Amidst all the excitement of the 3G iPhone release on Friday, I think I forgot about how awesome the applications are going to be.

Check out these 2 apps by a company called PosiMotion:

G-Spot: Position Sharing for the iPhone
Look at the detail of the GPS coordinates there.  It’s like a geocaching machine right in your pocket.  My Garmin C550 won’t even give me that level of detail.   And don’t you hate it when you get kidnapped? I know I do.  Now I can just shoot out my location to everyone, and I won’t even need to login to Twitter first.

G-Park: Where Did I Park?
Now this one is pretty sweet.  Get out of your car at Six Flags, hit ‘Park Me!’, add extra details if you’d like, then leave.  When you’re ready to go home, hit ‘Where did I park?’ and get directions back to your car.  Maybe I need to get an iPhone for my wife……… ask her about the time she had to call Mall Security (you know, the little CR-V with flashing orange lights) and have them go up and down the rows until her and her friend found their car….

Position-based social networking is about to take off.  GPS is going to fuel the growth.

Hopefully some of these awesome applications are free!!

Still waiting to hear what time the iPhone will be available at Apple stores. We know that 8am is the magic time at AT&T stores, but I want to avoid those at all costs.

8am? 10am? 6pm?

Hoping for 6pm so I don’t have to take the morning off at work. But if it’s the morning, you better believe I’m not working on Friday.

At least I have a job/life, unlike those idiots already in line in New York.

In 168 hours I will be taking my place in line for the 6pm launch of the 3G iPhone.

What will I do to pass time in line… without my iPhone?

On Sunday night I was rummaging through some drawers of old stuff, and ran across two cell phones: A Motorola V551 from college, and an LG CU500, which I replaced with my first gen iPhone.

My first thought: “Why did I spend $14.99 on a CRAPPY Motorola GoPhone when I already had these?”

My second thought: “Wow, this LG CU500 has a lot of features….”

Continue reading ‘I Replaced the GoPhone’

Here’s how to check:

First log in at http://wireless.att.com.

Then look to the right side for Upgrade Phones.

Then look and see what you’re told. Either you will see that you are eligible (LIKE ME!!! :) ), or will be told:

You are not currently eligible to upgrade your device online. This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on [date].

Interestingly, you can see that AT&T has picked up that I am using the LG CU500 as my replacement phone (post to come on that). I put the Sim Card in it on Sunday night, and by Tuesday AM my photo had replaced.

I think I might ask my good friend Brett if I can borrow his iPhone on July 9/10 just to install my sim card and get the photo to change back, just to be safe. We’ll see if it even matters.

I’m getting my iPhone at an actual Apple Store rather than an AT&T store, so I fully expect to be warmly greeted by helpful, smart, friendly staff….. not incompetent, unempowered minimum wagers. I think this will help me if an issue arises.

UPDATE: I clicked ‘Not my phone/device?’ and was given the option to change my phone.  So I will do this on the 10th right before I leave for the Apple Store, and Brett can keep his phone.

I was at a gas station/truck stop near Crawfordsville, IN (Exit 39, I-74) for a rest stop.  I went into the bathroom and was faced with the dreaded 1-3-5 at a 5-spot urinal (if you are a girl, you might not understand, play this game for more info).

I opted for a stall instead, and after turning around to leave I noticed some of the most ridiculous graffiti ever on it. And I REALLY wish I would have had a camera to get a picture of it.  SURE, I could have went out to the car and grabbed my Nikon D300…… but would you take that camera into a restroom at a truck stop? Did not think so.

So anyways, when I saw a story today it reminded me of the grafitti I saw last night.

Obama Supporters Take His Name As Their Own

Back to the graffiti.  There were some real gems on this one, scribbled all around a caricature drawing of Mr. Obama with a nose shaped like a phallus.

“1-800-SOCIALIST”
“Lets hope you still have CHANGE after he raises your taxes so you can eat!”
“stoopid niger”

But then came my favorite, sticking out like a sore thumb.

“how could you vote for someone with the middle name HUSANE?”

What’s worse? The inbred truck driver’s horrible misspelling, or the gas station who had removed all graffiti from the stall except for this crap?

Sigh.  I wish I had my iPhone yesterday.

This weekend we went to Springfield, IL for a wedding. My wife took me to work and then picked me up at lunch to leave so we would not have to leave a car somewhere and so I didn’t have to drive back home since work is on the way.

She forgot to get the GPS out of her car.

Now I’ve probably driven I-74 between Indianapolis and Springfield at least 25 times in the past year, but it was just strange without my GPS. Someone called and asked what time we would be there. I had no clue. I usually can say and be correct within a minute. Yet again, I had grown accustomed to the technology.

On the way home yesterday, things got really interesting. Instead of our usual stop at the McDonalds on Neil St. in Champaign, my wife decides she wants to try Taco Bell’s value menu. That’s fine I tell her, but I have no clue where a Taco Bell is in Champaign, or how to get to it.

We decide to exit on Neil St. anyways since there are several restaurants in the area. When we exit we see there is indeed no Taco Bell. So I use the only technology at hand and give GOOG-411 a call. Top search result for Taco Bell in Champaign? SOUTH NEIL STREET. Success! I go ahead and call and ask “How far from I-74 are you on Neil St.?” The guy responds “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…………. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. about a half a mile.” Perfect. So we head down Neil St.

My first indication that I should not have listened to this fine gentlemen was when I noticed we were on the 800 block of North Neil St., and GOOG-411 said it was somewhere on South Neil St. Of course, the Taco Bell ends up being 2.75 MILES from I-74. Obviously this guy has no sense of distance.

So in the end we get our Taco Bell and all is good. We drove an unnecessary 3.5 miles and wasted about 10 extra minutes in our efforts to find a Taco Bell with no GPS or iPhone.

But man, that Crunchwrap Supreme sure hit the spot.

Last night I went shopping with my wife at the mall to get a present for my sister-in-law’s 20th birthday.

It was the first time I have gone shopping (2+ hours) without my iPhone since I got it back in October.

It was a……… different experience.  I had nothing to do, to fiddle with or play on.  It was just weird.  Looking up while walking through the mall, not just looking down at my phone and hoping to not walk into a rack of clothes.

And you know what?  It wasn’t half bad.  We talked a lot, and I saw some pretty interesting clothes and kids.  For those of you with teenagers or tweenies, my heart goes out to you.

What’s one event that you don’t think you could go to without your iPhone?  Give it a try sometime.  Go grocery shopping with your significant other and leave it at home. I dare you.

I got used to waking up to my iPhone alarm.  I had alarms set for each day (my work hours vary through the week).  I set my alarm for one day, and forgot to change it last night.  Today, I was 15 minutes late.  Whoops.

16 more days.

It’s on it’s way. Here are a few videos of me packing it up last night.

The funny thing about shipping it? I got to the Post Office at lunch and realized I didn’t have Tom’s address. I have grown to rely on just being able to pull what I need up when I need it on the iPhone. I had to drive back to work (10 mins), print it out on a piece of paper, drive back to the Post Office, and then ship it. Probably spent $2 in gas