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My First Kindle Experience

// August 21st, 2010 // 10 Comments » // toys

I bought my wife a Kindle 2 a few months ago, when the refurbs were on sale for ~$100. She reads a TON, so I had been eyeing them for a while, and jumped on it when they hit a more comfortable price-point. After trying to finagle some free e-books onto the device (not a great experience), I finally caved and purchased an e-book from Amazon. I bought Making Ideas Happen, which was recommended recently by my friend Chris Freeland.

Purchasing Content

As expected from Amazon, the masters of online purchasing, the buying experience was seamless. I purchased the book from my computer (because I had Chris’ post in my Google Reader starred items) and chose to have it delivered wirelessly to the Kindle. Within probably 1 minute of clicking the ‘purchase’ button, the book arrived on our Kindle and we had an email confirmation in Christina’s inbox.

You can purchase books and other content directly on the Kindle, thanks to its built-in wireless. I personally find this a bit slow and clunky with the e-ink display, but I suppose if you knew what book you wanted, it wouldn’t be a horrid experience.

Reading Content

The Kindle 2 has a smaller 6-inch display which is a few inches smaller than a standard size book (or at least the ones I used to read). As such, I felt like I was buzzing through the content, since I was constantly pressing the ‘Next Page’ button. You can easily tweak the font to be smaller, thus fitting more in the space, so I suppose it’s just a matter of personal preference (and how good your eyesight is).

The e-ink display is perfect for reading books and other printed content. Because it has no backlight, you can read it in just about any lighting or situation with no issues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a backlight, so like a book, you won’t be reading in the dark without a USB clip-on light or something. The display is more-or-less grayscale, and even the background is darkened, much like a normal page in a book. It’s really an entirely different experience than the brightly-lit LCD and OLED displays that I’m used to looking at, and I noticed that my eyes didn’t hurt after extended use, as well.

To get an idea of how much better (or worse) this e-ink display was, I installed the Kindle for Android application on my Nexus One. Granted, this is a MUCH smaller screen (3.7-inches), but I wanted to compare the readability of OLED vs e-ink. After about half an hour on my Nexus One, it became abundantly clear why people prefer e-ink. Of course, the Kindle for Android app lets you adjust the display a bit, but there’s still no real comparison.

One drawback to e-ink, though, that did, admittedly, get rather frustrating, is its refresh rate – that is, the quickness (or lack thereof) with which it is able to change things on the screen. Once you click the ‘Next Page’ button, expect to wait about 1/2 second before you can continue reading. Similarly, using other features, which I’ll talk about shortly, becomes a painfully slow process. In a world where digital toys continue to move faster and faster, it’s quite odd to see something move so slow. However, after a few page-turns, I rather appreciated this sluggishness – books shouldn’t be blown through, but rather read slowly. It’s almost like a built-in brake for us Internet-speedy-types, and I like it.

Sharing Content

Yes, there is a social aspect to reading books on the Kindle, but it’s so subtle, you’re not likely to get distracted by it (which is *just* barely the acceptable level of interaction needed when reading). For starters, there’s a social highlighter feature. As you’re reading a book on the Kindle, you’ll see various places that have a *very* light dotted line, along with text such as ’37 highlights’ beneath it. This tells you how many other people who’ve read this book have underlined that specific text. Odds are, it’s something you want to either re-read a few times, or highlight yourself. These ‘suggested’ highlights are so light, I almost missed the first one – you can also turn them off completely if you want, but I found it really helpful as I was reading.

There is also a more active social aspect if you want to share a portion of text with your social network of choice. I haven’t set this up, mainly because I want to be reading and not worrying about Twitter or Facebook, but it’s there, nonetheless (and it might be handy here or there).

Experiencing Content

I used to read a ton of books when I was younger – mostly spiritual authors such as John Eldredge, Donald Miller, Brennan Manning, C.S. Lewis, and the like. I would go through five or six books a year, taking notes in the sidebar and underlining all over the place. I have a bookshelf in my office full of books, most of which I’ve read a few times over. Since technology gripped my soul, I haven’t really taken the time to really read a book like I used to.

I honestly don’t know if the Kindle would change that or not. I’m going to finish reading ‘Making Ideas Happen’ on it, and see what I think. Already, I’m enjoying the device itself – it’s super thin and light, feels solid in your hand, I could, theoretically, carry my entire bookshelf on it. The battery life is insane, too, though that’s not surprising with a monochrome display.

Overall, I’d say the experience matched my expectations dead on. There are some sacrifices (battery-powered, slow screen refresh, etc), but there are also some big wins (small and light, easy on the eyes, social highlighting, easy purchase). It’s a bit of an investment up front (I got this Kindle 2 for $100, but they normally go for $139-189, depending on the model). I can say without a doubt that I wish I’d had one of these in high school and college, when I was lugging around monstrous textbooks that I often couldn’t sell used because there was a ‘new edition’. The upfront cost would quickly have been covered by the convenience.

Have you tried an e-book reader? What’s your take?

My First Kindle Experience

// August 21st, 2010 // 10 Comments » // toys

I bought my wife a Kindle 2 a few months ago, when the refurbs were on sale for ~$100. She reads a TON, so I had been eyeing them for a while, and jumped on it when they hit a more comfortable price-point. After trying to finagle some free e-books onto the device (not a great experience), I finally caved and purchased an e-book from Amazon. I bought Making Ideas Happen, which was recommended recently by my friend Chris Freeland.

Purchasing Content

As expected from Amazon, the masters of online purchasing, the buying experience was seamless. I purchased the book from my computer (because I had Chris’ post in my Google Reader starred items) and chose to have it delivered wirelessly to the Kindle. Within probably 1 minute of clicking the ‘purchase’ button, the book arrived on our Kindle and we had an email confirmation in Christina’s inbox.

You can purchase books and other content directly on the Kindle, thanks to its built-in wireless. I personally find this a bit slow and clunky with the e-ink display, but I suppose if you knew what book you wanted, it wouldn’t be a horrid experience.

Reading Content

The Kindle 2 has a smaller 6-inch display which is a few inches smaller than a standard size book (or at least the ones I used to read). As such, I felt like I was buzzing through the content, since I was constantly pressing the ‘Next Page’ button. You can easily tweak the font to be smaller, thus fitting more in the space, so I suppose it’s just a matter of personal preference (and how good your eyesight is).

The e-ink display is perfect for reading books and other printed content. Because it has no backlight, you can read it in just about any lighting or situation with no issues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a backlight, so like a book, you won’t be reading in the dark without a USB clip-on light or something. The display is more-or-less grayscale, and even the background is darkened, much like a normal page in a book. It’s really an entirely different experience than the brightly-lit LCD and OLED displays that I’m used to looking at, and I noticed that my eyes didn’t hurt after extended use, as well.

To get an idea of how much better (or worse) this e-ink display was, I installed the Kindle for Android application on my Nexus One. Granted, this is a MUCH smaller screen (3.7-inches), but I wanted to compare the readability of OLED vs e-ink. After about half an hour on my Nexus One, it became abundantly clear why people prefer e-ink. Of course, the Kindle for Android app lets you adjust the display a bit, but there’s still no real comparison.

One drawback to e-ink, though, that did, admittedly, get rather frustrating, is its refresh rate – that is, the quickness (or lack thereof) with which it is able to change things on the screen. Once you click the ‘Next Page’ button, expect to wait about 1/2 second before you can continue reading. Similarly, using other features, which I’ll talk about shortly, becomes a painfully slow process. In a world where digital toys continue to move faster and faster, it’s quite odd to see something move so slow. However, after a few page-turns, I rather appreciated this sluggishness – books shouldn’t be blown through, but rather read slowly. It’s almost like a built-in brake for us Internet-speedy-types, and I like it.

