2 posts tagged “review”
Phillippe Petit had a dream; one that he couldn't even realize when he first conceived of it. He wanted to walk from the top of one building of the World Trade Center to the other... on a tight rope. Magnolia Picture's Man on Wire follows the realization of Phillippe's dream, and gives us all a glimpse of that rabid pursuit of the impossible.
See this movie. It will inspire you. It wasn't just about one unbelievable moment in time, although that was certainly part of it. Design Observer puts it better than I ever could: "Man on Wire is shows how easy it is to have an idea, and how hard -- and sometimes even miraculous -- to see it realized." The reality isn't always pretty, it doesn't always happen exactly the way it was planned, but it's captivating to watch it unfold. (Oh, and that article is a pretty good read, too.)
The trailer's below if you're still with me:
Closing on 48 hours of ownership, here are my initial impressions of the new iPhone 3G. Bear in mind that I haven't had extensive experience with its predecessor, so comparisons (beyond the aesthetic -- plastic is so much better!) are difficult.
Plastic versus metal
Honestly, like davextreme, I like them both. I'd heard some complaints that the new plastic back of the 3G phone felt cheap, and that had be initially a little worried. But after holding on, I have to disagree. The phone still feels solid and substantial, and I prefer that more tapered edges. That's a simple (and probably very biased) opinion. Others like the flatter form-factor.
3G, is it really faster?
Can't really compare the two, like I said, but my impressions have been mixed. The phone loads pretty quickly when on a wireless network or 3G. Edge is a bit of a different story. Unfortunately, even in the DC area, I find the boxed "E" (for EDGE) popping up on my screen more than the 3G icon. Going down to my parents, for example, forget about the speedy network.
Also, even on 3G, the speeds seem to vary. Sometimes, pages and apps load in a snap. Other times, I find myself tapping my foot in frustration.
The App Store
At kwc's suggestion, I've downloaded the Facebook app, Exposure, Pandora, and Twitterrific. Cyndi downloaded a few others, but I haven't played with them yet. In brief, I really like the Facebook interface; it simplifies the pages into what you really need (home lists what people are doing, profile is obvious, friends functions much like an extended contacts list that lets you compose and call right out of it, and there's even a chat function, but I haven't played much around with it). Exposure lets you browse flickr intuitively. Pandora is mobile and customized radio; very cool. And Twitterrific is just like the desktop app, although perhaps a little more stable (I frequently got errors with Twitterrific not loading new tweets; probably twitter's fault more than any other).
My major problem with the Apps has to do with frequent crashing. It started yesterday. I'd tap an app, it would load briefly, pause, then crash back to the main menu interface. I finally got it working by deleting, then redownloading and installing them (a reset didn't work). Apparently, this could be the result of Apple releasing an "unstable 'final' version of the 2.0 firmware" (src: TUAW). Hopefully a patch is on the way, because while it's not too much of a hassle, it's getting a little annoying.
E-mail/Contacts/Calendar
Having all the stuff loaded onto my phone is amazingly convenient, but it's made me take a look at how organized (or unorganized, as the case may be) all that stuff is on my computer. I spent a few hours going through all of this and cleaning it up. Since both Cyndi and I are syncing off the same computer, we needed to create divisions in our contacts and calendars, so that we weren't loading superfluous info on our phones, yet keeping the shared stuff shared. Time consuming, but also really easy to do. It's pretty exciting to have everything in one place, though. I've never been great at keeping a calendar, so let's see how this goes.
Overall Impressions
Very good. I'm a gadget guy, and this is probably one of the coolest gadgets I've ever purchased. I apologize for the hyperbole, but thinking back on my life as a consumer, I can't really think of something with more bells and whistles. Maybe my car, if you count that as a gadget? The experience is one of the easiest I've ever had, especially if you compare it with that of a Blackberry. And I've only just barely touched the surface of what it can do.
