I bought an iPhone

Well, I took the plunge and bought myself an iPhone 3GS on March 25.

So far, I am loving it!

I knew what to expect since I've had an iPod Touch since they first came out, but it's even more handy than I had imagined. I came to the iPhone from a Blackberry Curve 8330, and I almost upgraded my Blackberry to the new Blackberry Bold 2. I'm glad I didn't. The screen on the iPhone is just amazing, and the interface is far superior to the dated Blackberry OS. I can type faster on the virtual keyboard than I could on the Blackberry's physical keyboard.

There are a few things that I do miss about my Blackberry that I wish the iPhone had though.

1. The message indicator light. This one tiny LED was the most useful thing on my Blackberry. The light blinks when you get an e-mail, so you know someone it's there without having to turn on the screen like with the iPhone. This is a big plus.
   
2. Integration with the holster. Ok, I know most iPhone users aren't big on holsters, but the Blackberry holster and the way it integrates with the device is awesome. In case you didn't know, the Blackberry holster has a magnet in it, and the Blackberry itself has a sensor which detects this magnet, thus, knowing if it is in the holster or not. Why is this useful you ask? You can set the profile based on whether it's in the holster or not. For example, if my Blackberry was holstered on my waist, I don't want it to chirp with every e-mail, it can just vibrate. If I have the Blackberry on my desk, I'm not going to feel it vibrate, so I want to hear it chirp. It's a little feature that leads to a lot of customization, as you can select any combination of alerts that you feel like based on your preferences.
3. Battery life. The battery life on my Blackberry was amazing. I could go for around 5 days without having to charge it.
   

Ok, that's all I can think of for the Blackberry right now. What do I like about the iPhone? Just about everything.

1. Interface. Awesome. Just awesome.
   
2. Media integration. Again, the Blackberry just sucks when it comes to media. The iPhone is easy to sync with iTunes. The media playback is amazing.
3. App store. I didn't think this one would be as important to me as it has become. The App Store is full of useful (and some useless) apps that greatly enhance your original purchase. Yes, the Blackberry has it's own app store now, but the apps tend to be clunky as they are shoehorned into the Blackberry interface. Not nice.

To sum it all up, I'm very happy with my decision to switch to the iPhone from the Blackberry. The only complaint that I have about the iPhone is that it's just too damn pretty. What does that mean? Well, it's glossy black on the back, which shows every single finger print. The back of the device is definitely a finger print magnet, but I think I've found a way around that.

But that is for another post.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine review

Well, I finally made it to the theatre last night to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was better than most the reviews had made it out to be, but I do see what some of their nagging issues were about.
First of all, it was a pretty decent action movie. There were some decent fight scenes and the special effects were good. It's when you get to the overall storyline that things tend to get a bit weak.
Since Wolverine's on screen debut in the original X-Men movie, he's always had a "mysterious past." He's trying to figure out who he is, and why he is the way he is. By the end of this movie, everything is explained. However, after all of the explanation, you sort of sit there and say "that's it?" To me, alot of the explanations seemed overly simplified, like there should be more to it. The entire Weapon X procedure scene takes up about 5 minutes of screen time. In fact, they don't even explain it to Wolverine until he's laying on the table and they casually say "We're going to bond adamantium to your bones to make you indestructible." It just seems like there should have been more prep work to it. Maybe a montage of tests and calibrations being done. Instead, he gets on this table, lowered into some water, and a few minutes later has an adamantium skelton. I think the X-Men cartoon did this scene better, especially the dramatic break out. In the movie, Wolverine hops of the table, takes a bullet to the forehead, gets pissed off and runs out the door.
In X-Men 2, they showed a flashback of him running out of the facility at night with bloody claws. In this movie, he runs out in broad day light and jumps down a waterfall naked. It just seemed to be missing the intensity.
I also preferred the memory implants used in the comics that have made Wolverine confused about his past and who he is. The way he loses his memory in the movie is again a little too overly simplistic and a bit out there.

SPOILER ALERT:
He loses his memory by being shot in the head with an adamantium bullet. One shot takes him down, and then he is shot again in the head. It is said that "An adamantium bullet is the only thing that can take him down," and it does. They then say that it won't kill him. That his brain will heal but his memories won't. I think this could have been done differently. Instead of getting shot in the head, they could have had Silverfox use her powers to make him forget about everything for some reason. That's just me ranting though.

A lot of people have also been complaining about the appearance of Deadpool in this movie. I think they went a little too far with his extra powers, but I didn't mind him. I just wish that in all of these X-Men movies that the villans weren't under some sort of mind control. Toad and Sabretooth in X-Men are mindless henchmen somehow under Magnetos control. Lady Deathstrike is under Stryker's control in X-Men 2. And once again, Deadpool is a remote control puppet in this movie. I would have liked to have seen him have some motivation for going after Wolverine here.

Anyways, the rest of the movie isn't all that bad. I would give it 3 1/2 out 5.

Check back again soon for my Star Trek movie review!