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Mobile VisionaryWe are moving towards an always connected mobile life. It helps to be up to date and prepared for a mobile future.
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8/26/2008 iPhone 2.0.1 Firmware is BuggyUpgrading my unlocked and jailbroken first generation iPhone from the 1.1.4 to 2.0.1 firmware wasn't simple but I managed to get it done thanks to all the videos and blog post tutorials out there. But unfortunately I am not so happy with the upgrade. The firmware feels like it's still in a beta state. Applications take a lot longer to launch, tapping on the keyboard lags sometimes, and Safari seems to crash a lot more often. It is certainly obvious that the 1.1.4 firmware is faster and a lot more stable. I am not saying that I keep facing those issues on a daily basis (although it's true for some) but the difference between both firmwares is hard to not notice immediately. Apple should have waited another month or so to fix all the bugs that most iPhone 3G owners are now experiencing before rushing it out prematurely to stores. I am certainly not the only iPhone user running 2.0.1 who is experiencing these issues. A quick search on Google will prove there are thousands more with similar and possibly more problems with the 2.0 firmware in general. 8/12/2008 Living on the Slow Side of TimeThings have been going either pretty slow or extremely slow lately. I haven't even blogged for a while, mainly for the fact that my mind has decided to idle and started declining any creativity requests.
What could possibly be the reason? I mean, I have a lot on the go at work (don't even get me started), my father is back in town (yay me), and my iPhone is back from repairs as well as I just received a new phone from my dad (Nokia N95 8GB). But still, my mind seems to take all that for granted and somehow just wants a timeout!
I even bought a new book to get my mind started again but I couldn't get past the first chapter. Plus I have gained weight lately (obviously eating out of boredom). It's like things are getting worse and I am failing at taking back control of my life.
All I have to say is that I am hoping this is a short phase that I am going through and I will be taking some serious actions to turn this curse around and get my feet and mind back on track. 7/30/2008 I Guess New Isn't Always BetterI am feeling much better now that I am back to my Nokia E61. Yes, I only used the N95 for just a day and I already miss the good old QWERTY keyboard so dearly that I had to switch back. I guess I am the type of mobile user who just can't live without a keyboard on his mobile device. There was numerous things I noticed to be different, and annoying, on the N95. I noticed that you can't display your messages or email on the active standby screen. On my E61, I can easily set a default mailbox to be displayed under the active standby applications. I could choose either one of my email mailboxes or my SMS inbox. On the other hand, the N95 doesn't have this feature. Another thing I noticed was the bahviour of the end call button (the red button). When you press the button while using one of the built in applications that comes with the phone, it doesn't necessarily mean you shutdown the application. A quick press-and-hold on the menu key will clearly show that the application is still running in the background. The only way to close those applications is through the application's menu (Options -> Exit). Another thing that was mind boggling is the device's screensaver (or powersaver). It will only be displayed in landscape mode. There isn't a way to change it to portrait. Now why on earth would people have to rotate the device to clearly read the time or any notices on the screensaver? I just thought it was so retarted for a screensaver to behave in this way. One more thing I hated about the N95 is how cheap the device felt in my hand. The buttons felt somewhat loose and the sliding screen wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. There is no doubt that the device will easily slide open accidentally just by trying to slip it into your pocket. Plus, Nokia decided to place the headphone jack on the left side of their "multimedia computer" instead of on top making it difficult to get a good grip of the device when using the headphones. I can certainly go on and on about other things I didn't like, but the main point here is the fact that the device failed to meet my expectations (considering the price tag) and managed, in a way or another, to make me further appreciate my E61. So as it turns out, I am more of an E-Series than an N-Series guy. 7/29/2008 My Nokia N95 8GB Has ArrivedThat's right, and I am using my new Nokia N95 8GB right now to type out this blog post. The phone's build quality isn't as good as I thought or imagined. What I did notice is the phone's speedy performance compared to the E61. Nevertheless, it certainly serves it's main and only purpose as a multimedia phone. Honestly, using the phone's numpad to blog or type a message or a web address is frustrating, painfull and extremely time consuming. It definitly makes me miss using my E61's QWERTY keyboard. I don't think I will be using this phone for a long time since I do a lot of typing. That being said, the phone did impress me with its kick ass camera as well as the loud and clear stereo speakers. 7/28/2008 Windows Live Calendar isn't available
I always seem to get a problem whenever I try to go to my Live Calendar from my Windows Live account. The screenshot above is the latest problem I got when I tried to see my calendar this morning. The bigger problem here is not that it's not working, but mainly the fact that this has been happening for a long time now. I have always experienced problems logging onto my Windows Live Calendar ever since I created my Windows Live account. And someone please tell me why the Windows Live Calendar Beta is taking forever to get released? For God's sake, it's been over a year now. I hope I am not the only one here with these technical problems. But either way, it's getting really annoying. 7/26/2008 Reconsidering Samsung OMNIA i900For some reason whenever I look at a video review or a photo of the Samsung OMNIA i900 I feel like the need to grab hold of the device and trying it out. I've had a Windows Mobile 6 Professional device before (HTC Advantage X7501) and I thought it had great features and excellent software library, but the device's form factor threw me off and I had to get rid of it. The Samsung OMNIA, on the other hand, comes in a smaller factor, a kick ass 5MP digital camera with auto-focus, built in GPS and Wi-Fi, heptic feedback, a large batter capacity and a lot more great features. It's a device that is hard to forget about, even if you own an iPhone. And since it'll be running Windows Mobile you know for a fact that you will be able to use push email, your Windows Live account for instant messaging and blogging, and a lot more. Anyways, I am still thinking if I should consider getting this device to try it out. 7/25/2008 Once you go QWERTY you never go backWhenever I get the opportunity to buy a new cellphone, I always look for that QWERTY keyboard. I just don't think I can do the many things I do daily on my cellphone without it. I blog, write notes, surf the web and schedule appointments all on my cellphone. And without a QWERTY keyboard it will certainly take me longer to perform any of these tasks. Not to mention the frustration that comes from not hitting the right button a certain number of times to get that special or numeric character on a numpad. One of the reasons why I am still attached to my Nokia E61 is for the fact that I can type fast on it. The keyboard buttons feel great and anyone can quickly get used to it. Believe it or not, I bought numerous phones and kept switching back and forth between devices but I always end up going back to my Nokia E61. I have had this device for years now and I still see no reason to completely replace it. If anything, I might replace it with its latest successor, the Nokia E71. Hmmm, now that I mentioned it, that wouldn't be a bad idea. 7/24/2008 Nokia N95 - Best camera phone?I have researched the web high and low to find the best camera phone and one phone in particular keeps showing up. The Nokia N95. Nokia Ovi and flickr has thousands, if not more, of photos take by Nokia N95 owners all around the globe and all of them prove the fact that it is the best and most popular camera phone in the market so far. The photos are vibrant and full of colour. Even videos taken by the phone look so professional and crystal clear. So there you have it. If you are looking for the best camera and video phone out there, then look no further than the Nokia N95. It certainly won't disappoint you. You might even end up ditching your digital camera. 7/23/2008 So, what is the perfect cellphone?Everyone thinks differently when it comes to choosing a cellphone. Some look for multimedia features and some look for internet and email features. And there are those whom just want to send and receive phone calls. I am definitely not one of them Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing: It has to cost less than $700. 7/20/2008 Where is everything stored on Windows Live?I have been thinking about this for a while and something isn't making sense to me at all. Windows Live seems to have a strange way handling content storage. 7/17/2008 From 6GB To 300MB? You're Joking, Right?I called up Fido today to ask about their limited time data plan promotion. The data plan option costs $30 for 6GB of data. Personally, I thought that's as good as it gets when it comes out from either Fido or Rogers. So after talking to a Fido representative, it turns out that this offer is only available on selected fido handsets and requires a whopping 3 year monthly plan. So they expect me to use one specific handset for 3 years. Well, that's when I was about to hang up. The funny thing, is when I told him that I just wanted a data plan option for my Nokia E61 phone so that I can browse the web, check email, chat, and use google maps without worrying about how much it will cost me. He then suggested a $30 data option that I can add to my existing plan which will give me 300MB. So I called to ask about a 6GB data plan and it turned out that I didn't meet the requirements, and then he suggested the next best thing which was, sadly, 300MB for exactly the same price. I don't know what to say folks. It seems that the cellphone products are way ahead in technology that the wireless carrier it's running on. You can get GPS, desktop like browsing, great multimedia features, bigger storage capacity, big bright clear screens, and built in QWERTY keyboards on a single cellular device and it will still not cost you a fortune. But try to get a decent monthly data plan to make use of all those great features and you'll find yourself spending and arm and a leg on a monthly or yearly basis. Our wireless carriers are still way behind and will take years for them to catch up. But then again why would they care. It's not like they're not making millions in profit by ripping off customers, including yours truly. 7/16/2008 Is It Time For a Time Out?Just recently I started to feel that I need some sort of a time out from everything related to the internet, communication and electronics. I won't be surprised to know that there is scientific word or term that described such a symptom. I mean, somedays I can't imagine myself living a day without being connected somehow to the WWW. Shouldn't that be a sign that I am somewhat attached, in a high degree, to the internet and/or mobile devices? Recently I have been having this crazy idea in my head about totaly disconnecting myself from the web and any wireless device that can connect me to the web. Currently, I have a smartphone that I cant use to either blog, chat on msn, send and receive emails, as well as read recent news through RSS feeds or directly on a website through a web browser. And I have to admit that I do use all these features constantly and, mostly, on a daily basis. So by giving up why smartphone at home, this would tremendously help disconnect me from the web. Another device I constantly use is my laptop. Although I do hate the fact that I have to be sitting in a particular way to use it, as oppose to a smartphone, I still tend to spend a lot of time surfung the web on my laptop when I am at home. Therefore taking my laptop away and out of my reach will also greatly help in reducing my online presence. But will I actually do it? I doubt it. But it certainly makes me wonder. How would my life be without using computers and surfing the web as often and as frequent as today? 7/7/2008 Rogers Wireless is Darth Vader?
