I didn’t completely delete it. But I’m leaving my myspace page dormant. Their layout is just messy. Although, I really don’t like the new facebook style either. Having said that, it’s much better than myspace.
For some reason, iTunes started syncing and seeing the iPhone today-on the windows side! Woo hoo! I also purchased a new case. It initially scratched the touchscreen upon installation, because the instructions were inadequate. Thankfully, I had on a screen guard. The new case is a Griffin Elan Form. After some fidgeting, cleaning and test runs, I think it’s going to be the new permanent case (Until an Otterbox). I recommend the Elan. So far, so good.
I got the iPhone Tuesday night. It showed up early. Here are the state of things:
I still can’t get my Vista box to sync with the iPhone. None of the features. I can’t get it to sync consistently with music on the mac either. Hell, I can’t even get iTunes to import my entire library from an external drive without it crashing. It’s really frustrating, this is not the normal apple experience. And, theoretically, I have some computer expertise.I never have liked iTunes though.
My opinion is that iTunes is simply poorly written, at least for sure on the Windows side, and needs an update. Hopefully the gods at Apple will hurry this along. In the interim, I’m fairly pissed. Having said that, the rest of the phone functions wonderfully. I love the interface and the call quality is great. GPS is a cool feature, SMS is ‘conversational’ and I’m looking forward to playing with the app store. It’s like having a mini Mac. Now, I just need a case. Otterbox!
We had a netflix account for awhile and canceled it because we just don’t have time to watch and return movies, even though netflix really is a great and easy to use service.
However, Anthony Park, designed a plugin for netflix that enables you to use their “Watch In Now” feature and instantly access over 7,000 feature movies and tv shows instantly in Media Center. It’s called MyNetFlix We just installed the plugin today and are testing it.
The user interface needs some tweaking to fully use the remote control. So, by signing up for the cheapest netflix plan, we get unlimited access to these movies through vista media center-instantly. If you use media center, I highly recommend it. I also recommend sending the developer a donation through paypal if you use it. If I use it more than a couple times, I’m going to.
Heck, I further hope that someone from Netflix will talk to the guy, give him some more code, some money and let him push the product further. Microsoft should get it on this too, it provides an incredible amount of content to Vista Media Center or to the 360 and would be a killer selling point.
I never thought I would be playing regularly…but for the past week or so, I’ve been playing Halo 3 and TeamFortress 2 on xbox live and really enjoying it. I think I’ve logged about 4 or 5 hours now.
Compared to the 13year olds with ADD enhanced reflexes… I stink…but not as much as I’ve thought.Xbox Live–Highly Recommended. Even the community and social aspects are appealing–which is surprising since I’m not known as a ‘joiner’.
I also won my first ranked Halo 3 match. Woo Hoo. Take that little kids. Here’s my Halo3 Stat Page
There’s no sense in hiding my geek/nerdness…
Ever wanted to see what your car would look like if a dummy drove it into a wall? Admit it, you think about it when you get a lousy trade-in price. Thankfully, there’s the Consumer Reports Crash Test videos, where you can see how your car will hold up against things like short concrete walls and other typical objects found along a highway.
Xbox 360 - Dead Rising and Standard Definition TV (SDTV)
XBox 360
Through a rather pleasant turn of events, I found myself in possession of an XBox 360. Wasn’t in the market for a next-gen console, but I have been impressed by the demo’s and graphical capabilities as I perused electronics bigbox shops.
I wasn’t looking much at all, until I saw Dead Rising.
Dead Rising
I’ve been a longtime fan of zombie movies, particularly Dawn of the Dead. It takes place in a mall…outside of Pittsburgh. Perfect!
The game, from demos I saw, looked like everything I wanted. It boasts a fully interactive enviornment, a tight plot and YOU GET TO KILL ZOMBIES IN THE MALL!!!! I don’t feel like getting into details, others have…check out their opinions.
SDTV?
