A Girl Can Dream, Can't She?

During my last excursion through cell phone land I thought I’d found the phone of my dreams – the Nokia E75. Sadly, after long hours of research, I’m sorry to report that it too has fallen short of my expectations. I’ve Googled, watched videos, asked questions, combed over specifications and came “this” close to buying one Ebay. Put the money in my PayPal account and made a bid. But while waiting for the next bidder (which took a day) I realized that my excitement over this little gadget was already starting to wane. And with good reason. As I did my research I learned things I knew were going to make me really upset that I’d dropped upwards of $300 for it. For starters, I learned that the battery life on a brand new one might only get you through a full day. I hate that. Many a PDA/Smartphone has ended up on my do-not-purchase list because of the battery life. These phones are designed with many bells and whistles. If you use them all the time, the battery needs to stand up to it. The one thing Motorola did really right with its Q9h was to throw in a longer life battery. When it was new, my Motorola Q9h would go 2 days on a charge with the 1800 MHz one. Now I’m down to a full day and that’s not bad.

Then I learned that a good many of these phones do not have a processor speed that can keep up with the demands a true Smartphone user will place upon it. I already get pretty frustrated when I’m trying to check my AOL email on the browser, receive text messages, call my mother and take a picture of a random bird all while my poor Motorola starts to stall. Add to that scenario the other features newly being incorporated into these phones, like the GPS and WiFi. Suppose you wanted directions but were simultaneously attempting to finish a phone call with a client while your husband is texting you a shopping list, you’re gonna need that phone to keep up!! So as I read on and on about this phone’s tragic shutting down and that one’s sluggishness I realized I had better hold off on plopping down real money for them.

Why not just get an iPhone? Five reasons.

1. The first one is that they were stupid enough to release a phone without MMS. What is wrong with them? Even though I hear the next version will fix this, I lost respect for them when I learned about the lack of MMS, a feature widely used by everyone. From snapping a photo at the supermarket to send to your spouse so you don’t pick up the wrong kind of peas to sending grandma cute pics of the new baby it’s become such a basic function that not having it seems… well… stupid.
   
2. The second reason is totally a personal preference. It has that virtual keyboard I find to be clumsy to type on. I still like a real, moving parts, keyboard. It’s a tactile thing.
3. While I will admit many of the applications available on the iPhone are useful and super cool, and it does seem to have good battery life, and it also seems to handle all those apps with little or no struggle, it doesn’t offer a version of Office. I’m told the new iPhone will also address this issue and that users will have the ability to read Office files. But it will still not offer the ability to create or edit such files. Most people don’t care about this. But I like having the option and have, in a pinch, needed to avail myself of my Motorola Q's Office Suite. It's come in handy.
4. No slot for an SD card. While I realize it comes with 16GB, people often want to quickly and easily transfer files. Of course, this is hard to do with no filing system, which my husband confirmed the iPhone doesn’t have in this iteration. I think that’s stupid too, but who am I?
5. This last reason is totally ridiculous but it’s a reason nonetheless. My husband is a MAC aficionado/techie geek (might as well plug his blog, Voice of Rosen, which offers articles more technically diverse than this blog, but I digress). He praises Apple like they were manna from Heaven. That annoys me. Having an iPhone would be like joining his silly religion. I will not do it. I will not do it unless the iPhone beats everyone to the punch and designs my dream phone. (Keep reading.)

The "MyPhone" aka My Dream Phone

Nokia E75--- - - --Nokia N97---------Samsung Omnia-- ---Sony Xperia 1

You see above you all the hot phones of the present. A couple of these haven’t even been released yet, but will be very soon. I got very excited about all of them upon first glance. They all have great cameras, all the now-standard
features - MP3 playback, bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, on and on and on. Some claim to have better battery life. Others claim to have better GPS, etc. But no ONE unit has everything I’d be willing to shell outrageous amounts of money for. I found myself debating whether or not to spend the hundreds on any of them and coming to the conclusion, "nah, it can wait."

So I'm just going to wait it out and see if someone will develop the phone of my dreams. I might even just order a replacement for my Motorola Q (the keys have gone completely hinky) and wait out the new developments. In the meantime...

My dream phone would have...

