Primary Fandoms

When I was seven or eight years old cable television either didn't exist or wasn't widely available. To watch television we needed an antenna and with that we could receive four channels: NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS. There were two times when television went straight to ultra boring - when the president was giving a speech and Sunday morning. It was Sunday mornings that got me interested in SciFi.

While Saturday morning was cartoon time for the kids, Sunday morning was for the religious. All three of the big networks played church programs. Now, this was before mega churches and video sermons. The programming that was on was the service from a local church. If you were lucky, there was more than just one camera sitting in the back of the sanctuary with a wide shot of the altar/pulpit. Considering we often left the television off on Sundays until after church, the last thing my eight-year-old self wanted to see was more church. As George Carlin said, "Church was a weekly reminder that there was something worse than school."

With church on the big three we usually turned to PBS. This is the only reason I know what Nova is and it is what introduced me to Star Trek. It wasn't just that it was often the only thing to watch on Sunday mornings that wasn't church, I really enjoyed it. I loved Star Trek so much over the years that there was a time that I could literally identify the episode, by name, and give you a full plot synopsis by watching no more than ten seconds of any part of any original series episode. Even if it was just a closeup of Mr. Spock raising an eyebrow. Yes, seriously.

Star Trek, in its many forms, has always held a special place in my heart, like a first love. If you asked me what my fandom was, my unhesitating response, for many, many years would have been, "I'm a Trekkie!" [side note: fandom is a recent expression. It's sort-of like cosplay. It's always been there, we just didn't always call it that.] I will forever refer to myself as a Trekkie (or Trekker, depending on my mood) but I've recently been taking notice of which fandom I gravitate toward most strongly and, to my surprise, it's changed.

Way back in 1977 there was this little box office sleeper that was quietly released to theaters called Star Wars. You may have heard of it. I think it was the first movie I absolutely had to see. There were so many incredible things about the movie theater experience back then but seeing the lines wrapped around the building (we mostly had single-screen theaters back then) had to be the most spectacular to my young self. If that many people wanted to see this movie at any particular time it had to be good.

I love the original Star Wars and will forever raise it up as an example of great film making. From the story to the characters to the then ground-breaking special effects (up to that point no one had left the model stationary and moved the camera around it to create motion) it's absolutely amazing. I watch it now and can see its rough edges but still marvel that George Lucas and his team put so many firsts in that production. They literally had to invent new ways of producing special effects, some of which are still used today.

As great as it is and as great as it was I still identified myself as a Trekkie. Maybe because the fandom never got saddled with a catchy name, I don't know. What would you call a Star Wars fan, anyway? Star Warrior? Star Warian? Skywalkerer? At any rate, my placement of Star Wars as my number one favorite lasted maybe a year or two after its release if it ever was on top. I eventually settled back into my old, comfortable, Starfleet mindset.

In the early '80s PBS, yet again, introduced me to this odd little show from England called Doctor Who. I know it wasn't another Sunday morning find. I think it may have aired on Saturday afternoons. Anyway, Here was this show about this quirky guy with bushy hair and a looooong scarf around his neck traveling through space and time in... a British police box... that was bigger on the inside. This show was not some highly-polished, big-budget production. On the contrary, it looked quite cheap. But that was part of its charm. Being interested at the time in television/video production it was fascinating to see how they used ordinary objects and materials in unusual and unexpected ways.

I lost touch with the show when the local PBS stations started shuffling the schedule. It was also around that time that I really started to take an interest in girls. The latter was likely the reason I didn't fly my geek flag quite so high anymore. I lost track of The Doctor and eventually heard that the show had ended in 1989. It wasn't such a hard blow for me because I'd missed out on something like four doctors by that time and I'd settled comfortably back into my Trekkie seat in 1987 with the introduction of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

With a steady diet of Star Trek movies and television and Star Wars sequels I'd put The Doctor on a shelf to gather dust. I kept him around, to be sure, and when people asked I would politely tell them, "Yes, I know of The Doctor and enjoyed the show very much." I really didn't give him much thought until 2005 when BBC America, a channel that didn't even launch until 1998, announced that they were bringing it back.

By this time I'd done away with my self-consciousness and flew my geek flag as high as I could. I was uneasy about this rebirth (or should that be regeneration?). Would they maintain the spirit of The Doctor? Would the stories be any good? Would The Doctor be any good? I watched the first episode with trepidation. I didn't want to hate it but so many rebirths of so many shows had failed miserably. I needn't have worried. When I heard Christopher Eccleston utter the phrase, "Hello, Rose. I'm The Doctor. Run for your life." in that Doctor-esque calm and whimsy I was hooked again. This time, I don't think I've missed a single episode (thank God for DVRs).

As I look around my desk I see four Star Wars figurines, some The Walking Dead Funko pocket pop!s that I got in a grab bag, a Captain America Funko mug I won at work, a Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head, and a space marine action figure from Starcraft. Scattered about amidst all of that is a six-inch vinyl TARDIS, three postcard-sized pictures of the TARDIS (one looking in to the control room, one with the doors closed, and one with a cat peering inside), a photo of me stepping out of the Tulsa TARDIS, and a Funko pocket Pop! of the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). But it doesn't end there. My current vehicle is a 2014 Jazz (darker) Blue Dodge Charger with a vanity plate that reads TMTRVLR (TARDIS was already taken). I think it's safe to say that I've changed my primary fandom from Trekkie to Whovian.

Live long and prosper, may The Force be with you, always know where your towel is, and Allons-y!

The F In F.E.A.R. (and I don't mean "first")

I picked up a copy of F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) for the Xbox this weekend. I've really been enjoying playing it.

As you move through the buildings you will step forward or open a door only to find yourself suddenly somewhere else... and there's usually a lot of blood. It's like an interactive cut scene/flashback. You actually have to move through it to get it to disappear. After each of the ones I have been through so far, I've silently said to myself, "That's fucked up."

Then, I got to one area where I met the first Stealth Trooper. These are guys who can cloak themselves as they move toward you (you can spot them if you look closely... and happen to be looking in the right place) and they move FAST! The first time I went through it I saw this guy "running" up the wall of an office and climbing into the ceiling. Next thing I know he's pummeling me, running away before I can get a bead on him, then running back and pummeling me again. "What the HELL is that!!??" (I forgot about slow-mo)

The second time, I threw 2 grenades into the office as I approached it then emptied 60 rounds from a couple of machine pistols into him. Whew! I investigate the office then proceed down the walkway. "HOLY SHIT!!! There's two more!!!" Lucky for me I found a corner and I have lots of bullets and med packs.

I *LIKE* this game!

Solid State 5th Generation iPod Video

The final part came in today. I made the necessary adjustments, snapped her together, and she's working like a champ.

Maybe I should back up a little bit.

About a year ago I purchased a 5th generation 30GB iPod Video with a dead hard drive off eBay. I tried to get it working to no avail so I scoured eBay once again and located a replacement drive for relatively cheap. I popped the drive in (a relatively easy task with lots of tutorials available on the internet) and had myself an iPod for less than $100.

