I’m in Boston this week for business. It sucks being away from my family, but I’m trying to make the best of it. Namely, I’ve decided to try the local eateries to see what a real Bostonian experiences. Here’s a quick review of two local restaurants that you may want to check out next time you visit Boston.

1 – Boston Market. Doesn’t get much more “Boston-y” than Boston Market. Their speciality is rotisserie chicken with home style side dishes. I opted to have my chicken covered in Frank’s Red Hot. My side dishes were mashed potatoes and apples – - if that doesn’t say “Boston,” I don’t know what does. Even though it’s technically fast food, it felt like step up from normal fast food.

2 – Dunkin’ Donuts. Even though it’s just a donut shop, they are an official sponsor of the Red Sox (check out the Red Sox press conferences for evidence). Anyway, I stopped by this small donut shop on my way to the office this morning. I ordered the house speciality – - Boston Cream Pie. Totally worth it. The chocolate icing and the donut filling were perfect compliments to the well made pastry.

Now I just need a business trip to California so I can try a small pizza joint my friends recommend…I think it’s called California Pizza Kitchen.

I love Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) on How I Met Your Mother. I love Nathan Fillion from Firefly. When I found out about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, I had to watch it. By the way, why am I always late to finding good stuff? First Firefly/Serenity, now this…

Anyway, this is a manly musical. Why? It’s funny, it’s short (only 43 minutes), it’s convenient (Netflix instant online play), and the music is great. I actually purchased the soundtrack from iTunes after watching the show. I never buy soundtracks, but this was a must-have.

I’m not going to spoil the plot for my one (maybe two?) readers. Just watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

I previously wrote that I liked having iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G. That was  over 3 weeks ago. I was wrong. After having it on my phone for a week or so, I noticed that the iPhone got slower…and slower…and slower. Typing became unbearable. Opening and closing apps became a chore. It got so bad that I stopped using some of my favorite apps. Something had to be done.

Then I ran across an article from Lifehacker.com with step by step instructions for downgrading to iOS 3.1.3. I decided to give it a try. Worked like a charm.

Then I figured, why not jailbreak my iPhone? I could finally have multitasking, background images, and system tweaks that I want. I read some instructions on how to jailbreak my iPhone 3G. It took me a while to figure out how to get the Spirit Jailbreak to work with my iTunes (had to downgrade iTunes to 9.1.1 using Time Machine, jailbreak, and then restore iTunes back to current version using Time Machine).

Anyway, I’ve been rocking a jailbroken iPhone 3G for about a week now. I’m running Backgrounder and Proswitcher so I can have Palm Pre style multitasking – very handy for listening to Pandora or MLB while doing other things on the iPhone. I set my iPhone theme to “iOS4″ so it looks like I’m running iOS4 (even have the updated Calculator icon). I’m doing all this and my speed is still better than when I was on iOS4 without multitasking and background images.

I’ve messed around with Cydia, but I haven’t really found many free (and legal) applications that I want or need. There are some cool paid apps in the store, but I’m not buying anything for my old iPhone 3G.

I’ll probably use this set up for a few more weeks…until I get an new iPhone once the iPhone 4 problems get resolved.

My wife and I started watching Firefly last week on Netflix. We decided to watch Firefly because we love Adam Baldwin on Chuck. We have watched 6 episodes; here’s my official one word review: amazing.

Great stories, original concept, decent special effects (for TV). It’s a shame it didn’t last more than 11 episodes. (11 shows were aired, 14 were filmed. Netflix has all 14.)

Seriously, how did I miss this series back when it was on in 2002? What was I watching in 2002?  Oh yeah…crappy reality TV (Joe Millionaire or some terrible shows like that). Damn you, America! Your love for trashy TV that appeals the lowest common denominator prevented Firefly from becoming a success.

Two of my friends finally convinced me to try out the Scrabble knock-off Words With Friends (Free). I’m hooked, and I’ve only played a few games. Last weekend the game was provided me plenty of entertainment while we were visiting my in-laws.

