I have a planned trip to NYC and I plan on using as many iPhone apps as I can to figure out the best apps for people planning a trip. My reviews of the apps will be in brief and how they either helped or hurt the trip.

Today 3.1 beta was released for everything from iPhone 2G-3GS. I have no idea what is in store in this beta but I can only hope tethering and MMS are enabled. This should not be able to break the current hole for jailbreaking but with the current cat and mouse game one can never be to sure.

I have not done a music review in quiet some time and it’s not because I stopped listening to music it is because so much music has come across my desk that I find it hard to keep track of all the different albums that I have been listening to.  This album is set to drop tomarrow on 6/23/2009.  I was lucky enough to get a preview of it and I must say that it is an amazing album.  For those familiar with the Dead Prez it is more of the same.  I am not usually a fan of “southern” hip-hop but there is something about Dead Prez that always caught my attention.  Forming in 1996 they were one of the original groups to really use lyrics to attack social norms of the day.  Pulse of the People is no different.  It has its boom-bap beats with lyrics that are smoother then most artists talking about the same issues.  Even if you don’t enjoy the message behind the songs you can always nod your head to the beat and ignore the message behind it.  For me lyrics are everything and I can’t wait to pick up a copy of this album tomorrow.  I recommend it for anyone that like Immortal Teqnuqie, KRS-One, or NWA.

I have been playing with my 3GS since launch and plan on posting my review of it later this week along with the reviews of the morphjuice pack and the incase power slider. PWNAGE for 3.0 was released on friday with the same instructions as 2.0 but I will create a new how-to for those as well. Redsn0w seems to be taking the place of quickpwn for now and works with iPhone 3G all the way through iPod touch 2.

I had full intentions of blogging from in front of the store but they opened up at 6 instead of 7.  I showed up at about 5:15AM and the line for reservations already had about 25 people in it.  All in all the process took about 30 minutes from when they opened the door till I walked out with my phone.  Not too bad if you ask me.  The one thing lacking to this iPhone launch was happy employees and an even more excited crowd.  Could this be the last big iPhone launch.  We did not even get a special bag like the past 2 years.  It was still a much better experience then you would get at AT&T but not as good as they usually are.

This was the line as I was driving home.  Not any longer then it was when I first got here.  It looks like today Apple stories are going to have a nice steady flow of people trying to buy the new phone.  Only time will tell if it was as big of a hit as the first or second gen phones.

To go along with my list of rules with camping I went ahead to create a list of things that you should have with you to make this a nice comfortable wait for your iPhone 3G.

1. Chair (I made this mistake for the first iPhone and my butt still hates me for sitting on the floor that long.)

2. Computer, its always nice to have a computer with you to surf the internet if wifi is available or to watch movies or play games.

3. Food, this one is important, you are going to get hungry while you are waiting so bring something enjoyable with you like your favorite sub along with a bag of chips so you can nibble throughout your wait.

4. Drinks, a no brainer if you are bringing food your going to want something to wash it down with.

5. Deck of card/board game, if your camping with friends this is the thing to do.  It will keep your minds off of how much longer you have to wait.

6. Camera, your going to want to a record of your fun time while waiting, plus it will show your friends that it was cooler then they think while they make fun of you for it.

7. Credit/Debit Card, you don’t want to wait all that time to realize that you forgot your money for your iPhone.

8. Patience, this is the most important thing that you need to bring with you.  It can get boring if your all alone waiting but don’t give up and go to bed push through it when 8am rolls around you will be the proud owner of a new iPhone 3GS on launch day!

So over the past few days I had the pleasure of testing push with AIM’s developer preview.  Aside from bugs with the actual program push was running perfectly.  I can not wait for Beejive to be using push with all my different messaging providers.  I am not sure what Tap Tap 2 has to offer with push but I also have the ability to use that.  Only a few more days before everything goes live with push if it can.  Now hopefully Twitter will have it available for my twitter life.

