Thursday, August 19, 2010

RIM

RIM = Research In Motion = The company that makes BlackBerrys


Oh, wow.  Boy Genius tweeted this the other night amid some of his rants against the new BlackBerry 9800 Torch and how frustrating the operating system was.  While I haven't personally had any experience with a Torch or BlackBerry OS6 which is on it, it's not hard to imagine.  I actually remember reading this article last summer and there was a brief discussion about this on a CrackBerry podcast last year as well. 

This write up really seems to have come to fruition too.  RIM has hit a plateau and it's noticeable.  Now the BlackBerry is still amazingly solid and really nothing wrong from most vantage points--it's more about the outlook of what's to come in the future.  With the current state it's hard to see as much growth and development that has been and will continue with other platforms and other phones.  It really lends to the fact that it was around this time last year that I started carrying two phones because my BlackBerry wasn't enough and I desired more mobile functionality--and I actually don't really have a wish for one phone right now. 

Anyways, I just thought it was intriguing to read that BGR post a year later and think about it...to think that my BlackBerry hasn't really done anything new in the last year and probably won't do anything new in the next year, lol.  Well, I did get the trackpad in the last year so I guess we can count that--though it's hardware and not software...  when will I be so happy with a phone that I can colorware it again?

lol, and is this the latest news from RIM?
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Feed: Boy Genius Report
Posted on: Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:37 AM
Author: Boy Genius
Subject: BlackBerry Bold R020 internal overview, replaces BlackBerry Bold 9700


You’d think that RIM would be replacing highest-end product with a brand new device, right? Well, previous rumors suggested that the BlackBerry Bold 9700 would get nothing more than a simple refresh, and we’re able to confirm those rumors. We have a leaked internal document detailing all sorts of fun stuff. Market positioning, technical overviews, and a bunch more. The big picture view? The BlackBerry Bold R020 (9020? 9750 We’re just guessing) will be practically identical to the 9700 visually. Internal changes include a 5 megapixel camera sensor, and 512MB of RAM up from 256MB. It will also launch with BlackBerry 6 — obviously. We’d love to say there is more, but there isn’t, so check out the leaked document and let us know your thoughts, ok?

ICHCheezburger

this is from a few weeks ago but I forgot to publish it from draft...


funny picture that looks like SQ :)


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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Fwd: How Mark proposed!

Tiffani and I got engaged!  So, the quick and easy way to tell the story is for me to just post a copy of the email she sent out to her family/friends.

be sure to check out the pictures here:  Ring Photos

Thanks for helping with this post Tiffani! :)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tiffani Shoop tiffani.shoop@gmail.com
Date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:59 PM
Subject: How Mark proposed!


Hello everyone!  I'm so happy to tell you that Mark proposed to me last night!  He proposed August 14th, 2010 and we first met on October 14th, 2009. 

So Mark and I went shopping Saturday (the 14th) and when we got back we went to his place.  While we were out he said he had a couple of surprises for me that may or may not involve Susie Q (that is my cat).  So we got back and walk in his apartment and he has a table right by the door and there was a cash register sitting on the table!  For some reason, I've always loved playing on cash registers and he always jokes that he's going to get me one so I can play with it.  So I'm all excited that I got a cash register and I start playing with it hitting buttons, and then I hit the total button and the receipt pops up and I look at it, and on the top it says, Will you marry me?  I was like WHAAAT?!  Will you marry me??  Then he got down on one knee and pulled a box out from behind the cash register, opened it up, there was my beautiful ring and he asked me if I would marry him and then I said yes!  I couldn't stop laughing I was so happy and excited.  It was a great moment and so original on his part.  I love him, I'm so excited to marry him, and I can't wait for you guys to meet him!  Enjoy the pictures!

Click here to go to Mark's Photobucket and see all the pictures!
Ring Photos

Thanks!  We love you all!

Also, please forward to anyone I forgot, I don't have everyone's email address (Uncle Greg).

xoxox,
Tiffani and Mark


--
Tiffani Shoop
tiffani.shoop@gmail.com

@cltblog, 8/12/10 11:15 PM

CLT Blog (@cltblog)
8/12/10 11:15 PM
Video: Duke Energy Center goes blue for the Panthers http://cltblog.com/o7a

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Sent from my mobile device

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

regular update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good ‘ol regular update, and I always say it’s been too long or forever so I’ll just skip saying that…

In June I took a week of vacation to go home early before Patrick and Sharon’s wedding because Hanno was coming and I wanted to spend some time with him.  That was a lot of fun however I didn’t feel well most of the time, not completely sick but not completely well either.  Not sure what was wrong with me, perhaps my body was fighting off something more serious and it could have been much worse—so I’ll be thankful I was mostly ok.  Tiffani was planning to work that week so I wondered if she could get a 1 way ticket to fly to Columbus or Dayton on Friday afternoon before the rehearsal/dinner and then drive back with me since I was planning to drive.  Good deals were awaiting…it was about $120 for her to fly to Dayton from Charlotte connecting through Cleveland.  Anyways, the wedding was wonderful and everything basically went perfect.  It was pretty big too, Patrick and Sharon have lots of family and friends.  There were some nice pictures too:

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After the wedding there was no time to rest, Tiffani was moving the following weekend!  However, we had been planning it for a while and I had been helping her pack, slowly but surely, for about a month prior.  She has a lot of stuff and I like to be precise and organized so things went well.  She was moving into the Millennium apartment complex, just finished in February/April of this year and across the street and rail tracks from my place.  Not only was I excited to live closer to her, her old place was a good 15 miles and 25-35 minutes depending on traffic, but she would be closer to work—only about 5 minutes away, and living in the neat neighborhood of South End.  Her new place is super nice and I love it.  While it’s smaller, as a studio, it’s set up very well and the space is optimized super efficiently.  To make up for the lack of space in the unit itself she got a storage unit in her building, one floor up and not too far away.  Even with the storage unit she’s not paying more than her old place which was an important factor and wonderful that we could make that work.  I really like having the storage unit—in part because I like to be a packrat and keep everything, like boxes…lol.  She got her keys on Friday June 25th and we moved a few things that night, the big move was planned for Saturday.  Ended up getting the smaller U-Haul truck, 10 foot box, but not the van style though.  Big thanks to Kyle for helping the entire day.  We had to make two trips and Brandon and Emily joined to help for the second one.  It was very tiring but overall very successful.  I say I hate moving but am always happy about it when it’s over because I’m in a better place.  I need to stop renting and buy a place so I can stay for longer…

The next week and weekend were unpacking and settling which went great.  After that it was time for Tiffani to take a week long vacation with her family in Oak Island, NC on the beach, I was invited too!  It was really nice, one of her Dad’s co-workers has a house about two blocks from the beach.  I haven’t really been to the beach much in my life so I don’t get as excited as other people but it’s pretty cool.  I hate the sand though.  It gets everywhere and can be super hot in the sun.  I couldn’t take too much time off work so I came back Monday evening.  It was nice to spend time with her family too, I like them and we have fun.  She has two younger brothers, Ricky and Calvin, and it was funny to see her as the big sister. It made me imagine that if I had a brother I would have been even more successful terrorizing my older sisters. We actually hope to go back to the house sometime in the next couple months just for fun with friends.

I know most of the stuff I post is tech related.  I actually had a nice post about that iPhone/at&t article but lost it somehow.  It said it saved the post but I think it reverted when I restored my browser session before I was able to publish it.  Oh well, I wasn’t happy about it so I just didn’t re-write it.  Anyways, I think I did post that I got an iPhone 4—after getting a 3GS, signing up for unlimited data, and then exchanging it for an i4.  So, that was successful and I’m pretty happy with it.  The jailbreak and unlock was finally released so that makes it a lot more fun.  It’s really quite impressive that the “iPhone dev team” was able to find a vulnerability that could be exploited through the web browser—meaning the device can be rooted OTA, over the air.  Previously they had very nice, easy to use programs where you would simply plug the phone in, and the program would just be a button “click to jailbreak” and I was always very impressed with that.  I knew it would happen eventually and that I should just be patient and wait—which I was.

I finally got my first visitors besides my parents!  Patrick and Sharon came the last weekend in July and it was really fun.  It was great to see them and I enjoyed showing them around and just doing fun double date things with Tiffani and me.  They flew in Friday afternoon and left Sunday evening.  We went to Common Market, Nix Burgers, Dandelion Market, Dixies, rode the LYNX, Original Pancake House, Concord Mills, Dave & Busters, Penguin, played games, and went swimming in the pool.  Needless to say it was busy with lots of delicious food.  To that note I’ve been trying to run and work out in my apartment’s gym so I can do fun and unhealthy things without feeling to guilty, and it would be nice to be in better shape as well J

Well, I think I need to get working on setting up a Fantasy Football league.  also, here's a cute picture of Susie Q in a basket.
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Monday, August 9, 2010

FW: Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

 a very good article about the iPhone, att, apple, Steve Jobs, etc.
Feed: Wired Top Stories
Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2010 3:30 PM
Author: Fred Vogelstein
Subject: Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

ATT and the iPhone -- a pairing that truly was too good to be true. Here's how the partnership between ATT and Apple went so terribly wrong.



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Thursday, July 8, 2010

FW: BMW supports iPod Out, fills your 2011 auto with 2001's finest user interface

they better have a firmware update!!!!!  the current integration is awful.  i think it really needed this from the start to have a chance.  no album art, no track number, no total time or time remaining, no adaptive scrolling...  why is it so hard to control an iPod from your steering wheel?

Ford did a better job with SYNC, a Microsoft product.  pwnd?

