T-Mobile G1 Late Review

Goods
The aps are free-cheap and very useful.
The screen is huge compared to bb8100.
Sim cards are such a luxury.
Qwerty!
Touch screen menus.
Text messages organized by senders.
Youtube actually plays.
Streaming radio apps and a aux connection in car means way more stations than xm radio. For free!
Camera super high quality.
I’m writing this with G1 and a wp-app.
Video recorder up to 30 minute videos.
Barcode scanner. Helps me find things that I already have but no idea where to get more of. That is a huge plus.
Opera mini!!!!!

Bads
Battery life is trash .
Cold days kill touch screen make it inaccurate.
Many aps crash.
Costly service.
No close feature for browser. Page back.
# button hard to do while recording voice mails.
Huge learning curve. More like a laptop than a phone.

One Month Review of G1 HTC Android.

Well I have had my G1 for one month.

On day one, it crashed about 3 times.

On day two it got an update to something, no clue it happened so fast and I had no idea how to work anything on it, that I may never know. After the update I had crashes the whole day . Finally found the applications and what ones I could install.

I have to have all background processes turned off, otherwise it is super dead slow. Barcode scanners all seem to be just advertisement for national companies. Mostly target and  some drug store. Read More about the Android Barcode scanner here.

While searching the apps online, every single app has some clown saying ” app froze would not run had to uninstall found better one” then they say the name of  the supposed better one. I have come to the conclusion they are smearing  and trying to promote their own app..  If it freezes, turn background processes back on.. you will move slow, but yeah, it will work.

Storage,
I hate the limitations of this cell phone. I have an 8 gig memory card in the machine, but it seems to only install new apps to the phone, not the memory card. That bugs the hell out of me, because default storage for the phone is like one song. There is no way to change that.

The phone has been out for just over a year, yet they already have the G2 on it’s way to the shelves? if not already released???? why? they knew it sucked?

Screen area is huge and the resolution is remarkable. The camera takes an amazing picture, audio is pretty good through good head set, if you have the right adapter. Internet is super fast if you use the wifi settings and have a fast connection at your house (lol). I have actually seen over 2 megs a second, considering I have a 20meg a second connection, it is possible. Pandora Radio and ars radio are the best features. Other than running around in your skivvies playing with the light-saber app.

yesterday I pulled out one of my old Motorola phones, slapped my sim card in it, and bam, I get a bunch of text messages.. Has that freaking phone been missing my texts? Is that why she dumped me ? is that why i lost that bid for the job? what in the heck ???

Not happy, selling pretty soon.

I will be going back to my Blackberry 8100, just hope I can get used to the double tap simi qwerty keyboard.

A Online Radio ap for For Android

A Online Radio ap for For Android

This aplication is amazing. I love the thing. It shows speed of downloads, and volume of downloads. Hundreds if not Thousands of radio stations. I did not get to try them all. Just found the ones I wanted and I was good. I set my G! to use my Local area Wifi Network here at home ( I get 20mbs) and it streams to me from aol/winamp radio at an amazing rate. Since they use aol, they need to use aol video also.

I really like this application.

ZXing Barcode Scanner for Android

The Zxing barcode Scanner for Android system telephones

The data they have on their website about the ap.

ZXing (pronounced “zebra crossing”) is an open-source, multi-format 1D/2D barcode image processing library implemented in Java. Our focus is on using the built-in camera on mobile phones to photograph and decode barcodes on the device, without communicating with a server. We currently have production-quality support for:

This library is divided into several components; some are actively supported:

  1. core: The core image decoding library, and test code
  2. javase: J2SE-specific client code
  3. android: Android client, called Barcode Scanner
  4. androidtest: Android test app
  5. android-integration: Supports integration with our Barcode Scanner app via Intent
  6. zxingorg: The source behind zxing.org/w
  7. zxing.appspot.com: The source behind our web-based barcode generator

Some modules are contributed and/or intermittently maintained:

  1. javame: JavaME client
  2. csharp: Partial C# port
  3. cpp: Partial C++ port
  4. rim: RIM/Blackberry-specific client build
  5. iphone: iPhone client + port to Objective C / C++ (QR code only)
  6. bug: Client for BugLabs’s BUG

Works great if you are scanning stuff to find where to get that item online or what the best online price is, but beyond that, meh.. nothing special..

Does not tell you where to get it cheaper locally.

It still is great reassurance when you use it and find that online is about the same price. if you consider shipping and handling and the amount of time shipping takes and all that junk. Shop Savvy seems to do the same thing but it shows local. You get similar results with the two of online deals. but I still keep both because there some times seems to be differences.

I suggest you do the same, use both, you can’t really go wrong.

***Update***

There have been plenty of really good updates to zxing barcode scanner.

Dang thing is really cool. You just kind of have to drop the understanding you have of the other  bacode scanners.

Zxing is now one of my “must have” aps

Android, Shop Savvy Barcode scanner

The Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner for androids

The application gives some sense of security. Knowing that you can scan an item and check local prices that might be better than what you are about to pay for the item at the establishment you are at currently. There is a downside though.  It seems the application only finds Target Stores, I mean the store with the big circle looking like a dartboard target.

On some occasions it does  show Walgereens. Really it should show  more than one  vendor location. instead what ever vendor  they choose, they show all locations of that vendor. It is supposed to show you the cheapest place to purchase the item. See  I think that might be a bit of bs. I have a feeling it’s a sponsored  programs, like just an advertisement market. it does no search other than your location, and how to find their sponsor who carries said product. See I bought a coffee bean  Grinder from Kroger for 9.99 (I am not paying $100+ for a grinder, I’m just not. While standing in Kroger I scanned it, the results I got said  Target for $12.99. i looked down at the price on  the shelf, 9.99 ..

