Archive for March, 2009

Now Playing: March 2009

Some schtuff I’ve been listening to lately…

  • Black Mountain, “In The Future”
    • Very interesting “psych” rock kinda stuff.  A bit like a melodic ‘Wolfmother’ thang.  I like it so far!
  • U2, “No Line On The Horizon”
    • A very solid release from U2.  Mind-blowing?  Not for me, but still very good stuff.  ‘No Line On The Horizon’, ‘Breathe’ and ‘Cedars of Lebanon’ are current favorites.
  • Tears For Fears, “The Seeds Of Love”
    • Throwback stuff, I know, but I’m (more or less) stuck in the 80s.  Still, as the follow-up album to pop singles like “Shout” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, this is an amazingly mature (and somewhat daring) album.  Great stuff, and not the Tears For Fears you might remember!
  • Beck, “Guero”
    • A really great Beck album that I somehow managed to skip over.  In fact, there is very little Beck material that I don’t like!
  • The Cure, “Mixed Up”
    • More throwback stuff here, but this is a very enjoyable album, though it contained very little new material.  ‘A Forest (Tree Mix)’ remains my all-time favorite version of this song.

The Netbook Saga

After selling off my G1 phone recently, I decided that turning around and spending the money on “technology” was the only sensible decision.  It also helps that I like to get new stuff.  🙂

Anyhow, you may have noticed that netbooks are all the rage these days.  Without getting into their history too deeply, a netbook is essentially a very small laptop geared toward lightweight usage – browsing, email, image viewing, etc. – and is really the type of portable computing that I need.  Both my primary home and work desktop PCs handle the “heavy duty” stuff that I do most regularly, but having a very portable system for working on the couch or at a coffee shop is quite liberating.  Better yet, the current crop of netbooks are more-than-capable of handling more advanced tasks, such as: image editing, graphic design apps, Office docs, media apps, and so forth.  Very nice!

Truth be told, I owned an Asus EeePC netbook less than a year ago, but sold it off quickly for featuring some less-than-desirable traits.  Although the EeePC, really started this whole trend, the earliest models were (in my opinion) too small, too slow, and difficult to use comfortably.  This time around, though, I knew a bit better what to look for.

So… I began my netbook search with a few requirements:  reputable brand, reasonably priced (less than $350), 10” screen, decent battery life, good keyboard, very functional touchpad, upgradeable to 2gigs of RAM, decent looking (hardly scientific, I know!) and capable of handling Windows 7.  The harddrive could be SATA or SSD, as long as it has 16gigs – which is enough for a Win7 install.  Even with those specifications, the market is pretty crowded.  I eventually narrowed my focus down to a handful of well-reviewed netbooks.  They are…

  • Acer Aspire One
  • Asus 1000HA or 1000HE
  • Dell Mini
  • Lenovo S10
  • MSI Wind U100
  • Samsung NC10
  • HP Mini 1000 Series

Here are some brief thoughts with pros/cons on each model, with a final look at the unit that I finally decided upon.

ACER ASPIRE ONE

Acer has been making a lot of inroads into the PC market over the past few years, so it’s not surprising that they would be squarely in the middle of the netbook craze as well.  Quite simply, Acer provides good quality at a reasonable price, and the Acer Aspire One is no exception.

2791687752_c94dc979b3[1]Strangely, I never really gave the Aspire One much thought in my netbook search.  Although a co-worker was kind enough to let me kick the tires on his personal Aspire One, it didn’t “wow” me in any way.  Also, the earlier models were all 8.9” screens – outside of my requirements scope – and the later-released 10” models were priced somewhat higher.

That said, the keyboard is better than most and there’s 2790894363_f9bde320c3[1]really very little to complain about. The mouse buttons are side-placed on the 8.9” models, which is a bit strange, and the 10” models opted for a rocker-style single mouse button that takes care of both left and right clicks.  It may look better, but most reviewers are unhappy with that setup.  Otherwise this is a very capable, if somewhat underwhelming, netbook.

When all is said and done, I gave the Acer Aspire One a “pass” and moved along.  Still, if you’re in the hunt for a decent netbook, this one really ought to be somewhere toward the top of your list.  It’s a good machine.

ASUS 1000HA or 1000HE

Asus really kicked this trend into a frenzy with their 7” EeePC line of netbooks, and some argue that they still produce the best netbooks out there.  Theykeyboard[1] might be right about that, but I was somehow turned off by the Asus.  Perhaps they’re just too popular, but I found myself not wanting to like the Asus 1000 series. 

