It's Been A While...

It has been way too long since my last post. I'm feeling excited because I just figured out how to put an app I developed onto my old Samsung Intercept! I feel like I have a whole new phone! Why am I excited that the Intercept is coming back into my service? Wasn't it an utter fail of a phone? Well, yes, it is, and the fact that I can put my own apps on it changes little about that, but it can do 2 things that my current phone (the Motorola Triumph) can't: 1) GPS; 2) Music (and I will write another post as to why). Sure, I would rather have a newer phone for these tasks (like a Galaxy Nexus...drool...) but for now, the Intercept will do. Also, having an older, slower phone will be great for development purposes, since I can test just how efficient my apps are, and ensure that they can run on a variety of devices. Speaking of developing Android apps, that has been proving to be an adventure, too. Perhaps I shall write a post on that topic some time.

Samsung Intercept

+ Slide-out keyboard
+ Speedy camera
- Unresponsive touch-sensitive keys
- Screen lock/power key shared by end call button
- Not compatible with newer computers.

Would I recommend this phone? No.

When I owned this phone, it was running the older Android 2.1, which was so horribly slow that it frequently made the phone frustrating to use. I discovered a glitch in which putting the phone into airplane mode made it impossible to get to the notification screen, and could be resolved by holding the “home” key to bring up the multitasking screen. It has since been upgraded to Android 2.2, which makes the phone considerably faster and solves some of the problems I had with this device, though at a price: connecting your phone with your computer will become a challenge. This will be most frustrating when trying to sync your phone with your music and pictures on your computer, tethering, and rooting. Also, the “home” and “back” navigation keys are not only touch-sensitive, but light-sensitive; the keys worked fine indoors, but as soon as I tried to use them in direct sunlight, they would become completely unresponsive. Finally, the button for turning the screen off is the same as the “end call” button, so if you take a call while wearing a headset and want to drop the phone back in your pocket, you better wait until the screen turns off, or you risk hitting random buttons.

There were two good points to this phone, though. The physical keyboard worked great. The camera has almost no shutter lag, and I could view pictures almost right after taking them.

Overall, I found this phone to be a major headache, and am glad to be rid of it.

The Beginning

Welcome to my (hopefully useful) blog about technology and many things digital.

Here's what to expect: At least once a month, I will post something about my digital life. It could be a review of my latest gizmo, an editorial/rant about something technology-related, or some helpful tip for getting things done on some digital device.

Enjoy!