“Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gadget in your hand?”
If You Like the Safari Browser for the iPhone, You’ll Love Opera Mini for Cellphones
By Joe Hutsko
Taking a page — albeit a tinier one — from the iPhone’s design is a new test version of the Opera Mini browser for cellphones.
Read the story on the New York Times.
Though they don’t reveal anything we don’t already know, Best Buy dedicates some electronic ink to the iPhone in the new issue of Best “magazine.” The story starts on page 64, (which is actually page 66 in the .pdf), with a sidebar focus on iPhone on page 69 (page 66 in the .pdf) that wraps with mentions of Mozart, Manhattan, and Simon Cowell. Click here to read the magazine on Best Buy’s site, or download the entire .pdf below.
Download the Spring ’07 issue of Best magazine (19.35 MBs) -> 
Look closely at your Palm Treo 680 (or other Treo model). See any tiny cracks on the bezel surrounding the touchscreen? Pay particular attention to the left and right spaces between the green and red buttons, and the application buttons below those.
I ask because I’m on my fourth Treo 680 exchange with Cingular. The first I exchanged because the SD memory card was flaky – recognizing an inserted card sometimes, but other times, not. That was the main reason to have it replaced – and the tiny cracks were mostly an unsightly, but secondary reason that I hardly noticed.
Cingular sent a replacement, the SD memory slot worked fine, and there were no cracks on the bezel. But a week or so later I noticed the start of a hairline crack in the very spaces mentioned above. It’s important to point out that I never dropped the phone, and never handled it roughly. Yet there were the little cracks. Which became more pronounced over the next few days, and after a week I noticed the start of still another crack about a half an inch up from the left green/answer button.
I called Cingular and arranged for another replacement phone, which Cingular sent overnight via DHL.
Within a week, same thing: Cracks appeared in the same spaces first mentioned, then a little farther up on the left edge, and then another one, same side, left edge, just below the word “palm.” Also as before, I never once dropped or roughly handled the Treo.
Last week I once again contacted Cingular, arranged a swap, and they sent a replacement overnight, with a label to return the broken one (within ten days or else I’d be charged more than $300; ditto if they determine the phone has been dropped).
The replacement Treo 680 is as good as new – but for how long? I’m afraid to use it, for fear of starting another Treo 680 crack-up.
Anyone else experiencing this not-so-funny Treo bezel crack-up problem?
This is a test, to see if I can post a blog entry directly from SOHO Notes for the Mac – particularly if it supports formatting, like italics, and bold. If so, cool. I may be using SOHO Notes more for my day to day work – non-fiction and creative/fiction – than I have in the past. It seems like a more functional way to bring lots of disparate information together, under one roof. It has a Palm sync option, so I’m covered on that front, and there’s also a Journal folder, and another for keeping track of Passwords – securely, I expect. A side feature is called Services, which lets you search for info in SOHO Notes much the way you search for system-wide information using Spotlight. A little panel in the lower right corner bearing the SOHO Notes tab pops open for quick access to SOHO Notes folders, and there’s also a clipboard feature for going back several steps to information copied to the clipboard, to paste as needed. That could come in handy. I also see a little key icon in the middle of the tabbed SOHO Notes pop-up window, and I’m guessing that is for access to the aforementioned passwords I’ve saved. Possibly more to come on this subject, as I continue to work with the program.
Update: I was not able to post to my blog as directly as I expected; I need to figure out an Atom API connection between SOHO Notes and my blog.
The Samsung BlackJack is beautiful to look at and the slightly rubberized finish feels nice in the hand. Using the main keyboard is pretty comfortable, however the center OK button and surrounding directional buttons often lead to mis-taps on either side.
The BlackJack’s screen is bright and ultra-sharp. Out of the box the phone syncs perfectly with Outlook. That means contacts, calendar and to-do items, emails – and thanks to an add-in extra, sticky notes, too. (For some reason Microsoft doesn’t offer Outlook sticky notes sync with Windows Mobile 5 as standard equipment, hence the helpful add-in that comes with the BlackJack.)
It’s worth mentioning that the BlackJack comes with two batteries, which suggests the battery life isn’t the greatest. Such was the case in my test of the phone, which meant I always had the extra one charging with the charger, and when at my desk I kept the phone plugged in to the USB cable to keep it charging at the same time. USB charging is always a nice touch, and one I appreciate on my Palm Treo 680 as well.
The BlackJack’s applications – Internet Explorer, Email, Media Player – run smoothly, but as with all Windows Mobile devices you may want to keep tabs on what’s running in memory, then manually cancel loaded but unused programs in order to maintain an overall snappier responsiveness when opening menus and operating programs. I’ve always found Windows Mobile devices a bit tricky to get used to, mostly because settings are scattered all over the place and require lots of hunting to get to exactly what you’re looking for, and the BlackJack was no exception.
Continue reading ‘Samsung BlackJack i607 review: Smart, sleek, but bound by data fees’
Update: Video of Joe’s “Mac vs. Vista” appearance on MSNBC news on 2/3/07.
Update: Audio of JOEyGADGET on TechTalkRadio.com on 2/4/07.
A Mac user switches to Vista by Joe Hutsko
Reporter trades in his PowerBook for a notebook with Microsoft’s new OS
Reporter Joe Hutsko made the switch several weeks ago, from his 12” PowerBook to a 17” HP widescreen notebook in order to try out Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista.
My gadgets, gear and game machine picks for TV Guide’s Holiday Gift Guide for 2006. Happy Holidays!
My first story for MSNBC.com, a roundup of Bluetooth devices – “Helpful gadgets for the hands-free set” – went live yesterday. Editor Kristin Kalning was a dream to work with, turning my pitch of a few gadget reviews into a feature assignment instead. She’s one of the brightest editors I’ve ever worked with.
This first look is of the first picture I’ve snapped with the new Palm Treo 700p. Clearly, the 700p’s boost to 1.3 mexapixels over the Treo 650′s scant 0.3-megapixel resolution is immediately evident in this photo of my new neighborhood friend Holly’s dog, Fillmore (who is one part fruitbat, one part goat, and one part James Dean). A fuller review of the Treo 700p will follow after I’ve played around with it over this three-day Memorial Day weekend. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: As you can see in my prior entry, I gleefully shared my experience of blogging by cellphone, but when I checked the post, not everything turned out as expected. I learned that the note I filled out on the phone creates a caption but doesn’t necessarily place it where I want. And that the url for Nokia LifeBlog didn’t show up as HTML. So here is the corrected entry, fixed on the PC, with strike-throughs for a few cuts and fixes, and new text highlighted. Live and learn.
Having blogged yesterday on how the Nokia 6682 is a great pocket-sized office-on-the-go, I left out one very key feature: Nokia LifeBlog Nokia LifeBlog. With it, I can snap a photo when I’m out and about (or bound to my actual home office, as shown here), add a note the body text (which you are reading), and then post it directly to my blog, directly right from the phone.
This will be very useful when I want to post blog pictures from various videogame and tech tech and videogame press events or shows that I attend, as they are happening. Alternately, you can connect the phone to your desktop PC (Windows only, no Mac support, which sucks) and tidy up your shots and text before posting from the LifeBlog desktop application.
Both applications – the one for your Nokia phone, and the other for your Windows PC – can be downloaded for free at http://www.nokia.com/lifeblog www.nokia.com/lifeblog. You can also go there to find out which phones besides the 6682 can do the LifeBlog thang.
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