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My son and I headed off to Best Buy earlier today to continue my search for a new laptop. I’ve pretty much narrowed down to HP or Lenovo. I’ve been hands-on with Lenovo for a period of time but not so with HP. So we decided to visit Best Buy in hopes of checking them out in person.

While we were there I noticed the Arc Mouse on display. I was immediately impressed by the design when I first saw screenshots online. The design just seems like it would be a great fit in the palm of your hand. Once I tried it out in the store I was sold.

I connected it to my MacBook Pro when I got home and much to my surprise was greeted by a fully functioning mouse without drivers, downloads, or any other intrusive process. I was really impressed by that.

At our townhouse we had Verizon FiOS Internet service. At the time the TV service wasn’t available in our area. This was about a year ago when FiOS was really new in the Richmond area. Once we moved to Chesterfield we lost the ability to have FiOS so we went back to Comcast. Lately we’ve seen a number of people in the neighborhood having FiOS installed.

Katie has been bugging me for months to get a home phone again. So once I looked into the prices I discovered that I could get TV, Internet, and Phone service from Verizon for a little bit cheaper than we were paying Comcast for just TV and Internet. Not to mention that the difference in Internet speeds is staggering.

Today was the day for the install. It took about 6-7 hours total. I would say a lot of time was spent just waiting for the activation process to happen.

Home phone is home phone. I really don’t have much I can say about that. When I pick up the phone, there’s a dial tone, so I’m happy.

The Internet was what I remember it being. Instead of the crappy ActionTec modem/router, Verizon now uses a slimmer and Verizon branded modem/router. I did notice that by default it uses WEP security, which gave me trouble with my iPhone. Once I switched the security to WPA2 everything was good to go. For a quick speed test, I started downloading Xcode from Apple.com. The 1GB+ file was coming down at 1.2MB/sec. Certainly can’t complain with that performance.

The TV service is pretty nice. It sucks to learn a whole new set of channels but oh well. All I care about is 826, which is ESPN HD. The HD service is solid with roughly the same number of channels as Comcast. I will miss INHD as I actively watched two of their shows. The quality of the HD channels really doesn’t look any different to me. The standard definition does look a little better. Enough that even Katie noticed the difference. She actually asked if I was watching an HD channel, which I wasn’t. I wouldn’t say it looks that good but that was her initial reaction.

Overall, I like it so far. Price was the biggest factor for me and that was enough to make the switch.

I had a BlackBerry earlier this fall that I purchased on my own from Verizon. Once I started my new job in September I gave up the BlackBerry and took the general company phone. We were able to order smartphones and such and I took the chance to get a Windows based Treo. That was the middle of September. Months rolled by and no phone came in. Meanwhile my phone didn’t get reception in the house and I generally lost calls and simply couldn’t hear what people were saying. In about early November and co-worker of mine and I decided to ask for BlackBerries instead of the Treo. So we put those orders in and continued to wait. Today, a good 4.5 months after the initial order, our new devices came in! It’s nice to have a BlackBerry again. Even better to have one without paying $90/month for it.

So today I decided to cancel my personal Verizon service and take advantage of my new company’s cell phone offer. I ordered a Treo 700wx to replace my BlackBerry 7130e that I’ve been using from Verizon. The Verizon service is great, of course, but no monthly charge is better than what I was going to be paying. Essentially I’ll get free cell phone service from my company. I’m not sure whether data is included or not, but I think it is. I won’t be able to text message anymore but that’s not really a big deal.

I will miss the BlackBerry 7130e, that’s for sure. From a usability perspective I don’t think it can be beat. It really just worked and was organized exactly as you’d expect. Nearly perfect. I’ll miss the native GTalk and GMaps integration but hey, to save $90 every month, I think I’ll survive without it. One thing I won’t miss is constantly being buzzed with text messages, GMail messages, phone calls, and GTalk messages.
Stay tuned for a full review in the next week or so when I get the new device!

After my last entry I made my decision and went with the BlackBerry 7130e.  I must say; wow!  It’s an awesome device, a pleasure to use, somewhat easy to learn, and actually integrates with my Mac!  I’m using PocketMac software, which is free, to sync my AddressBook, iCal, and other items to the BlackBerry.  I don’t actually use iCal as my calendar software.  I share my Google Calendar and use iCal as a viewer.  Doing this allows me to utilize the BlackBerry as a viewer for my Google Calendar as well.