Fast forward to about two months ago. I was getting ready to go on a trip. The iPod is my preferred vehicular music source over my Zune HD and my iPhone because it has actual buttons to do everything. I don't have to look at it or bring it out of sleep mode or anything extra to say "NEXT!" Much less distraction while driving (that is unless I'm using the Zune with the radio interface that allows me to control it from the head unit but that's another story). I also use it with a set of noise canceling headphones when I mow the lawn.

As I was preparing for the road trip I decided to sync some new playlists. Little iPod was having none of that. It started to sync then just froze in the middle of it all. I fiddled for a couple more hours and declared the hard drive, once again, dead. It is probably recoverable since it does boot but for the expense of drive repair I can probably get a replacement. But I don't want to have to go through the hassle of replacing the hard drive every year.

A little bit of investigation revealed something very cool. The existence of a Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) connector (that the iPod video uses as a hard drive connector) to Compact Flash (CF) adapter. I could turn my iPod from a drive-based device to a flash-based device for very little money. The adapters are about $1 a piece on eBay - I ordered two, just in case.

When the adapters came in I immediately tore into my iPod. I pulled the drive and attached the adapter and slid in the largest CF card I had on hand - 2GB. Once I figured out I had the adapter connected upside down, I got it to boot and restore in iTunes.

Satisfied that everything had gone well, I snapped the case back together and... sad iPod icon. Something was pushing together too hard, dang it!

As fate would have it, the iPod Video actually has two different backs. Back when they were manufactured, the 60GB and 80GB hard drives were slightly fatter than the 30GB drives. All I needed was the back off of a 60GB or 80GB model and I would be in business. $6.00 on eBay fixed that up right quick.

The new back came in today. I took apart the iPod and ever so carefully pried off the battery, released the cables for the headphone jack and hold switch and used the itty-bitty, teeny-tiny screwdriver they sent with the new back to remove the itty-bitty, teeny-tiny, eentsy-weentsy screws to dismount the headphone/hold assembly and the plastic bezel around the dock connector. I carefully put them all back in place in the new backing, plugged in the cables and tested to make sure it would still boot. When it did, I snapped it back together, connected to iTunes and loaded some music. She's running like a Swiss... car!

My new Solid State iPod still only has 2GB of capacity but it works! To upgrade, all I need is a larger CF card. I pop the case, slide the old one out, slide the new one in, snap her back together and I'm good to go. Now all I have to do is convince someone to let me buy a 32GB CF card (not cheap).

Update: The iPod never quite got back to 100%. It would sometimes start the restore screen but if I turned it a different way and gave it a couple of light taps before resetting it, it would work. I thought it was the drive cable but replacing it didn't help. It now doesn't boot from the CF card at all. The hard drive still boots but isn't recognized properly in Windows. Oh well, it was a good run.

The Rumors Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

My blog has earned its name once again. Only this time, it was my iPhone that ate my homework. I am using DragonDictate to write a blog post. I switched apps to look at some notes that I had taken previously about some additional limitations that the iPhone has that are annoying to me. When I switched back, DragonDictate started all over again, losing my work. 

What I find interesting is that, when writing a blog post, my thoughts seem to flow easier from my brain to my fingers then from my brain to my mouth. 

What I had been saying in my original post was that I have been a little scarce here on my blog and on Facebook, mostly because I'm just tired. 

Work is still problematic. I am looking for another job. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I'm still loving the iPhone... A lot. I find myself cruising the app store every day looking for free apps that are just cool or might be useful in a bizarre set of circumstances. I now have a relatively large collection of apps, some of which I have never even launched.

There are a few more items I would like to add to my list of updates I would like to see. These include copying draft e-mail messages back into my Outlook account. I find this very annoying because if I am composing a message on my iPhone and am interrupted for some reason the only option that I have it is to continue the message on my iPhone. I can't, without e-mailing it to myself, finish composing a message at my workstation. 

Sticking with the e-mail theme, I would like the ability to copy a contact from the Exchange global address list into my local contacts. I find this very helpful on my workstation and would like to see it on my mobile device.

The last item is simply a matter of convenience. Why is it that there is no snooze function for appointment alarms? Every other device I own that has an alarm has a snooze function. Why not the most powerful small device I own?

I guess that's about it for now. I just wanted to check in to let y'all know I'm still above ground and breathing. 

Until next time. 

Eight Days And No Looking Back

I have had my iPhone now for eight days. I love it. You could give me any Windows Mobile phone and I'll turn you down.

Why do I like it so much?
1. The call and audio quality is phenomenal! I've never owned a clearer, louder phone.
2. S*!t just WORKS. When you tap an icon, something happens - right then.

I've spent almost every day since I got it downloading free apps. Some are lame, some are pretty good and some are limited versions of paid apps. One of those limited apps I'm actually going to buy (gotta wait until payday). It's called grocery gadget and it's a shopping list app. Why am I willing to pay for it? It lets you scan barcodes to enter items. How easy is that!?

I updated the operating system today. iOS4 was released about noon local time. The biggest thing I was looking forward to was the folders. Being able to group apps instead of them having to just hang out wherever they land is something they should have done since day one. The multitasking is nice but it's never really been a major factor to me except for background apps that Apple doesn't allow.

The iPhone, however, is not without its limitations. In my 8 days of ownership, I have compiled the following wish list:

1. Adjustable default appointment alarm. The default appointment alarm is none. It's going to mess me up one of these days when I set an appointment on the phone and forget to set the alarm and miss an appointment. I'm in enough dutch at work without that.
2. Email priority indicators and the ability to flag Exchange mail. If I get a high priority message and I'm away from my desk, I want to know that it's high priority. The message could get easily lost amongst other messages on the phone without it. The flag ability is a luxury but I use the flags as a reminder that I need to do something with the email (shutup, Ron).
3. Customizeable alerts for mail, voice mail, and calendar. You can customize the ringtone (including on a per-contact basis) and the text message tone but the others are either on or off. And the ringtone is the only tone you can add your own. At least give me more than one choice. Who are you, Henry "you can have any color as long as it's black" Ford? I can add the ability to change these tones but from what I've read I'd have to jailbreak it and I'm not gonna do that.
4. A method of closing the app. This is even more important with the multitasking. I suppose it just stacks 'em up and closes the one at the bottom when it needs memory but I'd rather have a little bit of control over that.

Item number one is critical to me. Steve Jobs, if you read this, please add the ability to set a default appointment alarm time to iOS 4.1. The high priority indicators are important but not absolutely critical. The other items would just be nice. It is, after all, a wish list.

Drinking The Kool-Aid

I went ahead and pulled the trigger this afternoon and bought an iPhone. Right deal, right time.

I realize that the iPhone 4 is coming out in about 10 days and it's the new shiny but I talked with some people at the AT&T store and decided to go with the 3GS. Here's why:

Right now AT&T is selling the 16Gb 3GS for $149* and the 32GB 3GS for $199*. These are closeout prices. The new $99* 3GS will be 8GB. When the iPhone 4 hits stores, the 32GB will go back up to $299* (yeah, sure it will).

The iPhone 4 has three things I can see being important to me.

1. The high-resolution screen. I'm sure it's mighty sweet but I don't watch a lot of videos and, frankly, I'm okay with the current screen.
2. Extended battery life. I know 4 people who use their iPhones in the exact same environment I will be using it. I've never heard them complain. Again, nice but I can get by with the current offering.
3. Front-facing camera. Oh, I could have fun with this but it's just not a deal-breaker.

