Nowherebound

Taking a little break

Actually, I guess I’ve already been taking a break for a while. Since the beginning this blog has been simply a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing where I just stuck random things I thought were cool. I guess that’s the essence of a tumblelog. However, I’ve decided I want to do something with a little bit more vision and purpose.

I’m starting a new little project today called Atomic Stapler. It’s about all the neat and powerful things that the real pros (and not-so-pros like yours truly) use to get their work done every day. I hope that if any of you are interested you’ll follow me there. I probably won’t be posting here in the forseeable future.

In the meantime, if you need to get in touch with me, you can email me at josh (AT) holloway (DOT) me.

Thanks for your time.

I hate every Tumblr theme

Even this one. I just hate it less than all the others. I suppose it’s time for me to put my rudimentary CSS skills to good use.

Every app I’ve purchased from the iTunes App Store

Well, almost. I didn’t start recording these until after I had already bought a few. This is most of them, though. I thought it might be interesting to someone. Items with a *** beside them mean they are still installed on my iPhone. This list also doesn’t count free apps, or paid apps that I downloaded when they were free.

Birdfeed
Twitteriffic Premium
Melodica
Strategery
iDracula
Hero of Sparta
Occurro!
iStat
Classics
Birdhouse
Tipulator ***
Where To?
Tweetie
Convertbot
Simplenote ***
Eliss
Zen Bound
Flight Control
Fieldrunners
CatchaMouse 2
Zenonia
GeoDefense
I Dig It
Brick Breaker Revolution 3D
Sally’s Spa
StarDefense
Pocket God
Edge
Peggle
Delivery Staus touch
Ambiance
MyCal
AutoStitch
Groceries
Convert ***
Space Invaders Infinity Gene ***
Ramp Champ
Inkvaders
ORBITAL
Keymote
Grocery iQ ***
GeoDefense Swarm
Couch to 5k ***
Your Soundboard
Nice List ***
Tweetie 2 ***

Total estimated cost for all these apps: $134
Apps I use the most: Tweetie 2, Grocery iQ, Simplenote, Tipulator, Couch to 5k
Free apps I use the most: Facebook, Lose It!, Wikipanion, Balance, MyCal, Fandango
Apps I most regret buying: Melodica, iDracula, Hero of Sparta, Occurro!
Apps I’m considering buying right now: PhotoForge, Best Camera, Tap Tap Revenge 3, RedLaser, CNN Mobile

Hypothetical

Apple announced today that it would begin selling fully legitimate copies of OS X that are installable on any PC hardware. They will sell it to any computer manufacturer that wants it at the same cost as OEM versions of Windows. During installation it will automatically download and install all the proper drivers you need for your hardware, and everything on OS X would work exactly the same as if it were installed on a Mac. Manufacturers who today only sell Windows PCs will quickly begin offering all their current hardware with OS X installed instead of Windows, but Apple will still sell all of their current Mac line and continue to create new hardware in the future.

Would you still buy a Mac?

A leaked AT&T internal memo, dated June 26, 2009:

iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.

Here’s a look at some of the milestones we achieved:

• Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
• Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
• Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
• Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
• Largest order day in att.com history
• Largest features sales day in att.com history

I am of the firm opinion that had the iPhone not come to AT&T two years ago, their wireless business would be all but dead. Verizon has the BlackBerry Storm, Sprint has the Palm Pre, and T-Mobile has the G1, but AT&T has had no breakout hits or anything even remotely interesting or innovative on their network other than the iPhone.

It really makes you wonder why, then, that AT&T seems to be giving Apple the short end of the stick when it comes to MMS, tethering, subsidies, etc. I’m sure there are some people inside AT&T realize how important the iPhone is to their well-being as a company, but I’m sure it’s not many.

In 2007 I tweeted my iPhone wishlist.

“I’ll buy an iPhone when it has 3G, IM, voice memos, a better camera w/ video, disk use, wireless sync, and a bit more storage space,” I said. Here we are, two years later.

3G? Check.

IM? Check.

Voice memos? Check.

A better camera with video? Check.

Disk use? Check (caveat: with third-party apps).

More storage? Check by a lot.

So the only thing that’s not in iPhone up to this point is wireless sync. However, the only real reason I considered needing it before was for syncing podcasts from my Mac to the phone. Now that you can download podcasts directly to iPhone from the mobile iTunes Store, this is really not an issue. So all of the features that were holding me back from buying an iPhone originally have been added, as well as tons of others I didn’t realize I wanted but now use ubiquitously.

So all is well with the world, right? Sure, for the users of today. But what will Apple do in a year when it’s time to introduce another iPhone? What can they conceivably introduce in a new phone that will cause consumers to keep buying it? Sure, they could make it faster and increase the storage, maybe put in a slightly better camera, but as of the iPhone 3G S and software 3.0, basically every reasonable feature that users have clamored for is already available.

Maybe there won’t be a new iPhone next year. Maybe Apple will just reduce the price of the 3G S, make it the one and only iPhone, and try to increase user base. Maybe software 4.0 will be the Snow Leopard of iPhone… no major new features, but a lot of great refinements to the existing architecture. I hope this is the case, but in all honesty, I see another $500 hit to my wallet coming about 12 months from now.

WHEN TWITTER IS DOWN, SO ARE LIKE A BILLION OTHER SITES THAT RELY ON TWITTER.