• Dual keypads. One QWERTY and one Numerical. Sliding, flipping, fold out… anything well designed and sturdy but no virtual keyboard, thank you.
• ALSO, a touchpad. Why? Because. I might want to type out my emails and laundry lists and Word documents using the keyboard but I might want to navigate my Google Map or favorite website using my fingers.
• A battery that can make it through a full day of using all of its most intensive features. At the very least, take a cue from Motorola and offer 2 batteries in the standard package. A standard one and a longer usage one with a cover that will accommodate it. Yes, the bigger battery makes it somewhat heavier and somewhat clunkier but I haven’t minded the half an inch thickness on the Motorola and I suspect most people won’t mind that much. Or better yet, offer two versions. One for the lighter user and one for the heavier user who will put up with a somewhat larger unit so that they can keep their versatility. Charge them more. It’s not that hard, fellas.
• Must have an SD slot of some kind. USB is good when you’re synching, deleting, doing phone clean up, etc. But if you just want to quickly give that Word doc to another person, (say, a fellow classmate) then you just want to hand that over – no nonsense.
• Other amenities of less importance that wouldn’t be bad to include would be a sliding lens cover for the camera lens (some of these phones now have very nice lenses that are unprotected), a speakerphone button that is easy to access during a call and a voice dialing program that actually works.

Listen up Nokia, LG, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericcson, Samsung and yes, even you Apple! One of you can design this home-away-from-home of a cell phone. And when you do, a good many of us are going to cry with joy.

It's on! (At least I hope it is and if it is I hope one of you will see this and let me BETA TEST YOUR CELL PHONE!)

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Simply put, Ms. Coppola has managed to create a visually stunning bit of drivel. She's got the sets and costumes all right. Some of the shots are glorious to see. The use of color and light are really quite lovely. The locations were amazing (you can't really go wrong with Versailles and the French countryside). Aside from that it's a lot of fluff and nonsense. The work of an immature nature. If she weren't a Coppola there is no way she would have been able to get the money to create this movie. It's a shame.

And I must also add that Kirsten Dunst's voice as Marie Antoniette is grating.

Star Trek - 2009

Even though this post isn't technically about gadgets or technology or anything, I think it qualifies as gadget - hence, geek - related. Last night, hubby and I went to a Star Trek Preview. I did it cuz he's so cute and funny when he's all excited about some geek thing or other, but I probably wouldn't be reviewing it this early on otherwise. I've now had a full 24 hours to allow the movie to sink into my subconscious so that I can discuss it. I was never a Trekkie in the true sense, but I did watch my fair share of Star Trek reruns and then I even followed the Next Generation for a while. I think this gives me a fair basis of comparison from which to speak.

Right off the bat I have one problem with the new film - the actors are so damn young! I realize they're supposed to be straight out of Star Fleet Academy but even with their superior intellect and superior education, seems to me the median age of this new Star Fleet graduating class would never have made it to the helm of the USS Enterprise. Judging from Star Trek history, these babies at the helm don't seem to reflect the original spirit of the Federation. My guess is they more closely reflect the hopes and dreams of the producers who want to attract a new, younger generation of Star Trek geeks by lowering the age limit required by Star Fleet to be at the helm of a ship like the USS Enterprise. I mean, wasn't William Shatner already in his early 30's when played Captain Kirk?

Zachary Quinto is the exception because he is a little older than Chris Pine or Zoe Saldana and also because he's so damn convincing as young Spock. He really has totally embodied the essence of Spock and kept him very true to original character conception. Unfortunately, I'm not sure some of the others did the same. Chris Pine was great as a cocky young smart ass captain, but which CYSAC? Was he really a "Captain Kirk"? I didn't buy it. He was good and fun and bold and stupid in turns, just like Kirk would have been but something about his performance didn't speak to me the way Quinto's did. And I wasn't totally feeling John Cho as Sulu, which is a shame because I really like him. I had the feeling that the role would have been better served by casting an unknown Asian actor with some martial arts grit. Another actor who totally stole his scenes by being every bit the reincarnation of his predecessor was Anton Yelchin. What a fun and cute-as-a-button Chekov he makes in this film! Really, his performance, while only a supporting bit, was quite wonderful to watch. In terms of staying true to the original character, I'd have to say he was as good as Quinto.

