The Verizon iPhone!

The mere prospect of an upcoming Verizon iPhone launch seems to be getting more press than all of this year's CES events combined. Tech pundits all over the web are "confirming" the launch based on their "unnamed sources close to the situation." Really? I just don't see it happening. At least not yet.
I can't imagine Apple, being the innovative company that it is, would invest that much time and money at this stage in the game to develop a CDMA iPhone. It just doesn't make sense. Regardless of how dissatisfied they are with AT&T as a partner, I can't see them heavily investing their resources in an aging technology, especially given the speed limitations of EV-DO rev A.
Instead, I envision Apple releasing an iPhone mid-2011 (exclusively on AT&T) that will be an incremental upgrade on the iPhone 4, much like the 3GS was to the 3G. Next year, however, will be the big year where everything changes. The iPhone will be due for a major upgrade, which I believe will be LTE. The LTE iPhone will probably be available on Verizon and AT&T as both companies have committed to using it as their 4G standard.
Now, it's no secret that Verizon is scheduled to hold a press conference next week so I may be eating my words in a few days, but we'll see. In the meantime, what do you think? Is a Verizon iPhone headed our way soon?

Melt | Honolulu, Hawaii

Food trucks seem to be quite the rage these days in Honolulu. Melt is one that specializes in gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and has been getting a lot of attention from the Twitter community. They were recently in Kaimuki, so I took my family by to see what all the buzz was about. The food was good and I definitely see myself going back the next time they're in my 'hood.

Melt
*Various locations around Oahu
Website
@melthnl on Twitter

The owners typically don't reveal where they'll be more than a day or two in advance. Follow them on Twitter for their current location.


$2 buys you a small cup of their homemade tomato soup. It had just enough acidity to balance out the richness of the cheese.


I had to order the "Melt of Shame." It's a quarter-pound Kuahiwi beef patty with caramelized onions, served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. At $11, it's an indulgence, but so worth it. I left satisfied, without feeling overly full or weighed down.

Caipirinha (Sans Alcohol)

My wife prepared a traditional Brazilian meal, Feijoada Completa, while my brother and his wife were here visiting during the holidays. Since no one in our family really drinks, we had to come up with something that could replace the usual caipirinha. Here's what we did:

1) Slice one key lime in half and squeeze the juice into a glass (we threw the peel in as well).
2) Slice a quarter of a lemon and a quarter of an orange and drop those in the glass.
3) Use a pestle to mash the fruit and extract the juice.
4) Add 2 - 3 mint leaves, chopped.
5) Add 1 tablespoon each of fine granulated sugar and raw agave nectar.
6) Top with crushed ice and fill the rest of the glass with ginger ale.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! G33k1ng 0ut in 2011

This blog has been somewhat neglected over the past several weeks and for that, I apologize to the 2 or 3 of you who actually read it :) I've been working on a couple of 'Outings' galleries for Nonstop Honolulu (@nonstophonolulu). My first submission chronicled a trip to the Honolulu Zoo and can be seen here. The second, a visit to Otsuji Farm in Hawaii Kai, was posted here. Throw in a few Christmas parades, parties, and the usual hustle and bustle of the holidays and, well, you end up with one blog post for all of December.

Today is a new year. Rather than post a bunch of resolutions that will inevitably be discarded sometime next week, I thought I'd take a slightly different look at 2011. Being that math geek that I am, this tweet by Lance Agena (@lance_agena) got me thinking about the unique date/time permutations we will see this year. We've already missed 01:01:11 on 01/01/11, but mark your calendars for:
· 11:02:03 on 03/02/11
· 06:07:08 on 09/10/11
· 09/10/11 at 12:13:14
· 11:11:11 on 11/11/11
Can you think of any others? Post them as a comment!

If you're looking for even more math awesomeness related to 2011, this tweet by Toby Tamaye (@atmarketing), which apparently originated from Math Prof (@mathematicsprof), is pretty darn cool too.