TheSa|nt's Blog

Well I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought a Windows Phone 7….phone. It’s the HTC Surround from AT&T, and I have to admit I am impressed. I have my disappointments but I also understand that Windows Phone 7 isn’t for an extreme techy who likes to treat their phone as more than just a phone/media device.

I like the OS for it’s speed, it’s ability to really take a load while showing little to no lag what’s so ever and it’s deep advantages in multimedia. The is very reliable and so far hasn’t crashed on me. Only certain apps have done something weird here and there (ie Marketplace) but it didn’t effect the OS. It feels very stable, extremely speedy and user friendly.

The user-interface also feels (visually) very happy (unlike the iPhone). Oh, and the GPS (at least on the HTC Surround) is VERY accurate. I was in the dead center of a casino with a giant tower of hotel rooms right above my head and it picked up my exact location. I didn’t have to stand outside and hope it’s not too cloudy or anything. That was great.

Another “VERY” nice advantage of the WP7 phones is that the Xbox integration is really cool. The games on WP7 are finally up to par and quite entertaining.

For normal people looking for a Windows Phone 7, I would recommend it. If you don’t heavily use your phone for business or tcp/ip/port related tasks. If you need a phone that’s a phone yet everything multi-media in one….it’s wonderful.

The disadvantages? Well I am the techy that likes to use and abuse his phone in as many ways as possible. So features I wish it had:

• File Explorer: I enjoy using my phone as a thumb drive to store common files that I need. They could at least reserve a small space that is separate from everything else on the phone so that you can do this.
• Remote desktop applications: There are none…WP7 is locked down tight for TCP/IP/Port related tasks so no remote desktop apps (i.e., VNC). There are other apps/services like Skype that cannot be ported over to WP7 at the moment for these same reasons. This really does cripple WP7 from making use of some nice/advanced apps that business users and techies demand for their daily activities.
• No custom ringtones….wtf Microsoft lol….how can you drop the ball on one of the most common features found in cellphones dating back to…a long time.
• Voice command no longer covers the media on the phone. Windows Mobile 6.x allowed you to play music by using voice command to pick an artist, track, genre, etc….WP7?…nope. You can dial numbers, open “certain” apps and search with bing via voice command but nothing for music. That sucks when you have a TON of music like I do and don’t want to fiddle around with the menus while using it for work or driving.
• Sync…..they took out activesync support (except for Exchange Activesync). So when you sync (using Zune now), you can only sync music, videos and podcasts. You can no longer sync your contacts, calendar, etc. Now if they could relax the TCP/IP/Port restriction a little, maybe someone can develop an app to remotely do this at least. I know I’d love to sync with Thunderbird for my contacts and calendar.
• Office sync: Only syncs “OneNote”….what about the rest? If not via usb then at least via skydrive…common. At the moment you have to email yourself office docs and save them one by one into office.
• Skydrive…….we should be able to do so much more with it on WP7
• We need more full qwerty sliders on the market. AT&T only has the LG and that phone feels and looks like crap. The HTC’s slider looks really nice and has gotten great reviews…..course it’s Sprint only. I hate on-screen keyboards with a passion BUT….I have to say I have been able to compromise a little as the WP7 on-screen kb has to be the best I have ever tried to use.

The “noDo” update is coming soon for WP7 phones that adds a few things like copy/paste (which is why I didn’t add it to the list of things I don’t like). It’s already been rolled out for certain phones/networks. The downside of this update is that it doesn’t fix/add anything that I have mentioned above so …. my list of disadvantages remains the same for now.

Past that, I am beyond happy with this phone. Fastest, nicest looking phone OS I have ever used. Too many restrictions though…feels like MS’s version of the iPhone more than anything. It at least pounds that market very hard proving to be a great threat to Apple.

And that is my review!

I wanted to point out that the forums have a category dedicated to Xbox Live. This section contains a section for clans. If you have a clan on Xbox Live, we invite you to register and let one of our admins/mods know who you are, the name of your clan and some of your moderating users. We will setup a separate sub-section dedicated to your clan with assigned mods.

This way clans could have their own site to come to and improve communication with. Organize clan activities or simply discuss day to day experiences.

Also once the main admins/mods get to know you, you might even get your own sub-domain leading your members straight to your section.

So register at http://forums.animevortex.net and move your clan in today

“I care”

A friend recently learned something about me. I am not an activist, so I will not follow you around every day rubbing it in how bad cigarettes are. I might mention or joke about it here and there, but I try to respect a person’s comfort zone when it comes to that.

However, the way I look at things…is that there is no debate on whether they “are” or “are not” good for you. There is no study that has shown they have a truly positive impact on someone. There is no side of the debate that claims they give you healthier lungs, cleaner oxygen, cures cancer or extends your life. Every study results in negative conclusions about how unhealthy they are. So in truth, there is a 100% chance that by smoking, you are doing some sort of severe damage to yourself.

So if you are smoking around me, I’ll try my best simply to avoid standing down-wind from you…or I’ll just keep my distance. I’ll try to never harass you too badly about it (heh). I warn you though, if you for some reason ask me to hold it for a second while you do something…you won’t get it back.

Think about it. If you had a gun or an explosive, were in a pits (mood) and started talking about how you don’t know if you can take the stress of life anymore…I’m going to take it from you. If you have a knife and I can see you have been cutting yourself with it for pleasure…I’m going to take it from you. If you have been slowly feeding yourself rat poison just for kicks or to find out what happens…I’m going to take it from you. If you have had so many drinks that you show signs of instability and reach for another or your keys…I’m going to take it/them from you. If you hand me your cigarette………I’m going to take it from you.

Hey Everyone! It’s that time again where I whore out another business based on my experience.

As I always say..I will never steer you wrong. If I feel a business is worth checking out, I will let you know about it. If I feel a business needs to be avoiding, I will most def make sure you know about it

In this case, Groupon is indeed worth checking out. I waited to jump onto the train of things until I heard feedback from friends. There is a lot of commotion around the net about this website about how popular it is, but I wanted to hear it from people I trust. When they told me how much they loved it, I jumped right in and since then have enjoyed a lot of great deals.

How it works is you register and choose your location. Then, every day they have a special/deal for a local business near you. The “groupon” is usually around 50-70% off (which is awesome). They shoot you an email each time and if you don’t want it, ignore it but if the deal of the day is something that snags you interest, you login and buy one of them. It takes a couple hours max and they send you a link to print the “groupon”. It becomes valid starting the following day after you bought it and most don’t expire for 6-12 months.

I have been mostly using it every time a sweet deal on a local pizza shop pops up. I am an obsessed pizza fan and love trying new places. So when they send me a groupon that costs about $7-10 but it worth $20-30….I jump on it. I have gotten 80% off a local ice skating place.

So Groupon has my two thumbs up

Click here for more information!