Netbooks – What Should I Install?

I’ve got a netbook on the way! It should be showing up tomorrow in the mail. I bought the Asus Eee PC 1101HA. For people who don’t know what all the numbers and letters mean, that’s Asus’s 11.6 inch model. I’ll be sure to post a review of it within a week or so.

But it made me think, what will I install on it? That’s an important subject for netbooks. Because of their weaker processors, you really need to be aware of what you’re installing. If you have a ton of background processes running, it’s going to slow to a crawl. Netbooks are about compromise. You give up processing power for portability and battery life. Here’s my game plan for what I plan on installing on my netbook.

First off, I’ll be setting up a sizeable partition for storing my documents and such. That way when I feel like formatting my hard drive if things feel like they’re slowing down, I won’t have to deal with a difficult document moving process.

Browser :: Firefox and Chrome. Yes, I’m going to install both. At least in the beginning. With Firefox, I can install AdBlockPlus. While I’m not that bothered by ads, removing them could possibly make Firefox run fast enough on my netbook. I’ll also install Chrome. It’s always been incredibly speedy on my laptop (much faster than Firefox), so it may still have the edge when it comes to speed. After a little while of trying out both I’ll be able to decide which I think is better suited for my surfing needs.

Media Player :: I’ll definitely be installing VLC. I’m just used to it. I might give Media Player Classic a try, but I know VLC will be my default player. I’ll also install the ffdshow codec. It’s never given me problems on my laptop. I don’t think I’ll be installing iTunes. It’s not optimized enough for Windows. I think I’ll either just use Last.fm to listen to my library, or maybe I can find something that will allow me to stream my iTunes library. If I find a good option, I’ll let you know.

Antivirus :: This is important of course. I think I’m going to try out NOD32. I’ve heard it’s pretty light on system resources, and that’s ideal for a netbook. If that falls through, I’ll install AVG.

Malware :: Spybot Search and Destroy for this. I’m comfortable with it. It does the job well enough.

Defrag :: Defraggler has always worked well for me. It takes up  very little space and is simple to schedule.

Unzipping :: 7-Zip is light on space and does just fine.

PDF Reader :: I’ll give this one to Foxit. It’s definitely quicker than Adobe, and doesn’t suck up as much RAM when running.

Document Editing :: Notepad++ is an easy choice since it has so many great features in a small package. I might go even install Open Office since sooner or later I’ll probably need to work on some spreadsheets and such.

E-Mail :: I’m a GMail guy, so this will be handled via my browser.

RSS Feeds :: Google wins again. Google Reader works well for me.

Calendar :: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Google Calendar.

LaTeX :: This is software for mathematical typesetting. I need it for my school work. I’ll be installing LyX. I’m sure I won’t have any issues with it.

Video Chat :: I’ve got to take advantage of my webcam! I’ll probably stick with Skype on this.

Random Notes :: Evernote. I’ll have it sync to my current account. That’s just nice and convenient.

Document Syncing :: Dropbox is fantastic. I’ll use it to synchronize the documents I need to have on both my laptop and netbook.

Image Viewer :: I’m going to try out Picasa. I think it might be a little too resource heavy though. If so, I’ll try out IrfanView.

System Enhancements :: These are just small programs that make using my netbook easier. I’ll definitely be installing Launchy. It makes accessing all my important apps and such easier. I haven’t used XP in a while, so it will make the switch better. Texter is a great text expanding app for phrases or long words I’ll have to type often. Taekwindow gives the great feature of being able to hold down the Alt key and click anywhere on a window to move it. I’ll find a way to get two finger scrolling working. I might even install VirtuaWin if I want to use multiple desktops. The apps uses very little RAM, but I shouldn’t be running that many apps at once anyways. Deskpins is a handy little app that let’s you make a window always on top.

That’s all I can think of for now. And of course, there’s a pretty high chance I’ll end up booting Windows 7 on this thing too.

BlackBerry Storm OS 5.0.0.140 Leaks!

asdas The day has finally arrived! Yesterday Storm owners rejoiced as we saw the first 5.0 OS leak. Big news here. It gave us a glimpse of the new 5.0 OS and the new features that will be coming and changing with it.

Reviews were really mixed. Some users reported the OS working really well and flying on their Storms. Others had plenty of issues. Some of that is due to stupidity and not following instructions, but there are issues with this leak just like every other release. Add in the fact that this is still a beta for an unreleased OS format and you should expect some problems that need to be resolved. I’ll list out all I can remember.

New Stuff:

Key Ghosting: Displays the letter of the key you are touching before you press it, Similar to the iPhone’s letter popping up, but it displays the letter where you are typing and not on the keyboard.

Auto-Change Time Zone: No more having to adjust your clock when you change time zones (although the phone never changed them automatically for a legitimate reason). No idea what effect this has on calendar entries.

Application Menu: Listing in Options menu has been moved and modified. It now shows the app icons as well.

Browser Tabs: Multiple Tabs can now be used in the BlackBerry Browser. It’s not the smartest implementation (you have to go through menus to do it), but at least it exists now.

Today Screen: This classic theme option that used to only be accessible on custom themes is now a simple option in the options menu.

New Phone Screen: To reduce the problem with buttons being pressed by your face during a phone call, the phone screen has been redesigned. The screen now has no large buttons, and a row of 5 small buttons in a bar along the bottom of the screen. Those buttons retain the basic functionality as the old buttons of the phone app, they’re just smaller so they can’t be pressed with your cheek. The top of the screen still shows the call information as well. There is just more empty space since the big buttons have been removed.

Transitions: They have been ironed out and are smooth and consistent. They aren’t random like in the .151 leak.

Message App Dates: There is a new functionality here. In the message application, usually the date of each day separates the list of messages by the day it was received on. This date usually scrolls along with the messages. This is gone. Now the current date of the top-most message stays at the top of the app, while upcoming dates scroll along with the messages. When the next date reaches the top of the app, it then stays at the top, replacing the previous one. This is a nice change that adds a fluidity and stylishness to the message app.

