This Week in Mobile Tech Manor #68: a CrackBerry is Born

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The end of the week is already here and that means I get to share the happenings at Mobile Tech Manor with you once again. It doesn’t seem like this is the 68th column, but it sure is. I recently told you that my bride bought a BlackBerry Curve, and I am having a great time watching her addiction bloom. There weren’t many gadgets coming in or going out of MTM this week, but a docking station did arrive. Come on in and join me in Mobile Tech Manor.

There’s a CrackBerry in the house

My wife Sheri has acknowledged that she is a full-fledged CrackBerry. She’s only had the BlackBerry for a week, maybe two, and it is seldom out of her hand no matter where she happens to be. The process has been amazing for me to watch, as she has never even wanted a smartphone before now. She has been happy with featurephones, and has actively resisted any attempt I’ve made to get her to try a smartphone.

I’m not sure what moved her to get the BlackBerry, she did it on her own and wouldn’t let me get involved in the decision. She marched down to Verizon, tried all of the smartphones in the store, and came home with the Curve. It is distinctive as she got a hot pink rubber skin for it for protection, so it’s easy to spot around the house.

As I said it is seldom out of her hand so spotting it is easy. I hear her tapping away on the tiny keyboard, and wheeling the trackball constantly. She usually has a smile on her face while doing so.

She was insistent on learning the BlackBerry ins and outs on her own, so she did not ask me to set it up for her. She insisted on setting everything up herself, matter of fact. She set up her Gmail account and her Facebook account first thing. In her words the process was self-explanatory and easy to do, so points to RIM in the out of box experience (OOBE) department.

Sheri used it for a few days, doing more and more with it as her familiarity increased, and then she took it on herself to set up her employer’s Exchange email on the BlackBerry. She said that was easy and she is ecstatic that she has a mobile messaging powerhouse in the Curve. In her own words she “learns something new every day” that she can do on the BlackBerry, and she already can’t imagine what she would do without it. That is the strongest endorsement anyone can make about a smartphone, so kudos to the BlackBerry folks.

Tablet and the dock

The Ultrabase dock for the ThinkPad x200 Tablet arrived, and it has been a boon. I constantly take the x200 mobile, and it is much easier popping it out of the dock to do so. A unique feature of the Ultrabase is the connector that pops out for charging a second battery on the dock. It is a practical way to keep two batteries charged, and it makes me wish I had a second battery for the x200.

The second battery would come in handy for taking the x200 on the road, too. It is hard to believe but the big Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is just a month away and I’m already giving a lot of thought about what gear I will take to cover the show. I’ll be out there almost a week, and I must have the gear with me that will get the job done best. The Tablet PC would be perfect for using while walking around the show floor, and I am seriously considering taking it with me for that purpose.

The lack of a second battery is impacting that decision, however, as I insist on having two batteries for any laptop I take to the CES. I am getting 6 hours of use with the one battery, but CES days are very long ones and a second battery is mandatory for the way I work. I can’t risk running out of juice and being dead in the water.

Kevin and I plan to shoot a lot of video at the CES this year, and that has me leaning on bringing the MacBook. My best software tools for working with video are on the Mac, and while the x200 has the oomph to handle the video fine, the tools are on the MacBook. It might be beneficial to bring both the MacBook and the x200 along, but I find it so hard to justify bringing two laptops on the trip. Decisions, decisions.

Speaking of the x200, I am trying to get official confirmation from Lenovo what is up with the multitouch screens. I have been told by several people that the multitouch screen option is no longer available for order, and that is what I’ve seen too. The x200 I am using has multitouch, and it is a nice option, but it seems that some are being told that Lenovo can’t make enough of these screens to continue offering them. I’ll confirm that when I can, but it’s a shame if true.

Speech, speech

The optical drive in the Ultrabase came in handy this week as it allowed me to install Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) on the x200. I had already installed it on the MacBook under Windows 7 in Parallels, but the folks at Nuance made it clear that they don’t support that. I wanted to give a fair evaluation of DNS so I installed it on the Windows 7 equipped x200.

I haven’t had time to do much with it yet, but I am impressed with the accuracy of the speech recognition so far. There is something so cool about watching text appear magically as I speak it into DNS. I can imagine how useful this would be for the physically challenged who can’t use a keyboard. I intend to give it a good workout and report back on how it goes.

Firefox on the Mac

I have been hearing from a number of folks lately that they have given up trying to use Firefox on the Mac due to system slowdowns. Kevin finds Firefox taxes his MacBook to the point that his system fan runs continually while FF is running.

My own case is much different, I use Firefox all day with no problems on my MacBook. I find it to be fast and it doesn’t tax my system at all; I always have at least 6 tabs open at once. I love Firefox due to the add-ons that I use which makes the environment work the way I prefer. Here’s a table of the add-ons I am currently using in Firefox:

These are running all the time and I still have no resource problems on the Mac. It is strange how many people have issues but I never see them.

e-Books of the week

I have read a lot this week, including two books I thought were great. I, Alex Cross is the latest in that series by James Patterson. I found this to be one of the best of the Cross series and I raced through it. I then picked up Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Koontz can weave a detailed story that is full of anticipation that strange things are going to happen at some point, and this was a typical example of that. While I enjoyed the novel, when I finished it I was a bit disturbed at the outcome. In a good way, though.

I am now in the middle of The Chase by Clive Cussler, and it is a great adventure as only Cussler can create. It takes place in the early 1900’s, and is the story of the pursuit of a very good bank robber.

Wrap-up

That’s how the week went down at Mobile Tech Manor. I hope you found something of interest here and that you’ll come back next week. Until then, be safe.

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