Tag Archive for 'Blackberry'

Tech Whore

Published on 5 March, 2009 in Gadgets and Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

And not even a very good one, I’m afraid.

I’ve taken to getting myself all sorts of technological wonders lately. I don’t really know why, since a few months ago, I was more than happy with my old tube TV’s, my pay-as-you-go Boost Mobile phone, my ancient desktop and equally ancient boom box. I thought my old school XBox was cooler than it really needed to be, and had even recently plunked down ten bucks for the remote so I could watch DVD’s on it.

Actually, the Xbox is where it started.

I was going to get one of them Roku’s for watching streaming Netflix on. So I went to the Netflix site to find it, and discovered that the Xbox 360 would do the same thing. So I debated that I could spend an extra hundred bucks over the $99.00 Roku, get the cheaper XBox 360 and be thrilled. And play Guitar Hero. Since my cousin had introduced me to that debacle, I had been itching to play again.

I wound up getting the next model up, with the 60 gig HD and KungFu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones. I rationalized that I would want the HD sooner or later, and that the two games were still at a premium, so I was saving money.

And with the money I would have saved someday, I picked up Guitar Hero III with the two guitars.

That was good enough for a start. But I started itching for more gear. Why? Who the fuck knows why I get my panties in a bunch about anything. Below is a list of what I consider the more important of the recent splurge-fest.

Thanks to

BlackBerry Curve 8330: My phone and life-line. Keeps me entertained when I’m abandoned in New York City by people who need to take an hour to find me on a 6th ave. corner. I use it for texting, tweeting, email, camera and reading the news. Sometimes I make a phone call using my Jawbone.

HP Pavilion Laptop:

AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72 dual-core mobile processor; 4GB DDR2 memory; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; LightScribe labeling; 14.1″ widescreen; 250GB hard drive; built-in webcam; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1.

That’s what it says at BestBuy. Which is where I bought it. All that’s nice. All I know is that I am now mobile with this motherfucker. It’s small enough to easily take with me just about everywhere I go. Big enough so that I don”t need to squint. I toy with the idea of getting a Broadband Card from Sprint. But I don”t really need one. So I’m making myself not do that.

Emerson 32″ LCD HDTV:  Yeah, but I got it for just over $300.00 at Woot. It works just fine, and I have no complaints at this time. I know, most of you have bigger and better. But this is just my thing. I don’t need bigger yet.

Philips Micro Hi-Fi System with Bluetooth, CD, SD, USB & iPod Dock:  Another Woot buy. $99 for all this. Works great. Use it as an alarm clock, for listening to my SlackBerry and could potentially use it to take phone calls. I can also use it for my soon to be delivered…

Refurbished 1st Generation iPod Touch: I have only one real reason for opting out of the second generation, and it’s not that good of a reason. I have chargers for 1st gen that my daughter can’t use on her iPod (second gen). Well, that and the fact that I don’t really need an iPod Touch. So the internal speaker, volume rocker and slightly less sleek design? Not so important to me.

So there you have it. My recent bout of technological wonders.

Later,

AB

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark

Bolt! BlackBerry Browser Beta!

Published on 3 February, 2009 in BlackBerry, Internet and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

CrackBerry, you’ve done it again…
Thanks to them, I’m now beta testing a new mobile browser, name of Bolt. It’s only been a few minutes, so I’m just gonna share some small tidbits and give you a proper review in a few days after I’ve fucked with it lots more.