For starters, the keyboard on the 1000HA is just not right.  Do you see that right SHIFT key?  I’m a very fairly decent touch-typist, and I just cannot roll with having keys out of place like that.  Immediate fail!  Otherwise, the 1000HA is a decent device – save for the fatal keyboard flaw. 😦

asus-eee-pc-1000he-netbook[1]On the other hand, the newly released Asus 1000HE seems to get most everything right.  Keys are properly placed (though the right SHIFT is a tad small), the trackpad is big and multi-touchable, incredible battery life, and less “toy-like” than many previous EeePC models.  The slightly higher price kept it out of my range, but I kept an eye out for a good deal on the 1000HE during my search. 

When all was said and done, I did not end up going with the 1000HE either.  Much like the Acer Aspire One, though, this device really ought to be high up on your list of consideration.

DELL MINI

Similar to the Acer Aspire One, the Dell Minis came out of the gates with an 8.9”dell_mini_9-240x200[1] screen configuration – once again, out of my requirements scope.  Still, I couldn’t deny how nice these laptops look.  I really like ‘em!  They’re sleek, small, and nice to look at.  I was very happy to read that Dell was coming out with a 10” version of their Mini line!

Well…the happiness didn’t last long.

Whereas the Dell Mini 9 looked very nice, it really suffered in the keyboard department.  A wrongly-placed right SHIFT key (notice a trend?), awkward functions keys, and outright missing F11 and F12 keys!  Still… this ought to have been easily remedied with the Dell Mini 10, right?  Absolutely!  The Mini 10 is a joy to behold…until you find out that the RAM is maxed at 1GB.

Moving right along.

In all seriousness, the Dell Mini 10 is one of the nicest-looking netbooks around, but the low RAM ceiling and higher-price tag keep it out of reach.  Try again, DellYou almost had it.

 

LENOVO S10

lenovo-s10[1] Another nice-looking netbook is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, which really appeals more to the minimalist design guy within me than anything else.  It’s not flashy, but rather just very simple.  I like it.  It’s been called somewhat “toy-like”, which I knocked Asus for, but I didn’t get that impression.  My buddy Andy really liked the 2.5” SATA drive that these (and other netbooks often) use, which is a nice option.  Personally, I didn’t have much of a preference between SATA, SSD, or whatever.  Enough space to load Win7 and some apps is good enough for me.

37207[1] The primary issue with the Lenovo S10, unfortunately, is (once again) the keyboard.  First of all, the darned right SHIFT key is out of place, and way too small.  Secondly, the FN and CTRL keys on the left are swapped, which really makes for some frustrating typing.  Once those two issues became apparent, I had to move along.

Sorry, Lenovo.  Back to the drawing board.

 

MSI Wind (U100)

There is actually a newer MSI Wind – the U120 – which sports some impressive specs at a nice price point, but like the Dell Mini 10 it maxes out a 1gig of RAM.  Are you guys nuts?!  C’mon!!

34793[1] Anyhow, this is where my research eventually landed me a “buy”.  The MSI Wind U100 has all of the requisite ports, a SATA drive, nice screen, and so forth.  I eventually picked one up via Craigslist and ended up nabbing an even better model – complete with Bluetooth, Wireless N, and 2gigs of RAM – for $340, which was just below my money threshold.  Sadly, I didn’t pay near enough attention, because the keyboard suffers from the same “swapped key” issue as the Lenovo S10, plus an aggravatingly small “period” (.) key.  It didn’t take me long to loathe typing on it.  But that wasn’t the only issue.

It wasn’t until after I had purchased the MSI Wind that I found out the “dirty little secret” about these netbooks: the later models ship with a very substandard touchpad produced by Sentellic.  The movement of the touchpad is “ok” at best, but I’ve come to expect a reasonable method for scrolling with laptop touchpads – and usually via the vertical space on the far right of the touchpad.  If you imagine the right-most 10% of the touchpad as a vertical stripe, then you might get the idea.  Move your finger up or down that “stripe” and you can scroll.  Pretty easy to do, and it’s been a staple on laptops for years.  Sentellic touchpads, however – probably due to licensing reasons with Synaptics – do not feature this behavior.  Rather, you tap the upper-right or lower-right corners to scroll.  In theory, it’s not much of a big deal, but in practice it’s absolutely aggravating!  It also didn’t work most of the time, which (as my co-worker would say) is just “gravy on the icing”.

