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Currently viewing the tag: "iOS 4"
All the talk over the last week on the Internets has been focusing on the new iPhone 4 or the fully-enabled iOS 4 on an iPhone 3GS, but not everyone is getting a brand new iPhone 4 or already has a 3GS. This review is for those of you, like myself, who are still saddled with the aging (yet still pretty awesome) iPhone 3G. The following review will let you know what you’ll get in the new OS, what you’ll be missing, and will hopefully help you decide if it is worth upgrading.
The Good
The very first thing I played around with when it was done updating was folders. If, like many users, you have compiled 3+ pages of apps that you use frequently enough that you are unwilling to uninstall them and clean things up, then you are probably sick to death of attempting to organize your apps. Folders are like a dream come true. Although I cannot explain why it took Apple this long to integrate a feature that dates back to the original computer operating system GUIs, this is a feature that is truly welcome. Instead of 4 pages of apps that are loosely organized and a pain to navigate through and reorganize, I have managed to condense everything in to a single page with 4 main folders.
Once I was able to move beyond the excitement of having folders (Sad, right?), I popped open the mail app. The new inbox structure is great and navigating through the app just to get to each account’s inbox has never been easier. I’ve never really been a fan of a unified inbox, but from what I understand it is hugely popular and was a very highly requested feature, so kudos to Apple for adding it in. Also, for you business users out there, you can now access more than a single exchange account, so there’s that.
For those of you that do a lot of mobile web browsing, you’ll also notice that not only is Safari faster to load initially, but there are some nice new changes. For starters, you now have a choice of the default search engine and can switch between Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Along with the option of which search provider you want to use, search recommendations have been added and are powered by whichever search engine you select as your default. Supposedly there’s also better better HTML5 support and HTML compliance is extremely high, as my phone scored a 94/100 on the Acid3 Test (Note: Firefox 3.6.4 on Mac OS X 10.6.4 only scores a 93).
Are there more things that are awesome about upgrading to iOS 4? You bet, but those are the three that really stand out.
The Bad
The bad points about upgrading your iPhone 3G to iOS 4 aren’t so much as what’s wrong with it once you’re done but what you know for a fact you’re missing and won’t ever get until you buy new hardware. Most notably, multitasking, facetime, and desktop wallpapers. I understand that do to hardware liabilities multitasking and desktop wallpapers had to be disable or they would have just about crippled the phone (at least according to Apple) and facetime simply won’t work without the front-facing camera, but it still hurts to know the awesomeness that others are experiencing which your phone shall never enjoy.
The Ugly
Speed. Sure, a few of the built-in Apps such as Safari and Mail are snappier than ever, but I’ve started noticing more and more that it just seems a bit more sluggish than it ever used to. It is by no means unusable, or even anywhere close to it, but Apple has clearly switch gears to optimizing the software for the newest hardware. Even uglier is the crashing. This really can’t be blamed on Apple because it is an issue exclusively with 3rd party apps, so my guess would be this will be less and less of a concern as the app developers update their code for improved compatibility with iOS 4.
Conclusion
Overall, it is a very solid upgrade for the iPhone 3G. The addition of folders and the improvements made in Safari and Mail are enough to make the upgrade more than worthwhile. If, however, you’re concerned about some of the issues I’ve discussed above, then maybe put it off for a month or two until Apple has released the first bug fix (presumably to be called iOS 4.0.1) and more developers have had a chance to ensure that their Apps are up to date and working properly.
Well, this is a blog post I can truly say I never expected to be writing, but I’m a little unsure of what I saw last night, so I decided to put it in to words. To start, I’ve never really believed in ghosts and I’m still not sure I do. That’s not to say I think they don’t exist, because I don’t know that for sure either, but I’ve never honestly put much thought in to it.
On to the good part, though: Jessie and I were driving back from our friends’ house and shortly before we got home I saw something on the side of the road – just for a second – that was so foreign to my eyes that it took me another ten seconds to actually mutter the words “I think I just saw a ghost.” In discussing it with Jessie last night, the closest I could get to visually describe it was as a condensed wispy white fog about the size of a human, but showing no real discernible characteristics. Even just that description took me several minutes to be able to articulate. The only thing that did immediately strike me about it was that in the very second that I saw it chills instinctively and uncontrollably went down my spine and spread in to my limbs with such force that I was still able feel it when we got home. Did I actually see a ghost? Who knows. What I do know, is that it is still creepy to think about it.
The reasons for saving energy in your home are twofold. First, and foremost, it benefits the entire energy grid. If everyone is consuming less energy, less power needs to be created, which, in turn, is generally better for the environment. The second and more selfish reason is that it saves you money and everyone loves to save money.
