David R Storms.com

Like many millions of people I downloaded on June 17th the highly anticipated 3.0 software update from Apple for the iPhone. Since I’m not even a year into my contract with Rogers, this review will be based on my 3G. I think this will make a more accurate review of the software itself without confusing 3.0 features that work only with the 3GS.

For the most part I will revisit the highlighted items from my post back in March on the iPhone OS 3.0 Update.

Installing

Installation was a breeze. I have to admit that I was caught up in the excitment for this one and got up bright and early and started scanning for updates in iTunes but none were to be had. At work through TweetDeck I setup a search feed to watch Twitter for #iPhone3.0 and saw a lot of people waiting. I checked again at lunch time and nothing (I’m in EST by the way). Around mid afternoon, say around 3-4 pm I saw notes all over the place of people downloading. There was also reports of time outs, iTunes activation problems, delays, peoples phones not coming back, etc. Needless to say I was a bit aprehensive. But I know I would try anyway.

I was home around 5 ish that night and wondered if the servers would still be bogged. I plugged in my iPhone, gave it one last glace at 2.x, then proceeded with the upgrade. The download of a couple hundred megabytes took about 17 minutes or so. The backup of the phone took place, then the firm ware was installed. This was probably about 10 minutes. During installation my phone went black and I saw the normal silver Apple logo with a progress bar underneath. I thought I would see that progress bar each time the phone started as a new feedback feature, but alas not the case.

Before it was done iTunes alerted me that there was a software update from my carrier (Rogers) and if I wanted to download this. I can only assume that it had something to do with the MMS and tethering capabilities. I agreed and it downloaded and installed in no time.

That was it. My iPhone came back all loaded. I normally reseve the home page for the factory apps, and in 2.x I had 1 spare space where I put Tweetie. After 3.0 the Voice Memos app was added which pushed Tweetie to the next page. However what it did was put it on a blank page just to the right of the home screen all by itself. I was startled at first but fine with it. I believe you can go up to 10 pages now and I find that I now want to still reserve factory apps for the home screen, then frequently used ones on a more or less empty page.

Later on I’ll talk about Spotlight which kind of antiquates this.

App Store & iTunes (from iPhone)

I find these 2 apps now slower for me. Maybe I’m crazy but I get the loading screen a bit longer than I normally do. Even slower when not on Wi-fi.

First time I started the App Store I had 2 apps that had updates now that I was on 3.0. However each of them failed repeatedly. They would sit on the waiting stage for a while and then I would try again and from the App Store and I would get 2 failures. Finally I was in either the App Store or iTunes and I got prompted to accept the license agreement.

Finally on the App Store, when you look at the details of an app, you no longer have to click through the images, they all load on the detail page and you just swipe left and right to look at them. This is great for me beause I like to see all the screens but I don’t want to have to click one, then go back, click one then go back.

I did that and lo and behold I could update those apps. Only hiccup I’ve had there.

While I haven’t done it, I think it’s neat you can get TV shows and movies from iTunes right on the phone. I beleive you will need Wi-fi to download them because my 1 GB cap just won’t handle it!

Touted Features

Apple says over 100 new features, and I found this site that lists them all. Here is my personal experience with each of them.

Cut, Copy & Paste

Another feature that I think it’s great that it is there and extremely useful, but I just don’t do that much copy pasting on the phone to begin with. When I do use it though, it works as expected. And the shake to undo and redo blows a lot of people away and was a very nice touch on Apple’s part.  I’m used to double tapping to zoom things and often the bubble pops up with text selected but its easily dimissed.

It’s just the way it is, but without a mouse it is a bit slower to narrow down to select the text you want, and I do find that the feature is smart about finding a word, then paragraph and then page.

The fact that the feature works across all apps is expected and works great. Copying images (up to 5 I believe) from the Photos app to an email works well (although you can send via email right from the Photos app), but grabbing an image from a web page and mailing it off is great too.

I don’t use this a lot, but I sure am glad it’s there!

Landscape Keyboard

I sort of got used to typing in portrait mode so it is a conscious reminder to flip to this form. Primarily I would use it in Email and Messages. I don’t take notes very often but I’m sure I would use this there as well.

Text Messaging & MMS

As mentioned above, the landscape keyboard is now in text messages which marginally helps me type. I do find it can take up a lot of room and leave me little area to see what is there:

One of the first things I did was try to send pictures over MMS. This worked like a charm. The small camera next to the text line makes it easy to snap a new shot or choose an existing one. I was told by my friend that pictures with text came out weird on his phone, but I love how they appear in speach bubbles on my end.

