A new toy in my pocket

I got a new phone. Not one of the ones I've been aspiring to reacquire from Sony Ericsson, but an upgrade nonetheless. I was going to hold out and just purchase an SE model this summer, but was tired of being frustrated by the Samsung Blackjack I had been using. The Blackjack has lots of features, but is overall very unsatisfying.

My new phone is a Nokia 6650 Fold (not anywhere close to the original 6650), from AT&T Wireless, which is different yet than the regular 6650 Fold you might find from other networks or independent dealers. AT&T wanted to make it a little different, to show off their navigation software and PTT features on this phone, so it has a few more buttons to mess with.

Part of my agenda with this phone is to undo some of the crap AT&T has done to make it "theirs," and make it a little more my own. Symbian is a new beast to me, so I'll be learning for a long time to come, but I am already enjoying some of the benefits of this phone.

Bluetooth: I can conclusively say that bluetooth reception and transmission on the Blackjack sucks. I went back to trying out my Sony Ericsson over-the-ear headset for this phone, because it is the best sounding, least intrusive, and most comfortable headset I have. This headset had a problem with the microphone not always working with the Blackjack, and I still need to test this out. The other problem I saw with this headset was in being able to keep it connected to the phone. This is no longer a problem with the 6650 (hooray!!). The NEW feature with the Nokia is that it pings the headset when a message is received, so I can set the phone to complete silence and tell from the headset when something has happened.

Flexibility: The phone's menu system can be presented in a number of ways, and I still haven't decided what I like more. The addition of touch sensitive buttons for the external display allows for some nice features. I can scan text messages without opening it up, and have access to the calendar, stopwatch, timer, camera, and music player!

The funny thing I see with this phone is that it is running what is normally recognized as a smart phone operating system, but because it isn't from Microsoft or Apple, and only has a numeric keypad, it has been given access to the cheaper data plan from AT&T. I love that.

What I'll be doing next is adding some applications to use the GPS built into it. The phone comes with the AT&T Navigator software built in, but that costs money for the service and data (separately). There is navigation software available that can be used with map data stored on the memory card, which is preferable right now, as I only want to be able to see how far I'm walking at lunch, or whenever else. I would also like to see if it has any geotagging options.

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This is a test of the emergency FlockCast system

If this were a real emergency, you would not have had a chance to read this bulletin, because at least one of us would have been busy running for our lives.

In case you were wondering was FlockCast does, it allows you to send a link to Facebook for just about anything you are posting somewhere else with Flock.

Sometimes this is extremely handy, but might have a tendency to get very annoying as time goes on.  Please use at your own discretion. 

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A Blatant and Probably Useless Plug

My topic for the day is a subject that may sound a little sticky.  It is called Glue, and it has a plugin for Firefox based browsers (my favorite is Flock) that can connect you to other web surfers in new ways.

At its core, Glue invades your privacy by monitoring your activity on certain websites and allowing you to show your enthusiasm for different noun-based objects (people, places, or things).  That alone is not all that great, and has been most of my experience so far.

What makes it better is the networking capability it has.  You can instantly add other glue users to follow from your Facebook friends and those you follow on Twitter, in addition to following other Glue users that show up in the Glue Bar when you visit a site monitored by Glue.  Once you happen across more people, you can comment on the comments they have left, see what they like or where they have been.

I consider myself lucky to know a few BIG movie buffs, and would love for them to start using Glue to show me which ones they like or dislike by slapping a link to their review of said movie into the "2 cents" Glue comment section.  That might also promote more reading of their reviews. Ha!

I have only done a little bit of this so far, and most of it has been on Yelp, recommending local restaurants.  I look forward to doing more, and seeing what my friends can do to tell me about what they like, whether it is books, movies, movie stars, music, recording artists, gadgets, restaurants, stocks, TV shows, or wine.

Now if only I could motivate them a bit more...

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New Blog Features for kEnny!

Part of what keeps me active on this blog, is a desire to understand how to appply new and nifty applications and gadgets.  Whenever I hear of new features or hacks being made available for my favorite sites and tools, I'm all over it.  Almost every gadget in this blog's sidebar is a result of that pursuit.  To that end, I'm officially introducing two new features to my blog today.