Someone posted this comic on Canadaka.net and I thought it's certainly worth sharing and spreading around the web. It clearly and truly shows what Rogers Wireless's intentions are with launching the iPhone 3G in Canada and how upset the Canadians are with the posted iPhone 3G voice and data plans. I just hope the average Canadian consumer is wise enough to know that
he or she is making a difference and helping change Canada's
telecommunication industry by not falling into the traps of Darth
Vader..oops..I mean Rogers by signing a 3 year contract and buying an
iPhone. And I also hope spreading the word all around the web and by word of mouth will help reduce and minimize the number of Canadian iPhone 3G customers because that will certainly cause a big impact on Rogers and hopefully make them change their prices. 6/29/2008 Rogers Wireless Sucks - RuinediPhone.com
While the world is getting cheaper voice and data plans, Canada's only GSM network, Rogers, is still offering ridiculous and expensive wireless data plans. And even though the iPhone 3G is coming to Rogers on July 11 as well, Rogers still wont be offering an unlimited data plan (which means Fido wont as well). UPDATE #2: UPDATE #3: 6/23/2008 Smartphone Over-Pricing MadnessPlanning on getting a phone just for making and receiving phone calls? Then you're looking at a price range of $50 to $150. But if you are looking for a smartphone or a phone slash PDA then you're looking at a price range of $500 to $1000. Of course I am only talking about unlocked phones without a contract. It's kind of hard for me to pay more than $600 for something as small and fragile as a cell phone. And the prices don't seem to be going down as fast as they should be. I mean, almost every month you hear about a new smartphone being released or announced by some major manufacturer with all the high end features you can think of yet the previous last year models still don't seem to be affected at all price wise. As cell phone manufacturers are trying their best to keep up with today's latest mobile technology and consumer demands, they still don't play it fair when it comes to pricing. In order for a fair and steady competition to happen we need those smartphones to be fairly priced and more affordable (and I am specially looking at you HTC). Think about the HTC Touch Diamond for instance. The device has features already available in a lot of other phones available in the market today and it's priced at a whopping $700! To me, that's ridiculous considering you will be squinting at a 2.8" screen. I mean, I would totally have no problem with that price if it had a large 3.5" screen. Anyway, I am hoping the crazy smartphone over pricing madness would eventually come to an end or else I would have to go back on carrying multiple devices. 6/21/2008 I Passed My MCTS Exam!My MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) 70-541 exam in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Application Development was scheduled today, June 21st 2008, at 9:00 AM. It turned out to be a lot more difficult that I thought. A lot of the questions was based on site and list definitions. The exam also had plenty of questions on the WSS API as well. One or two questions were on solution deployment and several on webparts. But in the end I managed to pass the exam and currently I am waiting for my MCP access code for the MCP site. So in general, it was certainly an excellent way to start off my weekend. FYI, my only study material was Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 book from Microsoft Press. Good luck to anyone out there who's planning on taking the exam. 6/17/2008 Nokia E71 is Officially AnnouncedI have always been fond of Nokia's E series phone lineup so I was excited when I read that Nokia officially announced the new E71. It's certainly a pretty device with pretty much all the high end features a business user could ask for. What surprised me is the phone's new size. Apparently it's a bit smaller and a lot thinner than the E61 but still manages to pack more features. The E71 has built in GPS/A-GPS, 3.2 MP camera with flash, front VGA video camera, and runs the latest S60 Symbian OS. As well as the usual QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, and Bluetooth. I was disappointed to see the same screen size though. Honestly, I was hoping for a total makeover for the phone's form factor. I am not saying that I didn't like the E61's design (I wouldn't be using it right now to blog if it was true) but I was hoping for Nokia to come up with a slide out QWERTY keyboard phone with a large screen that covers most of the phone's size. And I thought this would be the E71. I am positive that I am not the only one who is waiting for a Nokia phone with a screen larger than N95's screen. Nevertheless, the E71 is an attractive, slim, and feature packed phone with lots to offer and it certainly proves the E61's success in the mobile market. 