Since I’m here already, I may as well update you on what I’ve been up to these past few months! The photography hobby has kinda gone by the wayside now that I’m so busy, but the good news is that I’ve got lots of work on! I’ve been doing a lot writing for Delimiter, Smarter Business Ideas, APC, PC & Tech Authority, Ninemsn and Tech Living, and I also had my first TV appearance on Sky News for Christmas gadgets segment. I still haven’t watched myself on it, even though my parents and my partner both taped it, but maybe in a few years time I’ll get up the courage to watch it. I can barely bring myself to re-read stuff that I’ve written, let alone watch myself on TV! But I’m told that I did very well, so there’s that.

Fitness is my new big thing now. I’ve been seeing a personal trainer for the past nine weeks and have also been on a fairly strict diet, so I’ve lost all my baby weight and am on track for achieving the body I’ve always wanted. Go me! My current favourite gadgets are the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia Lumia 800 and Nikon V1. I’m still an Android fan through and through, although Windows Phone 7.5 has definitely grown on me. It just doesn’t have all the apps I need, especially something like Tweetdeck, which aggregates my Facebook and Twitter feeds and saves my last read position. I’m so dependent on Twitter, and a little on Facebook, for news updates and the latest things in tech, that a good solid app for monitoring it all is absolutely essential.

Anyways, I’ve ranted enough. The cursor keeps on skipping to the top of the screen while I’m typing and it’s REALLY annoying.

Zuji, you suck

I used Zuji for the first time to book our flight to Fiji this Sunday. Never again! When choosing our inbound and outbound flights, I specifically chose the ones that had check-in baggage was included. After I booked and paid for everything, I found out that our outbound flight from Sydney with Virgin Australia didn’t actually include check-in baggage, and that I had to pay an extra $20 per person to add it! Our Qantas flight back to Sydney did include a check-in baggage allowance, but it wasn’t much use to us given we weren’t going to be able to bring any check-in baggage to start with!

Of course, the fact that the Virgin Australia flight was one of the ‘saver’ fares meant that I couldn’t make any amendments once I’d made the booking. So I called Zuji the day after to tell them about my situation. The person I spoke to said that he could speak to their tech department and confirm exactly what I had seen when I had made the booking. He said that he would call me within two days ‘at the latest’ to let me know what his findings were. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing.

I ended up forgetting about it and getting on with the rest of my life, as you do, until the week before we were due to leave (this week). I called (again), described my predicament (again), and mentioned that I was still owed a call from last time. The lady on the phone said that she would do exactly the same thing as the previous person did and would call me back with her findings (again). This time, I actually did get a call, but she said that after checking with the tech department, they told her that there had been no mistake with the listing.

What a crock of sh!t. Here’s the screenshot that I took of my flight. Admittedly, I take it the day after I made the booking when I discovered that check-in baggage wasn’t included, as I wanted to double-check exactly what I had seen. The first person I spoke to said that the screenshot wouldn’t be valid, as ‘fares change all the time’. More bullsh!t – it was exactly the same flight for exactly the same fare that I had paid, and the screenshot is exactly what I saw when I made the booking. See that empty white box next to the flight details? That’s where it should say that no check-in baggage is included with the flight.

I ended up paying the extra $40 ($20 each for me and my partner) to get check-in baggage. What else could I do? It’s my word against theirs. I could make an absolute nuisance of myself and ring around demanding to talk to anyone at Zuji that could help me. I could even pull the journalist card and demand to speak to their public relations department. But for what? Forty measly bucks? Not worth my time and effort. But I will spend 10 minutes writing up this blog post to vent my frustration, and next time I’ll vote with my wallet and use a different service.

Today was an interesting day. For the first time in, well, ever, I didn’t use my smartphone for the entire day. No phone calls or text messages (although these were allowed in the brief), no email, no checking my Facebook and Twitter through Tweetdeck, no web browsing to look up random things, no access to Evernote to write down notes and look up existing notes – I couldn’t even check the time.

Well, that was the idea. I ended up having to use my smartphone twice for work purposes: once to write a tutorial for APC magazine on using Tasker on Android (awesome app, by the way!) and the second time to finalise a feature I was writing for PC & Tech Authority on mobile apps. But that was it! The rest of the time I was cold turkey. The surprising thing was that I didn’t miss my smartphone as much as I thought I would!

