Dani 3.0 » Mobile

Tmo’s Talking the Talk, Not Walking the Walk

Danielle — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:42:59 +0000

I love T-mobile – I really do. We’ve been on a family plan with them for over fix years – probably six or seven. We’ve always received excellent customer service, and compared to Verizon, Cingular (now AT&T) & Sprint, they’ve messed up on our bills remarkably less. (In fact, I can’t think of any major mistakes at all.) Based on my experiences with them, they are, I feel, a company that has integrity.

This is why their new 4G ads bug me. It’s not the fact that they are taking liberties with the definition of 4G (technically HSPA+ is not 4G/LTE.) It’s the rather spurious claims they’re making about the superiority of their data network overall.

Until recently, I had no reason to doubt their claims. However, a recent trip to New Orleans for the holidays proved to be an exercise in frustration and futility. With the exception of major cities (Houston, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans), the maximum download speed I was able to reach on my MyTouch 4G was about 13kbps. Meanwhile, my husband’s iPhone 3Gs was getting speeds in the neighborhood of 2015 kbps. (We were a bit closer on upload speeds; 10k for me, 14k for him.)

Upon reaching home, I did a little research and compared the two carrier’s coverage maps. AT&T’s map shows consistent 3G data coverage running the length and breadth of most of this nation’s highways, including the stretch of I-10 between Houston and New Orleans. T-mobile’s map shows small pockets of 4G speeds along the same route, but the Mobile Web (EDGE/GPRS) speeds are what’s primarily offered. Now I have no idea what top EDGE/GPRS speeds are supposed to be, but as I said, I never got above 13K in those areas.

I find it rather annoying that T-mobile is now focused on adding 4G to their lineup when they don’t even have the basics built out. I would much rather stop and ask for information in a busy city than along a deserted stretch of highway. AT&T apparently understands that one has to walk before they run; I have a lot more faith in their long-term plan at this point.

iPhone 4 upgrade

Danielle — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:48:49 +0000

So, like thousands of others, I upgraded to the iPhone 4 last Thursday. So far I’ve been fortunate. My biggest aggravations have been some dropped calls (perhaps due to AT&Ts less-than-stellar coverage and not to the left-hand death grip issue) and the lack of any good cases. I’ve gotten a lot of flack for upgrading so soon, but the draw of the 5MP camera was too much too resist.

The camera on the iPhone 4 is indeed much better, and although image quality noticeably drops off in low light, it’s still a huge improvement over the 3GS. The flash, however, is a different story. While it does illuminate the subject, I find the red-eye and the overwhelming yellow tint to often not be worth the tradeoff.

I have posted some pics taken last night at the Eagles concert here in Houston for your viewing pleasure. (The first photo was taken a couple of nights ago at Santos Mexican restaurant on Westheimer and demonstrates the overly-warm cast of pictures taken with the flash.)

As you can see, the photo quality is excellent for a cell phone and it performs pretty solidly in low-light situations. Note, though, the washed-out effect that was caused by me inadvertently leaving the flash on during a low-light shot.

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Pandora Just Got Better for iPhones

Danielle — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:46:29 +0000

Pandora has updated their iPhone app.

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Best Application Store Yet

Danielle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:16:43 +0000

I’ll admit that the last few months have seen me jealous of iPhone users, not because I coveted their phones (puh-leez!) but because I coveted their app store. Now comes the good news that not only is my carrier (Tmobile) releasing a dedicated app store for their subscribers, but RIM is releasing their own Blackberry storefront.

Categories in BerryStore

This is, of course, wonderful news, but the RIM store isn’t planned to be up and running until March of 2009.

Fortunately for me, I came across Fred Potter’s BerryStore application. BerryStore is an application that installs on your Blackberry and lets you browse, download, rate and review applications. Since the app is still in Beta, only free apps are being offered now, but even so, I’ve been turned on to a lot of free apps that I didn’t know about – like PacMan.(Shout out to Benny Chow – thanks man!) I especially appreciate being able to read the reviews and ratings.

Downloading and installing applications from within BerryStore is easy, convenient, and requires very little interaction on your part. Just click the Download button and the app is transferred to your device. If you decide you don’t like an installed app, it can even be uninstalled from within BerryStore!

BerryStore is true one-stop-shopping and the finest example of application shopping that I’ve seen yet.

BerryStore is free and can be downloaded OTA at m.berrystore.com.

