• iPhone After 3 Weeks

    Data & Rogers
    I’ve been using significantly less data than I anticipated. After three weeks I’m just under 100MB total usage. I attribute this partially to: being in The States last weekend; staying within wifi range a lot; and mainly Rogers’ terrible 3G network. The network in Winnipeg is not very good (It’s currently been down for 2 days). I ran a couple of speed test – with full reception, in a stationary position – I was only able to get  200 – 400kbps. More often then not loading extremely light-weight pages, like google or wikipedia results is nearly impossible. Using any sort of streaming is out of the question.

    As I mentioned earlier, I think the poor quality of their 3G network might have been one of the main reasons Rogers was so hesitant to offer unlimited data plans. Until now, I don’t think Rogers has been treating their wireless data service as a serious consumer product.

    Apps
    If it wasn’t for the iTunes App Store I would have jailbroken my iPhone by now. We’re finally starting to see some interesting apps bubble to the top.
    Twinkle is great! Twitter + location = pretty genius.
    Dynolicious, looks like a pretty intense car performance meter. With the ability to generate, graph and store stats like 0-60, lateral Gs, Horsepower, it’s probably worth the $12.99. I drive a Yaris, so it’s kind of pointless for me. It would be pretty hillarious to take on a plane (GPS and accelerometer still work in flight mode).
    Starting to see some good free games as well. I’ve been playing BreakClassic, Moonlight Mahjong Lite and Jawbreaker…Wonder if there’s a minesweeper clone.
    The facebook app is still great – I think they came out with a 1.1 release since my first post. You can now view all user data.

    [if someone knows how to link to the iTunes Store, please leave a  comment]

    Syncing
    Ok seriously, why does syncing take over an hour?!
    When iTunes does it’s once a day iPhone Backup it takes me at least an hour and a half to sync. And I can’t seem to stop the backup process.


  • Security? Why Bother

    I’ve been working on an internal information delivery system for an unnamed multi-national.

    I just logged in to their production database to set up some new features. One of which involved updating their user database. While poking around, I noticed that all but 62 of their roughly 400 users had the same password hash (meaning they all had the same password)!

    Seriously!


  • Podcasts I Subscribe To

    …In alphabetical order:

    • Audible Ajax – Infrequently updated. Interviews with key figures in the world of AJAX. 3.3/5
    • Buzz Out Loud – Daily. Easily the best tech news podcast. 5/5
    • CBC Radio 3 Podcast – Weekly. An hour of good Canadian music. 3.5/5
    • Best of As It Happens – Daily. CBC Radio long running (40+years?) current events show in podcast digest. Mon – Thurs it’s the best segment of the day. Friday it’s a weekly recap. Listening to this makes me feel old. 3/5
    • Diggnation – Weekly. Video. You really should already know about this show. It’s getting a little old, I’m only going to give it 3.8 out of 5.
    • ExtraLife Radio – Weekly. Comics and nerd culture. 3.9/5
    • Gadgettes – Weekly. CNET podcast where ladies (+ Jason Howell) talk about tech. 3/5
    • The Instance – Weekly. World of Warcraft podcast, still listen to it even though I haven’t played in months. 4/5
    • Mailbag – Weekly. Video. CNET’s Molly Wood reads funny emails. 3.7/5
    • net@night – Weekly. Leo Laporte and Amber Mac talk about the internet, I’ve found out about MANY great Web 2.0 startups through this podcast. 4/5
    • Quirks & Quarks – Weekly. CBC Radio’s long running science show, in podcast format. 3.5/5
    • RCRD LBL – Weekly. Roundup of the best music on RCRDLBL.com. 4/5
    • Search Engine – On Hiatus/Canceled. CBC Radio’s EXCELLENT show about the internet. Even if it doesn’t come back on the air, the back episodes are worth a list. 5/5
    • Spark – Weekly/On Hiatus. CBC Radio show about culture surrounding the internet. Frequent contributions from Cory Doctorow and Merlin Mann. 5/5
    • tech5 – Daily. John C Dvorak’s take on the day’s tech news. 4.5/5
    • This Week in Tech – Weekly. Leo Laporte and friends discuss the week’s tech news. The guests are often really lame and it tends to drag on. But when it’s good, it’s great! 3.3/5
    • The 404 – Daily. The best way to discribe tihs is A Tech Morning Show. Usually hillarious. 4.8/5
    • White Coat, Black Art – Weekly/Currently on repeats. CBC Radio’s show about the Health Care Industry/System in Canada. Always interesting, sometimes a little dry. 3.7/5
    • Xbox Live’s Major Nelson Radio – Weekly. Xbox live’s Director of Programming provides an inside look into what’s going on with the xbox 360, with a good dose of general gaming banter. 3/5