It is the iPhone!

So... it is the iPhone and pretty much everybody has one these days. I'm not here to sing its praises or put it on a pedestal as the greatest device ever made and just the same, I'm not here to slam it and point out any of its faults.

What I will say is that I'm not an iPhone user and if that makes you feel its time to stop reading here and move on, then I thank you for stopping on by. I will share that I'm a Windows Mobile user and that I'm looking forward to their upcoming release of the new Windows Phone 7 for those of you that are curious and have decided to stick around a bit more.

Ok, back to the iPhone now. I've seen a few of these up close and played around with them a bit at times. So I've had some very minor hands on time with the device at least. I'm not going to give any reviews, having so little hands on time... it wouldn't be fair at all. I can say I think its a very slick device and perhaps easily the best Smart Phone out on the market to date. I haven't really messed with the Androids yet either.

What I wanted to find out though, was what people using the iPhone thought of it and I decided to ask a few of my friends and co-workers, that are iPhone users, what they enjoyed the most about their iPhones and limit their responses to only Top 5. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong answers here and its a matter of opinion of those being polled.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results and how people picked just about the same things about their iPhones. I decided to post the top 10 over all features. As you can see we did have some features they came in and tied. I did cut off some after we reached 10. Sorry the feature, "It Is the iPhone" did not make the official top 10.

Email -6
GPS -5
Calendars -4
Web Browser -3
Ease of Use -3
Instant Messaging -3
All the Apps -3
Size of Screen -2
Camera / HD Video -2
Music / Movies -2

I figure, if you asked every iPhone user to make a list of their top 5 things, that they loved about their iPhones, we would more and likely see a lot of the same results. I think this means that Apple has built a pretty solid device here and it has huge appeal for a lot of the same features. It does what it does, all in one device and its a phone.

Do other devices do the same things? Sure a lot of them will do the same and just as good or perhaps falling a bit short. While others might do a few things even better or in the future have a chance to do things better. What this all boils down to in the very end is does the device do what You want it to do and works well for You?

If the device has the features you love and enjoy and works well, then I'd say its done its job and speaks to You in the end. If it doesn't, then you simply need to look for something else that meets your specifications and works well for you.

Could I be happy with the iPhone? I'm sure its possible and a lot of the things people selected would appeal to me as well. The main reason I don't own an iPhone was the price to start with and that it was only available on AT&T; I'm locked in with Verizon and just don't see leaving them anytime soon myself.

Can I find something out there that I'll enjoy and love in a Smart Phone? Yeah I think its possible and I think that could be this fall for me. Will it over take the iPhone? I think that will be a huge undertaking for sure, but I think it will gain market share and will be very different than a lot of the phones currently out on the market to date. In the end, this new WP7 device speaks to Me and its why I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome day to learn new things

It was a wonderful day off for me today and I spent it at the Fly Fish Texas, only the biggest event for Fly Fishermen in the state and the perfect place to learn about a cool new sport if you ask me.

For me, its been well over 25 years since I've done the normal bait style fishing and I've never Fly Fished a day in my life. So when I found out about the free seminars on the subject, I jumped at the chance to head down to Athens, Texas and see what I could learn.

For starters its not a cheap hobby or sport at all, but at the same time you don't have to go way overboard to get in on this. What I do recommend it checking with local clubs and learning a bit about it before you run out and buy a bunch of equipment though.

After the day was done, I pretty much learned what I should look for in gear to get started. I learned how to create/tie my very own fly for casting and received some instructions on the basics of Fly Casting.

Its a totally different way of fishing and looks to be a lot of fun if you ask me. This is something I think I could really enjoy and perhaps the whole family might enjoy learning as well. At least for me I had a great time and it was something I could learn to do fairly well I think.

Who needs Tivo?

Thanks to a really good friend of mine, letting me borrow his ATI TV Wonder 600 USB digital tuner/capture device, I'm able to really make use of my Windows Media Center features now. Simply put... WOW!

The quality is way better than what I had expected from what looks like a jump drive with a Cable Antenna growing out of it. The Media Center had no problems picking up the device and located all of the channels I really wanted too. It didn't find every channel in my area available, but I'm only needing Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC really.

I set it up to record tonights showing of 24 and will be checking that out via the Media Center Extender and my Xbox 360 later tonight. Something else I was impressed with was the ability to not only see my recordings, I could actually watch a live broadcast feed through the extender and all at perfect quality.

