--- Friday, March 21, 2008

Blackberry Curve (8310) Review

Permalink: 3/21/2008 12:34:00 AM

A while ago I switched to a Blackberry... without telling anyone. No posts, no blurbs. And since then I've never looked back... well, only a little bit! I do miss my Sony Ericsson W910i that I special-ordered but foregoing email-in-my-pocket-on-the-fly any longer just seemed impossible.

When asked on Flickr what I thought about it... I replied: "It's pretty solid. I unlocked all of the carriers' themes and ended up choosing the Vodafone one, it's pretty neat. Applications I installed are Facebook, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Instant Messenger (AIM/MSN/Yahoo!), and MusicID. (last two were downloaded from AT&T for free, others from their respective developers' websites)

I haven't used my iPhone in months... I really like how this has an actual keyboard, flash for the camera, regular headphone jack (not needing an adapter), expandable memory, expandable functionality, and it's a bit more rugged and less smooth (doesn't slip out of your pocket when standing up or sitting down). Oh, and you can tether Internet via Bluetooth (like a normal phone) which was a huge turn-off for me with the iPhone. I need emergency Internet from time-to-time and any phone I look-at has to have it."

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. I honestly really think it's an all-around good device -- not too flashy, not too thin... yet not too impractical or ill-equipped. The ONLY thing I wish it could do was use the camera to record short videos for YouTube or emailing. This is the only downfall I've found... that and the lack of a 3G-connection, which isn't a huge deal at least right-now.

When I bought this I had about a 50/50 chance of returning it (as I have with past Blackberry purchases) but this one I've been using and loving, so until the iPhone can catch-up to my standards this is my lovely new center of all being 'smash'... you can call me a crackberry.

Labels: 8310, blackberry, curve

--- Wednesday, March 19, 2008

DiggSuggest - Using the Digg API to find stories for you!

Permalink: 3/19/2008 02:44:00 PM

I wrote this script a few nights ago and have been playing with the results. It builds a local cache in a MySQL DB of stories then compares them to both your Digging history and their current popularity to give you great suggestions on what to Digg next! Feedback please, and Digg-it-up.

http://diggsuggest.smashsworld.com/

Labels: digg, diggsuggest

--- Wednesday, February 13, 2008

My new project... 73git.

Permalink: 2/13/2008 11:05:00 AM

I made this new site called 73git that literally posts a new story... every 10 minutes, and it actually ended-up looking pretty cool! I didn't think that it could be done, but I guess it ends up being an experiment, hopefully successful. Check it out!

Labels: 73git

Link

--- Monday, February 11, 2008

The "Err" sign I built with Peggy. (make yours today!)

Permalink: 2/11/2008 12:37:00 AM

EvilMadScientist sells a kit called "Peggy" that allows you to build all sorts of things... including a Mooninite-sign from the ATHF bomb-scare in Boston, if you're crafty-enough.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend you have a good amount of soldering and electrical experience before attempting this, though. It wasn't a difficult kit to build (although it's very time-consuming and requires exceptional attention to detail in certain areas), but it's also not something that would be easy to learn-on either.

I built this sign in about 4-hours on Friday night and gave it to my friend for his birthday afterward, but I'll have to fix it later since 100 Blue-LEDs turned out to NOT be enough to finish "Err's" arm... I had to use some of the leftover pink ones and that made the Volkswagen symbol in his hand look more like some sort of torch or whip... haha.

I will fix that later.

Anyway, the only other major complaint I had with the kit was that the photo-sensor that they include (at least right now) isn't sensitive-enough for indoor use. I bought one of those 5-Packs of Photocell sensors for like $4 at Radioshack and just used one of those instead... much better. (video attached below)

UPDATE ON THIS: Apparently you can program the IC to handle different levels of light, or even they can do it for you before they ship the kit to you. So this is no longer an issue.

Some of Err's features (like his eyebrows) aren't on the grid of LEDs that Peggy offers, either... you have to be a bit creative on bending the leads for each LED and this becomes quite time-consuming. However, it's still a lot of fun to build... and if you're mad-skilled you can reprogram the IC (integrated-circuit) to control the lights more specifically (to make Err's eyebrows blink... or something.) By default, all of the lights are on unless you have it set to turn-off with the lights or daytime are present.

"Peggy" isn't just for building Mooninite signs, though! You can make whatever you want in whatever color you want, and even program it to flash, blink, etc. as I hinted-at above. I won't be doing that, but I will definitely be working on some other designs for friends in the future. It's a great gift and makes anyone's home just a-bit-more cutting-edge. ;)

Instructions, initial soldering:

After about 1 and a 1/2 hours I had all of the components and the first, test LED mounted and soldered:

Then... continued mounting and soldering the rest over the next 2 hours:

The finished project is shown below for scale. As you can see, there are some leftover Pink LEDs being used in the right-arm, I'm going to swap them out at a later date so that you can really see the "VW" clearly! (we are all Volkswagen enthusiasts, haha)

Pretty awesome kit. Check out their website for more stuff they make with electronic-components and simple circuits.

Labels: ATHF, LEDs, mooninites, Peggy

--- Thursday, January 31, 2008

Over 10-Million Served!