Vibrate and Ring: As sad as it is, BlckBerrys have never come with the ability to vibrate and ring at the same time out of the box. Applications were developed to allow it to happen though. Now it is built in. No more app necessary.

New Loading Screen: Not a necessity, but this is a nice change. The screen that appears after a full reboot or battery pull has been changed to be nicer and more eye friendly.

Media: There is now a Media Folder that has shortcuts to all of the specific Media subsections such as music, video, ringtones, etc.

Home Screen Shortcuts: The home screen now has built in hidden shortcuts. Clicking the time opens the clock. Clicking the signal bars opens the Manage Connections dialog.

Keyboard: From many posters, they state that keyboard lag is gone.

File Browser: A file browser has now been added into the OS.

Web Search: The search box in the opening window of the Browser now has options other than Google,  if you’re into that.

I’m sure there is more that I missed, but this is a good list of new things in the 5.0 OS.

On the negative side, theme compatibility is stilled broken (as in .151), a bug reporting app is forced to install that needs to be removed if you don;t want your information sent to RIM, and there is app incompatibility on several popular apps (Facebook for example). There are also plenty of other bugs and glitches.

Some users report that their install has gone wonderfully and that it’s the best their phone has been yet. Others have had it end in disaster, suffered many problems, and have downgraded back down to .151. Installing is up to you. It’s good to at least know that RIM is working on making the Storm truly a good phone with many new features still to come.

Information on downloading and installing can be found here thanks to CrackBerry: http://forums.crackberry.com/f132/5-0-os-installation-instructions-mirror-installation-link-275121/

BlackBerry Storm OS .151 Review

I’ve had the .151 OS installed on my phone for a bit over 48 hours now, and I’ve been watching and judging it intently ever since I installed it. It’s had time to “settle” as some OS need to, and it has been performing fantastic. The BlackBerry Storm keeps getting better and better. I’m going to start from the beginning and share everything I’ve noticed. This will be a long one.

This OS was actually posted to the official BlackBerry website by a phone carrier in Mexico. The belief at the time was that this was a mistake, and that the company had posted this 9530 compatible OS by mistake, as the 9530 is really only sold in the U.S. by Verizon. It was thought than when picking the OS files from the BlackBerry site, they had picked the 9530 version instead of the 9500 version. Essentially, the 50 day drought of a new OS was ended by an accident by a carrier making a simple mistake. It was found out later though that the carrier that did this actually carries both versions of the Storm, both the 9500 and the 9530, and that this posting was no mistake at all. So the 9530 was blessed with their newest OS in nearly two months. Many also found it strange because it is rare that the 9500 and the 9530 have the same OS build released (it may also have not happened yet, I don’t  specifically track 9500 OS releases).

So with all this drama and excitement over the first OS in weeks,  how does .151 perform? In a word, great. This is the first OS I’ve seen that really starts to show how capable the Storm can be. It takes all the positives of Verizon’s official release of .148 and then adds in even more stability and smoothness.

Overall: Just to say it at the start: This is the kind of quality OS that should have been running on the BlackBerry Storm when it was released. Had it run this well at release, the device would have a completely different reputation than the somewhat negative one it has now. I would say it would even be loved by a large number of people. The SureType keyboard took some time to acclimate to, but adding that learning curve to a slow and shoddy OS and the Storm lost a lot of fans. If RIM and Verizon could do it all again, I would hope they would be smart enough to let the OS mature enough to give the Storm a fighting chance in the market. And that’s exactly what this OS does: it gives the Storm the chance to be the phone that some of us knew it could always be.

Performance: I’ve loved the performance of this OS so far. I never had too many lag problems in the past, and I haven’t had any with this release either. It runs smoothly, whether you’re multitasking, writing a long email, or browsing.

Aesthetics: This is one of two areas where I think OS .151 shines. For the first time since OS .90 I believe, the color banding problem has been greatly improved. For those that don’t know of color banding, if you’re running any OS outside of the official .75 release, you have it on your device, you probably just don’t really notice it. And that’s the thing: it’s not a problem that affects you when using the Storm, it’s just something that detracts from the experience. Here’s a way to see it. Navigate to and click the Media icon. You should be presented with the five media icons across the bottom of the screen, along with a large icon on a fading black and blue gradient. Observe the black and blue gradient. Notice how there isn’t a steady fade of color, but clumps in the transitions? Those bands are an example of color banding. So now you see what I mean. It is somewhat noticeable, but doesn’t actually affect you at all. This problem is greatly reduced, allowing the big vibrant screen on the Storm to show a better color range and look beautiful. Along with the color banding fix comes something that people have been discussing since the release of the Storm: transitions. The Storm has never really had a unique transition that makes interacting with the device feel fluid. OS .151 introduces transitions similar to those of the iPhone (only time I’m mentioning it) where when opening an app it seems to expand to fit the screen or when closing an app it seems to shrink to nothing. They look good, and really improve the flow of clicking around on the Storm. The only problem is that they aren’t consistent yet. What I mean is that when opening and closing apps, the transition used seems to be random. Sometimes it will use the new animation, sometimes it will use the old fade effect, and sometimes there is not transition at all and the app just appears or disappears. But I have no complaints here. Since this is only 3 builds after .148, the transitions are obviously still in their infancy. The fact that their basic introduction makes such a better experience means that in the later builds they must be incredibly smoothed out and make interactions with the Storm that much better.

