Misc.
Well, quite a gap in blog entries, so I do apologize. This week at work has been incredibly busy and my freelance jobs have been keeping me busy after work so I've had very little free time! I'm hoping things will calm down a bit and that I'll be able to write more during the week next week.
So, I finally took the plunge and bought an iPod. Got a deal through Audible.com. Unfortunately the things are backordered, so instead of getting it a weak or so ago as I should have, I won't be getting it for yet another week! Argh! Any iPod owners able to offer me some good advice or resources? I'll be using the thing not just for music but to listen to Audible.com audio books and radio shows that I'll be downloading like This American Life. Because I was expecting to get the iPod last week, I had deactivated my Otis audio player and so haven't been listening to books lately. I turned to just listening to the news but eventually gave this up as it was too depressing...
I read a thread just recently about the new color RIM blackberry (7230) on the Sidekick message boards at hiptop.com. It sounds really interesting although it appears that it won't even be available in Tmobile stores until mid-late September! I'm trying to figure out if it offers similar functionality to the Sidekick. I know that it has great email and you can synch with Outlook. Supposedly the reception is a lot better, but honestly I can't imagine how you could get worse reception that with a Sidekick! The two limitations seem to be that it only has WAP browsing (whereas the Sidekick has regular web page browsing, albeit without the ability to view any sites with JavaScript), and its IM interfaces is via SMS. But apparently this is not the case if you have a special Blackberry Enterprise Server set up on your corporate network. I don't have such a beast but there is also the possibility that third parties offer such capability via a subscription fee. This would do away with the limitations. I have yet to find any of these third-party hosting companies however. The other "problem" is that the device has only 16MB of memory, which is the same as my B&W Sidekick, but just seems somehwhat limiting. Sometimes I will get some big attachments and then my entire memory is consumed! It is a tempting solution, though, since it's now a what, 3rd or 4th generation device, is very rugged, and is built from the ground up as an integrated system (like the Sidekick but more advanced). I am definitely looking for some kind of replacement to my old Sidekick which I've had since last November. It is definitely has its plusses, but you don't want to use it as your phone because the reception is horrible, and some basic features which were promised a year ago (like synching and the ability to download new third party apps), have yet to be provided (although the next upgrade to the OS which is supposed to happen in the next month or so is supposed to get around some of these issues). I also have been wanting to wait as long as possible so that I can take advantage of the new law to go into affect on November 24 that will allow one to transfer one's number from one carrier to another. Not that I am that attached to my number - I've switched numbers (and carriers) 2 times in the last 4 years - but I just think things will get a lot more competative then. Sure carriers will still be locking people into contracts, but once the contract is over, there will then be no barrier for one to switch...