a whole week gone by – one drop, a woot off, and more apps

Friday night while grilling, I bent down for something and the phone fell out of my pocket onto the driveway. Being all sleek and shiney, 2 corners got scuffed. It was not a big fall but very scarey nonetheless, as this device has so much heft I suspect it can break easily. My Blackberry was very light – and had a much smaller screen – so drops were not nearly as nerveracking. Amusingly, a story came out on TechCrunch this morning about how often iPhones get broken. Its not surprising.

Other news.. the batter is suddenly better. It lasted a full day at work and only lost about 20% of its life – unlike the whole of last week where it drained about 60% during the workday – without any use. I don’t know how/why this change is happening, as I havent changed my use of it since last week. Maybe its not switching networks as often this week? AT&T is a bit fishy here at my desk. As I mentioned before, it even dropped one of the first calls I’ve received on it, while sitting at my desk.

OS 3.0 has the big promise of “push” – which basically means the phone can notify me of alerts from 3rd party applications – instead of just email/SMS. The big thing here is that IM clients like AIM or Gtalk might be able to “stay alive” now – instead of this whole “sign off when the phone goes to sleep” thing which is so vexing. Since I don’t use AIM outside of work – I don’t plan to install that app, despite it being free. The only way to really get Google Talk is via an app called BeeJive, which is raved about. unaminously. The new version is finally out, and supports “push” – meaning I might be able to have a full conversation on Google Talk again. The app is $10 – which pisses me off. IM is free and I already have this pricey data plan – its really irritating to have to pay more to get access. This phone could really be a money pit for unwise people.

The camera still sucks. I tried to take a picture this morning as my car hit 55,555 miles.. I was 0 for 6. No flash makes it impossible for the camera to take a “fast” picture – so it tries to keep its shutter open longer for more light. Well, that causes blurry photos – especially in the car. Annoying. This camera has annoyed me on many occasions, though its nice that it finally has something of a “quick launch”.

Another test of the iPhone’s “superiority” came up this morning – an internet sensation – the legendary Woot Off. Woot.com holds these now and then, essentially a massive barrage of one-deal-after-another – and you never know what’s next. The goal is to get the fabled “Bag of Crap” – which, for a couple bucks, could land you a big screen TV, or quite literally a bag of useless crap. Its always a fun gamble though. Anyway, the iPhone has some “deal trackers” – that could alert me of a new item. Its something I always wanted to see on the Blackberry.. but does not exist. So – does it work?

In a word – no. Again, no background apps allowed, so the “tracker” shuts down when the phone does. No alerts while the phone is sleeping – and like so many other things, you have to re-load it once you wake up the phone. The more promising of the couple apps actually crashes everytime I wake up the phone and reload it. Lovely. If I did happen to see something I wanted, the “purchase” experience would likely be pretty decent via the Safari browser.. but the chances of seeing something are pretty slim, due to this stupid “disconnect” situation that the phone surrounds itself in.