Oh yeah, feels like new again. Today I downloaded the new firmware for my iPhone and in case you haven’t been following my tweets, pownces, plurks, or friendfeed I am very satisfied. I haven’t felt this good about the device since I originally bought it, of course jail breaking it did feel good too but now these apps are leaps and bounds ahead of the original third party apps. Now I have something to hold me over until the AT&T 3G network stretches to my neck of the woods.

Of course I hit all the free apps first and most of those were to all my social networks. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Pownce all have apps and I have a feeling that I may be using most of those more than their actual websites. All of these social apps allow use of the camera or your photo library to upload pics right to their site. They also speed up the delivery and surfing of all the essential data related to those sites i.e. who is eating cheese, who is playing with their new iPhone, and who is in the shower.

Another notable free app is the weather bug which far exceeds the included weather app. Now you can see which way the wind is blowing, radar maps, and any weather alerts.

The list of free apps that wouldn’t be complete without Apple’s own remote for iTunes and the Apple TV. Now you can surf and control the media in your library just like you are using an iPod. This will be handy in those party situations when you want to have your iPhone on you but still be in control of the tunes.

There are a few familiar programs in the app store that you may have seen in installer.app. I will look forward to supporting as soon as I have a few extra bucks lying around; Band, Mobile Flickr, and Sketches to name a few. I’m still looking for cameraPro or Snapture as I feel they include many features that are missing from the iPhones camera like a self timer. SummerBoard would also be nice as I like to customize the look of the icons and the dock.

One new app I went out and bought was the new MLB app. This app is a must for anyone who spends as much time refreshing baseball scores. It also has the option to watch video highlights of the games. You still have to use mlb.com to view the play by play, hopefully that comes in the form of an update soon.

I could go on and on about all the new apps but the jist of the situation is that all in all I am happier than ever with my old iPhone. I will someday go out and replace it but as it is I feel now I am in no hurry. Since I don’t have access to 3g I don’t feel like paying an extra $10 a month to have fewer text messages and a useless 3Gcard in my phone. The fact that it has GPS doesn’t sell me on the new one either as I have already noticed a big improvement in the “current location” that is already in google maps.

On break from my Accounting class, a few of my classmates and I conversed. We usually speak the usual geek talk, revolving around computers, comics, sci-fi, and equations that equal 42. One kid mentioned that he was going to see Spiderman at midnight. Now I had forgot that it came out at midnight even though I had just watched “The Totally Rad Show” which reviewed the movie in question. I was all about getting my geek on so I aimed my sites at getting down to that theater in the quickest manner possible, getting a prime seat, and watching a movie that will more than likely fit into the definition of a blockbuster.

artifishall Wasting time, till spiderman 3 starts 10:30 PM May 03, 2007 from txt

The evening started when we arrived at the theater an hour early. No this is not the usual manner that I undertake, but I rather sit in the theater for an hour than drive the 20 min drive home just to turn around come back. The theater was littered with the faithful fans that no doubt had help keep the mylar industry alive. Spidy suits abound, I wasn’t sure whether I should run to the nearest costume shop to find some tights or break out of a cocoon and sprout wings to fly past the webs of said hybrid geek/superheroes.

The Spidermen where in full character, doing back flips in the front of the theater, dropping off the top of the staircases, stoking up the crowd into a frenzy, and of course leading a rousing version of Happy Birthday.

Now most of the Spidermen Outfits were the usual Halloween specials, but there were a few that were movie worthy (even if the bodies filling them out weren’t)

artifishall Ha ha, spidey just did a faceplant 11:27 PM May 03, 2007 from txt

As we waited, my friends and I compared notes on iPod playlists and reading material.

artifishall Note to self: read terry pratchett 11:53 PM May 03, 2007 from txt

After the staff subdued the crowd and impatience let out, the previews began to roll. The crowd laughed at the New Chis Tucker / Jackie Chan flick (Rush Hour 3) and Balls of Fury, ohhed and awed at the new Harry Potter, and booed the Chef Boyardee Comercial.

The movie had all the elements that Hollywood is known for. The love story, the good guy vs bad guy, the wise matriarch whose words bring the hero back to his senses after his fall from grace

artifishall MJ you bitch, don’t go 4 the goblin about 23 hours ago from txt

The love Triangle between Mary Jane, Peter Parker, and Harry Osborn continues with Peter and Harry at odds from the beginning.

artifishall What a waste of bourbon about 23 hours ago from txt

New Villians are introduced to the non-comic book types with Venom and Sandman. The back stories are vaguely told, though not noticeable while being inundated with superb action sequences or campy comedic relief.

artifishall Pete you wanker about 22 hours ago from txt

Love is lost, Found, heroes win against all odds and a few other twist and turns find their away into the plot.

Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst stayed true to their performances in the previous movies. Topher Grace had a surprisingly believable evil essence in his role as Venom and nerd photographer (Peter Parker wanna-be) Eddie Brock. Thomas Haden Church pulled from pity, fear, hatred, and with the help of Brilliant CGI effects brought Sandman to life. Then Bruce Campbell came along for a much needed comic relief bit that overshadowed the rest of the comedy in the movie.

I couldn’t help but twitter certain thoughts as the movie progressed as a experiment of a real time movie review, so I included them in this post (anything that starts with artifishall) I tried not to give to much away so I hope I didn’t ruin the film for anyone

Hey I finally got Joost. If you haven’t heard of it yet (seriously, you haven’t heard of it, have you been under a rock?) it is a program developed by those guys that made Skype and Kazaa as their solution for IPTV or Internet Protocol Television.

So far I watched a National Geographic documentary on Everest. It was good, well what I saw of it, for some reason it cut out in the middle and wouldn’t play anymore (it is still in beta, some kinks have yet to worked out). So I changed channels and watched some Snowboarding.

It works fairly smoothly and has some neat features like widgets so you can IM using your gmail or jabber account, chat with other people viewing the same channel, or have a clock on the screen; all of which are semi-transparent so that you can still watch the screen behind it.

So far there isn’t a whole lot of content but Joost have been striking deals with the likes of Viacom so that could change soon. Currently Joost is made up of mostly Music Channels, National Geographic with a few knock offs, a Independent Movie channel, and some sport channels of “X-treme” nature.

I look forward to see where this is going since all of my video content now comes from the net. It has the potential to supplement what iTunes, podcasts, and Netflix can’t give me, surfing (oh and channel hopping too).

I just finished watching my first video, “Dr. Who: The Pirate Planet”. A great episode with as good of quality, or better, than if you would have seen it originally in 1979.

So far they have a wide variety but no New Releases that I have seen. Must be so you don’t cut down your subscription just yet. The video came on rapidly and I could pause it with the space bar (in reality my wireless game pad that I have set up as a remote with the usual media hot keys). It was of good quality and you get one hour of viewing time for each dollar of your monthly subscription. $18 a month = 18 hours of viewing time a month. The quality also changes depending on your connection.

From Netflix:

Tier	Data rate
High	1.6 to 2.2+ Mbps
Good	1.0 Mbps
Basic	500 Kbps

Needless to say I am excited about this prospect. I tried out Vongo for a while as a supplement to Netflix for this reason but the selection of movies and the fact that it took up precious space on my hard drive led me to cancel.

It will be interesting to see how this catches on and what Netflix will offer. As I already have a TV conected to my computer for such purposes the average user doesn’t. Will Apple TV jump on board, or will the rumors from a while back of a Tivo/Neflix partnership come to pass.