Welcome to Dooba Reviews

Android 1.6 Donut Rollout and Features

Author Thomas | 01.10.2009 | Category Electronics, Software

Android, the operating system that powers the G1, MyTouch 3G, and other smart phones is now rolling out.  Although the update is in the beginning stages, the roll out seems to be better managed compared to the Cupcake update (delays, delays, and more delays).

This update dubbed 1.6 and inspiring owners of the Android phones to go out and purchase donuts in celebration has a lot going for it, and really helps mature the OS, and especially the Marketplace (App Store) interface.

Although tagged as a “minor” update, there are some pretty awesome features that have been added to the phone.

• Updates to the quick search box
• Camera updates
• The Android Marketplace gets a great face lift
• Virtual Private Network ability
• Indicator for battery usage
• Text-to-speech engine that will blow your mind

More highlights from the Android Dev Page.

T-mobile announcement page.

Google Wave to be Released

Author Thomas | 29.09.2009 | Category Software, Web

Google Wave is set for release tomorrow to 100,000 lucky testers.

Like 100,000 Golden Tickets awaiting to be sent to the lucky winners who will find in their email inboxes tomorrow an invitation to the revolutionary new service/product.

Google Wave will combine in-a-sense, email, instant messaging, blogging, sharing, etc.  Email will work much more like a conversation.

A ten minute demo of wave from the developer tool:

From the Developer Conference (the long video):

Hopefully, we’ll all get one of the Golden Ticket invites to start testing, exploring, and enjoying Google Wave.

Rustic River Leather Photo Album

Author Thomas | 28.09.2009 | Category Accessories

We live in a world of speed and ever evolving technology.  Obviously (as evidenced through the posts), I like technology, but I also really enjoy the classic, traditional, and old fashioned things in life.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a tract of land to farm with a large house…and high speed Internet, Google Android Phones, etc.?

Anyway, in this techno world that we live in, it’s become more and more easy to take pictures and store them.  I’ve found myself taking more and more pictures and simply storing them on my computer.  There’s really no constraint other than hard drive size, so away I snap.

More recently, I’ve begun storing pictures in photo albums.  There’s just something special (how quaint), about viewing pictures in an album.  Recently we took a horseback riding trip, and I wanted a great place to store the pictures.  The Rustic River Leather Photo Album hits the spot perfectly.

I got the Dark Brown Version (pictured is the Saddle Brown), and oddly enough, I found a spot for it on the mantel, and it looks great.  The leather is very rustic.  It’ll show marks and dings, but that’s part of the style.  However, I’m still pretty careful with it.  The album holds 100 4×6 pictures and is hand sewn.

The inside of the album is similar to a regular photo album.  It’s the outer construction that makes all the difference.  It takes a few tries to get the leather wrap knot correct.

So in our high-paced, ever changing world, it feels great to do something a little old fashioned.

Toshiba Laptop Deal from Best Buy

Author Thomas | 26.09.2009 | Category Electronics

I was in need of a second laptop that I could take with my while traveling.  My main laptop is a 17″ HP, and it’s heavy to take around on trips, and since it has a lot of data on it, I don’t want to risk the hassle of loss, damage, theft, etc.

So here I was in the market for another laptop.  I steered away from buying the cheap ones on eBay, because there is something to purchasing a laptop from an establishment with customer service, return policies, and valid manufacturer warranties.

At first, I looked for a netbook, something small, that I could use for emails, etc. while traveling.  I was appalled to find that the netbooks were so expensive when I found a full laptop for the same price at Best Buy, I knew what I would get.

I researched online, and couldn’t find a better deal than this laptop at Best Buy the Toshiba Satellite.  The computer is a basic laptop, no real frills, but it works great for what I need and is a big step up from a netbook for the same price (or less) than the current netbooks.

Our Best Buy had it in stock, although, I wasn’t impressed by the employee’s knowledge of the product.  The price tag was missing on the display, so I asked the employee, and he quoted the wrong price, he then went on to explain that it was 64 bit windows and would run slowly and that this display model was optimized to run more quickly.

After the employee left, I checked the OS, and it was 32 bit.  The processor is faster than my other laptop (RAM is the same).  The price online was the correct price, and the bit about running more optimized?  Give me a break.  New PC’s come with so much extra junk on them running in the background, it’s ridiculous.

Here’s a list of some of the mods:

Remove

• Live Update
• Norton 360
• Google Desktop
• Quickbooks Financial Center
• Wild Tanget Games
• Desktop Icons
• Skype
• Toshiba Resources
• Play Games
• Shop at Amazon

Install

• Enable Windows Defender and turn off unneeded services
• Install Avast
• iTunes

Turn off UAC

Overall, I’m happy with my new netbook…I mean laptop/notebook.

