity to “push” out a notification to me that I’ve received an IM, even if the app isn’t open. That’s huge!

From Apple:

There are a number of ways to send a push notification. Send a message with text that lets the user launch your app. Trigger audible alerts with your own custom sounds. Add a numbered badge to your app icon when it’s important to let the user know how many things are waiting for them.

Mind you, as far as I know the AIM app isn’t doing this yet, but I sure hope they do soon. I’m excited to see who else incorporates push notifications into their options menu. For now, here’s a preliminary list of apps that have. Know of any others?