sjamesho.v3

so i’ve had the HTC Incredible from Verizon Wireless for about three weeks now and i have to say it is a pretty sweet piece of phone tech to hold in my hands.

here are some highlights of why i like it so far…

1) Form Factor. my phone requirement was full touchscreen, no physical keyboard. the Incredible was the most recent phone to debut on Verizon’s network that met my requirement at the time of my upgrade eligibility. the back is multi-leveled creating visual interest, yet is able to lay relatively flat on a surface. the camera protrudes ever so slightly, but a case easily resolves this.

2) Snappy. “snappy” is a relative term since certain products can be more snappy or less snappy depending what you’re comparing with. well… my previous phone was a two year old Motorola Q9c running Windows 6.5. if any of you know what that is, you will agree that in comparison there is definite snappiness to HTC Incredible.

3) Android. i’m enjoying the UI and its customizable potential. i like that you have the choice to be as shallow or get seriously deep with the OS. that is the kind of depth i was looking for and found in Android. though i may not plunge very deep, it’s nice to know that i have that capability should i choose to do so. the system’s philosophy is one that i can get behind as well as its community.

4) Social Management. since Android is from Google, i love how my Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, etc. integrates with this phone. my lifestyle management as been kicked up notch… or two. plus, using apps to manage my social networking activities has never been easier.

remember, these are some highlights of why i like it. i encourage you to test the combination of many available brands and mobile operating systems. it is easy to be persuaded by a community of users or by marketing appeal and/or popularity. keep an open mind and find out for yourself which experience best fits you. in 2010, i’ve found that the HTC Incredible best fits me.

a lot of things happened last weekend so i’m going to start on Friday afternoon at 12:15p when i went to check to see whether or not my expected shipment of my new lens arrived yet. i work at home on fridays now so it is very convenient to accept shipments that require a signature. there was nothing at the door but there was something on the door. lo and behold there was a sticker stuck on the door that delivery drivers leave when no one is home to sign. it was written that no one was available at 11:40a. what the heck? after getting my car serviced, i’ve been home since 10:00a! so i called the “unmentioned” delivery service and repeated my irritation of their poor service. that i indeed was home at the time of the delivery and HAD the driver used common sense and “rang” the doorbell, that i would have come right away.

okay… that brings me to yet another peeve of mine… why would anybody knock when there’s NO door knocker and a doorbell is provided? plus, if people don’t like doorbells then in subsequent attempts knock HARDER!

back to the story… i was kind of bummed that i would not be receiving my new lens that afternoon but i got the details from customer service that the package will be secured at a shipping location instead of being out on delivery the next day during the time when i definitely know that i will not be at home.

around 3:30p i received a phone call from the driver who told me that he would be back around my area shortly. i wonder if the customer service representative got a hold of him explaining my dissatisfaction. anyways… i tipped him about using the doorbell since i was still working in my office/bedroom upstairs and within 15 minutes or so i received my new lens. after finishing up my work i quickly freed it from its brown cardboard encasement.

my dad was already home for about an hour and was working at the dining room table. yeah… he tends to annex the entire table with his laptop and external drives when he comes home. so i showed it off to him explaining the kinds of photos that the lens will allow me to take.

and with that being said i used him as my model to take the first test shot while he was watching 3ABN.

this cloisonne bowl was on the table, so i shot off several frames with different settings.

later that evening i attended my friend Ted’s surprise birthday party. i was hoping to test it more there but i ended up putting my 28-135mm and my 10-22mm to more use which you will see in my next post.

i love tech gadgets. yes this is another blog about yet another device that i’ve acquired. its not so tech-y and its not nearly as costly as my other recently acquired gadgetry, but it has a small neato factor. and that neato factor is the only thing that it does… shred DVDs and CDs.

ok, this particular model doesn’t actually “shred” optical media but it does make them unreadable, useless coasters by making dimples all across the disc.

so here’s a plain disc and its smooth surface.

and here’s a disc that’s been passed through the shredder.

check out the dimples! all in a perfect grid.

so why in the world would i want a gadget like this? even though some paper shredders nowadays have the capability of destroying optical discs, not everybody has a paper shredder with this feature. plus this device is small and portable enough for me to take to my clients who may want to destroy discs that contain sensitive, business-related data. and on a personal note, i also have discs that contain backed-up personal information that i would like destroyed so that when they are outdated i won’t have to worry about somebody scrounging through the dumpsters, finding the discs, and go all willy-nilly with them. you’d be surprised that there are people that actually do this. so if any of you ever burn personal data on discs, you may also want to think about getting a paper shredder that destroys discs or a dedicated shredder like mine. you never can be too careful.

