2 posts tagged “recent purchase”

My latest 2-year commitment to Verizon Wireless expired last week. Phone tech has come a long way in the last two years, so I've been thinking hard about what I want for my next upgrade. 

Mandatory:

• Strong signal reception
• Compatibility with my existing bluetooth headset
• Contact sync with the Mac address book
• Task sync with iCal (ok) or OmniFocus (preferred)

Nice to have:

• Calendar sync with iCal and gCal
• Mobile Web access
• Full keyboard, Graffiti, or handwriting recognition
• Camera sync with iPhoto

Don't really care:

• MP3 player
• Mobile versions of desktop apps like Word
• Email

I looked at a bunch of the Verizon smartphone/PDA/mobile Web gadgets and was surprised to find that almost all of them are running Windows Mobile. The ones that aren't are still pretty Mac-hostile according to user reports. So much for Verizon.

Iphone

Once I started looking outside of Verizon, it became clear that the iPhone is really the only gadget out there that fills all my mandatory criteria...and all my nice-to-haves as well. So I bought one. It seems strange to me that Mac users have such slim pickin's - I wonder why. Apple's developer support, maybe? Manufacturers unwilling to create gadgets for a relatively small market?

I'm liking it pretty well so far. It's a relief to have my GTD system with me at all times now without double-entry or the kloodgy multi-app sync process required by my Palm. Having a real UI to deal with call waiting and hold and so forth is fantastic. My fingers are a little large for the keyboard - I wish I could re-orient it to landscape from any app (especially SMS) but no such luck. Location services + map has come in handy once already. I feel somewhat uncomfortably trendy whenever I take it out of my pocket in public, but hey - it's the right tool for the jobs I want it to do. How can I argue with that?

Funny...I was going to post about this anyway. Timely Vox Hunt.

Esp
Just got a new ESP Viper 400. EMG 85 at the neck, 81 at the bridge. It's about half the weight of my old guitar (a Gretsch Electromatic Jet Pro) and the neck is a lot more comfortable. Slightly wider string spacing for my big ol' fingers but not as bulky front-to-back. The EMG 81 doesn't sound all that different than the Duncan humbucker in the Gretsch, but the 85 is just beautiful - warm and round, without much of a humbucker twang. Grover tuners, too, which are a big step up.
I'm also replacing my ancient (in music technology years) Pod Pro with Native Instruments' Guitar Rig. Amp modeling technology has come a long way in the last six years. Hooray for good guitar tone!