redesigning my iPhone

After years of having many Smartphones using the Windows Mobile or PocketPC OSs, I feel fairly qualified about things that they had and what I wish my iPhone could have or be customized.

Here’s what two things I feel my iPhone’s home-screen would look like and how the alarm would look like. I found the ability to indicate which days the alarm would go off othere than daily useful.

The home-screen now as shortcuts to turning the Wifi and Bluetooth on/off. I found the Bluetooth too buried in the settings. The Wifi is easier but if I can get in on the home-screen, why not?

Again, the home-screen is based on my Smartphones and I found it convenient to have a calendar of upcoming events, tasks or other things on the screen. These can be toggled on or off at well.

It’s Thursday, the final chapter?

It’s Thursday again and here I am at Lexus for what I hope to be last service call for a couple of months. A couple of months? Well, my VW will be hitting 20K, so I know that one’s coming.

Yesterday, my co-workers suggested I call to make sure the part was in to make today go as planned (unlike Sunnyvale VW. see previous posts). I said it should be fine, the trusting soul I am.

I arrive and everything seem to be going as planned. I’m about 1hr into the 2hrs so far. Plus, they have a new coffee machine. Last time, it was broken.

Well, it ran 3 instead of 2hrs but at least I don’t have to come back tomorrow or next week.

it’s not them , it’s me…

It’s Thursday and here I am at a car service place. It works out today because I can rant about MagellanGPS.

I receive an email last weekend stating that my Magellan GPS has been serviced and is on its way back to me. Great, but I look at the shipping address and it’s going to a non-existent address. Now there are ONLY 4 possibilities and each is a single digital of either 2,4,6 or 8. They entered 84. I checked my info that I had to put in to get the update and I entered the right address. I checked my letter to them (which I used my work address) and they ignored that. So, that Monday I called UPS. Not the shipper so I can’t correct the error. I called Magellan and the fun begins. More or less what I went through:

Me: I received an email that my unit is fixed but the address is wrong.

Magellan: Are you checking the status?

Me: No, you have the wrong address.

Magellan: … is that your email?

Me: Yes, that’s how I know it’s ready and you’re shipping it to the wrong address.

Magellan: Would you like the tracking number?

Me: I have that already. You sent it to me via email and that’s how I know it’s going to the wrong address. Plus, I called UPS and only you can correct the address.

So, he puts me on hold and comes back a couple of minutes later. “I’ll inform UPS and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

No call, no correction the next the day. I call Magellan again and they say it’s corrected in their system but UPS still shows it’s not.

I leave a note on my door just in case the driver will notice that there are only 4 possible homes with my number. He doesn’t try…

Finally, late in the day, I check UPS on line and “no such addreess“. So, NOW I can correct the address. I had planned on driving down to Menlo Park to pick it up but it is listed as address corrected and is rescheduled to be delivered.

I called Magellan again and tried to talk to a manager but I keep being put on hold, so I gave up.

So, even though the Magellan people seem like morons, it’s me because I keep calling them like a moron.

it’s Thursday but…

Well, I had planned to bring in my wife’s Lexus (see last week’s) but a call to the dealership Wednesday saved the trip. Of course the part was not in but unlike my experience with VW (see farther back), I called to confirm.

After doing a couple of hours of data entry (since I restored my laptop), I built a mock-up cup holder for my car. The stock center ones are too far back to really use comfortably IMO.

So, a slight break from what seemingly has become norm for a Thursday for me. Well, see if next Thursday finds me at the shop.

restoring my laptop

Well, it’s been almost 2 years since I got my laptop. Lately it’s been sluggish and take 4+ mins to boot-up.

I started around 10Am backing up the documents and setting folder onto a external HD. That took around 2hrs.

