Happy iPhone Day!

If you haven't already had a chance to enjoy an unboxing of an iPhone 3G S, I've put some up for you, right here. The 3G S seems to deliver on its promise: apps load even faster and more smoothly while the 3G radio is amazingly fast compared to 2.5G EDGE.

In early tests, it seems that the AT&T UTMS/HSDPA network is indeed as fast as they claim, competing ably against Verizon's Ev-DO network. On the other hand, it is always tricky to judge handsets' performance from two different carriers, since there are so many variables.

I don't have a lot of other observations just yet, but I did write about the launch event itself today on Open for Business

For All the Complaining About Apple...

It seems that Apple's policies toward the iPhone may turn out to actually be rather generous, based on some reports coming out about Palm's own policies towards the Pre (and, I'd guess, future webOS devices). Engadget says,

Even worse for hackers, Palm's taking an unusually aggressive approach to webOS system updates — they're mandatory. According to the support docs, webOS updates are automatically downloaded in the background within two days of being available, and they're required to be installed within a week of the download — after seven days and four install prompts, the phone will give you a ten-minute countdown and then automatically begin installing the update.

Keep in mind, that for all the fuss that Apple's updates have sometimes “bricked” phones, as I have noted before, no one was required to upgrade. Anyone doing something unsupported with the phone should have had the common sense to wait to see what more experienced testers found rather than plunging ahead. If you don't want to play within the rules, don't call the referee when things don't go smoothly.

In any case, many people have advocated the Pre as being a far more open, tolerant, Linux-like answer to the iPhone. It is interesting that in this very context that the Pre has a far more restrictive, big brother styled policy on upgrades. If a Pre ends up being bricked after a forced upgrade… that'll be when people can get upset fairly.

Hopefully Palm will come to its senses. I think the Pre has almost endless possibility, but this sort of thing (and some other misfires Palm has made in recent months) could put at risk its otherwise brilliant strategy.

I'm tbutler on Facebook

Well, I couldn't miss the landgrab. At 11:01 CDT tonight, I was at the Facebook username request page and nabbed “tbutler,” my standard username. I thought about “timbutler” or “timothybutler,” but decided simpler was better.

Anyone else grab a name tonight? I know my fellow Cranium Leakers Christopher and Michael did…

Verizon Mi-Fi

I reviewed the Mi-Fi using Verizon's 3G network earlier in the week. If you've been considering this nifty little device, take a look — I even look at how the device interacts with the iPhone. You won't want to miss it!

Palm's Got It

I plan to publish a piece on the Palm Pre soon, but for now, my title will suffice. Assuming the device lives up to the hype around it today — and early tests from Engadget give me hope — I think somebody actually figured out how to make a true iPhone competitor (something that has been sorely lacking). And, I couldn't be happier that this somebody is Palm.

It'll be exciting to see how Palm webOS shapes up. Of course, I sort of wish they'd kept the old Palm OS name. Maybe they should have called it Palm OS X.

AT&T's 3G Upgrades Degrade 2G Phone Signals

I thought everyone might be interested in my new piece for OFB on 3G network upgrades that AT&T is doing. The upgrades are causing moderate to severe problems on perfectly functional 2G handsets. The problem impacts everything from the basic, venerable Nokia candybar, with its legendary receiving power, to the original iPhone that was only discontinued seven months ago. Take a gander at the story right here.

T-Mobile Selling Linksys Routers for $19.99

Anyone need a Linksys WRT54G router? T-Mobile is selling their branded version for $19.99, even to non-customers. Just go here click any phone on that page and then choose the Linksys router (they also have a D-Link router available).

If the information that has been reported is correct, the model is a customized version of the WRT54GL (the “Linux version” that has a larger amount of ROM). I needed another router, so I ordered one; my invoiced showed the model as a WRT54GS, which is the “Speedbooster” model, which fits the reported specs — essentially a WRT54GL with double the memory of a normal WRT54GL.

Logos Pre-Launches Mac Edition

Well, it looks like Logos is about ready to go live on the Mac with their Bible software. You can read about it here. The software will go head-to-head with longtime Mac Bible software Accordance. I really like Accordance, but suspect the added competition will be good for everyone.

I'm anxious to see what Logo accomplishes here.

Moving, Moving...

It feels good to get a move on this server migration. And, it feels good to have asisaid at its new home. For those wondering, this site (along with Ed's site, which also made the jump in the last twelve hours), are now living in Washington, DC. That provides a little regional diversity with the other server living in Dallas, TX. I like the idea of spreading things out “just to be safe.” The new server is a quad core Xeon X3220 paired with 4 GB of ram and 2×250 GB hard disks. It's a fairly robust system, I think, that I hope will keep my clients' sites, and my personal and company sites, running for years to come.

My Dallas, TX, server will be reserved for a few larger sites desiring a server with fewer sites on it, as I mentioned in my last post. This server, with its more robust specs, will house the majority of sites I host — though I still host fewer than 50 sites total, so it is really an overpowered beast. I like having room to grow.

I really like the new provider I am working with too. This server is located in SoftLayer's DC data center. SoftLayer was founded by some former employees of the Planet — the datacenter operator for my other server — and has some nifty features. For example, virtually every server comes with a private VPN to work with the server on, KVM over IP via that VPN, “virtual racks” to help manage servers and the ability to reload the OS at will. While in a hosting environment that last feature isn't so practical, it'd be a lot of fun if you had an extra “lab” box. Want FreeBSD today? Sure, have at it! Ubuntu tomorrow? Go right ahead. Need RHEL for the weekend? No worries.

Oh, and did I mention they built my server and had it online — including a few customizations — in just two hours? I'm impressed.

So here I am, beginning an exciting migration and embarking on this new idea of offering geographical hosting diversity. I think I might offer a plan that bundles accounts on both servers for a discounted price. I'm not sure who would find that useful, but the idea seems exciting to me, and I think I would have gotten such an account at some point, so I figure, “why not try it?”

iPhone Day, Take 2

Well, I don't think anyone will say that today was a day marked with an eerily smooth product launch, unlike last year's iPhone launch, but despite Apple's troubles with activations and the continuing pains in the switch from .Mac to MobileMe, I think this day has been successful. I was able to easily bring my iPhone (first generation) up to iPhone OS 2.0 and so far I am pleased as punch.

Why? Well, first off, the new push service seems to work really well. After the upgrade, suddenly my .Mac — excuse me, MobileMe — address is fully push enabled, vibrating my phone whenever a new message comes in, not when I check my mail. We'll see what that does to battery life; if it hurts it too badly, I'll turn off push.

But, I'm also excited after playing with some of the new App Store apps. Apple's Remote is pretty nifty for controlling iTunes, and I think it will come in handy in the future for uses I haven't quite imagined yet. Perhaps more exciting was Shazam, which can listen to a song from the radio, computer, TV, etc., and identify it. For the moment at least, it is free, and is relatively accurate. It has not falsely identified a single song, and has only come up with a blank on a few hard songs, Rusted Root's “Beautiful People” and the live recording of Evanescence's “Imaginary,” and one easy song, Sixpence's “Million Parachutes.” I tried a bunch of other music, from big and small names, and even some stuff from the Music Choice channels on TV, and it managed to correctly identify those and provide helpful links related to them. Check it out.