So, I can wait 10 days, spend $199 and get a 16GB iPhone 4 or I can buy a 32GB iPhone 3GS today. I went for capacity over features. That simple.

The only kicker is that, since it is at a closeout price, I don't get the 30-day trial period. I'm stuck with it now whether I like it or not.

----------------------------------------------------
* With new 2-year agreement

Decisions... Decisions...

I already know I want to get an iPhone. I had to wait a few months for my renewal date to come around in April. I waited until my birthday in May to check into it. I learned the iPhone4 was coming out in June... so I waited some more. Now the iPhone 4 has been announced and I have to wait for it, too. But do I want to?

I can get a 16GB iPhone 3GS for $97 right now from Wal-Mart (I will, of course, have to wait until they get them back in stock - or wait until AT&T drops the price). AT&T will eventually be selling the 16GB 3GS for $99. The 16GB i4 is going to be $199. I still have the $100 AT&T gift card so I have some options.

I'm jonesing for an iPhone. I didn't see any earth-shattering, gotta-have-it features of the i4. The biggest thing to me is the screen resolution and I can take it or leave it. But I don't want to wait anymore! Just like Veruka Salt, "I want it NOW!"

I think what will tip the scale between the 3GS and the 4 is how much the 32GB 3GS sells for. It is currently $299. If they drop it $100 like they're dropping the 16GB, I'll go for capacity over bells & whistles any day. I gotta admit, though, that those bells and whistles are kinda shiny.

The three items that intrigue me are the high-resolution screen I mentioned above, the front-facing camera (I could have some fun with that if you can record from it), and the stainless steel band that is supposed to function as an antenna and improve signal (but may also increase radiation output and bake the brains of half the world, thus accelerating Steve Jobs' plan for world domination).

To 4 or not to 4? That is the question. Whether 'tis more practical in the hand to suffer the slings and arrows of not having a fortune, or to take arms against the debates and by ignoring them, end them... and buy the shiny one. (sorry, Mr. Shakespeare)

I suppose two more weeks ain't so bad. They'll be taking pre-orders on Monday.

I Didn't Know It Could Sound So Good

My car does not have an auxiliary input on the radio. For those who don't know, it's (usually) a mini plug built into the radio that allows you to connect and play portable media devices. The sound comes from the headphone jack so you double amplify the signal. I have friends with these inputs and they actually do a pretty good job.

Because of my lack of input I have been using FM transmitters. These get the job done but they take on a lot of interference. You also have to find a relatively clear frequency and if traveling any distance this can become nearly impossible. They're considerably worse than cassette adapters.

In exchange for resurrecting a computer, someone recently bought me a module that plugs into the back of my radio giving it an auxiliary input. It makes the radio think it has an add-on CD changer. Along with this input module you can also get iPod and Zune modules that allow you to charge, play and, to some degree, control the device through the dock connector. (I installed it on Sunday)

Using the dock connector gives you the additional benefit of a line-level signal. For those uninitiated in audio signals a line-level signal is unamplified. This means that the only amplification of the signal is coming from the radio head unit which should be the only place the signal is amplified - right before it goes out to the speakers.

As I said, I have heard what a headphone-out auxiliary input sounds like. It does a really good job. What I didn't realize was how much of a difference a line-level signal would make. My Zune HD sounds FANTASTIC! I want to drive somewhere just so I can listen to it.

(BTW - 5 more posts to post 1000!)

Apple Better Ease Up At The Guard Shack

The stories of developer frustration over Apple's random and arbitrary approval process for iPhone apps is well documented on the internet. There are stories of rejections that did not come with a reason, just a "no." There are stories of minor updates for previously accepted apps being rejected. There are even stories of developers being banned from continuing to develop for the iPhone and having all of their existing applications removed from the App Store simply because they formula-developed a couple thousand applications for niche markets. But as you peruse those stories, they are from small, independent developers.

Recently, however, some major players have said, "no more." Earlier this month, Facebook developer Joe Hewitt, who created the FB iPhone app, handed further development of the application to another developer. This decision was because of Apple's policies.

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.

The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users. (source: TechCrunch)

Just as Hewitt had bleak predictions of gatekeeping middlemen in the software industry, this author says it isn't going to work because it failed miserably in the past.

The software business learned that in the early 1980s, when companies like VisiCorp showed that although the words "software" and "publisher" fit together, the underlying concepts don't. Software isn't like music or books. It's too complicated for a third party to act as an intermediary between developer and user. And yet that's what Apple is trying to be with the App Store: a software publisher. And a particularly overreaching one at that, with fussy tastes and a rigidly enforced house style.

If software publishing didn't work in 1980, it works even less now that software development has evolved from a small number of big releases to a constant stream of small ones. But Apple doesn't understand that either....

How would Apple like it if when they discovered a serious bug in OS X, instead of releasing a software update immediately, they had to submit their code to an intermediary who sat on it for a month and then rejected it because it contained an icon they didn't like?

Ostensibly, the app store approval process is there to provide quality control but also serves as gatekeeper for products that either have the potential to tax the infrastructure or products that directly compete with products Apple is developing. In the latter two instances, the approval process works but those are easy lines to define, making it easy to see when they have been crossed. It fails, however, in quality control.

I would imagine it would be an easy enough process. If the application does not violate any trademarks or copyrights, it does not have the potential to compete directly with a product we are developing (and may or may not release), it does not have the potential to tax the infrastructure, and does not consistently crash either itself or the system, it's approved and we'll let the market decide how good or useful it is. But Apple obviously isn't doing that because even I have an idea of how much of a pain in the ass it is to get approval for iPhone applications and I'm not a developer. That should tell Apple something about how badly this is going.

The Current State of Windows Mobile

For years Microsoft's Windows CE/Windows Mobile platform has dominated over the Palm OS. Palm OS did very well in the beginning. It was very nimble and responsive, especially compared to Windows CE once it finally joined the party. As time went on, Microsoft improved their mobile operating system, started calling it Windows Mobile, and surpassed Palm. Having lived at the time the original Palm Pilot was launched and having used both Palm OS and Windows Mobile, I understand the history, the differences, and the strengths and weaknesses of each but I won't go into that here. Suffice it to say that Palm OS failed so epically to keep up with trends/needs/usage patterns that Palm doesn't even use the Palm OS anymore. Microsoft had gained some of this lead by the time the "smartphone" was born and, even though Palm again got into the game early, MS kinda came in and took over.

Having seen the evolution of Windows Mobile, I can tell you that, even though the hardware gets better and faster, WinMo is still a bloated, clunky, unwieldy beast. The one thing that Palm had over WinMo hands-down was that when you tapped an icon, something happened... right then. Windows Mobile has, from day one, been a tap and wait operating system. I mean, for crying out loud, how many lines of code does it take to clear a checkbox? Why is the checkmark still there after you've moved the stylus clear of the screen?

