Mobile Tech

Cool Custom Ring Tones

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I like talking about technology. I work with it all day, and yet I am still amazed at how some things work, and others that don’t. I have been going back and forth with wanting to keep my Treo and wanting a smaller phone. That is why I switch back and forth between the Treo and the Razr. One program that will keep me coming back to the Treo is mRing, by Motionapps. I love the ability to have distinctive rings for a type of call, a person, or a group of people. I keep coming up with cool ring tones for groups of people.

For over a year and a half I have had the carnival circus music play if anyone from work called. I always get funny looks at the office when it rings. Recently I was bored late one night during an upgrade and I programed the phone to ring with the A-Team theme song when everyone from my group calls. It is really funny. I am also programing the imperial march in for when my boss calls. That is funny for the simple fact that his character does not fit that song, but typically when you think “boss” you think something like Darth Vader!

I am trying to come up with other good tones for others.

Fishing For Treo’s

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Today started out very very bad. How bad you may ask? Or you may be thinking come on Scott, everything is dreary to you… Well today was not good. It started out normal enough. That was until I was swiping my metro card to get on the subway. I heard the subway pulling in, so like any normal New Yorker I rushed down to try and get on the train. I actually get caught in the closing doors. Normally this is good because that means I have a good chance of making it on the train. In this case I did in fact make it on the train. But just as I was in the train I realized I wanted out. Why? My Treo that was on my belt was no longer attached to the belt clip. I had felt it and heard it come off as the doors slammed into me. I thought I saw it go down the crack between the train and the platform but I couldn’t tell. My fingers almost got caught in the door as I tried to get out.

My reaction surprised me. At first I was like, screw it. it is just a phone. I wasn’t even going to go back and look for it. Then I realized I have allot of information on it that I don’t want others to get. So I got off at the next stop, and went back uptown to try and find the phone. When I returned to my home station I was happy to find the Treo lying face down in the dirt next to the tracks. I was actually glad it was there. If it was in the middle of the tracks it would be soaked in water. If it was on the platform someone could have stolen it.

I went to the token booth and asked for help. The really nice lady there was like “honey don’t worry, you are the second person today with that problem” she assured me she already called for a special crew to come out to retrieve it. Sure enough about 45 minutes later 2 guys from the MTA show up with this cripping device and pull my Treo and battery cover out of the dirt. Turns out the cover came off when it crashed.

The good news is that the Treo actaully works. Besides some minor (i am a perfectionist with gear so to me it feels like major) cosmetic defects aside the phone was fine. No damage to the screen at all. I was actually plesantly surprised. Why? I don’t think of palms as rugged. My Nextel Blackberry I carry for work is rugged. I have dropped it at least twice on the subway platform or stairs and it has been fine except for some scratches. The Treo seems like a device that wouldn’t wear well. I am glad I was wrong.

The first thing I did when I got to work was password protect the device when you power it on. This was to calm my stolen data fears. next I need an encryptiion program, and something to encrypt the data on my SD card. Overkill? Maybe, but I want to protect myself, especially since this deviec is with me almost all the time and it is small enough that it can “go missing” quickly. Case in point today.

Phone Switch

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I switched back to the Razr today. I like the smaller phone when I am in and around the office. I don’t need the big Treo for going back and forth to the computer room or a meeting. When I am traveling or not the office I like the Treo so I can use email, and use the PIM, etc. I really don’t see getting rid of one of them. Both fit a purpose. And no a small phone like the Razr and a regular PDA wont work for me either. Tried that. I like the Treo keyboard and when I use it I want it to be a phone also. I just don’t need it all the time.

Back On The Grid

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I would have written about my return to work, but I got back and things were so crazy I was unable to write about anything. I am back now. Things are busy as ever. I need another vacation.