Before I received the console, or purchased the game… I heard terrible stories about playing the game on SDTV. Apparently the text is illegible on non-HDTV sets. Well, this made me very nervous since this was the main reason behind my wife and I wanting to play. Nonetheless, we ventured to EBgames and asked them. They replied it was small, and sometimes unreadable, but not a big deal. With apprehension, we bought the game
Upon getting home I was tempted to use the newer SDTV in our house, on the first floor. It’s flatscreen CRT, 16:9, has multiple component connections, and other ‘tweak modes’. Well, I decided to try the cheap Panasonic TV upstairs first. The TV is over 6 years old and was a mid-range set when sold. Oh yeah, it’s 27″.
So plugged in the Component video…and surprise..HIGHLY playable. The text sometimes requires me to sit up in bed (OMG NO!!!!) and lean forward…but it’s readable. I’m over 25…well over, and the TV isn’t HD or large… it works. Could it be better? Yes. Should Capcom issue a patch…probably…just for PR sake…but it’s not really absolutely necessary. It would be nice…but as picky as I am, I will live.
So, if you’re like me…and debating buying the game or console because you ‘only’ have SDTV…DO IT!!!
Thanks to my inlaws at gary’s pet supplies in Greensburg, all of my dogs are loving the Triple Crown Everlasting Treat Ball. My Rottweiler almost got smacked with a chair as he became so posessive he refused to move and relinquish his treat ball.
They are durable, pliant and well made. True, our pointy nosed bullterrier has been able to push the treat out… but he hasn’t been able to sufficiently puncture the ball. Riot, the rottie, can fully compress the ball, but does not damage or dislodge the treat in doing so. Hours of fun are guaranteed, both physical and mental….just don’t let them get too entralled, you might have trouble getting the toy back with your hand intact.
After some canoodling, I got my hands on two more Sony W600i’s. I’ve been using it for a week, and I love this phone. So rather than ‘dog’ on my other phones, I’m gonna talk about this little beauty. And a few samples:
Video: RIOT, Work (walking) Car (driving)
set to auto everything, 176×144 and high quality
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5Â - listed under Misc.
auto everything, 1280×1024, high quality
DESIGN/FORMFACTOR
It’s Sony. Sony=Sexy, Apple=Sexy…it’s a technogeek cliche, but it’s true. Who else is marketing a bright orange phone? The screen is 1.8″ but seems bigger as the screen is most of the front of the phone.
The phone is a bit thick as it’s a swivel form factor. But the form factor is solid and the build seems great. The phone is usable in any ‘degree of swivel’, but locks solidly into place with a satisfying click.
The dedicated keys are great, except the annoying Cingular internet button (is this key hackable if the phone is unlocked?). In addition to the normal begin call and end call buttons are dedicated back buttons, a lock switch, a walkman button, play/pause, camera, volumeup/down. The only thing missing is a dedicated access to the profiles section. Although this isn’t really a business phone, it’s still a necessity. However, the directional keypad is pretty programmable, just not down to every level.
Call Quality
The call quality is solid and this phone gets the best reception of any I’ve had, including the Nokia 6882. The bluetooth is okay as well. Not all headsets are compatible with playing the mp3’s, but for talking and so forth, it’s great! Crystal clear bluetooth, but dedicate a button to the setup, because it will fall out of range and not automatically reconnect. This might be tweakable, but I’m not sure just yet.
MP3’s
Well it is a Walkman, but this phone surpasses my expectations. If it had more memory, like the w800, it would be replacing the ipod. I find I don’t listen to my iPod much outside of the car or on extremely long protests….so the W600 with a bit more memory would be suitable. As is it holds a few albums and longer podcasts, enough to hit the road during work.
Sound Quality is very nice and customizable with the built-in equalizer. The included headset is decent, but I recommend Eshure’s (steal them). The onboard speakers for music and speakerphone are LOUD. No, really REALLY LOUD. I was laughing my self stupid today as the BeeGee’s came blaring out of the speakers at ear splitting volume. Very dignified.
Camera/Video
While South Korea is enjoying 10mp 4/8gb camera, we’re left with VGA. Thankfully the Sony is sporting a 1.3mp and takes pretty nice photos at 1280×1024 and leaves other camera phones in the dust. The only thing better I’ve seen is the amazing camera on the beloved Cingular 8125. Â
The flash is superbright, there are all kinds of onboard effects (sepia, negative, solorize, etc…).
