Tiny Pixel Blog

iPhone 3g? How about the Nokia E71

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Nokia develops great mobile devices. Whether you’re into clam shells, candy bars or smart phones, they are definitely in the top ranks of competitors in every category. Just entering the landscape is the E71, their most recent offering in the smart phone arena. It’s about the same size as an iPhone but built for a completely different audience. Needless to say, I’m very excited about this phone and it would be worth the upgrade from my LG Vu.

Hackers Coming to a Mac Near You!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:19:00 GMT

Every year some analyst comes out of the wood work to announce that macs are under a much greater threat due to increased user uptake. Every year we never see a threat that even comes close to being a big deal. Booo!

Click here to visit website

Back on that Bigsteepl Grind!

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:17:00 GMT

It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about Bigsteepl. My goals and aspirations toward it were put on hold due to job changes. So I’m going to spread out some ball-park plans.

There are a few things I need to do. For starters, I need to successfully launch a test site that shows the flexibility and simplicity of Bigsteepl and also allows me to test extensions. After that I need establish a wait list and a few churches who’d like to get on board.

I’ll continue posting more on this as time moves on. Stay tuned.

MetroTransit Coming to Google Transit

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:28:00 GMT

If you’re a Minnesotan within 20 minutes of downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul, you’ve probably used public transportation more than once. Well, finding those bus routes and schedules are about to get a little easier.

Google Transit is basically a mash-up between local public transportation systems and Google Maps. What’s great about it is that Google Maps has a mobile application as well built on Java. Most folks with a mobile phone can use it.

All that aside, I am pleased to inform everyone that Metro Transit’s data has been shared with Google and is being tested on Google Transit. Here is a statement from Supervisor, Gordon Paulsen of Transit Information Center in the Twin Cities.

I’m pleased to report that we recently shared our data with Google and they are testing it on their servers right now. I don’t yet have a time when they’ll go live with the data, but my personal goal is to have it available before Labor Day. We’ll see how testing goes, and we’ll be sure to alert the local media when we’re added to the participating communities on google.com/transit.

Personally, I am stoked to hear this information. This means I don’t have to rely on a computer to get bus schedules and maps. Unfortunately for me, Google Maps Mobile does not yet support touch phones such as my LG Vu which doesn’t really have a keypad for usage outside of calling someone or AT&T approved Java apps. Because of that, I am really considering a Blackberry (maybe).

David Brooks on Obama

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:53:00 GMT

"...But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more." - David Brooks

Mobile Web Development

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:21:00 GMT

A while ago Cameron Moll released a book on Mobile Web Development. It splashed around for a couple weeks and fell into the ether in terms of visibility amongst the web development community. What now? Do you think we're ready for a mobile web as an additional "primary" medium? Your comments are greatly appreciated. (Click "#" to add you comments)

iPhone 3g Fame Going It's Head

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:08:00 GMT

The iPod thinks iPhone is a douche. This is by far the funniest comic I’ve seen in a while. Still laughing about it! (hat tip @johnreilly) and see it on the website cause my image resizing sucks.

MacBooks to Hit Sub-$1000

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:37:00 GMT

It’s going around that Apple will drop MacBook prices to $999. Not sure if this is across the entire MacBook line (excluding Pro). But Apple believes that volume over price will eventually pay for itself just in volume alone. They had %41 growth in mac sales over the last year, so it’s definitely in their power to accomplish that strategy.

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Beijing Police Ninjas?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Beijing authorities run anti-terrorism drills before the wake of the 2008 olympics. Needless to say you wouldn’t want to run a “prank” across these guys. You’ll get pwned instantly! Check out some more photos which include breath-taking architecture.

Featured Posts at Tiny Pixel

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:03:00 GMT

I need to lock up a way to display featured posts. Sometimes you just need a post to sit at the top for a while. There is an extension for this, but I haven’t tested it out yet. Not to mention, I need to finish a design I’m working on.

Call of Duty 4 for Mac on 8/25/08

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:54:00 GMT

I really want this game. But I think I’d rather invest in a better (faster) computer or an xbox.