So it looks like I can totally pass up on purchasing a Tivo box and paying for their fees. In order to record more than one broadcast, I simply need to purchase a second USB card if I feel the need for that. We could also just watch one show of the shows live and let the other be recorded.

So I'm doing ok with cutting off access to Cable and Satelite service so far and only missiong a small portion of programming. Not a bad way to save some money if you ask me.

Netflix For The Win!

A week without Uverse is almost complete and all is doing fine. I don't want to use the word addiction here, but I have to say that which was very familiar is hard to break away from. I've already thought about searching for a couple things for starters or using the multiview sports channels, only to remember that none of that is available anymore.

Recording shows, only to watch them later is another feature I some what miss, but I've done alright watching them on the web for now. So I don't get to see them on the big TV, but its not like I have to totally be with out a show I like and I do alright on the small PC screen. Later we might see about getting Tivo for the Over The Air broadcasts and I'm sure we'll enjoy those features again.

What's been great is Netflix and having it hooked up with Xbox Live and now available through the Blu-ray player we just purchased. We are finding a number of shows for the whole family to enjoy. We are on the one DVD out at time plan and watch as much as we want On Demand. I'm finding shows I've either missed or new shows to watch now.

We can watch these shows on the Big TV or via the computer if we like. I've even loaded up some kid shows for the TV to stream and watched a 2nd feed of something I'd prefer myself via the home computer, headphones work great for this by the way.

So its not all that bad, just takes some getting use to in the end and we should save some money or at least free up funds to be used in a few other areas. In the end I'm only missing a minor number of shows perhaps and its really not worth the cost in my mind right now.

Catch you later Uverse

Ok, in all fairness I'm still using a portion of their services. As it stands now I'm on Internet Only terms with a very acceptable 6mb down. Its what I've been use to and I'm saying goodbye to their TV services.

I've had enough and tried to deal with their problems. In the end they could not provide a 5.1 digital audio feed for any of their HD programs and I've paid way to much to deal with the constant drops in Audio.

I so loved the Home DVR and having access to two HD streams and two regular for DVR recordings, but at the end of the day and listening to drops in signals from Live or DVR recordings, enough is enough.

I'd have a better experience with my over the air feeds in this case. I'm also using Netflix and have found a number of programs available to watch via Xbox Live or on my PC. Down the road I might decide to pick something up and more and likely I'll be heading back to DirecTV, but for now I think its best to just cut it out all together.

What a past week here

Wow its been sometime for me to write on my blog. I was looking back at the numbers and last year appeared to be my lowest number of writings for my personal blog. On the other side of things I did turn out some stuff on my personal game blog and wrote quite a bit for RejectedGamer.Com as well.

I'll have to see what I can do to pick up and write a bit more here on my personal blog and get my numbers back up. So what's new with me? Staying busy as ever, which is a good thing I think. We just came off one of the biggest Snow Storms I've ever seen here in Texas, about a foot of snow when all was said and done I think. The last time it snowed anywhere close to this... well I wasn't even born then.

The weather did manage to knock out our power for about 3 full days and it had us staying away from the home with other family. At least it didn't really Ice here, that's what we normally get here in Texas. A nice thick sheet of ice and the people around here can't drive on this stuff. Shoot, people can't even drive here when it rains sometimes.

Well I just saw the latest weather report and it looks like we might have more snow coming again. This last batch has finally melted all away and we might get more snow now. I'm just not sure I want another foot of snow, but I'll take it over the ice any day.

What is Google Wave?

Its new from Google and a bit different for sure. Sure this is more an likely not meant for everyone to use an try. Its not going to replace e-mails at all. But for a planning tool, this could be worth a try and come in handy if a whole team is using it.

27

2009 World Series Champions

Ready, set, write now...

That's right, its that time of year and NaNoWriMo is in effect once again. The time is now for all of those aspiring writers and creators out there, with feelings and ideas inside of their heads to tell a story. Get busy and let it all go, release that creative spirit and let it take course.

During the month of November you need to write every day and let what happen come out on paper. Its not about quality as much as quantity and getting a rough draft of a story out. We are shooting for 50,000 words over the next 30 days, that is only 1667 words each day now.

Think of it as about 30 chapters of an epic tale even. You just need to write daily and let something happen. At the end its going to be rough, did I mention it would be rough? Yes it will be rough and the following month you can go back an read and edit if you like.