Google Reader and why it’s helpful

Author Thomas | 17.09.2009 | Category Freebies, Web

Google Reader has been on the scene for a very long time; however, it’s such a handy tool, and so very few take advantage of it, it’s worth mentioning.

Google Reader can Save You Time

Think about all the websites you visit on a weekly basis (or even on a daily basis).  Once you start adding up how often you visit each site (CNN.com, Dilbert.com, etc.), the minutes start adding up.

Google reader lets you subscribe to your favorite websites, family blogs, etc. and view when an update occurs, you can generally read the whole article right within Google Reader and even view the images from the article.

Think of the time savings.  Instead of visiting dozens of different sites and poking around to see what is new or worth reading, you can at a glance view all the headlines from your favorite websites, and select the ones you wish to read.

Don’t Miss Out

Because the articles are stored in Google Reader for you stay there until you mark them as read/archive them, you don’t have to worry about missing updates while you’re away.

Save the Good Stuff

Google Reader lets you add a star to favorite articles.  You can also email an article within Reader and share it with others.

Just a favorite we thought we should share: Google Reader.

The Best Things in Life Come in 3’s: Chrome v. 3.0

Author Thomas | 16.09.2009 | Category Freebies, Web

Isn’t there something magical to the number 3: Three Stooges, Three Blind Mice, Three’s Company, Three’s a Crowd?  Well, Google Chrome is joining the Three’s Crowd with version 3.0 of its famed Google Chrome Web Browser.

Alas, most people still ask, “What’s a browser? Is that Internet?”  Sigh.

I was visiting my sister’s family a few weeks ago, and she was complaining that her Internet kept crashing.  Well, of course, the issue was Internet Explorer (which is a web browser and how you “get on the Internet.” But it’s not the only way…).  I updated her version of Internet explorer and installed two service packs that were lacking in Windows Vista.

I then installed Google Chrome for her, and let her play around with it.  She liked Chrome almost instantly.  She noticed that Chrome downloaded/displayed pages much, much, much faster than her old browser (Internet Explorer).  She also liked how Chrome remembered what she typed (I’m guessing in the URL bar).

Chrome is a great browser, and I’ve been using it since it was released.  I even had the 3D version of it on April Fools Day.  Wow.

Now Google has released version 3.0 (which is an updated to Chrome), and the browser displays web pages even faster, has an improved new tab design, and the color scheme is even better.

With the new release, you can even install themes.  To add a theme, just click on the Settings Wrench in the upper right corner, select Options, and under the Personal Stuff Tab, select “Get Themes.”

Go ahead, give the Google Chrome Web Browser a try.  It doesn’t replace the current browsers you have, so you can always go back to the slowness and the crashing of Internet Explorer if you prefer.

The Leather Money Clip

Author Thomas | 22.08.2009 | Category Accessories, Apparel

I’ve used the same wallet for years.  The leather wore down to the fabric underneath in many places.  It was also a little bulky (not so much from cash but from extra storage space for cards).  I had the library card, bank cards, FedEx card (of all things), etc., etc., and it had an extra flap for a driver’s license and two other cards.  In other words, my old wallet was quite bulky.

I decided to try simplify and go for something new by trying a money clip.  I purchased the Dark Brown version on the money clip below and have liked it over my old wallet quite a bit because the money clip is more compact.

I do have to work a little bit to get some of the cards out, but as I really only use a couple of cards regularly, it isn’t that much of an issue.  Some day, I imagine, we’ll use our phones for credit transactions, identification, or perhaps our fingerprints, but until then, the good ol’ fashioned money clip works just great for me.

The Rustic Leather Money Clip can be purchased at Rustic Country Leather with free shipping (last time I checked).

Google Voice App for Android and Blackberry Phones

Author Thomas | 30.07.2009 | Category Software, Web

There’s been a Google Voice app for the Android phone for a while now, but recently, Google released an update that makes it even more useful.

Long press on your Android home screen and select Shortcuts and then select Toggle Google Voice (this is assuming that you have the Google Voice App Installed). You can now Toggle the following options on Google Voice when you press the shortcut:

1. Use Google Voice for all calls
2. Only use Google Voice for international calls
3. Do not use Google Voice for any calls
4. Ask to use Google Voice for each call

The Ask to use Google Voice for each call option brings up a little dialog when placing a call which lets you select to use your Google Voice telephone number or your regular telephone number for the call.  This is helpful if you’re calling mobile-to-mobile with somone on the same carrier allowing you to save on minutes.

