I am here at a local Infiniti dealer for the first scheduled maintenance servicing on my Infiniti G35. It’s a simple oil change, supposedly taking 60 to 90 minutes.

Cheaper than Flying

Last weekend I used the service offered by California Shuttle Bus to travel to and from Los Angeles (moblog entries one, two, and three). I paid $45 for each 6-hour ride during the Labor Day long weekend, for a total of $90, which was very good considering that the cheapest plane tickets at the time of booking was around $200. I booked the bus tickets directly through the company’s web site just like I would normally for airline tickets. The site provided me prices based on dates, and no human interactions was ever required.

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This evening I came home to see a police car parked two houses down.  A little inquiry with neighbors revealed that there had been a break-in in the house across where the police car was parked.  It might have been a insider’s job, so the theory went.

Safe world we live in, no?

On the bus back to Bay Area. ‘Round 2′ because the bus had to loop back to pick up one passenger.

[Update @ 2008-09-01T12:46-8:00] I blogged too early. It’s almost 50 minutes later and we are at the last pickup point before leaving for Bay Area.

I am in LA these two days, and my eyes are tired. It was like this the last time I was here, but back then I thought it was because I had driven 5 hours in the hot summer day without my sunglasses. This time I didn’t drive, and I still could barely keep my eyes open. After some soul searching and self examination, I conclude that my eyes are too dry due to the poorer air quality of Los Angeles. Sucks.

Picture was taken at a rest stop half way to LA.

How times have changed. In 2001 I also took a bus to LA. Back then I had no cellphone to call my friend when the arrival was significantly delayed due to heavy traffic. Today not only do I have voice communication, I have data network (although a slow one) at my fingertips.

I must conserve my iPhone battery now, otherwise I might be thrown back to the archaic 2001 days.

The simple fact of the matter is that I need an external battery for my iPhone in order to keep up with a whole day of window shopping with my wife. When she shops, I surf, and the iPhone’s built-in battery simply isn’t built for such gruesome task.

There are a few external batteries out there that support iPhone 3G, but my requirements are more strict. Ideally, the battery must:

• Charge via the original iPhone/iPod FireWire-capable connector. Refer to next point to see why this is important.
• Act as a pass-through and allow music playback when connected to my car’s iPod connectivity feature.
• Able to connect to and charge the iPhone in its protective case.
• When charging, charge the iPhone before the external battery. Current batteries on the market already has this feature.
• Last but not least, provide a few hours of extra online time.

Nothing in the market right now meets the above requirements, unfortunately. Here are some of the products I have seen:

• iPhoneck
• iPhone Portable Power Station
• iPhone 3G Charge Converter - Not a battery per se but allows charging via FireWire-capable connectors.
• Mini Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone and iPod
• Richard Solo Backup Battery for iPhone / iPod
• Morphie Juice Pack

I’d like to reflect on my Infiniti G35 after 2.5 months of ownership. Might as well, since today I just completed two ownership surveys from independent parties. (J.D. Powers even included a $1 bill in the survey forms!)

Aside: Why didn’t I get any such surveys when I bought my two Hondas? Do marketing firms only care about luxury car owners?

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