The following month is for edits, don't edit as you go or you'll bog down an never reach your goal. Get your characters and settings created and let them explore and reveal the story.

Think about it as when you played as a kid and the worlds you created an situations that came up. Believe it or not you were more or less a story teller at that time even and you had a beginning, middle and end to your playtime... well depending on what you played I suppose.

In the end you can do this and its pretty cool to see what can happen after 30 days time. You'll have a rough draft of a story idea for sure and something to go back and write over again.

This is my 3rd year at this in a row and failure is not an option for me. Best of luck to all the others out there who have a story idea and dare to let it come out now.

Art imitates life... you hearing me?

So I saw this movie trailer last night for an upcoming movie called Pirate Radio and I can't wait to see it now. I think the movie has a lot going for it, well in my opinion at least. It's a British film and I like a lot of those movies for one. It also has a number of actors I've grown to like as well. That comes from watching a lot of British Films of course.

Anyway, after watching it, I thought it appeared to have been based on real life events. In fact its sets in the sixties and turns out to be loosely based on a ship that broadcast under the name Radio Caroline.

Reading up on this movie led me to the web site for Radio Caroline and I began to really learn some of the facts that the movie was based on. What is really cool is that this very old Broadcast Channel is still on the air today and playing some really good tunes.

In this day where things tend to be mainly All Talk and our Media moves at a very fast pace, its refreshing to find a station that reminds me of the older days of spinning just music in most cases and then hearing a DJ come on an talk a little bit about whats being played.

It just happens to be a plus for me to hear some British accents from the DJ. I grew up on the format of most of these old Classic rock songs. I think I've found a new Internet Live Stream to listen to from time to time at least and I'm looking forward to the movie and learning more about the real life events surrounding Radio Caroline.

Here's a trailer for the upcoming movie Pirate Radio.

The Narrative

Perhaps one of the oldest forms of communication and entertainment of all time is the Narrative. The art of story telling can be traced as far back as the Cave drawings in some cases. The recording of these thoughts & ideas can tell both a story and provide a history for us to learn or be entertained by.

Fact is the Narrative can be seen in works of writing, speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, theatre, dance, and even video games. All of these forms have a common thread and end result, the telling of a story and hopefully something that can be moving and entertaining in the end.

Why do I write all of this, well its that time again for many of us that lover taking part in this form of Communication for starters. NaNoWriMo is a few weeks away and people all over will strive to create a new story for the first time or perhaps once again in my case then.

Some of us might actually enjoy the end results and experiencing the finished Narrative, but on the other hand some of us like to provide the Narrative and tell a story on the other hand.

OK, I'm in no way looking to quit my day job, yet at the same time I not only have a passion for experiencing all forms of Narratives, I'm actually feeling like creating some, at least for myself in the end.

This will actually be my third NaNoWriMo in a row and I can say that I've safely created and completed the first two. NaNoWriMo is the creation of a 50,000 word Novel, a rough draft of a Narrative in the end. Someday I'd like to perhaps go back and rework them all and polish them up and perhaps even have them printed in a very limited run or one copy each even.

In the end I can feel good about the process and feel I have a better appreciation of the art form and what it takes to create a work. Wish me luck and I do the same to all those that take up the challenge in creating a Narrative as well.

I know how the support guy feels

This one is a hoot for sure. If you've ever had to do any Tech Support for someone, then you more and likely understand what is going on here.

Uverse with HDMI and TOSlink for the Win

A recent update from Uverse has done more than just making things look pretty, we now can hear everything as it should be. A little over a week ago I noticed the Aspect ratio on my TV was off and when I went to investigate or reset things, I noticed the menus had been updated.

I thought to myself, they had to have done more than give us a different feel for the guide areas. I've been busy with a horse show and haven't had much time to watch anything by the time I make it home. But this last week of the show I've made it home earlier and last night I was able to test out some things.

I made sure my Aspect Ratio was correct and enabled the Dolby Audio under the preferences for Uverse. My set is connected with HDMI and I have a TOSlink running to my faithful Sony Receiver for my audio needs.

Last night I watched Underworld: Evolution in HD off the FXHD channel and the audio was solid and never dropped. Its only taken them almost a year to fix the audio problems we use to have. I think we will enjoy a lot more shows with this problem behind us now.

