Into the world of Smartphones, Netbooks and Hybrid mobile devices

I recently switched to Sprint's network after getting tired of AT&T's "GoPhone" service and it was the result of a greater interest in mobility concerning online connectivity on the go. Unlike Uska who's experienced the conveniences of mobile internet for more than two years now, I on the other hand have had little experience, but I would like to share some thoughts on what I think of the current mobile market and my experiences.

I am a big fan of portability and mobility in anything technological combined with a strong pragmatic idealism towards my mobile devices. My first start was with the Eee Pc Surf 701 2gb which was around the time Uska began his journey with a mobile device when he got his first smartphone, the Blackberry Pearl.

At that moment a line was currently drawn between me and him as we debated on the pros and cons of each device. My experiences with the Eee Pc 701 were quite delightful, but like with Uska's Blackberry Pearl, we both quickly felt that the devices aged quite quickly. Rim quickly started releasing higher specced phones and more competition began to emerge as the smartphone market began to expand. On the other side of things the Netbook market/mania had just begun, with higher specced machines rolling out the year after. Nevertheless I enjoyed my netbook fully for like a year and a half, and saw my productivity shift from predominantly being a desktop user, to switching back and forth without much effort. Some people have experienced this change as well when they got their Ipads this year. Mobile computing of this sort is incredibly practical in our lives, and for students and some professionals, having a computer that's so light, inexpensive, small and practical became a great help in everyday tasks. From notetaking to idle internet browsing in Santa Rosa mall, from writing essays to watching the latest remix of Chocolate Rain, the netbook quickly became a device I found myself connected to constantly. As for Uska, his addiction (note: heavy dependence) to his Blackberry became quite clear and his computer habits changed a lot as well.

After calling a truce in our sometimes heated debates on smartphone vs netbook, time passed and that brings us to today's increasingly mobile market: Netbooks being sold by phone carriers with 3G connectivity as well as Smartphones like the HTC Evo pioneering 4G in cellphones and serving as a Hotspot at the same time. Last but not least, the new tablet mania that seemed to have become the highlight in the beginning of this year.

The first smartphone I owned was the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic. I have to admit that I was amazed as to how practical having a smartphone could be, and like Uska foretold, it would feed my growing need to obtain a contract based agreement with a carrier and have an unlimited data plan. By this time I had stopped using my Eee PC greatly, mostly due to the fact that browsing the internet now is not the same as 2-3 years ago. Modern websites rely heavily on Flash, and browsing on an low specced netbook has become quite a hassle. The Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic was a refreshing take on mobile computing for me, offering me the advantages of a smartphone and the portability I wished. Despite Symbian's shortcomings, I still consider to this day that it's an excellent phone. In fact, it supports Skype and supported the Google Buzz layer long before the HTC Hero, which I find pretty ironic. It does not change though that the OS is quite aged and is by no means flashy. So it finally came down to my switch to Sprint and being and open source linux fan, I was naturally leaning more to an Android phone than an Iphone.

The HTC Hero has proven to be an excellent phone as well. Though I do miss having Skype for long distance calls and I found the wait for Android 2.1 quite annoying. The phone lags quite a bit sometimes but the advantages of the Android OS are great. Now with the HTC Evo being released soon, I am already considering changing phones since the Android + HTC Sense combination has worked out so well. Not to mention that cameras in phones are a great plus for me because I dislike having to carry a digital camera with me, so the fact I can record in 720p is quite a treat. Having the phone work as a mobile hotspot is also attractive, and I might just get such data plan if I get a higher specced netbook/laptop/tablet later on. Surprisingly, Uska got an Iphone 3Gs not too long ago and now I have an Android powered device, we just love being on opposite sides... He was in CDMA, I was in GSM and that switched as well.

To this day I still don' t use my netbook half as much as I used to due to the performance issues I mentioned. Not to mention the smartphone I have can do a lot of the things the netbook can do and it has internet all the time. But I do feel inclined on getting a new netbook or tablet to complete my mobile device arsenal and the trinity of a geek: Smartphone, laptop/netbook/tablet and desktop. Like I said in the beginning, I'm a big fan of portability and mobility, so tablets quickly became quite the attraction for me this year, and more importantly, the line between smartphone and netbook has been blurred. Who knows, maybe I'll even get an Ipad too... though I have a feeling that if I do that, Uska will get an Android powered tablet...

