Apps

SUPRISE!, the folks over at RIM have their own mutated version of the iPhone app store and its filled to the brim with apps.

I have loaded a few useful free apps onto my phone such as:

• Shazam
• Pandora
• Sprint Nav
• WordPress
• Poynt
• Palringo
• Crackberry App store
• Google Voice
• AP news
• TimeForTea
• Blackberry App World
• Facebook

there are alot of good apps in that list and they are all free from either the Blackberry App World or the Crackberry App Store

now for the bad news:

while the apps are all very useful they are neither cheap or pretty.

If you are migrating from something like the apple app store where you can get apps for as little as $.99 you are in for a rude awakening. Take a basic english to spanish dictionary, an app I would consider a great asset and love to have installed. Unfortunately I cannot see myself shelling out $20 for a mobile application I might use a few times a year. The fact is that most of the apps in RIM’s insanely slow loading app store are NOT competitively priced and they where built with function over form in mind. While I am impressed with the stability and speed with which most of the apps work it almost hurts my eyes to look at their ugly faces, I would rather do everything by some sort of command line to avoid the poorly designed GUI.

Operating System Version 4.5

In terms of prettiness and usability its better than the Treo’s Palm OS but not quite as slick as any of the offerings from Apple or Palm’s new but flawed Web OS.

Once again RIM has sacrificed form to suit function but RIM, unlike apple has allowed skilled designers(or unskilled ones) to make their own GUI Themes however they please. This is a good thing that apple and palm should look into.

It has all your basic smartphone crap like cut/copy/paste, the ability to listen to media via a suspiciously iPod-like interface that RIM simply calls Music.

It syncs all of your DRM-Free songs from iTunes quite nicely about 30% of the time, suppourt for apple users from RIM is almost non-existent, which is disappointing at its best and insulting at its least.

Download a little utility called PocketMac and you can sync your iTunes tracks, Address Book contacts and iCal events and to-do lists, which is more than I can say for my old Treo.

The OS handles microsoft office files like a champ, even the most hated format ever: .docx. but then again what do you expect from a phone meant for huge corporate users?

I should also mention that the phone actually acts like a computer, meaning that you can run apps in the background, which while makes for faster switching between apps, burns through battery life quite quickly.

The Phone Part of the Phone

Yeah, what do you want? It makes phone calls, but in all seirousness

call quality is extremely good

speakerphone is completely usable

it does a sort-of-but-not-really universal contact search as soon as you start typing on the home screen or the dialer that i find completely useless

Battery life is good but not great, if you use apps that require constant connections like Palringo or GPS based apps like Poynt know that you need to keep a car charger or spare battery handy

Ringer is loud and clear

however:

RIM has totally failed in the area of text messaging, Imagine as if every text message you sent was like an email, not chat based, so when i want to send 2 messages in a row i have to compose a message each time, selecting the contact i want to text from a long list and go back to the previous screen to see what they where talking about.

Overall Opinion

Its a great phone, it does exactly what i ask of it and not a bit more.

Its ugly and RIM really needs to figure out that Soccer Moms buy just as many of these than John Smith, CEO. Fix text messaging and the ugly UI

for $50 its a hell of a deal provided you already have a compatible plan and live on the world’s worst network.

Check out the photos Allison and I took at this year’s relay.

I know they kinda move fast and the animation may to be the greatest but find me a better way to show almost 100 images in a wordpress blog?

This is by no means the finished DVD with  video but its a quick recap of those who wernt there(and shame on you!)

My second-shooter for this wedding was one Adalto Nascimento, the images he took are his so i didn’t post them here but you can his stuff out here. He really is an amazing photographer with some great images under his belt.

The bride prepped for her day in her own house, shooting in such a confined space was a bit of a challenge but yielded some great images.

Outright one of my favorite shots of the day, not sure why but it just is.

Gary Fong lightsphere is worth it’s weight in gold, which is about what I paid for it.

Love this shot, perfect timing if i do say so myself.

The stained glass in this church was simply amazing.

The Venue for the reception was David’s Restaurant in San Jose, really well decorated and great window light.

More fancy flowers were at the reception, really looking forward to using some of these in the album.

Amazing cake, both tasty and pretty

Flowers where even on the cake

Best man making his speech, with beautiful Bokeh

I love window light!

This reminds me of something form a commercial

Yet more pretty flowers

First dance

There where lots of kids at this wedding

And he actually ate all of that watermelon

The traditional cake-smashing-into-face photo, what you don’t see is that she shoved it up the groom’s nose as revenge.

