RickyCadden.com

Skittles Love VloMo10

// November 6th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // blogging, symbian

I was struggling with what to do on my video for VloMo10 number 6 (cause today is November 6th, and you’ll recall I’m posting a video every single day for the month of November). Fortunately, I saw two bags of Skittles on my desk that I’d bought this week, and decided to put together a stop-motion video.

If you’ve been following me for very long, you’ll know that I *love* stop-motion videos. They’re so much fun to make (though a bit tedious) and they’re absolutely awesome to watch. Without further ado, here is today’s VloMo10 video:

I took all the photos with the Nokia N8, which obviously does awesome. However, I had another awesome idea for a stop-motion video planned for later this week, but apparently the Nokia N8 somehow doesn’t have a ‘sequence’ mode to automatically take photos at specific intervals, so I’m going to have to come up with something new for the video later this week.

Driving Home For VloMo

// November 5th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // blogging, symbian

Since I forgot to upload a video for VloMo yesterday, I decided to do two of them today, so I could get back on track. While others have featured me talking to the camera, I decided that my second should be a bit more creative. You can watch ‘Driving Home’ below:

I put the Nokia N8 in my Bracketron dashboard mount to record the video (so I could focus on driving). It worked great, in my opinion. The Nokia Nseries were originally the ultimate content creation tools – it’s nice to see one come out that harks back to its beginnings. Expect more videos and photos from me over the next week or so.

Morning Coffee

// November 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // blogging, symbian

This morning I realized that I had forgotten to post a video for vlomo10 yesterday. Thus, I’m going to do two of them today, to catch myself back up. The first one I recorded early this morning, called Morning Coffee. I was able to use the Nokia Mobile Video Hat to hold my Nokia N8 while I filmed, which was kinda cool, and I used the built-in video editing tools on the N8 to put it all together.

What do you think?

Vlomo10 Video Numero Dos

// November 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // blogging

Just in the nick of time, here’s my Vlomo10 video numero dos. Enjoy, and leave your answer in the comments below.

Btw, yes, I realize the video is upside down. Unfortunately, while the UI on the Nexus One rotates, the camera doesn’t. Also, I thought that YouTube offered some basic video editing tool, including the ability to rotate the video. It doesn’t, but I kinda thought the upside-down was fun, so there you go.

Vlomo10 Video Numero Dos

// November 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // blogging

Just in the nick of time, here’s my Vlomo10 video numero dos. Enjoy, and leave your answer in the comments below.

Btw, yes, I realize the video is upside down. Unfortunately, while the UI on the Nexus One rotates, the camera doesn’t. Also, I thought that YouTube offered some basic video editing tool, including the ability to rotate the video. It doesn’t, but I kinda thought the upside-down was fun, so there you go.

Happy National Videoblogging Posting Month!

// November 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // blogging

My friend James Whatley has been talking about vlomo10 for a few days now and I had mostly ignored him until he published his first video here. I’m a sucker for video blogging (or at least I used to be) and have been wanting to get back to creating content lately, so this is a perfect excuse.

More to come tomorrow.

Happy National Videoblogging Posting Month!

// November 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // blogging

My friend James Whatley has been talking about vlomo10 for a few days now and I had mostly ignored him until he published his first video here. I’m a sucker for video blogging (or at least I used to be) and have been wanting to get back to creating content lately, so this is a perfect excuse.

More to come tomorrow.

Changing Defaults: Seesmic Desktop To Tweetdeck

// August 6th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // blogging, Social Networks

Last time I talked about changing my default applications, I was comparing Google Chrome with Mozilla Firefox – two of the leading alternative web browsers. Today, I thought I’d look at the differences in the two leading Social Media tools – Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck.

I actually started out using Tweetdeck, then moved to Seesmic Desktop, and now, I’m pondering the move back to Tweetdeck. After a week or two of switching between the two, I honestly haven’t picked a favorite. Here’s the factors:

1. Netbook – Seesmic Desktop completely takes over my 1000HE – I am unable to do anything else on the machine while Seesmic Desktop is running, which is a MAJOR issue. I can’t even stream Last.FM without it skipping. With Tweetdeck, I have no problems running additional applications at the same time.

