jungle boogie

not having opened iTunes in a long time, doing so today resulted in an installation of Apple's Safari browser. sneaky Jobs.



i do like the Safari in my iPhone but i don't really need a third browser in my office laptop. but then again, it may have its uses. hmmmmm ... (but its still operating within Winblows ... arrghhh).

iPocalypse now

the Jesus 2.0 comes out today!



and expectedly, more morons people have waited in line for a week, grabbed their spanking new 3G devil's tool iPhone, and found out that they can't be activated.

we really can't stem the tide of lemmings early adopters, especially when its been hyped that the price is 1/3 than what the early early adopters paid for this time last year. what the pundits have been telling, and no one is listening anyway (why should they? its the Jesus phone! i'll sell my soul for Jesus!!!), is that with that 2-year contract to AT&T, it would cost a lot more than the iPhone 1.0.

sure, 3G is fast, but do you really need to surf the web wherever you are? (wait, i do that when seated on the throne) really, its just a matter of time before its jailbroken (hint, hint). and even if my refurb 1.0 is still cost me $50 more, i am not beholden to AT&T, who's going to gouge everyone for every single cent before their 5-year exclusive contract is up. and based on the revered Walter Mossberg's review, the price of 3G speed is a battery that's easily drained.

but please, ignore everything else, and run screaming to get your iPhone. Steve Jobs is waiting for you.

get F'd

do we or do we not? what's going on?

ok, i see a green light. but then, when i tried, i got what i expected:


oh, well, i've been running an FF3 release in my home desktop for a month now (bundled with Ubuntu). i guess i can wait a few more hours.


ps. go Celtics! goodbye, Tim Russert!

arc of a viewer

after a couple of weeks of usage, i'm turning in the verdict for the gift i got from my family, the Archos 705 Mobile DVR.

really, i just wanted something to watch my movies in a larger screen, during my commute. the iPhone doesn't cut it (not if i want to save whatever eyesight i have). this baby does a lot more, but it does the basics and does it well. for that alone, i'm giving it a thumbs up.

the interface isn't Apple, but its okay. you can use your finger or the accompanying stylus (note: the iPhone doesn't accept stylus input - booo!)

you have obvious icons for videos, music and photos. i doubt if i'm going to use this as a music player, since the iPod and iPhone are the proper unobtrusive devices to use for the mobile commuter (mobile = walking).

the video list shows a looping few second clip of each movie. so far, it played the files i asked it to, except a couple with some codec issues.

since this is basically a hard drive, you can also use it as a DVR. but you have to buy some extra hardware (naahhh).

and you also have the choice to watch your movies on the big screen (ehhhh).


plug it in the electrical outlet, and you can be a security guard who'll never be bored.



now, it would be two thumbs if a couple of things happened:

1) i get the browser plug-in without paying anything ... somebody heeeeeelp!!

2) longer battery life - although we can skirt this problem by not forgetting to charge every other day, i feel that they could've done better. i've had a couple of incidents where i thought i had enough juice, but it conked out on me. i thought the files were bad, or worse, the battery was. i think it gets drained a lot when it goes into a suspended state. battery power is still the bane of portable gadgets.


and as i expected, i managed to watch a lot more stuff in my commute than i do at home:

The Bank Job - superb, superb movie! i don't care what you say about Jason Statham, i'd watch anything he's in.
The Proposition - a way-dark Western, set in Australia. Guy Pearce must be choosing roles that gives him all the opportunities not to take a shower. i don't think he took a bath since Ravenous.
The Matador - Pierce Brosnan as the anti-Bond? The Thomas Crown Affair and After the Sunset still had the Bond aura about him, but films like this and The Tailor of Panama shows there's life after 007.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - on the road to sobriety, Iron Man and triumph, Robert Downey Jr made this inventive little crime noir-slash-comedy with the now-underrated Val Kilmer. peaches.
The Golden Compass - i never thought about this beyond an adventure yarn. actually bitin pala, and since it flopped (by their standards) i guess i won't see what happens next.
Untraceable - a stab (pardon the pun) at torture porn, but mostly candy-wrapped with the presence of Diane Lane. its also unbelievable.
Walk Hard (The Dewey Cox Story) - now this one made me laugh with its double-entendre-a-minute style. perennial supporting actor John C. Reilly finally shines, and now i have proof how hot Pam the Receptionist is.

so far i haven't dropped it yet, but the odds are substantial ... better have good hands.