A Sawajiri Summer Story

So after 3(or 4) jobs, full time studies, and gym hours getting in the way of Rubuska postings and me following the world of Japanese Entertainment, I am finally free and have something worthy of posting. Remember way back in 2007 when our little Erika, who was starting a cool and promising career in music and acting, was probably a bit moody from a little PMS? Well if you don't she basically looked a little moody and answered the press questions at an event with short answers. Either everyone loved her and were extremely disappointed, or were envious and didn't want her in the entertainment circuit cause they just freaking jumped on her! Subsequently she made some bad choices and married the wrong person she was put on hiatus and went to learn English in London.

Well after the Japanese people broke her career due to PMS, and broke our hearts with it, Sawajiri is reportedly making a come back! Japan-Zone reports:

"Actress Sawajiri Erika (24) will perform her new song "Treasure" on Saturday, as she also makes a formal return to work. In her first professional engagement since the recent media attention around her divorce plans, she will appear at the "GirlsAward2010" fashion event in Tokyo."

About FREAKING time!. It also says the new song is available for free on the site but I got a 403 Forbidden error. Wonder why. I wanted to listen and support her! :(

Anyway, an Erika Sawajiri blog, Erika-fantasy translated this snippet from Yahoo! News Japan:

"On this evening Sawajiri exited her mother's apartment wearing a leopard print camisole which emphasized her breasts. [...] Within a myriad of camera flashes, Sawajiri waved to about 80 reporters with a smile. Questions like "Did you really break up with him through e-mail?" were met with only her sunglasses and a smile from beginning to end. She then boarded a black Mercedes driven by an avex official which confirms the contract with the management."

Well she got it right! I can imagine she was irritated by the press, who kept trying to make her look like a total text message break-up bitch. But the fact that she learned from her mistake isn't the important thing that Yahoo! reported on, by far it's not. It's not even the fact that we pretty much have confirmation of her having a contract. Of course, it has to be the fact that she was wearing a leopard print camisole! And get this(which is my favorite part): IT EMPHASIZED HER BREASTS! Oh Japanese press, you're Japanese Entertainment as much as the stars are.

Anyway, I'm keeping track of this, I'll post if the site gets back up. WELCOME BACK ERIKA! We sorely, deeply missed you!

This Just In- Maimi cut her hair!!

D: omg she did something that I could only conceive in my worst nightmares. I knew a day like this would come, the day that my favorite idol, who’s amazing beauty fits my idealist view of what I like in a girl’s looks, changes her image. I always thought it would be worst if she dyed her hair brown or something, but I also didn’t want the cut to happen. Nevertheless, she did it and I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Here are some pics of her with her awesome amazing long hair:

 

Ahh she just makes me melt…. <3

So how does she look with her shorter hair?

This is why I was pleasantly surprised. OMG SHE LOOKS AMAZINGGGGGGGGGG!! I love her new do!! I was thinking about it and it hit me: I still love her no matter what she does <3

A review of a regular phone from a ex smartphone user

Nearly two years ago I switched from being a long time Movistar/Open Mobile customer to a Centennial Wireless one because they were giving away the Blackberry Pearl. When my Blackberry Pearl, the first phone I was ever truly happy with, died, I had to get a replacement for it so that I could continue my social life as well as business related things. Since Centennial has terrible prices for new phones and give little incentive for you to stay by not helping you at all to get a new phone. This, of course, is the biggest downside to being in a provider that uses CDMA technology instead of GSM. Anyway, the only phone in my price range that sort of looked ok was the LG Rumor 2. So coming from a phone that met all my needs for on the go communication, how would LG Rumor 2 stand up to the Blackberry Pearl, or other phones? Let’s find out.

 

First we should start by finding out what made the Blackberry Pearl so great for me. Despite having inferior hardware to other Blackberries currently available, it did have the functionality I wanted to have with my other phones. The main one was the more comfortable Suretype keyboard, and the ability to send and receive email. I also had a ton of applications that were worthwhile, such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, jIRC, Opera Mini, and a good media player. The Camera was very nice and took great night shots, and the screen was huge. The Calendar, being synched with Google calendar, made my being organized an easy task. Ringtones were also extremely easy to download straight from the phone and applications were now made easier to get via the Blackberry App World.  All in all I had a great experience with this phone, but the inferior hardware got to me.

