teqhnique

New Plans for teqhnique

2011-07-08T12:02:00.001-07:00

You may or may not be wondering why there hasn't been much activity on this blog. In short, it's because I've had bigger and better plans for the teqhnique name. Stay tuned!

Facebook is DOWN!

2010-11-27T06:52:00.001-08:00

There have been reports that Facebook is down for many users early this morning. That's right, you heard it here first! The reason for the outage is unknown as of the posting of this article. Be sure to check back often as this article will be updated as new information about the outage is available. If you're having problems, let us know on the comment section!

Palm Pre Review

2009-10-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

By Ryan Holdeman

After owning the Palm Pre for a couple of weeks I must say the consensus on it is: awesome. While the pros definitely outweigh the cons, there are some defects to this beautiful phone.

Pros

The Web OS: The Pre’s Web OS puts the phone in front of any other smart phone by far, including the iPhone. Being able to run more than one app at a time is definitely a plus. For instance, when reading my tweets, on an app called tweed (right now the only published twitter app for Web OS), if there is a link to a blog or twitpic I can click on the link and up comes another “card” with the web browser in it. While I wait for the new link to load I can scroll through the rest of my tweets.

The shape of the phone:the Palm Pre’s stone-like shape fits nicely in my hand making it easy to hold and flip through a news article while leaving the other hand free. And hand cramp free.

The App Catalog: when the Pre first came out the App Catalog was one of the phones down side, considering it didn’t have a lot of options. Now that the phone has been out for a few months the catalog has grown to at least 90 usable apps. The best part of the catalog is that all the apps so far are free, while there are some games that are only a demo and you have to buy them to get the full game.

Screen: the big touch screen has beautiful color tones and it has an almost flawless touch screen, with capabilities like being able to zoom in on text by spreading two fingers apart.

Cons

QWERTY: Of course the number one con to this phone is the small QWERTY key board.

Paper or plastic?: The phone has a plastic back that makes it feel cheap. However I did drop it today and only got a few minor scratches but works fine and did not fall apart.

The App Catalog: even though there are a hand full of apps being published every week, it still doesn’t compare to Apple’s App Store. (But they are free!)

Overall the Pre is an awesome phone, and I am definitely more than happy with my purchase, and would recommend this phone to anyone. With more apps and a little more creative and less creepy advertising this phone could most certainly be Sprint’s savior.

Stay tuned for reviews on different apps for Web OS.

Quick Preditions for the 9.9.09 Apple Conference

2009-09-08T21:40:00.001-07:00

Just so I have this in writting, here are my 9.9.09 Apple Conference preditions:

Apple branded bluetooth headphones
iTunes update
The "Mac Tablet" will be called the Apple Macbook Touch

Other peoples' predictions:

Apple Macbook Touch
The Beatles finally available on iTunes
iTunes Account update
iPod Refresh

Let's see what happens tomorrow! I verbally predicted the remote wipe feature they released for the iPhone at the last conference, so this time I want my predictions in writting. The conference starts at 10am. Here's a link to a GREAT site to stay up to date on what's happening. Catch y'all after the event!

Txting and Driving: Get Ready, Oregon!

2009-07-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Oregon may soon see a new bill passed through congress that will make it illegal to txt behind the wheel. It's been nice not to worry about anything, except crashing, when driving while txting, or DWT as congress likes to call it. That reality will soon come to an end though. The senate wants to pass this new law because of how incredibly unsafe it is to txt and drive. It's obvious why DWT is dangerous and why it should be illegal, but it's so convenient! I'll be the first to admit that I will send the occasional txt message while driving. I'm not saying it is safe, by all means, and I'm not saying to go out and do it, though.

If Oregon does decide to pass this law, it will not stop me from DWT, even though I could get pulled over solely for txting. It will just make me more aware of my surroundings and make sure there aren't any cops around. Also, no one ever said Tweeting while driving was illegal.

Review of a few iPhone Twitter Apps

2009-07-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

When people ask me what Twitter is I tell them it's like MySpace and Facebook, except without the whole profile thing; it's just status updates. It's a great service used to keep in touch with friends and news. Twitter on the iPhone is great, but the Twitter mobile site isn't the best. That's why you should get an app for that! There are tons of Twitter apps out there. Some of the more popular ones are TwitterFon, Tweetie, and TweetDeck.

TwitterFonI have been using TwitterFon since I started tweeting about five months ago. TwitterFon lets you easily access all of the neccasary aspects of Twitter. The app uses a very easy to use interface that any novice tweeter can easily become accustomed to. One thing unique to TwitterFon is that when you open the app it will tell you how many unread tweets you have. I don't know how many people like to read all of their tweets, but I am one of them. I like to keep on top of what all the people I'm following are saying and doing. The best thing about this app is that it is free! There are unobtrusive adds at the top of your feed, but it's worth it to have to stare at it. If you don't want the adds, try TwitterFon Pro. I haven't downloaded the pro version, but this version also supports multiple Twitter accounts.

