As a frequent credit card user, I find the ease and security of paying with plastic convenient, and also believe in fully paying off the card every month. Recently I had an experience that showed both why credit cards are beneficial, and yet also why botched customer service can ruin an experience. Continue reading American Express: A story of customer service gone bad
Google+ – The Elephant in the room or the ugly step child?
The Twittersphere was abuzz when Google announced their new Google + social networking functionality. For me it was déjà vu as I remembered similar enthusiasm over Google’s ill-fated Wave service. Thanks to Greg Knierieman I have been playing with G+, and at this point, I am undecided about its usefulness and here’s why.
There are a myriad of Social Media tools and networks and as a potential user you need to rationalize the innumerable options. I have found it simplest to categorize my primary social networking tools into buckets which define when to use what. Here is my categorization: Continue reading Google+ – The Elephant in the room or the ugly step child?
Wireless Repeater Redux: The option of longer range
I previous blogged about my experience with the Wilson Electronics 801247 which is a short range wireless repeater. In my tests, the product worked as advertised, but the short range was somewhat frustrating. I was aware of the limited range upon initial purchase and continue to wonder whether a longer range option (like the 841262) would have been a better choice. However, I always come back to some key factors to justify my decision. Continue reading Wireless Repeater Redux: The option of longer range
My Favorite Android Apps
My friend John Obeto recently blogged about application usage and Windows Mobile and wondered how many apps people have installed. I am not a WinMo user, but do use Android which offers a (more?) robust app ecosystem. My Motorola Atrix currently has 42 apps installed including a couple of app specific language packs.
Before delving into installed apps, it is important to understand my application strategy. My experience with previous phones (non-Android) suggests that an excessive number of applications can impact phone performance. Thus, I am quite selective when choosing applications and will often remove ones that I either don’t use or use infrequently. With that said here is a list of the ones that I find most valuable. Any feedback or suggestions on alternative applications is welcome! Continue reading My Favorite Android Apps
Finding the Perfect Android Keyboard: A Review of Four Options
As I recently blogged, I have become a major Android fan over the last three months and one of my favorite features of the platform is its flexibility. Nowhere was this more evident than in my recent search for a new Android keyboard.
The keyboard that came with my Motorola Atrix (running Android v2.2) was adequate; however, I had some significant challenges. The biggest problem was the positioning of the period key. For whatever reason, it is located next to the space bar and I inevitably hit it mistakenly when typing fast and trying to add a space. This creates all kinds of weird spacing and capitalization issues, and is supremely annoying. Additionally, the relatively small keys on the keyboard often caused typing error which were not always auto-corrected. My goal was to find a keyboard that could address these challenges and I was fortunate that Android has many options to choose from. Here is a review of the ones I tried out:
Continue reading Finding the Perfect Android Keyboard: A Review of Four Options