Another actor who really stood out for me in this film was Eric Bana as Nero. What monstrous villainy he was able to portray. Truly hateful and unctuous and psychologically twisted like a villain should be. I loved his portrayal until the last 20 minutes when there were moments of weakness which I don't think a Romulan of Nero's ferocity would have exhibited even in his last dying breath. But I'm guessing that was a directorial decision.

Speaking of directorial decisions, my only other gripe was the choice of love interest chosen for young Spock. I won't go into details because I'd hate to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Let's just say I felt the choice was "illogical."

All in all though, it really was a fun ride and the plot was a good Star Trek plot that held together. The docking station out in space is an awesome sight on a big screen and even the first time you see the monstrosity of the Romulan ship is damn cool. The CGI representations of various space events, like the black holes, are cool to watch as well. The way that the old characters converged with the their younger selves is handled really nicely. Leonard Nimoy's old, familiar face adds a touch of sentimentality and the homage helps to bring the casts median age up a bit. All in all, I would totally recommend it to anyone, Trekkie or not. It really is a fully enjoyable Star Trek movie. Although I feel that real purists will take similar issue with the movie as I have.

Tales of a Cell Phone Junkie

Almost as soon as I could get my hands on a cell phone, I did. My first cell was a Nokia. I believe it’s the 5160. Everyone had one. They had the colorful face plates. Mine was red. In hindsight, as phones go, this was probably one of the best, most reliable, clearest phones I’ve ever owned. Battery lasted almost 2 days without a charge and life was still simple. After that I got some little freebie Ericsson phone from AT&T – also a candybar style phone. Decent enough as I recall, but I wanted better than decent.

Siemens S46

My next purchase was a Siemens S46. I really liked this phone. It too was super reliable, long battery, clear connection and it was global at the time. I got it after returning from Germany one summer (2000) and deciding I needed to get a global phone. Oddly enough, I’d just met a guy who worked for Siemens in Germany who asked me if I thought German made phones would fare well in the U.S. I believe I told him I didn’t think they would. (What did I know? Why was he asking me anyway?) Sure enough, roughly 9 months after getting back to the U.S. I saw this phone and decided it was everything I wanted at the time. It had a calendar and many ringtones and group tones. It had a clear speakerphone (a feature I decided was a must-have on future phones). It had text messaging before it was really de rigueur. It had internet access before most people cared about it or wanted it as a feature. I kinda liked it’s monochrome screen. Nothing glitzy - just solid German functioning. It worked really well, really reliably, calls were clear and never dropped. I was very fond of it until one day, out of the clear blue it just stopped functioning. Total failure. Wouldn’t charge up or anything. Kaput!

(Okay, perhaps what actually happened was that I bought unlocking software off of Ebay to try to unlock it and the software damaged it. I suppose that is one likely explanation - but it’s AT&T’s fault cuz I wanted to leave them and take my phone with me, which is why I tried to unlock it in the first place!)

Nokia 6800

After the death of the Siemens I discovered the Nokia 6800. (Cue heavenly “Aah” music.) If it is possible to love a phone, I loved this phone. Love I tell you!! This is not irrational love. The following is a list of reasons why this phone inspired such deep fondness.

• FM radio
• Organizer
• A camera attachment that was awesome – a small spy camera
• Syncable calendar and contacts (with Nokia software)
• Infrared synching (no horrible cables)
• Internet, SMS and MMS
• Wireless modem
• Voice recorder
• Speakerphone and last but most important….
• A FULL FLIP OPEN KEYBOARD!!!

This last feature is a big deal for me. I’ve never liked having the keyboard on the front, like on PDA’s. I also don’t like the condensed keyboards that have become fashionable since this phone was released, where the numbers are crunched above other keys and you must tap a Shift or Fn key to get to them. I loved the ease of use because with the keyboard opened up on either side of the screen (screen in the center), it was much easier to use both hands to type while holding the phone steady. It was an ingenious design and I have always hoped Nokia would expand on this idea. I still keep hoping they’ll make a phone modeled after this one. The center screen could be a little bigger but with the same flip open keyboard and number keypad on the front. Those of us who are very tactile and like to feel our way over the number pad do not like the new move to touch screen dialing. As a compromise, this phone could have a touch screen as well. I hope the Nokia people see this!

