iPhone Dispatch Blog

As soon as I saw there was a WordPress app, I grabbed it and tried to get it working for this blog. It is perfect for this blog, as you can imagine. But no love. It just doesn’t work. Everything is set up as it should, with the blog being WordPress 2.6, and all settings correct. But it never “connects” to the blog.
Even stranger is the fact that I was able to get it to work with MacMost.com’s blog right away. And they are on the same server with the same version of WordPress. I tried the “report issues” forum and my comment is still “awaiting moderation” after several days.

So I’ve got an iGo portable charger with a dock adapter, and a no-name iPod charger for my car. Both worked with my iPod. Both worked with my old iPhone. But the new iPhone 3G just gives me a message that the device isn’t compatible. Seriously? Has the iPhone really changed that much so that chargers that worked with the old iPhone won’t work with the new one? Or is this just an attempt by Apple to get us to buy more accessories. However, I’m afraid to buy another dock charger as I might just get the same message.

I love making music on my Mac. I think Garage Band is probably one of the greatest pieces of software ever written. So I was excited when I saw the demo of Band at the WWDC keynote. It is a simple App that turns your iPhone in to one of several different types of musical instruments. It also allows you to record, save and add tracks to compositions.
So it is “kinda neat.” But looks unfinished. Instead of just a few musical instruments, I think it needs many more. It also needs some sort of way to more easily edit your compositions. Perhaps the key would be to have a Mac application sibling that allowed you to start composing on the iPhone, and then take it to the next level on your Mac. Or, perhaps it just needs to be more robust by itself.
I like this App, but I’m not sure it is worth $10. But I can’t help but think how much fun this would be at a party with a small band of iPhone players.

The game App I’ve been using most, by far, has been Scrabble. I love Scrabble, mostly as a computer game. I have the Mac game, and have played it for years as a quick distraction. The iPod version, out several months ago, was unplayable as the click wheel just isn’t enough of an input device to navigate the board and letters. But the touch screen of the iPhone comes through fine and the game is pretty good. What it is missing, however, is the ability to see what words are valid before you play them, like the Mac version. Also, it needs more levels of difficulty. I can beat the normal level every time, but the hard level has the computer picking words I’ve never heard of before for 100+ scores in tough positions.

Arrived at Cherry Creek Apple Store in Denver at about 8:45. Was 8th in line. The store opened at 9, and it took about 30 minutes for them to get to me. Then about 30 minutes to do the sale — I had to upgrade one phone, add a phone for my wife, switch a number over for that second phone. Anyway, playing with my new, slightly better, iPhone now.