goodbye, Windows

well, from the home desktop at least.

no, wait, i still might need to install VMWare to put in a guest XP box to run my DLink Media Server. i still have to find a way around that.


but otherwise, Hardy Heron has seemed to do for me what Edgy Eft couldn't do two years ago (get the proper display drivers, for starters).

cheers, Ubuntu!

the view

i always love a delivery guy when he has something for me.



my effusive thanks to my bro, sis, mom and dad for sending this my way! dropping hints in a blog can be effective - i kid, i kid. salamat pong muli!!!

prison break

time to break free of Windows Media Player and iTunes.



an open source love child of Mozilla and WinAmp, Songbird seems poised to be a solid alternative to those media players (WMP needs a bunch of codecs to play other formats while iTunes is notoriously sticking with their own). right out of the box, this beta 0.5 version already plays the high res .MKV files, something you can't do with WMP. this will still be buggy, but so what. i hope they keep plugging away until they get it right.

as i switched to Firefox/Thunderbird 4 years ago and never looked back, this looks like another road of no return (for me).

Jesus (phone) walks

so far, my phone hasn't turned into a brick (yet). i keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but not as much like the first two weeks. there was one time it rebooted itself, but that was when i was watching Rambo IV (right during the final firefight). maybe the electronics couldn't take that much testosterone. you wouldn't find the Rambo crowd sporting iPhones anyway.

i haven't really installed much in it, which is actually what you really do when you jailbreak the thing. no games, no handy apps, no nothing. maybe i just really wanted a phone. that works like an iPhone. at a cheaper price.

annoying stuff:
- how the hell do i turn off the autocomplete feature during texting? you have to remember to tap every suggested word to send it away if you don't need it. you won't believe the crazy suggestions it has for the Tagalog words i'm typing in.
- the aforementioned abrupt-exit during playback of some videos. which is kinda expected though since all am putting in is not-exactly legit MP4s. and by the way, the screen is still small!!! (yes, am holding on to my principles)
- no way to create separate photo albums? maybe that's a 3rd party app?
- some call drops, but could that be t-mobile instead of the phone?

the sweet:
+ knows that you are using the phone and when cheek is pressed against the screen, the touch feature is turned off.
+ i have my 8TUV key back
+ despite the screen limitations, i managed to watch a lot more movies here than in my DVD/Media player at home. i've been through a couple of Chris Rock shows, i laughed through The Darjeeling Limited, enjoyed Michael Clayton, updated myself up to 3 episodes of John Adams (that deserves its own post), replayed the Giants' marvelous SuperBowl season, and marveled at the awesomeness of Appleseed Ex Machina (imagine if i saw it on High Def).

if this works for at least a couple of years (the previous Nokia had turned in a service term of three), then it'll be a well-spent $250. still cheaper than similar ones they're hawking over at Radio Shack.

supplies!

so the real reason i was able to get a Jesus Phone is ... like duh, its a mystery.

i think even if i had the money (which 99.99% of the time, i don't - see post below), i wouldn't be an early adopter. opportunity just slips under your nose, and that's it. so even if Jobs springs his new spanking line of Jesus 2.0s, i'm happily keeping this one i got.


unless ... it turns into a brick.

or it gets stolen.

or somehow it "disappears".

the wire(s)

i saw this article, and i'm thankful my own maze of cables and wires at home do not approach these proportions. however, it does lend a fantasy about a completely wireless environment. that would be almost possible, except for the absence of ... broadcast power.

broadcast power has long been a holy grail of sorts, extolled in sci-fi novels and doggedly worked on in real life. imagine full electrical power flowing through air and juicing up your house, a city, the country. the oil barons would shit themselves. the Middle Eastern kings would be paupers overnight. but of course, the Carlyle Group would probably make sure they own the rights to the damn thing, so either way, us masses would still be screwed.

for now, the current technology we have is grossly inefficient and expensive. that's why copper wire will still be around for awhile. computer stores will still sell you those itsy bitsy wire ties. and the IT guys will still have to wade through that nightmarish tangled mess.

the resurrection

(or how the Jesus Phone was rescued from AT&T/Apple Lock Hell)

The following takes place between Wednesday March 19 and the Easter Weekend.