Last week though I tried to send him some shots of our basement project and all of them failed. Failed messages have a little red exclamation point beside them that you can click and retry. I did this many times but they still failed and I just gave up.

As I found out tonight (June 24) my friend also sent me pics last Friday (June 19th) and Sunday (June 21) and I didn’t get them until tonight. I then replied back with a picture and it worked. Best guess is that Rogers was overwhelmed or had to work on something last minute to make MMS work better. No idea. Haven’t seen any word on this.

You can now selectively forward and delete individual messages which I like rather than clearing the whole conversation.

Sadly I can’t take video because I don’t have the 3GS so I don’t think I can MMS any either.

A great change to the Messages app is now that when you send you are not locked out of the app while it sends but your message bubble pops up and at the top the app you have the “sending” note with the progress bar. That made a lot of sense to me.

I don’t find the app opens any faster but in fact seems slower to me.

Spotlight

This is a great idea addition to the phone. However I keep forgetting that it is there and often find myself locating apps and contacts the old fashioned pre-3.0 days.

I know its there I just need to remember to use it. The number 1 reason I would use this is quick access to my contacts. I don’t have pages and pages of apps and I organize them a bit so it’s not such a big deal to flip through the pages. I think it’s great that it will look into my email and calendar events, not to mention the iPod library.

Other

I have noticed modest speed boosts in web site rendering but I don’t tax things that greatly. I do know that JavaScript heavy sites like the Google services work quickly. I use the mobile version of Google Reader and its fantastic.

Another feature I use often is the landscape support in Email. Not so much for flipping through the list of messages, but opening emails I find it very useful. I still get the delay while the app tries to adjust the font size so it is readible, but that is mitigated a bit by the landscape support. I find that I type faster in SMS using portrait mode but from time to time I will use the messages app in landscape mode too.

If you want, here is  forum documenting user found features you may not even know about yet!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=715629

Note: “Watchmen” is a graphic novel that appeared in the mid 1980’s from Alan Moore and David Gibbons. This post is my review of the film adaptation. If you have not read the book be aware spoilers abound!

A friend of mine had told me of the book at tone point and I tucked it away as something I think I would want to read some day. Well, with all the buzz of the movie serveral starting 5 or 6 months ago, I knew that I would want to see it right away, and as a general rule I try to read the source material first. So at Christmas time I received a copy as a gift and quickly sunk into it. I had it completed very quickly, finding it hard to put down.

Opening night (March 6th) I went with that same friend to watch the Watchmen, here is what I found.

Story

The book. The story is the book. Zak Snyder (the director) kept very true to the book. And for me that is what I like about adaptations. He did leave some small bits out, and tweaked here and there but I would say over 90% is right from the pages of the graphic novel.

I loved the opening. It was a montage of photographs being taken of the various Minutemen of the 1940’s, such as the famours group shot, and others of them aprehending criminals. All to the music of Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are A Changing”. The entire opening credits were this way and almost gave the back story that was otherwise sprinkled throughout the book. It even introduced a bit of the back stories of the modern Watchmen. Very well done.

Probably two of the biggest changes with the missing parts of the story that was removed, and the changed ending. The missing parts of the story really could be there, but were simply edited out for time. I suspect that we will see an extended cut on DVD with these added in, much the same way “Lord of the Rings” did.

The change of the ending made sense, Veidt causing a Dr. Manhattan like bomb to go off in several cities thus uniting the world against Manhattan. In the movie and book Manhattan leaves Earth to go to distant worlds so it tied in nicely. It seemed more plausible then the squid alien creature that united the world under threat of invasion. Other than that I think the movie did the book justice.

There was some more graphic content than I expected. Fight scenes were gory in parts which I can only suspect is the directors touch. They were shocking but also flowed a bit with the film, however at the same time some of the right scenes where arms were broken in front of the camera or chopped off with a saw may seem a bit much.

There was nudity in this movie too, probably more than needed to be. I understand Dr. Manhattan didn’t really were clothes, but they didn’t have to “wave” it in our face all the time.

Characters

We start with Rorschach. I think Jackie Earle Haley did a very convincing and impressive job as the demented detective. I really enjoyed this character and when I heard his voice, it sounded like what I heard in my own head reading the book. The effects of his mask were well done and not over used, it just seemed to be there and part of the character. They show case it once when he first appears and then just let it be for the rest.

The Comedian was well played too. In the beginning was an expanded fight sequence in which he gets severely beaten (and rather harshly) by Veidt before being thrown out the window. The rest of the film you only see him in the other characters flash backs and each time you see him he seems to steal the screen time as the focal point of the scene.

