I found this comic a few days ago and I’m sure anybody reading this blog is this person or has been helped by a person like this. I think I actually laughed out loud a few times while reading it. Let me know what you think.
Why It's Better To Pretend You Don't Know Anything About Computers
So after 3 days of Droid, here’s my good, bad and ugly in reverse order. First, background: I have been a blackberry user for ~4year (8700 and Curve). I also own an iPod Touch
*UGLY*:
Have YET to be able to sync my Microsoft exchange with the Droid’s email feature. Droid admittedly (they say so in their manual) does not do a good job at syncing to Microsoft exchange, they offer a few solutions which all involve getting your Exchange Admin involved and then tell you to download some 3rd party apps which get around MS’s security requirements and so on.
This could be a dealbreaker for many people. I can’t say for sure if this problem is universal or if it’s just my Exchange server’s fault, or even my fault for screwing up the sync. I have been working around this by using the **AWESOME** web browser to connect to my company’s online email server but this hack won’t do me for long.
*BAD*:
*Physical Keyboard*- not good. I don’t have a ton of experience with non-blackberry QWERTY keyboards but I can say that both Blackberry models that I have used are heads and shoulders above the Droids. I have never used a slideout before, but even so I feel like it just doesn’t cut it. The buttons are shaped weird and are a little close together. I really haven’t used it much, so maybe I will get a little better with time, but frankly it’s pretty bad and I can’t really see myself using it too much.
*Battery life*- I can’t say this is too awful yet. My phone did die on me today. I think this is more to do with the awesome features and my constant using of them than a poor battery, but having your phone die mid-day sucks.
*Lack of BBM*- As a former crackberry nut, this was a hard thing to give up.
*Bulk*- the phone is bulky, even without the substantial case that it came with. Far bulkier than either blackberry that I have owned. Although I think it is a good looking phone and very well designed so I don’t mind a little bulk, but I could see people, particularly girls having an issue with this.
*App **Store*- This is a bad, but not really. The App Store (market as google calls it) is far more limited than the iTunes one, however as far as I can tell you just lose a bunch of the noise. I have found apps that I really like for Twitter, Weather, Sport Scores, Pandora, Flight/Travel and a few others. The big loss seems to be games but that’s not really my thing. There are a few apps that it has that are KILLER that you can’t get elsewhere but I will discuss those in the good.
*GOOD: *
There is so much I like about this phone, I will try to be short.
*Screen *– BEAUTIFUL
*VZW’s 3G Network* – Super Super fast I can stream Pandora in my car and using the built in speakers substitute it for the radio without noticing a skip or a hesitation. Watch youtube videos without a second of hesitation and so on.
*Messaging *– Email and SMS and Chat are great, seamless and cool interfaces
*Virtual Keyboard* – Similar to Apple’s. I picked it up very easily and the predictive text blows the iPhone’s out the water.
*Google Voice* – the Google Voice app has finally given Google voice a purpose in my life
*Google Navigation* – Like a Garmin GPS and Google had a baby and then that baby went on to be President. Best. Navigation. App. Ever.
*UI* – smooth seemless and customizable. I’ve only had the phone for 3 days and it’s already intuitive.
*Hardwear / Processing* – The Phone is fast, processor responsive and everything is running very smoothly, admittedly after only 3 days.
All and all, I’d say the Google Droid is the iPhone on a better network, a
little less beautiful and with a lot more potential due to the google juice
that it has built in and will surely benefit from. After feeling like I had
to defend my blackberry to iPhone uses for the past 2-3 years. I now can
confidently say that I have a phone that can stack up to anything Jobs and
the boyz can dish out.
I hate paying for software. I will occasionally do it if I cannot find it easily online or if I feel the developer deserves the cash. I’ve used many different anti-virus software packages over the years and I think I finally found one that I really like. It also happens to be free.
I used to use Norton Antivirus like many people. I’d pay for it because I didn’t think there was any other way. I then moved on to a free version of McAffee that my school gave me. I probably used that for years before moving on to the next one; AVG.
