My Life in a Nutshell

One thing I can't say about the past few weeks is that they've been uneventful. They have been a flurry of action and activity and I haven't even had a moment to sit down to figure out how to put it on paper (or PC...whatever).

An interesting opportunity arose at work and I decided to apply for an opening that was available which would have translated to more responsibility and a slight salary increase. I was apprehensive about the potential for rejection, but thought I had to at least make the effort. I put together an extensive presentation detailing how I would tackle the position, as well as a comprehensive plan of action for filling my current role. I thought I did a stellar job, so you can imagine my disappointment when over 2 weeks went by with no word back from the CEO. I was crushed, not even by the rejection, but by the overwhelming sense that his lack of response meant that he hadn't taken me even remotely seriously. I tried to shrug it off, and put my nose back to the grindstone.

Right about at the 3 week mark, the CEO came to my office to pay me a visit. He explained what he was looking for in the position, and had decided that he wanted a licensed Nurse to assume the role. It was no surprise to me at that point that I wasn't going to get the position, and was just relieved that he was showing me the courtesy of giving me a formal response. What did surprise me was what he said next- there was a newer position that was available, at a more senior level, which he felt I would be better suited for. He explained the role and its scope and then gave me an tentative offer letter for it. I.was.stunned.

Of course these things take time to finalize, but the thing I was most impressed with was that the new salary (which went into effect this Monday) was made retro-active to the date of his offer letter (June 22). I boldly negotiated myself a 28% raise (!) which is something I never thought I'd have the nerve to do again after the blow to my self-esteem last year.

In the midst of all of that, Dean sat down to have a heart-to-heart with me about my Nissan Murano obsession. I am not a car person, but for some reason, I have been drawn to that SUV for quite a few years now. I've had my Daewoo Lanos for nearly 10 years now, and its been an absolute gem to me with no breakdowns, or crap-outs at all (my sister-in-law, who found my Daewoo endlessly amusing, is on her third Audi at this point). Dean and I exchanged cars about 3 years ago because his Nissan Xterra took about 3 times as much in gas as my Daewoo, but the lack of AC in the Daewoo combined with the unrelenting Texas heat has finally gotten to him. He decided that he would sell his 'hot-rod' (a 1978 Trans-Am that he bought and has been restoring over the past year or so) and the Daewoo, take back his Xterra and get me a Nissan Murano later this year. For the second time in a week, I sat with my mouth hanging open as someone gave me fantastic news that totally blew me away.

The icing on the cake of all this is that Seth has had an exceptionally healthy couple of months since he had surgery to have tubes put in his hears to combat the regular ear infections he was getting. He's speaking a lot more now (probably because he's finally hearing much better now) and repeats everything he hears. At nearly 21 months, he's already got his own personality, and has staked his own place in our home. He has his own 'Tonight Show' and does some stand-up comedy every evening for us (I admit, we don't get the jokes- "Juice! Freeze!" but watching him crack himself up is hilarious).

About 6 weeks ago I bought an stationary bike and since then I bike a few miles each morning as soon as I wake up and each evening. I haven't kept a close eye on the scale, but I have noticed that overall I feel much better, and my clothes definitely fit me differently. My main goal is to improve my stamina, and so far, it seems to be working!

So, all in all, I would have to say that life is good. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to live my life, and I'm grateful to the man upstairs every single day. When I think back to this time last year and the despair, repeated rejections and complete hopelessness I was going through, I remember not to take a single thing for granted. And if you are going through a rough patch right now, as so many people are in this economy, remember that the sun will shine again. I promise you it will.

The 'Berry Best Time Ever

Of all the mobile platforms, the Blackberry has historically been the one I've been least interested in. I thought it seemed stoic and archaic, and meant for the email-addicts only. In January 2008 my cousin got a Blackberry Curve and when she came for a visit that March she brought it with her to have a showdown with my Ubi. Sadly, she left the loser, and even ended up ordering a Jasjar just to enjoy some of the WM goodness she felt she was missing. A washed-out screen, and unexciting UI was to blame, and even though she still had that Curve up until last month (when she upgraded to an 8900).

