Day 3 – Monday, July 5, 2010

The plans for Monday revolved around 2 things – a 9:30 appt in the American Girl Cafe and an 11:15 appt at the Apple Genius Bar.

I didn’t take any pictures this day.  Crazy.  It just wasn’t really a sight seeing day.

We took a taxi down Michigan Ave to American Girl Place.  In case you don’t know what American Girl is, it is a line of children’s dolls, books, clothes, etc, etc.  In some cities across the US, there is a large store called American Girl Place.  It contains a doll hospital (to fix the dolls), a doll salon (to fix the dolls’ hair), and a cafe (to eat).  Shelby’s teacher brought her 5 year old daughter with us on the trip so this visit was all for her.  I must say the food was very good.  (Was it worth the money?  Not for me but I’m sure the 5 year old with us thought so.)  The cafe is covered in a slightly darker color of Pepto Bismol and black.  Part of the excitement of the cafe for children is that their American Girl dolls get to eat with them.  They have special chairs that attach to the table top and have a little tea set that is set in front of them.  I must say that that part is cute.

Why the Apple Genius Bar appointment?  Well, I bought the iPhone 4 the day it came out.  (Actually, I ordered the first date it was available.)  Ever since I got it, I’ve been getting a message saying “No SIM card installed” which is followed by a complete loss of service.  The temporary fix requires restarting the phone.  After getting a new SIM card at AT&T and talking to Apple support, I was told it was a hardware problem (that multiple owners are having…not just me) and that they would replace my phone.  The standard method for replacing an iPhone is to mail the phone to Apple & then they’ll mail the replacement back.  This process could take 7-10 days and would mean I would be without my iPhone 4 for the Chicago trip so I came up with a better solution.  I would deal with the error for 1 more week and make myself an appointment at the Apple store to get a replacement.  I was in and out in around 30 minutes (had to wait a few minutes before a rep could see me or I probably would have only been in there for around 10 minutes).  No more problems with the iPhone 4!  I have no idea what the complaint is with the phone losing signal when held a certain way.  I can’t even make the phone do it on purpose.  Like I said, I’m very happy with the iPhone 4!

American Girl (& the Apple store) was about a mile from our hotel on Michigan Ave (aka The Magnificent Mile) so we walked back, shopping in the various stores along the way…we could afford.  The girls loved H&M and a huge Forever 21 store.

Here is a link to the photo album of my trip to Chicago.

I’ve had my iPhone 3G for 2 1/2 months now.  I gave my sister Shelby my AT&T Tilt for her birthday and gave myself an iPhone 3G.  I’ve absolutely loved it so far.  I’ve used it as a phone and an iPod, which I didn’t already have.  I’m able to check my e-mail and keep up online in the various social networks I’m a member of without even being at a computer.  It’s also a great time waster with several free & for a fee games available to download.  It also takes pretty good pictures (much better than any previous phone I have had did).

I have 2 1/2 pages of applications (some on there because they came on there and others that I’ve downloaded since getting my phone).  I thought I’d share some of the applications I have downloaded since getting my iPhone.  If you have any must-have applications on your iPhone, I’d love to hear what they are so I can check them out.

Facebook & Myspace are must-haves.  While they are somewhat limited in their abilities/options, I like to get on these periodically throughout the day and see what others are doing.

TwitterFon is a an application used to keep up with my Twitter account on the go.  I’ve tried more than one Twitter application and really like this one the best.

RTM (Remember the Milk) is a to-do-list/calendar program.  It syncs with a website of the same name.  I downloaded this recently but haven’t really used it very extensively.  It definitely seems handy, though.

I was using the iPhone default app Weather to keep up with my current & future weather.  I found that it was very nice but I decided to give TWC (The Weather Channel) a try.  I like having the radar map and more detailed weather information.  The Weather Channel is my go-to for weather anyway so it makes sense to have it on my phone.

Moonlight (Moonlight Mahjong) is a game that I love to play.  It’s Mahjong Solitaire, which I can easily sit and play for hours if I had the time.

Shazam is the program you’ve probably seen advertised on TV that can listen to a song playing and then identify the song & artist.  Me & Shelby have tested it but I haven’t really found a need for it yet.  It’s cool, though.

PixUp is a program I use to upload photos to Flickr.  I’d really like Flickr to come up with an application for iPhones but PixUp works for now.  (This is an area I’d love to have suggestions on.  I’ve only tried PixUp.  I also only upload to Flickr from my phone so I don’t need all of the other site availabilities, necessarily.)

Travelocity is nice when traveling.  I used it in late October when I went to Atlanta.  Because I use Travelocity to book my flights and reserve cars & hotel rooms, this application will pull in my travel itinerary and then I can display information related to it (i.e. departure gate).

I downloaded The Bible & Wikipanion (which is the iPhone app version of Wikipedia) for my reference needs.  I’ve used them both and think they are good to have.

I have to be honest and say I downloaded Google & Last.fm but really haven’t used them much at all yet.  It isn’t that I dislike them.  I just haven’t sat and played with them yet to figure out what all they can do.

I just recently downloaded WiFinder.  The one time I was trying to find a Wifi network since that time, I found it worked better than the default option for finding them.

Page 3 is what I call My Fun Page.  It has various games that I’ve downloaded.  My current favorite is UNO.  Although, Knots is pretty fun & addictive.  Shelby loves JellyCar.  I just haven’t gotten the hang of it, though, so it frustrates me right now more than anything.  PBJTime is indeed the iPhone app version of the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song/graphic thing.  I got it more to goof around with because it really serves no purpose otherwise.  Bubble Wrap is a game.  It could just be used to annoy others around you, though, if you want to.

As you can see, I have a wide variety of applications downloaded onto my iPhone.  Several were free while some were applications I had to pay for.

I’d love to hear about your favorite applications.  If anyone has a Flickr upload application they love, let me know.  I’m also curious to know if anyone has found one that will keep up with NASCAR news & also race information.

I am the proud new owner of a white 16 GB iPhone 3G. (more…)