Memory: Here is the other crown jewel of build .151. Memory leaks have plagued the Storm since day 1. While most of the problem comes from poor programming of third party applications, there were still leaks that were inherent to the Storm’s OS coding. Using MeterBerry, I had monitored memory leaking significantly in .75, and at a rather reduced rate in .148. In .148, my memory usually leveled off and stopped dropping about 11 to 14 MBs below its maximum value. While it did reach a balanced level, it was sacrificing a sizeable amount of memory (nearly a fourth of my maximum). The programmers at RIM must have found the culprit, because my memory is ridiculous now. I haven’t seen it drop more than 2 MB below my max. On average it seems to be between .3 to 1.1, sometimes going up to 1.6. That is such a huge improvement. That just helps the entire phone function better. On top of that, .151 seems to have been optimized even more to delete some extraneous code, allowing more free memory to start with. Although I’ve begun using the Shrink-A-OS program to free up memory on my OS installs, I’ve still gained maybe 5 MBs of free memory going from .148 to .151. The more memory the better!

Battery Life: This is about the only place where I haven’t seen an improvement on any OS for me. My phone always seems to average between 1.5% to 3% battery discharge per hour, even when idle.  I just don’t understand how that’s possible. That seems far too high. And there are times (this was on .148) where I’ll make a 20 minute phone call and it will use up more than 20% of my battery life. How can it use more than 1% a minute every minute of a call? Battery life has been average on .151. No big improvements here, and I don’t know if we’ll ever really see any. As long as the battery lasts 12 to 16 hours with average usage, that is okay with me. I’m rarely away from a charger for that long anyways.

Signal: This is the only part for me that is hard to judge. During the school year, I’m in my dorm, which is essentially like being in a lead-lined bomb shelter. My signal is miserable in there, but that is the building and not the OS. While I’ve had .151, I’ve been in a different room, so I don’t know if it really improved. I can say that it has been fine for me though. It doesn’t seem any worse.

Keyboard: I decided to throw this in as there are two notable thing involving the keyboard that happened in .151. First, keyboard lag has been reduced. Enough to where it is noticeable for those of us who had picked up enough speed to notice the OS dragging behind. It’s really nice now. The second change is to the upward swiping gesture you could use to show the keyboard on any screen with a bar at the bottom. That is gone. Some people are really bothered by this. I like it. I can’t count how many times I’ve brought up the keyboard trying to quickly scroll down a web page or my contacts list. When typing on the keyboard is needed, there is always a text area to touch and then the keyboard appears. I do want to be sure to stress that the downward swiping gesture to hide the keyboard is still present. Only the upward swipe was removed.

Browser: There are a couple small improvements on the browser that are nice too. It was very noticeable in .148 that if you typed anything in the browser, there was always an additional significant lag, outside any normal keyboard lag. That is gone. It now types the same as the regular keyboard. One of the most annoying bugs introduced in the leaks was the inability to edit URLs. For example, if you were to type out an entire URL only to notice you made a mistake near the beginning, you could not move the text editing tool to where the error was. You had to simply backspace all the way to the error, fix it, then retype the rest again. Talk about frustrating! This is also gone. You can navigate to wherever you would like in the URL bar, saving lots of frustration. There has also been small but noticeable increases in the browsers speed from leak to leak. The same holds true here. The browser seems to move just a tiny bit fast than its predecessor in .148. And one small feature was added that I didn’t even know was missing: copy and paste directly from a webpage. I was unaware this was missing. I had never wanted to copy anything off of a web page. But if you were bothered by this missing feature in all past OS versions, you have it now.

Camera: The camera is like the browser in that in each leak it just seems to improve little by little. It seems quick and fast, especially if you remember the how horrifying the camera was on .75.

Media: I don’t use the Media features very much (I’ve put a little music on my Storm, but that’s all really), but one thing I do notice is the scroll speed of picture thumbnails when I’m sending pictures or when I’m trying to pick out a new wallpaper. Not only do the thumbnails seem to load faster than previous builds, but they also seem to scroll a lot smoother than their older jerky counterparts. That’s not to say that it is completely smooth, just an improvement.

Themes: Here’s one thing that has infuriated many users. Some older custom themes are not compatible with .151. I don’t know the actual reason why (I’m not a theme developer, although I have tried it), but some kind of change was made, and if that change is not reflected in the theme’s file code, then the theme won’t work and the phone will lock up in some manner. An incompatible theme locked me on the main screen and wouldn’t allow me to click anything. Others cause the phone to enter a reboot loop. If you have any problems such as this should you decide to try out a theme, know that you can boot into safe mode by holding down the back/clear button while the phone reboots. I’ve never had to do this, but apparently if you do so you will be able to go to the option and change the theme back to the default.

That’s it. That’s all the things I think to say about OS .151. It’s a fantastic build and it really makes me excited to be a Storm owner again. Should we ever be lucky enough to see the last of the 4.7 builds (which apparently reach into the 220s) before the moved on to 5.0, I’m sure we’ll be blown away. Think of all the improvements they could make in those 70 builds. What if it matched the impact of the 80 builds from .75 to .151? That could be incredible.

If you’re interested in installing .151 on your 9530 BlackBerry Storm, then I’ll point you to my article that I wrote the day the OS was released a few days ago. You can find that article HERE. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

BlackBerry Storm Leak! .151 for the 9530!

It took 50 days, but there is finally a new leak for the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon! The funniest part is that it isn’t a true leak. Someone testing it didn’t decided to risk their job and upload it for all of us to enjoy. A service provider in Mexico was going to offer the .151 upgrade to users of the 9500 Storm, but mistakenly retrieved the wrong folder on RIM’s website and posted the files for the 9530 instead. An error that is a blessing to all of us on the 9530.

I haven’t made a decision to install this yet. My phone has been working really well on the hybrid I installed so recently. I knew installing a hybrid would bring a leak just to punish me, but that’s fine. Now we all have something new to enjoy.

Based on the response on the Crackberry forums, this seems like another okay. As with most leaks, there is a handful of both good and bad reviews, but few seem to be truly bad.

The biggest addition mentioned of course are the transitions. Since this is essentially the same code as the 9500 leak outside of the core file that control radio signal and such, the transitions are not uniform and consistent as I mentioned in a past post and as you can see in the video I put in that post. Apparently the ability to edit input URLs in the browser has returned too. A loss though is that apparently the ability to swipe upward on the bottom bar to reveal the keyboard has disappeared. It’s always strange to see what gets fixed and what is broken in these links. Again though, it’s good to see that RIM was working on fixing some complaints and bugs in the older OSs.

