There are 2 big malls in Abu Dhabi, we chose to go to the one with better coffee.

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I know many of you have thought that I would / should get one for a while… and I finally did! I got an iPhone!

I had already written about it sure… but the iPhone is just so cool! In fact, Celeste took this picture of me with our friend Scott’s motorcycle using my iPhone camera.

Pretty cool huh?

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Jason and I had fun converting my Ferengi Rules of Acquisition Widget over to work on an iPhone Web app when he was here a few weeks ago. So, since then I was looking through all their apps and looking for apps online trying to find ones that I could possibly do better and ran across a couple of Weight Watchers point counters for the iPhone, none of which really looked all that good, and many of which you had to “switch” to the number keys to enter anything in. So… I decided to make one of my own.

While I had never really done the whole “points” thing with food, Jason had done it, so he knew what it was like to figure them and all, so when I finished it he tested it and loved it. I then decided to submit it to Apple’s Web apps page and… to my delight… it not only was accepted, but was listed as one of their “Staff Picks!”

UPDATE Jan 18th, 2007:
I’m not sure if it was because I had part of the “WW” logo on the calculator or what… but Apple has (at least as of Friday night at 9:31 pm CST) taken the web app off of their list.  As everyone can now see the icon is changed out, so hopefully they will put it back.  I’m not going to say anything for certain yet though, as I’m not sure why it was removed, but no worries… the link still works and you can still use the iPoint Calculator.  Just bookmark it on your iPhone and enjoy!  (Also… please email both Apple and WW to ask them to bring it back.  Thanks!)

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So Celeste and Jason bought me an iPhone for Christmas and gave it to me early… i.e. yesterday. I could not (and can not) believe it!

It really is more amazing than I had thought it would be. I mean, I had seen Jason’s, and even messed around on it a little, as well as some in the Apple store on display… but nothing compares to actually owning and using one!

Apple did such an amazing job of thinking, “What would be awesome to do on a cell phone?” and then doing it! They have changed the face of how I can (and will) do business as well as how I can (and will) keep in contact with friends and family.

The features are all amazing… being able to check email, receive calls, merge calls, go online (and really see websites) get the weather, take notes, listen to music and watch movies… that is all amazing, seriously amazing. But it’s the little things that are simply flooring me! The interface. The way I think, “I wish I could do this or that…” and then I CAN! Plus, it is so easy to use, and learn how to use!

So… with all these amazing features, and just being in such a euphoric state from having just been “handed” an iPhone (ask for the story sometime), I was a little surprised when I logged onto my new AT&T account and saw this image…

Notice just left of the little iPhone image… the option to “Upgrade Phone.” What? You mean there’s a BETTER phone than the iPhone?!

Of course there isn’t. I just thought it was funny… and seriously, how hard would it be for AT&T to change that little text out so that if their customer has an iPhone instead of saying “Upgrade Phone” it would say something like “Congratulations, you have the best phone on the planet!” Wouldn’t that be a great thing to see? Wouldn’t it be one more small bonus (much like all those I’m finding in the user interface) that would make someone so proud to own an iPhone?

Either way, it doesn’t matter really… I mean I, and all the rest of the people in the world that own an iPhone, know, without a doubt, that this is by far the best phone in the world… no upgrade needed.

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Here we are hanging out at the apple store while waiting on Jason to find out how to do some things on his iPhone.  And here I am with Jason… 

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We had a good time on iChat last night.

First, we talked to our good friend Jason Whaley. He showed us the movie he had just watched and I snapped a picture of it because it was so “posed” and funny!

Then we talked to Celeste’s parents. Their dog got right up into camera at one point as we were calling her name. It also made a great picture!

So, I just thought I’d share the two pictures…

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So it seems that NBC is possibly leaving Apple for Amazon. This is because Amazon will allow them to sell their shows for more, and / or sell them at discounted rates, where as Apple’s iTunes will only allow the set price. Seth Godin has (of course) a great article about this on his blog, but I wanted to touch on it some here from my point of view.

The thing is NBC still believes that they are “NBC“… like the “must see TV” NBC… well, they’re not, not to us at least. Sure, we like the Office, and we liked Heroes okay, but the thing is we don’t watch TV. We are a 100% iTunes household. Sure, we buy seasons of shows we love on DVD (sometimes) but, for the most part, if it’s not on iTunes we don’t watch it. Movies from Netflix and TV from iTunes… that’s it.

The fact is, no matter how much we might “save” on an NBC show from Amazon, we most likely will never buy one from them. The iTunes interface and method has already won us over completely. We’ve TRIED to watch things on other venues, including LOST on ABC’s site, but nothing compares to iTunes. No matter how good the shows are, or how much we might “miss” them, we can, and are willing to, simply not watch them anymore.

So we may be saying “bye-bye” to NBC… or more correctly stated, NBC may simply be saying “bye-bye” to us.

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Well, Apple announced yesterday that they are cutting the price of the iPhone by$200. Of course this meant that hundreds of thousands of people started complaining that they had to pay more for their iPhone than everyone else is going to.

It reminds me of the parable of the vineyard workers.  People are mad that they got exactly what they wanted for exactly what they agreed to pay for it.

Were they complaining for the last two months?  No.  Did you hear anyone say, “I got a new iPhone and it ROCKS!  If only I could’ve saved $200 on it.”  No.  In fact, everyone that has an iPhone has (in my experience) done nothing but defend the $599 price tag.  They have done nothing but proudly show it off and rest every night in the fact that they spent their money well.

However, Apple is one of those rare companies that isn’t satisfied with simply satisfying their customers.  They want to do more than is expected and more than, in many cases, they should “have” to do.  So, today Steve Jobs issued this letter explaining that everyone who paid the higher price for the iPhone and bought it early will be getting $100 of Apple credit.  Wow!  That is amazing!  It makes companies like NBC, who are pulling content from iTunes because they “claim” to want to charge more for their shows (their stupid mistake in my humble opinion), look pretty pathetic.   Apple understands what getting customers, and keeping them, means.  It’s much more than providing an awesome product… it’s living up to a reputation.

By the way… my brother Jason, who waited all day in line and got his iPhone at the “expensive” price, said it was still well worth the original $599 price tag.

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