My iPhone Is On A Shelf, And Not In My Hands

The iPhone 3G that I ordered just about two weeks ago is on a FedEx truck right now, about to be delivered to my local AT&T store. Am I excited? In a word, yes! But I’m also sad. You see, my wife and I lead such busy lives that we probably won’t be able to get down to the AT&T store until Wednesday. That’s two whole days that my iPhone is going to be sitting on a shelf, within driving distance of my house, and not in my pocket, where it belongs (four days, if you count the fact that it’s been sitting in a nearby FedEx sorting facility since Saturday evening).

To keep myself occupied, and to get myself prepared, I spent some time over the weekend backing up the contact lists from both my phone and my wife’s. I also cleaned up our iCal calendars and organized our Safari bookmarks. Tonight, assuming that a miracle does not happen and that Stephanie and I do not end up home early enough to hit the AT&T store before dinner and bed, I am going to sign up for a free trial of Apple’s MobileMe service. MobileMe got off to a rocky start, as I wrote about on Friday, but over the weekend Apple launched an official MobileMe status blog (Mashable weighs in on this development) that reports many of the services major issues have been resolved or are finally in the process of being resolved. An online Apple Store support person reiterated that message to me during a chat about iPhone cases on Saturday evening.

My hope is that MobileMe will be ready for primetime by the time my birthday rolls around at the beginning of October, which will be, coincidentally enough, right around the time that my free trial runs out. We’ll see.

Worth Your Consideration 012 - A GF5 Linkdump

• I really, really, really hope that Marco Zaldivar wins his lawsuit against T-Mobile over “mandatory” text-message fees. I think it’s ridiculous that the company told Zaldivar that turning off text-messaging was “impossible,” especially when, according to Red Tape Chronicle writer Bob Sullivan, “Verizon, AT&T and Sprint allow consumers to shut down delivery of unwanted text messages.” Me, while I’ve sent and received a few text messages in my time, I wish I had known I could turn them off altogether. I think they’re relatively useless when free alternatives such as e-mail, instant messaging, and Twitter exist. But maybe that just means I’m old.
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine star Hugh Jackman made an unannounced appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, and he brought footage from the forthcoming film with him, footage which apparently included a fan-favorite from the comic books who has thusfar not appeared in the X-Men film-franchise: Gambit. I’ve never been as nuts about Gambit as some of my contemporaries, but Newsarama’s description of the trailer as a whole does have me excited. I really dig the X-Men film-franchise (including the oft-hated-upon third installment), and I can’t wait for this one.
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog thinks apps for the AppleTV are a good idea and I wholeheartedly agree. I probably wouldn’t turn on regular cable TV at all if my AppleTV could tell me the weather and get me some other basic information like that. And I would be giddy like a schoolgirl if I could watch Viddler videos on my TV (a suggestion that TUAW makes). Apple, are you listening?
• ...apparently not. Apple continues to face major problems with the rollout of its new MobileMe service. While MacWorld gives MobileMe a relatively good review, known Apple enthusiast David Pogue (New York Times) has some serious concerns about the way that Apple is handling a crisis that’s affecting some 20,000 MobileMe users: “This is an airplane that’s stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working bathroom. And the pilot doesn’t come on the P.A. system to tell the customers what the problem is, what’s being done to fix it, how much longer they might be stuck, and how he empathizes with their plight. Instead, he comes on once every three hours to repeat the same thing: ‘We apologize for the inconvenience.’” I intend to give the new service a spin over the weekend, despite the bad reviews, but I’d been hoping that Apple would bowl me over with this service, and I’m not so sure that’s going to happen now.

Where’s My Darn iPhone?!? (Video)

The world is out of iPhones, according to research conducted by Internet superstar iJustine. She called more than thirty-five Apple stores recently, and not a single one of them had an iPhone 3G in stock.

I ordered my iPhone at the AT&T Store in Manchester, NH last Wednesday, and I am still waiting. I was told that it would be 10-21 days, so I’m not really all that upset. But the people over on this AT&T message board are far less patient than me. They’re up to 516 pages worth of bitching over there, so far. I’m not even kidding.

