January 2012
3 posts
Regarding the T-Mo HD7 and SD cards
If you lack the proper Torx bit to get the plastic framework off, an H1 Allen driver will do in a pinch. Just be sure not to strip out the screws.
The plastic bit covering the bottom 3rd of the back of the phone is actually easily removed with your fingernails. Trying to do it with anything else will likely bend the antenna contacts, and your phone becomes useless.
The plastic framework that...
Take a look at the Android and iPhone subreddits at any given time. Notice something?
In the top 10 of /r/Android, you usually see a post or two about how much Apple sucks, or how Apple is doing something bad, or something generally negative about people who use Apple products or the company itself.
In the top 10 of /r/iPhone, you see people either asking for help, sharing tips, asking for...
Android phone getting 4 hours of battery life →
1. There is no Android phone on the face of this earth that can get 4 days of battery life on a stock battery with a stock configuration.
2. If you’ll notice in the battery graph, he charged his battery a little bit, skewing the statistics in his favor a bit.
Keep it classy, Android fanboys.
October 2011
2 posts
Bye, Tumblr
After all the reblog/like spam, I’ve decided to just move things over to my own controlled site so I don’t have to deal with it anymore.
This will remain here as an archive.
You can now find me at http://exxodium.net
4 tags
“Until the end and back again, defiant to the last man. Till there’s nothing left to fight against, no surrender.” -VNV Nation, Defiant
I feel this is a good way to start off this post.
Since my last post on the issue, things haven’t gotten any better with the HTC Arrive. In fact, they’ve gotten worse. Allow me to enumerate the issues thus far:
Text messaging still...
September 2011
11 posts
8 tags
Nailing Sprint/HTC to the wall
Let me start out this post with some explanation.
I have a smartphone. It has a good keyboard. I use this smartphone for pretty much everything but phone calls. I use text messaging a lot. (It comes standard with the plan, why not) I use data a lot.
I bought an HTC Arrive in July 2011, and it has been a stellar phone. However, one feature has been missing that is promised in the manual, and also...
3 tags
Here I am, up at 4:40am, writing a post that is, in essence, bitching more about Facebook.
I wrote some time ago about how Facebook rolled out a change that caused the enter key to post a comment, rather than enter a carriage return. I called this move “user-hostile” and called Facebook out for making changes for changes’ sake, and never for user benefit.
Well, it’s time...
5 tags
Fully Automatic
Thanks to a friend in the UK (If you’re reading this, you know who you are, and I love you to death), I managed to get a copy of VNV Nation’s Automatic a few hours early (or maybe days, since it seems a lot of the digital distributors in the US aren’t selling it until October 25th). I’ve been listening to it non-stop for the last day, and here are my thoughts.
(If you buy...
Barron's: QNX, BB7 to co-exist among BlackBerry... →
RIM once again showing us that when it comes to fucking things up, they are second to none.
What RIM needs to do is not try to split itself across two platforms, but rather go all-in on QNX. The BBOS is dated and archaic.
It’s amazing how incompetent RIM’s management is.
3 tags
Managing a unified Zune and iTunes library
So. An interesting dilemma faced me some time ago. Having gotten tired of Android, I stopped into a Sprint store and picked up an HTC Arrive, which uses the Zune software on Windows to sync media to the phone.
Seeing as I already had a 1300-large iTunes library, this became a little problematic, because I thought I would have to manage two completely separate libraries, taking up double the...
Putting it in perspective
Pretty much every other Final Fantasy besides XIII: One hour in, I have somewhat of an idea, if not enough of the story to keep me interested, and to keep me playing the game further, thus uncovering more of the story, and keeping me even more interested.
Final Fantasy XIII, one hour in: What the hell am I doing? Why am I controlling a bunch of lifeless characters that have almost zero story to...
5 tags
It’s funny how everyone is saying that Apple is being a patent troll by going after Samsung and their products for imitating Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
And even while being sued, Samsung is producing a tablet that looks kind of familiar…
You’d think, with Samsung producing tablets that are beginning to look exactly like Apple’s products, that they are just begging to...
