I already pay $5 per month for a 200-limit text message plan with AT&T. For a few of months, I’d even boosted it to the next level which gave me 1500 texts per month for $15. I think the entire texting industry is absurdly high priced. If I am already paying for 3G Internet data, simple 160-character text-only messages should come and go for free. I’m tired of paying such ridiculously high fees for texting.

It looks like I’ll no longer have to. I’ve found Textfree and it gives me a completely new phone number to use for unlimited texting, all for FREE. No longer will I be taking it in the rear from the phone company. I highly recommend this app to every iOS user, which includes iPad and iPod Touch users. The app is ad-supported in the free version, but you can eliminate all ads if you subscribe as a paying customer for $6 per year. Even as a paying customer, the price is a steal compared to paying for traditional texting via the mobile carrier.

Do yourself a favor. Check this out. Save some money.

I have a suggestion for Apple regarding the next version of iTunes. Instead of packing more features into iTunes 10, I think they should simply fine tune the application in much the same way they did with Snow Leopard. Personally, I don’t want any more features than iTunes currently offers. I would, however, like to be able to download tiny point-release updates to the software without being forced to download the entire 130 MB application every time they change one line of code. Why haven’t they made this happen already? I think this should be the focus of the next version. Bigger isn’t always better, and iTunes has grown big enough as it is.

I’m not disputing that the song is great. It is. However, in my opinion, it could be superb if it didn’t have a fatal flaw. That flaw is that there is not a third chorus for, “Welcome to the Hotel California.” This has always irked me.

Since there is no third chorus, I hardly ever listen to this song all the way to the end. After the final line, “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave,” there is still 2:08 left in the song. It annoys me that it just trails off into guitar for over two minutes while never hearing the chorus of the song again.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking this way. I realize that the last line, “You can never leave,” doesn’t really warrant anything else to follow that. Still, I don’t see a reason to add two more minutes of music after the vocals are over.

It is a fantastic Scrabble clone that you play online with your friends. In fact, the official Scrabble game doesn’t even have the same fun online game play.

I moved the icon for the game to my home screen so I could see the notification badges when it is my turn. I’ve been playing five or more games at the same time. The fact that you’re playing with another real user is really cool. I love when I check my phone and see that Words With Friends notifies me that it’s my move.

If you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, this game is a must. There is a free ad-supported version and a $3 paid version. Personally, I paid for the app, because I despise ads. Pick either version of the app and play. I’m addicted!

When you use the onscreen keyboard, you are likely to make errors. Apple has obviously spent a lot of time determining the most commonly mistyped words, and automatically correct them. I appreciate that very much, and in a general sense, the feature works quite well. I often take for granted how well it is fixing my typos as I hammer out text.

However, it feels that with iOS4, the auto-correct feature has become overreaching. The results are not always pretty. I’m getting fed up with the changes it makes to my text. There have been countless times that I’ve had to send two text messages instead of one simply because I have to follow a bad auto-correct with an explanation. I’m tired of wasting texts!

I’ll list a few examples of what I mean, but there are many more examples than the few I’m going to mention.

1. When I type the abbreviation “msg” in an email or text message, the iPhone automatically changes it to a capitalized “MSG.” This happens every single time. I can only assume that it thinks I am talking about either Madison Square Garden or monosodium glutamate. Now, why the hell would the average user write about either of these in a text message? Why in the world would this be the default auto-correct? It is truly amazing.
2. Every time I type the word “hell” it is auto-corrected to “he’ll.” Annoying. The same is true for the word “well.” It is made into a contraction, but the vast majority of the time I am simply saying, “Well, blah blah blah.”
3. Just a few days ago I wrote a silly text to my brother, quoting the movie Weekend At Bernies. When I hit SEND, I realized the phone had corrected my joke to “Weekend At Bermuda.” The joke was ruined, and I had to send a second text to explain the screw up. This kind of thing happens to me every day.

I’ve had to turn off the auto-correct feature. I am simply tired of every thing I say being altered into something completely different. I’ve had enough! From now on, I’ll handle my typos on my own.

Long story short—It was fixed in an hour or so.

During the blackout, I used my iPhone to communicate with the outside world. I posted a couple of tweets to Twitter about my Road Runner connection being down. I was so frustrated! I know that TWC has a network status page, but I couldn’t find it on their overly-complex site while browsing with Safari on my iPhone.