I loved AVG for a long time. It was fairly quick, updated often but it was a little obtrusive. I dealt with that though because the product was truly free. About a year ago I AVG had a false positive that caused iTunes to get messed up. I freaked out and uninstalled AVG and iTunes so nothing bad would happen to my music collection. The next day a fix was issued but it was already too late for me. I moved on to Avira.
Avira was good. Very similar to AVG. It had an annoying popup that would bug you to buy the Pro version. Not terrible but annoying (I later found out how to disable this message). Then Microsoft releases their Security Essentials package. In a word: awesome!
It’s been a little strange that I’ve been saying that Microsoft has had some amazing products lately. I love Windows 7. Windows Media Center is a great media experience. And now their new security software.
Microsoft Security Essentials combines Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware protection in a small, lightweight and very silent package. It updates automatically, detects a great number of issues and doesn’t take up my system resources.
Get it today. I highly recommend it. Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
I've been doing a lot of international traveling as of late and keeping in touch with family and friends in the states can sometimes prove to be difficult. I should rephrase t hat. It's not difficult but it's difficult to do it cheaply. I've learned a few things along the way and I'll let you know what I've been using to do this on the cheap.
1. A smartphone with unlimited internet access
This is a must. I've been able to be on gChat and email without some people even knowing that i'm in Europe. I've been using an unlocked iPhone 3G and a Pay as you go SIM card from O2 in London. I put 15 pounds on the SIM card and it came with unlimited internet. If I really wanted to I would never have to use the 15 pounds and just use the following program to make all of my calls.
2. Skype on your smartphone (or at least your laptop).
Skype has allowed me to place phone calls to the US at very cheap rates. Using 
Google Voice (mentioned below) and a SkypeIN number I have unlimited calls to US numbers for $60/year. Not too bad. I also use Skype on my laptop to talk to family and friends with audio and video. It works surprisingly well and if the other party has Skype too it's completely free.
3. Google Voice
I never do a good job explaining what Google Voice is so I'll just embed the following video:
Got it? When travelling back and forth between Europe and the US I am now able to be reached with just one number. When I'm in the US I have my Google Voice number forward to my cell phone and when I'm in Europe I have it forward to Skype. It works great for the most part. Using Skype on the iPhone is awesome on WiFi but it can be flakey sometimes on the 3G. Luckily if someone tries to call me and I miss it, Google Voice just transcribes their messages and sends it to my email.
Pictures, messages, keeping up with the mindless stuff that people do, etc.
Got any other tips for keeping in touch with people when you're travelling? Leave them in the comments.
First, Verizon has terrible handsets to date. I have used the Blackberry World, Curve, and now the Storm. They all have their benefits but they also all have very big downsides as well. So a nicely placed Android smartphone with a good design would be the number one seller right away.
Second I think the Storm two has been fumbled horribly. This might have been the leader if they truly fixed all the problems with the current Storm, but with out the fancy Android operating system.
Third I seriously think there are a lot of Verizon users out there like me just waiting and searching for a good touch screen Smartphone that can rival the iPhone.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think this Droid is in the same league with the iPhone no way. First AppStore, second loyal Apple Fanboys, third Gizmodo/Engadget/TUAW, they are all over the iPhone. Talk about some serious marketing that would need to take place because Apple has every blogger and news station talking about their phone. Good luck racing up that hill Motorola. But i think they are in a very good place to do well because Verizon has been lacking a “cool” phone that could function for business as well. Finally am I going to buy one right when it comes out to test how it works for business. Who else is would consider leaving Blackberry for the Motorola Droid?
Windows 7 officially has launched today and Microsoft was encouraging people to host “Windows 7 Parties.” Seriously, I’m not kidding. Windows 7 is a great operating system and I would recommend it to anybody but this is just too funny. Check out the official guide on how to host your party then watch FunnyOrDie’s spoof of it.
