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InvisibleShield for Android G1 a Great Addition

Author Thomas | 30.06.2009 | Category Accessories

Well, I finally shelled out the money for a screen protector for my G1 Android phone.  I have to admit that I had left the original plastic screen protector in place that came with the phone for months before purchasing the Invisibleshield for the T-mobile G1.

A few notes about the shield:

• Go for just the screen protector because the phone’s back and sides are fine on their own
• Make sure to really clean off any dust before applying the shield
• Let your phone sit while turned off for at least 12 hours for the solution to dry
• Fill out the warranty information and email them a copy of your purchase receipt to qualify for the lifetime warranty

I now feel that the phone is more safe when it’s outside of its case.  The Invisibleshield really does prevent scratches.  It’s pretty amazing.  It’s also different from the other brands of screen protectors.  You get what you pay for.

The Web Changes Everything: Logo Tournament

Author Thomas | 23.06.2009 | Category Web

Just a handful of years ago, this concept would have been very difficult to achieve, but with the Web, it’s easy.  LogoTournament.com lets you create a logo creation contest for about $250.  You have 30 or more graphic artists start creating logos for you business, website, organization, etc.  You indicate general ideas about the look and feel of the logo and what you want the logo to communicate.

The graphic artists from around the world start posting ideas for your logo.  You give feedback and start to rank the logos.  At the end of the contest (just a matter of days), you select a winner and the logo is yours and the developer wins the contest money you put up through the website.

The site has examples of logos that have won, and there are many, many logos.  There are thousands of graphic artists that have joined the site.

It’s a fantastic idea and business model.  Logo Tournament is located at http://www.logotournament.com

New Leather Composition Notebook from Wind River Leather

Author Thomas | 19.06.2009 | Category Accessories

I find myself taking notes on just about everything.  I’ll grab receipts, scraps of paper, etc. to write down very important things…and then…I lose the paper.  Who’d-a-thunk?

A while back, I started using portfolio pads, and they were great except for the paper flipped vertically and it was hard to look up notes when you used both sides.

Now I’m exploring a whole new frontier in notetaking…an actual notebook!  And if you’re going to get a notebook, get one with style!

We got the Leather Composition Notebook by Wind River Leather, and it’s great.

The notebook is actually a leather cover that is refillable.  The refills can be picked up for a couple bucks or less and are standard-sized.  What’s great about this is that it can be used over and over again (won’t fill up).

Video from WindRiver:

The leather is very thick and rustic. Hope to get a lot of use out of this one and hopefully save all those scraps of paper from suffering untimely loses!

Enjoy the Leather Notebook!

New Version of YouTube – YouTube XL

Author Thomas | 06.06.2009 | Category Web

YouTube, owned by Google, released a new look for their site made especially for viewing on television.  The new version of the site can be reached at http://www.youtube.com/xl

Our initial impressions are that it’s an improvement.  Although this view is made for visitors using their TVs to visit the site, there are none of the annoying comments that plague the site.  With such a clean look and easy navigation, many visitors will be using it as their default view.

Using the Wii, we (ha, ha) tested out viewing YouTube/XL.  What was interesting was that instead of a black background, YouTube XL was white.  The videos displayed nicely although, the low res videos were a little blocky.

All in all, it’s an improviement, and we like it.

EA Active Nintendo Wii Game Review

Author Thomas | 04.06.2009 | Category Video Games

EA Sports Active is a lot of fun to play.  We awaited the game with anticipation with a lot of other people, and we’re not disappointed.  Of course there are a few things we wish were different, which are noted below, but overall, EA Active is a fantastic game to help you get in shape and tone your muscles.

Game Basics - The game comes with a resistance band (minimal assembly required just FYI), a leg holster for the nunchuck and the game.   The Nunchuck is placed in the leg wrap and it lets the game know how well you’re running, squatting, etc. You a provided a personal training who unlike the Wii Fit, is a real person you can see with video and will give you great feedback telling you to pick up the pace if you fall behind.  The game is also compatible with the Wii Balance Board.

Below are a few video demos of the EA Sports Active for the Nintendo Wii.

Obviously, if you want games to play with the Wii balance board, you need the board. The board comes with the Wii Fit game which has Aerobics, Yoga, Balance Games, and Strength Training.

Active Video Game Highlights:

Personal Trainer – The game offers you a personal training.  Video of a real person demonstrates how to perform each exercise.  Your trainer will tell you if you’re doing things right or if you need to adjust.  He or she will also offer encouragement to help keep you going.

Exercises – The great thing about the game are all the different exercises that can be combined into a workout.  The resistance band is great for increasing the difficulty of the exercises.  You can fold over the band to shorten it and make the workout more difficult.  The tennis challenge is one of my favorites.

Workouts – The game provides a 30 day challenge with varying exercises each day.  The game will alternate exercises that target different areas of your body.  If you’re not up for a certain exercise in your workout, you can de-select and skip the exercise.

Varying Difficulty - At each workout, you can choose the level of difficulty.  Your selection is made for all exercises in the workout, and is great if you’re not feeling up to a big workout, but would still like to get up and going a bit.

Tracking Progress – The game will track your progress over time as well as the calories burned through each workout.

Two Player with Friends - You can play the game side by side with someone.  Make sure to have an extra nunchuck on hand.  You can also purchase an extra resistance band and leg wrap separately on Amazon: EA Sports Active Multiplayer Pack

Improvement Points:

The game does have a few limitations that are unfortunate, but don’t affect the overall play.

