PalmAddicts

Using the iTouch for surfing at Starbucks

One of the things I enjoy doing on my iPod Touch is surfing the internet at my local Starbucks. Although my main smartphone is the Nokia E71 and it works fine at Starbucks, the bigger screen is more enticing to use. Logging in is a cinch and I love being able to rotate the screen for much better landscape viewing as well.

If anyone asks why I would bring along two different devices with me, that's one of the reasons I'll give. One of the many. ;) Needless to say, I LOVE my iPod Touch, if only just for the internet surfing at Starbucks ;)

Telus iPhone coming next Thursday Nov 5th!

Yes! The moment most of us in Canada have waited for! The Apple iPhone 3GS is coming to Telus Mobility (with Bell Mobility coming soon afterwards) next Thursday, Nov 5th! Not only does that mean that the iPhone 3GS is available on another national carrier in Canada, it also means that Telus Mobility's hspa 3G+ next generation network is operational!

This is HUGE for those of us in Canada. With Telus Mobility going 3G+ (and Bell Mobility coming soon) that means better choices for Canadian consumers with hopefully better plans, more cell phone choices and possibly better customer service. I am excited!

Check out the news release on the iPhone arrival at Telus Mobility here and the info on the new Telus Mobility HSPA 3G+ network here!

New iPod Touch arriving September 7th?

Could there be a reason why there's no big Back To School promotion for iPod Touch or other iPods? Perhaps it's because they're coming out on September 7th? I've been anxiously waiting for a special sale for a while and compared to previous years when the sales came on in mid July, nothing this year. Sure, there's a promo of get an iPod Touch for free if you buy a new Mac but I can't afford a Mac myself.

Knowing Apple, and with the rumors about a new iPod Touch with camera, it's likely they're hoping to try to sell as much iPod Touch now for back to school without a sale and then slash it when the new iPod Touch comes out after school starts.

Sigh. I guess I'll have to wait a little while longer. Depending on the price, I may likely just settle for the older generation instead of the camera since my other smartphones have the camera already.

Loving the free dictionary for Nokia E71

Hello, Sammy and friends! First of all, I'd like to wish a very Happy 10th Birthday to Palm Addicts! Please keep continuing to do what you do best, sharing all the great stories from mobile users all over and keeping us connected!

I just want to let everyone know that I finally took the plunge and bought a Nokia E71. I knew it the day I reviewed it a few months ago that I wanted it and would get it sometime. I just wanted to wait for a great deal. I finally took advantage and bought it and now enjoying it a lot more than I originally did when I reviewed it. Anyway, the point of this post is that I'm really loving the Nokia E71 smartphone and one of the reasons is that I can download free dictionaries (something I'd normally have to pay for, for other devices like Palm, and Windows Mobile). Aside from the language dictionary and translation to English, I can also get the E71 to say the word in the language (although its speech rendering voice sounds more robotic but it's still better than nothing.) It's just one of the things I love about my new Nokia E71 smartphone. You know what they say, "distance makes the heart grow fonder". After being away from the Nokia E71 for so long, I am definitely appreciating and loving it much more than previously.

Staying tuned to my business news via online streaming

Hello, Sammy and friends! Just dropping in for a quick post about one of the things I enjoy with my Treo 750. During the evening when I've turned off the computer, I tend to launch the wi-fi on my Treo with the miniSD Wi-fi card and either check on twitter for the latest tweets or listen to either the online stream of Bloomberg TV or CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 or both. Even when I was traveling, I always enjoy being able to listen to audio stream of CNN and keeping touch with what's in the news. There are other stations and local radio that I also listen to and it's nice to be able to stay connected without a TV or radio nearby. The internet has really made things so much easier and accessible nowadays that I can't imagine life without it!

Quick Reminders are a snap

I know how handy it is to have the camera on my Treo 750 and it's one of those features that convinced me to get a smartphone with a camera. Lately, I've been finding myself using it a lot more than usual. Just the other day, I snapped up pics of items I wanted to note down, especially prices of things I am comparing prices of or just for reference. It's so much easier to snap a photo than open up a notepad app and type it out. I guess I'm getting lazy but with a pic, I just take a few seconds to steady the hand and the image is captured. I not only have a picture of the product, but also the price.

