Category: Tech

New Cell Phone from NET10

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I was about to start watching Cirque Du Freak earlier today and before I could hit play on the DVD remote control, Darrin told me that he had to go to Sears to pay his Sears card.  While we were there he said “I wonder if they sell cell phones” because he has a job interview tomorrow (he finally got a call back) and if he gets the job then he will need a new cell phone.  My old 2002 Nokia 3390 cell phone isn’t working out anymore.  The battery never keeps it’s charge anymore and it’s just too old for him to look professional.

So we get there and see a display for Verizon with prepaid cell phones and their phone cards.  The phone itself was only $20 but it was only 1 style of phone.  We went downstairs to the electronics department where they have many different wireless providers.  We were looking at the pamphlets for Verizon and the plan was too confusing.  Next to it was Virgin Mobile but they only had expensive phones.  One was a Kyocera Loft and the other was an LG Rumor Touch.  I don’t remember what it was, I do remember how expensive it was though.

Darrin went and got a sales clerk to get the Virgin Kyocera Loft phone out so he could buy it but thought to ask which company was better.  The sales clerk pointed out that each phone call was .25¢ per minute.  That’s a bit much and it was a good thing that he found that because Darrin was about to buy it.

He asked which one has the least cost per minute and the sales clerk pointed out the NET10 display.

It was a good thing that he showed us the Net10 phones because number 1 they were cheaper.  Darrin almost spent $70 on the Virgin Kyocera Loft and he almost spent $100 on minutes for it.

The phone that he did buy was the Samsung T401G which has a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  It was on sale for $59 (normally $79) and he also bought a $60 phone card which is 600 minutes.  He got a bonus of 170 minutes as well when I activated it.

For some reason it didn’t have a memory card so he’ll have to buy that extra if he wants to take pictures.  He just needs it for making/receiving calls at work, he doesn’t need games.  He connected to AOL from his phone already but it used minutes so that’s not a good idea for him.  If he had a monthly plan with unlimited web then that’s one thing but he chose pre-paid.

Text messaging is only 3¢ per text which is ok.  I don’t know who he’s gonna text though since I don’t have a cell phone lol.

I hope that he gets the job, keep your fingers crossed.

Update: He did get the job and he is very happy there.

Nook Color with Touch Screen

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die right now.  I just got an email from Barnes & Noble with this subject:

“Introducing NOOKcolor — The Amazing Sequel to the NOOK You Love.”

Oh really?  Are you joking me?  If they could’ve told me this in September BEFORE I spent $150 on the Nook Wifi, I would’ve had an incentive to wait a little bit longer.  This new NOOKcolor is $249 and has many more features than my current Nook doesn’t have.  Such as it’s a color touch screen, you can see magazines and newspaper in color, kids books come alive at the touch of a finger (like I care) and one thing I saw in the video when I clicked the link in the email is that you can have it read to you and it’s NOT a robot voice like the Kindle.

This one is way better than mine because it can do portrait and landscape which the Kindle can do but the Nook I have can’t.  It has an 8GB card along with the ability to add another.  Mine only has 1GB but I can still add to it.  Although, I don’t see that I would ever need to but with the NOOKcolor I can see needing a bigger card because I’m sure the books with audio are bigger files.

Another cool feature is videos in your books…  In the video they showed a cookbook and you can read the recipe but then the image for it is a video where you can see how to make the recipe.  That would be so cool.  What would be even cooler is newspapers where the image for the article is an actual video of what happened.  The newspaper could set up a news station type set with anchors who read the articles with video of what happened at the scene, just like the news on tv has.  Or a magazine could have a video of the interview with the stars and their ads could be a video commercial.

I see in the Barnes & Noble website a new newsstand which is “coming soon” so I think they are going to add more magazines finally.  Right now they only have a few.  I subscribe to PC Magazine for $1.49 per month (or per magazine) but I was hoping they would have a broader choice.  With the NOOKcolor they might have more magazines and I think that would be great for Darrin who loves to get the magazines from the grocery store.  I think if he had a subscription to them then he would save so much money.  But that means he has to get the new NOOKcolor, or he can use Nook for PC.

Well, it’s obvious that I can’t afford to buy it, I can barely buy groceries right now but who knows, maybe by this time next year they will have a NOOKcolor 2 for $149 that I can save up for.  Hey it could happen.  Last year the Nook was $249 and then it came down to $149 this year and that’s the one I have.  So maybe I’ll bide my time for another year and save money so I can get the NOOKcolor for Darrin for his birthday, that is if they go down.

