It'll Never Fly

I thought about revisiting my old iPhone wishlist, and making the necessary updates, but decided to just start fresh as it was getting a little cluttered with all the updates I’ve made so far for the better (Thanks, Apple and 3-party devs!), and my priorities have changed a little over the last year.

The 2.1 and 2.2 firmware updates went a long way to correct a lot of the crashes I used to see on my iPhone. And 3.0 with Copy & Paste (which was actually not that high on my list) helped greatly, too, though mainly for its “Select All” feature that I use all the time, and the wider support for landscape mode in most of the built-in apps.

I think there have been improvements with Mail, Notes, and syncing, but I’ve long since abandoned any attempts to do so through Apple’s apps, and have instead decided to use Simplenote for all my note taking and syncing needs, and it works great.

The YouTube app’s been updated with support for existing accounts, the Flixster app has finally come into its own after its most recent update, and although there’s no way to “scrobble” my songs as I listen to them live (and in fact, the Last.fm app has even been *removed* from the iTunes Canada app store) I at least finally have batch scrobbling working upon sync.

Really, the list is getting awfully short now, and what’s left mainly all revolves around one topic: photos.

Taking photos on the iPhone is actually still a really crappy experience. Keep in mind I only have a 3G, and not one of those new-fangled 3GS’s, so I don’t have tap-to-focus nor the increased pixels. But with all the hardware improvements, not much has changed with the actual picture taking experience. You’re still basically left with two options: 1) use the plain-jane, no bells & whistles, built-in camera, which takes pictures really, really fast, or 2) use 3rd-party apps, with their wondrous assortment of features, but which are cut-off at the knees by a lack-luster API which saves photos to the camera roll really, really slowly, and without any geo-tagging.

So here’s my new iPhone Wishlist:
- Fix the crappy photo APIs! The built-in Camera app can save photos *with geo-tags* to the camera roll *really quickly*. 3rd-party devs can do neither? Seems kinda fishy to me.
- Email photos at full res. Or at least give me an option. Bury it in the settings if you’re afraid of noobs filling up people’s inboxes. I’m a big boy now. I’d like to email the photos I took!
- Be able to get info on photos (time, date, size, resolution, location, etc…)
- Safari URL autocomplete makes use of URLs in adressbook/contacts.
- Add, edit, and delete contact groups directly on the phone without having to do it in Address Book first and then sync

And that’s it! Short and simple.

I always say I’m not a big fan of the Rolling Stones (I didn’t go to either of their concerts here in Regina back in 2006). I don’t have any of their songs in my iTunes library, but I’m finding out that I apparently do like a lot of their music. My favourite is that theme song to “Tour of Duty”, but that Windows 95 one is good, too. I also like that one that Azazel keeps singing in the movie “Fallen”, and that Apple ad with all the different coloured iMacs. And who could forget that one that’s always at the end of all those episodes of “House”.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I collect comics. Like most kids, I bought the odd comic now and then, here and there, as a kid, without really putting much thought or effort in to building an actual collection that would one day become an investment. I’d be cracking spines, folding, tearing accidentally, touching with sticky fingers, and generally manhandling them quite roughly. My brother, on the other hand, who’s always had good enough sense to keep his things immaculate, needless to say has a much better collection of comics from the 80s in pristine condition. Thankfully, Mom’s childhood collection of Little Lulus and Archies survived two generations of children fairly unscathed. I guess there are some Katy Keenes in there too, but with two boys, those pretty much remained untouched. The same can’t be said of Dad’s collection, which didn’t survive him moving out of the house when he left for college; a fact he still grumbles and groans about to this day.

I don’t recall how, when, or why it came about, but Spider-Man has always been my superhero of choice. I assume it’s thanks to the syndicated episodes of the 60s animated Spider-Man cartoon, that were often mixed in with episodes of Rocket Robin Hood and The Mighty Hercules throughout the 70s and 80s on Saturday mornings. My brother, my older brother, of course chose the arguably cooler DC superhero, Batman.

