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Technology

The HTC One M8 and Sense 6 – Ask the Internet

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So, if I were looking for a SmartPhone today, I’m certain that the all new HTC One (M8) would be at the top of the list.

I’ve had the HTC One (M7), last year’s model, since the day it came out last year. I’m not in a contract position to be able to upgrade to the M8 now, and there will probably be an HTC One (M9) by 2015, so I’ll probably be skipping a generation of phones.

There are some things I’m able to take advantage of now, with a download of HTC Sense 6 from XDA Developers specific to the M7.  Sense 6 is an improvement over Sense 5.5 in several ways.  I like the theme capabilities, and the ability to change system wide fonts.  The built-in apps (Calendar, Contacts, Mail, etc.) are all improvements over the previous versions.  The first Custom ROM I loaded from XDA was the Elegancia ROM which seems to work well enough.  However, one app I do have a complaint about is Gallery, which, for some reason, no longer has the social aspects (Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox) that it had in Sense 5(.5).  I don’t know why this was functionality was removed, but it reminds me of when Microsoft did virtually the same things with Windows 8.1.  Windows 8 had the same type of photo collection ability.  Want your Facebook photos? They’re there.  Flickr? Yup.  I wonder if making these collections available somehow violated Facebook/Flickr’s terms of service…. Just a thought.  At any rate, I think I’m gonna reflash and go with Android Revolution 61.1 which is also based off of Sense 6 and see if that behaves any differently.  Also, live wallpapers did not work in Elegancia either.

At any rate, back to the M8.  If I were starting from scratch, which I’m not, and if I had unlimited funds, which I don’t, I would be picking up an HTC One M8 as my next phone.

Technology

Really, AT&T?

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I received this in my e-mail this afternoon:

picky

Really, AT&T? Just $9.99 per month? That’s it? Funny.  Google Voice provides this same service for free.  Of course, everything Google Voice provides is free.

You’d think, though, that for all the money I already give AT&T each month, that they’d give me a little something extra once in a while.

But, no.  Cool service, but I’m not paying extra for it.

Computing

12/15/08 – I Jump on the Bandwagon

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I don’t exactly know if I will look back on this as a red-letter day yet or not.  It  always takes a little time and perspective to make that determination.  But I can tell you this: I just bought an iPhone 3G, and it just might change the way I view mobile computing forever.  It’s that good.iphone3g

This is the first Apple product that I have ever owned.  I hadn’t touched an Apple “Anything” since, well, probably, my last day of grade school.  We used these old Apple IIe computers to learn Logo on.  Fun, in an 80’s kind of way.

I’ve owned several Windows Mobile devices in the past, and I’m just now severing my relationship with a Samsung Blackjack II, which is a top of the line Blackberry-type device that runs Windows Mobile 6.1.  I started looking into a replacement phone because I liked the look and feel of a touch-screen device.  I kept wanting something “iPhone-like” that ran Windows Mobile, and came close to getting the HTC Fuze (HTC Touch Pro) because it was a Windows Mobile device.  But I finally realized, I didn’t want something “iPhone-like.”  What I wanted was an iPhone.

But here’s The Thing: (And I really mean The Thing)  The iTunes App Store.  That is what single-handedly made my decision easy to switch to the iPhone.  The App Store is the Killer App.  I’ve had iTunes installed for a while, and I’ve occasionally bought an album or two from the iTunes Store, so I thought I’d poke around and see what all was available for the iPhone.  I truly had no idea of the volume of the stuff available! And all in one place! With a WM6 device, I had to scour the Internet and hope to find the software I’m looking for.  And most of the time I end up overpaying for some simple software that doesn’t work exactly right, or was built for a different screen resolution, or one of a hundred different things…  The App Store has everything I’ve been trying to get for my old WM6 devices at a fraction of the cost, and available immediately Over The Air!  No PC needed.  Wow!  (Yes, I know, you can download and install .cab files right on a WM6 device, OTA and all.  I’ve done that.  But the experience is nowhere near the same.)

I’ve just started delving into the App Store to see what is available, and I’m amazed.  I’ll probably be blogging more about some of them soon.  (Like Ocarina… just outstanding!)

So, the bigger question remains… Is this the start of something? Will I become a convert? A Steve Jobs cheerleader? A MacHead? Eh… I think it’s a little early to predict that will be the case.  But I was always an ardent supporter of the Amiga, so I already know how to Think Different.