Then in May I laid eyes on the Blackberry Bold and it was love at first sight. I couldn't convince myself to switch my OS, but a lot of what I didn't like about the Curve seemed to be fixed in the Bold- an exquisite, hi-res screen, a revamped UI that focused more on the eye-candy, a body that didn't look like a cheap top....it was the total package. But I was deeply invested in the Windows Mobile lifestyle and resisted the transition. From the Ubiquio I moved to the HP 910 for about 3 months, then another 3 months on the HTC Fuze. After admitting to myself that I couldn't hold back the longing anymore, I ordered a Bold and started using it at the the end of this January. I wish I could say I took to it like a fish to water, but it took at least one start and stop before I fully got on the bandwagon.

In the 6 months I've been using the Bold, I've realized that a number of developments in the RIM world have made it a more pleasurable experience. For me, a few of them have been:

-FaceBook 1.6: With the latest release of Facebook, you can have more of a 'synergy-like' experience and also view newsfeeds, which is something I've been wanting to have mobile access to for ages.

-Multi-tasking made even easier: In the earlier versions of the Bold OS, the 'task-switcher' had to be manually mapped to one of the convenience keys. That meant you'd only end up with one button, and since I had that mapped to the clock app, I was stuck without a quick way to launch the camera. Ever since .247, the 'task-switcher' is accessed through a long press of the Blackberry button.

-Bedside Mode: Remember last September, when I McGyver'd a bedside clock solution using my HP910 and SPB Time? It worked decently, but I remember the glare from that screen would light up the entire room. Well, the charging pod for the Bold works perfectly, with the added convenience of just dropping it into the pod, plus the screen dims making it a perfect bedside companion.

-App World: It might not seem like much, but this is a pivotal point for RIM, where the Blackberry is no longer just seen as the email-only device.

-Today Plus: Plazmic (the Blackberry theme-builder) started supporting TodayPlus in version 4.6 last September. TodayPlus is the layout that allows you to see your upcoming appointments (and messages preview) right from your homescreen. To me, this could have been a deal-breaker!

-Custom LED: The incessant flashing LED was driving me a bit nuts when I first got my Bold. I was grateful to have the notifications from 3rd party apps (which is something I never had on WM) but I longed for an easy way to figure out without turning on my Bold what was causing them. BerryBuzz came to the rescue, with the latest version 2.0 able to give me custom color LEDs for Facebook and BBMessenger. Now I have Emails flashing blue, SMS-Orange, Facebook-white, Beejive-Purple, BerryWeather- Green, and SocialScope stays with the default red.

-QuickLaunch: one of my initial peeves about the layout of the Blackberry OS was that the clock was not visible from all screens. As a solution, I mapped one of my convenience keys to the clock and was opening the clock app whenever I needed to take a quick look at the time. Now, with QuickLaunch, I don't have to open the fullscreen clock to see the time. And by mapping it to convenience key, I get the added functionality of a neat shortcut launcher.

With the release of the Tour and word of the upcoming Storm2, it seems like this is the best time to be in the Blackberry ecosystem. Things are happening, and RIM is quickly transforming the reputation of the Blackberry from a business device to a life one.

Cloud Living

When I look at how I used technology the last time I was working (circa 2006) compared to now, its a totally different way of operating. Back then I had my Treo (or Blackjack, etc) and I would sync with my work PC each day- a one-way sync, if I remember correctly- and then I'd get home at the end of the day and sync again with Outlook on my home PC. Daily syncs were a huge part of my process and was also the way I got my iSilo off-line data to read on the subway.

Fast forward 3 years, and these days I'm lucky if I even get into our home office 2 days in the week. We have a shared laptop in the den, and both Dean and I use that more than our desktop PCs upstairs. I also have my HP Mini in the bedroom which I use with some frequency, especially if we are watching a movie or something upstairs. Syncing is becoming more and more of a luxury that I can barely afford. In fact, one of my largest gripes with my iPod Touch is that its not able to update my podcasts automatically. I'm grateful that it can use my wifi to do it without connecting to my PC, but I really wish it could all happen behind the scenes. But because I add a new movie to my iPod every few days, I'm forced to go to my desktop anyway, so this isn't a major deal. However, while I can comfortably leave my iPod in the home office overnight while it syncs, I absolutely can't fathom not having my Blackberry in my hand at every moment.

