Evernote vs. Springpad

As you know from reading my last post, Arc the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Sony Ericsson! I'm still looking for a good note taking and task management application.

I figured I'd be using Evernote since that's what everyone else is using. But a comment from a co-worker made me take a second look at their terms of service and what else is out there. Thankfully there's nothing in the terms of service to make me rip the internet connection off the wall. Both Evernote and Springpad assure users early on that the data belongs to the user - always has and always will. Although they both muddy that up later in their TOS it remains certain they're not trying to steal your data.

So the TOS aside, which one should I choose to organize my life? Both allow you to take notes, create to-do lists, add pictures and images. Apart from the Android app both have web apps to access your content from any web browser, and even hosted Chrome apps to launch in a special tab in your Chrome browser.

Arc the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Sony Ericsson!

Yes, I know, I'm going straight to hell. But then Lord Jobs probably wasn't going to let me in to heaven anyways!

It's been over a week now that I'm using a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and I still always try to spell it Experia! Unlocking the phone to use on my network was the most frustrating part of the experience so far - not the phone's fault or FastGSM.com's fault either, like usual Windows had driver issues!

(Future rant: more vendor support for Linux)

If you want to know what I went through, FastGSM.com has an excellent video on their YouTube site.

This phone is sleek, like so sleek the fanboy's here are going to wish the iPhone 5 looks like this! The concave back of the phone sits nicely in the hand; and the 4.3-inch touch-screen goes almost edge-to-edge making it feel like you're in that Corning Glass commercial. The display uses Sony's Bravia technology so it's crystal clear. The other thing you notice looking at the front of the phone is there are only three buttons, not the usual four - Sony Ericsson has done away with the Search button, as they should. The right side of the phone holds the camera and volume buttons, and the top holds a diminutive - but functional - power button.

DIY OTA DTV FTW!!!

Would you believe September 1st, 2011 came and went I wasn't ready?!

I had thought about what I was going to do when all the TV stations up north here followed their cousins down south and switched exclusively to digital transmissions. But I hadn't done anything about it. So now was the time because my wife's backlog of taped summer shows was running out and the fall season was about to start!!!

Stop, Drop, and Roll -- the Kindle is on Fire!

So the Kindle Fire has been announced, followed by the iPhone 5 - no wait, the 4S, and we've got Google, RIM, Nokia and everyone else lining up for their shot at end-of-year/pre-shopping killer announcements.

Of course the iPhone 5iPhone 4S killed them all, but that's not surprising and hardly worth debating. Nothing to talk about there. I mean it was a coin-toss any ways, it'll either be the "4S" or the "5" so you had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.

The real fun is in the Android camp, much more fertile ground for rumours and wild speculation and spectacular changes! Unless you're the morbid type and like to watch a dying turtle spinning around on it's back desperately trying to flip-over and catch-up to the hare(s), in that case head over to RIM or Nokia.

Now I've been saying this all along:

Why is a 10.1" tablet two to three times as expensive as a 10.1" netbook!?

RIM's last dance

Research in Motion Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2012 Results and Revises Full Year Guidance

“Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start. The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter. RIM’s business is profitable and remains solid overall with growing market share in numerous markets around the world and a strong balance sheet with almost $3 billion in cash. We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part of fiscal 2012."

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion

Note that the highlights in the preceding quote are mine. But they all point to the same thing: scrambling!!!

The only thing RIM has going for them now is inertia: all those companies & people who depend on the Blackberry network. You can't easily (if at all) transfer that stuff over to an Android or iPhone, so Blackberries will still be around for a while. RIM can take advantage of that and get their ass in gear, or they can be arrogant. US Thx Giving holiday is their big chance, they better have a kick-ass product ready for then - a press release promising great stuff in 2012 will be a suicide note! 

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at RIM's last dance

Menage a Trois

Ever notice how bad things always happen in threes?  Kind of like Nokia, Microsoft, and now RIM! it's like they were looking down the double-barrelled Android/iOS shotgun and figured "let's stick really close together, that will protect us!"  Nokia and RIM have both been loosing market share to Apple and Google's partners; and Microsoft's mobile OS was leap-frogged while they were busy gloating about how great it was.  Now this triumvirate is attempting to regain their individual glory by teaming up and leveraging their strengths.  But can they share the work required to catch-up lost ground, and can these competitors share the glory if they manage to get any of it back? 

RIP Nokia

Nokia, the Finnish giant, that started out making tires and now supplies more mobile phones to the world than everyone else combined, signed their soul to the devil today and took a big step closer to the corporate grave!

Today, Nokia announced they would adopting the Windows operating system as the basis for their smart phones.