August 10th Bike Ride with iMapMyRide

iMapMyRide LogoI like biking. I have never been a runner. I hate how it makes my legs and in particular ankles and knees feel. Cycling on the other hand has always felt more fluid and I like the speed and feeling of being on a bike.

Trouble is I don’t go out nearly as much as I should. I’m aiming to fix that though, and went on what I hope to be the first of many rides happening every few days, if not more. The route I took was down the Greenway to the World Trade Center and back, roughly a 12 mile ride.

I had a headache so I decided to get some fresh air to see if that would help. Adding a ride to the mix, I figured, would get my blood flowing, so maybe that would also help. They did help for their part, but it later developed into a migraine which I have again today, but no biggie. The ride was really enjoyable. I suited myself up with my iPhone on an armstrap and booted up the iMapMyRide app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imapmyride-cycling-bicycling/id292223170?mt=8).

This is an app I downloaded a long, long time ago and never really used until just recently. It’s actually pretty cool as it logs your entire ride (or run if you’re so inclined) on a Google map and keep stats like how long the ride took, how far and a bunch of other little stats in-between. When you’re done you can share your route with Twitter or Facebook and check it out in detail on your profile page on the mapmyride.com site.

They offer multiple map options but one that I thought was really cool was a 3D flyover of the ride which I will post below. I’m always impressed by Google maps tech, but this was a fun way to relive the ride and see it from a different perspective. It’s not perfectly accurate, in part because I don’t think it understand’s there’s a bike path there and it’s trying to put me on the nearby roads instead. But it’s close enough.

(If you can’t view it, you may need to download the Google Earth plug-in. It should provide a link to do so.)

Anyway, I want to tackle more rides and maybe post more of them here in the future, but check out my route and my MapMyRide profile here: https://www.mapmyride.com/profile/plabrozzi, and download the app if you’re into cycling. I will warn you it is a battery eater, so head out with a full charge. Enjoy!

Gadget Watch – The Astak Mole Network IP Camera

Here’s a new section I’m adding to the PeteCast blog, called Gadget Watch. Anyone who knows me, knows I love all things with an electrical spark running through them. So I am always on the lookout for new and exciting technologies in the market.

For today’s product, I had been in search off and on, for a web cam that I could run without having to leave a computer running all day. I eventually stumbled into the world of Network IP cameras which run completely independently with their own address on your wired or wireless home/office network.

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iPhone Rate Plans – Kicking Blackberry’s A$$

Well, the major question we’ve all been waiting for has finally been answered. Just how much is this contraption going to cost me a month? The answer came this morning, and it couldn’t have been better. Well maybe, if they had offered it for free, but meh. Rate plans for the iPhone start at $59.99 a month for 450 minutes. “Yikes!”, yells the Crackberry fanatics! But oh ho, look deeper and see what’s included. 200 text messages, 5,000 night and weekend minutes, rollover minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile, oh yea, and UNLIMITED DATA. Umm… Pwn’d? My plan will be exactly this $59.99 one, as I can’t see breaking those numbers to easily especially with rollover. The plans do go up to $99.99, as detailed in the image below.

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The other great news is after waiting on line for hours to get an iPhone, you get to go in the store, walk up to the counter.. say, “One iPhone please” they ring you up, and you walk out. Ack! What about activation!? “Hahaha”, laughs Steve Jobs! “Puny mortals! I have thought of everything! Go home, connect your new iPhone to your computer, and sync it through the activation process from the comfort of your own home! Bwaaahahaha” (some dialog may not accurately depict the official press release and is instead used for emphasis.”)

Needless to say, the news with this product just keeps getting better and better. The Blackberry’s on the other hand, while amazing, cost about $99 for a plan somewhat similar to this, but with less weekend and night minutes and no texts; I believe they are a separate $5 or $10 dollar charge. The rate of that of course comes from buying separate phone and unlimited data plans.

Anyway, I will now officially start pulling my hair out until the 29th at 6PM. Yes, the next time you see me I will be bald. But at least I won’t be as sweaty as this guy…

Gizmodo – Man waiting in line for iPhone for 100 hours

Touching is Believing

Flick to the right folks. The iPhone is just a mere week away from launch now. This afternoon/evening AT&T and Apple sent out a pair of emails with a 24+ minute video attached detailing all sorts of info about the iPhone. If there is one thing I can say about these final weeks, the tension has obviously been getting worse and worse for me and many others waiting for this device. If nothing else can be said about Steve Jobs, it’s that his keen and yet wicked ability is like none other when it comes to dangling these little tidbits in front of us like yarn in front of a kitten. There’s actually so much news and hype right now I couldn’t begin to delve into it all for fear of a serious case of carpal tunnel.

At a minimum, I must applaud Apple and AT&T’s amazing work in promoting this device. I cannot think of anything including recent gaming systems that has gotten so much hype from the masses with almost no direct work to advertise and really push the item. They have really just announced it, kept it as secret as possible, and let their little calculated bits of info slide; letting us, the common man do all the rest for them. The endless blogs and podcasts have made this product one of the most celebrated devices next to the wheel.

Having watched through the video and seen the amazing things this phone can do in perspective for once, it really satisfies my mind, that I haven’t been wasting my time in following this phones development. It will truly go down in history as a game changer.

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iPhone E-mail app – Huzzah! Who cares about push?

Fantastic news. A long time ago I signed up with Apple and Cingular/AT&T’s mailing lists for info on the iPhone. Since that happened, I think I’ve seen maybe one or two pretty pointless e-mail’s from them. Today, one finally arrived with some good news. The e-mail mostly was reaffirming that the phone would be released on June 29th, and then was giving some pointers on how to prepare your info/pictures so you could quickly and easily transfer it over. Mostly common sense types of stuff.

Anyway, onto the exciting news. Though it has been talked about a lot if the iPhone would support Push type e-mail (email that is automatically delivered to you as it arrives. {a la Crackberry}), it has never really bothered me either way. Figuring in that most of my e-mail could be accessed by web browsers; and the fact that the iPhone has a great one. At the end of the day, it didn’t phase me much. The only thing that kind of bothered me was the worry of having to constantly hit send/receive like the Palm Treos. Well worry no more!

“iPhone is the first phone to come with a desktop-class email application. So now your phone can display rich HTML email with graphics and photos alongside the text. iPhone will even fetch your latest email every time you open the application and automatically retrieve your email on a set schedule, just like a computer does.”

This was the paragraph in the e-mail that freed me of all my iPhone-E-mail worries. I hadn’t even conceptualized they would add a timer like Outlook or other e-mail programs have, to automatically check for mail. But as it turns out, someone at Apple did. Another strong function that is pushing me ever closer to the edge of setting up camp outside my local Apple store.