Anyway, Twitter user “TWCableHelp” replied to me in a message and asked what was wrong with my connection. I was a bit taken aback. I should say that by the time I read their reply tweet, my Road Runner was working again anyway. So I, in turn, replied that it had been down but was now fixed and “hooray.” Surprisingly, they replied again and said that they were happy. Hmmm. I’m impressed that a bloated, mammoth company like Time Warner would have a tweeting arm to engage end users. Interesting. Hmmm some more, even.

What a lie! Miller High Life is honestly the worst beer that I can imagine. It is truly horrid. In no way imaginable would anyone under any circumstances mistake this swill for a beer that was even slightly expensive. Trust me. Never drink this beer. Ever. This is false advertising at its best.

I’ve now found the perfect solution for my needs. I downloaded the MotionX GPS Drive app, which is currently on sale for $1. I think it usually goes for $7, but I am not exactly sure about the standard price.

I don’t need a GPS unit on a daily basis. I mainly want it for the occasional road trip. This app provides a very cheap solution for those needs. MotionX GPS Drive has turned out to be awesome! You have to pay for the speaking turn-by-turn navigation feature, but you get to use for free for the first month. After that is only $3 for a single month of use, which you can purchase any time. If you want to pay for a full year, it is $25. You could do that year after year and still make out for less than a standalone GPS unit, or the Tom Tom app. I’m sold.

One advantage of using this solution is that the maps are downloaded to the phone and cached. By default, it will use up to 2 GB of storage for the map data. You can clear and reset the maps at any time, and you always have the latest up-to-date maps for your area. The fresh maps are the advantage over using a standalone GPS unit.

I’ve been using MotionX GPS for a few days to try it out. I am very impressed. It has performed well. A bluetooth earpiece is handy if you want to talk on the phone at the same time and still be able to see the maps. My phone does get a little warm to the touch after using the navigation. Also, expect this app to eat away at your battery when you use it. The phone is doing a lot of thinking, so that doesn’t surprise me.

iOS4 now has multitasking, and MotionX supports multitasking. I can easily jump out of the app and do other things on my phone and it will continue to tell me where to go. iOS4 also includes a portrait-locking mode to keep the screen from rotating when you turn it. I love this feature of the new OS, but MotionX GPS Drive is one app that looks better in landscape mode. It still works in portrait mode, but the map and directions feel cramped.

This app has received very positive reviews. Definitely give it a try. It is the probably the cheapest professional voice navigation app on the iPhone, to my knowledge. If you have an Android phone, you’re probably snickering, as Android phones include free navigation software from Google. I am quite aware of this. If you have an Android phone, then congratulations. If you have an iPhone, get MotionX GPS Drive.

Here is the official announcement from WordPress regarding the new version. A video is included in the link that demonstrates the newest features of the software.

There is an awesome YouTube video of a user demonstrating the new features of iOS4.

The new Mini is now encased in aluminum, matching the design of the iMac. It has access to the computer memory underneath the machine. The power supply is now inside the machine, unlike older models which carry a power brick. An HDMI port is now included! The new computer also sports a faster processor, graphics card, and more.

I like what I see. I’d love to have one!

I think that Twitter needs to increase the character limit from 140 characters to something higher. I’ve personally think that a better limit would fall around 200 characters. That would be a 60 character increase from the original service. I think that would be sufficient to make the service all that it can be.

Too often I see users post a single thought in two separate tweets due to the character restriction of today. The limit feels even tighter when one uses Internet links and hash-tags for trending topics. Entire industries have been created to cope with the strict character limit imposed by Twitter. The countless number of URL shorteners are just one example.

Sure, the beauty of Twitter is in its limited simplicity. I do appreciate that. However, I often find myself posting the same thought to Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. When I do so, I usually have to severely crop my original post to fit within Twitter’s limitations. The result of the final text is quite often a dimmer representation of what I was trying to say in the first place.

So come on, Twitter, give us all a little more space to say what we want to say.

Countless tech blogs are buzzing with this news today, so I have no need to go into detail about the new features. You can read those details elsewhere. I will say that the iPhone 4 OS (now called iOS) is going to be released for free to all users on June 21st. As a 3GS user, I’ll surely benefit from the new operating system upgrade. That said, I’m not sure if I’m all that crazy about the new name “iOS.”