The first can be seen at the top of the main column, where you should see "Click here to leave your answers!"  This is a Wall gadget from Google Friend Connect.  This is not my first time using gadgets from Friend Connect, but it is the first time I have put something interactive like this on my own blog.  It is there for whatever you would like to use it for.  If you would like to tell me how super green my blog is, or how i could do something to make it easier to read, or if you want to ask a question for me to answer in a new blog post, go right ahead!

The other new gadget is my label cloud in the sidebar.  I've been looking for something that makes better use of the humongous amount of space taken up by Blogger's default label list.  You can find tag clouds all over the web, but it is near to impossible to find one that works with Blogger's Labels.  I found one, and it is fairly easy to implement.  Let me know if you want the details.

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New Fun!!

Hi again! I've got my new laptop from work, and it has been a lot of fun getting it set up just the way I like it. This thing is a monster, and definitely falls into the Workstation class of laptops. The hardest thing to come to grips with so far has been the screen. While not outrageously huge, it can be an eyeball burner because of the number of pixels it packs in. I've had to do some major tweaking to make things large enough to comfortably read.

This is coming from someone who is still living life without assisted vision. I consider myself pretty darn lucky to have been able to last as long as I have without needing corrective lenses. I can see the writing on the blurry wall when I look at things FAR off in the distance, but I have been able to keep things from getting too bad through a regular ocular exercise regimen.

Back to the Beast. This might be the fastest single processor system I've had the pleasure of using. I've got as many eye-candy inducers as I can get to run without causing trouble for each other as I can on it, running Windows XP, and it doesn't ever miss a step. I'm also very impressed that the Bluetooth software is suitably capable, and can handle just about every type of function there is.

The keyboard is very comfortable, mostly because HP didn't have to squeeze any keys to fit inside the "constraints" of the chassis. I'm very happy to use it, and am still amazed to have been able to get it, considering how much my employer is trying to squeeze all they can out of every last cent. Thanks, Intel!!


The most fun I've been having of late is working on the development of a new team blog for a fictitious person originally established on a Facebook fan page. The idea came about shortly after Facebook's "Like" feature popped up. Allison mentioned that she wished she could "Dislike" things, and that started the ball rolling toward the birth of H.A.Ters. It has been a rather therapeutic platform for venting about stupid things you see, and finding a few other like-minded folks. We only have 14 fans at the moment, but we are determined to grow. :^)

Once the idea to branch out from the Facebook page was broached (again by Allie), I set up a twitter account and twittermail address so that H.A.Ters' ghostwriters, of which there are currently six, could all tweet directly to their (currrently singular) followers. This was followed by a Google Group for the ghostwriters to discuss the blog setup, and hold the information concerning the ins and outs of the H.A.Ters universe. I started another Google Group to allow more of us to monitor H.A.Ters' email inbox, which is still a little problematic. We have pretty much launched the new blog now, and it features a few imported rants from our previous adventures in blogging, to fill the toddler-blog out in its infancy. The nice part about making this a team blog is that we can each contribute what little we can to make for a more frequently updated blog.

With H.A.Ters' blog and twitter account running, I was able to add RSS feeds from both back onto the Facebook fan page, and added the new blog to Facebooks Networked Blogs app. From Networked Blogs I was able to take a blog following gadget and add it to the blog to go along with all the Google Friend Connect gadgets on the blog, so it is really "socialed out." You can sign up to follow the blog through Blogger or Facebook, and you can leave comments and videos on the page as well as leaving comments on the blog posts. It has been a lot of fun, even if we are the only ones to get much out of the exercise.


My last bit of news has me VERY excited. I just read that Google is finally unveiling a closely guarded secret for the last year. What was once known as GrandCentral, a company Google bought not much before GrandCentral stopped showing any outward publicity, has now become Google Voice. This is going to be an interesting ride. Google Voice will take all of the features from GrandCentral, and integrate the phone book with that from your Gmail account's contacts, and makes your Google Voice phone number available for SMS and email. They have added message transcription, which is an amazing feature all by itself, and usually can't be found for free. We will most likely be dropping our Vonage line very soon. Vonage, I love ya, but you can't keep charging me the small pittance you expect if you can't keep up with this.

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