2. System Integration – Seesmic Desktop looks (and seems to act) very much like an OSX app – it’s all silvery-brushed metal, has little bitty minimize/maximize/close buttons, and the layout is just very….Mac. It also doesn’t play well with UltraMon, which is annoying. As explained before, UltraMon puts a little button in the menu bar of windows that makes it really simple to transfer windows between monitors – Seesmic Desktop doesn’t show this button, which is frustrating.

3. Network Support – at the time of this writing, Seesmic Desktop only supports Twitter and Facebook. Meanwhile, Tweetdeck supports Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Google Buzz. While I don’t actively use all of those right now, it’s nice to know I could integrate them into my social media activities easily if I wanted to.

4. Aesthetics – this one’s tough. Seesmic is able to show me more tweets on the screen, which I really like. Tweetdeck seems to allot X number of lines to each update – whether the user uses them or not. This results in PLENTY of blank space, which is annoying. However, Tweetdeck supports color profiles – not only can you change all the colors, you can tweet your settings easily. Thus, you can search to see what others are using. The only thing missing here is the ability to apply someone else’s colors with just one click. Also, Tweetdeck acts like a normal Windows…window, which means it plays nicely with UltraMon.

5. Sync – Tweetdeck synchronizes your columns and accounts across installs – including their mobile clients. While I don’t use Tweetdeck Mobile (it’s only on iPhone/iPad right now), this is a really awesome feature for switching between my Dell XPS M1330 and my Asus 1000HE – all my columns are there. As Tweetdeck releases new mobile clients, it’s reasonable to assume this will work there, too. Seesmic has a web-based client, but it doesn’t seem to synchronize anything across. Note that, annoyingly enough, Tweetdeck only synchronizes your custom columns – making them available on other installs. It doesn’t enable them by default, though hopefully they’ll add this ability in the future.

6. Combining columns – this is one major reason I usually stick with Seesmic Desktop – I can easily have a single ‘Mentions’ column that shows @replies for *all* of my Twitter accounts. I can hobble this together in Tweetdeck, but it misses some, on occasion, and it’s just not the same. Since I’m no longer maintaining the @SymbianGuru twitter account, this isn’t really an issue.

Since I only really manage a single ‘personality’ nowadays, I vastly prefer Tweetdeck. It plays nicely with UltraMon, behaves like a normal Windows application, and has better aesthetics. Which client do you use? Do you use it just for Twitter, or do you also use it to manage Facebook or other social media outlets?

Changing Defaults: Seesmic Desktop To Tweetdeck

// August 6th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // blogging, Social Networks

Last time I talked about changing my default applications, I was comparing Google Chrome with Mozilla Firefox – two of the leading alternative web browsers. Today, I thought I’d look at the differences in the two leading Social Media tools – Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck.

I actually started out using Tweetdeck, then moved to Seesmic Desktop, and now, I’m pondering the move back to Tweetdeck. After a week or two of switching between the two, I honestly haven’t picked a favorite. Here’s the factors:

1. Netbook – Seesmic Desktop completely takes over my 1000HE – I am unable to do anything else on the machine while Seesmic Desktop is running, which is a MAJOR issue. I can’t even stream Last.FM without it skipping. With Tweetdeck, I have no problems running additional applications at the same time.

2. System Integration – Seesmic Desktop looks (and seems to act) very much like an OSX app – it’s all silvery-brushed metal, has little bitty minimize/maximize/close buttons, and the layout is just very….Mac. It also doesn’t play well with UltraMon, which is annoying. As explained before, UltraMon puts a little button in the menu bar of windows that makes it really simple to transfer windows between monitors – Seesmic Desktop doesn’t show this button, which is frustrating.

3. Network Support – at the time of this writing, Seesmic Desktop only supports Twitter and Facebook. Meanwhile, Tweetdeck supports Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Google Buzz. While I don’t actively use all of those right now, it’s nice to know I could integrate them into my social media activities easily if I wanted to.

