I know this post is along time coming, but here are my plans for this summer.

1. My first priority will be getting/staying in shape for crew (rowing). This is a two part process. The first is doing a summer competitive rowing camp that has practices 8-10 times a week. Then I will be working out on my own 3-4 times a week in addition. I plan on being very fast by the end of the summer when head racing season starts.

2. My next priority is schoolwork. I have two classes, AP European History and Honors Algebra II/Geometry that require summer work. I am turning over a new leaf and doing the work a little at a time, instead of waiting til the week before the beginning of school. I also will have a few books to read for english class, but I enjoy reading, so that is not a problem. In addition, for the AP Euro I have found a podcast through Allison Sheradon from the Nosillacast Podcast, called Hank’s History Hour that I will listen to throughout the summer.

3. Next is new media. In addition to blogging here and tweeting, I will try to regularly participate in the International Mac Podcast, both on the blog and in the podcast. And any other podcast someone invites me on, I would be happy to join them. If you want to get me on your show by the way, drop me a line using the link to the right.

4. Lastly, I will be getting a job over the summer, at a local book store in my area, called the Penguin Bookshop. Once they are done remodeling, which should be in the next month or so, I will be restocking shelves with books for the grand reopening in the fall. I think this is a great job because i love books, and because I am only putting books on their places on shelves, I can basically just listen to podcasts the whole time! w00t. I also will be doing some babysitting, work in the yard for my mom (for money of course), and tech support for anyone in my area.

There will be some other things, but that is about it. If you have any other ideas, leave a comment below!

Although you are all probably sick of the Keynote coverage, as I have been in Europe, I haven’t been able to put a post out until now. So lets get it over with. 

iPhone 2.0

Enterprise

Based on the information given to us by Steve Jobs and included in the video they played at the keynote, I think the Enterprise is very excited about the iPhone, and RIM better be watching their behinds because the iPhone is coming after them like wildfire. 

SDK

I love the opportunities the SDK represents not only for iPhone owners, but for the future of mobile technology in general. As the iPhone becomes less of a device, and more of a platform, things can only get better in the mobile computing space. I also think that some of the technologies and oppertunities that the iPhone represents will eventually be brought into the desktop computing space. I was really excited by some of the apps shown at the keynote. 

Before I go any farther, I just wanted to say that in my opinion, Scott Forstall is going to be the next CEO of Apple Inc. I say this because he got a lot of stage time at the keynote, and compared to his somewhat lackluster performance at the SDK announcement in march, he was very smooth and collected, and is definitely improving his keynote skills. In addition, he is young and hip, just the kind of person Apple needs to lead right now. I’m not saying that Steve will be leaving anytime soon, but when it does happen, I won’t be at all surprised to see Scott take the iReins. 

Push Notification Service

I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea, and I completely understand their logic from the keynote. The implementation of this is also great. 

Additional features

There are some features of iPhone 2.0 that just blow my mind that they weren’t in it to begin with. When Steve said “contact search” I said, “That wasn’t already there!?!?!” Same with iWork support. I mean its their software, I would think they could easily port it over. The scientific calculator is really cool, as is the Chinese Character Support. 

App Store

Most of this we had already heard, but i think the App store is incredibly well implemented, and I think Apple was being really smart in creating the Ad Hoc and Enterprise methods of distributing apps. 

Missing Software Features

Video- this wouldn’t be so hard to add, just a software update. It has been shown that the iPhone camera can do 30 FPS.

Copy/Paste- this also has been proven to be able to be done, and it would be so simple. why not steve, why not?

Notes Syncing- Please please please steve. I have notes on the iPhone, and notes in Mail.app on my mac. Please let them sync.

Document editing-This is the feature I want most. Even if its just Pages, not Office, Numbers and Keynote, I would be forever grateful. 

MobileME

I am really really really excited about MobileME. .Mac has been great to me, and I “love it to bits” to quote Jack Moore http://www.macfever.co.uk/ but it needed a major overhaul. As much as I hate the name “MobileME” (for the record I really didn’t like the Name MacBook AIR either) but it sounds like an amazing service. First, one flaw i found in .Mac was you could get your email and contacts from the web, but not your calendars (that I know of. If you can, tell me!) you can only sync between macs. This is fixed in mobileme. The interface looks fantastic, and i am also very excited about the extra space. After hearing that Dave Hamilton from The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab, had done so, I decided to turn on iDisk syncing, and move my Documents folder from my local home folder to my iDisk. That way I can always access them. I am also very excited about that iDisk Share feature, where you can send an email with a download link for the individual file. The Push data is also very helpful. I completely understand the benefit of Push Calendar and Push Contacts. However, from what I understand, I dont see the difference between Push Email and .Mac IMAP. If someone would please explain to me what can I do with Push email that I can’t do with IMAP email. 

I love the AJAX web apps, they look absolutely incredible. It really looks and works like a desktop app. 

There are a few things I would like to see from mobileme in the future. The first is one thing they better have down pat at the start. They need to be more reliable. The amount of time .Mac was down is unacceptable, and they really need to up the ante with reliability in MobileMe. In addition, accessing one’s iDisk (atleast from the Finder) is really really SLOW. They need to invest in faster servers to speed up and improve their infrastructure.

Another thing I would like to see is an equivalent to Google Docs. I would love to be able to edit my iWork docs online. 

iPhone 3G

I am really happy about the announcement of the iPhone 3G. I will be getting an iPhone in the next few months and I cant wait. I love all of the new features of the iPhone 3G, but the most important for me is the lower price. What once got you a discontinued 4Gb iPhone now gets you a blazing fast 16 Gb iPhone 3G, and this is the one I will be getting. While it doesn’t matter as much to me, I am also very excited about the additional countries receiving the iPhone. 

I also really like the new iPhone commercial. 

The only thing I would like to see from the iPhone in the future is a camera on the front for video chatting. 

Wow that was a long post. Hope you enjoyed it, or atleast didn’t fall asleep. Leave a comment below to get your voice heard!

I’ll have another post later about Mac OS X Snow Leopard