Picked up a few Universal Dock adaptors this morning for my iPhone this morning.

Much to my surprise – docking the iPhone into my Apple Hi Fi – gave me an interesting message.

the iPhone works fine in the hi-fi dock. it charges the phone too actually.

Chalk the Hi-Fi up as a 1st party product that sorta works with the iPhone.

If you’ve grown accustomed to listening to your iPod in your car through an Auxiliary/Headphone cable – you may want to look for an accessory while out and about this weekend.

The iPhone has a very unique headphone jack. The iPhone will not allow a umber of headphone jacks unless they’re shaped a certain way.

Below is a picture of a Belkin device (adapter) that I picked up today and it’s getting the job done nicely.

Like thousands of other fanboys, yours truly set out and purchased a brand new iPhone.

My story is nearly identical to most… with the exception that I didn’t wait in line all that long. I drove up to a local AT&T store at 5:45 PM – stood behind 60 or so people and walked out of the store with my purchase at 6:23PM.

Setting up of the phone was easy.

I’ve read a number of complaints regarding issues with activation. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes – opened my newest gadget and began the initial set up.

It took me 8 minutes or so to complete the iTunes-activation. I received word that my phone number was in the process of being transfered from T-Mobile and it would take anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours.

Took the dogs for a brisk walk. Upon my return the iPhone was completely ready for use.

I could go into chapter and verse about how stunning the UI is on the device. The experience, simply put – amazing.

It’s an engineering benchmark.

That said – I conducted a number of quick tests. I set up the iPhone to work on my home WiFi network. That took 5 seconds or so… working in an all Mac environment doesn’t hurt.

After running through all the Apps – I called my father at his home and asked about the phone quality on his end.

One of the biggest complaints I received from friends and families was that I couldn’t be heard all that well while on T-Mobile.

My father confirmed what I had hoped…. he said that I sounded crystal clear.

I called 5 or so other friends all of which confirmed the same thing.

As cellphones go… I’d give it an 8.8 out of 10 in regards to call goodness.

Dislikes

One of my biggest dislikes of the phone is the inability to drop songs onto it like any iPod I have ever owned.

The device insists on syncing entire libraries or playlists.

I’m hoping that a firmware update address this in the near future.

Another complaint is that the phone doesn’t mount onto the desktop to utilize free space on the device – as a portable HD.

I’m only going to assume this was done so that the device couldn’t be compromised.

Anyhoo – the iPhone is well worth the price of admission. If you’re thinking about getting one – I highly recommend that you swing by an Apple store or an AT&T local to see what all the fuss is about.

.alamo city rollie.

Want to extend birthday wishes to my dearest Lauren in Motown this morning.

Truth be known… we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs. This is the first birthday (in 8 years) that she’s celebrating where we’re both on good speaking terms with each other.

She’s been insanely supportive and patient with me over the years.

I sincerely wish you the Happiest of Birthdays.

.alamo city rollie.

Where do I start…

• I’m fighting off allergies or I have a head cold… I got little sleep last night.
• I opted to work a half day today… I came home after lunch in hopes of getting some much needed rest. After falling asleep for about 35 minutes – a person knocks on the door. After 10 months of consistent complaints – our leasing co. has decided to send someone over to remove 3 dead trees on my property.

The sounds of CHAINSAWS and crashing trees disrupts any chance of rest.

My sister strolled back home at 2:00 in the afternoon. I ask her to look after the pets so that I can could get some sleep.

To her credit… she assisted on that front and I got three hours of sleep, but that was soured this afternoon when I discovered that my brand new lawnmower and weedwhacker have been stolen.

The garage door was left open this afternoon so that “it could be aired out” (read: my sister couldn’t be bothered by having a musty smelling garage” – so they were taken out.

CRIME sucks.

Want to extend some belated birthday wishes to my dear friend Heather.

I’m not really allowed to make any mention of her on my blog… she loves her anonymity so I won’t give any further details about her.

If you read this post – make it a point to carve out some time to catch up this week. I need to talk to you about your recent trip and I wan to hear all about the birthday.

.aCr.

With summer now in full swing, the boys and I got together and recorded a Summer Movie pop culture podcast.

I know I say this all the time, but we’re going to really try and deliver shows with more frequency.

Click on the word PODCAST above to check out the podcast section of the site.

Dear friend (and life long crush of mine)  Emo V.  sent me my horoscope this morning….   I usually roll my eyes when I read these things but todays entry was a little spot on.   I’m genuinely spooked.

The next few months will involve getting your act together. The part of you that likes to go with the flow may need to get up off its butt and work a little harder, or at least be more organized. There are opportunities all around you. When they come knocking, you can’t answer the door wearing your bathrobe! The part of you that still believes you were never meant to get anywhere loves to disguise itself as a hipster with a laid back attitude. Self-sabotage is the ego’s favorite trick. Don’t be fooled by it again. 

Watched a number of movies over the weekend… below are some thoughts.

Smokin’ Aces : despite having an embarrassing ammount of accomplished actors… Smokin’ Aces isn’t worthy of a recommended movie rental. The picture desperately tries to find a voice while never feeling the bit original. Sucks Wang

The Grifters : Rented this movie after it got a heartfelt plug on the Tony Kornhiser show… The film stars John Cusack, Anjelica Houston and a rail thin Annette Bening. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this film to friends… If you’re in to Pulp – then you need to see this. If you’re at all interested in seeing Annette Bening naked – then I would also recommend that you drop everything and see this.

The Queen: I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this movie. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know very much about Queen Elizabeth II before seeing this movie… I imagined her to be a quiet, symbolic figure – who showed up around the globe for good cheer and good will.

The movie centers itself at the time of Princess Diana’s death…. so the film focuses on the turmoil surrounding the Royal Family.

My favorite part of the film was seeing the Queen and a recently elected Tony Blair work together at a very difficult time for the Royal Family.

Again… the things portrayed in the film could be far fetched, but it was a fascinating picture.

Rocks Royal Wang

The Sopranos season finale aired this evening and I wanted to quickly weigh in on the ending.

For those who watched it (spoiler alert), the final scene was rather interesting. Tony agreed to meet his family (wife & children) for dinner at a greasy spoon.

Tony arrives early – selects a Journey song on the diner jukebox and awaits his family to join him.
The closing minutes of the show are incredibly tense with Tony looking up every time the diner door opens only to find that its not his wife or children arriving, but suspicious people whom could fit the profile of a “hired hit”.

A feeling that Tony would have to endure for the remainder of his life.

The show closes with Medow opening the diner door and the show cutting to black.

I’m of the opinion that nothing happens to Tony. There’s moments on screen where a director can make any audience member feel what a character is experiencing.

Example : When you see Psycho for the first time… the shower scene is incredible because we can all relate to being vulnerable while bathing.

The tense feeling at the end of the Sopranos was no different. David Chase went to great lengths to comment on our current state of “fear”.

Not knowing whom or what will be next – is what we were able to experience.