iPhone OS 4.2 SMS tones are terrible
I understand that people like different kinds of tones for their SMS alerts. But the most recent batch of 17 new alerts (see the IOS announcement) are all obnoxious. That is, every one of them goes on for a good 3-8 seconds and they're all pretty musical. I guess this must fit what the public wants. But it isn't what I want. I would really love to just have a simple beep, or something low-key and discreet. The existing "glass" (which is just a 'ding ding' lasting about 2 seconds) is what I use for this.
I'm not surprised that they didn't release 17 simple, discreet tones. I'm surprised they didn't release 1. Just 1 out of 17 seems reasonable. Or 1 out of 18. Yes, I could jailbreak the phone and put my own tones in and all that. But I want to play by the rules.
To be fair, I think AirPlay and AirPrint are awesome ideas. I can't wait to try them. But the message tones are completely unimportant.
Star Trek boldly went where no one had gone before: good
There are a gazillion reviews for the latest Star Trek movie out there. Here's mine.
The place they went that no one had gone before? They made a good prequel. Virtually all revisits of classic things (c.f., the Transformers, George Lucas' revisits to Star Wars and E.T., Batman) are terrible. This one is the best in a long, long line of movies and TV shows.
Why is Facebook worse than TV?
I was just reading "Five Clues That You Are Addicted to Facebook" on cnn.com and it occured to me that Facebook should really be considered in the same light as television.
Obama’s Pick of Rick Warren is a Good Thing™
There's huge debate today about the fact that Barack Obama picked Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. It's a good thing, but it's something that we all have to get used to.
Book Review: The Four Hour Work Week
I just finished reading The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. There's some pretty compelling stuff in there. He hypes up his web site, however, as if there were some über-top secret stuff there that only people who buy the book can get. That's a load. Beyond that shortcoming, it's really quite an exciting and potentially life-changing book.