I’m a bit of a mic snob when recording real tracks, but often need a good travel mic that doesn’t require as much associated hardware to get into my CPU- so I did a little shopping around to see if there was a good alternative to carrying around condensor mics and an audio interface. And boy, did I score- for just $99 the Blue Snowball is probably the coolest, hippest, cleanest sounding USB interface/mic I’ve ever heard. I also plunked down for the Blue Ringer Universal Shockmount to get a little vibration protection from the desk, and it really does make a difference. If you need a great sounding, inexpensive USB mic, I strongly recommend this little sucker.

Nothing like migrating 3 drives (with a combined 800GB of data upon them) over to a new storage cluster to eat up your machine for a night. But at least my iTunes library will have some elbow room now, with 2 spanking-new terabytes of storage to expand on…

A few shortcomings are already surfacing, of course- but nothing I’d call a deal-breaker (just worth looking at in future software updates):

• No cut-and-paste between applications (use this constantly)
• No synching of iCal ‘To Do’ items for tasklist management (huge!)
• Safari is OK for most apps, but I’ve had it crash a few times on me (most annoyingly when entering a first attempt at this very post into the Movable Type web admin front end).
• It’s very difficult to get back to the iPod controls when you’re out and about doing other things, like say surfing with Safari. You’re stuck with play/pause and ‘next track’ from the handy iPhone headset
• As many have already complained about, the iPhone headset jack is recessed, so I can’t use my many options for better headphones with the iPhone yet (unless I buy a bulky adapter from Belkin). Yes, you can shave plastic of existing plugs to get them to fit, but why should this be necessary? I really want to use my Shure in-ears, but can’t.

All being said, though- these are nothing worth dropping the iPhone for- it’s a very beautiful and well-thought-out device and I’ll gladly use it for some time. As most of my complaints are rumored to be addressed in forthcoming software updates I’m not really worried yet, but wanted to show a balanced opinion instead of just the obvious gushing (which I could do all day, if given the chance).

Verdict- it’s a great little device, and I’m rather impressed with AT&T’s service to boot.

The touch interface is very well done, and adjusting to flicking/pinching/scrubbing didn’t take much, if any time to adjust. I think the email integration is my favorite part, it’s almost seamless to work with. I also really find Safari on iPhone very comfortable to use.

As a phone, no complaints yet. Clear sound and good signal, with excellent in-call UI that gives the whole experience that fine Apple polish. I may find some warts to complain about yet (lack of cut/paste the likeliest candidate), but for now I’m a happy camper.

• Fender Jazz V (5 String)
  • Recut the nut
  • Install and notch a Badass V bridge
  • Replace Fender Custom pickups with 2 Bartolini 57Js
  • Set output from preamp to consistent line level
  • Tune neck, level frets and remove buzz from 14th fret
• Fender Stratocaster
  • Reblock/lock down tremolo bridge (I never use them anyway)
  • Replace neck and middle pickup with Seymour Duncan Classic Stacks
  • Replace bridge pickup with Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck humbucker
  • Tune neck, polish and level frets
  • Check the Sperzel tuners and retighten if necessary
  • Add a pearloid pickguard to replace the nasty beat-up white one

So I now enter that brutal period of anticipation, which is particularly difficult this time as the Strat was my main (and currently – ONLY) 6-string on hand aside from acoustics. I play both instruments daily, and already miss them – but know that Doctor Geoff is going to return to me two instruments that play light-years better than they did when I gave them to him. The wait will be worth it (both will be complete a week from tomorrow), but I’m definitely going to feel the momentary loss of both the 5-string during this weekend’s gigs – and the Strat every time I sit down to write songs.

::tapping fingers and toes in a very anxious fashion::