Tag Archives: twitter

Smartphone-free for a day – how did I go?

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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!

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BlackBerry: still the best for messaging

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I’ve always had a soft spot for BlackBerrys. Besides their QWERTY keyboards being the best in the business, I like the idea of having a centralised inbox that everything goes into: email, SMS, BBM, Facebook messages, chat messages, etc – it’s something that no other platform offers. Oh, and that blinking red light is just pure genius for letting me know that something needs my attention – I know other phones that have kind of implemented this with a pulsing LED, but they’re pale imitations to that vibrant, attention-getting, one-of-a-kind red BlackBerry indicator.

If only the web browser and app stores weren’t so crappy! I’ve got a BlackBerry Torch running BlackBerry OS 6, which has the latest WebKit-enabled browser on it, but it’s still shite compared to what I’m used to on iOS and Android. BlackBerry App World is also a joke. I don’t care what numbers RIM tosses out in support of their app store growing – there’s still hardly any good apps to download there, and the ones that are any good are priced ridiculously high compared to their counterparts in iOS and Android. Case in point is IM+, which is one of the better multi-platform chat clients on the market. In the BlackBerry App World, it costs AUD$44.39. For iOS, it costs $12.99, and AUD$5 for Android. That pricing disparity is just insane, and while I realise it’s a developer thing rather than any fault of BlackBerry, it’s still a massive deterrent for users. Plus, if there was more competition in the BlackBerry App World, then that developer wouldn’t be able to get away with charging such insanely marked up prices in the first place!

Ah well. I’m having another play with BlackBerry over the next few days just for the sake of it. There’s a new Facebook client beta out that adds chat among other features. I’m also trying to get friends who have BlackBerrys (and there aren’t too many of them!) to add me to their BBM. I posted my PIN to my Twitter in the hopes of getting friends to add me, and only realised in hindsight that it would attract a lot of weirdos after a tonne of people I didn’t know added me and sent me the usual stupid “Hey sexy”-type messages. Some people really need to get a life! I still think BlackBerrys are the Grand Poobah (that’s a good thing) when it comes to anything to do with messaging, whether that’s email, SMS, Facebook chat, WhatsApp, BBM, Google Talk and anything else that entails sending text back and forth.

Talking about tablets

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How weird is this – I’m now carrying all three of my tablets for three very specific purposes. The iPad 1 for Words with Friends HD (Android only has an annoying free version that makes you look at an ad after every move), the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Tweetdeck (the iOS version doesn’t include Facebook yet and there’s a weird bug on the Dell Streak that won’t let me add my Facebook account), and the Dell Streak for everything else. And they said mobile devices are meant to lighten your everyday load? If someone could recommend an Android social networking app like Tweetdeck that lets you view Twitter and Facebook updates in a single stream, I could probably eliminate the Galaxy Tab from the equation. Anyone?

A couple of days ago, I got the new Jabra Stone2 Bluetooth headset in so I could try it with the Dell Streak. I was initially using the Plantronics Discovery 925, but the one time I actually used it for a call, the other party said he could hardly hear me because the line was so crackly! That about sums up the experience I’ve had with every other Bluetooth headset I’ve tried, but hopefully the Stone2 will be different. I really like the packaging it comes in – looks like an expensive watch! Reminds me of the Jawbone headset I had a while back. Like the Discovery 925, it comes with a portable charging unit (shaped like a stone – hence the name), and interesting features include the ability to connect to two devices at the same time (perfect for me!), voice functionality (connects to your phonebook so it can announce who’s calling, plus can be controlled by voice commands), works as both a headset and headphones (although you only get audio in the one ear, obviously), and a total of 10 hours call time (2 hours from the headset, another 8 hours from the charger). I’ll post more on my experiences as I use it.

The Jabra Stone2 and its matching charging case

In other news, I came *this* close to getting an iPad 2. A fellow journalist was in San Francisco for the last couple of days (as the editor of Australian Business Traveller, he was testing the new business class service to San Fran for WORK – how lucky is that?!), and I pinged him to see if he could get me an iPad 2 while he was over there. He agreed, even though he was already getting three iPads for other people, so I transferred the money over to him for a white 64GB 3G AT&T model plus pink Smart Cover. He dutifully lined up first thing in the morning when he knew a nearby Apple store was getting more stock, only to be told in the morning that they had only gotten in 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi iPads! Booo!!! I mean, I could probably suffice with a Wi-Fi model, given all of my smartphones have 3G hotspot capability, but I just hate not having the best of any given product. My rationale is that I can just pay a little more and have the convenience of 3G anywhere I want. Especially with prepaid iPad SIMs available here that last an entire year, it’s not like I have to pay for yet another mobile account every month. Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to line up next Friday with all of the other plebs! Pretty sure they’ll sell out by the end of the weekend!

The perils of procrastination

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It’s amazing all of the little activities and tasks that your mind can come up with in the name of procrastination. It’s 1.30PM here in Sydney and I still haven’t done any substantive work – urgh! In addition to the usual time-wasters like reading Facebook and Twitter (I use Tweetdeck, and with so many contacts, it takes a long time to read every single update!), playing Words with Friends HD, and reading the book of the moment (Fortune Cookie, by Bryce Courtenay, which I’ve finished now!), I was suddenly inspired to do lots of other things that I’ve been putting off, like paying bills, adding important appointments to my calendar, scheduling my car to be repaired, and buying a third bar stool to match the two that I bought on Gumtree a couple of days ago. These were all things that had to be done regardless, but they took on a special urgency in preference to getting some actual work done.