What I really like about this game is that it gives me one more way to compete against my friends. Living several states away from my friends and dealing with small kids (both me and my friends) makes it hard for us to compete.

Words With Friends (Free) makes it easy to compete. Very little time is required to play. The game even notifies me when it’s my turn. That means I can play a word and then do something else until it’s my turn again (could be a few minutes, could be a few days).

Plus, the game was free (and the ads aren’t too annoying or intrusive). This game will be on my iPhone for a long time.

Image source: Newtoy Inc. (maker of the Words With Friends)

So, I updated my iPhone 3G to iOS4 a few days ago. Here’s my two cents:

Folders – I like using Folders. When I first fired up my phone after the updated, I reorganized most of my apps into folders…and I do mean most. I went overboard. After a day or so, I got smart about how I use Folders. I realized I don’t like my most used apps in folders. Now my home screen has my best apps and just 3 folders (Photography, Reference, and Sports). The second page has all my leftover apps grouped in folders. My third screen is kid games – not in folders – for my kids to play. This set up is much better than my old six screen set up.

Unified Inbox – In theory this is a nice feature, but I don’t use it that frequently. I have 5 email accounts on my iPhone. Each account serves a different purpose. I would love it if I could create two different unified inboxes. If that isn’t possible, I’d at least like to be able to exclude a few of the accounts from the unified inbox.

Speed – I’ve noticed that some of my apps are much quicker to respond and open. On the other hand, typing feels more sluggish, but not enough to make a big difference to me.

Because my phone is old, I don’t get some of the new features like wallpapers and multi-tasking. My phone is two years old; I really shouldn’t expect it to have all the features the new models have.

After updating to iOS4, I finally got the calendar colors correct on my iPhone. The key is knowing the order of the colors that the iPhone assigns the calendars. iOS4 assigns colors in the following: Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Purple (or Brown), Brown (or Purple). I noticed that the last two colors (Purple and Brown) switched on the second time through – - first time through Purple was assigned before Brown but the second time through it was just the opposite.

Here’s how to “assign” the correct colors to your calendars if you sync Google Calendar (via MS Exchange) to your iPhone:

1 – Create a bunch of dummy calendars in Google Calendar. You’ll need to these to “assign” to colors you want to “skip.”

2 – Figure out what color you want to your main Google calendar to be. I wanted mine to be blue or green.

3 – Select the appropriate number of dummy calendars to sync so that you’ll likely get the correct color for your main calendar. I chose 1 dummy calendar to bring my calendar total to 3 (main Google calendar, dummy calendar, Birthday calendar). Note: the birthday calendar is part of iOS4 and can’t be disabled. Doing this method, my main calendar came in as Green.

Use www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect or m.google.com/sync (on your iPhone) to select the calendars.

4 – Select and sync one dummy calendar at a time to figure out where you are in the pattern of colors. I synced one more dummy calendar and it came in Orange.

5 – Once you get the pattern down, start bringing in your real calendars in the order you want. After Orange came up in step 4 for me, I selected my wife’s calendar because I wanted it be purple. That worked great.

It may take few attempts to get it right, but it can be done.

I’m pissed. The new iOS4 doesn’t allow me to select calendar colors. The previous OS didn’t either, but I could work around it by creating dummy calendars and syncing calendars until I got the colors right (and then delete the dummy calendars). However, the new OS doesn’t even allow me to do the old work around. I’m stuck with the colors the iPhone assigns to each calendar. UPDATE: The old work around now works. Google was having problems syncing exchange accounts today. The new calendar color order is: Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Purple, Brown. Although, I did notice one time through Purple and Brown were flipped. I’ll leave a post tomorrow with more details on how I fixed the calendar colors.

Why is this a problem? Because my wife and I use Google Calendar for everything. We primarily use BusyCal on our MacBook Pro to manage 7 different calendars. All of those calendars are synced to my Google Calendar, my wife’s Google Calendar, and my iPhone…and we are planning to get my wife an iPhone in the next few weeks. Because we want to use the same Google calendars in 5 different places (BusyCal, two online Google accounts, and two iPhones), calendar colors are a big deal to us.