Permalink: 1/31/2008 01:19:00 PM

This morning, Mobile17's odometer rolled-over to 10-Million pieces of mobile-content created. It is a big-day for the company and you all can expect many great things to come. :)

Labels: mobile17

Link

--- Sunday, December 09, 2007

Welcome to winter in New England.

Permalink: 12/09/2007 11:10:00 PM

Awesome.

DSC02763.JPG
Originally uploaded by smashtheqube

--- Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Some updates to Whitesoap!

Permalink: 12/05/2007 02:58:00 PM

Playing around with a new beta of the homepage, which provides a lot more useful information from the system. We'll see how it goes -- there's plenty more to come. It's a fun project and is nowhere near the end of its road. ;)

Labels: whitesoap

Link

--- Wednesday, October 24, 2007

W910i Unboxed.

Permalink: 10/24/2007 09:49:00 PM

I'm super-excited to report that my new phone is here from Hong Kong!!
A hearty-red Sony Ericsson W910i. No idea when this is coming out in the USA (rumored for the holidays), but it might not in general due to the W580i just being released... which is similar.

First off... I love this phone. It is amazing. The crisp screen, it's thin form-factor, great design... very few complaints from me:

No video calling support here in the USA (I tried calling a friend from South Africa that's living in Connecticut... he has a K800i. The call immediately failed, but voice-calling works okay obviously.)

No flash for the camera... although I will admit that I used it as a flashlight more often than for pictures.

No standard headphone jack on the phone (but they do include a cabled-adapter with microphone and send/end button on the remote, plus a set of very-well-fitting earbud headphones), but it does have Stereo-sound over Bluetooth. Nice! Hopefully we'll see a slick set of wireless headphones in the upcoming months.

At some points, the menu interface seems to 'lag' a little bit... not too bad but still noticeable. I hope they fix this with a software update.

As far as I know, there's no way to keep your Ringtones from showing up under your song-lists with music you've put on the phone... but I'll keep playing with it. This is definitely annoying.

The phone even has an accelerometer, so it knows when you tilt it (like the iPhone). You can even "shake" the phone to switch tracks. (although I haven't tried this and it probably isn't consistent)

The slide-out keypad allows for a massive 240x320-pixel display that's crystal-clear, unlike many phones that display somewhat "soft" images. Built-well, stays in your pocket, very thin, and seems durable.

Getting it setup for AT&T wasn't too difficult. I couldn't use my iPhone's SIM card since they're apparently only designed for that one phone, but ended-up getting a free replacement from the local AT&T store. Almost everything worked straight-off as usual, but I did have to manually configure WAP (mobile internet) and MMS messaging... took a few minutes to type everything in. (keep in mind those instructions are for the W810i, my previous phone, but the menus are similarly structured)

After I was online, I downloaded my two favorite freebee applications: Google Maps mobile (with traffic), and Opera mini. I didn't need any games since the phone already came with Lumines (a favorite of mine available for the PSP), and some 3D racing game (V-Rally).

The last thing, was getting it syncing via Bluetooth with iSync on my Mac. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't support it yet... but luckily someone wrote a plug-in!

So basically, this phone has great games, great music and video playback, a great camera, and isn't locked down like the damn iPhone. Nice!

A few other thumbnails:

A few other freebees it offers:

Track ID: A free version of many carriers' music recognition service. Hold it up to a song that's playing and it'll utilize your phone's internet connection to figure out what it's called in about 15 or 20 seconds. Awesome!

It came with a 2GB Memory Stick M2 memory-chip already installed... this thing is TINY, yet holds so much! Plus it includes a USB-key style reader, *and* a USB-cable... both of which transfer files very quickly over USB2. (photos/videos/music/etc.)

Also has a built-in FM radio for when you don't feel like listening to your music... although I don't think it works with "Track ID"... haha.

Anyway, in summary this phone should work nicely on AT&T(/Cingular), T-Mobile, or any other GSM provider here in the USA. A few extra steps (as I mentioned) are involved to get it setup, but in the end it's definitely worth-it. If we see this phone in-stores, it'll be a hot seller for sure!

I'm already creating ringtones on Mobile17. ;)

Labels: sony ericsson, W910i

--- Sunday, September 16, 2007

Mobile17 updated to support the iPhone!

Permalink: 9/16/2007 11:29:00 PM

I'm pleased to announce that we now offer custom ringtones and graphics (created from your music and pictures), free of charge, for the iPhone. It's very easy to do. Try it out?

Digg this story and get the word out! Finally, an easy way for the iPhone to be further personalized.

Labels: iphone, mobile17, ringtones

--- Friday, August 24, 2007

Un-jam your paper shredder with WD-40 and a piece of thin-cardboard.

Permalink: 8/24/2007 04:18:00 PM

This has happened to me tons of times... I'll carelessly put WAY too much stuff in my paper shredder and jam it. I quickly figured out that if you saturate the papers (300-page AT&T phone bill, for example) with WD-40, then work the shredder for like 15 seconds by alternating in forward and reverse modes... it's usually loosened-up enough that you can press the jammed materials through with a piece of thin-cardboard or old giftcard/credit-card. (something fairly rigid but still shredable... even an old CD!)