Here are 10 great ways to save energy:
- Replace the standard conventional incandescent light bulbs in your house with significantly lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). They are available to replace most types of bulbs you would have in your home and as opposed to the 40-100 watts that a standard light bulb would consume, they will use only about 7-27 watts for equivalent light output. Even if you only replace the bulbs in high-traffic areas of your home where the lights are on the most, you will still have noticeable energy savings.
- Do your electronics have a “sleep” feature? Use it. Most computers and some other electronics have a built-in feature where after a certain time of being idle they will automatically go to sleep, where they use minimal power, but can “wake up” rapidly if needed. On a computer, this is extremely helpful because it can turn off your monitor and spin down your hard disk when you walk away and are done using it.
- Turn down your water heater. About 15% of average home energy bill is the cost of running the water heater. Turning this down even a little bit can save you at least a few dollars a month and isn’t really noticeable when you’re showering, because you’ll just turn the cold water down a little bit to compensate.
- Staying on the topic of water, replace your shower head(s) and with low-flow shower heads and install sink aerators. They can be relatively inexpensive to buy, are easy to install, and pay for themselves pretty quickly with the savings on hot water. In our shower, we have a Waterpik that came with it and it’s great.
- Here’s the last tip to involve savings related to hot water: Do your laundry with cold water. There’s detergent formulated specifically for cold water laundry and it does a good job. The combination of doing your laundry in cold water as well as the hot water saving techniques I mentioned above can save you a cool (pun intended) $60+ a year.
- Buy products with the Energy Star© logo. These products meet strict government guidelines for energy efficiency, so they’re pretty much guaranteed to shrink your energy bill as compared to the same product without the logo. You can get just about anything with this logo on it: refrigerators, TVs, cell phones, heaters, air conditioners, fluorescent lighting, and much much more.
- Got a house with older windows and doors? Stop by the local hardware store and pick up some weather stripping for your doors and windows. During the winter, it’ll keep the hot air in and increase the efficiency of your heater and, likewise, will keep the cool air in during the summer and increase the efficiency of your A/C.
- Check, clean, and/or replace your air filters on a regular basis. The dirtier they are, the more airflow is restricted, and the harder the heater or A/C will need to work to heat or cool your house. Not only does a dirty filter cause your equipment to work harder, but it’s likely going to shorten its life.
- Install a programmable thermostat. It will allow you to automatically set the temperature of your house at comfortable levels while you’re home, while turning it down when you’re at work. From personal experience, I can guarantee that they’re easy to install for even the newest of homeowners.
- Last, but not least: Turn stuff off! Not watching TV anymore? Turn if off. Done with the computer? Turn it off (or put it to sleep). Not using a room in your house at the moment? Turn off the lights. It’s not that hot outside? Turn off the A/C, open the windows, and get some fresh air.
I hope the above list is helpful to whoever reads it, if anyone even does. I will admit that I haven’t done all of these things in my home (yet), but I’ve only been a homeowner for a few months now and will slowly do my best to save any energy I can.
As you can see, my blog looks a bit different (again!) I’ve found a theme that I really like, so I’m going to be sticking with this for a while. For some reason that I’ve yet to pin down, the side bar on the right of the screen isn’t aligning correctly in Internet Explorer, but looks great in Firefox and Safari. Therefore, get Firefox!
I’ve also decided to change the name to “Evan Primakow Online”. That’s not set in stone, so if anyone has any better ideas feel free to leave a comment and let me know!
UPDATE: I think I was finally able to fix the display issues I was having with IE. It should look great now no matter what browser you use.
There’s been a dead Rayovac battery sitting on my desk next to my keyboard since it died inside of my wireless mouse and I replaced it with working batteries about a week ago. Anyways, I’ve been really slowly picking the sticker off of it and just now decided to completely peel it off. Well, to my surprise, I began to notice writing below the existing sticker as I was peeling it off. Once I got it completely peeled off I realized something: The sticker with the current silver, blue, and black Rayovac color scheme and battery slogan that read “Rayovac Maximum Plus” and had the date “Dec 2009″ was covering an older copper and black colored label with no date. Now, there could certainly be some sort of recharging capabilities that they have (without removing the label and taking it apart?) that I might not be aware of, but it sure looks to me like this battery was old, unused, and relabeled to resell as a newer line of batteries. For anyone who doesn’t believe me or is just curious, I’ve attached a picture of it for your viewing pleasure.
