The World of Scott Mindeaux

First Impressions on my iPhone4

So I was one of those lucky souls that got their iPhone4 a day early. FedEx’s tracking system was being bombarded with requests and was no longer providing updated tracking information the morning of the 23rd.

At about 10:23am, FedEx was knocking at my door so I rushed to the door (I was on the phone with BofA) and opened the door to find the FedEx guy wiht a small box, he asked if I was Scott Mindeaux, I said yes and he handed me the box after a scribble on his pad.

I opened the box and was trembling with joy. Could this be real?? Yes it was and once cupped in my hand I knew it was real. This is one nice piece of hardware. Solid, feels good in the hand. I really wanted a White iPhone, but those were no where to be found – and according to reports on MacRumors and MacNN, they won’t be available to the public until mid-July. The phone is enclosed in glass and a band of stainless steel wraps around the unit. It’s very contemporary and despite having hard edges, it’s an elegant design.

I powered up the unit and the icon asking for a connection cable was on the screen. They unit launched iTunes and asked me for my number and other pieces of identification to verify that I was an existing AT&T customer. After about 3 minutes, my system started to come to life. My apps were being installed and then a previous backup files were also being uploaded. Within about 12 minutes, it was done.

I unplugged and the first thing I did? A FaceTime call with my friend in DC, Scott Shumaker. This was magical indeed. His face appeared and mine did too in the corner and was started talking and throwing back “no way’s” to each other. We flipped our cameras to the back side camera to show the other view. THis image was crisp and there was no apparent lag. It will be interesting to see after the other 600,000 or so users get their phones activated how well FaceTime works. Seeing Scott on the screen was very kewl. THIS was Star Trek!

Some some things to note so far:

Call reception and quality was about the same as my 3G

Speakers “seem” like they are a bit louder

There were/are reports of signal loss when being held – I personally experienced this yesterday and there is a drop in bars when held by the stainless steel. However, when I release the signal bars come back.

Thankfully, I don’t have any of the yellow blotches in the lower righthand corner

This display is SICK! I struggled looking to see if I could see pixels with the naked eye. I played a few videos on it and it is brilliant!

I already fallen in love with the folder system – this makes like easier for sure!

I have taken a few photos, but the real test will be when I do a restaurant review. I’m looking forward to touch focus and if it can handle low light environments. On my 3G I bought a case that had a sliding macro lens for close up photos. I was told I won’t be needing it with this phone. I’ll let you know how it goes. As far as regular photos, they are crisp and look great!

I have taken a few movies with the phone but have yet to export and view them on an HD monitor – more on this later…

Did I tell you this unit is fast??? It is very responsive and the most notable of this speed is the ability to take successive photos in a row with the iPhone4.

I didn’t think I would actually “read” books on here, but I downloaded iBooks and can I say it looks great? I found myself reading a book when going to bed last night.

The only “multi-tasking app” I have loaded right now is Pandora. As more apps become iOS4 compliant there will be more apps that take advantage of multi-tasking

On a side note, my NetShare app (which was banned from the iPhone 2 years ago) still works…kinda. It works for a minute then the app quits. If I relaunch it, it works for another minute then craps out again. Oh well, if I “really” need tethering, I’ll have to use AT&T’s option for tethering at $10 a month with bluetooth or usb connection.

Having a unified email box is nice too.

More to come later….

Guess What’s On Its Way?

Well after 15-16 hours of trying and trying to place my order online, I finally got thru and today I get notification that my iPhone 4 is on its way and on-time for a June 23rd delivery by 10:30am.

June 23?

That’s a whole day earlier than the worldwide announcement date of June 24. I’m sure some executive order form the Stevester’s Desk will inevitably make my delivery date June 24.

But what a wonder and joy if it really came on June 24!

So it’s Been Over a Week…How’s the iPad?