Google Voice Starts Sending Invitations

Author Thomas | 15.07.2009 | Category Freebies, Web

Well I just received the invite that I’ve been waiting for to enable Google Voice.  If you’re not familiar with Google Voice, the following short animation will surly help and most likely peak your interest:

In a nutshell, here’s what Google Voice can do (given to me in my first voicemail from Google):

Welcome to Google Voice! Google Voice gives you a single phone number that rings all your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text. Other cool features include the ability to listen in on messages while they are being left and the ability to make low cost international calls. To start enjoying Google Voice, just give out your Google Voice number. You can record custom greetings for your favorite callers or block annoying callers by marking them as SPAM. Just click on the settings link at the top of your inbox. We hope you enjoy Google Voice.

Having a transcribed voicemail is awesome!  How many times do callers leave very long messages and you listen all the way through to make sure you don’t miss something?

A few notes and tips right off the bat as you start using Google Voice:

1. Choosing your number on Google Voice – I put in my area code and tried all sorts of word combinations to come up with a cool number, but none were available.  I then started to wonder if my area code was even open.  It took a little bit of searching online for a list of area codes that Google Voice accepts only to not find the list!  However, all was not lost.  I saw on the Google Voice help page that you can type in your area code AND/OR a number or letter combination.  If you type only the area code, you’ll get the list of numbers available.  I did that, and snatched up a number.
2. Setting up voice mail – Have your phone ready when you click add a phone because Google wants to place an automated call to verify your phone you’re using.  Once you’ve done that, you can set up your voice mail.  The connection quality didn’t seem all that great.  We’ll see if it was the connection or the service as I use it more.
3. Next Steps: Configuration - You’ll next want to visit the settings option once logged in to set the “Do not disturb” function, call screening, add phones, etc.  You’ll most likely stick with the defaults at first, but it’s good to know.

Notifications – I turned off the option to send a text message when I receive a new voicemail. Email is enough for me since I receive email on my phone anyway.

Call Screening – If you enable this option, callers that are not in your contact list will be required to state their name during their first call.

Call Presentation - If you turn off this options, calls can be answered by you without the “Press 1 to accept option”

If you leave the “Call Presentation” option turned on, you can do the following while an incoming call is ringing (an you pick up):

Press 1 - Will accept the call
Press 2 – Will send the call to voicemail
Press 3 - Will let you listen to the voicemail (if the caller leaves one) as it is being left
Press 4 – Allows you to accept the call but also record the call contents

Other basic options:

Want to change your Google Voice Number? Just go to Settings > Phones > and click the “Change” link next to your number.

Want to have different voicemail greetings depending on who called? Go to Settings > Groups

Want to change which calls get forward to which phones? Go to Settings > Groups

Below are more Google Voice videos for your viewing pleasure:

Google Voice Mobile.  You can install the Google Voice App on your Android Phone (or BlackBerry) which will give you the option to have all outgoing calls show to the receiver as your new Google Voice Number.  I installed the app and tested it out.  Works great.

Google Voice Conference Calling (how to)

The spam filter is great, but one of the best features is the ability to access voicemail on the web.

Bytheway, the service is free for calls in the continental US.  If you want to make an international call, check the rates.

It’s 2 cents/minute to call your buddies in France or the United Kingdom (if you’re calling a cell phone over there though, it’s a little more, so check first). If you want to go the other way way, calls to China are 2 cents/minute.

The service is a great idea for people in the workforce with multiple phones as well as a line of defense against unwanted calls.

You don’t have to deposit money to start using the free service, because, hey, it’s free.  In fact, my account started with 10 cents already in it.  That means I could call China for 5 minutes courtesy of Google Voice.  The great rate for international calls will make holding a skype phone connected to your computer not look so good.

Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder Review

Author Thomas | 13.07.2009 | Category Electronics

The Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder is a great camcorder and camera.  Although it still records to DV Tape, the camera can film in either HD or non-HD mode.  The camera can also be set to record at 24 frames per second which all you movie buffs will know is the frame rate for cinema film.

Versatile - The camcorder is more versatile than other camcorders out there.  You have the option of using all auto settings or switching to manual (programmable P) mode that lets you video in Portrait Mode (wish I would have had portrait mode when I did some wedding videos a while back), Sports mode, Snow, Fireworks, and Night.

Manual Focus – The manual focus feature is great.  There’s a little roller on the side of the camcorder that lets you set the manual focus.  Just be aware that you need to press the Focus button and have slid the AUTO to P slider to the P mode.  The switch is below the zoom.

Quality – The video is extremely crisp and clear even when filming in the non-HD mode.

“Constant Flash” – The camera has an embedded light that you can turn on to highlight your subjects in low light conditions.  Personally, I think this is much better than “night vision” which we used once or twice on our old camera, but that was it.  Unless you’re filming lions in Africa at night, the light you can turn on will work just fine.

Audio - The audio recording is clear and we didn’t notice it picking noise from the camera itself.  The camera can also filter our wind to a small degree.