In a brilliant move, Microsoft integrated WinMo so tightly with the desktop... they're desktop (via Outlook synchronization, etc.) and made it, eventually, work so smoothly that it just pushed the Windows Mobile platform to the top. Yet Palm still sat on its fat butt and developers flocked to Windows Mobile and the stunningly vast amount of applications developed for WinMo smartphones kept it on top.

I don't know if other companies didn't want to create smartphones, or they didn't feel they could compete with Microsoft, or Microsoft wouldn't let them play in their MS Outlook synchronization garden but they went uncontested for several years... until.

Enter, the iPhone. So well hyped, so well designed, so easy to use, and carrying the same status symbology of owning an actual iPod from Apple that it flew off the AT&T shelves. This despite a hefty price tag. This despite an operating system incapable of what had become basic functions in a mobile operating system. This despite its inability to synchronize with any corporate email system. But it is from Apple and Steve saw it was good and Steve said it was good and Steve got everyone to believe it was great.

Imitation being the sincerest form of getting your own piece of the pie, the market was quickly flooded with iPhone wannabes. Gone were the styluses (should that be styli?) and everything had to be a touch interface (this was not necessarily a bad trend in the overall market). And Microsoft kept the same basic user interface they had been using for five (now seven) years. Just like their foray into the media player market, Microsoft was lagging behind Apple and not bringing anything to the table to compete. They didn't even try. If you want a touch interface on a Windows Mobile device today, that interface has to be a third-party app.

Windows Mobile 6.0 was introduced in Q1 2007 with several notable updates from the previous version. Version 6.1 launched in Q2 2008 with only a few minor tweaks. Then, it took until Q3 2009 to introduce version 6.5, which wasn't even on the Microsoft roadmap until the millions of Windows Mobile fanboys and fangirls stood up and said they didn't want to wait until an undetermined timeframe in 2010 for Microsoft to finally put a dog in the fight. And still, who knows what kind of dog that's going to be. My guess is it won't be a rottweiler or a pit bull.

Just two months ago, Microsoft front-man Steve Ballmer reportedly said during a Venture Capitol summit that Microsoft had "screwed up" on Windows Mobile and had taken too long to release windows 7. Duh. What have you been doing for almost three years while Apple continued to gain market share? Now that the iPhone has stable (and complete) Outlook/Exchange sync and has added many of those aforementioned "basic" features and just fracking works they are finding themselves in the hands of more and more executives and business people that were using 4-year-old basic flip phones just last week. I think the delays in Windows Mobile 7 are going to be their downfall in the smartphone market. I just haven't heard anything revolutionary that will be added to it.

It's A Beautiful Thing

I spend my days fixing computers. I replace monitors, LCD panels, CD/DVD drives, motherboards and hard drives. When I replace a hard drive, or there is some major software malfunction, I reinstall Windows from the ground up.

Our organization is still primarily standardized on Windows XP. Even so, with each installation I find myself having to find another computer to download the driver for the network card. Once I have that installed, I have to install the drivers for the graphics card, the sound card, the chipset, and possibly several other components. It's a pain in the ass because all it does is take up my time. Even if I already have the drivers downloaded I still have to install them.

Yesterday, I went to a technical briefing for Windows 7. It gave me a lot of useful information about the tools that are available in and for Windows 7. In addition, I, and everyone else who attended, walked out with a complimentary copy of Windows 7 Ultimate edition.

As soon as I had it in my hands I was eager to update my primary desktop system. While I was at work today, I decided it might be a better idea to start on my laptop since it doesn't have as much data on it needing to be backed up, having recently been reloaded because of a hard drive upgrade. My laptop is a Toshiba L35 1.7GHz system with a gig and a half of RAM.

When I got home, I fired up the laptop and headed to the Toshiba support site to download Windows 7 drivers. All the necessary drivers were there but, according to documents on the site, Windows 7 installations are not supported for my unit.

So? I like a challenge.

Once I had all I needed and had transferred it to a flash drive, I popped in the DVD and rebooted. I ran through the installation of Windows 7 without a hitch. I was pleasantly surprised when, while it was still installing, it presented me with a list of wireless networks and asked which one I would like to designate as a preferred connection. In relatively short order and blessedly without any Microsoft propaganda cycling by on the screen, I arrived at my desktop.

The first thing I did was right-click on Computer in the start menu and choose Manage. I clicked on the device manager and saw that every single piece of hardware in my laptop had a driver. I saw the sum total of zero yellow triangles.

I wept with joy.

Zune HD Review

[AUTHORS NOTE: This is a tremendously long and in-depth review. I have tried to highlight what I feel are important and key phrases as well as break the review up into sections. Your comments are most appreciated.]

I received a 16GB Zune HD in the mail about a week ago. It was sent to me as a gift/compensation for creating a new opening for the Geek News Central Podcast. My first impression was that it was thin, light and sleek. I was excited for two reasons. First, it had enough capacity to carry as much content as I had put on my salvaged iPod (that's another story). Second, it is a Zune. I have really enjoyed the experience of my Zune 4Gig (which I coincidentally received from the same source) but I needed something with more space.

After turning it on, I quickly realized that some of the other reviews I read were accurate: The Zune HD is not a direct competitor to the iPod Touch. The Zune HD is a completely different experience. The only things the two devices have in common are that they both play digital media and they both have a touch screen interface.

If you want to read more of my first impressions, check out this post.

This will be an in-depth explanation and review of the major functions of the device. Scroll down to the summary section if you want to skip all the details.

Zune Desktop Software 4.0
Let's start this review with the Zune 4.0 desktop software. The Zune software has much the same look and feel as previous versions but there are two new features/functions that I really like.

First is the mini player. I don't generally use the Zune software for media playback and I don't generally play music directly from my computer but the mini player makes the playback experience much more unobtrusive. It's a bit like a mini Zune HD screen and allows you to shuffle all of your music or play Smart DJ playlists or pinned items. The Now Playing screen echoes the device display as well.

The Smart DJ feature is also a plus. It is much like the iTunes Genius Playlist feature that I like very much. Unlike the Genius, however, the Smart DJ is not configurable. You cannot specify how many songs or what length of time you want to fill the list and you cannot specify whether to pull only from your list or from the marketplace as well (it appears to pull only from your list). Plus, in examining the lists I just created to test it, I am not sure of its accuracy in selecting similar songs to the "key" song.

The second new feature I really like is the Mini-Player toolbar mode. I keep the Zune software open and running all the time so that podcasts are updated on a regular basis. I have a bargain-basement DSL connection so downloads aren't exactly speedy. Previous versions of the software would minimize to the taskbar as would any other program so I would constantly have this 2" wide tab on the left side of my taskbar that said "Zune." Now when you minimize the Zune software it becomes an additional toolbar with simple playback controls. Clicking on the Zune icon restores the software window. The best part of this is that the toolbar is positionable. It now sits unobtrusively on the right side of my taskbar and actually serves a purpose in that mode.

-- The Basics --

Physical Characteristics and Buttons
The Zune HD is 52.7 mm wide x 102.1 mm high x 8.9 mm thick and weighs a svelt 2.6 oz (74 grams). I measured it against my HTC Fuze/Touch Pro and it is approximately the same height and width.