I’ve also set it up so all of my Gmail gets forwarded to the BlackBerry.  It works out perfectly and the people I communicate with never see the “internal to BlackBerry” email address.  As far as they’re concerned it’s all Gmail.

In addition to the great sync features and Gmail “integration”, I have Google Talk and Google Maps installed on the device.  So, from anywhere in the world, I can send and receive Google Talk messages and get driving directions.

I’m pretty pleased with the device and ease of integration so far.  However, I’ll be in line when Steve Jobs drops the Apple iPhone on us in the very near future.

I need to purchase a new cell phone and I’m dying to get my Verizon Wireless service back.  Even though it sucks to pay for a cell again it’s just not reasonable to rely on my employer for that.  So, I’ve narrowed my search down to the Blackberry 7130e and the Motorola Q.  The Blackberry is definitely larger and not as easy to drop in the pocket and run around.  However, the huge benefit is native Google Talk and Maps support.  I can actually walk around the country and be fully connected to Google Talk.  Awesome plus in my book.  The Q is so slim it’s crazy and it runs Windows Mobile 5 so there is opportunity for development.  I’ve found software that will sync my calendar, contacts, and such from my Mac for both devices.  What sucks is email support.  I use Gmail and I guess I could setup POP support in whatever client each device supports.  It would be so awesome if there was a native application on the Blackberry for Gmail.  I’d be sold yesterday!

Now, the real kicker in this whole debate is the rumor of the Apple iPhone.  The day that product drops, if ever, I’m all over it.  Consider a device that’s an iPod, digital camera, and has perfect Mac OS X integration with iTunes, iPhoto, Mail, iCal, etc, etc.  Sweet Jesus, I’d be in heaven.  So regardless of which device I purchase, it’s temporary until Steve Jobs makes my decade and reveals the Apple iPhone.
So, given all of this, what would you choose?  I guess it’s pretty obvious I’m leaning towards the Blackberry.

Consider carrying around a single device that replaced your cell phone, PDA, iPod, GPS device, digital camera and digital video recorder. Now consider that a nationwide provider would offer unlimited phone and data services for $50-70 a month. Wouldn’t you hop on the train? All of these technologies are readily accessible and are often found sprinkled around on various phones and service plans. However, even if you find a phone that satisfies you, like the Treo 700w, you’re going to spend nearly $100 a month to use it. A top quality provider like Verizon will charge at least $50 a month for phone service and anywhere from $20 to $50 extra for data services. Nobody wants to spend $100 a month to use their phone for voice and data services.

No company seems to step up and offer a phone and plan like what I mentioned above. Yet everyone wants to complain about the technology adoption rates for Americans. Hello technology providers, this is middle America, we’d be happy to step into next generation technology if you’d provide it to us like our far eastern neighbors you always compare us to. In the far east a consumer can get high speed Internet access for next to nothing, where in America you’re going to spend $50 a month for cable Internet with 3 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds not even worth mentioning. In the far east we’re talking about high speed, in the neighborhood of 10 Mbps and higher. The reason companies say they don’t offer these services at similar prices is that Americans are slow adopters. However, I believe it’s because of the density of the country. America is far more spread out geographically and companies just can’t afford to send fiber lines out to places in the middle of nothing. This is completely understandable for the people who choose to live out there but you could always offer the quality stuff at reasonable prices to the people in larger cities. The companies always fail to mention that the US has the largest number of people per capita online.

Countries like South Korea and Japan are so far better connected than we are. New cellular technologies begin there and spread to the US and Europe months and even years later. I just want to be as connected as I can be. I think Americans in larger cities would jump on a device that replaces everything they use today that is affordable on a monthly basis. Now sure, for business people this isn’t a huge deal and you can find them walking around downtown completely addicted to their Blackberries. My concern is for everyone else, all of the non-managerial business types, the college students, the high school kids even. Why hasn’t a company like Verizon jumped in and dominated this yet to be tapped market?