I’m a satisfied chappy atm, I’ve had a iPad2 since christmas, but only just got a iPad smart cover for it. Really makes a huge difference cosmetically than the folio case or the logitech stand I have.
Oh… 9 month gap between posts… yes I am that slack.
Something I do to relax in my spare time, is while my free time away on a mmorpg, namely Everquest 2. Its a game like World Of Warcraft where its easy to be drawn into the game and spend your time there improving your character to the point where you can attempt to clear the end game content with your peers. And to avoid feeling stale on one character, like most other players in these games, I have multiple characters to concentrate on, thus increasing the time needed to play them all as much as I would like.
But this is how I like to wind down. Before I go to bed, I like the feeling of satisfaction, no matter how artificial, Everquest 2 gives me. Everyone else has their own way of spending their free time, this is mine. And while people argue that instead of playing computer games, I could be doing other stuff, like reading, or going to see a movie, this piece of entertainment is what I enjoy. I do have other things that I do in my spare time, but I seem to always be justifying this one.
Found a couple of snazzy wallpaper apps on the Android market today:
Light Grid Live Wallpaper is a live wallpaper which displays agrid of lights fading in and out. You can completely customise the wallpaper by changing the shapes of the grid to circles, squares, and hexagons. You have many interactive touch options to play with and can add many animated ripple and wave effects.
Photile Live Wallpaper will take any picture available on your phone and snazz it up with a wide selection of options which will make your picture come alive with a grid of floating, fading, sliding tiles. You can even touch the screen to see a shockwave ripple across the tiles.
The paid version of both these wallpaper are both worth the 61p (or 99cents) to get the most out of them, as the free options only really offer one “theme”.
We like to feel in control, we like to do bits and pieces even if its to give us the illusion of control. I left Windows Live web software and moved to the Google web software in order to have that feeling of control whether its tangible or not. Without that feeling of control, we in ourselves feel an anxiety which threatens to distract us from being productive or feeling relaxed.
Lifehacker and its talented editorial team, brings us a varied assortment of hints and tips, various apps, and downright useful information which we may read and adopt where applicable to our day to day lives, be it at work or at home. Even the smallest thing we try to do to make our lives better gives us that all important feelgood factor, because its one more aspect of our lives we reigned in, and we feel that much more in control until a better solution comes along.
For me today, I feel anxious about not having a dedicated Google task list on my phone to compliment the Google task list that’s already on the web. I’ve looked over some of the app’s on the Android marketplace, and picked one out of the third party apps called Taskos To Do List. I’ve just installed it, and looking at it now its seems to work ok, I just need to have a play around. Something like this may not actually be adding much to my life, but it makes me feel good for knowing its there.
I briefly mentioned that I had a Android phone yesterday. I am currently on a monthly Orange contract and been with them as long as I can remember.
My first phone was a Motorola, and was a brick, after which I tried out a Orange windows phone which I thought at the time was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I followed it up by more Motorola products the v235, the v635, and the v3. My last phone before now was a Blackberry Pearl which I kept hold of for two years, and now July just gone I upgraded back to Motorola with the Atrix.
The Motorola phones I owned previously were all fantastic phones, with a great user experience, the one gripe I had with all of them was that their batteries didn’t lasted long. Other than that, they were fantastic phones. The blackberry I had, while was a cool phone, tend to slow up, and the Blackberry marketplace crashed every single time I used it.
The Motorola Atrix, being my latest gadget, brings with it a great user experience, great compatibility, and the ability to sync with my Google accounts. The Blackberry had nice apps to use, but were as limited as much as the Atrix sets its own apps free. Sure the Blackberry had its own calendar and so on, but unless you go through a tiresome sync process to sync it with software on the PC then sync it with Outlook which I don’t use, then you’re limited with just whats on the phone.
The Atrix offers a more seamless experience and the apps on the phone sync automatically wirelessly or over the phone network to Google without prompting every time there is a change. Apps already onboard included Gmail, Calendar, and the Google Talk app, the Facebook and Twitter apps are more complex than the Blackberry versions I was using, with more opportunity to tell them different things like the location or able to upload pictures to their servers as soon as I take the photo. I had to download the Google Docs, Reader, and Google+ apps from the marketplace to get the full Google experience, but thats easy enough, the Andriod marketplace doesn’t crash! Other notable apps I’ve got on the Atrix is the Evernote app, Youtube, and WordPress.
Why Android and not say the iPhone? Even on a contract plan, the phone costs a silly amount to buy, even as a upgrade. Plus when you sync the information on a iphone, you can only take it as far as your own computers, whereas with the Android phone you can take your information to any browser, even your iPad’s. And no way was I going to touch a Windows phone.
I recently made the transition from Windows Live Mail over to Google’s Gmail. My account on there was broken into 3 times now, and used to shoot out spam to all the contacts that trusted me enough to give me their email address.
I packed up my bags figuratively, copied over all the email addresses that matter before deleting them off Live Mail, said goodbye to my MSN messenger contacts, and marched on over to Google and made myself a home over there. I was already using Google services for my Android phone, so its a relief to have everything in one place, to have an integrated calendar and to-do list, the RSS reader, and the Google+ application.
Not only is it a new user experience, but also there is the feeling of liberation I now feel with Google services as opposed to Hotmail, the fact that I have fantastic access to most of its services on my phone and on any computer I wish to use. The fact I don’t see email trying to set me up with my potential life partner is awesome! As a result of the move, I am very happy within myself that I made the transition.
Not only am I on Twitter and Facebook, but I am also now on Google+, drop me a line sometime!