No, this isn’t going to be one of those posts where I talk about how I felt like I was missing a limb for the entire day, but towards the end of the experience I felt empowered and enlightened and realised that I spent way too much time losing myself in my smartphone when I really should be interacting more with the people and things around me. Hell no. I mainly just felt irritated that I couldn’t use my smartphone, although the fact that I couldn’t check my email also had me feeling anxious for most of the day. Who was emailing me? Was it for anything important? Not being able to check my email at will made me feel powerless.

But not being able to use my smartphone for other things was just annoying. Part of this may have had to do with the fact that I hadn’t left my smartphone at home – it was with me, in my bag, and I couldn’t use it. I may have felt differently if it was a normal situation where I had accidentally left my phone at home (and for the record, I would most probably have gone home to get it rather than have to spend an entire day without it!). I didn’t mind not using it while I was at home, as I had my desktop computer and tablet that I could use, but as soon as I left the house for a spot of shopping, it was Irritation 101. I hated having to continually ask my partner for the time, I hated having to use a notepad to write notes instead of entering them into my smartphone with Evernote, as I had to keep stopping and finding a flat surface to write in the notepad (one-handed note-taking on a smartphone FTW!). And I hated not knowing if I had any new email or whether I had any new updates in Facebook or Twitter.

The fact that I was on a shopping frenzy meant that I didn’t miss my smartphone as much as I would have if I had had a lot of idle time. Not being able to use Tweetdeck during lunchtime was annoying, as this is what I usually do when I’m eating. I actually had to talk to my partner during lunch! hehe LIkewise, I grabbed a coffee on the way home, and I would’ve normally had it at the cafe, but seeing as how I couldn’t use my smartphone to read stuff while I was drinking it, I opted for a takeaway coffee instead. I found I couldn’t wait to get back home to check my email and social feeds! I also found myself writing on my hand a lot for things I had to do and ideas I had for stories.

I actually ended up missing out on a job because I didn’t have access to my email during the day – one of my editors had emailed me asking if I was available to write a last-minute story. Since I was out shopping, I didn’t get it, but if I had been able to check my smartphone, I would definitely have come home earlier so I could write the story in time.

In the end, I was very relieved when the day was over. I’ve just gotten so used to having access to all of my email, social media, online notes and the Internet at large all the time that being deprived of it all just flat out sucks! Sure, I could function without having it, but my day was just not the same, and I actually ended up poorer for the experience!

I’m currently participating in a ‘Connected Citizens Design Lab‘ project. Yes, I’m one of the 20 ‘connected citizens’. Today is the final day of activities, and for this I’m meant to go without using a smartphone for the entire day and keep a diary about my experiences. I can still use it for calls and texts, but anything else is verboten. Ouch, this is going to be tough! Although, the brief didn’t say anything about using tablets…

It’s going to be interesting taking the baby on his first flight! It’s only four hours long, but I hear many babies have trouble with the lift-off and descent as they don’t know how to un-pop their ears. We’ll see – hopefully it’s all cruisy!

This week has been absolutely flat out as I’ve been trying to fit in two week’s worth of work so I don’t have to do anything while I’m in Fiji. So far so good – as long as I keep working into the night all week, I should be able to get through everything. Then it’s a full week of pure vacation – bliss!

Of course, I’ll still be taking along a bucketload of technology with me. Some people like to go technology-free when they’re on vacation, but not me. I get way too much enjoyment from all my gadgets to leave them behind, and the only dilemma I have right now is what comes with me and what stays? I’d love to bring everything, but unless I can hire a sherpa or donkey to carry it all behind me, I’ll have to be smart about what I carry.

Definitely the iPad 2 – I can see myself going on an absolute Word with Friends tear while I’m in Fiji! The Amazon Kindle as well, so I can do some reading on the beach (the LCD screens on my tablets simply won’t cut it in that bright sun!). I’ll be bringing my Fuji X100 camera, which I’ll use for most of the time, and I’m wondering whether I should bring my Canon 5D Mk II and Sony NEX5 as well? The 5D Mk II because the image quality is just unparalleled, but the thing is heavy! And then there’s the matter of lenses… The Sony NEX5 is nice and light, and I’ve got three batteries for it, which makes it ideal for taking on vacation. If I brought the 5D Mk II, it would most likely just stay in its camera bag the whole time, but I hate to leave it behind – I hardly ever get a chance to use it these days, and the gorgeous scenery of Fiji is just perfect for high-quality photography. And of course, it’s perfect for taking beautiful shots at the wedding. I’m going to be one of those annoying guests getting in the way of the official photographer, hehe. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m probably going to take all three!