Marco Arment on switching back to a MBP full time →
I can’t say I disagree. I switched to a desktop full-time back in 2010 before Thunderbolt became known, and that was only because I hated having to upgrade my entire laptop whenever the graphics card fell out of date (which was often).
Now with Thunderbolt, I might just be in the market for a new MacBook Pro.
4 tags
HTC Jetstream: $699 on 2 year contract →
Embarrassing. It’s $849 off-contract.
This poor tablet gets outclassed by the iPad 2 64GB. The iPad is cheaper, includes more storage (the Jetstream can only go “up to” 32 GB), has more carrier options, and has better software (IMO).
Not even Android tablet manufacturers can match Apple on pricing.
3 tags
DUAL CORE! DUAL CORE!
I think it’s absolutely hilarious that everyone seems to think dual core is the solution to everything.
I mean, really? Look at WP7 and iOS. Both OSes are running on top of dated hardware, yet you notice no performance hit for it. You notice none of the devs complaining about the lack of resources, do you?
Whereas, Android always wants more power.
Better internals won’t help shitty...
5 tags
Updating the firmware on a Panasonic Viera...
I figured I’d make a post on this, simply because I lost a metric ton of sleep over this, googling around for answers, and getting nothing but spam and people trying to sell or review this TV.
My Viera decided to randomly stop accepting input from any of the 3 HDMI ports, and reading reviews on this TV, it seemed to be pretty reliable. So, I looked around, and it seemed that the firmware...
August 2011
4 posts
4 tags
Turning an iPod Classic into an iPod 5.5G
So, something quite catastrophic happened to a friend’s iPod classic a week ago: The hard drive failed. I’m guessing it got knocked around at that critical moment when it was spinning the hard drive to queue up a song, and as such, the heads crashed into the platter.
Feeling like the kind person I was, I gave her my old 30GB fifth gen iPod, knowing that everything still worked fine in...
Tiny Hiatus
Bunch of stuff going on, and I’m running on only battery, so I’ll make this quick.
Pretty much, this entire month has gotten off to an exceptionally nasty start. Everyone loves the good news first, so let’s begin with that.
I turn 22 this month. Woo. Go me. One year older.
Got a pair of 3-year old AKG K271S MkII’s. My roommate decided he would sell me his for $100, get...
4 tags
Thoughts on Windows Phone Mango
Via the magic that is the internet, I’ve been running a beta build of the Mango update that’s supposed to go out to all Windows Phones later this year. (In a couple of months, actually)
These are my thoughts. (I’m running it atop a Sprint HTC Arrive, or 7 Pro to you guys across the pond.)
Despite being beta software, the OS is rock solid and is good enough to be a daily driver....
July 2011
11 posts
9to5Mac sees an iPhone 5 prototype in the wild →
This is bullshit. Anyone who can look at that picture and NOT know it’s an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G needs to lay off the drugs. Seriously. Because that’s exactly what it is.
(Via PhoneDog)
4 tags
Hey Google, are you even trying anymore?
As I’ve been using my HTC Arrive (now loaded with Mango goodness) I’ve been wondering if Google is even trying at the mobile market.
When Android first came out on the G1 (which I owned for about a year), and then on the HTC Sapphire (and later, the MyTouch 3G), it was rock solid, no stability problems, no problems with apps crashing all the time. This is because it was optimized for...
Windows Phone 7 is a tortoise →
If you ask me, I’d rather WP7 move too slow rather than too fast and become the absolute clusterfuck that Android has now become.
Remember, it’s better to add features slowly than add them too fast and have to take them away later because said features bit you in the ass. Look at Android. Look no further than the “Android is open” argument, yet Google hasn’t even...
What will happen if the AT&T-Mobile merger...
Let’s look at this from the eyes of the T-Mobile customer:
1. At first, there’ll be no difference
You’ll keep your plan, your service will remain the same, you might even talk to the same reps for customer service. The only thing that might change is the carrier string on your phone. You know, the one that says what network you’re on.
2. You might get better service
As...
Gizmodo and alternatives to Apple products →
I stopped reading at “drinking the Cupertino Koolaid”.
Dan Hesse: Nothing is guaranteed forever →
I’m not going to argue that tiered data is unfair.