i love tech gadgets. this is the third last time this month that i’m going to rave about my new tech toys. its mostly due to the fact that i’ve already spent (over-spent is more like it) my month’s budget on tech gadgets. so to make up for it i’ll probably wait for a month or two or maybe longer before acquiring neato stuff. actually there’s nothing that i’m looking to buy other than a big screen entertainment system with a surround sound speaker setup… oh wait, yes there is! how i can so quickly forget. you’ll just have to wait and see next month for my next tech gadget reveal. oh well… i guess the months of September through November will be my tech fasting period.

arriving last Thursday, my Garmin nüvi 360 GPS came just in time for my road trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. once again you’ll find a crazy MSRP on the manufacturer’s website which after some internet price comparison shopping i found it for almost $200 off. as with all tech gadgets, time will drop the price. but since my road trip starts this sunday i don’t really have the time to wait do i? anyways back to my GPS. replacing the 350 model, the 360 was scheduled to be in the vendor’s stock on July 17. i didn’t want to risk having it arrive after i left so i swallowed the $10.11 Fedex 2-day fee and voilá! it came on Thursday which gave me Thursday night to study it with the manual and yesterday on testing it on the road.

i used it again today on the way to Soquel Camp Meeting. it offered two alternate routes other than the two routes that i know of to get there. here are some pictures of Soquel.

i went Sabbath School at Parachute Park for Young Adults but after song service i left for the Main Auditorium because i wasn’t expecting the rest of the program to be a mini-concert given by a musician from southern California.

by the time i got to the Main Auditorium, i had about 2 min 11 sec before the worship service began. apparently not all programs start and end at the same time.

WOOOOOO! it was so HOT! and after lunch we decided to head back home. i had just left a tent where i had lunch with my family and some church friends.

i was sent to get the car which was at Hilltop parking. even though they have shuttles that run up and down from there, one can seriously get dehydrated if hiking up to this location especially on a day like today. you can’t really see just how the sweat beaded on my forehead. i guess that’s a good thing otherwise you’d be grossed out.

after i picked up my family and friend, i let the GPS dictate the route back. it took us through some backroads that i’ve never been on. it was kind of nice since the backroads is shaded by the tall trees unlike the open area of the highway route. all was going well until, unbeknownst to the GPS, we encountered a “Road Closed” blockade. so i turned around and it recalculated the route based on me going the opposite direction and found another way which took us to even a smaller and out-of-the-way road. well, we eventually got back to the main highway but i must say i’m impressed that the GPS recognized these really small roads. i guess as helpful as GPS systems are, depending on them 100% isn’t such a good idea especially if you’re already familiar with the area. of course if you don’t know the area at all its better than nothing.

i love tech gadgets. yes… this is the second time i’ve started my blog entry this way. maybe its because it was only a few days after my new webcam came that my new remote-control-on-steroids arrived at my doorstep. yes, this is my new Logitech® Harmony® 880 Advanced Universal Remote. if you click the link it’ll take you to its spec page and you’ll definitely see its suggested retail price of USD$249.99. so you’re probably thinking why i would spend that amount of cash on a remote. well i would ask myself that question too, but i didn’t… really i didn’t. i saw a deal on the internet that Dell Computers had a limited time special on this remote for USD$99.00. yes, you read right $99! that’s 60% off MSRP! so i quickly took this opportunity to snatch this quick before it passed me by.

there are some people that have so many remotes that they can open up a store of remotes. but i only have four remotes… well five if you count my Xbox DVD remote control and that’s four too many. its not that i have a lot of people who come to my house when i’m not there and become utterly confused at my entertainment setup when they want to pop in a DVD to watch. its just that like many other things, keeping things simple and uncluttered is key. just how simple you ask?

well, here’s a close up of the activity screen. if you click the button on the upper left next to “Watch a DVD” it will 1) turn on my television and auto switch the channel to Video-1 which my DVD is connected to, 2) it will turn on my DVD player, 3) it will turn on my stereo system and auto switch the input to AUX which my DVD audio is connected to… all at the same time! and of course by turning the power off, all three devices begin to turn off at the same time. ahh… such audio-visual nirvana in the palm of my hand! of course, the experience will be even more appreciated if one were to have a more complicated entertainment system with more remotes to juggle. but for me and my new remote, i can now put the others away and chalk it up to keeping things simple and uncluttered. yes! that’s it uncluttered. if any of my married guy friends are reading this, tell your wives that a universal remote will make your entertainment space more simple and uncluttered. maybe that’ll work. ;D