It was a short while ago in my life that devices purchased lasted a very long time. Hell I still have a first generation iPod! Not that I use it anymore but it still works. Now those iTouch’s are very fancy and all, but I bet they won’t last much longer than a year. Very planned I think that these devices start to break right after the manufacturer warrantee runs up. Just like that Oreo Cookie packaging. Really, they haven’t figured out to put a zipper on the package so it stays fresh yet? Or that box of cereal you find yourself waking up to every morning. Yeah they want it to go stale so you buy a new one before you normally would. I can think of at least 2 examples in the last year that I have had this happen. 1 with my HP Printer, almost 1 year and 1 week after the warrantee the printer kicked the bag. And my blackberry world edition last summer. I guess RIMM doesn't have to outsell apple up front because all their users HAVE to buy phones exactly 1 year after the initial purchase where most Apple users WANT to upgrade to the new fancy phone not because they are forced into it. So now the Dilemma I face is this, I can hold off and hope that Verizon gets the iPhone soon, and get by with my crappy $50.00 curve replacement, or pay full retail price for one of the new Blackberrys (Tour, or Storm). I think I am going to stick with the Curve until the new Storm 2 comes out or an iPhone.
In case you haven’t heard the news from the past week, Apple and AT&T; have blocked Google’s official Google Voice application. This really bothered me along with many other Google Voice and iPhone users. Why can Blackberry users on AT&T; use Google’s app but my iPhone on the same network cannot? I actually started looking at other platform’s just to see what was out there and what was coming out. The HTC Hero (pictured above) looks like an awesome phone and it runs the Android Operating System. Android is a much more open platform and I wouldn’t have to worry about them blocking applications. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way.
The rant is now over. Here are some links for your reading enjoyment.
One point of discussion that Praz and I have been arguing about is the price point and the monthly service charge for the 3G or 4G. For me the monthly charge is a deal breaker. It’s an endless expense that as long as you own the device you will be paying. I am more likely to buy a higher priced device and not have to deal with a Verizon or AT&T.; My personal issue is why would I want to pay $60.00 a month for only one device connectivity when i can pay $60.00 for a broadband card and have my laptop/desktop, or really any device that has an operating system and a usb port online. And I have a feeling this connection will be dedicated to the tablet. Let us know your buying preference.
Another week, another set of links. I’m also pretty happy that the Student Nerds team got their Google Voice invites. Now we just need to get the invite for our company line. Anyway, here are the best of the rest for the week. Have a great weekend!
If you’ve ever had your Google account compromised you know how frustrating that can be. It happened to my brother and he was unable to get Google to reactivate his account and had to create a new one. It was very time consuming and he also lost all of his email. Luckily he didn’t have anything crucial in the account, I think. Anyway, there is a new feature from Google that allows you to prove that you own your account. You can setup a mobile phone number that Google will use to text you a code to reactivate your account.
Click here to activate this feature. You’ll be asked to verify your Google password and then you should be presented a screen that looks like this: 
Click “Add a mobile phone number” and add your phone to enable this feature.
On a side note I just got Google Voice. What happens if I use my Google Voice number for my mobile phone number for this and I get locked out of my Google account? That would suck.
I have been loyal to Verizon for as long as I can remember. A few blips here and there, I had been on T-Mobile and Cingular/ATT for a short period of time. They were both terrible compared to Verizon. However, the one complaint I have is the type of phones Verizon has on its network. Well now some are claiming the best CDMA phone ever is coming out next week, the Blackberry Tour. After looking at the review at Engadget here. I am simply unimpressed with this phone. I don’t understand who would pay the up front cost of this phone just because it looks cool and has some better features. I have a Blackberry Curve 8330 and there is really nothing that looks inspiring about this phone at all. Let me know if all you Verizon loyal’s are just waiting it out for the LTE (4G) iPhone on Verizon?