I am back connected. You don’t truly know how reliant you are on some technology until you are without it for a while. Then you don’t realize how much you may want to do without some technology until you return to it and find it more of a nuisance than helpful. For me I am less of a fan of IM than I was before I was disconnected. I like IM, but it gets really annoying when anyone can interrupt your thought process when writing something by popping up on your screen. There are several people I know who know no IM etiquette. Going without my mobile phone was a bit harder. There were a few times I wanted to make a quick call and couldn’t. The first thing I did when I landed on Wednesday was see if I had VM. I only had a manageable 7 of them. Not bad for 6 days. Unfortunately I had like 500 emails when I got home. I could do without email (or some email) for a while, but it is still something that I use and is helpful more than harmful.

Now that I am back online, I hope to get some more writing done.

Mobile Phone Etiquette

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Even if Sprint isn’t your provider (there not mine), you should take the Sprint Wireless Courtesy Test. I scored a respectable 84, but it suggested some minor changes to my behavior. I probably wont change. I do allot of the “wrong things” when I answer calls for work issues. I know I shouldn’t, but if they are important I will answer.

You will be surprised what is considered rude by others. Living in NYC I see rude people all the time. Its not that New Yorkers are any more rude than other people. Their just happens to be so many people around, that one out of 100 on a subway car will be rude. It is just the law of averages! In a small town with everyone spread out, you get a smaller chance of someone being an ass.

The New Razr

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I bought a new Razr (Motorola V3 Razr) last week. After a week of issues with getting it shipped, the place I bought it from on eBay came through and dropped it to me via Fedex Saturday delivery. I guess they had issues getting the phone unlocked like the auction said. After a (minor) fit by me the guy got the new phone to me before my trip. I charged it up yesterday and I am now trying to use it as my main phone. The Treo is not going away just yet. Since I cannot find a palm with a good keyboard the Treo will remain at least as a PDA for a while. I also do find times where I like to put the SIM in it and use it instead of the Razr. I did that with my old Sony Ericsson T-610 for the past week and a half.

First impressions on the Razr is NICE! Besides the address book, I find the phone very nice. Slim, good sound quaility, nice screen, etc. It was trivial to sync with my Powerbook.

Like I said the only issue I have is the address book. I don’t like that it doesn’t have 1 contact for each person, with a sub section for each phone number. Instead it has a different entry for every phone number for every contact.

Setting up the Razr to be a wireless modem for my Powerbook was also simple. I found the scripts for the phone allong with some nice tips off of some guys blog and he was dead on.

Mac or Thinkpad?

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Mac or Thinkpad T-43? What do I take with me for a week away? For personal trips I would take the Mac hands down. Now I am going away for work next week. On one hand I get the Thinkpad from work, and I like it. On the other hand I have been working off the Powerbook as my primary machine since I got it. I use it as my main email, web, chat, and document editing platform. That is allot of my day, but not all of it. I still use my Thinkpad or desktop PC for terminal sessions (not a huge fan of the mac RDP client, and the MMC plug in for remote desktop still rocks), and VMWare. That is allot of my day also.

So what to do? The Thinkpad has IP Communicator on it, so I can VPN into work and then use my phone extension. My powerbook has Skype, and the Xten VOIP client for Broadvoice if I choose to setup my account for it. I can use bluetooth headsets with both machines, but the mac works better hands down. The Thinkpad has a bigger screen, and since it is work property I am less concerned about beating it up (but I know I still care so that is not such a big issue). Of course the bigger screen is also harder to see since its resolution is so small. Bad for me and my glasses:(

Thinkpad had good battery life and I have 2 batteries. Shall I go on? I am thinking if the Powerbook works fine with the new Cisco VPN client I will just take it. I have grown accustom to using it. Even though somewhere in the back of my head part of me says take the Thinkpad.

Why do I care what I take? Why should you? For me it is what will I use as my lifeline to the office while I am away for a week. Hopefully wont need it, but if I do it is a big deal. Why should others care? I don’t know. I felt like writing about what I was thinking. Also it kind of boils down to the age old question, Mac or Windows? For me the answer is both if you can, but if you have to choose I think I will edge over to the Mac side!!!