The model I got was  proctor Silex fresh Grind  model number E160B. Barcode 0 22333 91600 1 . Here it is at Target  for 12.99 . Sorry Kroger does not have it on their site but

Reciept picture

Reciept picture

LOL that should do. Don’t bother scanning car parts, because clearly they have no car parts sponsors.

T-Mobile G1 Late Review

Goods
The aps are free-cheap and very usefull.
The screen is huge compared to bb8100.
Sim cards are such a luxury.
Qwerty!
Touch screan menus.
Text messages organized by senders.
Youtube actually plays.
Streaming radio aps and a aux connection in car means way more stations than xm radio. For free!
Camera super high quality.
I’m writing this with G1 and a wp-ap.
Video recorder up to 30 minute videos.
Barcode scanner. Helps me find things that I already have but no idea where to get more of. That is a huge plus.
Opera mini!!!!!

Bads
Battery life is trash .
Cold days kill touch screen make it innacurate.
Many aps crash.
Costly service.
No close feature foe browser. Page back.
# button hard to do while recording voice mails.
Huge learning curve. More like a laptop than a phone.

WooHoo, My G1 Arrived

Logged into my ups account and checked tracking. They left the dang thing on the front porch. A $400 phone left on the porch. Really?

Oh well had family at home to bring it in for me. So I called.

Good thing, after the scare I had last night with my Blackberry 8100 (lol just look at last night’s post.) I have two phones in my pocket. Only one has the sim card, the other is ready and waiting for just in case the BB8100  craps out on me.

I have no idea what to expect of the phone.

Blackberry 8100 Late Review

I myself do not have the funds to be an early adapter. I find this convenient because by the time I purchase the cool stuff, it is already on the second edition, all of the bugs are worked out, and tons of people have tweaked and modded it to make so much more use of said products.

So here we are on my fifth month using a Blackberry 8100.

Moving up from my Motorolla Rizr to the bb was a huge step up. I didn’t actually need to install  opera mini on it but i did it anyway. Everyone had millions of applications to use on the device. Applications that where out from “mod my moto” that actually worked 100 times better on the blackberry version. Opera mini actually worked better on the blackberry, but I got a better advantage from the moto though.. moto browser just sucked bad.

I had issues with the firmware though. As I tried to install themes, my Blackberry started crashing a whole lot. I mean I was getting lock ups all the time already, but  it got really bad when I downloaded themes and activated them. so I hobbled over to the Forums at blackberryforums.com and found a thread about upgrading blackberry firmware . Great thread . Leads you to the actual firmware . See it seems the firmware we have in the united states that is on the blackberry website, or in the u.s. is like version 1.? (that is one point something or other). The version on the Asian server is like version 4.0 something or other. It’s crazy how it works. It actually took me off what the heck ever network I was on and put me on the edge network. oh just for a heads up. the people at Tmobile informed me that if you see a lowercase “edge” in the signal area, you have a crappier signal than if you see it all caps.

I got locked out of my blackberry after a theme install

Techy Tools use that to sync up with your Blackberry.

Ok while I am writing this. I kind of had to throw out some links I thought you may want while I goof around and try the newest version of the firmware. So.. there’s the links. Right now while I am typing this, I am 5 minutes into the upgrade

screenshot of the actual install

screenshot of the actual install

and crossing my toes and keeping the page on “previous versions” hot in my clipboard and the page open. in case it all goes wacky on me. Also I might look around and see if people have a specific choice of versions. maybe I will see why and try them all. I have just hours before my g1 shows up in the mail, I will use that one for a week or so and then sell it on ebay or what ever at barely used price. I will check it out just to review, but I really love my blackberry and all of  the tweaks out there for it. from browser to notepad.

Er crap.

Just got a bad error saying that some junk had to be saved as a back up and I should reload and restore.  i think my cat jumped on it and wiggled it loose before the install was complete. Ok freak out time. 1 am and I have to work tomorrow.  So now I am doing it all again, but not selecting the “back up” feature. I already have a back up of everything still in good. I don’t want it to back up the crap version, over the full version.

Ok crap just got the notice again.. This time I copied so i could paste it here for everyone to see.

A fatal error has occurred while updating your device’s software. Please try again.

Device communications error encountered. [A:0x00000025]

Yeah this isn’t good. so.. I go off and try and fix this.. meanwhile I se a black screen and blinking LED.

Erm.. Uh oh.. Now the program does not detect anything on the end of the usb cable..  did I mention the “uh oh” part?

Battery pull time… lol the action of a desperate  man.

Dang… Blinking light… now I run back to the forums!!!!!

Ok that was scary. computer wouldn’t identify the usb device (my fricken phone) so none of the software would work.. I left the  update program open at first page disconnected the phone, yanked out the battery and waited a second or so, plugged back in and bam… windows identified it. I am updating now :-)

Erm

Error 507 a circle a square a triangle with a circle around them all and line through the circle..  so I disconnect reconnect and rerun program

Newp No good.

Life saving post here wipe it and reinstall cross fingers and hope for the best

Hello world!

Tech Reviews on a budget. Reviewing new budget products, used products and faulty products to tell you  how it can be used to make it better or even used  toprove it’s full value, some stuff can be tweaked and that will be posted also.

Website reviews, download reviews of opensource products and free programs.