My new(ish) phone: Sprint HTC EVO…

Back on June 4th, I took a half day off work to go to Best Buy and get a new cell phone. What I ended up walking away with was far more than a phone. It was a little computer that has nearly constant access to the internet.

I ended up getting the HTC EVO on Sprint. The EVO runs the Android mobile operating system and does some pretty amazing stuff. As such, I wanted to touch on a couple of cool applications that I’ve been using. If you have an Android phone, you should use them too. Just pop over to the Android Market and search for the name.

• Twicca – This is the best Twitter app for Android, in my opinion. It is quick, customizable, and looks fantastic. Also, follow me on Twitter if you don’t already.
• Astro File Browser – I love this for 1) copying and moving files around my phone, mostly music and 2) it has a handy backup feature which will save copies of all your apps. If something happens to your phone, you don’t have to worry about searching the market and reinstalling everything. This app just takes care of it.
• Listen – This is a podcast manager by Google. It is still a little rough around the edges, but I love it thus far. I’ve never listened to podcasts before, but there is just so much interesting stuff out there.

I’ll be back with some more recommendations soon and some more in depth info on the EVO, including some screenshots of some of the great features and apps.

Eddie and the iPhone…

My friend and fellow technophile, Eddie, has a fantastic post over on his blog, Practically Efficient.

His feelings pretty much sum up my own. Apple has done some amazing things for mobile technology, but for me, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to jump full-on into the Apple ecosystem.

Check out this fantastic post in full.

Back from Exile…

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve been absent from the blogging scene. There have been a couple of reasons for that. The excuses range from summer to running to kids to work. They aren’t good excuses, but they are there nonetheless.

What I do want to share is what I’ve been up to and what I’ve got loaded up for you.

• WordPress 3.0 – If you don’t know what WordPress is, don’t be too concerned. It is simply the behind the scenes stuff that takes all this information that I have a makes it all pretty for you to look at. A new version is out and I’m going to be upgrading soon. Hopefully it doesn’t wreck my site!
• Sprint HTC EVO – So I’ve been a staunch BlackBerry guy for years now. But for years, BlackBerry has been standing still while new mobile operating systems like Android and iPhone OS (now known as iOS) have been making huge leaps and bounds. The iPhone is firmly planted at AT&T so that is out of the question, but Sprint, my carrier of choice, recently got a major Android phone called the EVO. I’ll fill you in on all its amazingness soon.
• Friday Night Links – This has been the thing I’ve been missing most over the past month or two. I’ve got a bunch of great stuff that I’ve been saving but just couldn’t get put up because Friday nights have been busy, busy, busy.
• offcolortv.com – So this isn’t anything coming up but my Biggest Loser blog over there had a huge thing happen. Fan favorites Sunshine and Oatmeal ended up answering questions over there for everyone. It was pretty amazing to have them there to do that. On a secondary note, I’m going to be doing admin stuff for offcolortv.com, so that would include making improvements and upgrades as well as tweaking the look. I’m trying to figure out how to put each author’s picture in their post, so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

That is about it for the moment, but expect a second post tonight about my low-tech obsession as of late.

TQT: iPod charging…

Since Tuesday came and went without a post (actually, this entire week came and went without a post), I figured I’d try and squeeze in a Thursday Quick Tip. Let’s just say you are lucky there are two days that begin with the letter T.

Tonight’s tip refers to charging an iPod, but this advice is equally applicable to many of your electronic devices, especially your phone. The USB port on your computer can not only be used to transfer data to your mobile device, but it can also be used to charge your mobile device.

When I’m traveling, I like to do everything I can to not have to check a bag. This inevitably leads to me cutting back on as much stuff as possible. To do that, I generally take a USB cord and simply plug my cell phone or iPod into the USB port of my computer to charge. This saves me from having to take a cord with a big bulky plug with me.