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That Dog Will Hunt

Danielle — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:30:00 +0000

One of the things that drives me crazy about having to work (aside from the fact that they frown on wearing your pajamas in the office) is that there’s no way I can surreptitiously pop over to MySpace or Ebay on my work computer. Oh, sure, I can use my T-Mobile MDA, but viewing either of those image-heavy sites on a PDA is tedious, and the mobile version of Ebay leaves a lot to be desired. So I’ve suffered my 8-5 withdrawal pains in silence, stoically gritting my teeth until I can get to my home computer at the end of the day.

But now there’s Mdog, a site that optimizes popular online destinations for mobile devices. I can check my Yahoo email, peruse Ebay auctions, read my friend Emma Sometime’s blog (and even update my own), catch up on the news, and my personal favorite, visit Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, all using just my humble PDA. Bathroom breaks will never be the same again!

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Mobile Entertainment

Danielle — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:49:00 +0000

Tonight’s post will be short. I am exhausted tonight for some reason and can hardly keep my eyes open.
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I feel like I finally got something accomplished today! I finished my portfolio site, and at long last, started my workout regimen. The workout passed very quickly since I was listening to an audio book from Audible.com on my MDA. I love Audible! I’ve been a member for a few years and the service just keeps getting better and better. For $22.95 a month, I get to download two books, plus the daily (M-F) edition of the New York Times. (The Wall Street Journal is also available, if that’s more to your taste.) Moreover, each month members receive six featured audible books/interviews/short stories, etc. for free. Finally, if that weren’t enough, members also receive a free subscription to the digital edition of AudioFile, “The Magazine for People Who Love Audiobooks.” Another one of my favorite audiobook sites is LearnOutLoud. They specialize in educational audiobooks (and videos.)

When I’m not listening to a book on my MDA, I’m reading a book on my MDA. My favorite site to pick up great ebooks is Ereader.com, but Fictionwise is a close second. I’ve had a lot of people exclaim that the could never read a book on a screen that small, but you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get used to. One of the biggest benefits of reading digital books, aside from portability, is being able to read in the dark. Since my husband has a hard time falling asleep with the light on, ebooks make him happy, too. Other benefits include that it looks like you’re working when you’re actually reading, and of course, it eliminates the embarrassment of toting a book to the bathroom with you. (Pun intended.)

Another of my favorite “digital entertainment” sites is Zinio. Zinio provides digital editions of some of the most popular magazines for download. You can purchase individual issues or annual subscriptions, just like with print editions. Zinio provides a free, Adobe Acrobat-like, reading application that is easy to use and has neat features like searching, bookmarking and annotating. Generally the cost of the magazine/subscription is the same as it is in print. Now if they could just develop a way to get the mags on to my MDA, life would be good.

Sorry this post is so short (some of you may actually be happy about that) but I’ve given you some of the most digitally entertaining sites on the Internet, so shouldn’t you be moving along now? Shoo. Go read – or listen to – a book.

Tags: literature, audible books, Audible.com, Learn Out Loud, ebooks, Ereader, FictionWise, digital magazines, Zinio

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A Salute to Russian Race Horses and Recipes

Danielle — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:32:00 +0000

Well, I’ve made a successful start in planning my lifestyle change. I managed to drink two 8 oz. glasses of water today, and am working on my third. The next step in my plan is to get together some healthy recipes so that I can make a shopping list. In true Dani style, I’m looking to the web for the recipes. (I only wish that our local grocery stores were as high-tech as I am. Wouldn’t you love to have a grocery cart that would follow you around? I usually take my son with me to push the cart. He has the advantage over the robotic grocery cart in that he enthusiastically races the cart into position whenever I get the urge to go out for a pass with a box of cereal.)

Since I would like ideally to be able to synchronize my recipes with my handheld, I started my search for recipe sites at Handango, hoping to find a recipe application that interfaces with a cool website. I immediately hit pay dirt by doing a search for “recipe.” There are two contenders, Pocket Cook and Big Oven. Both offer recipe synchronization between the Pocket PC and the website, and seem robust enough, but I’m really put off by the interface. (I’m a design snob. I freely admit it.) If I had to choose on of them based on the cursory examination I made, I’d choose Pocket Cook. In addition to syncing recipes from the website to the handheld, they both have shopping lists and menus, but Pocket Cook seems to be the only one that supports Windows Mobile 5.0.

Of course, I always have my long-time favorite sites like All Recipes and Meals.com. I don’t know how 2.0 either one would be considered – after all, neither of them is in beta. But heck, I know how to use the cut and paste functions, and they do have a huge selection of great recipes. I also found this huge list of recipe sites that I’ll check out later.

For now, though, I’m off to the races thanks to my third glass of water.

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