Jeremey's Weblog

10th Anniversary!

No, not of this blog, though it will be getting there in not too many years. :)

My wife and I celebrated 10 years of marriage last week! We went to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island in Michigan and had a fantastic time. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island (except emergency vehicles), so everything is got to by foot, horse, or bike. We loved it.

I took a bunch of picture (you're shocked), and put together a collection of black and whites that capture Mackinac for me. Here they are:

If you're ever looking for advice on Mackinac dining, lodging, etc., hit me up on Twitter or email. I can't recommend it enough as a "change of pace" vacation. We went sans kids, too, which helped.

Technorati Tags:
photography, travel, mackinac

Dear Blog, I Do Miss Thee...

I have a blog? Oh, right... this one. Oops. Have a picture.

iPhone 3GS (vs. E71)

So I upgraded to the 3GS on release day.

You may have seen my E71 vs. iPhone review last October. Well, the 3GS pretty much reverses that conclusion, and then some. Here are some of the topics, revisited:

Voice quality: Shockingly, iPhone 3GS. I was very surprised, but the 3GS voice quality (compared to the original) is much better, and the radio works far better in our house than the original did. I think I prefer the equalization on the E71, but that's only when comparing a tinny-sounding source in strong signal.

Responsiveness: iPhone 3GS, by far. The speed boost and 3.0 did the trick. It's fast, and typing is fantastic.

Email: iPhone 3GS. The better UI, now with plenty of speed, server-side search, fantastic Exchange support, etc.

Cellular/3G data: iPhone 3GS. I had an original iPhone before, of course, but the 3G on the iPhone 3GS is great, and probably in part due to the processor bump, things just go more quickly.

Maps: Tie. Again, responsiveness has made up the difference. I still love physical keys here, but the iPhone has other features that make up the gap, so I'd say this is a tie now.

Home Screen: iPhone 3GS. The bugs in the E71 have bitten me lately, and with the processor bump, the iPhone is more responsive and I get to things quickly. Amazing what a little speed will do for your user experience.

Contacts: iPhone 3GS. Again, processor and OS bump made search fast and easy. Very nice now.

Typing: iPhone 3GS. Typing is now very fast and responsive. I'm MUCH faster on the 3GS than on the E71.

Local connectivity: Tie. iPhone supports stereo bluetooth now and some interesting Wi-Fi stuff.

Tethering: Tie, once ATT turns it on. iPhone has this, just needs the bloody carrier to support it.

Camera: iPhone 3GS, by far. MUCH better photos and video, autofocus, etc. And no pathetic "flash" which ruins every picture.

Battery Life: E71, because it doesn't get used. The iPhone 3GS does suck down the battery if you use it a lot, but that's true of anything. The fact is, you want to use it a lot. Not so much with the E71.

Search: iPhone 3GS. E71 doesn't have it, or it's application-specific.

I'm no longer "bi-phonal". I carry the 3GS only. It does Exchange better, it does phone better, it does Internet WAY better, it has orders of magnitude more and better applications, it has a coherent platform, the UI is great, and so on.

Technorati Tags:
apple, e71, iphone, nokia, review

Iced Coffee

I learned this from Max at Catalina. It's very simple, but delicious and refreshing, especially in the insane Houston heat this summer. All I do is fill the Chemex up to its "naval" with ice, then brew a pretty light 1/2-pot of drip coffee on top of it. I have a 32oz Chemex, so I brew for 16oz. That's it. Serve over lots of ice, of course. Awesome!

Technorati Tags:
coffee, summer