07.29.2006 | 2:20 pm |
I was writing my shopping list for the week up into a note file on my Sidekick II and wondered to myself “how would I survive without a device like this”
Since 2000 I’ve had a PDA of some kind. I started out with a Palm Pilot M100. I had that until the Handspring Treo 180 came out. After my Treo had all the typical Treo problems (basically everything breaking . . .) I finally decided to look elsewhere.
For whatever reason I decided to not go with another convergence device, I went with a Sony Ericsson T610 mobile phone (a very nice and tiny phone) and a Sony Clie . . . Whatever the model was but it was the last one they made with built in Wi-Fi. I couldn’t do it. Carrying two devices rarely worked for me, text messaging was a real pain on the phone and the Clie was too big (as far as I was concerned) to carry everywhere. As far as I was concerned a phone and a separate PDA was just way too many individual devices on my person.
So I did some research . . . A friend of mine had a newer Treo so I asked him how he liked it. He loved it but he was on his sixth replacement. I didn’t want to go down that road again.
The decision came between two devices. There were the Blackberries and, since I was a T-Mobile customer, the T-Mobile Sidekick II. I decided on the Sidekick II for one main reason which the whole dramatic situation where Paris Hilton had her Sidekick hacked brought to light . . . As you input information it’s syncing remotely with the server.
This proved it’s value very quickly. I had input a good deal of information into the Sidekick (both directly onto the phone and on the web based interface) in one day. Later that day I was getting out of my car and grabbed the phone. I ended up dropping it on the pavement and the screen cracked in many spots. It was completely unusable. Not only did I not lose any data but I could access it off the website while I was waiting for the replacement to come in.
That all being said, I was noticing today how much I’ve come to depend on such a device. I have a full keyboard and constant access to my Email, To-Do list, Calendar, Notepad, Address Book, Web Browsing (may seem like a time waster but it’s incredibly handy to have Google in your pocket when you need information), Text Messaging, Instant Messaging (AOL IM and Yahoo IM), Camera (low quality but fine for quick snapshots) and whatever else is crammed on here. This is all not to mention that it’s also my primary phone.
I did have one issue with build quality (While I was not happy with how T-Mobile took care of me in that case it’s not enough to negate the six years of great service I’ve received) here but aside from that it’s been great and I use the heck out of it. I can not imagine going back to a “normal cell phone” without a full keyboard and all the other aforementioned capability.
I’m working on a year and a half with this phone which is, for anyone that knows me, a LONG time for me to have a cell phone. I’m usually pretty quick to get bored with a phone and just upgrade to something else.
The Sidekick III looks like a nice upgrade but I don’t see a reason to trade up yet. Aside from a nicer camera, eight email account capability (Only can do up to four on the Sidekick II) and MSN Messenger capability . . . I’m not seeing a good reason to upgrade. The Sidekick III should be much cheaper by the time my Sidekick II breaks again.
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07.27.2006 | 8:35 pm |
So far so good. I’ve ceased the forwarding of my home phone to my cell phone, I’ll call Ameritech/SBC/AT&T/whatever they call themselves today to cancel that and save nearly $10 a month dropping down my landline to the most basic of basic. Woo hoo! Currently I just have an answering machine on that landline stating that the number is no longer used and what number to dial. The most I should get on there now is recorded telemarketers which is fine. I hang on to it for three reasons. Satellite needs it, my ADT home security system needs it and my DSL line needs it. Otherwise I’d cut it completely.
PrivatePhone changed one thing that was bothering me. Once your outgoing message finished it would say “Please leave a voicemail for the PrivatePhone subscriber” that now is a generic “Please leave your message after the tone”. I honestly think those voiceovers are pointless all together and no one would miss it if it were gone but at least it doesn’t advertise that someone is calling a number that isn’t a “real phone number”. 
My other annoyance was that I couldn’t forward the number to my cell phone (which, upon further reflection, I’m not sure that I want to anymore). I noticed a little blurb in the web based interface stating that I could forward to another phone for “as little as $3.95 a month” “COOL!” I thought to myself.
I went to it on my Powerbook and it only showed me paid plans that don’t apply to what they were talking about. A few days later I got a voicemail while I was at work and logged on to check. I noticed the link again and clicked it. I got two more plans for outgoing minutes. Since these are only usable for PC users and not Mac users that’s why it didn’t display when it sensed I was using a Macintosh web browser. I found out that if I wanted to I could pay $3.95 a month and get 100 outgoing minutes to use per month. With that plan I could have the PrivatePhone number ring up to three different numbers simultaneously. This would deduct from that minute package for each minute you spend on the phone answering a call received this way. 100 minutes would be more than adequate for just that purpose I think but if gone over it comes to about $0.02 per minute.
So now I only have one complaint with the service . . . I’d like to be able to have more than 10 new voicemails in the inbox. You can store as much as you want up to 1GB on the free account if you go in and move them out but if I don’t have time to check the voicemail for a day or so I could see 10 voicemails being used up rather quick.
Otherwise, it’s all good.
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07.27.2006 | 5:53 pm |
Yesterday we said goodbye to three coworkers. They were employed on a contract basis and the contract was up.
