Pasadena Drive

When I point my browser (Firefix 3) to this site, I get the solid red page saying the site is known to host malware. What the hell?

Any of you get the same message???

Just got the WordPress app for the iPhone. Testing it now from a remote location. This is gonna be great.

Now what I’d like is an automatic Twitter post with a link to new stories here. Does that exist? If not, someone please get on it!

Last summer all the buzz was around a new device from Apple called the iPhone. No doubt it has changed the market space for smartphones and media players. At the time I still had a year left on my Sprint contract (iPhone is AT&T only in the US), and wasn’t interested in paying a couple hundred bucks to get out of it on top of the $600 Apple wanted for the hardware.

Ericka, however, was looking for new service, as her long time employer provided cell phone service finally expired. Only one choice…the iPhone. She LOVES her iPhone. Never before has she been so excited about a piece of technology as with this new device. Texts, emails, music, internet…she uses quite a few of the many iPhone features.

Fast forward one year - my Sprint contract expired in June (yeah!), and my aging Treo 755p was on its last legs. That left me with one thing to do yesterday…get in line at my local AT&T store and buy an iPhone 3G! And that I did.

Driving by the store Thursday night about 8:30 I saw 3 people already in line. Not wanting the phone that bad sent me home to sleep in my nice comfortable bed. I did get in line Friday morning at 7am…one hour before the store opened. There were about 150 people ahead of me. Not to worry, as an AT&T employee came out about 30 minutes before the doors opened and said they had LOTS of iPhones!

The doors opened, and the line started moving…slowly, as purchasers were required to sign a contract before leaving the store. As I got within 25 people to the store they announced they’d sold out of Black 16GB iPhones - crap, that’s the one I wanted. There were plenty of White 16GB models, but I wasn’t interested in a white phone. That left two options 1)leave and come back another day once they get more Black 16GB phone in stock, or 2) buy a Black 8GB iPhone.

I am now the proud owner of a Black 8GB iPhone! The next week or so will be a test to determine if 8GB is sufficient, or if I should pony up the $20 restocking fee and extra $100 for the 16GB iPhone.

If you watched the news yesterday you saw that many people had problems activating their phones - due to all the new purchases, original iPhone owners updating their software to 2.0, and Apple’s new MobileMe service all hitting at the same time. Yes, I did get caught in that. It took 8 or 9 tries once I connected to iTunes to get things going, but withing an hour of arriving home with the phone I was rocking.

As of now, I’m loving this phone. It’s packed full of music, videos, photos, and of course, all my contacts. I have 30 free apps that I downloaded from the Apple Application Store. My favorites so far are:
Twitterific - a neat little app that connects to the Twitter website. Super easy to Tweet!
Evernote - handy tool for remembering things; text, photos…all syncs to their website so I always know what I have to do!
Pandora - web radio that YOU design on the go. If you don’t Pandora, you should.
NYTimes - gotta have the news. That’s one think I did like about my Treo - OnDemand news. This is even better.

I’m sure I’ll find new, better, different uses for my iPhone. Until then I will thoroughly enjoy every minute with it.

Oh, there’s one other thing I forgot to tell you…this phone is dead sexy!

Hope you’re having a great time celebrating 232 years of freedom!

In an effort to protect you from all my hobbies, I have other blogs for specific interests of mine. Adding to my recently neglected BEER site is the “soon to be neglected” PHOTO site, dedicated to…you guessed it…photography!

Check out - pasadenadrive.com/photo.

Driving a truck that averages 12mpg doesn’t help, but this would suck even if I drove a hybrid!

After much hesitation I’ve finally joined the twitter crowd. I’ve heard of many people using it…and loving it, but I’ve always thought of it as “one more blog to neglect.” Those of you who are regular (or more likely used to be regular) visitors to The Drive know I haven’t been the best at following my update schedule. Does “five posts today…none for a month” sound familiar to anyone??? Just something else to waste my time, as if I need that!

Then it hit me. Twitter is a mini version of The Drive…that I can update via text message. Since I spend a lot of time waiting in lines…sitting in the car…basically doing things in places where I don’t have a computer, this is a great way to post all the things in my head that I have high hopes of posting here but never quite make it. And since I have Unlimited Texts on my mobile plan…it’s just a no brainer.

So, do you Twitter? Let’s follow each other (truth be told, I’m not really sure how this all works…I just started last night). You can find me at www.twitter.com/santamarina???????? ????? ????????.

To all the moms in all the world, Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Special wishes to Ericka’s mom, Carrie; my mom, Kristi; and my grandma, Alberta…we love you all!!!

Today is the 5th anniversary of Apple’s iTunes Store. From 200,000 songs to over 10 million!

Paving the way for legal music downloads, the iTunes Music Store opened it’s “doors” on April 28, 2003. In five short years the iTunes Store (the ‘Music’ part of the name was dropped last year when they expanded their business to Videos, Movies, and TV Shows) has become the #1 reseller of music in the United States - surpassing giants like Target, Best Buy, and Wal Mart.

The success of the iTunes Store is no doubt directly connected to it’s integration with the iPod - the overwhelming leader of portable music/video players on the market today. With the expansion of Apple’s portable line, including last years hit iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple is sure to continue their rise for many years to come.

One question you may have of me is, “Are you smoking what you’re selling?”
Yes! Ericka and I have both had several iPods over the years. Ericka got her iPhone last summer, and mine’s on the way this year (I’m waiting for version 2.0…and my Sprint contract to run out). And yes, we BUY our music.