After applying Carbon Bumpers to my iPhone, Robert and I decided to try some carbon fiber film on the hood of my Smart to give it a more sporty look.
We bought a large sheet of the 3M vinyl from Carbon Fiber Film.
We removed the hood from the car and the film went on easily. We had to use a heat gun in a few places to fit some of the tighter curves.
The material looks and feels just like aerospace grade vacuum bagged carbon fiber.
Matte Carbon Fiber is the new black.
Smart Car of Clearwater had a demonstration of the Electric Smart Car today. Robert and I attended and had an opportunity to drive the car.
It was incredibly quiet. I could barely hear the motor under full acceleration. The air conditioning fan was making all of the noise. I was slightly disappointed that there was no Sci-Fi jetson’s sound coming from the car.
The air conditioning uses an electric motor to drive the compressor. It blows just as cold as my gas-engined Smart. When at rest, the A/C was pulling 1 or 2 kilowatts according to the gage.
It had charging cables for both 110 and 240 volts. The terminal end of the plugs are standard. The 240 volt plug looks just like the one on a clothes dryer, the 110 volt plug is like a standard extension cord.
The ride was noticeably smoother than my gas-powered Smart. Probably due to the weight of the batteries.
We had to keep it in the parking lot and never got it over 20 mph. Got into the re-gen, a bit, by tapping on the brake pedal. It didn’t seem that strong. Would probably work better at higher speeds.
It was a lot of fun to drive. Smart is coming out with only 250 electric cars available for lease this October. Electric Smart cars go on sale to the general public about 6 months later.
More photos and videos in my MobileMe Gallery.
It will be interesting to see what Apple admits to and offers as a fix for the iPhone 4 antenna issue. At stake is Apple’s reputation as being “different.”
While this may not happen–If I was Steve:
I’d admit to making a mistake and apologize. We didn’t listen to our engineers, it won’t happen again.
I’d promise to make it right by offering a free Bumper or replacing any iPhone with a new unit after a hardware fix is in production.
I’d extend the 30 day return period to 60 days.
I’d come clean about AT&T’s network issues and announce that I’m actively seeking new partners.
Of course, this won’t all happen. Worst case, if Apple admits to no wrong, tomorrow will be the day that Apple becomes just another corporation. If Steve does nothing tomorrow, he becomes just another out of touch CEO.
It’s going to be an interesting day. . . .
UPDATE:
Some interesting data for iPhone 4..
Fewer calls to Applecare for issues than the 3GS.
1/3 the return rate of the 3GS.
Only about 1% more dropped calls than the 3GS.
The fix..
Free Bumpers for everyone!
Already updated iOS4 to “calibrate” the signal strength bars.
30 days to return your iPhone 4 if not satisfied. (Not sure if it’s 30 days from purchase or from now)
We’ll see if this satisfies the media and the mob with the pitchforks and torches.
I think Apple has pretty much addressed the problem. Like I posted before, I have the issue, but I’m not even remotely thinking of returning my iPhone 4.
I’ve had my iPhone 4 now for a week now and here are a few thoughts.
The good things:
The design. It’s a beautiful minimalist chunk of stainless steel and glass. The fit and finish are superb, there are no flaws or misaligned seams. Like Audi, Apple takes industrial design very seriously and it shows.
Face Time. While technically not the first video phone, Apple gets it right. It’s easy enough for your grandparents to use. Surprisingly, a cellular connection is not required to initiate or receive calls. It works over WiFi without AT&T. Hopefully they’ll link it up with iChat on the Mac and Skype.
The display. I like the new display. The difference is most noticeable when playing a high res movie. It’s brighter and more contrasty as well.
Battery life. The battery life is much improved over the 3GS. iOS 4 really killed the battery life of the 3 GS. I think I can get through a day now without worrying about running out of juice.
The Bad:
AT&T. It still uses AT&T. Need I say more?
The antenna issue. There are many reports online about the “antenna issue.” Some people have no problems and others lose signal entirely when they grip the phone in their left hand. I’m in the group of people who have a problem.
I live in an area with a marginal AT&T signal. I’ve been dropping calls and cellular data regularly since the first iPhone came out. AT&T has made no network improvements in my area in the last 3 years.
The new iPhone 4 is the same. I go from full bars in one part of the house to no signal at all in others. If I’m not holding the iPhone 4, it seems to do better than the 3GS at making and holding on to a connection. That changes the minute I pick it up in my left hand. At best, I lose a bar or 2. At worst, the call drops. It’s easily repeatable. My son experiences this issue as well.
I did order an iPhone “Bumper” from Apple. It came yesterday and it makes a big difference, I’m no longer dropping calls. I have a feeling that Apple will soon be forced to provide free bumpers to all iPhone 4 owners.
Overall the iPhone is an incremental improvement over the excellent 3GS. It remains on the leading edge of technology but still has a few issues with being a phone. If I was judging it solely as a phone it’s a fail.
Of course, the iPhone is much much more than just a phone, and that’s it’s saving grace. It’s e-mail, Google, a GPS, the web, you tube, games, music, and apps, thousands of apps. I’m never more than a few feet from my iPhone, it’s my indispensable constant companion. In that sense, the iPhone 4 is better than ever.
UDATE:
I’ve had a problem with the iPhone bumper. The power button is overly sensitive. Whenever I touch the top of the iPhone with the Apple bumper installed the power cycles. The top power button is too sensitive when my Apple bumper is attached. The iPhone cycles off whenever I touch the top without touching the power button. It turns on and off by itself in my pocket or when I shift finger position when holding the iPhone. Obviously, in my sample the tolerance is a bit too tight.
I’m going to return the bumper to Apple and hopefully the next sample will work OK.
UPDATE:
I returned the Apple Bumper and ordered a Carbon Bumper from : Carbon Bumpers.
It’s a high quality 3M vinyl wrap that is textured to look and feel like carbon fiber. Looks great, easy to install, and works as well as Apple’s Bumper at improving reception.
Check it out!
Today we joined about 45 other Smart Car owners in Lakeland for a lunch and get together. We drove to Lakeland from Clearwater with 4 other cars. Lunch was at Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grill. After lunch we all headed to a parking garage for photos and socializing.
The weather was hot, but we had a great time.
Click on any image to see it full size.
One of the biggest issues with the iPad is it’s limited connectivity options.
I normally use drop box or email to get files on and off of the iPad. This can take time and requires an internet connection.
Apple’s Camera Connection Kit is for transferring images and movies onto the iPad from digital cameras and SD cards. Normally a USB flash drive will not be supported when connected to the iPad via the Camera Connection Kit.
The iPad can be fooled into reading image and movie files from a USB flash drive using a simple trick.
Format the USB drive using FAT 32.
Create a folder called “DCIM” in the root directory of the drive.
Copy your images into the “DCIM” folder.
When you connect the drive to the iPad it thinks your flash drive is a camera and an app opens which enables you to copy the files to the iPad.
Recent reports have greatly increased the estimated output of the Deepwater Horizon’s oil leak. This raises doubts on the “official” numbers released by BP. How big is the leak, really?
Nobody really knows.
I’m not an engineer, but I like to indulge in rough “back of the envelope” estimations.
Oil Pipe Diameter = 20 inches inside diameter.
At 20 inches diameter the area of the open pipe is 314 square inches (10 squared times Pi). If the oil is under 10,000 pounds of pressure per square inch relative to the seafloor pressure, then the total force across the end of the pipe is over 3 million pounds!
If the oft quoted 10,00 psi number is absolute pressure then we have to subtract the 5000 foot deep seafloor pressure of 2237 psi. You then get a relative pressure of 7763 psi. Multiplying by 314 square inches gives a total pressure of over 2.4 million pounds!
You can see, it’s not going to be easy to cap the end of the pipe! The flow rate must be incredible.
You can understand why BP is loath to give out estimates of the leakage rate. The scale and magnitude of this oil spill will be unprecedented.
The oil has reached the Loop Current. It won’t be long before there are reports of oil in the Florida Keys and on the beaches of Miami. From there, the Gulf Stream will carry it up the East Coast and into the North Atlantic.
We may never be able to shut the leak down. It could continue until the reservoir is emptied. And that could take years. The scale of the disaster would be global.
We Brought This on Ourselves.
I remember, 30 years ago when Jimmy Carter was in the White House. He told us that we were addicted to oil. He told us that we had to change. He lowered the speed limits and mandated gas mileage standards for new cars. He turned down the thermostats and wore sweaters indoors in the winter. Jimmy Carter wasn’t a popular President.
Why the hell didn’t we listen to him?
Ronald Reagan became our next President. Reagan told us what we wanted to hear. He told us that America was special, that WE didn’t need to conserve energy, he said that our way of life was sacred. Reagan rolled back many of the Carter initiatives and de-regulated business. People bought larger cars and SUV’s believing that they were safer. America consumed more and more energy. We fought wars for oil.
Now, most of the easy to reach oil has been tapped out. We have to drill deeper and in more remote places to reach the remaining oil. The Deepwater Horizon accident is the result of pushing the technological envelope. But, the accident is also the inevitable result of de-regulation, limited oversight, and big business cutting corners in the name of profit.
Ultimately, the disaster is the result of the American people’s short term greed and selfishness.
Karen and I took a short 4 day trip to San Francisco this week. We had a wonderful time touring the city and the wine country.
We stayed at the Westin St. Francis, ate lots of wonderful food and walked our legs off. We had a one week pass for the Muni busses and cable cars which we took advantage of, riding all over town.
All the photos are from my iPhone. Panoramas by Autostitch app for iPhone.
Click on thumbnail for full size image:
Now you’ve got your iPad, there are lots of ways to get books loaded onto the device.
First is the approved Apple iBooks app. There is a limited library of books for sale and quite a few free public domain books for download. The process of purchasing and downloading is easy and straightforward. The biggest drawback is the fairly limited number of titles in Apple’s paid selections.
Another good way is to use Amazon’s free Kindle app. I’ve been using it for a while on the iPhone and have several titles already downloaded. Amazon’s selection of titles is probably the greatest in the E-Book world. The kindle app syncs your library between devices like the iPad, iPhone and a PC or Mac. It remembers where you left off reading and picks right up where you left off, even on another device.
There are ways to get free downloads and PDF’s onto the iPad. The best app for this is Good Reader. You can download documents directly from the web within the app. The formatting of PDF’s is generally good and documents are very readable.
It is possible to convert PDF’s into the iPad’s e-pub format and load them into the iBooks app. For this you need Calibre. It’s a free program for the Mac, PC, or Linux that can convert books into just about any format you choose. For this, drag the file into Calibre and select the “Convert E-Books” icon. Once the file is in e-pub format it can be dragged into iTunes where it will be loaded onto the iPad the next time you sync.
There are many sources of free downloadable books on the web. Hint: Google is your friend. Today is the debut of Cory Doctorow’s new book For the Win. I’ve downloaded several of his other books, they’re good reads.
After traveling with the iPad for a month, I’ve finally found a great carrying case for the road.
It’s not too big or bulky and offers a protected pouch for the iPad. There’s room inside for the charger and my Bose QC headphones.
The construction quality is second to none. The Ristretto is made in the United States. It carries a bit of a premium price, but their bags are always well reviewed online and have a great reputation. I’m a big believer in buying quality, it saves you money and trouble over the long run.