Video is equally impressive, although it’s the annoying 3gp format (get quicktime). The quality exceeds the 1.3mp on the Nokia 6882 by alot. Heck, not using Realplayer is enough to make me happy. Check out the samples above.
Misc
Games rock on this phone. I haven’t busted all the specs out yet, but the phone plays JAVA apps and games. Gameloft includes some demo’s on the phone and has a great selection online. The games handle 3d better than a supernes. For a quickfix, playing games in landscape mode is a joy.
Themes are updateable and the phone has nice quasi-PDA functionality. I found a couple of nice sites. MyW600 is particularly nice. I’m still getting used to the PDA features and entering things with the keypad. However, I’ll either get a bluetooth pocket keyboard, or learn to use Outlook.
Conclusion
Nice phone, not the business phone I need, but great for throwing in a pocket on the weekend. You really don’t need a camera unless yr planning on taking large frameable photos, and you can leave the ipod behind if yr not out for days… I’ve already hooked the w600 to my DLO transmitter, and no problems.
Highly recommended. The damn bastards at Sony do it again.
After having my fill of phones, providers and customer support folks, I’ve settled in to a couple of weeks here with my Nokia 6682. Pictures are posted in the Misc. Gallery 1,2,3,4,5, and videos are below:
Mall Walk Through, Riot, Car Ride
(VLC, Realv10, or Quicktime..among others, support 3gp/mp3video. this is a problem vs other WMP friendly formats.)Â
Images were shot with the settings set to HIGH and 1280×960. Everything else is set to auto. Video was shot to a memory card with the resolution 176×144.
For the other adventures in cell phones, look below, or search the archives for cell.
my review, and Cnet’s:
Design/Build
Nice solid build. Feels like an expensive phone. The only area that feels a little weak is the slide for the camera, however the ‘play’ seems intentional with the design. The keys are small but the beveled edges make texting no problem. The LCD is large and I recommend a screen protector. You will be hard pressed to find a custom case, although, due to it’s unusual formfactor, I’m using the iPod 5G case. Nice extra features are the brightly backlit keys, dedicated voice recording and theme buttons and the well designed ‘thumbstick’. Unfortunate issues of design are the inclusion of reduced MMC vs SD or MiniSD and the chintzy cingular silver vs the fly nokia iPod pearl. But that’s negligable.
Call Quality
As with most Nokia Phones, the call quality is exceptional. No problems and the loudspeaker is a pretty good volume. Bluetooth implementation is good, not perfect though. My last few phones have picked up and searched for my headset under all circumstances. Sometimes after being off, I need to ‘connect’ my headset using the button on it, or occasionally via the handset connectivity options. However, when it’s working, which is 98%+ of the time…it’s clear. And using an enhanced set of protocols, the bluetooth pulls off another nice feature (see features below).
OS/Menu
The phone is running Symbian 6 and has a plethora of software available. The menus can be highly customized. Themes, ringtones and office management software abounds. The phone can get slightly bogged down with complex themes and backgrounds, but is basically responsive. Only when playing MP3’s, taking pictures and making phone calls all at once, was I able to make it lock up. Other than that, the included nokia pc suite software is pretty easy to use and transfers all media, contacts, etc…
X-tra Features
MP3 Player - setting up a dedicated key makes the MP3 player easy to access. The player has the usual settings and views (now playing, artists, albums, all songs) and even displays album art. The controls are via the main thumbstick and volume is good over the onboard speaker. BUT, the system really shines paired with a bluetooth headset, where the music streams wirelessly. This is great for grabbing a quick podcast and not grabbing the whole ‘pod.
1.3 mp camera - The pics don’t seem as sharp as the Sony w600i or Cingular 8125. Judge for yourself/2. However, it does seem to take better indoor pics with and w/o the flash.
Video - Video doesn’t seem nearly as clear as the 8125. Plus the format isn’t too friendly. The 8125 did straight mpeg4. The 6682 shoots in 3gp. Which seems native to RealPlayer. The images are pixelated, and not as clear as the 8125. Additionally, video playback is via Real Player, not the trusty MSMedia Player.
Conclusion
Pro’s
Con’s
All in all , a pretty great phone, hell, I have two and it’s been more than a week! Will continue to update as I play with the third-party apps more.