They will be rolling this service out to Chicago hopefully by the end of 2009. I don’t think for the suspected $30 extra dollars on top of our triple play this would even entice me at all. I have a Blackberry that I can tether. Not to mention I leave Chicago more than I am here. This service serves no purpose for me. Let us know if you are excited about WiMax at all?
I signed up for a Google Voice invite about 3 or 4 months ago when they first announced the service. On Friday Google announced that they would be sending out those invites to people who have signed up. I constantly checked my email on Friday hoping I would get my invite. Well, it’s Monday and still no invite. Why do I want Google Voice so bad? Watch the following video and you can also read about Voice’s features here.
Google, please send me the invite and also enable Number Portability. Now. Thanks.
In honor of Michael Jackson’s passing I’m going to start today’s blog post with a video of one of his best moonwalks. Have a good weekend and listen to the King of Pop this weekend.
Links:
I’ve been thinking about this lawsuit involving the RIAA and Jammie Thomas-Rasset. She was ordered to pay $80,000 per song that she downloaded or $1.92 million dollars. $1.92 million for 24 songs? This is absurd and luckily I’m not the only one who thinks so. I’ve been reading many articles on the topic and there seems to be some hope for this woman.
This ruling could actually be unconstitutional according to this PC World article. The constitution has rules against “grossly excessive” punitive damages and I think most people would agree that $80,000 per song is grossly excessive. There have even been some music artists that have been critical of the RIAA and Moby has even said the RIAA should be disbanded.
The music industry is really in a bad situation with this. They are punishing their customers and there have even been studies that say people who download music illegally end up buying more music. They will eventually come around but this lawsuit needs to be appealed and they need to start embracing new technologies.
On a side note, the same PC World article from before stated that this case started five years ago and the RIAA has changed some of their practices. They said that anybody doing today what Jammie Thomas-Rasset did five years ago, they wouldn’t even get charged with anything.
Thoughts on all of this?
Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend. Here are the links:
If you are using Mozilla Firefox it’s likely because someone Nerdy like myself or Praz has told you to. But you may not know why exactly you are using Firefox over Internet Explorer. The big difference between the two is the customizing that you can do with Firefox. There are themes, add-ons, or extensions. Most people browsing the web with Firefox are not using any of these and it’s a shame. I am here to try and make it as simple as possible to jump in and make the web browsing experience much more fulfilling.
I want to focus on add-on’s and extensions. The problem with the add-on’s to date is that their are so many and its hard to figure out which ones are actually useful. Now the Student Nerds have created a collection so you can use the same ones we do. To see the addons that we recommend you can visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/studentnerds
We’re going to start a new feature for the blog where we will rewrite posts about awesome websites, programs or tips that we use on a daily basis.
Today’s repost is about Dropbox. Our original post on Dropbox can be found here. I recently shared some files with a friend of mine and he asked me how I was able to quickly share the files with him without using email. I couldn’t use email because the file was too big so I used Dropbox. I figured I should write another post about Dropbox because I think everyone should be using it (if only to backup your important files).
Let me first explain what Dropbox’s primary feature is. Dropbox will backup your files to their servers quickly and easily. You can then install Dropbox on any of your computers and Dropbox program will keep the folder in sync on all of those computers. I use Dropbox in a few different ways. Here’s what I do with it:
Sign up for Dropbox today and let us know if it has helped you. Anybody else have any cool uses for Dropbox?
Here is some of the coolest stuff for the week. Check it out and have a good weekend.
I installed the newest version of the iPhone OS (operating system) a couple of days ago and I’ve been very happy with it. There are a few topics that make this upgrade worthwhile and I’ll talk a little bit about each one. These are in no particular order.
Horizontal Typing – They have finally enabled you to use the wide keyboard with the iPhone in the Mail, Messages and Notes applications. This should have been in the very first iteration of the iPhone but as they say, better late than never. 