I’ve provided a few links to a some tech blogs for news about the new iPhone 4. These links will age quickly, as more will be written in time.

• Apple iPhone Page
• ArsTechnia
• Engadget
• Macworld

For my birthday, my dad gave me a Jawbone earpiece to use with my iPhone. I have the Jawbone ICON Hero. It is totally awesome! It has fantastic range, clarity, features, and battery life. Background noise is filtered out with their military-grade noise filtering technology. I’m able to talk on the phone and keep my windows down while driving. It also speaks caller ID and battery life information in my ear. My experience with it has been outstanding. If you’re in the market, I highly recommend one.

In addition to my Mac, I also tested Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. Its score was absolutely abysmal. If I were a Windows user, I’d never use Internet Explorer, regardless of the version installed.

I’ve listed my results below.

• Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3 – Score 101
• Apple Safari 4.0.5 – Score 113
• Google Chrome 5.0 – Score 142
• Internet Explorer 8.0 – Score 19

After June 7, AT&T 3G subscribers will no longer have an unlimited option. A new $15 plan with 200 MB will be available, along with a $25 plan that caps out at 2 GB monthly. The 2 GB plan has a $10 charge for each additional GB that exceeds the plan.

The sudden change appears to be linked to the June 7th Apple WWDC announcement of the upcoming 4th generation iPhone. Some in the tech industry have been up in arms about the sudden change. Others have taken a more measured response. They have been citing how the other wireless carriers are also placing bandwidth caps of their own. I believe that in the end, none of the major carriers will offer an unlimited wireless data plan.

I’ll state my opinion on AT&T’s announcement: I personally do not care.

I don’t use very much 3G data, and I could actually benefit from the cheaper $15 plan that is half the cost of the $30 unlimited plan that I pay for today. In order to be certain, I checked my monthly data usage on AT&T’s website tonight. It turns out that the most wireless data I have used in a single month is 133 MB. That is all!

I’m obviously not a heavy user. I rarely stream video over 3G, or do other data-intensive tasks. AT&T says that 98% of their users use less than 2 GB of data per month. That works for me! I couldn’t consume 2 GB on my phone if I tried.

All of the above said, I concede that iPad 3G owners will certainly be the most likely to feel the pinch of the new bandwidth restrictions. I wrote this article with the iPhone user in mind.

The best thing about the new app is that it is now completely free, unlike the apps of the past. There are a few new bells and whistles in the new app, but overall, I haven’t found it to be all that different than Tweetie2. The app icon is prettier, but that isn’t much to write home about. Retweeting and other actions have been simplified in the new version, but I’ve found most of the changes to be quite subtle.

My only complaint is that users are still stuck with black text on a white background. The original Tweetie had an option to change the background color to black. Personally, I liked reading in that way. That option disappeared in Tweetie2, and at the time I went as far as to write the company and tell them I missed the feature. I received a reply from the company! They had said that a large number of users had written asking for that very feature to make a return. They said that it would be brought back in version 2.2, citing that they had too many important changes to make in 2.1. Now that Tweetie was bought by Twitter, that plan must have been scrapped. There is no option in version 3.0 to change the background color. Umph!

Despite that relatively minor complaint, it is still my belief that Tweetie/Twitter 3.0 is still the best Twitter client for the iPhone. I can only hope that they finally update the aging Mac desktop Twitter client, which is still stuck on version 1.2.6. Hurry up, guys!

There have been countless hospital dramas on TV over the years. Think: St. Elsewhere, ER, House, General Hospital, Scrubs, Chicago Hope, Grey’s Anatomy, and others. Scrubs, with its particular brand of humor, is the only such show that I have been able to tolerate over the years.

I simply find that having a television signal beamed into your home that portrays someone in a hospital bed, muttering their final words, to be depressing to say the least. Let’s face it, nobody likes being at the hospital, whether you are a patient, or a visitor. A hospital is a place with a distinctly negative vibe.

The notion of willingly piping such emotional drama into your home seems ridiculous to me. I personally don’t care to watch the unfolding drama of a sick person in a bed. I don’t want to see it. It’s a downer. I’m not willing to subscribe to shows that are downers by default, period!

I have since gone through periods of love and hate with the screen cover. After some time, when used in conjunction with my Otter Box case, the screen protector began to show air bubbles at the top and bottom edges. This problem has grown more frequent in recent weeks.

