Digg clones typically don’t do all that great but over the last year or so I’ve seen some notable exceptions like Sphinn. I think Tip’d is going to be one of those sites that breaks away from the shadow of being just another social bookmarking site and be truly useful to the niche it serves. Compelling content, highly topical and expertly managed, Tip’d is poised to do well.

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Yes, I was one of “those” people. I camped out at Bridgestreet at the Apple store starting ad midnight. We went and saw Hellboy 2 before hand and when we got out (around 2) there were 5 people in line ahead of us. A few other people came about 30-40 minutes later, then about every 30 minutes in increasing numbers. Most of them shocked not only find people already there, but plenty of people already there. By opening time there were well over 150+ people in line and that was before the lines got long with all the late comers. I got out the door first even though I was #5 in line. Like most people, in store activation didn’t work so they sent me on my way with a sexy, shiny white 16GB iPhone 3G. The crowd roared when I left and held it up! It was pretty lame and fun all at the same time. I loved it.

Now, after 2 weeks of using it I’ve got a few gripes, though over all I’m extremely happy with the phone.

1. Firmware 2.0 feels glitchy. I had my 2G iPhone for a year or so with no problems. There are various small bugs that make the 2.0 feel rushed. The main bug being the “lag” in the GUI for the phone. The keyboard lags badly and even switching, opening, moving, etc. often get bogged down and I have to wait.

2. The exterior looks slick but feels a little cheaper than the original iPhone. The screen seems to smudge more and hold the prints more. Minor issue, and just me being picky about the phone.

3. The “silent” button is cheap and it shows. I’m worried I’ll be one of the people who break it by switching it! Not only that, it’s too easy to accidentally switch to silent. Annoying.

4. Apps, especially those which access the GPS, randomly cause my iPhone to restart. I’m very concerned about this behavior and worry I may have to exchange my phone. Fun.

5. “No Sim Card” error. I believe this is due the change in the sim card tray. The old one was solid, while the new one is just a ‘frame’ of a tray. As a result the sim card seems to be a bit loose in there and I’ve had to re-seat my sim card a couple of times. Just to save a few cents in metal.

Overall, the phone looks great though I wish the materials matched the quality of the first. Some of it’s dead on, but it’s the details that really get me being picky. And lets face it, using a mac makes me a picky person ;)

I do love a lot of things about the phone too. The damn thing is a work of art. Great design. I love the White one because, well, that’s very mac to me too and if I’m owning a mac I want people to know that, right? I mean cool kids where Abercrombie and Fitch. Geeks wear macs.

Some of the things I like about the 3G:

1. GPS. I’ve been wanting a GPS for a while now and was holding off in hopes of the new iPhone. I’m a big fan of a general handheld that does just everything we need on a mobile level, like camera, video, mp3, wifi, 3g, etc. The GPS, while not as good as one you’d buy for your car is perfect for walking around a city or driving. You just need to be able to read maps. Something they used to teach us in school but I’m betting most kids can’t do today. Me included.

2. App store. I can’t stress enough how much I love this. Along the lines of a “global” like device, apps extend the usefulness of the phone. From Games to Productivity, practical tools and social networking apps. I love it. I’m waiting for an Amazon app, Google Analytics app, Paypal app, SSH app and a good wallpaper app, among a few others. I also have an idea for a couple myself.

3. 3G. Um, yes please. While it’s not my 8 meg cable modem it’s pretty zippy. I often can’t tell the difference in my wifi and the 3G. It’s excellent. I’ve got no complaints about the 3G speed. Very good stuff.

4. Speakers. It seems they did a better job on the speakers. I don’t know what tweaks they made but it seems to me at least that I can hear the audio on the phone much better.

5. 16 gigs. I never used up my 4gig 2G iPhone. I didn’t bother because I knew it was only 4 gigs and there wasn’t much I could do with that with my media consumption levels. With the 16 gig I can snag all my video podcasts and audio podcasts, books, mp3s, pictures, etc. and have access to them all the time.

6. They made a white one. I’m such a sucker!

I do have a few things I still would like to see in an iPhone:

1. Video camera. Come on, I know it records! There are free apps that will let you use the camera to record. Fix this oversight! Same goes for audio memos. srsly.

2. Add a flash and step up to 3.2 megapixels if possible. Many phones are starting to do this. Apple, you need to step!

3. Copy and paste. This has been beat to death, but it’s still annoying. ‘Nuff said.

4. SD expansion slot. My guess is that they won’t ever do this because then upgrading the storage capacity is in our hands instead of theirs. I can’t think of a good reason not to have this.

5. Contact beaming. Palm has been doing this forever. This phone could easily do it. Write that down.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things, but that’s what I have so far, 2 weeks in. While my problems are potentially serious ones, I’m happy with the phone. I’m sure they rushed a little and will probably have a fair share of defective units, just like with the X-Box and PS3’s. If mine is busted and not just a firmware problem they’ll fix it. I loved my first iPhone and this is everything it was plus a little extra. Would I buy it again? If I didn’t have an iPhone already, yes. If I wasn’t giving my old one to my wife, probably not right off. I think there are still a few issues to be worked out, but to be honest it was just plain fun to camp and be part of the madness surrounding an Apple product release. It’s pretty lame and very fanboyish, but I stood in line for Empire Strikes Back with my dad for 5 hours. Being a fan is just in my blood.