I assume no responsibility for what happens to your phone should you decide to try installing this new OS.

Download link for .151 for the 9530

Download OS .151 for the 9530

How to upgrade the OS on a BlackBerry

Click here for instructions from Crackberry.com

Taking the Plunge – Installing a Hybrid OS

So now I’m on the concept of a Hybrid OS. Don’t mistake me for an expert here. I’ve learned the basics of the concepts, but I am by no means one of the amazing guys who has pieced together his own Hybrid (such as Lyricidal, OneofakindPC, or BBCrackman).

So what is a Hybrid OS? Basically, it is putting together different files from different OSs in order to try and make something better than the official releases. Simple concept, interesting results.

The coolest part though is what happened when 5.0 OS versions were leaked for the BlackBerry Bold and Curve 8900. These ingenious hybrid creators managed to find that there are files in the 5.0 OSs that can can be used on the Storm, even though they aren’t designed for it. One of the most important being the Browser. The 5.0 Browser has a noticeable little speed bump over the official .148 OS’s browser.

So by mixing and matching these OS files in their own special combinations, we have received the gift of multiple Hybrid OSs each with their own touches.

With the drought of leaks that has occurred, I decided the other night to finally try a Hybrid. I chose to test the waters with Lyricidal’s Beta Hybrid. It combines most of the standard .148 files with the .151 files that enable transitions (see here) and the 5.0.100 files that add extra perks like the faster browser.

Surprisingly, it was a relatively painless process. Following the basic instructions, I managed to do it without a hitch. I even used the included Shrink-an-OS executable to delete unnecessary programs and reclaim a little bit of memory.

Since installing it about 24 hours ago, everything is running smoothly. My memory, which gained a few megabytes thanks to shrinking the OS, has remained steady around 45-46 MB, down about 7 MB from my maximum free memory of 53 MB. The transitions are nice to see. The Browser does feel speedier. I haven’t experienced any noticeable keyboard lag so far. My battery life was slightly better than usual too, discharging at an average rate of about 2.7% per hour. If anything turns out terrible, I’ll be sure to post it.

 

For those interested in installing this Hybrid as well, I’ll post a slightly modified version of the instructions (Just to make them a little clearer). The original post is here. Also, to mention, I accept no responsibility for what happens to your phone when trying to do this. Not everyone has the same experience. If anything bad happens, visit the Crackberry.com Storm forums. There is plenty of help there.

1) Install .148 for the 9530. Download the file from the link provided, and install it without changing any settings.

Storm 9530 .148 OS Download via Megaupload

2) Download the Java Files for the Hybrid and extract them to your desktop using a program such as 7-Zip or WinRar.

Java Files for the Hybrid

3) To modify the OS, you must open the proper folder. For the average user, this is found at

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\9530-v4.7.0.148_P4.0.0.181

Open the Java Folder found in this directory.

4) Open the extracted folder and open the Java File within it. Select all of the files in it (Ctrl+a) and drag them from the extracted Java folder to the OS Java folder. When it asks, you want to choose to replace all the files that have naming conflicts.

5) Now go back the main folder in the extracted folder. This part is a little weirder to say. You want to select all of the files here EXCEPT: the two Build-A-Hybrid files, the two Shrink-A-OS files, the Change Log file, the COD Breakdown file, and the empty Java folder.

6) Move back up one level in the OS folder to the original location given in step 3. Now drag the selected files found in step 5 from the extracted folder to the OS folder. Again, select the replace option for naming conflicts.

7) OPTIONAL. If you would like to reclaim some memory, you can now run the Shrink-A-OS program to delete whatever you would like from your install. If you want to do this, move the program into the folder mentioned in step 3 and run it. Check the box at the top indicating that it is in the proper folder. PAY ATTENTION. Checking a box means you want it REMOVED. I personally chose to remove all the extra languages, all of the IM/Social Apps except for BB Messenger and Google Talk, all the Games, DocsToGo, Application Center, BB Maps, Default Backgrounds, Help Files, Password Keeper/Wizard, VZ Navigator, and VCAST Rhapsody. I checked none of the right side fix boxes. Then simply click the big “Shrink My OS! button.” Now you’ve saved memory!

8) You can now close the extracted folder. Plug in your BlackBerry. I would suggest running the Desktop Manager and making a backup of everything just in case. It never hurts.

9) Now navigate to

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader

and run the Loader application located there. Basically press the next button and allow it to make another backup of the info on your phone. This is just being extra cautious.

10) Once the update begins installing, it shouldn’t take extremely long. My installation took under 15 minutes. If you never had OS .148 installed, it might possibly take longer. I really don’t know since I didn’t do that. 

11) Enjoy!

12) If you have any problems following the directions, check the link right before my instructions. I feel mine are clearer, but maybe theirs will help you more.

13) If you have any problems with your phone during or after the install, consult the Storm forums on Crackberry.com. They are very helpful.

The Storm’s Leak Community

For those not completely wrapped up in the wonderful world of leaked OSs for the BlackBerry Storm, we we consistently seeing leaks of new OS revisions at least every two weeks. So in the time that Verizon (for U.S. users) took to release OS .148, the leak community saw a handful of previous versions, ranging from .76 to .132. In those leaks, we saw several feature changes: the introduction of color banding, the portrait qwerty keyboard, the new selection technique for editing and copy/paste, the new lock functionality, etc. It’s actually very fun to be on the cutting edge with all the changes, having what is currently the best that your gadget has to offer.

On June 1st, a day after Verizon released the new official for the American Storm (the 9530), there was a leak of OS .151 for the European version (the 9500). This OS introduced another feature that Storm owners had been looking for: transitions. Here’s a short video showing the transitions in action (I apologize for the blur, but it actually protects my contact information, so it works out, and you can still see the transition animation).