Additionally, there has been a movement in the last year or so to standardize the charging ports for cellphones and other devices to use a connector called micro-USB. The beautiful thing about that is instead of taking a cord for your cellphone, a cord for your camera, a cord for your wife’s phone, etc, you will be able to just bring one cord and charge all your devices. Convenient!

Got your own tips on how to charge various devices or how to pack lighter for a trip? Let me know in the comments!

Texting Etiquette…

I’ve always wondered about and never found a set rule for texting etiquette. Perhaps no one tried because it seemed like a daunting task, considering you might have to have all sorts of exceptions and corollaries. Fortunately, I was able to find this Slate article that boiled it down to a simple rule.

If you’re in a situation where you’d excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, you should also excuse yourself before reaching for your phone. Otherwise, go ahead without asking. Either way, don’t play with your phone longer than you’d stay in the bathroom.

That is concise and really covers any situation I can think of.

• Sitting at dinner with your significant other? Generally, you wouldn’t just stand up and walk away without saying something first. In this case, excuse yourself, then fiddle with your phone. Be sure to return in a timely manner.
• Hanging out at the sports bar with your buddies watching a game? It would probably actually be rude to interrupt the game by informing your compadres that you were heading to the bathroom so feel free to text away.
• At church? It would have to be a major emergency for most people to get up and head to the toilet during church. Same goes for your cell phone. Unless someone is dying, leave it in your pocket.

Be sure to check out the article itself for more insights on the Bathroom Rule.

Got any scenarios you don’t think fit in properly here? Every been a rude texter or had to deal with one? Let me know in the comments!

FYIJSYK: ZERO Charger…

You’ve got your phone plugged in for the night after a long day of yapping on the phone. The next morning, you hop out of bed, grab your phone, and head to your job at Uncle Ted’s Used Bubble Gum Emporium. You may think that after unplugging your phone, no more electricity is being used, after all, your phone isn’t plugged in.

Unfortunately, that isn’t true. That plug that charges your phone is actually a bit more complex than you may think it is. It changes alternating current (like the electricity in nearly all outlets) to direct current (like all batteries). Part of that conversion process produces heat. This heat is a sign that not all the energy is being put toward its intended purpose. In the end you are left with an electric bill that is higher than it should be.

And it’s not just your phone charger either. TVs, stereos, and computers are other examples of electronics that use electricity when they are off or on standby.

Enter the AT&T ZERO charger. When nothing is plugged into it, it uses no electricity. The savings of that electricity could be huge, especially if this technology moves into other appliances and gadgets. According to the AT&T ZERO website, the US uses (wastes!?) about 12% of its annual energy usage on these so called ‘vampiric’ chargers. Cutting all that energy usage could result in an annual savings of $120 billion.

Another reason this charger is terrific is that it has a USB socket on it, allowing you to plug in your iPod, cell phone, digital camera, or any other device that charges using USB.

At this point I’m tempted to pick up a handful of these. Anyone interested in a contest that gives away some ZERO chargers? Do you plan on picking one up yourself?

FYIJSYK: Apple vs. HTC…

If you pay much attention to gadget news, you probably heard a bunch of stuff about Apple’s lawsuit against HTC for all types of patent infringement. So what is the story? Is Apple justified in these lawsuits? Can HTC stand up to the onslaught of the Apple lawyers? What does this mean for HTC’s phone lineup? We’ll answer these questions in the week’s FYI, Just So You Know, but you probably won’t be satisfied with the answers.

What’s the story?

Apple has brought a bunch of complaints regarding patents that they filed over the past 10 years. Some are super technical and others are just crazy, such as using your finger on a touchscreen button to unlock a screen. Umm, how else are you supposed to unlock the screen?

Is Apple justified?

Hard to tell. Patents are always a weird thing because sometimes it is very legitimate: you find a new way of doing something that is revolutionary; think inventing a CD in the land of audio cassettes. On the other hand, some companies get a way with patenting things like “how to remember things by using black liquid in a tube and creating characters of of the black liquid.” So you just described writing words with a pen. Lame. But somehow those types of patents get through, but they still have to stand up to scrutiny.