Bye Bye Treo, Maybe?

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I got fed up with my Treo 650 this weekend, and it may be time for it to hit ebay. I am not sure if my problem is T-Mobile or the Treo but I had problems with people not hearing me yesterday. I heard them but they could not hear me. A phone reboot solved that problem. Today I rebooted the phone for some reason (at 7PM) and I got notification that I had 6 messages from that morning. All of the messages were import work related issues that needed to be addressed quickly. Well needless to say they weren’t.

I have had issues off and on for a while. Rebooting the phone solves lots of issues, but should I have to do that? Jayson thinks I should wipe all the extra software I have (i have allot) and see if the phone works fine then. He is right, and the phone probably will work but the whole point of a palm phone is the ability to use the “SMART” features. If my distinctive ring or other apps wont work, why would I want a big phone like that?

The problem is what to do? I have a Blackberry that I need to carry for work, so I get my realtime email. I have been using my SE T610 off and on for a week. I broke down and started using it tonight full time until I can find a permanent replacement to the Treo, or until I calm down and start using it again. I already ordered a Motorola V3 Razr off of ebay. I have been eyeing it for a while and I figured now was the time to get one. I will continue to use the Treo as a palm for now. When I finally decide to dump it I will need to find a new PDA. The Razr should be able to connect to most new PDA’s via Bluetooth so I hope to keep some of my wireless internet features. I will find out when it arrives later this week.

Sleep

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My sleep habits are all screwed up now that I worked nights two days in a row. Tonight I don’t have to do an overnight. We got allot done yesterday so we didn’t have to go in today. I do have to go back one more time on Thursday night. I got home at 6AM this morning and slept till 2PM. Now it is midnight and I am not tired. I figured I would write a bit and then hopefully sleep would come.

My building’s maintenance crew gave me a new AC unit today. The on in my living room was not cooling. Now I am nice and cold while I sit here and write! When I called they said it would be a while for them to send someone out so I ended up going to the office for a few hours. It was that or goto Starbucks and pay for internet. At work, it is free (for me)!

I went over to Macy’s after work to try and do some shopping, but the lines were really long for the changing room. I decided to try back some other time.

I also went over to the Cingular store. I still think they are an evil company, but I bought a pre-paid SIM card to test out their service. I have been having intermittent reception issues with my T-Mobile phone. So much so that this week I have been using my work Nextel and leaving forwarding calls to that. The pre-paid SIM was cheap, so I will try it for a few days and see if I like it or not.

I also re-organized part of my living room. I had for a while 2 monitors on my desk. They took up allot of space. I had another half of the L of my desk with nothing but piles of crap on it. I cleaned it off, bought a power strip and put my 20″ Apple Cinema display on the other desk. Now I have my powerbook plugged into that and I have more room. I also moved my printer to a shelf out of the way. I still need to clean up my place, but I am lazy since I have been out of it with these weird hours. I keep telling myself I will clean this weekend.

Besides that, I tried to rest allot today. More exciting things this weekend, I hope!

More Nice Palm Software

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I am trying out the 30 day trial on two awesome pieces of Palm software. Both sync with my mac! The first is an upgrade to something that I have had for years, Landware’s Pocket Quicken 2.5. the new version is slicker looking. Not sure if the added features are worth the upgrade, but since I want to use it with Quicken 2005 on my Mac they require the upgrade. If you use quicken to keep track of your finances having this to make quick updates on the road is invaluable. Without it I would have no clue where my money went!

The other program I am using is Splash ID 3.x from Splash Data. It is a Password Safe like utility that has a Windows, Mac, Palm, & Pocket PC clients. I can use the DB on my mac and sync with my palm and then use it on my Windows machine. It is not free like Password Safe, but it works everywhere I need it to, and it has an import/export function. It took me 20 minutes to export my website links, and user names out of my access db and imported them into Splash ID. Now everything is secure and safe!

As it stands now I will be buying both products when their trials wear off!