Sharing Content

Yes, there is a social aspect to reading books on the Kindle, but it’s so subtle, you’re not likely to get distracted by it (which is *just* barely the acceptable level of interaction needed when reading). For starters, there’s a social highlighter feature. As you’re reading a book on the Kindle, you’ll see various places that have a *very* light dotted line, along with text such as ’37 highlights’ beneath it. This tells you how many other people who’ve read this book have underlined that specific text. Odds are, it’s something you want to either re-read a few times, or highlight yourself. These ‘suggested’ highlights are so light, I almost missed the first one – you can also turn them off completely if you want, but I found it really helpful as I was reading.

There is also a more active social aspect if you want to share a portion of text with your social network of choice. I haven’t set this up, mainly because I want to be reading and not worrying about Twitter or Facebook, but it’s there, nonetheless (and it might be handy here or there).

Experiencing Content

I used to read a ton of books when I was younger – mostly spiritual authors such as John Eldredge, Donald Miller, Brennan Manning, C.S. Lewis, and the like. I would go through five or six books a year, taking notes in the sidebar and underlining all over the place. I have a bookshelf in my office full of books, most of which I’ve read a few times over. Since technology gripped my soul, I haven’t really taken the time to really read a book like I used to.

I honestly don’t know if the Kindle would change that or not. I’m going to finish reading ‘Making Ideas Happen’ on it, and see what I think. Already, I’m enjoying the device itself – it’s super thin and light, feels solid in your hand, I could, theoretically, carry my entire bookshelf on it. The battery life is insane, too, though that’s not surprising with a monochrome display.

Overall, I’d say the experience matched my expectations dead on. There are some sacrifices (battery-powered, slow screen refresh, etc), but there are also some big wins (small and light, easy on the eyes, social highlighting, easy purchase). It’s a bit of an investment up front (I got this Kindle 2 for $100, but they normally go for $139-189, depending on the model). I can say without a doubt that I wish I’d had one of these in high school and college, when I was lugging around monstrous textbooks that I often couldn’t sell used because there was a ‘new edition’. The upfront cost would quickly have been covered by the convenience.

Have you tried an e-book reader? What’s your take?

Review Of The Plantronics 903 BackBeat Stereo Headset

// August 6th, 2010 // 9 Comments » // toys

Design

The headset itself is quite simple. There are two moderately small earpieces, connected with a 4mm-thick cable that is 8.25-inches long. This cable is sturdy, yet flexible, and does a great job of not bouncing around too much while you’re wearing the headset. The flexible cable makes it easy to wear the BackBeat around your neck when not in use, but with a t-shirt or other non-collared shirt, there’s nothing to hold it on, and I found myself just sticking the headset in my pocket instead. While at work, though, the collar on my shirt served as a barrier, making it quite comfortable and natural to wear the BackBeat around my neck when not in use.

The earpieces fit over your ear, with the main body of them resting behind your ear and only the earpiece part going over and into your ear. The tips are fully adjustable, so that regardless of how big/little your ears are, you can find a good fit. You’ll find the power button and indicator light along the body of the left earpiece, and the call button on the actual earpiece. The right earpiece is where you’ll find the music controls – play/pause button on the outside, and a rocker for volume/skip track on the bottom. If you flick the volume/skip track rocker, it’ll adjust the volume – hold it in either direction to skip forward or reverse. You can also press this switch in while on a phone call to mute, the headset, which is good for conference calls and such.

Comfort

Music

Calls

Conclusion

Review Of The Plantronics 903 BackBeat Stereo Headset

// August 6th, 2010 // 9 Comments » // toys

Design

The headset itself is quite simple. There are two moderately small earpieces, connected with a 4mm-thick cable that is 8.25-inches long. This cable is sturdy, yet flexible, and does a great job of not bouncing around too much while you’re wearing the headset. The flexible cable makes it easy to wear the BackBeat around your neck when not in use, but with a t-shirt or other non-collared shirt, there’s nothing to hold it on, and I found myself just sticking the headset in my pocket instead. While at work, though, the collar on my shirt served as a barrier, making it quite comfortable and natural to wear the BackBeat around my neck when not in use.