The other thing about this phone was that it worked like a charm. Clear calls, clear speakerphone. No one does this better than Nokia. The battery was also very long lasting despite all the new features (as I recall, a day and a half on one charge). It didn’t have a built in camera but you could buy this handy little camera attachment that was like a spy cam!! It didn’t make that loud obnoxious clicking sound either… that was a nice feature, as was the stereo headset and the fact that it had FM radio which you could set presets to!! I kept this phone for almost 3 years, which is a long time for me. I was a pretty happy customer. Nokia had gotten close to perfection with this one. However, after several drops and getting it wet a few times it just couldn’t hang in there. I loved it so much that I went on Ebay and tried to order another one. But I bought a used one that didn’t last all that long and then I gave up. My search for a substitute began.

I got along for a while with some freebies from AT&T. Got a Samsung flip phone, then a Nokia candy bar phone. Simple, no frills, standard phones. They were fine as phones but now I was spoiled. I had had full keyboards, wrote emails from the phone, searched the internet, took pictures. These little phones just weren’t going to cut it. AT&T had become Cingular and I didn’t like the new guard so I was starting to consider my options. That’s when I discovered Helio. Helio – even the name seemed promising. Heeelioooo… like heaven, only hotter and lighter. Like a good soufflé. I was becoming sick of the new Cingular management and eager to move away. I’ve already blogged this experience. You can read that here below. Shortly after, when the iPhone came out, I blogged about that as well.

Suffice it to say it was a promising foray away from the crazy money I was paying Cingular and the less-than-perfect phones I was encountering with them. But, alas, it didn’t work out.

Sierra Wireless VOQ

Next I discovered Sierra Wireless’ Voq. It’s an older model PDA and is no longer supported but I found it on Ebay and thought I’d give it a shot. It has a full keyboard, which was a selling point. It is also the first true Smartphone I’ve ever used. This was a step up in the evolutionary ladder of cell phones for me. A new world was opened to me. Not only could I surf the web, send texts, sync my contacts and calendar, etc., now I could also view and edit files. Geez, Louise! What next Batman!? I really like this phone. It’s also the only phone with the innovative keyboard that flips open like a book (as pictured).

I then perused the phones being offered by Verizon and considered jumping ship there but, except for the Voyager, nothing there really caught my eye. So instead, I spent some time running around trying out phones and wherever I could get my hands on them. Sometimes I’d even ask strangers in restaurants. I tried the Palm phones and thought the keyboards were cramped. Ordered the AT&T Tilt and sent it back within a few days because the battery life was less than a day and I really hate not having a number keypad for dialing the phone. I might have gotten over that if the phone just didn’t seem flimsy and short lived… like my patience.

MOTOROLA A780

One day, while hoping to find something interesting on Ebay I came across this Motorola Linux A780 phone. It was cheap enough and I was very curious about it. It seemed like it could be an expensive place holder while I found my next true phone love. It’s cute and I keep it as a spare and occasionally use it. It’s a quad-band world phone that uses EDGE. It’s a Smartphone with all the necessary connectivity of a Smartphone and the usual suite of applications plus it flips open to reveal a touch screen that you use with a stylus. I found this to be a charming and useful feature. A flip phone with normal keys to dial the phone (as you’ll recall this is a feature I find to be very desirable) and a touch screen on the inside where you don’t have regular contact with it so as to ruin it.

Software runs a little slower than I’d like and the lack of a real QWERTY keyboard is a bit of an annoyance. Instead it has a choice of a touch screen keyboard or various hand writing recognition choices for use with the stylus, ala Palm. All in all a very good idea actually. I put it high on the list of good phones. The speakerphone is clear but awkward to use because of the way the scroll button on the side doesn’t quite end up where you want it. Battery life is descent but if you unplug it for a while you need to reset the time and place on the phone because it won’t hold on to that information.