6/16/2008 It's Tough to be BrokeEven though I've got a good amount of money in my savings account, I still consider myself broke for another three to four months. Which means I won't be able to buy any cool gadgets for a long time. Which also means I will be feeling misreable for a long time. So what made me broke? Honestly, I have no clue. But as it turns out I have spent almost $1,000 using my Amex card. Whatever those expenses were, I have to pay it back ASAP. Which means I will be putting at least $250 (if not more) towards my Amex card every month. Please don't get me wrong. I don't usually go on a spending spree using my credit cards. I rarely get into these situations and when I do I always take it seriously and try to pay whatever I owe as soon as I can. Anyway, on the bright side this isn't the largest balance I had on my credit card. 6/9/2008 Samsung i900 is Officially AnnouncedA few moments ago I decided to check out GSMArena.com and I noticed they posted official news and pictures of the much anticipated Samsung i900 "Omnia". Apparently, the screen size isn't 3.5" as all previous posts have mentioned. Instead, the screen size actually is 3.2". And that black square-shapped flat surface located at the bottom of the device is actually the previously seen optical mouse which seemed to dissappoint most people. Another interesting piece of information that I didn't know about is the device's built in accelerometer. Which means the screen will automatically rotate if flipped to its side. It also sounds like there will be two versions of this phone. One with 8 Gb of storage and another with 16 Gb. And it also supports miniSD cards which allows for further more storage if needed. It would be great if a third version of this wonderful phone existed with a built in slide-out QWERTY keyboard to attract more business users and people who can't live without a physical keyboard such as myself. Nevertheless, I can't wait to watch a video review of the phone sometime soon. 6/8/2008 WWDC is Tomorrow. Do I Care?Nope. I don't care. Not even one bit. So why the hell am I blogging about it? Well, cause I have nothing else to talk about. You never know, people might actually be able to copy and paste on the new iPhone. But I wouldn't get my hopes up. 6/5/2008 HTC Touch Pro Officially AnnouncedThis is wonderful news for all those HTC Diamond fans who were disappointed for the phone's lack of a QWERTY keyboard. Well, that's where the HTC Touch Pro comes in to fill that gap. The HTC Touch Pro looks exactly like the HTC Diamond and shares the same TouchFLO 3D interface and sleek design. But there are several differences under the hood. The HTC Touch Pro comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a faster processor, and (the part I love the most) a larger battery. The screen size and memory remain the same on both devices. I still hate the fact that the HTC Diamond comes with a 950 mAh battery. I think the HTC Touch Pro gives consumers a lot more bang for their buck just for the fact that it has a longer battery life and the advantage of a slide out QWERTY keyboard. And besides, the Touch Pro's design and software all comes from the Diamond so people would have the best of both worlds. If I had to make a choice between either the HTC Diamond or the HTC Touch Pro, I would certainly choose the Touch Pro in a blink of an eye and without any hesitation. MCTS Exam this MonthRecently I registered for a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) exam which will be on June 22nd 2008. The exam will be based on the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Development technology. It's something I have been meaning to do for a while but never got the chance. I have been working with SharePoint for a while now building applications and project sites from the ground up. The WSS 3.0 API has always been a pleasure working with. And after gaining a lot of experience in this field, and especially in troubleshooting ever since the first beta came out, I decided to put my skills to the test and hopefully get rewarded for it. So anyways, I just thought I would share this information with you before I head to bed and I will keep you posted with further updates on this matter. Wish me luck! 6/2/2008 Impatient Cellphone ShopperI know for a fact that several exciting new cellphones will be released during this month but my impatience for getting a new cellphone is getting worse as the days go by. At the same time I still haven't decided which handset I am most likely to buy. The HTC Diamond has been up for sale on several online stores for almost a week now but I am not too much fond of the small screen and week battery. The iPhone 2.0 should be released during this month but, out of experience, I don't want to feel owned by Apple due to all the iPhone restrictions. And the Samsung i900 will also be released this month but it won't have a VGA screen nor a special home screen like the Diamond. I understand that I can never get the perfect cellphone with all the usefull high end features that I always dream of but I still hate to accept whatever came close even if it lacked a GPS, or a built in QWERTY keyboard, or Windows Live integration, or a large 3.5" VGA touch screen. I guess I will have to just wait and hope for the best. 6/1/2008 Everything is Getting TouchedThe world, as it seems, is moving towards touch based devices. Most cellphones these days have touch screens and recently Microsoft has shown that Windows 7 will support multi-touch. And where do I stand between this evolution? Well, unfortunately I am still years behind. My current phone is a Nokia E61, which doesn't have a touch screen, and I don't own a tablet but instead I have a laptop running Windows XP (not even Vista capable). So is it time for an upgrade? Hell ya! 5/28/2008 Samsung i900 - New Images
Click on the pictures below for a larger size.
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