Amazing venue, good vendors, over 300 photos sent to the bride and family, now I should start working on the album.

While i would love to write a huge post right now all i can tell you about is what will be coming soon:

• In-depth review of the Blackberry 8330 and the Blackberry 4.5 OS
• Sneak Peek of the DVC Inquirer’s new design
• Photos from a wedding I shot recently
• Relay For Life Vallejo photos
• Amazing InDesign tips to save you time and money
• Why Microsoft rocks – from a Mac guy’s perspective
• Tech-y things every computer user should know
• Fear not the command line, it is your friend
• Maximize your desktop productivity
• How to make any boring print design better

see?

I told you good stuff is coming, its just taking a while to get here.

I worked really hard to process these images because the wedding is actually tomorrow and the bride wanted a print for people to see at the reception.

After about 3 years of searching I finally found a sepia tone that doesn’t look cheesy

The garden was amazing, the lawn was actually manicured

I rarely use black and white on outdoor photos but there where a few in this set that could pull it off

This kid was all smiles.

This one is one of my favorites.

He really hamed it up, after I took any photo of him with his parents he demanded one of him alone.

Everyone and their mom(including mine) has a smartphone now and everyone wants a cool smartphone. Now personally i dont see why a smartphone needs to be pretty or has to have a billion apps out there in order to be successful but those are the facts. Everyone knows that the only cool smartphone is the iPhone. Now brace yourselves for a shock, braced?, good. The blackberry Curve is better than the iPhone!

still recovering? well, its true, at least i think so.

Now to give you an idea of where im coming from, I love my mac, love it. I cringe every time i pick up my cheap windows netbook(hint, hint, Steve!)

The fact is the blackberry isnt just for corporate types anymore, The curve is as cool a phone as the iPhone, well if not as cool, at least its close.

Blackberry and Iphone have:

• copy and paste(although blackberry had it first)
• native support for Apple Addressbook and iCal
• Native support for iTunes(aside from those copy protected files of course, and its just faster to drag and drop anyway)
• Native iPhoto syncing
• Mac recognizes the phone as a camera
• app store
• music playing in the background

now what the iPhone has that the blackberry is jealous of

• lets face it the iPhone has way more apps out there
• its prettier than the blackberry
• push syncing with mobileme and Exchange
• phone does not have to restart every-time you install a app via desktop download

now what the blackberry has the the iphone is jealous of(ghasp)

• a real keyboard!, like you know, one you can actually tap out a email or office document on
• MS office support via Documents2Go, who are working on a iPhone app, but its not done yet and has no estimated arrival date
• native themes and a crapload of customization that the iPhone has once cracked, but this voids your warranty, so its a huge risk
• A hell of a application switcher that works sorta like apple’s desktop version
• multitasking
• being able to listen to pandora while doing something else
• it doesnt feel like you are talking into a flat slab of metal
• good speakerphone
• 2 customizable keys on the side of the device
• removable memory card- up to 32GB
• file browser
• thousands of little things like
  • when typing email addresses you just hit space and it knows to fill in the . and @
  • universal back button- i can be reading an email, click a link on the email, browse for a bit and hit the back button to bring me back to the email app
  • double tap space for a period
  • sees any audio file as a possible ring-tone or notification sound
  • start typing at the home screen and it searches both numbers and names in your contacts
  • and about a million other touches that any power user would drool over

The fact is that my Blackberry, while lacking in funny apps such as iFart is a fun phone. the diffrence between the two falls into the settings area. While I find the iPhone’s settings and options sufficient, how awesome is it that i can build my own themes?

While the iPhone was built for the 20-something crowd with a macbook in their messenger bags with iPods in their ears and the blackberry was built around the idea that hardcore business users with huge IT departments. but the fact is that both phones can be enterchanged. A hardcore corperate user can use a iPhone and a twenty-something with a mac can load a variety of “cool” apps on their blackberry.

while i demand access to multiple email accounts and the ability to edit office documents, I also want to have fun. I want to listen to music and watch youtube while im on the go.

While ive only had the phone for a few hours, ive already loaded some apps i dont think i can ever live without again:

• pandora
• Gchat
• Facebook, which is way better on the blackberry than it was on the Palm OS
• Sprint Navigation, it comes free with our plan and its lighting fast! Faster than my dedicated GPS
• NewsGator Go, the mobile version of the netnewswire app that we love on the mac
• Beyond411 Search
• the BB Dimension L theme
• background of the Apple OSX Leopard desktop

all things considered, i am completely in love with the Blackberry and will continue to blog about it!