MOTOROLA Q9H

Most recently (for the past year) I’ve been using the Motorola Q9H. It’s your standard “Blackberry” sort of Smartphone. World band, bluetooth, all the communications software, productivity software, etc. The keyboard doubles as the dialer pad, which isn’t ideal but I’ve gotten used to it. The screen is clear. It has a surprisingly good camera. I mean, I’ve taken some fabulous photos on this phone – something I cannot say about any of the others I’ve had with the exception of the Helio which seemed to promise good photos as well. I chose this phone over all the other Blackberry type of phones (all the smart phone, candy bar, Blackberry wanna be’s) because it had the most comfortable keypad. A couple of times, while in class, my laptop battery has run out and I’ve actually switched over and used the Word utility on the phone to finish typing up my notes. It’s worked out really well several times. If you use the extended life batter that comes included in the box you can do loads of surfing, emailing, texting, calling and picture taking before having to recharge. I can generally get a day to a day and a half out of one charge even if I’m using it punishingly. Only recently has that begun to change and that’s after almost a year.

The speakerphone on this unit is fantastic as well. Loud, clear as a bell and easy to click on and off.

I’ve read lots of people complaining about this phone. Seems Motorola has something in common with VW in this area. People either get a great unit or a lemon. The one I have now is actually the second one I had to get from AT&T. The first one short circuited and totally wigged out. The keys would start typing by themselves. This one has been great. Although, lately, it too is having a sticking problem with some of the keys. It might be a shortfall. But still, I’d rate it very high up there in this list of all time best phones I’ve used. It would probably come in second to the Nokia 6800 in terms of features to functionality to lastingness ratio.

Possibly my biggest gripe with this phone is that you’re forced to use Active Sync. I positively hate this little piece of software. I could go into detail but I’m not here to talk about that. Suffice it to say that the moment I discovered another piece of software that offered me a little more flexibility to weed out my text messages and delete multiples, as well as do the same for my contacts, I downloaded it QUICK!! It’s called Efficasoft Mobile Express. If you use Active Sync and hate it as much as I do, do yourself a favor and Google this software. You’ll be much happier.

Nokia E75

Lastly, but not at all least, a phone that hasn’t even been released yet and which I have not actually touched or used or seen in person, but which has the makings of what I hope will become my all time favorite phone of all times – the Nokia E75, due to be released sometime in the very near future.

I wrote this article specifically because I was hoping someone would read it and develop a Smartphone chock full of fabulous features, with a long battery life which would also take into account those of us who really crave both a numerical dialing pad and a QWERTY keyboard in one unit. Apparently, while I was sitting on this article still adding to it, Nokia had put out this phone for pre-order. After reading all the specs, it sounds like it could be the answer to all my cell phone hopes and dreams. Here’s a link to it. It comes in red no less. J I am watching and waiting.

iPhone (originally posted June 29, 2007)

I had a feeling that the Apple store in Edison, NJ wasn't going to see nearly the frenzy of the stores in New York. I guess it's confirmation that I live in a swamp.

I entered the mall around 9:50pm and could hear my footfalls in the hallway leading to the Apple store. When I passed the ATT store, there were maybe 7 people in there. There was a rent-a-cop at the door to the Apple store but there was really no need at that hour (I'm guessing it was a little more lively earlier in the evening). There were perhaps 25 people or so in the store. Roughly half of them were playing with the iPhone displays up front and the other half were actually interested in other stuff elsewhere in the store. I was able to make a phone call (called Rich), check the internet, send him a text message, etc. As I suspected - cool little gadget but I'll wait for the follow-up/upgrade. There's no java or flash in the browser, which means there are many, many sites you will not be able to get to and that damned phantom keyboard is annoying as hell to maneuver.

It took me a good 10 minutes to send a one line text message cuz I kept hitting the neighboring keys to the key I was aiming for. Plus, the comma and period are located in a separate "mode". You basically have to switch out of ABC mode to get to the period. When you're typing text and want to put a period on a sentence, it's TEDIOUS to have to switch, punctuate and then switch again!! And, you must switch again if you want numbers. Also, when typing in my husband's phone number on the number pad (which is much bigger than the alpha pad and should, in theory, make it easier to get to each number without fail) I again, had to re-enter his digits several times because it would give me a 0 when I wanted a 9 or a 2 when I wanted a 3. It was really annoying. Perhaps the unit I was using had a problem because too many hands played with it that day. But, then again, it was 10pm and people had only been playing with it since 6pm. Kinda made me wary.

