Technology I used in 2001:

- Nokia cellphone for mobile and long-distance calls

- landline for local calls and Internet access

- dial-up Internet access

- company provided laptop with Windows NT 4 for work and for getting online at home

- basic cable

- standard definition 20″ TV

- cheap battery-powered alarm clock

Technology I’m using in 2010:

- iPhone 3GS for all calls, MP3 player, Pandora, yellow pages, maps, mobile web access, gaming, e-mail (personal and work), controlling my Apple TV, alarm clock, calendar, and contacts.

- NOTE: no landline

- cable Internet access with wireless router

- Apple TV

- Mac mini

- 17″ HP laptop with Windows 7 (personal)

- 10″ Dell laptop with Windows XP (work)

- Samsung Internet-connected Blu-Ray player

- 65″ Panasonic Plasma HDTV

- DirecTV with dual tuner HD DVR, NFL Sunday Ticket, and ESPN Game Plan (no premium channels)

- Hulu for catching up on shows that I may have missed

- Netflix for DVDs and streaming video (but I’m unimpressed with their streaming content, so I’ll probably cancel when football season resumes in Fall 2010)

- PS2 used primarily for Karaoke games

- Harmony remote that controls my Sony receiver, Samsung Blu-Ray player, DirecTV DVR, Apple TV, and Panasonic HDTV

They’ve got a great web site with access to all of their music. Here’s one of my favorite albums:

The process took 5-6 hours. It was easy, not a lot of hand-holding needed. I didn’t wipe the drive and start fresh. Rather I installed it as an upgrade to Vista.

After using it all evening, I’m underwhelmed. It doesn’t seem to boot any faster. It does wake up from sleep faster, but it also takes longer to go to sleep.

The OS assumes way to many things, like the fact that I would want to put all of my pictures and videos into Windows Media Player to be viewed at once. NO. I do NOT want to do this. It was a pain to undo this.

After installing, I decided to start uninstalling a bunch of software that came on my HP laptop. It took forever to uninstall things. This felt much slower than Vista and XP.

I wish I’d kept my $49.

I have 2 games recording and I’m watching the RedZone real-time highlight channel on my iPhone. RedZone is great!

Maybe I’ll stop complaining about how much this costs.

So I’m spending Saturday night with Def Leppard, my favorite band from when I was in Junior High. They were a great band even before Pour Some Sugar on Me, back when Rick Allen still had both arms.

High ‘N’ Dry had some great songs, most notably High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night) and Bringin’ On The Heartbreak. It came out in 1981 when I was still in Elementary School. But I remember these songs from the radio when I was in 4th and 5th grade. AC/DC Back in Black and For Those About to Rock were hot then too.

I was in Junior High when they really hit it big with Pyromania in 1983. That album kicked ass! Everyone was listening to it. Best songs were Rock of Ages, Photograph, Foolin’, Too Late for Love, and Rock Rock (Till You Drop). I still remember the first time I heard this album. I was at a friend named Carl’s house listening to the record in his older sister’s room. BTW, she was hot, but the album was hotter. Good times!

It was a long time before they released another album. Though they did release a single with remixes of Me and My Wine (previously only available as the B-side to the Bringin’ on the Heartbreak single from 1981) and Bringin’ on the Heartbreak (the original was much better). Me and My Wine sounded like it should have been included on the High ‘N’ Dry album. It was a great song and the video was pretty funny.

In the meantime, their story is a true VH-1 Behind The Music classic. I won’t retell it here, but you can read it here. Despite all their setbacks, their next album was even bigger than Pyromania. They released Hysteria in 1987. It was HUGE! It gave us Pour Some Sugar on Me. But I still prefer High ‘N’ Dry and Pyromania.

I got to thinking about some of the sites I used to check out all the time. One of them was Phone Scoop. I used to LOVE phonescoop.com. Checked it out all the time. Loved seeing all the new phones. Then came the iPhone. Since then, there’s no reason to look at anything else. Nothing else is even close. Game over.

I loved my old Nokia smart phone even after it died until the minute I got my hands on my first iPhone. I forgot about the 6620 pretty fast, despite the many years of service it gave me. Despite the fact that I had been through 3 Nokias and had positive experiences with all of them.

It’s funny how one product can change things so much. It’s that good. If only AT&T didn’t suck so bad.

I can’t wait for Apple’s next game changing product. Maybe it will be a tablet. Though I’m also waiting for the CrunchPad (do a search for it on TechCrunch). But I’d really love for them to do something cool with the AppleTV. Hopefully mostly in software so that my older model can benefit.

I think this officially makes me an Apple fanboy. But they earned it, so I’ll wear the tag with pride.

IPhone 3GS owners bemoan its battery life. The many capabilities of Apple’s iPhone 3GS are also a drain on the device’s battery. Buyers are finding that the device has trouble making it through a workday without a rest stop at the electrical outlet…

…Repair company IFixit.com, which specializes in Apple products… dismantled the 3GS on the day it was released and found that the phone’s battery was about 15% smaller than the one in the original iPhone.

The new model is smaller and sleeker, however, and Apple may have sacrificed some battery capacity in favor of a lighter phone, analysts said.

Considering the fact that my old iPhone’s battery was dying is the reason I upgraded, this bums me out. But I still think the 3GS is a great phone.

My first generation iPhone was a real life changer when I got it. I loved it. It did things I hadn’t considered using a phone for. It was like always having a computer with me, as well as a phone and an iPod. It served me well until the battery quit holding a charge about two weeks prior to the launch of the new iPhone 3G S. I considered this pretty good timing. So I kept my old iPhone near a charger all day and prayed it would last. It did.

I received my new iPhone at about 10am PST on the launch day. I couldn’t wait to get home to set it up. I bought the 32GB model in black.

I’ll cut to the chase. The new phone is simply evolutionary. It’s faster than my old phone. It has WAY more storage (which is pretty sweet and solves my longest running complaint about my old iPhone). And it does a few more things, but nothing that makes my jaw drop. Turns out, after a few days with the new phone, it’s simply another iPhone that holds a charge and a lot more music. Nothing wrong with that, but not necessarily worth $300. And not a life changer.

I haven’t done much with the camera. Maybe that will improve my opinion somewhat. I don’t care about video.

Also, I was hoping that the reception and call quality would improve with my new iPhone. It didn’t. AT&T still sucks! I’m not a big fan of Verizon Wireless, but if they ever offer the iPhone, I’ll leave AT&T immediately. Even if it requires an early termination fee.

Here’s a link about the 3.0 software that comes on the iPhone.

Here’s a link to a review of the 3G S hardware.

I loved my old iPhone and I love my new iPhone even more because it holds most of my music. But my advice is that if you have a functioning iPhone 3G, I’d pass on the upgrade to the 3G S. If you have a first generation iPhone, maybe it’s worth the upgrade depending upon your priorities. But try installing the 3.0 software first. If you have ANY other phone, upgrade to an iPhone NOW. I’d actually recommend the $99 3G. It’s a MAJOR bargain.