Gshocker's Toys

iPad?

 
Unless you live under a rock you have heard of the iPad by now. Ok maybe you were at work but word is out there.. The leaked rumors seem to have been true and it looks pretty cool. I thought I would just post a few thoughts about this new "game changing" device.

1) Pricing is not too bad.. You do have to pay for the hardware which is not free and the "coolness" factor. Not sure which model will sell the most as having 3G would be pretty cool but that gets you out of the sub $500 price point.

2) Form factor is very nice. For kicking back on the couch this will be a sweet toy. I expect that this will sell a ton of units for Apple.

3)I was a bit dissapointed that is appears to be running the same base OS as the iPhone. It would be a winner for me if you could run background apps and really use it to replace a netbook or small notebook. For me if I could SSH into servers and do some of that type of work on it I would be all over it. I am curious to see if we see jailbreaking on the iPad.

4)AT&T still? After all the problems users are complaining about all the time I would have thought that Apple would have taken a look at another provider. I wonder if this will deter some from picking up the 3G product.

Well enough for now. Looking forward to checking on out at an Apple store in a few months.

 

New Android Phone

After my interesting shopping experience on Google's phone site I finally got my phone a few days later. As it turned out it they took a business day to process the order and the following day it was shipped. Not perfect for someone who was excited to get their hands on it but still not too bad. Would have been nice if they could tell you what was going on.

So I have been using it for about a week now and figured I would post a few comments about it. This will not be a review as there are plenty of those floating around the net.

Some things that I like about the phone are -

Speed - this phone is fast. The menu system feels smooth and fast and overall a good experience. Not to much lag anywhere so far.

Build Quality - this is top notch. The whole thing feel like a quality product and not some cheap phone (I am looking at you Palm Pre).

Camera - not up to par with the Nokia phones but still very good and usable. Compared to the Droid this is great. Fast to be ready to shoot again and switching between video and camera modes is not a painful process.

I picked up the phone unlocked so I was able to get a cheaper T-Mobile plan than the subsidized phone came with. Plus I am not locked into a contract with them which is nice.

As with other smart phones (notice I am not calling it the Super Phone) the battery is not great but I manage a full day with it on most days. The only issue I have with it so far is not really the phone but the speed of the T Mobile data network. Not that it is slow or a problem so far but with their hype of the 7.2 HSDPA network I was expecting faster speeds when on their 3G network.

As with my Droid on Verizon I have yet to have a dropped call. This is something that was getting to be all to common on AT&T. The call quality is top notch and so far I have not had the urge to turn on my iPhone which is what this has replaced.

2010-01-17 09.40.51

Google Order Processing.

Looks like Google.. or at least a Google employee has finally let people know how long things may take. Too bad this was only in the forums and not posted anywhere on the site.

Hey everyone,

Orders can take up to three days to process. Once the order has been processed, standard shipping times may apply depending on your shipping location and preference, so please remain patient as we work to fulfill your order.

Buying from Google

The Google buying experience is not quite what I had thought a big company like Google would offer. While the purchase of my Nexus One phone was relatively smooth it did not offer as much in terms of customer information as I had hoped for.

After ordering the phone I was unable to find out when they expected to ship it. Sure they were giving me free overnight shipping but overnight from what day. Since I had ordered in the morning I assumed that it would get to me the next day.

Well a little over 24 hours later it was shipped. Not terrible but I had hoped that it would be shipped a little quicker. If they did take longer to process it would be nice to have that noted on the website.

Can't wait to get it tomorrow.

AT&T.. What Data plan do we need?

So you walk into your local AT&T store or Apple store to pickup a new phone with AT&T service. Chances are you grab a phone that needs a data plan so you are signed up for the $30 per month data package for smartphones or iPhones. You go home feeling good and that you have exactly what you need to use your shiny new device.

Hold the phone... You may have thought that your unlimited data plan was really well.. UNLIMITED.. but read the fine print.. In the cell phone world Unlimited generally means 5GB of data (not sure this is what the dictionary says).

AT&T is now telling us that 3% of you smartphone users are using up 40% of their data network. Now those users have the same data plan that you have and were given the same rules that you were in terms of use. Now AT&T is going to try and tell those people that the plan that they have (only plan that I know of) is not what they need.

So what are customers who use the smartphones the way the sales people tell us we can supposed to do? How much gets us on the BAD list since the sales people do not say anything. They show us all the cool features that we can now take advantage of but never say anything about limiting our use of these cool features.

This is sure to cause some friction at the love-fest that is AT&T wireless. Where is my unlimited data plan with more data than the stock unlimited plan?

costoc muffins

Black Wednesday?

Wednesday morning at opening time. Best Buy.

Little Big Planet PSP Go?

Well this is an interesting image from 1Up showing the latest Little Big Planet title being plated on the PSP Go.. Why is this so interesting.. Well currently no one in the US can play LBP on the PSP Go. So here we go.. no pun intended..

Sony decided to let everyone get excited about the new PSP Go which was slightly overpriced (ok way overpriced) for what the market can handle. Not that I personally think it is not worth the cost considering what you get but that is another story. Part of the big launch promo was showing Gran Tourismo PSP and LBP playing on the Go. All very exciting and the thought of not having to cart around the UMD was cool. Things seemed to be smooth as several titles were launched for digital download at the same time as UMD sales in stores started. Looking good.

So we come to LPB launch day last Tuesday. Many fans with PSP's both Go and standard stayed up to grab a copy at midnight so they could start playing. As you can guess midnight came and went and no LBP download was there. The forums started to heat up a little but most went to sleep and figured it would be posted sometime Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went and still no post of LBP for the PSP. Many who did not have the Go started thinking UMD purchase at the store but Go owners were left in the cold as the only way they can play is with a digital download. To add to the frustration Sony was keeping quiet about the whole thing.

So here we are on Friday and still no love for the Go owners. Again to add to the pain the Thursday update to PSN included a demo of LBP for the PSP. So now at least Go owners can get a taste but they still can not purchase the full game. The latest rumor has it launching next week Tuesday as it seems Tuesday and Thursday are the update days for PSN.

All I want to know is what happened? Why did I buy a Go when my old PSP is a better option to get the titles that I want? And with all this there is still no "Official Word" from Sony as to when we can expect LPB as a digital download.

Is the Pre Doomed?

Well I have a Palm Pre and have been using it for about a month and a half now and really like it but has it gotten enough main stream success to keep things going for Palm?

When the Pre was launched it got a decent amount of hype for a non Apple phone but I am not so sure that its problems can be overlooked given the competition that is out there. The biggest issues that I see are -

1) Build quality - I can overlook some issues with a first generation device but this one has more than its share already. The "Oreo" effect seems to be an issue that most people seem to have to some extent. I have also seen a screen break when the button is pushed too hard (layer under the screen that handles the touch).

2)Apps - I know the iPhone did not have apps for a year but that was then and this is now. The iPhone has gotten people to just expect these things and launching with an anemic app catalog is one of the big complaints I hear around the net. The lack of even homebrew IM apps is something that puzzles me. Hopefully the launch of the paid for apps will bring out the big boys but it can not come to soon for many.

3)Competition - There is of course the iPhone but you can not expect to compete with that right out of the gate. I see the biggest issue for Palm is that they may not have made the best use of their headstart over the big Android onslaught that is coming this holiday season. With the App catalog already full of good apps Android is launching on just about every carrier out there. This will make is hard for Palm with only a single carrier to drum up strong developer support.

In the end I hope Palm can pull it off. They have a very good OS in WebOS and I think the challenge in the marketplace will be good for all consumers. For now I am still torn between keeping my Pre and picking up an HTC Hero when that launches.