Smojo Speaks

HTC EVO 4G looks like a winner.

smojo — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:43:26 +0000

Here is a little demo of HTC’s new phone called the Evo. It will be coming out sometime in the summer. I’m hoping for a June release date. This will be my next phone when I make the switch to Sprint.
HTC Evo Features:
a 4.3-inch 800×480 capacitive TFT touchscreen with multitouch capabilities out of the box;
Android 2.1 OS with HTC Sense UI;
8-megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording;
1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video conferences;
1GB of flash memory where you can install apps;
512MB RAM;
1GHz Snapdragon processor;
802.11b/g WiFi;
GPS/aGPS with free turn-by-turn navigation;
Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP + EDR;
4G WiMAX technology / 3G EV-DO REV A;
FM Radio;
HDMI out port;
3.5mm headset jack;
microUSB port;
8GB microSD card out of the box (expandable up to 32GB);
Digital compass, G-sensor, Proximity sensor, and a Light Sensor;
1500mAh battery;
Kickstand on its back.

Missing the Killer App in Location Networks

smojo — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:17:46 +0000

Check in and let your friends and followers know where you are at and what you are doing. Location-based social networks have gained popularity over the past year. Lots of different sites to choose from in the mobile check-in space. With all the various networks out there it is becoming harder to keep up with your friends on each network. 3 of the major location networks are foursquare, gowalla, and brightkite. All great networks and all have distinguishing features. Foursquare which just past 1 million users has mayors, badges and to-do lists. Gowalla has items and trips. Brightkite has the location feeds with photos and notes. If you are a user of all 3 it is a pain to go into each one individually to check yourself in and also keep up on what your friends are doing.

What is missing from the mobile check-in world is an application that brings all the services together and lets you see what is going on with ALL your friends. Most people are only going to check into 1 network. Creating some sort of mash-up app would lead to more usage of these sites. So listing where your friends are currently would be feature numero uno. The ability to check into the different sites would also be a no brainer to have in this application. Most of these networks also have tons of city data that can be pulled in to show where the hot spots are currently in a certain area. That is what I want. Someone build it and make location-based social networking easier on myself and the world.

Bye Bye N900. I’m returning you.

smojo — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:11:20 +0000

The N900 is a phone and mobile computer all rolled into 1 device. I started to fall in love with it after seeing so many videos on youtube showing off all the things it was capable of doing. The specs of it are awesome too. So I did something that I normally don’t do which is just splurge on something I really don’t need. Unfortunatly it was a bad decision on my part because the n900 was kind of a fail. Thankfully I had an easy time returning it.

I’m not saying the n900 is an epic fail. There are lots of great things about the device. But overall the N900 is not ready to be my phone. Maybe sometime in the future we will meet again and fall in love but the device is going to need a lot of software for that to happen.

I liked a lot of things about the device but the negatives outweighed the postivies in the end. There is a lack of applications for the device since the Maemo 5 platform is still in its infancy. It is the same thing that happened when the 1st android phone came out. We had a limited number of decent applications to choose from but after a while the android market starting filling up. I imagine Maemo 5 will be the same way. Another thing missing from the n900 is wifi tethering to a laptop. It is in the works but at the moment there is no way to setup an adhoc network. Right now my t-mobile 3g is my only internet. So it is kind of big deal that it has no tethering via wifi. One other thing that was disappointing was the performance of flash video in the browser. Everything would load up very choppy, audio not in sync with the video and constant buffering. An upgrade to the new 10.1 version of flash should help out this issue though. There was no time frame given when the n900 will get 10.1 though.

If you want to know more about the phone just ask. I’m not trying to write a review of the device. For the time being I am back with my useful but aging G1.

Google Phone…My next phone?

smojo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:25:16 +0000

It has been 12 months since my last phone purchase. For a year I’ve been using the HTC Dream aka G1. The phone’s been awesome to use and it has been fun to watch the evolution of android. The G1 is a special phone because it was not only the 1st android phone but it has a huge amount of people developing custom roms and themes for it. The phone has also been my only internet connection for many months. I’ve even started using it to connect my ps3 and play Call of Duty online. There is not much the phone can not do. The only downside I’ve seen to the phone is the camera. But that is a problem with many cell phones. Something I hope HTC and the rest of the phone makers work to improve. Parting with my G1 will be hard but I think it is time for a change.

Photo Credit: Boy Genius Report

Rumors have been going around for months about Google coming out with its own phone. Those rumors have turned out to be true. Over the past few days lots of information and even a few pictures have been leaking out about the Google Phone dubbed Nexus One. It really is a sexy looking phone. All the specs and pricing haven’t been released yet but many people are saying that it will be released on January 5th with the price tag of $199. Inside the phone is a speedy snapdragon processor. The camera on the nexus one should be a big improvement from my G1. It is supposed to be a 5mp camera. The only thing that could make this phone even bigger and better for me was if it came with Flash 10 on it. But I don’t see that happening since it is taking Adobe forever to release an updated version of Flash for smart phones. I will be getting this phone the day it is released unless of course the pricing is wrong. Hopefully Google and HTC release some official information about the phone soon.

Cutting Out Cable Television. My Alternatives.

smojo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:09:04 +0000

Over 2 weeks have passed since I called up Cox Communications and told them to cancel my cable television service. You would think that this would be a hard transition for someone like me. Considering almost my whole life I have lived with cable tv. But it has been pretty easy and I am actually liking my entertainment options better. There are only 2 downsides to not having cable tv. I miss having TNT and ESPN to watch basketball. I also miss just channel surfing through over 100 channels. Yes I was one of those people who would change the channel all the time. During commercials or just because I was bored with what I was watching. So I don’t have the option to flip through channels anymore. So how am I keeping myself entertained these days? Here is how I am cutting out cable television.

On my first day without cable I decided to go out and buy an antenna. Thanks to AntennaWeb.org I was able to see that I would pick up a decent amount of local channels with just a cheap antenna. So the antenna takes care of local channels. It picks up FOX and MY45. Both channels show Family Guy. So I am a happy. The rest of my entertainment options come via the PS3.

Sony added flash 9 to the PS3 browser a few months ago. This lets me enjoy videos from the internet on my TV. So I am able to watch movies, sports games and video podcasts right on my TV by utilizing the PS3 browser. Another thing the PS3 does is it connects to media servers. I am then able to watch videos that I have stored on my computer.

My favorite alternative so far has got to be Netflix. Many of my friends use Netflix so I knew it was a good service. But what I didn’t expect was the amount of content they offered for you to watch instantly. Once I started browsing what you could watch instantly I immediately signed up for an account. I am using a program called PlayOn which lets me watch content from Netflix through the PS3. The program also lets you watch content from Hulu, Youtube, ESPN and much more.

If you have any other suggestions on alternatives please leave them in the comments.

Saying adios to CableTV. A long relationship ends.

smojo — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:53:35 +0000

Well Cable we have had a long and at times fun relationship. I can remember in my younger years spending all my time watching Nickelodeon sitting 2 feet away from the TV. I can still remember when I actually watched MTV. As I look back on my many years of having cable tv one thing really sticks out which is I don’t watch that many channels. At the moment I normally stick to a few channels. Comedy Central for shows like Southpark, Futurama, Daily Show, Colbert, and occasionally I will watch a movie or some standup. Cartoon Network for the new Star Wars cartoon and for Adult Swim. ESPN for sports (duh). TBS for Family Guy. When you look at what I just wrote you will notice that all those shows are available for me to watch online with the exception of sports.

So when the New Year hit I asked myself the question. Why am I paying over 60 dollars a month for 200+ channels if I am only watching 6 channels. The way the cable companies have their pricing does not fit how I watch TV. So I am going to stop giving them money until they change the way they do their pricing. My local cable company is Cox Communications. At the time of writing they only have 2 different packages available. One is for basic cable which costs $22 a month. Their basic cable channels are a joke. Channels 2 to 22. The majority of the channels you can get with antennas. The next package they have is for digital cable which is for 60 dollars a month. This package gives you over 250 channels. Why so little customization? I want options! Why am I paying for channels I will never watch? I can’t think of any other service that works this way.

Goodbye to you Cable TV. Maybe one day you will give your customers more options. Maybe one day you will let your customers pay for only the channels they choose. You have the technology to do it so stop being greedy.

In my next post I will show some alternatives to having cable.

YouTube in 1985

smojo — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:41:11 +0000

A couple of popular YouTubers collaborated to make the 1985 version of YouTube. In the video are Nalts, Matt Koval, BeanerLaRue and XgobobeanX.

Liquid is falling from the sky in Arizona

smojo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:47:45 +0000

When you are living in the desert you have sunny days all the time. During the summer there is no reason to even check the weather report unless you want to see if we are hitting a new record temperature. The greatest thing about the summer months though is Arizona gets some great monsoons. It does not last very long but when it happens it brings a smile to my face. Massive lightning that lights up the sky. Thunder shaking my apartment and rain coming down hard.

Social Media in Plain English

smojo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:08:47 +0000

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

You may remember a pretty popular video from a few months ago called Twitter in Plain English. The creators of that video now set their sights on the topic of social media. The people over at Common Craft have made another gem. This time they look to explain social media and use the subject of ice cream flavors to do it.

A Look at the Cadillac Ranch

smojo — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:14:01 +0000

During my cross country trip last October I made a stop at the Cadillac Ranch on the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas. The Cadillac Ranch is an art sculpture that resides on the side of I-40. It consists of 10 different Cadillac’s with their noses buried in the ground. This place was just so odd that I had to stop and see it for myself. The cars are in the middle of an empty field and you are encouraged to grab some spray paint. For more information on this check out the Cadillac Ranch website.