On the top of the device is an on/off button. When pressed, it puts the device into a standby mode or simply turns off the screen if you are playing music. Pressing it again wakes it up. When it wakes up it displays a graphic/photo that you "push" up to the top of the screen to be able to interact with the device. This is designed to prevent accidental activation of any of the functions (more on that later). If you hold down the button for 3-4 seconds, the graphic covers the top half of the screen. If you "pull" it down to the bottom, the device turns off.

On the left side of the device at the top is the media button. The sole purpose of this button is to bring up the media controls of play/pause, prev/next and volume up/down. The only useful scenario for this is that it will bring up the controls over the standby graphic and you can operate them without having to "unlock" the device. On the bottom left side is a cryptic engraving that reads, "Hello from Seattle."

The bottom contains the standard Zune docking connector and what I have always thought was an oddly placed headphone jack. Placing the headphone jack at the top just seems more practical to me. There are no buttons or additional engravings on the right side.

The front face of the device is the 3.3" 480 x 272 OLED display with 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen is touch-sensitive and is the same technology (capacitive if I'm right) as the iPhone/iPod touch, meaning that you cannot use a stylus or gloves. And if the difficulties I have with my left thumb are any indication, callouses may interfere with functionality as well. Just below the screen is the home button which toggles between the main menu and the quick links (more on that later as well).

The Zune HD is light, compact and slim. The back is made of black (on the stock 16GB model) brushed aluminum. Combined with a beveled design (it slopes off to the sides), it gives it a very stylish look and keeps it from being a total fingerprint magnet.

The buttons are well placed and push easily. Because they are all flush, with the exception of the home button which is only slightly raised, it is difficult to push the accidentally. The screen is crisp, clear and bright. It literally wowed me when I first turned on the device (and that was just looking at the menu). It is very responsive to touch although, as mentioned, it seems to have difficulty with callouses. The only drawback, and I don't know how you would avoid this on a touch interface, is that it collects fingerprints that are problematic to photo and video viewing.

Setup and Sync
Most of the functions of the device do not work until you synchronize with the Zune software for the first time. There is a demo video loaded that you can play but that's about it. Loading the driver took a protracted amount of time under Windows Vista Ultimate and the first thing it wanted to do was update the software to version 4.1 before it would do anything else. Seriously? It sounds like someone didn't get their code changes in on time when the final version was rubber-stamped. Other than that, synchronization and interaction with the Zune software is similar to other Zune models.

Audio/Video Support
The Zune HD supports WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, AAC-LC, mp4, m4a & m4b w/o FairPlay DRM, and MP3 audio formats. Image support is limited to JPG and it supports WMV, MP4, M4V, H.264, DVR-MS video formats.

-- Zune Device Firmware --

Main Menu
When you first turn on the device, the initial home menu shows selections for Music, Videos, Pictures, Radio, Marketplace, Social and "More." Looking at this I immediately noticed that Podcasts was not among the selections. Once I loaded a podcast onto the device it thankfully appeared.

If the device is in standby or the screen has turned off, the device displays a default or user-selectable picture that you have to slide up to get to the menu. This supposedly stops accidental control activations but the way the hardware buttons are designed they are not easy to accidentally actuate so the picture seems to be more eye candy than anything else. This is further reinforced by the fact that the menu sits atop a black screen instead of a background graphic. Of course, the first thing I did was create a custom graphic supporting my college Alma Mater.

Pushing the home button on the main screen toggles between the menu and the quick links. You can also slide your finger left or right as appropriate. The quick links are a set of graphical shortcuts that include the item that is currently playing or paused, Pins (favorites), History (recently accessed), and New (recently added). I have found that they actually come in handy.

One thing they seem to have regressed in the software is that the clock and battery status are not persistently visible and this is not configurable. The way the navigation works, you touch a top portion of the screen that shows an enlarged portion of the menu choice or graphic you selected to move backward through the system. As such I can understand why these items are not visible everywhere but why can't they be shown at the top of the main menu? Plus, the only place the clock shows up is over the "standby" graphic. Why bother?

Music
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the touch interface. It has certain shortcomings that, to me, make the device more complicated to operate. I was honestly contemplating selling the Zune HD on eBay and buying a 120GB 2nd gen. Zune until I discovered two very cool features just last night.

When you are browsing your music collection by artist you are taken to a screen that lists all the albums you have for that artist on the device. You also have an option of viewing the marketplace discography at the bottom of the list. The discography list appears whether or not tracks are available for purchase (i.e. The Beatles) and it doesn't always get the tracks right. While I was writing this, for instance, I brought up the track list (requires wifi connection) for "The Best of 38 Special" and they're all Christmas Songs. Presumably, you can purchase the tracks right from the device itself. If the tracks are not available for purchase, the titles are grayed out and it says "This item is not available at Zune Marketplace" above the list.

But wait. There's more. Much more. When identifiable and available, the Zune HD downloads additional information about the artists. You will notice that there is a picture of the artist as a background behind the album/song list (it also appears whenever a track by that artist is currently playing). You will also notice that there are additional choices along the top after albums and songs.

You are first presented with pictures of the artist. If there is more than one, they appear in a two-column grid. The pictures are viewable full-size in the picture viewer by tapping them. It would be nice if you could add your own to your device or even select which picture to use as the background for the Now Playing view but that is not an available feature (it has been requested in the forums).

After the pictures is the biographical information. This is the really cool part. It gives you background and in-depth information about the band. The entry for .38 Special, for instance, is eight screens long. They're also very well written. They read like a VH-1 Behind The Music voice-over. Here's an example:

Initially, /38 Special were one of the many Southern rock bands in the vein of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; in fact, the band was led by Donnie Van Zant, the brother of Skynyrd's leader, Ronnie Van Zant.

I did not know that.

The last of the artist information screens is titled "Related." This screen lists bands with similarities to the selected artist in, perhaps, a "you might also like" fashion. You have to wonder about some of the selections, though. For .38 Special, for instance, Night Ranger is listed among Charlie Daniels and The Marshall Tucker Band.

These same screens can also be accessed by tapping the artist name in the Now Playing view.

The second "Oh, I'm keeping this!" feature is being able to create playlists on the device. If you hold your finger on an artist, song or album, you are offered a choice of adding it to the Now Playing list. You can also click the + symbol wherever it appears at the top of a list to add all the items from the list. You can then just play your ad-hoc playlist or, if you open the Now Playing list from the playlist view, you can save it as a permanent playlist. This is something the iPod has been able to do for a while. I am glad to finally see it in the Zune.

The Now Playing (playback) window is fairly standard but with a few nice touches. At the top left is a "back" button and on the right is the battery icon and play/pause status indicator. the screen lists the artist and album then the album art. One change from previous versions is that if you do not have album art you get a black square rather than your background image. Immediately below the album art is the time status display then the song title.

Below the song title is a list of the next 3 songs coming up in the playlist. At the very bottom are buttons to toggle shuffle and repeat as well as the favorite status. Even though I still think the favorite marker is too limited, the position of this button allows me to easily mark bad tracks during playback. As a background, where available, is a picture of the band. This stays onscreen as the player goes into a screen saver mode slowly scrolling the artist, song title and other information across the screen in varying sizes of type in various directions. It looks very similar to the funky playback mode the desktop software switches to. The only drawback is that the device stays on and constantly shows the screen saver if the device is plugged in. This includes when it is drawing power from the car kit and the screen saver can be distracting while driving.

