Archive for March, 2008
31

This is a story about my short love affair with seesmic. I had a seesmic invite/account two or three months before I actually used it because I didn’t have a webcam. Clarence of DYKC.com was kind enough to send me an extra iSight he had. When I received it in the mail, I logged on to my seesmic account to see what all this hype was about. I must say, seesmic can certainly suck you in.
Before I made my welcome video, I spent an hour or so looking at all the video conversations that were going on. I recorded a welcome video and a couple of others and got immediate video feedback. That was really cool. I really enjoyed the interaction with everyone on seesmic.
I carried on a great video conversation with a lady in Wisconsin about the growth and potential of social media from an educational standpoint. It was great. That night; my first night on seesmic, I spent four hours on there - yes, four hours.
The next day, it was pretty much the same. Four hours just flew by.
My love affair with seesmic was sweet, but short. Although I think seesmic is awesome and I had some great conversations with people on there, I quickly became super addicted to it. I found myself spending countless hours on there and you really can’t do anything else while watching and recording seesmic videos.
So, I had to get the seesmic monkey off my back.
Maybe I’ll return one day, after I get through seesmic rehab and gain a little more self control.
Until then - a bid seesmic a farewell.
26
I love Twitter, but sometimes; ok a lot of times, I forget that just because I know about Twitter and actively use it, doesn’t mean that everyone I know is doing the same thing. I forget that not all of my friends and family are total web geeks such as myself. So when people ask me “why I use Twitter” and tell me how pointless it seems, I become stunned and am all of a sudden baffled by the fact that they are truly unfamiliar with Twitter and a lot of other social type sites and apps I use.
Thanks to Lee Lefever who created a video titled ‘Twitter in Plain English’, I can now direct my friends and family who question Twitter to this video.
As a matter of fact, why don’t I just add it here for their convenience.
Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
I think twitter is a great tool. It isn’t all business for me. It’s a social and information sharing thing for me. What do I mean by that? I’ll gladly explain. It is social because sometimes I treat it like my water cooler moment. It also allows me to not only connect with existing friends on twitter (although none of my friends were on twitter when I first joined in November of 2006), but also allows me to meet other people. For some reason; people who are unattached to social web activity, think that services like twitter and facebook (and so on and so on) replace real life interaction, but they don’t. I think it does just the opposite. I think these types of services enhance and increase people getting together in the physical world. For instance, through twitter I have met a ton of folks from all over the place. I reside in Northern Virginia, but when I go to Atlanta this summer to visit a friend, I know there are about 10 people on twitter that I follow (and vice versa) whom I can meet up with to have cup of coffee. When I go to Nashville for my family reunion this July, I know 5 people on twitter I can hook up and chew the fat with (you get the drift). Am I saying these people on twitter are my best friends; of course not, but not everyone is your best friend anyway. However, they are people whom I share a common interest and what’s wrong with that? There’s no harm in expanding your social network of peers and friends.
Twitter is also a most excellent place to share and receive information. People on twitter share links to articles, other blogs and websites, share invites to new web apps and sites, details on various conferences and expos, etc, etc. I love information sharing as most other people on twitter do as well.
So, in a nutshell, I love twitter. Before assuming it’s ridiculous, give it try; you just might like it……
24
I’m thinking about adding a calendar or something to this blog so I can share various social media, podcasting, blogging, film and video meetups and events I attend. Someone in the DC/MD/Va area may have an interest in attending. Maybe I’ll add an upcoming or 30boxes widget to the blog, whichever one works and looks the best.
More later on that….
24
How many times have you looked for jobs and wanted to have the ability to contact someone who works for or has worked for companies you are applying for jobs with? I know I have wished for this. You apply for jobs and you go on an interview and you then you get the job offer, but you have no inside track on how it really is to work for this company. Sometimes you just want to hear some opinions from employees who actually work there or have worked there in the past.
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Criticat is a site that allows you to rate the company you work for and companies you have worked for in the past and share your work experiences. This sounds like it could be a really useful tool. Especially if Criticat really catches on and people use it and are truly honest with their ratings. I could really see the value in something like this. There are some places I’ve worked for that were horrible and if only I’d been given a heads up to the culture of that particular work environment I would have been better equipped; mentally, to deal with it or maybe I would have turned down the job altogether or maybe I could have asked more probing questions durung the interview. Too many ‘maybes’ to list. I’d like to see Criticat blossom because I can see how having the ability to go to a site to get an inside glimpse on a particular company could prove to be beneficial to someone to better prepare them for interviews and make better decisions on accepting job offers. So, I’m definitely going to keep my eye on Criticat. I’m curious to see if other people will take the time to participate in leaving their rating and work experiences.
