Archive for April, 2008
April 30, 2008 at 10:21 AM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
Well, that didn’t take long! And it’s not that my BlackBerry doesn’t work great, don’t get me wrong — this is a solid platform trusted by hundreds of thousands Hollywood stars and Government officials alike. The only problem I have with it is that it works too well. Yeah, you heard me right. There’s nothing to tinker, hack, or mod. It’s so stable it’s scary. Try loading 10,000 contacts on your Treo and call me when it stops crashing. This little device packs a punch, but my wireless carrier has really dumbed it down. No multimedia messaging (MMS), locked GPS that forces you to buy the cheap no-thrills $9.99/mo. TeleNav, and since it’s a CDMA BlackBerry, there’s no 802.11b/g wireless support.
So, I’m going back to Redmond. Back to Bill Gates. Back to another Windows Mobile phone with all the toys. The PPC-6800, also known as the HTC Titan, “Mogul” and a few other carrier-specific nicknames. Paired with Windows Mobile 6.1, threaded text messages, multimedia message support, 802.11b/g wireless, high-speed EvDO on the Alltel/Sprint EvDO network, unlocked (hacked) GPS ready to roll with Google Maps or Windows Live, and Skype for international calling anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world? Now that’s a phone. Or should I saiy, that’s a small laptop with a built-in phone.
I’m looking to order the new HTC PocketPC (PPC) in the next week or two. Mmm, features.
April 24, 2008 at 6:22 AM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
I’ve had my new BlackBerry 8130 for about a week now and I must say, while there are some cons over pros on this little device, it’s really rock-solid and stable. Gone are the days of random freezes and crashes like Treo’s and PocketPC’s in the past. I was actually able to leave a wide range of applications idling over night with no network issues (jmIrc, IM+). It seems to keep a stronger connection to the data network than any smartphone I’ve had in the past and with BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), my e-mail comes faster than usual without the battery drain.
With my Treo, I used ChatterEmail to get push e-mail using IMAP IDLE (RFC 2177) and with that combination, I could barely keep it going an entire day. Since the Canadians check my mail for me, I’m only downloading messages that have already been compressed and specially cooked for my BlackBerry (Just like Mom used to make!). While the only “true” push e-mail is offered on your @<carrier>.blackberry.com address which comes free with when you join the BB club, I’ve noticed only short delays, maybe 5 seconds to 5 minutes in most cases, for receiving mail on my SSL IMAP server. Considering to save battery life on my Treo I had to set mail checking intervals to 15 minutes, this is a good thing.
The form factor is probably what I love most about the phone and also what I hate most about it. It’s small, light, and so unlike a normal smartphone. I feel like I’m going to crush it or drop it constantly and that wouldn’t be good considering how expensive this little thing is. At the same time, I love being able to slip it in my shirt pocket — something I’d never attempt with my other smartphones, when I need to reach for it a moment later but don’t want to fiddle with the holster.
A lot of people complain about the cramped SureType keypad. It’s a full QWERTY layout midgetized. I’ve used QWERTY keypads for a long time now and I can tell you, it didn’t take but a few days to start blazing on this tiny keyboard. The secret, like I’m sure you’ve heard elsewhere is don’t look at the screen! SureType is pretty damn sure, getting about 80 to 90% of the words correctly with half the keys. Overall, I’m happy with the BlackBerry 8130. With a beautiful 2 megapixel camera, sleek look, and solid proven Operating System, what more could you ask for? Except for MMS, Wi-Fi….. I’ll just stop here.
April 14, 2008 at 6:40 PM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
So, last week I canned my Treo 700p and picked up a new BlackBerry 8130 (Pearl) off eBay for $250 and I must say, it works really well and will work even better when I upgrade it to OS 4.5. I’m still trying to rack my brain and remember the names of all the cool applications I had on my 7250 years ago.
I already downloaded Opera which I still swear by on the mobile platform as being the best browser period. I also picked up jmIrc, J2ME VNC, and a few other sweet programs that’ll make my BlackBerry zoom zoom.
I’ll keep you posted in a day or two on how well this little gem of a Pearl works out.
April 7, 2008 at 11:37 AM · Filed under Personal Rants
My Wife and I planned to spend our hard-earned weekend lounging around in Sea World’s latest water park called Aquatica which opened just last month. It boasts two of the largest lazy rivers around and is packed with new rides and and gigantic wave pools hugging 80,000 square feet of sandy beach. Sounds like the ideal place to spend your off-time in Florida, right? Not in April.
It rained, and poured, and thundered, and was rather ominous the entire weekend, only slightly clearing up in the early morning only to continue the downpour around 1:30 PM. What a bummer! I hope next weekend won’t be as bad but you know what they say: April showers bring May flowers. For now, let’s put those damn flowers on hold because I want to splash!
April 5, 2008 at 12:21 AM · Filed under Apple / Mac, MS / Windows
Well, it appears I’m going to be using Microsoft Vista for a little while. Yesterday, my Hackintosh started to freeze up every couple of hours. After further investigation I realized that my USB ports, among other things, were failing on the motherboard. Serves me right for going sub-bargain-basement. I’m going to give my Mac hacking a rest for 4-6 weeks since it looks like the cat’s out of the bag and Mac OS X Leopard isn’t going anywhere new and exciting for a while.
Which leads me back to my first sentence. Yep, Windows Vista. Why did I do it, you might ask? Well, after being a hard core Windows XP guru since the pre-alpha days of Whistler when it was nothing more than Windows 2000 with some…. “stuff,” I’m looking for the next computer challenege to keep me busy and I think Vista’s just what I need. I’m still trying to get Vista “just right” so it’s usable with all my frequent applications including a wide range of high-end Adobe products. We’ll see how that goes as my next article will show you how to really make Vista fly, and I’m not talking about the common bullshit ways…