Feed: Engadget
Posted on: Thursday, July 08, 2010 4:38 PM
Author: Tim Stevens
Subject: BMW supports iPod Out, fills your 2011 auto with 2001's finest user interface

BMW supports iPod Out, fills your new auto with 2001's finest user interface
If you wish the iPod support in your BMW or Mini was a little less Munich and a little more Cupertino, this latest development from Bavaria will make you a happy little infotainment meister. BMW is announcing that its in-car iPod compatibility will be boosted to support iOS 4's iPod Out feature, which does not enhance your gadget's Ryan Seacrest impression but instead allows it to output its interface to another device. So, the in-car dash will replicate the simple iPod UI, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on whether you prefer Apple's design cues to BMW's. No word on exactly which vehicles will get this support, but this is referred to as part of a "new offer," so it certainly sounds like future autos only. C'mon guys, haven't you heard of a firmware update?
Continue reading BMW supports iPod Out, fills your 2011 auto with 2001's finest user interface
BMW supports iPod Out, fills your 2011 auto with 2001's finest user interface originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

iPhone 4 bars to signal strength mapped, antenna issue partially explained

Perfect.  This is exactly the information I wondered about.  Because, in a sense bars mean nothing to me.  They're a graphical representation of signal level and there's only five of them.  The article is really fantastic, http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2, please, you have to read it.  

Honestly, the writer reminds me of myself how I like to test phones repeatedly in multiple environments and average their performance--I imagine we'd be friends in real life lol.  i like how he figured out how to get a numerical dBm reading since field test doesn't exist, Clever.  I asked myself why I didn't think of that!

Feed: Boy Genius Report
Posted on: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:33 PM
Author: Kelly Hodgkins
Subject: iPhone 4 bars to signal strength mapped, antenna issue partially explained

bars-signal-iphone4
The folks at AnandTech just published their review of the iPhone 4 and took a close look at the antenna issue that is plaguing the handset. In true geek style, they mapped the bar representation of the signal strength from -51dB (perfect signal strength) to -131dB (bare minimum to maintain a connection) and measured the iPhone 4 signal strength attenuation in terms of  decibels. The result of the mapping show that over 40% of the signal strength range is represented by 5 bars which means your signal has to drop significantly (over 40dB) to go from 4 to 5 bars and only 10db to go from 4 bars to 3. Pretty big difference. They also found that the iPhone 4 on average loses 24.6dB when tightly held in your hand and 19.8 when held naturally due to the positioning of the antenna and the fact that it lacks insulative coating. These two above factors combined explain why those in strong coverage areas do not see any perceptible drop in bars while those in marginal areas do. If you are sitting pretty at -60dB you can easily absorb a 24dB loss to -84dB and not see any change in bars. But if you are at -91dB and lose 25dB, you will drop from four bars to almost none in a heartbeat. Interestingly enough, they find that the iPhone 4 antenna is significantly improved over the 3GS but is hampered by Apple's choice not to shield the now famous metal band.


Be sure to read the full article here:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2
Read

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iPad gets MiFi’ed

 awesome.  sounds like a good way to get what you want, and definitely a more versatile iPad since it can get internet access itself as well as act as a router for other Wi-Fi devices.

Feed: Boy Genius Report
Posted on: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:20 PM
Author: Andrew Munchbach
Subject: iPad gets MiFi'ed

Verizon MiFi iPad
Do you possess soldering skills and nerves of steel? Do you not care about potentially ruining hundreds of dollars in electronics in the name of science? Boy do we have the tutorial for you. Someone over at dishtvhdstore.com (of all places) has frankensteined a Verizon Wireless MiFi into their Apple iPad, resulting in a EV-DO iPad hotspot sans GPS. Now, under no circumstances are we recommending you try this, but if you are curious hit the read link…there is a step-by-step guide.


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BMW ConnectedDrive integration for BlackBerry available in vehicles later this year

 wonder if this gets around all the laws against using your phone while driving...  probably means i need a new BMW lol

Feed: CrackBerry.com blogs
Posted on: Friday, June 25, 2010 9:11 AM
Author: Adam Zeis
Subject: BMW ConnectedDrive integration for BlackBerry available in vehicles later this year

BMW ConnectedDrive BlackBerry
BMW has announced that they will be making their ConnectedDrive with BlackBerry integration available starting this fall. The service from BMW is the first of its kind and will allow users to receive email messages in vehicles via Bluetooth from their BlackBerry with the Pearl 3G will be the first supported device. The emails can be displayed on the iDrive control panel and even read aloud through the vehicles speakers. Users can also transfer tasks, calendar entries, text messages and more from the device for display on the control panel in the vehicle. As if that weren't enough, you will also be able to control the media player on your device via the iDrive system. This will be available to all BMW's fitted with a navigation system and will be offered in Europe and North America. Full press release after the break. Thanks to Eric for sending this in.
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