  1. No Flash. Actually, this is alright. I haven’t found a mobile browser yet that has it. This mostly means no Blip.fm on the BlackBerry for me. I tested that first thing out. Still only reblips off of page 1.
  2. Supports Ajax, Java and FLV (streaming video, kids!). Logged into my site here, and everything looks and acts just as it does in the big internets.
  3. Fast? Well, yes and no. Page load speeds are impressive, but navigation with the trackball is a little slow and hitchy/jerky. The faq says you can use the keypad, but I haven’t tried that yet.
  4. Split Screen. The amount of the page being displayed is smaller than it is in Opera mobile. This means that what you are looking at is bigger. Problem with that is that this means you are seeing less of the page, which hinders navigation. But! You have the option of doing a split screen, which gives you a second screen that shows more of the page, with the first screen being a boxed area within that. This makes navigation much easier.
  5. According to the faq, Bolt will work on “lots of phones, even basic ones”. You don’t need a smartphone for Bolt. Which is a nice option for people who don’t have smartphones.

Again, give me a few days to fuck around with this and I’ll let you know what I think of it.

AB

http://crackberry.com/bolt-browser-updated-version-83

http://www.boltbrowser.com

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark

Review: Slacker Radio For BlackBerry

Published on 11 January, 2009 in Gadgets, Internet, Music and Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

My new favorite thing is my BlackBerry Curve. I use that fucker for almost everything now. I do my internets (even posting here from it), get my news, make notes, text my friends and family and even, on occasion, make a phone call on it.

The one thing I don’t do much, is listen to music on it. Before I discovered Blip.fm, I was strictly a last.fm and Pandora user. And there are no apps yet that will allow me to use any of those services on my BlackBerry.

Being a devoted addict of my BlackBerry, I cruise BlackBerry sites looking for cool tips, apps and other random shit, and was immediately aroused by the mention on CrackBerry that a Slacker app was available for my gadget.

I mean almost literally aroused. Like, “schwing”! (How bad did I date myself just now?).

I had heard of Slacker, but hadn’t used it. I knew it was an internets streaming radio stations thing. Most of what I heard about it revolved around their gadget, which is a fancified mp3 player with wi-fi and a nice screen so that you can listen to your streaming radio around the house or on the go (if you’re in a wi-fi hot spot). Non-satellite satellite radio. Let’s now call it satel-light radio.

Anyway, I didn’t bother, because I generally can’t afford gadgets, and usually listen to CD’s or NPR in the car (I know, I’m living in some kind of cave with some of this shit), and last.fm, Pandora and blip.fm are perfect and enough for me at home. My phones are equipped to play ‘Sprint Radio‘, but it’s not quite as customizable and you’re stuck in fairly narrow (though good) genre radio. I like the ability to ‘love’ or ‘ban’ a track, which Sprint Radio does not do.

So, I immediately downloaded the Slacker app for the BlackBerry, logged in and immediately knew that I had done the right thing.

Once you’re logged in, you can choose from a good number of pre-existing genre stations, or go for customizable like they do in last.fm. To start things off, I entered my current favorite band, “Mission of Burma“, which is a mildly obscure band. Almost instantly, it started to play This Is Not A Photograph by Mission of Burma. It followed that up with some other post-punk sorts of things that I seriously enjoyed. The GUI is nice and easy and looks good. They have an album cover view for the artist you’re listening too, with what played before and coming after, visible to the sides in a carousel-like fashion.

I did hear adverts (about three so far in about three hours of off and on listening), which is I guess to be expected using the free basic service. You’re also allowed 6 song skips in each hour, which ain’t bad. And you can cache your station so that you can continue to listen to your music even when you got no bars. And when I hooked my BlackBerry up to the WIndows machine I use for maintenence, it loaded the Slacker app to the PC so that I could enjoy my music there too. That’s just awesomesauce.

For $3.99 a month you can sign up for their Premium service, which gives you unlimited skips, no adverts and a custom station that allows you to choose an unlimited number of songs. At the moment, I need to spend another four bucks a month like I need a kick in the colon, so I’m sticking with the basic service, which is better than good enough for me.

Eventually, I’ll get myself some bluetooth headphones, car kit and home dock (like I said, caveman) and practically live on the Slacker when I’m on the go.

If you have a BlackBerry and dig the music thing, then the Slacker app is an absolute fucking must. It looks good, it sounds good and works great.