Being a fan of Spidey, you’d probably assume I’m a fan of all things Marvel. While it is true I like Spider-Man, I actually pretty much hate everything about Marvel and the Marvel Universe. I also like the Hulk, and to some degree Iron Man, but everything else is utter crap. I hate the other Marvel superheroes, and their villains are completely ridiculous. Okay, that’s fine. I don’t have to follow any of those other characters, and I can choose to completely ignore if I so desire.

More so than its licenses, what I really hate about Marvel are their business decisions in relation to those licenses (as opposed to, for example, what DC does). To illustrate my point, I’ll use the aforementioned Hulk as my example. And forgive me if I’m slightly inaccurate with the details, as I don’t really care.

The Hulk first entered the scene with his own series, The Incredible Hulk, in 1962. This was a short-lived series which only lasted 6 issues. But Hulk didn’t go away. During the next couple of years, he made several appearances in other already established titles such as Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and The Amazing Spider-Man. It wasn’t until he became a feature character in another title, Tales to Astonish, at issue #60, that he started to find a home. This continued until issue #102, when the series was re-titled The Incredible Hulk (volume 2), but kept the same numbering. Thus, the stage was set for Marvel to continue f**king about with one of its flagship characters for all eternity.

Hulk actually maintained some stability for the next three decades, having been written/penciled by some of the biggest names at Marvel of then and now. Though, it probably wasn’t until Peter David took over the writing chore in ’87, and stayed with the comic for 12 years, that it arguably achieved its greatest success. Alas, all things come to an end, and David left the series over disagreements, and the last issue in the series was #474.

Not long after, a new team took over the reigns, but perhaps in an attempt to bring in new readers, this new series was simply titled Hulk and was renumbered starting at issue #1. Unfortunately, the chemistry of this new team was short-lived, as it only lasted for 11 issues. Another new team took it over, and it was re-titled yet again, back to The Incredible Hulk (volume 3), but starting at issue #12. It gets worse…

This third volume of Incredible Hulk has some success and lasts for several years. We now find ourselves in a period where both DC and Marvel have decided that massive sweeping crossovers are the equivalent of the summer blockbuster movie, and for this particular summer, Marvel has decided that Hulk will be the central character. In a bizarre storyline, Hulk is jettisoned from Earth, and to reflect this, The Incredible Hulk series is re-titled yet again to, of all things, The Incredible Hercules, but maintains the numbering, this time starting at issue #113.

So where’s Hulk now? Well, after a stint of crossover-related mini-series, which I’ll get to in a minute, he now finds himself with another new creative crew in another new series, also entitled Hulk (volume 3, I think), which starts back at issue #1… again!

Having said all that, I’ll say one thing good about Marvel. It sounds like they may be trying to restore some order to this mess. After issue #12 of this new Hulk series, they’re coming out with an issue #600 of The Incredible Hulk, and continuing from there. Though, strangely, according to Wikipedia, they’ll still be continuing with Hulk #13 and on, as well. Hopefully, they’ll just drop Hulk, and continue on solely with the Incredible Hulk series. That sounds like what people want anyway.

As an aside, as promised, here are some of the titles I’ve most recently had to put up with as a collector, just with a piece of this little summer event:

• World War Hulk
• World War Hulk Prologue
• World War Hulk: Front Line
• World War Hulk: Gamma Corps
• World War Hulk: Aftersmash
• World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound
• World War Hulk Aftersmash: Damage Control

If that’s not a cash-cow, then I don’t know the definition.

Marvel’s done this time and time again with pretty much all their titles (Avengers, Iron Man, even my beloved Spider-Man). I’ve completely ignored X-Men, as I don’t even know where to begin.

Don’t even get me started on the whole clone saga, retcon debacle of the 90s with Spider-Man.

I should also mention that DC isn’t without its own troubles. Whereas Stan Lee essentially tried to establish some semblance of order and consistency with his creations, DC on the other hand (a victim of its own success) has attempted several times to bring together the many disparate story lines in its titles/licenses, to the point now where its stuck having to deal with time travel and parallel universes, any time it tries to do so. Not exactly light reading…

Fuck it. Let’s just all read Sandman over and over…

If you’ve been following this blog for several years (may God have mercy on your soul), then you’re aware of my ongoing mission to find the perfect mouse. I’m beginning to think this quest is an impossible task.

