The everyday life

Almost anyone by now knows that there’s something amiss with the iPhone 4’s antenna design.

Apparently the antenna does provide overall better reception, but there seems to be issues in areas with spotty coverage, when the externally placed antenna is handled in a specific way.

This issue has been discussed at length on a variety of tech sites and news sites alike. After a while Apple reacted and promised a fix, via a software update, as the antenna signal indicator supposedly didn’t show the correct signal strength.

So jump ahead a month or so to today, and the iPhone has still not launched internationally big scale. Apple however has promised an international launch at the end of July, meanwhile business analysts are now suggesting a total recall of the iPhone 4.

Now rumors are swirling that a firmware fix might be coming today and Apple is holding a press conference tomorrow (Friday). So what is going on? Total recall… I don’t think so. It wouldn’t be like Apple.

I think Apple is gonna release the bug fix today and then at the press conference tomorrow shortly talk about how the issue was unfortunate but now solved… and then announce the international launch date as July 30th. And maybe, just maybe Steve will have one more thing, like say a Verizon iPhone launch date or plans (but only in an attempt to change the focus from the antenna issue to something else).

Just my two cents

I’m starting to feel like I’m getting older.

First of all I still have a lot of weird random thoughts that I feel like putting down somewhere to, if nothing else, clear my head a bit. After signing up for twitter I’ve started using that as my main medium for channeling those random thoughts… that has unfortunately meant that what I would have otherwise put here on my blog now is on twitter instead. That lead me to reconsider if I’m not falling in the exact same trap as I (somewhat secretively) blame others for falling in. I believe most people are so concerned with showing that they are actively doing something, and trying to turn their life’s into a reality show of sorts, and so forget to actually say anything important. And what do I start doing. I start twittering about which coffee places I go to, what gadgets I’d like to have (I apologize Mark) and other how far I ran.

Unfortunately it took me giving up my iPhone to realize just how many random useless things I was posting, since all of a sudden I couldn’t. This leads to the next part of my title. Because of my inability to update twitter, check my mail constantly and look up other information on the go I am having iPhone withdraw symptoms, which is really quite sad.

However a positive side effect of this is that I am now reconsidering what I am using the different channels for and I hope that it will lead me to write posts here at least a bit more often.

Oh and I can’t wait for the new iPhone to come out… looks so sweet! Now I just hope it’ll work with the new Pulsar/Nike+ heart rate monitor so I can add even more useless info to my tweets!

A couple of weeks ago I went out to Manly beach and took a long walk. Throughout the day I managed to snap quite a few interesting photos (in my own opinion anyway).

Here are two which haven’t been tampered with, as I felt they were decent enough in their own.

Fra Artsy attempts

Fra Artsy attempts

I also worked on a few in TiltShift, previously described, and ended up with a few interesting pics from the ferry back to Sydney.

Fra Tilt-shift

Fra Tilt-shift

Fra Tilt-shift

I’m having one of those wow! moments right now.

Sitting in my girlfriends car in the middle of nowhere (well Silverwater to be exactly) using my computer surfing the net and doing job applications through my phones internet connection connected to my computer via bluetooth listening to music from my iPod, which is connected to the car stereo!

If that isn’t amazing I don’t know what is!!!

Oh and jetpacks are now actually a viable form of transport (if you’ve got $86.000 to spend and don’t live to far away!)

Now if only there was some way of carrying around all your books, music and papers in a thin, lightweight package with a wonderful design!!!

So today’s just one of those days… I want to be productive or at least feel like I’m getting the most out of my day, and yet I don’t feel like doing anything and I have nowhere in particular to go! So instead I’ve ended up at Opera bar with a beer overlooking Sydney harbour. Not too bad for a Wednesday afternoon but not exactly what I was going for when I left the house this morning.\n\nMaybe it’s time I go to a museum and get some culture!

A couple of days ago autum really showed it’s face here in Sydney. It’s been raining and the weather’s been getting colder as well and I’ve eve started seeing people wearing scarves.\\n\\nEven though I would have loved to have just another week of sun to enjoy while I’m looking for work it’s actually very refreshing and invites to sitting indors reading and drinking hot drinks enjoying the rain while keeping warm.\\n\\nAs long as I’m not working I’m planning to pick my camera up again and do a bit of photography in my neighbourhood. I’ll share as soon as I have anything just somewhat worthy of sharing!\\n\\nOn a side note to this photography talk I’ve been thinking of how cool it would be to utilize the just release ipad as a mobile photo editing tool. It is no Photoshop, but have a look at my friends photos taken and post-processed with his iPhone. Then imagine that it was instead high quality photos take with a dedicated digital camera, and suddenly the ipad seems like a brilliant on the go photo work station!

Lately I’m not having too much luck when it comes to the technical side of my blogging. Seems like the wordpress app for iPhone creates some weird formatting replacing line breaks witn \\\\\\\\n. How annoying is that. Also picture uploadung still doesn’t seem to be fixed!\\n\\nMaybe it’s time for a reinstall.\\nI’m out today so won’t be able to work on it before I get back home tonight!

I felt like it was about time I gave a shirt update on my life in Australia.\n\nTwo das ago was my last day at work, as I decided to pursue something a bit more in line with my field and interest. I have yet to find something else though, and in the meantime I’m considering finding a job as either barista or bartender… this however is proving to be slightly more difficult than first imagined. As seems to be the case with any job it’s necessary to have up towards 3 years of experience, which I can’t exactly say I have! Anyone out there have any experience with getting cafe/bar jobs without any practical experience?\n\nSo in looking for a new job I came to a realization the yesterday. I miss working in customer service roles. So maybe a cafe/bar job really is the way to go for now!

Yesterday I finally had a chance to experience Harry Connick, Jr. live in concert.

I’ve been wanting to do that since before I went to America to study in 2005, so you can imagine that I had pretty high expectations.

Harry, however, didn’t disappoint. Even though I was sitting at the far back at the Sydney Opera House, it was still an amazing experience. That said I do think it would have been more fun to experience him in a smaller place.

So now I’m just wondering when I’ll get to experience him next time!

As promised (though a day delayed) here is my idea for a creative project involving architecture, storywriting, photography, music creation and oter creative genres.

My project idea
One of my biggest gripes about Australia is the lack of a Disneyland. I am a huge fan of Disneyland and the architecture there. Visiting Disneyland Paris as a kid in ‘94 was actually what made me wanna be an architect.

So my idea is basically to plan and layout an Australian Disneyland proposal taking inspiration from the different Disney parks around the world. This will require me to use architecture, drawing/painting, storywriting, model building etc.

In order to share this I would document my process by filming, and photographing what I do and write out my thoughts, process etc.

All of this will hopefully end up producing a coherent project that is both an insight into architecture, storytelling and documentary making.

I would love for people to get onboard for this project, either through online participation/criticism or actual collaboration on dime of te subjects (eg architecture) that I am not very knowledgable about.

To get in touch with me either post a comment or write me at et (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com