Here’s an email I just sent to the creators of MobileChat… a 2.99 chat application for the iPhone that sounded like an awesome app at a much cheaper price than BeeJiveIM:

So, even though I read 600 some reviews of your app saying how much it sucked, I went ahead and paid 2.99 because your website said that connectivity was high in the bottom left hand corner. I can’t believe how much of an idiot I feel like right now considering when I open the app it tells me I cannot connect (which is what every review said would happen). I went against what everyone told and it came back to bite me… big surprise. I’m not even that mad at you for making such a terrible app… I’m actually upset with myself for not listening to the collective wisdom of others. Thank you for teaching me such a simple lesson for only 2.99.

Chris

What a flipping awesome game.

Late Friday night with the help of Jeremy I jailbroke my iPhone, and for the past 2 days I’ve been loving it. So, if you have an iPhone (or an iTouch) and you think it’s missing a couple features, read on. First, I’ll tell you about 4 apps that I think are worth crossing over for, and then, just incase I convinced you, I’ll tell you how to do it.

Ok, so, why should you jailbreak. Apple has a crazy lock down on their devices, which can be a really good thing, but when the device is missing something that you really want, that makes for irratation. So, here’s what you can get that might make you want to liberate your phone.

Qik: This is a video app that let’s you not only take video, but upload it to the tubes on the internet at the same time. Awesome. This overcomes the lack of video taking capabilities as well as the demelia about what to do with the video once you have it. You can even hook your twitter account up to it so that once you start taking video you tweet that you are as well as a link to what you’re tweeting, which means that your twitter buddies can be watching what you’re doing in almost real-time. If you’ve got an iTouch, then this probably isn’t a big deal since your lacking a camera to begin with, but if you’ve got an iPhone then this is the money-app.

Backgrounder: Do you hate that you can’t run apps in the background? I did. Ha. But sersiouly, I did. Backgrounder changes all that. This app will let you run the apps that you really like without taking away the other parts of your phone that you can’t use while you’re using that one particular app. For me, the best part about this app is that I can run a chat app (Fring) in the background.

Pushr: This is another one that is useless if you’ve got an iTouch, but if you don’t this solves the problem of what to do with your pictures on your phone. Sure, some of them go to Facebook Mobile albums and other go to BrightKite, but there are those that you don’t really like spending the time emailing, but you’d like to have on the web somewhere. Also, if you’re like me, you don’t sync you iPhone with your computer much, so you don’t really access those pictures much on the computer. This app let’s you (only when your on WiFi) upload your photos to Flickr. That’s easy to do with email or something else if it’s only one picture, but when you’ve got 70 something it’s a pain. Pushr changes that, and let’s you connect with Flickr in a really easy way.

Categories: I had like 30 game apps installed on my phone, but is was annoying to try to find a place to put all those since I rarely used them. There were also apps that I used very rarely, but I really liked having installed on my phone so they were easy to access at those rare occassions. It’s annoying though to keep having to rearrange those apps to make room for new more important apps, but categories solves that. Instead of 3 screens getting filled up with game apps, now I’ve got one icon that’s like a normal folder icon that lets you keep all those apps in one small place.

So, maybe that didn’t convince you, but maybe it did. If it did, go download QuickPwn and have your i-whatever jailbroken in like 40 seconds. The first time I tried I didn’t use QuickPwn and the thing froze and I thought I bricked my phone. Fortunately it was fine, and then I found QuickPwn and now things are great. The instructions are simple, and they tell you how to do everything step by step including putting the phone in DFU mode. And remember, if at anytime you are unhappy with your jailbreaking, you can restore the phone to its original factory settings with just the click of a button in iTunes. Just make sure that if you do jailbreak that you don’t update you phone to a new firmware without either restoring first or waiting until the jailbroken version of that firmware is out. Also, if you’re looking to unlock your phone so you can use a different carrier, then you’ll have to talk to someone else. I use AT&T.

Let me know if you’ve done it and you’ve got some great apps that I missed.

