Quixotic Bravado by Josh Babetski

Short rant about the iPhone experience, not the phone and features. With everyone under the spell of the Apple reality-distortion-field, there are some not-so-great things about the greatest phone on the planet.

I picked up my iPhone 3G last night and had the old iPhone switched over to Traci. Here’s a quick comparison of this year’s experience versus last year’s:

iPhone Edge

Walked in, ordered phone at AT&T store. iPhone was delivered to house a week later. I unpacked, activated via iTunes easily and had the phone up and running in 15 minutes.

iPhone 3G

Walked in, ordered phone at AT&T store. iPhone was delivered to AT&T store a week later. I went in to pick it up at 8pm. Activation has to be done in-store with the salesperson fingering up my new phone. Phone is up and running in 45 minutes.

iPhone Edge

Came with nice dock connector

iPhone 3G

No dock connector; doesn’t fit old one.

iPhone Edge

Came with nice polishing cloth

iPhone 3G

Comes with paper-thin cheap polishing cloth

iPhone Edge

Came with power adaptor that used same outlet piece as laptops, but had to be replaced a week later.

iPhone 3G

Came with small adaptor, but outlet prongs don’t retract.

The process for migrating my old iPhone to a new number was pretty painless. Be warned, it takes about an hour to completely wipe the phone.

One issue I did have, and this might save you an hour with tech support: When trying to set-up visual voicemail again on the old phone, the voicemail icon may not do anything when pressed. Here’s how to fix visual voicemail on the iPhone:

• Press and hold “1″ on the keypad. This will dial-in for voicemail the old-fashioned way.
• Set-up a new voicemail password
• Hang-up
• Wait a minute or so
• Try the visual voicemail icon again
• It should now work.

• Massive Rock Band night last night with @antthelimey and crew while the women folk were off at “spaghetti night” gossiping.
• Going kayaking today. Beyond that: No idea.
• playing with twinkle app and off for date night with @tracibabe. oh yeah: picking up new 3g iPhone too tonight.
• @ryancarson mmm… Fat Tire! The fact I can’t get it here makes me sad. Damn you antiquated US distribution regulations!

• Watching “Earth: The Biography” on the DVR while working. HD goodness! Earth grew up poor before being discovered in a soda shop. Who knew?
• @lfaren There’s nothing hot about going to Jersey.
• The “More Cowbell!” App for the iPhone is genius. Unproductive but incredibly cool genius!

• @antthelimey left a “howie” wing (hotter than suicide) from 915 in the take home for his wife last night. No sign of him. Coincidence?
• @marcs3z They really are. I suggest a stern lecture at the pool party.
• Last night will be forever known “The wing incident.” This tale cannot be told in 140 chars, but involves a Tide pen and a wing in a purse.
• @tlberglund Using a VCS that even has a visual tool? You’re out of date. Use Git on the command line for manhood + extra geek cred.
• @iamkyle If life hands you lemons, slice them up get some ice, a few highball glasses, liquor and call some friends.
• @tlberglund Kudos on using “obviate” in a sentence! Git’s merge output isn’t bad; I use TextMate with a Git bundle too. Distributed VCS FTW!
• just had some five guys burgers and fries with @tracibabe. it’s no in-n-out burger, but it sure was tasty!

• Important Question of the day: My new iPhone 3G, Black or White? Black one’s ordered, but hearing white is better smudge hiding. Discuss!
• @lilitroy Nope, black or white backs are only two options on new 16GB iPhone. Front is same black as 1st generation.
• @tlberglund Concur. Firefly was brilliant! Joss fans already started a campaign to save “Dollhouse.” It hasn’t even aired but it’s Fox so…
• @tlberglund You are following Joss Whedon’s new project: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog right? Follow: @drhorrible
• Just got an email from @BarackObama camp asking for donations. Sorry Barack, the EFF’s getting my $$$ to fight that FISA bill you voted for.
• @tlberglund Worth noting: DVD sales are so good, Firefly’s getting a Blu-Ray re-release. I recommend you check out the “Serenity” movie too.
• @tlberglund Justify it sooner with a PS3, then we can suck you into the cult of Rock Band too.
• @icelander I totally did! Sent them links to the EFF wiretapping page and encouraged the whole @barackobama camp and Senator to donate too.

• Kicking the pixels on the iPhone twitterific app.

• I too am in the camp of having a bricked iPhone. Everything was fine until Apple’s activation servers melted.
• iPhone has returned to life (finally)! Thanks for the well wishes and the flowers. Now for some 2.0 tinkering.
• @soverland The large rubber mallet with “acme” written on the side may have helped. Actually iTunes, just gave in and connected.

• @icelander may I suggest you choose an establishment serving beer, spirits and perhaps bacon-cheese fries? should that just be assumed?

• Busy, busy day. 9:30 and back to work.
• Actual quote from the meeting I’m in: “Check this box if you want your documents exploded.”
• @lilitroy Welcome to Team Mac. We have cool hoodies and a secret gang sign.

• In doctors office exam room for physical. I have a 5 minute rule, after that I start going through drawers and playing w/ equipment.