Day One With Droid

  By mikefontaine | February 20, 2010 - 9:09 pm |
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Day one of Droid

So this is my first day with my Droid, and I love it. The internet is fast and responsive. I have found pretty much all the apps I need, and a bunch I don’t need. I have no glaring issues, yet. There are a few things that I’m not 100% on, but nothing that is making me doubt the phone. So far here are my top 10 things I enjoy about the phone.

  • Multitasking: To answer all those iPhone people that can’t see a reason for multitasking, I say My Tracks, Pandora, iheartradio, Android Manager Free, etc, etc, etc.. There are many uses for background processes that the iPod/iPhone cant do, yet.

  • The Screen: Large, responsive, bright, and great resolution.

  • Physical Keyboard: OK this will also end up on part of my dislikes as well, but just the directional keys make a big difference over the iPod Touch for editing text. I wish that they made it a little smaller or a optical mouse or something, because it makes it awkward to use your right thumb to type.

  • AR(Augmented Reality): I’ve been playing with Layar, Wikitude, and SpecTrek Light, and they are nifty. I don’t know how useful these apps are here in Omaha, but if I was in NYC or Boston I’m sure they would be more awesome. I also love the bar code scanners and Google’s Goggles, a visual search, which I put in this category as well.

  • The Camera: 5MP and crystal video. Integrated Facebook and YouTube right in the camera app. Killer. Sadly YouTube will not upload unless you are WiFi.

  • WiFi: With me being a “heavy user” I’m sure if I did not have a WiFi option I would go way over my minutes.

  • Coverage: I have not had less than 3 bars of 3g anywhere yet, and I live on the edge of Omaha, N.E. Surrounded by cornfields. Say what you want to about Verizon, but they have the best 3G coverage. I have been averaging 1-2 Mbps according to the Speed Test App.

  • Tethering: there is a free tethering app, PdaNet, which is free for the lite version (no HTTPS) and a one time 29.99 charge for the full version. How long this will still work is up to Verizon, but for now it rocks.

  • Google Everything: All the Google apps rock, Goggles, Voice, Maps (with Navigation), Listen, etc. All seem to work seamlessly, for now.

  • Robo Defense Free: The most awesome freeware game I have played on any mobile device.

OK now lets talk about my five dislikes:

  • The Power/Wake Up button: This needs to be moved, made bigger, or something. It is awkward and hard to hit.

  • The App Store: I love how easy it is to use on the phone, but I hope Google takes a page from Apple and comes out with a version where you can access it from your PC, download, and synch. I would also love to see an all in one App that also has media store and management functions as well. Hell, I just want a gTunes.

  • A Better Media Player: The one that it comes with functions, but it could be better. The iPod wins hands down in this area.

  • A Better Keyboard: In the interest of keeping it thin, the Droid has a flat, awkward, keyboard. Its better than no keyboard, but not by far.

  • A Better UI: I really wish the Droid came with the Sense UI or the Moto Blur UI. It’s not bad, but I do like the iPhone/iPod Touch UI a bit better. It’s not bad, I like to compare it with Windows XP vs OS X, sure Apples got the better UI but Android(and XP) have a more open format.

iPad pooched?

  By mikefontaine | January 28, 2010 - 1:12 am |
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So like every other geek on the planet I logged in today to check out the new iPad., and I am underwhelmed. I love my iPod touch, but this just looks lik an iPod Touh, but larger. No camera, no flash, no multitasking?? Really for 500+ I was hoping for at least the same functionality as my 250$ netbook. Hell I could mod a netbook with a touchscreen for less. Pah, see it for yourself at engadget.com .

