I found a new hobby worth $250M, David Beckham. And I’m jumping on this band-wagon early.

I always enjoyed playing and watching soccer, but have yet to make it through an entire viewing of a MLS game. When ever the World Cup rolls around I find the time to watch at least 4-6 games in the few weeks during the tourney, but now… I’m all in. I plan to look into bringing my family to at least one Galaxy game this season. I know the whole deal is about marketing soccer to us Americans, but I cant help myself from following the heard on this one.
Latest news today is David’s ankle is still swollen and he’s watching his new team from the bench, well not really the bench, more like from atop in the corporate hospitality suite in the company of club president Alexi Lalas.

Whos’ in?

I wrote up this little review after a request from a friend. Take with a grain of salt, it is only a cell phone, remember that it will not save the planet or anything like that.

The iPhone, it is a bit hard to describe, but it pretty much works as advertised. The real exciting part of it in terms of user experience has to be the slick touch screen interface, which is just plain fun and most of the time a really effective way of navigating around the various application currently available on the iPhone.

THE GOOD
-The screen is pretty incredible, comparable to the jump between Standard Def vs High Def.

-Actually having the ipod and phone integrated has been surprisingly nice. In the car, when a call comes in, music fades nicely, answers, talk, then it fades back up when done. If I would stop being cheap and get the bluetooth setup in my car it would be perfect.

-I like to browse the internet from my couch, and I did it on the blackberry, and it pretty much sucked. The internet on the iphone is a thing of beauty on a wifi network. On the AT&T edge network, steer clear of huge sites like NYTimes but things like google and iphone optimized apps work as well as can be expected. Apparently 3g (which the iphone does not have) holds the promise of handheld broadband, but not on this device.

- Email, contacts, calendar have been a pleasant surprise. I think the iPhone mail app has taken an interesting approach messages. Essentially the iPhone hold your latest 25/50/250 messages on the phone, and does not require you to delete messages, the just sort of fall off the cliff as they get old. This will not be ideal for the user who wants to lookup an email from last month on their phone, but for me it is great. I never feel really behind on my emails. The IMAP folders seem to work well with our Exchange Server.

-Multiple sync locations is a over looked but vital touch. I sync my contacts, calendar, podcasts with my laptop, and my music & videos with our home computer. Allows us to keep the home computer as the master media juke box.

Google maps rock, the secret is the app has access to the entire google local db, so you can use it to search for businesses even if you don’t have their address. Good stuff.

Photos - excellent.

SOME ISSUES
- Requires you to drop 60 Hamiltons

- typing is a bit hard if you are not stationary (ie bumpy car rides) as the touch screen is really sensitive and it picks up where your fingers actually touch the screen, not the middle of your fingers. I am pretty much used to the typing after a couple of weeks. I think overall the added screen space is worth it, but others will not agree.

-Apparently there are issues for “hardcore” cel phone users, like no mass texting or photo messages. I apparently am not hardcore.

Recessed headphone jack – to make the thing so darn thin, they recessed the headphone jack, so most standard headphones will not plug in without an adapter or “modification” see previous post, which is annoying, but the phone fits perfectly in your pocket so maybe it was worth it.

No over the air contacts and calendar syncing, happens when you dock the iphone. Which for my setup is fine, but for people constantly on the road this could be an issue.

Finger prints, i hope the FBI never gets a hold of my iPhone, as my fingerprints are on the thing constantly. The screen is so bright, that indoors they don’t really show up when the device is on, but in the sunlight it can be a grunge fest.

I will take issue with the greatest ipod ever, for a 8gb device, the new advanced interface is nice, but i would be curious how well the organization structure would hold up. Some sorting options for the views would be a good upgrade.

Overall, it just feels really polished and slick, especially for the first version. We have alot of them around office and everyone pretty much loves them. (and they better for how much they cost If they feel over hyped and over priced, then it probably is not the right device for you, but for myself, it is the most fun you can have with a calendar and contacts.

You may have seen this before, but I always find it funny.

Subject: Gripe Sheet…

After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a “gripe sheet,” which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft.

The mechanics correct the problems; document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS’ pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.

S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

_____

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.

S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

_____

P: Something loose in cockpit.

S: Something tightened in cockpit

_____

P: Dead bugs on windshield.

S: Live bugs on back-order.

_____

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.

S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

_____

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.

S: Evidence removed.

_____

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.

S: DME volume set to more believable level.

_____

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.

S: That’s what friction locks are for.

_____

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.

S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

We’ve expanded!  The loft right next door to ours came available a few months ago and we have taken it over in addition to our current space.  This just about doubles our space and gives us a little more room for creative space that we have been wanting.

We’re almost done moving in - tonight is the final work night to get it all dialed in.  Swing by for a visit when you are in the neighborhood.  (Oh, and we just might be having a party soon.  Stay tuned.)