AngryBob

Link: http://www.slacker.com/mobile/blackberry

from the basement computer, not the BlackBerry.

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark

Slacker Radio: Review 0.5

Published on 9 January, 2009 in Ill-Literati. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Just a quick note from the Blackberry. I was disappointed in the lack of a last.fm or Pandora app for the Blackberry. Just hit crackberry.com for my nightly visit, and found that slacker radio is now available for the BBerry.
I downloaded it instantly, logged in and asked for my current favorite band “Mission of Burma”, and it played them. Twice out of the first 5 songs.
Ah, fuck! An ad for TurboTax just played. But that’s okay. Something has to pay for ‘free service’, eh?
Anyway, better review after I check this out some more. But right now, I am smitten.
http://slacker.com

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark

As 2008 comes to an End

Published on 30 December, 2008 in Gadgets. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Okay, still not posting from my BlackBerry, but I love the little thing.

A year ago, I was proud to say that I didn’t need my cell phone but for emergencies, and that I hated the neccesity of having one for that purpose, glad as I was that the technology was available. I was pay-as-you-go, and pleased-as-punch. Then, as my usage increased, it became smarter to get a phone with a plan. Within a few short months of that, I have upgraded and am addicted to my BlackBerry. Now I know what it feels like to be Barrack Obama. Except the whole getting elected President thing. And the being black thing. And the whole Obama thing with the exception of the BlackBerry thing.

I mock your iPhones.

Though to be honest, I do plan on getting an iPod touch. I resisted the whole iPod thing until I got my daughter the touch for Christmas. Now I fucking want one. But, I’d rather have it as an iPod and keep my BlackBerry for phone things. Besides, I’m a Sprint guy. And I don’t want to pay them off to switch to AT&T (or to whomever has the BlackBerry Storm). I’m happy with my BlackBerry.

But let me say this about the iPod touch.

What the fuck is Apple thinking?

If they included Bluetooth and a semi-decent camera in the iPod Touch, they would probably sell more of them. Not that they’re worried about that. It just seems like a no-brainer to me.

Ditto any company that makes a digital camera. Why the fuck isn’t there Bluetooth connectivity on most, if not all of these things? Another no-brainer.

I’m done for now. Sleep calls. Working late tomorrow, so expect some micro-fiction at the very least.

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark

Learning Curve

Published on 21 December, 2008 in Gadgets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Got me a new toy.

Picked up a Blackberry Curve @ the Best Buy.  I had been meaning to get some sort of handheld doohickey to do internets stuff on (twitter, this site, etc.). The intention was originally to get a PDA of sorts that wasn’t a phone. But I couldn’t find a PDA/handheld that I liked that wasn’t a phone. Since I was about to add my brother and daughter to my Sprint account, I decided to use the opportunity to phone-up.

Keep in mind this is not a review. I haven’t had the time or mental stamina to really get into my new thing here. I’m just sharing because it’s something to share. And because I’m tickled by my new gadget.

Setup was easier than I was led to believe by the people at the Best Buy. They didn’t want to swap my old phone for the Blackberry (Chef Chuck is inheriting the Samsung m520) because they were ascared or something. About five minutes of internets chat with a friendly Sprint rep had the phones swapped out.

The only bummer is that the Wireless Backup of contacts I had on the old phone, is not compatible with my new phone, so I have to slowly add the contacts (The Samsung won’t bluetooth them to me). I like the fact that I know have a qwerty keyboard, since I do a whole lot of typing on the damn phone. Sometime over the course of the week, I’m gonna sit down with my Blackberry and learn all it’s little ins and outs. But so far I loves it.

I got Angela the Samsung Rant with the slide-out keyboard. She don’t know yet, it’s a Christmas present. And she doesn’t read my blog, so I’m not worried about her finding out.

So maybe I’ll review the Curve when I’ve had a chance to do stuff with it. At the very least, I’ll be posting shit from it.

AB

Unlike
  • Share/Bookmark