Update: I figured I should add a picture of my second page screen with some jailbroken apps running on it. Here it is…

Donald Miller is someone who I really like to read and listen to, and he’s recently been volunteering with the Obama campaign. He said the prayer at the DNC one night, and I thought it was great. I guess he too was taking a bit of slack for working for a pro-choice guy and he published a blog post today explaining how he reconciled this and a couple other issues. Here’s his take:

As for the issues that bring the most heat.

On abortion: I am a pro-life voter, but do not believe John McCain’s plan on the issue will work. McCain’s only stand on the issue has been a recent switch to a pro-life position, and a promise to continue the attempt to criminalize abortion through the Supreme Court.I believe this is an empty promise, and anybody who understands our judicial system would know this. Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court (our most conservative Judge, many feel, and the pro-lifers greatest hope for the plan to criminalize abortion) has stated that Roe V. Wade “is the law of the land” and has been backed up in precedent by the Casey case. He does not believe it is plausible to overturn both rulings. Of course it is possible, but it would take a judicial miracle and the appointment of even more conservative, activist judges. This is the only way the overturning of Roe V. Wade will happen. The continuation of rhetoric about being pro-life but not having a realistic plan has tired me of the Republican Party. As more and more evangelicals walk away, I hope Republicans will stop giving lip-service to this important issue. My hope is they will realize they are going to lose more and more votes until they are willing to engage in a bipartisan effort to make progress with comprehensive legislation that is realistic and actual. 

The Democrats have proposed comprehensive legislation called the 95/10 initiative that aims to reduce the number of abortions that take place in this country by 95% within 10 years. While Barack Obama is a pro-choice candidate, he supports this and similar legislation. This is the only proposed and realistic strategy that can move us around the cultural impasse that is breathing hate and anger into the Christian community. 

While Barack Obama opposes late-term abortions, he has made promises to the National Organization or Women to make progress in a woman’s right to chose. I wish Obama were more strong on this issue. Still, I do feel he will accomplish more than John McCain, as John McCain has only recently taken this position and offers no legislation and no plan.

This is a very debatable issue. There are facts on both sides that seem to refute any argument made. But I have had to do the research and take a position and, for now, this is my position.

Gay Marriage:

This is not an issue I think much about because I am neither gay nor married, but I understand the evangelicals desire to protect the sanctity of marriage and define it as an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman. I agree with both candidates on this issue as they both oppose gay marriage but protect constitutional rights for domestic partners. In order to oppose civil rights for homosexuals, you would have to change the constitution which I think is dangerous. I agree with McCain and Obama both on this issue as they have stated the same position.

On other issues that are no less important although less heated such as the economy, globalization and trade, the environment and energy, I support Barack Obama’s positions over John McCain’s.

But let me make something very clear. I don’t dislike John McCain. I think he is a good man and a drastic improvement over Republican candidates in the past. I do wish he were a Christian, or would talk about faith, Jesus, Redemption or the Cross. Barack Obama does, very often, and very unashamedly.I am uncomfortable with the idea of a truly secular man in the White House, a man who has no church, no pastor, does not read the Bible and may not even pray. John McCain seems like a good man, but a secular man. I want our next President to talk and listen to God.

So, that is my position, and I will be talking openly about these things on the road. I sincerely appreciate your objective ear. I think people are more important than politics, and I refuse to “vote my identity” rather than vote on the issues. Therefore I won’t get into heated arguments that have no end. I doubt any of you want to do that either. Thanks so much. I don’t intend to keep up the political posts on this site, so don’t worry. We will get back to normal soon.

Sincerely,

 

Don
 

I think I agree with him for the most part, but I’m interested to hear what you think. I know some of you are still on the fence and some of you are on the opposite side of the fence for these very reasons. Any thoughts?

I heard we weren’t suppose to call him that since he’s 21 now… too bad.

Anyway, the Pens regular season starts this Saturday against the Senators in Sweden. Don’t miss it.

And don’t forget to get your daily dose of The Pensblog and Empty Netters.