If you know me at all, you’re probably expecting my phobia to show itself here and you are waiting for me to complain about my favorite buzzing nemeses. Well, you’re wrong, this is actually about a phenomenon involving bees called Colony Collapse Disorder. I read an article about it a month or two back that was extremely interesting while at the same time disturbing, but just about completely forgot about it until Bill Maher refreshed my memory in his closing monologue on this past week’s Real Time. Basically, entire colonies of bees have been more or less completely vanishing all across North America. What does this mean, exactly? Well, if you didn’t pay attention in middle school science, I’ll sum it up for you: Bees pollinate plants so that they can reproduce. Without bees, plants don’t get pollinated and don’t reproduce. Get it now? Plants will die. Without plants, people don’t have food. Without food, people die. Now, anyone who’s ever been around bees when I’m around knows how I feel about them, but I just can’t comprehend how is this not being taken more seriously. I know I sure like food and life would be pretty tough if farmers were unable to produce the crops that the world is completely dependent on because the majority of North American bee colonies were allowed to just vanish. If you want to read up about this, the Wikipedia link that I posted earlier in this rant is a good source of information, as is this article at the Discovery Channel’s website.
It’s been several months since I last had a blog up on the Internet, but I’m back! As you can see all old posts were saved, but consider this to be a new beginning, so welcome to the new blog of Evan Primakow. Sit back, relax, and enjoy my stream of consciousness (and sometimes unconsciousness).
Wow, its been a while since I’ve last posted here and so much has happened in my life I’m not sure exactly where to start. Well, here’s a super-quick chronological summary to catch everyone up: Jessie and I found a place to live in Milwaukee and will be moving back there after 7 years of living in Minneapolis. If that’s not big enough of news, my parents threw us an awesome pre-wedding dinner in the Volley-dome at Libby Montana and we had a great time with all of our family and friends. The next afternoon, we got married at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagague in Mequon, WI and then had an awesomely beautiful and fun reception at the Mequon Country Club.
Jessie and I then spent the night at the Washington House Inn, which was also awesome. The next day, we opened a ton of presents, which is always a fun time, and then took our sweet ass time driving back up to Minneapolis. It was kind of like a mini-honeymoon. Normally this is a 5-6 hour drive, but we decided to do it in two days and pretty much stopped wherever we saw something interesting. This included but was not limited to a cheese store, a Wisconsin Dells Duck Boat Tour, an awesome nature trail up to an incredible overlook in Black River Falls, and the Leinenkugel’s Brewery Tour. It was a great time.
When we got back to Minneapolis, we stayed for a day and a half and then promptly flew off to Hawaii and spent a week there for our real honeymoon. We just got back several hours ago and I’m sick of typing, so the Hawaii trip will get it’s own blog post Soonâ„¢. In the mean time, check out the pictures.
Ok, so a week or two ago Jessie and I were listening to Drive 105 and heard some Jewish reggae on the radio that basically made us say “WTF?”. I meant to look in to it and just completely forgot. Then tonight I saw a commercial for his new live CD.
The artist’s name is Matisyahu and, well, he’s awesome.
It’s basically just great reggae music sung by an Lubavich Jew with a Jewish theme to the lyrics. The new CD is called “Live at Stubbs”. I’ve already heard a few songs off of it and it completely rocks. Honestly, I can’t do it justice with words, so if you don’t believe me yet, just watch him perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live or visit the official website.
Ok, so I think I can pretty much blame Jessie on this one: I’m a Whedonholic. Joss Whedon is pretty much awesome. It started when I began watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Jessie in her dorm room our sophomore year. It was just a matter of time before I was hooked and started watching the Buffy spin-off series, Angel. This pretty much solidified Joss Whedon as a master of the television arts in my mind. Then I learned that he had also written two amazing animated films: Toy Story and Titan AE.
In 2002, Joss created yet another masterpiece in the short-lived one season masterpiece of a show, Firefly. If it sounds familiar, that’s because there’s also a new movie coming out which is written and directed by Joss called Serenity, which is based off the show and has all of the original cast members. My friend Zach, a fellow Whedonholic, has been attempting to get me to watch Firefly for a long time and since the movie is coming out in about two weeks, I finally decided to just break down and buy the DVD. Well, I just spent two straight days watching the entire series and let me tell you, it was thoroughly awesome. I don’t regret a single penny of it. My only wish is that the series had not ended, because it had incredible potential. Wait, I take that back. My only wish is that the movie does so incredibly well that Fox can’t help but renew the series and give the go-ahead for more movies.
What I’m trying to say here is that anyone reading this should GO SEE SERENITY WHEN IT HITS THEATERS ON SEPTEMBER 30th!!
P.S. If you don’t understand the title of this post, read this.
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