I don’t have to have color, I really like my Nook.  I think that the new NOOKcolor is an LCD screen, it looks lit up like the little LCD screen at the bottom of mine.  I don’t think I can read from an LCD screen.  It’s too much for my eyes.  Darrin would like that I think, last night he went to read a book on my Nook and he asked me when the screen was going to light up for him to read it.  I had to tell him that it doesn’t light up, it’s e-ink, not LCD.

Shopping for an eBook Reader

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, Kindle, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

Someone I follow on tweeted this link today. Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers. Naturally I had to look because I too want to buy an e-book reader. I have wanted one ever since they first came out but never could afford one because they were in the $400 – $600 range (around 2006).

In November 2009 I started blogging for pay (via PayPerPost and Blogsvertise) with the intention of saving money for buying an e-book reader, Kindle or Nook. Preferably a Nook because of the color screen at the bottom but it didn’t really make any difference. They were both around $265 or so back then.

I had a lot of trouble saving the money for one because my monthly income is so low that when I run out of grocery money I ended up taking the blogging money from PayPal to buy food. Since I have a PayPal debit card it makes it so much easier to spend the money.

9 months has gone by since I made the commitment to save the money and I still don’t have an e-book reader. However, the thing that I wanted the most out of an e-book reader was a lower price to justify my purchase.

eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony Reader have all gone dramatically down in price, down to a price that I can finally afford.

Unfortunately, they still don’t fit my needs. What I want is an e-book reader that will accept a lot of formats like .lit, .prc, .pdf, .mobi and .epub. What I want is for an e-book reader that would allow me to read those formats and still be able to use their dictionary. I don’t know if they all let you to use the dictionary with just a .pdf file which is what makes my decision so difficult.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite – Latest Generation:

Pros: The new Amazon Kindle is stylish. I love the graphite color. I like the keypad on the bottom, it’s small enough that I’m ok with it considering I would probably be typing on it occasionally when searching for keywords, making notes and searching for books in the Kindle store. They have games on it, which I don’t really care about, I just want it to read but it is good to know. The price dropped down to $139 and has free 2-day free shipping which is awesome. The battery works for a full month without charging with the wi-fi turned off which is great.

Cons: It does allow me to view my .pdf books but that’s it and I can’t use the dictionary for definitions which is a big negative for me. I mean sure I can’t do that with a paper book but this is electronic and I want that ability. Also, it does not have an SD card for adding more books.

NOOK Wi-Fi, eReader, eBook Reader – Barnes & Noble:

Pros: The B&N Nook is also very stylish with its cool color touchscreen at the bottom which also has a keyboard. The screen goes black while you are reading to keep you from being distracted. It does allow me to add a .pdf, .epub and .pdb file and has a MicroSD slot. The cool thing about the Nook is that you can lend books to your friends and if I had any that had a Nook then we could lend each other books. If you are in the B&N store you can browse through a book for free for 1 hour per day. The price dropped down to $149 and although it’s $10 more than Amazon it is still a good price.

Cons: The Nooks battery is only 10 days unlike the Kindle which is 30 days. The color touchscreen on the bottom is too slow for impatient people like me. Although as I said it allows .pdf, .epub and .pdb files it doesn’t allow the others. All my ebooks are in all the other formats I mentioned above.

Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition – Dark Blue:

The price of this is different at the Sony site as opposed to the Amazon site. Amazon charges $136.99 with free shipping but according to the Sony site it’s $149.99. I would buy it from Amazon.

Pros: Although it is a little bit stylish in the dark blue color, it isn’t as stylish as the Kindle or Nook. The Sony Pocket Edition does allow multiple formats such as .pdf, .epub, MS Word, BBeB Book (?) and other text file formats. It doesn’t say the others. The ebook store Sony uses is the Reader store which I assume is from Sony, check out books from public libraries and access over one million free public domain titles from Google Books, sharing sites and other online stores and publishers websites.

I don’t know if that means I can access the Rainbow eBooks website or not, I hope it does because that is what I want.

Cons: One of the things I don’t like about this is that it doesn’t have a keyboard for typing and I don’t know how you type anything when looking up a book to buy.

