iPhone 2.2 Update Released
Last night at midnight Apple released iPhone software version 2.2. I’m still playing around with things, but the google street view option is really nice. Here is a screen capture I did of our duplex.
Here is the list of changes/fixes from Apple. As usual I’m sure there will be a few more that users will find over time after some use.
- Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View*
- Public transit and walking directions
- Display address of dropped pins
- Share location via email
- Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
- Enhancements to Mail
- Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
- Improved formatting of wide HTML email
- Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
- Improved stability and performance of Safari
- Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
- Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home screen
- Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings
Star Wars Vault on Woot
Today’s woot is the Star Wars Vault. This is a great book that I picked up earlier this year. It has reproductions of many rare Star Wars documents and collectibles. It also includes two audio cds with rare radio ads, interviews, and Princess Leia singing from the Holiday Special.
The book originally retailed around $80 and woot is selling it for $24.99 + $5.00 shipping which is a steal. I highly recommend it.
Pick it up at http://www.woot.com The book was written by Steve Sansweet and Peter Vilmur. As with everything on woot this price is only for today.
New Xbox Experience
Yesterday Microsoft released their new Xbox Experience for the 360. The interface now closer to something Apple might do and they have also added an Avatar feature that mimics the mii feature on the Wii. One of the biggest new features in my opinion is that you can now rent and stream movies directly to your T.V. if you have a Netflix account. I have heard that you can do a free Netflix trial, so I might give it a go to test it out. I still need to play around with the update. I updated my 360 last night just before going to sleep so I just got a quick overview, but from what I saw it did look pretty cool. Below is a picture of the original dashboard with the old blade system and then two new pictures from the update.
Happy Life Day
Today marks the 30th Anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special. This abomination to Star Wars originally aired on November 17, 1978 the day after I was born in all its 70′s glory. This special is so bad that it has been said that George Lucas himself would like all copies destroyed. The whole basic plot is Han Solo is trying to get Chewbacca back home to his family in time for Life Day a Wookie holiday. Pretty much all the original cast was involved including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. They all have pretty much the same feelings as George Lucas and would like to deny its existence. This clip is one of my favorite with Harrison Ford on Conan O’Brien being asked about the Holiday Special.
Conan O'Brien asks Harrison Ford about Star Wars Holiday Special
The best part of the whole special is the 10 minute cartoon about half way through. The cartoon was the first time anyone had seen Boba Fett before The Empire Strikes Back. It also featured all the original cast portraying their voices including James Earl Jones as Vader.
Here is just that clip
And for those that actually want to try and watch the whole thing it is available on Google Video below. Tonight I am going to try and sit through it again for the 30th anniversary, but I will be watching it with the rifftrax commentary, so it will be MSTK3 style. Hopefully that will make it easier to get through. For those that would like to find out a little more about the special there is a wikipedia entry and a fan site that even shows some of the wookie action figures that made it as far as prototype stage, but were never released.
Have a great Life Day!
Mail-Away: Coins
The last offer to appear on cards were for the mail-away coins. The stickers for the offer were actually applied by the retailers and not at the factory. Basically for one proof of purchase, the sticker for the offer cut off the card, and your receipt got you a free coin in the mail. There were 62 total coins that you could receive. Some of the coins are very common and others are very scarce. Gus Lopez of the Star Wars Collectors Archive created a catagory system based on rarity of the coins. In 1985 The Power of the Force line was released and the coins were available on cards. The original plan was for all 62 coins to be available on cards, but only about half of them made it before the Star Wars toy line was cancelled, so that last half of the coins can get very pricey. People who actually wrote into Kenner requesting a set were offered one for $29. This was never advertised so only a few people took advantage of this. Complete sets are now selling in the $5000 range. I currently have 18 left to go for my set. Here are some sample of the offer. First is a Return of the Jedi figure with the sticker advertising the mail in promotion, then a Power of the Force figure with the coin on the card, and then the back of the card making me want to collect all 62.
Here are my coins in the frame my dad and I built last summer.
A few collectors have memory of a commercial for the coins, but unfortunately it has not ever surfaced at this point in time. Hopefully someone out there will find it on an old VHS tape one of these days.
Finally here is a picture of what I would consider a Holy Grail of mine. This is the executive sets that were given to the high ups at Kenner and Lucasfilm. They are framed and included two sets of the coins showing front and back. There are said to be 10 of these sets that were created.