The MSI Wind is really a nice netbook, but the keyboard and touchpad issues are inexcusable.  Within 3 days it was re-sold via Craigslist. 

(Note: I saw it on Craigslist again about 2 weeks later.  Ouch!)

 

SAMSUNG NC10

samsung_nc10_g03[1] Without a doubt, one of the very best netbooks out there is the Samsung NC10 – a relative newcomer in this market segment.  Not only does the NC10 look quite nice, but it also offers incredibly long battery life, a near-full-size keyboard, and proper key placements.  In fact, there is very little to knock the NC10 for, save for a hefty tag – and it is hefty. 

At around $425, the Samsung NC10 was clearly outta my range.  It’s too bad, though, because it’s a great little netbook that has nearly unanimous “raves”.  Without being flashy or standing out from the crowd a whole lot, the NC10 manages to do most everything right

Got a little extra cash for a netbook?  Give the Samsung NC10 a very strong look.  It’s a nice device.

 

HP Mini 1000 Series

39213[1] The last netbook in my line-up is actually one that I had my eye on from the near beginning.  The HP Mini 1000 Series of netbooks are quite different from others in this segment, and not necessarily for the better, depending upon who you ask.

For starters, the HP Mini 1000s are somewhat smaller than the competition.  The shape is more rectangular than square and, in this case, means that the screen is ever so slightly smaller.  It still features a 10” screen, but at a 1024 x 576 resolution (vs. the standard 1024 x 600).  In fact, you could knock the HP Mini in a number of areas: only 2 USB ports (one less than typical), no VGA out (you need a dongle – not included), side-placed mouse buttons, shared headphone/mic jack, 1.8” drive vs. 2.5” (easier to find an upgrade for), and a 3-cell battery which equates to about 2.5 hours of battery life.  Trust me… I weighed every single item here and thought them through.  The truth is, I rarely plug in more than a one USB device, VGA out is nice to have (but rarely used… by me), I haven’t plugged in a 1/8” microphone in years, I opted for the SSD drive (which is somewhat faster), and 2.5 hours of battery life is ok for my usage.  This could very well have been a case of “reason away the negatives to get the thing I really want”, but I’m confident that some of my reasoning here is quite right-on… at least for me.

39207[1]I plunked down and bought one.

So… let’s talk about where the HP Mini shines!

First of all, this is a beautiful little device.  I mean really, really nice.  Whereas a lot of PC vendors seem to put the bare minimum into external design considerations, HP is one of the few who (in my opinion) has some real class.  Much like Apple, HP makes some design decisions that can really rub people the wrong way, but there’s no denying that they look nice.  In the crowded netbook space, the HP Mini 1000 definitely turns some heads. 

Secondly, the keyboard is phenomenal.  In a space where other netbooks are suffering in their keyboard design, the HP Mini features a 92% (of full-size) keyboard that is incredibly useable and a joy to type on.  I don’t know of many full-size laptops that have a better keyboard than this.  Nice work, HP! 

Thirdly, this is a very light and portable device.  All netbooks are small, of course, but the HP trumps them all with a very compact and lightweight design.  The battery and battery-life are small as well, of course, but it’s hard to beat the HP on portability.

39209[1] Fourthly, the touchpad is quite useable, thanks to Synaptics.  Although I would prefer the vertical height of the touchpad to be a bit taller, it really hasn’t been a huge issue.  That said, the HP does have the side-placed mouse buttons, which many folks don’t like.  I had my doubts as well, but in practice they’ve not been much of an issue.  I tend to “tap” the touchpad, rather than the left button, which really resolves most of the issue there.  On occasion, though, I’ll simply use both hands (when necessary) with my left on the left button, and my right using the touchpad.  It’s actually quite comfortable.  The buttons themselves work and feel great, I should mention.  Also, the right-hand side vertical scrolling works well.  A “must have”.

Other items worth mentioning.

The HP Mini features a “gloss” screen, which isn’t everyone’s favorite.  In fact, the entire top half of the laptop is glossy!  Again, it hasn’t been a huge issue in real world usage, but I’ve noticed it.  The LED backlit screen is very nice, though.