The concept of cloud computing appealed to me from the perspective of being able to have my information available on any platform, without me needing to do any extra steps to get it there. This is probably one of the main reasons why the Nokia N800 did not fit well in my lifestyle- even then I realized that it 'needed' too much from me. I've had a Gmail account for some 5 years now, and its only in recent months that I've really delved into the other Google services, and now that I have, I find that I am totally sold on the lifestyle.

My calendar and contacts are synced from my Blackberry Bold to Google using GoogleSync. I liked the calendar so much that when I started working out 2 months or so ago, I began logging the details of my workout on my Blackberry calendar so they would carry-over (here's a tip: preface each entry with 'workout' and you can easily search your calendar and get a list of all your aerobic activity!). I installed Google Calendar Sync on my work PC and after setting up a one-way sync, it pushes all my work calendar data to Outlook (useful tip: use a separate email for the work sync and then share that calendar to your main Google Account. This lets you label it and keeps it separately identifiable). On my iPod Touch I use CalenGoo which shows me my Google calendars.

For tasks, I decided to use Remember the Milk which also integrates with the Google Calendar desktop. It has a robust iPod Touch client as well, so I am able to access my data from there too. It doesn't integrate with Outlook (as far as I know) but that's fine. For the most part, I use my work tasks for things I need to do today. Everything else goes on my calendar: this is a habit formed out of necessity as well- the Blackberry homescreen only shows calendar entries, so if I want it to come across clearly with no chance of my forgetting- that's the best place for it.

For notes, I use Evernote. In fact, lately I seem to be finding more uses everyday for Evernote- I forward copies of important emails to my Evernote address, I email chat transcripts from Beejive IM, and I even use it as 'sticky notes' to remind of what bills I need to pay in the next pay period. I've even got Evernote set up to connect to my Twitter account, so that I can forward interesting data right to my notebook. After a much-anticipated wait, Evernote finally released a Blackberry client. Although its strength currently lies in note creation, I am optimistic that it won't be long before it follows the progression of the Windows Mobile version.

For my use, Cloud computing has to be more than just a web portal to my information- it needs to seamlessly integrate with my mobile device as well. After all, isn't the whole point of having your data in a cloud the convenience of having access to it anywhere?

Visiting the old (WM) Neighborhood

In the 5+ months that I've been using my Blackberry Bold, I've hardly even given much thought to Windows Mobile and what I've been missing. Sure, every now and then I'll hear about a new application, and wonder if its changing the WM game, but not really enough to cause me any longing. I've also got an inherited Jasjar in my possession, so every now and then I can pull it out if I really have a hankering to test out an app. Unfortunately, as its running WM5, most of the latest and greatest just won't run on it.
Yesterday I decided to borrow Dean's Ubiquio to take a look specifically at the new Facebook app and the latest Windows Mobile Twitter application, Twikini. The first thing that struck me was how small the screen seemed after using the Bold for a few months, and how poor the 320x240 resolution appeared after getting accustomed to 480x320. Now I know for a fact that I won't be able to go back to QVGA....ever....I think. Since my husband doesn't have a data plan on his phone, I turned on the Wifi to download and run the apps. As someone used to running WiFi on my phone all the time now, I was shocked to see how an hour of WiFi drained his battery almost 30%!
I downloaded the Facebook application and I have to say, its really nice and polished. There was an initial lag, but I think that had to do with downloading the information from Facebook. Navigation was easy and it seems like an application I'd probably get a lot of use from if I was on Windows Mobile.

Next up I installed Twikini which I'd recently heard quite a lot of positive noise about. It does seem to be much faster than PockeTwit, but without its suaveness. I think for a phone with less screen real estate, Twikini probably makes more sense. Although- I haven't tried any of the recent builds of PockeTwit, so that impression could be entirely outdated at this point. I also like the ability to chose between various color schemes, although it would be even better if I could build my own color scheme from the ground up.
After experimenting with both apps I decided to email my screenshots from his mail application using Gmail and ran into a roadblock. For some reason I kept getting kicked back to the prompt to enter the password for the email account. Because the Blackberry mail setup experience is so seamless and transparent to the user, I had no idea what the issue could be. In the end I decided to pop the MicroSD card into the computer and transfer my photos that way.
As I tinkered with the Ubiquio, I realized there are a few things I miss from my WM days. I miss being able to completely backup and restore from the device. I miss the thrill of endless discovery of quality free apps. I miss glossy icons customized via iLauncher. But on the whole I am quite convinced that I am on the platform that works the best for my needs, and happy with my choice.