The earpieces fit over your ear, with the main body of them resting behind your ear and only the earpiece part going over and into your ear. The tips are fully adjustable, so that regardless of how big/little your ears are, you can find a good fit. You’ll find the power button and indicator light along the body of the left earpiece, and the call button on the actual earpiece. The right earpiece is where you’ll find the music controls – play/pause button on the outside, and a rocker for volume/skip track on the bottom. If you flick the volume/skip track rocker, it’ll adjust the volume – hold it in either direction to skip forward or reverse. You can also press this switch in while on a phone call to mute, the headset, which is good for conference calls and such.

Comfort

Music

Calls

Conclusion

Otterbox Impact Skin For Nexus One Review

// July 27th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Mobile, toys

When my friends at Otterbox sent me the Commuter case for my Nexus One, they also sent along the Impact series, so I could get a real good idea of the differences between the two product lines side-by-side. The Otterbox Impact series is a bit less hardcore than some of their other cases but still offers plenty of protection for your device. The skin is twice as thick as most other silicone skins that I’ve seen for various phones, offering much more cushion without really adding too much bulk. In fact, the Otterbox Impact series skin only adds about 3.5mm to the overall thickness of the Nexus One – maxing it out at 15mm. That’s not bad considering the amount of protection you receive.

The Otterbox Impact series case is made entirely of black silicone, which means you’re going to get a great grip on the phone, and there is a criss-cross texture around the edges to maximize this, as well. While initially I was concerned that the rubbery texture would make it difficult to slip my Nexus One out of my jeans pocket, I was relieved to find that it’s quite toned down and didn’t cause too much resistance.

The Impact case for the Nexus One has holes cut for the various outlets on the phone, including the proximity sensor, notification LED, both microphones, the camera, LED flash, 3.5mm audio port, and the microUSB charging port. This gives you easy access to the various ports without having to constantly remove the whole case.

The Otterbox Impact case for the Nexus One also comes with a custom-cut full screen protector to guard the front of your phone from scratches, along with an application card and cleaning cloth. As with the Otterbox Commuter case, the Impact case for the Nexus One leaves the bottom lip of the phone exposed. While I would have preferred some protection for this part of the phone, the current design is best to not block the trackball at all.

One of the things that sets the Otterbox Impact series apart from other silicone skins on the market is the inside of it. They’ve smartly added a pattern of pockets, which Otterbox calls ‘coring’ to really protect you phone from drops and such. It’s a nice design, and it definitely contributes to a more sturdy feel – I wasn’t brave enough to drop my Nexus One to test it, but you can feel the difference from the outside of the skin.

Overall, if you’re looking for a silicone skin to protect your Nexus One and provide a bit more grip, the Otterbox Impact skin is a great choice. It does add a bit more heft to your phone than other options, but the inner coring and edge textures provide a few extra features that make it worth the sacrifice, in my opinion. The skin is only available in black at the moment, though, so if you’re looking to add some color to your phone, you may have to look elsewhere.

Otterbox was kind enough to let me hold a giveaway for the Nexus One Impact skin, as well, which is pretty cool! If you’ve got a Nexus One, or know someone who does, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post, letting me know what color you would take the case in, if you could choose any color/pattern. Of course, the winner will receive a standard black one, I’m just interested to know what color you guys would choose if you could. I think you all know what I would choose…..

I’ll randomly pick a winner on Thursday, July 29th, so that gives you a few days to think.

Otterbox Commuter Case For Nexus One Review

// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // android, toys

While I’ve never been much of a case person with my cell phones, for some reason, I was keenly aware that my Nexus One was unprotected, so I knew I needed to get a solid case for it. I reviewed the Otterbox Commuter case for my Nokia N97, and really like the build quality that you get with Otterbox.

My friends at Otterbox were kind enough to send me a review unit of their Commuter case for my Nexus One. The Commuter series is a bit intense, consisting of a thin silicone skin and a hard plastic shell that snaps on over it. The case also comes with a custom-cut screen protector, application card, and cleaning cloth – everything you need to really protect your phone.

A major concern for me was how much thickness the case would add to the overall phone. The Nexus One is definitely quite thin, so I didn’t want to ruin that. The Otterbox Commuter series case only adds 3.5mm to the phone, making the Nexus One 15mm thick, which is still thinner than most other smartphones. The case is lightweight enough that I don’t notice any additional weight in my pocket, which is also nice.

The Otterbox Commuter case’s silicone skin protects the phone from top to bottom, including attached inserts to guard the 3.5mm audio port and microUSB charging port from debris – a welcome feature, especially as Mrs. Guru and I have started doing more home improvement projects at CasaGuru lately. The plastic shield portion of the case snaps on the back, providing additional protection for the 5 megapixel camera lens with a raised edge around it.

There are holes pre-cut for the single LED flash, speakerphone, and both microphone ports – I suppose they’re not worried about debris getting caught in these openings. At first, I was disappointed that the bottom lip of the phone surrounding the trackball was exposed, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized covering that portion would have made the trackball nearly impossible to use.

The power button and volume rocker on the Nexus One are both protected by the Otterbox Commuter case, as well, and while they’re both covered by a thick layer of silicone, I haven’t noticed any issues pressing either one of them – the silicone is soft enough that it works out fine.

I personally am loving the Otterbox Commuter case on my Nexus One. The covered data and audio ports are a *bit* frustrating, as sometimes the flaps can be difficult to open, but as mentioned, I’ve already been glad I have them while working on home improvement projects with dust flying around. If you’re looking to protect your new phone without increasing the bulk too much, the Otterbox Commuter series is definitely a winner in my book. I just wish that it was available on additional colors – as of right now, the Otterbox Commuter case is only available in black.

Review: ThinkGeek Glowing Keyboard Stickers

// May 11th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // toys

In an attempt to make myself hate my 1000HE less (and make my current toys last longer), I ordered the Glowing Keyboard Stickers from ThinkGeek recently. One of the requirements for my next netbook is that it has a backlit keyboard, so I figured a set of stickers would be the next best thing.

1oooHE Keyboard Before

I ordered the stickers last week and received them today – normal shipping time for me (I always choose the cheapest shipping option). Total cost: $15.48.

For starters, the name is misleading. As pointed out in the first sentence of the second paragraph of the product description, ‘The Glowing Keyboard Stickers do not glow in the dark.’ Rather, they are highly reflective, supposedly easily taking in any amount of ambient light – such as that from your monitor – and reflecting that brightly. Unfortunately, I was really looking for something that glows in the dark – I should have read the description more carefully.

The stickers arrive on a single sheet, laid out similar to how a keyboard is. They have a matte finish, which is nice, and the blue lettering is easily read, even on the tiny labels on buttons such as the ‘Insert’ button. Each is carefully cut, and I was able to use a pair of tweezers to remove them from the backing and apply them to my keys.

On two buttons, I ended up putting the sticker on a bit crooked and was pleased to find that I could easily lift the sticker off with the tweezers without leaving any residue. The sticker was then easily re-applied to the button – great. Because I was using these on a netbook and not a full-size keyboard, I did have to trim several of the stickers. Using a pair of regular craft scissors, this was quite easily done, and kept everything looking nice.

1000HE Keyboard After

Unfortunately, $15.48 and about 2 hours later, I still can’t completely see the keys on my 1000HE while laying in bed in the dark at night. Normally, I literally *lay* in bed, so that my eyes are roughly level with the keyboard. If I sit up a bit (which I should probably be doing anyways) and tilt the screen to more of a 90-degree angle, the keys are, indeed, more easily read.

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend the ThinkGeek Glowing Keyboard Stickers. They don’t really glow, and they were a pain in the butt to install. If you’re looking to simulate a backlit keyboard on your laptop or netbook, look somewhere else.

That being said, after wasting 2 hours of my Tuesday evening applying these things, I’ll be keeping them for at least a few months. If nothing else, the blue matches my 3ACP skin much better than the original labels did.