Also, with a pic, I can easily compare one product from another. Sometimes our memory fails and plays tricks on us and having a picture definitely helps (perhaps old age is getting to me ;) . So, I've been snapping away at anything while shopping and of course, never hesitate to snap anything I find interesting during the course of the day.

Sticking with Treo 750 for now

As much as I love the Nokia E71 and wanted it, I am also, like many people out there, worried about this economic climate. Things are not looking good and likely won't be for the rest of the year or years and with that in mind, I am holding off on getting a new device.

With that in mind, I dusted off my old Palm wireless IR keyboard and started using it a bit more plus also taking my old Inspiron 8100 laptop to use while at the local Starbucks. Amazingly with the newest update for the Skyfire browser (0.9) (my favorite mobile browser), it seems that I can now edit and post my blog postings without problems directly, something that I wasn't able to do on a previous version. So, I'm very happy and glad that the latest Skyfire browser has greatly improved, plus now also supports social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. As well, I can listen to music on last.fm plus radio streams without needing an expensive mobile player that takes up extra RAM. No wonder it's my browser of choice. If you haven't checked out the latest Skyfire browser, check it out here.

Do you Twitter? Then check out PeopleBrowsr

Do you Twitter? If you do, I'm sure you are familiar with many of the various different Twitter clients that are out there, especially mobile ones that enable you to Tweet from your iPhone, smartphone or other devices. I've been on Twitter for a while now (my Twitter id is maceyr) and for a while, I've been using TweetDeck (you'll need Adobe Air installed and supports Win, Mac and Linux) on my computer, which is a great way to keep up with tweets as it's automatically updated.

Lately, I've been checking out PeopleBrowsr, which is not a standalone app like TweetDeck, but works on a web browser so that you can log in anywhere you have internet access via the computer. This is very cool and very similar to TweetDeck except that it has so many features. You can have 3 panes of the tweets of people you "follow", people you're "following" and specific search items. And when you close one of the panes, it will load or move over for another pane you may have been checking out. It's very cool! You've got to check it out!

There are so many different clients out there that even if PeopleBrowsr isn't for you, you're sure to find something that is. Check out this wiki for a huge list of clients to try.

And while you're on Twitter, check out Sammy at twitter too and say "hi".

Palm Pre(dicts) a winner!

Being someone who was previously disheartened by many years of Palm disappointments, I was not expecting much, if at all from Ed and co.  Boy, was I wrong!  And I am glad that I was very wrong! This announcement certainly wasn't something I was expecting!  It seems that finally, Palm has listened to its fans and actually has come up with something that could get it back into the game! 

Based on what little info I have read so far from various places and seen the pictures, the new OS and device looks very impressive!  I've never been a fan of total touchscreen interface, and thankfully, the new Pre has a slideout keyboard (whew!) to deal with text entry.  I like how it is multi-touch, that programs can be designed via HTML, CSS, Ajax.  This could really give them the edge they need to get 3rd party developers back on board!  And they definitely need that strong support.  I've always thought that the strength of any operating system is its strong third party support for programs.

The 3.0MP camera with flash (long overdue), 3.5mm audio jack, 320x480 screen, microUSB connector, and many other features that we have all been dying for, finally comes to a device, suprisingly from Palm. My only main worry is that with the "cloud computing" of the new OS, what happens when there is no internet access via Wi-Fi or cellular network?  I hope that I'm not stuck.  This could be a great new beginning for Palm and I'm glad that they are trying their hardest to get "back in the game".  Kudos to Palm!

For many of us Palm fans, and even those of us who have moved on, they have given us something to entice us back!

Nokia Bar Code Reader's handy!

Hi, Sammy!  Too bad to hear that you didn't like the Nokia E71.  Lucky us, then!  ;)

Anyway, one of the cool things I'm enjoying on the trial Nokia E71 device is using the Barcode reader software, which reads 2D barcodes.  If your Nokia device doesn't come with it, check out this link.  At first, I couldn't get it to work, but once I put the camera over a QR code, voila!  the website address comes up and it's very cool!  You've got to try it to see it!  Now, I'm looking for those QR codes and get them scanned!

You can also get a lot of other barcode scanning apps besides the one built-in.  You've got to check it out!  There's also QuickMark for the Windows Mobile or the i-nigma (haven't tried either yet).