I promised to post some videos taken with the 8125. They are linked below with general descriptions of the settings, etc. Pics are posted in the Misc. Gallery and Page 2
   *all videos in Mpeg-4 Format. Will play in your browser with QuickTime. All times approximate.*
—-
Spinning Mini Bull Terrier - 7 seconds. On porch 5:00pm sun. No flash/Light. Wacky dog
Walking with Camera - 16 seconds. Inside. Flourescent lighting/inside. Walking with camera at waist level in hand.
Driving with Music - 37 seconds. Holding the camera on the dashboard. Nice picture, but listen to the music cut in and out. That’s not my spiffy hyundia, it’s the recorder. Otherwise not bad.
Barking Rott - 10 seconds. Early morning sun. Dog being silly.
All settings were at full resolution, etc… The night video is basically worthless. And one sample is posted below:
Rottie Inside at Night - This is in a bright room, at night, with incadescent light and the pda light on. Stinks! But to be expected.
I’m looking to actually make a 3 minute film using clips, etc.. We’ll see what happens. Obviously not using these clips.
A special shout-out to Modaco and HowardForums for all their data and great forums.
this was blogged using the 8125
 
As you can see from the pic below(taken with a Sony W600i), I settled on the Cingular 8125. Thanks to some assistance from a Cingular rep, while I still contend the general company have a severely screwed concept of customer service,  the device became affordable.
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. The major problem with the device is cost. Locked versions are selling for $400-600 on ebay. Even though I got a deal, with a device this expensive I was hoping to use Cingular’s insurance, but no such luck. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I’m on the run and while major accidents are not common…they do happen. So I found Safeware, and talked to their sales reps. It seems to be a great service/company…I’ll be adding my iPod as it’s cheaper than applecare and covers dropping, etc…
The Features
Phone
Admittedly, like all PDA Phones, talking is second to computing ability. However, the 8125 strikes a nice mix. With Bluetooth, the handset can be tucked away in a pocket. And with Microsoft Mobile Voice Command, dialing and navigating become seamless. The only quibble is that the bluetooth headset is not directly compatible with Voice Command. This is a limitation of the OS. With all that…the sound is impressive, dialing a breeze and bluetooth a joy.
CAMERA
The camera is the best I’ve seen on a PDA and one of the best on a cell phone. Pictures are crisp and interpolate to 1600×1280 (if desired). The flash is annoyingly bright, but hey, it’s effective. The camcorder is also effective and records as long as your media allows. Pictures will be in the gallery.
WIFI/EDGE
The Wi-Fi is solid, although the settings stink. Third-Party software abounds for discover and configuring Wi-Fi. Once connected, I pulled speeds that were only limited by the processor. I consistently connected at 11mbps. When I get the ‘G‘ network installed, I’ll post new numbers. Using EDGE and the proxy, I pulled 150-170kbps, not bad at all. I’m hoping to sell my office on the data plan for 39.99. Unlimited connectivity is too tempting. Mmmm…
PDA
Based on a HTC platform, the 8125 is running at 195mhz…seemingly pokey for a pocket pc, but the device seems responsive and hasn’t bogged down yet. The onboard software and mobile office run great. I was even able to use remote clients to access my VPN.
MultiMedia
Media Player 10 is my favorite player, as it integrates with Microsoft Media Center and other products. It’s written much tighter than iTunes and faster. I copied over several MP3’s in no time, and converted a 700mb+ video file, encoded at 576×240 at 128kps. The video took about 20 minutes to encode and transfer. This is on a P4 3.2 with 1GB of ram…and I’m doing other things. Anyway, the videos and music play flawlessly.
General Build
Well, it’s no Razr or SLVR, you will know you are carrying this phone. At almost 8oz, it’s no lightweight. But, it fits into a pocket without problem. The dedicated buttons are great. Profiles, Wi-Fi, the Camera, Volume, Bluetooth, IR, Internet Explorer, and Outlook are all available via external dedicated buttons. Very nice.
The unit is solid, the keyboard has some play on the keys, but locks solidly in place when pulled out. The screen is bright and quick. The front buttons have a little play as well, but nothing major. Well done and feels like it should, expensive.
