When I met him, I mentioned being from Alaska.  He said he would be in Alaska sometime in mid-November.  He wasn’t sure of the location at the time, and we parted ways.

I was wondering and stumbled upon his Facebook page, and noted the date at November 13.  So I planned to attend.

I arrived in time for the performance. There was quite a crowd! Finally edged my way to the railing, on the balcony overlooking the stage.

Arvel, backed up with a quartet of local musicians, put on quite the performance.  It was different than the show at the Pow-wow in Loudenville back in September.  I guess the difference was the live musicians. 

In any event, it was a great show!  Filled in a few more albums from his catalog, and stood in line to get them autographed.  Chatted a few minutes with Arvel and his wife, and reminisced of Ohio.  I understand they are trying to book a music festival there, but having trouble getting the organizers to return their calls or email…  Hey, that would certainly be the festival’s, and in the end, the peoples loss.

All in all, it was a great day.  Certainly glad I went.  Plus there were lots of native dancers and plenty of other things to enjoy.

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As before (with the 3G and 3GS) I scoured Hong Kong, only to find the iPhone 4 was backordered and generally not available, even through the Apple Store HK.  Then I read an article where Canada (and the UK) were also selling factory unlocked versions. This is in addition to those already available (due to local laws) in Australia, Italy, and the previously mentioned HK.

So I started watching prices.  I see I shouldn’t have waited.  There was the initial flood, then somewhat limited availability, then they became available, but at a premium.

I saved my pennies (and nickels, dimes, and dollars) to pay for the approximate $200 "premium" for the factory unlocked version.  My need for this device is, as mentioned before, that I use GCI service here in Alaska (since I work for them.)

I was also lucky, I later found out, as the device came with iOS 4.0.1.  The key here is that I do use several apps only available by jailbreaking (a couple of them being iRealSMS or SwirlyMMS.)  The newest, at this writing iOS 4.0.2, can not be jailbroken.  In fact, that was the primary reason Apple distributed this release. (There is also a PDF security patch, but that can be downloaded separately via Cydia on a jailbroken device.)  (*** Update:  Apple has released 4.1)

So I charged the device, and after swapping the GCI SIM from my 3GS, activated the phone.  I barely took a glance at the new features before heading straight to http://jailbreakme.com.  A few minutes later Cydia and Rock were installed and off I went.

I added a few jailbroken apps and other than some minor annoying operational glitches with iRealSMS, all was fine.  Or so I thought…

I had placed a few calls, but didn’t think there was a problem.  Then a received a call and picked it up with my Plantronics Voyager Pro BT headset.  After being on the phone for several minutes, the caller finally interrupted and said they were having trouble hearing me.  I spoke up a bit and repeated what I had said.  Still they were having trouble, and a minute later, again said they couldn’t hear me; I was "muffled."  All along, I could hear them fine.

I didn’t give it much more thought, but then on a later call, I was once again told I sounded "muffled."  This time, however, I wasn’t on the headset, so that was really disconcerting. 

After searching Google and the Apple discussion groups I found where there was indeed a "muffled audio" issue, but only saw it associated with Bluetooth audio.  Several people had done a multitude of things to attempt to resolve — all with limited success.

In the process, I also read about "slow upload speeds."  I hadn’t noticed, but decided to check.  Sure enough, I was getting ‘normal’ download speeds, but barely achieving GPRS data upload throughput.  Wow!

Finally, after a few days of use, I started to notice another anomaly, that of the "proximity sensor bug."  Essentially there is a problem with screen control (on / off) when you raise or lower the phone to your ear.  My issue was noticed, on a few occasions, where when I removed the phone from my ear (for example to hang up, or dial a number to continue in voicemail) and the screen remained dark.  It would *not* come back on, even pressing the home button or sleep button, tapping the screen, etc.  This was a real problem (albeit very infrequent in the scheme of things) and sent me back to Google and the Apple support site.

There were all sorts of things to try to fix any or all of these problems.  I started with the least drastic, and did a "Reset All Settings".  That way, I didn’t have to do a restore, mess with my jailbreak or approved apps, etc.  Everything was fine, with the exception of re-entering the network settings for GCI and my various wi-fi connections.  I also had to re-enter a number of (but strangely not all) passwords.

I did a reboot of the phone, and checked the easiest thing first.  Lo and behold, but upload speed problem disappeared.  I was getting normal EDGE (GCI doesn’t have 3G on GSM, only on the CDMA side) speeds.  In due course, made a couple of phone calls, with and without the headset, and the person on the other end didn’t report muffled audio.  The next item, the proximity sensor bug, has not reappeared after the reset.

So, all in all, I am very pleased with the new device.  It is much faster, has a fantastic screen, and on and on.  In general, I have really taken to new features that I really didn’t think I would use, such as multi-tasking.  Time will tell, and with the release of iOS 4.1, I hope a jailbreak will follow soon.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 4, 3G, 3GS, GCI, iRealSMS, SwirlyMMS, jailbreakme.com, jailbreak, Alaska

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I only had minor issues in the past with SoftRAID 3. It just seemed to ‘work’ and you never had to think about it.

When the upgrade (and 30-day trial) for version 4 was offered, I jumped. It seemed like a worthwhile upgrade, and there was real value in being able to try the new features for 30 days.

It was going along fine, until I had six days remaining. That was when I had troubles beyond belief. The drives in the RAID array started to go away. Then, I couldn’t rebuild the set. Then, I was informed there was an unrecoverable error. Then, I was told there was a problem with the partition data, and I should contact SoftRAID support to assist in fixing this “major” problem.

It went downhill from there…

I had troubles, but was able to reformat the drives that were involved. It should be noted there was NO hardware failure of any kind, in any of the drives. It was all due to SoftRAID ‘losing it’s mind’ and not being able to recover.

I had a good backup, so knew I could restore. The only problem, it took forever to restore, then rebuild my iTunes Library. It isn’t *that* big, but around 65K tracks. Way more than I could ever dream to recover from scratch.

Anyway, thought all was well, after hours of restore, and rebuilding iTunes. And then I come to find I was really trashed. The library I thought was back, was really in a state of disarray.

So, now in the process of recovery from my “back up of the back up…”

Hopefully I will soon see how much SoftRAID really cost me.

—–
Update:
A new day and it seems like I am back. Albeit, without SoftRAID. I am now running the library on a discrete standalone external FW800 drive. For safety and security, I have this ‘main’ drive backed up to two other external FW800 drives. In this end this is probably better, although slightly more cumbersome, than the software RAID. Thank goodness for the robustness of SuperDuper! It is definitely worth the small price for a reliable, versatile, and configurable backup solution.

This morning, I tried again, and the site was still not available. Strange, it just disappeared.

So where do you turn; Google, of course. I typed in “what happened to wheresgeorge” in the search window in Safari. I was a bit surprised to find I wasn’t the only one asking the question.

Here are the top hits for that search. The real answer seems to be found on the WheresGeorge forums. I’ve never really looked around there, but they are working fine. Hank (the founder of WheresGeorge) has made a few posts. He seems to think the site is swamped because of a recent Yahoo article. But there have been “news” stories before, so it isn’t quite certain this is the source of the extra traffic.

In any event, Hank posted a link to an alternate site which does seem to be working fine. Temporarily use: WhereGeorge.us.

=====

Quick update:  WheresGeorge.com is back since sometime yesterday.  However, entering bills and some operations seem “slow”.  Database updates seem the same as always.  For now the “surge” must be over, and things are getting back to normal.

Just got home from the movies…  Laura called around 21:35 and asked if I wanted to go to the movies.  Sure, what’s playing?  And when? Haven’t been to the “late show” in a long time.

Anyway, she mentioned “The Blind Side”.  I wanted to see that, but almost missed it.  Good movie, but more so, a really touching story of Michael Oher.

If you aren’t able to catch it at the theater, make sure to watch for the DVD…

Edit: Removed the video clip of the trailer (03/27/10)

However, I always went back to the Kindle, and started looking at the Kindle 2 and DX.  From what I can tell the DX is super, but at a ‘super size’ and thus I ruled it out.  Maybe someday, however…

I focused on the pros and cons of a few readers, and narrowed it down to the Kindle and the Sony Reader Pocket Edition, and the new Touch Edition.  The touch looks like a great device, but the lack of wireless (at least for me) put it out of the running.  Sure, folks will say it isn’t necessary, and just drains the battery.  I can agree with the battery life argument but for total flexibility, convenience, and just the cool factor of another wireless device the Kindle is the winner.

Since I had made up my mind, I tried the Kindle app on the iPhone and looked for free ebooks to try.  I did several Google searches which revealed literally tens of thousands of free books.  I downloaded several directly from Amazon to try that channel, as well as a few others to check compatibility and ease of getting them on the device.  This all worked flawlessly and whetted my appetite for more.  Not only “more”, but more screen space to make the reading experience more like a book, as well as easier on the eyes.

The next search I did was to see if there are any hacks available.  Just as with other electronics, especially computer related devices, you can almost be sure someone wants to tweak and get more out of the hardware.  The Kindle community didn’t disappoint in this respect.  Even if for nothing other than tips and tricks, hints and how-to’s, a little bit of time invested in Google pays big dividends.

I couldn’t wait any longer.  I ordered the Kindle 2 and a Patagonia case, along with an extra power adapter on Monday.  It arrived on Tuesday and I was off and running.

The first thing that struck me was the weight of the reader.  I don’t know what I had in mind, but it was heavier than I imagined.  Now, it’s not “heavy” but had a solid feel and is not uncomfortable to hold for long periods.

The metal / brushed aluminum back is a bit slick, and doesn’t have the non-slip rubberized “grip” that was found on the Kindle 1.  The button placement is logical and allows for a comfortable grip on the device.

I don’t own a Kindle 1, and only have a 10-15 minutes with one.  I can’t give a fair or complete comparison, but a couple of quick first thoughts.

Without a side by side look, the screen is about the same, although the 16-bit graphics of the K2 have a visible edge over Kindle 1.  I do like the scroll wheel navigation device of the K1 over the 5-way of the K2.  Again, don’t have a lot of time with either device, but out of the box, the K1 wins this category in my opinion.  (I guess with time I will get used to the 5-way.)

Been playing with the wireless delivery, conversion via email, and even a few web sites that do conversions for books and blogs / RSS feeds.  All methods, both free and paid (via Amazon’s conversion and wireless delivery) work well.  Been impressed with the few conversions of Word docs, as well as PDFs.

I did a quick copy and paste of some web site tips and tricks to a Word doc, converted that, and then sent to my Kindle email address.  Sure, it cost me $0.15, but worked well and can be a viable way to get content to the device.

I looked at the “Experimental” section on the Menu.  All I had available was the web browser.  Uploaded a few MP3s from iTunes and they played fine.  Whether in the background, or just through the speakers (or headphones) the Kindle will work fine in a pinch, or as intended, background music while you read.  Of course, you can’t have MP3s play while Text-to-Speech is active, but to me that is common sense.

Installed a hack to allow personal graphics and photos to be used as the Kindle ‘screen saver’.  Sure e-ink doesn’t need a screen saver, but cool to prove the concept.  Downloaded several graphics / photos, and gave it a try.  Even took some to Photoshop CS4 and added my own “Jim’s Kindle” stamp.  I guess, from reading, they don’t really support customization in this area as did the K1, but it works fine for me.

Been trying all sorts of hacks and conversions.  As above, the screen saver hack works great.  Also trying native formats other than .azw.  The .prc files I have loaded work fine.  I am still trying to get success from the ePub conversion.  I got errors at first, now nothing, so must be something I’ve done.  Still need to investigate, especially since Google has seemed to embrace this format with their “1,000,000 free books.”

In the end, I really do like the device.  Sure it’s new, it’s new (to me) technology.  But I’ve started reading more, and that’s what it’s all about.

UPDATED – 2009-09-06:

Something I forgot to mention… Since living in Alaska, we deal with a lot of darkness through the winter months.  We are well in to autumn now, and the days continue to get noticeably shorter, losing over five minutes of daylight each day.

That said, one of the things I miss with the Kindle (or any e-reader I believe) is the backlight of the iPhone or iPod.  Granted that would certainly impact the quality of the display, and more importantly the battery life on the Kindle, but I realized last night how much I lie in bed, in the dark, and read.  With the iPhone/iPod, the ‘natural light’ was provided in the form of a backlit screen.

So, for now, the light on the night stand will be illuminated, but I think I might check out one of the book lights that are available.  In any event, that is a small consolation for the convenience and benefits of the Kindle.

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I could hardly listen (nor have I) to all the tracks.  At this moment, there are somewhere around 58,243 64,381 tracks.  If listened, from track one to the end, it would play for about 172 196.9 days, without repeating.

I store this “stuff” on a 1 2 TB drive, mirrored with a second (RAID 1), and backed up nightly to another drive.  Sure wouldn’t like to lose this “stuff”.  I don’t think I could ever replace it all.

Check out my library, as of today, at this link.

Note: Updated to reflect new tracks and fix broken link – 2010/12/24.