Character Choice – It’d be nice if there were more variety when designing your on screen persona.

Music Choice – The music is not bad, but it’s not great.  It would be cool if you choose music from the SD card.

Love the game, and we’ve been using it every day since we got it.

EA Sports Active is available at Amazon.com.

This is the droid, the Android, you’re looking for: Android 1.5 Cupcake Released

Author Thomas | 23.05.2009 | Category Software

Does anyone remember a certain android watching a tea kettle steam/boil and commenting to his friend that he’s just myth-busted the idea that if you watch the kettle, it takes longer to whistle? His friend suggested that he turn off his internal clock, and at the whistle, he gave a quizzical look to the kettle.

Any takers? Well if not, search for the episode. Needless to say there have been many humans watching their Android and waiting for the update to 1.5.

Has watching and checking the phone every minute made the the weeks/months go by more slowly. Well, that’s all in the past for some, and soon to be for everyone (until donut comes out).

Android 1.5 aka “Cupcake” is finally out. The roll-out has started, and the T-mobile user forum has the manual link you can use if you choose to manually update your phone (does not require that you root your phone).

I got as far as putting the update.zip on my SD card, and then…I decided I would wait for the Over the Air (OTA) update to be pushed to my phone.  For the following reasons:

1. Visiting the link in Google Chrome provided a hefty security warning dealing with the certificate and URL destination
2. I didn’t want to go until the next update wondering if I just created a security problem on my phone (due to reason #1)
3. In conversation yesterday, referring to credit, I mentioned that things are more expensive to those who can’t wait (I didn’t want that statement to haunt me if I bricked or otherwise compromised the security of my phone just because I couldn’t wait ’til Monday…let’s hope I get it then).
4. Waiting provides an excellent lesson in patience for me.  If you’ve ever read Zen in the Martial Arts (a really good, short book bytheway), you’ll know it’s kind of “kung-fu-ie-and-all” (Kung Fu Panda) to master the anticipation and enjoy fully the excitement, when it is time.

Well, we’ve all felt it’s about time, but a little Zen practice will only help.  So yes, update.zip is sitting on my desktop now, but it is not on my phone, and I will wait for the OTA to upgrade.

For those who have received the update, here’s from the official Android.com page about some of the new features:

Update: 5/29/2009

I received cupcake this morning through the Over The Air (OTA) delivery at 1AM!

The link to the T-mobile Android Forums below provides a great list of the new features in Android 1.5:

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=Android_MR&thread.id=3

Google Skymap for Android Based Phones

Author Thomas | 12.05.2009 | Category Uncategorized

When I found SkyMap, I thought it was the coolest thing. The only problem was that the week that I downloaded and installed the app (for free), it was overcast and precipitating. The application makes use of the compass, GPS, date and time, and phone oreintation.

Below is a video from Google about SkyMap.

I didn’t know until I saw the video that the application came from Google. An absolutely brilliant application and one more reason to get an Android based phone such as the G1 with T-mobile. Soon, other phones will be released with the Android operating system installed so stay tuned.

Legally Download the Newest Version of Microsoft Windows – For Free

Author Thomas | 06.05.2009 | Category Software

Microsoft has released it’s newest version of its operating system Windows, and you can download it for free.

What’s the catch? None really, Microsoft is offering RC version for testing. I downloaded it today and will begin testing soon. The download will be good for one year. After one year, the computer will start to automatically shutdown every two hours as a friendly reminder that it’s time to purchase the real version.

If you’re interested, use the link below to Microsoft’s website to start the download process. You can log in using a free hotmail.com email account to access the download.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Be aware that the download is very big and comes in the form of an .iso or image file that you’ll need to burn to a DVD.

Also take note that you might not want to install this on your main computer unless you have really good backups as this is the release-before-the-release of the software.

So far, it’s worked great.  I have to admit, I’ve used Vista for quite a while now, and I like it (UAC turned off).  I’ve downloaded the beta for Windows Movie maker and other Windows Live tools, and we’ll see how those go.

New Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs for Android and iPhone

Author Thomas | 07.04.2009 | Category Software

Of course there are applications that you can use on your mobile phone to check your Gmail, but why enter all those settings, when you can point your mobile web browser to gmail.com and get the whole kit-n-kaboodle.

The new version of Gmail for mobile devices is much improved. It works on Android, iPhone, and probably other mobile devices. The difference in this version is that Google Gears is employed to help make checking email much faster and offer the ability to perform tasks even when off line.

The new web app offers quick links at the top for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and “more.”

Gmail in this new version lets you see conversations more easily and allows for bulk edits. The follow bar is interesting when you open a conversation to read.

Google Docs looks great in the new version. The display icons add a lot to the design.

An improvement that could be made (on Android) is to make the links that you click behave more like buttons rather than hyperlinks that receive the standard link box around them when activated or highlighted.

Below is a demo of the new features.

Google Chrome Web Browser in 3D Really Works

Author Thomas | 01.04.2009 | Category Software

Google unveiled a new version of its stellar web browser Google Chrome 3D. The new 3D version lets you view web pages in 3D. Released on April 1st, the browser is obviously part of Google’s April Fools Jokes; however, the browser really does have a 3D setting that lets you view pages in 3D (just don’t print your own glasses. Go get some real ones.

Click on the screenshot below to see Dooba Reviews in 3D.  Don’t stare too long without 3D glasses!

The tweak to the browser is a pretty good idea as it will get more people to download and install the browser.

You can download the Google Chrome 3D here.