I thought Nite Owl was well done too. The more modern costume definitely fit him in league with the more modern Batman look on which he was based. I thought the character being very meek when not in costume came over quite well and you could see the transformation when Nite Owl went to work. I enjoyed all of the scenes with Nite Owl, especially when he teamed up with Rorschach.

Silk Spectre was OK. This character had an important role in the book, but found her somewhat secondary to the film. The performance didn’t really blow me away and the costume, which appealing, seemed to be trying to grab speciific attention from a specific demographic.

Ozymandias was only OK too. I think I had a different picture in my head of the actor. It could be that I had the wrong thing in my head but Adrian Veidt just didn’t seem so “blah” in the book. He was supposed to come across as the major villian but he just seemed to emotionless for me. Now his fight sequences at the end with Nite Owl and Rorschach were impressive and very enjoyable.

Dr. Manhattan came across exactly as I thought he would. A very powerful and detached entity. I think the back story on him while he was lamenting on Mars was great. I loved how he looked when he was basically broken apart molecule by molecule. Him appearing as a floating set or nerves and then later as a skeleton brought me back to the scenes in the book and looked very cool. The CG they did for this character was very impressive. It was of course based on a solid performance, but I am very interested in the DVD extra features to learn more about how they did this.

Look and Feel

The movie was dark, as one would expect.  Everything made sense, most importantly for me, the music was excellent. It was both out of place and very fitting at the same time.

The CG was very well done. Dr. Manhattan for sure. His cog like castle on Mars was very impressive, but for me it didn’t look real, maybe it was the lighting.

The sets were very well done and again very faithful to the book. There was little pieces everywhere that appeared as cameos, such as the newstand that is a constant throughout the book, and walls of peoples apartments adorned with newspaper clippings and photographs that complimented the story line of the book rather than explaining in the movie.

Before I leave this, I have to warn you: Ozymandias’ suit has man nipples, yes just like in the Batman films we dare not mention. No explanation was given for this. Don’t let it sour the movie for you though!

Conclusion

Overall this was an excellent film. Very long but that doesn’t bother me too much. I imagine the directors or extended cut will be coming later this year that will add a whole hour or more to the film. That is the very to get people, wait for it on Blu-ray if you can.

Also later this month is the “Tales From the Black Freighter” animated DVD that also has excerpts from “Under the Hood”, which is a book written by one of the characters.

See this movie. Keep in mind it may not be exactly what you expect. It isn’t “Batman” or “Superman” or even “Spider-Man”. This may put some people off but I can’t really explain what it is and due it justice. Spend the 10 bucks and find out for yourself. I’ve heard that people said it was boring, but I suspect they went into the movie with the wrong idea about it.

I’m positive people that liked the book will also love this movie.

Disagree? Agree? Post a comment.

Also note, this link was discovered and is posted on this forum, funny if you are a Watchmen fan:

http://forum.uselessbabble.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=55&sid=1f1d7ec4ebdfcc7f4ce5e1294a561863

I have to say season 4 has been my favourite season yet! Before the season started we knew that an end date was set for lost. It was to be 3 more seasons and I believe 16 episodes per season. I was very interested to see this new season since there was no floating end point anymore. The writer knew when the show was finished so they start nailing the show down rather than let if float off with question after unanswered question.

In the wake of the writers strike we have ended up with 8 continuous episodes aired with a break of about a month and then a return with a couple more weeks worth to end the season. I believe also this season has been cut to 14 episodes but that those extra 2 will simply fall to later seasons.

From Season 3:

S3 ended with a twist. Suddenly there was no flash back, but a flash forward. We see our would be hero Jack in the future, alive and well (so to speak) off the island. And guess what, Kate was there too. Jack’s life was hell and he desperately wanted to get back to the island. Wow. Now that the season dealing with the Others is over, and the impending “rescue” of the Losties about to begin, we start S4.

Freighter Folk

This all started when Naomi landed on the island. Knifed down at the end of S3 by Locke she succumbs to her injuries, but not before sending a message over her satellite phone indicating foul play. Soon new members from the freighter join those on the island.

First we have Daniel. Dan is a physicist and a rather odd individual. He seems to know a good deal about the “weirdness” on the island and seems to have a scientific explanation, especially when it comes to the strangeness with time. He performs a test with the crew on the freight launching a beacon that takes over 30 minutes to arrive, proving there is a lag in time going to and from the island.

Next we have Miles. When he is introduced in his flashback he reveals that he has some innate ability to speak to people who aren’t around, in other words dead. He was making a living at talking with the dead before he ended up on the freighter. Miles is conniving and always seems to be out for himself, meaning he doesn’t like to trust too many people. He finds himself traded over and held prisoner by Locke where he ends up trying to make a deal with Ben for $3.2 million dollars to walk away and never tell where he found him. You see, the freigties are after Ben Linus.

