Change is in the Air
Wednesday will mark what I see as the start of the new HUB. We will have a meeting in the morning in which our new director will outline her vision and goals for the HUB. This is absolutely freaking me out. On the one hand I have a very nostalgic view of the HUB and how it used to be, granted it hasn't really been like that since 2002 however. On the other hand I always want us to grow and get better. To evolve and refuse stagnation. I think the biggest fear I have though is being told that my job will not be changing.
One of the greatest joys I have had at the HIUB is the continual change and growth that it has offered. Over the last year however, that has not really happened. I have been on one project since May of 2009 and while I saw it as a great project to start and get going, it was never long term in my mind. At this point I am feeling the burnout however fear that without change, this will become just a job. Here's hoping for some great news Wednesday.
iOS 4.1
HDR of Super H-Mart
Towards the middle of last week Apple released iOS 4.1 which brought a lot of updates and new features. Some of the highlighted new features are Game Center, HDR Photos, AirPlay and Ping. Ping really was released a week earlier with iTunes 10^43 or whatever huge number we are on now. Well, Thursday morning I updated my phone to the new version and I have to say I am both excited for the future of iOS and underwhelmed with what this release brought.
First off lets talk about Ping. I have been dying for a good social site that is geared towards music. So many of my friends listen to great music that I just would never stumble across, so hopefully this would allow me to find it sooner. Everything about it on the surface seemed perfectly suited for this. It wasn't very long, about 5 minutes into using it, before I broke that surface and realized why it just won't work. It only works with music in the iTunes store. I think this is a huge mistake. I cannot "like" a song, album or artist I have in my collection unless I go into the iTunes store and find that album or what ever. Some of my favorite music just isn't in the iTunes store. The other issue I have is that there is no linking between it an other social networks like twitter or facebook. That means I have to create a whole new network of friends for Ping. They really needed to work out a deal with those companies.
I think the biggest draw for me with iOS 4 is Game Center. It was touted to be an XBox Live like gaming platform, and just like Ping, falls just far enough short to be annoying. The main reason I was looking forward to GC was the ability to play games with friends everywhere. Invite them into my game, and they will get a notification and can jump into the action. Of all of my friends I have by far the most games. Not one of them allows me to invite friends into the game unless they are on the same wifi or on bluetooth. In which case what is the point of GC, as they are close enough for me to just ask them in person. Another really huge annoyance is the achievement system. Why do achievements have points if all it shows is how many achievements you have completed? This seems like a poor design flaw.
A Little Black Book
While surfing today I came across the perfect case to go along with my BookBook from 12South. It is a small moleskin notebook for my iPhone. I am posting all the information a friend might need if they wanted to pick one up for me 
http://padandquill.com/the-little-black-book.html
Subtracting Hulu Plus
I am not a big TV person these days, but there are a few shows that I really like to watch. I usually catch these shows using the online video site hulu.com. It has been a great place to see the latest episodes of my favorite shows like Eureka and Burn Notice when I get the chance to. It has been one of the biggest reasons I still carry my laptop when I go out town instead of just my phone. Well, this week I finally got an invitation to Hulu+. Ever since it was announced I have been waiting to get an invite. It was not worth the wait or $10 a month ($120 a year plus commercials!).
My current list of shows added to my queue for Hulu each week are Psych, Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, Royal Pains, Wipeout and Eureka. Of those shows, Wipeout is the only one available with Hulu+ for mobile devices. It is also the one I really could care the least about. This information is buried near the bottom of the Hulu+ site. I think that was what really irked me. If I had known that most of the shows I watch are not available, I wouldn't have paid the $10.
I didn't just give up on Hulu+ immediately though. I tried it out for a bit. I have now attempted to watch Wipeout on 4 different occasions using my iPhone. The first three times it crashed out either before it played the first add, or just as the first add finished. The forth time I had much better luck. It played almost all the way to the first commercial break before completely loosing sound and 10 seconds later crashing back to the home screen. The first two tries were on WiFi, while the one that worked the best was on 3G. To say the app is a bit buggy is an understatement.
I am not really sure what Hulu+ brings to the table outside of mobile viewing and it really has failed at this so far. I know it also brings a large catalogue of back episodes of TV shows, but so does Netflix and for a dollar less per month, no adds, and a larger catalogue. I have really loved the idea of Hulu and hope that someday it will wake up and realize that what consumers will pay for is ease of use and quality. When it figures that out I will be one of the first in line to sign up.
Hungry Putty
Well, this week has been crazy. Tons of stuff going on at work and in my personal life. I can't wait until the semester slows down. In the meantime, enjoy a video I made today of some awesome putty in a coworker's office.
One Month Later
At the beginning of last month I lucked into an iPhone 4. I had kinda decided not to get one, but my old phone broke and when I went to get it fixed they offered me the phone. I jumped on it. It is far superior to the 3GS in almost every way. The physical shape of it is much nicer to hold, it sits flat on the table, and is actually pretty gorgeous to look at. As for the big upgrades, the screen is absolutely stunning, the camera is a dream, and it has plenty of horsepower to spare.
Now that all the awesomeness is out there, I have to say I would recommend avoiding this phone if you can. At least for now. The antennea issue that has been all over the news has been a bit overblown in my opinion, but does exist. It only bothers me if I am in an area with an extremely weak signal, however I get better signal quality overall. In all honesty, I don't think I've had a single dropped call due to signal loss on the iPhone 4. I have had a ton more dropped calls with the new iPhone however. This is due to the proximity sensor on the device. If this phone had one major problem, this is it. My cheek is in the perfect spot to hit the end call button and does it's best to do so whenever it gets the chance. For some reason the sensor on the new phone is just plain not working right. I never had this issue with my original iPhone, 3G, or 3GS. It is so bad that even though I think this is the best phone/computing device I have ever owned, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone until Apple fixes the proximity sensor issue.
Wedding Photography
I finally got the go ahead to post some pictures from two weekends ago I shot. Here are a few of my shots.
Readers Poll!
I need your help. My new phone is starting to get some little scratches on the back glass, due to the fact I treat it like a phone and not a work of art, and I need to get something to protect it. I think I have decided on a skin from gelaskin.com, but the problem is I really like 2 of them and would like some opinions. Let me know which one you like the most in the comments.
Stealing From the Templemans
I know that Chris and Kellie don't hold a copyright on weekend updates, so I guess it really isn't stealing, but I had a great weekend. Friday I met Brian for an early showing of Inception at the Mall of Georgia. This was a way to hopefully calm our nerves because that evening we started working on shooting a wedding. It was a surprisingly awesome movie. I was really dissapointed with DeCaprio in Shutter Island and went into this movie with that mindset. I know Chris Nolan did an amazing job with the batman series, but could he bring the magic that has been so hit or miss for DeCaprio? Absolutely. I don't think I have ever seen a movie that really had me engaged as much as this one did. After the movie we met Brian's wife Katrina for some lunch and walking for a couple minutes around the mall because Brian needed a UGA shirt for the rehearsal that night.
After getting a shirt Brian and I made a quick run down to Fry's for some batteries and an extra memory card. It was my first trip to Fry's and unlike the movie, it kinda disappointed me. It was massive and had tons of electronic stuff, but it really seemed like it was trying to be way too much. It was like a Best Buy, Cosco, Think Geek, and Amazon all mashed together keeping most of the worst parts and squeezing out the good stuff. I think maybe if I still built computers or needed some specialty things it would be better or if I was looking for some specialty items I needed right now it might be awesome. It just seemed to be a dirty and unorganized warehouse of lower end items.