 

The LG Rumor 2 right off the bat looks cool. I has a full QWERTY keyboard and a regular multitap keyboard so that dialing is easier and I don’t have to slide open the phone. When it comes to functions, the phone does what every other regular phone does: it sends and receives SMS, MMS, has clear call quality, and, thankfully, can store multiple numbers and emails per contacts(something that seems to me like a no brainer). The problem is that I lost a valuable function: the emails. With the full QWERTY keyboard it would’ve been amazing, but alas there’s not email support. Applications can’t be installed, and at least with Centennial there’s no support for BREW applications in the foreseeable future. This means no social networking applications, no better browser, no Google Calendar Synch. While we’re on the subject, the WAP browser is very bad and at least with Centennial it hardly works. The BB had no problems with the connection and it was always fast but I can’t even seem to connect to the internet half the time. Anyway, the calendar is a lot less useless than my old Kyocera’s calendar, but at least it’s good to use for reminders. The applications(or tools) it does bring are useful at least. MP3 Ringtones are easy to set up, but you need to download them on the PC first or have someone MMS it to you because the WAP browser says that .mp3 is an invalid file type. The hardware and software can’t multitask which makes texting, browsing, or doing anything on the phone while listening to music impossible. The media player has a long way to go too. It’s ok, but it’s nothing marvelous. There’s no video play back which is extremely disappointing too. The camera is ok, but still behind the current trends of cell phones. If I’m not mistaken it’s even VGA, no Megapixels.

 

All in all, what makes this phone good? The full QWERTY keyboard and sliding action makes texting fun. Does it make it a good phone? Well, while texting is fun it doesn’t make up for the lack of functions and the functions it does have be lacking. Is it worth it? Well if you don’t need or particularly care for the stuff I mentioned in the second paragraph and like texting then this phone is for you. If not, save money and get a good smartphone. So in conclusion, I leave you with two cute asian girls that have the phone. Enjoy!

Technologically Impared

I wanted to write the next post(which I will soon) about a new cellphone I have. It’s the LG Rumor 2 from Centennial Wireless of Puerto Rico. Thing is that I have like 4 jobs and I study, and last night I suffered through the worst technology meltdown at one of my jobs I have ever heard anyone go through. You see we fix radios there. In order to program radios we need PCs. We have 5 PCs there, all of which, not to my surprise, broke down at the same time, which happens to be the time that a client asked us to fix the entire inventory. So in attempting to fix them, I end up borking my own PC. Thankfully I was able to fix it using my Desktop, which I use my Samsung LCD TV as the monitor. However when I turn on my LCD TV, there’s a FREAKING BLUE LINE GOING DOWN THE SCREEN. So technology doesn’t like me, and my car breaks down yada yada. The only thing that didn’t happen was my cellphone melting down and my PSP’s Memory Stick auto formats or something. I’ll write my review in a bit!

Things could get a little interesting…

So I never recovered from my PC loss. Well I have now, I have a laptop and I have this newfangled Windows Live Writer that promises to make my blogging life a lot easier. Rubi and me not only have had our PC woes, we’ve also been leading a busy life which meant less time to see stuff or play games, and meant less time to blog. I, however, wish to keep the blog going and hopefully I can start a trend that will lead Rubi to keep going with me. So with my connection and my laptop I will try to keep a train going for as long as I can.

And what will separate Rubuska from other blogs you ask? What will keep you readers reading and us writing? Well, that’s something I’ve thought of. I can say this: I will keep my writing as interesting as I can. I will have certain sections that will pop up every once in awhile, and try to keep a rhythm of 2 posts per week or more. These sections will be as follows:

Random Thoughts – These are going to be random thoughts I have on new stuff that I’m watching be it CDTV, Heroes, Fullmetal Alchemist, or what have you.

Pic Wars – I will posts pics that will be win, and sometimes fail.

Tech Reviews – Technology reviews, but will mostly be on Cellphones and Cellphone Carriers(limited to Puerto Rico), but will include other things tech.

PV Reviews – I try to watch PVs as often as I can, and I will try to review them here! They won’t this time necessarily be limited to Japanese music, but they will mostly be of that.

Music Reviews – Reviews of new singles and albums will go in this section. Again, not necessarily limited to Jp music, but most be that.

Japanese Entertainment – Reviews, thoughts, ideas, criticism for shows, artists, anime, dramas, everything will be thrown into here that has to do with Japanese entertainment.

Rants – Me ranting on something I feel needs to be ranted on. While rants usually offer a lot of reading but little entertainment, my rants will actually probably be the most entertaining of the posts I will make.

Misc – These will pop up a lot most likely, but they will be on something specific that doesn’t go anywhere in those sections, which I think covers everything I want.

 

Anyway the first post will be pretty soon. So stay tuned!

Random Notes

I have a PC, but it's not mine so I haven't gotten comfortable enough in it to write reviews and all that other stuff. So rather than that I'm gonna recommend you stuff that I'm watching.

Gundam 00 Season 2 is around episode 7 or 8(if I'm not mistaken). Double O is Double Win :D

Countdown to Q.E.D. Shomei Shuryo countdown started. It airs January 8 to March 12, which means 10 episodes of Takahashi drama goodness!