So alot of readers have been emailing me this past week asking how I like my iPad so far. I wanted to spend at least a week with my iPad before I started putting my thoughts on paper (or on the pad in this case…)

After waking up late on Saturday, April 3, I can still say 10 days later that I’m still a happy iPad owner. Here’s what I have to say so far:

1. Since I got my iPad, I’m using my iPhone for just phone calls now. The experience on the iPad is so much richer. It’s not just the larger screen. Working with iPad developed apps, you find yourself in a different world from your iPhone/iPod.

2. What are my main uses? Email, browsing, note taking and watching movies. When I’m at work it supplements my laptop. I take the iPad to meetings and use that for taking notes. When at my desk I find that I have the mail app open 80% of the time. In addition to Exchange support, I have my MobileMe, GMail and Pop accounts on there. I can check all my email in one place. I don’t have any personal email on my work laptop, so this is perfect. Before the iPad, I had all of these capabilities on my iPhone. Exchange support on my iPhone has allowed me to stay in touch with the office even when I”m at home. There are still many people out there that say that reading email on the iPad can’t be so much different that on the iPhone. That’s probably true. But, I like that I can read my emails without having to resize every time. The speediness of the iPad also allows me to flip thru emails and scroll much faster.

3. Let’s talk about speed. This thing is FAST! Upon the first swipe of your fingers across the screen you know that this is wicked fast. Pull up Google maps and your swiping and pinching and expanding in lightning speed! Its like those multitouch screens on NCIS Los Angeles and CNN.

4. But it’s just a huge iPod Touch right? No. I can’t say enough that this is MORE. Yes, it can run the thousands of apps already written for the iPhone/iPod. But that isn’t where the magic is. The developers that have already written apps specifically for the iPad know where we want to go. I would say that the majority of iPad developers did it right by re-writing the app and taking advantage of larger real estate on the screen. Those that simply “exploded” the app miss the ball. It’s only a matter of time before those same iPhone apps are re-written for the iPad.

Some of my favorite iPad written apps?
WeatherHD - for the simplicity that it is. The subtleness of the videos is awesome
Epicurious – Recipes, recipes – need I say more?
The Elements – the way the Chart of Elements was meant to be shown. I would have taken more interest in science if I had this in high school.
GoSkyWatch – hold your iPad up to the sky and see where the constellations and other heavenly bodies are.
Zinio – my portal so some of my favorite magazines including Macworld and Saveur.
Asphalt5 – I’m not much into games, but I like this driving game as I race against the clock, using my iPad like a steering wheel
Autodesk SketchBook – drawing, layer support. It’s not Photoshop, but it can export to it. Tons of brushes, effect and the ability to have up to 6 layers. WHen you’re done you can export it to Photoshop thru a special interface in iTunes.
Netflix - movies, shows all streamed to my iPad.
ABC Player - all my ABC shows like V, Brothers and Sisters and Flash Forward all streaming to my iPad.

There are so much more! I can RDC into our servers, I can VNC into my Macs at the office. I can stream non-DRM videos from my MacPro at home over the net. Another nice app? Craigsphone. See Craigslist in a way you never have.

So battery life? I can make it thru an entire day on my iPad and still have some room before I plug in at night. It’s nice to know.

So what don’t I like about my iPad?

1. Where is the damn TAB key?
2. It’s hard to hold when its not in a case, its slippery
3. When you have to hold it in a grip in your hand for long periods, it can be taxing.
4. When you hold the iPad like a pad of paper, your thumb is on the “screen”
5. When in landscape mode, you have a close to full size keyboard. Problem is that you want to lay your fingers on the “keys” like a regular keyboard. It took a couple of days to learn to “hover”
6. Some of my favorite iPhone apps haven’t been Padisized yet (is Padisized a word?)

Wishlist?

1. Tab key
2. SD Slot for storage of files
3. There are others, but most will be addressed in 4.0 of the next OS release.

So I mentioned that I don’t use my iPhone that much anymore. That’s not true. I don’t take my iPad everyone I take my iPhone. So when I”m in line at the grocery store or stuck in traffic or out having dinner, the iPad is my bag or at home. Do I wish I had 3G? Sure, but I don’t need it, it would be a nicety. Where I need to get a quick data fix while out n about, I have my iPhone.