Wednesday morning@work: my 3-year old Nokia 76xx rings. its my brother in law, Eric (i still am getting used to having a "brother in law"). he excitedly tells me that its time to get an iPhone. refurbished ones, but still an iPhone. i was skeptical. he tells me of an Engadget post stating AT&T just offered refurbed iPhones at 40% of the original price when the Jesus Phone first came out less than a year ago.

wow, $250? for real?

i hurriedly checked the site and the links. looked legit. let me poke around a bit more, and i'll get back to you, i told him.

now getting an iPhone was just a dream back then, but it isn't a compelling one anymore. even with the price cuts that Jobs instituted thereafter that pissed off the early adopters - you know, the ones who actually stood in line for days - i still wasn't sure because of the mandatory AT&T contract, not to mention the possibility of going nuts over the data plan and getting this stupid bill. still, at current prices, $400 for a brand new 8Gb ... still too high.

but at $250? for real?

i've been a Nokia loyalist for the last 10 years. am not a text aficionado, despite my roots. texting is the bane of the English language. that being said, it is frustrating to try to send a message when your TUV8 key is busted, given the fact that the width and breadth of expression using texting is too limited to begin with.

i've been hedging for the longest time on what to get as a replacement - its either the choices i like are too expensive or too difficult to obtain (this would not be a problem in Asia). plus there's the issue of locked-in phones.

well, i guess for that problem, we can deal with it.

i call Eric back - looks ok, i say. are you sure you want one? i ask him, because this is the same guy who was scoffing at the Jesus Phone back in June. he probably doesn't even remember doing that.

he gives a thumbs-up. i go to the AT&T link given by Engadget (you wouldn't see it if you just go to the AT&T front page). selected one, and then ran into a problem: "uh oh, you can't buy more than one." ok, let's continue ... shipping address must be same as billing address (means i can't have it delivered here in the office). ok, fine, whatever. just get me to the final page.

"o ano, click ko na 'tong Purchase button?"
Eric hems and haws ...
"sige, fight!"

ok, i figured if we only get one, he gets it and i'll regret it for the rest of my days haha.

one purchase down. let me try another one.

noooooooooooo. won't let me.


let's try another PC.

noooooooooooo. won't let me.
must be recording my IP address. i tell Eric i'll just get another one when i get home.


Wednesday evening@home: hurriedly went to the desktop and tried to find the links back to the site. bam! done! wow, in trying to prevent mass purchases (you know, those evil merchants wink, wink), they block a second purchase from the same IP, but they don't bother if its the same credit card, billing and shipping addresses. oooo-kay. i did put in a different email address for the second one - maybe that helped too.

two more issues for the night: explaining to your wife why it is/was a good idea to purchase two iPhones within one day (you just need cue cards with before/after $$$ figures), and explaining to your financial institution that it was really you who made consecutive purchases with AT&T. i don't mind, at least they're keeping track.

maundy thursday: i'm not sure if i slept the past 36 hours, given that i was delighted to find the email notifications for both. at this point, the first one was on a truck going thru Ohio. the second one was ... oh man - backordered!!! geez. its amazing Engadget didn't go down if there were like a couple of thousands who frantically went onsite then jumped to AT&T to buy one. the first phone came from a store in Texas. Eric said we could get lucky going to some random brick, glass, and wood AT&T store and find one. yeah, sure. i already started resigning myself to the fact that i won't get one till whenever.

thursday@night: the backorder sign was taken off - the second Jesus Phone is also now being processed for delivery. miracles happen!

i notify my friend the time bandit if he wants to get an iPhone, and as i expected, he hedges as well, even if i told him what a good deal it was. however, i tried the link again ... and whoa - that promo is already unavailable.

wow. a 24 hour fire sale. imagine that. another miracle. of sorts.

many have called, but few are chosen.

good friday@8:00AM: now my other dilemma was ... how was i going to get the 1st phone when i am supposed to go to work, and leaving for the in-laws this evening, and the DHL truck was going to go straight to my home address? i didn't like the idea of leaving that box lying around in the lobby. so i just called DHL straight up and instructed them to hold the package till i get to pick it up sometime next week.

now, here's where divine intervention shows its hand again.

my wife left earlier than me (i'm just a slow starter). now when i was opening the door to leave, the door wouldn't open. what th-?

i keep turning the knob on the really really old deadbolt lock and it just kept turning without catching. now am stuck inside the house. i'm already running late and am stuck inside. worst of all, who's going to believe me?

well ...

just so we have some sort of photographic evidence of this minor disaster, here's the lock after i dismantled the thing (just to get out of the "tomb"):


that small metal piece was broken from the rotating piece of the knob. whatever you call it.