I don’t know if this should go in pro or con, it’s charge only lasts 2 weeks but I mean seriously, I can charge it every 2 weeks.

This is a tough and huge decision, one that I can think about until the first week of September when I will finally have the money saved up to buy one. I’m leaning more toward the Sony reader though but I would like it if people would leave a comment telling me what they think of each of these readers to give me more to think about. Keeping in mind that I buy a lot of books from Rainbow eBooks and ebooks.com.

Smell-enhanced augmented reality food makes every meal a gourmet feast | DVICE

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

via Smell-enhanced augmented reality food makes every meal a gourmet feast | DVICE.

Ok this is a little bit strange but could be useful if there is a shortage of food.  You could make crappy unflavored cookies with very little calories but it will make you think you are eating something very tasty filled with tons of calories like a chocolate cake or a Twinkie.  Or maybe if you want a pizza it will make you think you are eating a small round pizza lol.  I don’t know.

PVC Teardrop Bicycle Trailer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Tech, TravelLeave a comment

Awhile ago I posted a link from Dvice.com where this guy built a trailer for his bicycle to go to Burning man:

Tiny bicycle-towed house is self-sufficient

Ok so when I looked at the article in the Dvice website it had a link for Ecofriend so I clicked that then scrolled to the next link for TinyHouseDesign.  I scrolled down that article about the same trailer until I found that this person created a PVC teardrop bicycle trailer design.

pvctrailerIsn’t that just the most awesome thing you ever seen?  And someone is building it right now.  Roy the PVC guy is building it in his garage.  He just has all the PVC put together but scroll down to the comments section on that page to see my comments.  I offered a couple suggestions that I think will make it more interesting.

I’ve been thinking about this WAY too much.  If I didn’t read the Dvice.com website I would’ve never found this.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad because now I’m obsessed.  I don’t know if it’s a good obsession though lol.

I can see some practical applications with this.  If you are traveling the country like Crazy James from Big Brother 9 then this can come in handy because you can just pull over wherever you are and go to bed.  You don’t have to set up a tent or get a motel room, just pull over, climb in and go to sleep.

The guy who went to Burning man, his trailer had solar panels so during the day it collects electricity I’m guessing into a battery and that powers the fan and it could charge your cell phone, mp3 player, keep your laptop powered up etc.  He also had a built in urinal but you have to stand outside to use it.  You pee into a funnel that goes into a 1 gallon water bottle.  I can see a problem with that, indecency maybe?  I mean especially if a cop was driving by and you were peeing into a trailer on the outside lol.  All you would need is one of those urinal things that they give you in the hospital, you just sit inside the trailer, close the door, open your shorts and pee lol.  But he doesn’t have anything for #2 but I’m sure you could find a way.

Actually if you go to campmor.com they sell camp gear and they have a toilet that you can sit on but it’s afoldable chair with a hole in it with a tent and you can poop into a plastic bag then tie the bag up when you are finished and throw it in the trash.  You could also dig a hole, crap in the hole then bury it lol.  Also they sell these shower enclosures so you can take a private shower with a 5 gallon water bottle that you fill with the lake water then let it sit in the sun all day so you can take a warm shower.

Well I don’t have a real reason for having one of these trailers but it really does look neat.  I think that it would be great for a homeless person to have one of these, that is if they can’t get their hands on an EDAR.  I can see building one of these just in case you know?  Just in case I fall under hard times and all of a sudden I’m out on the street with nowhere to go.  I’d at least have a little trailer to live in.  I could take it over to the bike trail where there are all those trees at Manor St.  I see a homeless guy sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag.  I hope it never comes to that but you never know what might happen.

GPS Gives You 4 Days of Your Life Back

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

Study: GPS gives you four days of your life back – Source Dvice.com

This is a very interesting article about how a GPS can give you back 4 days of your life per year.  How can they make such a claim?  Because when you use a GPS to get around it can help you to avoid getting lost as well as avoiding traffic jams.  So basically you get to your destination faster, you use less gas, you waste less time and spew less carbon dioxide into the air.

I personally think that this is a true claim.  Just yesterday I printed directions from google maps to drive to a customers house to deliver some packages for Darrin, he works at a lighting store and he had to make 2 deliveries.  I went with him so we took his SUV instead of his work van because he really can’t have anyone in the van with him.  So anyway, I was telling him where to go according to the printout and we almost got lost because of the street names.  There is Stine and New Stine, we were supposed to turn left on New Stine and stay on Stine when it changes but I had him turn on Stine instead lol.  It’s very confusing.  We got all the way to the dead end and were like where the heck are we?