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1. Turn off 3G & WiFi
2. Make sure “Location Services” in General settings is ON.
3. Power down your phone
4. Go outside (GPS needs to ’see’ the satellite)
5. Power back up
6. Go into Maps and click the locate button (Should happen pretty quick)
7. Turn ON 3G & WiFi (if you’re using WiFi)

Worked like a charm for me.

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I’ve got a couple of domains that I can do web dev specific stuff on. I’m in the process of shifting twitterhacks.com to mobilityhacks.com so I can cover broader topics there. I also own greenlivinghacks.com which I’ll be launching pretty soon along with a handful of other blogs. This are all written by me personally, but since they are broad topics and not tied to my name I can have guest bloggers as well as other regular contributors. That’s probably my favorite part about blogging is working with other people.

Another project I’m in talks to work on is huntsvillemetro.com with my friend Keith. It’s a site he did several years ago and really hasn’t had time to work on. He’s not really a programmer, but he’s great at design and ideas. So I think between the two of us we can create a really killer local portal which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Huntsville is a great city and I’d like to highlight all the cool things about it. We’ve got a couple people who are interested in writing about Huntsville and some really cool features that I think will be pretty fun to work on.

I’m in no rush to push my projects forward. Since I have a day job now it’s not so important to rush and get to the point where these things are making money. I love my job and hope to be working there for quite a long time. However, I’d still like to have my own projects moving forward and making some extra spending money just as a backup and hopefully one day become a very nice second income. I may not have mentioned this before, but my boss at work is also my mentor. He’s teaching me more about the business of running sites and we have a few projects that we’ll be doing as a joint venture. I can’t talk about those just yet, but I’m really excited by some of the ideas we’ve had. I’ll talk more about those once we have some of the details ironed out.

In the near future I’ll be posting more about some of my new projects and I’m very eager to work on a some sort of collaborative site of some kind. If anyone is interested in building a site with a handful of authors blogging please feel free to get in touch with me. I would really like to see something like that happen. I own webmastersweekly.com - we could work on some sort of weekly magazine or even something where there’s a new article every day from a different author. Or any other subject, I’d just like to do something that I’m not the sole person behind it. If you’ve got an idea and need a web developer type geek or just another writer, let me know!

I’m really excited about what’s been happing at work and with my own projects. It’s been a while since I’ve been this stoked about web development and it feels really good. I’m also looking forward to meeting more folks at some of the conventions this year and next year. I’ll post my conference schedule in a couple of days and hopefully I can meet more of you!

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I volunteered to each first and my day is Monday. I’ve got pretty much everything together (I’ll share it here too) but I wanted to get some feedback. What are some of your favorite tricks for managing email? What’s working or not working in your office?

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In March 2005 my wife Aeryn was diagnosed with cervical cancer. In fact, tomorrow is the 3 year anniversary of that horrible day. The original plan was that Aeryn would get a full hysterectomy and then have some chemo to make sure all the cancer was taken care of. But when they started the operation they found the cancer had spread to her bladder and other areas. They couldn’t proceed, instead an aggressive radiation treatment and chemo regiment would be prescribed. She had external and internal radiation and chemotherapy. Her chemotherapy took nearly 8 hours a day and she had to stay sitting there during the entire thing. I, of course, sat with her the entire time.

Two friends who I met online back in the bbs days found out and decided to get Aeryn a get well gift. We got home one day and a package was waiting on us. Inside was a brand new Sony PSP and some games to help her pass the time. This is when the PSP had just came out. This was an amazing gift and meant so much to Aeryn and me. It was an important moment in my life and a very trying time and my friends reached out in a very real way to help out. I can never thank Andy or Justin enough for their friendship and kindness. They aren’t just good people, they are great people and I’m better for having them in my life. So many others stepped up too and helped us and supported us, but this particular gift was just so far above and beyond… just, thank you guys.

Aeryn has been in remission for about a year and a half now and I know we wouldn’t be where we are without the support of great friends. Thank you all. Thank you so much. I hope you have Good People in your life too, today and every day!

Technorati Tags: GPD08

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So today he posted a video asking people to take part in Good People Day tomorrow. It’s a great idea, the gist of which is to highlight the “Good People”. Love it. I’m already working on my entry for tomorrow. Check out the video. Pass it on!

Technorati Tags: GPD08

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Being around people again is going to be interesting and mostly in a good way. I’m sure there will be some rough patches here and there. You can’t spend eight hours or so a day with people in close proximity and not rub each other the wrong way sometimes, but having people around to collaborate with and cut up with is good for the soul. I can already feel the creative energy building up and just the buzz of doing something new.

Once I’ve been there a little bit longer I’ll go deeper into what all is going on, what I’m doing and the good and bad bits about returning to work.

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One of the things I’m looking forward to most is a more structured routine. What I’m not looking forward to is getting up in the morning. I’m just not a morning person. Even after working full time for nearly 25 I’m very much a night owl. I really get creative and energized as the night goes on. Hopefully after enjoying the flexible schedule for so long it won’t be too hard to fall back into the routine. Tuesdays were always the hard day for me. This time around I’m going to try and establish my schedule 7 days a week instead of sleeping in on the weekends and see if that helps.

At any rate, I’m excited and if anyone has any tips on returning to work after a long time freelancing I’d love to year it.

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