Charlotte seems to be confident woman, and knowledgeable. She is at first captured by Locke after dropping on to the island but is traded for Miles by Sayid when he makes a deal to get onto the freighter. Charlotte and Daniel sneak away to the Hydra station to prevent the release of a toxic gas spreading on the island that would kill everyone. It was one of their objectives after arriving to diffuse what could by Ben’s last resort to island invasion.

Lastly we have Frank who is the chopper pilot that got everyone on the island. His flashback shows that he was supposed to be the pilot on Oceanic 815 but never made it on flight. He seems determined to help the survivors and maybe doesn’t know the whole story.

Oceanic Six

In the first episode the flash forwards continue. Now they start to roll back from the last we saw of Jack going inevitably closer to present time on the island. Hurley is the focus of this episode and reveals that he is one of the six survivors. In an ironic twist a calm Jack visits Hurley in the mental institution who is emphatic that they have to go back, much like Jack was at the end of S3.

We of course know that Jack was a member of the Oceanic Six.

Next we learn that Sayid is also a member of this elite group. However, in his flash forward he is a hitman! In this time it is his job to protect his friends by killing those that are on the list. And the man that Sayid is taking orders from is from the last one you would expect: Ben!

Kate was revealed at the end of S3 to have made it off island but we get her flash forward story and see that she faces the law upon her return. Interestingly enough in her trial Jack takes the stand and tells the story of the plane crash but drastically different from the real events. There is an obvious cover up going but we have no idea why. Kate is eventually seen as a hero and settles with house arrest. She is happy to go home and be with her son who we find out is an older Aaron, Claire’s child!

Finally our last one is Sun. In her flash forward she is pregnant with Jin’s baby but ends up giving birth alone. We see that a solemn Hurley and new mother Sun with baby visit the grave site of Jin who didn’t seem to make it off island.

Who is the Bad Guy?

We know Ben has done some wicked things but still claims to be the “good guy.” When Locke and Jack have fundamental differences about whether the freighter folk are actually there to help them, the remaining survivors choose sides and Locke takes Ben with him.

Even as a prisoner Ben seems to weasel his way back into their graces and he keeps dropping more information to his capture. He shows him who the real bad guy is: Charles Widmore. The freighter is his and Ben is fearful of this man discovering the island. Ben even had evidence that Widmore had staged the entire plane crash into the bottom of the ocean, including 300 plus dead survivors.

Meaning while evidence to the contrary that Ben was behind the faked plane wreckage is also show to Sayid and Desmond and also to a new ally for Ben: Micheal!

Micheal returns on the freighter. He and Walt had made it off the island back to New York but under assumed identities. It turns out killing Anna Lucia and Libby was getting the better of him and he even told Walt which drove them apart. Micheal resulted to suicide but he couldn’t. Mr. Friendly (aka Tom) from the island (before he died obviously) was the one that told him the island wouldn’t let him die because he still had work to do. He convinced him to be Ben’s spy on the freighter and to do what was necessary to redeem himself.

Constant

In the best episode of the 8 so far we learn more of Desmond’s condition. When Sayid makes the deal for Frank to fly him to the freighter, Desmond tags along. But after they get so far from the island something unique happens to him. His conscience is replaced by that of himself 8 years earlier!

Throughout the episode Desmond lives in two timelines, one with Sayid on the freighter and the other back in his life in 1996. His jumping back in forth would soon kill him he couldn’t find a way to anchor himself to the right timeline. For that Daniel of the island present time talks with him and has Desmond find himself in 1996 for help. Desmond does and in an emotional ending he rights himself by talking with Penny in the island present. She professes she will find him.

Deaths

By the time the episode run finished we have questions answered but not all of them. The flash forwards are making their way back to the point of how the survivors left the island and what happened to see that there was only 6.

It seems also that a war is brewing. A desperate Ben sends his daughter Alex away to the Tempest station for safety. She leaves with her mother Rousseau and her boyfriend Karl.

They are ambushed and Rousseau and Karl are looked to be fatally shot. Alex is left alive and its easy to see that the unknown assailants were after Ben’s daughter to use against him.

Looking Forward

This season is definitely the best so far. There is so much more yet to be revealed and the next couple episodes promise to be amazing. We should learn by season end some of the terrible things that take place to bring about the future we saw at the end of S3. We are likely to see in later seasons what happens to those characters and if they indeed go back to the island.

Lost returns April 24th, I know I’ll be watching!

~David