Chris Parker's Personal Blog – Flying, sailing and photography, mostly. And gadgets.
Not much in the way of blogging recently, I’m in the middle of a seven-week Yachtmaster Course. Here are a few images taken in the Solent, the English Channel, Cherbourg and the Channel Islands.
There are more photos on my Mobile Me site (and on Flickr): Yachtmaster Week 1 Yachtmaster Week 2 Yachtmaster Week 3
Braye, Alderney. Click to zoom in.
Apple’s iOS4 introduced folders to the iPhone. By dragging an app onto another one, either on the iPhone or in iTunes, a folder is created with a suggested, editable name.
Many of us have done just that. In my case, I kept my most-used apps on the first Home Screen and organised the apps into folders on the second screen, thereby reducing the number of screens from 12 to 2!
Then, this morning, I noticed a tweet from Don McAllister (@donmcallister) who pointed out this page about how to name folders with icons instead of text.
I started playing around with it, firstly by creating an Apple folder, then by attempting to use icons for all my folders. “Flying”, “Travel” and “Games” were easy, but I struggled with “Sailing”, “Photography” and others. Then I remembered I had installed Spell Number on my iPhone which enables emoji icons.
A few minutes’ later I’d created this. Whether I stick with it is another matter…
(Click to enlarge)
I had a faff activating the micro sim in the Apple iPhone 4. The O2 page talks about activating the phone and activating the sim card and I confused the two.
After leaving the iPhone overnight with a screen message “Waiting for activation, this may take some time”, I realised I had to complete the O2 Sim Swap page as well. Three hours later it still hadn’t activated. So I removed and reinserted the sim in my iPhone 3GS which immediately came up with no service (deactivated successfully) then inserted the micro sim in the iPhone 4 which immediately activated.
Hope this helps someone else.
We had a magnificent weekend taking part in the Round The Island Race 2010. It’s the biggest sailing race in the world, and it takes place from Cowes to Cowes around the Isle of Wight.
1670 boats started the race, with the first batch off at 0500. We were sailing a Sunsail 37 and our group of 69 crossed the start line at 0520. We finished at 14:20:23 in 12th place and a great time was had by all.
Apple’s new iPhone 4 will be released on 24 June and it can be pre-ordered from tomorrow, 15 June. We still don’t know the UK pricing although the UK carriers have released their new dataplans. Based on the iPad dataplans I’m hoping that three will be competitive in which case I might switch to them from O2.
Rumours are that the iPhone 4 prices will be announced today.
I’ve posted what I know about the funeral on the IV(AC) Sqn Association website, fourfax.co.uk
With the international iPad arriving soon, here are some things I’ve learned about the iPad over the last few weeks:
The battery life is great. It will last all day and maybe two days.
It needs a 2.1 amp charger as opposed to the 1 amp of the iPhone so your iPhone chargers won’t work. New iPad/iPhone chargers are now available which pump out the higher amperage. Most USB hubs don’t produce 2.1 amps so you’ll need to connect the iPad dock to a USB port on your computer or plug it into the wall.
iPhone apps look horrible. The good news is most apps have already been updated.
You can leave your laptop at home. Unless you’re editing video or doing some other heavy-duty project everything you need is on the iPad.
iBooks are great and are in epub format, but if you buy your ebooks from Apple they will have Apple’s Fairplay DRM (digital rights management) embedded. So if you want to future-proof your ebooks buy them in Adobe Digital Editions epub format and remove the DRM so you can read the ebook on any device. Once the ebook is DRM-free, Calibre is a great program for converting ebooks from one format to another.
The UK data plans aren’t great. Consider buying a MiFi which creates a WiFi bubble wherever you are. I use a Huawei E5830 from three.co.uk and I pay £15 a month for 5 GB of data. There’s also this one which I believe comes already unlocked.
Essential apps: Evernote, Dropbox, 1Password, GoodReader
Not essential, but great apps: PCalc, WeatherBug Elite, NYT Editor’s Choice, The Guardian Eyewitness, NetNewsWire, Instapaper Pro, National Geographic World Atlas, OffMaps, London Tube, Star Walk, Urban Spoon, Epicurious, WunderRadio, Air Sharing HD, Print Central, AppAdvice, Kayak Flights.
Enjoy your new iPad!
[Update 27 May] Three have annouced the best iPad data plan by far: £15/month for 10GB, rolling monthly contract.
OK I’m convinced. I’ve deleted my Facebook account.
Here’s the story from Jason Calacanis via Leo Laporte.
[Update] And from the BBC: Facebook downplays privacy crisis meeting.
[Update] And from the New York Times: Privacy Settings.
You can now pre-order your UK Apple iPad for delivery on Friday 28 May. All versions are available, micro-sim data cards and accessories can be pre-ordered at the same time.
I’ve put together a quick Mac Homepage album of the best of our wedding photos. This is read-only, so if you’d like to upload your photos from that day please go to the Mobile Me Gallery.
I received this email from Monica at St. Martin’s Press:
Wanted to make you aware about this book we recently published. The long-anticipated memoirs of the greatest fighter pilot in American military history, Robin Olds: FIGHTER PILOT The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds By Robin Olds with Christina Olds and Ed Rasimus Visit the link below for reviews, excerpt, Q&A and photos of the book. Enjoy! Monica, St. Martin’s Press http://us.macmillan.com/fighterpilot
From the blurb:
The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot, Robin Olds. Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—and an ace with 12 aerial victories. But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend. He arrived in 1966 to find a dejected group of pilots and motivated them by placing himself on the flight schedule under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them. Proving he wasn’t a WWII retread, he led the wing with aggressiveness, scoring another four confirmed kills, becoming a rare triple ace. Olds (who retired a brigadier general and died in 2007) was a unique individual whose personal story is one of the most eagerly anticipated military books of the year.
The book has been co-authored by Ed Rasimus who flew the F-105 Thunderchief and the F-4 Phantom on active duty in Vietnam. I’ve read both his books – When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra – and they’re both excellent. I’ll be buying Fighter Pilot.