Step by step, day by day…

  By mikefontaine | January 9, 2010 - 10:00 pm |
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My New Years Resolutions:

  1. Lose Weight: I am currently at 320 lbs. and this is way too much. I resolve to lose at least 40 lbs this year. I believe that this is going to be a very reachable goal. I will try a mix of diet modification and activity modification. I will post my results here at least once per month.
  2. Continue school: I have a goal of completing an Associates Degree by 2011. To complete this goal I will have to take no less than 9 credit hours each semester.
  3. Find a job I love: This is the hardest of all my resolutations, as many people never find this.
  4. Learn to goto bed early and wake up early: I have never been a morning person, and I understand that this can be a learned habit. I will attempt to learn this habit.
  5. Quit Smoking: This is a hard one, I have smoked now for 11 years, and I enjoy it. I have no compelling reason to quit other than health and money. These should be enough, but they are not. I like smoking, but I know I must quit. There are three main options I will try this year for no less than one month each if needed: cold turkey, patches and gum, and hypnotism. If these don’t work, I will then go to my doctor and get on the latest Stop Smoking medication regardless of the price. By the end of this year I will be a non-smoker, but I will ALLWAYS respect the rights and feelings of smokers.
  6. Start savig money for a house: I plan on having children and children need a house and a yard. This does not mean that they need it when they are born, but they do need it by the time they are 3 or 4. So I need to set a 5 year saving plan where at the end I can afford to buy a house big enough, and in a good school district, for a family. I do not want to have to borrow a large amount of money for a house. I think the greatest thing I could ever do for my family is buy a house free and clear.
  7. Fix my outstanding student loans: I need to get these loans back in line so that I can start step two of my five year plan, get a Bachelors degree. I can do this after 9 months of good payments.
  8. Get out of debt/pay all past bills: I need to clean my credit report, and I know I can do it in one to two years. I can do this by focusing on needs and staying away from wants. Simple, neh? Try it sometimes. We as a society have forgotten the difference between a need and a want, I am going to attempt to re learn this.
  9. edited… no longer relevant 🙁 (2/28/12)
  10. Follow a dream: I am a dreamer, and I have many dreams to follow. I resolve to fail, or succeed, at at least one dream this year. I will not half ass it. I will put myself out there and do everything I can to follow this dream. I will sacrifice for it. I will work hard at it. I will stop just dreaming and start doing.

That is all,

Mike

Working the money…

  By mikefontaine | November 8, 2009 - 8:17 pm |
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Finally got Amazon Affiliate working, and I almost have Google AdSense working. It is really not that hard to do.  Google just requires that you set up a account, one account per person only. After you set up an account you set up which type of ads you want or don’t want on your page, then generate a code block. Insert the code block where you want the ads, in WordPress it is usually in a text widget, and wait. The frustrating part is that you have to wait up to 48 hours for any ads to show up. This is where I am at currently. Amazon is a bit different. First you choose what type of widget you want to place, choose specific products to advertise, and generate the code. Place it in a text widget just like Google AdSense and away you go. Ads tend to show up fairly quickly, less than an hour for me. All in all a good weekend.

A new home…

  By mikefontaine | November 7, 2009 - 4:08 pm |
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Just took the time to set up some new hosting for my blog here at godaddy.com. I never realized how hard it was to pick a theme. It’s funny, it’s so much easier to install a them and activate it than to pick one. Sometimes we make too many options.

This week my job is to set p adsense, an amazon affiliate account, and to complete a shopping cart for the t-shirts. After all that I think I’m going to work on my TVOnMyBrain website and maybe the MakeMeLose site.

Mike

Shirt stuff…

  By mikefontaine | November 6, 2009 - 2:12 am |
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So I’ve had this idea to make T-Shirts for a long time, and almost got it going a few years ago, but got held up. I have the equipment to make one color shirts, and I even have a bunch of blank black tee’s, but I need someplace to sell them. I’m thinking that instead of making them myself, I might just start putting them up on zazzle.com, cafepress.com, or spreadshirt.com. Each site is free to post a shirt and you get a commission biased on what you sell. I have an account on all the sites, but am still not sure what I am going to do. I have one Holiday design that I will be trying to get out there in the next week or two. Here’s a preview: