I absolutely hate the word “blog”

Dear Bank of America Website: You should not default the radio button to having ‘Yes, remember this computer in the future’ selected. The default should either be nothing or NOT remembering it. SECURITY, PEOPLE.

Dear Google: You should not implement a feature that hides Labels that don’t have any useful content for me, but then have the hidden labels contain unread messages that then never get displayed. If you decide to implement such a ‘feature’ you should allow me to adjust settings to opt out of it.

Dear Shazam: Twitter integration only works if you allow users to modify the default tweet text, or if you make the default tweet text sufficiently un-douchey. But really you should just make it modifiable, come on.

Dear Chipotle iPhone App: You should tell me BEFORE I go to all the trouble of ordering via my iPhone that a) I cannot pay for my order via my iPhone at the location I have selected, and b) my order will never, ever, EVER get made before I arrive, thereby making iPhone ordering totally pointless.

TECHNOLOGY, YOU HAVE FAILED ME!

Courtesy of Gizmodo (via imgur via Digg).

Turns out Apple’s call center has the best hold music I’ve ever heard to date. I suppose the pioneers of modern music media wouldn’t settle for anything less… but I might start calling on during busy times just to rock out.

On that note, I’m reminded of the time when the divorce firm I worked at fought tooth and nail with their phone company to get hold with classical music. They eventually succeeded, on the condition that they supply their own CD.

No one thought to check the disc’s content. Track three: The Wedding March. Yeah, that went over well with clients.

I feel like I’m in a Volkswagen commercial. I’m sandwiched between two other bus commuters who were previously both yammering loudly.

But they finally shut up and both started listening to music. And for the past two-ish tracks, we’ve all been subtly tapping our feet/fingers/neighbors in PERFECT TIME with each other.

Aww, Loud White Tapper just got off. Way to ruin the groove, buddy.

In other news, this post was brought to you by the new-ish WordPress iPhone app. Testing, one, two…

This time, I’m trying to figure out how to make my new iPhone Bluetooth Headset function with Ventrilo, the chat program our guild uses during WoW raids.  (Yeah — tech geek meets gamer nerd, I know.  But does anyone know the answer to this?)

I was told by a Best Buy employee with gamer cred that headsets with Bluetooth 2.0* capability would be able to pair with the PC and function as a microphone in Ventrilo.  While I can get the pairing part to work just fine, I’m not able to get the mic in Vent working.  At all.  Ever.

But Grant procured me a free USB microphone/headset, so I may just give up on this whole Bluetooth-to-Vent thing.  And besides, my Apple Bluetooth hotness is fabulous, whether I can raid with it or not.

Despite all the many reviews pooh-poohing its admittedly shitty audio quality and short battery life, I love having a headset that a) has a charge and pairing indicator on my phone, b) doesn’t painfully grip my ear like every other headset I’ve tried, and c) makes me look like much less of a tool than other Bluetooth headset wearers.

* And as an aside, Bluetooth 2.0 sounded totally made up, until I Googled it. What WILL these kids come up with next.

Grant and I wound up having to hit the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Comedy Show without dinner in our stomachs last night, so we used my precious iPhone to locate some late-night grub. (By the way, the Citysearch Web app for the iPhone is pretty darn handy, if not 100% accurate.) We stumbled into the Virginia Inn (aka “My Inn”) fifteen minutes before the kitchen was going to close, and the staff were all super-nice and accommodating.

We recalled that the VA Inn had been closed for a while since they were expanding their kitchen, so we were hoping they’d have a decent selection of actual food, and not just bar fare. And it turns out, we were right!

I ordered the “Steak Frites” and requested it medium rare, thinking I might get a dried-out slab of charred flat-iron and some blah fries. But what I got was a thick, small but hefty, perfectly Pittsburghed (charred on the outside, rare-but-not-chilly on the inside) filet mignon chop, and some of the most superbly prepared potato strips I’ve ever tasted — for a total of $22.

Oh, how I wish my iPhone battery hadn’t died, so I could post a photo! For greasy pub food, I had a meal that rivaled the stuff one could get from The Met for three times the price. I was blown away. I’m definitely mentally re-bookmarking my inn as a place to head back to. I’m so glad they’ve re-opened!

