Friday, December 5, 2008

BlackBerry Storm – Epic in a Phone

Well I finally got my BlackBerry Storm, and all I can say is, it’s AWESOME! It’s everything I expected to be and more. It may have a few little bugs but hey what phones don’t when they first come out. Yes people complain, “there are no apps, we want apps” well think about it. Did the iPhone have apps when it came out…no, not at all. Those came out more than a year later with the release of the iPhone 3G. You can’t expect BlackBerry to just magically create and awesome phone and a full on app store, while making the BlackBerry Storm’s firmware perfect. Well you can, but if that was to happen, the phone would never be released! They may have brought it out one update too soon, but hey we’re lucky now we can update things, unlike in the past where once you got a phone, you never updated it…ever.

I have used my iPod Touch a ton. I used it so much I would carry it around with me in my pocket with my other phone. I knew I needed to get a smart phone and without the desire to switch carriers, the announcement of the Storm was amazing to hear. Unfortunately, the Storms were way under shipped so I had to check back daily, and I finally got it last Tuesday! Opening the box, and seeing the amazing design, all black, was awesome. I have now gotten so used to using my phone for music and calendar and all that, that I forgot my iPod Touch at home when I came back up, and I didn’t realize I left it there for an entire week!

Now to reviewing the device. I love it. It did take me about a week to get used to typing on it, and now I type faster on it than on my iPod Touch. When I show my phone to people they try just tapping and the typical response is “oh this phone sucks, it doesn’t respond to me clicking it”. I then tell them to push the button and they are always astonished about how weird it is. Unfortunately now, so many are used to the iPhone, they aren’t willing to change or accept the change the Storm made, which is why many people dislike the device. Everything has worked perfectly. Even on my Mac, without using bootcamp, I can sync it thru VMWare Fusion to the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. I now have my calendars syncing thru iCal to Google Calendar to my Phone, all wirelessly, all automatically updating. If one changes, it will reach all others in under 15 minutes, however you can always force sync it. One complaint I have is that it takes a freaking long time to power on, however you never really need to turn the phone off. I’ve actually heard that you shouldn’t turn off the phone from various sources. Documents to Go, an app that comes on the phone, doesn’t like reading my documents from my Mac, but that isn’t a huge deal to me. Texting is a breeze, syncing contacts works amazingly well. The browser may run slow at times, but I mean it’s a mobile device, you can’t expect T1 speeds on it! I hope you enjoyed my review, if you ever try one, give it time, don’t expect the iPhone experience because it isn’t an iPhone, it is a totally different phone than you have probably ever experienced!


Thursday, December 4, 2008

Round Up of Twitter Apps!

Well after my research done and my trials with many different twitter clients I now have a list for every one of twitter clients and my opinion of each!

Twitterific – Free with ads, $14.95 for full version



A small minimalistic twitter client with many great features, such as growl support when new tweets arrive and color-coding for direct messages and replies. Gives the basic function of allowing you to tweet from inside of it. It collapses nicely into the menu bar for when you do not want to view it, however when you receive new tweets it does reappear, little annoying but manageable. Unfortunately, there is a price tag on this twitter app, but the free version works just as well, except for the ads. It is a great app if you want something small, lightweight and gets the job done while looking good!

TweetDeck
- Free

Expanded View
”tweetdeck

Single Column
”tweetdeck

This is my twitter app of choice. It may be large, however I have an entire space dedicated to it. It does a very good job of separating direct messages and replies into different columns. It runs on Adobe Air and is extremely lightweight. You can force update your tweets and send new tweets with this. It also provides automatic link shortening which is very handy when linking to my blog or elsewhere. There are many newly added features to TweetDeck that I don’t use yet because I just updated my TweetDeck. I recommend this app if you want a twitter app to do it all, but don’t mind its size. My one small complaint about this app is when you get a new tweet it just updates saying you have a new tweet and makes TweetDeck the targeted application, but this is very minor.

Twhirl - Free

”twhirl”

Another twitter app that uses the Adobe Air platform. I used to use this app a lot, however TweetDeck replaced it. This app is very similar to TweetDeck and has many of the same features. It has its own notification system which you can customize to your liking. It does not update as frequently as TweetDeck does, which is one of my primary reasons for switching, however it’s size is much more comparable to that of Twitterific which is a plus. Twhirl also features link shortening along with many other useful tricks. I recommend this if TweetDeck is too large for your tastes and Twitterific is too minimalistic.

Hahlo

”Hahlo”

Designed to be used primarily for mobile devices such as an iPhone, it still works very well as a browser based twitter client. It is a very nice looking app, with a minimalistic theme. It does the essentials great for on the go tweeting. Hahlo and Ping.FM, which I will discuss later, are my two main ways to tweet on the go. I recommend using it on your iPhone or iPod Touch or even creating a fluid app of it. If you need help creating a fluid app of Hahlo visit http://fluidapp.com/ .

Ping.FM


”Ping.fm”

This is not exactly a twitter client, but a twitter updater. You can use it to update your twitter status at the same time you update your facebook, myspace, or many more statuses. You can also use it to create a new blog post. It is available to use at ping.fm all you have to do is make an account and put in your information for whatever sites you want it to update! They have pseudo texting support by texting an email or if your mobile device has email, you can just email it. Ping.fm also has AIM bots for quick and easy status updates. If you are lazy and like to update all your statuses at once, ping.fm is the way to go!

TweetGrid

”TweetGrid”

Shown to me by a fellow twitter user, TweetGrid is a very well designed web based twitter app. It is completely customizable. You choose your grid size from 1x1 to 3x3. Within this you can edit the sizes of columns and rows to customize to your liking. Once inside, you can view specific people’s tweets, everyone’s, and even update your own with rapid updating. If you just want something that works and gets the job done, TweetGrid is for you!

Wrap Up


Basically each of these twitter apps target a different audience.


  • If you want an extremely minimalist app for your desktop use Twitterific

  • If you want everything twitter has to offer plus more for your desktop use TweetDeck

  • If you want a combo of the last two use twhirl

  • If you want to use twitter on your iPhone or other mobile device use Hahlo

  • If you want to update all of your sites with a status use Ping.FM

  • If you want a full desktop experience in your web browser, while customizing it all use TweetGrid


I hope this list of twitter clients helps! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at eqgelu@yahoo.com!

Pictures taken with Skitch


More Blog Posts to Come

Well I have been very busy but I am hoping to do more posting! Expect a good solid article about 3 times a week, but I am going to try and post at least once a day! My twitter post is coming either today or tomorrow!


Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Twitter Apps

Well I'm basically looking to see what everyone's favorite twitter applications are and then I will do a write up and compare so please let me know your favorite or favorites to best assist me in this process! Thanks!


Random Video of the Month!



This video is very well done, so have a look a let's hear what you think about it!


Sunday, November 30, 2008

Through the Fire and Flames on Expert...Drums?

Just wow...