If you remember, my last two attempts were a couple of Microsoft mice, with the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000 (what a mouth full) being the weak winner, whose only negative I could find was the loosely scrolling scroll-wheel.

I was out shopping a month or two ago at London Drugs, and picked up a Logitech LX8 Cordless Laser Mouse. I’ve been using it steadily since then, giving it a pretty good work out, playing WoW for a few hours each night and making full use of every feature of the mouse.

First, it’s got the ambidextrous design that I prefer, with comfortable padding that fits my grip perfectly (i.e. no unnecessary lips of plastic you find on the form-fitted, non-ambidextrous mice).

It’s not designed as a notebook mouse, so it’s about 2cm longer than the perfectly-sized MS7000, but it’s size is still within the bounds of reason.

Both the MS7000 and the LX8 use a USB dongle for a proprietary wireless connection, but with my history of Bluetooth mice, I’ve found Bluetooth to not really live up to its promise, and have come to the conclusion that these proprietary dongles work far better.

Unfortunately, like the MS7000, it doesn’t have built-in recharging of any kind. It takes 2 AA’s to the MS7000′s 1 AA, so it’s a little heavier than MS7000 with that extra battery in there, but I suppose that means it probably lasts twice as long between battery replacements.

Whereas the MS7000 uses it’s dongle to snap to the underside of the mouse to accomplish two tasks (shuts off power, and great for travel), the LX8′s dongle has no ability to snap onto the mouse unit. This would’ve been a great feature, even though the LX8 is technically not a notebook mouse (where this snap-on feature predominantly lies), as I’m sure they could’ve added it to the design if they wanted to given the (really tiny) size of the dongle and the larger size of the mouse itself.

However, having said that, the LX8 does have a button underneath, which you press for a full second or so to turn on and off. To save on battery life, I prefer to manually shut off the power of my wireless mice (when docking to a charging base station isn’t an option, of course), and having used the MS7000 for a few months, always plugging and unplugging that dongle was starting to become a bit of a nuisance (remember I’m using this mouse for my desktop, and not a laptop). Thus, I actually like how the LX8 works instead, as I can leave the dongle in 24/7.

My MS7000 has buttons on either side of the mouse, which I became to rely for my WoW keybindings. The LX8 also has buttons on the side, and because of where I grip my mice (between thumb and ring finger at the bottom of the mouse) they’re actually placed perfectly where I can hit them easily, but not accidentally.

The scroll wheel on the LX8 has all the same features as the MS7000, and by that I mean it also has left and right pressing, which is also great for playing WoW. What’s better about the LX8 scroll wheel, though, is that there’s more resistance to any of its movements, so no more accidental clicks or scrolls that happened all the time with the MS7000. For me, this is the best part about the LX8 (and Logitech’s scroll wheels in general).

Lastly, a bit about the software. Ever since the Logitech Control Center (LCC) debacle of Late 2007, I’ve been wary of installing any of Logitech’s drivers of any kind, as they used to piggy-back on something called APE, which was incompatible with Mac OS X Leopard when it first came out, causing a lot of Leopard users to suddenly not be able to start up their Macs after upgrading if they had Logitech mice with the default install (Whoops!). It sounds like Logitech no longer uses APE for its LCC, but I still didn’t bothering installing it. Instead, and for many years now, I use a third-party driver/utility called USB Overdrive which works great and allows you to remap buttons, all without the need to install features that manufacturers don’t understand why we don’t love them. Other options are SteerMouse and ControllerMate, which I haven’t tried, but are still worth mentioning. Of course, if you don’t care about the extra buttons, and just want the left-click, right-click, and scroll wheel (why did you buy it then?), you don’t have to install any drivers, as the built-in OS X mouse driver works just fine (even though Apple doesn’t provide two-button mice themselves) as long as the mouse adheres to published HCI standards (which was probably more of an issue back in the late 90s when USB support was still very much the Wild West).

I’m beginning to think I should buy a few of these just to hoard them in case they ever start to break down (yes, I like the LX8 that much). But out of all the mice I’ve used over the last 25 years, I’ve only had one go bad on me that I can remember, so I don’t think it’s really necessary.