However, I am going to argue that these types of things should be put in to actually help customers, not make profit. In this case, if Sprint’s network does get overloaded, I believe that they should use T-Mobile’s model; have a 2GB cap, and throttle if you go over it. The carriers and the customers both win with that model: The...
Quick notes on the Arrive
So, yesterday. I somehow managed to score an extra $200 yesterday, went into the Sprint store, and picked up an Arrive. Here are my first impressions.
Hardware
The hinge mechanism is really solid if it’s open or closed, but in between, it just feels flimsy. Other than that, solid build quality all around.
This phone is pretty heavy. Then again, it’s constructed like a tank.
The...
In which our hero travels a bit
So I’ve been visiting Santa Cruz quite a bit, and it’s quite the tourist attraction. Usually large crowds every day, especially in downtown.
So I thought I’d take a break and write about the stuff I usually go do when I visit.
The General Atmosphere
If you’ve been somewhere like San Francisco, and also to somewhere like downtown Walnut Creek, it’s generally a cross...
Sorry about the myriad theme changes that I’ve been doing lately. I’m just trying to find one that doesn’t go all retarded on the usual line breaks that I use.
Tiers
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve heard about Verizon’s new tiered data plans. To me, they strike me as bullshit. Consider the factors:
Verizon’s biggest competitor is AT&T.
Verizon’s new plans are not price-competitive with AT&T.
AT&T, if the acquisition of T-Mo goes through, will be somewhat more reliable than it was before.
...
Food for thought
I’ve found something interesting, in dusting off my old circa-2008 MacBook Pro 15”.
With Apple’s machines, it’s easy to tell if you’ve got integrated graphics or discrete graphics. Hell, Apple makes this a selling point of their machines (they advertise the graphics performance all over the place). Therefore, if you’re going after a laptop with good graphics...
4 tags
Doing Nothing, Going Nowhere
There is no excuse as to why RIM is failing as badly as it is today.
RIM itself has an Apple-like situation on its hands; it controls the hardware of it’s mobile phones, and it also controls the software. So why, then, is the Blackberry failing so hard and bleeding market share?
This bit of news helps to put some of it in perspective. An anonymous person raises some good points, and RIM...
June 2011
8 posts
Jason Fried - 200,000 Apps is what they want →
An interesting counterpoint to those (myself included) who believe that a smartphone platform shouldn’t be judged by app count alone.
Why the mobile sector is so interesting
I seem to get criticized a lot for either 1. having multiple phones, 2. switching up every so often (and often far before any contract is up), or 3. being so obsessed with what’s coming on the horizon.
Because the mobile technology sector is far more interesting than traditional computers.
Look at it: As far as traditional computers, you got two major platforms: Mac OS X and Windows. One...
Regarding Duke Nukem Forever
There are a few points that people are failing to consider when it comes to Duke Nukem Forever, and how it has “failed”.
1. Remember that Gearbox pretty much walked in on a game that has been in stasis for 14 odd years. While it’s remarkable what they did to DNF in such a short time frame, keep in mind that you can only do so much to such an old foundation. Ideally, Gearbox...
Doubts
Hiding this one past a break, because it’s kinda personal. Click forth if you like reading crap like that.
So, a girlfriend sort of happened in the last two weeks. And it put me at a really interesting crossroad. I had two choices after the first date, and those choices were presented due to previous failures: Either put all my chips on the table and go all-in, which would have put me at...
a quickie on terraria
It’s 3:30am, and I’ve been thinkin’.
So here’s a quick list of why Terraria is far superior to Minecraft:
Minecraft costs $25, Terraria costs $10.
You are not promised future updates if you purchased Minecraft after the Alpha period. Terraria, you get updates throughout the life of the product.
More of an NPC variety in Terraria. Also, monsters ACTUALLY THREATEN YOU,...
New 'cans
And here I thought I was done handing Sony money. Fat chance.
While I do dislike Sony for their PS3 fuckups, and their proprietary bullshit (UMD’s, Memory Sticks, etc), they *do* make some pretty solid audio products. (My stereo receiver is Sony, and my car stereo is also Sony)
Having subsisted for the last few months on a set of aging Koss PortaPros (don’t get me wrong, these things...
