The Invisible Blogger

The new Iphone OS 3.0 is going to be available sometime this summer to all of the general public.  Right now it is in the hands of the beta testers and developers for software.  You can watch the office release video here.  As I watched the video I see that Apple address some of its shortcomings in this new release.  Landscape mode keyboard for all of its core applications, copy and paste, the ability to search across all applications, and other improvements.   But as an Iphone user and I have to admit there are some things I would really like to see in an upcoming release.

1. Folders - Yes, a simple folder program to organize all of the apps we download from the Itune store.  I have over 100 apps on my phone and I hate having to switch through multiple pages to find what I am looking for.  I know what you are thinking, Do I use all of the apps I have.  The answer is probably not but I do like going back into them and playing with then from time to time.  For all you people who have Jailbroken phones there is a great program on Cydia called catagories that adds folders to the iphone.  I have been using this to organize all of my apps neatly.

2. Themes - Ok Apple this is a no brainer.  With such a popular device you think you would allow your users to custimize the look of it.  I mean we can customize our  PC’s, Mac’s, Notebooks, Netbooks, and anything else we have.  I think we are all tired of looking at the same black screen with the same icons all the time.  Again, with the Jailbroken iphone this is not a problem as there are tons of themes for your iphone available. 

3. Video Recorder - I like the ability to take pictures, but come on how hard would it be to add this capability.  Alot of other phones that cost way less can do this.  Why can’t the Iphone?  Oh wait it can,  Just Jailbreak it and download one of the many video recorders for it.  Why Apple never added this capability is beyond me.

4. Public Folders in Outlook - This has been a tricky one for all developers of phones for business.  No one has of yet got this right.  I had a blackberry with my company before the Iphone and neither can redirect public folders to a phone.  I guess this is truly going to be a hard one to tackle.

5. Better setup for multiple email accounts - I have 3 account I check on my Iphone.  My business and 2 personal.  I hate that I have to go back 3 pages in order to change what account I am looking at.  Couldn’t they add a home button or something to let the user switch between accounts without all the hassle.  Also the ability to mark multiple items as read.  I hate having to open each email and read it to mark it as read.  That is one feature from the blackberry I do miss.

6. Support for Flash and WMV - This is something I wish they would add.  I have read alot about these feature and relating to the Iphone.  I can see why they don’t want to support a windows video player as it is going against apple but almost all of the video files I get are in that format.  Flash will probably never be release for the Iphone as it will pretty much kill the app store.  With flash on a phone you could just go out to any website and play games for free.  No need to buy things from the app store.   Not that I believe it would kill the app store, just slow down the purchasing of items that we can get for free on the web.

7. Bluetooth sync with a PC - This has got to be my biggest pet peeve of the Iphone.  If it supports bluetooth why can we not sync it wirelessly with our PC’s.  Is this such a hard feature to have on a smartphone.  I could do this with my Blackberry, Motorola Razer, and amost any other smartphone I have come across.  I hate having to drag out a cable everytiime I want to add music or sync up everything I just bought through your app store.  Most of the time I don’t even have the cable with me as I leave it at home on the charger.  A simple bluetooth connection to my bluetooth enabled laptop is all I ask.

So in conclusion these are some of the major features I would love to see in an update to the Iphone.  This is my personal wish list.  If anyone reading this works for the Apple development team and would like to incorporate any of these ideas please feel free to do so.  Also if there is any other feature you would like to see on an Iphone add it in.  I would like to see what other people are wishing for in a new release.

Watching this commercial for the umteenth time I decided to see what they were talking about and how it could be better than anything I could find for free.  First these Windows based PC services are popping up all over the TV.  Anyone with money and is gulible enough to spend it on products that can be gotten for free is how they stay in business.  I knew something was wrong with this commercial after watching it and seeing a Mac book showing a BSOD (Blue screen of death)  Now come on, at least make me believe what you are selling. After all it is a Windows based product.  They make clains about their product on Newsweek, Forbes, and Wall Street Journal.  So I decided to check out their claims.  Surprising to me there is no mention of it anywhere on those sites.  Checking their product site I could not even find a link to these so called claims to Newsweek, Forbes, or Wall Street Journal.  After checking around the site for awhile I got to thinking that anyone with a basic knowledge of computers could get these products for free with a little bit of time.  But if you don’t want to spend the time looking for them I will supply you with free, yes that’s right FREE alternatives that work just as well if not better than the products they are selling.