TweetieTweetie is another decent app to Twitter with. As soon as I got another Twitter account I immediately downloaded Tweetie. I had heard great things about it and I knew it supported multiple accounts. It's another app that's very easy to use. I really like Tweetie except for the fact that it doesn't tell you how many new tweets you have. It's doesn't even scroll to the beginning of your new tweets. I know Twitter.com doesn't show you how many new tweets you have or scroll to the beginning of your new tweets either, but still. It'd be a nice feature to have and I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to add. The developer could at least allow you to be able to turn it on or off. Aside from the missing feature I wish it had, Tweetie is a decent app, and well worth the $3 they ask for it.

TweetDeckTweetDeck is great! It's one of the only iPhone Twitter apps that also has a desktop app for your computer that it can sync to. That way you never read the same tweets twice. I love things that sync together but.....I feel like the interface of both the desktop and iPhone apps need work. They don't seem very intuitive to me. Both apps take a lot of getting use to. I love the concept behind TweetDeck, but, for now, I don't think I will be using it because of the not-so-easy-to-use interface. At least I didn't waste any money on it, because TweetDeck is a free app.

So which apps do I use? Currently I am using TwitterFon for my personal account and Tweetie for my other account. I don't really have much activity on my other account so I really don't use Tweetie all that much; maybe once every day or two. TwitterFon I use easily 10 or 15 times a day. I love it! I really want to try TwitterFon Pro, but I can't see throwing down $5 for a Twitter app, especially since I just bought Tweetie. But if I want a really easy to use interface and only one app for both my accounts I may just have to bite the bullet.

Overall, I am recommending TwitterFon. It's easy to use and free. Can't get much better than that! And what's a Twitter aricle without plugging my own Twitter accounts? If you're interested: @CodyMcCarter is my personal account and @teqhnique is, of course, the one to follow to stay on top of the updates to this blog!

So what's your favorite iPhone Twitter app? Post in the comment section below!

Motorola S805 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones Review

2009-06-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

So I got my Motorola S805 stereo bluetooth headphones. I bought these to pair with my iPhone because the new iPhone OS 3.0 supports A2DP stereo bluetooth. I wanted to get some that would sound good, but also didn't look too stupid. On top of that, I didn't want to spend a fortune. I picked these up from buy.com for only about $35 shipped. I had seen these headphones for over $100! So I thought this was a good deal and bought a pair.

I was so excited when the mailman dropped them off. I charged them up, and about three hours later I tried pairing them with my iPhone. It was surprisingly flawless. I couldn't beleive it! I was streaming music to my new Motos perfectly. And it sounded great. I placed a call and the other person heard me well and I could hear the other person real well, too. I was outside and was kind of windy. I asked the person on the other end if they could hear the wind and they said not really, so that was good. All of the controls on the sides work except for the ability to change the track. Not a huge deal but I was kind of disappointed that it didn't work. Better it be that control than the volume control or the play/pause button, I guess.

On another note, I tried pairing these 'phones with my laptop and it wasn't quick and easy like I was hoping. First off, I have a ~14" HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop running 64-bit Vista Home Premium sp2. It doesn't have bluetooth built in but I bought a bluetooth dongle from amazon.com for about $3 shipped. I installed the bundled software and tried pairing with my iPhone. It paired fine so I thought it'd end up working fine with the Motos. It didn't. I kept pairing and unpairing hoping to hear something throutgh the phones but no hope. I uninstalled the software to try and use just use the Vista drivers. They paired but still no sound. I searched around online for any tricks with no luck. I unpaired the 'phones and repaired again and voala!, it worked! For some reason it works fine now and I havn't had any problems yet. They sound good listening to music and podcasts through iTunes. The controls on the sides didn't work, except for the volume, unless I had the iTunes window on top of all other windows. I don't know why it works like this but okay, no biggie. I havn't really listened to anything else yet, but I'm sure they will sound great. I have built in bluetooth on my Dell Mini 9 running XP sp3 so hopefully I will have a flawless pair with that.

There are a few quirky things about these headphones: the lights flash in weird sequnces depending on what you're doing, you hear different sequences of beeps depending on what's going on, and the battery can last up to about 30 days! Yea, seriously, 30 days! I'm sure that's in standby mode but still. That's seems pretty impressive to me. The beeps you hear aren't a big deal once you learn what they all mean (they're all explained in the documentation). And I also learned that the lights can be turned off when you're listening to music, which I was really happy to find out. I didn't want to be listening to music with lights flashing on my ears.

Aside from these little, and kind of inconvinient flaws, I would still recommend this product. If you're looking for some great sounding stereo bluetooth headphones to pair with your iPhone or pretty much any other phone or computer, I would really recomend the Motorola S805's. Not easy to pair, but well worth it because they sound great and look good.