Susan I worked with for about a year, Lynn and Romona I worked with for about nine months.
It was sad to see all three of them go as we learned a lot from each other and had a lot of fun working together. We’d spend days in between calls and projects going back and forth tormenting each other.
The honors for someone who truly got me would go to Romona. On my birthday, as I was reading the card everyone signed for me, I found myself suddenly covered in silly string. That might have been payback for the time that I kept walking past her and covering her back with stickers. She didn’t realize the stickers were there all day or while she was shopping afterwards. Her daughter pointed out her new look upon her arrival home.
Susan was an absolute trip. I remember walking back muttering various complaints about the copier. Susan perked up and said “Yeah I know! When I came here I didn’t think anyone smiled! I got to the point where I just smiled at them every time I walked past just to get to them!” Romona, Lynn, Ross and I looked at her for a bit. Finally Romona said “Susan . . . The copiers weren’t smiling at you?” Susan never did live that one down.
Lynn was a riot too. Another coworker of ours showed us how to make phone calls through a notify service and assign whatever caller ID # we wanted to it. She had it call her daughter from her daughter’s new phone number to her old phone number (which hadn’t been disconnected yet) “this is your new phone . . . Don’t you want me?” Then the next call “I want to be found but you’re not looking hard enough” and on and on. Poor kid!
There are many other fun times that we’ve shared here and I will miss those times. I wish all three of them the best and hope they enjoy their new positions as much or more as their position here.
Keep learning and keep enjoying life the three of you!
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07.16.2006 | 3:19 pm |
I’ve signed up for a new service called PrivatePhone.com. This is a free service provided by Netzero. I’m assuming they’re offering this to draw attention to their NetZero Voice over IP packages as well as their other offered internet packages. Whatever their reasons it appears to be a great product. Read a Press Release (PDF)
I have two phone lines. I have a landline through AT&T and a cell phone through T-Mobile. I mainly just use my landline number for the purpose of having a number to give to people and businesses without giving out my cell phone. I have call forwarding set up so when someone calls that number it sends it to my cell phone. I also have a distinctive ring number so when that’s dialed my fax machine will pick up. (Which I’m replacing with a free eFax number)
The downside of leaving this setup and setting up PrivatePhone is that I won’t have the benefit of calls coming directly to my cell phone without giving out my cell phone number. On the flipside . . . As voicemails are left they’re immediately emailed to me in .wav format which my T-Mobile Sidekick II can play from right within the email application. I REALLY like this way of doing things!
Once I finished configuring PrivatePhone.com the way I wanted it I thought to myself how much I liked not having to deal with calling a number to retrieve voicemail messages (anyone who knows me knows I hate dialing in to receive voicemails, give me an email or a text message any day!) So I begin to wonder if I can tie this to my cell phone.
I call T-Mobile and my first question is if the voicemail system that T-Mobile uses can send emails with your voicemail attached. The answer was no. My second question was if I can set it up to forward to a different voicemail system than the one they use. The answer was yes! The rep walked me through doing it. (On the Sidekick II just go to the Phone application > Menu > Settings > Call Forwarding & Voicemail. From there select the forwarding option “Forward to Custom Number” and change all the options to forward to the number you wish to use for voicemail. Write down what you had before just in case you want to go back!)
Now that I’ve set it up it’s completely transparent and all my voicemails go to one place, my email. One annoyance is the announcement states that they’ve dialed a PrivatePhone number. That I can deal with. Another annoyance is it’s limited to 10 voicemails at a time and even if it’s forwarded to your email account straight away it doesn’t automatically remove it from the online voicemail box. That generally won’t be a problem for me but I wish it wasn’t that limiting.
It would appear that since this sends the voicemails in a standard (.wav) format it would work for anyone who has a cell phone capable of receiving Multimedia Text Messages (otherwise known as MMS) as well.
I love technology. For once it’s made my life easier.
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07.12.2006 | 9:43 am |
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Thai restaurant with a friend of mine.
Thai Room
4022 western ave
Chicago, IL
http://www.planet99.com/chicago/restaurants/2476.html
We ordered the following:
Pad Thai pork
Chicken in Yellow Curry
Crab Rangoons
Fried Tofu
All of the food was excellent, great atmosphere and the service was very friendly. The prices were pretty reasonable as well.
There’s another Thai restaurant right next door (the name escapes me) which wasn’t as nicely done up on the inside however was much more crowded. I’ll have to try them next time and see how they are.
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07.12.2006 | 9:43 am |
A couple of months ago (yes behind in posting) I went to Laschet’s Inn.
Laschet’s Inn
2119 West Irving Park Road
Chicago, IL
http://www.planet99.com/chicago/bars/374.html
I ordered:
Seafood platter (fried cod shrimp scallops and crab cake)
Sub French fried Spaetzle (dumplings)
The food was excellent however there were only two servers. We were served by a woman who seemed a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people she had. I finally ended up walking up to her to ask for the check and to give her our bill.
I’ve been here twice before and this was very unusual based on those two experiences. Typically the service is excellent and I will be going again at some point.
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