It's been a bit over 3 weeks since I've had my iPhone 4 and it's a keeper.  That's not to say it was all sweetness. The first phone I got had issues.  I'd put it next to another iPhone 4 and compare the famous "AT&T Bars".  I usually had half the bars of the other phone.  The battery was also a bit weak... It would often drain overnight.  Apple swapped the phone at a nearby store and the new one seems to be OK.  There's still a power issue, but that traces to using push notification for two Exchange Active Synch accounts.  If I have the accounts enabled for push, the phone seems to spend a lot of time and power synching. It's almost always warm.  Since I changed the synching to manual fetch, the phone is cool and the battery lasts for days, not hours.  I wish there were some happy medium. 

The Grip-of-Death issue is real. If I hold the phone in either hand and cover the lower left corner, I can say goodbye to my AT&T signal (and whoever I might be talking to).  My free bumper case is on its way, according to a shipping notice from the Apple store.  It's going to take about 10 days to get here.  Last time the post office scanned it, it had been sent from Tennessee to Georgia on its way to Chicago.

Face Time is pretty amazing.  It works pretty much like on the commercials.  The key to using it is to hold it in front of and slightly above your face. If you hold it low, you present a double chin and give a nice view up your nostrils.  It also has a gyroscope. I'm not sure what there is to do with it yet. There's a gyroscope app, but what's the point of that?  It's bound to be integrated into something, soon.

I've had Evernote on my phone for a long time, using it to send lists of things from my desktop to the phone, like all of my frequent flier, hotel, and rental car numbers.  And, before a trip, I'd paste the itinerary mailed by Orbitz into a new note, so it would be available on both the phone and notebook as I traveled.  Today, I had one of those forehead slapping experiences.  As Homer would say, "D'oh!" 

I had a couple of ideas for blog pieces. I was going to email them to myself, but I know that email, once read, falls off the mind's radar.  Instead, I created a new note in Evernote called "Blog Ideas".  Now, I have a couple of to-do lists, notes for iPhone apps, if I ever learn how to make them, and a few more things.  As a side benefit, this will reduce the amount of shredded paper that shows up in the dryer's lint screen -- the inevitable product of little notes I stuff into my pockets.

How do you use Evernote? 

We can talk about the iPhone 4 in a moment.  Thanks to Gizmodo, we have a good idea of what the next generation iPhone will look like as a physical and functional device.  What isn't answered is the question to my number one issue with the iPhone: It's not really a good phone. 

Why am I saying that?  Here I am, sitting at my desk. There are 5 bars next to the ATT.  Phone rings, I answer, we start talking. About 30 seconds to one minute later, the call just drops.  Gone.  Kerfloot.

The picture to the left is AT&T's "Marks the Spot" app.  Each time I lose a call, or can't make a call, or generally have problems using the phone as a phone, I use this app to report it.  Right now, I'm sure there's a guy heading to the cell tower nearest to me to do whatever it takes to provide me with insanely great coverage.

Mick famously sang, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need."  I want all the cool features of the iPhone 3G, plus the new features of the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 features

• a bigger battery
• a front facing camera, presumably for video chat
• flash photography
• better screen resolution
• app folders
• multiple EAS accounts

What I need doesn't seem to be on the list -- a really reliable telephone.

Well, it's here.

It would have been good to have a couple more billable hours today, but I used my time to follow two live blogs (Gizmodo, Engadget) of the Event That Will Change Everything, while edging ever closer to the slippery slope of the fanboy.  I already have several faded black turtlenecks.  I may  start wearing my jeans without a belt. 

There are a few things keeping me from putting a tent up on Michigan Avenue in front of the Apple store.  The iPad doesn't have a camera.  This would be a great tool for on the go video conferencing via Skype.  It's also not clear whether it can, in fact, be used for VOIP applications.  It's also not cheap.  How much memory is really needed?  It comes with 16, 32, and 64GB at $100 for each bump from base.  And the 3G capability is another big chunk of change, even before adding $15 or $30 per month for service.

The big reason to wait is that this is version 1.  We all know that a year from now, Steve will be on stage showing off iPad 2.0 and It Will Change Everything.

I'm looking forward to an exciting year.  In addition to moving my career in new direction, there's a lot of cool tech that I hope to get my hands on and that I'm working with right now.

• Atlassian Confluence  is a combination of web site, content distribution system, wiki, and content management system.  I'm currently developing an intranet site using it, may be expanding that into an extranet and, maybe too, into a public web site.  Although not open source, it's not too expensive, and has developed an ecosystem of developers and fans who help provide tools and support. For more info, click here.
• iPhone 4 rumors are swirling.  My wish list is a replaceable battery, better battery life, an integrated task list via Exchange Active Sync, and (though it will never happen) the ability to manage music without having to use iTunes.  In the past week, I've seen release dates in March, April, and June.   Whatever.  I don't think I'm eligible for an upgrade until late summer.  And then, maybe there will be a Nexus Two.
• The Apple Tablet is probably the most hotly rumored bit of hardware right now. I don't think I want one, but it would be so cool to have one.  It's yet another step closer to Star Trek.  My real decision in this area this year will be whether to repair or replace my existing laptop computer and, if replacing it, to stay with Windows, go with Linux, or get a Mac.

2010 is going to be a better year, personally, professionally, and technologically.

In an article in the Washington Post, MG Siegler explains what's really going on in the battle for smartphone OS dominance.
 
...Google knows that the Droid isn't an iPhone killer. Instead, it's likely the best device they have so far to kill their real competitors: Symbian and especially Windows Mobile. Repeat after me: Android is trying to kill Windows Mobile, not the iPhone.
 
It's a good read.  Eric Schmidt has been targeting Microsoft for a long, long time.

Google-hosted mail accounts are now fully accessible via Exchange Active Synch (EAS).  This means that Google-hosted email users (e.g., gmail.com and sterndata.com) now have push email enabled for the iPhone.  All that's required is setting up the account as a Microsoft Exchange account rather than Gmail.  Click read more to see how.

It's always a scary few minutes, but my phone has rebooted into OS 3.1 and I've used the latest feature in iTunes 9 to do some housecleaning

Hooray!  AT&T has announced upgrades to its 3G network to HSPA 7.2 in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami.  According to their press release, HSPA 7.2 can support 7.2 Mbps. Of course, this in itself doesn't help my 3G (no "S")  iPhone.  The important part of the announcement comes several paragraphs down:

The New York Times reports Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T.  Really?  Actually, it's not all that bad here in Chicago, but when a 3G cell gets saturated, data speeds drop to nothing. My big gripe is that voice mail often loses touch with the phone.  I get no indication of a failed call or voice mail until I reboot my phone and it suddenly discovers 4 messages.