My Day To Day

REVIEW: Blackberry Torch 9850

2011-10-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Intro

Blackberry was sort of my first truly real smartphone, sure the sidekick counts, but only kind of. Blackberry really did it all. I had a blackberry pearl at first, the good old 8100. I followed that with the global 8830. I sold both of these phones but really liked them for their time, my biggest issue was how slow they can be once something better comes out and how outdated they become, it happens so fast! I wanted to see the Torch 9850 (no keyboard) with my own eyes and hands to see if it had some of the same issues or if they wised up a bit.

Looks

It looks good! It is clean and some may mistake it for the newest android phone, not sure if that is what blackberry wants, but on the other hand it could be exactly what they want. It is clean and easy to use with no keyboard other than what is on screen. The lock button is not something that sticks out much, it is actually built into the top of the phone and you have to press down on top to get it to lock or unlock, it does not even look like a button. The trackpad looks good, some trackpads make me not want to use the device, but this one beckoned to me, called my name so to speak. I just wanted to mess with it.

OS

We are using blackberry OS 7, that is much better than the last time I reviewed a blackberry, a whole OS updated! It feels a bit faster than OS 6 and is definitely faster than what I used on the pearl and 8830 a long time ago. The OS has come a long way and blackberry should be proud of themselves for this. It is a good OS again, back when I had the 8100 it worked quite nicely, then again there was not a whole lot to compare it against other than feature phones and so of course it was better. Now it is finally coming back as a competitor, RIM is trying to get there and they sure are giving a good fight!

Imagery

Final Thoughts

I am finally excited to see what is next, after this one. The 9900 sounds promising after playing with this phone, I also had a LITTLE, very little time playing with the playbook at best buy and it isn't bad either. The 9900 paired with a playbook could actually be kind of decent, nothing spectacular but it could be cool. I am interested in blackberry again, not as a full time phone but as something that could be good in the future, something that could compete if they work at it even more.

REVIEW: The HP Veer 4G

2011-10-08T20:31:00.001-07:00

Intro

I have wondered the "deal" is with WebOS for a while now. I have had friends who liked it a lot, also had people I follow on social networks who really liked it, many were reluctant to give it up, many didn't want to move on to Android as WebOS started to die. A lot of them were basically forced to as WebOS was not doing well and it wasn't being very supported, now we are really in too deep as they have cancelled all hardware and claim to support the software.

Looks

It looks kind of nice, a very clean round form factor. I like it a lot, many have liked it. It comes in white or black and I got white. It is shaped like.. well a round rock kind of, the perfect kind for skipping. It is clean and smooth, the keyboard is quite nice if you ask me, even for being so dang small! It's set up in Qwerty mode, the buttons are really easy to press as they are raised. Many many people like how this device looks, I have only seen white but I have heard time and time again this week "if that was in black."

OS

The OS, as mentioned is WebOS. It was recently purchased by HP. Palm of course was the bigger part of that. The version I am running is 2.1. From what I read, ~~Palm...~~ HP whatever is quite fragmented, more so than Android is ways, this is one of those things that proves it. The Pre 3, which is no longer coming to America was set to run version 3, the cancelled tablet, (TouchPad - Review Coming) is also on version 3. Version 2 added a few things, one of them was tab stacking, and it is kind of a cool feature.

Imagery

Final Thoughts

I had some fun with the phone, no doubts there, I took it to work and gave it a good run. Many co workers wanted one or something like it, the size and form factor is a draw for many people, me included (although it'd be too hard to give up my 4.3 inch evo screen). WebOS is a thing of beauty, it makes me excited to get a touchpad and mess with the next iteration of the software, that is until stable Android is on it.

It really makes me wonder what failed with Palm/HP/WebOS. A lot of people like the devices, the form seems like something many like, the style and over all design is great too, it could be the pricing, the TouchPad and Pre I heard wasn't ideal for price. This one though, the Veer 4G seems nice. It is only one penny with a new contract. A PENNY!

2011-09-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have so many people that do not want to come to Google+ and some people calling it a failure. It must suck to be on the team at Google in a way because you hear this negative stuff when people have barely given it a chance.

MySpace never reached this level of popularity.
It took Facebook a very long time to get where Google+ is as well.
Twitter just reached this level in the past few years.

What can be done to get people over from these sites and get them to engage? I think Circles are important and it seems to be something people do not understand. Since this site looks and feels more like a Facebook, it is treated as one, a lot of people expect others to follow them, or for a friend finder system to say oh Joe EveryMan is on here and you went to the same school. That doesn't happen as much. It seems this site is built around interests, are at least that is how I use it. I have 53 circles. Sometimes I share very specific things and other times it is very bland, other times it is cool and important and it goes public, or maybe I just want an opinion from a lot of people.

The very specific things I share are about food and other such specific topics. I think circles need to get used in a better way for the new people. I also think the mobile app and site need a few changes, nothing major, just a few things to keep it in the loop of tech. +1 on posts is important to me, so is editing, how many times have I spelled a word wrong due to auto correct?

All this said, I have 600 people circled and I share content as well as comment on content, I use hangouts nightly, usually in 3 or 4 a night. Do not be afraid to hangout, what is the worst that can happen, you may learn something?

Motorola... wait, win phone 7?

2011-09-01T16:59:00.001-07:00

Google+ Invites

2011-08-28T00:37:00.000-07:00

These are Google+ invites, now you too can be part of it! YAY!

https://plus.google.com/i/ANKUpg-7dOY:NFuIBIj8EQY

The link looks weird but, hey, it's an invite

RIP my dog lola

2011-08-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

We just lost little lola, she passed on, my little tea cup chihuahua, my first real dog that i owned, she was my dog. I loved her a lot and i know she loved me. She was a great friend and companion and was always excited to see me. RIP my little dog. I will never forget you.

Such a cute little dog! I miss her already!

Some video of my little dog, RIP

An image +shay corbett drew

Sphero

2011-07-19T13:38:00.001-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:152b260bf7386b1e} htc shirt guys

2011-07-12T01:06:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

{EAV_BLOG_VER:d969eba054b6568e} test oh

2011-07-12T01:05:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Second test

2011-07-12T01:04:00.001-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:d969eba054b6568e}

BAM test

Just a test update

2011-07-12T01:03:00.001-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:152b260bf7386b1e}

this is just a test of course

Draft.Blogger.com

2011-07-07T16:45:00.001-07:00

Today Blogger updated if you are an in draft user. Just go to draft.Blogger.com and you see a brand new back end! I plan to change my theme and template soon, a little cleaner probably.

Expect that soon.

Untitled

2011-06-28T23:18:00.001-07:00

via DestroyTwitter

Old picture?

2011-06-24T14:03:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Delicious,waiting

2011-06-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Whay have we here

2011-06-22T14:28:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Untitled

2011-06-21T16:36:00.001-07:00

I see this way too OFTEN! This sucks

2011-06-20T01:35:00.001-07:00

the day has come

2011-06-20T00:21:00.001-07:00

Untitled

2011-06-17T18:06:00.001-07:00

Greenery

2011-06-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Pen in goatee

2011-06-16T15:16:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

Pretty, pic I got when it was raining

2011-06-08T20:00:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

If I don't put a napkin down the screen gets scratched, anyone else have this issue?

2011-06-08T15:48:00.001-07:00

Taken with picplz.

3ds update

2011-06-08T00:28:00.001-07:00