According to Where’s My Damn iPhone, which I found on that AT&T thread, I am currently the 53rd person in the AT&T Manchester direct fulfillment line (which includes all phones, not just iPhones). I was the 48th about an hour ago, so I’m guessing the site’s not all that reliable. Still, it’s fun to poke around there and see what all the people on the AT&T thread are going nuts over.

In other iPhone news, The Unofficial Apple Weblog has interesting pieces on cluttered home screens and the applications one writer is actually still using, two weeks after the launch of the App Store.

What Do You Use for E-mail?

Gmail seems to be the gold standard when it comes to e-mail, even if, as I believe I read recently, Yahoo’s Mail service has far more users. Trouble is, I’ve never been a big fan of Gmail. Their decision to use “labels” instead of “folders” apparently makes sense for a lot of people, but I’ve just never gotten it. Despite that, I still use Google’s Apps for Your Domain product. They offer a lot of space at a price-point that really can’t be beaten (free), and they offer IMAP access, which makes sure that e-mail I read away from home shows up as read when I get back to Mail.app on my iMac.

But the service I really want to be using is Apple’s MobileMe, which offers push or near-push e-mail access, as well as the “folder” approach to e-mail storage that I still prefer. That’s why the continued news of MobileMe outages is really depressing to me. I desperately want Apple to get this right.

Assuming they don’t get it right, does anyone out there have a suggestion for a Gmail alternative? Or is there a tutorial out there that will somehow help me learn how to use labels effectively? Geek Forcers, what do you use for e-mail?

Geek Force FiveCast 017 (Video)

This week, I geek out about Wine Library TV wristbands, ordering an iPhone 3G, and PodCamp Boston 3.

Worth Your Consideration 011 - A GF5 Linkdump

It may be a good long while before I am able to buy an iPhone 3G. I have the money, but when you’re looking to establish a family plan with one iPhone and one non-iPhone, a trackful of hurdles come into play. First, my wife and I need to be in the same place at the same time for something other than dinner or sleep, and that might not happen again until sometime toward the end of the month (she’s got meetings on two evenings this week; we don’t get home until 7:30ish each night anyway; and I’ve got PodCamp Boston this coming weekend). Second, we can’t go to an Apple Store, where it appears that there are plenty of iPhones in stock (there was a line forming outside the Apple Store in Boston this morning, three days after the initial launch, but I’m guessing that’s just excitement and not people trying to snatch up a limited number of devices). Instead, we have to go to an AT&T Store, where we may or may not be able to get an iPhone, because they’re totally sold out.

Ugh.

So, since getting back from camping this weekend, I’ve been living vicariously through others. Here are a few of the most notable links I’ve come across.

• News Askew has released a new iPhone-optimized version of their site. I’ve been thinking a lot about coming up with a mobile version of Geek Force Five, and I’m curious about exactly how News Askew is redirecting people to the iPhone-optimized site.
• Apple’s MobileMe can apparently sync bookmarks from a Mac to a PC. According to the screenshot featured here, you can sync bookmarks into Internet Explorer, if you see fit. I didn’t know that it was going to be capable of doing this, so I’m very excited. I’ll be much more excited if it’ll sync with Firefox instead, since that’s what I’m using on my PC. Me, I’m trying to decide whether or not to give MobileMe’s free sixty day trial a try now instead of waiting until I get an iPhone. Maybe the coolness of that would tide me over.
• The iPhone App Store opened on Thursday afternoon/evening and Jason Kottke opened up comments on his site to ask people what the “cool” iPhone apps were/are. I, of course, cannot wait until I can actually contribute to this conversation. Sigh… Until then, I’ll have to live with things like the visual previews being provided by AppleInsider and others. The Unofficial Apple Weblog believes that the App Store will change the world, in case you hadn’t heard.
• On a much happier note, Apple released an update for my Apple TV in conjunction with the iPhone 3G/MobileMe launch and it’s improved the already-impressive device significantly. Aside from the updated feature list enumerated Apple TV Junkie, I am most pleased to note that browsing my purchased movies by genre has gone from glacially slow to incredibly zippy. TUAW has a gallery of screenshots.

