Archive for the ‘tech’ Category

02.01.10 | product review: foursquare

foursquare

think: "twitter turned into a game"

so i’ve been trying this relatively new social networking trend called “foursquare”

according to their wiki page, it was created back in march 2009 and has a whopping 7 employees. i’m not bashing on that… it actually motivates me that a small company can start something as big as this is (or will be).

at its core, it’s fairly simple — wherever you go, you “check in” and get points and possibly some other perks

i’m foursquare friends with chaunce, geoff, and possibly rob (who has yet to make a check in) and it’s turning into a fierce competition.

we already made a rule between us: no checking into work (cuz it’s like checking into home — you GOTTA be there)

businesses are slowly starting to jump on board, offering discounts or even free things if you check in or are a mayor (respectively)

the badges are one of the perks you can get, some of them are pretty slick — the douchebag badge is my favorite… i need to obtain this one… i think places tagged as douchebag are like higher class hotels, restaurants, or stores (ed hardy beyotch!)

if you wanna try it out, you gotta at least have an iphone, blackberry, or android-type phone… the apps NEED to be greatly improved if they really want this social network to expand like its brethren… tho right now it’s doing fine for the basic things like checking in and seeing where your friends are… but other stuff like updating photos, to do’s, top 12’s, etc. aren’t built in

yes, it’s still relatively a baby… but who knows — try it out and see what happens… then you could be like, “i was on foursquare before ashton kutcher got on it”

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12.13.09 | product review: misc blackberry apps

i <3 my blackberry… it’s just like a computer.. i dunno why i haven’t gone the smartphone route till now…

tho the fact that it’s like a computer is kinda deadly for me — i tinker with it a ton… whether it’s changing settings or installing random apps…

i had a ton of issues in the beginning, especially when i would do a restart (quickpull) — the phone would just essentially do a BSOD

i finally figured out what was wrong — basically, the data i was restoring from wasn’t reliable… so now i know what to do if my phone dies (so i got that going for me…)

so yea, here’s a list of my favorite apps i have currently on my phone:

  • ubertwitter: by far, the best twitter client on the bberry. it loads quick and it has easy to remember hotkeys. i tried twixtreme (which sounds more like a candy than a twitter client), but it didn’t work too well for me — it’s pretty tho… but i’ll stick with uber!
  • scoremobile: i used to just go to espn mobile on the browser, but that isn’t the best… takes a long time to load and doesn’t always refresh. so i tried this out and it’s pretty good so far. really fast loading and has almost any sport you would care about. it can run in the background and refreshes too! one of the cool features is that you can mark a team as a favorite, which will have it display at the top of the list on the scoreboard
  • itookthisonmyphone: i’m all about backing important files up — like pictures.  so this app will AUTOMAGICALLY upload your photo to a secure site — you can set the pics to go to a public or private folder. you might be thinking, “but i have a microSD card” — yea… so did andy… ouch…
  • drivesafe.ly: this is more of a fun app, but can be pretty useful. it will read your incoming text messages out loud. i wrote a post previously about the fun times you can have with this…
  • bigtincan mapper: this is a cool gps type app that can give you your longitude/latitude position, which can come in handy. it can also track your routes

so those are the not-so mainstream apps out there that you might wanna give a try… i also have these more popular apps: google talk (awesome since talk got blocked at work), gmail, facebook, google sync (syncs with my google calendar!), pandora, and weathereye (shows an icon of the current weather)

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12.07.09 | product review: innocase 360

so i got a phone “recently” — the blackberry tour, which is a really slick phone… it’s my first blackberry so i really don’t have much to measure it with, but i really like the interface, speed, and size of it. i guess i can save a review for the tour for another post…

this one will focus on a case i got from seidio — the innocase 360

innocase360

at first, i liked the idea that it had a keyboard cover — so as not to mess up the keys with my greasy fingers or spilled coffee (i spill coffee a lot)… but as you continue, you’ll see that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be (ooh… a teaser!)

the case itself is really nice — doesn’t add too much bulk and has a good feel to it (not rubberized so it’s not tough getting outta your pocket).

there’s a plastic cover over the screen, which is necessary for me (read greasiness above) — tho the screen doesn’t really have contact with the plastic guard so some lint can get trapped in there, forcing you to take the case off and wipe clean… but that’s minor

now on to the keyboard cover… when you first get the case and put it on… it’s AWESOME. a really good fit over the keyboard and actually helps you type FASTER. the keyboard on the tour has weirdly angled keys which takes some getting used to.

the cover doesn’t allow much light from the keyboard to shine through so if you suck at typing and don’t know where letters are, it might take you a while in low-lit areas.

ok… so… the cons with the keyboard cover is that it WILL bubble in the middle… and really bad too… it just stretches out and you can’t do much to fix that.

this makes it REALLY tough to type on the keyboard and it just plain looks crappy!

the bubbling seems to be accelerated when you have to open up the case — which i had to do for a good ol’ fashioned battery pull

so i thought… maybe it’s just a defective case — so i rma‘d it and they were really helpful with sending me a new one. seidio, tho, didn’t tell me where to send the defective one so after a few weeks of no response, i have two now.

and guess what, the new one they sent bubbled like the other one… frustrated that i spent $35 on a case, i decided to cut my losses and cut out the keyboard cover… had to…

but you know what? i like it more than ever now.

seidio needs to find a better material for that keyboard case so it doesn’t bubble up — or do better tests on their products cuz it didn’t take too long for me to get the bubble effect.

so overall… there are a bunch of other cases that don’t have the keyboard cover which would be better options in my opinion

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10.10.09 | test post from crunchberry

So I got this new app for my phone made by wordpress — specifically to create posts on my blackberry.

