In my last 3 trips to Portland, the hotel I’ve stayed at, Hotel Monaco, has WiFi that is a) free and b) works quite well. I’ve been able to stream Netflix, download apps, upload things, and even carry on FaceTime calls with excellent results.

I wonder if there is a site that rates hotel WiFi. Does good WiFi matter in a hotel room? With our always connected society, it almost might. I can do many things on my iPhone over 3G, but having WiFi is so much nicer.

Since I managed to accumulate a bunch of the earbuds, I used a pair for running. Sweat really kills them, so I bought knockoffs that fared just as well as the Apple branded ones. The microphone, volume controls, or the speakers stopped working which has become increasingly frustrating.

So now I’m searching for the right earbuds for me. Actually, I’ve broken up my use of earbuds into 3 categories, each with a different pair. The first category is for when I fly. This year, it looks like I will have gone on 9 trips, and I’ve found that noise canceling earbuds make the trip so much nicer. I’ve been using the Audio-Technica ANC23 earbuds for a few months now and find them to be holding up well. I don’t like using these for phone calls as the noise canceling makes me sound strange when I talk. Also, they wouldn’t hold up for running and these don’t have a microphone or 3 button remote.

A few weeks ago, the Apple earbuds I use for phone calls stopped working. I went on a search and ended up with the V-MODA Remix Remote Headset and they seem to be working well. I like the 3 button remote and the sound quality is pretty good. My wife is going to get a pair as they have interchangeable inserts for different size ears.

Next up are earbuds for running. The reviews I’ve read about sweat proof ones have not been good. I want the 3 button remote with microphone so that I can control Siri and talk on the phone, if need be (I’ve only taken 2 calls while running this year). I might just have to bite the bullet and buy one or more pair to try. They aren’t cheap, however.

A few weeks back, he started asking me how hard would it be to learn iOS development. I told him it would take a little bit of time and that I’d help him if needed. One of his clients was interested in having him do some iOS development.

Today, he let me know that the 13″ MacBook Air that his client sent had just arrived. In less than a year, he now has basically a complete line up of Apple products (save for the Apple TV and some lesser used items). Will he come over to the Mac and iOS? I just read an article this evening about a former Microsoft Evangelist quitting his day job to write iOS apps. Maybe this will happen to my friend as well; it will give me something to pester him about if he does. “Why did it take you so long to wake up?”

So, while Siri works pretty well for me, I wonder how well it works for people that don’t speak clearly, have speech impediments or have thick accents. I know that Apple is still working on it, but right now, don’t expect Siri to work for a 4 year old!

To top off my personal use of reminders, with iCloud, I can share reminder lists with my wife. I’ve setup a grocery list that we can both see. The other day I added an item to the list while I was in Portland and when I arrived home later that day, my wife had been to the store and purchased everything on the list, including what I had added!

There are lots of other useful iOS 5 features, but so far, this feature could be something that helps restore my sanity. Yes, I know that other apps can do this, but this is simple to use and just works.

At the beginning of the year I changed out my thermostat for a WiFi enabled thermostat. This allows me to control the temperature in the house from anywhere in the house or in fact anywhere in the world. Since I already had the big pieces in place, all I had to do was reconfigure the iPod touch to be a dedicated device for controlling the thermostat. In addition to controlling the thermostat I figured that I could put the Squeezebox software on it so that I can also control the music from upstairs without having to go downstairs or to bring my iPhone upstairs.

With the iPod Touch all configured now when I wake up I can just roll over and turn the heat on without getting out of bed. While it may sound funny to have to turn on heat in San Diego it does get a little chilly in our house so I like to turn the heat on in the morning just to knock off a little bit of the chill.

Pretty cool, I thought. My wife started playing with it and was able to browse all the music on my iPhone and we enjoyed music throughout the trip. In addition, all of the prompts for Navigon were played through the car stereo. I tried to use the voice recognition, but didn’t spend much time with it. It seemed to work OK, but without knowing the vocabulary, navigating it was difficult.

I didn’t try out making a phone call through it, nor did I try the navigation as I already had Navigon on my iPhone. I was pretty impressed with the technology and would love to see something like it in my next car; however, the chances of me buying a Ford are pretty slim. I do like a larger screen for navigating audio, like my wife has in her Honda CR-V and the navigation on the LCD is easy to use.

For many people, 2 GB of data is more than enough. If someone commuted on a bus or train and streamed music or video, they might use more data. So for social networking, web browsing and email 2 GB works and unlimited is just a marketing gimmick (at least it is for Sprint now). Of course, everyone’s usage varies, but for me, unlimited doesn’t mean anything to me. I suspect that when I add my wife to my account, 2 GB will be enough for her, as well.

We ordered the iPhone 4S last week and in 3-4 weeks, it will arrive. Then the fun begins. I have to swap the SIM so that I get the iPhone 4S working on my number, port my wife’s number over to the new line, and then combine the lines into a FamilyTalk plan. This is almost a recipe for disaster; knowing that this wasn’t going to be straight forward, we ordered the phone at an AT&T corporate store (turns out our flight home from vacation was delayed, so we stopped in at the large mall on Maui and went to the only AT&T store on the island). I just hope this doesn’t get screwed up; crossing my fingers.

When I installed iOS 5 on my iPad 2, I found that iMovie imported more videos than before, but still not ones from my WX9. I made a few minor updates to MovieConverter to get it working better on iOS 5 and pushed it out the door. I got back from vacation the day after iOS 5 got released to the public and quickly updated everything including iMovie. The iMovie 1.2.2 notes said it added support for importing video from additional cameras.

Much to my delight and dismay, the videos from my WX9 imported into iMovie without MovieConverter. I immediately updated the MovieConverter description to say it may longer be needed and dropped the price to free so that no users would be pissed at me for writing a “useless” program.

From an iMovie user point of view, this is great news. I didn’t write MovieConverter for fame or fortune, but it was nice to get a little money from it.

Oh well, now I have to come up with another idea that will have a little more than 2 months on the app store.