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Smart Phone
HP TouchPad / WebOS: The 28 Day Experiment – Day 1
Aug 8th
Two years ago I made the leap and jumped on the Palm Pre bandwagon. I still remember the day I brought it home, connected to my home wifi and started downloading from an apps store that had some 300 available applications. In those days, the Pre was a product of Palm, and the WebOS was the first multi-tasking mobile OS created. Even though the phone release was very late and the iPhone was all but dominating the market, I was on Sprint and wanted to give this new product a try. One year later, I found myself on Android! Guess that tells you how it went.
In all honesty, I do think the WebOS is a great platform. It looks great and is very easy to use. It suffered from poor hardware and a lack of app titles and has never really regained the ground it lost back in 2009. In 2010, Palm was purchase by HP and since then, HP has been pumping money into the product like crazy. I have been watching and waiting.
Store Your Music in the Cloud? Installing the Amazon Cloud Player Uploader and get 5GB Free with 20GB after purchase.
May 8th
Weeks ago, Amazon announced that it would begin to provide 5GB of cloud storage for Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. In its most practical application with the online storage of music, Amazon has now released a Windows Uploader that will allow you to easily upload multiple music files and folders to the cloud. It does require an Amazon account, which is free. You can sign up for an account here.
Even better is the offer to up your storage to 20GB per year with the purchase of one mp3 album. Now your music, both that which you have purchased (in any form, from any store, ripped from CD or mp3) or purchased from Amazon directly can be accessed from anywhere, via a internet connected web browser or smart phone that has the Amazon Cloud Player.
Start at Amazon.com. Select MP3s & Cloud Player
Saying “Good-bye” to the Palm Pre? One Year Later…
Aug 3rd
A year ago this month I was getting ready to move away from the MotoQ that I had been using for the previous 2 years on Verizon and was moving back to Sprint. My only real option at the time was the newly release Palm Pre. While at the time I compared it to the iPhone, there was never really an option of moving to that platform. I’m a Sprint guy and needed to stay with Sprint (besides, I have a iPod Touch). I know this kills some of you.
Fast forward a year and it’s time to make that decision once again, except this time there is a new sheriff in town. The only real smart phone option for guy like me is the new HTC EVO 4G.
The list of specifications are impressive:
- 3G/4G capability
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ QSD8650 (1GHz) processor
The New Gallup iPhone (or iPod touch) Application – Get Your News Fix Now!
Mar 20th
A new iPhone application for all you news and poll junkies is now available. Gallup (who I work for, full disclosure) has released version 1.0 of it’s soon to be very popular iPhone application that is free to download on iTunes. The application gives you access to all the latest daily numbers from US polling (like the President’s approval rating), the top news stories from gallup.com as well as the latest Gallup videos via YouTube. Nothing is more than 2 taps away. But remember, please don’t try reading it while driving. I know, it’s tempting.
A couple of features that may not be so obvious at first glance.
1. News articles also contain very readable charts and graphs to help explain the trends. While small, they can be zoomed in on for clarity.
WHS Health Add-In with the Palm Pre / Pixi (For the Window Home Server)
Dec 10th
The newly released add-in for the Windows Home Server (more info at The Home Server Show or MediaSmart Server.net) from Nigel Wilks and Alex Kuretz, which was primarily developed to render the health status of your Windows Home Server on an iPhone or iPod Touch, has an additional benefit! Maybe only for me?
I was installing it tonight and testing it on my Touch when it occurred to me that I should be able to get this working nicely on my Palm Pre. Sure enough, it looked great! I’ve included some photos below.
The add-in is a keeper. Thanks Nigel and Alex. Keep working on it!
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Remember, I search so you don’t have to!
The Cell Phone Quest – Part 3
Jul 7th
Well, I had to get to it at some point. So here it goes…the iPhone! (Full disclosure – I do not own an iPhone nor have been give one free of charge by Apple or AT&T)
Hands down, the iPhone was and still is a game changer. As I have mentioned earlier, I have an iPod Touch (everything the iPhone is with out the phone or AT&T) and just love it. If Sprint carried the iPhone, it would be lights out! Done deal! Out of the park! But they don’t. So I still have to make a difficult choice.
What I like best about the iPhone is that it just flat out works! It’s designed well. It looks good. It run fast enough. The screen is large and easy to use. It has a million apps (ok, thousands)! With out taking the service into account, it wins!
iPod Touch 3.0 Software Is Now Available
Jun 29th
If you have been following my cell phone saga, you know that one of the requirements I have for the new cell phone is iPod touch like functionality. I currently own a Touch and love it! I use it mostly for listening to podcasts and music, but do find time to use the many applications from time to time. But, carrying around two devices (especially since the Touch is Wifi only) is a real drag and I want to combine them into one. I will continue to look. My Verizon contract expires on September 11th. I will make a decision by then.
