We had a little long weekend and went on a trip to Maui. Spend a total of 4 nights and get to use the iPhone for all that it can do. Some experiences were positive, some not so, also recognized some useful accessories.
Day 1
- Got to the airport, got checked in, passed Homeland Security, everything was just normal.
- We had a little over an hour to burn so naturally the iPhone came out. Power continue to be an issue. Finding a wall outlet is not as easy in some airports. In our gate in Honolulu (HNL), there was no wall outlet. So I had to limit my activities to non-games.
- Got on the plane, went airplane mode, didn’t use the phone.
- Got off, got the rental car. First thing that was useless: the GriffinRoadTrip FM Transmitter. The arm was way too short. We rented a Chrysler PT Cruiser. With the cigarette lighter low in the center dash, it was useless.
- First thing that was useful: PowerLine DS to AC Inverter with USB. Immediately plug it in, pulled out the USB cable and hooked up the phone.
- The internal GPS worked very well and I was able to give wifey directions to the Maui Beach Hotel.
- App-wise, Google Map for sure. Yelp is also helpful in locating places to eat. More on those two along the way.
- As it turned out, the hotel didn’t have wireless Internet connection. There was only a CAT5 on the little desk. What saved the day… a little was the Linksys Travel Router
- I said a little because for some reason, this router will failed periodically and nothing can connect to it. The only way to fix it is to unplug it from power and disconnect the RJ45, wait a bit and reconnect everything. It was a hassle but the concept is sound. Just need to find a different implement.
- Having WiFi allows me to download a few apps to try.
Day 2
- We went to Tasty Crust for breakfast. Again, the driving direction from Google Maps was spot on.
- We spent most of the day in the Whalers Village in Kaanapali and Lahaina.
- Useful app: Twitpic. A lot of family and friends get to see our trip very quickly.
- Again, Yelp is helpful in finding restaurants but not particularly useful in identifying good ones. As we have learned, take the ratings with a grain of salt. Especially in touristy locations, the food taste and preferences of the reviewers (who are mostly tourists for those locations) varies too much to make the average rating useful.
- Safari did its share of work by allowing me to check prices when we shopped around.
- One thing I do miss having is camera flash. That being said, nothing small and portable (like the iPhone), even a dedicated point-n-shoot (like the Canon SD40 which I did carried with me) will have strong enough flash to do justice in some of the darker situations. We’ll just leave it at that.
Day 3
- We went up to Haleakala to watch the sunrise. Too bad it was bad weather and we didn’t even see the sun until 10am-ish. But that’s another story.
- This is the first time Google Map failed. I’ve went to Haleakala many times before and I know there is no road in the route it pointed us to. So human 1: Google Map 0. The lessons was: Don’t follow GPS blindly.
- Oh, and while there were good signal along the way, neither of the carriers we use (AT&T and Verizon) reached the top of Haleakala (10,000 ft+).
- We spent a few hours in Makawao after, not much use for the phone there, except to write a review for a restaurant.
- The Yelp app didn’t work so good in this regard. It only allows you to write a draft. To actually publish it, you need to get to the real website… I considered this a fail.
- We also spent a few hours in a friend’s house. The iPhone made normal picture snapping easy.
- A great app was Snapture which made it possible to snap 3 shots quickly in succession, I can then choose which ones to save. It worked very well when taking shots of lil girl running around with the dog.
- After dinner, we wanted to get dessert. Founded some place that looked like a possibility on Yelp and the web, got the address and went. Unfortunately, either the address was wrong or Google Map is wrong (I think it was the latter), we were in the middle of nowhere. At the end, we couldn’t find the place. Somewhat disappointed.
Day 4
- We slept in and spent the late morning early afternoon in Iao Valley and Maui Ocean Center. Driving direction worked, picture snapping worked, picture twitting worked.
- Outdoor pictures under bright sunlight came out really well. Overcast and dark indoor shots were really grainy. This is definitely a short fall with the iPhone camera.
- To my surprise, I was able to get some decent shots of sea creatures (turtles, sharks, manta rays, etc.) in the tanks by parking the camera len against the glass.
- Close moving subjects continue to be a problem for the camera… which is not surprising.
- That night, we ended up just getting fast food. The Jack In The Box was filthy so I took some shots and linked them to JIB corporate. Another perfect setup to use the iPhone. (BTW, they contacted me today for the details and informed me that they will deal with it. Surprising)
Day 5
- The usual ensued, packed, left, waited at the airport.
- This time I decided to use the Dell Mini 9 as charger (since there was no power outlet at the gate again). It worked for a little and stopped. As it turned out, the power options in Windows 7 (I was running the release candidate) needed some serious tweaking to allow the screen to sleep but not the machine AND not the USB ports. Any way, it was a good excuse to mess around with the Mini.
Oh, forgot one thing. The USB cable that came with the phone was way too short. I couldn’t use the phone in bed with it plugged into the AC-USB plug to the wall in the hotel room.
Anyway that was the trip and the iPhone hardware, software, accessories experience. Definitely more toys to buy… for the next trip, of course.
Filed under: iPhone
