iPhone 2.1 Software Update Salsa Party

Ever since I replaced my original iPhone (which just sold on eBay for $479) with the iPhone 3G, I found very quickly that the battery, 3G, talking on the phone, and bluetooth did not get along very well. After having a couple threads in the apple support forum removed for: "Speculation or Rumors" and "Discussion of Apple Policies, Procedures, or Decisions," I decided that I could survive the majority of the time without 3G, so I turned it off.

Here is a link to AT&T 3G Coverage Map: http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/

To be fair to Apple and AT&T, who both are pretty sure there isn't any problems, I would like to claim responsibilty and say that I am confident that one or a combination of the following are the real source of the problem:

• holding the phone too close/far away from my minitiature ears
• the 5 megawatt, full-duplex, 900MHz-2.4GHz RF random noise generator that I carry in my back pocket
• living in Texas during the summer and not keeping the iPhone within the supported operating temperature, which I believe is: 295 K - 534.67 ° R (yeah, thats Kelvin and Rankine)

Since I had such a hard time updating my iPhone when the 2.0 update came out, I thought it would be best to just stay up late to get the update as soon as the intern at Apple uploads it to the single Netware 4.1.1 server that they use to distribute all their patches.

After installing iTunes 8, I started checking for the update every hour since midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). When midnight local time (CST or GMT-06:00) came I started to get bored and decided to make it a "salsa party" too. So, I spent an hour chopping up $30 (or about 750% RDA) of vegetables, and mixed them in a bowl with a dash of salt and pepper... and realized that I didn't have any tortilla chips.

I found that potato chips just aren't the same, but was able to go get some chips and make it back to my computer and salsa by midnight PST (Apple Standard Time or GMT-08:00)... The intern must have been in the middle of a pretty serious game of Dungeons & Dragons though cause it still wasn't available.

I woke up at 7am with my cheek stuck to the keyboard and a little bit of drool on the spacebar... I selected the "Check for updates" button... still nothing. I checked again a couple hours later and sure enough "iPhone software version 2.1 is available..." and the results look pretty good. Either they changed the algorithm used to display bars or the interns at Apple made some serious progress.

While the battery life and dropped calls may take a few days to test, I am posting my before and after reception screen shots as AT&T's 3G coverage map for the same area.

Apple is pretty optimistic with this patch... I don't even remember the last time they gave this much info about an update. The iPhone 2.1 update,, which is iTunes8 dependent, includes (from http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate):

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Every journey starts with a trip to the bathroom

This is gonna be short, 'cause I gotta go... But I just wanted to give a quick introduction: All of you nerds with the latest technology tucked away in your gun holster, and a slide-rule hidden in your boots, you're not alone. Sometimes it fun to play with fire, and sometimes a bear will run if you charge. If you ever got sick of hiding behind your over-sized glasses in junior high, or got tired of dumbing-down conversation on the few dates you could find in High School, then I think you might find yourself comfortable here at my blog.

If there is anything that I think helps me get through the repetitive tasks that people rely on nerds to accomplish, it is the fables and tall tales of times when I triumphed... or failed... badly. Any trough or crest will do, but please feel free to comment.

Be Prepared. This weekend Hurricane Ike is barreling down on Texas, and I will wait steadfast with my trusty steed (Stuart) and my iPhone's safety off, so that after the wind, rain, and tornadoes pass, I can go gather up all the harddrives, NIC's, and motherboards, to see if I can duct tape them back together. Or if it starts to get too bad, I'll make sure to "go" before riding into the sunset, so I don't get stuck at a gas station 5 miles out of town.