So I’ve had the Motorola Droid X for Verizon Wireless since last Thursday and already I can’t put it down. Here are some of my first impressions. I promise to write a more in-depth review later when I use it more.

Pros:

• The UI is nice, easy to use and intuitive.
• The phone quality is excellent.
• The speaker quality isn’t half bad.
• The screen (4.1 inches of goodness) is amazing and fits my hand perfectly.
• The Android OS thought not on 2.2 Froyo yet, is snappy and responsive (please not the con below is not always consistent)
• The Android Market is full of quality apps, despite what some people say in comparison to the iTunes App store.

Cons: Well they aren’t really cons more annoyances

• The phone section can get a bit suggish at times, when doing a search for a contact. I still haven’t determined if that’s the phone or the sheer size of my contact book on Google.
• Voice Calling can be a little delayed at times, although it’s not consistent so I’m looking into what might be causing it.
• BLOATWARE – Yes you heard me right, Verizon or Motorola or both have put some apps on the phone that I don’t want and what’s worse you can delete them with out rooting your phone. Which leads me to my next Con….
• Rooting can cause your phone to go into recovery mode – This is just WRONG. The whole idea of Android is that it’s supposed to be an open system. Motorola, by putting in a safeguard to protect from rooters, is really not doing the right thing for it’s users. I understand that rooting can give benefits like free wireless access to your account and other nifty features, but the US Federal Government (or was it the Library of Congress, either way it’s the Feds) says that rooting falls in the realm of fair use under the DMCA.
• It’s BIG. Now for me that’s not a Con. I love the large screen and the size and weight. But for people like my wife and sister-in-law (the latter has chosen to go with the Droid Incredible, if it ever ships), who both have small hands, it can be a little bit too big.

So those are my first impressions of the Droid X. Do you have a Droid X? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, has a great video on BigThink.com about how work isn’t productive and full of interruptions. He talks about how we need to eliminate our distractions so we can work more efficiently and have more time away from work.

I love working at home for this reason. There are still interruptions, but most happen on my terms. Interruptions are also another reason I’ve stopped going to coffee shops to do my work. There are always things to distract you when you’re off site. Staying in your office working is the best way, for me at least, to be productive.

Here’s Jason’s BigThink.com video:

What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments.

From The Globe and Mail

Very interesting, at the World Trade Center site they found a 19th ship. What’s intriguing to me is that they found it now and not when they were building the WTC the first time. Interesting. Probably different priorities than today. Interesting video over at CNN check it out below.

There’s an inherent problem with ambition and creativity. Don’t get me wrong, they both are great things to have separate or together. But with both ambition and creativity comes the problem of time. One only has 24 hrs in a day. This is a mix of work, family time, pleasure/hobbies, and for at least 6 hrs, sleep.

Here in lies my problem. My brain is always going. New ideas are always brewing. Some of the ideas are good ones, some aren’t that great. Regardless it’s finding time to act on these ideas that”s difficult.

At any given time, I’m doing the job that pays the bills (Web Design and Social Media) and working on countless start-up ideas or projects. I’ve always been this way. I’ve always had to create, build, innovate on my thoughts and ideas. But I, like all of us, am only human and only have so much time in the day to get things accomplished.

In the Internet Marketing industry, experts always say (as do I) that you need to be actively participating in the communities that surround your business. So for example, if you’re a plumber you want to be where the people who are plumbers and who need plumbers hangout. It seems simple, but in actuality with only 24 hours in the day it’s not.

So I’ve figured out a trick. Bring in other like-minded individuals who share your same passion for the topic your ideas revolve around. Don’t be afraid to share the profits and gains. In the end not being greedy will help you out in the long run.

Many of the big Tech companies started out in a garage or a dorm as a projected among friends and colleagues (Apple/Microsoft, Facebook/Google respectfully). Because the idea was shared the time constraints restricting the ambition and creativity were lifted, somewhat, and they were able to grow.

So the moral of the story is to always strive for more. Innovate, create, build. And most of all be willing to share and ask for help. There is no shame in that.

This video of a photo shoot done with using the iPhone as the camera is really neat. It shows how advanced the cameras on mobile phones have become.

The video was first shared on the The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Though I’m not a big fan of Steve Jobs, I have to admit the iPhone’s ability is awfully amazing. I’d like to see the same thing done with an Android phone. Have no doubt that it could be done.

Thanks to StephieMay on Twitter for sharing the link with me.

Being part of something big with a great reputation is great. Whether it be a corporation with a great reputation or an award winning consulting firm, it never hurts to be part of the best. But when comes to your bottom-line and being a success, branding yourself is the key to success.

You need to make sure you standout from the crowd. Make yourself unique – the one everyone wants to go to.

By using Social Media and the tools available to you to self-brand you’re positioning yourself for much more success than if you just followed the pack.

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Tyranny is far from being abolished in the modern world. With the creation of the Internet came the hope that those oppressed by totalitarian regimes would be able to fight for freedoms that they were denied. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the United States and other organizations Worldwide are helping in the fight for freedom through their tireless defense of Internet and everyday liberties.

Whistle-blower friendly Website, Wikileaks (visit their site), is one such organization. On their site the creators have built and constantly curate a repository for whistle-blowers to share confidential and sensitive documents with the World. There are countless documents on the servers submitted anonymously by people who disagree with what’s happening in governments and/or with businesses both nationally and globally.

The United States Government is not innocent when it comes to its interaction with the site. There have been attempts by the US government to shutdown the site, citing national security reasons. There is an ongoing investigation into the source or sources of the leaks to the site of confidential and embarrassing information and secrets.

This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. “The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses “trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers, the report recommends “The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that “Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks—U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay.

Now, I understand the government’s reasoning for wanting to eradicate the Wikileaks problem, but as former professional journalist and current citizen journalist, I have to admit I’m concerned.

Wikileaks, though controversial, provides an avenue to uncover corruption. Wikileaks isn’t just a site to uncover corruption within the US Government, it’s existence is justified to provide an avenue to cover governmental and corporate corruption Worldwide. It helps keep those in power accountable.

We as a people both here in the United States and abroad need to stand up to our governments and protect outlets like Wikileaks alive. Because without accountability there is no way to insure democracy and freedom.

Hat tip to Bitrebels for this video. As a kid, I always wanted to have a secret hideaway where you could only get in by a secret knock. Now back then this was only a fantasy, but now it’s reality.

A guy has posted a video on Youtube showing his latest contraption that opens your deadbolt with a secret knock. It actually doesn’t look that complex. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to build one for myself but I don’t think the wife would appreciate coming home and having to do a special knock just to get in the door.

Check it out:

What do you think? Would you put this on your door to your house? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Hat tip to CaffiNation’s tumbler blog!

Have a great July 4th. Be safe and have a great time with your families.

God Bless America!

This is directly from the Google Buzz Team

Since day one, the ability to reshare (or rebuzz, repost, etc) posts
has been a top request on our Product Ideas page, and everywhere else.
Today, we’re excited to launch it to all Google Buzz users.

/…/

The blog post will have more details about how we developed this feature, too.

And to answer a few questions in advance: You’ll only be able to  reshare public posts, and they’ll link back to the original poster. You can limit your reshared post to a private set of people, just like you can with your own posts, and you can add your own comments.

Enjoy,
The Google Buzz Team