There is still so much more to say about the iPad, but my head hurts and my recent sleeping habits make it hard for me to concentrate. I’ll get more of my thoughts down over the next few days.

So overall on a scale of 1 to 10 where do I rate my iPad. I’ll say an 8+. I use it everyday, so it has become a productivity tool for me. App developers are just hitting the tip of the iceberg on what the potential this device can have. I can’t wait!

A Childhood Story Comes to the Big Screen

We all grew up reading this book. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t read it or had it read to them as a child. Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are is coming to the big screen this fall.

Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures is bringing this larger than life tale to the big screen on October 16.

I can’t wait!

Fore the movie trailer, visit: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/

Behind Each Great Chef is an Awesome Team of Sous Chefs

This is a repost from my food blog, FoodieInDisguise.com
This past weekend I covered the GOHO Gourmet Kitchen at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. We had a three-day schedule of guest celebrity chefs and authors come in and give a cooking demo. The schedule was pretty tight over the three day period and there were no breaks in-between.

As each guest chef arrived on site, they found all their prep work done and their station setup on stage. Prior to the show, each chef and cookbook author was asked to submit a prep and ingredient list. Whole Foods provided the food but the prep work was done by eight hard working students from The International Culinary Schools at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago.

For three days, these eight students chopped, minced, sliced and measured out all the ingredients for such chefs as Masaharu Morimoto, Tyler Florence, Ming Tsai, Stephanie Izard, Nathan Lippy, Paula Deen, Renée Behnke, Suvir Saran and Rick Bayless to name a few. Tucked away behind the stage was a prep room that was filled with glass bowls, kitchen utensils of all kinds, All-Clad cookware, KitchenAid blenders, mixers and food processors. KitchenAid and All-Clad were sponsors of the GOHO Kitchen Theater.

To finish reading this story, please click HERE …

I’m Heading to Chicago March 19-25

Watch out Chicago, Scott is coming to town! I haven’t really been back to Chicago since we moved from there back when I was 10 years old. I was born in Chicago.

Anyway…I will be arriving around noon on Thursday and will be in town until Tuesday evening where I arrive back in Southern California at around 11pm.

I am sooo excited and scared at the same time. This was a completely unexpected trip and let’s just say that funds are really short for me right now. So why all the hoopla? I will be attending the International Home + Housewares Show at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago. It’s an industry trade only show and not open to the public. So how do I get to attend? I’m attending as news media as the owner and founder of FoodieInDisguise.com

I had the hardest time finding airfare that wasn’t going to kill me. It’s kinda surprising that you can fly to Washington DC for $125 round trip and fly thru O’Hare International (ORD), but if you want to fly to O’Hare as your destination, it will cost you around $340. I found a good fare out of LAX for $275.

The show starts on Sunday and the keynote address is being given by Tyler Florence.  A person very close to my culinary soul will also be at the show, my former boss and owner of Sur La Table, Renée Behnke. Two Sur La Table cookbooks are up for nomination for the coveted IACP Cookbook Awards and she will be doing a book signing at the show. Other celebs are Season 4 Top Chef Winner Stephanie Izard, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Suvir Saran, Gale Gand, Paula Deen, Rick Bayless, Akasha Richmond of the Akasha Restaurant here in Culver City and a host of many more chefs.

I can’t tell you how excited I am!!! The show is the world’s largest homegoods & housewares marketplace, showcasing thousands of new products and designs in four related product expos.

So my next goal is to find a place to sleep. Luckily, Chicago has an awesome transit system and I can probably stay in the “burbs” for cheaper housing. What would be better is if I can get a hold of the 2 or 3 people I know in Chicago and see if I can catch a couple of nights of sleep on the couch.Remember this was an unbudgeted trip.

Any kind souls in Chicago want to put me up??? I’ll cook you a meal!