To change tracks, you either swipe the album art to the left for next or right for previous or you can bring up the player controls by pressing the media button or tapping the Now Playing screen. The player controls also have a big play/pause button in the center. You can either bring up the controls and tap the button or a quick double-tap on the Now Playing screen will pause or resume playback. Finally, the player controls include volume control. You can either tap/hold the + or - buttons or swipe your finger up or down.

One thing I would change is to add hardware volume buttons. Changing the volume means a series of 3 to 5 gestures. At its most complicated, you have to wake up the device by pushing the power button, swipe off the lock screen, tap to bring up the volume controls (assuming you start in the Now Playing screen), then adjust. In the car, this is overly complicated and distracting. You can also use the media button which will bring up the player controls over the lock screen. Even then, it's a push then a tap or swipe. Hardware volume controls would take out the extra steps (handy if you were blasting through a stereo and forgot to turn it down before plugging in the headphones).

To make the experience more personal, the ability to customize the screen saver would go a long way. Imagine being able to choose which information the screen saver does or doesn't show. Better yet, imagine being able to run a screen saver that has nothing to do with the music being played (Flying Toasters, anyone?). Maybe there will be an app for that. I would also like to see a simplified Now Playing view that shows artist, title, larger album art and the playback timers.

Video Player
The video player is fairly straightforward. Choose your video and it starts playing in landscape mode. You might want to wipe down the screen first. The fingerprints left by all that tapping and swiping tend to obscure the view.

There is one cryptic control for the video. In the upper-right corner is a circle with four arrowheads pointing outward. If you tap it, the arrowheads point inward and the image stretches to fill the screen. Why not just stretch the image to fit and maintain the aspect ratio? Maybe it's just cryptic to me because everything I've transferred to the player so far is in widescreen (16:9) format.

Photo Viewer
Also fairly straightforward. Turn the device to portrait or landscape mode and the accelerometer quickly and smoothly changes the orientation of the image and zooms appropriately.

Speaking of zooming, the photo viewer (and the web browser) include multitouch zooming capabilities. Place two fingers on the screen and move them apart and you zoom in toward the point where your fingers first touched. Squeeze them together and you zoom back out.

There is also a slideshow mode but the timing and transitions are not configurable.

Radio
The HD designation on the Zune HD signifies not only its ability to play 720P HD video (HD dock sold seperately) but also its ability to receive HD radio signals. I am about 60 miles away from any of the stations in my area transmitting HD streams and have had difficulty picking them up. I did finally manage to pick one up by using a set of headphones with a long cable. Unfortunately, the cable had to be stretched out and I wasn't able to listen and watch the display as the HD signal appeared and disappeared.

Also presumably because of my distance from the signal, I originally thought the Zune HD was incapable of receiving RDS (Radio Data Stream) information. This seems to have been in error since, during my HD reception experiment, I was able to pick up station identification (at least) from several of the stations.

Marketplace
Using the marketplace to purchase content from your device requires a WiFi connection. The on-screen keyboard can be a bit clunky so it's nice that the software pops up suggestions as you type. One question, though. What's with the picture of the random rapper dude as the background image for the marketplace? (edit: looks like it changes. it is currently showing me Mariah Carey)

Social
The one other person I know and have contact with that also owns a Zune I am sure does not use this feature. I am also not active in the online experience. I have therefore never used this function. Now that I have two Zunes I do plan to check out the content transfer feature at some point.

Podcasts
This item does not appear on the main menu until and unless you have podcast content loaded on the device. Subscriptions and settings are mostly controlled via the desktop software. I have seen some comments in other reviews and forum posts that podcasts do not automatically sync with the device via wireless. This has not been my experience. The podcast synchronization via wireless works just like it did with my 4gig. Maybe those that have been having difficulty with it have not set up the wireless sync in the desktop software or have not made the initial transfer of the podcast to the device. I don't know but it works just fine and dandy for me.

Internet
It goes (almost) without saying that the internet function requires a WiFi connection. One of the cool things about the wireless radio is that it is only active when you need it. It can be disabled in the settings but it will turn itself on and off.

The browser is very simple. On the bottom are buttons to go to the previous page, open favorites, and view the address bar. There is also a built-in search function (via Microsoft bing, of course). There is no refresh function. There is no flash (sorry, no YouTube) or any of the other add-ons so the experience is limited. The feature is obviously designed to be utilitarian but I'm okay with that.

The web browser responds to the accelerometer to view the pages in portrait or landscape mode. You can double-tap the screen to zoom in on the page or you can use multitouch gestures.

When you bring up the address bar or search or you enter an input field on a page, the virtual keyboard comes up. I'm really terrible and slow at typing on it and I often make mistypes (E and R in particular) but it gets the job done. One nice touch is the addition of a ".com" button when you're in the address bar. Unfortunately, if you turn the device to landscape mode, the keyboard doesn't get any bigger (you might want to address that, Microsoft). Two things I would add are an exit button, although that may have been omitted to avoid accidental activation, and a password bank.

By the way, any music or radio station you happen to be listening to continues to play while you are using the browser.

Apps
The currently available applications are very few (only 9 total at present) and very simple (but they're all free at the moment). I find the weather app and the calculator particularly useful. They add some nice additional functionality to the device. The other seven are games like chess, sudoku and goo splat, whatever that is. New apps are added via the desktop software or the Marketplace link in the main menu. I eagerly await additional applications. It will be cool to see what people do with this device.

Settings
-- Wireless: Similar to previous models. A nice (and necessary) addition is the ability to connect to wireless networks directly from the device. The sync option includes entries for channels and Zune cards (must be related to social functions). It also shows you the MAC address of the device.

-- Display: Allows you to adjust settings for video output, the timeout for going into low-power, screen brightness, tilt on/off and screensaver settings (always, never, only when powered).

-- Music: Includes a worthless EQ setting. Maybe if I always listened to the same kind of music all the time but while it may shape the sound nicely for the current song it invariably distorts the next. The other setting is Artists which includes settings for song and album or album only. I have no clue what this changes. This entire menu option might as well not even be there.

-- Radio: Allows you to set your region for HD radio reception.

-- Clock: 12/24 hour toggle and set time. You cannot view the clock except on the lock screen. What good is it, then? Let's make it visible in other areas. Is there a technical reason it can't sync to the PC clock?

-- Screen Lock: Reset the lock image to the default and enable the PIN to unlock. It should also include a function to select the lock image and disable the lock screen altogether.

-- Internet: Delete history, Cookies on/off, Script on/off. Pretty simple.

-- About: Allows you to view storage numbers and reset the accelerometer. All the other stuff is readme quality.

-- Conclusions / Summary --

To me, any media player is pretty much as good as the next. If all I want to do is listen to music in random order while I drive, an iPod shuffle will work. What makes the Zune HD stand out are the extras that make it go beyond being a simple media player. The desktop software, although not outstanding, also adds value to all of the Zune models.

I'm not a big fan of the touch interface but it is starting to grow on me. In a geeky sort of way it is just plain fun to slide things around on the screen. A sort-of symbiosis between man and machine.

Where the Zune, all of the models, falls short is in accessories. Microsoft started off at a disadvantage to the iPod in this arena and has continued to fall behind the curve. I can walk into almost any store that sells any sort of electronics and find a variety of cases, cables, docks, speakers, portable radios, and portable video systems for the iPod. In the same stores I am lucky to find even the limited selection of overpriced Microsoft-branded accessories and I am usually shocked if I find a single third-party speaker dock for the Zune. Maybe their rarity accounts for their pricing? I managed to find a bargain on a v2 A/V dock pack while I was still using my 4gig Zune. Can you believe that the original MSRP on a set of cables, an IR remote and a docking base was $79.99? Microsoft needs to stop being so proud of their branded accessories and open up the market for third-party accessories.

Right now I own the v2 A/V dock and a v2 car kit with the FM transmitter. The A/V dock is partially compatible with the Zune HD. It powers it and allows it to sync wirelessly. The only functions that work on the remote are play/pause and prev/next. I can accept that because of the differences in the interface. At least it allows me to play content through my stereo. I don't know about video output since I'm pretty sure I never connected that cable in the first place.

The car kit works just like it did with the 4gig. Pretty much all it does is provide power and a line-level out to the FM transmitter so that's not a surprise. I have seen the new premium car kit and think it's a nice update. I would NEVER pay $80 for it but it has some nice features.

In the interim between outgrowing my 4gig Zune and getting the Zune HD, I rescued a 30gig 5th gen iPod video* (I replaced the hard drive) so I now have some experience with the competition. I think the iPod has a serious basic design flaw. When you transfer media to it, the device (or iTunes) changes the file name and places it in a random folder. What this does is open wide the possibility of duplicating media files. Not just duplicating titles, I mean truly transferring the exact same file to the device multiple times. That's just a waste. You can manage your media in a way to minimize this possibility but why should you have to? The Zune wins hands-down in my book for that reason alone every time. That's not to say I'm ready to give up the capacity available in my iPod nor the ability to dock it to my clock radio (see previous accessories rant).

Overall, I like the Zune HD. There are some tweaks and improvements I mentioned above and we might see several of them in subsequent software updates. There are a couple of improvements I did not mention above that I would like to see.

First and foremost, add a bluetooth option or, to keep the same price point, create a bluetooth add-on. The dongle/plugin would need to have A2DP and AVRCP capabilities as well as power pass-through capabilities. This would allow me to operate my Zune HD completely wirelessly via my Motorola stereo bluetooth headset or any of several automotive add-ons (thus making it safer to operate in the car!!).

Make the media button multi-functional. A single press brings up the media controls but subsequent presses could change the display, bring up ID3 tag information or any of a variety of other things. the middle button on an iPod can do it, why can't this?

So there you have my long-winded tour, commentary and review of the Zune HD. Hello? Please wake up.

-----------------------------------------

*I was originally trolling eBay for an 80 or 120 gig Zune. The only way I could afford it would be to fix a broken unit. The iPods are cheaper to obtain and, through some internet research, I found out that they are much much easier to repair. I therefore purchased and rescued my iPod.

ZuneHD First Impressions

My gift of a 16GB ZuneHD arrived this evening. I took it out of the box, took it out of the plastic and turned it on. I was immediately wowed (I even said "wow") by the clarity and sharpness of the screen. I played the pre-loaded video and was Blown Away!

I fiddled with it a little more and noticed that, unlike previous versions since 2.0, there is no "Podcasts" option on the main menu. I suspect it may show up if I actually load some on there (it did) but can't imagine why it got dropped off.

I took it back to my PC and plugged it in and waited. And waited some more. Then you know what I did? I waited. I waited for Vista to decide what to do about installing a driver. Have I mentioned today that I hate Vista? I can't wait to get Win7.

It finally installed the driver... and told me to reboot. There's another 5 minutes down the tubes.

After the reboot, I plugged it back in at which time it proceeded to install the driver. Say what? Luckily, it must have just been finishing up because it only took a few seconds before it was ready and launched the Zune software (I downloaded the 4.0 software the day it came out). Then I waited about a minute for the Zune software to recognize the device and... tell me I needed to update the software on the device before I could continue. It's only been out a couple of weeks and already there's an update?

I waited ten minutes for my slow-ass internet connection to download 30% of the update and finally decided I was hungry enough that I just left it to do its thing and went to Sonic.

When I got back, the update was complete and I was asked to provide a name for the device. My first Zune, the 4GB I got a couple of years ago, was named Gozer. Like in Ghostbusters. I kept growling out "Zune" like the critter in the fridge growls out "Zuul" so I thought it appropriate. I had no idea what to call this one. I tried a couple and eventually landed on Geektoy but that may change if I (or someone else) comes up with something better.

Once the device was setup, I went to the playlists and commenced it to synchronizing. It's still working on it after about an hour. :)

More later as I discover more of its doo-dads and widgets.

Just Try Again Tomorrow

I had to replace a motherboard on a laptop this morning. If you've never experience that, it's like a puzzle box. There's only one way everything fits together, all the pieces are tightly packed and if you miss something it sets you way back.

I took that thing apart and reassembled it at least 4 times. First it was a piece I didn't get put on in the right order. Then the keyboard didn't work (didn't secure the cable right). Now it's having an issue with the touch pad - which is the second most difficult item to remove (the motherboard is the first). I started to disassemble it a fifth time but just didn't have the strength.

So I get home and the new hard drive for my laptop is here. I've brought home some cloning software from work so it should be an easy switch. After trying four different hard drives to dump the image onto, utilizing several different connection methods, I finally started dumping the image. When it jumped up to 33 hours left I shut it off. Something wasn't right and I think it was me.

I'll take a nice 8-hour nap and recharge my mojo and attack all of it again tomorrow.

Big Ol' Grin On My Face

My favorite podcast, Geek News Central, recently hit show 500. As a celebration of that milestone, the host, Todd Cochrane asked for a new intro. The previous intro was produced by a member of the 'ohana' (Hawaiian word meaning family) but had been in use for about 300 shows. It was time to freshen things up a bit.

As an incentive to get our creative juices flowing, and because it is an as yet unreleased shiny gadget, Todd offered a brand new Zune HD to whoever created the new intro.

Guess who will be getting a brand new Zune HD. If you want to hear the winning entry, it can be listened to here. Frankly, now that it's had some time to sit, I think it's a little long (it's almost a minute) but Todd liked it.

:::: G R I N ::::

Unofficially Official

Okay 90% of you, my regular readers, are not going to care one bit about this post. Okay, I give, 100% of my regular readers are not going to care about this post but I'm posting it anyway.

I finally did it. The leaked official ROM update for the AT&T Fuze has been out for almost three months now and AT&T has yet to officially release it. I got tired of waiting and flashed the ROM on my phone this afternoon. The flashing whores (their term, not mine) at XDA and Fuze Mobility would say I took the easy way out but, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

The update went smoothly. I did it because the radio is supposed to be better, some of the quirks of the GPS are supposed to be fixed, a couple of the stock programs got updated (i.e. Opera), and the PTT button remap is built in. The only lingering problem is that my computer keeps sound off the USB connect/disconnect. Gonna reboot after it finishes uninstalling the PC suite from my old Sony phone.

I went to restore my settings, etc. with Sprite Backup and it recognized that it was a different ROM. It popped up an upgrade mode dialogue and I opted to restore the whole thing. I soon noticed that it was restoring Opera9.exe and did a hard reset to start over. I think I'll just put back my personal data and rebuild the 3rd-party software from scratch.

Before flash:
ROM version: 1.95.502.5 WWE
ROM date: 10/20/08
Radio version: 1.02.25.32
Protocol version: 52.39c.25.22H

After flash:
ROM version: 5.08.502.1 WWE
ROM date: 02/19/09
Radio version: 1.12.25.19
Protocol version: 52.60.25.33H

UPDATE: I did a personal data only restore w/ databases. As I was reinstalling my software, each one would tell me the previous version needed to be uninstalled, then it couldn't uninstall, then the installation was unsuccessful... but all the programs worked.

Update 2: One of the phone features I like to play with use the most is the GPS. With the new ROM, it locks in about 15 seconds instead of 5 minutes. SWEET!!

Officially Impressed

One of my toys came in today. No, the phone isn't here yet. I have no idea even when to expect it. The MicroSD card will be a while since it's coming from Australia.

What arrived was my new Blueant Z9 Bluetooth Headset. My trusty Motorola H500 headset was, frankly, quite obsolete and it had started giving me trouble (okay, I threw it against the wall in frustration one night but I swear that the trouble started before that). I had been cruising eBay and had narrowed my search down to a Jawbone or a Blueant product. Mostly because I wanted a quality headset with noise reduction.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to buy the latest and greatest. First, I'm not paying that much for any headset. Second, I can't afford to pay that much. Besides, my H500 was old hat (and used) when I finally bought it.

I looked at several reviews comparing and contrasting the original Jawbone with the Blueant Z9 and the Jawbone 2 with the Blueant Z9i. One thing kept repeating. The Jawbone had superior noise reduction but the Blueant was louder. The loudness is a huge factor for me since I have some slight difficulty hearing anyway. What really tipped the scales, however, was trying on my friend's Blueant V1. It has a very similar form factor to the Z series. Plus I had read that the Jawbone had a tendency to have fit problems. So, the Jawbone was out.

After about a week of watching the auctions I finally started bidding. I actually bid on a couple of Jawbone devices but nothing came through. I ended up winning an auction (for less than what I paid for the H500) on a Z9 that was described as used, fully functional and in good cosmetic condition. What I got was a full retail box with all accessories except the manual (which was available online). It looks like it was a customer return, perhaps from someone who just didn't like it for some reason.

I charged it up and downloaded the manual and perused the quick start guide to get a feel for all of the basic functions. I paired it with my phone and called time and temperature. First impression: Damn this thing is LOUD! I generally have to set headsets to maximum to get a comfortable listening level. For the first time with any bluetooth headset I've ever used, I had to turn it down. And not just a notch or two. I'd say it's down to about 50-60% of max volume.

Despite having an earbud-style earpiece (think iPod headphones), the fit is pretty good. The device sits tightly on my head and is held securely in place by the plastic earloop. It's lightweight and easy to wear. The only problem I've found is that the hard plastic wears on the top of my ear pretty easily. It's a tight loop so I doubt putting moleskin on the inside of it for padding would be very effective. I think there are third-party loops available. I know there are different eargels available so we'll see how all of that goes.

Want to hear what a difference the noise reduction makes? Have a listen to these two wav files:

Motorola H500 (no noise reduction capabilities)

Blueant Z9

p.s. The comment I made about the Z9 not connecting has been corrected. I had to set it as the primary handsfree device on my phone - operator error.

I Should Have Played The Powerball

There's been a lot going on lately that I have wanted to tell you about or comment about but I just haven't been able to make the time to get the posts written. Then, when I do have time, I generally can't recall exactly what I was going to write about which is why I posted my last post.

One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.

The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.

Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.

The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.

Now, to explain the title.

When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.

But wait, there's MORE!

In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.

When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.

Wii... Wheeeee!

I have always wanted a game console. Doesn't matter which one - Pong, 2600, NES, PS2, X-Box, PS3 - although I never wanted a Colecovision (never could get the hang of that disc) but I digress. Of the most recent consoles, I want an X-Box 360 so I can play Halo, I want(ed) a PS3 because it could play Blu-Ray, and I want a Wii for Wii Fit and the balance board.

Regarding the Wii, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago just in casual conversation. I mentioned a couple of friends that have this same setup and really like it.

Guess what I got for my birthday (which is tomorrow)?

It's kind-of a cool little console. Wireless gyroscopic controller, built-in WiFi, backwards compatible with Game Cube, can interface with the DS... I really want to commit to using the Wii Fit because I really need to get in better shape somehow. I won't let this console sit idle like the PS2 in my office that I only acquired about a year ago and technically belongs to a friend.

There Goes The Neighborhood

Before Google. Before MSN. When Yahoo was just getting started. When Alta Vista was the king of the search engines. When I first got into this world wide web thing back in nineteen ninety whatever with a copy of HTML For Dummies on my knee and notepad on the screen, my first public web site was posted at Geocities. At the time, Geocities offered something like 5 or 10 Megabytes of space and was organized into categories that were accessed as "neighborhoods." For instance, my site was going to be related to entertainment (specifically movies) so I moved into Hollywood. All of the 'addresses' in Hollywood were full so I moved into the Hollywood Hills. The site is long gone (it disappeared a few years ago) but the address was www.geocities.com/hollywood/hills/2766.

I envisioned a site where peolpe could come to get various types of information about movies: release dates, video release dates, reviews, etc. I called it "Uncle Bubby's Weird World of Wacky Entertainment" (yeah, I know, title lameness and stupidity factor: 9.5). What I envisioned my site would become eventually materialized on the web as The Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Can you imagine little old me and my basic HTML skills putting together something like that? It turned out that it was a lot of work that took a lot of time that I didn't have so I dropped the concept after less than six months (and a few years before IMDB). But I kept the site.

What I did with the site after that still lives on. I still utilize the original concept but the site has taken many forms. It has been edited using Netscape, a couple of different free WYSIWYG editors, MS Frontpage, and is now utilizing a Content Management System. The site has been hosted at many different providers: Some free, some not and sometimes two at a time to have enough storage to accomdate it (I can't name them all). But Bubby's Wav Archive had its humble beginnings at Geocities.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, it seems that Yahoo is quietly shutting down Geocities some time later this year. It's not surprising, really. Beyond the fact that Yahoo, as they often seem to do these days, let it wither away with a lack of promotion, I think times have changed. Like the transition from open-air shopping malls, to enclosed super-malls, to now independent stores connected to each other, the web has changed. With Geocities, you could actually go to a portal and search all of the different neighborhoods. With the strength of modern search engines and the numerous cross-site portals, who needs a portal like Geocities? Plus with the dynamic nature of web sites sometimes, who wants to be locked into a subject matter?

Geocities was good to me and it was there when I needed it. I am sad but not surprised to hear it will soon be no more. Goodbye, old friend.