If anyone has already use Criticat, leave a comment and let me know how you participated and what your opinion of Criticat is. Would also like to know if you see any real value in a site like this.
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21
1. At
Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair
Dryer At Passing Cars.
See
If They Slow Down.
2. Page
Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t
Disguise Your Voice.
3.
Every
Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4.
Put
Your Garbage Can On
Your Desk And Label It ‘In.’
5.
Put
Decaf In The Coffee
Maker For 3 Weeks
.
Once Everyone
has Gotten Over Their Caffeine
Addictions, Switch
to Espresso.
6.
In
The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ‘
For
Smuggling
Diamonds’
7.
Finish
All Your sentences with
‘In
Accordance With The Prophecy.’
8.
Don’t
use any punctuation
9.
As
Often As Possible, Skip
Rather
Than Walk.
10.
Order
a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with
a serious face.
11.
Specify
That Your Drive-through Order Is’To
Go.’
12. Sing
Along At The Opera.
13.
Go
To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why
The Poems Don’t Rhyme?
14.
Put
Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And
Play
tropical Sounds All Day.
15.
Five
Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because
You’re Not
In The Mood.
16.
Have
Your Co-workers Address You By Your
Wrestling Name, Rock
Bottom.
17.
When
The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I
Won!,
I Won!’
18.
When
Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The
Parking lot, Yelling ‘Run
For Your Lives,
They’re
Loose!!’
19.
Tell
Your Children Over Dinner.
‘Due
To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.’
20.
And
The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of
Insanity…….
21
I want to change my Tales of a Single Parent blog. I am currently running it on Blogger, but quite frankly, I have grown very tired of Blogger which is why I moved this blog to WordPress (by the by, I absolutely love WordPress and am very happy I switched). I am not sure if I want to run Tales of a Single Parent on WordPress or Joomla.
I want to add video to the blog and more information as far as news, photos and resources, etc. It will still be the official blog for the Tales of a Single Parent podcast, so of course I’ll still be adding the audio from each show on the blog as well.
So, I just don’t know which platform I want to go with. More later on that. If anyone has any suggestions, leave a comment….
20
Some of you from twitter know that I want to start adding video to this blog and my Podcast; Tales of a Single Parent. I have a budget of $250 and am looking for a mini camcorder; one I can carry around in my bag. Some twitter friends recommended the FlipVideo, but after researching it there were some things I didn’t like.
- There are 2 models (one model allows 30 min of recording and the other allows 60 min of recording)
- It records directly to the device
- There is SD card expansion slot
- Unsure about it compatibility with iMovie for editing purposes
So, I researched some more Mac compatible mini camcorders and found the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG6 Digital Camcorder in Blue w/ 5x Optical Zoom, SDHC Compatibility, MPEG-4. It has some great specs, it is Mac compatible and it’s within my budget - $199.84. Wal-Mart has it and I am psyched. I’m picking it up this weekend… So watch out. I don’t know; me and a camcorder - could get crazy…..
20
I’ve been using the online ordering feature at pizzahut.com since they started and I love it. It’s so easy, so simple. When the kids and I want pizza, my first instinct is to always get online and put in my order, not to call in my order.
So tonight, the kids and I agreed that tonight was definitely a pizza nut (guess I should have thawed out that meat earlier). I get online to pizzahut.com and I see that you two new things:
- You can text message your pizza order
- You can go to pizzahut.com from your mobile phone and place your order
This is awesome. NOW, if I wanna order Pizza Hut and I’m not home yet, but am on my way, I can text message my order - I LOVE IT!!! (my best friend is going to think I am nuts if I really do this - but he knows I will)
19
If you’ve been looking for a service that can transfer your document to an interactive online publication, look no further - Issuu is here.
With Issuu anyone can convert their documents into interactive online publications. It only takes a minute and it’s free. Forever.
Features
* Upload any PDF file and have it instantly converted to an online publication.