Although the HP Mini 1000 comes in many flavors, I opted for the HP Mini 1120NR, which ships with an HP-infused Ubuntu Linux build and a 16gig SSD drive.  The SSD drive isn’t the fastest in the world, but my experience with it has been fine.  “Read” speeds are quite nice, but “write” speeds can suffer on occasion.  The Linux OS, while fun to use and likely quite sufficient for many, only lasted a few hours in my world.  I quickly wiped it and installed Windows 7 Beta 7000.

Since I already owned an external USB DVD drive, installation was a snap.  Windows 7 found every device on the HP Mini and installed the correct drivers.  The only thing I had to manually grab was better touchpad support to allow for the vertical scrolling.  (The Synaptics site had those.)  Using Windows 7 on a netbook is a much better experience than either XP or Vista – believe me.  Win7 knows how to handle the smaller resolution screen, power management is great, and the processing performance is very impressive.  I also loaded Office 2007, CorelDraw 9 (no comments, please), Microsoft Expression Studio, Live Mesh, and a handful of other apps that I always use.  Even with a 2gig hibernation file (I turned off the paging file), I’ve got 3 gigs of free space, which is more than enough for me.  I can always add a thumb drive or SDHC card if I need more room.

Lastly, I should mention the how great the HP Mini packaging is.  It looked very good, opened easily, and included everything I needed – without a bunch of junk that I didn’t need.  It was a nice first impression – one that more vendors should take note of.

FINAL COMMENTS

If you’re in the market for a netbook, I strongly urge you to seriously consider your primary wants/needs.  Not every netbook is the same, as you may have noticed, and some excel where others fall short.  What are your greatest needs?  Disk space?  Screen size?  Battery life?  In my case, “usability” was really primary – and that means typing on it, using the touchpad, and toting it around without feeling like I’m carrying an anchor.  The HP Mini 1000 series really fit the bill for me, and are some of the nicest netbooks you’ll find in this market segment.  Using Live Cashback as my starting point, I was also able to grab one at JR.com for only $310, after my “rebate” comes through.  Nice 🙂

For some great netbook reviews, please check out NotebookReview.com and LaptopMag.com.  Both sites helped me a ton!

Obama the Insensitive

In a recent taping of The Tonight Show, President Obama remarked about his own (evidently lacking) bowling skills, saying “It was like the Special Olympics or something.”  To his credit (or at least the White House staff prompting him to do so), he has already apologized to the head of the Special Olympics.  That said, in many ways the damage has been done and cannot easily be reversed.

Now, I don’t want to make too much of this, as everyone makes mistakes and says things they wish they had not.  Still, as the father of a “special needs” child, this made me feel badly.  Truth be told, I know that I’ve made my fair-share of “Special Olympics” jokes in the past – before I understood a bit better what their lives are like.  Watching people stare down your child at the local mall has a way of changing your outlook.  What they see is an almost six-year-old boy, in a wheelchair, wearing hearing aids, and (typically) acting pretty silly.  What I see is my son who already has more strikes against him in life than most people will ever deal with.  He doesn’t need strange looks (or unnecessary comments) from people who have no idea what his life is really like.

Mr. President – I forgive you, for what it’s worth.  However, if you really want to apologize and make a difference, spend some time with the “special needs” people of our country.  Go help out at the Special Olympics or somewhere similar.  Let the citizens of our country know that these oft-joked-about people are real human-beings with feelings, hopes, and a desire to be accepted.

Some great Win7 themes!

The wonderful site iThinkDiff.com has some very nice (and very free) Windows 7 themes for you to try out!

win7themes

(Just a few examples)

To use one of these themes, just…

  • Fire up your copy of Windows
  • Open your browser
  • Click on the theme you’d like to try out
  • Choose ‘Open’ when prompted
  • Watch Win7 make that your current theme
  • Enjoy!

Good stuff.  Personally, I use the “Streams of Light” theme on my work desktop.

Back in “Dash-land”

[Not actually my phone]I recently posted regarding my switch to the T-Mobile G1 phone, the hardware of the G1, and finally the software experience.  In the most recent posting, however, I had decided to switch back to the T-Mobile Dash – my previous mobile phone – to see if my temperament would improve any.  Well, I’ve been back on the Dash for almost a month now, and I thought it was about time to give an update!

