runk's junk : geeky goodness

It’s been two months since I purchased my iPhone and I couldn’t be happier. This is my first smart phone, as well as my first PDA, so my experiences are limited, but I love this device.

I never felt the need to have my contacts and calendar with me at all times, but now that I do I feel so much more in control. And being able to browse the internet and check my email anytime and anywhere is incredible. I just wish Apple would come up with a Flash player soon.

There are literally thousands of applications for the iPhone, and while a great deal of them are crap, there a some real gems:

Vay, a 1993 Sega CD game, has been ported to the iPhone and I had a blast playing it. The controls were reworked for the iPhone’s touch screen and for the most part worked great. While most of the other games I’ve downloaded are fun, they aren’t very deep. They would be what is considered casual games; games like Tetris, Chess, card games, Backgammon, etc. Games without a story or plot; games that you can pick up and play for just a few minutes at a time. I probably spent nearly 30 hours playing Vay. It’s what broke my reading marathon. Vay costs $4.99.

Remote is an app that let’s you control an iTunes library from you iPhone. While great for parties,  it is also good for taking control of your friends iTunes and playing some decent music for a change. Remote is free.

Another fun app is Shazam. Shazam will listen and identify a song playing off the radio or an other source and then create a link to that song in iTunes. Shazam is free.

And speaking of free, many websites have created free iPhone interfaces for their websites. Google, WordPress, Yelp, ebay, PayPal, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to name a few.

I love my Mac PowerBook and can not see myself ever going back to a desktop computer, but the more I use the iPhone, the easier it becomes to leave my PowerBook at home.

I was a little hesitant to take the leap because of the increase in my monthly bill, and I do believe AT&T is charging too much, especially for SMS. But that is a symptom of the wireless carriers in general and not limited to AT&T. But switching to the iPhone is like when I switched to broadband. Now that I’ve done it, I don’t think I could ever go back.

Brisingr book three of the Inheritance trilogy releases September 20.

Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 – 1951-1961 comes to DVD November 11.

Futurama: Bender’s Game blasts onto DVD and Blu-Ray November 4.

Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Vol. 6 comes to DVD October 21.

The DVD release of Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943, Vol. 3 has been pushed back to November 4.

Wall•E comes to DVD and Blu-Ray November 18.

Review: Of the three direct-to-DVD sequels I’ve watched recently, The Lost Boys: The Tribe was the best, but that isn’t saying much. The Lost Boys: The Tribe revolves around a “tribe” of surfer vampires, so you know right away this isn’t high art.

The high point of the movie is seeing Cory Feldman reprise his role from the original Lost Boys movie. Make sure to watch the alternate endings to see Cory Haim’s cameo.

The Lost Boys: The Tribe is a popcorn, check your brain at the door, movie for fans of the vampire genre. If you’re not into vampire movies, don’t bother.

The Incredible Hulk comes to DVD and Blu-Ray October 21.