* Join a living library where you and your friends comment, share and have fun.
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* Post your publications on Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, LiveJournal,Orkut etc.
* Embed your publications with our non-branded standalone viewer or as a small preview.
* Reach your audience everywhere in the world with our one-click viral service.
Check out what Issuu can do:
19
Thanks to Theo J from Theo Talks, I now have another conference to add my list.
Blogging While Brown Conference: to be held July 25-27 in Atlanta, GA. Needless to say, I WILL BE THERE… So thanks Theo for the info……
If anyone else plans on going, DM me on twitter or email me.
18
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DIRT is definitely one of my favorite shows and is on my Top 5 list of must see shows. I don’t have FX, so I had to rent Season 1 on DVD. Totally watched it in its entirety in one setting. Courtney Cox is so manipulative, cunning, vain and hardcore in this show. I LOVE IT!!!!! She always has these celebrities on DIRT by the balls. It’s crazy. I also love the guy that plays her best friend Don who is her freelance photographer. On the show, he’s the one that always gets ‘the shot’ for DIRT magazine. He is a functioning schizophrenic, but a super talented photographer. I love this show. If you haven’t taken time to watch an episode, I suggest you check it out.
Other shows I consider must-see tv:
Weeds
inTreatment
The Riches
Big Love
18
In case you missed today’s speech given by Barack Obama - here it is…
18
Catch Jill Scott on BBC One in a new drama: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which premiers Sunday 23 March 2008, 9pm - 10.45pm. This drama is a story chronicling the adventures of Mma Ramotswe. Jill is certainly doing her thing. Doing more acting and of course laying down some of the smoothest grooves on this planet. I’ll be sure to check her out in this drama. Gotta give Jill my support. Besides, everyone knows I love me some Jilly from Philly and that I want to seek her out and be her best friend… Jill, are you listening….
16
16
I got an invite for BBMNATION back in January I think. So I signed up to see what it was all about. Bbmnation is a social networking tool that allows you to connect with the people around you using BlackBerry Pins. So I signed up and completed my profile and started trying to figure out how Bbmnation worked. Dang, I was and still am confused. When I initially started roaming around I honestly didn’t know what to do and I thought; maybe they’re still working everything out; I’ll check back in a month or so.
I checked back a month later and was no less confused. There is no razzamataz to this site and there is nothing from a design perspective that grabs me and makes me want to stick around. Maybe that’s done intentionally (IDK). When I think of a social network, I think of a site where members join and engage in conversation within that site. This is not how Bbmnation works. With Bbmnation, you add friends to your ‘network’ and then you carry on further communication by contacting them using their BlackBerry pin and you converse - BlackBerry to BlackBerry.
I am trying to understand this, but it seems so pointless; like an extra unnecessary step. When BlackBerry owners contact other BlackBerry owners using their pin; it is free. This is a great, but in all honesty I’ve had two BlackBerries and have never used a pin to communicate with other BlackBerry owners.
Besides, just because someone has a BlackBerry; it doesn’t mean that I want to ‘befriend’ them. Being a BlackBerry owner is not a prerequisite for becoming friends.
If you are a BlackBerry owner, go on over to Bbmnation and signup. I’d really like to know what your opinion of Bbmnation is. Maybe I am missing something or maybe it really is as pointless as it seems.
15
There are more and more services popping up that allow anyone to easily and seamlessly create a website. All of these servicesgive you the ability to create a website in a matter of minutes; no programming required. They actually have some pretty nice looking templates and have some great features. There are four services in particular that I’ve been looking at and have referred to people who have $0 budget, but need a simple website built (whether it be or personal or business use).
Weebly, Roxer, 350pages, and Webnodes. These services say any novice can build a site with ease and I have to say; they are telling the truth. They have designed it so that a child could use any of these services and set up a webpage. I am really impressed with their features as well, especially Weebly and Webnodes.
