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Ching’s Laptop vs. Brian’s Laptop

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Ching under Toys.

As you know, I purchased a laptop to replace my Dell Mini 9 that I had sold. After ordering a Lenovo that wouldn’t stay connected to the internet and returning it within 24 hours, I ordered a Dell Mini 12 that was on backorder for over a month. Finally canceled that order and ordered a Dell Inspiron 13 instead.

In the meantime, during this whole ordeal, Brian’s laptop croaked so we had to get him a replacement. His laptop was ordered and arrived while I was waiting for the Dell Mini 12 order. He ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 15, which he is absolutely pleased with. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of our laptops.

	MINE	BRIAN’S
processor	Intel Core 2 Duo T6400, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz, 2M L2 Cache	Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200, 2.0GHz 800Mhz, 1M L2 Cache	Mine is better.
operating system	Windows Vista Home	Windows Vista Ultimate with Bonus XP Professional (running on XP right now, but can switch back to Windows Vista anytime)	Brian wins this one.
display and camera	Glossy, widescreen 13.3 inch LCD (1280×800) w/ 2.0M pixel Camera	Glossy, widescreen 15.6 inch display (1366×768) w/ Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam	Mine is better.
memory	3GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 2 DIMM	3GB, DDR2, 2 DIMM	Same.
hard drive	320G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive	250G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive	Ha! Mine is bigger!
internal optical drive	8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)	8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
battery	85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery	48 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
wireless card	Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card	Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini Card
bluetooth	Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)	Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module (2.1)

I think the rest of the boring details are the same. I think my computer is better, though. LOL. And, I got it for less. Of course, the $100 Dell coupon helped. =P

I originally had serious reservations about Vista. I didn’t think I would like it. Actually, I thought it would be a pain and that I would absolutely hate it. Surprisingly, I like it a lot. I don’t mind being on Vista at all.

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Hmm… Looks like me?

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Ching under Moblog, Toys.

Possible Munny design by Brian. I don’t think he has decided yet what he will do, though. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

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Ching’s Old Phones [I’m a Camera Phone Junkie]

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Ching under Toys.

Brian’s nostalgic reminiscence of all of the phones he’s ever owned made me want to come up with my own list. Unlike Brian, I’m not loyal to any one particular company so you’ll find a smorgasbord on my list. I’ve owned this brand and that brand. I don’t particularly care what brand a phone is as long as it has the features I like. I don’t even care if my cellphone service provider carries or supports the phone, as you’ll see later on.

I’m going to start backwards so I’ll begin with my current phone. I’ve had my T-Mobile Wing (pictured above) for two years or so now. I actually need to replace it because it’s missing a button. I’m in dire need of a new phone, but I can’t convince myself to part with the Wing just yet because there are no other touch screen phones (in this price range) that are wi-fi capable. Wi-fi capability is extremely important to me because I don’t want to pay an additional $20 or $30 on top of my regular monthly cellphone plan for internet service. With my Wing, I can connect to any free wi-fi anywhere and access the internet for free. There’s an abundance of free wi-fi nowadays so I don’t really see the point of paying for a data plan. That’s at least $250 a year that my Wing is saving me.

Other features of the Wing that I really like are the 2.0 MP camera (the highest resolution that you could get on a camera phone from T-Mobile when I first got the phone), QWERTY keypad (great for texting or tweeting, which is mostly what I do), Micro SD memory slot (for more picture storage), and Windows Media Player (so I could listen to my MP3s). Honestly, the Wing had so many great features — most of them, I don’t even use — but those four things I listed were the features most important to me at the time. Even now, they are the features preventing me from just buying another phone despite my missing button. No worries on the missing button, though. I can survive without it since I never used it anyway. The phone is touch screen so I didn’t even know what most of the buttons are for (besides the QWERTY keypad, which I found particularly useful).

The phone I had prior to the T-Mobile Wing was the Sony Ericsson S710a. I wanted a really good camera phone and T-Mobile (they have the best rate plans, but the crappiest phones) didn’t have any good ones at the time. The S710a, offered by AT&T, had a 1.3 MP camera. That’s pretty impressive considering my very first digital camera (which was a Sony camera incidentally) was only 1.3 MP. I don’t really remember any of the features of this phone, other than the fact that it swiveled to reveal the keypad hidden inside. I think I spent more time taking pictures with the phone than actually talking on it. I suppose I could say the same about the Wing.

Now that I think about it, some of the features that were proprietary to AT&T didn’t work because I was with T-Mobile. I purchased an unlocked phone through eBay so that I wouldn’t have to switch service providers. On occasions when I couldn’t figure something out or something wasn’t working quite right, I was on my own because T-Mobile didn’t provide any support for the phone. For instance, I had to set up my MMS and email and all of that myself. Some things were a hassle but, as soon as I figured out how to get pictures from the phone straight to Flickr, I was all set. That’s all I really needed.

The other thing that I disliked about this phone was the size of it. It was so big and clunky that it felt like you were carrying an actual camera around with you, rather than a phone. I did like the light it emitted when taking pictures. It allowed me to take good pictures with the phone even in the dark.

The phone I had before the S710a was a Samsung SGH-D415. It was also a camera phone. Do you see a pattern emerging here? LOL.

The neat thing about the D415 is that the camera turns to face in or out so you can take pictures of yourself and see how the image will look on the display. Also, I mostly had bar phones prior to this phone so I thought the whole sliding thing was neat. The quality of the images taken using the D415 was pretty weak, but considering other camera phones of this era, it was actually pretty cutting edge. I was glad when I got the S710a, though, because the picture quality was such a huge improvement over the D415.