As for other gadgets, I’m going to be taking a portable Wi-Fi router so I can convert the hotel room’s wired broadband connection into a wireless network. I’ll also bring a portable 3G router so I can get a prepaid 3G SIM in Fiji and share the wireless connection with all my gadgets. I’m going to bring the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and use it as my main ‘computer’ – I’ve got the keyboard dock accessory, and I’ll be able to use it for watching movies on the plane, uploading photos to Facebook, and just general web browsing. I think I’ll leave all of the other tablets at home, unless my partner wants to bring one for his own use.

As for phones, I think I’m going to bring the HTC Sensation. I would bring the iPhone 4, but I think it’d be pointless as it would probably be too hard to find a microSIM for it and I couldn’t be bothered cutting one down to fit! And before you ask, yes, I have comprehensive travel insurance, and I’m going to be making a point of photographing everything I’m bringing on the trip and writing down their serial numbers! Apparently Fiji is very safe, but you never can be too careful!

As the proud mother of a four-month-old baby, the importance of actually printing photos out (as opposed to just shooting them and posting them online) has hit home. My mum has over a dozen photo albums of the family – the good old-fashioned kind, not the digital variety – and I have exactly zero!

Sure, digital photos are handy with regards to sharing, storage and reprinting, but am I still going to have all of these digital photos in 20 years time, the same way my mum has the same photo albums from 20 years ago? I’ve already lost hundreds of photos in my transition from PC to PC, hard to hard drive, and all I’ve got to show for them are the handful (seriously, less than ten) of them that I got around to printing.

I wrote a blog post about this issue on Ninemsn last week, and true to my word, I went to my local Harvey Norman over the weekend and printed out a big batch of photos – mainly ones of the baby, as these are the ones that I definitely want to still have in 20 years time. I’ve got lots of other photos, but it’s going to take me awhile to sort through them all for printing, and this week is too busy for that as I’m trying to squeeze in two week’s worth of work before I head to Fiji this Sunday!

And you know – I felt sooo much better when the photo lab technician handed me that thick stack of photos! I had 90 printed off, most of them in 6 x 4 but around eight of them in the 5 x 7 size so I can frame them. All up, it cost me less than twenty bucks! I also bought a photo album put them all in, and three large frames to put the best photos in – that was a bit more expensive, totalling $150 (one of them is the picture you see above). But this is a drop in the bucket compared to the years of enjoyment I’ll get from seeing those photos on the wall and also having a proper photo album that I can leaf through and foist on relatives when they come over. Yes, the iPad is great for browsing through digital photos, but am I going to have this same iPad in 20 years? I don’t even think I’ll have it in six months! And the problem with shuffling through digital devices with such regularity is that files – whether they’re photos, documents, music or movies – do get lost in the shuffle.

It’s become a bit of a family ritual to talk ‘gadgets’ at our family get togethers. My brother’s amused by the fact that I always seem to be using the latest smartphones whenever he sees me, and it was upon seeing my Galaxy S II the last time that prompted him to upgrade from his HTC Desire HD to the Samsung. At Father’s Day today, I was toting the HTC Sensation, which prompted him to ask: which one do you like better, the Samsung Galaxy S II or the HTC Sensation?

I’ve used both devices extensively, and if I had to choose between one or the other, I’d pick the HTC Sensation. Now before you jump all over me extolling the many virtues of the Galaxy S II, I should point out that this is purely a subjective opinion. What does it for me may not interest you in the slightest.

The Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation are both best-in-class smartphones. Both have dual-core processors, 4.3in screens and run Android 2.3 Gingerbread. But there are two reasons I prefer the HTC Sensation. First is the higher screen resolution. The HTC Sensation has a 540 x 960 resolution and the Galaxy S II has a 480 x 800 resolution. While you can see the same amount of webpage on both smartphones when fully zoomed out, the text is actually readable on the Sensation at this view. In applications where you can’t zoom in and out, which is pretty much every other application, the difference is more noticeable – you really can fit more information on the screen. In apps where you’re digesting lots of text at once, such as reading an email or catching up on social news feeds, the 540 x 960 resolution is awesome. After using the HTC Sensation for awhile, I found the 480 x 800 resolution on the Galaxy S II too small for my needs.