As someone who owns an iPhone, the iPhone v. Android debate is a fascinating one. Now, I haven’t touched the G1 and probably won’t for quite some time, but I’ve read plenty about it and watched some videos so I suppose I’m just as qualified to talk about this as most people who weren’t in NYC the other day. Anyway, the interesting part for me is what features the iPhone needs now to make sure that people don’t start switching devices. My friend wrote a piece the other day about apps that he would turn his iPhone in for, which is a good list. And just now I read a crappy list about what new features the iPhone needs for it beat or stay ahead of Android.

So… now it’s my turn. I think Google has brought some seriously good features to the mobile platform, but here’s what I think Apple needs to churn out to make sure Android is like Linux instead of Windows.

1. Chat: The fact that the iPhone still doesn’t have a built in that app that runs in the background is sad. My brother-in-law’s Blackberry Curve has that, and so does Android. I’m not going to say much more though because I think this one is a given need for the iPhone.

2. Push Notification, ASAP: I understand the fear of letting people run all kinds of crazy apps in the background because it could kill the phone’s performance. I disagree with the conclusion of just making it off limits, but I understand the concern. Apple came up with a seemingly great response in their idea of Push Notification, but the problem is that it’s still not out yet. I thought it was suppose to be out in September, and while that still leaves it, it doesn’t leave much. Releasing this now could quell some of the Android hype as well. The day I can get push twitter notifications will be a good day.

3. Copy and Paste: Seriously. Get copy and paste and get it sooner rather than later. I thought this was a petty request before I got my phone, but now I recognize my ignorance. Just get it on the phone.

4. Walking Directions: I guess this isn’t so much Apple’s fault as Google’s and Google may not be all that interested in helping the big A now that it has it’s own platform, but let’s just hope that isn’t the case. I phone with GPS is great, but when you’re in a place like downtown NYC with lots of one way streets, driving directions are the opposite of helpful.

5. Push Gmail: While we’re on what Google can do for Apple, let’s talk about email. I think it’s safe to assume that Gmail is at least one of the best if not the best web-based email programs - especially with the ability to use Google Apps for your domain. However, the fact that my girlfriend gets crappy Yahoo! email pushed to her phone and I can’t get Gmail is terrible. It’s so bad that every once and a while I think about getting a new Yahoo! address - and then I back away from the ledge.

6. Get Rid of the NDA: Ok, so this isn’t really a feature, but it could help with the addition of better looking and smoother running apps, which is basically a feature. Whatever the reasons for the non-disclosure agreement, they need to be overlooked. This should make developers happy, and make better apps which makes customers and Apple happy. Happy-ness is a good thing. I guess Apple read my post. The NDA is O-U-T out.

7. Hulu: Stealing this one from Jon’s post, Apple needs to partner with Hulu to make all of Hulu’s content available on the phone. This would be a killer app. 

8. Turn by Turn Directions: I’ve heard rumours of turn by turn coming in the next big update, but who knows if that’s even remotely turn. I do know that turn by turn would appeal to a lot of people when they think about getting phone, because they could think of it as one great purchase that would cover two things (i.e. Phone and GPS).

9. Landscape Mode for Everything: For some weird reason a lot of Apple’s included apps don’t have landscape mode. I’ve gotten used to no slide out keyboard on the phone, but typing an email or SMS is so much easier and more comfortable in landscape mode than in normal portrait mode. You built the feature in on some stuff, why not everything?

10. MMS: I actually like sending pictures as emails better than sending them as MMS, but the problem comes when people try to send them to you. This should be simple. Just like copy and paste. Do it.

11. Video: Again. Just do it.

All of these (I think) could be done without needing to change any of the hardware on the phone. The only changes that I know of in that realm would be a better camera, and a better or at least replaceable battery.

Ok. Those are my thoughts. You got any?

I recently stumbled across a great cultural site called GOOD Magazine: http://good.is. I was first intrigued by their great design sense, and then a really interesting story about required reading for English classes, and the script of Freaks and Geeks was on their list. I thought that was awesome. Then today I saw that they were letting you name your own price (down to a dollar) to recieve their mag in the mail. That was a great offer I couldn’t pass up. I really don’t know much about the mag, but I think if you’ve got a dollar to spare this could be a good gamble.

If Radiohead Can Do It, So Can We by Good