Now, listen, I love iOS as much or more than anyone else. I think it is an awesome platform and one that continues to evolve and get better as time goes on. However, there’s one area that Apple definitely needs to improve: the notifications. They are just awful and intrusive and Apple needs to address this in the next iteration of the software: iOS 5.0

LockInfo, paired with another jailbreak-only utility called Pop-Up Blocker, allowed me to bypass the annoying notification pop-ups that interrupt and pause my videos or get in the way of my Angry Birds playing session. Damn you iOS! Why must you get in the way of my pig-killing onslaught? Okay, okay, seriously, we all know those notification pop-ups are annoying so you get the idea.

I lived happily with these utilities for about a month until I started realizing why I don’t ever stick to a jailbroken iPhone. It is great in some ways to taste the freedom that jailbraking gives you but there’s always a downside, for me at least, and that is the performance degradation of the phone, if ever so slightly. Truth is, with the iPhone 4 this is not as bad since it has a much faster processor and more RAM than my old 3G did, however, I still could notice some UI lag at times and a slight hit on my battery life as well as occasional app crashes that didn’t happen before when my iPhone was in stock form.

For some people this may not be a problem and it’s a small price to pay for the freedom you get but for me it is a bit annoying and a compromise that I don’t seem to be willing to put up with. Therefore, Friday night I decided that I was going to restore my iPhone back to its original state. I missed the fluidity of the device that had been slightly compromised. I wanted to get my iPhone back to a pristine state so I decided not to restore from backup and instead restore as new phone. I had to spend a few hours syncing all apps, music, etc., but it was totally worth it. My iPhone 4 is as fast and snappy as it was when I first turned it on for the first time in June of 2010.

Now, let me get back to playing Angry Birds and cursing each time one of those pop-ups get in my way!

At first I thought that this lady was probably a friend or maybe a teacher but then I realized as she continued talking to him that this was actually the kid’s mother. What struck me as odd was the fact that this woman and the kid’s father were basically not even speaking to each other this whole time except at the end for just a couple of words and that the two men, the kid’s father and the mother’s husband, did not even address each other to say hello.

It’s no secret that I went through a separation and then subsequent divorce a few years ago but throughout all this my ex and I have remained good friends and I also get along with her new partner. In the end, I believe that is the civilized way to do things and it’s in the best interest of children because they don’t feel like they’ve lost a parent or have to choose sides. I know that this is not always possible in all cases but we as parents owe to our children to try to handle it in a mature way.

I’ve heard and seen too many horror stories about divorcing couples and seeing this made me realize what the title of this post states: count your blessings.