Chris Meller

UPDATE: As requested, added iTunes store links for the incredibly lazy.

I’ve been asked by a couple people what apps I’m using on my retro original iPhone, so here’s a quick list, in no particular order:

• iNetworkTest - Speed Testing of EDGE / 3G. Their site even maps your location for each test, which is cool.
• VoiceRecord - For quick notes. The only thing I ever used regularly on my previously jailbroken iPhone.
• AOL Radio - There’s a good radio station out of Atlanta that broadcasts through it.
• Google Mobile - Have yet to actually use this, I just go to Safari, but I keep telling myself I’ll use it.
• NetNewsWire - Still too horribly slow, waiting for a new version for it to become really useful.
• Pandora - Works well, even over EDGE.
• Twitterrific - Free version.
• WeatherBug - Best weather service there is, and they’ve got apps for every platform imaginable. Interactive radar map kicks ass.
• Epocrates Rx - More for interest, since I was in health insurance previously. It’s a cool app to play around with for a while, and has limited use after that.
• Fuel Guage - Calculate your fuel efficiency. Really spiffy.
• Mobile News - Not particularly useful unless I’m stuck somewhere and bored, then it can be a quick way to get a current events fix, including local news (based on your coordinates).
• Facebook - Useless, but well done.
• Bloomberg - The ultimate stock market app. Kicks the default stocks app out of the water.
• Jott - Transcribe voice notes. You can’t beat that. Have yet to decide if it’s worth replacing Voice Notes or not.
• Shazam - Listens to a song and tells you the name, artist, etc. That’s so amazingly awesome I can’t even describe it.
• WordPress - I don’t blog often enough for it to be useful, but who knows…

I was installing IIS on my Vista box earlier to test out Habari without mod_rewrite and happened to see this as I was finishing up:

Where did you come from? I sure didn’t install you…

Several times leading up to the iPhone 3G launch, I checked AT&T’s coverage map to see where they offered 3G coverage. I knew there was no coverage in my immediate area (Greenville, SC), so I was looking forward to finding a job in Charlotte, NC where they had very good 3G coverage.

Low and behold, while looking at a PC World article criticizing the 3G coverage, I load up the coverage map today and find that they have Greenville marked as a 3G area. Kick ass! Time to track down a store with an iPhone in stock so I can upgrade!

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

- PJ O’Rourke

I was looking at the source code of the Twitter Status blog, mainly out of curiosity to see how Tumblr was put together, and the first thing I noticed was this odd block of meta tags at the very top of the header:

<![CDATA[ <!-- DEFAULT COLORS --> <meta name="color:Background" content="#fff"/> <meta name="color:Title" content="#444"/> <meta name="color:Description" content="#777"/> <meta name="color:Post Title" content="#6498cc"/> <meta name="color:Text" content="#444"/> <meta name="color:Inline Link" content="#6498cc"/> <meta name="color:Quote" content="#888"/> <meta name="color:Quote Border" content="#6498cc"/> <meta name="color:Quote Source" content="#555"/> <meta name="color:Link Post" content="#c00"/> <meta name="color:Conversation Background 1" content="#f4f4f4"/> <meta name="color:Conversation Background 2" content="#e8e8e8"/> <meta name="color:Conversation Border" content="#bbb"/> <meta name="color:Conversation Text" content="#444"/> <meta name="color:Date" content="#ccc"/> <meta name="color:Date Block" content="#6498cc"/> <meta name="color:Date Block Text" content="#bbd5f1"/> <!-- END DEFAULT COLORS --> ]]>

Can someone tell me what the hell that accomplishes?