 

 

Here goes…

INSTALLING
My brother was kind enough to send his old Dash phone to me.  A wipe and reload was in order, so I grabbed one of the latest and greatest Windows Mobile 6.1 ROMs (NRG Rose ROM v1.7) and started in.  I couldn’t get the ROM loaded via my Win7 Beta desktop machine, so I grabbed a Vista laptop that I had sitting around at work.  Walked through a few steps, the phone restarted a couple of times, and I was up and running with WM6.1 in less than 30 minutes or so.  This ROM already includes some very nice homescreen enhancements, a weather plug-in, Office Mobile, PDF reader, an “auto configurator”, CeleTask, and some other great updates.  To be perfectly honest, the NRG Rose ROM v1.7 is better than my previous ROM in nearly every way.  A number of hoops that I previously had to run through ‘post-install’ are now no longer necessary, which is great.  Pretty much the only major install I made was loading Opera Mini, which is a very good and capable browser.

GETTING ALL ‘DIALED-IN’
One of the beauties of having your contact/calendar info “on the web” is the ability to quickly re-sync your new phone and be all ready to go within minutes.  In my case, I sync’d my phone with our corporate Exchange Server and had my contacts and calendar info back on my phone within minutes.  I love that.  Beyond that, I assigned my speed dial buttons to the folks that I call most often, and finally set things like ring tones, notification sounds and so forth.  That’s about as much “dialing in” as I really need to do.

 gettingstarted[1]

DAILY USAGE
Having migrated from the Dash to the G1 and back to the Dash again, I was really curious about what my experience would be.  Honestly, I was expecting a bit of “oh, yeah… the Dash has this or that problem”, quickly getting frustrated, and ending up back on the G1.  After all, the Dash is about 2.5 years old now, running the (not-nearly-as-schwanky) Windows Mobile OS, and sporting older, slower hardware.  It oughta be a slam dunk in the Android-based G1’s favor, but it really hasn’t been.

screen01[1]

Observe:

  • DIALING: A basic phone call on either device is really pretty easy – assuming that you’re manually entering a phone number.  The Dash is really no better or worse, in this regard.  Finding a contact quickly, however, does seem to be faster on the Dash – primarily due to the ‘right there in your face’ keyboard.
  • SPEED DIALING:  One of my “peeves” with the G1 was the inability to make a quick phone call to those folks that I contact most often.  I would venture a guess that I call the same 10 phone numbers roughly 90% of the time, and I’m guessing that a lot of other people do the same thing.  On the G1, a “speed dial” of this nature required at least six clicks to accomplish.  Frustrating.  The Dash, on the other hand, with appropriately configured “speed dial” keys, is only three clicks to perform the same function.
  • CALL QUALITY:  I didn’t have a lot of complaints about call quality on the G1.  The earpiece on the Dash, however, is a bit quieter, and seems to vary somewhat depending upon how you’re holding the phone.  I would say that the G1 is better for outside use, and either phone is acceptable indoors.  Using a Bluetooth headset, of course, makes the point moot.
  • RECEPTION:  Strangely enough, I noted a *very* nice increase in phone reception when I first got my G1.  My house is in a bit of a deadzone, but the G1 really seemed to get “more bars in more places”, if you will.  I was fully expecting that the Dash would again suffer in this area, causing me much grief and heartache.  Thankfully, this hasn’t been the case!  I don’t if the new WM6.1 ROM I’m using has better radio code, or if it’s the physical phone itself, but I’m really not seeing a discernable difference in reception – it’s quite good with this Dash.  What I have noticed, however, is a huge decrease in dropped calls since switching back to the Dash!  I don’t know if it’s a 3G network issue (which the Dash cannot use) or something physically wrong with the G1 I had, but it would drop calls without fail in certain places.  The Dash has not done this.
  • RINGING:  As I had reported with the G1, I was quite consistently missing calls when I didn’t have the phone physically on me.  Basically, the phone was quieter and (especially at home) I often couldn’t hear the phone ring at all if I was in another room.  This hasn’t been an issue with the Dash, thankfully, and I’m hearing the phone ring much better than before.  Also, the Dash has a “vibrate first, then ring” setting for your ring profile.  The G1 did not offer this, nor do many phones that I know of.  I’m happily using this setting again, and I much prefer it for office-use.  If the phone is in my pocket, I’m usually able to answer (or “silence” it) before my co-workers ever know that a call came in.
  • CALL LOG:  Since I mentioned it in my “software” review of the G1, I should probably counter here.  Quite frankly, the G1 did not offer much in the way of full-featured call logging.  It’s all well and good to know that so and so called me yesterday, but at what time?  How long was the call?  The Dash gives me this information, and I appreciate that.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s important to me.
  • TYPING:  Although the keyboard on the G1 is much larger, it’s not necessarily better, as I quickly found out.  I never quite got “used” to the G1’s keyboard – even after 2 months.  It’s not horrible, by any means, but the keyboard on the Dash is clearly easier to type on – at least for me.  Also, the ability to ‘hold a key down and get the alt-press symbol’ is a real time saver.  I do wish that the Dash had both right and left Shift keys, but aside from that the Dash is a better device for typing on.  Lastly, the fact that you had to “slide out” the G1 keyboard made me want to go to the keyboard less.  Take that for what it’s worth.
  • TEXT MESSAGING:  Both the G1 and the (WM6.1-enabled) Dash allow for threaded SMS text messaging – a “must have”’ for cell phones these days, in my opinion.  The G1 is probably better for managing my text messages, but the typing (as I’ve mentioned) somewhat negates any improvements there.  The text messaging app is certainly much nicer to look at on the G1, however.  No contest there.

