Overall iTunes Match has been worth it. There are some very interesting anomalies.

In some cases Match fails to match songs on an album for inexplicable reasons. Several albums of early 80's genres were matched for all but one song. Though the album had been ripped and encoded in a single shot something prevented these songs from being matched.

An even more interesting case is this album of Franz Danzi Concertos:

Note that Match found 6 of the 7 tracks and uploaded just one. However this album is not available in the US iTunes Music Store (not sure if it's available elsewhere). The third track is available as a part of another collection but the other tracks are not available. Yet with Match I can (and have on another computer) update these tracks to a better encoded version of the tracks.

Late last week Consumerist ran a report about a stolen iPhone that was being sent back to Apple for repair. The report comes from the owner of the phone who laments the lack of assistance from Apple.

In running the story the Consumerist writer opines:

Also, if there's anything to learn from this it might be that you should follow through with filing a police report if you're ever robbed, as that might give you the leverage you need to get a company to help you. Possibly not with Apple, though.

However this is quite a stretch. The whole problem here stems from the original author's failure to file a police report. This is explained in the original letter:

The FCC's call for information on why the Google Voice iPhone app was withdrawn is going to uncover some interesting details. First up AT&T responded with a carefully crafted statement that amounts to "we don't do that". What wasn't said, however, is what control AT&T contractually holds over Apple's process.

Let's back up a minute and look at who stands to gain from this. If the iPhone supports a VoIP application who stands to lose? AT&T. Apple will still sell iPhones and iPods to these customers with their VoIP apps. In fact in many cases Apple may well sell Apps to them as well. Even if the particular app is free trends show iPhone users will buy plenty of other applications to make up for it. So Apple gains nothing and in fact loses quite a bit by having these apps rejected. AT&T on the other hand doesn't get the same black-eye and gets to think it's protecting it's dwindling cellular voice market.

In celebration of the new arrival soon to join the Boise Drupal User's group I've been thinking about the tools I use lately. One that I've overlooked until recently is just how handy the iPhone can be. The iPod touch is great and all, but the iPhone, with its built-in speaker is a killer tool.

First there are the wonderful Sesame Street Podcasts. Each of these short episodes is a handy little way to spend some time on learning a new word or concept. Combined with the ability to download episodes directly to the iPhone it is also a go-anywhere tool. If we're in a holding pattern here or there, waiting for a table at a restaurant or to meet someone out it's possible to have a little lesson while we wait.

Recently, however, I found an even handier use lately. It started with taking the phone in at bedtime so our little one could talk to her. One night, however, it occurred to me to use the speaker and be able to play songs from the music library. Now we have a nice wind-down playlist. We can start off singing along with the rocking of Jingle Bells and drift off with the chorus of Silent Night.