Kindle 2 Price Drop

The Kindle 2 has dropped in price from $359 to $299, and all things considered, I think that's probably the sweet spot for a lot of people interested in getting one.
To put it in perspective- you can now get a Kindle2 and an iPhone 3G for just under $400! Add Whispersync to that equation, and it only gets better.
I've been reading books on my phones since the days of the Treo 600, so this really isn't for me, but if you're a heavy reader, and travel often, then this is a good time to pick one up!

Off-Grid Pre Guy Goes Diva?

Earlier this evening I came upon this thread in the PreCentral Forums that troubled me on many different levels:

So here is my most recent story. After my Off-Grid with the Palm Pre went a bit viral, and after I posted a positive battery review today, I contacted Sprint today to talk to them about the fact that my elegant and dainty wife smashed her Samsung Highnote in the van door.

I had contacted Sprint a week ago fearing such a thing and asked if I could get insurance on her phone and they told me "no" since I was past the thirty days. I understand (I have insurance on the Pre).

So, wifey puts the phone down in the van hatch and slams the door down on it. Our fault completely, I understand.

So I call Sprint for a little "what can we do?" talk, and they said... NOTHING. $150 is the cheapest phone, you will pay full retail, any questions?

I said, "you know, maybe you can help me out... get me a cheap $50 phone (what I paid for the Highnote originally) or something?". NOPE. Full price bucko, and we never heard of Salty Off-Grid. So I say, "Fine, I think I will just cancel and maybe go elsewhere". Fine they say, Call Customer Service to cancel. I thought I was talking to customer service, but I am informed I am talking to some International Service center. So then I get Juan Carlos at Sprint Customer service. He is very understanding, but tells me if I will pay the full smack for the $150 phone, he can rebate me back something like $90 or so. And I'll have to pay full bill up front. Now I am just kind of pissed because I have really put some time and effort into trying to help the Pre (which I totally believe in) succeed. So I said, "You know, no. I think I'll just go ahead and cancel. I'll write a new review entitled "Palm hits a home run but gets strangled and raped by Sprint rounding third". So he says he'll talk to his manager and forwards me to the manager who is not in the office.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the ranch... Palm twitters me and offers to try to make things right (YAY PALM). Still waiting to hear. Frankly Sprint ought to give me a big bushel basket of Palm Pre's to hand out to neighbors and friends for all I've done for them.

Maybe we can start an online protest and Jesse Jackson them into helping a fella out. Sprint hates me because I have a big beard. Beardism. That is it.

What is wrong with these people?

Michael Bunker (Salty Off-Grid)

A number of things about this post rubbed me the wrong way. First of all, how many people have written favorably about the Pre and don't expect any kind of preferential treatment because of it? Here are the facts as I understand them:

1. His wife broke her Samsung Sprint phone
2. He called Sprint and was informed he had no insurance, and wasn't eligible for upgrade
3. He opted to cancel both of their service because he couldn't get a cheap phone.
4. He decided to post about it on a forum and made some out-of-left references to being raped and Jesse Jackson.

In the course of the thread, a few more tidbits of information are revealed. First of all, while Michael vehemently claims that he wasn't looking for special treatment, and just wanted to cancel his account, his Twitter account clearly shows him reaching out to Palm (which he also denied, claiming that they contacted him).
Now, if you wonder why this kind of thing gets under my skin, its because it creates the kind of powderkeg situations that led to the Leo Laporte-Michael Arrington dust-up that occurred last month. And I'm not the only one who has a problem with things like this- the FTC now has bloggers in their sights because of exactly this type of behavior.
As much as Michael may say that he didn't expect anything from Sprint or Palm, clearly he did. Why didn't he reach out to Samsung, the makers of his wife's damaged phone? Because he fully expected to cash in on the positive things he had written about Palm and Sprint. And the next time Michael has something to write about the maker of his truck for example, I hope he isn't surprised when we look for what payola he's looking for next.