CalDAV Support – This is kind of a nerdy feature but this will help me stay very organized. I use Google Calendar for all of my scheduling (I have about 5 Google Calendars in there for different purposes) and the new iPhone software can subscribe to each of the calendars and keep them in sync with my iPhone’s calendar. They even use the same color scheme I have set up in my Google Calendar. *Note – Apple has not released the new software for everyone yet. I obtained my version via Bittorrent.
I enjoy traveling and want a camera to document the places, but I also want to remember where I took each picture. I am going to make a prediction that geotagged photos will be the wave of the future, and I bet the new iPhone 3G S is going to have the built in ability to do this. I think much of what Fotopedia is doing might be copied and done better by Facebook considering they are leading photo site on the web. However, Facebook will need to step up their game with some new features if they want to compete.
I’ve been out of town for the past few days so today’s post is some of the stuff that I have missed while I was gone. There was also a new iPhone announced yesterday that I will not be upgrading to. There are a few reasons for this. One, the price is too high to justify and I don’t think the new features will be worth the upgrade. I also read an interesting article about how AT&T; might lose their agreement with Apple next year and that is also when my contract with AT&T; would be up. I have had AT&T; (or Cingular) for nearly 10 years. I’ve seen how their service has buckled since the iPhone has been out and their service is just getting worse. I would have no problem switching companies if the iPhone came out. Any of you upgrading or have any thoughts on that?
Here are the links:
If you thought the Nintendo Wii was cool with its magic wand then this Microsoft project will blow your mind. It is based on voice recognition and movement recognition. It interacts with you as if it were another human being. It’s a very cool technology but border line psychotic because soon all the very anti-social people out there will have no need to leave their house at all now. But I am still getting excited for this new project, for this could change the way we play video games for good, no more couch potatoes losing muscle definition and getting fat! Maybe this will be the best thing for America!
Head over to Gizmodo for more details: Project Natal and check out the video below. If it works as good as advertised this truly will be a gamechanger for Microsoft.
Tonight will be Hulu’s first attempt to do a live simulcast of a concert. They decided to broadcast a Dave Matthews Band show the night before their new album is released. The show starts at 9pm ET and you can watch at Hulu or you can watch it right here on StudentNerds.com.
I must say that I was very skeptical of Hulu when it was first announced. I thought Youtube was going to win out, but after Disney’s investment and the release of the Hulu Desktop software I think Hulu is going to hit a grand slam for the media companies. They are doing a much better job than the music industry. Thoughts?
Before sharing the links for the day I wanted to talk a little about the new application Hulu just released. The application allows you to view all of Hulu’s content on your PC or Mac computer and use a remote control. This means that you could easily hook up a laptop or desktop to a TV and have an awesome solution to watch TV. If you could get live sports on Hulu I could easily get rid of my cable. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens with this company. Here’s a video to explain the new application.
On to the links:
First of all, Congratulations to Mike and his new wife.
Now, this post is something of a response to Prassel and his posts about not seeing the point of Ubuntu and instead opting for Windows 7. I finally got the RAM together on my laptop and was able to install Windows 7 this afternoon. It still is not on my desktop, but I’m too happy with that setup to take the risk. Plus it’s a now-7-year-old computer, and I don’t dream that it would run a newer Windows comfortably.
For a bit of context, I have used ubuntu sporadically for the past 2-3 years, and in February when I was stranded in TN with a shitty connection and a corrupted Windows Registry such that I could not start Windows up, I first downloaded Ubuntu 8.5 and built up from there. I’ve since placed Ubuntu 9 on both my desktop and laptop and have spent at least 20 hours in the environment, and I’ve spent about 8 hours now in Windows 7.
Windows XP: the industry standard. Get a nice clean, stripped down pirated version and you have the best OS I have ever seen. Very fast, very intuitive (perhaps biased since I’ve spent so much time there), and – honestly – quite stable. I have never seen a BSOD, and any difficulties were due to my own fault installing a .exe I found on my computer whose identity I was not sure of (happened once).