As this case is reviewed, the court will have to determine what can stand and what will not.

What about HTC?

They will most likely be fine for now. The soonest anything would come of a lawsuit like this is about 5 years. In the meantime, unless it turns out HTC is straight up making an iPhone, it should be good to keep doing business.

A majority of the hardware that contains the allegedly infringing patents are actually Android devices and the functions are core Android functions. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that Android is developed by Google. Also, unless you’ve REALLY been living under a rock, you would also know that Google has more money that most of the planet, so defending its technology against Apple really shouldn’t be too much a chore from a financial standpoint, but as I said, we won’t know from an infringement standpoint for a long time.

This all boils down to the fact that HTC is going to have Google and Google’s money in its corner. Not a bad entity to have your back.

What’s next?

I would recommend busting out a nice, big bag of popcorn and settling in for 5-10 years of legal jargon, posturing, and losses and wins on both sides of the courtroom. In the end, I predict that there will only be one true loser: the consumer. They will get the raw end of the deal as licensing fees will increase costs or injunctions against HTC and Android will reduce competition in the market. Once again, the consumer loses again.

What are your projections of what is going to happen between Apple and HTC? Are you rooting for one or the other? Let me know in the comments.

The Digitante and the iPhone…

I recently learned about a company called Genwi and a product they came out with called iSites. iSites makes it simple to turn any website into an iPhone (and iPod Touch) application.

iSites uses the RSS feed for your site to allow iPhone users to read new articles as they are published. Recently I started publishing the articles I write in the late evening the next morning at 6:00 am and they generally show up in the feed within an hour, so the nightly post from The Digitante shows up around the same time as the morning paper.

Additionally, if you have a Google Android smartphone such as the Motorola Droid or the HTC Hero, Genwi is currently in final testing for an Android app. They plan on releasing BlackBerry and Windows Mobile versions of their product in the future as well.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you head to the Apple App Store and your very own copy of The Digitante app.

If you are interested in creating an app for your own site, Genwi charges $25. This covers all the fees to register your app with Apple. Also, according to my understanding, this should also cover the cost of the Android app as well. No word on the cost for a BlackBerry or Windows mobile version.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the new app as well as a nice download link!

And here is the background image for the feed:

I would highly recommend you check it my application and PLEASE let me know what you think of it! Are you using it yet? Know anyone who could use an app like this? Just send them the link: http://thedig.in/iphoneapp.

Friday Night Links (1/22/2010)…

I am ready for a big weekend with the Colts playing the Jets, a birthday party, and maybe a bit of relaxing. But first things first: we need to talk about some links. From the looks of it, I am hungry!

• Bing Recipe Search (http://thedig.in/a3) – Heading to sites like RecipeZaar and Food Network is good for getting a few new recipes, but if you want to cast your net a bit wider, you can try out the new recipe search feature on Bing, the search engine by Microsoft. It provides everything you need to know right in the search engine itself once you click the recipe you like. You can find nutritional info plus it gives you a little bar indicating whether it is high in fat or calories.
• Five-Minute Sorbet (http://thedig.in/a4) – I know it’s blazing hot outside (a toasty 36F out here), but you probably could use some sorbet. Sorbet is great because it is a nice light desert that is low in fat. All you need are two large ziploc bags and some fruit juice, ice, and rock salt. Shake it around and you’ve got yourself some sorbet. Don’t forget to rinse the salt off the inner bag before you eat.
• Crowd-Source Coverage Maps (http://thedig.in/a5) – The number of cities is limited at this point, but if you live in an available one and want to help your fellow humans find a cell phone provider that give a great signal, you should grab this app and get to recording your signal strength. You can also sign up for notification when they move into your town. Go Indianapolis!
• Edibility Testing (http://thedig.in/a6) – Afraid of being stranded in the wilderness? Me too. But now you will at least know how to test out plants before you go just eating all willy-nilly. I’m not really sure about their techniques on selecting plants since one of the bits of advice is to rub a plant on your wrist for 15 minutes. Ok, sounds good. Then they tell you to wait 8 hours to see if there is a reaction. Umm, I’m starving in the wilderness! I’m not sure what I would actually do in that scenario, but I doubt I’m going to chill and drink water for 8 hours before eating.

