by Matt | Mar 30, 2005 | Culture
Last night I got to thinking about my Sidekick. As I was using it and trying out the phone features I held it up to my head to make a few phone calls. Afterwards, instinctively I wiped off the screen. It’s what I did with my Nokia, it’s what I do with our cameras here at the office. I don’t want to get dirt, oil or other grab imbeded in the screen or in the cracks and crevices of whatever I’m using. Then it hit me. This thing is practically a PDA right? I wonder if they sell those clear pastic adhesive sheets are screen protectors. This thing has a fairly large screen, I’d like it to be protected. So, after running a few errands, Lauren and I stopped off at Worst Buy to look in their phone section. Well, their not a T-mobile affiliate, so they only carry Version and Sprint accesories, which is such horse shit. Why they couldn’t carry a car charger or headset for anyone else is beyond me. Anyway, I didn’t find anything T-mobile specific, but I did find some for PDAs. They’re by a company called Fellowes (link here) and they call them WriteRight – Micro Thin Screen Protectors. They came in different sizes, but I got the “universal” size so I could trim them as nessisary. I went home, slapped one on my Sidekick and from now on I don’t have to worry about the screen… unless of course I sit on it. I also brought them into work and slapped a few on my boss’ phone as well as the cameras. There were 12 sheets in the box and I’ve got at least 8 left. Not bad for a few bucks.
by Matt | Mar 28, 2005 | Culture
Well, T-Mobile customer support is either on crack or just plain lazy. Both are equally annoying. My boss ordered the new phones last Monday with customer support telling him they’d be there by Thursday. Guess what SHIPPED on Thursday? Yup, the phone. We’ll be lucky if we get them this week.
In the meantime, I’ve taken to the web to find out every trick and tip out there for my new SideKick 2. Apparently I can hack the shit out of it. If you download a developer’s SDK from the Danger (manufacture’s) website, you can do all sorts of crazy shit with it. Out of the box it doesn’t suppoer mp3 or mmf ringtones, only Poly and Midi. Unlocked, you can play anything you want. You can even use Java J2EE and Apache Ant to compile custom programs to run on the thing. I’m also on the lookout for a discontinued program called Hiptones XP. It’s apparently THE hack for the sidekicks but Danger got pissed, threatened to sue and now it’s gone underground. If anyone can find something like that online, it’s probably me.
This is gonna be good.
The only thing I need to figure out is a way to upload pictures to my journal. There’s a WordPress hack that lets you add images in-line within the “Blog by Email” feature, but to use it you have to have an unsecure pop3 account, something I don’t want. You also have to set up Cron jobs to automatically check that unsecured email account, something else I don’t want to fool with. So, I wonder if some sort of FTP program might be possible, I’ll have to keep digging. I’ve already found small communities of Hiptop/Sidekick developers making interesting programs.
Matt out.
by Matt | Mar 21, 2005 | Culture
You know that phone I said I was getting… well, it turns out that it sucks monkey balls. Yeah, I know, I thought it was going to rock too. Apparently T-Mobile decided not to make a data plan available for that phone. That means that you have to pay for each and every text message, email and web browsing minute. The design of the phone was cool, it felt solid, but when you can’t check email on it, it defeats the purpose of having a keyboard doesn’t it?
So, whats the solution? A SideKick II of course!
I’ve wanted one of these things for about as long as they’ve existed and now I’m going to get one. It’s already been ordered, it should be here Friday. My choice of replacement phone was between 3 similar but different items. The Palm Treo 600, the BlackBerry 7730 and the SideKick II. I’ve had 3 different people tell me the Treos are nice but flimsy and that they didn’t last more than 6 months. Lauren’s old boss went through 3 of them in 2 months. The BlackBerry I know to be solid and of good design. The main problem with that is those things are 99% email oriented. Voice, web and everything else is secondary. I like to check my email, but it’s not going to be the top priority of my phone. I briefly considered staying with the A630 anyway just because it’s a cool phone and had the features I wanted. Then I reconsidered what I really wanted. My list is pretty short:
-email and easy text messaging FOR FREE
-camera
-bluetooth
-keyboard
-mp3 ringtones
The Sidekick has all these features except bluetooth and the mp3 ringtones. I can live without mp3 ringtones but I was really looking forward to a little bluejacking and the wireless headset capabilities. I had to choose between bluetooth and free text basically. I chose the service. I want to be able to look up movie times, write emails and text msg and I valued that over being without a 2 foot piece of wire.
The A630 is a nice phone, just not the phone for me. It lacked the one reason I was getting it in the first place. My new Sidekick will be here Friday. I can’t wait. They’re really solid and I like them a lot. It should be a good phone.
I also went a little crazy and wrote up a whole diatribe about cell phones, stupid people and the dumbing of America. If you’d like to read it you can click “more” at the bottom. It was originally going to go in the main post, but it’s about as off topic as you can get. The summation here is that I’m getting a different new phone than I planned. Oh, and stupid people piss me off… but that’s not really a new thing is it?
(more…)
by Matt | Mar 16, 2005 | Culture
My boss let me know today that we’ll be upgrading phones as a company. Everyone will be getting a shiny new toy but because I’ve “been working my butt off” as he put it, I get a super nifty phone… the Motorola A630.