Worth Your Consideration 010 - A GF5 Linkdump

• David Pogue and Walt Mossberg have chimed in with the first reviews of iPhone 3G, and Mac Rumors has got the linkage. Pogue makes the point that “the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone,” but the general consensus seems to be that the device is a nice upgrade.
• Apple expects a fifteen minute set-up process for iPhone 3G, according to this article from Bloomberg.com. That’s a little bit better than what I’d been expecting, but it’s still way too long. I wasn’t among the lucky ones who got to buy an iPhone last summer and then activate the thing from the comfort of my own home, but I was looking forward to the simplicity and easy nature of that process quite a bit. I don’t like standing around retail stores. They kind of stress me out. Oh well.

Worth Your Consideration 009 - A GF5 Linkdump

I know it may not seem like it to those of you who are not Apple people, but I’ve actually been holding back on the number of Apple-related stories I’ve been publishing in the lead-up to the release of Apple’s iPhone 3G. There’s a ton of quasi-news coming out of the Apple sites every day now, but I’ve been trying to limit my coverage here to stories that I actually have a little something to say about.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, on with the linkdump.

• Apple will open its U.S. retail stores at 8 a.m. on Friday to launch the iPhone 3G. This is exciting sure, but the main reason they’re doing a morning launch instead of their typical evening launch is because the process for purchasing an iPhone will be infinitely more complicated than it was the last time. Customers are being asked to bring a credit card, a valid, government-issued ID, their social security number, a copy of their current wireless statement, and the naming rights to their first-born child.
• If you can’t wait until Friday to experience the sheer awesomeness of unboxing a new iPhone of your very own, then Engadget has you covered.
• Or, if you’re like me, and won’t be able to get your iPhone on Friday (I’ll be working and then camping) and are therefore thirsting for some Apple-related goodness to call your very own, check out this news about Apple’s MobileMe service. It will apparently be launching on Wednesday night. If a free trial is available at some point on Thursday, you can be damn sure I’ll be signing up for that. It should make the pain of not being able to be an opening-weekend adopter of iPhone 3G a little easier to bear.
• Or, if you hate Apple and loves yourself some Microsoft, check out this news from InformationWeek. It turns out that Redmond will soon be responding to Apple’s ubiquitous Get a Mac attack ads. The campaign will apparently operate under the umbrella tagline “Free the People.” How long until Apple responds with a “Yeah, free the people from Vista” ad?

Wanted: A Good Pair of Headphones

Yesterday, aside from getting drenched in an afternoon rainstorm that washed through Boston completely unannounced, I managed to break the fifth or sixth set of headphones I’ve had since buying my iPod four years ago. It isn’t enough that my iPod only works when it feels like working. (Is it July 11 yet?) No, no, no. Now, I have to deal with replacing yet another set of broken cans. Sure, I have a spare pair sitting at home, but they’re old, and they’re quiet, and they sound like I’m listening to my music through a pair of literal tin cans. And it’s not like I can afford to plunk down $10 to $20 on a new set when I’m saving every penny I can in order to afford an iPhone.

But, hey, eventually I will have some dough, and I’m wondering if any of you out there have any recommendations on relatively affordable but relatively high quality headphones. Also, how do you keep these things from breaking so frequently? Maybe I just don’t know how to take care of them. I’m not sure. It’s always the wiring by the headphone jack that seems to crap out on me. I’ve tried a bunch of different brands (all earbuds, because they’re more comfortable for me than the behind-the-ear kind, and because the really big over-the-head kind always seem excessive for walking around) but none has lasted longer than six months since the original pair that came with the iPod. Is it just that I’ve been buying cheap, or is it that the cables are prone to failure no matter what? Let me know.

War Games for 99 Cents - This Week Only

Attention Geek Forcers! If you use iTunes at all, even a little bit, then click this link and enjoy the Matthew Broderick masterpiece War Games for only ninety-nine cents! It’s this week’s iTunes 99 Cent Rental of the Week, and I’m sure it’s been years since you’ve watched it, so c’mon and snap to it.

Thanks to Apple TV Junkie for pointing the way.