I love my treo, but like all things this love must come to an end. The day has finally come when my mom has a cooler cell phone than me, I cannot allow this insanity to continue any longer. I need a new, cooler cellphone.

Right now I have a Palm Treo 755p and it has served me well. Here are some of pros and cons of my current phone:

• pros

  • smart device that can sync with my computer in a limited form.

  • Can use it as a modem in a tight spot without having to pay for a phone as modem plan

  • can handle multiple email accounts without any trouble

  • full, physical qwerty keyboard

  • Mini SD card slot for media and such

  • documents to go software allows me to view and edit most office documents and PDFs

  • AMAZING battery life

  • big touch screen

  • pTunes player can play my MP3s

  • decent calendar, contacts, tasks and a file browser

  • true crashes and freezes are extremely rare

  • despite how ugly the SMS app is, I actually quite like the whole threaded display it gives you.

  • I love the side button that can be assigned to do whatever I want

  • I love the ringer/vibrate switch, just one button turns the ringer on and off

  • I love the physical size of the phone, it feels solid and well built

  • this thing can take a hell of a beating and keep on ticking

  • cut copy and paste work like they should

• cons

  • its a fugy phone

  • with a fugly operating system

  • its about as comfortable to talk into as a razor blade

  • in order to sync with apple address book and iCal I had to research a absolutely insanely complicated workaround that only works about 30% of the time, if I’m lucky.

  • No real native media support

  • one of the worst mobile browsers I’ve ever used

  • a absolutely pathetic collection of apps available

  • no Pandora support

  • no form of GPS navigation

  • no global inbox for email

  • the facbook app doesn’t even work most of the time

  • crappy camera

  • un-usable speaker phone

  • so-so call quality

  • the IM app that sprint provides does not work at all and sprint doesnt even seem to care if it does or not.

Now just because the con list is longer than the pro list doesn’t mean this isn’t a great phone. This was the first smartphone I have ever owned and I think it has been good enough for the year that ive had it, but I am looking for something that is a little more polished.

I waited eagrly for the Palm Pre release, it is an amazing looking phone with a ton a features and its running an exciting new platform but im not totally convinced that WebOS will be successful and I am not willing to wait out a year on a phone that has no apps available for it. Which leads me to the fact that Palm will be enforcing forced software updates, why? Palm has set out to breathe some innovation back into their business but I dont know if they put enough time and money into the Pre to make it happen. I know the future of technology is in the cloud(the internet) but we need some time to adjust here, Synergy is a great feature for a year or two in the future but right now I still want to be able to sync with my computer. Facebook understands that I have several groups of friends, some I dont really want in my contacts app, why cant the Pre? Synergy: good concept, poor execution. So the question is do I want to buy the pre and be one of the first to live through with software updates and all the quirks of a first run device?

So, I am really at a loss here. What should I do?

My phone needs:

• to sync with addressbook and iCal natively, without crazy workarounds

• to pick up and reply to emails from up to 5 different accounts, im a busy guy

• to make and recive calls with good call quality

• a decent speaker phone

• a full, physical qwerty keyboard

• calndar, contacts and tasks

• good battery life, im a power user

• access to pandora

• to be able to teather with my laptop without having to purchase a phone as a modem plan, I dont care if some workarounds are needed here

• GPS

• a decent browser\

• something that plays MP3s

• to be able to open various attachments.

• To be on the sprint network, unfortunately no iPhone for me

• to be under or about $200 after rebates

however a couple of these would be nice

• SD card slot for media

• a app store of some sort

• a nice big dialer screen

• touchscreen would be heaven

now, there are a few contenders who have peaked my intrest:

Palm Pre:

• new, pretty

• WebOS appears to be the next big thing among devs

• native, er-hacked iTunes support

  • if someone was able to guarantee that iTunes will work with this phone for the foreseeable future I will go out and buy one tomorrow, unfortunately we dont know that apple is willing to play ball with Palm on this one. In fact apple gave palm a firm but not direct warning about iTunes playing with the Pre.

Blackberry Curve

• stable

• RIM has a good trackrecord with their devices

  • this is what my mom got, I like it but not having a touchscreen might take a bit to get used to.

Well, like I said I am at a loss, any suggestions?

this week i am going to be talking about Geo Sans Light, its a great little sans serif font, i find myself using it more in print than anything else.

Download HERE

but fear not, to apologize i will be bringing you both of them tomorrow. I might even throw in something extra if you are nice to me.