iPhone no more

I mentioned my iPhone screen had exploded when it fell face first in my kitchen. I found a nice iPhone screen repair kit on Amazon for about 15 bucks.

iphone 3G screen repair kit

The kit came with zero instructions, so I just hit up youtube for some instructional videos. There were plenty. Unfortunately the videos make it seem a little bit easier than it really is. Apple really doesn’t want you to take this thing a part.

My first error came when I was trying to split the iPhone open. A circuit board got caught on the screen and started to crack.

a slight crack

At this point, I kept going forward, because even thought it seemed to be cracked I thought it might still work.

Then I really messed up, shattering some crystals in my LCD.

So at this point, I gave up and I am using a 5 year old Samsung flip phone that my roommate had laying around. I haven’t decided if I want to attempt to replace the LCD or try to aquire a new phone.

So now my desk just looks like this:

iPhone explosion, VZW this summer?

OK, so my iPhone didn’t exactly explode – but the glass sure did. On Sunday I attempted to pull my iPhone from my pocket only to have it nose dive onto the kitchen tile.

zomgbbq, so sharp

Luckily, Amazon has replacement iPhone 3G glass kits for about 15 bucks.

My contract with ATT expires in July. You can bet come end of the summer I will be thinking about switching to Verizon. My buddy summed it up perfectly:

I never thought I’d see the day when Verizon was more progressive than AT&T. For the longest time, VZW was full of shitty “smartphones” with no WiFi and no ingenuity, while AT&T experimented with all sorts of BlackBerry devices, early-model HTC devices, etc.

Now the tables have turned, because AT&T is anchored to the iPhone. It’s amazing.

Starting off the new year with solid backups

I make my living on my computer. Sadly, my Macbook Pro has my life on it. Documents, client work, personal work, financial items -  it’s all all on there. Needless to say, the contents on my hard drive are very important to me.

With the start of a new year, I’m taking a little time out of my vacation to make sure everything is safe, secure, and backed up.

First is the local backup copy. Being an OSX user, my application of choice is SuperDuper. If you are a PC user, Acronis has excellent backup software. SuperDuper is $30 and worth every penny. It lets me duplicate my hard drive to an external drive. In the case of a HD crash, I can simply boot of my external backup drive with no down time.

SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper’s built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically.

A local backup copy is great, but that isn’t worth a shit if someone breaks into my house or a fire engulfs my residence. The second move is to have a remote backup copy. Online backups are really important, and up until about 3 days ago, were left out of my backup scheme. Not anymore. I am not backing up all important documents over the interwebs using BackBlaze.  If you are a PC user I recommend JungleDisk. Regardless you can look at this handy chart of online backup services to decide which is the best for you.

You download a tiny application that installs in three clicks and doesn’t require a credit card or any information to start using it. This online backup application automatically finds all your photos, music, documents, and other irreplaceable files—no matter where they are on your hard drive—and compresses and securely encrypts them. When you’re not using your computer, it sends them over the Internet to the remote Backblaze datacenters.

BackBlaze gives you unlimited storage and a handly little OSX to assist with backups for only $5/month.

So do yourself a favor and start off the new year right – make sure your data is backed up. I know I sleep better at night knowing that in the worst case scenario I can recover my files.

New keyboard saves my sanity

Next month (November) marks the 2 year anniversary of “the switch”. It will be 2 years since I retired my PC, bought a Macbook Pro, and starting using OSX full time.

When I bought my original Macbook Pro two years ago I purchased the new sleek low profile Apple keyboard. I liked it so much I got one to use with my iMac at work.

slim and sexy

After two years of using Apple’s famous slim form keyboard, today I am retiring it. How can I part with such a slender and graceful piece of equipment you might be wondering? It all came down to ergonomics. I love that keyboard, I really do. However having one at home and at work, I was typing on it an easy 10 hour/day. This keyboard design is not accommodating to heavy usage – far from it. By mid day it was just not comfortable – my wrists ached and fingers were sore. I need keys with more resistance. I need a place to put my wrist.

About a week ago I had enough. Clearly Steve didn’t give a shit if his keyboard was made for people who actually use the computer for real work. Appearance over functionality! That is the Apple way isn’t it? Thus I started my quest to find a replacement. I quickly figured out why many people use that slim finger torturer Apple sells: the number of “mac” keyboards (command key, not windows key!) is few and far between.

Regardless of the small selection I was finally able to find a replacement that is working just fine. It’s not even comparable to Apple’s when it comes to comfort. To top it off, it’s a Microsoft keyboard. Did I mention it was dirt cheap? Oh, and it came with a mouse. Yes, really.

new hotness

So if you are looking for a solid ergonomic keyboard for your Mac look no further than the Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard (and Mouse). The whole combo is $25 bucks off of Amazon.