Oh yea... I can wait on this one. No annoying $500 phone for me.

Helio Ocean (Originally posted May 24, 2007)

I have been in search of the perfect phone. The phone that makes IMing and Email easy and makes web surfing as easy as surfing on my laptop, whose battery lasts at least an entire day with regular use, has a decent camera and allows me to upload my own personal ringtones, it should have bluetooth and preferably WiFi. And it must have a QWERTY keyboard, preferably one that folds out or slides out because I'm not fond of the permanent kind like you find on a Palm or a Blackberry. All of this has to come in a package that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg.

So, several months ago I saw a Sierra Wireless Voq on Ebay and thought I'd try it. It has no camera and no bluetooth and is a tad quirky but, in all honesty, for a cheap, early generation PDA, it's mighty impressive. I was able to download the Opera Mini browser to it and put my ringtones on it and download all my email to it and the keyboard flips open on it. All in all, for the money, I was pretty happy with it but I have had my eye out for a better version of it. Plus, Cingular has been killing me with fees for text messaging and web access, which are all separate, as are Multimedia messages.

Along came Helio's Ocean. From all the reviews I read and the pictures and specs I found, it sounded like the answer to all my dreams. Helio's lowest rung service is as follows: For a flat $65/month, I could get 500 anytime minutes and everything else was included and unlimited. Yes, unlimited everything - weekends and evenings, texts, web browsing on a 3G network, multimedia texts, downloads, etc.

So, I ran out and got one. The phone really is a beautiful piece of machinery. It's a little heavy. Some people might call it a brick. But I like a little weight on my phone. I hate feeling like it might break at any moment. The battery life, for the week I had it, was really good. I texted, surfed (or tried to... more on that later), phoned, emailed and the battery seemed to hold up for more than a full day of activity. About a day and a half worth. It plays MP3s via the speaker and headset, and the quality of the sound was pretty good. The camera is really, really nice. I had no idea a small phone could take such good pictures. The flash is strong and it has many options such as greyscale, sepia, a timer, and 4 through 12 continuous pics per click. The keyboard slides out and is pretty easy to use, although my favorite fold out keyboard is still on the Nokia 6800 and N70.

Getting and sending email to any pop account is very easy to set up and it all works quickly. Thanks to the large screen, you can easily see your messages and attachments.

Where it got ugly was when I found out that Helio hasn't yet gotten the software together that is supposed to help you synch your phone to your contacts and calendar from Outlook on your computer. Instead, they recommended that I export my contacts to a .csv file then upload it to AOL or Helio's mail, then download it back to the phone. Very ugly. Then there's no way to save the contacts to the phone's memory from there. You only have access to those contacts so long as you're signed on to Helio Mail or AOL but if you sign off, the contacts are gone. To put your own personal ringtones on the phone, you also need do something totally convoluted. You need to rename an MP3 as an mmf, email it to yourself, download the attachment then save as a ringtone. And then you pat your head and rub your belly while dancing the macarena.

Surfing is also a challenge. Their browser sucks. A lot of sites I went to were either completely destroyed and difficult to see or truncated so you couldn't get to them. So, I tried to download the Opera Mini Browser because I had this same problem with my Voq phone and once I downloaded the Opera browser, all was well. It wouldn't download. It wouldn't download no matter what I did. I figured it was either incompatible or they blocked the site. So, I called Helio.

Customer service admitted they don't have all the software finished yet for the Ocean. They also said that I could possibly install the opera browser from my PC to the phone. I explained that I couldn't possibly make that happen since the sync software doesn't exist. The only thing I can do with the USB cable is see the Music folder and the Video folder. This doesn't help me at all.

So, because Helio apparently shipped out the Ocean before having all the support for it, thereby making it difficult for me to fully enjoy it, I am shipping it back to them this week. First I need to figure out how to take the pictures I took off of it. Since the USB cable won't do it, I am told I should buy a micro SD, copy the photos to that, then to my laptop. So, even in trying to return the thing, they are making me spend time and money to be able to do so. You see my frustration?

In conclusion, if I discover that Helio has the necessary support for this phone and will either pre-install or support the Opera Mini browser, then I would be willing to try this again. Cuz Cingular is nickel and diming me to death and I'd love a good reason to be rid of them.