I’ve tried countless times to get it right. I deleted and added my Google account several times as an Exchange account. Those attempt didn’t work. I also noticed that Apple added over the air sync for Google Calendars if the Gmail account is set up as an IMAP account. I tried that, but it only syncs the MAIN calendar — not the sub calendars.

A freaking smartphone should be able to at least let me choose the calendar colors. Android phones get it right. Palm Pre gets it right. Why can’t Apple get it right?

After seeing Toy Story 3, my wife knew what she wanted to get me for Father’s Day: Toy Story 3 the video game. My son and I popped the game in as soon as we got home from the movie. Then, I played the game late Friday night after the kids were in bed. Here’s my official review:

Story Mode – the game actually has two different modes. The first is the actual story mode where you beat different levels. Each level is basically a scene from one of the Toy Story movies with some extra stuff thrown in to make it a video game level. The levels are easy, but a little too complex for my four year old because he’s not used to playing video games. The game is rated E10 (everyone 10+), but in reality it is for anyone 6+.

Toy Box Mode – this is where the game shines. In this mode you are the sheriff of an old west town and you are assigned little missions to complete. As you complete the missions, you earn money. With your money you can customize the town and buy more cool things. It’s like Grand Theft Auto…only clean and suitable for little kids. This is where my four year old will learn how to play video games.  My son loved playing this mode even though all he did was walk around and throw balls at buildings.

Graphics – amazing. I’m a big fan of Pixar and the Toy Story movies. This game captured the Pixar look perfectly.

Replayability – it is an easy game and I imagine it won’t take much to finish the story mode. However, my son will hopefully get hours (spread out over several years) of excitement out of this game. The Toy Box mode alone should keep him occupied for a long time.

Cons – the game is available on all platforms, but you can only play as Zurg on the PS3 version. Lame. Also, there is no online play, but honestly the game probably wouldn’t work with online play.

Overall Rating – A+

Please keep in mind this game is designed to be a family game for all ages. It doesn’t have the intensity of Call of Duty (or other hardcore games), but it’s not supposed to.

The Manly Dad took his family to see Toy Story 3 on opening day, first showing, at 10 a.m. I even used one of my precious vacation days from work to see the movie. Our two boys live for Buzz Lightyear and Woody. They wear Toy Story pajamas every night. Our four year old only wears Buzz Lightyear underwear. We have more toy Buzz Lightyears and Woodys than I care to count. I can practically recite Toy Story 1 and 2 because I’ve seen those so many times with our boys. So yeah, the Manly family is pretty committed to Toy Story.

So what did I think of Toy Story 3? Let me tell you….

The Story – this is what sets Pixar apart from the other digital animation studios. Pixar’s movies always feature a compelling story, and Toy Story 3 lived up to Pixar standards. In fact, it worked on many different levels. My four year old would say it was an amazing story about Buzz and his friends escaping from a daycare center. On the other hand, my wife saw a story about the precious moments of childhood. Both stories are captivating and touching.

The New Toys – some new characters are introduced. All of them are great, but Ken steals the show. That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to spoil it.

The 3-D – Pixar got this right. The opening sequence was amazing in 3-D. The use of 3-D effects was very subtle in the rest of the movie. I liked this approach because I hate it when movies “over do” the 3-D by having stuff fly out the screen just because they can. The only drawback was taking a two year old to a 3-D movie – - he didn’t want to wear the glasses (however, my wife liked the glasses because they masked her tears). So, it is good in 3-D, but may or may not be right for you if you have young kids. Honestly, because Pixar was very subtle about it, you’re not missing much if you see it in 2-D.

Random Thoughts – because I don’t want to post spoilers, I’m just going to post words about other great parts of the movie: Spanish Buzz, death by monkeys, the box, the claw, and Bonnie.

Final Grade – A+

It is the best Pixar movie yet and a perfect way to end the Toy Story trilogy.