Finally got the port forwarding to work.  Below is a video I shot on my wife's 3GS of the Plex iPhone app running on my iPhone 4.  It's streaming my media library over my local wifi.  Quality is unreal and the 3GS video capture does not do the actual video playback justice.  After a little caching time, it plays back flawlessly with HD clarity.  The next test will be to see how it streams over wifi outside of my home network.

Once I have a little more time, I'll do a new Mac Mini home theater setup with the new Plex 9.

Picked up my iPhone 4 today. Have to say, it does live up to the hype. Gorgeous screen and a solid feeling in your hand (that's what she said). I haven't encountered the two major flaws that have been reported - the antenna hand block issue or the yellow spot on the screen. Guess I'm lucky in that respect.

Photos with flash are really nice. Not great but waaaaaaay better than on the 3GS in low light situations. Haven't done HD video yet but will post some examples when I do.

(with flash)

(without flash)

So the announcement came a couple of days ago and everyone is deciding (or has already) whether to get the new Apple iPad in March/April. Let me start by saying I really like the device. Looks slick, great screen, great UI, and the few apps that were demo'd look really good. Let's not forget the price of $499 which blew me away - very affordable given what the device does. Imagine all the eBook readers, portable DVD players, digital picture frames, etc. that already cost between $100-$300. Those devices are pretty much screwed.

As part of Steve Jobs' demo, he talked about a third class of product between the iPhone and a laptop. He said this new class needed to do a few things much better than either of the other two. To some extent, I agree with him that the iPad does do certain things better - photos and eBooks in particular. But I guess they don't do them better enough for me to buy yet another device. I split my time between two indispensable devices - my laptop (Macbook 13") and my phone (iPhone 3GS). If I were to lose either one of these, my productivity is pretty much shot. However, a tablet computer just hasn't made itself indispensable to me just yet.

So if not adding a new device, what about replacing one? Well, the iPad can't replace my phone because it's too big and can't make phone calls (VOIP, maybe?). As far as my laptop goes, I don't really do much on it besides email, web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, occasional presentations, image manipulation, and some light HTML. I guess the iPad can handle all of those save for the image manipulation (is there an app for that? basically Photoshop light) and HTML (also, an app for that? Dreamweaver light?). But the biggest thing that I need is to be able to access a file system where I can create folders, move files around, etc. Without that it's impossible for me to replicate my day to day job on the pad. I toyed with the idea of getting this for my mom or wife because they don't do much besides email and web browsing but both like to watch videos online and without Flash support, they'd still be using their desktops half of the time.

All in all, I'd love to buy this. If I had all the money in the world I'd buy two. I'd also buy a 60" Kuro Elite, Tesla Sedan, and NetJets fractional. All of which fall into the "nice to have but not needed" category.

Waiting at the entrance to Mountain Winery for the Tears for Fears concert. Not a fan but at least the venue is nice.

Here's a shot at last year's concert. Low light situation on Gen 1 iPhone. Let's see if the 3GS does any better.