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September 20th, 2007:

I need MORE TV!

Sep 20th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Sit down for this one.

No, trust me. Sit down.

I still have a 27″ TV.

There! I said it! Are you happy now?!?

But it’s time for change. I’m in the market for a new television for my living room. I have a guess regarding what I need/want, and I hope those of you who know more about this stuff than I do will help correctly me if I’m wrong.

My Criteria:

  • I’m thinking somewhere between 42″ and 50″ should be enough.
  • Because of the odd angle we intend to place our couches in because of the shape of it and the fact that I don’t like making the TV a huge overbearing statement in the living room by pointing all my furniture directly at it, it needs to be visible from at least 45 degrees to either side.
  • It needs to be visible in broad daylight with all of the curtains open. Often, the television is only a secondary activity for us and our primary activity requires more like than typical TV watching does. It needs to perform fairly well in this situation.
  • I don’t actually need a tuner though I imagine it will come with one since most do.
  • HDMI, S-Video, Component, DVI, blah, blah, blah. I don’t know what most of that means do I know that I’d want to connect it in a way that I can get the best quality I can with the equipment I have. I have an Echostar two tuner DVR from Dish Network, an XBox, and a Nintendo Wii. If it’s really big, it’d be fun to be able to show random photographs in high resolution on it as well.
  • Lighter, of course, is better. But, it doesn’t have to be incredibly light if I can get higher quality and a lower price by tacking on a little weight or bulk.
  • Money is always an object when your wife is frugal like mine. Cheaper is, of course, better.
  • I probably don’t need 1080p, but it sure wouldn’t kill me to have it. However, I most of the images I view will not be at that high of a resolution so it needs to look good even with less than optimal sources.

I’d also like a very small, very flat TV for the kitchen, and two medium sizes TVs for the office and bedroom. Quality is much less important on these, however, the lighter and flatter the better. I’m thinking 19-26″ for the kitchen and 26-32″ for the bedroom and office.

What do you think of the Samsung 50″ DLP HLT5075S? I require pretty acute vision. Will the DLP colorwheel bother me?

Please offer any product recommendations you have as well as any modifications to my criteria that you think I should make. Thanks!

I need a new phone

Sep 20th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Considering that my current mobile phone simply isn’t going to work (see “I hate Windows Mobile“), I’m exploring other options, but there aren’t too many that appeal to me.

First, there’s the Nokia E61i. Though I haven’t actually touched one and I don’t know anyone who owns one, on paper, this seems like the best option. It is also the most expensive and, almost the most uncertain. It’s a Series 60 3rd Edition phone running Symbian OS. If it’s a 3 revisions and 5 years newer version of the original Series 60 phone that I used I’ll be quite happy becaus I really liked that phone. It supports an external memory card, has a 1.3MP camera, and a native IMAP_IDLE client. It comes loaded with lots of software and, while stuck at EDGE speeds, also has WIFI and a VOIP client built in. It’s feature rich, has a ton of software built in, is easily extendable, and has lots of available 3rd party apps. The problem is, this phone isn’t actively being sold by any U.S. carriers. So I have to pay $409 for an unlocked version.

Another option is the BlackBerry Pearl. This is the cheapest option and also the one I am most certain about since so many people have this phone these days. This is available to me through T-Mobile for $149. It doesn’t have an external memory card, cannot tether to a laptop for data access, has no WIFI access, or a VOIP client. It does have Push email, but only it’s own standard and doesn’t support IMAP_IDLE. Therefore, my best option would be to forward email to the BlackBerry email address that comes with it, which would cause me to lose the ability to delete email on the server and such. All in all, I lose a lot of auxiliary features that I’m used to today with this phone, but I do get the core messaging features that I’m seeking for a much lower price.

There’s also the Sidekick 3 available for $200. I don’t know a lot about this phone except that the interface is proprietary and it’s not really made to be a PDA. However, it does have a camera, an external memory card, and, I believe, can be teathered to a laptop. I’m unsure, however, of the Push Email features it posses, if any.

Finally, I could always just wait for the GPhone, which, if market analysts and geeky hopefuls are right, should be out real soon now. But, I have no idea what the device will do or if it’ll even have close to the wireless connectivity I’d hope for. It is a fun option to consider though.

Discuss!

I hate Windows Mobile

Sep 20th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Regardless if I decide to carry one phone or two (see “Mobile Phone Madness“), I can guarantee that NONE of them will be my current phone – the HTC Wizard)

I’m not sure if it’s my personal usage pattern, the hardware I’m using, just plain crappy software (Hi, Microsoft!), or a combination of all three, but I don’t like the way this thing operates. I tend to lean towards it being Windows Mobile’s fault. I know it doesn’t suck for everyone, because there are quite a few people out there who claim to absolutely love this phone. Maybe it would be better if I used Outlook for email. Maybe if I only needed to sync with two computers (instead of four).  Maybe if we used Exchange at the office it would help. Whatever the reason, it just plain doesn’t work well. At all.

So I’m selling it. It’s unlocked and will work on any GSM network. If you’re interested, make me an offer before I stick it on eBay.

Details:

HTC Wizard (T-Mobile MDA Version)
SIM UNLOCKED (will work on any GSM network)
CID UNLOCKED (will allow you to install any software revision you like)
Windows Mobile 6 (though, this can easily be changed)
Some cosmetic scratches
Screen and camera lens in perfect condition thanks to screen protectors

Let me know if you have any questions or are interested. They sell for $200ish brand new with a service contract. Unlocked and brand new they go for considerably more. Make me an offer that doesn’t make me laugh and it’s yours.

Mobile Phone Madness

Sep 20th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

My new job requires me to be away from my desk quite a bit which, in turn, requires me to use my mobile phone a lot more than I did previously. If my indicators are correct, this will be even more true in the future. So, I’ve been approved for a company mobile phone. This is good and bad.

It’s good because I’ll no longer have to carry the expense burden of overage minutes and, because carrying two phones is silly, will reap some personal gain by using my work phone for both purposes.

It’s bad, however, because my current personal usage pattern includes a lot of PDA usage, data access, and SMS/MMS messaging than it does talk time and because those are personal needs and not business needs, it is highly unlikely that I would be approved for a Blackberry which is the only PDA our corporate plan offers.

So, I’m stuck with four options.

  1. Carry two phones. Use one for work and one for personal needs. Reduce my current personal monthly plan to the lowest possible rate. Use the work phone for all calls and the personal phone for all PDA, SMS, MMS, and Email functionality.
  2. Carry just the work phone and deal with not having this level of connectivity and convenience that I’m used to.
  3. Carry just a personal phone and deal with a complex billing analysis every month to show how many minutes were used for business vs. personal use in order to justify an expense report for $10-$50 every month.
  4. Just suck it up and eat the personal bill.

Which option would you choose and why? Have I left off any options? Discuss!