UPDATE: I'm disappointed...I can't get these headphones to pair with my HP anymore for some reason. They pair with my Dell Mini 9 just fine, though, so that's good. I sometimes have problems connecting to the headphones with my iPhone, too. If I unpair and repair them though they usually work. The soundd quality seems to have deteriated as well. Plus, I don't know why or how, or maybe it's just my ears, but songs are starting to sound like a low quality mp3 file, and not a decent aac file. I know these are some pretty big complaints about the product, but it is still worth it to me to use these 'phones. It is a huge advantage to listen to music without the cord. And, they were only thirty bucks so I can't expect too much.

Michael Jackson Takes Down the Internet

2009-06-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

According to cnet.com's Tom Krazit, the news about Michael Jackson's passing has been so huge it broke the internet. Well, maybe not break the internet, but it definitely slowed it down to a crawl! I really noticed how slow it was yesterday as I was trying to upload pictures (it took nearly all day to upload 72 pictures!), but I thought it was just my connection because it's really slow anyways so I didn't reallt think anything about it. But apparently it was the whole web!

Hundreds of millions of fans flocked to their computers in search of Michael Jackson videos, songs, podcasts, music videos, news, memorabilia, anything that might have to do with him, and the internet just couldn't take it any more. As cnet's Molly Wood would have probably said it, "The tubes were clogged up big time". Just look at the charts on iTunes as of this writing: Michael Jackson has 7 out of the 10 top songs bought, 9 out of the 10 top albums bought, 9 out of the 10 top music videos bought, even 3 out of the top 5 ringtones bought. And that's just in the past few days! Thrillercast, a podcast apparently started by an avid MJ fan, is even in the top 5 podcasts downloaded, even though it hasn't had any new episodes since October, 2008.

Michael Jackson was a great entertainer. He's obviously touched many lives. It's just amazing to me that he could slow down the whole interweb enough to make a noticable difference! Way to go, Mike. Rest in Peace.

New Google Voice Invites Released, No Public Launch Yet

2009-06-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

Google Voice started out as Grand Central. Google acquired Grand Central and began revamping it. During the revamp, only original Grand Central users could use the service; no new people could sign up. New users had to wait for an invite.

Well, I finally got my invite to Google Voice last night. I was excited at first, but disappointing when I realized I don't really have much use for it. For one, I don't want to have to hand out a new phone number to all of my friends and family. And two, I really only use one phone. But I can definitely see how useful this service could be for someone. I really wanted to find a way for it to be useful for me, though.

With Google Voice, you get a new phone number, and set up your account so that when people call that number it will ring to all of your phones. That way, in theory, you would never miss a call. I tried it out and it worked perfectly for me. Also, Google Voice will save your texts and voicemail on their servers. The service can also transcribe your voicemails and email them to you. Other little features include:

The ability to send and SMS from your GV number right from your browser
Place a call directly from your browser
View your missed, received, placed calls, etc.
Record your calls
Read your voicemails and texts right from your Google Voice inbox
Listen in on some one as they're leaving you a voicemail
Place very cheap international calls ($0.10 credit added for free when you sign up)

So, for example, when I set up my account yesterday I was asked to put in my zip code or area code. Google Voice gave me hundreds of numbers to choose from. Then GV had me set up my other phones that I wanted to receive Google Voice calls from. I set up my cell phone and my landline. Google called each of those phones individually and asked for the two digit code that was presented to me on my screen. I punched it in on each phone and they were set up. That's how easy it is. My friend called my GV number and sure enough, both phones rang! He sent a text to my GV number and I got it on my cell and I could read in through my GV inbox. Pretty slick if you ask me.

It seems to be a very cool service. Someone running some sort of small mobile business would find it very useful. For example, the owner could give out one number to all of their customers and when someone called, any one of the employees would be able to pick up. You could even have it ring to certain employees depending on which customer is calling!

Google Voice isn't for everyone, but who it is for is really going to enjoy it. As soon as I find a need for it, I will definitely start using it.

Update: I just realized how I could use Google Voice! It's always hard for me to find out what's going on with my parents. I always have to dial about 3 or 4 different numbers before I reach one of them. If I add their numbers to my GV account, I will only have to dial one. Genius!

Welcome to the BRAND NEW teqhnique blog!

2009-06-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hello internet world!

My name is Cody McCarter. I am proud to annouce the launch of teqhnique.com. This is my attempt at writing a blog about tech news, interesting tech info, and anything else I find interesting that has to do with technology. I've never kept up a blog before, but this shouldn't be too hard should it?

First off, let me start by saying you can follow me on twitter @teqhnique to keep up to date on the blog and to hear little blerbs about any important tech info as soon as I hear it. Also, you can email me at teqhnique@gmail.com with any questions or comments you may have. If you want to learn a little bit about me and who I am then check out my profile on this site or follow my personal twitter account @codymccarter.

This site will be in alpha for a little while I think. I will try and update this blog often. Hopefully at least once a week for now. So try and be patient and hang in there, because the updates will come. Someday I plan on hosting this site on my own server with its own domain and everything. You know, the stuff all the fancy blogs that make money have. I hope to learn as much as I can about the internet, web design, html, photo and video editing, and blogging as I can while writing this blog.

Stay tuned for more to come shortly! In the mean time, leave a comment below.

-Cody