Their Product: ActiveSpeed

Free Alternative: Ashampoo Internet Accelerator 2 - A great little application that makes it easy to perform this simply task of speed up your internet connection.  This is an excellent free Internet connection optimizer used by me personally on may computers I want to speed up.

Their Product: SpeedScan Pro

Free Alternative: Regseeker - The longer you use Windows, the more cluttered your registry can become, especially if you regularly install and uninstall software. Many applications, on being uninstalled, leave behind “orphan” registry entries. They don’t remove all traces of themselves; causing problems such as sluggish performance, system lockups, or a bloated registry that takes longer to load on startup. With the click of a button, Regseeker will scan your registry for these fragmented files, and safely remove them.

Their Product: PC Scan&Sweep

Free Alternative: CCleaner - CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast; normally taking less than a minute to run.

Their Product: Spyware Striker Pro

Free Alternative: Spyware Terminator - Spyware Terminator primarily is recomended due to its strong real-time protection against spyware, adware, Trojans, key-loggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats. Spyware Terminator excels in strong active protection against know and unknown threats.

Free Alternative: MalwareBytes - Antimalware - is a high performance anti-malware application that thoroughly removes even the most advanced malware and spyware. With one of the fastest, most effective quick scans and malware removal capabilities on the market, this program is the perfect addition to your PC’s defenses.

The full version of the product includes a number of key features, including the ability to schedule updates and scans and most importantly, a real-time malware protection module that blocks malicious processes before they even start.

So in conclusion I am not saying that thier software is useless and that they are run by scan artest.  But there are alot of free alternitives that could be used in replace of this.

Cops follow footprints in snow to suspects

Robbers might think twice about committing a crime when there’s snow on the ground. Or at least not head right home.

That’s the lesson after Joliet police followed footprints from where a pizza delivery man was robbed to a house on the same block and arrested four teens late Tuesday.

Police said two teens waited on a porch for the pizza man and the two others — one holding a bat — approached him.

Police Chief Patrick Kerr said the pizza man turned over pizzas, sodas and $200.

Police said an officer followed the tracks to the house and found two pizza boxes, the pizza man’s debit card and a baseball bat.

WOW, $200 from the pizza guy.  Who knew that they carried so much money.  Must have been a busy pizza night.

So the holiday season is in full swing and people are always looking for the best gift for their loved ones. But there is always that one person who either has everything they need or you just don’t know what to give to them. Well then The Invisible Blogger has the perfect gift for them. Give them an S.T.D., H.I.V. or even the common cold. You may be wondering what the hell I am talking about. Give someone a disease or virus for the holidays. Yes, that is exactly what I am talking about. Head on over to GIANTmicrobes and you can give someone anything from Algae to the White Blood cell and everything in between. This site has plush replicas of everyday bacteria, viruses, insects, and germs. They actually look really cute and come with an actual image of the microbe and information about it. So this year give your lover the clap, I’m sure they will remember the gift for the rest of their lives.

If you didn’t know I have 2 young boys who I have started buying Christmas presents for. Now I have a Wii I bought them last year and this year they want the new Guitar Hero game. This is great and all because it comes with drums, a guitar, and a mic for singing. The problem is they both want to play the guitar. I guess they want to take after their uncle The Average White Guy. Anyways I started checking out the web to see if they made any 3rd party guitars for the Wii since I would need to buy another. Well low and behold they have a couple of options to choose from. I happened to find a third party guitar from a company called Block Head. I like to check out the company and see what else they sell that may be of interest. So while checking out the guitar, also known as the Max-V wireless guitar, I checked out the manual for it. It is only a 2 page PDF which you can see right here. Now just reading through it it all looked pretty standard. As I was reading through the do not’s of the guitar I got to number 3 and did a double take. It actually reads

Do not taunt the controller

Following that, after 4 more bullets of things you shouldn’t do is another one even more strange.

Do not insult or talk down to the controller.

Now after laughing for a couple of minutes I was wondering to myself what would happen if I insulted or talked down to this controller. Would it get up in the middle of the night and beat me to death for taunting it? Would it get pissed and leave one day if I insulted it to much? Would it start to cry?

I am actually going to buy this controller since it has a good price tag of only $30. When this guitar gets used I will warn my boys not to taunt, insult, or talk down to this controller until I know the full effects of what it could do. If anyone already owns this guitar, could you let me know what happens if you don’t treat it nicely.