As you can see, they aren’t spectacular, flashy, consistent (on opening or closing), or the smoothest. But they definitely add some fluidity to the OS and are a sign that RIM is finally looking at making the OS at least a little smoother in general. Needless to say, this left the 9530 users craving a new leak. 9530 leaks often followed 9500 leaks within 48 hours or so.

So what’s the problem? Since the leak of .148 (a little under 2 weeks before the official release on May 31st), there has been a dry spell. The leaks have dried up. It’s quite sad actually. For me, it had become a part of having the Storm. This means that my phone’s OS has been static for about 40 days. It has performed well enough. Still not everything I expected but still a very good phone.

It’s been said that either RIM or Verizon possibly reworked their NDAs making leaks severely punishable or added digital signatures to the install files so that the leaks could be tracked. Maybe it is something else. Whichever it is, leaks aren’t flowing anymore. Sad is the only word I have.

This has now led me to the world of Hybrids. I’ll explain more in my next post.

My BlackBerry Storm

One of the things I’ve always liked is seeing how other Storm users have their phones set up. So I thought I’d share what mine looks like.

This isn’t the application screen. It’s my home screen (notice the Profiles button in the top left). I’m currently running a theme that keeps my top 16 icons showing. So I narrowed down my apps to 15. The unimportant ones that I don’t use I put into the Setup folder and set the folder to hide. The apps that I wanted to keep I placed in the Applications folder and placed that as my last icon. So now I have a setup where my home screen and applications screen are basically identical. And I have full access to many of my most used apps. I’ve had no memory leak issues with this theme, and it isn’t a very big them file at all.

As you can see from the screen shot, I have MeterBerry and SimpleWeather running at all times. Not shown here, I have QuickLaunch set to my left convenience key for quick access. My right convenience key is set to the free edition of Stormslider that I mentioned in my app review. I also have a bit of redundancy, because I have UberTwitter and TwitterBerry. I’ve been testing both for a while, but can’t really pick a favorite. So for now I have two Twitter apps, and I’m fine with that. I have StopTilt running so that my orientation stays locked in portrait so that I always have this nice set up. And I finally made the leap a couple weeks ago and put some music on my SD card, so now I use the Music app pretty often too.

Here is the OTA link for the theme I’m using for a 16 Icon Precision Zen Home Screen. The only issue I had with it is that they made the default wallpaper something that kind of makes it hard to see your icons. I prefer a solid black, so I just made a 360×480 JPEG in Photoshop with all black and emailed it to myself to set as my wallpaper. The results are pretty nice looking in my opinion.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

All of the apps I’ve mentioned were included in Part 1 or Part 2 of my application reviews. You can find pricing and download/purchase information there.

Blackberry Storm Application Review – Part 2

Pattern Lock – Version 1.1.7

Here’s a great and original app for the Storm that really gives the user a lot of flexibility. It’s a password/lock app, where your password is actually a pattern traced out on a 3×3 grid of dots. The pattern can overlap dots and be quite long. You can assign it to run when you press the lock button too. It includes a TON of options too. More than you can imagine. You can customize the background image that shows up behind the password entry screen too. A nice extra is that you can set the phone to where it will lock the screen after a few seconds of making a phone call, so your face won’t press in the screen while you talk. To unlock the screen all you can either end the call by pressing the END key, or press the back key to undo the lock and press buttons to your hearts content. My only problem with the application is one that I’m not sure that can be fixed with locking apps. When you assign it to the lock button and press it, the phone first performs the default locking feature, and after a few second the locking application takes over. I can’t stand this. I can assign the application to a convenience key and have it start instantaneously. The first app to get rid of that delay when it is assigned to the lock key wins my love.

Usefulness: 8/10

Fun Factor: N/A (Sadly, drawing the patterns is fun)

Overall: 8/10

Price: On sale for $0.99 until May 31! Usually $2.99

Information and Purchase Here

 

QuickLaunch – Version 1.5

This is a great app. By assigning the application to a convenience key, you create a pop-up menu that can have shortcuts to (almost) any app you choose, files, websites, and personalized phone actions (such as sending a certain person a text, calling, or e-mailing). It has a lot of flexibility, uses very little memory, and gives you a lot of options. I highly suggest this for the convenience it gives you.

Usefulness: 10/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 10/10

Price: $4.99

Information and Purchase Here

 

Simple Weather – Version 1.1.6

I like to know what the weather is like. I don’t need a really flashy program and I don’t need a ton of extra data. In most cases, I want to know if it’s sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. and I want to know the temperature. Simple Weather addresses my needs perfectly. It does exactly what I just described. It’s an icon that updates at a user-defined interval with attractive icons signifying the local conditions and the icon name tells the temperature. Clicking the icon opens the webpage for your zip code from the Weather Channel, giving you any extra info you might need. It’s nearly perfect in my book. My only complaint is that the program does randomly have errors and it will stop updating, essentially meaning the program will not update until you perform a battery pull. The developer says that he is working on it though, and I have a lot of faith in him fixing it up to perfection. On top of this, it’s cheap! When compared to competitors, the free options either have unattractive icons or memory leaks, and the paid alternatives cost significantly more.

Usefulness: 8/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 8/10

Price: $2.99

Information and Purchase Here

 

StopTilt – Version 2.0.8.14

Here is a paid version of the apps that lock the orientation of the Storm. I’ve learned my ways. This is my new favorite. It has all the positives that OrientationLock had, but it maintains the settings through battery pulls! Great! It still cannot lock the orientation of 3rd party apps (that is under control of the respective app’s developer). It is somewhat cheap (It’s been on sale since it came out a week or two ago), but the original list price is pretty outrageous at $10. But for the people who can’t stand the screen rotating when they don’t want it to, the money might be fully worth it.

Usefulness: 10/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 10/10

Price: On sale for $4.99 until May 31, Usually $9.99

Free Trial: Available on site below

Information and Purchase Here

 

Storm Slider – Version 3.4.2

This is my locking app of choice as of right now. The funny thing is that I use the free version, even though I’ve bought the app. Somehow in the development process, the removed the ability for you to add the app to the convenience key for the paid version. So I use the free version and keep it on the convenience key, because of the locking problem described in the Pattern Lock review. This locking app emulates the iPhone’s lock function, having the user slide a button sideways to unlock the phone. The paid version includes the options to have a password, to activate it during phone calls, and more. I had big issues using an app that emulates the iPhone (I don’t particularly like some things about it), but the app works too well to not use. I got over it. And this application is great. Definitely try the free version. It works perfectly well, although it doesn’t have any options to change.

Usefulness: 9/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 9/10

Price: $2.99

Free Trial: OTA

Information and Purchase Here

 

TwitterBerry – Version 0.9.6

TwitterBerry is a pretty solid Twitter app for the Storm. It doesn’t really shine in any area particularly, but it works. I appreciate the fact that when you open the app, the first screen it takes you to is the one to update your status. As weird as that sounds, other apps I’ve tried don’t do that. When I open a Twitter, it’s usually to write an update, and to read other people’s afterwards. There hasn’t been an update in about a month, but I think the next update will make TwitterBerry even better. And it’s free!

Usefulness: 6/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 6/10

Price: Free!

Information and OTA Here

 

UberTwitter – Version 0.55

Another Twitter app. UberTwitter put a bit more effort into looking nice and it provides a lot of options for how the app works. This is the application I have on my phone currently, and it is pretty nice. It can suck down battery if you have it auto-update too often though. Also free!

Usefulness: 7/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Price: Free!

OTA

Information Here

 

VyMail – Version 0.8.3.5

VyMail is a nice application for what it provides. In conjunction with YouMail.com, this app allows you to have free visual voicemail! It isn’t flawless and it isn’t drop-dead beautiful, but it works, and it has some great options. I’m just going to direct you to the info page for the app to explain all the details.

Usefulness: 7/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Price: Free!

Information and Download Here

 

Air Traffic Control – Version 2.0.0.0

Another game I decided to spend the money to get. It’s actually pretty fun. On three different levels, you guide airplanes, jets, helicopters, hot air balloons, and pontoon boats to land safely by tracing a path for them to follow to their landing strips. Simple concept. But things get crazy when 5 and more planes get on the screen. My current high score is 62, but I know people have scored far higher. The graphics, animation, and execution of the app are top notch, although there are rare moments where the game seems to hang for a half second before snapping back to its usually smooth game play. It’s a great effort in the Storm game department, and worth a look.

Usefulness: N/A

Fun Factor: 8/10

Price: $4.99

Information and Purchase Here

Blackberry Storm Application Review – Part 1

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I’m a BlackBerry Storm owner. The saddest thing is that so many people have this ill-informed opinion that the Storm is a terrible smart phone. This is very far from the truth. The Storm is a great phone, it just needs some tweaking to get it into fighting shape. This obviously isn’t the perfect situation, but I’m so happy with my Storm. There’s no other phone on the market right now that I would rather own.

This entry is just a quick rundown and review of some applications that are available for the Storm to give people a better idea of what they can expect from the applications. It took me a couple months, but I’ve learned that buying apps is worth it. Just always be sure to take the time to look for reviews and research the app before you make a decision. Also, some developers are nice enough to put out free trials, which are a fantastic way to find out if you like the application.

I’ll also include links for the programs I talk about. The links labeled “OTA Download” have the URL that you should navigate to using your BlackBerry’s browser to download it.

 

BerryBuzz – Version 1.0.25

This application opens up some options that you would hope would come by default with your BlackBerry. Out of the box, BlackBerrys cannot vibrate and ring at the same time, nor can you customize the LED alert colors. These seem like very basic things, but there are no options for it. This is where BerryBuzz comes in. This application allows the phone to vibrate and ring at the same time, as well as allow you to change the LED color for the built in alerts: SMS/MMS, E-mail, PIN, Calendar, Missed calls, Incoming Calls. Because the LED is actually composed of a red, green, and blue bulb, that means by adjusting the level of each of them, they can be mixed to make different colors. For instance, I have e-mails green, SMS/MMS blue, calendar orange, missed calls red, incoming calls purple. So from across the room, based purely on the LED light, I can tell exactly what I’ve missed on my phone. It’s a great utility. The price is reasonable, although a dollar or so off wouldn’t hurt.

Usefulness: 9/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 9/10

Free Trial (7 Days): OTA Download 

Price: $5.95

Information and Purchase Here

 

Bubble Burst – Version 1.0.1

This happens to be the only game I’ve ever paid for. And the only reason I did was because it is essentially a Storm version of a game I had on my old enV. I managed to get it on sale for $1, and it was completely worth it. It’s a simple game with a grid of colored bubbles. Click on any group of a similar color and they pop, giving you points. Simple concept. There are a couple different modes included as well. The game is small in size, runs well, and it is great for wasting time. It isn’t fancy, it does what it is supposed to, and it does it well enough.

Usefulness: N/A

Fun Factor: 6/10

Overall: 6/10

Price: $2.99

Information and Purchase Here

 

FaceCall – Version 1.2.68

This is an interesting app. Essentially, it’s a way to do visual voice dialing. When you activate the app, it pulls up a grid containing the pictures for all the people in your contacts list (assuming they have a picture). So instead of flicking through a list of names to pick out people, you can do it by looking at their pictures. You can click on their picture, and it brings up your options to call them at all their listed numbers and send them texts or e-mails. You can also decide where each person appears in the grid by “weighting” each contact with a certain number of positive or negative points, where the highest weighted contacts come to the top and the lowest weighted contacts go to the bottom. It’s not the easiest system (why not just let us pick where to put people?), but it works well enough. That said, the program fulfills its purpose, but it is not the prettiest execution. Also, you have to create and account on the developer’s site to use the program (it has other built in features that you can use via their site if you pay for it). But after that account creation, the app is completely free to use.

