With just about two weeks until Christmas, I am getting some questions about what fun tech toys would make good Christmas gifts. So here are a few things I feel will be a hit this holiday season.
- Nintendo Wii
- Over a year after it’s release, Wii is still selling very well and is almost impossible to find. It’s a fun system to play and there are games for everyone. And with new and upcoming releases like Mario Galaxy, Mario Striker Charged and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, who could pass it up?
- iPod Touch
- While I am not a fan of the iPod or Apple in general, the iPod Touch will be a hot item this year. It’s an iPod with internet capalbilities so you can download music right to your iPod. Or check your email. Or sports scores. Or the weather. You get the picture. As for me, I have my sights set on a new Zune.
- HD Player
- As prices drop for both HD DVD and Blu-Ray players, these should be a pretty hot item this year. I personally am a fan of HD DVD because of it’s backwards compatibility with DVDs and the fact that it’s supported by Xbox with the HD DVD Player drive. I though I guess it comes down to the movies and tv shows HD DVD and Blu-Ray have to offer.
posted on December 9th, 2007 in Tech, Thoughts| No Comments »
As we approach August and people gear up to go back to school, it is time to think of what essentials students need at school. As a fresh college graduate reflecting on what got me through, I’ve realized there were a number things most colleges don’t tell you about. I’ve complied a list of items that were essential for me and I’d imagine apply to most college students.
- A Laptop
- Here is the big ticket item. I’ve written before on why colleges students should buy a laptop over a desktop; portability around campus, coming home, etc. It’s really about the freedom to take your laptop with you. Going away to college gives you a lot of freedoms, and the ability to work where you want should be one of them. The laptop I linked is one I recommended to my friend and my brother. If you do not like HPs, I’d at least recommend these specs: dual core processor, 80+GB Hard drive, at least 1.5GB RAM.
- An Mp3 Player
- On the topic of portability, one thing that I took everywhere with me is my mp3 player. I do not own an iPod for personal reasons (I don’t like them, I think they die to easily and I’m not a fan of iTunes), but I’ve linked one here in the title, and my personal one, a Creative Zen Vision:M. Either way, every college student needs one for use while studying, at the gym, or for some quite time in the dorm room.
- A Good Set of Headphones
- One thing I used (and still use) a lot are my big, over-ear headphones that drown out all ambient noise. Fact of the matter is if you’re going to use an mp3 player while studying, you’ll need headphones like these. Even studying in the crowded office where I worked, I was able to concentrate better with these headphones. Though admittedly if you will be using an mp3 player for the gym, these might be better. I have both sets, and use them both a good amount.
- A Digital Camera
- This is something I lacked my freshman year, and regretted it a lot. You will want a small point and shoot digital camera to take pictures when you are out with friends, or even of just random stuff on campus. This is another thing no college student can live without (or at least no college student with a social life).
- A USB Flash Drive
- Very important, especially if you will be working at multiple computers (and most students do). This will allow you to take your important papers, spreadsheets and presentations with you where ever you go.
- An External Hard Drive
- You wouldn’t believe how many people I know came to me saying things like “Joey, my computer crashed. How do I get my stuff back?” My usual response was, “It looks like you’ve lost everything.” That’s why I can’t stress enough the importance of backing up your information. A big enough external will allow you to back up all of your documents and any other non-recoverable information. I learned finally after my second hard drive crash.
- A Good Planner
- This is one they usually tell you about when going to school, but it’s still important to find a good one- one that works for you. It took me about 2 years to actually find a good one. I’ll always recommend a PDA because I’m a computer nerd, but as long as you find one that helps you stay organized, you’ll be in good shape.
- A Cell Phone
- Probably an unnecessary item to list, but essential none the less. A cell phone is a complete necessity for any college student, especially because now campuses (like the University of Scranton) are doing away with land lines in dorm rooms.
- A File Cabinet or Box
- Going back to staying organized, something that will help you keep track of the multitudes of papers, forms, etc. is important, especially because you don’t know which forms and papers will come in handy down the line.
- A Few Good Movies
- My Freshman year, we watched just about a movie a week. Good for when you don’t feel like going out, or just putting one on in the background, it’s always good to have a few movies around. And not just classics. Go for movies people probably have never heard of. My Freshman year I was introduced to Donnie Darko, Boondock Saints and Poolhall Junkies.
Phew! I know it’s quite an expensive list, but these are all things you will want while at college, even if you don’t realize it at first. The surprises for me were the Flash Drive, the Digital Camera and the file box. But once I got them, I used (and still use) them over and over again. Are there any essentials I am missing? Or maybe something you feel shouldn’t be on here?
posted on July 18th, 2007 in Tech, Thoughts|
Week 2 into being a Blackberry user and I am still very happy with the device. Two major things I have tested since the last post are using the device for multimedia and tethering it to my computer to use it as a modem.
- Multimedia
- One thing to note about the 8830 is you need a microSD card to add music, video, mp3 ring tones and photos to it. This I feel is a pretty good precaution to protect the on board memory, which is 64MB, and should be reserved for applications and the OS. I was able to buy a microSD extremely cheap on Amazon. Once that came, I went right to work. After figuring out the media manager program for the Blackberry, I loaded my old ring tone onto it, an album and a number of 7 megapixel photos (1 or 2 MB each). The music player is a pretty nice program and playing music in the background doesn’t really slow the device down (not to the point where it’s frustrating anyway). The pictures, however, did take a long time to render on the device, though working with smaller images was much faster. If you shrink photos you want on the device down, there is no problem there either. As far as battery life while using the media player, that is something you need to look out for. It does not drain extremely fast, but faster than normal. My philosophy on the matter is while it’s nice to have both combined, I’d still keep phone and mp3 player as separate devices.
- Tethering
- One feature I was really excited about was using my Blackberry as a modem. This is something you do have to pay extra for through Verizon, and I figured at $15/month, I’d give it a shot for one month (we don’t have cable set up in the new house at school yet either, so it’s applicable). After activating it on my account, and installing the VZAccess software, connecting was as easy as connecting the blackberry to the computer. VZAccess automatically connects to the internet.
- Now of course this won’t be as fast as say cable, but it wasn’t as slow as I thought it would be. I was able to visit most websites I normal visit with little lag, and I was able to ftp (though that took longer than I would have liked). I’m not so sure I’d enjoy do work over this connection because of the longer load times and ftp times, but it’s nice to know I’d be able to if I had to.
My over all experience with the two functions were good ones, and two more reasons the 8830 is worth the buy, and much better than my Treo. My friend just picked up an 8830 also, so I will probably be doing a write up on Blackberry to Blackberry communication, including using Blackberry Messenger.
posted on July 15th, 2007 in Reviews, Tech| No Comments »
I’ve been using my Treo now for just about two years. Don’t get me wrong; when I first got it, it was like nothing I’ve ever used. It was new and exciting. The phone before the treo was boring and bland. It didn’t give me what I needed. The Treo changed all that. But now, nearly two years into it, things have gotten boring; stagnant. That’s when I saw the Blackberry 8830. Smaller than the treo and so many more features. After spending the weekend with it, here are some of my thoughts.
- The usability is great That ball is amazing and makes everything so much easier to navigate.
- Syncing: I admit it took me a while to start the syncing process with my computer (more specifically, Outlook). But once I got my number sitched over, everything became easier. Syncing with Outlook is a sinch.
- Application Installation: Really easy. Most of the time I can do it right from the Blackberry.
- Email: I was set up in litterally 2 minutes flat. Much easier than emailing on the Treo. Plus, email to the blackberry is instant, and even beats it to the inbox sometimes. I also picked up GMail for the Blackberry, which is excellet. If I want to access my physical gmail box, it’s now an application on my phone.
- Messaging in general: All messages go to one place. I like this. Missed call? Voice Mail? Email? TXT? All under “messages.” I don’t need to be clicking around to view everything. And with the “Today” theme that comes on the phone, all I need to do is press one button.
- Did I mention how awesome that ball is?
- Instant Messaging: I have the ability to use Google Talk, and through an app called JiveTalk, AIM, Yahoo! and MSN. These applications are very nice looking and easy to use. Plus they look like the real apps, which makes the experience even better.
- It comes with a Password Keeper application. How cool is that?
- Battery Life: I haven’t charged this since 10:00am. Going on 14 hours, and moderatly heavy use (I was testing battery life today), the batter stands at 65% full. The Treo can’t match that in the least.
- Size: Noticably lighter and thinner than the Treo. While slightly wider, you don’t notice that in your pocket, just when it comes to looking at the screen.
As you can see, I am quite a fan. It hasn’t frozen on me yet either, which is a big plus considering I was running a lot on it today. In the coming days/weeks, I will be testing out the multimedia side of the 8830- as soon as my microSD card comes in. I also plan on looking into using the tethering feature to see if I can actually use this bad boy as a modem, and the built-in GPS feature that’s advertised.
posted on July 10th, 2007 in Reviews, Tech|
From Engadet Mobile:
Joshua Topolsky
Went back to: Palm Treo 650
“I returned the phone because I couldn’t find a way to justify spending $600 on what amounts to a closed system. It’s like buying a laptop you can’t tweak or put software on. Also, I was highly annoyed by the keyboard and EDGE (although the iPhone’s implementation seems faster than my Treo). I went back to my old, ugly, totally awesome Treo 650, which I can happily do anything I want with and to!”
There’s one for the Treo! I feel it’s an empty victory, however, because yesterday I made the switch from a Treo 650 to a Blackberry 8830. I’ll post on it soon, but first impressions: It’s amazing.
posted on July 7th, 2007 in Tech| No Comments »