Experiences With The BlackBerry Bold 9700

// May 4th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // blackberry, Mobile, technology, toys

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that a few weeks ago, I picked up the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 to use on my personal AT&T account. I’ve never used a BlackBerry, save for reviewing the Pearl for MobileBurn.com, so I figured it’d be a good chance to check one out – plus I got it free with an upgrade, so no money out of pocket.

The phone itself is really well built. There are no creaks or squeaks when using it, and I didn’t immediately notice any major light leaks like we tend to find on Nokia’s latest Eseries smartphones. The Bold series is the top-of-the-line BlackBerry, having the best cameras (3.2 megapixel with autofocus and single-LED flash) and full 3G support on AT&T’s network, which is why I got the Bold instead of the more stylish (in my opinion) Curve series.

Having sold BlackBerries for a while now, I was familiar enough with the interface – like other non-touchscreen smartphones, it’s d-pad and icon-driven, so there’s really not much to figure out other than up, down, left, right, click. I did, however, immediately notice that my signal strength wasn’t quite as good on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as it is on my Nokia N97 in and around my house, but I have WiFi, and the BlackBerry happily (and more importantly, stealthily) switches seamlessly between WiFi and cellular, so I was fine.

I also sprung for the desktop charging stand for $20, which should come as no surprise given my desire for these things. I was especially pleased to find that, as I hoped, this stand does more than simply charge the phone. It also activates a special mode on the phone that you can customize, which is spectacular.

After a week or two of off-and-on usage, I can definitely see that the BlackBerry has some awesome features that some folks may like, but for me, there are a few that just ruin the whole thing.

BlackBerry Messenger

When I talked about getting a BlackBerry, the first thing everyone said was to make sure I added folks to my BBM list, as that’s the real killer feature of BlackBerries. I did, but honestly, I didn’t really see what that offers that Gtalk on Android and Ovi Chat on Symbian offers – there are no compelling BlackBerry-only features, that I could tell. Just another platform-specific IM service.

Email

Email is a mixed bag. I have set myself up so that I sync all my important stuff with Google – email, contacts, calendar. Of course, you can easily download the Google Sync app for BlackBerry to get contacts and calendar syncing, so that was no problem. I previously thought that BlackBerries were supposed to be the end-all-be-all of email experiences – this is true, apparently, unless you use Gmail. Currently, BlackBerries do not have a full 2-way sync with Gmail. Update – apparently, RIM started rolling out the update to fix this, but I haven’t gotten it through AT&T just yet.

If you receive an email in Gmail, it arrives on both the desktop and your BlackBerry – check. If you read it on your BlackBerry, it gets marked as read on your desktop – awesome. However, if you read it on your desktop, it *doesn’t* get marked as read on your BlackBerry – you have to manually go through and read them all….again, on the phone. This is a huge deal, and apparently BlackBerry is working on a fix. However, BlackBerries and Gmail have both been around for how long? It’s absurd to have this issue still in the current release.

Facebook

Facebook on a BlackBerry is one of the best Facebook experiences I’ve had. It’s smooth, stable, and integrates deeply into the phone, which is awesome. The only annoying aspect here is that if you receive Facebook notifications via email, they get converted to native Facebook notifications on your BlackBerry, so again, at the end of the day, I was left to clean up my desktop Gmail inbox – not fun.

Multimedia

The camera on the BlackBerry is what I would call acceptable. It’s not going to blow your mind with features or the resulting photographs, but it does a better job than most phones on the market. I suppose I’m rather spoiled with my Symbian-powered smartphones and their cameras. Once you’ve taken a photo, you can easily share that with Facebook or Twitter (provided you have a Facebook or Twitter app installed). Easy peasy.

For music, I admittedly haven’t used the built-in music player at all – I’ve found myself rather uninterested in locally stored music on my mobile devices, but have used streaming music services quite a bit. Tragically, Last.FM is nowhere to be found for my BlackBerry Bold 9700, and Last.FM doesn’t seem interested in fixing this (though they have a BlackBerry app, it’s just not available for download for the Bold 9700 for some stupid reason). Thus, I’ve been using Pandora and TuneWiki, and it’s been awesome.

Apps

While limited, I found the BlackBerry App World to be quite nice – it’s easy to navigate, easy to download apps, and I was even able to use my Paypal account – which is better than my HTC Eris, for which I had to setup a Google Checkout account. I’ve no complaints there, other than a lack of ‘fun’ apps like I find on Android’s Marketplace and Symbian’s Ovi Store.

One thing I did notice, though, is that everything is at least $2 more expensive on BlackBerry than on other platforms. This has been confirmed already, but it was quite annoying, honestly.

Themes

I like changing themes on my phone, and BlackBerry themes can actually change the most things out of any platform that I’ve tested. Simply by changing your theme, you can get an entirely new layout on your homescreen, reorganize your main menu, change icons, backgrounds – the works. Unfortunately, I was hard-pressed to find a decent free theme – most of the themes that I found for my BlackBerry Bold 9700 were $3.99 and up – quite ridiculous, when you think about it.

I also had trouble finding a theme with decent icons – I really hate the default icons in BlackBerry OS v5, they make me think of stick figures and completely waste the high-resolution display on high-end devices like the Bold 9700. I couldn’t help but wish for Android or Ovi icons, both of which I think look great and add character to the interface.

Settings

There’s one thing that BlackBerries are definitely not short on, and that’s settings. Holy crap, you can change dang near anything on these phones, and sadly, all of these settings are dumped into a single ‘Settings’ menu item, listed out in black writing on white backgrounds – no icons or anything, just lists, lists, and more lists. It’s unbelievable, really.

I did purchase one app, called BeBuzz, and ironically, it’s more or less a ‘settings’ app. With BeBuzz, you can customize the multi-colored notification LED on your BlackBerry for all sorts of awesome things. For instance, on mine, if it blinks purple, I know I got something (phone call, sms, mms, email) from my wife. If it was white, I knew it was from a coworker, and if it was blue, I knew it was a Facebook notification. Orange is for email, green is for Twitter, and the list goes on and on and on. Completely brilliant, and this app definitely contributed to the ‘crackberry’ addiction that had me glancing at my phone at every spare second.

Homescreen

The BlackBerry homescreen is honestly the most confusing part of the whole thing. There are a few different layouts you can choose from, typically with a row of 5 icons – shortcuts to apps – along the bottom or side of the screen. The theme I chose also has a slot in the top right corner for a Weather application, which then shows the current conditions/forecast. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to change these icons to the apps I wanted them to be, so I finally asked a BlackBerry user. It turns out, these are simply the top row of icons in your main menu screen – to change them, you simply re-arrange your main menu.

Coming from Symbian, and having used Android and Windows Mobile, this seems like a tremendous waste of space to me. If I already have these icons on my homescreen, why on earth would I need them in the top row of my main menu? It’s absurd, really.

Battery Life

Now, here is where the BlackBerry Bold 9700 completely dominated every phone I’ve ever used in my life – I simply could not manage to kill the battery in a single day. I had email running all the time, constant texting in and out, Twitter and Facebook both constantly logged in, and did a few hours of Pandora Radio streaming music and still managed to have at least 1/4th of the battery left at the end of the day. It’s simply amazing.

Conclusion

Like most smartphone platforms I’ve tried out, the BlackBerry isn’t really worse or better than Symbian, it’s just different. There are things it does better than Symbian, but there are also things that I really miss about Symbian. Overall, I’ve actually found myself keeping my SIM in the BlackBerry more often, mainly for the battery life. It’s awesome to be able to go through your day using all the features of your phone without worrying about how they’re going to hit your battery. I frequently stream music while driving (I hate FM radio), use GPS, and I like to have Facebook and Twitter logged in all day long.

My Home Theatre PC Doesn’t Know Me

// March 5th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // technology, toys

When I finally purchased a big-screen TV for our house, I was thrilled to hook it up to our media center, to have large-screen access to all of our movies, music, photos, and streaming content such as Netflix. I use Windows Media Center because it’s the easiest to setup and manage, especially since every other computer in our house is also running Windows 7. Lately, I also found these two awesome plugins to allow me to access Boxee and Hulu Desktop straight from Windows Media Center with my remote.

Unfortunately, the addition of these two plugins also proved how impersonal my Home Theatre PC (HTPC) really is. You see, Boxee, Hulu, and even Netflix all create a custom profile for each of their users. This profile is built by tracking the content that you watch, and you can get recommendations based on your past viewing history as well as share your viewing habits with your friends to have a better experience.

In our house, there are only two of us – Mrs. Guru and me. As you might expect, we both have vastly different tastes in movie, tv shows, and music. There are also situations when we agree on things, and we often watch movies together. Unfortunately, our HTPC doesn’t know that – as far as it is concerned, there is only one extremely eccentric user in the house, and that’s where the experience fails.

I would like to be able to setup profiles for each user – it’d be a bit of a hassle to begin with, but no more than the rest of the initial setup process. After that, it should be pretty seamless. When choosing something to watch, I would ideally get a quick pop-up, asking who I am, or who’s in the room. I could then – using the Media Center remote – simply choose my own profile, and then the content would begin playing. There could even be a group option, for those movies that Mrs. Guru and I enjoy together.

With this setup, our own viewing habits would be channeled to our own profiles, easily, with no muss or fuss. More importantly, it’s something that Mrs. Guru could do on her own, too. Of course, this is only a software solution, and would be the easiest to implement to existing setups. In the future, things could get even cooler, with facial recognition (though admittedly, that’s a bit creepy) or perhaps shortcut buttons on the remote itself.

I know that both Boxee and Hulu Desktop let you have multiple user accounts setup, but there’s not really an easy way to switch between them, that I’ve discovered. It needs to be easy enough for my wife to do it, but ‘in your face’ enough that we don’t forget to do it, too. Do you have multiple people using the same HTPC? What’s your solution?

My Home Theatre PC Doesn’t Know Me

// March 5th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // technology, toys

When I finally purchased a big-screen TV for our house, I was thrilled to hook it up to our media center, to have large-screen access to all of our movies, music, photos, and streaming content such as Netflix. I use Windows Media Center because it’s the easiest to setup and manage, especially since every other computer in our house is also running Windows 7. Lately, I also found these two awesome plugins to allow me to access Boxee and Hulu Desktop straight from Windows Media Center with my remote.

Unfortunately, the addition of these two plugins also proved how impersonal my Home Theatre PC (HTPC) really is. You see, Boxee, Hulu, and even Netflix all create a custom profile for each of their users. This profile is built by tracking the content that you watch, and you can get recommendations based on your past viewing history as well as share your viewing habits with your friends to have a better experience.

In our house, there are only two of us – Mrs. Guru and me. As you might expect, we both have vastly different tastes in movie, tv shows, and music. There are also situations when we agree on things, and we often watch movies together. Unfortunately, our HTPC doesn’t know that – as far as it is concerned, there is only one extremely eccentric user in the house, and that’s where the experience fails.

I would like to be able to setup profiles for each user – it’d be a bit of a hassle to begin with, but no more than the rest of the initial setup process. After that, it should be pretty seamless. When choosing something to watch, I would ideally get a quick pop-up, asking who I am, or who’s in the room. I could then – using the Media Center remote – simply choose my own profile, and then the content would begin playing. There could even be a group option, for those movies that Mrs. Guru and I enjoy together.

With this setup, our own viewing habits would be channeled to our own profiles, easily, with no muss or fuss. More importantly, it’s something that Mrs. Guru could do on her own, too. Of course, this is only a software solution, and would be the easiest to implement to existing setups. In the future, things could get even cooler, with facial recognition (though admittedly, that’s a bit creepy) or perhaps shortcut buttons on the remote itself.

I know that both Boxee and Hulu Desktop let you have multiple user accounts setup, but there’s not really an easy way to switch between them, that I’ve discovered. It needs to be easy enough for my wife to do it, but ‘in your face’ enough that we don’t forget to do it, too. Do you have multiple people using the same HTPC? What’s your solution?