Archive for "February+2005"

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Top 100 Gadgets of all Time

February 22nd, 2005

Mobile PC has released 'The Top 100 Gadgets of all time' List. I won't ruin the list of anyone, but #60 gave me a chuckle. #1 will surprise man, but not a bad choice. My personal favorite is #20 ... can never have enough of them! Did they miss anything?
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New Media Tuesday - 2/22

February 22nd, 2005

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies
Music
my pic(s) of the week:


The Heat 2 Disc set and the new Steve Vai cd both entered the collection ...

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music
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What keeps you busy John?

February 21st, 2005

As many people have realized, I have been way to busy the past 6 months. Last fall, it was politics and school. With the election in Nov and finishing school in Dec, neither of those can be used as excuses. In January, it was Lotusphere planning. Between a Jump Start, a Session, and planning the PSC booth, things were nuts. As Lotusphere ended, PSC had its internal training event. I have also closed 4 projects since the new year. Mix that with being sick and there goes all the free time.

Well, I need to do a full review of this, but I have been playing World of Warcraft. Its one of the multi-player on-line all the time games. A fantasy world with depth I have never seen before. So if you are playing WoW, what are your experiences?

If you are playing on the Garona server and are part of the Alliance, say hi to Starfish ... original, i know :)
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Every well dressed man should have these ...

February 21st, 2005

Emergency Cufflinks ... put them in your wallet for times you need to fasten the french cuffs on your sleeves! :)

I just found this to be a cool gift for a man who actually dresses up ... I happen to be one of them. All of you 'business casual means the dressy jeans' guys just ignore this! LOL
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Time for another review ... Blackberry 7100t Phone

February 21st, 2005

I started this review back on 11/12/04 ... been a while. I know other's have reviewed it, so I updated this to cover some new things.

Image:Time for another review ... Blackberry 7100t Phone So I got myself a new toy ... my first phone that is more than just a phone! I had wanted a Blackberry device for years, but this new 7100t got my attention with the things that were missing from previous versions: Bluetooth, smaller size like a phone, and Color. I am a sucker for gadgets. I have had 5 Palms and really like a productivity tool. I just never had found a phone / handheld combo that I liked before. With PSC's move to embrace Blackberry technology across the board, it seemed like a good time to take the plunge. I am not going to cover the things that you can get on the RIM site and out of reviews. Here is my like and dislike lists:


Likes
  • Email, calendar, tasks, address book all sync with Domino. Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) gives us full synching of these
  • Browser access on a phone that works pretty well
  • I love the keyboard. I can type very fast on it
  • Speakerphone is great!
  • Bluetooth with a headset seems to work very well
  • Form factor is perfect ... not too small and not to big
  • Polyphonic ringtones work well
  • USB charging works well
  • IM works pretty well once you get it set up correctly

Dislikes
  • The included holster sucks. I bought the one Rocky has on ebay
  • Changing Ring Tones per call group is very difficult to enable
  • Available addon software a fraction of what is available for the Palm and Windows Mobile devices
  • Lots of the software requires BES and you have to work with your Administrator to set up the software
  • No handwriting like a Palm
  • Device loses settings quite often
  • IM set up is difficult
  • Desktop manager software clunky to use
  • Battery charge is so-so. No hard numbers, but I do have to charge it nightly
  • Overall phone usage is ok. Nothing spectacular. People say that there is still noise, but its not as bad as my old phone

It seems that the 4.0 software (for the device, desktop manager, and BES) addresses many of the issues that I was having. Previewing images and a whole slew of features were added. Plus, the development SDK was updated with many requested features. If you have a BES server, do the upgrade.

Where do we go from here

Well, for myself and PSC, we are moving ahead into the world of mobile applications. PSC is taking the enTouch framework to a mobile device as it makes sense. We are partnering with RIM to produce versions of our enTouch applications on the Blackberry devices. We are not doing a complete port, instead adding features that make sense on a small sized device. Today, we are working with WebSphere and Domino applications and plan on supporting IBM Workplace shortly. As you can see from the picture on the right, enTouch.crm has already been built for the Blackberry. Full contact searching and viewing and activity viewing and creation is supported today. We have also made our enTouch.workflow approvals available on the device. enTouch.cms supports WAP out of the box. And we plan on adding more support as customer demand requires it. Image:Time for another review ... Blackberry 7100t Phone


So there is my take on the Blackberry 7100t. Overall, it is a great device. I hope RIM listens to all the comments and makes the next version a real winner.
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Back amongst the living

February 21st, 2005

Hey everyone ... sorry for disappearing like that again. I was really really sick the past 10 days. 2 separate trips to the emergency care. I won't go in details, but things are getting better. Back to work today. I am also going to try to get thru some of the blogging backlog I have.
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New Media Tuesday - 2/7

February 8th, 2005

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies


Music

 
my pic(s) of the week:


Not really buying anything this week ...

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music
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Starwars Episode III - The Lost Hope

February 5th, 2005

If you are a Star Wars fan, you must check this out. Let's hope Episode III : The Revenge of the Sith is not this bad! :)
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New Media Tuesday - 2/1

February 1st, 2005

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies


Music

 
my pic(s) of the week:


Wow ... a big release day! No DVDs entered the collection this week ... nothing I really care to see more than once on that list. But the new Spock's Beard came while I was at Lotusphere last week. If you like progressive rock and love Yes, then check out Octane.

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music