Sidekick On Sale @ Simply Wireless 10.31.2002
- 1:16 PM | permalink
Experience the future, be like me. Simply Wireless is now selling the Danger HipTop Sidekick for the low low price of $199. If you are even remotely thinking about getting a new phone soon, you owe it to yourself to check it out!
I have to be quite honest... T-Mobile's service is surprisingly good. I have had coverage 99% of the time and the only time I have been out of coverage was when I was in the remote back roads of Frederick county where it dropped out for about less than a minute and inside the tunnels of the metro where nothing works except Verizon service (sometimes).
DANGER! Gadget Nirvana 10.30.2002
- 1:16 PM | permalink
Ok, first let me say... I am sorry. I have been away for a while. I guess I just needed a break but what the heck, this site is a hobby anyway right? Been hanging out focusing on the family and home life for a while which is good.
Most of you know I have been toying with the whole email on the go thing for a while and have looked at a number of solutions. Bottom line was, that I discovered over the years I am not really a PDA person. I just never really used them much except for downloading stories/news from the web to read on the train into my job. Never did much in the way of calendaring. Always wanted to do email but could never find a solution.
Email on cell phones sucked. I tried it and it just didn't work. So, I saw my dad had a blackberry and thought I would try that. Had everything gone smootly, I would probably still have my blackberry... but it didn't. And now I am glad it didn't.
The Blackberry story is a tragic one. The first one I got didn't work around where I lived. The network (Motient) had no coverage here. I was in a dead zone. Not to worry the reps told me, Cingular covered this area and they had a good deal on a used Palm sized Blackberry. So, they sent me it and I decided I liked the pager form factor better. Also, after a few days of use, the T key stopped working. So, I called GoAmerica (the provider) back and they said they would send me out another used device... this time pager sized. Well, I got that one and the thing right out of the box said "bad load, press r to reset". Well, 3 hours later after wiping the operating system on the thing twice, it was working. Problem was, a few days later, the error popped up again. So, I called them up and they sent me another device. This was the worst of all. The screen was dark and 5 keys didn't work! So, I got hold of them again and said "look, I have had 4 devices now... and I am getting tired of this. Please talk to your manager and tell them I want a brand new device becasue of the trouble I have been through". They reassured me that they would send me a new device. Days later, the device arrives. The screen is pretty dark so I call customer service and ask, "is this a used device?" They fumble around and finally come back and say.... yes, it is a used device. At that point, I loose it and tell them I will be sending this back and to cancel my account.
So, here I was without a device. Now, when I originally started looking for a device, I saw T-Mobile was coming out with something new called a DANGER Sidekick. Problem was, it wasn't out yet. Well, by the time I went through 5 Blackberrys, the device is now out and on the market. I picked one up last night and got it fully activated today. The thing is a dream. Quite possibly one of the most amazing pieces of electronics I have ever seen. Like something out of the Jetsons, it does email, web browsing, games, voice and more. It's like a gameboy for adults except, its a productivity tool too! The best part is that CompUSA had it on sale for $99 after rebate and the monthly service is $39. Compare that with the Blackberry which was $359 and the monthly service was $59.
As I use it over the next few days, I will let you know how things go! Stay tuned. To find out more about the Sidekick now, go to T-Mobile's site or Danger's site.
A Whiter Shade of Pale 10.15.2002
- 1:17 PM | permalink
Everything else dims in comparison... another life has been lost known to the bastard called the "DC Sniper". The latest victim was an older woman killed while loading packages in her car outside a home depot near Seven Corners in Virginia. When is this madness going to end? When are the resources of the Federal, State and Local governments going to get their collective asses in gear and catch this deplorable excuse for a human being. Damn it. I don't know whether to be scared of pissed off or a concoction of both.
What is angering me on top of this is that all the news services have used this opportunity to grab ratings. Promos about "when live news breaks, we are there" are flying left and right. That, and now the national news will have their graphic artists on overtime coming up with a jazzy sniper logo like the one from CBS News' national site. Disgusting.
Anyone out there besides me think that the Sopranos is sucking big time wind this year? I didn't think it was possible to get worse than some of the episodes last year but this year seems infinitely worse. The shows seem disjointed. There is way too much of the bit characters that I could care less about... the annoying Janice, Bobby Baklava, Adriana etc. Oooh, and I see one of my least favorite characters, Artie Bucco makes a return next week. We wander from show to show waiting for something interesting to happen and it doesn't. Big freaking deal... Tony hangs at the horse track with Ralphie (when the hell did these guys start paling around?), Janice finds love in Bobby, Junior bitches some more about his trial, Bobby threatens a union representative and Tony talks with Carmella about monetary investments. What happened with the Johnny Sacks hit? Did it just go away? Where is the effing must see TV in that? You know it's bad when I am looking forward to episodes of "Mind of the Married Man" more than the Sopranos. OK, maybe it's not that bad... but it's close. As Casey Casem once said... "what the hell is going on here... ponderous, fucking ponderous." There are so many paths that this season could have gone down that would have made it so much more interesting. We should have known that we were in trouble when David Chase said this season would focus on "Family". Problem is, it's not the Mob Family they are focusing on.
Live From New Jersey, It's Tuesday Night 10.09.2002
- 2:09 PM | permalink
Another exciting business trip to New Jersey. Actually, it's not bad at all as we usually go out for a decent meal and beverages. Also on my trip up, I was able to stop at the Nike factory outlet in Perryville, MD and picked up a few cool things. I will say the Embassy Suites kicks ass. Got to spend 20-30 minutes in the spa and the place is nice enough to live in for an extended stay. I realize that I have fallen behind here on the blog and I still owe you all a few things. Hate to leave you hanging but it will be a few more days. Big stuff is in the works for one of my websites and I have to focus on that. On the home front, my wife and I celebrated 11 years together and both my sons scored their first goals in soccer over the past few weeks. Life is truly good.
There just comes a time where shit just has to get done. I'm busy, you're busy, we all are fucking busy living the crazy ass lives we have gotten ourselves into. Here's a news clip for you... It's never gonna get any better and you can quote me on this... there will always be someone or something sucking the life out of you demanding your time.
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." �Walt Disney
I feel guilty for using profanity and a quote from Walt so close together but it seemed to work somehow. Forgive me.
Despite the fact that I cancelled the first Blackberry device and shipped it back for a lack of service in my area, and despite them calling me back and saying Cingular had excellent coverage in my area, and despite the fact that I agreed to get a Blackberry 957 sent to me for $199 (the other one on the other network was free) on Thursday, and despite the fact that I called back and cancelled it on Friday, the device arrived on Monday.
My first instinct was to immediately take it to the post office and return it. I had sold myself out of wanting one. Well, the geek in me won out and I decided to open the box. After all, it's on a 14 day trial and what the heck, I might as well TRY it.
Two days later, I am hooked. This thing not only reads and responds to all my normal email but also has IM built right into it. That along with syncing my outlook contacts, tasks, to do's etc. All I can say is that when it works like this, it rocks!
The only thing I am debating now is whether I want the model 957 they sent which has a pocket pc/palm form factor or whether I want the pager form factor. The palm one is nice and the screen is about 2.5 times the size, however the keyboard is the same and frankly, in my world, smaller electronics are almost always better. One other important thing is that this device has a rechargeable, unserviceable battery in it... which means if you are on the road and it dies and you don't have your charger... you're screwed. The 950 can use a normal AA battery or a rechargeable lithium ion battery. This is a good thing. I'm going to give it a day or two but I will probably ship this one back for a model 950.