A month or two ago, Apple decided to stop carrying such screen protectors in their official Apple store. They apparently don’t want to promote the idea that you need to protect this device at all. Since that time, I’ve read many opposing viewpoints online on this issue, and I’ve never been able to reach a decisive conclusion.

A week ago, I finally grew tired of the reoccurring air bubbles in my screen cover, and ripped it off. Now I’m using it bare. I have to say that it feels much slicker and more responsive without the screen cover on top of the glass. I’m going to continue to use it this way. I put my phone in my pocket, and never put any change or keys in the same pocket. I’m very protective of my phone, and I don’t think I need a screen cover to keep it safe. Plus the screen simply looks more shiny and clear! Ditch your screen covers.

Kevin and Alex are usually sitting on a couch, downing beers, and talking about anything that comes to mind. Within the show, they choose various stories submitted to Digg.com and discuss them. Their banter is quite addicting. I haven’t missed a show since I first started watching it. It is hilarious.

Occasionally, Diggnation is hosted live with a studio audience. They have done shows in many places, including New York City, Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and even Tokyo. I’m happy to hear they are going to try to do more live shows. I wish they would come to Raleigh, NC. I would most certainly attend!

The show is pretty geeky. If that appeals to you, you’re sure to enjoy Diggnation. Check it out their website, or their YouTube channel.

Opera Mini is touting faster speeds and more features over the built-in Safari browser for the iPhone. That said, I don’t see any speed improvement in my experience. As for the extra features (such as tabbed browsing), they all serve to make the Opera interface look too cluttered. There are simply too many buttons, options, bells and whistles. It looks as if they tried to cram all of the features of a desktop application into an iPhone app. For me, that strategy just doesn’t work for a mobile device. The screen real estate for the actual web page is cut in half by all of Opera’s interface clutter.

I applaud Apple for relaxing their tight grip on third-party web browsers. If you’re interested in Opera Mini, then by all means, give it a try. As for me, I’m going to stick with the ease and simplicity of Safari. Any speed increase for Opera is negated by the fact that I hardly ever use a web browser on my iPhone to begin with. On the whole, I honestly don’t see use in Opera taking off for any platform. I doubt Apple does either, which is probably why they accepted the app in the first place.

I cannot predict his reaction to my idea. I guess I’ll have to see. At the very least, it wouldn’t cost us anything to start it, and there would be the added benefit of being hammered the whole time while recording it. Sounds like a winning idea! Will he bite?

The highlights of the new version are multitasking and folders. Yes, actual multitasking of up to seven apps at a time, from the reports I have read. Hooray! I cheer that on, but I can’t honestly say I need multitasking on my iPhone. For iPad users, this will be a must-have.

I was hoping to hear an announcement that Verizon will be getting the iPhone later this year, but there is still no word on that, despite years of endless speculation. Maybe someday!

Last month, I bought an iPhone 3GS. I quickly installed the Geocaching app from geocaching.com. It is terrific for locating nearby caches. In addition, I installed MotionX GPS for the iPhone which allows me to determine my exact location in a variety of formats and email the information to myself. MotionX GPS does that and much more. I highly recommend it.

With the added help of the iPhone apps, we created our very first geocache today. I have submitted our cache information to the geocaching.com website for approval. It was a lot of fun to assemble the small cache. I can’t wait until the first person finds it!

I remember mocking the idea of geocaching the first time I heard about it. Since that time, I have come around to love it. It is really a lot of fun, and a nice, free way to get out of the house and exercise outdoors. If you have a hand-held GPS, why not give it a try?

You’ll soon realize how much Flash is overused on many sites. After I started blocking Flash, the static ad images that appear on sites don’t bother me enough to continue running my ad blocker. Try it yourself.

• Flash Blocker for Firefox
• Click-to-Flash for Mac Safari

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, I have an easy way to find which channels your neighbors are using. Grab the app WiFiFoFum and see all channels which are in use in your WiFi area. I love this app. It is extremely helpful in many ways beyond this single example. I highly recommend it. I’m sure desktop solutions are available, but I prefer using my iPhone for portability.

Once you can see a map of channels in use nearby, choose a channel for your network that is not in use by other nearby networks. Technically, each channel number represents a range of frequencies, many of which still overlap each other. To get as far away from other networks in the channel spectrum, choose a channel number that is 5 points away from other networks. For example, if everyone around you uses channel 6, choosing channel 1 or 11 would be best in that case. You won’t always be able to space your network that far from the others, but choosing any number not being used by others would still be helpful. I am providing a link that you can read for more information about this topic.

In addition to wisely choosing your WiFi channel, also make sure you also have renamed your network from the default (such as “linksys”) and have turned on WPA or higher security. For additional security, it is also wise to change the router login/password and disable wireless access to the router setup page.

Foursquare is an app for your mobile phone that allows you to check-in to places around town, meet up with friends, and explore your city. Foursquare users collect achievement badges and become the official mayor of places that they visit more often than other users.

I originally heard about Foursquare on the TWiT podcast network. Once I finally got an iPhone a few weeks ago, I was eager to try Foursquare, having heard so much about it. I installed Foursquare on my iPhone, as well as GoWalla, a Foursquare competitor. I’ll go ahead and say that I prefer Foursquare, largely because of the badges and overall fun nature of the app. It also helps that it is much more popular in my area than GoWalla. I’ve never had to add a location into Foursquare in any of my check-ins.

I found GoWalla to be adequate. The user interface is nice. The problem for me was that after many check-ins using both services, GoWalla did not have the place I was visiting in their database even once. I found myself having to add places manually, which eventually wore on my nerves and took some of the fun out of using the app. If it is popular where you live, you may feel otherwise.

Give Foursquare a try. You can install it on iPhone, Android, Palm, and Blackberry devices. I have my check-ins forwarded to my Facebook account so that my friends can see where I am even if they aren’t using Foursquare. Sure, it’s kind of nerdy, but I enjoy it.

The iPhone version of Plants vs. Zombies is absolutely fantastic. It is likely the best iPhone game I have ever played. The desktop version is perfectly recreated on the iPhone. The touch interface fits the game like a glove. I played for hours last night. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, this game is a must-have.

Some of Adam’s theories truly live up to his crackpot title. I certainly don’t subscribe to all of them. I admit that I don’t often agree with all of their political leanings either, but the dynamic of these two guys is fun to listen to. I enjoy it when they tear into the propaganda embedded in a lot of commercials and TV dramas that air today, as well as all of the celebrity media “distractions” that are thrown at the public.

John C. Dvorak is my favorite of the two, and his pet peeve of the day is always amusing. Together, their laid back, unscripted conversation-style show combined with their refusal to spoil it with sponsors makes for an enjoyable listen. Check it out.

Since dumping Quicken 2007 in search for a better alternative, I have experimented with numerous other programs. Those include Moneydance, Moneywell, iBank, Cha-Ching and others. I have never been completely satisfied with my experience with any of them. I believe Moneywell is the best program I’ve used, but lately I’ve grown frustrated with a few issues that I believe must be software bugs.

A wider question is whether to use money management software at all these days. A lot of people don’t bother. I can think of three alternatives to not using said software: 1) Not keep track of your money at all, 2) Use an online solution like Mint. I am not interested in using an online service to house my banking information, so that option can be tossed out immediately. 3) Track your finances using a spreadsheet.

Quicken has been promising a new Mac version for a couple of years now. It has been delayed time and time again. In fact, some in the tech press have called it vaporware. However, it seems that they are finally about to release it. I received an email from Intuit saying that the new version will be released by the end of this month. It is called Quicken Essentials for Mac. The screenshots look attractive, but is it worth it for me to spend any more money on software to help manage my money? After all, I find something that I dislike in all of them.

My needs in money management are pretty simple. I manually enter the data and I just want to know the bottom line to avoid possible overdrafts. With that in mind, I’m now trying a new approach to managing my checkbook. I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet that will house my transaction data. I tried a few iterations of my own, but I’ve taken a liking to the attractive Excel 2008 checkbook template that Microsoft offers for download on their Mactopia website.

So far, I like the complete control over the fields and information that I can store using Excel over a money application. Over time, I’ll see if tweaking the spreadsheet will be enough to satisfy my needs. If not, perhaps I’ll test drive Quicken’s new offering. Maybe they’ll get it right this time.

Of more than a hundred iPhone apps installed on my iPod Touch, Tweetie2 has become my favorite. It’s often the first app I click when I turn it on. I often take the iPod in the bathroom (ha) or in the bed to scroll through the latest tweets and trending topics. Tweetie2 is a fantastic Twitter client and I recommend it above the competition.

I post at least one tweet to Twitter every day. That much is easy. I’ve been try to post daily to this blog. Due to the long form format, it takes time, and I won’t be able to continue it indefinitely. Often times when I see a great movie or find out about something amazing, I’ll tweet about it, versus hammering out an essay on the topic. I suppose that I’ve become lazy by the 140 character limit of Twitter.

Twitter is valuable. Over time, I have carefully managed the list of people that I follow. Today, I follow 175 people and companies, and I read their messages daily. I find out about things the instant they happen. With Twitter, I feel completely plugged in. This is especially true for tech news, of which I am very fond.

If you aren’t using it, I don’t know why. Everyone can sign up, and nobody forces you to post messages of your own. The value in crafting a list to follow of people who are important to you is immeasurable. In fact, I have exchanged direct messages with people such as the editor of MacWorld magazine, and others. It’s quite a community. I foresee using it for a very long time.

My latest Twitter updates are on display in the right sidebar of this blog. You can follow me @blitzcraig.

The eatery is called Goodberrys and only has locations in Raleigh, Durham, or Cary North Carolina. Goodberrys has a good reputation in the Triangle for their ice cream and frozen custard. I don’t particularly have a problem with their desserts, but I can say first hand that their hotdogs are a complete abomination. They are so bad, I imagine that eating one could possibly take a year or more off of your life.

I remember the meal like it was yesterday. We each ordered hotdogs from the location in Cary and ate them on our way back to work. I have to say that the Goodberrys in Cary is historically the worst of them all. Neither of us could choke down an entire hotdog that day. My teeth simply could not separate the internals. I liken it to biting into a rubber, steel-belted garden hose. To this very day, it remains the single grossest thing I have ever eaten from a restaurant in my life.

Hilariously, Laura has had the same experience. She told me that her encounter with a Goodberrys hotdog happened almost fifteen years ago. She said the hotdog had the consistency of a rubber stick with a bone in the middle. Disgusted, she threw the rest of her half-eaten hotdog to the stray cats that had made themselves a home around her house. The stray cats would not touch it! That says it all.

I realize that it has been over a decade since I ordered food from Goodberrys, which isn’t really fair to complain about now, but it may as well have been yesterday. It continues to haunt me as the most terrible meal I have ever consumed.

To summarize, if you are in the Raleigh area, for heaven’s sake, do not order a hotdog from Goodberrys. Trust me, they are absolutely dreadful. I seriously have my doubts that what they are serving even legally qualifies as food. You’re likely to get more flavor and nourishment from ingesting a dead cat on the side of the freeway.

Criticism of Flash reached a head last week when Apple announced their new iPad. As everyone knows, the iPhone OS does not support the Flash Player. Apple’s lack of support for Flash on their mobile devices is quite deliberate. The general consensus is that Apple hates Flash and wants to use the iPhone and iPad as weapons to try to kill it. This irks me.

The exclusion of Flash on the iPhone and iPod Touch is understandable, but I believe that the lack of Flash support on the iPad is a huge mistake. I don’t want to buy the iPad, but if I were interested, the lack of Flash would be a deal breaker for me. Far too many websites rely on the richness that Flash provides. Sure, YouTube videos play on the iPhone and iPad via H.264 video support in a dedicated app. However, web video isn’t the only area where Flash is popular.

Websites for musicians and restaurants are two areas where web designers lean heavily on Flash. One can complain about that fact all they want, but it is a reality. I personally have no problem with it whatsoever.

In addition, most all of the web-based games on the Internet are played within the Flash Player. Think of the gaming destinations Pogo, Kongregate, Farmville, etc. People enjoy playing these games. To simply not include them in a product that is designed to browse the web is totally unacceptable.

Flash has been a standard on the web for a very long time. More than a decade ago, it brought static web pages to life with animation, sound, and interactivity. I’m tired of hearing the growing calls for the format to be abandoned.

The anti-Flash camp contends that the Flash Player is a slow, buggy resource hog, often hitting 100% CPU usage and crashing web browsers. I have never noticed this on any of my computers. I can stream Flash video and multitask on my aging machine without issue. In fact, I have a decade old IBM Thinkpad that sports a Pentium-III processor with 512 MB of memory. That Thinkpad plays Flash perfectly fine, without struggle, overheating, or 100% CPU usage. When you consider that modern computers have dual and quad-core processors, what difference does it make if Flash is heavy on system resources?