Usefulness: 6/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 6/10

Price: Free

Information and Download Here

 

Google Maps – Version 3.0.2

It’s Google Maps, but on your phone! It works well, and almost just like its desktop counterpart. It can give directions, do street view, give you contact information for the locations you look up, and more. I rarely need to use it, but when I do, it works well. You can also use it like a GPS. If you get directions to an endpoint and then stay on the map, you can actually watch as it tracks you along the path it has given. Pretty nifty, and totally free!

Usefulness: 10/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 8/10

Price: Free

Information and Download Here

 

Google Sync – Version .0.5.13

Here’s another Google App that’s useful. This one allows you to sync the contacts in your GMail account with your phone contacts, as well as sync your phone calendar with your Google Calendar. Brilliant! It doesn’t work flawlessly, and I’ve never used the contact syncing, but it worked well enough on the calendar sync.

Usefulness: 7/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 6/10

Price: Free

Information and Download Here

 

Google Talk – Version 2.2.36

Yes. Google again. And they deliver again. Google Talk works very well, and allows you to chat with all of your GMail contacts. A nice feature here is that not only are there notifications for new messages, but they’re integrated into the Messages menu, right where they belong. You can control your status as well. It even has some built-in smilies for when you really need to show emotion. There’s not a lot to say here other than it works well.

Usefulness: 8/10

Fun Factor: N/A (Depends on your friends)

Overall: 8/10

Price: Free

Information and Download Here

 

MeterBerry – Version 1.4.5

Here’s an app for all the OCD Storm owners. I’m obviously in that bunch. MeterBerry is a paid application that tracks several pieces of information about your phone: battery level, average battery discharge, battery temperature, free application memory, and time since last reset. For several of these, you can actually set the icon to display the information, along with a corresponding indicator icon. It also logs information about your battery liufe and free application memory. On this version, they have recently added the ability to run a memory cleaner and the ability to do a soft reset of the phone (the equivalent of a battery pull). It’s a cheap application that is well put together, and I’ve been extremely satisfied with it.

Usefulness: 9/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 9/10

Price $2.95

Information and Purchase Here

 

OrientationLock – Version 1.0

OrientationLock is one of three recent programs that have recently done what many thought wasn’t possible: Disable the rotation of the screen orientation when the phone is turned. In other words, you can lock the screen in portrait view on the homescreen (since it rotating is rather useless), and you can lock the screen in landscape view when using the browser. It’s a little thing that goes a LONG way. I never realized how great this was until I tried it. It’s so simple! The app is tiny. All it does is add a menu item for every program so when you push the BlackBerry menu button, at the top of the list is a “Lock Orientation” option that will lock the screen in the current orientation. It works on an application by application basis. So you can save different apps to stay locked in different orientations. There are still flaws though (they are present in all apps that perform this function). When the phones is fully reset (after a battery pull), the settings are lost. So you have to re-lock in any apps that you want locked. The other flaw is that the lock option only really works in the core applications on the BlackBerry. So none of the third party apps (such as the ones I’m reviewing here) can have their orientation locked. But considering no one thought it could be done in the first place, who knows what people will innovate next with it.

Usefulness: 10/10

Fun Factor: N/A

Overall: 10/10

Price: Free

OTA Download

Sansa Clip :: The Review

The Sansa Clip is a miniature mp3 player. It’s designed with a built in clip (creative name right?) so you can clip it to your clothing and listen to it on the go. It is extremely light weight and tiny! When looking at it online before I bought it, I could tell it was small, but they had nothing next to it to show scale. So when I opened the package the day it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. See the picture below for a decent size comparison (not my image by the way).

General::

There’s obviously only one direction this review can head when it comes to comparisons for mp3 players: the iPod. Apple’s iPod has held the personal media player (PMP) market hostage for years now. That’s both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s good in the fact that the iPod delivered a high quality PMP that finally made them popular among the general public. But on the bad side, they became so synonymous with mp3 players that nothing else could really compete. And while their build quality is great, they are priced a bit higher than any other PMP with similar specifications. So for this review, I’ll be making comparison to Apple’s iPod Shuffle, the closest competitor in Apple’s lineup. I’ll include comparisons to both the previous and current generations of the Shuffle.

Screen::

The fact the Clip has a display is a huge bonus. The display isn’t large, but it displays a couple lines of information for menus or the currently playing song. That said, the display is very basic, with blue pixels in the general track display area, and yellow pixels in the top area where it displays information about track number, battery life, and shuffle/loop status. One thing I was pleasantly surprised with was that the Clip has some basic transitions between its menus that are perfectly smooth. They aren’t extremely artistic, but they provide a smoothness to the whole usage experience.

None of the Shuffle’s have ever had a display. Most people love or hate this. They either love it because they don’t need one and simply put one list of music that they’re glad to shuffle through, or they hate it because they can’t pick the specific song they want to listen to whenever they want. Either way, there is no display, so there’s nothing more to say here.

Advantage: Clip, although some people don’t need a display.

Controls::

The Clip actually has more buttons than you would expect. It has a basic four way directional circle with play, previous, next, and menu buttons, as well as a central OK button. There’s also a Home button to take you back to the main menu. On the right side of the device is a volume rocker. On the left side is the power/hold slider. It’s essentially a bar, that rests in the middle. If you slide it upwards when the device is on, it will turn on the Clip and then slide back down to the middle. If you slide it downwards, it puts the device in Hold mode, and the button remains in the down position. It’s a pretty effective and simple setup, although it uses a lot of buttons. They’re necessary though, as you have to be able to navigate the interface.