We’ll see in the coming months. But seriously, I’ve been waiting for the Mac version of Call of Duty 4 for a very long time.

Click here to visit website

The LG Vu is Good From Here

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:16:00 GMT

A week or so ago I bought an LG Vu in the midst of iPhone 3G fever (so shoot me). Like a good handful of people, I prefer trusted/established mobile device manufacturers. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is a great device, I just didn’t care to have one. Now on to the review.

Moving About the Cabin

The interface is painfully simple as it should be. In comparison to the iPhone, I was very impressed. Everything was easy to find and I was pretty well learned in finding everything easily within an hour. Like any new phone it’s absolutely necessary to get acquainted with where everything is located. For example, I love using SMS/MMS (texting and sending pictures). So I spent time finding the quickest way to get a message started. Doing little things like this helped greatly in learning the interface.

You can scroll just as you’d expect by flicking or sliding your finger in all directions (very similar to the iPhone). Touch calibration improved this quite a bit and stock settings will simply piss you off.

All in all, the interface was quite solid and as a breathe-first competitor to the iPhone, I was very impressed.

Walking Around with the Vu

If you’re thinking about getting an LG Vu, consider how much you use your phone outdoors. The LG Vu, while a great device, does not do well under sunny conditions (including most other daylight situations). You can still see things enough to pump out a text message or recognize a call, but it’s not as good as I’d like.

Another set back of the LG Vu is the task of walking while sending an SMS (a.k.a, “texting”). Doing this outdoors sucks due to a slightly less than bright display, however it’s not completely intolerable. Just be careful! lol.

Touch Display

The touch display can be rather quirky if you’re not use to moving things around with your finger. After all, we do live in a button laden society. After a few touch calibrations (found in settings) things were feeling more naturally responsive. After a few days of using the touch screen, I was moving around and typing pretty quickly and exceptionally faster than with predictive text. What’s great about the Vu is that you can still make use of predictive text.

As said before, flicking/sliding around the interface was refreshingly easy with only a few quirks. However, the iPhone wins the battle as it supports MultiTouch which allows simultaneous interaction of 2 or more fingers. The LG Vu definitely showed it’s colors when I began typing faster than what is allowed by it’s single touch limitation. The latency between touches is pretty short but nothing near the iPhone.

Surfing the Web

The LG Vu comes with full HTML and Javascript rendering. While the Javascript is sketchy at this point, my experience with web browsing has been delightful. Initially, you might want to take a look at how to turn on full screen view and landscape mode. I was close to unsatisfied before I discovered those options. Now my Vu browsing experience is satisfactory.

One thing you must keep in mind is that the web was not built for the mobile platform. While the Vu does have full HTML/Javascript rendering, it’s nothing compared Firefox or Internet Explorer. I will say that browsing full websites on the Vu isn’t the greatest experience in the world. But I can definitely get around the web and consumer content comfortably (without too many problems).

All in all the web experience on the view was acceptable. I’d like to see improvements in the future but it doesn’t fall far behind the iPhone.

Conclusion

The LG Vu makes a pretty big slash in terms of the touch phone market. LG’s biggest competitors are Samsung (Instinct) and Apple (iPhone and iPhone 3G). It will be interesting to see how competition plays out in the coming months.

As far as I’m concerned, I’d easily recommend the LG Vu to anyone. It costs about the same as the low-cost iPhone 3G models (before rebate), however you have the benefit of utilizing cheaper data/voice plans, using MMS (sending pictures) and voice dialing, all the things the iPhone lacks. Essentially, the Vu is a solid touch phone.

Twitter.com, Slightly Broken?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:24:00 GMT

On Twitter.com (while logged in) it seems the layout is broken. I wonder whats causing it. Twitter just can’t seem to catch a break, can they?! Go check it out while its still not fixed.

Microsoft is Really Good at Stealing

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:12:00 GMT

We’ve all heard and probably played the Nintendo Wii. Microsoft seems to think that their feature known as Mii (little avatars that represent you) is a great addition for the Xbox. Read the article.

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iPhone Financial Advice

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:46:00 GMT

A friend of mine sent me this earlier this morning. Quite hilarious with strink truth.