Palm Pre Homescreen

It looks like the Palm Pre is finally getting a much needed homescreen view thanks to the hard work of one developer known on the Precentral forums as Mapara. This is a huge win for the Pre, as currently viewing information can only be done by leaving the relevant cards open. To have even a single card that can pull all this information in is a fantastic improvement.

If you have a Pre, I highly recommend you check this out and get in on the Alpha. And if you do use it, and like it, be sure to send the developer a donation as a thanks for all his hard work. Opening the door to these kinds of apps means that it won't be long before more developers look at how they can improve the entire ecosystem of WebOS. And who knows, maybe one of them will finally build a Facebook app so that we can all stop snickering each time the accurately named 'Under My Skin' commercial runs.

Google Voice

Today I had a nice surprise in my inbox: I got an invite for Google Voice! To be honest, I don't even remember when I signed up for it, I'm sure its been many, many months!
I haven't reallly been following the full capability of Google Voice (since I didn't imagine I'd ever have a chance to use it) but I remember Dave Ciccone (mobilitytoday.com) mentioning on a podcast that he had Google Voice (or GrandCentral) ringing all his various phones that he was testing. With that in mind I decided to see if I could find a useful way to use GrandCentral.
Surprisingly, the thing I've found most useful is the SMS function in Google Voice. On the desktop it has a nice threaded chat view and backs up the conversation. It took me a while to figure out but once someone sends a text to your Google Voice number, it also comes to your cell phone with a mask return number which will allow you to reply without exposing your cell phone number. Once I sent texts to all my friends telling them I had a new number most replied and I was able to add the mask return number to their address book entry. (I'm hoping that the number is always the same and not dynamically assigned for each day/week/month).
I also figured I could ditch YouMail by forwarding my Blackberry to Google Voice. I did it by forwarding calls when there is no answer; my cell rings the bounces the call to Google Voice (which somehow doesn't ring my cell again) then to the voicemail. Excellent!
If you haven't signed up for Google Voice, I highly recommend it. I'm sure that after checking it out you'll be able to come up with your own use. For me, its a way to have more of my life in the cloud.


Sent via BlackBerry Bold

Wireless Charging Bold-Style

The feature of the Palm Pre that immediately piques my interest was the wireless charging via the Touchstone. And even when my husband pointed out that it was the same technology from his decade old electric toothbrush, I was still in awe. However, in my brief time with the Pre I didn't get the Touchstone but I did read some of the concerns in the PreCentral forums: overheating, etc.
That's when I realized that my Blackberry Bold had been doing a form of wireless charging for the many months I've had it. The charging pod lets you drop your Bold into it and charge via the contacts on the side of the phone. And at $15 a pop with no special battery cover needed I can afford to have one just about everywhere!

Sent via BlackBerry Bold

Seduced by Sense

When I saw the HTC Hero I had the same reaction I have to all the other 'black slab' phones I see popping up all over the place: meh. Then I took a harder look at the HTC Sense UI that the device featured and it made me think long and hard about how I'm using my Bold these days. You see, the memory on the Bold is small, so generally you settle on a handful of apps and that's it. For me, that list includes the twitter app SocialScope, Facebook, Viigo newsreader, Poynt, Woman Mobile, and Ascendo Money. On Windows Mobile I thought nothing of loading dozens of apps regardless of whether or not I ever actually used them. These days I don't really even miss apps I don't have.

So, imagine if the few apps I do use were running in a widget format that I could flip through Palm Pre card-style. And instead of having the (annoying) ribbon notifications on the bottom of the screen, you had the android toolbar with its minimalistic approach.

If an device like this came to market with the body of the Blackberry Bold (which has the best keyboard I've ever experienced-beating even the Asus EEE PC in my opinion) I would probably scoop it up in a heartbeat. I enjoy using the Bold and it does what I need it to do very well but it just doesn't bring a lot of finesse or eyecandy to the table. My iPod Touch on the other hand is a lot of eye-candy but definitely not enough substance to convince me to go the iPhone route.

I hope I see a QWERTY-bar version of the HTC Hero in the near future. It could just be exactly what I need to satisfy all my senses.

Sent via BlackBerry Bold