The Leslie Show

TeeShot!

My husband, Duffergeek, recently wrote a golf application for the iPhone.  It's called TeeShot and it lets you keep track of your golf games.  It's a really cool application and he's been getting really good feedback about it.  Today he noticed a large spike in the number of people visiting his website.
"What's up with that?" he wondered. 

"I'll bet you got reviewed somewhere," I said. 

Sure enough, I was right!

Check out this awesome review at MacWorld.com.  Four mice!

Funny Because It's True

Free Money!

I recently learned of a new service that AOL founder Steve Case has started.  It's called "Revolution Money Exchange" and they're hoping to make it a strong competitor to PayPal, by doing things like NOT skimming a percentage off the top when you do transactions with other members. 

But here's the thing they're doing that I think is going to go FAR in helping them make this work.  They're paying $25 signing bonuses to people who join by May 15th.  And once you've joined, you can earn an additional $10 for each person you refer.

So, hey, win-win, right? I joined a week ago and just deposited $25 from them in my bank account.  No foolin'. 

A New Website I Love

I spend a LOT of my time planning, gathering the materials for, and then preparing meals.  It's a LOT of work figuring out what you're going to have for dinner, let alone whether or not it's nutritious.  Well, a colleague of mine at eWomen Network has a new online service called "HastyChef.com", and it's helping to streamline the whole "what's for dinner?" process for me. What it does, basically, is do your meal planning for you.  But not only that:  It gives you the recipes, gives you tips for optimizing the preparation, and makes you a grocery list.  The recipes are quick, easy, delicious, and you can customize them!  I strongly suggest you give their 2-week free trial a spin.  If you don't like it/don't find it useful you're out nothing!  But if you want fast, easy, delicious meals that are also super good for you... I think you'll really like it. Best of luck to NJ and the HastyChef crew!

Whoa! Dream Big! *

Talk about lofty goals! This site aims for nothing short of "...document[ing] all species of life on earth":

http://www.eol.org/index

Me?  My goals right now are down around  "wash some underwear so at least something I'm wearing is clean".

(* The title is one of my favorite quotes from the movie Juno, which I just saw last week.  Awesome movie.)

Facebook Junkie

Man, am I ever hooked on online social networking.  Especially Facebook.  It's my newest addiction.  I'm on there playing Scrabulous (though possibly not for much longer), reading other people's entries, and getting in Zombie fights.  It's a lot of fun, and kind of an interesting way to stay in touch with people.

Deep Rock Drive!

Duffergeek, that dashing star of golf course and (computer) screen, has a new job!  After eleven years at Microsoft, he's run off to join the circus. The rock 'n' roll circus, that is.

Presenting:  DEEP ROCK DRIVE, a really cool new concept in entertainment.  The basic premise is this:  You get a minimum of 1,000 people to sign a petition for their favorite band to do a live webcast concert.  If your band agrees, you don't just see the concert (for the low, low price of $6.99), you get to be a part of it!  Help vote on the set list, choose your own camera shots, even chat online with the band!  The beta site is up and it's free to join.  Why don't you go check it out?  Then add ME to your friends list!  I'm "Girl Next Door".  In fact, you can click on my "Fountains of Wayne" digiposter below to access the site!

First post from my iPhone!

It's not going to be a long post, as I have to type it all out on this little keypad, but I just wanted to try it. HELLO!

iPhone review

After all the fuss of me talking about how I wanted to get an iPhone, I've now been living with mine for the past three weeks.  My review?

I really like it. 

It's been kind of amazing watching this all unfold, because after I got it, so many people were coming up to me and breathlessly panting "Do you love it?" that I started wondering if I was doing something wrong.  If I was somehow missing something key about the iPhone because it wasn't causing me to feel love. 

Do I love it?  No.

Do I really like it?  Yes. 

PROS:

• It's absolutely gorgeous.  Looks like candy. 
• The UI is amazing.  It's like something out of the Jetsons.
• It's an incredibly cool iPod.
• It is, by far, the best web interface I've ever had on a phone.
• The motion-sensor that tells if you're holding it horizontally or vertically and then rotates the screen accordingly is awesome.
• When you're scrolling through lists with a finger drag, you can do a fast drag and make the list whiz by really quickly.  Kinda hard to explain, but if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about.
• The keyboard does a really good job of figuring out the word you're trying to type.  It's not like T9.  It's more that it figures out the most likely word you're intending even though you're actually typing all the letters near your intended ones.
• The camera takes the highest quality pictures I've ever taken from a phone.

CONS:

• It doesn't seem to hold power terribly long.  I've had phones that could go for days and days without a charge.  This one needs to be charged every night.  With everything the iPhone does, it's not suprising that it needs a lot of juice.  Still, this is when it makes me miss my camel-like Palm Treo.
• The keyboard is pretty darn hard to type straight on.  I'm fairly good at texting with both thumbs, and this one is definitely slowing me down.
• I can't send photos over SMS.  WTF?  Why not? Not even to other iPhones. The iPhone has a decent camera and that's a shame.
• I can't make my songs on the iPod part of my phone my ring tone.
• (This one is a small inconvenience, but like many small inconveniences, it is exponentially irritating:)  When you wish to end a call, there is a great big red "END CALL" button on your screen.   Seems simple enough, but the great big physically there "home" button is what I end up hitting to try to disconnect the call 90% of the time.  I don't know if this is because I'm old enough to remember when telephones had "party lines" and were heavy enough to kill people , but damned if I can get myself to remember not to push the home button.

So that's what I think.  Definitely more plusses than minuses.  I'm definitely glad I got it.  I really like it.  But the earth didn't move and I wouldn't call it love.  Just a good, solid like.  Which I think is probably healthier.  Falling in love with inanimate objects seems a bit creepy.

 

Hours away from my iPhone...

I'm 20th in line outside the AT&T store at Redmond Town Center.  Five hour 'til the Apple iPhone is released.  Thanks, Cosi, for the free Wi-Fi feed!  I think I'll go buy a salad while I'm waiting (in order to show my appreciation.)  I'm in a comfy chair and set up with my 'puter, my iPod, and the lastest New Yorker, so I should be good.  Just hope that it doesn't rain (though I'll still be here if it does.  I'm a Seattlite.  I'm not afraid of a little rain!)