• latest news
  • Car tech
  • Cell phones and smartphones
  • Computers and hardware
  • Digital photo and video
  • Gadgets
  • Gaming
  • Green tech
  • Home theater
  • MP3 and portable video players
  • Televisions
• awards
  • Best of CES
  • People's voice
• video
• photos

About me

My posting summary

1 to 7 of 7

My comments

• This is not a computer designed for use by anyone with less than perfect vision. I like the idea, but WOW that screen is small. In reply to: "Getting hands-on with the Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC"

  January 9, 2009

  0 replies

• Why shill for a free download?
  
  The IE hostility is thick here. I have all three (IE, Chrome, and Firefox), and Firefox and IE are the only serious contenders. I checked out Opera and Safari, too. The are not ready. Nor is Chrome. IE is the best, but you already know that. What browser are you using to read this?
  
  IE8. Seriously; MSFT may be many bad things, but it did invent the way we interact with the world through computers. Give Gates his due. In reply to: "Second Firefox 3.1 beta due 'very shortly'"

  December 8, 2008

  0 replies

• It is worth remembering that Google is a MARKETING COMPANY. It provides its cornerstone service, web searching, as a means of delivering marketing services. Google has so many resources, it is a given that its browser will evolve and come into more use, and that it will be designed, at least in part, to benevolently deliver relevant content to its users, drive users to Google's site, and encourage users to know and love the Google brand. But at the end of the day, gathering data to make Google's services ever more worthy to advertisers is Google's reason to exist, and you can expect Google to do that exceedingly well.
  
  Also, anyone who thinks that their web activities are private in any respect should, coincidentally, google "What can the government find out about my web activities," or somesuch, and prepare to be enlightened. Then multiply the answer by 10 and come to the full knowledge of how someone, or something, can really track you when not constrained by Fourth Amendment. This is not paranoia. This is a fact. I suppose it is as unbelievable as the idea that your phone's text messages are stored for a time by your cellular company, or that you can pick a phoney name then run hog wild in chat rooms, or... well, you get the idea. I am glad that there are privacy advocates, but the simple truth is that people should comport themselves on the internet as though they were being watched--just like they do every other minute of the day. If they did, it would be a great relief to the vast majority of the humans who have children, most of whom are exposed to the internet every day. In reply to: "EFF: We're concerned about Google's Omnibox"

  September 4, 2008

  0 replies

• I just played with an iPhone
  Is replying to one's own comment permissible? Let's see...
  
  Since I am still within the thirty days since my recent Blackberry 8800 purchase, I went over to a local Cingular store and asked to fiddle with an iPhone and, to my surprise, they said "sure." I have had Windows Mobile devices (HTC and HP), Nokias, and motorolas galore, and, most recently, the Blackberry 8800, so I really have high expectations.
  
  Now, this is a review based on a three minute fiddle test, but I have to say I was very, very impressed. The user interface is slick, slick, slick. Without boring details about the iPhone that have been well-documented elsewhere, here is why I walked back out with the recently-bought Blackberry:
  
  1. The iPhone text input method is lightweight. No tactile feedback and I had to press harder than I expected on the screen to register input.
  
  2. While the screen is big and beautiful, and reportedly optical grade glass, I put numerous smudges on it in less than five minutes and think that it would still be very easy to scratch. I am not particular about scratches, but I know that the screen/body would be difficult and expensive to replace, unlike just about any other phone that you can buy parts for on Ebay.
  
  3. No GPS. Do not underestimate the value of GPS in a cell phone. That is the coming thing. The uses to which a Blackberry with GPS can be put are truly mind-bogglingly neat.
  
  4. Several steps to reach a dial tone. You really have to look at the device and pay attention to what is on screen and where you are poking to do anything. Not a phone you want to be using while driving or walking.
  
  5. Multimedia capabilities looked very cool, but superfluous for my use. I already have an iPod.
  
  6. Blackberries have visual voicemail (free add-on software). Otherwise, that would be a killer-app for me.
  
  7. Can't picture walking around with something that nice in my pocket. Concerned what would happen to it if I dropped it.
  
  8. I did not get to test the voice qquality or signal quality, but I bet both are terrific. Steve Jobs pulls no punches on hardware (cept for those laptop screens, I guess).
  
  9. There are no Apple stores in this part of the country, so Apple doesn't have the hipness factor that might exist elsewhere, and repairs by my local AT&T/Cingular folks, well... like leaving your BMW with a guy named Bubba.
  
  10. Blackberry is the easiest to use device (considering a thousand contacts, numerous email accounts, calendar sync with Exchange,etc.) that I have ever had, for my purposes.
  
  11. The price. I think the price is just about right (could be 50-100 bucks less) if you want to make this baby seem exclusive. When all of the hipsters have one, I bet Apple lowers the price to about three hundred bucks. I am not really price sensitive when it comes to new gadgets, but $599 plus tax plus activation plus two additional years on my Cingy contract... too high.
  
  12. Sadly, only one battery, no way to change it out, and no way to replace it. The case is practically seamless, like an iPod. That is part of the neatness (it is like holding jewelry), but undermines its functionality for my purposes.
  
  And lucky 13: Once you master all of the pre-programmed options and screens, there does not seem to be a high tinker-factor in this device. No SEEMS to edit, no registry to hack into. That could be a plus (unless you enjoy risking bricking your phone), but might be a minus, for me.
  Still, I felt a twinge. A BIG TWINGE. Temptation was high. For people less concerned with business use and living where repairs and hipness are abundant, this would be the new "it" gadget ot play with at Starbucks.

  June 29, 2007

  1 reply

• I just played with an iPhone
  Is replying to one's own comment permissible? Let's see...
  
  Since I am still within the thirty days since my recent Blackberry 8800 purchase, I went over to a local Cingular store and asked to fiddle with an iPhone and, to my surprise, they said "sure." I have had WimMo devices, Nokias, and motorolas galore, and, most recently, the Blackberry 8800, so I really have high expectations.
  
  Now, this is a review based on a five minute test, but I have to say I was very, very impressed. The user interface is slick, slick, slick. Without boring details, here is why I walked back out with the recently-bought Blackberry:
  
  1. The iPhone text input method is lightweight. No tactile feedback and I had to press harder than I expecgted on the screen to register input.
  
  2. While the screen is big and beautiful, and reportedly optical grade glass, I put numerous smudges on it in less than five minutes and think that it would still be very easy to scratch. I am not particular about scratches, but I know that the screen/body would be difficult and expensive to replace, unlike just about any other phone that you can buy parts for on Ebay.
  
  3. No GPS. Do not underestimate the value of GPS in a cell phone. That is the coming thing.
  
  4. Several steps to reach a dial tone. You really have to look at the device and pay attention to what is on screen and where you are poking to do anything. Not a phone you want to be using while driving or walking.
  
  5. Multimedia capabilities looked very cool, but superfluous for my use. I already have an iPod.
  
  6. Blackberries have visual voicemail (free add-on software). Otherwise, that would be a killer-app for me.
  
  7. Can't picture walking around with something that nice in my pocket. Concerned what would happen to it if I dropped it.
  
  8. I did not get to test the voice q

  June 29, 2007

  1 reply

• I am on the Edge
  As a very heavy user of cellular voice and data in Edge and 3G areas, I can tell you that the comment by Jintexas is right on point. As nerdy as I am (8 on a scale of 10), I cannot fathoom sitting and "surfing" the web on a tiny cellphone. Get a life, folks. That is what notebook computers are for.
  
  Edge is plenty fast for typical mobile tasks like: emailing, syncing email, getting directions, looking up a number, checking the weather, etc. Further, 3G is not so sexy when you consider how it affects battery life (like, HALF). Unless you are going to use a phone as a tethered modem, 3G is a troublesome extravagance.
  
  Everyone uses phones differently, and I also fall into the trap of iinitially wanting a phone that does things I'll never do, so I take pity on the nerdlings lining up to spend $600 ON A PHONE and will be understanding when, for the first few weeks, they walk into traffic blankly staring at their tiny screens while checking the latest Wired News every ten minutes. After that wears off, and when the 3G iPhone comes out (either with half the battery life or twice the thickness or the original iPhone), I am confident that yhe nerdlings will still be proud of their EDGE phones and find ways to justify continued use.

  June 29, 2007

  2 replies

• Fascinating application, but nothing super new
  If, like me, you are old enough to have put together a Radio Shack project radio, you know that the concept of receiving radio frequency energy and putting it to work is nothing new. For about 10 dollars, you would receive components for a powered and unpowered radio receiver. What is new here is that instead of a small speaker at the end of the process, there is a rechargeable battery,
  
  What is striking about the comparison, though, is that the only stations I could receive with the unpowered version of the radio were those belting out tens of thousands of watts of energy--energy that was expensive for the respective radio stations and considered unsafe close to the towers. In reply to: "Harvesting RF energy"

  January 15, 2007

  0 replies