yes, yes, i sabotaged my lock ... just to be at home when the iPhone arrives!!!! mwahahahahahaha!!!

besides, we don't get Good Friday off here in Judeo-Christian America.

went off to find my landlord - didn't find him or the building superintendent (affectionately known as 'Bob The Builder'). as soon as i got back, i had to bring out the laptop, turn on the cable modem and routers and just settle for a work@home day. then my phone rings.

its the DHL Facility. they said they couldn't hold the package as instructed because its already loaded in the delivery truck and said truck is already on its way.

of course what else would i say ... "noooooooooooooo problemo."

after repeated checks for the lord of the land, he finally shows up around 11 AM (i don't blame him - its cold and windy out there). i even had to help him fix the lock. good thing this time he brought a proper brand new lock instead of another repainted refurbished rusty one (is that a sign for the coming iPhone?).

now on to Jesus Phone. the DHL guy arrives at closer to noon. he's kind of wheezing at having to climb 4 flights of stairs (no elevators). kind of gives me an annoyed look for having to go through that. hey, don't blame me, buddy - i'm not the landlord. you look more fit than me, and you're not carrying a heavy box. give me the iPhone, dammit.

the box itself was nondescript - just a generic orange and white AT&T box that you usually get when you buy a generic phone from their stores. the only thing that would say this is no generic phone is a small white sticker that says 'refurb iPhone kit'.

oh. my. Jesus. save. us. from. the. fires. of. (un)creative. Hell.

the phone comes with an AT&T sim card, which they assume that you would activate and lock yourself in with the 2 year contract (activation happens thru iTunes, for those who don't know). but who wants to do that? that's where the current internet legend known as Zibri comes in.

Eric did his initial research on what is recommended unlocking tool out there. they've been breaking the iPhone since it came out, and it was just a matter of time before something refined came out and make it easier on doofuses like me. so ... Ziphone it is. this is it - i either end up with a useless brick, or i get a cool Jesus Phone.

first i connected the Phone to my laptop with iTunes and i cancelled out of the AT&T activation message. then i ran the Ziphone app. or in other words - unlock, jailbreak, activate? hell yes!!! (did that sound like the Wonder Twins?)


the iPhone screen changes into a running scroll of programming code. the only way it would be cooler is to have the text in green, just like in The Matrix.

the Ziphone seems way too easy to use, because it does everything for you ...


but wait. my initial attempts seem to be okay, but if i put on my T-Mobile SIM ... nothing happens. i have all those cool icons but no service. i installed a bunch of stuff to get it to a higher firmware version as noted in the Ziphone blog (the Phone comes in with 1.02), but didn't seem to work. for a few minutes there, i thought i was going to end up with an 8Gb iTouch.

then the sun dawned on me ...

why the hell am i killing myself by going to a certain firmware level? this Ziphone app works with 1.14 already!!! jackass. i just need to restore myself back to 1.02 level, use iTunes to update the Phone itself to 1.14, then use Ziphone to - you know the drill - unlock, jailbreak, activate!!!


sorry, that green text is from the laptop, not on the Phone.

the fruits of labor are ready for harvesting. put my SIM card in ... success!!!

can i call someone? oh yes, why not call Eric? but then ... i don't have his number because its still in my Nokia phone memory. @%#&%@&*!(!

took out my SIM again, put it back in the Nokia, reboot blah blah blah. then back to the iPhone.

(dialling ... ringing ...)
hello?
can you hear me now? (sounding like the Verizon d00d)
oo.
hulaan mo kung saan ako tumatawag ...
(pregnant pause)
o-hooh!!!

one more test ... let's try to use my own local Wi-Fi (i don't have a data plan with T-Mobile, so i'll figure that part out later). type in the SSID, key in security keys ... viola!


the unit didn't seem to have any scratches, or any functional bug. most likely, refurbed phones have been returned by unsatisfied customers, and the unit was refitted with new casings and the like.


and the rest of the Easter Weekend was spent downloading third party apps and transferring songs to make the iPod part of it work (that took much longer than i anticipated, because i overlooked something again). Eric has his iPhone, and mine should arrive this coming week.

so is there a question about the resurrection? don't even think about it. you know Jesus will hand you your ass if you do. he does look tacky here, but he would. no doubt.



next: if you anticipate getting stranded on an island, what music will you have in your iPhone if you gave yourself a 4Gb limit?