I’m in the mountains on vacation.  It’s 5pm, Monday, July 14th.  That means it’s cocktail hour and I’m jonesing for a margarita. 

I go to the cabinet and I pull out the Jose Cuervo margarita mix. (My brother-in-law brought it up with him during his most recent visit.) There’s a recipe on the back which calls for 1 part tequila, 3 parts margarita mix. Great… or maybe not.

Let’s look at the ingredients on the mix: first ingredient-water, second ingredient- high-fructose corn syrup.

That’s not a margarita, that’s a margarita-flavored slushie.  (He’ll be drinking the margarita mix all by his lonesome the next time he visits.)

I remember there are some cocktail cards I received as a gift a few years ago in the liquor cabinet.  I pull them out, and low and behold there’s a card for a straight up/classic margarita BUT…

This might be obvious to some, and I wasn’t sure if I should post this or not, but it’s been bugging me that some one else might not realize this, so…

I was thinking all weekend long how incredibly long it takes to sync the new updated iPhone.  Like Dan pointed out earlier, it used to sync in a few minutes, now its more like 30… and I have no idea why…

Then, I realized that I was going to sync every time i bought a new app, I would buy online through iTunes and then I would go ahead and sync to get the new software on my phone…  I mean, this used to be the only way to get apps on your phone right?

But then it dawned on me that Apple built the ability to download from the App Store directly into the iPhone!!!   No more downloading and buying on itunes and then syncing to get that software, I could just download wirelessly and thats it!  When I charge at night and plug in the phone, it will ask if i want to transfer the app back to itunes… then I can just go to sleep and feel no pain.

I know, some of you are probably like, DUH… but for those of you who didn’t think of this… you can post a "thank you" in the comments… 🙂

We’re three days in.  The initial excitement is over. The stores are waiting to be restocked. We’ve all had a chance to check out a few applications. There is a lot about which to be impressed.  However,  it is now clear that news about iPhone firmware 2.0 and the App Store isn’t all good. Mixed in with the good has been some bad and some ugly.  And the ugly is REALLY UGLY.

By Sunday night the iTunes App Store had sent 10 million applications to App-Hungry iPhone users.

That’s 3.3 million apps a day.

That’s over 138, 888 an hour.

That’s over 2314 a minute.

Not a bad opening for Ye Olde App Shoppe!

Ok, here we go again… I feel like I’m constantly complaining… I don’t mean to come off that way, but what the heck is Apple thinking about when they put in some of the garbage I’m finding on the iTunes store?

I mean, $1.99 for a virtual mosquito swatter?  Are you kidding me?  Who’s wasting $1.99 on that?  Apple should give me their name and I’ll sell them an iPhone virtual air purifier application at the bargain price of .99!

And $1.99 for Math Quiz?  Really?  Is that all i have to pay to revisit the 1st grade?  $1.99?  Thats a deal.

Oh wait, and lets not forget the virtual Dungeons and Dragons dice, thats useful… in 1984 maybe (at least that app is Free).

Well, either Apple ran short on apps for the store, or those and other Rotten Apples are there to showcase how good most of the other stuff is.

I’m signing off now to go code up a new iPhone application, I think ill call it "Personal Sound Effects As You Walk", oh damn… someone already beat me to it!

I’ve had a relationship with Jott since it first came out.  I have really loved using it and could not have been more excited to see that Jott had a free application available for the iPhone.

During my courtship with Jott there have been a few potential flings, but nothing ever came of them. There was the brief time I spent with IWantSandy.com. Sandy was amazing on one level- I could call and speak in a natural way, my message would be transcribed (allowing me to set up reminders, tasks and other notes just using my voice).

The issues with Sandy were too numerous for anything serious to ever come of it. Sandy didn’t have an iPhone optimized website and when I reached out to her for (Tech) Support she never called me back. Not a good way to start a relationship. So back to Jott I went and, fortunately, Jott was willing to take me back.

Today, however, I discovered reQall. Actually, I REdiscovered reQall the way you reconnect with a childhood friend who you haven’t seen since you were seven. I had met reQall in her first iteration, but she seemed a bit too "limited" for me to really be interested in her. Today’s reQall is an entirely different being.

One of the striking things about the new iPhone firmware and the App Store is that they expand the appeal of the iPhone and iPod Touch in every direction. The 2.0 Firmware brings the iPhone to enterprise and numerous applications greatly increase its business appeal. At the same time, many new games increase the appeal of the devices for kids. Case in point-
iGotchi

Yes, the virtual-pet has come to the iPhone and… we’ve got one! (or does it have us?)

So dear friends meet WhatsOniPhone or… WOiP for short.