Snapshot of Weebly’s features:
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* Create a website & blog
* Switch designs on the fly
* Drag and drop interface
* Buy a new domain instantly, or
* Host your existing domain for free
* Add content elements, such as videos, pictures, maps, and text
Snapshot of Webnodes features:
![]()
Features
* Web 2.0 technology
* Real-time interactive editing
* Drag-and-drop technology
* Gadgets and widgets
* Bookmark and tagging
* Multiple file upload
* On-line document editing
* Free hosting
* Use your own domain
* More than 40 free templates
* Import a custom template
* Automatic SEO
Tools
* Articles
* Polls
* Discussion forums
* FAQ
* Dynamic lists
* E-commerce
* Site map
* Photo galleries
* Full-text searching
* Website statistics
* Webmail
* RSS
Webnodes has some pretty awesome templates too; very modern and up-to-date. They seem to be the most cutting edge out of the group of free website building services.
All of these services are free. It will be interesting to see if they remain free and if these services can survive.
13
I am just now realizing that I have been neglecting my Facebook page. Not because I don’t like Facebook anymore because I do. I love Facebook and I love how I have met new people and have reconnected with people I lost touch with due to moving and you know; life. The thing that makes me tired with Facebook is all those darn third party apps and games. They kind of tire me out. Every time I go to my Facebook profile I have to go through all these games and apps and sometimes it makes me want to scratch my eyeballs out.
I like Facebook for the communication portion of it. I just don’t find all the other stuff that much fun all the time. I have to really be in the mood to sit down and fool with all of that, which lately seems like never. So, to all of my Facebook friends, forgive my negligence, I’ve just been experiencing some Facebook Fatigue…..
12
I got an invite for Socialthing last week and I accepted it and poked around to see what it was all about. I signed up for it a few months back and actually forgot about it; as I typically do with all new apps I sign up for. So, this week there was all this fuss about Socialthing and I am honestly trying to figure out WHY…
Before I got my invite to Socialthing, I had already received an invite for MessageDance and was also signed up for FriendFeed. I know about at least 15 social media aggregators and I gotta say, Socialthing is not one of my favorites. In all honesty, although I am signed up with Socialthing, MessageDance and FriendFeed; I am not using any of them.
So why this big buzz about Socialthing? Two weeks ago the big buzz was about FriendFeed. I think it’s cool to have one place to stream all of your online activity, but Socialthing only allows you to drag in profiles from twitter, Live Journal, Vimeo, Pownce and flickr while FriendFeed allows you to drag in profiles from 28 other services. Not bad aye….. That’s way more than Socialthing allows you to drag in, but I am more impressed with Profilactic, who supports 144 different social sites by default, but they say you can add as many custom sites in as you want. Now that is something to get excited about.
Yet in still, I am not using any of these feed sites. I’m not sure exactly; I think I am experiencing profile fatigue (I’ll be blogging about that soon). I don’t feel like setting up another profile.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t know what all the hoopla is about Socialthing when there are clearly more and better lifestreaming apps available….Just my $0.02 cents.
11
WOW - I am shocked to see you can buy an Apple TV at Wal-Mart. I guess it was bound to happen…
11
I am sure everyone has heard about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was put on BLAST after being caught on a federal wiretap where he was heard arranging a meetup with a high-priced prostitute (high-priced/low-priced; a hooker is a hooker) at a Washington hotel last month. This is all according to a law enforcement official and a person briefed on the investigation. Funny being as though Gov. Spitzer gained noted popularity by being relentless in pursuing the wrongdoings of Wall Street (huh, is this a pot/kettle/black situation - I’d say so).
Anyway, here’s the thing that truly bugs me and just makes me want to pull out a can-of-whoop ass. Why is it that every time a politician cheats on his wife and/or betrays his family in some way; he has to give a public speech of apology with his wife standing by his side?????? Hasn’t the wife suffered enough? I see no point in the wife enduring additional embarrassment and humiliation because her husband couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants. Who was it that decided the wife needs to ’stand by her man’ in these types of situations? Does it really make you think any better of the person who screwed up? Does it all of a sudden wash away what he did? Does it make you forget that he was a high ranking official who was stupid enough to get involved with prostitutes although his entire life is pretty much under constant scrutiny? HELL NO. For me; it doesn’t make me look at the wife as being strong or even supportive; it makes me look at him and think he’s a complete butthole for allowing his wife to go through more pain, agony, embarrassment and humiliation.