Conculsion
Well worth the wait! The 8125 is all that I thought a smartphone/pda should be, when I started looking and buying 5 years ago. If you’re a mobile user, heavy internet/e-mail user, blogger or anyone needing constant contact with the netsphere, this is the phone. It’s a great phone, PDA, media player, and mini-laptop.
Highly Recommended.
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Okay, back to smarter phones…the Cingular 2125 or T-Mobile SDA. This little baby was running Windows Mobile 5. It still wasn’t the 8125. Nontheless, I decided the 8125 was never coming out. Since I don’t wait well, needed an Internet and text powerful phone…this would do.
The build felt a little cheap and plasticy, but I had no problems with it and it felt pretty good overall. Picture quality with 1.3megapixels was very nice and the phone was response in most applications.
Net surfing was fast on EDGE networks and data transmission a snap. Of course, the phone was missing mobile office capability and a keyboard. I figured I could buy the keyboard seperately.
Well, all was well. Phone worked, bluetooth good…taking a picture at night and 2 pixels were burnt to red and very obvious on dark shots. UGH! The phone would need to be returned if my obsessive compulsive disorder would be controlled.
So, I returned the phone yesterday, 3/5/6, during a break from working at home. I was in Greensburg picking up pet supplies and ran in to exchange the 2125…and was greeted by a shiny new 8125!! I accosted a sales person, who didn’t even know it was on the shelves, and cut a Sweet deal on the 8125.
So, the 2125 is a great phone…and like the Sony w600i, I would still have it…but the 8125 is a thing of beauty. Review to come…
The Motorola SLVR
After giving the Sony away, I went looking for a replacement. I talk about 1700minutes a month and decided a more dedicated handset was in order. I figured the 75-100 text messages and 5 megs+ of data could be integrated into me using regular texting, rather than the luxury qwerty keyboard on my trusty but obsolete nokia 6820…so I went with the SLVR 7.
Again, nice form factor, solid build, good sound quality and good bluetooth implementation with my h500. The screen is beautiful, and for VGA, the camera very nice.
But the phone has a couple of major problems. Setting up profiles is seemingly impossible. This is a necessity for meetings and traveling through offices etc… Second, the implementation of itunes stinks and you can’t use the songs as ringtones. Finally, the glossy black finish is sexy…and a dirt magnet. This is not something you want to hold next to your face and then show people. I imagine for women, the issue is compounded with makeup. Eww…. But most importantly, the etched keypad is stylish, but makes surfing and texting impossible. This is a necessity with work. At this time the 8125 was unavailable locally…so the search continued.
In conclusion, solid product…but probably not as good as the Razr. Not for me… Read the Cnet review
After weeks of ’in the field’ consumer research, testing, ownership, returns…and fights with tech support, I’m reporting in with reviews of the:
Here’s the Sony
The Cingular 8125 was what I was really after, but it appears there are problems with the supply at this time. Nonetheless, I really needed a business phone, but the little orange Sony grabbed my eye.
The formfactor is small, albeit boxy (it’s certainly no Razr). However the phone feels very sturdy. I thought the swivel formfactor would be prone to weak spots and twisting, this is far from the case. The phone can be used closed, open completely, or partially swiveled…and there’s no play or weakness in the build quality.
The LCD is bright and the phone works in both portrait and landscape mode. It’s super fast playing video games and the 1.3 megapixel camera shoots 4×6 quality shots with a mutlitude of realtime effects.
As for functionality. The phone call quality is impressive and bluetooth implementation is flawless. More importantly, the interface is super customizable, very intuitive and fast. This interface has been used by Sony Ericsson for years, but is layered with new visual tweaks…very cool.
But, this is branded as a Walkman phone, and that means Music. This phone rocks mp3’s like no other. In fact, if it had expandable memory, I’d sell my Ipod…okay, not really. However, this phone/player has great software for playing mp3’s and a dedicated button for activating the player. Sound quality is impressive with the included earbuds and loud when played over the built-in speakers. Incidently, if you spend money on ringtones, you won’t need to with this phone. Any mp3 can be set as a ring tone. You can’t do this with the itunes phones.
Despite being a great phone, it still wasn’t suitable for business…but I bought it. Thankfully Steph fell in love with it…and the pink faceplates. So she’s sporting it now, while I moved on to something else….
