The View From Space

Received my DUAL1200 backup battery that I won online (I think this one was via Facebook). Some thoughts on my new found booty

Pros:
- Relatively stylish when compared to my other backup battery pack.
- Lightweight
- 2 charging ports (iPhone/iPod and micro USB)
- Capable of charging 2 devices simultaneously (I’m not sure how long the pack would last with a dual load, although the DUAL1850 unit would definitely last longer)
- Although it appears flimsy the iPhone connector is fairly solid and connects with a firm push
- Easily recharges by placing on a powermat unit or through an included micro USB cable

Cons:
- The lightweight casing does lend a “cheap” feel to the unit
- Unfortunately it doesn’t pack the punch to recharge an iPad

Other than the two small drawbacks, the DUAL1200 should fit my needs perfectly. It’s small enough to fit nicely in my fanny pack and carries enough juice to partially charge my Vibrant (which doesn’t exactly get the best mileage on a single charge anyway).
If you want/need more juice I’d recommend getting the DUAL1850.

Recent events (most notably the impending aquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T) have started me rethinking my strategy regarding smartphones.

The T-Mobile /Android combination was, and still is, Nirvana for Geeks.  Cheap plans with soft data caps, easily rooted Android smartphones (like my Vibrant), and stellar customer service makes for one great environment (they even provided tech support when I ran an iPhone on their network).

Now I’m reading that this may all go away in a year or two.  Step in AT&T with their unfriendly, even hostile attitude towards super-users (if you’ve ever rooted an android phone or jailbroken your iPhone you know what I’m talking about) and even unfriendlier data plans.  If the planned acquisition goes through, all Tmo 3G phone users (except those with the new LG Optimus G2x) will eventually have to switch over to ATT 3G phones to get 3G data access on the ATT network.

So now my dilema, once the transition takes place, do I stay with ATT and live with whatever restrictions they place on my geekiness?  Or do I take a hike and see what Verizon, Sprint or even the smaller carriers have to offer?   I’m even looking at the iPhone again.  If I’m going to be locked down I might as well do it with a device that meets most of my needs/wants (note that no phone met ALL my wants, that’s why I rooted my phone in the first place).  I guess going the iPhone route makes my decision WAY easier, choose 1 of 2 carriers.

The upside to all of this is that the takeover isnt envisioned to happen for 12+ months.  In that time I’ll have a chance to look at all the options provided  by the other carriers. 

Besides in another year it’ll be time for a new phone anyway right?

My twitter post to a buddy of mine literally came back to stiff me. 

Like The Mighty Casey in Mudsville, I’ve struck out in my search for a hard case for my Samsung Vibrant.  The only thing available at the moment is one made of soft silicone sold by T-Mobile.  Even though the basic model (Galaxy S) was released internationally a few months earlier I guess there’s enough of an external difference to make cases for each model unique.

So like the iPhone 4 early adopters  I’ll have to wait for the market to catch up.

Now that the new iPhone 4 has been announced there will be folks standing in line for hours to grab one once it becomes available.  Me?  Nope.

I’ve found new life and capabilities in my aging G1.  Through various hacks I’ve been able to increase the internal memory and allow WiFi capabilities.  Talk about squeezing “you know what” from a stone.  Hardware wise the G1 can’t hold a candle to the new iPhone 4.  But amazingly it is a very versatile platform, and with the open source android OS there is much that is available to those that know how to access it.  Now, I haven’t programmed since I was in college, so I usually leave the heavy lifting to those that do it for a living or as a serious hobby.  I just leverage off their amazing work.
So I’ll be holding onto my behemoth G1 for a while longer, hoping to squeeze every last ounce of performance from it. And you know what? I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a ways to go…

Not being one to follow convention I recently began evaluating an iPhone app called MyWi. I’m looking to see how well it works off of an edge connection on my jail broken iPhone. Having used pdanet on my old G1 phone and a 3G network I wasn’t very hopeful. Boy was I wrong, I’m pleasantly surprised by it’s performance with Twitter, email and even the app store. In fact, this blog was written and saved to my web host using MyWi, the upload time was reasonable, even with an attached picture.

Simple web browsing was tolerable, but video streaming is definitely out of the question. YouTube pages came up quickly but the videos were too choppy to be enjoyable.

I still have 8 days of free eval time left, during which I will be putting it through the paces with as many different iPad apps as possible. Will have a wrap up report once the eval period is done.

Checking out my iPhone WordPress app. I guess that means I should set up my WPmobile widget also.