I got an iPhone 3G in late October, so, after almost 4 months I think it’s time to write a review about it. To be completely honest, I was disappointed in the first days. The battery didn’t last longer than a day, some times even less. There were not so many great apps and -taking into account that I already had an iPod Touch- I was not really amazed by the simplciity and the innovation of its menu.

However, I wanted a mobile phone not running Windows Mobile or Symbian, able to sync with my email accounts and… pretty much only these things. I know, I am describing a Blackberry but iPhone’s looks (and me being a mac enthusiast) won the duel. In the first days, I had to answer million of questions from friends and not friends, about it. In fact, most of the guys already knew the cons of iPhone but they kept asking about them, like wanting a confirmation. Yes, many basic features are missing -copy/paste function, greek keyboard, camera (only 2MP? Are you serious Apple?), SMS delivery report, etc etc- but I believe that all these functions -except the greek keyboard- are only necessary to power users. I don’t feel like one, so iPhone is great for me.

How really did I change my mind from being dissapointed to loving it? I don’t know. I guess it grow on me and I got used to it. Many great apps appeared in iTunes Store that made my life easier (to name a few: Twitteriffic, Tris, Shazam, Air Sharing) and in addition to iPod function and Safari, it has everything that I want. What I also appreciated is Contacts and Calendar. Synchronizing with my MacBook is like heaven to me. All those small features that my previous mobile phone (K800i) didn’t have made me love my iPhone. However, I don’t know if I would have enjoyed a Blackberry more, but I am almost sure that the next mobile duel will be between an Android-powered phone and next-gen iPhone.

[photo via flickr.com, user Gojca]

As some of you may already know, I attended LeWeb conference at Paris, France. Probably you have already read about LeWeb’s main issues, food, WiFi and maybe the broken-down heating in the first day. Ok, I was dissapointed but I was kinda waiting them, especially food and WiFi. I mean, I had the same problems also in NextWeb, so I didn’t have my hopes up for LeWeb.

However, this conference was not about food neither about WiFi. It was about listening to inspiring people sharing their experience and ideas. It was about meeting new people who are willing to help you in your projects. It was about hearing about new startups. It was about finding out how YOU can help web move forward. It was about asking successful people how they managed to be successful. And at all those parts, LeWeb was a huge success.

As I am going through my notes from the conference, I realize that I have so many things to blog about. So many things that I found really interesting and I want to give my point of view. And I strongly believe that all those conferences are about motivating. Making you think about what your potential and try to actually reach it. It was 2 full days of web2.0 mode for me. I had nothing else to do. I didn’t work, I didn’t study, I didn’t do anything else besides networking and thinking of what I can do and build.

In fact, it was a great experience although I didn’t find it as fascinating as it was NextWeb back in April. However, it was one more experience, that made me think and put me back into a brainstorming mode. Hopefully, an idea that I had during LeWeb will be online in January.. Because LeWeb was about me and changing my way of thinking…

[photo via Robert Scoble @ flickr.com]

Or at least, that’s what a professor told us the other day. I twitted about it and, as I promised, I am blogging right now about it. But let’s start from square 1.

I am a Computer Science student and my department allows its students to follow some courses from other departments.  By making use of that allowance, I chose to follow “Education and social inequities”. I went to the fifth lecture and I was expecting to listen about.. education and social inequities. However, what the professor told is that “all people are equally stupid” (or smart, doesn’t really matter). According to sociologists IQ doesn’t exist and what makes someone more capable from someone else is his enviroment. In addition to that, every single person is capable of doing everything and what has stopped him is only his enviroment. She also gave as an example where 2 twin brothers were given to different parents after their birth and they grew up with completely different ways. One of them happened to be smarter than the other one.

I have a counter example.. Michael and Ralf Schumacher. They are brothers, they grew up together, in the same enviroment, same moral support from their parents, etc etc. They also happened to love the same thing, car driving. Both of them, made it to Formula 1 world. However, one of them is the most successfull driver in F1’s history while the other one has never won a title. By that, I am not proving that IQ or talents exist but I simply prove that there are many many many more things that play certain role in developing an ability.

I accept that IQ is not something that we know where it comes from. We don’t have proved that it really exists but there are effects that we suspect that have something to do with “brain superiority”. However, we don’t have fully understand how our brain works so saying that “IQ does not exist, skills do not exist, talents do not exist” is at least immature. Especially when it comes from a professor in a room fully packed with students..

[photo via flickr.com, user: Kyle Jones]

Or, to simplify the question, are people able to work without having someone to supervise them? It is very difficult to answer such a question.

Everybody turns to wikipedia someday. But, how many really write something in Wikipedia? Judging from myself, although I have been using it for a couple -or more- years, only a month ago I actually contributed by editing a minor detail about a Ferrari (that I don’t even remember right now). And that was the only time I ever contributed to such a well known open project.

Yes, I take part to some other kind-of open projects but I am not 100% devoted as I would have been in one of my personal projects. If it was just me, then I would believe that the problem is mine. But, as it seems, some of those community projects are not so active. Although the idea is pretty great, nobody cares enough to develop it. But, why is that?

I guess because in the community projects a very small amount of people really want -or have the free time- to participate and help it develop.

However, the exactly same project, if it was a personal, or team, project, it would have already reached the public. People are doing what they are said to do and, let’s be honest, if there is no one forcing you to do something (and by forcing I mean “motivating”) chances are that you are going to give it up for something more interesting.

My point of view? Simple.. As long as there are millions of users, a community project will be a huge success (Linux, wikipedia, etc).. Otherwise, there is better to be a “boss” in the small community. A leading-personality is more than necessary for the other group members to work efficiently..