Windows 7: much nicer looking. Wayyy better than the week I spent with an early version of Vista 15 months ago. That was slow and awful. Some of the things from that which annoyed me persist: inability to create multiple taskbars, hard to find folder options, hard to get rid of the “are you sure you want to do this?” perpetually 
appearing prompt. Nevertheless, it’s much faster and much sexier. There isn’t a huge interface upgrade in my opinion. The start menu is still not as good as my “classic” XP version (even on XP I didnt use the new version – nor the control panel’s “simplified” version). But it looks nicer. I like the white icons in the bottom right. I think the network stuff works better even though it seems less transparent (i’d like that “repair connection” button back, but it’s possible windows 7 is smart enough that i really don’t need it… time will tell). I really liked that when my browser window and instant message window overlapped, i could see my IM window’s title bar blink behind the semi-translucent broswer title bar. To be fair, vista can do this too. On the other hand, all the software and drivers I’ve installed have worked beautifully on Windows 7, even though they were designed for XP or, in cases, Vista. Altogether, I see no reason to switch from a nice hacked version of XP, however, as it is still faster and more… customizeable.
DOS: easily the best OS available today. Text-based operating systems have never been sexier. For a good one, see MS-DOS
Ubuntu: version 9. Haven’t tried out multi-monitor support which was Prassel’s main complaint. Honestly, today’s Ubuntu is a million times better than that of 1.5 years ago. It is a bona-fide, legit OS. You can easily use this thing OOB (out-of-box). It instantly picks up all the 
wireless signals in the area. It comes with firefox, IM clients, and games already installed. You almost never work in the terminal (which is a lot different from 1.5 years ago). It figures out NTFS partitions automatically, and the hard drive is entirely available without any programming (which is what i call terminal work, even if you copy/paste it from sites). If there’s a program you don’t have that you want, just install it optionally and easily. All that said, I usually just use windows XP because why bother? I still see Ubuntu as a tool or novelty rather than a native OS. It will probably never overcome that hurdle for me or the masses (as, say, firefox did over IE), but it’s still worth keeping on my computer and using every couple weeks.
OSX: So here’s my position on Mac’s these days, and probably for about 2-3 years now. It’s probably a better OS than Windows XP. My friends that are really into IT and computers that have played with Macs all use them exclusively now. The guy that introduced me to firefox and digg and ubuntu 6 years ago is now a mac user. I bet I’d love macs to and switch over if I gave it a try and saw how much better it is. But I’m not about to spend 3x the amount of money on the same damn computer for one that’s a mac just so i can try out the goddamned OS. My next purchase is a $250 netbook, not a $1250 macbook. That said, I’ve heard of making hackintoshes out of netbooks, so maybe i’ll try that.
I have a terrible time keeping up with people’s birthdays and I wanted a better way to manage them. If you’re on Facebook there is a somewhat hidden feature that will email you weekly with upcoming birthdays. It’s a quick and easy way to make sure you don’t miss one. The setting is a little hard to find and I wish Facebook would make it easier to find but don’t worry. Here’s how to get those weekly emails:
I was reading a blog post by Fred Wilson on the A VC blog and he mentioned something called “Take Away Shows.” I clicked on the link and was forwarded to a an incredible website of recorded songs by some artists I have heard of and others I have not. The basic idea of the site is to get these artists to perform their songs on the spot and usually in the street (at least that is what I’ve seen so far). I’ve watched a few of them and it’s a very cool idea and you could watch these for hours.
Here is a pretty cool one from Bloc Party:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2094462&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1
Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
Here are a few others I've watched:
I was forced to write this post because over the weekend I realized how many people who use web-based email clients (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc) don’t have them set up as the default email client in Firefox. This allows you to click on an email address on a webpage and have your webmail open a new email to compose. Here’s how you do it:
On a side note, the blog might have less posts in the coming weeks as the team will be travelling. We’ll try, but no promises.
Quick set of links. Enjoy the weekend.