Next was restoring it back to factory specs. I had recently found the recovery discs and my small USB CD drive. My laptop doesn’t have a built-in due to its sub notebook size. Just as I started the process, around 1PM, the CD drive wasn’t working. It was just doing the Iomega “click of death“. Hmm, now what? Hey, I still have an external CD/DVD burning and I know where it’s at. So, I get that nd fortunately its USB and FW. Plug it in and everything’s a go. Started out by wiping the HD clean and then started the restore. 3PM or there abouts, it was back to the way I first got it. 430PM, and all 79 XP updates were downloaded and installed.

So far I’ve justed loaded a handful of apps back into it. They are:

• FireFox
• Launchy
• Expander
• Tweak UI XP
• MetaPad
• CCleaner
• Compact Framework 2.0

It’s so nice and clean now. So, I’ll have to figure out what to put back in. We’ll see in a few months it it gets all bloated again.

trust…

a couple of interesting things happened to me recently.

1- I receive a cell phone call from an individual stating he had found a cellphone and that I was one of the contacts in the addressbook. He said he found it on the street near Union Square. Of course, through caller ID I knew who it belonged to. I told the person I’d tried to contact them and to call their own phone. I left a messages at their home and the spouse’s cell,work and email. After about 30mins or so, the person who identified himself as Keith asked if I had any luck. I said no and to not wait around any longer. He asked what the owner’s car was like and I described it. He replied, “yeah, i saw them. silver, white hair and kinda large”. That’s him. “Oh, he was with a woman too. I went up to them and asked if the phone was theirs and they said no”. 20mins later, he (the cellphone owner) returned my call. I asked if he had a nice time down on Union Square. He said, “how did you know?”. I have my sources. Where’s your cellphone phone? “In my pocket. Isn’t it?” Nope, it was down in Union Square. Somebody found it and tried to return back to you but you said it wasn’t without checking. I’ll assume he got back since I haven’t heard anything else since. Are we so distrusting of otheres that if a strange comes up to us and asks if this your property or not we automatically say “No”?

2- I got burned at work with a counterfeit American Express Travellers’ Cheque. The person, bought a $10 item and used a $50 cheque. Since it was not counter-signed already, I asked for a driver’s license which he displayed. Signature not too close but they do change. Later I found it it was a phoney. Thinking back, the check was thicker and not as smooth and the watermark was not there upon closer examination. Not really sure if I had copied the DL number would have helped or not but I probably should’ve.

Now, both persons were African American. The first seemed to be a very stand up guy who might look gruffy because he was a bike messenger and took time to wait around for the owner to come back for his phone. The second was well dressed and neat.

I like to try to give most people the benefit of doubt first but this does show how some of us can be mistrusting and too trusting.

3 months with the iPhone…

Well, it’s been 3 months with the iPhone and it has worked/integrated itself into my everyday life. Though not “perfect” (we’re all different), it does an amazing job of combining different mobile devices into one.

Realistic things I still like to see:

• highlighting blocks of text
• copy/paste
• user defined words for the auto-complete
• secure/hide notes/contacts without having to lock down phone
• organizing/grouping notes
• global search of text/info
• shortcuts of WiFi and bluetooth settings to the homescreen
• stronger vibrate
• multiday alarm setting

Other than these nit-picks, I’m enjoying it much more than I thought I would’ve.

if it’s Thursday part II

Another Thursday and another trip to getting a car serviced. Like last week, it’s the Lexus again (and next week too. Whoops, I left out surprise or did you guess already?). So, like the VW before, the independent facility found a minor issue and multiple trips back to the dealer for the warranty work. This one involved a service advisory, which typically we (the buyer) are not normnally privy to. So, I bring in the car at 845AM, I tried to give them a heads up via email the day before but I guess it went un-noticed. So, they approximated 2hrs and after 2hrs, I was informed that they needed a part which, of course, they did not have. “3 days and it should be in” he said. I replied, you’re gonna call me not the parts dept, right? (based on my VW experience-see previous posts). “Yes”. Of well, another Thursday morning at the shop. At least today, she got a car wash (which it needed) even though they didn’t really do anything.

So, until next Thursday…