I had a Nokia 3650 (also a camera phone) prior to the D415. Brian had the same phone, but his had the straight keypad. Mine had the very annoying circular keypad. Not only was the keypad annoying, but this was an enormous phone. It’s only redeeming quality was the camera feature. I didn’t have this phone long before I was anxious to get rid of it. Luckily for us, Brian worked for T-Mobile at the time so we got our phones pretty cheap. We had new phones all the time back then. Now I’m lucky if I get a new phone every three years. My pragmatic side just won’t allow it. I think I will keep my Wing, missing button and all, until it actually quits working.

Around the same time I had the Nokia 3650, I also had a Sony Ericsson T300. The T300 was also a camera phone, but its camera is an external/detachable one. I switched to the T300 because it was cute and little. Mine had a cherry faceplate.

Prior to the whole camera phone craze, I had the same Nokia bar phones that Brian had. He had labeled them as Nokia 3310, 8210, and 5110 in his blog post, but the T-Mobile versions were actually numbered 3390, 8290, and 5110 respectively. I liked the Nokia 8290 the best out of the three because of its tiny size. Brian didn’t like it as much because the buttons were too close together for his fingers. He tended to misdial because of it. The phone was just the right size for me, though.

The funny thing is that if Brian hadn’t started working for Voicestream (now T-Mobile) at the time, we never would have gotten into cellphones. We were totally anti-cellphone in the beginning. We didn’t really understand why we would need to add something so “unnecessary” to our regular monthly bills. Well, when Brian started working for the cellphone company the monthly service charge was so cheap it was practically free. Plus, we got phones at such deep discounts.

Once you had one, it became a necessity. Today, in this age of instant connectivity, I can’t imagine life without a cellphone. I suppose many of you feel the same way. Anyway, there you have it — my cellphone history.

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Phones of Memory [I am a Nokia Fanboy]

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Brian under Toys.

I had a moment of nostalgia the other day and started recalling all of the phones that I used to own. My wife said “You can’t possibly remember all of the phones you owned!”

I told her that I could and I could even tell you what I liked about them and why I bought them. For those of you who don’t know me, I research almost every electronic device I buy. So I know full well what kind of device I am buying before I buy it. I know everything about it: the pros, the cons, everything. Below is a list of every phone I have owned since my first cell phone.

Nokia 5110: I just started my new job at T-Mobile. It was Voicestream back then. They had three phones to offer at the time: the Nokia, a Motorola, and an Ericsson flip phone.

I had remembered seeing people on the Ericsson phones and it always drove me nuts. I didn’t know much about Motorola, but the model that they had available to use did not look that good. The Nokia was built very sturdy, it was a brick but it had great functionality and it also came with a game (snake), which was something that the others didn’t offer. I decided that this was going to be the phone to purchase.

I was one of the only people to buy it in the group of new hires. Everyone else went for the thinner Motorolas and Ericssons. After six months my Nokia still worked like a champ, despite all of the damage I inflicted upon it. Almost everyone else had been forced to buy a new phone because they either had problems or they had broke them in some way. The thing was built like a tank and I was instantly in love.

Nokia 8210: We were told at our orientation that we received discounts when we purchased phones through the company. We were encouraged to do so as a way of learning about the devices. I decided on this one because it was the same platform that they had on the 5110 but on a much smaller package.

At this point, I was tired of carrying around the brick that I had purchased and decided that it would be a back up phone. This phone was again a power house in the phone world at that time. It was compact and still performed above the rest. I remember people complaining about coverage on their Motorolas. However, I never had a complaint.

Nokia 3310: I purchased this one a little earlier than I really should have. There was no real reason other than it was a new model with upgraded functions on it. It still had the same basic features but the software had been upgraded to allow for some more options for it like T9, smart messaging, calculator and many more. It also had replaceable front and back covers instead of just the front covers.

Nokia 3650: This was my first color screen phone. The number pad was a challenge to get used to, but after a while it was pretty easy. This was a pretty good phone. It could definitely take a beating. To give you an example of how good they were, I dropped mine in a half a glass of Pepsi and after I dried it out it worked like a charm. I was very impressed with the phone overall and even got the upgraded version that had the inline number pad instead of the round one.

Nokia 3650: To this day, this was my all time favorite phone. I loved the ease and functionality of this phone. I bought this phone because I was tired of using a keypad to text message and I wanted to have a keyboard like a computer. This was the first phone that Nokia produced that offered just that. I still have this phone as my back up phone.

Nokia 6130: I got this one because I wanted a flip phone. I would forget to lock my keypad and then whoever I called last would get to listen to my pocket for however long it took them to hang up the phone. With a flip phone I did not have to worry about that. I still have this phone as well. It’s in the same drawer as my 6800. It’s not a bad phone but its currently got a problem with receiving calls.

Nokia 5300: I bought this phone because I was tired of carrying around an MP3 player and a phone. I play poker and I was always carrying my phone, an MP3 player and at times, my wife’s phone. I got this for my birthday one year and was very pleased with its performance. I was very dissappointed when the screen crapped out on me. I ended up throwing this one in the trash. I was very sad.

Nokia E71: This is my current phone. I got it as a birthday present and absolutely love it. It’s got a QWERTY keypad and a bundle of features. Out of all of the phones, this is one of my favorites. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to put it in a form like the 6800. I did recently find out that they do make a similar version called the E70 that is just that. But its got a smaller screen and a smaller camera. I think will stick to my E71.

So there you have it. All of the phones that I have owned. I have tried several others, but never purchased them. I was a tester at T-Mobile for a while so I got to use a variety of phones. None of them really matched the ease and function of Nokias.