Got my new iPhone G3

Well after trying an Apple store once or twice more and discovering unless you are willing to get in line at 5am, you aren't gonna get an iPhone, I decided to to pretty much give up on getting one any time soon. However, I decided to stop by my local AT&T store just for the heck of it. Turns out, they actually have waiting lists! Simply prepay for the phone, select the model you want and they can tell you what the wait is for it. Sweet!!

I wanted a 16gig model. The black version had a 3 week wait, the white version 3 days. So yesterday it arrived and now I have it. Woo hoo!

My first impressions are this. The phone itself is definitely faster than the old phone. Pages pop much faster when surfing via wifi as compared to the old iphone. And if you use the iPhone sites I listed in a previous post there is a very noticeable difference.

Cool SeaMonkey Theme

On a daily basis I do a lot of web browsing and use more and more online tools. Google docs being a prime example. So I often keep 2 web browsers open, Firefox and SeaMonkey. SeaMonkey is descendant of the old Netscape browser like Firefox. But unlike Firefox, SeaMonkey kept all the integrated applications (e-mail, chat, composer) in the browser. But since it is based on the same technology it is also very fast, stable etc...

SeaMonkey has a pluggable themes feature which allows you to swap out all the icons and such for a different look. I find the default theme to be a bit drab, making the browser seem dated. Fortunately I stumbled across a really cool theme to spruce things up. Check out Mostly Crystal. If you install the Linux theme, it seems to work fine. So if you use SeaMonkey, give it a try and add a little color to your browsing life. :)

Featured gadget: www.sport.co.uk Gadget

Name: www.sport.co.uk Gadget
Author: Miguel Angel Cabra
Description: News, Videos and Blog from sport.co.uk delivered right to your desktop

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Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Print Current Year Using JavaScript

I wanted to be able to print the current year in an HTML document, so I came up with this line of JavaScript code to do the job.

   1:<script type="text/javascript">var today=new Date();
   2:document.write(today.getFullYear());</script>

Here is the code for cutting and pasting.

<script type="text/javascript">var today=new Date(); document.write(today.getFullYear());</script>

Top iPhone Web Sites

Before my recent trip, I decided it was time for a redo for the all website links for my iPhone. On the Edge network, loading a normal web page is freaking painful. I swear it always takes 30 seconds just for the flash ads to fail.

So i decided to Google for a list of iPhone friendly sites. I found lots of iPhone focused mobile sites, lol, but not many links to normal news and sports sites. Anyhow, I found a few sites here and there. A lot of sites have a special iphone.domain.com or m.domain.com version of their site. I found a number of these that way. So without further ado, the list!

General News

CNN - http://m.cnn.com/

Fox News - http://iphone.foxnews.com/

Google News - http://www.google.com/m/news?source=mobileproducts&dc=gorganic

My Way - http://news.myway.com/index.html
New York Times - http://mobile.nytimes.com/

Yahoo - http://us.m.yahoo.com/

Sports

BBC Football - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/football/default.stm

ESPN - http://mobileapp.espn.go.com/wireless/espn/redesign/index

Sports Tap - http://sportstap.mobi/

Tech News

CNET - http://m.news.com/2162-12_3-0.html

Engadget - http://mobile.engadget.com/

Lifehacker - http://mobile.lifehacker.com/

SiliconValley.com - http://m.siliconvalley.com/

Slashdot - http://slashdot.org/

And one final mention that is a must have. I have found the RSS reader built into the iPhone .... lacking. But the folks at Google hit a home run with their mobile reader. So for reading RSS feeds use:

Google Reader - http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/?source=mobileproducts&dc=gorganic

It is a great example of a well written web app for the iPhone.

I plan to keep looking for good sites and will repost this list periodically.

Cookies cookies cookies

I have been digging into cookies a little bit more recently as I want to build a few simple tools with no backend. The idea would be to store JSON data in a cookie and just push and pull the objects when necessary. Often, finding the basic facts on a subject can be more difficult on the web than trying to find more esoteric stuff.

So here are some of the links I found:

• Cookies Spec - http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html



• Basic JavaScript Cookie Functions - http://www.quirksmode.org/js/cookies.html



• Dojo Cookie Function - http://api.dojotoolkit.org/jsdoc/dojo/HEAD/dojo.cookie

This info along with an O'Reilly book or two on your favorite programming language will get pretty much anyone going with the subject.

Web Scifi show in Wired

Wired has an article on a new Scifi Web based TV series starring Rosario Dawson. You can find the web site for Gemini Division here. The show is a detective show set in the furture of course. It is my understanding it will be aired on NBC's web site in August 2008.

Featured gadget: Binary Decimal Converter

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer



Name: Binary Decimal Converter
Author: Teodor Filimon
Description: Easily convert binary numbers to decimal values, and the other way around

More information | Download gadget

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iPhone g3 Sold Out

Much to my surprise yesterday, I found out that the iPhone G3 was sold out at the ATT and Apple store in Broomfield. In addition, it was sold out in the Boulder and Denver Apple stores as well.

According to a store employee they have been sold out since Sunday. They got a shipment in Monday but it sold out right away. There are no waiting lists. There is no set time of day when shipments arrive. Basically, all you can do is check this URL for your state: http://www.apple.com/retail/iphone/availability.html?state=CO

Just replace CO with your state to see the status in your area.

I didn't run across this on any tech news sites or Gadget sites. This probably means they haven't sold out in the San Francisco Bay Area yet. :) But if you are in another part of the country and you were waiting for the lines to go away before buying the phone, you may want to get one sooner rather than later.

Update: It appears the link I provided, only works at certain times of day. Just be aware that at times, it may not seem to work.

iphone Upgrade Scoop

The tuaw.com blog has this excellent post giving us the scoop on upgrading to the new iphone. Looks like if you just upgrade and and sign up for the new $70 plan you can get it at the new low price.

Methinks I will be upgrading today. Can't wait for all that bandwidth!!!

Back from Vacation

Been on vacation in Tennessee and North Carolina this week. I was at my niece Melissa's very wonderful wedding. It was great fun meeting the Jackson family and participating in the festivities.

Let the posting commence. :)

Featured gadget: WiFi Check

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer



Name: WiFi Check
Author: Krid of K.
Description: See the status of your WLAN

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Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Featured gadget: Around the Cooler

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer



Name: Around the Cooler
Author: Google
Description: Colorful characters chat around the watercooler about the latest news and events

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.