    screen13[1]

  • BROWSING:  This is an area that is clearly in the G1’s favor.  The screen is larger, touch screen-enabled, features 3G network support (where available), and uses a much newer browser technology.  I’m not even going to argue that the Dash comes close to matching the browsing-ability of the G1.  It doesn’t.  I will say this, though: using (the free) Opera Mini on the Dash closes the gap a surprising amount.  In my non-scientific guesstimating, I would say that Opera Mini is as fast at pulling up pages on the EDGE network as the G1 is on the 3G network.  I’m not going to bother to explain why, because I really don’t know.  Opera Mini is really a very clever browser, though, and makes using the web on the Dash much more palatable.  Between the two, though, the G1 is clearly a better Internet-capable device.
  • EMAIL:  Much like the Text Messaging report, using Email on the G1 was generally a “nicer” experience, though not necessarily better.  For my Yahoo! Mail account, the G1 is preferable and works well.  For my Exchange mail, however, the Dash is still a better device – and primarily because it has built-in Exchange support, where the G1 does not (yet).
  • CALENDAR:  The calendaring on the Dash is not great to use, though the tie-in functionality with Exchange Server is great.  Purely from a visibility standpoint, the G1 is much better.  I use appointments very often, which both devices handle well, but the basic calendaring viewing is better on the G1.
  • CAMERA:  The photo quality (and interface) on the G1 are definitely better than on the Dash.  The Dash, however, seems to take pictures more quickly – mostly due to the slow auto-focus behavior of the G1.  Between the two, however, I’d rather have the G1’s camera.
  • STABILITY:  The G1 was a fairly stable device, and so is the Dash.  I find myself managing programs on the Dash more than on the G1, but I’m also fine with that.  If I didn’t manually close some apps, I’m guessing that the Dash would bog down a lot more, which would eventually lead most people to simply restart the phone.  Quite honestly, WinMo does not manage memory that effectively, but I can.  The ROM that I’m running maps a key to the CeleTask app which allows you to very easily close apps and free up memory.  I don’t mind doing that, but a lot of people probably do.  That said, I’ve noticed that the G1 has some marketplace apps to “manually close” running programs.  From my experience with the G1, it didn’t manage memory (& apps) all that well either.

FINAL THOUGHTS
At this point, I’m back on the Dash and am staying here until I find a device that is truly better.  The T-Mobile G1, while clearly a nice device, was not better for me, and (as I’ve harped on before) actually made some functionality more difficult.

That said, if you tend to browse on your phone a lot, enjoy downloading apps/games, or need GPS functionality, then the G1 may be a better choice for you.  However, if you use your phone primarily for phone calls, text messaging, and email, then I would argue that the T-Mobile Dash is the better device between the two.

Your mileage may vary, but as for me, well…I’m happy to be back in Dash-land. 🙂

[Click here to view a YouTube clip of WM6.1 on the T-Mobile Dash]

You’ve been ‘U2d’!

Tried to login to my Zune account this morning to grab U2’s new album, ‘No Line On The Horizon’.  They have the album, of course, but it doesn’t do me much good if I can’t login! 

Zune_U2_error

Looks like the Zune servers have been ‘U2d’! (Similar to Punk’d, Rickrolled, etc.)

Maybe I’ve coined a new phrase?! 🙂