Abby and Win’s Blog

Archive for July, 2008

After a couple of hours with an activated iPhone 3G, I’ll share some of my experiences. First, we were lucky to get to the store at the time we did. We nearly missed out on a 16GB model. We got to the store at around 7:30am. There were about 40-50 people in front of us. We got our turn at around 9:40am. We bought 2-3 16GB models that were left. Everyone who were unlucky not to get one were given the option to sign a service contract and reserve their iPhones. They will be called in a few days once they are avaiable.

The account setup at the store took about 25 minutes. It took another couple of hours after getting the iPhone before it was fully activated. The iTunes servers were overwhelmed with how many people activating their new iPhones at the same time. Finally got it activated after a couple of tries on iTunes. Now the fun can begin.

App Store: This is the place where you can download apps for you iPhone. There are lots of great apps. Some I downloaded and installed include eBay, Facebook, AIM, and Google Search. The App Store is easy to use. You can either install the apps on your iPhone or iTunes from your computer and sync it.

GPS: I tried this during lunch time. As we were driving, the dot that represents our current location on Google maps followed along. You can search for places and either get directions or contact info.

Emails: You can sync the existing accounts from you Mail or Outlook program or manually create them on the iPhone. It was easy to create my Gmail, Yahoo!, and Exchange email accounts. Unfortunately, if you wish to sync your Exchange calendars and contacts, it will overwrite your personal calendars and contacts. I’m not sure if the work around would be to get a Mobile Me account.

3G: It seems AT&T has done a pretty job with coverage. So far today I was able to use 3G most of the time. It’s considerably faster than the EDGE network. The iPhone will switch to wifi if it can access one. The problem I had so far with this is with networks that have security via web page. At work, one of our wifi networks uses a WPA security. On top of that password, you have to open up the browser to log in. If you forget this step, the iPhone will keep using the wifi over the EDGE/3G. So at one point I was wondering why I wasn’t able to access the internet when my wifi signal was full – until I realized that I didn’t log in thru the browser.

Camera: The 2MP camera is better than I thought. As long as you take pictures in a well lit place, you’ll be fine. I still haven’t figured out how to email more than 1 picture.

AT&T Network: I thought T-Mobile was bad. In metropolitan areas I don’t have any problems. But at home, I’m lucky to get 2 bars, very disappointing. I tried to call customer service and was surprise to find them closed. I guess I got used to T-Mobile being 24/7 schedule. On top of the hours of operation, AT&T customer support is closed on Sundays. I hope they can fix my signal issue at home.

Overall, I underestimated the phone. Though I have a long wish list of features, the easy interface, third party support for apps, compatibility with my Macs, and internet experience – I can live without my wish list – for now. I would recommend this phone. Just beware of the monthly price plans and the network coverage. If I find more new stuff, I’ll be glad to share.

(added 10 hours later after I wrote this post)
Battery Life: With 3G and wifi on, my phone’s battery drained about 40% on stand by. I didn’t use it for calls or anything else. It just sat in my bag. I woke this morning to find that I have to recharge it soon already.

After 2.5 hours in line, we finally got our 16GB iPhone 3G. I wanted the black one but all they had was the white ones left. No problem, as long as they’re 16GB. There was only 1 left after we got ours so we came close. I will post pics and stuff later.

Under 24 hours left until the iPhone 3G will become available for puchase in the US. Apple has recently released iTunes version7.7. This version allows you to connect/sync your soon to have iPhone 3G or iPod Touch with version 2.0 software. I couldn’t find any link on the iTunes store right now but I did find a direct link that launches your iTunes to the App Store iPhone section.

Last year I pre-paid a hosting account from Godaddy and had my sites hosted there. The price for a shared hosting account is great. It’s been okay at first but then my needs grew and my sites started to lag a little. I thought it was my WordPress at first so I started disabling themes and plugins. That didn’t fix it. Then I went through the database to see if I can optimize it further, no go. I guess it’s a common thing to happen when you have a shared server that your sites may lag a little. There were times I get a timeout error though and that isn’t really normal.

Aside from the lag, I didn’t like how to access MySQL’s interface (phpMyAdmin). Every link I click on opens a new window/tab until I have like 3 different ones opened. There is also the possibility that your databases are in different servers. Also, creating a database can take up to hours before it is complete.

GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection is just horrible. Many of the add-ons are free but some aren’t. The selections aren’t that appealing nor many. After seeing that, I started to miss cPanel.

Finally, my year was up and I started to look for another host. After doing some research, I chose Hostmonster. The price is slightly higher than GoDaddy but I get unlimited storage and bandwidth. I also get my cPanel (hooray!) – amongst other goodies.

I’ve had them for almost 2 weeks now. There have been some problems. Last week my sites were inaccessible a couple of times on Monday but it was due to system updates. Kind of odd that they were running it during work hours. I’m used to seeing those done usually late at night or in the weekend. Now today same thing. This time they told me that someone else on the server was taking up most of the computer’s resources. It’s been a weird experience so far but for the most part my sites are loading up normal (faster than GoDaddy). I hope they can provide a more reliable service, consistently. I will see in the next week or two. If not, I’ll be switching to another company. What’s great with Hostmonster is you pay in advance, but if you leave early, they will prorate what you have already used and refund the rest.

I don’t think I’ll be using GoDaddy as a host again but I will continue to buy domains from them until some other company starts to charge less than they do. GoDaddy provides good packages for hosting needs. But as a developer, my needs can’t be met unless I get a more expensive package from them.