Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Question for Microsoft

WHY ISN'T THERE A GODDAM "BACK" KEY FOR WINDOWS MOBILE?!!!

And who's the fucking idiot at Samsung who didn't think to change the opacity level of the keyboard?! When you're typing in landscape the keyboard takes up literally 2/3 of the screen and you have no fucking idea what you're typing.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Omnia i910 :: camera panorama feature

Alright, I don't usually get too excited about "secondary" features of devices, but the camera on this Omnia is kick ass.

Right now I'm playing with the "panorama" feature. Unfortunately, it seems to only work in "320x240" mode, so it's really just the same as cropping a full size (2560x1920) photo into a panorama, but how it works is so cool.

You simply turn on the panorama mode, hold down the shutter button until the photo "begins," then move the camera to the right or left. The camera automatically takes a new frame "when the time comes" (up to eight frames total), you press the shutter button again, and then the camera/phone automatically patches them together into a panoramic photo. The above photo is a 4 frame photo of my yard (and the awesome mountains I look at every day --woo-hoo!).

Very cool.

If the software works to actually patch the frames together (which apparently it does), I'm not sure why they have to limit the frames to 320x240; maybe they'll bump this up in future firmware releases to make higher resolution panoramic photos possible.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Omnia vs. iPhone (Verizon vs. AT&T) update

So we're getting down to the nitty gritty here. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the Omnia (I won't say for sure until it's actually in my hand) and I'll be getting the Dare for E. I know the Palm Pre is coming out soon, and people have high hopes, but the form factor is pretty freakin' fugly, and I don't want to wait (who knows how long) for an unknown contender.

I started checking out the "reality" of various calling plans today, talking to both Verizon and AT&T reps, actual humans, not just what I could glean online (though humans are so often disappointing).

Currently we have the Nationwide Select Family plan from Verizon. Unlimited messaging, phone pics, etc... with 2100 minutes. It's $139.99.

I was planning on upgrading to the Connect Family plan ($159 for 2100 minutes and unlimited everything else: messages, e-mail, web, pics), but then I found out that to use the Omnia, you can't have the Connect or Premium plans, and you MUST add either the $30 e-mail and web pack, or the $50 unlimited data pack (like with the iPhone and ATT you have to add the $30 iPhone data pack). And yes, you read that right, you can't have the Connect or Premium family plans with the Omnia (or any other "smart" phone). You can only utilize the Basic or Select family plans.

So now we're thinking we won't even get an internet plan for E's phone. We'd rather save the $15 a month, and we'll just switch her to my EnV (which is a great texting phone, and she says that's enough for her).

This means we're looking at $169.99 a month for unlimited data on my Omnia, and then unlimited messaging, pic/vids, and 2100 minutes shared between us. And of course, the unlimited "IN" minutes to other Verizon phones, which is really what's keeping us on Verizon.

That same set up with AT&T would be $109.99 + $30 (data for iPhone) + $30 (unlimited family texting --I'm not sure if this includes the iPhone --the website text is confusing --is it really another $20 for iPhone specific texts?) for a total of $169.99 a month. The exact same (unless there is in fact an extra $20 charge for iPhone specific texting).

So I think this means we're going with Verizon and thus the Omnia wins over the iPhone. I'm cool with this considering the Omnia excels in battery life, the 5MP (really good) camera, video recording, removable SD storage, and, in my opinion, looks. I will miss the sweet, sweet flowey interface of the iPhone, and I'm sure the fact that the Omnia doesn't have a headphone jack (or a universal miniUSB port) will piss me off each and every day.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Rep. Donald Manzullo is the Dumbest Man Alive

The Republican from Illinois obviously has NO IDEA what is going on in this world. He just blathered on for quite some time declaring that the solution to our economic woes is to get people making and buying more... get ready for it... CARS.

What an absolute ass.

Has he really not heard that we HAVE TO move away from oil. First of all, we're running out of it, and second of all, it's really f*cking up this planet.

Unbelievable. It's no wonder that we have such problems. We've got complete and total idiots running our country.

Building more cars is the solution to our problems... jack ass.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Best Quote from Obama Inauguration Day

This from my wife's sister's kindergarten student:

"WE'RE GONNA NEED MORE BROWN CRAYONS!"

I love it.

I love it.

Who is in charge at CNN tonight?

Can I just say that CNN's coverage of the inaugural activities is awful. I've been astounded by how horribly this thing has been run. The actual events are great, and Obama makes me smile at every turn... but so often the audio feed is dropped, or we're staring at three people on a stage for 10 minutes rather than where the action's happening.

What in the hell?

I guess that's me, always complaining, no matter what is going on... no matter how awesome the world is. Harumph.

A New Era Indeed

Obama just took the stage, and it is a glorious, wonderful thing.

Thank you, America.