NOW, if this is something his wife chose to do - I can say no more (well I could say more, but it isn’t pretty, nor is it nice), but if she was pressured by his PR people to do this because this is just what’s been done in the past, then my heart goes out to her (to a certain extent. sometimes you have to put on your big girl panties and say HELL NO I’m not doing that). One things for sure, it wouldn’t have been me. I would have stayed home that night. While he was giving his pathetic speech I would have been kindly packing up his crap and changing the locks……….But that’s just me………
11
A few months ago I signed up for an account at coveritlive.com. Coveritlive.com is a live blogging service that is FREE. I am really excited about this service. Mainly because as I stated in a previous post, next year I plan on attending several conferences I missed out on this year and I would love to live blog from some of them. I also wouldn’t mind live blogging during one of my favorite TV shows. That would be fun.
Coveritlive.com runs right from your blog or website, which I think is great because your readers don’t have to worry about going to another site just to be involved in your live broadcast of whatever you are covering. While you are live broadcasting you can instantly upload video, photos and audio AND your readers do not need to refresh. This is a big plus. When the MacWorld 2008 keynote was going on I was on a blog trying to get the scoop and I had to keep refreshing every couple of minutes to get their latest entry. needless to say, it became old real quick.
Coveritlive.com also allows the host to create and use polling questions for the readers. You have the option of creating the poll before you start live blogging or to set up a quick poll during your live blogging session. Readers can also comment in real time while the host is live blogging. The host can reply back to all readers or send private messages to individual readers; all of this is viewable in one screen. Once you stop live blogging, it is still accessible because your session immediately gets transformed into ‘instant replay’ mode for future viewing. There are some other great features they offer as well. I just wanted to give you a taste of what you can do with this FREE service.
Last night I went into my account to rome around some more and I saw that they give you the ability to do a test live blogging session. So I fooled around with that to get familiar with how it all works and I must say, I am very impressed.
I can’t wait until I have something to cover live and best believe I’ll be doing it from coveritlive.com.
10
I ran across itookthisonmyphone.com; an application for BlackBerry Curve and Pearl users. With itookthisonmyphone, there is no longer any need to manually transfer and post photos taken on your BlackBerry. You simply install the itookthisonmyphone software on your BlackBerry Curve or Pearl and start taking pictures. So, this sounds like a pretty good tool to have on your Curve or Pearl. They say all you need to do is take a photo and it will automatically post to your itookthisonmyphone.com account.
Here’s where I think they are missing the mark. The fact that you can have your photos uploaded automatically is wonderful, however, I don’t want my photos being uploaded to a photo gallery within itookthisonmyphone.com. I want the ability to have my photos automatically posted to my flickr, tumblr, twitter, facebook account and/or one of my blogs; like Twitxr allows users to do. If my photos are uploaded to this photo gallery on itookthisonmyphone.com I still have an extra step(s) in that I now have to transfer those pictures to where I wanted them to be posted in the first place.
I’ll have to keep my eye on them to see if they add these automatic integration options for flickr, tumblr, twitter, facebook account and blogs. Until then, I’m gonna have to pass.
06
Who says girls can’t pack heat. This Glambo Signature Series “Hello Kitty” HK-AK-47 is a fully functional firearm fires standard 7.62mm 125 or 150 grain ammunition with a muzzle velocity of approximately 710 meters per second and a maximum effective range of approximately 300 meters. DANG! Can I get that??
Ticket price: $1072.95
06
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the
gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought “Car95? or “CarNT.” But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five per cent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single “general car default” warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Everytime GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You’d press the “start” button to shut off the engine.
06
I would love to take the kids to the following places for vacation:
- Brazil
- Greece
- Dubai
- Italy
- Egypt
04
For those who don’t know what Ning is; it is an online service that allows you to create, manage and join social networks for free. I think Ning is a great service, especially since it’s free and you can basically set up your own social network in 5 minutes. That’s pretty impressive. Ning also offers a ton of features within the social networks; video and photo sharing, the ability to post mp3 files and create and join groups within the social network. Many of the features are much like those of Facebook (without all the 3rd party games), but Ning offers greater flexibility, including the option to have your social network page branded (I believe there is a fee for branding).
Here’s the one thing that I really hate about Ning because it’s so darn annoying. Each time you join a social network, you are given a new profile page. So, I belong to four social networks and for each one a new profile page was created for me. This is a total pain in the butt. It’s a total duplication of effort. You’re essentially regurgitating the same information on each profile page.