I don’t know if I’ll use it a bunch or anything but it’s pretty cool that the wp folks are looking out for non-iPhoners

So this is just a small test to see what it’s like…

If you want the app and you have a bberry, go here: http://blackberry.wordpress.org/

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10.08.09 | fun with text to voice!

so i have a blackberry tour now — it’s not as cool as the almighty iPhone, but hey… i’m not a douche

they have a good/small set of apps that can be useful — i really like how they can be run in the background (boom!)…

here’s one good review site for all things blackberry: crackberry.com

anyway, i found this awesome app called drivesafe.ly — it reads your incoming texts so you don’t have to lose your focus while driving (cuz i’m already reading, smoking, and drinking… pfft)…

not only does it read names and texts really well… it makes for some fun times.

here are a few that chaunce was sending me during work:

marsha 1

marsha 2

he sent this one when we were eatin’ pho at lunch:

wtf

geoff even got in on the action (thank god i had the app turned OFF when he sent this):

handjob mart

there’s an iPhone version coming soon… so there you go

i’m still playin’ with it… but i think i might buy it… $14 one time? not bad at all…

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07.19.09 | chex mix, you’re the snack for me

so i’ve had this netbook for some time now, running ubuntu. i think i can bust a few pros and cons:

pros

  • runs REALLY well on the netbook
  • manages the battery well — i can run this for several days (light to medium usage) before chaging
  • multiple desktops — comes in super handy when working with a small monitor

cons

  • NO FLASH! this kills it for me… even youtube won’t show the video (or is suuuper laggy) — the whole point for getting this netbook was to keep track of sports scores and stuff, but most sites (espn, mlb) use flash scoreboards… fml
  • not all programs work in ubuntu — i just want a good twitter program like destroy twitter, but nope… i gotta use this janky one called twittux, which doesn’t even have a retweet button!
  • doesn’t really play well with the file sharing and print network setup i have here…

i think that’s it… at least the most important ones to me…

overall, i’m gonna switch back to winxp — tho i’d really like win7 on here… i don’t wanna get TOO used to it (it’ll only be free for so long)

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04.05.09 | tweet tweet, tweet tweet!

as you may know, twitter has blow’d up — to the point that celebrities and well-known people are using it, such as mark cuban

in his blog, he talks about twitter a bunch — he has some cool thoughts on the service in his most recent entry:

Now that twitter seems to be a media darling and an acquisition target, I thought I would share some of my observations.

1. Tweets are the blog posts you thought about writing, but didn’t feel they had enough substance

2. Twitterers are older. Myspace started around music and students. Facebook started around college students. Twitter was started by old people. Relatively speaking :) . It could be the first new social media platform to start old and get younger, but there really is no assurance of that. I don’t know that twittering will get big for the 18 and younger set.

3. The challenge of Twitter will be its anonymity.  It’s the same problem myspace has.  @collegehottie can be a 60 year old pedophile who pushes a Tweetup and creates a problem.

4. The plus for twitter is that can reduce text messaging minutes. Particularly for broadcasting to a group of friends.

5. Twitter will need to create a groups or list function with a private option and soon. Otherwise Facebook can create a twitter like “skin” for its users to do the quick updates that twitter options. FB seems to be trying to find their way there now, recognizing the threat of Twitter.  FB updates seem to be in decline as users utilize twitter for this function

6. While there is a growing market for 3rd party twitter apps, twitter cant depend on them to expand the platform. The beauty of twitter is its simplicity.

7. The beauty of twitter is its simplicity. It works perfectly and quickly on a phone. Translated, its the ultimate time waster for the 30 plus generation.  You are never bored when you have a phone and twitter, no matter where you are. Thats the key to its success.

i definitely agree with his first point — sometimes you just want to do a quick note instead of going through the whole deal of making up a title, writing out your thoughts, tag and categorize it, etc.

also, his second point about how these social networking sites came about was pretty interesting… with the 140 character limit, it forces a person to be succinct… am i being ageist by claiming that the youth (the stereotypical myspacer) doesn’t have anything “follow-worthy” to say?

yea i think i am…

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03.29.09 | tech: microsoft live mesh

live-mesh

so microsoft has this new online app thingy called mesh… it’s similar to dropbox in that you can share a folder/files with other people… buuut, it also has a cool remote desktop feature

this prevents the need to email files (or flash drive) so that you can access it from another computer — you just sync a folder that you want to access elsewhere and then sign on to mesh from that other computer — boom!

the coolest feature is remote desktop — you can actually connect to another computer and see the desktop (the other computer needs to have it installed, duh)… pretty neat-o

the coolest part about it is that it works well with vista… ha!

speaking of microsoft, there’s some talk about them buying out facebook… damn… that punk’s gonna be richer than rich (so you n*ggas come and get me) — i’m just jealous

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