The other reason I prefer the HTC Sensation is the superior design. Yes, it’s heavier than the Galaxy S II by a good 32g, but it just feels so much better. The angular lines of the Galaxy S II make it awkward to hold, while the rounded edges of the Sensation sit in the hand really nicely. I don’t know about you, but I’m holding onto my smartphone for many hours of the day, and when it sits nicely in your hand like the HTC Sensation does, it really makes a difference. That, and it’s a lot easier on the eyes than the Galaxy S II. I don’t place as much importance on appearance, but it’s a nice-to-have nevertheless.

Sure, there are other things that the Samsung Galaxy S II does better than the HTC Sensation. Many things. The Super AMOLED Plus screen is miles better than the Sensation’s Super LCD display with regards to vibrancy and contrast, even if it does have a noticeable bluish tinge for whites, with black levels so black that you can’t distinguish the bezel from a black background. It’s got 16GB of internal storage where the HTC Sensation has only 1GB, and supports DivX and XviD codecs out of the box. It’s thinner and lighter, has better speakers and an exceptionally better camera. For many people, all of the extra features on the Galaxy S II would trump the HTC Sensations’ higher display resolution and nicer design any old day of the week, and more power to them! But for me, the HTC Sensation gets my pick for the reasons mentioned.

I’ll come clean now: I’m just a teeny weeny little bit obsessed with the HP TouchPad. I mean, I really liked it when I originally reviewed it, even if I did find a number of flaws in the TouchPad’s hardware. But ever since Harvey Norman liquidated the TouchPads it had in stock for ridiculous prices – all of which sold out in an hour in Australia – it’s now become this ultra-desirable device that everyone is trying to get their hands on. There’s a discussion thread on Whirlpool where people (admittedly, most of them geeks) are talking about shipping TouchPads in from alternative sources post-fire sale, with most happily paying up to $300 in the hopes of getting their hands on one. There are also lots of people bidding up to $300 for TouchPads on eBay.

Ironically, killing the TouchPad has created more interest in it than it would have ever have gotten otherwise.Tech Crunch wrote a great article on this phenomenon called ‘HP Discovers the Wonderful Power of Scarcity‘. It’s a technique that Apple is pretty familiar with when selling its iPhone and iPads, and it’s what gets massive queues forming around the block whenever a new i-device is released. The TouchPad is the only other mobile device in history that’s resulted in queues, admittedly only when it was being liquidated, but still! HP has mentioned that it’s doing one last run of TouchPads for sale in the United States, but I reckon if HP sold them here at $250 for the 32GB model and $199 for the 16GB model, it would still sell like hotcakes. There’s nothing more desirable than a hard-to-get gadget!

I for one am hoping that the TouchPad isn’t the last we see of webOS. I wrote an article for PC & Tech Authority pointing at five signs that the TouchPad and the webOS platform aren’t dead, so fingers crossed, ey?

Image from CNET UK

I can’t decide which of Samsung’s new Android tablets I like better. I love the Super AMOLED Plus display on my Samsung Galaxy S II, and having that same display on a tablet would just be the duck’s nuts! While I love my 9.7- and 10-inch tablets, they do get heavy in my handbag I think 7 or 7.7-inches is the perfect size for everyday usage.

This makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 seem like my ultimate tablet. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m pretty pleased now with the apps selection on Honeycomb, and I could easily see this one becoming my ‘main’ tablet* if I was able to get my hands on it. Dual-core, WXGA res, 5100mAh battery, up to 64GB storage + microSD expansion and available with Wi-Fi, 3G and mobile telephony support – what’s not to like?

*Yes, I do have a small tablet problem, but I blame all the tablet makers for enabling my addiction!

Image from Drippler.com

And then there’s the Samsung Galaxy Note. Another Super AMOLED Plus-toting tablet, but this time with a 5.3-inch screen. I really didn’t mind the Dell Streak’s 5-inch display, although I think I’m probably in the minority on that score. Still, with smartphone screens now rising up to 4.3 and 4.7 inches, whats another few, er, scale divisions (?) between friends? We’re now doing so much more on our smartphones that I think the world really is ready now for a five-incher. I for one would happily use this as a full-time smartphone. Being a writer, I also love the idea of the stylus input, although I think I’d prefer this on the Tab 7.7 due to the extra scribble space.

The only qualm I have regarding Samsung’s tablets is the company’s poor track record when it comes to providing updates for its tablet software. It pretty much left the Galaxy Tab 10.1v to die, and updates to the original 7″ Galaxy Tab were pretty much non-existent too. The fact that Samsung doesn’t lock its bootloaders means that the enthusiast community is pretty quick to pick up the slack, but I’d still like to see more official support from Samsung itself. I’m amazed at how quick Asus is to push out updates for its Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and I’d like to see Samsung be just as responsive.