It would be so much easier (from a page management standpoint) if I had one profile with my associated groups and networks within it. Aside from that one totally annoying factor,I think Ning is great service.
04
I missed so many conferences this year and I am determined not to miss them next year.
That should blow a complete whole through my wallet. I better stop there.
04
Death Star Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan. This looks so beautiful. I don’t really know how true this is, but aren’t the photos preeeeeetttttyyyyyyy? Can you imagine staying at a hotel like this? (hello, room service)…..
03
I have a BlackBerry 8800 and while I absolutely LOVE IT, I really want a Blackberry with a camera. I’ve been reluctant in getting the Curve because I’ve been having a feeling like a newer and better BlackBerry is coming out. Well, there are rumors about a new BlackBerry all over the web and I must say I am pretty anxious to see what really hits the streets. The first set of rumors reported the new BlackBerry would pretty much be identical to the iPhone. That sent a shock of roaring rage through my body. While on everything else I am a total MAC fan, I just can’t get with the iPhone (oh crap, I hope the iPhone mafia doesn’t come after me - maybe I should retract this statement).
Actually, I think the iPhone is a cool phone. The ONE thing I HATE is that dang keyboard. What’s up with that? I have played around on other people’s iPhones and it’s all good until I try to type something. Sorry, I need REAL keys. Also, I am so used to the email stability that BlackBerry offers; I don’t know if the iPhone can measure up to that. So, I choose to remain a BB girl.
So when I saw these photos of the supposed new BlackBerry 8330 on the BB Geeks blog, I was very pleased to see that the new BlackBerry did in fact have real keys and did not imitate the iPhone.
NOTE TO RIM: I’m tired of being teased with all of these leaked photos. Release the dag-gum thing already and make sure T-mobile gets first dibs please. Thank you kindly
03
BlackBerry apparently has a new patent in the works. It’s for a BlackBerry with a slide-out keyboard. Looking at the drawing, the design looks just like a Pocket PC. I am intrigued. Why are they going after this type of design to add to their collection? Is it because the Blackberry Pearl gained them such a large number of new younger subscribers? Are they trying to make a bigger effort in marketing to this audience by designing other Blackberry models that are much more hip and sleek in its design (similar to the Pocket PC, The Wing and Sidekick)? I wonder. I don’t think it’s a bad design; just curious about the motive. If this comes to fruition, I wonder if it will have any better camera and video features.
The official patent title is: HYBRID PORTRAIT-LANDSCAPE HANDHELD DEVICE WITH TRACKBALL NAVIGATION AND QWERTY HIDE-AWAY KEYBOARD

02
If you want an iPhone, but don’t want to pay that price tag; you may want to look at 99% iPhone clone - the HiPhone, which is about half the price and can be purchased online. I’ve read a lot of reviews on this phone and it’s a mixed bag. Some folks say it’s great and say they’ve experienced no problems. Others say they were unable to change the language from Chinese to English and other small problems. So, if you’re feeling lucky, order it and give it a go.
Here are some of the specs I found online:
1. 3.5? screen with finger touch, touch pen.
2. Dual SIM slots and supports SIM card switching.
3. Triband GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) USA GSM standard.
4. Web browsing, WAP setting, web address management.
5. Unlocked.
6. SMS, MMS, voicemail and cell broadcast
7. MP3, MP4, file playing, recording (wow!), phone call recording (wow!).
8. Video capturing
9. Hands free speaker phone. 3D sound.
10. Bluetooth.
11. TF card supported.
12. Diversified screen switch
13. Return
14. Automatic screen rotation
Accessories: 2 batteries, Charger, USB Cable, Earphone, 512M T-Flash Card, User Manual.
Watch the unveiling of the HiPhone
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Man, that was fast. Quarterlife has been canceled after just 1 episode. NBC says it had the worst ratings in that time slot in 20 years (ouch). I actually saw the show and it was ok to watch considering nothing else was on. Could I add it to my regular TV viewing schedule, maybe. But I couldn’t say I’d be a faithful viewer. It wasn’t horrible, but it was also nothing to write home to mom about. I wonder if it will get picked up by a substation like USA or TNT.
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A father wrote this song for his daughter who is stressed out at her job. He decided to share it with the public to help with the trials of having a job that stresses you out… Thanks Big Papa (I just gave him that name).
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