The big claim from Uverse is to give the best digital entertainment experience and for me audio is a big part. Most of the techs seemed to think HDMI was not the way to go an it also sounded like a number of users did not use TOSlink for Dolby 5.1 sound as well.

Finally a fix has come down and things are like they are suppose to be. In addition to the audio fix, the update also added features to set recordings from any set top box as well as delete recordings from those boxes; another plus in my eyes and I no longer have to run back to the living room and remember which shows I watched to delete them.

If you've been on the fence about Uverse or heard about some of their issues, you might take another look and find the service is finally as good as its suppose to have been.

I've been Tagged Now

I'm still enjoying my new Windows Mobile Phone and checking out different apps that are available. Over the past few months I've noticed this funny looking tags being used as Avatars or Icons for people's twitter accounts, like the one on the left here.

I created the Tag with Microsoft's Tag program and they allow you to create your own Tags for either a URL, Free Text, vCard, or a Dialer and as long as your phone can run the Tag Reader software, you can then access the information being provided by the tag.

I'm amazed that they can come up with enough combinations and placements of the color dots, as well as allow you to add an image in the back ground or even trick out that tag to not even look like the dots all together. Pretty slick process if you ask me and I think I'll have fun creating some additional tags as well as looking for them while I'm out and about now.

What's that in your PockeTwit there?

Is that twitter or you just happy to see me? I think its my favorite app so far to date. Ok, I really haven't downloaded to many Apps, but I have to say that PockeTwit is very slick and works well with my XV6900 Touch phone.

If you haven't heard about Twitter, well I'm really not sure where you've been lately. Fact is Social Marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and Twitter is one of the popular ones by far. Known as micro blogging to most of us, Twitter allows you to post messages of 140 characters about things your doing or thinking about.

The main screen loads nicely with the avatar images of the people your following and has their message off to the right hand side. You can slide out various menu options from the left and right hand sides of the screen. I think the menus work really well with the touch features of the phone.

I've already had to rethink my phone usage and found out with a major shock, that my charges for Data were out the roof. Seems a lot of text messages and updates to an from Twitter can really add up.

So I know have a text plan for the phone that should work out better and I've added a nice package for Internet Data usage as well. By far this is a lot cheaper than what was happening and I didn't really like it when Customer Service said, "You would have had an outrageous bill at the end of the month."

In closing, the one thing my phone doesn't have is Wi-fi, but other than that feature, I'm really pleased with the features and performance of my new PDA phone.

Finally a phone I think I'll love

It's no iPhone, but in a lot of cases people say its the closest thing to it, with out the high price tag. The XV6900 comes from makers HTC in the form of their HTC Touch phone. I think I'll call it... myPhone!

This phone has been available from Verizon for about a year now and they've recently slashed their price on this PDA model. More and likely making way for some newer models that have more features, but at those higher prices.

It's the high prices that have kept me from a PDA phone for so many years now. I can look back at all the previous PDA style phones that I wanted and some are very much beasts and perhaps I can be thankful that I stuck to my guns an refused to pay those high prices.

So why now and why this phone particular phone an not an iPhone? Well the features and price say a lot for me. For one thing, this is a Windows Mobile phone, a hand held mini PC really. I can actually learn a bit more with Visual Studio 2008 pro and make some Mobile Applications to run on my hand held mini PC.

The PDA Phone comes with Windows Mobile 6.1, mini versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the Adobe PDF reader, the ability to sync up with Outlook and take my schedules with me, and Internet Explorer for web access. These are a lot of features and programs I use on a regular basis with my PC. With the latest 6.1 update comes the expaned memory, allowing a 16gig MiniSD Card to be used for storage.

The price for this phone is currently set at $69.99 (while supplies last) from Verizon and my upgraded price for agreeing to another 2yrs, lands my new phone for only $19.99, a "No-brainer" as I like to say. The other plus is I don't have to pay for full blown Internet really. I can pay per kb used and so if I don't use the Internet a lot, I'll save at that point.

Most of the times I've looked at other PDA phones, the only deals were for the new customers and they forced you to pay about $40 a month for Internet. So I was looking at about $300 or more for the phone and a hefty Internet charge. Not the case this time around though.

I do give much praise to the iPhone and if money was not an issue, I could more an likely see something myself using something like the iPhone. But I think I can still have as much of a Cool & Wow factor from the XV6900 PDA Phone and well under the price tag.