4. Aesthetics – this one’s tough. Seesmic is able to show me more tweets on the screen, which I really like. Tweetdeck seems to allot X number of lines to each update – whether the user uses them or not. This results in PLENTY of blank space, which is annoying. However, Tweetdeck supports color profiles – not only can you change all the colors, you can tweet your settings easily. Thus, you can search to see what others are using. The only thing missing here is the ability to apply someone else’s colors with just one click. Also, Tweetdeck acts like a normal Windows…window, which means it plays nicely with UltraMon.

5. Sync – Tweetdeck synchronizes your columns and accounts across installs – including their mobile clients. While I don’t use Tweetdeck Mobile (it’s only on iPhone/iPad right now), this is a really awesome feature for switching between my Dell XPS M1330 and my Asus 1000HE – all my columns are there. As Tweetdeck releases new mobile clients, it’s reasonable to assume this will work there, too. Seesmic has a web-based client, but it doesn’t seem to synchronize anything across. Note that, annoyingly enough, Tweetdeck only synchronizes your custom columns – making them available on other installs. It doesn’t enable them by default, though hopefully they’ll add this ability in the future.

6. Combining columns – this is one major reason I usually stick with Seesmic Desktop – I can easily have a single ‘Mentions’ column that shows @replies for *all* of my Twitter accounts. I can hobble this together in Tweetdeck, but it misses some, on occasion, and it’s just not the same. Since I’m no longer maintaining the @SymbianGuru twitter account, this isn’t really an issue.

Since I only really manage a single ‘personality’ nowadays, I vastly prefer Tweetdeck. It plays nicely with UltraMon, behaves like a normal Windows application, and has better aesthetics. Which client do you use? Do you use it just for Twitter, or do you also use it to manage Facebook or other social media outlets?

What Will Be The First Computer-Free Generation?

// July 30th, 2010 // 28 Comments » // blogging, Mobile

Several years ago, I conducted an experiment on Symbian-Guru.com called PC-Free For 30 Days. My main computer had crashed and was going to be in service, so I decided to see how I could complete the tasks that I normally do on my computer using only a Symbian-powered smartphone. The conclusion at the time was that while it is possible, in most cases it wasn’t nearly as convenient to do things from my smartphone as it was to do the same task from a computer.

Fast forward to the present, and I’m honestly convinced that if I didn’t run a blog, I wouldn’t need a computer at all. In the past 6 months, I’ve used smartphones powered by Android, Symbian, and BlackBerry – some of the leading smartphone operating systems.

As I use these smartphone platforms more and more, I’m growing less and less dependent on my laptop for pretty much anything and more dependent on my smartphones to pick up the slack. Aside from the physical aspects (bigger screen, keyboard, etc) there’s really nothing my laptop offers me that my smartphone doesn’t. In fact, my smartphone has a few physical aspects that put it a step ahead my laptop.

1. Better battery life – sure, today’s netbooks can go several hours on a single charge, but the majority of laptops on the market today, barely eek out 2-3 hours of continuous use, much less 6-8. My smartphone – particularly the BlackBerry Bold 9700, can easily go through one, sometimes 2 full days of use before I have to charge it. Impressive.

2. Much more mobile – there’s a difference in mobility and portability. Mobility is the ability to use something while mobile – while moving. Portability is how easy it is to move something from place to place. Portability requires stops to really use something, while mobility doesn’t. My smartphone is a handheld object – I can use it with one hand easily. Even my netbook can’t do that.

3. Connectivity – my smartphone is connected via the cellular network all the time. I get notified of new updates this way, and I don’t have to hunt down a Wi-Fi hotspot to use it. I realize a few netbooks have this built-in now, but the vast majority do not come with this feature built-in.

As the younger generations grow up and get to high school, college, and beyond, how many will opt to have computers – even laptops and netbooks – versus just a smartphone? Even the most high-end smartphone is a few hundred dollars cheaper than the cheapest netbooks, and is just as capable. How many of the generations after them will opt for a full-on computer?

In fact, if I didn’t blog, I’d probably never open my laptop or netbook. Of course, there are WordPress apps for Symbian, BlackBerry, and Android, but it’s not really a great solution. What about you? Do you really need a computer, or have you started to depend more and more on your smartphone for everything? Are there any tasks that you simply need a computer to accomplish?