So I don’t mean to be one of those people. Really, I don’t. I’m just in love with the fact that I finally have a gadget that’s gloat-worthy. But the last thing I want to be is one of those iPhone snobs, ya know? (Too late, I know.) So one of the first things I did when I got my phone (besides drink heavily and belt out ballads in Rock Band — it was a *birthday* gift, after all) was delete the “Sent from my iPhone” email signature.

But believe it or not, I’m finding I need to put in some kind of signature, so I can more easily create a Gmail filter that will allow me to sort the iPhone photos I email to myself. And because Gmail likes to over-filter and/or under-specify a bit, I have to come up with a signature that makes my phone-sent emails recognizable from my non-phone ones. So back to Signature Square One.

Once I figured out that I needed a phone-specific signature, I got stumped. The only real-life person I know who has an original signature is Hen, but I don’t wanna be the lame kid that copies the idea too late in the trend. (Hers says “iPhone love may result in typos”. So true, so succinct, so cute, so HEN. Not mine for the taking.) So being the witty, original, thoughtful, humorous writer that I am, I immediately started Googling for ready-made iPhone signature suggestions I could use.

Read the rest…

I’m still struggling with iPhone car charger stuff, but I thought I’d post an update since my first whinings on the subject. Just an FYI that the continuation of the saga is in the comments section of that first post, since that’s where all the relevant info lies. Thanks again to you helpers!

I’ve been attempting to purchase a vehicle charger for my iPhone ever since I first got it, and so far, no luck. I’ve bought and promptly returned three different models (two Griffins from an AT&T and an InCase model from an Apple store), and ALL of them cause screechingly terrible interference with my car stereo. (Said interference completely disappears as soon as I unplug either the charger or the phone.)

Next up, I’m trying out the InCharge Travel set, per a recommendation from an Apple employee.

The thing that kills me is, Apple has to be aware of this problem. All the reviews of these chargers on their website are very vocal about this — I’m definitely not the only one. And yet, there only exist shitty third-party chargers that cause massive and weird interference. (Some people even get FM radio interference. From a CHARGER.) And a call to their tech support pretty much resulted in the guy browsing the Apple store online, like I’ve already spent MANY HOURS doing. Thanks, buddy. (I know he probably just wanted to help, but what I really wanted was for the issue to get escalated to someone who might actually know something about this phenomenon. No dice.)

So why hasn’t Apple come out with its own superior, interference-free charger, instead of selling tons of shitty third-party models that everyone bitches about? Is it because they can’t find a solution to this problem? That doesn’t seem very Apple-y, but who knows. A friend who’s tech-savvier about this sort of thing than I am basically said there was no way around this problem, since the iPhone just sends and receives way too much data and essentially winds up functioning as a giant receiver whenever it’s charging.

But I’m not giving up yet, oh no! I just have to go out of my way to make sure every vendor I shop at has a liberal return policy. Input welcome if any imaginary readers/iPhone users out there have found a non-sucky car charger!

So this iPhone thing is pretty damn cool. But I have to say, I feel pretty damn slow on the whole “über-intuitive Apple interface” thing. Given that I’ve never owned an iPod, or even a decent MP3 player or a complicated phone, I feel pretty behind. I only even touched iTunes a few months ago, and I managed to royally screw up all libraries of all music in a few short hours.

That said, I’m damn proud of how well I’ve done so far! Apple’s pedantic but clear videos helped some, and fellow iPhone owners also weighed in with some good tips. I managed to get some great apps, like a Wikipedia button and of course Bejeweled. I’m bummed to learn that the iPod version of Peggle doesn’t work on my phone, but perhaps it will someday soon.

And OH MY GOD, I can listen to MUSIC and write EMAILS and TEXTS and NOTES and APPOINTMENTS and look up DIRECTIONS and take PICTURES, ALL WITH THE SAME DEVICE. I know this is old news for many, but it’s brand-spankin-new for me, and I friggin’ love it. I can’t get over how functional and efficient I am! Read the rest…