Choice bits from AT&T's CEO at D9
Source.
Not going to really give an intro to this, so let’s dive right in:
1:59PM Ralph: “When we overlay our network to their network, it improves the quality and capacity for both customer bases.”
CEO-talk, pretty much preparing to spin the merger as anything but anti-competitive and total bullshit for both sides.
2:00PM ”In some cities that are dense — NYC...
May 2011
7 posts
Security, the Mac, and you
Seeing as how the interwebs as of late have been going absolutely fucking insane over this whole Macdefender keruffle, I think it’s time to sit down and stop being dumb about this. Yes, that includes you smug jackasses over in the Microsoft camp.
Now, to lay it out: No one is saying that the Mac is immune to any kind of malware. No one is saying that the Mac cannot be infected with any kind...
And people wonder why I hate Windows users. →
I love how Mac users get flak for loving their own platform, yet PC users can get 50 different kinds of dumb about it and get away with it.
And Ed Bott, seeing John Gruber linking to his post in the past, decides to modify the post and use it to attack Gruber personally.
As I said. Dumb.
A quick list of reasons why I only work 10-15...
People have been asking me in meatspace a lot: How do you live on 10 to 15 hours per week at 9.30/hour? Well, allow me to list the reasons:
1. I work under 16 hours because I’m on state medical insurance. If I worked over 16 hours, I wouldn’t get this anymore, and would have to pay $250/mo co-pay to get all my medications (I’m type 1 diabetic). This of course, does not include...
Carriers, leaving, and ETFs
A quick note, to anyone (especially those jumping off the Magenta ship because the death star is about to eat them whole) considering leaving their current wireless carrier of choice:
Keep an eye on your account/statements/any kind of letters you get from the carrier after you’ve left them. Because I can bet you a million, that if you leave a carrier after your contract is up and/or you are...
Android Consistency
Via Daring Fireball, I saw a review on Phillip Greenspun’s site on the Motorola Xoom. While I am not going to comment on his entire review, there is one sentence that really stands out to me, and try as I might, I cannot come to terms with it:
One example: One of the great things about the Android 2.x operating system for mobile phones is the consistent interface, more consistent than on...
Wolf! →
I get a huge mac-nerd boner off of this news every. single. time.
Exxodium
Since I decided to take this thing seriously, put my money where my mouth is, and actually do exxodium.net, it’s been about a year. And things have been great. Even if I have no readers (I don’t really care, since the content I write will never, ever be beholden to the readers, even if I get more than 10 at a time).
But, I figure I will write a short post explaining exactly where I...
April 2011
7 posts
Darren Murph on long iTunes syncs →
Mostly, what I see wrong with this post is that it calls out the “iPod”. I know for a fact that my 30GB iPod 5G doesn’t have these problems. I just make sure an album appears in my iTunes library, plug my iPod in, and within a minute, it’s all there.
Really, what needs to happen is that the headline for this post needs to be changed to “Hey Apple, why does it take an...
iPhone vs. Android: A Facebook perspective
Last night, one of my friends, who posted a craigslist ad and wanted me to look at it to tell her if it sounded okay, ended up sending me a link to it in a Facebook message, as Facebook is her only form of communication with me as of right now. Let’s look at how I would have had to view this URL on an iOS device, and my own Android device (An HTC Evo Shift)
iPhone: Open facebook from the...
Hey Nintendo
Regarding your stance on indie developers, I’ve got a question to ask you: Why do you think the iPhone is a threat to your business model? Why do you think people like games like Angry Birds, and play them for hours on end, while they let their DSes sit on a table gathering dust?
Indie devs.
Flipping this crowd the bird is NOT going to help your platform. In fact, it’s going to only...
Cisco kills the Flip Camera →
I can’t believe it’s because “the smartphone in your pocket takes good video.”
I have an Evo Shift. I’ve had an Evo. I’ve also had an Epic and an iPhone 4. And out of all of those, I think I can only say the iPhone 4 has a camera good enough to rival the Flip’s.
Like, whenever I get into a situation that’s even remotely low-light, my Evo’s...