Google answer session 4/19/07

“how does it work ipod integration”

I’d suggest that you check out www.ilounge.comor your local electronics box store.  Three basic ways 1) aux port (where you connect via headphone jack) 2) fm transmitter (there are many to go with, shop around, a lot) 3) full electronic integration (many manufacturers offer this now including car manufacturers, check to see if yours is compatible with an existing one or check out your local electronics big box)

“I want to use something other than an ipod”

Um, ok?  www.anythingbutipod.com might help you there.

“Pioneer DEH-P6800MP sucks”

Can’t really blame you there…just don’t go with the VW one.

how does it work ipod integration	2
i want to use somthing other than an ipo	1
send files from v3i to macbook via bluet	1
how to take off face plate on ipod	1

Moving on

Just to let any of the readers know, I have accepted a writing position for www.arrogantics.com and will be writing about technology for them. Therefore, most of my more substantive stuff will be posted there. I will continue to write in here with musings and continue my google answer sessions. I will also try to link to the posts I write on there to keep this place a little more active.

In the meantime, if you subscribe to me, subscribe to them because they have some interesting stuff! I have two posts up there already, so please click over and check them out as well as the others.

Google answer session 4-11-07

Not many, but I felt compelled to address some issues.

“power button on razr”

The red ‘call end’ button, should also have a power symbol?  Perhaps a manual? Hmm?  Although I commend you on spelling razr correctly.

“pioneer ipod front”

I don’t get it.  Are we talking about the headunit’s faceplate…?  Perhaps some crackPod I have yet to see? Hmm?  Maybe screen shots of the pioneer unit running with the ipod…I wish I was psychic sometimes.

“razr buttons”

….it has them…does that answer your question?

power button on razr	3
verizon razor	2
Verizon Razor Cell phone	2
razr buttons	1
Verizon Razr Cell phone	1

Google answer session 4-9-07

Skimming through, few things I feel I should make comments on.

“razor cell phone buttons”

Ignoring the obvious mistake here, I can say that I kind of like the razr buttons. However, they’re a little hard to touch type on due to them all being part of one metal…whatever it is.

“gmail client for 8125″

It sucks. Okay, so it’s real pretty, but it sucks. Just use basic html view in opera mini. It’s the only thing that understands html and buttons.

“ipod integration VW jetta”

I don’t think I can say enough about how I hate the integration (circa 2006). Either suck it up with an aux port, or get a hard core fm transmitter.

“sim card placement on moto razor phone”

I think your spelling of ‘razor’ explains your problem here. Have you tried in the back, under the battery, in the sim card shaped area…?

“kiosk mp3 motorola”

Say wha…? You get the award for most plausibly confusing google search.

razor cell phone buttons	2
gmail client for 8125	1
pioneer ipod integration	1
kiosk MP3 motorola	1
SIM CARD PLACEMENT ON A MOTO RAZOR PHONE	1
verizon razor

Since when am I a Mac snob?

As some may know, I pride myself on being an equal appreciator of both Windows and Macintosh operating system.  I have the Mac Mini which I do most of my computing on, and an XP laptop.  Lately I’ve been writing a lot of papers and doing a lot of work (i.e. anything other than watching fansubs and movies and chatting) on my mac over my laptop.  So today I go into lab and I’m typing up directions in word on the sucktastic Dell boxes.  I finish and look at it and think “Good god that’s ugly”.

Since when am I so spoiled by things being pretty?  Since when am I a Mac snob?

How many hard drives makes too many hard drives?

Let me start off with one fact: I love my Mac Mini.

Let me add in another fact: I don’t think it’s perfect.

As a college student I am subjected to an insane amount and insanely tiny apartments. The Mini fits me well for many things, and I wouldn’t change it to a G5 or iMac for anything. However, it has draw backs that range from irritating to it needing to die.

My main issue is the lack of USB ports. Oh, another fact to throw on the table: Apple? I hate you for removing firewire support on the 5G iPods. The Mini is great as a basic little student computer, and I can deal with the lag when I open up Illustrator and Photoshop together. What makes me wish that I had a bigger computer? I’m a media packrat. Music, movies, photos, fansubs, you name it. My mini only has an 80GB hard drive which is barely enough memory for all my apps and my music. I have no room for all my video to be kept on it.

When I opened up the stats widget I had to laugh when I saw this and just had to laugh.

So I have to ask: how many hard drives does it take to count as too many hard drives?

Added bonus, my pathetic setup.

Treo/N62/8125?

(below is a comment back about how I chose my cell phone)

I was actually in your same boat about 2 months ago.  I do a lot of text messaging, far more than I actually talk, on the phone.

I wanted
-wifi
-qwerty
-damn good web browser
-touch screen

So, I was on cingular, and looked at their options.  I also looked at unlocked on ebay, but I’m a little paranoid and I liked the whole being able to return it thing.

My boyfriend is palm boy, treo since they first came out, programs for it, etc.  He <3s his treo.   I’ve used it before, I’ve used the web browser, and been nothing but dissapointed.  I don’t like the feel of palmOS and I honestly hate the keyboard.  Yes, it’s simple and great becuase you can just use the center buttons for navi, but…it’s not pretty.  Ok, a little petty, but I have yet to be impressed by it.  One of my priorities was web browser, and I honestly wanted to cry when I first used it.  So the treo was out.

I did consider the E61 (actually for me it was the E62), because I had found a few reviews that said it’s browswer was good, and I’ve seen good things said about the little stick thing.  I considered it, but I don’t like that form factor and no touch  screen which was one of my priorities.  When I went into the store to talk about purchasing options, the rep said that they had been given the E62s to use for 2 weeks and she absolutely hated it.

