Pebble Watch and iPhone 4 and Battery Life

Yes, I was a backer of the Pebble Smartwatch Kickstarter Campaign and got a black Pebble when it came out. And they can now be ordered for $150, though through Kickstarter I got it for less. It is a pretty impressive watch, with the ability to display notifications from your iPhone or Android, though it is still a little buggy, with me having to reset Notifications on my iPhone a few times a day.Overall I enjoy it, and like that the SDK is now out so third parties will be able to write there own watch faces and applications.Still it needs to get better. The RunKeeper application has not been included yet, even in Beta for iOS (though Android users have been able to try a BETA), and my biggest complaint is battery life.Not only does having it on, and bluetooth in use drain my iPhone 4 very quickly (we are talking down to 20% by the end of the day), but the old school bluetooth in my iPhone 4 really drains the Pebble quickly. In fact while it has gotten better (it used to not last 24 hours), but now with the latest firmware 1.10 I would say it lasts more like 36 hours without a charge. Still not so good. And even worse is what happened last night. I connected my Pebble to it's charger and left it. It was still connected to my phone, so vibrating, and somehow managed to unconnected the power. So today my watch is on it's last legs, and not likely to even make it through half the day because it disconnected itself last night! Certainly not so good.I am sure the battery life would be much better if I connected to my iPad 3, but since I don't currently have cellular hooked up to it, that would only work when near a wifi connection, so not all that often. I am sure it would be better if I ever got an iPhone 5, or 5s when that comes out, but I find that unlikely right now!Overall I really like the Pebble. I like being able to see my e-mails and preview them, so I know when I really need to check e-mail, as I am usually editing on other people's computers, so I don't have a dedicated e-mail program open and must stop and check to see if I got e-mail. Of course it can also get annoying, as some times my watch is buzzing allot, and it sucks that you can only see your latest message, especially when you get a bunch of messages at once!I am looking forward to RunKeeper and other 3rd party applications, and better battery life would be great!

Google has released Google Maps for iOS

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OK all, time to all take a collective breath, Google has released Google Maps for the iPhone and iPad. Download it and stop complaining about Apple Maps!Yes I don't like Maps too well either. Sure the 3D thing on new devices is cool, though useless. And I don't see why older devices can't do turn by turn. And I do hate the colors, and the traffic has been totally useless, but I just moved to alternatives. And have been really enjoying VUZE for traffic, but now Google Maps is back, so...EDIT: ArsTechnica has a great article on it, including it's shortcomings. The biggest that it doesn't access your contacts from anywhere, not iOS or from Google itself, so you can't just type someone's name to get their address (THIS SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO BE FIXED).And they tell you how to activate privacy, though it looks like it will then also turn off your helping with traffic.

Is the new Lightning Adapter USB 3 compatible?

Arstechnica has a good article talking about how the connector for Apple's new Lightning Adapter may be able use the metal shielding as a 9th wire, making for a 9th wire and making Lightning USB 3 compatible. If so it could live up to it's Lightning name.

iPhone 5 first impressions

Still have my iPhone 4, but went to the Apple store to check out the iPhone 5. It sounded great, but not too great, but I was wrong.The first thing you notice is how light it is. It makes the iPhone 4 seem heavy, but it still feels well built and solid. And the mostly metal back is much better than the glass iPhone 4 and 4S. The phone is thinner, and lighter, and taller.The taller screen looks better even at the same resolution. And the bigger screen is just better. Wide screen shows look great and having an extra row of apps on every screen is fantastic.And the lightning connector is impressively small. Still if it is not faster, it sucks to make every previous accessory either incompatible or have to work with an adapter.if all of the speed tests are true, this is a really impressive phone. I so want one! Ha!

How crappy is Apple’s new Lightning Adapter

So with the iPhone 5 Apple updated and downgraded it's connector to the new lightning connector. The good news is it is smaller, and will work in either direction. The bad news is it is the same speed as the old adapter, sends less data, so many old accessories won't work, and for those that do it requires an adapter at $28 for a direct or $39 for a cable.Youch! Honestly i would rather have had the old adapter still so all my old devices would work. Especially since Apple said they won't make docks for the iPhone 5, and i prefer my iPhone and iPods in docks!

Apple has announced the iPhone 5 coming out next week

And they didn't name it the next iPhone, which is even better. It has a powerful quad core A6 processor and a taller screen, which allows one more row of icons, or bigger 1135 by 640 16x9 apps, which is great for watching movies and old apps show up as letterboxed instead of stretched. It has a better 8 Megapizel camera, and it's towards you camera is now 720p for facetime. It has a new connector called Lightning that should be faster and is much smaller, but will require all new accessories or adapter cables.Nothing revolutionary, but certainly very cool. I would love to replace my iPhone 4 with one, but it is not going to happen. Too broke after surgery and possible not having work for a while. It is $199, $299 or $499 for 16, 32 or 64 GB versions.

Pebble E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android Kickstarter Program

The Pebble e-paper watch is a very cool accessory for your Smartphone that is currently having a kickstarter campaign, and these people have already made a product for Blackberries.The only downside it is uses the old Bluetooth 2.1 tech instead of the new lowpowered bluetooth that the iPhone 4S has, so it will drain battery life.Still a very cool idea, and a product that will have a future.