Ask Willie Stylez - The Posts

So What Does STYLEZ Think?

Recently I changed jobs and as part of my new job I am on call 24/7 for support. Thanks to that job specification, I got some new toys... I mean work peripherals that will assist me in my ... job...yeah! LOL! Anyway, I chose to get a Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9650 by RIM back at the beginning of August. It sports a 2.8" screen, optical trackball, and BlackBerry OS v6 (BB6).

And well, I’ve had the Bold 9650 for about two weeks and it was finally activated on BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server, used for company email) about 4 days ago. So far, kinda good. It’s a good phone, don’t get me wrong, but some things that I find troublesome or don't like are:

1. Keys are just too small for large hands, I find myself using my nails more than anything to type
2. The keyboard layout is classic BB, but some special characters are oddly placed or only accessible from the SYM key’s submenu! Namely the Ampersand (&)! I use ampersands quite often to sub for “and” but having to press SYM and then finding it on the keymap really sucks. And I swear the changed the placement of @, ! and ?
3. Screen size is horribly small for some apps. Just big enough for others … if you have extremely good vision! I luckily have a great vision, but I still find myself wishing I had about 0.3-0.5 inches more screen!
4. The key lock (upper right hand corner of phone) is terrible. It locks the phone but sliding the phone out of the stock belt case immediately unlocks it! So just trying to pull it out the case I misdial about 5 or 6 people! Or even when I’m holding it in my hand it has a nasty habit of coming unlocked from the slightest of touches on the lock button
5. BB6 software is smooth until it freezes! Which is A LOT! It’s not really glitchy or suffering from crashes, it’s just constantly skipping and/or freezing!
6. Facebook app (v.2, the phone only comes w/ v.1.x) is always having a weird issue with phantom notifications
7. As always with BB’s, the menu’s and options are MASSIVE, you can get lost trying to find the right option you’re looking for!

Some of the things I like about the phone include:

1. It’s very light and thinner than my last BB. Does it count that my last BB was that Nextel BB  I had at PFI 7 years ago!? LOL!
2. Outside of its size and odd special key layout, It’s nice having a physical keyboard
3. The app offering for BB’s is not at Android numbers of course, but it’s got more than the HP TouchPad, so it’s a nice selection. My faves are Twitter, Facebook, Cisco Webex, GetGlue, Expensify and BBM.
4. Camera takes good pictures. At full size they are even better (see below)
5. 
   Notification system is pretty nice. I can’t remember what the old BB4 or BB5 system was like but the current system is pretty good
6. Multitasking is pretty good, no glitches, crashes, etc. (just that nasty freeze occassionaly)

With that said, I am not 100% happy with this phone, so I am switching over to one of the new touchscreen plus Qwerty BB7 phones (Bold 9930 or Torch 9810). So another review will be coming to you soon!

That is what Stylez thinks, tell me what you think in the comments!

So What Does STYLEZ Think?

While using one of my favorite Google Chrome browser extensions, Click&Clean, I discovered they had a link to a cool tool that lets you, YES YOU, create music! It's called iNudge.net! That's right, an online mini-music studio is available for your use 24/7/365! It's not as extensive as Uloops Music Studio for Android but it has some really cool sounds and lot of potential as a way for the everyday guy or gal to experiment and play musical arrangements to their heart's content! I gave it a try and within SECONDS... YES, SECONDS! I had a musical arrangement that sounded really cool! After exploring it a little more, and finding a few more options, I had a nice little 16 bar track made! Check it out:

So head on over to iNudge.net and see what you can create with a (very) little time and a lot of fun!

That is what Stylez thinks! What do you think?

So What Does STYLEZ Think?

I was excited back in January to hear that Sprint was releasing some HUGE news in February, that was supposed to revolutionize the mobile industry. There was much debate, speculation, and wishful thinking as to what that announcement was going to be. Well, February 7th came... then it went... and most of us, well, are not impressed! SMH! The big announcement turned out to be Sprint's newest smartphone, on the Android platform, made by Kyocera (parent company and current manufacturer of Sanyo phones). The Kyocera Echo is a dual-screened, Nintendo DS inspired, device that (by their marketing statement) will revolutionize the way people use their Android device. I don't buy that, but it is a good concept. I don't think the concept is practical, but it's good.