We ended up getting there but we could’ve gotten there sooner if Darrin had a GPS instead.

Having a GPS not only saves time, gas and the environment but it also saves money on paper and printer ink.

Hypospray Is Reality

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

Needle-free injection systems takes a cue from air bags – from Dvice.com

This is awesome.  They finally have the Star Trek hypospray.  I don’t know what took them so long.  This will be great for diabetics who don’t really like sticking themselves everyday to get their insulin injections.

The days of sharing needles for drug users will be over too, that is if they can get one of these.  I’m not promoting it, just saying that there won’t be the risk of contamination of needles and exposing people to the AIDS virus.

Video Advertising Comes To Print Media

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

A Los Angeles company creates a video player that can be installed in the pages of a magazine.

This has to be the coolest thing to happen to magazines since well, the magazine.  But unfortunately the only people who are going to get this will be those who have subscribed and only New York and Los Angeles.  This will be the beginning of a new era for magazines.  It sorta reminds me of Harry Potter except that in Harry Potter the images don’t speak and it’s all over the newspaper not just in 1 page.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8F5wWuKFs

Amazon Wireless

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

amazonwirelessAmazon has added a new service to their website called Amazon Wireless.  This is kind of neat because you can choose your wireless company, which by the way they only have 2 so far which are AT&T and Verizon Wireless, then choose a phone then choose whether you want a new individual account or if you are already part of an existing individual account or family account.

Most of the phones are only a penny and so you basically get a free phone but when you click that you already have an existing account the price may go up to about $50-$75 or more depending on the phone.  I found that certain phones you still get for just a penny with an already existing plan.

I think that’s great that they will give you a free phone if you are upgrading your cell phone but not your plan because it just makes it easier to get a new phone.  I’m sure people don’t want to upgrade because they just can’t afford to so this makes it easier.

I didn’t see any iPhones listed but I did see Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Bold.  They also have some other well known companies like Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony to name a few.

Now here is my question and I hope someone will find this via google blog search so they can answer.  I have a pre-paid cell phone with T-Mobile.  Of course they don’t offer T-Mobile yet but it says coming soon.  But when they do get T-Mobile I wonder if I can buy a new phone for my pre-paid plan with GPS and Mp3 capability.  I wonder if it would work.  I don’t need internet, I just want to be able to have the GPS and Mp3 along with being able to call people.

I currently have a Nokia 3390 cell phone pre-paid plan with T-Mobile that I’ve had since 2002.  The reason I got a pre-paid plan is for 2 reasons.  #1 being that a friend of ours in Hollywood was always driving to Malibu to visit her mom (this was 1997-1999, she passed away in 2000) and she couldn’t get reception and she was having nothing but problems but to be fair she knows that she didn’t have reception due to the mountains that she was driving through but she blamed it on the cell phone company anyway.  She insisted on getting out of her contract to go with another company and she had to pay big bucks to get out of it which was dumb because she had the same issue with another company lol.  So it’s for this very reason that Darrin forbade me, yes, I said forbade, from getting a contract.

Reason number 2 is that I have a little to no credit score since I never really established credit in my late teens.  No credit cards means bad credit score which means the cell phone companies will only give me a cell phone with the highest paid plan which makes absolutely no sense to me.  They should offer me their cheapest plan so they know they get their money every month.  Also, I’m on disability so I can’t really afford a monthly plan fee.  All I really can afford is the pre-paid because I only pay for minutes when I need them and I don’t use it that much to warrant buying a lot of minutes.

Darrin has taken over the phone though because he needs a phone at work so when he’s driving if he needs to make a call to AAA for a tow or whatever then he has a phone.  Also if he has to call 911 then he has a phone.  He usually uses it to call me at the house on his way home.  But he’s always asking me to go to map quest and tell him the directions that he writes down and I think it would be much easier if he had a GPS on the phone.

Sorry I rambled on but you have to know the full story of why I’m asking lol.  Thanks for your response in advance.

TED Sixth Sense Technology

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

Watch this, this is our future. Try to keep with the video too, I promise you that you are going to say “WHOA!” really loud and you might find yourself clapping and laughing too.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg