Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey

Apple bought me an iPhone

I had no plans to get an iPhone. Really.

Not for at least a year. I was determined to wait for the 2.0 version, but our family had a small dilemma. Lori's cell phone network was being turned off by AT&T and she was literally being forced to get a new phone. Not that it wasn't time - she often referred to her sturdy, nearly 4-year old Nokia as her Fisher Price phone. The perfect phone for her was the one I had, the Blackberry Pearl. If we were going to buy a new phone, along with the dreaded 2-year contract, we didn't want to spend the money on a temporary replacement.

As further proof that I have a wonderful wife, Lori repeatedly told me to go ahead and get the iPhone, especially since I have spent the last 3 years almost getting an iPod. The phone was so expensive, though, I just couldn't justify it. Then I had an idea.

Why not let Apple help me buy an iPhone? I have carefully watched Apple's stock over the past year. My money sat on the sidelines while the stock doubled. Right before the iPhone was released, I was convinced that stock already reflected the incredible hype and anticipation and could only go down. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the product actually met and even exceeded expectations and that the launch had been widely successful, I ignored the temptation to invest. The stock shot up after the release.

When AT&T announced its earnings last week, including information about iPhone activations, and Apple's stock dropped nearly 7% in one day, I knew this was an overreaction and the perfect opportunity. Apple was announcing its own quarterly numbers the next day and there was no doubt in my mind it was going to report an incredible quarter. I bought the stock minutes before the markets closed and waited for the announcement the next day.

The earnings report was fantastic and the stock made up the previous day's losses and continued to rise. I held it until early the next morning, sold it just below its peak, and picked up an iPhone later that day. In those 36 hours, AAPL rose $13 per share, almost paying for the phone in full. Since then, the stock has fallen over 5%.

I can't say I recommend this strategy, as there is obvious risk and little inconveniences like taxes and commissions. In fact, my story is probably one more sign of a market peak, since I have previously shown no talent for timing the market. Nevertheless, I really like the idea of profiting from Apple's success. It makes our relationship seem more mutually beneficial.

More on the iPhone later, but it is truly amazing. I have never smiled and laughed so much while using a device. It's beautiful, simple, and dramatically different than anything else.

An early birthday

Ben turns 12 in late September, but this weekend we surprised him with an early birthday weekend. We love September birthdays (mine is just four days after his), but fall is always very busy with the start of school and numerous extra-curricular activities. The real deciding factor, though, was his present this year - Lego Mindstorms!

For those of you who don't know, Lego Mindstorms is a Lego kit that allows you to build and program robots. The original version was released nearly 10 years ago. The new edition, NXT, is now a year old. You can read about its development in Wired Magazine.

What's funny about this is I have literally wanted to get this for Ben since he was 5 years old. Each year I would try to talk Lori into it, but it just never made sense. In reality, he wasn't ready it. First, he wasn't terribly interested in Legos — that only started in the last two years when his love for Star Wars made Legos ridiculously fun. Second, as much as I hoped Mindstorms would help him learn programming, he only recently became really curious about that.

In the past few months, as we watched him do more and more advanced things with Legos and on the computer, we knew it was finally time. But with four more weeks left of summer vacation, we just had to give it to him now, when he'll really have time to learn and explore.

We announced the birthday weekend on Friday afternoon and it's been awesome. Lots of movies (we're off to see Harry Potter this afternoon), special breakfasts, pizza, and Mindstorms on Saturday morning. It's safe to say it's been a hit. Within an hour he had installed the software, built his first robot, wrote a program, and downloaded it via Bluetooth! Since then, it's been non-stop robots, including ones that talk, attack, crawl, and generally make our cat very uncomfortable.

Now I know how important timing is in the perfect present. I'm glad we waited!

The new Backpack is live

The new version of Backpack from 37signals is now live. Check out the overview of the improvements, including some great video walkthroughs.

They have also increased the amount of file storage for each plan while keeping the prices the same - 500MB, 1GB, and 3GB. Very nice!

Ron Paul

One of the best parts of the presidential primary season, and especially the incredibly long one we're in the middle of, is the chance to look at candidates who would not normally attract much attention — think Alan Keyes, Pat Robertson, Steve Forbes, Wesley Clark, Paul Simon, etc... The flavor of the moment is Ron Paul, the Republican congressman from Texas and former Libertarian Party presidential candidate. Paul has received substantial support online, where purity of position is a huge plus. That attention has led to a substantial profile piece in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. If you want to get up-to-speed on Paul and his supporters, check out the full article.

For extra credit, read the Economist profile and watch Paul's hour-long Q&A at Google.

20070717_miscellany

» A major new release of Backpack from 37signals is on its way. The first preview has been posted, which means the launch is nearing. I can't wait to see how my favorite app will be improved! 

» Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, has some great thoughts on where blogging fits in the current conversation, which is dominated by Facebook, MySpace, twitter, and endless alternatives.

Blogs have become part of everyday lives for millions of people. The blogs are not the revolution.  The conversation is the revolution, and the tools for online conversation keep getting better and more diverse and that is how it should be.

»  Robert Scoble: Why Facebook, why now. Scoble has been posting a series of insightful pieces on Facebook that puts the current phenomenon in focus, but more importantly, shows where the social space is going (or should be). This post covers everything from what a real Facebook advertising platform would look like to how Facebook compares to LinkedIn. If I was a Wall Street analyst assigned to social media, I'd be praying my boss doesn't discover Scoble's blog and start wondering what he's paying me for.

» The best post I've seen on why the HTML/Javascript approach to building iPhone apps is a really bad idea - thorough, passionate, and entertaining. [via Scoble's link blog]

I don't trust any "SDK" made by a company that won't use it themselves. 

» Ben Arment is posting some really thought-provoking, raw stuff this week. Not your typical blogging pastor update on how good the numbers were this weekend.

» The twitter/Typepad widget is good, but it doesn't support links, which makes it a bit less useful. I assume it will be a quick fix.

Vacation

Early tomorrow, I'm leaving to spend a week in Colorado with my beautiful bride to celebrate our 15th anniversary! I first started researching this vacation in November as it was largely a surprise. You wouldn't believe how many destinations were in the mix. I think I finally found the perfect location for us and a fantastic place to stay. I've been revealing bits and pieces of the plan to Lori over the last two weeks.

I won't be posting this week, but there will be a few updates here and there - just visit twitter.com/bb. I've been using twitter for months and really love it. For something so incredibly simple (140 character updates on what you're doing), it still takes awhile to get a feel for it.

Everybody uses it differently, including presidential candidates. I love it for updates, brief thoughts, and quick links. You can also send and receive updates through your phone. If you don't want to visit my twitter page to see the latest, you can always view them right on my blog homepage through a handy new TypePad/Twitter widget. More on twitter in a future post.

If you haven't tried it, create a free account and add me as a friend. Experiment with it for awhile - there are some cool things being built around it. If you already twitter regularly, post your address in the comments.

Have a great week!

20070707_miscellany

» My son Ben is hilarious. We were talking about the iPhone today and he said he's sure Microsoft will come out with a competitor — they'll call it the microPhone!

» The Blogging Church review crisis on Amazon appears to be resolved. All 26 reviews are now back online. Apparently the return of the reviews has led to a run on the book as Amazon is showing only 3 in stock. You've been warned :)

» Many of you continue to post very kind comments about the book. I really appreciate the feedback! Brent Hodges gave the book one of the nicest compliments I've read:

I was actually pleasantly surprised with this book. I knew going into this book that I was in for a lot of great information and disciplines in creating and maintaining a blog. I did not expect how creatively it was written. I think we have certain expectations for "how-to" books and this one surpassed my expectations. [emphasis added]

He also appreciated the "the hopeful message from start to finish," which was honestly one of my goals. Thanks, Brent!

» Movable Type 4 gets more interesting all the time. As a blogging and community platform, this looks like it's going to be outstanding. In addition to enterprise versions, the software is now available as a free, open source project.

» In the sporting world, the USA shocked Brazil 2-1 in the Under-20 World Cup. It was a terrific match to watch. And tomorrow morning, Roger Federer faces Rafael Nadal in the men's final at Wimbledon. Should be a classic.

WooHoo for WuFoo!

WuFoo is wonderful. What is it? A dead simple way to create online forms. A number of sites offer a similar service, but I've never found one this well done and fun to use. The forms can be embedded on your site or you can link directly to the hosted version. Plus, the website, design, and copy writing are first-class, too. Check out some examples of what you can do with WuFoo. Highly recommended!

Take a look at Form Assembly if you want to compare your options.

20070704_miscellany

» Happy 4th of July!

» Skitch is a great image app for the Mac. It's in limited beta right now, but thankfully my son got an invite and was able to hook me up. My first few uses have been sublime. I have 2 invites to share if anyone is interested.

» Apple release iPhone development docs. Lots of good information on best practices for developing apps for the iPhone. Mark Bernstein shares his thoughts.

» FreeBurner for Everyone. Following Google's acquisition of RSS feed company FeedBurner, many features are now free!

» A very simple overview of vi, my favorite terminal-based editor. [via lifehacker]

» Ben Arment: Five questions to ask when you can't see God at work.

» The 26 Amazon reviews of The Blogging Church have gone missing. Hopefully, it's temporary!

Is your church ready to blog?

Andrea Useem, a freelance journalist who blogs at religionwriter.com, has written an interesting piece on blogging in the church called, Is Your Church Ready to Blog? The article discusses how blogging can "break down church hierarchies and draw a wider audience into an authentic conversation." It features The Blogging Church as well as an interview with the always thought-provoking Ben Arment. Check out the full article.

Also, if you are short on quality reading material and don't regularly read Ben's blog, do yourself a favor and subscribe. He's the pastor of a cool church in Reston, Virginia and his blog is packed with ideas and insights on a wide variety of topics. We share so much in common (other than, well, the part about being a pastor) that is frightening. Lori always tells me the way Ben thinks reminds her of me, though that doesn't stop her from disagreeing with either one of us. Either way, it's clear both Ben and I married far beyond what we deserve, which is just one more thing we have in common!