Visited the Palo Alto Apple store today and took the plunge on a 8GB iPhone; TechCrunch’s Nick Gonzales and I bought one each at the same time. Phone unlocked and app installer on (thanks John) and the phone is working with the Optus sim. It won’t work on the AT&T Edge data network, which given the roaming fees for Optus is probably a good thing, and there is Wifi everywhere here so using it to get online is a sinch…except for the hotel where the Wifi is spotty.

First impressions as an owner are the same as the first time I played with one. Wow. There is nothing else like it, it’s beautiful in every single way. YouTube doesn’t work with the unlock unfortunately, and of course there is no visual voice mail, but hey: email and web surfing is amazing. Camera is just as good as my old Nokia. iPod is brilliant, cover flow is even better again and it pumps out a decent sound on speaker. The typing gets easier with time, and I always sucked at txting anyway, so I’m already quicker on this. Call quality is excellent and most importantly it’s got a stronger antenna in it: where as I can’t get AT&T coverage at all at TC central on the Nokia, I get?Ǭ† 3-4 bars on the iPhone.

More soon…perhaps when I stop constantly picking it up and playing with it 🙂

I’ve got no idea if the same applies to Australian batteries, but it’s still amazing none the less: 32 AA batteries from 1 6v


6 Volt Battery Hack! You’ll Be Amazed! – video powered by Metacafe

Im sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Adagio San Francisco waiting for check-in. Funny how the staff at an expensive hotel are ruder than the cheap Best Western I stayed in last night: “Check-in isn’t until 3” I was told, where as when I rocked up at the Best Western yesterday at 12 they were overly helpful and found me a room straight away. Sure, the hotel room at the Best Western probably won’t be as nice as the one I’m checking into, but sometimes it’s the little things.

I’ve been trying to get an upgrade on the flight back: looks like a Qantas scam. For acquiring Frequent Flyer points and paying I’m considered full economy, but I’m not for a business class upgrade, and hence it’s 72,000 pts vs 48,000 or something like (I’ve got 60,000). Grrrr, not sure I can go that long with limited sleep again…hopefully this time the loud Americans sitting next to me don’t need to piss 7 times in a 14-15 hour flight…particularly when I’m trying to sleep.

TechCrunch 40 starts tomorrow. I’m live blogging it at TechCrunch along with Nick Gonzales. Crazy stuff with a cast of thousands, amazing speakers and having seen the list now some bloody good startups as well.

Last thing: Jason Calacanis mentions San Francisco’s homeless problem. I thought I saw it bad the last time I was here, I was obviously in the good side of town. There is a homeless person in front of nearly every second building…as an Australian I find it very, very disconcerting. At least they aren’t like Canadian beggars (well Toronto beggars), they don’t aggressively jump in front of you asking for a dime…most of the time they are passive, but it’s still weird. The oxymoron of being at the centre of the richest empire in the history of the world, only to find yourself surrounded by the poor strikes again.

Ben Barren was telling me this week that he finds himself posting a whole lot less and instead Twittering: he’s right for me as well, I spend far too much time Twittering and less time blogging, I’m not sure whether this is a bad thing or good thing, and I am still blogging heavily, just not here.

Any how, two new podcasts up at On The Pod, both involve Ben Barren. On the Pod 5 is a direct interview, #6 is the blogging session for Influence. Topics vary and include blogging, marketing and PR, Web 2.0, Australian VC and much much more. Ben’s a great guy to interview: I could have gone on for hours in the podcast.

As for travel, I’m in the air again these coming weeks after being in the Hunter Sat-Tuesday this week. I leave early Saturday morning for TechCrunch 40, I’ll be in the Valley until Friday, home Sunday then off again Thursday fortnight for the Australian Blogging Conference in Brisbane. I shouldn’t complain, it’s a privilege to do this sort of traveling, yet on the other hand it would have been nicer space over a couple of months instead of 3 trips in as many weeks, and she who must be obeyed is not a happy camper. Ironically she’s spending a week in Cairns for work “training” in October, I can get my own back then 🙂

More pics, maybe some more blogging and podcasting from the US next week.

I was upgraded to Silver Status (One World Ruby) last month and the trip East for Influence is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to use it. Checking in at the business class queue in Perth this morning was great, particularly after the at least 2km walk from long term parking at 6:30am (they’ve done away with the buses…bloody Perth Airport Corporation). I’m writing this from Brisbane; unfortunately I’m stuck flying JetStar to Newscastle and the plane is 55 minutes late…the perfect excuse to use the complimentary Qantas Club pass I received with my Status upgrade. The food a good, the beer is cold, and best of all it’s free. The Wifi on the other hand is a little slow, but at least I’m not paying for it. A couple more decent trips in the next 12 months and I’ll get to Gold, which means Q Club is included. Cheers 🙂

Zoli Erdos rues buying a Vista machine. Raju Vegensa using the $1700 it was going to cost him to recover data from a Dell on a Macbook Pro.

I read late last week Cameron Reilly on Twitter complaining about issues with his PC. When a couple of folks suggested buying a Mac he said that dealing with PC issues is a manly thing to do: now I’ve heard everything.

The thing is, and the reason why I’m now a Mac desktop and laptop user (the Macbook Pro is the Ferrari to the Acers Proton, The Mac Pro is difficult to compare to anything, maybe Aston Martin? 🙂 ) is because time is too precious to deal with computer issues. This isn’t 1995, or 1989 for that mater, back when you might use your computer for the occasional game and a bit of word processing, with a whole ton of spare time in between for tweaking software and hardware. Time has a cost. Macs might be a little bit more expensive (and it’s really only a little bit when you compare PC hardware with the exact same specs) but the cost benefit works in your favor with the time saved by not having to maintain it or worry about drivers/ compatibility/ everything really the longer you use it. I can honestly say but except for occasionally forgetting the name of an installed app and not being immediately able to find it (my fault) I’ve never had an issue on my two Macs yet in around 6-8 weeks of becoming a Mac user.

BTW: for PC’s users thinking of coming across: Parallels covers you for Windows apps. I’m still using Windows Live Writer for my personal blogging, for playing Poker (no Mac Pokerstars client yet) and for general software testing. Windows runs better on the Mac than it ever did on my PC, and most importantly I’m not reliant on Windows for mission critical apps.

Interesting online discussion 12 hours after Strippergate hit the headlines. All the commentary I’ve seen so far has been from men who think Rudd has done nothing wrong. Of course they all would have done the same thing in the past (to an extent) although at least in my own credit I’ve never touched a stripper, after all who would want to be on the wrong side of a Kings Cross bouncer (for record the last time I was in a strip club was probably 19 or 20).

What the commentators are forgetting is the female vote. Women dont like strip clubs. Period, unless of course they are a stripper themselves, and even there you wouldn’t get a 100% favorable vote. Rudd will probably get a rise in the polls from men, but a big decline from women. Whether he has the viagra in his pocket to sway women voters again (as opposed to happy hands) will be seen in time.

Also some context as some have immediately compared Rudds lecherous hands to the shitfaced Glen Milne attacking Stephen Mayne last year: Milne wasn’t representing his country. Rudd was Opposition Spokesman for Foreign Affairs at the time (Shadow Foreign Minister) and was in New York representing Australian at the United Nations. If Rudd has done this at 18 instead of signing bible hymns and telling everyone how he’d be Prime Minister one day, we’d all accept it as a right of passage ritual (although again: I’ve never touched a stripper before, but maybe I was deprived). He did this as a grown man on the taxpayers pocket. We may laugh it of but it certainly brings into question his overall sense of judgement. I wonder if he’ll be inviting some world leaders down to the Cross during APEC? Maybe God told him to lay his healing hands on the strippers? 🙂 (another Christian hypocrite).

An ode to Kevin Rudd (apologies for the nudity, it’s probably less than he looked at, or felt 🙂 )

Michael Arrington would appear to share the same hearing issue I suffer:

One problem I have is very bad hearing. When there is background noise/music/conversation I often cannot understand what a person is saying right in front of me. Sometimes I try to follow the conversation from fragments that I pick up. Other times, I ask for them to repeat what they said. It?s frustrating.

I’ve suffered the same thing since my late teens. Crowds, be they pubs, parties whatever are the problem. The louder the background noise the worse it is. I had a speech pathologist tell me a couple of months back that I should seek treatment (the golden child is seeing one). I told her that I’ve gone this long without cure, no need to fix it now.

From what I can gather it’s often related to Juvenile Tinnitus. I attended a “rock concert” when I was 15, I ears rang at low levels for the better part of the next 5 years. At 18 I’d convinced myself that I could hear high pitched sounds that others couldn’t hear (note: there was NO internet back then to give a diagnosis). The ringing eventually went away, but the issue with background noise has been present ever since. I was also heavily involved with Jazz and Concert Bands until my early 20’s which probably didn’t help.

I’d note some of the trolls of Crunchnotes have been harsh. It is both unfair and uncalled for. I’ve never seen my inability to easily define conversations in crowds as a disability. You’ll often see me stand slightly side on to people in a conversation so I can better focus on what is being said. There are of course times where you just nod your head and agree with everything someone is saying to you because you haven’t got the faintest idea what they are saying, but certainly (at least for me) it is the exception to the rule. The thought (as one commenter argued) that if you cant hear properly you shouldn’t put yourself in that situation is beyond offensive. Just accept that some people find it difficult to hear in crowds.

Introducing On The Pod: my weekly podcast on what ever takes my fancy at the time. It will be mostly tech but not strictly so, it will depend on the guest. The aim is to talk to folks who might not otherwise have a voice, people who are interesting. I’ll also be aiming to interview most of Australia’s Web 2.0 crowd, so be warned. 🙂

My first show is with David Krug. We cover blogs, blog networks, user generated content and unionised blogging. It’s a little longer than I’d planned it to be (I’m aiming for 30mins per show) but it was worth it. A great conversation and for those with the time to listen I hope you enjoy it, audio issues aside (I’m a little quiet). Great fodder for your next car commute or plane trip 🙂