I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and at least this was not a phone that was sold out like many of the others in the past. So I'll finally have that PDA phone combo I've dreamed about... ok, I haven't dreamed about it, but I've thought long an hard over the past years about it.

Doing the Dew Diet style

First I want to state that I've started working with a web site called BzzAgent.Com and I've signed on with them to take surveys and talk about some products that they come in contact with.

Its a pretty cool thing and we get to simpy speak about the product and tell what we feel about it. So we can say if we love it or hate it pretty much. When we share our views, we also like to have those we expose give their honest feedback as well.

The first campaign I'm working with is Diet Mountain Dew. I have to say I'm rather surprised at the taste of Diet Mountain Dew and I've been sharring this with some of friends recently. Some of them like it and some don't, but for me I didn't find a really strong after taste, like I thought would come with diet drinks.

As far as a pick me up drink, I think it had the right amount and I skipped having coffee this morning and went with the Diet Dew only. I've had some energy drinks in the past that had more of an after taste than Diet Mountain Dew.

I'm not a normal drinker of Mountain Dew and the only other flavor I've really tried was Game Fuel and that was tied to the Halo 3 campaign. I prefer the taste of Diet Mountain Dew over Game Fuel. Well if you've never tried it, then I suggest you giving it a try and enjoy the fact it has no calories and is low in sodium too.

If you like visit ChatThreads.Com and use the id: 101-683-462882 as well to give your feed back on Diet Mountain Dew. Also check out BzzAgent.Com if your intrested in joining and getting in to all the Bzz as well.

What a sweet ride

The 2009 BMW K1300 S is the latest on two wheels from BMW Motorcycles and looks like a very nice ride. Take a look at my next dream machine through the following video clip someone put together. I think I need to see about test riding one of these babies soon, but until then... I'll just have to dream.

Visiting Don's Barber Shop

I was due for a haircut and in a very big way. So I decided I would visit the place my father use to go over the past years. Located in south Arlington, Texas is a very small Barber Shop, built in the late 60's and still running today.

I wanted to visit the small white building near my parents home and remember some of the good times I had with Dad. The thing about a place like Don's is its filled with a lot of old memories and the many years of people coming and going. His business is slowing down a bit and he's seen loyal customers pass away or move out of the area.

I stepped into the shop and the older gentleman was just about done with his haircut and only one more ahead of me. It turned out that the other man was the son of the man getting the haircut and his mother sat in the shop with them. That's what I call some loyal patrons.

It's quite a different experience to visit an old Barber Shop such as this. Now days things are very busy and you have various chains all over to get a haircut. But at a place like Don's, you get to sit a while and hear some old stories, perhaps a joke or two, and even learn a bit about the old days.

Its not fancy at all and I'm sure my Dad felt quite at home visiting with Don and he was very pleased with not only the style of haircut but the price too. I myself hope Don continues to do well and I might even pop in to his place from time to time for other haircuts.

The end of one's Journey

A different path has now been set before me and I will see you all again very soon, when our paths meet up again, my friends. It was Thursday evening, June 19th that I visited my father for one last time, only I didn't know it would be the last time. His journey has now come to an end, being so very tired... yet at last with peace and a little more clearer I think now.

He still had his wit, joking and smiling as he liked to normally do, but I feel he knew all to well that he wasn't feeling very well. He asked about everyone and always seemed to know what was going on in our lives. We talked for a while and I asked him to try and get better and to let me know if he would like me to visit again soon. He simply smiled an said, "Very much so... I always want to see my boys."

I didn't say goodbye when I left him, only I'll see you later Dad and I was happy with our visit. I had no clue that the path had changed before me and I myself was on a different journey now. The journey is in no way mine alone and in fact my whole family is taking the same journey, only slightly different paths for each of us, but with the same destination ahead.

My Dad didn't take the easy routes in his life, but he would still remind all of us which routes would be better to take. I don't have to worry about any of the troubles he had along his journey anymore, he's gone on to a better place, has no more pain, and he can finally rest in peace now.

This journey was not one I was prepared for really, but I knew it was one I would have to take someday soon. I just never expected it to be so very soon. Just like that visit last night, I'm not looking at this as a goodbye now, rather I'll see you later and its time for him to rest until then. I'll miss seeing you Dad and I'll focus on our fond memories and the times we had together until then.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. - Proverbs 3: 5-6