Snarks and Ladders

Not many this week – alas, photo opportunities were not to be had!

My goof ball brother and his girlfriend.  3D glasses are highly attractive!

I think I died and went to heaven… actually, it was more like hell, since I had absolutely no money, and could only window shop.

Well, it’s a little over a week since the last one, but here are a few of the photos I have taken since I arrived at home.  Again, most of them are animal focused (I am an animal fanatic, what can I say?) and most of them are kinda meh.  But, I think I see SOME improvement.

My brother has two rather delightful beagles, Harry and Phoebe.  Harry is the dog you can see the most in this picture.

I love metal buckets, what can I say?  Also, it appears my parents have been neglecting their garden again.

I love glossy leaves!

Mmmm lemons!

It’s perfectly normal to take photos in the bath, right?

Spout face!

I love how the ripples distort things.

I’ve been having a great deal of fun playing with Hipstamatic on my iPhone… mainly because I am a fairly lousy photographer, and anything that can jazz up my iPhone pics makes me a happy little camper. 

1.  There was a storm starting to gather over the top of my house, and I liked the way the tree silhouettes looked against the sky.

2.  I photograph my cats excessively.  If I have children it will be scary!  I love their noses and whiskers, and their paws, so I have lots of photos of their faces and feet.

3.  Playing peekaboo with Kamiko through the heater is fun – for me at least.  She doesn’t look too impressed.

4.  My friend Emma is wonderful with children (unlike me), and can handle them randomly grabbing her head and demanding a kiss.  This isn’t quite from the angle I wanted, but I thought it caught the moment well anyway.

I’ll try to post pictures once a week – we might even see an improvement in my photography skills!

So, I made the mistake of buying into the hype.  Of listening to a handful of people without doing any actual research. And, of course, it came back to bite me in the arse.

Fricking iPhone.

So, the iPhone set me back a somewhat ridiculous ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.  But, I was told it was ridiculously shiny, and well worth the money.  My Nokia N95 was starting to show a bit of wear and tear, and, although I have been a loyal Nokia consumer for quite some time now, I decided that a change is as good as a holiday.  So, how do I feel about my iPhone?

I guess first it’s important to establish what is important to me in a phone.

1.  Ease of text messaging
2.  Quality of phone calls
3.  Internet being simple to use
4.  Internet being fast
5.  Applications.

Well, I still find the text messaging to be awkward, with a much higher error rate than my Nokia.  I figure that should improve as I get used to the interface, but I do believe the ‘keys’ are too small, and people with large fingers would have difficulty using the touch screen.

I haven’t made a phone call yet on my phone, so I can’t judge.  However, it REALLY IRKS ME that I can’t use songs for ringtones (yes, I AM one of those annoying custom ring tone people – work is the Jaws theme, my Grandmother is one of those ‘impending doom’ movie themes, etc).  Seriously.  The iPhone is the ONLY phone I have seen that does not allow me to use Mp3’s as ring tones in the longest time.  No… if I want to do that, I have to fiddle arse around with my files, or jail break the damn thing and void my warranty.  Which I am loathe to do on something that cost one thousand dollars, damn it.

[insert rant about how I think Apple are a pack of money grabbing scum bags who somehow cleverly managed to market themselves to idiotic yuppies (one of which I have now become), who buy their products because they seem to think that overpriced means awesome]

Internet is fairly simple and fast – much better than on my old Nokia.  I haven’t used the internet browser too much yet, because the main things I wanted it for (Facebook and Twitter) are done through applications. 

The applications, while fun, are largely useless.  The application store is also a cesspool of crap with a couple of good things floating around in it.  If I see one more ‘naked women’, ‘underwear scanner’, or ‘hand x-ray machine!’ application in the wrong category, I am going to scream.

So, overall, I am actually really disappointed with my iPhone.  From what people had said about the device, I was expecting something more exciting.  Their lack of drop resistance also concerns me (I have seen many an iPhone and iPod Touch shattered at work), especially in a house with animals that like to knock things off tables and shelves.  Its size is also a negative factor – the large screen is nice, but it is slightly too large for many of my pockets.

Maybe I’ll grow to love the bloody thing.  However, I think it will always be second best to my Nokia.

Damn you Apple fanatics, you suckered me in again.