So the announcements earlier today where a let down.  What more can I say.  The only good thing announced is that the new iPhone OS 3.0 will be released on the 17th of this month.  Other then that no big shocks with anything iPhone related.  New iPhone is nothing special just a nice size upgrade and faster network connection.  For some reason I am still going to get a new one and am paying the $499 price for it.  It’s like 2007 all over again.  I installed the GM today and I must say that if this is what the release version is going to feel like everyone is in for a treat.  It is much more stable then any of the previous betas, I have yet to loose my reception or have any apps crash while playing around.  Sadly MMS and Tethering are still not an option at this point in time.  In a few days I will post my camping checklist again so that everyone who is going to camp for a new iPhone 3GS knows how to act and what to be prepared for when waiting for you new iPhone.  June 19th just can’t get here fast enough now.

Sound

With my new job starting at the UNF Spinnaker I decided it was time to invest is a good pair of DJ style headphones.  I did a fair bit of shopping around and finally decided on the Beats.  The Beats are the brain child of Dr. Dre the famous hip-hop artist and producer.  Maybe that had a little leverage into why I wanted these headphone inparticular but I would not like to think so.  When I first came across them in best buy I was generally impressed with their sound over any of the bose or sonys that were on display for my listening pleasure.  With crisp lows and big boom base.  The downside of the headphones that I noticed in the store right away were its lack of mids.  I thought this was odd for a set of headphones but I put that in the back of my head and purchised these bad boys.  When I got home the first thing I did was crack these bad boys open and start the break in process which led me to these findings.

Like I said before these head phones sound amazing.  I have not heard head phones of this quality in a long long time.  But also like previously stated the mids are over powerd by the lows and the highs which usually is not the best thing in the world.  As I kept listening to the headphones though the mids became a little clearer which is a sign that as you use them they become easier and easier to hear.  This could just be me adjusting to the headphones or could have to do with the break in process loosening up the speakers a little bit.  After about a week of just listening to these I decided to compare them to my Shure SE210s.  There was a noticeable difference on isolation ability of the SE210 compared to the Beats.  I guess that is just because the SE210s are in ear where the Beats are over ear with a noise cancelation driver built in.  The sound is much more crisp then the SE210s which is saying allot because I never thought I would find a clearer set of headphones.

Appearance

Looks are very important now a days, even in the nerd world.  These headphones are very astetically pleasing.  I never feel awkward walking around in them outside or sitting in starbucks.  The glossy black finish with red accents makes these seemingly simple head phones look amazing.  Colors can only do so much is something every designer will tell you and the smooth lines also add to the great look of these headphones.  Most over ear or studio headphones look bulky and carry sharp edges.  Lucky for all of us trendy nerds smooth lines are in now so we can wear headphones that look and sound great.

Misc.

Other features about the Beats.  It is iPhone ready with one of the cables having a mic/button.  It uses 2 AAA batteries which they eat for breakfast.  They feel great on your head.  I never feel like I have anything extra on top of my head.  The noise isolation is amazing, my roommates can never get my attention when I am wearing these at home which is my sole reason for getting these.  I comes with a nice hard carrying case so you don’t have to put you nice headphones in your laptop bag or any other bag you just throw things in.

Specs

Weight – 9.2 oz

Sound Output – Stereo

Response Bandwidth – 20-20000hz

Dynamic Range  - 115dB

Conclusion

All in all these are a great set of headphones.  But for the price I am sure there are better sound quality headphones out there.  Comfort wise I think the Beats are where it is at for any price range.  These headphones are great for anyone who wishes they were an audiophile without wanting to spend over $1,000 on headphones and accessories.  I give these 3 out of 5.  If they were cheaper there rating would easily rise to 4 or 5 stars.  But $299 is pricey for any set of normal headphones.

Tomorrow is WWDC Apples world wide developers conference. WWDC has been the launching platform for both the iPod and iPhone as well as most of Apples the other products. Signs all point to a new iPhone being released as well as the launch date for OS 3.0. I plan on posting everything as soon as I hear about it. Lets keep our fingers crossed for a few hidden features in OS 3.0 that we don’t know about yet. iChat would be a great inclusion. Only time will tell what we see tomorrow but heres to new products being released and the continued progress of Apple development.