The feature list is huge. Bluetooth, 1.5mpx camera, full data plan, qwerty keyboard in a clam-shell design AND it’s smaller and lighter than my current phone. I’ve wanted one of those SideKicks for quite some time and this is a blend of a SideKick and an actual useable phone. The main drawback with the SideKick was that it was the size of the average guys wallet (about 3×4 and 2″ thick). This Motorola is tiny. It’s solid feeling though, so it doesn’t feel cheap.
We’re still ironing out the plan details, but by sometime next week you should start to see my first few phone pictures ๐
Update: I found a feature list on a cell phone review site. All T-mobile will mention on their website is how cool it is and then they mention the keyboard about 12 times. When you clicked on “specs” you get things like “cool full color camera”. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not a “spec” by any stretch of the imagination. So, I had to find some…
Highlights
* Innovative Fold-in-half Form With Hidden QWERTY Keyboard
* Bluetooth Wireless Technology
* High-Speed GPRS Data Downloads
* Downloadable Java Applications
* Integrated VGA Camera With 4x Digital Zoom
* Large Vivid Color Display In Landscape
* Excellent Battery Life Over 4 Hours
Specifications
* Digital Camera – 4x Zoom, Self-Timer, VGA
* Bluetooth Wireless Technology – Yes
* Two-handed Gaming Experience – Yes
* Wireless Multi-player Gaming – Yes
* Video Capture – Up To 1 Minute Long
* QWERTY Keyboard – Yes
* Data Capable / Use This Phone As A Modem – Yes
* PC Synchronization – Yes
* Mobile Web Browsing – WAP 2.0
* Multimedia Messaging – EMS 5.0 and MMS
* Text Messaging (SMS) – 2-Way
* Email Client – SMTP, POP3, IMAP4
* Instant Messaging – AOL Instant Messenger Built-In
* Polyphonic Ringtones – Yes, 24 Chords
* Ringer Profiles – Yes
* MP3 Ringtones – Yes
* Picture Caller ID – Yes, And Picture Phonebook
* Multiple Languages – 4 Supported
* Games – Downloadable Titles
* Customizable Graphics – Yes
* Customizable Themes – Yes
* Customizable Animated Wallpapers – Yes
* Internal Color Display – 220×176 Pixel TFT, 65,000 Colors
* External Display – 96×48 Pixel, W/ Blue Backlight
* Speakerphone – Automatic Full-Duplex
* Hands-Free Dialing – 20 Entries
* To-Do List – Yes
* Voice Memo – Yes
* Alarm – Yes
* Calculator – Yes
* Currency Converter – Yes
* Calendar – Yes
* Vibrate – Yes
* Phonebook Capacity – 1000 Entries
* Multiple Numbers Per Name – 6 Entries Per Contact
* Battery Type – LiIon 820 mAh
* Talk Time – Up To 260 Minutes
* Standby Time – Up To 200 Hours (8.33 Days)
* Application Platform – Java MIDP 2.0
* High-Speed Data – GPRS
* Network Compatibility – GSM 900, 1800, 1900
* Predictive Text Entry – iTAP
* Built-In Memory – 5MB, Flash Shared Memory
* SyncML Supported – Yes
* Dimensions – 1.91รขโฌย x 3.74 in x 0.93 in
* Weight – 4.34 oz
* Device Supports Voice Plans – Yes
by Matt | Mar 14, 2005 | Culture
I hate it when it’s the little things. Apparently I’m an idiot. I formatted the inline_captions tags incorrectly and that’s why they weren’t appearing. That’s fixed and so is the italics in IE issue. I have no idea how I did that, nor do I care. So, those links to the right… enjoy them.
Bang your monkey.
by Matt | Mar 14, 2005 | Culture
My new DVD burner arrived the other day and now it’s sucessfully installed in it’s new home. I opted for the NEC 3520-A. It’s a 16x DL burner and got highmarks from both AnandTech and Toms Hardware. It was also half the price of the Plextor I wanted. I realize the Plextor is the Porche of optical drives, but $150 for a DVD burner when all the others are $50-60. Come on guys, that’s not right.
Regardless, it’s a sweet drive. I’ve already test burnt a half dozen things. I had 8x disks that burnt a full 4.7G in about 6 minutes. The 4x disks I had averages about 12-14 minutes. That’s not shabby. It’s also extemely quite. I didn’t realize it was burning the first time until the light started blinking.
I’ve also installed the old drive in my 2nd machine. It’s hard drive will be formatted shortly and I’ll probably install my old TV tuner card in it and turn it into a media PC. I might even install Media Center Edition on it if I get bored. It’ll fit nicely into my entertainment center. I already have a wireless mouse and the appropriate AV cables to hook everything up. All I need is to find my video breakout box with the svideo inputs. It’s somewhere in the closet. After that it would just be a matter of getting the video drivers to display correctly on the TV. It could be cool.
In non-computer news, we’re going to another Aeros hockey game tonight. I’m not sure who they’re playing, not that it matters anyway. The game starts around 7:00.
I’ve also got the links at the top of the page fixed and should be linked to content shortly. Also, “Recent Links” is installed and you can see it in action over to the right side of the page beneith the archives and links. It’s a updatable list of links I find as I’m browsing around. I’m working on adding text descriptions to each link so it’ll be a little easier to figure out what they are. If you’re look at them in IE, the font is apparently larger and italic. I have no idea why. In Firefox it’s the same font as the links above it and its the same size. Not that it looks bad in IE, it just doesn’t look as it should. Not that I care how things look in IE, but it’s text for heaven’s sake, you’d figure it could at least get that right. Stupid IE.
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