#188 - End of the Year - New Laptop, New Phone (again)

I hope the holidays have been enjoyable for you and your families. We are finally on a 7 day vacation from work, so what do I do? Its get the last blog in for the year!
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Lets start with the Droid Pro saga. My new Droid Pro (see last blog) died after 3 weeks. It went into what I call "The Black Screen of Death" and the only way out was to pull the battery. I bought my Droid Pro from WireFly.com and they were very courteous in helping me get it replaced. I sent it off on a Monday and had a brand new one back on Friday. That is part of their 30 day anything wrong warranty. I purchased an extended warranty for $69 that is now in effect for a year. When I got the new one, it was pretty easy to get it back up and running. Once I entered my GMAIL account info all my contacts and calendar were good to go. About half the apps were missing, but no problem to download them. I've added a few more and will talk about them in my next blog. The biggest problem with the Droid Pro is the battery. Depending on what you do during the day, it barely makes it through on one charge. I've ordered their larger battery so we'll see how that goes. I also miss some kind of mouse or pointer. If I need to edit something on the Pro I have to use a fingernail to point to the position in the word. My accuracy isn't the best.
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I will tell you I love the Droid operating system. The apps you can get for free do just about anything you can imagine and things you can't imagine (who thought up the Bar Code reader and pricer???) Interesting over 60% of Droid apps are free as opposed to 33% of iPhone apps being free. Now apps don't cost much ($2 is an expensive app), but if you are like me free is a better deal if the ads don't drive you crazy. I like being able to read my AOL & Gmail email on the run and I can see Facebook updates from just about anywhere.


I also sold my two oldest laptops and purchased a new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15" model. The ThinkPad series is very well built and they have great tech support (called about setting up Bluetooth on the laptop today and got through to a lady in Atlanta in less then 3 minutes). Here are the specs: Intel i3Core M370 2.4GHz processor, 4GB memory (though Windows 7 Pro 64 bit can only use 3.75GB) 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 15.6" 1366x768 display, 3USB ports, HDMI port, VGA port, DVD RW disk drive, 2Megapixel webcam, wireless & Bluetooth, fingerprint scanner and a spill resistant keyboard. If you want to buy one from PCSS the same model costs $649 through January 15.
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I was looking for a 15 inch screen laptop with HDMI (TV connector) and good resolution webcam. I was thinking the cost would be close to $1,000. but was very pleasantly surprised when I found the Thinkpad Edge series. They also make a 14 in version and lots of variations of processors, memory and hard drives. PCSS prices start at $499. So far I've been impressed with the design and features. We'll let you know about the reliability down the road.
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I talked about Windows 7 in the specs and wanted to elaborate about Windows 7 and memory. I had a good customer order a Desktop PC with Windows 7. He said he wanted 6 or 8GB of memory. He was surprised when I told him the Windows 7 limitations: Windows 7 64 bit can only use 3.75GB and Windows 7 32bit (less expensive) can only use 3.25GB of memory. Anything more is just wasted money at this point in time. I haven't had any speed issues with Windows 7 and 2GB of memory so that is what I recommend to most customers.
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See you in 2011, HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

187 - The new phone!

The new PCSS phone is in my hand. After all the technology thoughts and analysis I decided to stay with Verizon and get a Motoroloa Droid Pro. Here is how it came down. I looked at providers first. My choices in the Highlands are Verizon, nTelos and USCellular. AT&T, Sprint and Nextel just don't have enough local towers to be options. After looking at the plans ntelos really had the best deal.


Then I started looking at the phones. ntelos did not have an android phone with a real keyboard AND the latest Android operating system (2.2 FOYO). They had an old Motorola phone (the Milestone) that had a slow processor. This is why Verizon and AT&T continue to lead the cell phone market. Its all about the phones! I didn't want to get an already out of date phone with a contract. The other issue was the ntelos $35 per phone activation fee for new service. Stupid fee that discourages people from changing carriers. I thought the idea was to get new customers.


Verizon had LOTS of choices. After looking at all their android phones I picked the brand new Motorloa Droid Pro. This one had a keyboard at the bottom just like my existing Palm, but a very nice larger screen. Since I already had Verizon there were no extra charges other then the data plan that I would have to get with any smartphone.

So what are the + and - of the new phone after 2 weeks? I love having the Internet just about every where. I can check email, Facebook and sync my calendar without a cable. The negatives are the battery life really is poor on this phone. Looks like I'll have to spring for the bigger battery. Also I can't sync my contacts from outlook to the phone. Can't may not be the right word, I can do a manual copy but it isn't automatic or seamless like the calendar is. Seems odd that Google (the Android system owner) hasn't fixed this issue yet. The last negative is silly, but the phone takes about 1 minute to turn on. That's lots more then my old Palm, but people tell me typical of Droid system phones.


I'll report back after I get the new batter and have more time on the phone.