Internet Backup Plan…

There is a blog that I read on a regular basis called Chicago Carless. The premise is that he writes about his life as a 39 year old who has yet to own a car or even learn how to drive. Instead he has stuck to walking, busing and subwaying his way around New York City and Chicago.

Recently, he has been going through a bit of a rehab in his digital life: he dumped his Mac OS, jailbroke his iPhone, and moved way from AT&T internet and got Clearwire instead. Apparently most of it has been clear sailing, but recently, the Clearwire portion has not been good.

The growth of telecommuting for those in the corporate world, blogging as a business, and remote working for freelancers has turned the internet connection that most of us think of as a convenience and a treat, into a commodity. Without a solid internet connection, workers end up wasting a vacation day or losing out on business opportunities.

What are the solutions? We’ll cover a couple of ways to protect yourself from missed opportunities when your internet is temporarily not available.

Free WiFi

If you live near a library, coffeeshop, or other establishment that has free WiFi, you might try to take advantage of that. This is very cost effective (depending on how much coffee you drink while hanging out). The rather large drawback is that you have venture out into the world of loud-cellphone-talking guy, grimy tables, and limited seating. Being at your home in your normal, quiet working environment is the best place to be.

On a temporary basis, you may be able to piggyback off of a neighbors internet net connection assuming you can get a signal from them and they do not have a passcode set up. If you do this, it really is a form of stealing and common courtesy might dictate that you ask your neighbor if he would mind you jumping on his connection the next time yours gets flaky. Chances are, if he doesn’t have a password in the first place, he probably isn’t going to care.

Getting mobile

I’ve posted in the past about finding internet while traveling, including using your phone as a modem. Connecting to the internet via your phone can be very effective. You already have a cellphone, so hooking it up as a modem would be trivial if you are already doing so on the road.

Unfortunately, this is also a very cumbersome process. You have to activate it when you want it by calling your cell phone carrier, otherwise you are charged each month, even if it goes unused. You also have to carry a cord around or deal with slow Bluetooth connections. Not to mention, you might not even be able to tether your phone if you have an iPhone, Palm Pre, or any number of other smartphones.

The next option is to have a USB mobile broadband modem. If you go with the traditional USB stick, you will end up typically paying $60 a month plus you have to sign a two-year contract. A simpler way to go is to get a prepaid solution: Virgin Mobile allows you to purchase a USB stick for $99. You can then load prepaid minutes on in increments from 100Mb up to 1Gb. UPDATE: Virgin Mobile also added a WiFi Hotspot router as an additional option for those with WiFi connected devices such as laptops and the iPad. They have also included a new 5gb plan for $60 if you need plenty of data. No contract required but you have to pay full price for the device ($149.99).

For basic web browsing and writing a blog post, 100Mb should be sufficient for one day of work. If you are going to be downloading large amounts of data, you may want to bump that to 250Mb.

As an added bonus, once you have this USB modem, you can then take it with you when traveling and enjoy the convenience of the internet on the road.

Extreme measures

For those who absolutely must have a connection at all times, the above solutions may not be coverage enough. As a final step to ensuring you have internet when you need it, you can simply pick two unrelated internet service providers and purchase internet from each. Each will act as a back up to the other.

The obvious drawback to this method is the cost. However, if you business relies on your being on line or things simply don’t get done or you don’t make money, then perhaps an extra internet bill is a small price to pay.

Do you have any tricks you use if your internet goes down? Do you fill your internet downtime with other activities (running, putting together puzzles, training to be a ninja)? Tell me about it below.