This is an update of a previous post. Â
Well, I’ve been driving around with the DLO Transmitter for a couple weeks now, and have put over a thousand miles on the transmitter. A couple of minor quibbles and observations.
Occasionally, and only in very rural areas, I’ve had to turn the audio down on podcasts. VERY muffled static is audible and a slight ‘DC whine’. This is minor, when it happened I just changed over to a regular song and didn’t notice it.
It’s much more stable than I’ve thought. I’ve driven some twisty backroads, a bit too fast, and it’s only shifted twice…and that was on poorly designed highway offramps.
There is absolutely some kind of non-advertised audio dampending technology going on. Similiar to the LX/DX feature of the griffin iTrip. It slightly flattens the sound. This can be tweaked.
More importantly, I haven’t had to change the frequency from 88.1 ONCE!. Haven’t even thought about it. And it looks pretty sweet mounted in the car.
I’m starting to finally get accustomed to life with my iPod. Still not happy about the availability of accessories at retail outlets, but nonetheless… I won’t be walking around with the white headphones dangling from my ears. Not practical. I don’t listen to music with headphones in social situations.
One of my major complaints though has been getting the iPod to play reasonably clear over my stock Hyundai stereo. Without pulling out the head unit, the only option is an FM transmitter, like Mr. Microphone.
The Belkin line, power/unpowered, digital/analog is popular and we’ve tried them ALL. While the powered by DC digital units are pretty decent. It’s not suitable for changing between city and highway driving. Over six months with one, I used the Belkin and had to change stations 4-6 times on the average 40 minute drive. And when it was changed, the static was already getting bad. Not acceptable.
Next was the griffin Itrip. The iTrip is super tiny, sleek and is powered by the iPod dock connector. Very sleek. Much better power and clarity then the Belkin units (I’ve also used the Monster transmitters). Using ‘LX/DX’ technolgy, like they have on decent radios, it enables the user to transmit in a higher power DX mode..but only in Mono. It doesn’t really matter though, it does a pretty good job. Still, it wasn’t suitable for long car trips. I still was changing frequencies too much.
Today, using the last holiday gift card, I picked up the DLO transpod and returned the Griffin. It’s AMAZING. It has a well built armature and holds the iPod above the gear shift, the tuner is backlit, and the sound rules. This beauty punched through 88.1 while I ran around the neighboorhood, which includes a diverse terrain and an airport, and millitary reserve base and police station…. YES! Finally, a product designed to work as advertised. My only real complaint is the cradle is not very secure and allows to much ‘play’ for backroad ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ driving techniques.
Guess I can just slow down.
Well, another year has come and gone when I don’t get to go to CES.
CES is the consumer electronics show where everyone debuts upcoming products and new prototypes; like the now defunct Comdex, is a great way to see the future and failures of the technolgy world. For many years I attended the conferences with regularity. No more. So, here’s my favorite of what OTHER people are seeing firsthand this year:
…to be updated…
This kick ass pill despenser is a long time coming. Yeah, I know, why get geeked out over a pill dispenser?
Well, until you’ve tried to get through a staff meeting with one too many allergy pills in you, you’ll never understand. In an effort to assist the elderly, stoned and generally forgetful, this product aims to remind you when to take your pills, and the proper dosage. Having friends and family that take 10+ prescriptions a day…this qualifies as a kewl use of high tech and a nice piece of ‘classic AT’.
In the first of many piggy backs from slashot, several reviews are in on the Xbox. I’ve been awaiting this release, not only because I’m interested in seeing Microsoft further school Sony…and make no mistake, being second place as quickly as they have was a major blow to Sony…And almost destroyed nintendo. God bless the gameboy, great engineering works.
But more impotantly, the console has amazing architecture, although getting it utilized is going to be even more difficult than past consoles. The XBox and PS3 both use multicore-multichip configurations. Developers are only beginning to fully exploit the multithreads of the P4 and AMD64 line, learning a completely new set of machine instructions and thinking multicore are going to take awhile. And it might not even happen at launch. This console line, more than most, will see the best games at the end of the lifespan as developers become accustomed to the learning curve.
Enough complaining. Why I’m excited:
