Just in case it wasn’t painfully obvious, I’ve got mobile devices on the brain.  My latest wonderings have been on the FaceTime app that is in the iPhone 4.  Apple has been advertising the crap out of it and tech blogs have been mentioning it everywhere.  And it really does look cool.

The problem is, I still have a few questions:

1) Apple called it an ‘open standard’ when they announced it.

Yet, here we are almost a month and a half from when the iPhone 4 launched and there’s still no official word on a timeline of when access to the service might become available for 3rd parties.

Is it an open standard once Apple has released new iPods and iPads that have front facing cameras? Is it an open standard that’s only for companies that want to pay Apple money?

You shouldn’t call a standard “open” unless you’re actually unveiling the standard.  Feel free to say it’s designed to be an open standard but don’t claim it is one when no one but you can access it.

2) WiFi only?

What is this crap?  Look, I know iPhones are killing AT&T’s bandwidth but it’s kind of annoying that the person who bought the phone and is paying for the data plan doesn’t get to make that decision.  If I want to chew up a bunch of bandwidth making video calls to other people, that should be my choice.

When the iPhone first came out, it was obvious that AT&T was giving up its authority to get the device on their network.  However, every year since its release, it seems like their fears and insecurities are having a bigger impact on the device.

No tethering, no Google Voice, no 3G video calls, really crappy resolution for streaming video over 3G.  These are all decisions that smack of carrier interference and Apple’s willingness to compromise on the functionality of their product to make the service provider happy highlights why we need more open access to a mobile wireless internet.

3)  Long term usefulness

My final question, is this really that useful?  I can certainly see uses for it.  The best example I can think of is when I end up offering tech support remotely.  Way too often I find myself thinking, “If I could just see what they see, I’d have this resolved in 5 minutes.”  And that’s a great use.  But besides that, what is there?

Do I really want to have video chats with people.  Not particularly.  Not if it means I have to sit there and hold a phone up in front of my face the whole time.

The situations where having video contributes to the conversation is, I think, going to be the vast minority of the time.  Not that I don’t think it will come in handy sometimes, just that it would probably account for less than 5% of my phone calls.

Anyway, at the end of the day, Apple has taken something that’s been tried by a number of different people before and managed to make it relevant by streamlining it, getting widespread adoption, and just having it work.

It’s hard to think of any other company that’s ever been as good at taking failed tech ideas and reinvent them into success.

There are times when you come home from a show excited, whether by the music you just heard and are about to hear or because you had a cool time and got a phone number. Then there are times when you walk 30 blocks or so before realizing how cold it is and how far you have yet to go because you are astounded at the wonderful new thing that was always there that you have only tonight been allowed to witness and enjoy. I had a freaking blast at this show. I had never heard Holy Fuck or Super Furry Animals before and had not seen The Fiery Furnaces live, either.

I should apologize to Holy Fuck as I missed all but the last couple songs due to the fact that I am an idiot. The doors opened at 8 and I got to the club at 9. I figured that the first band wouldn’t start until then, but I was clearly wrong. Holy Fuck sounded like techno-house with those annoying incessant beats that last for hours for the ecstasy-addled, except without being annoying or incessant. Imagine a house song with real drums, synths, a bass player, another drummer and all sorts of weird effects and the song actually ends. These guys play music like I cook, throwing stuff in because it is good and blends. You can roll a song around in your mouth, turning over new flavors and strange tastes with each chew. They are like pita chips and cheescake, but musical. An aural alchemy. I will be buying their two albums as soon as I can. (I have yet to buy these albums as of 8-18-08, but I am broke and unemployed.)

The Fiery Furnaces were on next and I was excited to see them since I had missed them the last couple times they were in DC. They didn’t seem to really get into it until they played Blueberry Boat, but the crowd also seemed rather reserved until then, too. I liked seeing them but felt sorta blase about it because they looked so tired or bored. After they perked up, the music felt a lot more vibrant. I suppose you can’t blame people for being tired, everyone has off days I guess.

Super Furry Animals were a complete unknown to me until Uncanny Canadian instructed me to see this show no matter the cost. They were amazing, awesome would be a completely appropriate description as I was was awed by their music. Live shows are almost always better for that certain something, even if the songs are played almost exactly the same way as they were recorded on the albums. You can let yourself get caught up in the performance and forget all that stuff that gets tacked on to a home listening, like that time you made out with some girl while listening to Wish You Were Here, or how you played Transmissions from the Satellite Heart to psych yourself up to ask out some person at a coffee house. If you have never heard the songs before you see them live, you will always have that experience to play in the back of your mind while you listen at home. I’m drifting but maybe you follow me. SFA blew me away. They played and seemed to really be having a blast, and that feeling transferred to the audience. I can’t tell you what songs they included in the set, but they were all amazing. I would recommend SFA to anyone. They sound like bottled joy. At one point, the lead brought out some sort of huge, red, Power Rangers-looking helmet and held the microphone up to a hole in the top right and sang though the helmet. It sounded like he was singing from the back of some cave, or with a helmet on his head. Uh. Anyway, I have some pictures of that on my phone:

Um, yeah, so…my pictures were so bad that they broke the bloggio. We’ll have to wait a minute or two for those.

Alternate title: Perhaps they should examine each quote before using it in an ad campaign

So I’ve been spending a fair amount of time at the gym lately. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the money to hang out at one of those ‘fancy’ gyms. Instead, I spend my time at the YMCA. It’s actually not a bad place … besides being a little cramped. And I’ve been going there long enough that I actually know people.

Still, it’s not without its quirks. Something that I really enjoy though, is a nice collection of ridiculously positive messages they put up for the teenagers who play basketball there or something.

I’ve included two with this post. Sorry about the quality though, the camera on my Motorola phone is ridiculously bad.

The first has a picture of two high school aged basketball players walking into a room with some kids sitting at a round table and writing. Underneath it says, “Responsibility: Doing What’s Right.” From the picture, I’m not sure what that means. I don’t know why having a guy who is obviously much older and wearing basketball gear sitting at a table with children is an example of “Responsibility” but OK, we’ll go with it.

The second picture is of a mom or teacher with a bunch of kids at a hospital visiting another sick child. Underneath it says, “Caring Feels Good.” This one’s a little straight forward. Still, I don’t know exactly what they’re saying we should be doing. Going to the hospital and spending time with children? Taking random children to the hospital with us and visiting other sick children? It’s just not really clear to me.

I still think there is a valuable lesson in these images though. I don’t know what it is, but I do believe it’s in there somewhere. There are more sprinkled throughout the Y so if I have time in the future I might try to snap a few more pictures.