Oh yes, and I’m blogging right now about virtually nothing when I should be working! :P Okay okay, I’m going to clear out all the clutter from my desk and office, and then wash the dishes, and maybe put a load of laundry on, and then I’ll get down to some real work!

Falling in love with the iPhone 4 all over again

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I’m feeling so fickle at the moment. Not long after I had publicly declared affection for Windows Phone 7, my iPhone 4 started to turn my eye again.

After chatting with Mitchell Oke, who blogs over at Gear Diary (and is pretty much the only Australian I know in ‘real life’ that’s as into smartphones and related gadgets as I am!), I discovered a couple of cool jailbreak apps (both paid) for the iPhone 4 that have me falling in love with it all over again! The first is LockInfo with the Typography Time plugin: this is a lockscreen replacement that gives the iPhone a little more ‘pizzazz’ than the default screen, and reminds me more of the Windows Phone 7 UI.

 

LockInfo, bringing sexy back to the iPhone

 

The second is Notified Pro, which gives the iPhone 4′s notification system a much needed kick up the pants. I’ve whinged about the iOS’s crappy notification system before, but I only discovered yesterday that there’s something you can do about it! Notified Pro with the Notified GriP plug-in and the relevant Activator setting gives you Android-style notifications on the iPhone 4, and it works just brilliantly. Seriously, this one little hack has completely changed the way I look at the iPhone, and I’m considering now going back to using this as my full-time phone!

 

Android Honeycomb-style notifications that you can configure to appear at the top or bottom of the screen

Notified Pro's drop-down window for displaying notifications - groovy!

 

Does anyone know of any good Winterboard themes for the iPhone 4? I’ve had a look around, but most of them look like overkill and don’t do much about skinning the folders (which is what most of my homescreen consists of!).

I’ve also been whinging on Twitter about how there’s no paid version of Words with Friends for Android, and how annoying the ads are in between each move. I decided to go and see what the paid version of Words with Friends HD was like for the iPad and WOAH! So much better! Again, this one little thing will probably see me using the iPad a lot more than the Samsung Galaxy Tab now, although I’d really like to see a new UI for the springboard that makes better use of all that screen space! Here’s hoping that Apple announce iOS 5 today, in addition to iPad 2! :)

Seriously though, I think I need help. I’ve taken to carrying around an iPhone, Android AND Windows Phone 7 device with me, as well as my iPad. Intervention time?

Giving Windows Phone 7 a go

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In the name of science (or maybe because I’m a masochist?), I decided to try and get Windows Phone 7 onto my HD2. Again, not an easy process, although easier since I’d already wrapped my head around HardSPL and MAGLDR – it was just a process of following the procedure to load the Windows Phone 7 ROM onto the HD2.

My HTC HD2 running Windows Phone 7

The hard part was getting it activated. Every WP7 smartphone has a unique activation code to enable it to access Windows Live services like Marketplace and Xbox Live, and there’s a multi-part process involving installing the Windows Phone 7 SDK, Zune, the Chevron unlocker, and various other little bits and pieces – plus you have to actually call Microsoft support and request an activation code once all the hacks are in place!

Another four hours (of my life that I’ll never get back) later, I’d finally achieved success with unlocking my HD2 with the Chevron unlocker! Seems you have to jump through all sorts of crazy hoops like changing the date on your PC and smartphone to 1 October 2011, disabling network connections and Skype connections, putting the phone into airplane mode, running Chevron and Tom XAP installer as an administrator, right-click on XAPs to install them (this I had to figure out on my own!), etc – and naturally all of this information wasn’t in the original post with the ROM download – I had to trawl through lots of long discussion threads to find those extra bits of advice!

But once again, several hours of stress and a phone call to Microsoft support later, and I’ve now got a “new” Windows Phone! Which led me to the crazy idea – why not use this as my ‘main’ phone for the week so I can really get to know this new operating system? Crazy, I know, but it’ll be useful for work as well, since I have to write a feature on tips and tricks for Windows Phone 7 anyway – best dive in headfirst! I’ll still be using my Samsung Galaxy Tab – mainly to keep playing Words with Friends – but for day to day use, it will be Windows Phone 7 all the way!

Half a day in, and I’m actually having fun using it! Naturally it doesn’t have anywhere near all of the apps that I’m used to using on Android, such as Tweetdeck, Evernote, Pocket Informant, WhatsApp and Skype, but I’m coping. I’ve customised the homescreen with photo speed dials, frequently used apps and a few live tiles, installed a bunch of software and games (including Amazon Kindle, Facebook, Twitter, Flixster, IMDb, Shazam, Resco Radio and WinMilk), and have started poring over the discussion forums to learn more about this new operating system. Yes, it’s the underdog, but it’s early days yet, and I got my start as a gadget monkey back in the day with a HP Jornada 545 running Pocket PC 2000 – so it’s kind of my first love as well, and it’s nice to see it all grown up now and trying to compete with iOS and Android.

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming OS update and all of the new apps that are coming! Will I keep on using Windows Phone 7 after the week is up? I’m not sure! For now, it’s novel and I’m enjoying using it, but I’ll have to see how I feel after seven days, and whether I can live without all of the apps that I’m used to using on Android!

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