To conclude, I have no problem with the Flash Player. I’ve never noticed it slowing down my computer or crashing my web browser, even once. In my opinion, Macromedia and Adobe have historically done a pretty good job at maintaining the Flash Player across all platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. It is ubiquitous, and it just plain works. So I say this to everyone who is bitching and moaning about the Flash Player: Get over it. If you don’t like it, uninstall it. See how great your web experience is after you do that.

Every New Years Eve, while the partygoers in New York City are living it up in Times Square waiting for the ball to drop, another copycat tradition is underway in downtown Raleigh. In Raleigh, we have the acorn drop. Yes, you heard right. It is a large acorn on a pole that they lower at midnight to celebrate the new year. Lame. What is the point of this? New York is in our time zone and people who actually have a life can celebrate the real ball dropping, in real-time.

Even more stupid is the fact that the acorn is dropped early every year at 8:00 PM so that families and small children can witness the drop, chiming in an hour that is absolutely meaningless to all parties involved. To artificially celebrate the new year before midnight is a complete disgrace. Let’s just do away with this. I’m embarrassed.

Today is Groundhog Day. Up in the city of Punxsutawney, PA, the famous groundhog comes out to see his shadow. Don’t get me started on how silly the tradition is. If you look at the historical records, you’ll find that ole’ Phil sees his shadow like 95% of the time. But I digress on Phil. My real complaint is that Raleigh, NC has to copy this tradition as well. We have our own groundhog celebration, except our groundhog bears the eye-rolling name “Sir Walter Wally.” Give me a break.

I’m curious if other cities and states have similar events to those I’ve listed above. All I can do is shake my head at what a complete waste of time and resources all this crap is.

The problem I have is that this isn’t a tablet computer. It is basically a giant iPod Touch. I already own an iPod Touch, and I don’t need a larger one. The iPad runs the iPhone OS. I want to see a tablet that runs full-blown Mac OS X and is a fully functional computer, complete with USB ports. I thought an Apple tablet would have Mac OS X at its core. After all, Apple invested a lot of time in writing Snow Leopard (10.6) to use less space and system resources. I figured all of that work would have coincided with developing a product like the iPad.

The iPhone OS, as it exists in version 3.x, does not allow multitasking (beyond the iPod feature and push notifications). That seems very limiting on such a large and capable device as the iPad. In addition, there is no Adobe Flash for the iPhone OS. Steve Jobs said that the iPad delivers the “best” web experience. How can that be true if it doesn’t have Flash? What about all of the Flash-heavy websites out there, not to mention all of the fun Flash games on the web? Also, the majority of online video streaming today requires the Flash Player. The only videos you’ll end up watching on the iPad are those you rip into iTunes yourself, YouTube videos, and those you rent or purchase from the iTunes Store. Of course, I am aware that the future HTML5 is going to eventually provide video streaming without Flash, but that isn’t quite reality as it exists today.

As for the rest, I can say that the iPad looks pretty. I do think there is too much bezel around the frame, however. I’d like to see the screen reach all the way to the edge. This device would be great for college textbooks. Little was said about that during the product announcement, however. The iPad should have a camera for video conferencing, and the lack of one is a little puzzling. I imagine that the next version of the device will add a camera. I’m also surprised that we didn’t see a 128 GB version of the iPad.

On another note, I was also disappointed that while doing their iPad product announcement, Apple did not announce the rumored multiple carrier support for the iPhone, or any mention iPhone OS 4.0.

It will be interesting to see all of the apps that will be developed for the iPad. I believe the product will be a success for Apple, but it falls short of a game-changing announcement, in my opinion.

The movie has good casting, and the story is good as well. But what takes the cake is the sheer amount of over-the-top gore and gross-out scenes in the movie. Some of the gore may have been available only in the director’s cut, I am not sure about that. If you have the option, I’d watch this version of the movie, since the gore is so much a part of the overall charm of the movie.

If you like horror/suspense films, I’d guess that you’d like this one. Without giving away any spoilers, I’ll say that the parking garage and cemetary scenes were my two favorites. Add this movie to your list of rentals for sure.