iPhones ahoy

Went into the Optus store in the city the other day to ask a few questions about the iPhone 3GS and found out that they were planning on doing a midnight launch for the Friday the 26th release. Compelled by an unreasonable fear that the phones would be sold out (or that I would have trouble getting a white 32gig version at least), I begged and cajoled Alison into lining up in the cold on Thursday night.

We got to Queen Street at about half past ten but even then there were probably 20 people in the queue already, each of them sporting a complimentary Optus scarf and beanie to cope with the weather. This was just the start of a long wait, thankfully punctuated by free merchandise, hot food and distractions from the hired entertainers. The event was covered by B105 and a camera crew though we tactfully avoided being interviewed much to Alison's relief. Overall I'd certainly rate this launch over the Wii based on the amount of free loot that I loaded into my bag.



There was quite a bit of excitement when the doors finally opened at 12:00, though this faded quickly when we realised how slow the applications were being processed. The food continued to come out at least but by then we were sick of fried nibblies, our bags were incapable of holding any more free gear and the entertainment was about to clock off for the night. By 1:20am we were pretty relieved to find ourselves at the front of the queue.



Processing our application turned out to be a fairly simple process in the end, with only one minor slip up on their part regarding Alison's Internet plan. Not too shabby for a mobile phone company. The big controversy of the night was actually an oversight on my part. I'd dragged Alison along to this ordeal on the assumption that I'd need her to sign up for a contract in her name and provide proof of identification. Turns out since the billing account is solely in my name, I could have easily done this for her phone number without her. Can I just say how lucky I am to have a supportive wife that didn't rip my head off for costing her a night's sleep for no good reason. Love you lots baby. ^_^;

By a quarter to one we'd left the store with phones in hand. We got home at about 2:15am and I had just enough energy to play around with the new Compass app for a few seconds before plugging the phone in to sync and retire for the night/morning.

As an cherry on top, I failed to realise that my new iPhone would inherit all my alarms after synchronisation. This meant that I was forced to stumble out of bed at 5:30 to turn off both alarms on phones at opposite ends of the house. Joy, the price we pay for technology.

More iPhone goodness

A concert wasn't the only thing exciting last Thursday. I'd been counting down the days for weeks as I know that the 18th would mark the release of Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 update. In typical geek fashion I somehow managed to wake up at 3am just in time to download the new operating system for my favourite smartphone.

Impressions so far are hugely positive. I did however hit a minor setback initially when I didn't completely unjailbreak my iPhone before updating, which caused some of my apps to become inaccessible. Aside from that I'm just gushing over the improvements that are now available, and keenly awaiting updates to current applications to take advantage of new features.

Highlights for me are:

• Spotlight Search through the whole phone (Rocks!)
• Landscape keyboard in Mail and Messaging
• An improved Safari
• Copy and Paste!

What I can't wait to see is what apps will start to use the new Notification Services and Peer to Peer features in the OS. Of course Peer to Peer would be useless unless we had two iPhones in the house... an intriguing point...

Luckily for me Alison has been running into issues with her current phone and is open to the idea of taking my current iPhone 3G. Which conveniently leaves me with the opportunity to get a new iPhone 3GS! Oh happy days!


The new hardware should speed things up quite nicely. Not much information in Australia yet on what the plans and pricing are going to be for it but I'm sure we'll know more tomorrow in time for the speculated release date on Friday (26th of June). In preparation for incoming gadgets I picked up $120 of iTunes gift vouchers for a sweet price of $90 (a special $30 for two $20 gift cards) at Big W to cover all the new apps we'll no doubt be buying. It's a good time to be a geek.

Feeling Groovy

We experienced a nice moment of serendipity the other day at Kath and Andrew's place. There we were sitting in front of the TV, content as could be after a delectable meal of chicken pot pie followed by super cupcakes. Out of the blue an advert for Simon and Garfunkel came on, which quickly psyched Alison up into a ferocious frenzy of fan-girl furore. I feared for the glass coffee table when she realised that the two weren't just playing in Brisbane, but that the concert would be in just five days time. Minutes later we were up in the study booking tickets for the night. To put this in perspective, Alsie has said on many an occasion that she would fly anywhere in the world to see these two play if they got back together.

I don't claim to be a huge Simon and Garfunkel fan. I certainly think their songs are great and Paul Simon's guitar arrangements are superb, but I just can't see what the draw would be to watch them live over popping a CD on at home. Imagine my trepidation then when one of Alison's tickets became available and she asked me to come along. My concern at the time was that her appreciation of the concert would be somewhat marred by my apathy or worse yet, criticism. Turns out my fears were justified.

The concert was attended by a decidedly older demographic but they seemed to be prepared to have a good time. Our seats were fantastic for the price we got them for, certainly a benefit of buying our tickets late when Ticketek were trying to flog them off. They started off a little late to give everyone a chance to find their seats, but after ten minutes the lights went down and an aww-inducing montage of a young Paul and Art came up on the screen, chronicling their friendship through life up to the no doubt historic opening at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.



The opening number wasn't exactly one to get you to your feet (Old Friends) but by the third song we got a crowd pleaser (I am a Rock) that brought a smile even to my lips. For most of the other songs however I just couldn't help but think that these two were showing their age and that I could get a better experience listening to our best of albums at home. I could go on about how they didn't play my favourite instrumental (Anji) or that the sessionists had more charisma than the main act but that would be cruel and miss the point. I didn't class it as a phenomenal concert but that's only because I'm not the target audience, as everyone else in the stands were decidedly unreserved about how much fun they were having.

Still sorry that the ticket was wasted on me, but I'm glad I could share the special night with Alsie. Especially when as I recall that "borrowing" Alison's Simon and Garfunkel CD was my lame excuse to get to know her in the first place.

Year of Cotton

Haven't written a blog post in a while, really just due to sheer laziness. May was actually fairly eventful with a 28th birthday (mine), a first choir concert (Alison's) and the purchase of an Apple TV (again mine). Will try harder in the future to post more often for the sake of posterity.

The Queen's Birthday Long Weekend has come by again which marks our second year as a married couple. Celebration was a little more subdued this time around as Als and I just had a relaxing weekend at Twin Waters Resort on the Sunshine Coast. We passed the time by watching a lot of movies in our room, emerging occasionally to gorge ourselves on restaurant buffet. Our first night was a treat as gourmet seafood was on offer so we polished off a few trawlers worth of shellfish.



Kayaking, circus school and cycling were all available for guests but we just didn't feel in the mood. Instead we opted for a quiet walk on the beach whenever we needed some air. Guess we must just be getting mellow at our old age, though still happy and ever in love.