Hopefully Samsung won’t have any problems selling these two tablets in Australia, given they look nothing like the iPad!

There are still a few things that I’d like to see, such as Honeycomb-optimised versions of Tweetdeck and Facebook, but on the whole there are enough quality apps out there that I actually feel comfortable recommending a Honeycomb tablet. It’s certainly not for everyone – there’s no way I’d advise my mum to get one, for example. She’s perfectly happy with her iPad and how simple it is to use. I’ve never tried to get her to use my Xoom, but I can just imagine her going cross-eyed and handing it back to me after a couple of seconds. Even I was a bit flummoxed the first time I used the Xoom, and actually had to refer to the user manual to figure out how it all worked!

Here are my current favourite top 10 apps that I use regularly on Honeycomb.

1. AutoTether. This is perfect for using with a Wi-Fi-only tablet if you’ve got a compatible Android phone, as it automates the process of connecting to the Internet via the phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature down to a single tap on the homescreen.

2. Zinio. Magazine junkies like myself will love Zinio. Many of the international magazines that I usually pay up  to three times more for at my local agency are available through Zinio, and the widescreen format of a Honeycomb tablet means you can usually read the text on double-page spreads in landscape format without having to zoom in, although this does depend on the original size of the text in each magazine.

3. IMDB The Honeycomb-optimised version of IMDB is beautifully laid out and designed, making it easy to navigate between movies, TV shows, celebrity information, as well as watch trailers for movies without leaving the app. The Showtimes section even supports Australian cinemas, and you can see movie times for the closest theatres to you.

4. Google Reader. As a writer, I have dozens of feeds in my Google Reader list, and to date, I’ve always just used the web-based interface for catching up on all the latest stories. But no more! The Google Reader app for Honeycomb is so much better, with a dual-pane view that shows all the new stories on the left and the currently opened story on the right. I can also easily post stories to my Evernote account or Twitter feed using the ‘Send’ feature. Brilliant!

5. Amazon Kindle. I stopped reader paper books earlier this year and haven’t looked back since. While most of my reading used to be done on the 6″ third-generation Kindle 3G, I now do all of it on my iPad or Xoom using the Kindle app. I actually haven’t touched the Kindle itself for over four months.

6. Friend Me Oddly, the only tablet-optimised Facebook apps are available for the HP TouchPad and BlackBerry PlayBook! This may be because HP and RIM respectively developed them in-house, and to date, there’s still no proper Facebook app for the iPad or Android Honeycomb. FriendMe fills in this gap for Android, and while it’s still a bit buggy, it offers most of the features of the desktop web-based Facebook, including Groups and Games.

7. TweetCaster HD Beta. There’s also no official Twitter app for Honeycomb. I’ve tried all of the Honeycomb-optimised third party Twitter apps, including Tweetcomb and Plume, but I prefer TweetCaster HD on account of the fact that it’s less cluttered and offers all the advanced Twitter features like multiple account support, conversation thread view, lists and inline photos. There’s also an innovative feature called ‘Zip It’ that I haven’t tried yet – it basically mutes over-zealous tweeters in your timeline for a certain period of time without unfollowing them.

8. Maxthon Mobile for 10″ Tablet. Honeycomb’s default web browser is, well, a little slow. There are a few different alternatives, but my vote goes to Maxthon for its fast rendering speed and lots of handy little features like advanced gesture support, a built-in download manager and the fact that it loads the desktop version of websites by default.

9. Evernote. One of my most favourite mobile apps ever! I use Evernote as my ‘digital brain’ – anything I need to remember to do, notes I take, research, links to articles I need to save, absolutely everything goes into Evernote, which I can then access on whichever computer, smartphone or tablet I happen to be using. The Evernote team has been going hard-out with the latest versions on each mobile platform, adding things like rich text formatting and tweaks to the UI to make notes easier to browse through. I love, love, love it, and upgrading to the premium subscription is totally worth it.

10. Dice Player. Like browsers, there are more than a few video players that work well on Honeycomb. Mobo Player used to be my go-to player, but it doesn’t handle HD video files all that well. Dice Player, on the other hand, uses hardware video acceleration to play video files up to 720p, and it can play all of the TV shows that I’m currently watching at the moment (Weeds, True Blood, Alphas and Entourage) extremely well in 720p MKV format.