Jeffrey Goldberg On Colbert Tonight?

Jeffrey Goldberg is going to be on The Colbert Report tonight? Really? This Jeffrey Goldberg?

Why is Stephen giving this jackoff a platform? Is he going to bring up the lies on NPR?

Wow.

UPDATE: Stephen didn’t ask him about any of it. Not the contradiction, not Iraq at all, and certainly not the Greenwald/NPR stuff. This makes me sad.

My Free iPhone Case Shipped, Will I Use It?

In other news, my free iPhone case shipped on Friday, and should be here sometime this week.

I picked the Griffin Reveal Etch case, which was one of the “6-8 week delivery” ones in the iPhone Case Program App, not a standard bumper. I still think I might end up getting an Apple Bumper case, but I didn’t want a black one (I think white would look cooler with a black iPhone). I’m going to try out this Griffin one first though.

All in all, though, I just might not use a case. I never used one for my iPhone 3G. The “antennagate” issue has still been a complete non-issue for me, and I’ve been utterly amazed with how my screen has held up over the past two months of use. The glass really is MUCH tougher in the iPhone 4. I haven’t treated it any differently than I treated my iPhone 3G (including one precipitous fall out of my shorts pocket onto hard vinyl tile in the hallway at work), and it still looks literally brand new. I have developed one small scratch on the back glass, but nothing at all on the front.

My experience with the 3G was far less impressive, even early-on. I went through three screens on my 3G over two years (two totally new devices, and one screen replacement):

1. iPhone 3G number one had water damage and was replaced at an Apple Store (for a hefty price).
2. iPhone 3G number two was replaced at the Apple Store under warranty for large particles of dust under the screen. The dust issue appeared literally 1 week after getting it to replace the first broken one. I returned it within 3 weeks. The dust issue on this one was serious. One particle was smack-dab in the center of the screen and was large enough to obscure 1-2 characters in your average web page.
3. iPhone 3G number three was repaired by iResQ after I dropped it in the parking lot and cracked the glass badly. (By the way, iResQ did a fantastic job and I see that they now offer iPhone 4 repairs.)

In every single case, my phone eventually got dust under the glass, and all developed the standard “micro-scratches” on the glass (simply from being pulled in and out of pockets through normal use). The first one got worse and worse over time. At first it was just a few microscopic dust particles around the edges of the glass, but then it got slowly worse with more and more little black spots. I didn’t know you could return them for that reason under AppleCare at the time, and in the end, the phone had a bad run-in with a toilet. As mentioned above, the second one was dust-plagued from the outset. The third stood up pretty well, but did also get a few particles of dust under the screen. Luckily these remained relatively minor (though irritating) until I dropped it into a pile of gravel and broken asphalt on the edge of the parking lot on a 10-degrees-below-zero evening after work one day, and the screen was toast. It came back from iResQ one painful weekend later and the screen was again pristine and dust and scratch free. It only took about two weeks before that new sheen was lost though, and I again got a few errant dust particles (though these were very minor by comparison).

So, I can say this with full conviction, the iPhone 4 screen holds up MUCH better than previous iPhones. I’ve now had mine for two months, and the screen is still pristine. There isn’t a scratch on the front glass at all, even of the micro-flavor, and absolutely no dust. For the entire two months, I have not been using a case of any kind. I’m very impressed.

Of course, I’m baiting the Gadget Destruction Gods in the worst kind of way by writing this. I imagine my phone will get run over by a steamroller on the way home tonight.

AT&T Service In Bar Harbor, Maine Seems Somewhat Improved, But Still No 3G

No 3G on my iPhone yet as of this morning, though I’ve been leaving cellular data enabled for the past four days or so and the phone still seems to be working. The EDGE data is still messed up, but voicemails do seem to be downloading eventually now.

Of course, the season is ending, and the summer folks are starting to filter out, so the load is less than it was.

Hopefully I’ll see that happy 3G logo tomorrow morning (or sometime this week). It was supposed to be this week according to the Technical Support rep I spoke to previously.

I’m going to call about my bill tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The Death of a Forester, Part 4

So I got me a shiny new red car, no thanks to MetLife.

Shiny new red car has few miles.

I got a wonderful set of two letters from them last week, that I really want to post, but I’m waiting to see what happens and just how butthurt I need to get about the whole remainder of the ordeal. Either way, my old green Subie has been towed away. I imagine it is hanging out down in almost New Hampshire, waiting to be sold at auction and used as a clip-on front end for some other luckier soul. The paperwork is all notarized and sent in and now we’re just waiting for the check.

It really didn’t look that bad, did it?

Goodbye old friend.

The Death of A Forester, Part 3

I might have more later, but suffice to say… MetLife lost a customer this week (and they really didn’t need to). Terrible customer service followed up with more terrible customer service. To each their own, but if you ask me, I’d look elsewhere for your coverage. And if someone with MetLife hits you, prepare to be unimpressed.

On a completely different note… The new Arcade Fire album, The Suburbs, is absolutely fantastic from beginning to end. It is nice to see a band still ascendant. You probably already have, but if not, buy it now!