What I actually went with was the 8125 (I did consider the 8525, but the only extra features that would have been of use to me were the ‘ok’ and ‘windows’ buttons, and I couldn’t justify $100 extra to have those).  I really enjoy it.  I’ve had it for about a month and a half now (got it at thanksgiving) and I’m still getting used to it a little, but I’m really enjoying it.  Windows mobile did have a bit of a learning curve, and I have a Mac so I had to purchase The Missing Sync for it (well, I poked my b/f into getting it for christmas) but that works well.  Once I got the calender set up and tasks in, it’s running really well.  I wanted to throw it out the window while trying to get gmail to work on it.  IE can’t understand the ’submit comment’ on LiveJournal and just generally sucks at life.  The gmail client (while one of the all time prettiest programs I’ve ever used) couldn’t understand html links that weren’t just the addresses.  And the email service?  Ya, it started trying to download every email I have stored in my gmail account, as in all 2000 of them from 2 years ago as new.  Gave up on that one.  Finally, I switched to Opera Mini, which tends to crash and spaz out a bit sometimes, but it’s not that hard to ‘end program’ and restart the Midlet Manager.  The home screen is freaking amazing, and I just do the regular gmail homepage and it doesn’t run for it’s life.

I know you beta games, but I imagine you have one of the random PDAs sitting around, or could score one for crazy cheap on ebay, to do that.  Also, when you say ‘beta’ I’m thinking I wouldn’t want to risk my phone for a program that has the potential to make it spaz and fry out.  I don’t know if that’s the level of beta that you do, but it’s something to consider.  I’d say take a look at the 8125/MDA.  It has all the connectivity you want, and the keyboard is great.

SanDisk, how did we miss that you didn’t suck before?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/01/sandisk-intros-sansa-c200-player/

Ok, look at this player. It’s freaking pretty. Seriously, I haven’t used this player, and the navi is a potential tweak-producer, but you have to fall in love with this player as soon as you see it.

When did SanDisk become a player? They had a really good thing going while offering some of the cheapest players out there, but amazingly they’re drawing out the standard for cheap players. No longer must we simply accept what they give us, cheapies have a choice now!

TiVo: Best friend, worst enemy.

The bane of academia is television–well, unless you’re studying technology and society (^_^). Any undergrad will tell you that zoning out and forgetting all of that expensive education in front of the tube is the best thing ever. However, along with college comes study groups, cramming at the library, running out to the store at 1am for toilet paper, etc. This chaos doesn’t always compute with living by the television schedule. Seriously. I have no idea when I will be going to bed tomorrow, if I’ll be in the library, or if I have to run home to save a lizard or family member. There is no way I could possibly plan my schedule and 100% of the time to make sure I catch everything (rerun Lost you bastards!). The other problem: crazy time-slots. There’s no way I’m staying up until 2am to watch a 15 minute cartoon show. Some might, but I’d question their academic standing.

All in all, a college’s student life truly requires something that breaks them from the dependence on the TV schedule. TiVo has done this by recording everything for you and saving it until chaos settles a bit. On thursday nights, for example, I am now free to go out with friends or go to the library to write papers instead of sitting around and watching my usual night-o-drama. True, there is the VCR, but why deal with that when you can fully automate your entertainment institutions!

This freedom created by TiVo is wonderful, but it doesn’t solve one very big problem: you’re still watching TV. TV sucks time away, and college students generally need as much time as they can get in a day to get everything done. Yes, chill time is just as important as productive time (don’t believe me? talk to someone who doesn’t get chill time), but it can be hard to place chill time in a slot that does not interfere with productive time when there are so many things to watch just at your fingertip (err, thumb that is)!

This being said, I still wouldn’t give up my TiVo. TiVo does not alleviate the need for responsible viewing, but allows you the freedom to go about your business and forget all about TV for a few nights.

Review of the past few weeks

I haven’t written for a while due to school, netflix, tivo, and reptile conventions.  However, this does not mean that I have been neglecting my blogs.  I’ve kept up, of a fashion, but just haven’t quite felt as if anything that interesting has happened to require a post.

Okay, okay, the new ipod nano, I got it.

To recap the last few weeks:

Apple’s going to kick ass no matter what.
There’s a new nano, I hate it less, but at least no one can sue due to the lack of shinyness.  The only exception: 8GB in a few mm?  Props.
Sandisk is going to own like whoa at second place.
Creative is going to fall, although I don’t see how they could get any worse at this point.
Samsung…well…you still suck.
Dell and HP are whores, but we knew this long ago.
The PS3 will be expensive, but what isn’t?
Grandmothers across the country will be confused as to their grandchildrens’ requests to urinate for Christmas.
OMG of the thousands they’ve sold your laptop is defective?  Ya, welcome to technology, get over it.
If you own a laptop, you might want to donate some sperm because your laptop will most likely fry your manhood.
Speaking of which, of all the reports of blowing up batteries, how come everyone’s lucked out and not received fried genitalia?
If myspace was a bar, you’d….well, insert something vulgar about molasses.
Facebook is becoming big brother, again, we knew this long ago.
OMG people can readz your infoz onlinez!!!  Excuse me, but may I slap you upside the head for not understanding that which is reality?  Get over it.
Zune dropped like a bomb because it sucked, not that Apple somehow has the hand of death up its ass.  It sucked.  Get over it.

More updates soon, I promise!