Well, I got a chance to look at the Kyocera Echo, the press release and the FAQ and here are my thoughts:

Pros:

- dual screens (of course)

- multiple modes of the screens

- size of the combined display (4.7")

- (the idea of) the optimized apps (since they are not out yet, its hard to say they will perform as intended)

- current Android smartphone OS (v2.2) which allows the use of FLASH for web animations/videos

- Additional battery and charging stand included

Cons:

- Only 3G (which is not slow, but Sprint's 3G network is lacking)

- Additional cost for internet (Sprint is also charging Premium fee on a device that does not truly use the Premium features, like 4G)

- Hinge system has not been proven (phones that open and/or slide have ALWAYS been a problem, and although Sprint claims that this one has passed all of its "stringent" tests, their tests in the past have yielded phones that break within the 1st year!)

- its a Kyocera (they're not a horrible company, but they also haven't proved to make durable and high performance devices)

- possible compatibility issues with non-optimized Android apps (this is a new device with even newer technology that has never been seen, or programmed, for. So there is a huge chance that most apps will fail to run properly)

All in all, it is a great idea and an emerging technology. If you don't mind being their guinea pig, then go for it. At $200 (after mail-in rebate) and an expensive data plan, I would like to have seen this be 4G instead. I myself wouldn't jump up to buy it because a) its too new of technology and needs to be tested in the consumer realm and proven to work and b) its made by a company that is not a star in the mobile phone game. Kyocera acquired Sanyo and builds the phones, but Sanyo is not the most premier company for phones either!

That is what Stylez thinks. What do you think? Please read more below and comment!

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So What Does STYLEZ Think?

Before anyone asks, I'm still using my T-Mobile HTC HD2. I recently modded my HD2 (again) and added the ability to run alternative mobile OS's from the phone's internal memory (NAND). This has given me the option to run everything from Windows Mobile (WM) 6, 6.1, 6.5; Android 2.1 (ECLAIR), 2.2 (FROYO), 2.3 (GINGERBREAD); Windows Phone 7 (WP7); UBUNTU Linux; and even Nokia's newest project MEEGO! Currently I am dual booting the phone with a custom GINGERBREAD installation (based on the popular Cyanogen Mod 7) running from the MicroSD card, and a custom release of the WP7 operating system built for HD2 running from the NAND memory.

So in this review, I want to talk specifically about Windows Phone 7 (WP7) and how it stacks up to expectations. This is written from a more consumer stand point, and if anyone wants a more technical overview of the ROM that I am using, then please feel free to contact me. Well let's get to it.

I have been running WP7 for over 3 weeks now. It works fairly well. Not any major issues, it's just that WP7 is really showing its "youth" as a Phone OS. I think that it will be great phone OS... eventually. It has its positives and its negatives. But doesn't every phone OS? Anyway, the following two lists really show why I love... and hate... WP7 as my newest phone OS acquisition!

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What Does STYLEZ Think?

Last night my wife was checking her twitter feed and discovered a few mentions about her latest author interview on her blog site, LexiFlint.com. One of which included a "Top News Story" from a news site called WDWPUB: Thriller Daily! I was very surprised that a news site had already jumped on the blog posting, seeing as that my wife had only just posted it a few hours earlier!

So then when I inspected the site, it turned out every "news headline" or story was actually just a very well formated summary listing and link to the actual information. This intrigued me further to discover who created such a great, innovative website, and I noticed that "Bob" was the "editor" of the paper! From my experience, guys named "Bob" don't create great things like this and ONLY list themselves as Bob! Usually they have cooler nicknames like AstroBlur or Crash&Burn or ... WillieStylez! LOL!

Anyway, I dug a little deeper... ok, didn't have to look to deep since the top of the page showed this:

So I clicked it and ended up on the Paper.li website and found out that it was a SUPER COOL and FREE, new web service that let you "Read Twitter and Facebook as a Daily Newspaper"!

The site is very well organized and setup to allow you to auto-authenticate using Facebook or Twitter credentials (I think more and more I appreciate that function on most websites, one less password to remember!). Once you setup your new account, you are off and running with the ability to create multiple "newspapers" using everything from, your full Twitter feed, twitter lists, hashtags and in beta testing, Facebook feeds! It even includes a cool widget you can post on your other websites and blogs:

The newspaper is generated by Paper.li using a link aggregation function which essentially takes all of the links people have posted in your selected feed and summarizes, categorizes and even generates thumbnail and/or photo previews from the links! Plus there's two really cool sections that generate picture and video feeds! All in all, it's a great (and cool) way to get a bird's eye view on a topic or feed and may become your favorite way to read YOUR Twitter/Facebook timeline!

So that is what Stylez thinks! What do you think?

P.S. Don't forget to check out MY Paper.li site @ http://paper.li/WillieStylez