John Yu’s Blog

Speaking from experience, I can highly recommend this program to convert all of your video files to your iPhone. It works great, its reliable, its pretty fast, and now its free (again)! Its free this whole month of Feb 2010 so get to it when you can. As far as I know, no additional adware or junk is included.

Here’s the direct link to the WinX converter with registration key: http://www.winxdvd.com/hd-video-converter-deluxe/download.htm

I recently upgraded to to an iPhone 3GS and I’ve just paired it up with the Motorola S305 that arrived about an hour ago. This wireless bluetooth headset doesn’t offer anything special that sets it apart from any others. I bought it because it was pretty cheap ($24).

It took me just a few minutes to sync this up with my desktop pc. I then synced it up with my iPhone and listened to music. It sounds pretty good. It’s definitely not as good as my Sony V6 headphones that encloses my whole ears (not to mention keeping my ears warm in the winter!), but for what this little headphone set is, the sound is better than expected and definitely acceptable. The major gripe I have is that there appears to be a second delay between video and sound while watching movies on my iPhone. This is not noticeable with audio but it can be distracting when watching movies. But you know what? I paid $24 for this thing, its wireless/convenient, and I can make and receive calls with it. I can’t complain. I’ll update this post after I spend some more time with it.

Well, so much for Apple announcing news of the iPhone going to Verizon. All we got was the tablet announcement, the iPad. I have to say, I’m with everyone else that’s left scratching their heads over this one. So if you haven’t seen it yet, imagine a great big iPhone with less functionality. All the reviews regarding speed and the beautiful screen are positive (although the screen is not wide screen format). The onscreen keypad was good but not great. Price is not all that bad actually, starting at $499, or $629 with 3G.

What’s not so great about the new iPad? Let me count the ways…

1. The name sucks. MaxiPad anyone?
2. Any sort of expansion will require and adapter (even USB!)
3. No HDMI port to output the high def videos you’ll be watching on this thing
4. All that power but no multitasking?!? Are you freakin’ kidding me!! How is this supposed to be a notch above netbooks?
5. No Flash support…boo!

I’ll just stop there. Thats already more than enough reasons to skip on this (for now, at least). Head on over to Apple’s site for more details: http://www.apple.com/ipad/.

I love my iPhone. Besides offering me pretty much everything I’d ever want in one neat device, it is also a life saver if you have small children. My 1.5 year old falls asleep to Elmo on my iPhone several times per week. It’s also great during those times when youre out in public and and you need something quick and easy to keep the baby calm.

Thats the end of the good news. I always thought it was cute how my baby knows how to turn on the iPhone, then slide the unlock bar from left to right. She then proceeds to press random buttons to try and unlock it. Normally this is not a problem. This week it turned into a very big problem. I don’t know what she did but I found my iPhone with a message asking me to sync it with itunes. Long story short, I had to completely wipe out the iPhone and start from scratch.

pwn3d!

Under normal circumstances, this process would be expected. I mean, who doesn’t sync their phones/PDA’s (does anyone use a stand alone PDA anymore?!?) with their PC’s right? Anyways, most of my settings were saved and I was able to recover them by doing a backup. Unfortunately, I love the casual games on the iPhone and spend many hours playing them. In 1 particular game, Virtual Villagers 2, I had achieved GOD status. I had the max people in the village, money (tech points) to burn, and lots and lots of food. I’ve put so many long nights into this game after my baby had fallen asleep to Elmo. Sigh…it was gone. Wiped out. I was so frustrated and angry.

Anyways, this caused a big commotion at home. Wife got pissed at all my swearing, Mother is pissed cause she doesn’t understand the magnitude of what has happened. Whatever…I’m tired. I ended up starting all over again yesterday. It humbles me to see how difficult it is to get started in this game. I still love my iPhone and keep it within arms length at ALL times. I just won’t let my baby play with it anymore.