Compare this to the Shuffle. Apple has strived for minimalism with the Shuffle. The last generation of Shuffle’s had the directional circle with volume up and down and previous and next buttons. It had a central play button. On top of the device were two switches: one for shuffle on or off and one for turning the device on and off. The new generation of Shuffle is vastly different. It only has a power switch that controls on/off and shuffle. All controlling of the device is done via a special pair of headphones that have a button and volume rocker on them. I find that to be a terrible design. I understand their love for minimalism and sleek products. But you are essentially forced to either use their headphones (which are well known to deliver mediocre sound quality at best) or purchase a new pair of headphones that are compatible. The headphones must have a proprietary chip from Apple for the button presses to work. So in other words, they just completely screwed over the common consumer who has a pair of headphones they prefer.

In comparison to this latest generation of Shuffle, I think the Clip wins hands down.

Color Selection::

The Clip comes in black, red, blue, and pink, all of which are glossy.

The last generation of Shuffles came in green, blue, silver, and pink. The current generation only comes in silver or black.

Color really isn’t the big deciding factor for most buyers, so this is really more informative than a major decision point.

Storage::

The Clip comes in a few different sizes: 1, 2, 4, and 8 GB varieties. This of course leads to very different amounts of songs being held. My 1 GB player is currently holding 177 songs for a total of 11.5 hours of music. Most users would fit much more, I happen to have more high sound quality tracks than the average user (120 of my songs are > 128 kbps). The standard is that 1 GB will fit about 250 standard mp3’s (128 kbps), this translates to 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 songs capable of being stored on the respective sizes.

Last generation Shuffles came in 1 and 2 GB sizes. Current Shuffles come only in a 4 GB size. This means last generation Shuffles will hold either 250 or 500 songs, while the current generation will hold 1000.

This is an area where I again think the Clip wins. Having a range of storage capacities is not a bad thing. For the people who want a smaller PMP or those who want a larger one, they can have their choice. Not everyone has a big music library (I do realize that neither 4 nor 8 GB’s is large for a music library). Many people purchase small PMP’s such as these to use while working out (which is why the clip’s on them are so useful). You don’t need a gigantic library of music to flick through while working out unless  your training sessions last 12 hours.

Cost::

The Clip is priced as follows: 1 GB $29.78, 2 GB $41.99, 4 GB $52.50, 8 GB $73.55. However, as this is a widely sold product, price fluctuations show up all over the place. As a matter of fact, I bought mine refurbished (it looked brand new), and it only cost me $15 for the 1 GB Clip. That’s a steal.

Shuffle’s are priced differently. The old Shuffles are only available refurbished from Apple’s site at $39 for 1 GB and $59 for the 2GB version. From other sites that still sell unused ones, the 1 GB costs $45 and 2 GB costs $70. I’m sure these are still sold in stores for prices around those ranges. The newest Shuffle comes in at $79 for 4GB.

Again, I feel that the Clip wins here. The prices are noticeably cheaper, and the fact that Apple products rarely go on “sale” makes buying the Clip much easier for many users. These prices were found on Amazon and Apple.

Software::

The Clip does not use any special software for putting music onto the device. It can be loaded up via drag-and-drop once it is plugged into your computer, just like a flash drive.

The iPod obviously uses iTunes.

Here’s another point that people will have very different opinions on. Some people love iTunes. Some don’t. I lean more towards the “don’t” side. It isn’t terrible, but Apple did a poor job porting the code for iTunes over to Windows, so it is lackluster on my PC. I’ve seen it on Macs, and I know why they love it so much. I just don’t have that same interaction experience day to day, so I don’t have the same undying love that they do. One the positive side for iTunes, it allows easy organization of music and creation of playlists, which makes syncing music with the Shuffle really simple. This is also a lot easier for people who experienced computer users. The drag-and-drop for the Clip is very simple, but can be extremely annoying whether your music selection is either organized or disorganized. Some people like it because they’re free from having to use iTunes. I personally made a Sansa playlist in iTunes by picking out all the songs I wanted, then simply dragged and dropped the entire selection of songs on the playlist into the Clip’s folder. So in that respect, it’s almost like the Clip is “compatible.” There is no syncing, so obviously that isn’t really true, but you can still use iTunes to help in putting music on your Clip. It comes down to preference. While I don’t really like iTunes, it makes handling your music library so much easier that I think the iPod really wins in this category.

Odds and Ends::

The Clip has a few other options outside of just playing mp3’s. It has an FM tuner which can store a large number of preset stations. There is also a voice note recorder. There’s a tiny microphone on the device, and you can record reminders, to-do lists, directions, or ideas right on your Clip. It also has a settings menu. In it there is a customizable equalizer, a  volume boosting feature, and language options. You can create playlists for the player, and it also has a “Go-List,” essentially a playlist you can make and modify on the device as you’re using it. The Clip is made of plastic, as is its clip. The Clip also supports a wider range of file formats, including OGG and FLAC (although if you have a smaller storage size device this wouldn’t be such a good plan).

The newest Shuffles have VoiceOver. Essentially, your computer will use a text-to-speech program to create audio files with the names and artists of all your songs, and can play it if you want to know the name of the song playing. This feature to me just seems unnecessary. I’ve never added music to my mp3 player that I didn’t know. Why would I own it if I didn’t at least know what it was? Also, these tiny audio clips take up space on the player too. I believe it was found that the track names of a full Shuffle used about 100 MB of space. The new Shuffle is tiny, essentially the size of a flash drive. It can also have multiple playlists put on it. The Shuffle is made of aluminum with a metal clip. This does make it sturdier and more solid.

Conclusion::

I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed by the Sansa Clip. It offers many benefits to the Shuffle, and at a lower cost. A lot of people are convinced that Apple’s mp3 players are the only good choice, but I really have to say that sometimes you have to step outside of what you know and try something new. And at the Clip’s price, with all of the things it has going for it, I really can’t recommend it enough. It was the best purchase I’ve made in a long time.

Current awesome deal! Buy.com has the sale on refurbished $15 1 GB Sansa Clips that I bought. If you’re interested, it can be found HERE.